Tori ran the numbers a third time, but it didn’t change anything. The Huan Xian Zhou had an amazing amount of energy for such a small ship—and it still wasn’t enough.

Sure, it would get the Chinese ship—and their little lifeboat, too—both to Hope with plenty of energy to spare. But that spare energy wouldn’t be enough for Hope’s energy crisis—and refitting and relaunching one of the ships to go out and get more would put the nearest collection pointo out of range for getting to it and returning with supplies before Hope’s energy crisis started costing lives—well, even more lives than it had already cost.

In the chair next to her, Gabe stretched. “About ready to dock?”

“I’m trying not to think about...

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