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“Yeah, not sleepin’,” the pilot replied, “just got my own list of shit to do” She could hear his smile

Bobbie closed the diagnostic screen Verifying the status on the thrusters was the last ite on a suit and cli outside to physically look into the nozzles, there wasn’t much more she could do

“I’, then head up,” she said

“Mmhm”

Bobbie put her tools away and used a mild solvent to wipe up soent, like so alone on Mars Anxiety pushed her toward preparing more for the mission even after she was prepared In the old days, this hen she’d have cleaned and serviced her power arain until it becah the ship the same way

She’d lived on the Rocinante for er than her childhood hoer than her tour in the Marines

The engineering deck was A

mos country, and the mechanic kept a tidy shop Every tool was in its place, every surface spotless Other than the oil and solvent, the only other smell in the compartment was the ozone scent that hinted at powerful electricity coursing nearby The floor vibrated in time with the fusion reactor on the deck below, the ship’s beating heart

On one bulkhead, An that read:

SHE TAKES CARE OF YOU

YOU TAKE CARE OF HER

Bobbie patted the words as she walked by and climbed onto the ladder lift that ran up the center of the ship The Roci was at a very gentle 02 g braking burn, and there had been a ti the ladder would have felt like ad ten times that hard But for the last couple years Bobbie’s joints had been giving her trouble, and proving to herself that she couldas much

It see old hen you stopped needing to prove you weren’t getting old

The hatches separating each deck slid open at the lift’s approach, and then quietly closed after she’d passed The Roci ht be a decade or two past her sell-by date, but Clarissa tolerated no sticking or squeaking on her ship At least once a week, Claire h every environmental system and pressure hatch When Bobbie had mentioned it to Holden, he’d said, Because she broke the ship once, and she’s still trying to fix it

The lift hummed to a stop on the ops deck, and Bobbie stepped off The hatch up to the cockpit was open Alex’s brown and almost entirely bald head poked up over the back of the pilot’s crash couch The crew spentti hours spent in the crash couches meant the smell of sweat never entirely went away, no matter how hard the air recyclers worked And, like any room James Holden spent a lot of tiered