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Mal nodded "We’l pass that on"

"He’s told me to offer you help with repairs"

"Pipe," Devereaux said instantly "Ask hi, about fifty-mil imeter diameter, and any coot any fuel line?" Mal asked He held his fingers apart "This wide And composite solder"

Forze rol ed his head and walked back to the Phanto behind hi back at the dropship He ca of pipes and wire coiled in his arht up to Tart-Cart to duround

"I know little of ineers for thatThis is al I could find"

"Thanks" Mal gave him a thumbs-up and Forze walked off, apparently confident that Vaz wouldn’t shoot hian sorting through the pile

"Great," she said, whipping out a pocket gauge and et back to the mess, I’l tel this story and I’l never have to buy another beer as long as I live"

"Does any of it fit?" Vaz asked

"This bit ht"

While they waited, the Phantom’s drives started up and the ship lifted off Naoht and then climbed back into the crew bay

Vaz fol owed her inside and sat down between her and Phil ips

"She doesn’t knohere her husband is," Phil ips said "Doesn’t know if he’s alive or dead That’s my fault"

Naomi folded her ar yourself up about it"

"Yeah, they’d have glassed Sydney and everything else if they’d had a chance," Vaz said

"And the females and children at Nes’alun What the hel happened to thee-head violence None of your business" Vaz tried to bite down on his teed ship behind ene about Elites ould have used hiht

"We didn’t start it and on’t finish it Usyok? "

It was rude, and even if Phil ips didn’t speak Russian he could understand the tone He shut up Vaz suddenly felt guilty for snarling at hiuy was just a civvie He’d done pretty damn wel for someone who didn’t kno to use a weapon or carry out recons Vaz reached over and slapped his back to make amends, embarrassed

"Sorry, Prof," he said "You reat job You even grabbed a souvenir Not that we needed any more plasma pistols with a hold ful of them, but they say provenance adds value"

"I didn’t know you were coht I was supposed to try to escape"

"We never leave our people behind Not even the annoying ones"

Vaz debated whether to lance a few ht ti in the conversation at al ; he didn’t even manifest himself Vaz watched the time tick by in his HUD, then took off his hel creatures that could have been birds or even disturbingly big insects wheeling around overhead on the thermals

"Vultures," Vaz said

Mal didn’t blink "Bluebirds of happiness"

Naoe of the wing "Soot to secure the ship," she said "Just in case"

"Okay," said Mal, "a paranoid, a depressive, and an incurable optimist walk into a bar, and--"

Devereaux cut in on the radio "Soive , dear" Mal pushed the door gun over to Vaz and trotted off "You want a big strong man to do it for you?"

"Yeah Find e-heads could come back at any time so Vaz didn’t plan to relax He put his helmet back on to check the feed from the drone cams, most of which seemed to be focused on Vadam It was hard to square the memory of Manny Barakat and al the other ODSTs who hadn’t e-head like Forze helping out with spare parts, or theher kids to the death Gray areas were interesting, but Vaz couldn’t live his life in them There was one side, and there was the other, and he knehich one was his

He stil felt worse about not shooting Halsey than leaving a bunch of hinge-heads to fight for their lives

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE PROBLEM FOR AN AI ISN’T DOING A THOUSAND THINGS AT ONCE IT’S SLOWING DOWN AND IMPARTING ALL THAT INFORMATION TO HUMANS I LOVE YOU ALL TO BITS, BUT YOU’RE SOMETHING OF A BOTTLENECK IN MY PROCESSES

(ONI SPECIAL OPERATIONS AI BLACK-BOX, EXPLAINING IMPATIENCE TO HIS ORGANIC COLLEAGUES)