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“It’s an honor to welcoraphicopened, and the priest appeared To Bull’s eyes, the ht teeth seereasy look to it

“Father Cortez,” Monica Stuart said “You have been helping with the relief effort on the Thomas Prince?”

For a moment, the man seemed not to have heard her A smile jerked into place

“I have,” the old man said “I have, and it has been… Monica, I’m humbled I a It was better than nothing

The Martian frigate Cavalier, now under the co down its reactors and transferring all its re crew and supplies to the Behereed tocivilians—poets, priests, and politicians Including the dead-eyed Hector Cortez It was a beginning, but it wasn’t all he could do If they were to keep co, if the Behemoth was to become the symbol of calm and stability and certainty that he needed it to be, there had to be ive a voice and a face to the growing consolidation He’d need to talk to Monica Stuart about it so of the dead A council with representatives froetting people back through the Ring and home

Except that when the lockdown ca-distance ships to it And the Ring itself had retreated, because they had to move so slowly, and because distance was measured in time

His hand terminal chirped, and he came back to wakefulness with a start Outside his roonized the sound of the crash tea into death He felt for the tea the same kind of work, just on a different scale He shifted his are appeared on the screen

“Bist?” he asked

“I’ot hi the cabron back alive”

Instinctively, uselessly, Bull tried to sit up He couldn’t sit and up was a polite abstraction

“Holden?” he said

“Who else, right? He’s on a skiff puttering slow for the MCRN Hammurabi Should be there in a few hours”

“No,” Bull said “They’ve got to bring hie raised his hand in a Belter’s nod, but his expression was skeptical

“Asi dulcie si, but I don’t see the it”

Somewhere far away down below Bull’s chest, the co the blood and lymph around his body now thatHe couldn’t feel it If they’d caught fire, he wouldn’t feel it Soust as his hindbrain rediscovered his injuries for the thousandth tie of his nose

“Okay,” he said “I’ll see what I can do What does Sauns off and they’re working on cutting back the extra torpedo tubes, but the captain found out and he’s throwing grand mal”