Third in the Moon Dust in Your Lungs, Stars in Your Eyes series.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Expanse.
Jim was sitting in his chair going over the manifest and current supplies when there was a sound of a punch from the kitchen below.
Then Amos made an indignant noise.
"You deserved that!" Jim called down, not even bothering to look up.
"He drank my coffee!" Amos protested, "After he punched me back!"
Jim considered. He was likely to kill anyone who drank his coffee so he understood the sentiment.
"Miller, next time half! Or steal his gin."
"Nah man," said Alex, "Stealing his gin is crossing a line."
"Fine, just his coffee," Jim yelled back down.
"Do you think we could get some cheese?" asked Miller, stepping out the lift, "Maybe make some real lasagna? I think I'm craving the stuff." He sipped from his cup of coffee.
Amos came up after him, holding a new cup of coffee. He glared at Miller, obviously still put out about having his coffee stolen in retaliation for knocking Miller out earlier.
"You know any good black market where we can get that?" Alex asked.
Miller shook his head.
"I do," said Amos, "But I'm not telling."
"I'll buy you a bottle of ganymeade gin, next stop," Miller said.
Amos considered. "Two bottles."
"Deal," said Miller.
"Great," said Jim, "Now that that's sorted out, we have more pressing matters to deal with when we reach Tycho station."
Alex leaned over and paged Naomi to the bridge.
"So," said Jim, "Two problems: Cortezar and the missile with protomolecule."
"Getting rid of one would decrease the risk of having both around," Miller said. "Frankly I think it's the protomolecule that should go."
"I agree," said Jim. "Every other sample but that one is destroyed. We're this close to getting rid of it forever."
"Let's drive the thing into the sun!" Amos agreed.
"I don't think we should destroy it," Naomi objected. "What if we're wrong and it isn't the last sample? Look Miller, you said that Julie infected the protomolecule back. What if there's another sample out there? Who or what infected it back? What would it make of it? I mean, what if we need an uninfected sample one day? To, to get the basic conditions before it started doing whatever protomolecules do?"
There was silence as they contemplated what she said.
"Naomi," said Jim, "I get what you're saying, I do, But I don't even want this to exist so that someone could possibly get a hand on it."
She opened her mouth to answer him but Alex cut her off. "What if we drive this ting into the sun and it changes it? It breaks all the rules, right?"
"Not all of them," Amos said. "Thermodynamics still held. Besides you think this molecule can withstand the heat of the sun?"
"I don't know," said Alex.
"Nobody knows," said Miller, "That's the whole problem."
"I think it needs organic life to work," Jim said, "It left dead bodies alone."
"No, it coated the reactor of the Anubis," said Naomi, "It went for radiation and the sun gives off a lot."
Everyone stopped to contemplate the problem. How do you get rid of something you can't get rid of?
"Let's leave it where it is," Alex finally said. "No one knows it's there and if we go for it now, we'll just tip off people. If push comes to shove, we just drive the thing into Venus, there's enough of the protomolecule there. A little bit more shouldn't make a difference."
"And driving into Venus isn't an option now," said Miller, "because everyone is watching Venus. A missile heading there is going to be noted."
Jim sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Alright," he said, "We leave the thing where it is. But Cortezar."
"I'll just come out and say it, we should kill him. He's psycho."
"Thank you, Miller," said Jim, "You've got your head screwed on right as well."
Amos laughed but said, "No seriously, though. We should probably kill him."
"Amos!" said Naomi.
"Look," said Miller, "People will talk to our favorite, creepy scientist and eventually he's going to start making sense to some of them just like Dresden was making sense. Either you kill him or you put him where nobody will ever find him."
"But we put the protomolecule on Venus," said Alex, "What if we need his help in figuring out what to do if something comes out of that? I don't know about you guys but I don't exactly want to be chasing after a whole planet."
"Why can't things be simple?" Amos said, grumpily.
Jim squeezed his shoulder in a show of solidarity.
"Because it's life," said Miller bluntly.
"That's depressing," said Naomi.
"Blame Jules Pierre-Mao," said Miller.
Jim rubbed his forehead again. He was doing that too much lately. "So we hide him away."
"With a kill switch if someone ever finds him," said Amos.
"With a tracker if someone ever finds him," Naomi interjected.
"You still have to run that through Fred Johnston," Miller told Jim.
Jim's eyes hardened. "He thinks so."
The rest of the crew looked at each other and gave a mental shrug. Whatever Jim was going to do, they'd back him up. That was life.
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