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“Yes,” Singh agreed, thinking of his daughter’s face “Yes, we do And that’s why I’m here”

“Why you’re here, ho without his family”

“It will hurt to leave them behind for this deployment It will be months, at least, before they can join ive h consul has planned, it will all be worth it A galactic society of peace and prosperity and cooperation is the best legacy I can iine for her”

“A true believer,” the adh felt a flush of shame that perhaps he appeared naïve to thein his tone “This will only work because of the true believers”

“Yes, sir,” he said And then, “Anton”

The ad he’d ever seen designed in a ship The Ten constrained by the need to cut back every kilogram, to waste no space at all It was a ship that claih felt a little awe at it As he supposed he was meant to

Twountil they saw Trejo The old man scowled, and the pair saluted and scurried off to their duties Singh realized that no one had spoken to them in the tiht seem casual, but it was intended to be private as well

In the saht use to ask what the tiistical proble Medina”

Singh stood a little straighter Comfortable discussions of family were over Noas time to work He pushed his sleeve back a bit to pull the monitor off his wrist, and flattened it onto the abandoned table He pulled up the briefing He’d been preparing it for weeks, and the sudden, irrational fear that he’d overlooked so that would show the admiral that he wasn’t a serious person after all, still lurked in him It was an old, familiar kind of fear, and he kne to push it aside A wire fra of Medina floated in the air above the surface

“Medina Station,” Singh said “Assuence is correct, it houses the hundreds of members of the planetary coalition and their personal staffs, including security Add in the permanent staff and crew of the station, as well as trade union et a conservative estimate of between three and five thousand people on the station at all tiuess the number is actually double that”

“Assuence is correct?”

“Passive , even over the course of years, will always have a greater opportunity for error than active exaates adds an additional level of error,” Singh said The ad of the station, and hard points on the surface becahted in red

“The station itself is equipped with some defenses A PDC network that provides missile defense brackets the station, and one torpedo launcher reht rails, auto system, we estimate a total capacity of forty missiles”

“Nuclear?” the admiral asked

“Al capability and the confined nature of the ring hub erous to the station itself”