kate continues to try to shut the ship down. some circuits do, others flicker. free flow and refuse to stop. one particular circuit will clear, but only as long as she holds it shut manually - mev launch release. only takes her a moment to decide. she's not happy, but tries not to let her concern show as - there are still free-flows all over the board. bowman can't get them to shut down. they flicker, pop on and off. systems start and shut down and start up again all over the ship. checks the comm again. still static. various return scenarios are flickering on different vid screens. she hasn't slept. there's notes and charts and additional hhc's all over the place. she marks their location on the viewscreen, zooms out wide. the hab and the cosmos are marked with symbols. the computer pauses, analyzes, then spits them out as a little more than 56 kilometers along their way. more calculation is done on the screen. they're more than halfway; they've used up less than half the available daylight; their average speed is looking good. they're on time, on schedule and on the right course. so far, so good. bowman just heard the news. it's like she's been punched. it takes her a moment to recover. bowman finds them again with 10m scope. marks it. computer analyzes their position. the results aren't encouraging. their average speed has been steadily dropping. there's only two hours left till dark. they've gone 79 kilometers. and they're projected to get 88.5 kilometers before nightfall. they're gonna miss getting to the cosmos by about an hour. she sits there, just gut-shot for a moment. picks up the mike. bowman's got her suit on. screens show the apogee launch and a slingshot around the backside. bowman and gallagher listen as - out the window, mars drifts by in the view port. bowman looks at it kinda sadly.