In this chap­ter, the nar­ra­tor express­es his anx­i­ety about vis­it­ing Mar­shall, the supreme com­man­der of their mis­sion. Reflect­ing on their his­to­ry, the nar­ra­tor recalls his arrival at the orbital assem­bly plant for the *Drakkar*. His first impres­sion of Mar­shall is mud­dled, as he was ter­ri­fied dur­ing his ini­tial expe­ri­ence with zero grav­i­ty involv­ing unex­pect­ed free fall. Despite his fear, he main­tained his com­po­sure when he first encoun­tered Mar­shall, who dis­played an intim­i­dat­ing pres­ence.

Mar­shall intro­duces him­self in the lounge by wel­com­ing the new colonists and mak­ing sar­don­ic remarks, assess­ing their pri­or space trav­el expe­ri­ence. As one of the colonists, Dugan, express­es con­cerns about per­son­al effects not being trans­ferred, Mar­shall reveals their deci­sion to pro­hib­it per­son­al items due to weight con­straints, caus­ing dis­con­tent among the group.

The nar­ra­tor, Mick­ey Barnes, tries to con­test this in a futile exchange with Mar­shall regard­ing their lug­gage allowance. Mar­shall explains the physics of the mis­sion and high­lights the seri­ous con­straints on mass, includ­ing the uncon­ven­tion­al choice of trans­port­ing colonists as frozen embryos to lim­it weight.

Mar­shall fur­ther ques­tions Mick­ey about his role on the mis­sion, lead­ing Mick­ey to make a flip­pant remark about being “Expend­able,” which Mar­shall does not take light­ly, reveal­ing his dis­ap­proval. He prompt­ly instructs Mick­ey to find a sling for sleep­ing as the sta­tion isn’t equipped to pro­vide indi­vid­ual quar­ters, leav­ing him unset­tled.

As the chap­ter unfolds, Mick­ey con­vers­es with Dugan and Bree, a fel­low colonist, who explains that Mar­shall adheres to Natal­ist beliefs that oppose the con­cept of back­ups for human beings. Accord­ing to this reli­gion, once an orig­i­nal body dies, so too does the soul, thus see­ing bio-print­ed indi­vid­u­als as soul­less.

This rev­e­la­tion leaves Mick­ey feel­ing uneasy, espe­cial­ly being labeled the “Expendable”—someone whose life holds less val­ue. Dugan offers a light-heart­ed per­spec­tive, sug­gest­ing that as long as Mick­ey remains alive in his cur­rent body, he is still accept­able in Marshall’s eyes. The chap­ter clos­es with Mick­ey acknowl­edg­ing this advice, under­stand­ing its impor­tance as he nav­i­gates his pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion.