Markus could be pretty unceremonious about things, which was just his leadership style—his way of implicitly telling people he expected them to do their bloody jobs without pep talks beforehand or congratulations afterward. It didn’t work for everyone. Some people liked ceremony. But he hadn’t invited any of those along on this expedition. So there was no particular moment when it all started. They just kept getting closer to the Earth. Slava darted up the companionway to the top of the command module, and a minute later announced that he was positioned before the controls of New Caird . Jiro called out milestones in the startup of the reactor, occasionally proffering hints as to how the figures should be understood: "That is a little faster than I expected... settling down now... this is according to plan... ready to proceed on your command..." and so on. Markus’s participation consisted largely of chewing his thumbnail while staring fixedly at his screen. From time to time he would reach out and type something, or swipe and tap on his tablet. Dinah’s work was almost entirely abstract, several layers removed from what obviously mattered. She tried to focus on it and to ignore the sounds of a thousand loose objects settling to the "floor" of Ymir as gravity "came on" due to a combination of Ymir ’s increasing thrust and the steady buildup of atmospheric pushback.