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No attempt had been made to contact the climber, not even a cursory call from the control center on Gateway to inquire about their excessive speed

Sahn He’d been ht not trust hih she’d done her best to convince Skadz and Kelly that he was on their side The thing was, she couldn’t quite decide why she accepted his defection so readily, other than the simple fact that she wanted it to be true

"Thanks," he said, taking the candy He gave half to Martin, the poor cli

"Five," Kelly said, "four, three, two …"

Saainst the wall If the cliravity would shift fro happened The cli toward Gateway at more than 200 kilometers per hour Then it passed the station No catastrophic impact occurred, in fact not even a wobble to h the station’s closed docking rings and out the other side

Kelly turned frorin at Sa to work, after all Skadz let out a little whoop

The screenodd then The ie flipped upside down Saood to point this out to Kelly, as looking at her instead of the display But before she could even open her ravity flipped

In a split second Sa, headfirst She et her hands over her head just in tirunt, and Kelly fell on top of both of the into Sahn and the other captive landed so out in surprise

Sam tried to stand and found she couldn’t She felt as if a blanket made of lead had been thrown over her Above her ca sound of machinery She looked up and saw the couches,doard the new floor on tracks, their cushions reconfiguring as they descended "Vaughn, head down!"

He curled up, chin to chest The couches moved into their new position just a few centimeters above his head Had he not iven hi on?" Skadz asked He’d co position and made no attempt to stand Sam did the same, and then the others followed suit

"Deceleration," Kelly said "Two tiers put up with this shit?"

The woradual, with a period of weightlessness and lots of char the cabin will realign for the nen’"

"In other words," Sa is up"

"’Fraid so We’re too far fro for theuess is they are turning us around, back to Gateway"

"Or back to Nightcliff," Skadz said

Saht not "Why didn’t they just stop us ent through the first time? Or turn us around well before we passed Gateway?"

Kelly considered this, then shrugged "Whatever the case, we’ve lost control They can take us wherever they want"

"Or," Vaughn said, "just let us sit out here until our air runs out, then reel us in"

Skadz wheeled on hiravity "Bloody hell, mate Thanks for the downer"

"Take it easy, Skadz," Sa but wait us out"

Skadz gruy

After what felt like an eternity, the blanket of weight began to lift An easing back to nor about like balloons Floating lanced at Kelly She and Skadz both were looking up at the ceiling, waiting to see if their direction would change again, back toward Earth

The cliainst the airlock door

"Fuck," Kelly said "I’ve no idea where they brought us, but we’re docking Get ready, just like we talked about"

Skadz pushed off for the door, while Kelly tugged herself along the wall to a position on the opposite side Sa a position behind the couch with Vaughn and the other prisoner, Martin There’d been considerable debate about how to use the prisoners Skadz had advocated lining the Grillo’s people to have to shoot soet inside Sah, and not just because of her feelings for Vaughn She also knehat Grillo was capable of; she didn’t think he’d have a second thought about giving the kill order

So the prisoners would be used only when the situation called for it Traded for a resupply of air, or iven the climber’s dry state Sahn away for a damn drink She wasn’t sure what he would do, either

A hiss of pressure equalization froht Saravity and checked her weapon Mentally she recounted their supplies Six bullets in her gun, five in Skadz’s Kelly had twelve, and of a different caliber or else she would have divvied thereed on the tactic required should a shooting scenario coe

It all coht caht about to turn stor for that trait? Is that what this has all been about? To find out if our species can dawdle on by picking at the reriine how that would ift space elevators seeical fucking force fields that defend against the out if a species could rue?

The hatch opened and intensely bright light flooded the cabin of the climber car A crumpled white u straight off, though to where Sam couldn’t see fro out and then whipping back into position She repeated the motion a few times, careful to time her looks at random intervals After four looks she turned and whispered "The tube leads out of a cargo bay, and there’s a spotlight at the end Can’t see anything else"