Orbital

There are two toilets on the space station: One is exclusive to the Russian cosmonauts, while the other is open to all other nationalities. The rules around their use represent the passive-aggressive behavior between the two factions of space agencies, which the station crew finds ridiculous. They look past their national identities and see their crewmates as part of one community.

The station crew uses a virtual-reality headset that tests their hand-eye coordination and reflexes in microgravity. They often fail the test, reporting results that are several seconds off the mark. The voice in the headset chides them for their degraded neural-motor functions, which it suggests is a symptom of long-term space travel. The voice further mocks them by relating their rapid movement over the Earth to the brevity of their mission. Their time in space will be over before they know it, and they will emerge from their capsules weaker in mind and body.

Nell recalls her first spacewalk, during which she installed the spectrometer with Pietro. Nell was initially terrified of being out in open space, so she focused on adapting to her movement in zero gravity. Walking in open space made the Earth feel suddenly surreal.