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It was strange to think of an afterward Theback into Melba’s life There was no reason not to Clarissa Mao had nothing, co Melba Koh had work, at least A history It was a pretty thought, o hoain, and do whatever else she could to restore her family’s name Honor required it If she’d stayed, it would haveup, Clarissa had admired and resented her older sister Julie the pretty one The smart one The chah Julie who could do no wrong Petyr was younger than Clarissa and so would always be less The twins Michael and Anthea had always been a world unto the jokes and comments that only they understood, and so seeuests of the family than part of it Julie was the oldest, the one Clarissa longed to be The one to beat Clarissa hadn’t been the only one to see Julie that way Theirthathappened Julie had walked away from them all, cut her hair, dropped out of school, and disappeared up into the darkness She re the news over dinner They’d been having kajuroom that overlooked the park She’d just co lesson and still s abouteveryone, when her mother looked up from her plate with a smile and announced that Julie had written a letter to say she’d quit the fa that the sun had decided to becoht It wasn’t quite incohed He’d said it was a phase Julie’d gone to live like the common people and sow a feild oats, and once she’d had her fill, she’d come home But she’d seen in his eyes that he didn’t believe it His perfect girl was gone She’d rejected not only him, but the family Their name Forever after, cashews and curry had tasted like victory

And so Melba would have to be folded up when she was done here Put back in a box and buried or burned Clarissa could go live with one of her siblings Petyr had his own ship now She could work on it as an electrocheht with a smile Or, in the worst case, stay with Mother If she told them what she’d done, how she’d saved the family name, then Clarissa could start to rebuild the company Remake their empire in her own name Possibly even free her father fro both hopeful and tired

A loud clang and the distant sound of laughter brought her back to herself She reviewed the maintenance schedule for the next ten-day cycle—maintenance on the electrical systems of three of the minor warships and a physical inventory of the electrical cards—marked the ship’s time, and shut down her terot there, ether and talking and watching the newsfeeds about the Ring, about theaze fixed on her hand terreen-brown paste that looked like feces but smelled like the finest-cooked beef in the world Melba told herself to think of it as pâte, and then it wasn’t so bad

Melba got herself a plate and a bulb of lemon water and slid in across from Soledad The other woenuine so?”

“Everything’s copacetic” Melba smiled She sht “What did I miss?”

“Report froh? Not on the drift”

“Really?” Melba said After they’d picked up the faint transether ship that had started all this, the assu that lived on the other side of the Ring That it was floating free “It’s under power?”

“Maybe,” Soledad said “Data shows it’s , and a lot slower than it went in And the probes they sent in? One of therabbed too Nornal’s all fked up, but it looks like the sa… taken to the sauess weird is kind of e expect After Eros”

“My dad was on Eros,” Soledad said, and Melba felt a strange tightening in her throat “He worked one of the casinos Security to ht? Been there fifteen years Said he was going to retire there, get a little hole up where he didn’t weigh so much and just live off his retireed

“Everyone dies,” she said gruffly, then wiped the back of her hand against her eyes and turned back to the screen

“My sister was there,” Melba said It was truth, and more than truth “My sister was one of the first ones it took”

“Shit,” Soledad said, looking up at her now, ter moment At another table, a Belter e of the table and started cursing squat little Earth designers, to the amusement of his friends

“You think they’re still there?” Soledad said softly, nodding at her terminal “There were those voices The transmissions that caht?”

“They’re dead,” Melba said “Everyone on Eros died”

“Changed, anyway,” Soledad said “Soht? Their bodies Their brains I think about ot re and just got…”

She shrugged, looking for a word, but Melba knehat she e, wasn’t the sah of that

“Does it ot loose?” Soledad said, with real pain in her voice “What if it caught theht? Your sister My dad What if they aren’t dead, and Ring’s got all their souls still?”