Ivy made a gesture indicating that the new arrivals should find places for themselves around the table. "Which brings me to the topic of this meeting," she continued. "We know what J.B.F.’s plan is. She’s recruiting some number of Arkies willing to strike out on their own. The general scheme seems to be that they’ll get a few arklets stocked with provisions for a few weeks’ journey. Then, on a signal, they’ll break away from Izzy and make burns that will take them to a higher orbit. An orbit that we can’t reach without expending a lot of propellant. We don’t know what their long-term plan is—or if they even have one—but I think Julia is basically playing the odds that these people will survive long enough to send back messages saying ‘Come on in, the water’s fine!’ and encourage other Arkies to follow suit. They all know that they can’t really be pursued once they have departed the swarm. Membership in the Cloud Ark is, under the current state of affairs, voluntary."