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“Don’t do this,” she gasped, but her voice seemed to come from far away “Please don’t do this”
“Had to, Knuckles,” Cyn said “Was the plan immer and always, sa sa? What it’s all about”
A thought came to her and then slid away She tried to land her knee in his crotch, but she wasn’t sure where her legs were anymore Her breath was loud and close Over Cyn’s shoulder, she saw the others standing beside the gantry to the ship Her ship Filip’s ship They were all turned to watch her Filip was aht sheshe i out, her mind stopped
Chapter Twenty: Alex
When piloting a ship – any ship – there was a point where Alex’s sense of his body reached out to subtly include the whole vessel Co to kno that individual ship felt as she ravity cut out as that particular drive shut down, how long the flip took at the midpoint of a run – all of it ed how Alex felt about hione fr
om the massive, stately heft of the colony-ship-turned-ice-hauler Canterbury to the fast-attack frigate that had becoer
But even the Roci had tons of metal and ceramic She could spin fast and hard, but there was an authority behind thepinnace Razorback was like strapping onto a feather in a thunderstor to the ship but a blister the size of the Roci’s ops deck strapped to a fusion drive Even the engineering deck was a sealed compartment, accessible to technicians at the dock It wasn’t the sort of ship the creas going to maintain; they had hired help for that The two crash couches huddled close together, and the compartments behind them were just a head, a food dispenser, and a bunk too small for Bobbie to fit in There wasn’t even a syste thruster could spin the ship around twice in ten seconds with power output that would have shifted the Roci five degrees in twice the time
If piloting the Rocinante required Alex to think of the ship like a knight’s horse, the Razorback begged for attention like a puppy The screens wrapped around the couches and covered the walls, filling his whole visual field with the stars, the distant sun, the vector and relative speed of every ship within a quarter AU It threw the ship’s perfor Even with interior anti-spalling fabric a decade out of fashion and the grie of the couches, the ship felt young Idealistic, feckless, and a little bit out of control He knew if he spent enough tiish and dull when he got back But, he told hiain The thought kept hi disloyal For sheer power and exuberance, the Razorback would have been an easy ship to fall in love with
But she wasn’t built for privacy
“… as a coot its collective asshole puckered up so tight it’s bending light,” Chrisjen Avasarala continued behind him “But the priets to Luna, I’ that hasn’t already been chewed by half a dozen diplo cover-your-ass At least he knows there’s a probleers is the first step toashing your hands”
He hadn’t seen the old worandmotherly face and contempt-filled eyes She projected a weariness and a ruthless, and he could tell Bobbie liked her More, that she trusted her
“In the ood to anybody dead And if that idiot Holden’s plucking another thread in the same knot, God alone kno he’ll fuck it up So Report in when you can”
The recording ticked and went silent
“Well,” Alex said “She sounds the same as ever”
“Give her that,” Bobbie agreed “She’s consistent”