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A at a station in ops with his back to her, taking the late watch To avoid startling him, she cleared her throat He didn’tback at hi was very deep and regular Sleeping on a duty watch would get you captain’s mast, at the least, on an MCRN ship It seemed Holden had let discipline lapse a bit since his Navy days
Bobbie opened up the cohtbeam traffic First she called her father “Hi, Pop Not sure you should try and answer this The situation here is volatile and evolving rapidly But you may hear a lot of crazy shit over the next few days Souys, and I love Mars Everything I did was to try and protect you and s got coure out But I think I see a clear path now, and I’ to take it I love you and Mom Tell the boys they suck” Before she turned off the recording, she reached out and touched the screen “Bye, Dad”
She pressed send, but so still felt incomplete Outside her family, anyone who’d tried to help her in the last threeon the same ship she was, so it didn’t make sense
Except, of course, that it did Because not everyone was on this ship
Bobbie punched up another number from memory and said, “Hi, Captain Martens It’sto help me see I wasn’t ready for it then, but it stuck with et it now I know this wasn’tti back to the start now because I understand Not angry, not hurt, not bla loosened in her chest the moment she hit the send button All the threads had been neatly tied up, and now she could go to Io and do what she needed to do without regret She let out a long sigh and slid down in the crash couch until she was almost prone She suddenly felt bone tired Like she could sleep for a week She wondered if anyone would getall the way back down the lift
She didn’t re fallen asleep, but here she was stretched out in the comm station’s crash couch, a small puddle of drool next to her head To her relief, her robe seemed to have remained mostly in place, so at least she hadn’t bare-assed everyone walking through
“Gunny?” Holden said in a tone of voice thatover her, a concerned look on his face
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, sitting up and pulling her robe htly around her ht Must have been ht”
“Yeah,” Holden said “It’s no proble toward the crew ladder “With that, I think I’ll go down and take a shower and try to turn back into a hue smile on his face “Sure Meet er that,” she said, and bolted down the ladder
After a decadently long shower and a change into her clean red-and-gray utility uniforalley and made her way back down to the machine shop Holden was already there He had a crate the size of a guitar case sitting on one of the workbenches, and a larger square crate next to his feet on the deck When she entered the compartment, he patted the crate on the table “This is for you I sahen you ca yours”
Bobbie hesitated a moment, then walked over to the crate and flipped it open Inside sat a 2un, of the type the Marines designated a Thunderbolt Mark V It was new and shiny and exactly the type that would fit into her suit
“This is a her breath “But it’s just an aard club without ammo”