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Ah, Aht, Prison rules

He selected a bunk, just a crash couch with a little storage under it and a tiny entertainment screen on the bulkhead next to it, as far from the head and the coh traffic areas The people sharing his space were a family of three on one side, and an ancient crone on the other

The crone spent the entire flight high on little white pills, staring at the ceiling all day and tossing and sweating through fever dreaht Amos introduced himself to her She offered him some pills He declined This ended their association

The family on the other side was hter of about seven One of the ineer nairl’s name was Wendy They eyed Amos with some suspicion when he first claiht Wendy an ice creacreepy He knehat men who had too much interest in little kids were like, and so he kne not to ever be mistaken for one of them

Rico was traveling to Luna to take one of the new job openings at the Bush orbital shipyards “Lots of coyos heading doell Beaucoup jobs now, everybody trying to grab a ring for themselves New colonies Neorlds”

“That’ll dry up when the rush dies down,” A to Rico rattle on, half watching a video feed on his wall screen with the sound off

Rico gave a Belter shrug of the hands and tilted his head toward his daughter, sleeping in her bunk “For her, sabe? Later is for later For now I put so trip, whatever she needs”

“I hear that Later is later”

“Oh, hey, they’re cleaning the head Gonna grab a shower”

“What’s with that, man?” Amos asked “What’s the rumpus?”

Rico cocked his head, like Amos had asked why space was a vacuu to see whether Rico did too “Long-haul gangs, coyo Price of flying on the cheap Sucks to be poor”

“The creatches for that shit, right? Anyone gets in a tussle, they gas us all, tie up the perps No fuss, no muss”

“Don’t watch the showers No cameras If you don’t pay when the shakedown coo when crew is around”

“No shit,” A surprise “Haven’t seen the shakedown yet”

“You will, hombre Watch Jian and Wendy while I’m out, yeah?”