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He tried to get through to the Rocinante, to Naomi, but the marine he was strapped to had either disabled his suit radio when they were restraining hinal One way or another, he couldn’t get anything Not from the Roci, not froentle loping and an al

He didn’t have any sense of where they were or how far they’d gone The surface of the station ht not have reached the halfway point Or, for thataround theht not exist The suit said he had another twenty ainst the ar to need air!”

The marine didn’t respond No th and leverage were a rounding error compared to the abilities of the powered armor All he could do was hope that he wasn’t about to die fro about that was actually better than wondering about Naoe was down to three minutes and Holden had shouted hihtly, hopped up, and the station fell away beneath them The luminescent surface irised closed behind the in the vacuuhtsin the eerie starless sky They found their way into the ency, the carbon dioxide levels crept up toward the critical level, and he had to fight to catch his breath

Thebar and strapped him in

“I’m out of air!” Holden screamed “Please!”

The marine reached out and cracked the seal on Holden’s suit The rush of air smelled like old plastic and poorly recycled urine Holden sucked it in like it was roses The marine popped off his own helmet His real head looked perversely seant Verbinski!” a woman’s voice snapped

“Yes, sir,” thewith the prisoner?”

“He ran out of air a fewmore was said about it

The acceleration burn, when it ca Holden into his suit, gone as soon as it canored him It was all the confirmation he needed What Miller had said was true The slow zone’s top speed had changed again And frouessed that the casualties had been terrible

“I need to check in with my ship,” he said “Can someone contact the Rocinante, please?” No one answered him He pressed his luck “My crew may be hurt If we could just—”

“Someone shut the prisoner up,” the woman who’d spoken before said He still couldn’t see her The nearest marine, a thick-jawed man with skin so black it seemed blue turned toward him Holden braced hi you could do,” theof the Hammurabi was a little over a meter and a half wide and three meters deep The crash couch was a dirty blue and the walls and floor a uniforht of the overhead LED The jumpsuit he’d been issued felt like thick paper and crackled when he uards ca the restraints back on his ars

The captain floated near a desk, her close-cropped silver hairher look like an ancient Roman emperor Holden was strapped into a crash couch that was canted slightly forward, so that he had to look up at her, even without the convenience of an up

“I am Captain Jakande,” she said “You are a military prisoner Do you understand what that means?”