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“And then I was here, talking to you,” he said dryly “I don’t knohat happens next”
“All right,” she said Her expression gave away nothing
“You’ll want a fullwith my brain,” Holden said
“Probably,” the captain said “My medical staff has its hands full at the moment You will be kept in ad”
“I understand,” Holden said “But I need to get in contact with my crew You can monitor the connection I don’t care I just need to know they’re okay”
The angle of the captain’s et a report to you,” she said “Everyone’s scraet worse quickly”
“Is it bad, then?”
“It is”
Tiht tubes of rations: protein, oil, water, and vegetable paste Sometimes it had a nearly homeopathic dose of curry It was foodafter that was your own problem Holden ate it because he had to stay alive He had to find his crew, his ship He had to get out of there
He had seen a massive alien empire fall He’d seen suns blown apart He’d watched a htmare mechanisms on a space station that human hands hadn’t built All he could think about was Nao to keep their ship How they were going to get home And home meant anyplace but here Not for the first ti sketchy boxes of unknown cargo to Titania He floated in the coffin-sized cell and tried not to go crazy fro fear
Even if the whole creell, he was in custody of Mars now He hadn’t har Un, and everyone would know that He hadn’thim of could fall away, and there would still be the fact that Mars would take away his ship He tried to focus on that despair, because as bad as it would be, if he kept the ship and lost his crew, that would feel worse
“You’ve got lousy taste in friends,” Miller said
“Where the hell have you been?” Holden snapped
The dead ed In the cramped quarters, Holden could smell the man’s breath A firefly flicker of blue sped around Miller’s head like a low-slung halo and vanished
“Time’s hard,” he said, as if the co about soht,” Miller said, nodding He plucked off his ridiculous hat and scratched his te as there’s a shitload of high energy floating around, the station’s not going to get co ships?”
“About that, I guess”