Carrier P5-7 Fail -

But Mira knew the truth now. The carrier hadn’t failed.

The Rocinante , their battered maintenance corvette, drifted in the black between Callisto and Ganymede. They had been en route to repair a minor transponder glitch on P5-7 when the failure alarm had screamed through the ship’s speakers—a sound like a dying animal. Now the silence was worse. carrier p5-7 fail

Mira didn’t blink. She didn’t curse. She simply stared at the string of characters, her breath fogging the inside of her helmet visor. Carrier P5-7 was the primary deep-space relay for the entire Jovian Crescent—a chain of fifteen automated comms stations strung between the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter. Without it, there was no real-time contact with Earth. No telemetry from the outer colonies. No distress signals. No orders. But Mira knew the truth now

She froze, mid-drift. “What?”

“Approaching the object,” Dex said. “Visual in ten seconds.” They had been en route to repair a

“Mayday?” Dex asked.