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Karal rubbed his pal sound, ale to touch hiain, he sounded tired
“We’re little people in big times, yeah? Tis Other pinché worlds Who wants that? Just you let this pass, yeah? Maybe your Holden, he doesn’t take the bait Maybe soet s what needs to live through?”
She shrugged For a ti of the air recycler Karal lifted hiht of hiht For ain his crib while she watched the news of the Augustín Gamarra It occurred to her for the first time that everyone on that ship had watched Earth die in real tiht of the Gamarra rise and fade on the newsfeed, looped a dozen times while the reporter spoke over it She wanted to say so, but she couldn’t, so she just watched as Karal opened the door then closed it behind him The lock slid closed She wiped the wet fro back – spat the decompression kit into her hand
Wet with her saliva and no bigger than her thu any enated artificial blood, and a panic button that would ency medical request for an airlock to cycle Military ships like the Pella and Roci ignored that sort of request as basic security The Canterbury and other commercial ships usually allowed it, filled as they ith civilians who posed a greater threat to themselves than pirates or boarders
did She didn’t kno the Chetzemoka would respond to it, but there was only one way to find out The only other things she needed were an EVA suit and a clear idea of when the ships would cut thrust
Then it was athe core, and getting the hell away froht of Filip – and Cyn and Karal and all the people she’d known once and cared for Even loved It was an echo of greater pain, and she could ignore it
“Didn’t break irl,” she said to the tiny black kit “Don’t knohy he thinks he can break me now”
Chapter Thirty-six: Holden
Holden wanted badly to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t coe was a few hours’ unconsciousness that left hi back into quarters on the station, but he’d refused Even though he slept better with gravity holding him to the mattress, he didn’t want to leave the ship He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he’d shaved, but the patchwork of stubble on his cheeks and neck itched a little During the work shifts, it wasn’t so bad The ne checked the systee they hadn’t seen last ti to do People to talk to When they left, he ate in the galley, tried to sleep for a while, then wandered through the ship like he was looking for so but couldn’t remember what it was
And then, inevitably and against his better judgment, he checked the newsfeeds
“With the silence from Medina Station, all contact with the colonial planets has been lost We can only speculate on the significance of the partial report fro alien activity in the southern hemisphere of New Triton —”
“A spokesman for the port authority said that Ganymede’s neutrality was a reflection of its universal importance and not a political statement —”
“UN forces are en route, but it is not clear whether Pri ship or if this is a distraction to pull the eneardless, acting secretary-general Avasarala has announced a security zone covering the flight path of the pinnace, and all ships in the area have been advised to e until such time as —”
Light speed, he decided, was a curse It made even the farthest corners of humanity’s reach feel close, and the illusion was a kind of poison The delay between Tycho Station and Earth was a little less than a quarter of an hour, but to travel that far would take days If Alex or Naoone He floated in his restraints, the cabin lights turned off, and flipped through the feeds, ju that if it had, there was nothing he could do He felt like he was standing on a frozen lake, looking down through the ice while the people he cared about most drowned
If he couldn’t know, if everything that was happening could happen someplace he couldn’t watch, then maybe he could look away Maybe he could close his eyes and dream about them, at least When a connection request caet it