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In the security office, Fred was pacing, his hands clasped behind his back, when Holden arrived He nodded sharply by way of greeting Drummer, at her seat, was a ned to offer no reason for the boss to yell at you That was fine Holden didn’t ot yelled at

“What’s the matter?”

“Medina went dark,” Fred said “She was supposed to report in thisat loose ends, I didn’t worry She’s missed two opportunities since then And… Drummer? Show him”

The security chief pulled up a schematic of the solar system At scale, even Jupiter and the sun were hardly ht pixel Thousands of dots showed the traffic in-systeation buoys All of humanity in a nutshell With a motion and a syllable, reen dots with the word UNDETERMINED where the identification codes should be h cloud Sonificant correlation

“As soon as the station went dark,” Drummer said, “ these Twenty-five new plunatures that match Martian military ships, and all of the”

“Heavy burn?”

“Eight to ten g to start, curving dohichat the limit of their drives”

Holden whistled Fred stopped in his pacing, his expression placid in a way that spoke volue “Those are my people on Medina If the station has been compro violent there, it will pose a significant obstacle to my participation with the new direction within the OPA”

“Meaning fuck that noise?”

“Yes”

“It’s a long way out to Medina,” Holden said “Even at those burns, it’ll take them a while But I don’t think we could beat them there”

“We couldn’t do anything if we did If I took all the ships at ate could still rain hell on theunned”

“Have to wonder where they got Martian military ships,” Holden said

“I’ll be sure to ask Dawes about that as soon as I’ve told hi before the Rocinante’s ready to fly?”

“Put a rush on it, we could be out of here in five days”