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“Kind of a hard act to follow,” Naomi said

“Well, yes,” Holden said, “but I mean—”

“How about this,” Alex said, standing up “I’ the Scotch I’ve been saving for a special occasion Let’s all have a toast to Holden and Nagata Best damn command staff a ship could hope for”

Holden’s expression shifted and his eyes took on a shine of tears, but he was grinning “I won’t say no,” he said, then stood

Alex went in for the hug, and then Nao arms around them both Bobbie looked over at A we should do? Amos rose and trundled over to the ti, last eainst her side, pressing in as soft and fleeting as a moth

Officially, nothing changed after that The long float before the deceleration burn toward the gate and Medina Station beyond it went the way they’d planned it Houston, in his cell, was sullen and uncomfortable but secured Their duties and schedules, habits and custo that had altered at all hat they ether Bobbie felt like so in her body had shifted

Jae person from the start Before she’d ever known him, he’d been the e froht of him, he was an opportunistic narcissist or a hero of free speech, a tool of the OPA or the UN or a loose cannon answerable to no one She’d seen him that way too, more than she’d knohen she took her place on the Rocinante Since then, day by day, sometimes even hour by hour, the man and his reputation had peeled away from each other Captain James Holden of the Rocinante was a nauy who drank too s, and always seemed quietly worried that he would compromise his own idiosyncratic and unpredictable morality The two versions of him were related the way a body and its shadoere Connected, yes Each inextricably related to the other, yes But not the sa

And noas ht too, but different Naoreater world, always letting her lover take the stage so that she wouldn’t have to When she stepped away, it wouldn’t change the story that other people told about the Rocinante the sa to feel her loss more As much as Holden was the public face of the ship, Naomi was the person Bobbie had come to trust in their practical, day-to-day lives Whatever Naomi said was true And if that wasn’t strictly accurate, it was close enough that Bobbie and the others relied on it with confidence

When they were gone, nothing would be the same Bobbie felt the sorrow in that But, to her surprise, the joy too She found herself going through her rounds,that had already been checked, as pressure level that was dropping a fraction too quickly, a doorway that shoear, a power link that was past its replaceed too It was hers now When she put her palm on the bulkhead and felt the thrum of the recyclers, it was her ship When she woke strapped into her crash couch, even the darkness felt different

She’d been a Marine—she would always be a Marine, even after that role didn’t fit her any the captain of

the Rocinante felt right for her in a way she hadn’t expected The prospect of taking the captain’s chair had the sa on her power ared with tied as much as she had—and becoerous Scarred, but solid Not just a metaphor of who Bobbie was but also who she wanted to become

She believed the others—Alex, Amos, Clarissa—were as comfortable with the shift as they claimed And before, she’d have left it at that Before it was her ship

Now that she was going to be captain, it was her job to check

Ah feeds on the strategies for keeping an old gunship like theirs flying and safe A stubble of white along the back of his skull caught the light where he hadn’t shaved it in a couple of days They were on the float, conserving reaction ainst the deck like he was anticipating a sudden change Maybe he was, even if only out of habit His thick, scarred hands tapped at thefro structural repair, overgrowth in rids All the thousand iies had spun off He understood theet soence behind Amos’ cheerful violence

“Hey, bigherself to a stop with one of the handholds