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He pulled out his hand terminal and called Naomi

After several alley doesn’t work, where’s Aalley? While we are on the same ship? The wall panel just one step too far away?”

“The wall panel in the galley doesn’t work either When I said, ‘The galley doesn’t work,’ it wasn’t clever hyperbole It literally alley works I called you because you carry your terminal and Amos almost never does And also because he never tellson, but he always tells you So, where is Ahed It was a lovely sound, and it never failed to put a s so out of control and you guys were trying to figure out how to break the news tofrom Naomi’s end She hummed to herself as she worked

“Nope,” she said “Only area without power seealley Also, Alex says we’re less than an hour froht pirates?”

“I can’t fight pirates without coffee I’ up and put his terminal back in his pocket

Holden moved to the ladder that ran down the keel of the ship, and called up the lift The fleeing pirate ship could only sustain about 1 g for extended flight, so Holden’s pilot, Alex Ka erous to use

A few seconds later, the deck hatch clanged open, and the lift whined to a stop at his feet He stepped on and tapped the button for the engineering deck The lift began its slon the shaft, deck hatches opening at its approach, then sla shut once he had passed

A He had a co device half disasse on it with a solder gun He wore a gray jumpsuit several sizes too small for him, which strained to contain his broad shoulders when he moved, the old ship name Tachi still embroidered on the back

Holden stopped the lift and said, “Aalley doesn’t work”

Aesture without stopping his work Holden waited After another couple seconds of soldering, Amos finally put down the tool and turned around

“Yep, it doesn’t work because I got this little fker yanked out of it,” he said, pointing at the device he’d been soldering

“Can you put it back?”

“Nope, at least not yet Not done working on it”

Holden sighed “Is it i just before confronting a bloodthirsty band of space pirates? Because et a cup of coffee before, you know, doing battle”

“Yep, it was important,” Amos said “Should I explain why? Or you want to take my word for it?”

Holden nodded While he didn’t miss much about his days in the Earth Navy, he did find that he occasionally got nostalgic for the absolute respect for the chain of command On the Rocinante the title “captain” was s was Amos’ job, and he would resist the idea that he had to infor it

Holden let it drop

“Okay,” he said “But I wish you’d warnedto be cranky without rinned at him and pushed his cap back on his mostly bald head

“Shit, Cap, I can cover you on that,” he said, then reached back and grabbed a ency supplies before I shut the galley down”