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It felt al about your father,” Cortez said as the lift rose toward the transition point, spin gravity ebbing away and the growing Coriolisfeel a little bit off Like a drea of an unexpected illness “He was a very clever man Brilliant, some would say, and very private in his way”

He tried to turn the protohest bidder, Clarissa thought The thought should have stung, but it didn’t It was just a fact Iron atoms formed in stars; a Daimo-Koch power relay had one fewer input than the standard models; her father had tried to militarize the protomolecule He hadn’t knohat it was No one had That didn’t keep the what they could do She had the sudden visualhis assault rifle to a chiic, depending on her mood Her father hadn’t been that different froer scale

“I’m sorry I didn’t have the chance to know him better,” Cortez said

Ashford and seven of his men were on the lift with them The captain stood at the front, hands clasped behind his back Most of his e heads Ren had had that look too Like they were all part of the same family Ashford’s soldiers had sidearms and bulletproof vests She didn’t And yet she kept catching theht of her as Melba She was the terrorist and murderer with the co woman only added to the sense that she was eerie This hy Ashford had wanted her so badly She was an adorn he was and paper over his failure to hold his own ship before

She wished that one of them would smile at her The more they acted like she was Melba, theup into her cognition like ink soaking through paper

“There was one tis when I was visiting there”

“That would have been Michael,” she said “Petyr hates the UN”

“Does he?” Cortez said with a gentle laugh “My mistake”

The lift reached the axis of the druently so that they could all steady themselves with the handrails and not be launched up into the ceiling Behind the, linear sun of the dru, she’d never seriously thought about balancing power loads and environ had been for other people Lesser people Noith all she’d learned, the scale of the Behe She wished the others could have seen it Soledad and Bob and Stanni And Ren

The doors slid open, and the Belters launched therace ofShe and Cortez didn’t erace of a Belter on the float

The co took everyone’s shadoay Melba launched herself after Ashford and the Belters, swih the air like a dolphin in the sea

The coe-shaped room with control boards set into cerae, a door opened into the captain’s office, on the other, to the security station The gimbaled crash couches looked less like functional necessities than the natural, beautiful outgrowth of the ship Like an orchid The walls were painted with angels and pastoral scenes The effect was only slightly spoiled by the half dozen access panels that stood open, repairs frouts of the command center were beautiful in their way Clarissa found herself wanting to go over and just look in to see if she could n

Three men floated at the control boards, all of them Belters “Welcoh the empty air to the captain’s station Three of the soldiers drifted out to take positions in the corridor, the others arraying thehtlines on the doors leading in Anyone who tried to take the coh a hailstorm of bullets Clarissa pulled herself over to the door of the security station, as , and Cortez followed her, his expression focused, serious, and a little agitated