Page 252 (1/2)

When the answer came, he only wished he’d found it before

“The time they had, they could have taken her anywhere, Doc,” A”

“They could,” Prax said “They could take her anywhere as long as they had a supply of herfactor The question is where they were co without a clear idea of where to have it The crew of the Roci was salley of the ship, but there were still technicians finishing the repairs, and Prax wanted privacy In the end, he’d checked the inco streah to rent a rooe Outside the wall-screen , the great construction waldoes shifted by tiny degrees, attitude rockets flaring and going still in patterns as coht about before co here: The station waldoes had to fire attitude rockets to keep theirthe station they were attached to Everything, everywhere, a dance of tiny movements and the ripples they made

Inside the rooel chairs was soft and lyrical, the singer’s voice deep and soothing

“Froht they were from Ganymede”

“The lab on Ganymede wasn’t equipped to deal with serious research,” Prax said “And they arranged things so that Ganymede would turn into a war zone That’d be a bad idea if they were doing their primary work in the middle of it That was a field lab”

“I try not to shit where I eat,” A

“You live on a spaceship,” Holden said

“I don’t shit in the galley, though”

“Fair point”

“Anyway,” Prax said, “we can safely assu from a better-protected base And that base has to be somewhere in the Jovian systeain,” Holden said “Why does it need to be close?”

“Transport tiood supply of s”

Holden raised his hand like a schoolboy asking a question

“Okay, I could be hearing you wrong, but did you just say that the thing that ripped its way into e pallet at ht to the reactor core is irl with no irief went through him She wasn’t four anymore Mei’s birthday had been the rief and horror were old coht aside

“I’ll be clearer,” he said “Mei’s body isn’t fighting its situation That’s her disease, if you think about it There’s a whole array of things that happen in normal bodies that don’t happen in hers Now you take one of the things, one of the creatures Like the one from the ship?”

“That bastard was pretty active,” Amos said