Page 22 (1/2)

“For the others… don’t take the off stea”

“Fear?”

“Sure,” he said “Everyone on this boat’s scared dry Try not to show it, do the work, but we all getting nightht?”

“What are they afraid of?” she asked

Behind her the door cycled open and shut A e she didn’t know Ren tilted his head, and she had the sick, sinking feeling that she’d done so She hadn’t acted nor,” he said at last “It’s what killed Eros Could have killed Mars All that weird stuff it did on Venus, no one knohat it was Deaded that slingshot kid ent through Half everyone thinks we should be pitching nukes at it, other half thinks we’d only piss it off We’re going out as deep as anyone ever has just so we can look in the devil’s eye, and Stanni and Sole and Bob? They’re all scared as shit of e see in it Me too”

“Ah,” she said “All right I understand that”

Ren tried on a s I think about”

Chapter Eight: Anna

N

ami and Nono left for Earth a week before Anna’s shuttle Those last days living alone in those roo that she would never be back—that they would never be back—was like a gentle presentiment of death: profoundly

The shuttle from Europa was one of the last to join the flotilla, and it hteen hours of hard burn By the time she set foot on the deck of the UNN Thomas Prince, all she wanted was a bunk and twelve hours’ sleep The young yeoreet and escort her had other plans, though, and the effort it would have taken to be rude about it was more than she could muster

“The Prince is a Xerxes-class battleship, or e soht,” he said, gesturing to the white ceraar’s interior walls The shuttle she’d arrived on nestled in its bay looking seneration battleship because it is the third redesign since the buildup during the first Earth-Mars conflict”

Not that it had been ht The Martians had made noises about independence, the UN had built a lot of ships, Mars had built a few And then Solo hobbyist to the inventor of the first fusion drive that solved the heat buildup and rapid fuel consumption problems of constant thrust Suddenly Mars had a few ships that went really, really fast They’d said, Hey, we’re about to go colonize the rest of the solar system Want to stay mad at us, or want to come with? The UN hadup Mars in exchange for half of the solar systeood deal

It didn’tneays to kill each other Just in case