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“I heard about your condition I’ht,” he said

“If I ordered you to accept theTruncated

“I’ll go when I’ after the fact that the phrase could et out of the woods, the docs can take over”

“All right, then,” she said and her tero I’ll touch base with you later”

“You got it,” Bull said and let the connection drop

The wise thing would have been to sleep He’d been awake for fourteen hours, checking in with the security staff ere still alive, res he could do from the medical bay that woulda shift in the middle of a crisis, except that he’d been crippled

Crippled

With a sick feeling, he walked his fingertips down his throat, to his chest, and to the invisible line where the skin stopped feeling like his own and turned into soht He’d been hurt before and gotten back from it He’d da always happened that got hiot lucky This tiet back Have another story to tell and no one to tell it to

He kneas lying to himself, but what else could he do? Apart from stand aside And maybe he should Let Pa take care of it Give Ashford his shot No one would give him any shit if he took the medical coma Not even Fred Hell, Fred would probably have told him to do it Ordered him

Bull closed his eyes He’d sleep or he wouldn’t Or he’d drift into some half-lucid place that wasn’t either One of the doctors eeping in the corridor, a slow, autono sorrow Soer now Null gthat actually cleared lungs until it was too late After that, strokes and eravity should have helped to drain pooled and clotted instead On all the other ships, it was the sa If they could just get under thrust Get soravity…

We’re all on the same team, Pa said in his half drowse, and Bull was suddenly completely awake He scooped up his hand ter connections It was the ency override, but didn’t Not yet First, he tried Sarayish, and there were lines at the corners of her mouth that hadn’t been there before Her one blood-red eye seeet all the other crews froether so no one does anything stupid”

“You want a pony too?”

“Sure,” Bull said “Thing is, we got to give theet anyplace else”

“Sounds great,” Sanitive best here, sweetie, but are you asking ot casualties They all need gravity I’ it would take you to spin up the drum”