Leviathan Wakes

Inside the Nauvoo, Miller faces off with Mormon resisters who are protesting the takeover of their ship. They gas the protesters with a relatively harmless riot control substance, then pull everyone from the ship.

Miller listens to the Eros feed. He wonders if it contains some type of code. Outside the station, the Nauvoo begin to move, beginning its journey to Eros. Miller knows that without a treaty, the OPA can’t win against the inner planets—but it also can’t lose. There will be war without end.

Miller joins the OPA operatives traveling to Eros. He asks Diogo why everyone is in such a good mood. Diogo tells him Mars nuked Phoebe. The moon is gone. Miller worries that fragments of Protomolecule might have been flung into space, but it’s still gratifying that someone saw the information and drew the same conclusions. Diogo thinks Mars is on the OPA’s side now, but Miller believes Mars will want samples of the Protomolecule.

Holden is in the galley with the crew, eating breakfast. He doesn’t like keeping his relationship with Naomi secret from the others. Naomi thinks they should keep it quiet. He follows her lead. When Holden asks Naomi to pass the pepper, though, Amos bursts out, “You guys are doing it!” (473). Naomi laughs. Alex is shocked. When Holden insists that it doesn’t change anything, Amos and Alex reassure him no one cares.

An Earth corvette approaches without hailing them. Thinking it intends to blow them up, Holden opens a comm channel and prepares for a shooting match. Holden tells them to stop approaching Eros. He can’t let anyone land there, and his ship outmatches theirs. He’d rather not fire but will if he must; he also promises to blow up the bigger ship the corvette is protecting if they don’t comply.

and Naomi are floating on the ops deck. Naomi tells him Miller is not wrong. Holden is confused. She says she treated Miller badly and owed him better. After all, he saved Holden’s life on Eros. Naomi poses a question: What do you do if someone is out of control? Thinking she means Miller, Holden responds: You contain the person and remove him, or eliminate him if necessary. Naomi says Miller killed Dresden to protect the rest of them. Holden disagrees, arguing that Dresden wasn’t an immediate threat, making what Miller did murder. Naomi observes that Holden is totally uncompromising about what he thinks is right, and that’s exactly what he hates about Miller. They’re both uncompromising, and they have different ideas about what’s right. Naomi insists Miller made the right call, and Holden realizes Miller made his choice knowing the cost.

Naomi gets an alert. Numerous ships are converging on Eros.

Miller listens to the news feeds and those from Eros. Protogen’s role in what happened to Eros has become known, and it doesn’t look good for the corporation.

Miller suits up to land on Eros. Recalling that his imaginary Julie said he belongs with her, he realizes he’s not going to leave Eros. Once properly suited, he heads out with the other OPA techs to set ships and bombs on the station’s surface. When they finish, Miller sends the all-clear, and the returning transport arrives. Miller’s team boards, but Miller doesn’t. Diogo calls him, but Miller says he’s staying. He shuts off his radio. Julie floats beside him, looking peaceful. He smiles and weeps.

Miller watches the Nauvoo approach. He admires its shape: It looks like a massive torpedo. Then, just before impact, the ship makes an unbelievable turn and misses Eros completely. Miller looks at the stars and realizes the Nauvoo didn’t change course—Eros moved out of its way.

The Roci crew is astonished to see Eros shift. The asteroid station is huge, 7,000 trillion kilos of rock—a ridiculous amount of mass to move like it did. Alex says Eros is moving again, and then it disappears from radar. The Roci, close enough to detect that it’s still on course for the sun, chases it.

Holden is lost, feeling like he’s watching the end of the human race with no idea what he’s doing. He calls Fred Johnson and reports on what’s happening. They think Eros is headed for Earth, where the Protomolecule will find 30 billion new hosts. Fred offers to inform Earth and Mars, and suggests detonating some of the bombs on Eros’s surface to change its course and buy some time.

Alex is working hard to keep pace, but Eros keeps speeding up. It might outrun them. Fred says Miller has codes to remotely detonate the bombs. Holden contacts Miller—he sounds strange, distant, but agrees to send the codes. He tells Holden he’s on Eros.

Holden says they’re coming to get Miller, but he declines, saying he went to Eros to die. As for their plan to deflect Eros off course, Miller reminds them that it’s not a rock anymore; it’s a ship capable of evading attack. Miller realizes there’s alien life in the universe, and he’s riding on it, which fills him with awe. He wonders if all the pain and disappointment of his life was to bring him to this point, where he could do something to buy humanity a little time.

Naomi calls Miller. Holden still wants to rescue him, but Naomi thinks Miller is doing the right thing. She sends him the code for a dead-man switch so the bombs will still detonate even if he can’t push the button. When she apologizes for her earlier behavior, Miller simply thanks her for the trigger. He doesn’t want any long goodbyes.

Miller tells Holden he’s entering Eros. Holden starts talking about a rescue plan, but Miller cuts him off. Holden asks if there’s anything Miller would like him to do. Miller asks him to check on links between Julie’s parents and Protogen. Holden also apologizes, saying he’s sorry it came down this way.

Miller sees that his imaginary Julie is illuminated. He goes inside Eros.

Holden knows they can’t keep up with Eros. Humans can withstand high-G speeds for short bursts, but sustained high Gs can be fatal. Eros increases its speed to 6 Gs. It doesn’t have to defeat them—it can just outrun them. When the enemy has the tech advantage, you go as low-tech as you can get, Holden reasons. They have Miller, and maybe one sad detective pulling a nuclear bomb on a wagon will slip through the Protomolecule’s defenses.

Fred calls to report that Earth is prepared to unleash its entire nuclear arsenal on Eros, though Holden points out Eros could just dodge. Fred says they need the Roci to guide the missiles since the station is undetectable on radar. Holden says they can’t keep up, and he refuses to entertain Fred’s next suggestion: going on autopilot to match the station’s speed, which would surely kill everyone on the Roci.

Holden kills the engines. Eros is getting away, but there’s nothing they can do about it now. He refuses to kill his crew. Holden imagines Earth’s destruction. Mars will survive for a while, and the Belt longer, but without Earth and its resources, they will eventually fall too. Humanity will die.

Suddenly, Holden realizes that even though Eros can’t be detected on radar, it hasn’t turned off all radio waves. If they reactivate the transponders on the ships on Eros, they can keep tracking it. Meanwhile, on Earth, the UN unleashes its entire nuclear arsenal. Miller calls Holden, saying, “We have a problem” (516).

Miller struggles to open doors that are encrusted in alien mud. When he finally gets through the doors, the next corridor is illuminated by a blue glow, and blue lights float in the air like fireflies. Miller continues to the casino level, where everything is covered in clear gel and black tendrils. There are no bodies. Miller realizes the dark crust is what once were humans. His imaginary Julie steadies him.

Miller wants to find whatever is powering the Protomolecule—its engine, so to speak. It’s using a lot of energy, and he follows the heat. When he finds a spot that’s three or four degrees hotter than the rest of the environment, he’ll set off the bomb.

He continues toward what he suspects is the alien’s command-and-control center. All the while, he hears the Eros audio feed, which sounds like a combination of whale song, shrieks, and human babble. There’s also one clear voice that sounds like Eros itself speaking. It says, “You can’t take the Razorback!” repeatedly (525). Miller recognizes this voice, and he also realizes that the Protomolecule doesn’t know English or Russian or any of the languages it’s spouting. The dead of Eros aren’t dead; they’re speaking through the Protomolecule. Julie is alive.

Miller links Holden to his suit’s med data. He wants to establish that he’s not hallucinating or demented. He reveals that Julie’s mind is controlling Eros: She thinks she’s driving her Razorback back to Earth, back to home. Miller wants to find her and talk to her, believing he can reason with her. Holden tells him it doesn’t matter: Earth’s entire nuclear arsenal is targeting Eros, and the Martian Navy is coming behind it to make sure nothing survives.

Miller tells Holden to shut down the transponders, but Holden refuses. Naomi runs a medical diagnostic on Miller, worried the Protomolecule has infected him.

Miller insists that if he can talk to Julie, they won’t need to use the nukes. He thinks the Protomolecule was intended to infect single-cell organisms, but then it adapted to a human host, which is nothing like what it was built for. It’s been improvising—learning how to work with humans. Julie sees the run to Earth as a race. She’s not attacking Earth—she’s going home. She infected the Protomolecule as much as it infected her. Miller admits it’s just a hunch, but he’s good with hunches. He knows Julie: She loves people; she does the right thing.

Holden says the stakes are too high, but Miller warns that if they confront Julie, she’ll win. He offers a compromise: If he can’t convince her, he’ll use the code Naomi gave him to set off the bomb. Holden agrees to buy him some time.

Naomi gives Fred the plan to redirect the nuclear missiles. Fred initially refuses, but Holden uses the Protomolecule sample as a bargaining chip. If Fred wants the sample, buying Miller time is the price. Fred agrees.

Miller has four more hours to find Julie. He turns his detective’s mind to the problem. He reasons that Protogen wanted to contain Julie until they were ready to distribute the infection, then considers what they would have done. They’d have put her in a safe room, he reasons. He sees Julie—his ghostly Julie—for just a second, and then she’s gone.

He enters the environment control facility. It’s filled with blue lights, and water is flowing somewhere. He finds Julie, who glitters with tiny points of blue light glittering. The bone spurs have grown into architectural connections to the webs and tendrils all around her. Her legs are gone. Her eyes are closed but shifting under the lids. She’s breathing.

Weeping, Miller puts a hand on her shoulder and tells her to wake up. He rocks her gently. Julie frowns, but he persists. She moans and lifts an arm to push him away. “Come back to me,” he says (543). Her eyes open. They’re not human, but they’re still Julie. Julie asks where she is and who she is. Miller explains the situation and his current mission. Julie’s scared by what’s happening to her, and Miller soothes her.

Julie says she dreamed she was racing home. He says they can’t do that. He gets her to hold the dead man’s switch. He takes off his suit. The Protomolecule latches onto him. He takes the switch back and holds Julie’s hand. He tells her she’s driving the ship, and she needs to change course. He tells her to head for Venus. Julie hesitates, wanting to go home. Miller says they can’t and reminds her she’s a fighter. If they go to Earth, the Protomolecule will eat the people there, just as it consumed her. Miller tells her she’s smarter than the thing that did this to them. She can take control.

Julie repeats that she’s afraid. Miller tells her not to be. He doesn’t know what will happen. Maybe they’ll die. If they don’t, it will be interesting. He tells her not to worry, that they’ll be fine, even as his body begins to transform into Eros.

Someone is hitting the Roci with a targeting laser. It’s the Ravi, a UN ship. The captain, McBride, tells Holden to prepare for boarding or be fired upon. He’s been charged with UNN violations for tampering with Earth’s nuclear arsenal, and she’s been ordered to take over his ship. She gives him 10 minutes to reprogram the missiles, but Holden would rather fight than comply. Alex says the Ravi looks like it’s making an attack run, so Holden orders defensive maneuvers. The Ravi shoots at them, but the Roci avoids taking any hits thanks to Alex’s wild maneuvering. Holden refrains from returning fire.

Eros reappears on the radar screen. It’s changing course—still sunward but heading toward Venus, not Earth. The nukes are no longer needed. The Roci crew wonder where Fred will drop them and realize Earth is now unarmed—an unintended consequence.

The world watches as Eros speeds toward Venus. Eros enters the Venus orbit and then seems to stop. It breaks into pieces that split into increasingly smaller components before disappearing into Venus’s cloud layer. Holden, who doubts the Protomolecule is finished, wonders what will happen next.

Fred is on Ceres, where representatives of Earth, Mars, and the Belt have gathered for a Peace Conference. Fred, representing the Belt through the OPA, is scheduled to give a speech. Unless all three combatants can find a way to get along, there will be no peace. Fred plans to use his speech to reveal that he has the only Protomolecule sample.

Holden enters. He’s upset that Mars wants the Roci back, asserting that he, Naomi, Alex, and Amos have the right of salvage. Fred promises to do what he can. They also discuss the two-kilometer crystal towers growing on Venus, signs that the Protomolecule is not dead. Fred can tell that Miller’s death bothers Holden, who wants Miller to be credited for saving Earth. Fred promises to tell them about Josephus Aloisus Miller: Miller’s sacrifice is a tool, and he’s going to use it.

As Fred approaches the speaker’s dais, he wonders what would happen if he presented himself as the person he is rather than as a symbol. He wonders what would happen if they all revealed themselves as the people they are. In the last few lines, Fred begins his speech. He says, “We stand at a crossroads. On one hand, there is the very real threat of mutual annihilation. […] On the other, the stars” (561). The story ends there.