There can be times in one's life when there is clarity of purpose and a resolution to the inevitable. A time when doing the right thing is more important than the pain that must be endured or the humiliation for a failure of character. Those times are moments of realization. Moments where the path has been cleared of the detritus of indecision and strength is drawn from the weaknesses of past inactions. They don't often come with a blinding flash or in moments of stress, but mostly after time and deliberate introspection. After 231 days of isolation the station commander has had a moment of realization and does what he knows is the right thing, the hard thing.