ryland sort of comes to terms with the mission after remembering what stratt did, but when he tells malory, she is PISSED. she barely wants to finish the mission. she stops making recordings for earth with grace, she slows down her work, she's snappy and short-fused—she's kind of scary. no matter how many times ryland tries to tell her that he doesn't care(regardless of the level of truth to those words), she won't listen. she can't find it in herself to be logical or objective imagining the fear he must have felt and the stress he must have been under, especially right after the explosion. most of all, she feels guilty for not being able to stop it, even though she had no chance and her words couldn't have convinced stratt otherwise.
eventually, she calms down. logic wins over, and after some convincing by rocky and ryland, imogen agrees to continue. but even then, once they send it all back and start heading home, then turn back to erid, she can't help but second guess herself. it planted a seed of doubt in her, and against her best judgement, made her a little paranoid.
