Power is down on the Nautilus when Dev speaks over the loudspeaker, ordering Ana’s crew to stand down. Nelinha uses coal, the backup power source, to restore power, and they fire a torpedo at an oncoming boarding ship. Ana is disappointed that Romeo does not appear to be nearby, but she is not surprised. She thinks, “I knew I was playing with things I didn’t understand” (286). Then, the Aronnax almost destroys the Nautilus with torpedoes, Dev refuses to step down, and the Nautilus is unable to restore her shields.

The Nautilus performs an emergency dive to avoid the torpedoes, but they are caught in the shock wave and Ana blacks out. When she wakes up, she overhears Dev on the com sounding annoyed that he was put in danger. This bothers Ana, and she thinks, “my mouth tastes like the bottom of a barbecue pit. Dev isn’t worried about me or any of the other lives on the Nautilus. He really is someone I don’t know” (291). While Ana and her crew wait, Romeo finally appears, and he embraces the Aronnax. The Aronnax is unable to remove Romeo, and so Ana sends Ester and the other Orcas to save the LI students.