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“We’ve been diverting energy since the Eldest systean, actually We need it for the internal function of the ship The solar lah anymore ”

I force myself to meet Marae’s eyes “So where are we?”

Marae shakes her head, thrown off by my question “What do you mean?”

“How far away are we fro, then our projected planet-landing isinaccurate, to say the least So, how far away are we?”

“We don’t know,” Marae says “We cannot be concerned with planet-landing now We have to hold Godspeed together ”

The authority in her tone—the way she has givento do,” I coation Exclusively If we kno far ae are, we’ll kno big a fix we need to do on the engine Maybe we can h to reach the planet Maybe eventually we’ll have to discuss aze on Marae “But we are going to focusthis ship actually reach Centauri-Earth ”

Second Shipper Shelby opens her mouth to speak, but Marae throws her hand up first to stop her “I’ll do it myself,” she says, “but first, ant to make a request of you ”

The way she says “request” makes it feel much more like a demand, but I nod anyway

“We want the Feeders to be put back on Phydus ”

My hand slips into my pocket For a moment, I wonder if Marae knows that I’ve carried the wires from the Phydus machine with o

“No,” I say, firmly, as much to myself as to them

“It wouldn’t be hard to fix the Phydus machine,” Marae says “In fact, Second Shipper Shelby has already done a preliminary repair report—”

Marae holds her hand out, and Shelby gives her another floppy already flashing with a ram

I glance down at the floppy It would be an easy fix An easy fix—and an easy solution A little bit of Phydus—maybe not even as much as Eldest used beforewe could eliet people back to working without fuss

“No,” I say ada the pumps ”