Good Morning, Midnight

Tethered to the ship, Sully and Devi step out of the Aether and into open space. They make their way to the broken antenna, inspect the damage, and prepare the site for the new parts that will be installed during a second space walk.

While reviewing the footage of the two women’s work, the crew is buoyed by having a new, necessary task. After a few hours of work, the crew enjoys Ivanov’s stew and prepares for sleep.

During the night Sully wakes to the sound of Devi whimpering. When awoken, Devi admits to a nightmare. In this nightmare, she and Sully lost the new dish to open space; it drifted into the sun, followed by the women themselves. Sully comforts Devi until the young woman falls asleep.

Preparations consume the following day. Sully exhibits outer confidence, but as she observes the universe outside the ship, she acknowledges her fear. Dismissing it as a result of Devi’s dream and her own nerves, Sully returns to her work.

Augie and Iris explore the abandoned weather station buildings and tents and begin unpacking both their own supplies and the supplies the previous crew left behind. Augie feels “earthbound”—connected to the land rather than escaping to the skies.

The next day’s examination of the station reveals food and supplies far beyond their needs, allowing Augie to prepare higher quality meals than at the observatory. Iris and Augie explore the books left behind and trek as much around the lake as Augie’s joints can withstand. He observes Iris cooking, imitating what he made on previous nights, and feels the sort of pride that he imagines a father might. Between this realization and his new habit of listening to her breathing at night, Augie begins to recognize his love for Iris.

Augie’s feelings trigger memories of past encounters with women in which he did not feel love; instead, he manipulated his partners. Seeing them as an experiment—another area to know and to study—he drew them in before eventually scorning them and driving them away. The closest he came to love was with the woman he impregnated in New Mexico, who was named Jean.

Devi and Sully’s second space walk begins. They make their way to the antenna, and Devi begins the repairs while Sully passes tools to her. By their seventh hour outside the ship, the electrical connection is established. The women manage to put the dish back in place, but before they can bolt it onto the hull of the ship, Sully realizes something is wrong with Devi.

As the crew registers Sully’s concern, they check Devi’s suit from inside the ship and alert the women to a carbon dioxide problem that Devi didn’t notice as she worked. Harper orders the women back to the ship, but Devi tells them there’s no time. Before Sully can attempt to take Devi back, Devi falls unconscious. In moments, Thebes tells Sully over the communication device that Devi has died. In a daze, Sully releases Devi from her tether and bolts the dish to the ship, completing the repairs.

In the aftermath of Devi’s death, Sully falls into a depression. Shutting herself off from the crew, she falls prey to horrible memories, including her divorce and the increasing distance between herself and Lucy and Jack.

Sully emerges from her bunk the next day, but she can’t respond to the other crewmembers’ attempts to share her grief. Sully continues to wade through memories as she works in the communication pod, thinking of her father, whom she never knew, and whom Jean described as so dedicated to his work that “he didn’t have any room left in his heart for them” (177). Sully remembers the pride she felt for her mother and how that pride faded as Jean became lost to motherhood after giving birth to Sully’s half siblings.

Sully recalls her mother’s death and how it left her feeling alone in the world. As this memory fades, Harper sits with her in Little Earth. Sully apologizes for withdrawing the previous day, and both agree that the only thing they can do now is work.