Now a passenger on the Wanderer ship, Gil struggles to comprehend its galaxy-spanning quest and her place amongst the stars. She is helped by 998, the c-autom appointed by the craft-lect as her guardian, while it also deals with its own burgeoning duties as quasi-leader of its kind. The ship’s other recent passenger, One-oh, an ancient bio-lect and assumed sole survivor of an ancient race, has meanwhile retreated into self-imposed isolation – although dark secrets about a terrible past threaten to be unleashed.

*

Minding its own business, a data-lect supervising one of the Wanderer data exchange portals is taken by surprise when a puzzling stranger makes an unexpected visit – its absurd claims of other realities can’t possibly be true, can they?

*

Elsewhere, paradise is tirelessly tended to by its devoted workers, keen to aid their forgetful creator in remembering vital knowledge that was lost. The gardens require a steady influx of new seedlings to continue to flourish, but a new arrival could jeopardise everything.