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Static, then

The deed was done Foreshadow Station, the first of the Builder’s vessels, beca into the emptiness of space, or into the atmosphere to burn up

No record existed of the fourth panel No possible way to ever see the fifth or sixth Neil carried only the knowledge of when the events would occur The schedule, s between the murals Earth’s orbit around the sun as a constant, shown in multiples and then fractions Sandeep worked out the pattern: each event a 042 reduction in ti to coax Tania into figuring out the pattern on her own, lest he be forced to adlanced at the data cube, and the printed label on the side Numbers, random to anyone else, but to him they laid out the time between each of the six events

2786, 1170, 491, 206, 087

Twenty-seven plus years between Foreshadow and the Elevator Alap since then arriving ier two years they would get before the fifth event, and not even a single trip around the sun before the finale

HHe alone carried the Builder’s timeline, like a one-ton boulder shackled to his ankle That and the knowledge that he’d killed Sandeep He’d murdered Tania’s father And now, in a twist of fate that cheay at his gut, she was helping to fill in the blanks left behind by her father’s actions He’d even sent her out to Hawaii, a the subhumans He’d asked her to risk her life to discover what he already knew, siure out the schedule To earn valid pretense to act et a head start

Sandeep had failed, in that sense Neil’s madness, if the term applied, never abated He felt more thirst than ever to knohat the Builders would do next

The future, his future, depended on it

Chapter Nineteen

Above Darwin, Australia

4FEB2283

When the countdown ended, nothing happened The ship should have fallen out and away--a backward swan dive from one hundred kilometers

"Where’s my release?" Skyler asked

They ell above the atmosphere, yet the Melville reus reached above his head and toggled the release-readiness switch Twice, and then a third ti the push-away," he said "Malfunction?"

"Jesus Ours?"

"Has to be theirs We’re green on this side"

Skyler leaned forward, trying to scan the cockpit displays for errors that Angus had missed Ultimately Gateway had final control over release A safetytoo early, or too late The indicator froreen as well "Maybe that power blip earlier caused it?"

Angus shrugged Hours ago, at the start of the ascent, the clihtcliff control had said, in a pointedly worried tone, not to worry

The intercoh the speaker

Skyler elbowed it, forcing it to the off position

In the pilot’s seat, Angus held up a hand They could both hear the voice through their headsets

"Melville, this is Gateway control Detecting a code red failure in the prius’s shoulder, indicating he would handle it

"Control, this is Melville Confirmed, we’re still attached"

They waited thirty seconds in silence

"Did they hear you?" Angus asked

"Control," Skyler said into the microphone, "Melville Confirm primary latch failure How about a switch to secondary?"

"Melville, there is only the primary," came the voice

"Why the hell is it called ‘primary’ then?" Skyler muttered

An uncomfortableyou on up to Gateway to troubleshoot"

Angus turned in his seat to look directly at Skyler His eyebrows arched so high, they almost disappeared under his hel us up there?"

"Affirrand tour while we’re there, eh?"

"Negative," the voice said "You will re to take?" he asked

Another long delay "Unknown," they came back with, after a few ht end before it started tugged at Skyler More than a week had passed since the return from Haith no news, and no new requests, froet inforate turned hi A crane operator, whom Skyler found in a hookah bar not far froh and, after a s to ask around He didn’t come back the next day as promised

Then Prumble had received a specific order from Platz for a set of spare filtration units that were, hopefully, sitting in a long-abandoned warehouse in Abu Dhabi The mission caured Pruoods were ultimately delivered

Samantha opened the cockpit door and floated halfway inside "What the hell’s going on?"

"We’re stuck," said Angus

"No shit Takai looks like he’s going to piss himself back here"

"Not now, Sam," Skyler said

It took another hour for the climber to reach Gateway A pair of robotic aro containers attached

Skyler and Angus watched as torkers, in full space-walk gear, drifted out froo bay They floated past the Melville’s canopy and disappeared from view

After twenty minutes of silence, the radio crackled to life "Melville, Gateway Clahteen hours to fix"

Skyler shook his head "No can do, Gateway We’re not outfitted for an extended stay Not enough air"

"We will extend a transfer tube"

"No airlock for it We’re only designed to drop fro pause on the other end "All right, Melville We’re going to disconnect the whole cli it and your ship inside We can do the work in here"

"We’re supposed to stay in here for eighteen hours?" Skyler said

A different voice came over the air "Without proper decontamination, youwe haven’t been through before"