Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, #3)

by James S.A. Corey

“We’re heading out to throw gang signs at Earth and Mars while the Ring does a bunch of scary alien mystery stuff.

Someone with a pocketknife and a few minutes to kill could reach the bedrock of Ceres without much effort. From the ratty look of the corridor, there were a lot of people with knives and idle time.

Even though the only thing she and Tilly had in common was their carbon base, it wasn’t like Anna had a lot of friends on the ship either.

Wear down the façade with too much work or fear or both, and whoever was waiting underneath came out.

Someone behind her made a soft mooing sound, and someone else chuckled. The joke had gone out to the darkness of space even where cows hadn’t.

Being forced to move moist flaps of meat in order to form the words felt sensual and obscene.

Anna drifted down into the vaulted chamber. The reactor room’s walls curving inward like a church, the cathedrals of the fusion age.

“History is made up of people recovering from the last disaster,”

They obsess over air filters and then suck poisonous particulates into their lungs recreationally. It’s a fabulous culture.”

Bull pressed the joystick forward so hard his fingers ached, as if the force would make the machine understand the danger.

If you run into any more of them, there’ll be trouble.” Amos pulled one of the shotguns out from under the sheet and laid it casually across his shoulder. “Man can hope.”