The Mercy of Gods

Dafyd Alkhor attends a celebration at the Irvian science academy, where he works as a minor research assistant. He’s a member of Tonner Freis’s research team, famous for genetics research. Dafyd meets astronomer Llaren Morse from the rival Dyan Academy, who warns Dafyd to enjoy his team’s accolades while he can. Concerned, Dafyd speaks with his aunt Dorinda, a member of the funding colloquy. She criticizes his habit of being self-effacing, knowing that he purposely urges people to underestimate him. When Dafyd asks Dorinda about Llaren’s vague threat, Dorinda doesn’t respond.

Dafyd interprets his aunt’s lack of response as confirmation that something is wrong. He approaches Tonner Freis and the team’s second team lead, Else Yannin. Else is a beautiful, intelligent woman who gave up being lead of her own team to work with Tonner. The two have been dating for months, which hasn’t stopped Dafyd from developing a massive crush on her, despite being younger and a subordinate. Dafyd tells Else what he suspects.

Scientists know that humans didn’t originate on the planet Anjiin but don’t know how they arrived there. Scientists do know that one day 3,000 years ago, human genetic markers and an entire new biome appeared out of nowhere on an island. From there, this alien “tree of life” spread across the planet, sharing space but not genetic material with the native ecosystem. The two genetic lines were unable to communicate until Tonner Freis’s team found a way to “translate between them” (17), “coax[ing them] into sitting beside one another, working together” (20).

Jessyn Kaul sits with other members of Tonner’s team, including her friend Irinna and married research assistants Nol and Synnia, celebrating their success. When the party ends, Jessyn walks back to the apartment she shares with her brother, Jellit. When she arrives, she receives a message from Tonner requesting everyone for an emergency team meeting the following morning.

Dafyd walks through the common area of the research facility. He notices a woman sitting on a bench, eating a sandwich. He passes her and sits with the rest of Tonner’s team, noticing that Tonner didn’t invite the latest two team members, Rickar Daumatin and Irinna.

Jessyn’s brother, Jellit, stops by briefly to tell her about his work with Llaren Morse’s astronomy team and strange readings they’re picking up near the sun. Tonner explains that the funding colloquy plans to break up the team. Rivals from Dyan Academy requested reassignment of their research. The colloquy will lend the lead scholars from the group to new teams, while the junior researchers will stay at Irvian. Tonner believes that someone on their team must be in contact with Dyan. They guess that it’s either Rickar or Irinna; Jessyn insists that it isn’t Irinna.

The perspective shifts to something that calls itself “the swarm” (28). It watches the team talk while Ameer Kindred, the dead-but-not-dead body it currently occupies, eats her sandwich. It observes and catalogs the relationships among team members. When it hears Jellit speaking to Jessyn about readings near the sun, it realizes that it has “very little time left” (29) and must work quickly. The consciousness of Ameer Kindred screams in the back of its mind.

Tonner’s conversation continues. The team members discuss how to determine who betrayed them. Dafyd notices as the woman eating the sandwich leaves. Campar suggests they simply ask Rickar if he did it.

Rickar admits that he betrayed the team, explaining that it wasn’t his idea. Samar Austad, the chief administrator at Dyan Academy, which proposed the split, approached him, offering Rickar a new team-lead position for his help. Furious, Tonner banishes Rickar from the team laboratory and starts planning how to save “his kingdom,” which includes his team and his research.

Tonner suggests fighting Austad with public outrage. However, Dafyd is skeptical. He argues that the funding colloquy doesn’t like to appear to bow to public opinion. Instead, they should quietly learn who Austad’s allies are and fight behind the scenes. Tonner resents the young, low-level assistant’s trying to tell him what to do, but Else gently reminds him that Dafyd’s aunt is a colloquy member and Dafyd clearly has a better grasp of the politics. They agree to let Dafyd try.

That evening, Tonner and Else return to their shared apartment. Else keeps separate quarters but uses them mainly for storage. Tonner says that Dafyd is a schemer, but Else finds him charming. She’s aware that Dafyd has a crush on her. Tonner knows that Else is rational and practical. She gave up her own team because she knew Tonner’s was on the brink of something historically important. He wonders what else she would do if it was practical.

The swarm takes a new host, killing Ameer Kindred. It’s surprised to realize that it can still remember and feel remnants of Ameer. Too late to stop or change it, the swarm realizes that its functions for learning and plasticity allowed the host’s experience to irrevocably change it. The swarm watches a man walk out of a building. It approaches the man and asks if he’s Samar Austad.

In the public courtyard, Jessyn and Irinna talk about what will happen if the team splits up. Jessyn will likely be given a team of her own. She’s afraid, because that would mean leaving Irvian and her brother. She has severe mental health issues, and her brother is secretly her caretaker. She’s unsure if she could survive without him, but she couldn’t ask him to leave his own research to follow her either.

Jessyn returns home. Jellit is speaking on a video conference about new data from their solar analysis. He’s excited because the readings have structure and may be an alien probe. Jessyn recalls a priest who had mental health struggles like hers until he had an “epiphany about the vastness and strangeness of the universe” (50). He realized that his problems paled in the face of such grandeur. As Jessyn thinks about the implications of Jellit’s research, she feels something similar. A moment later, Campar messages her with news that Austad is dead.

A security team questions Dafyd about Austad’s death. Dafyd’s aunt then takes him home. He insists that neither he nor the rest of his team had anything to do with Austad’s death. His aunt says she has bigger worries. She drops him off at his apartment and warns him that everything is about to change.

Later, Rickar sits with friends in a café. He spent the entire night answering questions about Austad’s death. Realizing that he missed the news, his friends show him the announcement about alien vessels hiding in the sun’s corona. Rickar stares in shock at images of 17 “city-sized” objects in space. He recalls as a child recognizing the vastness of space, “infinity towering above him like God, only worse because it was real” (60). He has a similar feeling now.

In their apartment, Synni and Nol watch the news. Synnia is excited and watches the screen with rapt attention. Nol is worried. As Synnia watches the video, millions of tiny dots expel from the 17 vessels “like spores […] or pollen” (63).

In the lab, Dafyd, Tonner, Else, and Campar watch the news. Dafyd realizes that this must be what his aunt warned about. Tonner focuses on turning Austad’s death to the team’s favor. Campar and Else admonish him for ignoring the “most important thing in the history of the world” (64) happening right now.

Else suggests they go to her quarters in the basement of a concrete building, which might offer protection from whatever happens next. Tonner refuses, snidely suggesting that Else take Dafyd with her. Dafyd senses the tension between them but hesitantly agrees.

In her basement room, Else and Dafyd discuss the situation with Austad and Dyan Academy. Dafyd’s political savvy impresses Else. She apologizes for Tonner’s petty rudeness. Dafyd calls it his “pathological move […] the thing people do when they’re working on instinct” (69). He analyzes the team when he’s under stress: Tonner turns to something small enough for him to control, Campar makes jokes, and Jessyn withdraws into herself. When Dafyd tries to tell Else how he feels about her, she kisses him.