Caliban's War

Avasarala prepares a message to the secretary-general explaining that the experiment of protomolecule-hybrid soldiers is going to fail because the resulting creatures are in direct communication with whatever is on Venus. She urges him to act. She comforts Prax, who is worried that Mei might be dead, promising not to bomb Io until they know what’s happened because “I don’t kill children” (492), explaining that she presents like a hard-ass so people don’t think she is weak. She receives a message from Arjun telling her he loves her.

Avasarala talks with Admiral Souther, and then receives a message from Errinwright claiming he was trying to protect her, but now someone she loves is going to get hurt. Avasarala believes these are empty threats. The UN secretary-general announces an investigation into recent accusations that will connect to Errinwright, ending his career. All that’s left now is Nguyen, his protomolecule warriors, and whatever is happening on Venus.

Bobbie recalls how hard she worked in training because she wanted to get selected to the Martian Marine Force Recon. She’d wanted it, in part, to make her father proud. As she works on refitting her armor, she reviews what she knows about how the hybrid creatures fight. She’s convinced she’s going to die battling them, but her plan is to do as much damage as she can. She sends a message to her family and an apology to Captain Martens, the grief counselor, thanking him for trying to help her. Holden shows her his present: incendiary-tipped bullets for her suit’s automatic gun.

As they near Io, Holden is shocked at the assembled armada. Avasarala wonders, as does Holden, how many UN ships will take orders to fire on one of their own. Avasarala considers that empires fail when they try to colonize more territory than they can hold. As the ships near, Holden asks Souther, who is leading one of the UN contingents, to identify UN friendlies so he doesn’t shoot the wrong ships. Someone on Io announces that they are prepared to unleash a lethal biological weapon on Mars if Martian ships do not leave Io’s orbit. As the admirals debate, Prax gets nervous. Avasarala munches on pistachios. As the secretary-general announces that he is recalling Nguyen, the Roci’s alarms go off.

Command of the UN fleet passes to Souther. Nguyen’s loyalists start firing; their torpedoes are getting through defenses and harming Souther’s ships because the missiles aren’t marked as threats. When Souther demands surrender, every UN ship does so except for Nguyen’s. Naomi reports missiles coming from the ground; Bobbie realizes that they’ve launched the monstrous protomolecule hybrids. The transponders on the creatures go dark, meaning they are no longer identifiable targets for the Roci’s weapons systems. Noami reports that one of the monsters has hit Nguyen’s ship.

Nguyen sends out a distress call asking for evacuation. Avasarala demands containment and quarantine. She tells Nguyen to turn on the transponders so they can track and destroy the creatures. He agrees, but only if Avasarala rescues him. Avasarala is disgusted “at this angry, small, shortsighted, frightened little man and tried to find the way to pull him back to simple human decency” (527). Holden orders the others to land on Io and says he will take the Razorback to Nguyen’s ships and get the codes.

Holden puts on a suit that will protect him from radiation and selects his weapons. Naomi doesn’t want him to go. She insists he stay in communication and they work together rather than trying to solo the situation: “No hero bullshit” (535), she tells him.

Holden reaches Nguyen’s ship and boards. A UN sailor attacks him with a wrench. His name is Larson, and he was in the locker when the hybrid boarded. Holden tells him to get in a suit and help him find the command information center. Holden sees what looks like tiny blue fireflies flickering in the air—pieces of the protomolecule attempting to infect as many people as it can. The protomolecule has turned the crew into blue-eyed vomit zombies that spray infectious brown goo. Holden shoots them while Larson tries to open the elevator, which has closed on his arm.

In the CIC, they find Nguyen. He offers to hand over the codes if Holden gets him off the ship. Holden shoots him and takes the codes. They find the ship’s self-destruct button, but it doesn’t have a timer; this means whoever presses it will die with the ship. Larson says he’ll press the button. There’s a tear in his suit beneath a smear of brown goo. Holden is flying the Razorback back to the Roci when Nguyen’s ship explodes.

Bobbie puts on her armor while Amos watches. Alex lands them on Io, and Bobbie exits with Amos and Prax. She sends the two men into the lab and stays outside to fight the hybrid creature approaching them. Her gun hurts it but doesn’t stop it. She uses what she learned from her video review. The creature throws its own self-destruct bomb at her, knocking Bobbie down. While her armor is rebooting, the creature probes her suit, trying to inject brown goo. Bobbie blows its head off.

Prax leads Amos through the maze-like lab. They find the room where Strickland and another woman have half a dozen children in cages. Mei recognizes her father. Strickland kills the woman and claims he was forced to perform the experiments. Prax at first doesn’t recognize Mei; she’s five now. Amos doesn’t believe the doctor’s claims and shoots him. He and Prax bring the kids to the surface and meet up with Bobbie. She has to blow her uniform as it’s covered in goo. They board the Rocinante.

Avasarala talks with Souther about what happens next. The children are being cared for and reunited with their families. The transponder codes have given them a lock on the hybrids flying toward Mars. Avasarala is going to return on the Rocinante, in part for the political optics: “heading back with James Holden and Sergeant Roberta Draper and Mei Meng? It has all the right symbolism” (568). She thinks about offering Prax the job of directing the rebuilding on Ganymede. In the machine shop, she finds Bobbie and Amos playing with Mei by tossing her through the air in low gravity. Avasarala is being promoted to second-in-command, Errinwright’s old position. Bobbie thinks she might go home to Mars for a while. When they return to Luna, Arjun is there to greet Avasarala.

Holden calls his parents and invites them to come to Luna to meet Naomi. His mother is concerned that Naomi is a Belter. Holden and Avasarala confront Jules-Pierre Mao. Holden asks him if all the destruction he’s caused was worth it. Avasarala promises to lock Mao up and erase his legacy.

The UN sponsors a reception dinner where the crew of the Roci has a central table. Holden asks Prax about the possibility of genetic mutations if Belters bear children. Avasarala reports that Fred Johnson nuked the hybrids flying to Mars as they passed through the Belt. Suddenly, Avasarala leaves the banquet and the crew follows. In a conference room, a screen shows a feed of Venus. Something larger than a moon has launched into space and is flying away.

Holden rewatches the Venus video with Naomi, worried that this new development could mean the end of humanity. Then, the dead Detective Miller appears with blue fireflies floating around him. He tells Holden they have to talk.