Chap­ter 10 opens with the pro­tag­o­nist reflect­ing on her life aboard the Drakkar, par­tic­u­lar­ly the role she plays as an Expend­able. Though Jem­ma had pre­pared her for the inher­ent dan­gers of her posi­tion, noth­ing could have ful­ly pre­pared her for the harsh real­i­ty of a mis­sion that bor­dered on sui­cide. The respon­si­bil­i­ties she car­ries, which involve risk­ing her life for the mission’s suc­cess and the safe­ty of the crew, are both a heavy bur­den and a point of per­son­al con­flict. Ear­ly in the jour­ney, life on the ship had been rel­a­tive­ly unevent­ful. The voy­age to Nifl­heim, ini­tial­ly expect­ed to be rou­tine, allowed the crew to momen­tar­i­ly let go of their fears of impend­ing cat­a­stro­phe, offer­ing a tem­po­rary sense of relief. For a while, it seemed like the worst was behind them, and the crew mem­bers allowed them­selves to relax, for­get­ting the con­stant ten­sion they faced dur­ing such per­ilous voy­ages.

How­ev­er, this frag­ile peace is shat­tered when the ship unex­pect­ed­ly col­lides with an unknown object while trav­el­ing at an incred­i­ble speed. The vio­lent impact caus­es seri­ous dam­age to the nose cone, which in turn trig­gers a dan­ger­ous radi­a­tion leak. The crew’s safe­ty is imme­di­ate­ly com­pro­mised, and the pro­tag­o­nist is called upon to address the crit­i­cal issue of a faulty pow­er cou­pling. This cou­pling is essen­tial for main­tain­ing the ship’s shield­ing, which pro­tects the crew from the lethal radi­a­tion that is now leak­ing into the ves­sel. The pro­tag­o­nist quick­ly real­izes the grav­i­ty of her task as she suits up in a vac­u­um suit, under­stand­ing that the suc­cess of the mis­sion now rests sole­ly on her abil­i­ty to fix the dam­aged pow­er cou­pling. The urgency of the sit­u­a­tion becomes pal­pa­ble as the crew faces the pos­si­bil­i­ty of cat­a­stroph­ic radi­a­tion expo­sure, and the pro­tag­o­nist is acute­ly aware of the risks she must take to ensure the sur­vival of the ship and its inhab­i­tants.

As the pro­tag­o­nist begins the high-risk pro­ce­dure to replace the dam­aged cou­pling, she feels a wave of pan­ic, as the effects of radi­a­tion expo­sure begin to take hold. The pro­ce­dure is excru­ci­at­ing­ly painful, and her body starts to dete­ri­o­rate as radi­a­tion burns begin to take their toll. Her vision blurs, and every move­ment becomes more dif­fi­cult as her body weak­ens under the intense con­di­tions. Despite the agony, she press­es for­ward, focus­ing sole­ly on com­plet­ing the task at hand. Her train­ing kicks in, allow­ing her to push through the phys­i­cal and men­tal pain as she fol­lows the pre­cise instruc­tions need­ed to replace the cou­pling. When the task is final­ly com­plet­ed, the ship’s shield­ing is restored, and the imme­di­ate threat is quelled. How­ev­er, the vic­to­ry feels hol­low as the pro­tag­o­nist is left to face the per­son­al cost of her actions, know­ing that the scars, both phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal, will remain long after the mis­sion is over.

After the crit­i­cal event, the pro­tag­o­nist under­goes the process of upload­ing to a new ver­sion of herself—Mickey2—hoping to over­come the toll that the radi­a­tion expo­sure has tak­en on her body. How­ev­er, despite the “rebirth” that comes with the upload, the effects of the radi­a­tion still linger, with sev­er­al crew mem­bers suf­fer­ing from radi­a­tion sick­ness. The pro­tag­o­nist quick­ly adapts to her new instan­ti­a­tion and dons anoth­er vac­u­um suit, prepar­ing for more emer­gency repairs on the ship. This time, the repairs involve using nanites to restore the ship’s dam­aged hull, a tech­no­log­i­cal mar­vel that allows her to work in the harsh envi­ron­ment of space. As she works on the repairs, the pro­tag­o­nist is aware of her ongo­ing phys­i­cal suf­fer­ing but remains focused on the task. The process is gru­el­ing, but the pro­tag­o­nist press­es on, moti­vat­ed by the under­stand­ing that the sur­vival of the Drakkar and its crew depends on her abil­i­ties to over­come these chal­lenges. The phys­i­cal strain, how­ev­er, is unde­ni­able, and the emo­tion­al weight of each repair done becomes hard­er to bear.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a moment of reflec­tion as the pro­tag­o­nist con­sid­ers the lim­its of her endurance. Despite her out­ward suc­cess in com­plet­ing her duties, the toll on her body and mind has been sig­nif­i­cant. The ship is slow­ly being restored, but the pro­tag­o­nist is deeply aware of the per­son­al sac­ri­fices she’s made along the way. Each moment on the ship forces her to reck­on with her own phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al lim­its as she nav­i­gates the pres­sures of her role. Her expe­ri­ences aboard the Drakkar are shap­ing her into some­one new, some­one capa­ble of push­ing through unimag­in­able hard­ships. But with each suc­cess, the real­iza­tion grows that sur­vival in space is not only about over­com­ing phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers but also about deal­ing with the psy­cho­log­i­cal scars that accom­pa­ny such an exis­tence. In the harsh envi­ron­ment of inter­stel­lar space, where every deci­sion could be life or death, the pro­tag­o­nist is forced to exam­ine her iden­ti­ty and what it tru­ly means to sur­vive. The emo­tion­al toll of her jour­ney becomes just as impor­tant as the phys­i­cal one, high­light­ing the com­plex nature of sur­vival in an unfor­giv­ing uni­verse.