In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on her expe­ri­ences aboard the *Drakkar*, deal­ing with the pecu­liar­i­ties of being an Expend­able. While she had been pre­pared for dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions by Jem­ma, the real­i­ty of a near-sui­cide mis­sion is dis­ori­ent­ing, espe­cial­ly when some­one unex­pect­ed­ly res­cues her. Ini­tial­ly, life on the ship is monot­o­nous; the voy­age to Nifl­heim had been unevent­ful, allay­ing fears of impend­ing dis­as­ter.

How­ev­er, a sud­den turn of events dis­rupts this calm. While trav­el­ing at an incred­i­ble speed, the ship col­lides with an unknown object, caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to the nose cone and lead­ing to a radi­a­tion leak. The main char­ac­ter is called upon to replace a faulty pow­er cou­pling, which she learns is crit­i­cal to main­tain­ing the ship’s shield­ing from lethal radi­a­tion. Don­ning a vac­u­um suit, she under­stands the urgency of her task, despite the ter­ri­fy­ing con­di­tions she faces.

The pro­tag­o­nist engages in a high-risk pro­ce­dure to fix the unit, endur­ing intense pain and pan­ic as she expe­ri­ences acute radi­a­tion expo­sure. Her vision blurs, and her body starts dete­ri­o­rat­ing from radi­a­tion burns. Despite the dire sit­u­a­tion, she man­ages to fol­low instruc­tions and com­pletes the replace­ment, restor­ing the ship’s shield­ing, though not with­out per­son­al sac­ri­fice. Even though she knows this is a crit­i­cal expe­ri­ence that must be retained, she grap­ples with the haunt­ing mem­o­ries attached.

After upload­ing to a new instan­ti­a­tion of her­self, Mickey2, the safe­ty con­cerns remain, with sev­er­al crew mem­bers suf­fer­ing from the fall­out of the radi­a­tion. She quick­ly learns to adapt again, get­ting out­fit­ted in a vac­u­um suit to per­form emer­gency repairs on the ship’s hull using nanites. The chap­ter con­cludes with the pro­tag­o­nist reflect­ing on her own lim­its as she achieves what feels like a minor mir­a­cle, restor­ing the ship while nav­i­gat­ing the chal­lenges of her own phys­i­cal suf­fer­ing and sur­vival in the harsh­ness of inter­stel­lar space.