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“Naoeant”

“PDC control transferred It’s all yours, Bobbie”

“Taking control,” Bobbie said

Avasarala’s screen was a tangle of incoh theal The Triton’s first officer was reporting that the captain had been relieved of duty, and requested orders fro to reach Avasarala for clarification of which Earth ships it was permitted to shoot at

She pulled up the tactical display Circles in red and green ht have been streareen?” Avasarala asked “Who’s who on this fking thing?”

“Mars is red, Earth is green,” Naomi said

“And which Earth ones are on our side?”

“Find out,” Holden said as one of the green dots suddenly vanished “Alex?”

“The Darius took the safeties off its PDCs, and now it’s spraying down everything in range whether it’s friend or foe And … shit”

Avasarala’s chair shifted again, seeel until it was hard to lift her arms On the tactical screen, the cloud of ships, eneolden dots grew larger, proxi quickly down

“Madam Assistant whatever you are,” Holden said, “you could respond to sout felt like so it from below The taste of salt and sto to sweat in a way that had less to do with temperature than nausea She forced her hands out to the control panel just as the two golden dots vanished

“Thank you, Bobbie,” Alex said “I’et the Martians between us and the fighting”

She startedcalls In the heat of a battle, all she had to offer was this: s she always did So The Greenville was accepting Souther’s co The Dyson opened the channel, but the only sound was e came in from Souther, and she accepted it It included a new IFF code, and she reen dots shifted to white

“Thank you,” Holden said Avasarala sed her You’re welco for everyone else She really, really didn’t want to throw up inside her helreen dots blinked out of existence and another turned suddenly to white

“Ooh, right in the back,” Alex said “That was cold”

Souther’s ID showed up again on Avasarala’s console, and she hit accept just as the Roci shifted again