Nyxia

Over the past seven weeks, Emmett and Kaya have studied and trained together. Emmett has solidified his position on the scoreboard, but he continues to feel guilty about being in competition with Bilal. Kaya has become obsessed with exploring Genesis 11, and she and Emmett often sneak out after training to find off-limits rooms. There is one room they haven’t been able to unlock yet, and Kaya tells Emmett to meet her the next day (which happens to be a Sabbath day) because she has a plan to finally open the door.

On Sabbath morning, Bilal, Longwei, and Emmett are all in the cafeteria together when Bilal and Longwei reveal that they’ve both kissed Azima. Still reeling from this revelation, Emmett goes to the Contact Room to have his weekly phone call home. He arrives early, while Jasmine is still on the phone with her family, so Jasmine brings Emmett inside the room to introduce him to them. On Emmett’s call, he talks to his father about the progress his mother has made with the Babel doctor’s treatments. Then his father reveals a surprise: PJ is on the call as well. PJ tells Emmett that someone has leaked the “Babel Files” to the press, including information on all the competitors and information about Babel’s plan. Before Emmett can learn more, the communication is mysteriously shut down.

All the competitors except for Kaya, who didn’t call home, have heard about the mysterious Babel Files and how they have all become famous on Earth. Emmett tells Kaya about the development, but she is more interested in finally unlocking the door that she’s been obsessing over for months. She and Emmett sneak down to the door, and Kaya opens it with a key she fashioned out of nyxia. The first thing they notice in the hallway past the door is that there is no nyxia in the walls in this part of the ship. At the end of the hall is another door, which Emmett can open with his stolen key card. He’s hesitant, but Kaya pushes him to open the door. Inside, they find an Adamite strapped down with wires, unconscious. The minute Kaya and Emmett’s nyxia gets within range, the Adamite wakes up and strangles Kaya with the nyxia. Marcus Defoe intervenes, putting himself between Kaya and the Adamite, but it is too late. Kaya is dead.

Vandemeer tends to Emmett’s injuries in the med bay while Emmett waits for Marcus Defoe’s punishment. Vandemeer didn’t know that Babel was keeping an Adamite on the ship, and Emmett believes that Babel was torturing the Adamite. Marcus arrives and blames Emmett and Kaya for Kaya’s death. He subtracts 30,000 points from Emmett’s score. Emmett is furious. He decides that the only way to escape Babel’s evil control is to win a spot on the ship to Eden, to “go where they can’t follow” (219).

Emmett can’t bring himself to tell the others what has happened to Kaya, so they assume she has quit. Marcus Defoe arrives to start training, and he tells the contestants that Kaya died in an accident. Marcus threatens Emmett to keep quiet about the truth. Marcus also announces that since there are only three girls left in the competition, all of them will be going to Eden. After the points that Marcus subtracted from his score, Emmett is at the bottom of the scoreboard. He fails most of the day’s challenges, but in the Rabbit Room, he and his team use Kaya’s last strategic idea and win. That evening, Katsu, Bilal, Jasmine, Azima, and Jaime come to Emmett’s room to sleep over so that he doesn’t have to spend the night alone.

In this Interlude from Marcus Defoe’s perspective, he is in a meeting with other top executives at Babel to come up with a public relations plan in the wake of the Babel Files leak. Marcus provides the plan, and then he and the other executives discuss the competitors. One executive, David Requin, mentions that he has his “own circus to run” (232), implying that he has some program like Defoe’s. Part 2 of Nyxia will reveal that there is a second group of competitors working for Babel, Genesis 12, and that Requin is in charge of this group. In the Interlude, Requin goes on to suggest that he and Marcus bet on who the commander of the mission will end up being. Marcus declines the bet because he is now at a disadvantage because of Kaya’s death.