Martha Kivelson is on a space expedition with Juliet Burton that has suddenly gone wrong. Over-confident Juliet had not strapped in, causing her to be thrown from her seat, and debris to drive a hole in her head. Martha, having taken safety precautions, lived through the accident. Martha began the difficult journey back, feeding herself meth and spiteful thoughts to propel her through the unforgiven terrain of planet Io. The entire time, she is pestered by what could either be the planet speaking to her, or her own delusions. The planet Io tells her that she, Martha, is it's creator, and that it is a machine that holds Juliet's consciousness awake, even as Juliet's corpse stays still. Martha struggles with this strangeness as well as her own feelings of inferiority, always feeling as though she comes in a lagging second place. Meanwhile, on her journey, the planet Io seems to help her- making a way across an impassable river of lava. However, just as Martha is in sight of her ship, and is beginning to feel as though she would survive and that she was not so unremarkable after all, an earthquake rattles the planet. Her ship is destroyed. Io begins convincing Martha to jump into a pit of lava, telling her that both she and Juliet can live forever if she jumps in; Io will be able to absorb her brain data and allow it to last even if he body is destroyed. Seeing as her body was going to die anyway, seeing as she only had three more hours of oxygen and no way of leaving the planet, throws Juliet's body in, and then jumps herself.