Sarah Chen never leaves Earth, and the story would not work without her. She is the person in the dark room with the blue screens, the one whose stillness tells the audience how much is at stake. In Track 2 she counts down silently with her lips while a room full of technicians waits on her; when the rocket clears the pad and the room erupts, she is the only one who does not move, one hand flat on the desk, tears running and unwiped.
On the day of the footfall she sits with her hands clasped at her lips, leans toward the screen to whisper something the microphones miss, and when the boot comes down she covers her mouth and weeps openly among the cheering. Then, alone at the screen after the others have gone, she puts her own palm against the image of Lena's handprint. It is the answer to a gesture Lena has been making since the launch facility, and it arrives twenty light-minutes late, which is how everything from Mars arrives.
She reads Lena's message about the pregnancy with her hand over her mouth, and when the birth is confirmed she hugs her whole team. Her palm on the screen and Lena's in the soil are the two halves of the album's quiet refrain.
