The Expanse, #2
Caliban’s War
by James S. A. Corey
Contents
Chapter Three: Prax
Overview
As Ganymede comes under attack, Prax Meng loses his agricultural dome and the life’s work contained in his engineered soybean project. Trying to reach his daughter during the station lockdown, Prax discovers that fighting has entered the tunnels and that official systems are failing. At Mei’s school, Prax learns that someone posing as Mei’s mother, accompanied by a doctor and backed by valid system credentials, has taken her, turning the wider battle into a personal rescue crisis.
Summary
Praxidike Meng stands in a Ganymede agricultural dome as battle breaks out above the moon and power to the grow lights is cut. A falling orbital mirror is on course to strike the area, threatening the Glycine kenon soybean strains that represent eight years of Prax’s work. Doris urges Prax to evacuate, and Prax delays long enough to dig up one seedling before joining Doris in the industrial lift down into the station.
As the lift descends, Prax reflects on how impossible it had seemed that Earth and Mars would bring war to Ganymede, the food-producing and gestational center of the outer planets. The impact hits before the lift reaches safety, blowing atmosphere from the shaft and confirming that Prax’s dome has been destroyed. Prax and Doris acknowledge the end of their old lives, then separate to survive the crisis.
Prax tries to reach Mei’s day care on level eight, but armed soldiers have sealed the tube station under a security lockdown. Because Prax’s daughter is below and he cannot wait, Prax uses his knowledge of old tunnels to find a neglected maintenance scooter. Prax bypasses guarded ramps and takes an unguarded supply tunnel, noticing scorch marks, blood, an acidic smell, and distant gunfire that reveal fighting has spread inside the station.
On the way down to level eight, explosions shake a vast unfinished cavern, ice collapses, and armored soldiers fire near Prax as Prax races toward the school. Prax finds the school intact, but Mei is gone. Miss Carrie, the teacher, says Mei’s mother collected Mei after snack, yet Prax knows Nicola could not have reached Ganymede and confirms the teacher did not recognize Nicola from Prax’s photo.
Miss Carrie explains that a dark-haired woman with a doctor was in the system, had proper identification, and took Mei without Mei resisting. The station network is down, so Miss Carrie cannot show Prax the records, and Mei may not have her necessary medicine. As gunfire and panic intensify outside the school, Prax tells Miss Carrie to evacuate the children while Prax’s only thought is that he must find Mei.
Who Appears
- Praxidike MengGanymede botanist who loses his research dome and searches desperately for his daughter Mei.
- Mei MengPrax’s daughter; absent from school after being taken by a woman posing as her mother.
- Doris BournePrax’s colleague who pushes him to evacuate before the falling mirror destroys the dome.
- Miss CarrieMei’s young teacher who reveals Mei was collected by someone with valid system credentials.
- NicolaMei’s mother; her identity is apparently used by someone else to remove Mei from school.
- Unidentified womanDark-haired woman who posed as Mei’s mother and took Mei from the day care.
- Unidentified doctorDoctor accompanying the woman who took Mei, suggesting the abduction was organized.
- Lockdown soldiersArmed troops enforcing station lockdown and blocking civilian movement between levels.