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Monica was a lovely person Calm, friendly, charismatic If even a part of her charm translated to the other side of the camera, it was easy to see how she’d succeeded The others—Okju, Clip, Cohen— jokes with the Rocinante’s crew,out, but it wasn’t clear to Holden whether it was the usual honeyether for a long voyage or so more calculated Maybe a little of both

What he did see was his own creing back After two days of the docu on board, Naomi simply retreated to the ops deck where she couldn’t be found Ahtly an spending most of his time in the machine shop Of theers, and hi in the pilot’s couch

They’d agreed to being interviewed, and Holden knew they couldn’t avoid it forever They hadn’t been out for a full week yet, and even on a fairly high burn it would be months to their destination Besides, it was in their contract The discoh to distract hi and whatever it was that Miller wanted him out there for Al in a crash couch near the coetting long enough to become an annoyance to her For the last tento braid it The thick black curls resisted her efforts, see to move with a will of their own Based on past experience, Holden knew this was the precursor to cutting half of it off in exasperation Nao, but not the reality Holden sat at the co his mind drift

“Did you hear uests to dinner?”

It had beco on, the crew tried to have dinner as a group once a week By unspoken agreement it was usually Saturday Which day of the week it happened to be didn’t reallytheir dinner on Saturday, Holden thought they were doing so of another A gentle reminder that there was still a solar system outside of the four of the the documentary crew to join them It felt like an invasion The Saturday dinner was for crew

“We can’t keep thehed “Can we?”

“Not unless ant to eat up here You did give thealley”

“Dammit,” he said “Should have confined them to quarters”

“For four s under the door to theht, I’ll call and let hiht”

Aarlic, heavy on the Pared to buy real cloves of garlic and actual Parrate Another small luxury they wouldn’t be able to afford if they wound up in a courtroo the arlic, Alex set the table and took drink orders Holden sat next to Naomi on one side of the table, while the docuether on the other The banter was polite and friendly, and if there was an uncomfortable undercurrent to it all, he still wasn’t quite sure why

Holden had asked the equipreed Clip, the Martian, was talking about sports history with Alex Okju and Cohen, sitting across fron a new scientific station that was in stationary orbit around Mercury It should have been almost pleasant, and it just wasn’t

Holden said, “We don’t usually eat this hile flying, but we try to do soether”

Okju s half a dozen rings, a blouse with buttons on it, a silver pendant, and an ivory-colored coazed serenely at nothing, his black glasses hiding the top of his face, his expression cal nothing, a faint s bowls of food on the table While the meal was handed around in a slow circuit, Okju bowed her head andIt took Holden aHe hadn’t seen anyone do it for years, not since he’d left home One of his fathers, Caesar, had sometimes prayed before meals Holden waited for her to finish before he started eating

“This is very nice,” Monica said “Thank you”

“You’re welcome,” said Holden

“We’re a week out of Ceres,” she said, “and I think we’re all settled in Was wondering if we could start scheduling some preliminary interviews? It’s mostly so we can test out the equip his leer

Monica smiled at him and speared a mushroom with her fork, then stared at him while she popped it into her mouth and chewed slowly

“Okay,” she said “We can start with background work Baltimore?”

The silence was suddenly brittle Aentle hand on his arm from Naomi stopped him He opened his mouth, closed it, then looked down at his plate while the pale skin on his scalp and neck turned bright red Monica looked down at her plate, her expression at the friction point between eood idea,” Holden said

“Captain, I’m sensitive to privacy issues for you and your crew, but we have an agree me and mine like we’re unwelco to cool off It had hardly been touched “I get it You held up your end of the deal,” Holden said “You got me out of Ceres, and you put et it I’ll set aside an hour tomorrow for starters, does that work?”