Chapter Twenty-Eight: Anna

Anna follows Melba across the Rocinante’s hull into the cargo bay, uncertain of the ship’s layout and low on confidence as her stimulants fade. She arms herself with a taser and cycles into the interior, where a core dump throws the ship onto emergency power.

Tracing the noise aft, Anna finds Melba crushing Naomi Nagata’s throat with a salvage mech. From close range Anna fires her taser; the microdarts strike the mech, violently shorting it out and freeing Naomi. Anna administers field aid as Naomi self-injects meds, and they exchange identities while alarms reset.

When the mech reboots, Melba resumes the attack. Naomi and Anna retreat up a ladder, slam a hatch on the mech’s claw, and initiate a shipboard security lockdown, which traps them more than it stops Melba. Naomi decides they must draw Melba to a defensible spot, get a gun, and kill her to protect the crew in the locked medical bay, but Naomi suddenly collapses from blood loss and shock.

With Melba burning through the hatch, Anna stashes the unconscious Naomi in a suit locker and braces the door with her mag boots. Melba’s torch dies with backup power, and she rages, trying to batter the locker open by hand. The assault warps the door but ends abruptly as Melba, spent and sick, collapses outside.

Silence returns. Anna releases the lock and finds Melba curled up, shuddering and vomiting, her pursuit finally broken while Naomi remains hidden and alive.