Quotes from James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn

The usual state of nature is recovering from the last disaster.

No one lived forever. But you fought for every minute you could get. Bought a little more with a lot of hard work.

Or was that fatalism another good move in design space? Did the universe evolve eyes and wings and sense organs and bitter amusement at the prospect of death all the same way?

Dead's not good, but at least it's simple.

There's a dignity in consequences.

A few generations living and dying without a sky, and enclosed spaces lost the atavistic terror of premature burial.