Agnes has been wearing your immerser too long—five years. It translates the world around. At first it gives her culturally appropriate social cues—whether to bow or shake hands, what phrases to use. But soon it takes over, directing your every thought and action. Her avatar covers most of your real body. She stands in the mirror and sees herself dressed in the stylish clothes of a well-traveled, well-connected women. It shifts and a women is there, but she is smaller and diminished in every way. Her husband, Galen, serves you breakfast and too-strong coffee. She says nothing to him. Quy watches the spaceships arrive. Most are Galactic ships from the economic powerhouse planet whose tourists come pouring onto Rong. Second Uncle asks her to come back to the restaurant to help out. They need her college-educated social skills, but she is on her day off. Second Uncle’s face is scarred from the War for Independence. He forces her to come work because it is a Galactic customer who’s head of a local trading company. Second Uncle insists Quy gets her immerser for the interview—just in case. She can’t find it and goes looking in her sister Tam’s room. Tam likes to take tech apart, see how it works, and put it back together, but she cannot understand the Galactic immersers. They don’t make any mechanical sense. Quy grabs her immerser, with which Tam has been experimenting and heads to the restaurant. Agnes heads into a restaurant, her immerser translating all the restaurant signs for you. Galen and Second Uncle debate the cost of the meal for 100 guests. They want a traditional Rong meal, no Galactic food, which is their home planet. Quy recognizes Agnes’s problem and puts her hand on her arm. Quy tells her she should take it off. Agnes remembers when she first put it on. A few of Galen’s friends were making jokes that didn’t make sense to her, and, in tears, she put it on to . When Agnes doesn’t reply, Galen tells her they’ve tried. The doctor has said that, at this point, if she takes it off, it could kill her. After more discussions, Quy gets fed up and leaves the restaurant. Agnes watches her throw her immerser away in disgust. She follows Quy to her sister Tam’s room and sees the immersers lying out on the table. She knows they’ll never figure it out on their own. Only a Galactic mind believes it can take a whole culture and reduce it to algorithms, a set of rules. For Tam and Quy, things are much more complex. They’ll never figure it out on their own. In a weak voice, she says, “I know about this. Let me help you, younger sisters.”