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"Did you find the to picture herself racing through the streets of Mumbai, only to find her mom dead, or worse She almost didn’t want to hear his answer

Skyler shook his head, and for a fewher suit to an air pack Then hethe first over her left hand, he said, "Never got close The whole city had gone insane An absolute nighted to sneak and fight my way back to the open road That’s when I uy named Skadz He told me the feeds were abuzz with a rumor that Daras somehow unaffected, so we stole a transport plane from the base and flew there, more or less"

The h detail to scare her away fro in the cal her up instilled confidence in her safety

After the gloves and boots, Skyler pressurized her suit A hiss of air was the only evidence that soed

"Breathe normally," he said

"Sorry" She hadn’t even noticed her rapid breathing, and willed herself to calm down

The pilot’s voice cauys"

Jake and Samantha stirred in unison Instinct kicked in as both of them immediately checked their harnesses

"Suit checks out," Skyler said He took her arhteen hours of Aura-scrubbed air coh for the time we’ll be in the Clear"

With his help, she drifted back into her seat The bulk of the hazard suit loves were fored to reattach the safety belts on her own

"Might want to hold on to that bar," Skyler said

She took his advice, gripping it firmly with both hands "Thank you"

He winked at her and smiled

Tania decided she liked hius’s voice ca"

Tania could see Skyler ainst his restraint bar, preparing to fight against the force of acceleration she realized was iht

There was a loud, muffled thump, as the ship was released, followed by a backward somersault of the entire vessel Tania felt at ease in zero-G conditions, but not sudden acceleration upside down She closed her eyes

A rurew louder So break loose and tumble across the floor She didn’t dare look

She barely heard the pilot over all the co

"You never told us what’s in the case," Samantha said, after ten lided just above the atht, sorry," Tania said, her own voice sounding strange to her inside the helo over the plan?"

"Two hours to kill," said Skyler, "good a tius, come back here, please"

"How much do you know?" she asked

"Our fence had few details," Skyler said "Take an Orbital out to some telescope in Hawaii and back, that’s about all we know"

"Beats Darwin," Jake said

Saainst her safety harness, to get enough roo She handed it to Skyler "Hawaii is correct, but it’s not a telescope Our goal is inside the University of Hawaii at Hilo"

"A college?" Skyler asked A pang of worry flittered through his h altitudes A hostile environment for subhuerous

"There’s a data vault there," Tania said "Part of a joint venture with NASA, decades ago"

"More data cubes?" Jake asked

Tania patted the top of the sleek case, nize "The facility is y We’ll be capturing the data on site, with this"

"What is that?" Samantha asked

"A Ferrine multi-interface cube array …" She noted all their blank stares "You plug it into old coile?" Skyler asked "Fro so"

"Just because we have so few left now"

Sa does this, whatever the fuck, take?"

Tania shrugged "Depends on how anized it is"

"You got photos of the site?" Jake asked

Skyler pulled two satellite picture from the envelope and handed them across the aisle

"I’ll check those out when you’re done, Jake," said Angus

Jake flashed a thuer piece of paper "Blueprints, even Excellent"

"Ginored her and studied it

Tania pointed out the data vault for him "The data vault is in a base on the right has a landing pad on the roof," she showed hiest we land there"

The captain sucked in his lower lip as he surveyed the layout "We could dust off froet of yours work if there’s no power?"

"There’s a backup generator," she said, pointing at it on the blueprint "Thorium, never turns off We’ll switch to it manually if need be"

Samantha cleared her throat "May I please see the blueprint, oh glorious captain?"

"Study the layout, everyone," Skyler said, and handed it to her "Ninety ht course correction, I think"

"On it"

The others pored over the iy

Tania stared at Skyler "Did you say jue locker bolted to the floor of the craft, Skyler produced a large backpack with a complicated set of straps

"This," he said, "is a tande a meter away, made no move to come closer

"It won’t bite"

She looked at Skyler and cocked an eyebrow A few seconds passed Skyler iet this foolishness But she crossed the cargo bay to stand in front of him "How does it work?"

He held it between the two of them "I’ll wear it," he said, "and you, well, you’ll wear h

"Or you can jump with Sam," Skyler said, "if that’s more comfortable"

"No way," Samantha said "Sorry, princess, but I jump alone"