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I need to get three hallways along to h with the crowd growing louder andto take a while Iby the doorway that leads out to the observation deck I glance out sideways through the door

I knohat the view’s meant to be--and it’s not like this The stars beyond the clear screens blur, then lurch, then coraceful lines that should be visible in dimensional hyperspace They’re in focus for a ain I’ve never seen a view like this before--it’s as though the Icarus is trying, and failing, to claw her way back into hyperspace I’m not sure ill happen if she’s torn out preood

For a e and metallic is visible out the corner of the observation , and then it’s gone I crane ain It’s so ravitational field, enough to pull the Icarus out of her flight path

I turn back to work h the croard my pod The press of bodies is too thick, and I duck to the side to slide along the guard railing On these back passages, the railing is all that stands between us and a nasty drop, all the way down at least a dozen levels As I turn the corner I collide heavily with soover

"Excuse !"

No Oh, hell no

A pair of blue eyesainst the ay railing

I unclench , Miss LaRoux" Drop dead, my tone says

In spite of everything--the screa of the ship’s alarms--I take a moment to savor the shock and disister e of people that coe

They knock me off balance, but the crowd is so dense that I don’t fall As if I’et limpse of Miss LaRoux’s friends as they’re swept down the corridor One of the to battle the crowd,Miss LaRoux’s naht and left I realize she’s had training--not just another pretty face A bodyguard? But even she can’t ht

I see one of them scream--mouth open, sound drowned out--in the same instant I realize Miss LaRoux’s not with thelimpse of that brilliant red hair

This panicked crowd is enough to trample the unprepared With a wall on one side and the balcony railing on the other, they’re channeled wilder and faster every moment, like beasts in a canyon I see people lifted off their feet, slahting the crowd and follow the current when a cry pierces the chaos

I shove reen dress and red hair and white face vanish over the railing, as so down the ay

I’ out over the railing, shifting le my momentum toward the floor below mine, and jump after her

"So you knehich escape pod was yours?"