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Ashford keyed in a series of cohter His eyes tracked over the readouts and screens Lit from below, he looked less like the man set to save all of humanity at the sacrifice of himself and his crew and et his simulations to work they way they were uard ca beside the transition point locked down Anyone wants to get in here, we’ll give ’eht kinds of hell”

“Good ?”

“Yes, sir She’sthe modifications to the comm array now”

“Still?”

“Still, sir”

“Thank you,” he said, then tapped the display, his fingertips popping against the screen “Sa before the modifications are done?”

“Two hours,” she said

“Why so long?”

“I’ to have to override every safety device in the control path,” she said “This thing we’re doing? There’s a lot of built-in design that was ”

Ashford scowled

“Two hours,” he said, and stabbed the connection closed

The waiting began Two hours later, the sa system had been shaken out of round by the catastrophe It justlock for most purposes, but since this was a one-shot application, she was realigning it Threea short loop error that he had to track doo more hours

Clarissa saw Ashford’s mood darken with every excuse, every hour that stretched past She found the toilets tucked at the back of the security station and started wondering about getting a few tubes of food If the only working coht actually be a problem Cortez had strapped hiuards slowly beca fro at the control boards and power relays that fed the bridge It was surprising how many of them were the sa out Cut an Earther or a Belter, they both bled the same blood Crack an access panel on the Behemoth and the Prince, and both ships had the same crappy brownout buffers