Amazing how much we’ve managed to do, considering how we’re doing it all with jumped-up social primates and evolutionary behaviors from the Pleistoce… - James S. A. Corey

Sometimes you don't get redeemed," she said, and here voice made it clear she'd thought about the question. Tired and strong at the same time. "Not every stain comes out. Sometimes you do something bad enough that you carry the consequences for the rest of your life and take the regrets to the grave. That's your happy ending.

It also meant that their reaching out to the artifact had gotten it to reach back. Her experiment was working.
She’d expected success to feel less like fear.

The holy fool who’d dragged the solar system into war and seemed utterly blind to the damage he caused. An idealist. The most dangerous kind of man there was.