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Bobbie nodded with one hand, then tapped the side of her helmet Noait for word froency radio in her suit, already tuned to the channel Holden would be using to call Daphne Kohl up in station ops, and waited Clarissa stared at her across the vacuu cat

The ed When her radio crackled to life, Bobbie found herself grinning “Medina control, this is workcrew kilo alpha, do you copy?”

Bobbie could only hear Holden’s side of the conversation, so there was a long pause and then his voice again “Copy that Can I get Chief Kohl on the line? Gotta route soh her office”

Office was their code thatfor per only on Kohl’s cooperation

“Hey, Chief Good to hear your voice again,” Holden said, hitting the words hard He hadn’t identified himself by name, and he wouldn’t If Daphne Kohl didn’t pick up on as going on, they’d scrub the mission If she raised the alar with Saba down here in electrocherid problem that Laconian death ray caused, and we’d love to pull a panel up there to really nail it down”

And here’s where thethrough space on a tether, or cli the thinnest and crappiest vacuu to be later, when they clinal sniffer, hoping no one atching the outside of the dock It was here, where Holden was counting on his voice, Saba’s nanal Kohl that they were up to no good and needed her help

And er than her fear of execution by their Laconian s weren’t true, Kohl could refuse them, and that was the end of the plan Or worse

Bobbie waited a very tense reat I’ve got a tech heading to ops to pull that panel, if you can let hiet out of your hair”

Gander Code for Go in five

“Copy that, Chief We appreciate the patience while we sort this out”

Bobbie gave Clarissa a thuers Clarissa nodded with her fist, then started pulling tools out of theat her hip

First thing down, Bobbie thought Just a two-kilo on a Laconian destroyer without getting caught left to go

With Medina Station functionally -booted shuffle down the two-kiloth of thethe field-strength sensor on a short leash behind her It didn’t have much mass, but she’d taken it without conversation when she’d looked through Clarissa’s visor and seen the technician’s co out of a rotating airlock, they hadn’t done anything particularly taxing, but it was pretty clear that Claire was already running on fumes

As they got closer to the engineering-and-docking-bay section of Medina, the Laconian ship came into view around the curve of the station Bobbie couldn’t help but whistle her appreciation of the beauty of the thing Say what you would about Laconian authoritarianis included a lot of aesthetic beauty in its design

The destroyer—Holden had called it the Gathering Storm—looked like a natural crystal formation that someone had chipped into a knife The colors were all translucent pinks and blues, faceted like a ge at the tail that probably served as the ship’s drive cone but didn’t look anything like the UN or Martian designs she was familiar with The nose of the ship ended in a pair of sharp projections, like a dagger point with a channel cut down the center that left her alun If the ship had torpedo launchers or PDCs, she couldn’t see them