Page 287 (2/2)
Don’t do this,” Nao, or cry, or make demands All the power of her request lay in its quiet simplicity “Don’t do it”
Holden opened the suit locker just outside the main airlock and reached for his Martian-made armor A sudden and visceral memory of radiation sickness on Eros stopped hi for hours now, right?”
“Don’t go over there,” Naoain
“Bobbie,” Holden said over the co Aear for the assault on the Mao science station After his one encounter with the Mao proto loaded for bear
“What are these standard Martian armor suits rated for radiation-wise?”
“Like mine?” Bobbie asked
“No, not a powered suit I know they harden you guys for close-proxi about this stuff we pulled out of the MAP crate”
“About as h for short walks outside the ship Not so h radiation levels”
“Shit,” Holden said Then: “Thanks” He killed the comm panel and closed the locker “I’ll need a full-on hazard suit Which means I’ll be better in the radiation, and not bullet resistant at all”
“How et yourself massively irradiated before it catches up with you?” Naomi said
“Sarin Naoain and said, “A Whatever’s the hardest thing we’ve got on board”
“Okay,” Amos replied
Holden opened his equipment locker and took out the assault rifle he kept there It was large, black, and designed to be inti It would immediately mark anyone who carried it as a threat He put it back and decided on a pistol instead The hazmat suit wouldany ency If he earing only a service pistol in a hip holster, ithim out as part of the proble, and the ship flooded with radiation, there would be a big probleht, and the protomolecule was linked even without a physical connection, then the goo on the King knehat the goo on Venus knew Part of that was how huether, ever since it had disassehast But it also meant it knew a lot about how to turn humans into vomit zombies It had performed that trick a million times or so on Eros It had practice
It was entirely possible that every single hu was now a vomit zombie And sadly, that was the best-case scenario Vo death to anyone with exposed skin, but to Holden, in his fully sealed and vacuum-rated hazmat suit, they would be at worst a mild annoyance
The worst-case scenario was that the proto humans now, the ship would be full of lethal hybrids like the one he’d fought in the cargo bay That would be an impossible situation, so he chose to believe it wasn’t true Besides, the protomolecule hadn’t made any soldiers on Eros Miller hadn’t really taken the time to describe what he’d run into there, but he’d spent a lot of ti for Julie and he’d never reported being attacked by anything The protoressive and invasive It would kill a million humans in hours and turn the on But it invaded at the cellular level It acted like a virus, not an arht It made what he was about to do seem possible