Chapter Thirty-Three: Bull

Doctor Sterling orders Bull upright to protect his lungs, warning of mild pneumonia despite his spinal injuries. Chafing at confinement, Bull demands mobility and current status. A call with Captain Jakande confirms Mars will not surrender Holden or further crew, citing MCR code and isolation, despite overextended staffing and shared medical reliance.

Fearing a stressed Martian might kill Holden and recognizing the political value of symbols, Bull endures more setbacks. The nurse reports Cortez’s proselytizing visit, then Sam arrives with a modified lifting mech braced as a TLS orthosis. Strapped in, Bull can “walk” again and tours the wards, embracing all wounded—Belter, Earther, and Martian—as his responsibility.

In the lockdown ward, Bull, Sam, and Corin check high-value patients. Naomi Nagata, battered, confirms her crew are alive; Alex Kamal replies from a nearby bed, and Amos Burton sleeps. Bull informs Naomi that Holden remains in Martian custody; she relaxes about her crew and, drifting off, murmurs about Miller, deepening Bull’s sense of the Rocinante’s unusual situation.

Realizing talk is the only weapon most can wield under the speed cap, Bull privately asks Sam to overdrive Behemoth’s comm laser into a weapon for leverage. Sam refuses, fearing the station’s lethal reactions to perceived threats and insisting she’d only obey Captain Pa. Bull concedes and calls Pa, arguing that if Jakande might surrender to her, arming the comm laser could make Behemoth the only gun in the slow zone.