Station Eleven: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Miranda is at work for a shipping company when Arthur calls to reconnect. She works as an administrative assistant for Leon at Neptune Logistics, where she feels a little out of place. She thinks she doesn’t have the right clothes. Her boyfriend Pablo assures her the situation is only temporary until he sells more paintings, but the truth is that she likes her time at Neptune Logistics more than she likes being at home. Her work is organized and clean, and it doesn’t require too much attention or time, which allows her to spend her days working on her never-ending comic book project: “Dr. Eleven.”

Dr. Eleven is a physicist from the future who lives on a space station called Station Eleven, which was stolen from a hostile alien civilization that invades earth and enslaves its people. Station Eleven is the size of our moon but designed to resemble a planet. However, its systems are broken, rendering it permanently in sunset, twilight, or night. On Station Eleven there has been a split; a faction who lives in the Undersea, a network of tunnels under Station Eleven’s oceans, wishes to return to Earth and face enslavement.

Before Miranda meets Arthur again, she receives a call from Pablo, who is rude to her regarding how often she’s at work. During the call she is first detached, but she becomes enraged when she realizes that he’s called her at the office to verify that she is actually there. A fight with Pablo quickly develops, and Miranda hangs up the phone. She goes back to working on “Station Eleven,” when she receives a call from Arthur, who asks her out to dinner.

Miranda decides not to contact Pablo about the dinner, and as she works and sketches she ignores his texts. She remembers a conversation she once had with Pablo where he accused her of always being half on Station Eleven. He doesn’t understand her project, and Miranda doesn’t seem to care.

At the restaurant, when Miranda mentions her comic to Arthur, he seems genuinely interested. She tells him about the inspiration for the comic book, and the two leave the restaurant together. Arthur asks her if she’s still with Pablo, to which she explains “we’re breaking up.” The two begin kissing in a taxi and go up to Arthur’s hotel room. Eventually Miranda responds to Pablo and tells him she is staying with a friend. She feels giddy knowing she is making a major change in her life, and she thinks that Station Eleven will be her constant.

Back in her apartment the next day, Miranda packs two suitcases and leaves. At work she says to herself in the mirror “I repent nothing.” In bed that night with Arthur she discusses if she is being dishonorable or heartless to Pablo. She plans to return to her apartment one last time the next day to retrieve a few more items. She assures Arthur that Pablo won’t do anything more than yell.