From the payload bay during an EVA, Vanessa Ford asks Mission Control how long Lydia Danes can survive, knowing the bay doors may not close. Joan Goodwin, as CAPCOM, delays and then relays the flight surgeon’s belief that Lydia is unlikely to survive if they miss the deorbit window. Grief and shock press on Vanessa as she recalls the crew’s normalcy only hours earlier and acknowledges that John “Griff” Griffin is gone, Hank Redmond and Steve Hagen are dead, and only she and Lydia remain.

Vanessa articulates the central dilemma: time spent fixing the doors likely costs Lydia’s life, yet attempting reentry with unsecured latches risks destruction of the shuttle and loss of all aboard. Joan states that their best chance to land Navigator is for Vanessa to attempt to fix the doors, emphasizing that they cannot risk losing Vanessa and that reentry tolerances for open latches are not well understood.

Vanessa confronts her own mortality, contrasting her youthful flirtations with danger to her present, urgent desire to live. She longs to return to Earth, to reconcile with her mother, and to see Joan and Frances again, recognizing that this may be the closest she has ever been to death.

Vanessa affirms Lydia’s heroism in saving her and the shuttle by sealing the hull leak. Joan acknowledges this, repeating with softened resolve that they cannot lose Vanessa. Vanessa absorbs that even if she can get the doors to lie flat, Lydia will almost certainly die waiting, but if she does not fix them, the shuttle likely will not survive reentry and Lydia will still be lost.

The chapter closes with Vanessa’s mounting determination amid fear and prayer, fixating on getting the doors fixed and returning home to Joan, underscoring both the personal stakes and the mission’s precarious odds.