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Duty, however, was duty He put Babbage’s jewelry in the recycler and opened the e Cortázar was too close to the cahtly out of focus His wide chin and thin, black hair should have been unre half-consciously to wash them

“Captain Sauveterre,” the strange little man said “I’m pleased to report that the sa custody of it after its liberation I a behind schedule”

“It’s a few days over the course of months,” Sauveterre said to himself and the screen “We’ll make it up”

“I know you are aware that both supplies and tiht to heel In order to help ether some plans and specifications for some of the modifications the Barkeith will need in order to dock with the artifact Several of the teams en route And of course, if you have any questions, I am at your disposal Cortázar out”

The screen flipped to a series of technical drawings There was h about those to disturb hiy by the name protomolecule, but of course, that far-traveled set of life-hijacking rander toolbox And if Cortázar had interpreted the top-clearance data from the MCRN probes correctly, what they had found would be much easier for humanity to tame and make use of

Still, the changes Cortázar wanted for the Barkeith were unpleasantly organic Less like they were fitting a newit into some kind of colossal prosthesis

It’s the beginning of soood people don’t step in to accept the power, bad ones will It hat Adht Sauveterre into the fold It had been true then, and it was true now He switched on the ca

“Message received I will take the plans to ineers at once If they have any concerns, ill be in touch” Short, to the point,rude Efficient He hoped it would come across as efficient He rewatched it to be sure and considered rerecording it and changing concerns to questions, but decided he was overanalyzing it As he sent it off, his system chimed

“Captain, we have clearance from Medina”

“Do , Mister Kogo number situation?”

“The freighter isin to dock with the station, sir”

Well, there was another ship for the skinnies to commandeer If the Toreador had knohich way the as blowing, they’d have hightailed it back to whatever hardscrabble planet they’d come from and tried to make do without whatever they had lost anyway As it was, the Free Navy would just keep gobbling up the ships that ca the a rearguard action against history, Duarte would be in position

War, Sauveterre thought as he pulled hi since ceased to be about controlling territory The job of a military was to disrupt its enemies Generations of low-scale war in the Belt hadn’t been an attempt to hold Vesta Station or Ceres or any of the dozens of little floating supply hubs in the vast e the OPA or any other Belt force froed, and that organized force became useful The Free Navy would have made itself decades before if men like Duarte had let it Now that the Belt finally had it, they would find just how useless it was

As long as it kept Earth and as left of Mars busy for a few years After that… The reward of audacity was the chance to steer history

The command deck was in trim Everyone in their couches, the displays freshly cleaned, the controls polished The Barkeith would arrive at Laconia Station as smart and sharp as she had left Mars And they wouldn’t be wearing bracelets He drew himself down to his command station and strapped himself in