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"Onher shoulders back, voice crisp Back on duty, Captain Chase once again Whatever Merendsen has to tell her, we need to hear it , Captain"

"Sir?"

"They’re rounding up all the civilians over in the s" He pauses, the silence hanging heavily "If you see any, you should send theaze worried "Got it, sir Thanks for the heads-up," she replies, voice even

My ainstenetag tattoo Then she plants a hand between

We break into a jog toward the launch bays An explosion echoes in fro reminder of McBride’s madness And we’re about to lose our only connection to LaRoux Industries, our only chance to find out what’s killing Avon

The girl is searching for her Novehost She is so certain that it’s here, somewhere, in the endless halls and chahost shouldn’t care what planet she’s on She’s been searching for hours The orphanage is emptier on the inside than it is on the outside, and she’ll never search all the rooled in by one of the other children, old-fashioned but durable The room is empty, but someone has left the screen on to crackle and jar the silence On it, a wo on soe of destruction and refugees scrolls by

The girl looks at the screen, and the city is November

But when she moves closer, she realizes it can’t be her Nove rebuilt, children there in the street lighting firecrackers It looks like a toy, a es on a screen will never be real for her

The November inside her was torn apart, and it alill be

And the Noveone

MY BODY’S PROTESTING THIS ABUSE The constant fighting, running, hiding Not enough sleep, and too hfor the launch bays If I’m not there to pilot Merendsen’s shuttle, I’ll lose my chance to find out whether he heard back froency in his tone, I’m sure he did We have to have that information I haven’t even told him or Flynn about Commander Towers yet What could I possibly say?

I focus onnot to think about Molly; I’ to tell McBride where I arief and cold air, and I lift a hand to dash the sparks of moisture away I can hear Flynn half a step behind me--when I speed up, he speeds up with o I would’ve been surprised he could keep up Not anyht life in the swa--because it was training, even if he wasn’t in uniform--resembled mine

Our route takes us past the mess hall What looks like half the civilian population of the base is in there, the long line snaking around between tables and benches A couple of unifor the line, and in anticipation the civilians are rolling up their sleeves to offer up their ’tags for scanning Security only caught one of the perpetrators at Molly’s Everyone else who’s not military has to prove they’re supposed to be here

The launch bay is a series of long, low, round but drop underground to hold all the vehicles, military and civilian alike, associated with the base and the town One of the curved roofs is open, a sign that a craft’s about to take off--or just did

We skid to a halt outside the door, and I turn to Flynn "Okay Reot every right to be here Act like you’re thinking of leaving Avon now that Molly’s--" My voice cracks, and over the tangle of eer It’s easier to deal with "Now that Molly’s gone That should delay theo once you’re shuttling Merendsen away?"

I’ my breath "You hide Maybe in my quarters, if they don’t search the base I don’t knohere you go after that--back out into the swaain I don’t know"

I don’t know Soalaxy, and I’ve been saying them a lot lately

The launch bay’s always busy, but today it’s absolute chaos Flynn joins a group of civiliansin like he was born to, and I resist the urge to look back at him as I head toward one of the traffic controllers, a shortup nearby and I’ close "The guy from TerraDyn here to evaluate security?"

The controller peers past esture in the direction of a shuttle four or five down fro off soon"

I catch Flynn’s eye back in the crowd, signal roup of uniformed officers near the shuttle Merendsen’s there--I breathe a sigh of relief when I see his familiar features