Abaddon's Gate

A

“I said,” A

Nick turned around at that, a rodent’s low cu

“Yes.”

He moved toward her in the low-gravity version of a saunter. It was intended to look threatening, but to A

“Sophia won’t say shit,” Nick said, walking up to her desk to stare down at her. “She knows better. She fell down in the kitchen, and she’ll say it to the magistrates.”

“That’s true,” A

“Is that right?” Nick said, leaning forward, trying to frighten her by pushing into her personal space. A

“But Sophia is a member of this congregation, and she is my friend. Her children play with my daughter. I love them. And if I don’t do something, you’re going to kill her.”

“Like what?”

“I’m going to call the police and tell them you threatened me.” She reached for her desk terminal with her left hand. It was a gesture meant to provoke. She might as well have said, Stop me.

He gave her a feral grin and grabbed her arm, squeezing the bones in her wrist together hard enough to ache. Hard enough to bruise. She pointed the taser at him with her other hand.

“What’s that?”

“Thank you,” she said, “for making this easier.”

She shot him, and he drifted to the ground spasming. She felt a faint echo of the shock through his hand on her arm. It made her hair stand up. She pulled up her desk terminal and called Sophia.

“Sophia, honey, this is Pastor A

After a few minutes of coaxing, she finally got Sophia to say she would talk to the police when they came. Nick was starting to move his arms and legs feebly.

“Don’t move,” A

She called the New Dolinsk Police Department. The Earth corporation that had once had the contract was gone, but there still seemed to be police in the tu

“Hello, my name is Reverend Doctor A

“Bitch,” Nick spat, trying to get off the floor on shaky limbs.

A

“Tough day?” Nono asked when A

“How’s my girl?” A

“Namono, no hair pulling,” Nono said, trying to untwist A

Nono’s full name was Namono too. But she’d been Nono ever since her older twin had been able to speak. When A

“Eventually, yes,” A

She kissed Nami on her pug nose. The same broad flat nose as Nono, just below A

Nono took A

Nono was cooking mushrooms and rice. She’d put some reconstituted onion in with it, and the strong scent filled the kitchen. A

“Nami will be asleep for at least another hour,” Nono said. “Are you ready to talk about your day?”

“I hurt someone and I lied to the police today,” A

“Wellc okay, you’ll have to explain that,” Nono said, stirring a small bowl of broth into her rice and mushroom mix.

“No, I really can’t. Some of what I know was told in confidence.”

“This lie you told, it was to help someone?”

“I think so. I hope so,” A

Nono stopped and turned to stare at her. “What will you do if you get caught in the lie?”

“Apologize,” A

Nono nodded, then turned back to the pot of rice. “I turned on your desk terminal today to check my mail. You were still logged in. There was a message from the United Nations about the secretary-general’s humanitarian committee project. All those people who they’re sending out to the Ring.”

A

“Shit,” she said. She didn’t like profanity, but some occasions demanded it. “I haven’t responded yet.” It felt like another lie.

“Were we going to talk about it before you decided?”

“Of course, I—”

“Nami is almost two,” Nono said. “We’ve been here two years. At some point, deciding to stay is deciding who Nami is going to be for the rest of her life. She has family in Russia and Uganda who’ve never seen her. If she stays here much longer, they never will.”

Nami was being fed the same drug cocktail all newborns in the outer planets received. It encouraged bone growth and fought off the worst of the effects low-gravity environments had on childhood development. But Nono was right. If they stayed much longer, Nami would begin to develop the long, thin frame that came with life out there. To life in low gravity. A