Cibola Burn (Expanse, #4)

by James S.A. Corey

He climbed into the suit, then clumped through the ship to the cargo bay. To what he was pretty sure was Miller’s final resting place. He waited in the cargo bay airlock while the outer doors cycled open, putting the compartment into total vacuum, then went in. If something went wrong, if what was left of the protomolecule on his ship decided to defend itself, he’d be in vacuum with an airlock blocking entry into his ship. He sealed the airlock behind him, and told Alex to lock out local control on the door until he called and asked him to open it. Alex agreed without asking why. And then Holden began methodically tearing the cargo bay apart. Five hours later, and one air recharge for the suit, he found it. A small blob of flesh no larger than the tip of Holden’s finger, attached to the underside of a power conduit behind a detachable panel in the cargo bay’s bulkhead.