Page 268 (1/2)
“But it won’t work,” Prax said “Remember? They escape constraint And since they can share inforet harder to hold to any kind of new progra”
The room went silent Prax looked confused
“They can share information?” Avasarala said
“Sure,” Prax said “Look at your energy spikes The first one happened while the thing was fighting Bobbie and the other marines on Ganyot loose in the lab The third spike e killed it with the Rocinante Every time one of them has been attacked, Venus reacted They’re networked I’d assume that any critical information could be shared Like how to escape constraints”
“If they use theainst people,” Holden said, “there won’t be any way to stop the The battles won’t end”
“Um No,” Prax said “That’s not the probleets a little freedoets it more tools to erode raram They’ll revert”
Bobbie leaned forward, her head canted a few degrees to the right Her voice was quiet, but it had a threat of violence that was louder than shouting
“So if they set those things loose on Mars, they stay soldiers like the first one for a while And then they start dropping the bouy did And then they turn Mars into Eros?”
“Well, worse than Eros,” Prax said “Any decent-sized Martian city is going to have an order of nitude more people than Eros did”
The room was quiet On the monitor, Bobbie’s suit camera looked up at star-filled sky while battleships killed each other in orbit
“I’ve got to send sos you’ve made? They aren’t your servants You can’t control theoods I knohy you keptmoron for it, but put it aside It doesn’t er Do you understand what I’? Don’t You will be personally responsible for the single deadliest screwup in the history of hu Holden, so the bar’s not low”
The full recording clocked in at ale from the Rocinante with its stoas attached A fifteen-minute lecture by Prax had to be scrapped when he reached the part about his daughter being turned into a protomolecule soldier, and this ti Avasarala did her best to recapitulate it, but she wasn’t at all certain she had the details right She’d considered bringing Jon-Michael into it, but decided against it Better to keep it in the faht, he wouldn’t get back to her ihing what she’d said, and then when she’d been left to stew for a while, he’d reply
She hoped he’d be sane about it He had to
She needed to sleep She could feel the fatigue gnawing at the edges of herher, but when she lay down, rest felt as far away as hoe for hi more powerfully isolated After an hour, she pulled herself up and walked through the halls Her body told her it wasout of the machine shop, a loud conversation between Holden and Alex about the maintenance of the electronics systealley by his—had a surreal late-night feeling
She considered sending anothertih for a response that anything would do When the answer cae