sentences:  At the end of "Expendable", Festina left the apparently deceased Oar lying in one of the Towers of Ancestors on her planet, where her people absorb high-energy radiations that sustain their lives.At the start of "Ascending", Oar regains consciousness in the tower where Festina left her, to find that she is being accosted by a diminutive and odd-looking orange being.This is Uclodda Unorr, a professional smuggler who has been hired to gather evidence on past misdeeds of the Technocracy's Outward Fleet—and who is surprised to discover that Oar is alive.