Page 8 (2/2)

“No,” Holden said, nodding to Alex “But just the idea that we had so and didn’t even know it creeps me out Doesn’t it creep you out?”

Alex held out his coffee cup, and Holden took it and filled it autoar, room for cream

“It does,” Naoh to take the whole damned bulkhead out over it The replaceinals You know that”

Alex had ata back on the Canterbury He could still see the rawboned, angry girl who Captain McDowell had introduced as their new junior engineer She’d hidden behind her hair for al the black She stood taller, er than he would have guessed she could be And Holden, the swaggering, self-impressed executive officer ept into civilian earing his dishonorable discharge like a boast had beco the irrationality of his fears Tied all of them, he supposed Only he wasn’t sure how he had been affected Too close to the question, he guessed

Except Aed Amos

“What about you, Alex?”

He grinned and let his Mariner Valley drawl thicken “Well, shoot, I figure it didn’t kill us when it was here, it ain’t gonna kill us now it’s gone”

“Fine,” Holden said with a sigh

“It’ll save us money,” Naomi said, “and we’ll be better off”

“I know,” Holden said “But I’ to feel weird about it”

“Where’s A around?”

“No,” Alex said “He hit the brothels hard enough to burn through his petty cash the first few days in port Since then, we’ve just been passing the time”

“We’ll need to find so to keep him busy while we’re on Tycho,” Holden said “Hell, we’ll need to find so to keep all of us busy”

“We could look for work on the station,” Nao for”

“We’ve got offers fros on New Terra,” Holden said