Th 20 Elvi
Elvi's in the bar. Shes making nice with Lucia. But all the while she's thinking that Lucia's husband is a terrorist that tried to kill her. Lucia leaves and Elvi expresses herself to another RCE science guy. This guy makes it clear to Elvi that she doesn't have any actual knowledge of what Basia did or didn't do. There's a lot of opinion and not a lot of fact at the moment. Elvi tells Amos taht she wants to talk to Holden about the protomolecule but they saw in the desert that one of the RCE jackbooted thugs shot. It's not that she's just coming up with an excuse to be near him. Cause it's not like she's totally 100 percent in love with him. Or maybe it is. Holden's lovable.
ch 21 Basia
The Rocinate shows up and takes Basia away. Back up in orbit they basically treat Basia like he's part of the crew. Talking about the shuttle that the RCE looks to be trying to turn into a weapon of some sort. Either a bomb they can drop on the colony or a drop ship they can attack the Rocinate with. Either way Naomi hates it. She's gonna disable the thing
ch 22 havlock
Havelock is looking through the news from back home. He watches some football highlights. News from back home about the violence escalating on New Terra. It says RCE killed between 7 to 16 people in the house they burned down. talk that the OPA might start a ring blockade.
They're gonna practice doing a breach. They're outside in space suits with magboots trying to get tot he spot where they'll be trying to open up the ship to get inside. paint balls and what not. They turn off thier lights trying to stay dim. But someone shoots themselves trying to also block out their battery light.
They see someone welding on the shuttle. I'm assuming that's Naomi. They see they've been spotted. The welding stops and they run away. Havelock's happy he's not being shot at. Now everyone is shooting at the welder. Havelock sees her. It's Naomi.
interlude, the investigator
113 times a second it's trying to communicate with the creators of the protomolecule. My thought is it's the protomolecule on the Rocinante that's communicating with the protomolecule on New Terra and that's why we're getting a lot more activity now. This whole situation of constant attempt and failure is driving the part of it that's Miller is driving him nuts. But it's learning stuff even though it's all failure. It's making a map of what it can't communicate with.
Ch 23 Holden pg 230
RCE has naomi, Amos had the head RCE guy at gunpoint. Holden says let him go. Holden's gonna have to negotiate her release. Miller shows up and tells Holden he needs him to go somewhere. He's got pretty much the while planet mapped out. Except for.this.one spot. The hopeful idea is there's something broken ther there Miller can fix. Not so.hopeful is the idea that whatever is there is fubar. The scary idea is whatever killed the protomolecule aliens destroyed whatever used to be there and they might be there still. Lurking in the shadows like a creepy creep. Holden's going to bed so he can stay up worrying all night and tomorrow morning he negotiates Naomi 's release and give as to explore Miller's spot. Amos has a super clever response to this “Nothing in the afternoon, then.”
Chapter Twenty-Four: Elvi pg 240
Elvi is having a weird dream where she's trying to turn in paper work but is stuck in line behind the governer who's waiting for his death certificate. Fayez, this other scientist who is super cool and deserves to be named in this book report, is knocking on her door and she wakes sup. One of the moons is melting. Elvi goes to visit holden. She finds Basia's son hanging out outside looking up to no good. She talks him into going inside to talk to Holden to see if the kid can talk to his dad. Holden says sure,bring over your handterminal and we'll get it hooked up to the ships network. Amos tells Holden the kid was packing. Elvi starts talking to Holden about hibernation. That's basically what the protomolecule has been doing for a billion years. But everything that's waking up is waking up broken. Statistically that's o of the charts weird.what that likely means is that lots of protomolecule is waking up properly and it's going unnoticed because that's what it's supposed to do.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Basia pg 250
Basia's son calls him and they talk about stuff. Alex and Basia talk about how easy it would be for Alex to blow this the RCE SHIP. Alex tells.Basia his sad.life story. Basically, he's a pilot and even when he should be retired and able to spend all his time with his wife, he just couldn't and so he signed up to be a long haul water pilot. All this time we thought the destruction of the caturbery and the ensuing BS was the thing that killed his marriage. Turns out he killed it long before that.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Havelock pg 261
Havelock gets Alex's message about blowing them up if they mistreat Naomi. The captain wants them to return her so he's guaranteed to have his ship stay in one piece. Havelock seems inclined to do so. Havelock calls down to the planet to talk to Murtry about it. Hurry says keep.her in the brig. They have free reign to do whatever they want. Havelock tries to convince Naomi they're good people and to tell Alex to back off. In doing so he tells her that he was Miller's partner. Small universe.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Elvi pg 271
Elvi is wat Ch ing butterflies. She finds a dead one to inspect.She thinks it's not an a animal but a small protomolecule machine. She talks to Fayez about it. He's kinda losing his shit. There's so many currently unexplainable things on this planet. Like this gigantic volcano on a planet that doesn't have tectonic plates. Kinda hard to do real science when your brain is interpreting everything as magic.
Elvi goes to visit the doctor. She has a boy with Ann eye infection of alien origin. he is losing his sight. This is why Elvi was freaked out that the biodome didn't get set up. This world has been infecting the people that landed here from day one.this is just the first time it's been really bad. The current theory is that it's something in the rain. Everyone needs to stay out of the rain.
Elvi goes to tell Holden. Holden is busy listening to a message from Avasarala. So she starts to tell all this to Amos. The longer she talks the more emotional she gets. By the time Holden comes over she's sobbing uncontrollably. That seems like the right thing to do.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Basia pg 281
True to their word, the crew of the Roci has put Basia to work. He's outside welding one of the arms on one of the middle bays. They are keeping their eye on the RCE ship . They can also see the colony ship. Basia's daughter is on that ship. Alex gives them a call so she and Basia can chat. Super sad thing she says she will never see him again.
Remember that volcano Fayez was freaking out about? It erupts us with the power of an atomic blast. That part of the planet starts to concave. Giant waves are going out in all directions. They look like they are not going to slow down on their way around Ilus to wipe out all the people in the surface.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Holden pg 290
Alex calls and tells Holden what they're in for. They get everyone on the doomed.planet together to talk options. A lot of people want to evacuate. They don't have that kind of time. They estimate six hours. They might be able to get everyone loaded on the shuttles by then, but taking off in the midst of a cataclysmic event has a very low chance of success. So they're gonna wait it.out. I'm the caves? He'll no!!! It's gonna flood and they'd all drown to death. They can't stay in the huts. Amos can kick down all of them in ten minutes. The coming storm is gonna destroy all that in a second.
So where can they whether the storm? The alien ruins. They have stood for a billion years. They should be able to handle a storm. Elvi has a table that makes water. But we've got a family missing. Nothing to do about it now. The storm is here and all they can do at this point is hunker down and hope for the best.
Chapter Thirty: Elvi pg 301
They are hunkering down in the alien ruins. Elvi is thinking it's just a matter of time before the storm destroys the ruins. Then everyone is going to die. The ruins hold through the worst part of the storm that lasts about fifteen hours. Everything is covered with n mud.
Now that it's just a normal really bad storm Amos is going out with Wei (remember her? She shot the protomolecule monster when Holden specifically told her not to.) Fayez is also going even though Elvi doesn't want him to. Everything is a blur of activity as Elvi tries to stay busy so as to keep her panic at bay. Not sure when she tried to sleep, but she wakes up leaning on Fayez. They didn't find anything. All that remains is mud. There's no remaining evidence that people were ever there.
Chapter Thirty-One: Holden pg 311
Everything is horrible. The whole planet is just thick mud now. Kind of amazing it isn't too thick for people to walk in. Holden saw a tornado when he was a kid. Gave him nightmares for years. This is soooo much worse. There's little slugs popping out of the mud all over the place.
pPg 313 has a misprint, had terminal, lol
They go back to the alien ruins. Things are worse. The slugs are poisonous. You touch them with your bare hands and you die. Holden has decided we're all getting off this planet. There's a bit of a tense moment when he delivers the news to the RCE dick. But he agrees to help get everyone evacuated.
There's still three hundred pages left in this book, so I'm guessing this won't go smoothly.
Chapter Thirty-Two: Havelock pg 321
Havelock and Naomi are chitchatting about how to best handle this nightmare they're in. Praying is the top vote getter at the moment. One of the engineers in the militia team wants to talk to Havelock. Lots of B.S. conspiracy theories. When people get too scared to see things for how they are, they make up a lot of stuff to distract themselves from it. Naomi and Havelock chitchat more about that. Havelock takes a call from that dick Murtry. He's immediately telling Havelock how the plan is to act like they are going along with the evacuation plan when really it's a chance for RCE to get their people in charge of the planet. What a dick.
They load up a shuttle to send down with supplies. The shuttle gets blown up in the way down. From Havelock 's perspective it.looks like one of the moons shot it down. He gets a call from the captain. Things are really bad. Havelock thinks maybe the moon shot them too. Not that bad, but they're working on battery power. The reactor has shut down, they can't get it running again and they don't know why.
Chapter Thirty-Three: Basia pg 332
all the ships reactors.are offline. Nobody has any idea why. It's just a matter of time until they crash into the planet. But that time.is very different between the three.of.them. The Roci has enough battery power to keep them up for years. The RCE ship can go for weeks but it's gonna be hard because they have a lot of people on that ship so they will burn a lot of.juice keeping everyone alive. The settlers ship is in really bad shape. They have a few days. This is driving Basia nuts. He keeps demanding that they go save his daughter cause she's on that ship. Alex says if he doesn't chilax he'll be locked in his quarters. Holden calls and they tell him how screwed they are. Holden's idea is they need.to convince the RCE folks to let Naomi go so she can help fix the problem. Alex calls Havelock and suggests the idea. Havelock doesn't seem that receptive to the idea. But fur real I think he thinks it's a good idea. He likes Naomi and would probably prefer to have her as a co-worker than a prisoner.
Interlude: The Investigator pg 340
The big reveal here is that the protomolecule is still vaguely aware of all the people it killed in Eros. Also that it has killed Miller a lot as Miller has repeatedly gone outside the bounds the protomolecule set for him. But unlike all the other voices in the protomolecule 's head, Miller still has a good idea of his identity. Hat, lips and the desire for a beer. But he doesn't really feel.feelings.like we hoped he might.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Holden pg 342
things are not very, things are very not ok. The primary problem is the poison slugs. They're digging a trench around what they are hoping will be a spot for a shelter. They got a lot of people with no place to sleep at the moment. Holden goes behind the alien ruins alone to see if he can have a chat with Miller. Miller shows up with a get and as per usual Holden rudely cuts him off with a we need to talk. They talk about how Miller is not in control of any of this. But they can use the lessons from the ring. No high energy, low speed and you're less likely to be seen as a threat. Holden says he can work with that. He tells Murtry that maybe they can parachute down supplies from the RCE SHIP. Murtry is down, he's gonna get people to start working on it. HOLDEN wants to call this guy an asshole. He seems disappointed that Murtry isn't gonna argue with him. Murtry is real focused on his goal of RCE taking over the planet. He would be fine with killing all the settlers to make that happen. But he's also ok with them.leaving alive.
Holden goes off by himself to talk to Miller. Miller continues to explain how useless he is right now. He wants Holden to go north to the blind spot. The response is so good I had to copy and paste it. “Miller,” he said, rounding on him suddenly. “I am so far from giving a shit about your needs I can’t even see it from here.” But Miller is like, if we fix the dead spot, maybe I can help more. Maybe get your reactors back online. Holden is like, if you're lying to me, I'm gonna find that glob of protomolecule that's keeping you connected to us and take a flame thrower to it.
Elvi has been looking for Holden, more bad news. Everyone is gonna go blind real soon.
Chapter Thirty-Five: Elvi pg 351
The green organisms that live in the clouds are a significantly bigger problem now that it's raining nonstop. she tells all this to Holden and he's all like, whatever you need, we'll make it.happen. Elvi touched his arm and he.put his hand on her hand. It gets her all hot and bothered. she goes back to the RCE camp and talks to Fayez about her feelings for Holden. She feel like she needs to go to him and tell him cause that's the right thing to do. Also cause she can't think of anything other than Holden and it's really interfering with her work and lives are on the line. Fayez says that's silly. The problem is that she's been celibate for the full two years of this mission. Everyone else has been coupling off and boning and decoupling and funding someone else to bone. Why doesn't she bang one out with him and see if it helps.
when did they get buildings built so the have the privacy to have sex? Well, they do it and it totally works. When she wakes up she goes to her.microscopes and computers and is able to focus on the work without thinking about Holden at all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Havelock 360
Lots of people back on earth are asking for co!me t on what is going on there. Havelock has a canned response that's basically, i. Busy ask RCE corporate for a comment. He takes Naomi to the gym. It's all lots of attitude. Some against Naomi cause she's the enemy and some from belters against Havelock cause he has a better in.prison. RCE Security a hole calls to ask about the drop. It's on schedule lots of food and stuff to make water. A hole says the next drop needs to be a permanent shelter that they can build without having to see it. Naomi tells Havelock that a hole wants to build a nice tomb stone for the next a hole to come see when they're all dead.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Elvi pg 370
The problem with everyone going blind is getting really bad. But there's a glimmer of hope. Holden hasn't been affected. Elvi tells him he's special and he thinks she's talking about her romantic feelings for him and he shuts that down. She explains that it's not that, but that was a problem before but not now. Now it's that he's the only one not infected by the green things and she needs all sorts of samples from him. He immediately agrees to give her whatever she needs. She's been working for ten hours without a break for food so Fayez brings her food. He also brings her his feelings. She says let's talk about pur feelings when we aren't all going blind.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Holden pg 381
Everyone is going blind and it makes it hard to look out for the poisonous sligs. One guy had his pants covered in slugs so H Holden pushed him down and took off his pants to save his life. The wind is causing the supply drops to land all over the place and they're running out of people that can see well enough to go get them. So Amos is working on boo idling Holden a car to go get the drops when he's the only one left that can see. Holden is telling Amos to go back in the ancient ruins (oh ,yeah, they are all still staying in the ruins. Nobody has built any structures.) So he'll be safe from the slugs. Amos says he can't take the whining sadness of all these people starving to death and going bl ind. At least out here he won't punch anyone who annoys him with their whining.
Elvi calls and tells Holden to get back to the lab ASAP. Murtry sees Holden and they talk about picking up the supply drops. Murtry says Amos is a good mechanic and maybe he can build that car and solve that particular problem. Bigger thing is the structure coming down in the next drop. Murtry wants Holden's help convincing people to.help.him build said structure. Holden is noncommittal on that.
Holden goes to the lab. He's the only one that can see well enough to read the computer. It takes a few hours fpr.them to get it all reported out. They sent know if the data helps or not. We’re looking for a needle in a complex organism.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Basia pg 392
Basia is using the time they've got left to talk to his family before the other twp.ships crash to their doo. And everyone on the surface starves to death. Basia's talking to his son about all the horrors. As horrible as it all is, the rain and lightening on Ilus is a wonderful thing to a kid that spent their whole life in asteroid tunnels, moon bubbles and space ships.
Basia talks to his daughter. ShE tries to keep.it light and fun mostly stuff she's learning on the ship. But he can tell she's scared. Also the Roci did some.more math and figured out that ship has only got battery to keep them in penis for five more days. They call Holden to talk about it. He asks if they could try to tow it into higher orbit. Alex isn't sure, maybe with Naomi's help they could figure.o it a way to do it. So Alex and Basia come.up with a plan to get Naomi back. Alex is.gonna launch Basia over there in an armored suit with a blow torch and a gun. Here he comes.
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