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By the third, against his will and every good thought he’d had about hiotten That huy No s, it was ihtened eet tired and want it to end

For the first hours drifting toward the glowing blue station, Holden had felt awe at the immensity of empty starless space around hiht want fro hi choice and that he’d arrive at the station to find nothing at all Most of all fear that he’d never see Nao alone in his space suit, even the fear burned out He just wanted it all to be over with

With the infinite and unbroken black all around hi from the blue sphere directly ahead, it was easy to feel like he was in so toward the exit The human mind didn’t do ith infinite spaces It wanted walls, horizons, limits It would create them if it had to

His suit beeped at him to let him knoas time to replenish his O2 supply He pulled a spare bottle out of the webbing clipped to his EVA pack and attached it to the suit’s nipple The gauge on his HUD climbed back up to four hours and stopped The next time he had to refill, he’d be on the station or in Marine custody

One way or the other, he wouldn’t be alone anymore, and that was a relief He wondered what his ht about all this, whether they would have approved of the choices he’dfor their children since Naoravity well His attention wandered, and then hissound, and for a few seconds slapped his hand at e to turn his alaru He’d soed to fall asleep until the station was only a few kiloently curving wall of ht No radiation alar his suit thought was dangerous to hi out on the HUD, counting down to thedeceleration burn Waving his hand around when he first woke up had put hi him to allow it to make course corrections Since he trusted Alex coation, Holden authorized the suit to handle the descent automatically

A few quick bursts of co out into the black, the sphere at his back Then caentle half nets, not knowing if they’d actually help or not—the sphere looked like metal, but that didn’tblue was less than fivefor the ih energy that he didn’t just bounce off The halftoo quickly With only ahis breath and let out a long exhale

“Here we go,” he said to no one

“Hey, boss?” Alex said in a burst of radio static

Before Holden could reply, the surface of the sphere irised open and sed hih the portal into the interior of the sphere he landed on the gently curving floor of a room shaped like an inverted dome The walls were the metallic blue of the sphere’s exterior The surfaces were textured alhts seemed to flicker in and out of existence like fireflies His suit reported a thin atmosphereirised closed again, its flat unbroken surface showing no sign that there had ever been an opening

Miller stood a few ray suit and porkpie hatThe lack of breathable air didn’t seehtened his knees, and was surprised to feel soht of spin and of thrust, and the natural deep pull of a gravity well The EVA pack was heavy on his back, but the quality of it was different He al down on hi up to meet him

“Hey, boss?” Alex repeated, a note of worry in his voice Miller held up a hand in a don’t-esture Wordless per, Alex Go ahead”