Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, 3, Band 3) - Softcover

Corey, James S. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316129070 ISBN 13: 9780316129077

Verlag: Orbit, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

The third book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series, Abaddon's Gate opens the door to the ruins of an alien gate network—and the crew of the Rocinante may hold the key to unlocking its secrets. Now a Prime Original series. 

For generations, the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt—was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus's orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark.

Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artifact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.

Abaddon's Gate is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Caliban's War.

"Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." —George R. R. Martin

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes 
Caliban's War 
Abaddon's Gate 
Cibola Burn 
Nemesis Games 
Babylon's Ashes 
Persepolis Rising 
Tiamat's Wrath ​
Leviathan Falls 
Memory's Legion

The Expanse Short Fiction
Drive 
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
Auberon 
The Sins of Our Fathers​

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James S. A. Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. In addition to writing the novels and short stories of The Expanse, they wrote and produced the television series of the same name. Daniel lives with his family in the American southwest. Ty will tell you where he lives when and if he wants you to come over.

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Abaddon's Gate

By James S.A. Corey

Orbit

Copyright © 2013 James S.A. Corey
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-316-12907-7

CHAPTER 1

Holden

When he'd been a boy back on Earth, living under the open blue of sky, one ofhis mothers had spent three years suffering uncontrolled migraines. Seeing herpale and sweating with pain had been hard, but the halo symptoms that led intoit had almost been worse. She'd be cleaning the house or working throughcontracts for her law practice and then her left hand would start to clench,curling against itself until the veins and tendons seemed to creak with thestrain. Next her eyes lost their focus, pupils dilating until her blue eyes hadgone black. It was like watching someone having a seizure, and he always thoughtthis time, she'd die from it.

He'd been six at the time, and he'd never told any of his parents how much themigraines unnerved him, or how much he dreaded them, even when things seemedgood. The fear had become familiar. Almost expected. It should have taken theedge off the terror, and maybe it did, but what replaced it was a sense of beingtrapped. The assault could come at any time, and it could not be avoided.

It poisoned everything, even if it was only a little bit.

It felt like being haunted.

"The house always wins," Holden shouted.

He and the crew—Alex, Amos, Naomi—sat at a private table in the VIP lounge ofCeres' most expensive hotel. Even there, the bells, whistles, and digitizedvoices of the slot machines were loud enough to drown out most casualconversation. The few frequencies they weren't dominating were neatly filled inby the high-pitched clatter of the pachinko machines and the low bass rumble ofa band playing on one of the casino's three stages. All of it added up to a wallof sound that left Holden's guts vibrating and his ears ringing.

"What?" Amos yelled back at him.

"In the end, the house always wins!"

Amos stared down at an enormous pile of chips in front of him. He and Alex werecounting and dividing them in preparation for their next foray out to the gamingtables. At a glance, Holden guessed they'd won something like fifteen thousandCeres new yen in just the last hour. It made an impressive stack. If they couldquit now, they'd be ahead. But, of course, they wouldn't quit now.

"Okay," Amos said. "What?"

Holden smiled and shrugged. "Nothing."

If his crew wanted to lose a few thousand bucks blowing off steam at theblackjack tables, who was he to interfere? The truth was it wouldn't even put adent in the payout from their most recent contract, and that was only one ofthree contracts they'd completed in the last four months. It was going to be avery flush year.

Holden had made a lot of mistakes over the last three years. Deciding to quithis job as the OPA's bagman and become an independent contractor wasn't one ofthem. In the months since he'd put up his shingle as a freelance courier andescort ship, the Rocinante had taken seven jobs, and all of them hadbeen profitable. They'd spent money refitting the ship bow to stern. She'd had atough couple of years, and she'd needed some love.

When that was done and they still had more money in their general account thanthey knew what to do with, Holden had asked for a crew wish list. Naomi had paidto have a bulkhead in their quarters cut out to join the two rooms. They now hada bed large enough for two people and plenty of room to walk around it. Alex hadpointed out the difficulty in buying new military-grade torpedoes for the ship,and had requested a keel-mounted rail gun for the Roci. It would givethem more punch than the point defense cannons, and its only ammunitionrequirements were two-pound tungsten slugs. Amos had spent thirty grand during astopover on Callisto, buying them some after-market engine upgrades. When Holdenpointed out that the Roci was already capable of accelerating fastenough to kill her crew and asked why they'd need to upgrade her, Amos hadreplied, "Because this shit is awesome." Holden had just nodded and smiled andpaid the bill.

Even after the initial giddy rush of spending, they had enough to pay themselvessalaries that were five times what they'd made on the Canterbury andkeep the ship in water, air, and fuel pellets for the next decade.

Probably, it was temporary. There would be dry times too when no work came theirway and they'd have to economize and make do. That just wasn't today.

Amos and Alex had finished counting their chips and were shouting to Naomi aboutthe finer points of blackjack, trying to get her to join them at the tables.Holden waved at the waiter, who darted over to take his order. No ordering froma table screen here in the VIP lounge.

"What do you have in a scotch that came from actual grain?" Holden asked.

"We have several Ganymede distillations," the waiter said. He'd learned thetrick of being heard over the racket without straining. He smiled at Holden."But for the discriminating gentleman from Earth, we also have a few bottles ofsixteen-year Lagavulin we keep aside."

"You mean, like, actual scotch from Scotland?"

"From the island of Islay, to be precise," the waiter replied. "It's twelvehundred a bottle."

"I want that."

"Yes sir, and four glasses." The waiter tipped his head and headed off to thebar.

"We're going to play blackjack now," Naomi said, laughing. Amos was pulling astack of chips out of his tray and pushing them across the table to her. "Wantto come?"

The band in the next room stopped playing, and the background noise dropped toan almost tolerable level for a few seconds before someone started piping Muzakacross the casino PA.

"Guys, wait a few minutes," Holden said. "I've bought a bottle of somethingnice, and I want to have one last toast before we go our separate ways for thenight."

Amos looked impatient right up until the bottle arrived, and then spent severalseconds cooing over the label. "Yeah, okay, this was worth waiting for."

Holden poured out a shot for each of them, then held his glass up. "To the bestship and crew anyone has ever had the privilege of serving with, and to gettingpaid."

"To getting paid!" Amos echoed, and then the shots disappeared.

"God damn, Cap," Alex said, then picked up the bottle to look it over. "Can weput some of this on the Roci? You can take it out of my salary."

"Seconded," Naomi said, then took the bottle and poured out four more shots.

For a few minutes, the stacks of chips and the lure of the card tables wereforgotten. Which was all Holden had wanted. Just to keep these people togetherfor a few moments longer. On every other ship he'd ever served on, hitting portwas a chance to get away from the same faces for a few days. Not anymore. Notwith this crew. He stifled an urge to say a maudlin, I love you guys! bydrinking another shot of scotch.

"One last hit for the road," Amos said, picking up the bottle.

"Gonna hit the head," Holden replied, and pushed away from the table. He weaveda bit more than he expected on his walk to the restroom. The scotch had gone tohis brain fast.

The restrooms in the VIP lounge were lush. No rows of urinals and sinks here.Instead, half a dozen doors that led to private facilities with their own toiletand sink. Holden pushed his way into one and latched it behind him. The noiselevel dropped almost to nothing as soon as the door closed. A little likestepping outside the world. It was probably designed that way. He was gladwhoever built the casino had allowed for a place of relative calm. He wouldn'thave been shocked to see a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Orbit
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0316129070
• ISBN 13: 9780316129077
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 576
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland