The small piece of rock was discovered on Santa Maria by Alnaba Longknife, Kris Longknife's aunt. Alnaba believed the rock to be an artifact of the Three and sent it to Trudy Seyd for analysis. Trudy convinced Kris to allow installation of the rock inside a supposedly well-buffered area of Nelly. After Nelly began analyzing the rock, she became more human-like in her use of language and Kris began having dreams that disturbed her. Nelly continued to evolve even after the rock was removed.