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Lafflin cleared his throat

“Sorry,” Druet me some tea?”

“Yes, hn said “Also, Pallas”

“Thank you,” she said She didn’t mean it

She’d placed the strategic update with Lafflin on her schedule on purpose The Teht sunas slated to reach its point nearest to Pallas Station within the hour The evacuation was complete, or as near to complete as it would be There was always some old rock hopper with a

gun and an attitude who’d stay behind out of spite and rage It wouldn’t help One of humanity’s oldest hoain, or if it wasn’t, it would be because Adrant histo happen At least she could go into the terrible, predictable tragedy with all the vulnerable points of the Tempest firmly in mind She had some hope of retribution

There was a certain peace in the ie Sure, there were stealth ships and long-range torpedoes The cloak and dagger of vanishing into the vastness betorlds They worked for a ship here and there For the small and swift and furtive But on this scale—the scale of war on the battlefield of the abyss—everyone knew more or less where everyone else was Their drive plunatures announced them The hard laws of orbital mechanics and time placed every base, every planet, every person predictably in front of their own personal firing squads Situations like this one, they could see death co, and it didn’t matter Death still came

“Did you …” Lafflin said “We can continue this after If you’d like”

Drummer didn’t like She didn’t want to see it happen Didn’t want to hope that Pallas ht survive But she was the president of the union, and bearing witness was part of what she was supposed to do She wondered where Avasarala was, and whether the old lady was going to watch too

“Yes,” Drummer said “That’ll be fine”

Lafflin nodded, rose fro room Drummer stood, stretched, and switched the display to the tactical service’s analytics The ie wasn’t real It was a composite of visual telescopy and Pallas’ internal data cobbled together into a best guess that was five ht delay before it reached her Without Tycho beside it, Pallas looked … Calainst the starscape Pallas was older than that By the time they’d learned how to spin asteroid stations up, Pallas had been in business forA countdown timer showed the minutes to the Tempest’s closest pass Seven minutes and thirty-three seconds

The door slid open again, and Vaughn ghosted into the roo bulb in either hand The smell of tea wafted to her seconds later He didn’t speak as he reached out to her The bulb warmed her palm and the tea was rich and sweet

“Hard day,” Vaughn said It was strange She didn’t like Vaughn or dislike him, but she’d come to rely on hi-faced political operative at her side instead of Saba The universe was tricky, and its sense of humor came with teeth

“Hard day,” Drureed

On the display, the Tempest fell slowly toward the sun Pallas Station would pass on the ship’s starboard, and too far away to see with the naked eye Ad the show on a screen of his own The death of Pallas would be one of the most observed events in history Five minutes and fifteen seconds Which meant, in Pallas’ frame of reference, now