After Souther was destroyed, Tai, May, and Tang decided to report the find to the Pilgrim Council. Tai went in search of the pilgrim Said, whose coordinates had been left to him by his father. Tang and Mei went to the repair docks to replace the expired reactor. During the repair, they had to find out everything about the girl and how her medallion ended up on Souther.

Ten days on a small search ship, Tai got to Parsia. Ty didn't think the journey would take this long, he had never been to the central sector of the galaxy. The 3S was not designed for such long flights and Tai had to dock with different ships flying in the same direction. Ship captains have always provided assistance to emergency services, as they are the last hope in the event of a catastrophe in space. To Tai surprise, no one flew to Parsia, and the system itself met him with silence on the air.

Entering the planet's atmosphere, Tai oriented the ship to the lone signal from the navigation tower. Parsia seemed extinct, the ship flew over empty, dilapidated cities, places flooded with water and covered with sand. Cities were replaced by sparse forests and dried-up reservoirs. The beacon's signal came from the outskirts of Parsia's capital. A huge city stretched from edge to edge of the horizon.

Tai went down below and flying over the ruins of high-rise buildings noticed groups of people who were dismantling the frame of the building. Having flown a little, he found himself over the square in the center of which stood a dirty and rusty ship, on board of which cut metal was loaded.

“Marauders.” Tai said sadly.

And at that very moment, a voice rang out over the air. Tai shuddered in surprise.

“What brought the rescuer to such a wilderness?” Came a voice from the communicator.

“I'm looking for Saeed” Answered Tai.

“Who is asking him?” Asked another more stern voice.

“Tell Lou Tai from Ladaki, he should know”

Silence reigned again. Under Ty's ship, the dreary urban landscape ended, and a rocky plateau spread out with rare islands of greenery.

Finally, he was contacted and given new coordinates. A few minutes later, Tai was there. It was a populous settlement in a stone plateau dissected into many wide channels. An old reservoir, converted into a small settlement. Inside the canals, bridges and stairways were visible, connecting different levels. In the center rose a dozen wide stone pillars with windows and balconies carved into them. Tai landed the ship on one of these pillars. He was greeted by two people. One was dressed discreetly in a gray cape, from under which a gun barrel was visible. The second was dressed more solidly in a white cloak with a wide collar.

“Saeed Toph!” Approached a stranger in a white cloak and smiling extended his hand. “Good to see you, Tai. You are very much like your father. By the way, we already met when you were five years old, although you hardly remember it.”

Tai extended his hand and said hello.

“My coordinates were given to you by your father, if there are any insurmountable difficulties!” Saeed continued, feeling incredulous. “ I will be glad to help, the pilgrims do not leave their own!”

Saeed escorted the guest to the elevator. Two floors below was a spacious hall, richly decorated with textiles and various statuettes. Said invited the guest to sit down and treat himself to fruits stacked in a pile in vases on a small table decorated with patterns.

“So what brings you here, Ty?” Saeed asked, sinking into the easy chair opposite.

“We found a live orgatox!”  Tai answered and took out a scan-card from his pocket.

Saeed at first smiled incredulously, apparently considering Tai's words as a joke, but seeing Tai's imperturbable face and the scan-card from the EM scanner, he turned a little pale, called an assistant and asked him to urgently take the scan to the laboratory. After the assistant left, Tai told Saeed everything that had happened to them on the found ship.

“This is right!” Saeed noted. “They did the right thing by blowing it up. What you told me, if it's really an orgatox, that's terrible. First of all, you need to find this girl. And not a word about the fact that you found this ship.”

“It seems to me that if she had been infected, it would have been immediately discovered, and besides, she would not have survived.” Tai suggested.

“After your story, I'm not sure. We are aware of cases of infection with a long period of growth of orgatox, in such cases, some markers are not in the carrier's blood. You must find her and test her blood samples again.”

“This will be difficult to do. We don't have time to look for a girl, I already violated my service regulations by flying here.”

“You will have time, we have our own people in the insurance commission, they will contact you and solve all problems. Besides, as far as I know, May's mother is the leader of the search parties in your sector. Do not be surprised Tai, as a member of the Pilgrim Council, I have to supervise many issues.”

“Okay, if we find this girl, what do we do with her if we get a positive result?” Tai asked.

“There are no options here, give her the drug dizab!” Saeed replied.

“But it will kill her!” Tai objected displeasedly.

“On one side of the scale is the life of one person, on the other side is the entire population of the galaxy. I think the decision is obviously in favor of the second.” Saeed threw up his hands. “I hope she is not infected, but it still needs to be checked.”

This turn of events was not part of Ty's plans, he was nervous and tried to leave, but Said suggested waiting for the results from the laboratory. Tai got up from his chair and slowly walked around the room examining the figurines. Then he went to the window and asked: “ I wanted to ask what happened here, is this the capital of the Parsian civilization?”

“Oh, my friend, in the galaxy everyone is so self-contained and indifferent that they did not notice how the Parsian civilization disappeared.” Saeed got up from his chair, came up and stood next to him.

“How did it disappear?” Tai was surprised. “ I saw the settlements of the Parsians on the border of the sector.”

“This is all the periphery, the remains of civilization, sometimes having nothing to do with Parsia.” Saeed clarified irritably, then continued. “The reason for the disappearance is typical for all existing societies - social stratification. There was a gap between the rich and the poor. And at the abyss, I must notice two edges.  And on both sides, everyone who finds themselves on the edge is falling into the abyss, this abyss has swallowed culture, science, morality. In Parsia, this was not so noticeable until the era of dark times, as society was updated by interacting with other cultures. Having been isolated for three hundred years, the abyss between people opened up even more, a stench rose from its depths, poisoning the consciousness of people.”

“Are the pilgrims to blame again?” Inserted by Tai.

“And how could it be without us, in which only we were not accused! It's an old disease, blaming someone else for your mistakes.” Saeed replied. “Look down, you see several crooked silhouettes along the wall. As old people died in poverty before the dark era, so they are dying now. More than a hundred years have passed since they stopped remembering the pilgrims, but nothing has changed.”

“There are many places in the galaxy with a similar situation, why nothing happens to them. The reason is probably something else.” Tai disagreed.

“Alas, Tai, Parsia passed this path very quickly, the rest are only in the middle of this path, while they still have some kind of restraining moral restrictions. The Parsian sages said "Bad ideas destroy cities more than natural disasters", and so it happened. About forty years ago, the wealthy part of the Parsian society decided to fight the overpopulation of the central planets in the Parsian systems. They found a solution to this problem, in the ranking of social significance. It was a grand show "All or Nothing!", The participants competed for a place in the organization, for a high salary, showing their productivity.”

“There seems to be nothing wrong with that.” Iinterrupted Tai.

“In principle, yes, if not for one but.” Saeed continued. “The loser lost his place of residence. He and all family members were sent away to the periphery. After some time, this show has become an attribute of everyday life in all areas of business. The ideologists of this show believed that people would fight for a place, but disappointment and disaster awaited them. At first, the people accepted these changes approvingly, but when the principle of this show became massive and coercive, it all ended in a civil war that destroyed the cities and buried the prosperity and greatness of Parsia in the ashes.”

The conversation was interrupted by Saeed's assistant and a girl in a lab coat who entered. The assistant reported that the scan results were ready. Saeed introduced Tai to biologist Rita Anda. Tai held out his hand to the girl, they greeted. Rita, a skinny brunette of medium height with large gray eyes, walked over to the table and activated the projection screen.

“Thanks to a high-quality EM scan, we have recreated the preliminary structure of the orgatox,” Rita began. ” I should notice an uncharacteristic asymmetric structure in this sample, but the most interesting thing is that it does not have a synthetic nucleus, its brain is organic, although there is a synthetic structure in the membrane of neuron cells. It's not really an orgatox, it's a brand new creature. I believe that it is a body and muscles with a primitive brain that is connected telepathically with another being.”

There was bewilderment on the faces of those present. Rita opened the next image on the screen.

“But the most interesting thing is the thread-like mold into which orgatox mimicked. This is the brain that we have yet to study in a simulation.”

“Now that's a bad idea!” Tai exclaimed. “This thing knocked me out and was digging through my head to figure out how to open my space suit.”

“Scap.” Rita interrupted him. “Orgatox took this ability from the scape.”

“What is this?” Saeed asked in surprise.

“These are small centipedes, their body produces a large electric charge, they live on almost all merchant ships. They are specially bred to fight parasites that gnaw on wiring and spoil cargo.” Tai answered.

“They hunt in packs, leading the prey into a trance and slowly devouring it while it is alive.” Rita added.

Saeed winced involuntarily. “I don’t understand the connection of this mold with this creature. And how did the orgatox survive in the first place?”

"Orgatox had the ability to evolve," Rita began. “Radmushroom is used to disinfect the inner contour of the living compartments from radiation. This fungus feeds on radiation and releases energy, which is exactly what the orgatox needs. But this is just a theory. As for the first question about mold, we are dealing with the aimba structure, this is the third stage in the development of orgatox, there is no other way to explain how Tai ended up in a trance and came into contact with him.”

Saeed, upset by Rita's explanation, sat down in a chair.

“How could an orgatox grow into an aimba structure?” Tai asked.

“Is it just necessary to find out?” Rita replied.

This ended the conversation. Saeed accompanied Ty to his ship. Before boarding the ship, Tai asked Saeed what he was doing on this planet.

“My team is looking for an ancient library, Parsia is part of the colonians culture.”

“But why do you need it?”

“There is an unresolved problem that you yourself recently encountered, and your father should have told you.”

“Yes, he told me, the problem is that the pilgrims are divided and trusted someone who should not be trusted. The current state of the pilgrims is somewhat similar to Parsia, we are digging in the ruins of our own civilization.”

“Sad to hear from you Tai. There are things more important than ourselves.” Saeed answered.