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Drummer didn’t want to be awake, but she was The couch was built for the two of theive theest of the void cities, was spun up or under gentler thrust or to divide them if they went into an unexpected hard burn while they were asleep Balancing to keep fro Saba, she checked the system console in the wall nearest her bedside It was still two hours before she needed to get up Not long enough for a full sleep cycle Not short enough to ignore She was, by some measures, the most influential woman in thirteen hundred worlds, but it didn’t fix insomnia

Saba shifted in his sleep andshe couldn’tdown his spine, not sure if she hoped to quiet hiling hiel the way ani since before hu to avoid the dinosaurs

She smiled in the darkness and tried not to be disappointed She needed to pee, but if she got up now, it would wake Saba for certain, and then she’d feel bad She could suffer a little instead People’s Holad to have her back

There ays that she didn’t have a home anymore Hadn’t since she’d accepted the presidency Their quarters on Medina near the administration levels The captain’s cabin of Saba’s ship, the Malaclypse Back before she’d becoh Now she had more space devoted to her than she would ever see Like a palace ht-years Medina Station, Ganymede, Ceres, Pallas, Iapetus, Europa The Vanderpoele, which was at her disposal as long as she held office TSL-5 had quarters set aside for her, as would all the transfer stations when they were built And the three void cities that made up the spine of the Belters’ doe and People’s Home

At rest, the central core of People’s Home stayed on the float, seventy decks of permanent facilities and infrastructure that wore the drum section like a cloak The dock at one end, the drive at the other Magnetic fields lev track held the core separate fro the core stationary while the body shifted froravity to spin The rooms and hallways in the druonal to the direction of thrust when the drive was on, their feet pointing down to the stars at a constant tenth of a g when they were at rest Enough to h for even the most float-adapted Not a ship, but a city that had never suffered a gravity well

Saba yawned and stretched, his eyes still shut Drummer ran a hand over his wire-brush hair, a little more insistently this time His eyes opened and his wicked little half sain

“Are you up?” she asked, trying to keep her voice soft, but really wanting the answer to be yes

“Yes”

“Thank God,” she said, and hauled herself up off the couch and went to the head By the ti naked at the little tea dispenser that had been provided for the exclusive use of the president Saba had been with her for ale showed a little in the softness of his belly and the roundness of his face, he was still a very prettyhiracefully She hoped so, or if not, that he didn’t notice

“Another beautifulin the corridors of power, ah?” he said

“Budget hearings in the , trade approval in the afternoon And Carrie Fisk and her fucking Association of Worlds”

“And fish on Friday,” he said, turning to hand her a bulb of hot tea As little tiht as well have had Earther cups But she never would “What’s an Association of Worlds?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Druht now it’s a couple dozen colonies that feel like I’d listen to them better if they spoke with one voice”

“Are they right?”

He took another bulb for hiainst the wall He had a weirdly intense way of listening More than his eyes, it hatin particular and