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“Not the flowers.”
“You wound me.”
“Maybe one.”
“For your mother?”
“She’ll think they’re pretty.”
“They are.”
“Debatable.”
He reached across the desk.
Palm up.
I put my hand in his.
Not because the universe had decided we matched, but because this was the man I wanted to argue with about coffee on two planets.
That felt more permanent than fate.
Chapter Forty-Five
Zared
The repair complex had one heavy transport.
We needed one heavy transport.
I considered this evidence of divine approval.
Degatu considered it evidence that I should never be allowed to interpret religion.
The target rotated above the tactical table.
Sargus bulk carrier Hekara.
Length: six hundred meters.
Crew: one hundred twelve.
Current crew aboard during repair cycle: forty-three.
Passenger conversion capacity: two thousand if cargo frames were removed.
Weapons: minimal.
Engines: functional.
Docking clamps: vulnerable.
Pyrr studied the display.
“I love it.”
“It is a ship,” Degatu said.
