Iman opens her mouth and closes it again, galled, hurt, and the worst is she can't retort. She isn't being useful, it's finally happening, now everyone will see that she's not as great as she wants them to believe. The secret is out. She's just limp and useless. Dead weight.

She's trying really fucking desperately not to feel sorry for herself, to come up with some scathing comeback, or to figure out the math and remember what it was she solved when she's saved from these endeavors by a crash and a rumble, the earth shaking beneath them, the entire base shifting and clattering.

"The fuck was that?!" she snaps, looking around sharply.