Ironsides watches a holographic replay of the battle over the shipyard. She and an aide discuss Spensa’s helmet sensor readings during the battle, which indicate that Spensa has “the defect.” The aide explains certain doctors’ certainty that the defect is not real. Ironsides recalls the history that has been hidden from most Defiants: the fact that the original Defiant ship that crashed into Detritus did so because of a mutiny on the part of humans whom people like Ironsides believe to have had the defect. Now, however, important families descended from those original mutineers deny the existence of the defect.

Ironsides instructs the aide to request that the doctor who supports the existence of the defect write a condemnation of one of the dissenting doctors; she wants to see if the other skeptical doctor can be persuaded to change her mind. Ironsides is determined to prevent anyone with the defect from flying ever again.

Rodge and Spensa work on final repairs to M-Bot’s wing, using materials that Rodge’s internship supervisors have allowed him to take home in return for his helpful schematics based on M-Bot’s design. Rodge doubts Spensa’s intuition that Ironsides cannot kick her out of flight school. He also challenges Spensa’s views on the definition of cowardice, since she claims that leaving the school, like he did, would make her a coward.