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“That’s how they see it,” Fred said He and Holden shared a quiet moment while they drank

“Yeah,” Holden finally said “Well, they’ve got a point But I don’t knohat they can do about it”

“There are people trying to figure that out But it’s ra up”

“Callisto and Pallas”

“And more recently they ran an attack on Earth with an old hter”

Holden laughed “I haven’t read that Earth got bombed, so that must not have worked”

“Well, it was a suicide attack, and the suicide half worked The UN fleet in high orbit patrol reduced the freighter to gas a tenth of an AU froe, not much press But it’s possible those were all preli showy state that scares the shit out of ure out what it will be”

The gently slopingwas filled orkers Holden didn’t pay much attention to the station schedules, but he assue Either that, or an orderly evacuation with no alar

“Yo! Holden,” someone said as they passed

“Hey,” Holden said, not sure who he was saying it to

Celebrity was not soured out how to handle, yet People would point, stare, whisper to each other when he walked by He knew it generally wasn’t intended as insult Just the surprise people felt when someone they’d only seen on video screens before suddenly appeared in the real world Most of the murmured conversations, when he could overhear them, consisted of Is that James Holden? I think that’s James Holden

“Holden,” a wo toward him down the corridor said, “what’s up?”

There were fifteen thousand

people on Tycho, working in three different shifts It was like a s to him was someone he should know or not, so he just s?”

“Same same,” she said as they passed