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The mid-shift meal was refried noodles and beer The newsfeed was set to a system-wide report, and she watched it avidly for the first time, not for what it said, but what it didn’t Food and water reserves were running out in North America and Asia, with Europe only a few days better Relief efforts fro need for supplies locally She didn’t care It wasn’t Jinal renored, and she didn’t care The Martian minority speaker of parlia for the prime minister to return immediately to Mars, and she only cared a little Every story that wasn’t about a ship blowing up at Tycho Station was a victory She ate fast, sucking down the sweet, pale noodles and sla her meal, she could rush the ship, the attack

Her opportunity

She and Cyn spent the next half shift going through engineering and thewas locked down In a ship full of Belters, she had no doubt it all would be, and it was The ritual of it was reassuring, though The sense of order and control over a ship’s environment was a synony had been weeded out of the gene pool fast, and seeing the regularity of the shop gave her an al obvious, she checked the location of the flawed toolbox with its ain She felt obvious, sure that by so clearly cutting the box out of her awareness, she was actually calling Cyn’s attention to it

The relationship between the dark thoughts and the nearly unbearable swelling of excitement in her heart didn’t occur to her until Cyn’s hand terminal chimed and he called the work to a halt

“Wrócic´ do tu crash couch, yeah,” he said, touching her shoulder His hand was gentle but strong She didn’t pretend ignorance, didn’t try to disguise her anxiety It would just read as being scared of the battle anyway

When they got to her quarters, she strapped in and Cyn checked her Then, to her surprise, he sat by her side for athe balance of the couch His muscles rippled under the skin with even his sed to see tu, sa sa?”

Naoined she would have if she’d meant it “Of course I’ll be careful,” she said “Always am”

“La, not always, you,” Cyn said He struggled with so She didn’t knohat “Close quarters,Don’t have a couch to catch you, then you get a wall, yeah? Maybe a corner”

Fear flooded her uessed? Cyn flexed his hands, not able to aze

“En buenasto be happy for, yeah? Maybe a way out don’t have doors”

Suicide, she thought He’s talking about suicide He thinks I’ to unstrap in the middle of the battle and let the ship beat me to death While she hadn’t consciously considered it before, it was the kind of thing the dark thoughts would have brought her And worse, the thought brought no surprise with it, but only a sense of warmth Almost of comfort She wondered whether that had been in her er inherent in her plan was its drawback or a covert way for the bad thoughts to find their expression That she wasn’t sure unnerved her

“I plan to be here when this is over,” she said, biting the words as if to convince herself as uard

Cyn nodded The ship’s systeet off the couch Not yet “Esá? Hard for us and you both We co at his hands now like soht be written there “Mi familia,” he said at last “Remember that Alles lá son family, y tu bist also”

“Go strap in, big guy,” Naomi said “We can finish this after”

“After,” Cyn said, shot a s cael, just as if she meant to stay in its cool embrace