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“Unlocked is unlocked C’on, the harder it was to approach It wasn’t just fear, though the dread swam at the back of his throat and all down his spine It was physically difficult, like pushing against a es, ht have been ideograrowth or both He reached out his hand, and his teeth itched

“What will happen?” he asked

“How much do you know about quantum mechanics?”

“How much do you?” Holden replied

“A lot, turns out,” Miller said with a lopsided grin “Do now, anyway”

“I’ht?”

Miller gave a s with his hands “Don’t think so I’m not up on all the defense systems But I don’t think so”

“So,” Holden said “Maybe?”

“Yeah”

“Okay” Holden sighed and started to reach for the surface He paused “You didn’t really answer the question, you know”

“You’re stalling,” Miller said And then, “Which question was that?”

“I get why no one else sees you But the real question is ‘whywith my brain and that’s hard work, and if there’s other people for me to interact with it’s too hard and all like that But why ?”

Miller nodded, understanding the question He frowned, sighed

“Miller kind of liked you Thought you were a decent guy”

“That’s it?”

“You need ainst the closest surface He didn’t burst into flaloves of his EVA suit, he felt a short electric tingle and then nothing, because he was floating in space He tried to scream and failed

Sorry, a voice said in his head It sounded like Miller Didn’t ht?

Holden tried to nod, but failed at that too He didn’t have a head

His sense of his own body had changed, shifted, expanded past anything he’d i He felt the stars within hiht, he could pull his attention to a sun surrounded by unfaer or the back of his neck The lights all tasted different, sainst the flood of sensation, but he couldn’t He didn’t have anything so sie, and rich, and strange Thousands of voices,And at his center, a place where all the threads of his being canized the station not by how it looked, but by the deep throb of its heartbeat The power of a million suns contained, channeled Here was the nexus that sat between the worlds, the ave him heaven His Babel

And a star went out

It wasn’t especially unique It wasn’t beautiful A few voices out of quadrillions went silent, and if the great chorus of his being was lessened by theh him The colors of his consciousness swirled and darkened Concern, curiosity, alar new had happened for the first time in millennia