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“—Jaation If your claie repeats Please confirot out there, and where are they going?”
Bull pulled up the sensor array and began a careful sweep of the area around Holden’s ship It took hi away fro structure in the center of the sphere He said so obscene Five ain to confirata,” she said, “executive officer and acting captain of the Rocinante Captain Holden is not presently available to take questions, meet with any representatives, or surrender himself into anybody’s custody He is…” She looked down Bull couldn’t tell if it was fear or embarrassment or a little of both The Belter took a deep breath and continued, “He is conducting an EVA approach of the base at the middle of the slow zone We have reason to believe he was… called there”
Bull’s laughter pulled Serge’s attention Serge lifted his hand, the physical Belter idio to think of a e could be doing this worse,” he said
Ashford insisted that they h Bull had ordered that all crewessential functions remain in their couches, he hie
The creas a nal switching and sensor data, even though basically nothing was going on It was just that the exciteht The excitement or else the fear The monitors were set to a tactical display, Earth in blue, Mars in red, the Behee, and the artifact at the center of the sphere in a deep forest green The debris ring was old: one for the Rocinante, well ahead of the other ships, and another for her captain The scale was so ser ships, boxy and aard in the way that structures built for vacuum could be The universe, shrunk down to a knot smaller than the sun and still unthinkably vast
And in that bubble of darkness, mystery, and dread, twosteadily toward the little gold Holden Marine skiffs, hardly more than a wide couch strapped on the end of a fusion drive Bull had ridden on boats like theo it seemed like a different lifetime, but if he closed his eyes, he could still feel the rattle of the thrusters transferred through the shell of his ar,” Ashford said, “until you can put together a ainst his chin, shrugged
“How long’d it take to get back to Tycho?”
Ashford’s face went red
“I’m not interested in your sense of humor, Mister Baca Earth and Mars have both launched interception teaainst the outlaw James Holden If we don’t have a force of our own out there, we look weak We’re here to make sure the OPA re to do that, whatever it takes A would it take?”
Bull looked at Pa Her face was carefully blank She knew the answer as well as he did, but she wasn’t going to say it Leaving the shit job for the Earther Well, all right