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he knehat mattered, was that between one breath and the next, Independence was dead
“We’re counting eight simultaneous impacts on the void city,” an analyst said from somewhere farther away than the control room “They see some structural breakdown”
Eht, and she’d been dead already for over an hour It didn’t h Druripped her bulb of old tea She could shout the retreat order if she wanted to, but anyone in a position to hear her was dead already, or would be by the time her words could reach them
The PDCs along the Teroup of EMC torpedoes died, faster this time because it was a s in the distant nothingness as if inviting the EMC ships to take their best shots Taunting them
An hour and twenty-three minutes before, the EMC ships shifted, lit their Epstein drives as hard as they’d go, and turned to whatever vector got them away from the theater of battle as quickly as they could The Teuns No more torpedoes Drummer didn’t believe for a second that the ene the other ships because he didn’t need or want to That was all
Drummer put her tea on the little side table next to Hu’s, turned, and walked out She are in a vague, distant way of Vaughn behind her, calling her nah to attend to
The decking of People’s Hoht be enough to break the out into the vacuum She passed her security detail, distantly aware of the ned toto follow her
It didn’t matter Because they didn’t matter Not when a whole city could die in a heartbeat
She was in the lobby of the union’s executive offices, sitting in an unco in particular when Avasarala found her The old woman steered her wheelchair across from Drummer like they were in someone’s private quarters or a back porch back on Earth There was no one else in the lobby That was Vaughn’s doing,beneath her and Avasarala bucked and split open What had Santos-Baca thought when it happened? Had she had ti to understand that she would never see the younger woht wouldn’t take She dreaded what came after it did
“I’m sorry,” Avasarala said
Drummer shook her head
“It won’t help you,” the old wo in The chances that ould turn the Tempest back the first time we tried? Always thin”
“We should have waited,” Drummer said “We should have pulled theodda monstrosity at the same time Wipe it out”
Her voice broke She was crying, but it didn’t feel like it was her doing it Avasarala handed her a cloth “You’re her than we’d thought But we did e came here to do”
“Die? Badly?”