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“Uh, Doc?” Amos said “There a proble to see the mechanic beside him The milk-white universe of stars was all that htness Instead, the Rocinante was dark except for the EVA lights and, toward the rear of the ship, a barely visible white nebula where ato bay

“No,” Prax said “No problems”

He tried to take a step forward, but his suit didn’t budge He pulled, straining to lift his foot fro His toe moved forward a centi rong with the o bay door before the creature dug through and into engineering and the reactor itself

“Um I have a problem,” he said “I can’t move my feet”

“What are the slide controls set to?” Naos down to th “I’ boots before, and it was a strange sensation Forfelt free and alht his foot toward the hull, there would be a moment, a critical point, when the force took hold and sla snatched down, step by step He couldn’t see the cargo bay doors, but he knehere they were Fro aft, they were to the left of the drive cone But on the right side of the ship No, starboard side They call it starboard on ships

He knew that just past the dark e of the ship, the creature was digging at the walls, clawing through the flesh of the ship toward its heart If it figured out as going on—if it had the cognitive capacity for even basic reasoning—it could co up out of the bay at hi to clonetic boots while the creature cut hi breath and lifted the bait

“Okay,” he said “I’m in position”

“No time like the present,” Holden said, his voice strained with pain but atteht,” Prax said

He pressed the small timer, hunched close to the hull of the ship, and then, with everythe little cylinder into nothing It flew out, catching the light fro Prax had the nauseating certainty that he’d forgotten a step, and that the lead foil wouldn’t co,” Holden said “It s black fingers folding up fro itself up to the ship’s exterior like it had been born to the abyss Its eyes glowed blue Prax heard nothing but his own panicked breathing Like an anie to be still and silent, though through the vacuum, the creature wouldn’t have heard him if he’d shrieked

The creature shifted; the eerie eyes closed, opened again, closed; and then it leapt The un-twinkling stars were eclipsed by its passage

“Clear,” Prax said, shocked by the firo doors now”

“Check,” Nao in, Cap’n,” A out, Ahter in the words that Prax was pretty sure he was joking

In the darkness, a star blinked out and then came back Then another Prax mentally traced the path Another star eclipsed