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“They’re wrong,” Holden said, ducking into theIt doesn’t make sense”

“What’s the word, Cap’n?” A to be any use,” Holden said “The locals are stretched too thin trying to keep the place froht-out catastrophe”

“Which is why uns drawn,” Naoain right now?”

Herthe parts that already shone Prax had the sense of walking in on a un first and talks later …” Naomi said “You didn’t used to be him You aren’t him”

“Well, I need to be him today,” Holden said in a voice that closed the subject The silence was unco with the numbers?” Prax asked Holden looked at hi with the numbers”

“They’re saying that the death rate’s going up But that’s got to be wrong The fighting was … what? One day? Day and a half? Why would things be getting worse now?”

“No,” Prax said “That’s right It’s the cascade It’ll get worse”

“What’s the cascade?” Naomi asked Aer case A shotgun

“It’s the basic obstacle of artificial ecosysteh diversity to cushion the syste catastrophic happens That’s nature Catastrophic things happen all the tioes wrong, and there’s only a few coet overstressed Fall out of balance When the next one fails, there are even fewer paths, and then they’re more stressed It’s a simple complex system That’s the technical name for it Because it’s simple, it’s prone to cascades, and because it’s co to fail Or how It’s coainst the wall, his ar him in person He looked the same as he had on the screens, and he also didn’t

“Ganymede Station,” Holden said, “is the ricultural center outside Earth and Mars It can’t just collapse They wouldn’t let it People come here to have their babies, for God’s sake”

Prax tilted his head A day before, he wouldn’t have been able to explain this For one thing, he wouldn’t have had the blood sugar to fuel thought For another, he wouldn’t have had anyone to say it to It was good to be able to think again, even if it was only so he could explain how bad things had become

“Ganymede’s dead,” Prax said “The tunnels will probably survive, but the environmental and social structures are already broken Even if we could soet the environmental systems back in place—and really, we can’t without a lot of work—how oing to jail? So to fill the niche, but it won’t be as here before”

“Because of the cascade,” Holden said