There is a commotion and I look down to see Engineering Officer Puckett, who has stuck his head up through the hatch, and watch as they talk back and forth. It’s hard not to notice how thread-worn he looks, how pale. I worry over how exhausted he must be: keeping everything functioning, everything up and running, and with only a skeleton crew to help him. Keeping us all afloat, literally—with ten men instead of one-hundred. More, he seems upset—although about what, given the darkness of the tube and my insufficient skill at reading lips, is hard to say.
Beth signs (as if noticing my confusion): He’s upset that he can’t go ashore with the rest of us; that he’s been chosen to remain on the ship. But the Captain says the same rule applies to him as it does to himself: That he is essential pe
