James Okafor is the crew's engineer and, on the long approach, its geologist: the man who traces the landing plain on the viewport glass with one finger because he has been looking at it on maps for three years. He knows the outpost before he sees it. In the Ares he stands in front of the briefing console studying a still of HELIX-R1 on the surface, his reflection faint in the screen, looking at the machine that has been building his house.
When the Ares reaches orbit and R1's uplink goes green, James breaks down. It is the first time anyone in the story cries from relief, and Lena's hand stays on his back.
On Mars he does the heavy work: shouldering panels across the red ground, welding seams with sparks in his visor, hauling the last panel alone through the dusk storm while the others take shelter. R1 hands him tools like a coworker. He tells the story at the first meal that makes Yuki laugh until she covers her mouth.
He is Nova's father. He lifts Yuki off the floor when she tells him, presses his ear to her belly at the dome window, holds his daughter for the first time unable to speak, and catches her first low-gravity steps. At seven she holds his gloved hand on the surface, looking up. His name travels down the family for three centuries to the captain of a starship.
