Onboard the spaceship _Lachesis _are three humans trained with zenith intelligence to decide whether seedships from Earth sent to proliferate life in the galaxy long ago should continue to exist or be whipped out by their ship’s missiles because they endanger Earth’s survival. On their last world Jotunheim, Anyahera (f) voted to annihilate their cruel civilization. But the pragmatic Thienne (f) argued that Jotunheim’s structures were too unstable to pose a threat. To Anyahera’s horror, the narrator, the gender-fluid Shinobu, sides with Thienne. 

On their next and last world, the crew reprise their positions, with Anyahera strongly advocating for the destruction of Mitanni and Thienne opposing, leaving Shinobu as the tiebreaker. Because the people on Mitanni compliantly work their entire lives, unbothered by the lack of joy and culture in their world, all for the sake of survival, Anyahera believes they represent the Duong-Watts malignant. The phenomenon occurs when a civilization is able to neutralize its people’s consciousness, including their desires and needs, so that they can happily work to maximize social welfare.

By analyzing the mind of a Mitanni ambassador, Anyahera confirms that the Mitanni embody the malignant reprogramming of consciousness. That adaptive advantage will allow them to easily colonize other human colonies.

Despite this, Thienne tells Shinobu that true survival might necessitate the erasure of consciousness, and that destroying the Mitanni might mean destroying humanity’s chances of survival in space.

Shinobu decides to strike a middle path with the Mitanni ambassador. Its mind will be brought to Earth for study, with the possibility of boarding a seedship for space proliferation again. But its planet will be destroyed. The ambassador agrees, and the three instigate the genocide.