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Terryon Lock was supposed to be a new kind of place in the eured Modular, so it could grow or contract at need Outside the control of Earth or Mars or anybody A free city in space, with its own governance, its own environmental controls Naomi had seen the plans when they first spilled out over the networks Rokku had them printed on thin plastics and stuck to the walls of the ship Terryon Lock was the new Jerusalem until the security forces at Ganymede shut it down No colonies without permission No homes No safe havens, not even if they built it themselves
She hadn’t even been pregnant when it happened She didn’t know that it would define her
Filip was eight ustín Ga for a Coalition Navy research station on Oshianics and hydroponic equip, the ship’sthe fusion core into the ship For a fraction of a second, the Gaht as the sun and two hundred thirty-four people died No wreckage survived, and the official investigation into the event had never been closed because no conclusion could be reached Accident or sabotage Mischance or murder
They had gone from the hidden cell at the back of the club to a private apartment up even nearer the center of spin The air had the too-clean ozone s filter Filip sat at the se of the tiny foa
el sofa She looked at the boy’s dark eyes and tried to connect them in her mind with the ones she rehted smile She couldn’t tell if the reseination How e between not-quite-a-toddler and not-quite-an-adult? Could it really be the same boy? It wasn’t anyone else
The hole wasn’t abandoned There were clothes in the locker, food and beer in the little refrigerator The pale walls showed chips at the corners where the dae of minor accidents had built up over the course of years He didn’t tell her who the aparted to, and she didn’t ask
“Why didn’t you bring the Rocinante?” Filip asked There was a tentative quality to his voice Like the question was only a stand-in for other ones he wanted to ask That she wanted to be able to answer Why did you go? Didn’t you love us?
“It’s in dock for repairs Will be for months”
Filip nodded once, sharply She could see Marco in the movement
“That’s going to cos”
“Marco didn’t tellthe iy in the words “All he said was that you were in trouble That you were avoiding the law, and that I could… that I could help”
“We’ll have to co,” he said
The hospitals at Ceres Station were so near to term Neither of them had the money to travel to Europa or Ganynancy Ceres had been closer to Rokku’s claier for Belters than for sonancy had already had two scares She and Marco had lived in a cheap rental near the hospital, one of dozens that catered to Belters who caree them stay until they didn’t need the doctors, nurses, expert systems, and pharmaceuticals that the medical complex boasted
Naomi could still remember the shape of the bed there, the cheap plastic curtains with a printed starscape that Marco hung across the doorway The smell of it made her sick, but he’d been so pleased with himself she’d tolerated it And even that late in the process, al and feeling the baby shifting inside her Filip had been restless as a fetus She hadn’t felt like a child having a child She’d felt like a woman in control of her fate
“How et out?” Naomi asked