want that rock to hit Earth any more than you do.”
The silence on the other end continued for another few minutes.
“Captain,” she said, “I believe my superiors would want me to keep an eye on you. We’ll be coming along for the ride while the brains figure this out.”
Holden let out a long, noisy exhale.
“Thanks for that, McBride. Keep trying to get your people on the line. I’m going to make a few calls myself. Two corvettes are not going to fix this problem.”
“Roger that,” the
“I’ve opened a connection with Tycho,” Naomi said.
Holden leaned back in his chair, the mounting gravity of their acceleration pressing against him. A watery lump was gathering low in his gut, the loose knot telling him that he had no idea what he was doing, that all the best plans had failed, and that the end was near. The brief hope he’d felt was already starting to slip away.
“How fast?” Fred Johnson asked incredulously.
“Four g’s now and climbing,” Holden replied, his voice thick as his throat compressed. “Oh, and it’s invisible to radar now.”
“
“There’s, uh, been some discussion,” Holden said, only the acceleration keeping his impatience from showing in his voice. “The question is, now what? The
There was another perceptible increase in pressure as Alex sped the ship up to keep up with Eros. A little while longer and speech wouldn’t be possible.
“It’s definitely headed for Earth?” Fred asked.
“Alex and Naomi are ninety percent or so. Hard to be totally accurate when we can only use visual data. But I trust them. I’d go to where there are thirty billion new hosts too.”
Thirty billion new hosts. Eight of whom were his parents. He imagined Father Tom as a bundle of tubes oozing brown goo. Mother Elise as a rib cage dragging itself across the floor with one skeletal arm. And with that much biomass, what could it do then? Move Earth? Turn out the sun?
“Have to warn them,” Holden said, trying not to strangle on his own tongue as he spoke.
“You don’t think they know?”
“They see a threat. They may not see the end of all native life in the solar system,” Holden said. “You wanted a reason to sit at the table? How about this one: Come together or die.”
Fred was quiet for a moment. Background radiation spoke to Holden in mystic whispers full of dire portents while he waited.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Fred said, interrupting the universe’s lecture on transience. “In the meantime, what are you going to do?”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Holden said.
“Maybe you could detonate some of the surface nukes the demo team put down. Deflect Eros’ course. Buy us time.”
“They’re on proximity fuses. Can’t set them off,” Holden said, the last word turning into a yelp as his chair stabbed him in a dozen different places and injected him full of fire. Alex had hit them with the juice, which meant Eros was still speeding up, and he was worried they’d all black out. How fast was it going to go? Even on the juice they couldn’t sustain prolonged acceleration past seven or eight g without serious risk. If Eros kept this rate of increase up, it would outrun them.
“You can remote detonate,” Fred said. “Miller will have the codes. Have the demo team calculate which ones to set off for maximum effect.”
“Roger that,” Holden said. “I’ll give Miller a call.”
“I’ll work on the inners,” Fred said, using the Belter slang without a hint of self-consciousness. “See what I can do.”
Holden broke the connection, then linked up to Miller’s ship.
“Yo,” said whoever was manning the radio there.
“This is Holden, on the
“Uh… ” said the voice. “Okay.”
There was a click, then static, then Miller saying hello with a faint echo. Still wearing his helmet, then.
“Miller, this is Holden. We need to talk about what just happened.”
“Eros moved.”
Miller sounded strange, his voice distant, as though he was only barely paying attention to the conversation. Holden felt a flush of irritation but tamped it back down. He needed Miller right now, whether he wanted to or not.
“Look,” he said. “I’ve talked to Fred and he wants us to coordinate with your demo guys. You’ve got remote codes. If we set off all of them on one side, we can deflect its course. Get your techs on the line, and we’ll work it out.”
“Huh, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll send the codes along,” said Miller, his voice no longer distant, but holding back a laugh. Like a man about to tell the punch line of a really good joke. “But I can’t really help you with the techs.”
“Shit, Miller, you pissed those people off, too?”
Miller did laugh now, a free, soft sound that someone who wasn’t piling on g could afford. If there was a punch line, Holden had missed it.
“Yeah,” Miller said. “Probably. But that’s not why I can’t get them for you. I’m not on the ship with them.”
“What?”
“I’m still on Eros.”
Chapter Fifty: Miller
What do you mean you’re on Eros?” Holden said.
“Pretty much that,” Miller said, covering his growing sense of shame with a casual tone of voice. “Hanging upside down outside the tertiary docks, where we moored one of the ships. Feel like a freaking bat.”
“But-”
“Funny thing, too. I didn’t feel it when the thing moved. You’d think accelerating like that, it would have thrown me off or squashed me flat, one or the other. But there was nothing.”
“Okay, hold on. We’re coming to get you.”
“Holden,” Miller said. “Just stop it, all right?”
The silence didn’t last more than a dozen seconds, but it carried a wealth of meaning.
“Yeah, I just… ” Holden said. And then: “Okay. Let me… let me coordinate with the technicians. I’ll… Jesus. I’ll let you know what they say.”
