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“Co that it didn’t bother hi, thoughtful drink The bulb clicked when the ainst inners Worked with a lot of you guys, and didn’t run into a higher percentage of assles than when I’un’s mounts reinforced If there’s a way to do that without undercutting you, I’m all for it”

“But if it’s that or“Gi”

“Start when you want to shoot sohteen days,” Sam said “That’sballs-out, et it done faster than that”

“I’ll think of so,” Bull said

The larceny complaint turned out to be froree how to store their tools The injury report was a kid who got caught between a stretch of deck plating and soe in the kid’s knee had gotten ground into about a dozen different bits of custard; the ood clean bone break would have been better The injured man would be fine, but he was off active duty for at least a ether

The security reports were boilerplate, which either etting glossed over, but probably they were going well The trip out to the Ring was a shakedown cruise, and that always meant there’d be a little honey shoulder to shoulder and taking on the work Everyone expected there’d be problerace period whendown

Chief security officer on an OPA ship was a half-assed kind of position, one part cop, one part efficiency expert, and pretty much all den endas and petty power struggles and opinions on how he should be doing his job better A good security chief kept bullshit off the captain’s plate as a full-tih, was that all Bull’s forht now, a flotilla of Earth ships was burning out into the deep night Aforce of Martian war vessels—the remnants of the navy that had survived two let’s-not-call-the path The Behe too with a head start that ca acceleration to keep her slow And all of it was focused on the Ring

Reports would be filling Captain Ashford’s queue, and as his XO, Pa would be reading them too Bull had whatever scraps they let him have or else the same mix of pabulum and panic that filled the newsfeeds Ashford and Pa would be in conference for ies and options and playing through scenarios for how thingsto worry about all the trivial stuff so that they didn’t have to

And so to make the mission work Because Fred had asked hie said Bull looked up froe stood in the office doorway “Shift’s up, and I’ot soe said with a nod His light, shuffling footsteps hissed through the front room In the corridor, Gut that e as he stepped out The door closed behind him When he was sure he was alone, Bull pulled up the operational plan and started hunting He didn’t have authority to change it, but that didn’t

Two hours later, when he was done, he turned off the screen and stood The office was dark and colder than he liked it The hum of the ventilation system comforted him If it were ever completely silent, that would be the time to worry He stretched, the vertebrae between his shoulder blades crunching like gravel

They would still be in the bar, e and Corin and Casimir Macondo and Garza, so similar they could have been brothers Jojo His people, to the degree that they were his He should go Be with them Make friends