Babylon's Ashes (Expanse, #6)

by James S.A. Corey

She made the connection request to Said, and he answered immediately. He’d been waiting. “Good morning, Madam Secretary,” he said. “Cut the bullshit. What fresh hell are we facing today?”

I’m sick of every fucking thing I do being under a microscope. If I get an ass polyp, I’ll find out about it on Le Monde.”

“Always good to have a penis in uniform in the room,” Avasarala said sourly. “God knows they might not take me seriously otherwise.”

He’d wondered, watching the newsfeeds, how so many could go missing in a station with people and cameras everywhere. He understood now. All they had to do was

“As long as you always see the next step, you can walk the whole way.”

“That’s the problem with things you can’t do twice,” Naomi said. “You can’t ever know how it would have gone if it had been the other way.”

“An unshakable faith in humanity.” “It’s true,” he said, shaking his head. Or maybe nuzzling a little. “Against all evidence, I keep thinking the assholes are outliers.”

Maybe, if they could find a way to be gentle, the stars would be better off with them.