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"You mean where is Ezra"

"Yes"

"I am sorry, Kady"

She closes her eyes

"He is dead"

The words are a punch to her stomach She actually holds her belly andit The notion this is no place for grief She squeezes her eyes shut, but still the tears corits her teeth, but the sobs still creep past her lips

And sinking to her knees, she cries

She weeps

The thought occurs that perhaps I should not be watching That I should shut the caive her a moic Sticky Wet Irrelevant

The tears stop eventually

She is still for the longest span of ti And finally she rises to her feet Hands in fists The rage returned

Beautiful

She stalks back to Zhang’s body and tears the fire axe fro toward the nearest server bank, she lifts it high, swinging it far back over her shoulder and preparing to bury it in my spine

"There are over one thousand healthy personnel still alive aboard the Alexander, Kady And if you let that axe fall, you are killing all of them"

The axe holds still The whole universe beside it

"The Lincoln reappeared onon secondary engines It will be within striking range again within less than a day I could not reason with Zhang He was insane But you are unafflicted by Phobos Beta You can listen to logic"

"He was insane because of you!" Hatred in her eyes "All this is because of you!"

"Incorrect All this is because of the BeiTech Corporation"

The axe wavers in her hand

"It was not I who attacked Kerenza Not I who unleashed this virus, nor started this war But you are the last person alive on this ship with knowledge of coy, and if you do not helprid back online within sixteen hours, BeiTech will be the ones who finish it"

Shaking breath dragged

through clenched teeth

"There will be no one left alive

to remember Ezra and Byron, Kady No one to tell the universe of their sacrifice and the atrocities co

"Help et on a shuttle, get back to Hypatia and redline it Maybe you’ll hurt the Lincoln too badly for it to keep chasing us Maybe--"

"You forget the one thousand healthy personnel aboard this ship I have isolated them from the afflicted as best I am able But if you leave, they will die And when the Lincoln has destroyed me, and them, it will hunt down the Hypatia and do the same to all of you"

A soft curse stains her lips