Smith orders the Razorback to rescue Naomi, judging that the moral duty and her value as a witness outweigh the danger of changing course.
Aboard the fleeing Razorback, Prime Minister Smith spends the pursuit in urgent tightbeam calls about unsubstantiated evidence and failures in Martian oversight. He has aged visibly under the strain of being carried toward Luna while his government may be compromised and the Free Navy remakes the system.
When Alex and Bobbie argue over responding to the Chetzemoka, Smith recognizes the missing term in Bobbie's risk calculation: the loss of abandoning a person in distress and the only solid witness to the Pella. He orders the diversion to Naomi and instructs the UN escort to adjust, making the rescue an official choice rather than Alex's private disobedience.
A heavyset adult Martian man with a flushed, tired face, jowls, greasy disordered hair, and bloodshot eyes, wearing rumpled political travel clothes in the crowded pinnace.
Smith is Mars's endangered leader, using the authority he still holds to preserve both a witness and the principle of rescue.