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“Right,” Alex said

Holden was on the Rocinante Nao a lot since the Rocinante had plucked theetting better and that the rest was good It worried Alex, though Not because she needed the sleep, but becausehere with Holden and Amos and Naomi was a bone-deep relief He wanted it to be the end of their separation, everything coht pl

ace like nothing had ever happened

But it wasn’t Even talking to Aht he could feel little differences in theelse all the tiive Alex his undivided attention Nao since they’d arrived, and the physicians hadn’t allowed anyone in to see her except Holden If Nao excuses to stay isolated fron They still didn’t know all of what she’d been through that she’d wound up with the Free Navy and then escaped from it, but that it had been a trauma seemed obvious And so he tried to enjoy the peace and pleasure of having his crew again and ignore the anxiety growing in the back of his overns here had changed

Alass of beer then bared his teeth “I gotta go do a thing”

“All right,” Alex said, pouring the rest of his beer into the sink “Where are we going?”

Amos hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second “Dock Got so I need to move into my shop”

“Great,” Alex said “Let’s go”

The stations on Luna were the oldest non-terrestrial habitation humanity had They sprawled across the face of the hts set into the walls gloith a warravity – even lighter here than on Mars or Ceres or Tycho – felt strange and pleasant, like a ship aet anywhere It was al out a little under four hundred thousand klicks over their heads Almost, but not quite

A that had happened while he was down the well, and Alex listened with half his attention The details of the story would be grist for a hundred conversations once they were back in the ship and going soet all of it now, and the fa he liked and hadn’t listened to in a long time

At the dock, Amos looked up and down the halls until he saw soe crate The crate was blue hite curls of scrapes along the side like a painting of waves The woman was thickly built with black cornrows, dark brown skin, and an arm in a cast

“Hey, Butch,” Amos said

“Big e Alex at all “This is this”

“Thanks, then”

The wo shuffle a little stiffer than the people around her Arabbed the crate, and started for the Roci, Alex trotting along beside him