swarm and dismantle the pirate vessel and probably aid in repair as well. She rejects this option, however, and their ship is captured by the infamous terroristic pirate Run Seven. She is tortured to reveal the codes to the security protecting her ship's cargo – twenty thousand colonists' cryopreserved bodies – but refuses due to intense psychological conditioning that makes her view the cargo as her children and do anything to protect them. She awakens aboard the mostly abandoned Hirondelle some time later, having no memory of the interrogation. She discovers that almost all of the colonists have been taken, while the handful that were left behind have been cut to pieces in order to acquire their tissues and implants; the valuable Greenfly machines they were transporting have also been stolen by Seven. She finds that the pirates' interrogator, Mirsky, has been abandoned with her, while Markarian has been taken. Irravel does not trust her, but Mirsky demonstrates her independence by violently removing the implanted mind-control device that Run Seven had been using to recruit and maintain his crew. They awaken Remontoire, one of the Conjoiner passengers on the Hirondelle and use his expertise to effect repairs and track down the pirates as they flee the system. They catch up with the pirates in 2328, and a battle ensues. In the midst of a tense standoff, however, Irravel's conditioning causes her to strike a deal with Seven, offering him Remontoire and the rest of her crew in exchange for the colonists Seven had abducted. Mirsky then kills Seven, but Irravel takes a hit in the ensuing firefight and dies later. Her body is saved and her brain is scanned into in the ship's computer, brought back as an alpha-level simulation whilst the Hirondelle is orbiting its final destination of Yellowstone in 2415, before the advent of the Melding Plague which would later destroy the nanocybernetic infrastructure making this possible. By 2658, Irravel has acquired a cloned body of herself. Markarian has disappeared with the remaining colonists and is fleeing aboard the pirates' ship Hideyoshi. Still under the influence of her Ultranaut conditioning, Irravel gives chase, interested in exacting revenge, rescuing the colonists, and learning why Markarian gave up the codes to their security. By 2931 she has followed him to a refuge among the "Nestbuilder" race, from whom she attempts to purchase advanced weapons technology in order to have the