Caliban's War Quotes
"Guard duty around the greenhouses on Ganymede meant doing what you could to keep your mind occupied. Including speculating on the lives of the Marines on the other side."
"The inner planets had all been one big, happy, slightly dysfunctional family. Then Eros, and now the two superpowers were dividing up the solar system between them."
"Bobbie’s armor had been designed to let a soldier walk through a nuclear bomb crater minutes after the blast. It also worked well at keeping Jupiter from frying Martian Marines."
"Above, the sun—not even a disk from here as much as the brightest star—flashed as it passed behind Jupiter’s limb, and for a moment the planet’s faint ring system was visible."
"If Earth decided it needed Ganymede all to itself, four grunts walking around the greenhouse dome wouldn’t stop them."
"A rhythmic squeaking started to cut through the normally smooth hiss and thump sounds her powered armor made."
This suit is ancient," Hillman said. "You really oughta upgrade. This sort of thing is just going to happen more and more often, you know.
"Snoop’s bringing up the rear. Poor guy. Can we bail too?"
"She couldn’t blame them. It was make-work. Something for the Martian soldiers on Ganymede to do to keep them busy."
"And if she never came back, those footprints would outlive her. Privately, she thought it was sort of creepy."
"The small figure suddenly enlarged in her targeting reticule. She felt a chill move down her back, and magnified again."
"The Earth forces weren’t attacking. They were retreating."
"She raised her gun and held down the trigger for half a second before she realized she’d run out of ammo long before."
"This is how I go out, and I’m not going to know what did it, or why. Dying she could handle. Dying without any answers seemed terribly cruel."
"By the time she found the external door into the dome, there was only one other marine left with her."
"We’re the last ones. Now get in the lift."
"Doris was in the industrial lift, ready to descend into the caves and tunnels of the station."
"His dome was compromised. His dome was gone."
"He couldn’t believe the military bastards had actually started shooting each other."
"Even on the bad days, he had to think he’d gotten the better end of that deal."
"Naomi was seated at the sensor and communications panel, tracking their progress in pursuit of the fleeing pirates."
"No one’s shooting anyone today," Holden said after he shut the comm link off.
"It’s a hundred pale suns. He couldn’t believe that they’d betray him."
"The cart hummed and clanked, falling deeper under the surface ice, sliding into the network of tunnels that made up the bulk of the station."
"It was an insane thought. The mirror plummeting toward the surface of Ganymede—toward his greenhouse, his soybeans, his life’s work—hadn’t chosen anything."
She was on the computer," the teacher said. "She was in the system. It showed her.
"They wouldn’t have a war around children. Or food supplies. Or fragile agricultural domes."
"There was a flash, then a concussion, and the scooter was fishtailing."
"She hadn’t met the new teacher, Miss Carrie, more than a few times, when dropping Mei off or picking her up."
"The children were in a circle, singing a song about an ant traveling through the solar system, with rhymes for all the major asteroid bodies."
"She threw herself through the door and Doris pressed the control display. The wide metal room of the lift lurched, shifted, and began its descent."
"We have no transmissions from the platoon for the entire fight, and no uploaded data."
"If it’s a Martian weapon, they’ll show it by what they bring to the table."
"The Buddha smiled serenely, and she chuckled at him, as if sharing a private joke."
"I’m going to find out which of the three we’re looking at. If it’s one of the first two, I’ll solve the problem."
"The elevator that rose from the common lobby and meeting rooms up to the offices glittered like spun diamond set in steel."
"There were thirty billion people on the planet, but they would never crowd out the pigeons."
"It was springtime, and the snow that had touched the city since December was finally gone."
"The generals pretended not to notice her exit, or maybe they were so wrapped up in the new set of problems she’d handed them, they really didn’t."
"Because that’s where you want to be? We can go together when you’re home."
"The Gautama Buddha beside the desk, and a cut crystal vase with the flowers that her husband, Arjun, sent every Thursday."
"The place smelled like fresh blooms and old pipe smoke, though Avasarala had never smoked there and didn’t know anyone who had."
"Naomi flicked off her mic and added, 'Asshole.'"
"We’ve been cleared by the UN patrols, and you’ve had us holding in low orbit for three hours now."
"And it has the added benefit of reducing your temptation to diddle each other during those long cold nights on the ship."
"Every day it sat on the ground here, people were losing a fortune."
"Seen from low orbit and their descent path, the surface of Ganymede didn’t look much different than it ever had."
"Even at its best, the Jovian moon was a wasteland of gray silicate rock and slightly less gray water ice, the entire thing pocked with craters and flash-frozen lakes."
"Holden spotted the almost skeletal remains of a destroyer stretched across the landscape at the end of a long black scar."
"Slamming one into the other, and leaving both lying in ruins, struck Holden as being as stupidly shortsighted as shitting in your water supply to deny your enemy a drink."
"By the time the Somnambulist had set her creaking bones to rest on their assigned landing pad, Holden had lost all patience with human stupidity."
"You can call me Mr. Not-putting-up-with-your-bullshit."
"Ain’t bullying so much as stress relief," Amos said amiably.
"A small house is a deeper kind of luxury."
"I don’t give a drippy shit what you or the OPA thinks about anything, and especially not my chances of doing my job. So why don’t you fuck off before the shooting starts?"
"The way some plants advertised their poisons by bright foliage, the security center advertised its impregnability."
"Then you ran into something that your training couldn’t prepare you for, and against which you had no defense. And you lost your teammates and friends."
"This is post-traumatic stress disorder, Bobbie. It’s not a weakness or some kind of moral failure. It’s what happens when you live through something terrible."
"If her skin didn’t tingle and throb a little when she toweled off, she’d done it wrong."
"Humanity’s always lived with the inexplicable."
"The inexplicable didn’t used to eat planets."
"It’s not healthy having God sleeping right there where we can all watch him dream."
"You want to get right out into it right the fuck now. Get it over with."
"I love you for it. Stay here. Read about post-lyricism."
"The same thing as always. Try to keep civilization from blowing up while the children are in it."
"I can’t tell you what that means coming from you, sir."
"Political briefs never capture the really important things."
"I think you haven’t read the fucking briefs."
"We need clarity, and we need it a month ago."
"The protomolecule is loose on this station."
"We do that now? Seems like the scope of our mission is creeping a bit."
"You want to find out who killed your men and you want the politicians to stop greasing the wheels with Marine blood."
"If you want to stop this idiotic fucking war and find out who’s actually behind it, get back to your desk and find out who wants what wording."
"I’ll try not to oversell the point in the future. Now get back to work."
"Your daughter is probably dead," he said aloud.
"The death of the Arboghast was something else. It was intentional and inhuman. It was like seeing the face of God and finding no compassion there."
"I love you, I have always loved you, if we are born into new lives, I will love you there."
"We’re on the same team here. Team Let’s-Not-Lose-Together. That is us, isn’t it?"
"I’m not a traitor," she said to her reflection in the mirror. Mirror Bobbie looked unconvinced.
"The worst kind of traitor, because ultimately everything that’s happened to you since you came to Earth was because you were pouting."
"Are you standing at attention?" Avasarala said, looking up at her for the first time. "Jesus. I’m not about to march you out to the firing squad."
"I watched you die," he said, not looking at Amos.
"Cap," Amos said with a grin. "Anything that kills me has already killed everyone else. I was born to be the last man standing. You can count on it."
"It’s trying to move up a radiation gradient. It’s like a root heading toward water."
"It’s off the table," Naomi said. "The captain’s life is more important than a quick fix."
"We’re not even a skeleton crew. We’re whatever you have when you don’t have a skeleton."
"It’s like a visual illusion flipping between a vase and then two faces, then back again at the speed of perception."
"I’m not a traitor," she said to the mirror. Front hallway mirror Bobbie seemed more open to this idea than bathroom mirror Bobbie had.
"If I were a religious man, I’d say it meant something."
"I’m not giving away the fucking game yet."
"Players at their level didn’t deceive each other."
"There was nothing better than being underestimated."
"Humanitarian aid," he replied. "Bullshit."
"She’s got a fine daddy, Doc. You give a shit, and that’s more than a lot of people ever do."
"We’re finding your kid. You don’t need to get someone else."
"You make a dick of yourself and I’m not the one that told you."
"It’s because I’m the fucking boss. I run this outfit."
"Who are we? What do we want to do? Because when this contract with Prax is over, the bank account will be well padded, we’ll own a high-tech warship, and we’ll be free to do whatever we damn well want to do."
"A company can own a ship, but a company can’t be the registered captain. We’ll need to vote for whoever holds that title."
"I’ve been treating you all like you owe me something. And none of you do. And that means I’ve been treating you like shit."