Page 18 (2/2)

See out? I could be looking at fifty years in that post God, fifty years That’s terrifying

And that’ll oes rampant I don’t think I’m ready for that, either I don’t even want to think about it

"I should have gone down there with them," she said

"And that would have been for your benefit, not theirs," BB said "Which is why you didn’t do it You ht not be an operational Spartan, but the characteristics that got you selected are stil there You’re a doer A scrapper"

"Selected Love that word"

"Have you decided how you’re going to handle Naomi’s situation?"

"Aardly, BB"

"She took ato open her file"

"And I haven’t Is that the point? That you stil think I should man up and take a look ather to relent and find out who she real y was, but he’d raised ither because he knew the contents would soothe her orharder to escape froet back to her parents But she was too afraid to open that file and find that she rong The Pandora’s box that Naomi had opened had e

"I’ now, BB," she said "MakeMal"

"Don’t worry, I’nal froram of the temple’s interior, an inco steadily as Vaz, Mal, and Naoressed deeper into the maze and their telemetry was sent back to the ship "Gosh, it’s always fun deploying in Naomi’s i around Infinity at theto love it The Huragok are doing sos"

"Where else are you?"

"Bravo-Six, natural y, and I’ on low-orbit trans Are we ?"

BB’s matrix was based on a donated hu howhe had in common with the anonymous donor She was sure she would have liked him--or her

"How do you incorporate your past into your life, BB?" She did what she thought of as looking hi on the front panel of his box "When you’re separated froment and you catch up with it when you drop out of slipspace, it tel s you what it’s been doing, doesn’t it?

Al the things you’ve missed But it’s stil you Just your past, even if it’s ood summary" The blue box didn’t move "Is this about your past?"

"Partly But also about your fraged"

"Yes, of course I a"

"What if it’s really darate it? Erase it? Select the best bits and delete the rest?"

"Depends If it’s so daed that it compromises my function, I’d have to erase it, but I’d lose data, and that’s a kind of scar There’s no avoiding it One way or another, I can’t ignore it and pretend it never happened" BB drifted slightly, so close that she thought he was going to settle in her lap like a cat "But I do love a good analogy, and that was a very elegant one I can’t avoidliteral" Ouch He’s right "I know you’re worried about what you’re going to find"

"Aren’t we al "

He lifted and spun away Osman leaned back in her seat and popped her earpiece into place to listen to the translated voice traffic, although BB wasit al in real time anyway It was patchy and chaotic: the comms drones that Tart-Cart had launched into low orbit around Sanghelios were picking up everything froes If this was a representative sample, then half the planet didn’t even know there was an uprising going on yet Vada each other There were a lot offro on between Chaura and Hilot?" she asked

"The Vada other cities," BB said He processed information at such speed that he was noay ahead of her "They’re probably the ones that the Arbiter thinks are o, Captain, instant intel I’l map it There’s a cascade of cal s now, city to city"

"Can you grab any visuals? We should be able to get i detected"

"I’l divert some drones to Vadam now"

"Put one over Ontoh to Devereaux I don’t want Mal walking straight into another firefight" She leaned over the console and opened the channel to Mal, even though she kneas synced up with the squad She needed to stay in voice contact to feel she was doing her job "Stanley to Kilo-Five How’s it going, Staff?"

Mal didn’t sound as if he was in a stone tunnel at al"Stil no sign of hie"

"Du out?"

"We are No response Maybe it’s the weird acoustics in this place"

"Okay Be aware that the fighting’s spreading I won’t overload you with data, but I’l keep Devereaux up to speed"

"I’m more worried about the mob we left outside, one into the teo There was plenty of ti her anxiety, the helplessness of being able to do nothing but watch while every o," BB said "Here’s a satel ite-level view of Vadam Can you see the smoke?"

"I’l take it on e Osled to pick out the detail until he helped her out by enhancing the smoke plume and other features

"I’ve put a thermal overlay on that," he said "You can see the areas where there are fires, and those blobs on the topup warships, too See that red mark here?" He made the icon flash on her screen "That’s a ship that’s been shot down"