The Vital Abyss

This story does not focus on any of the known characters in the main work, and begins as a mystery: a group of people, we soon learn are scientist, is held prisoner in appalling conditions by what appears to be a group of Belters, and the initial description of their plight prompts compassion and a good measure of curiosity about the reasons for such inhuman treatment. Soon enough, though, through the "voice" of the first person narrator, Dr. Paolo Cortazar, we learn that this is the very group of scientist who first studied and then released the dreaded protomolecule on Eros station: this is the moment when all sympathy evaporates, leaving horror and contempt in its place.

Dr. Cortazar's backstory, interspersed with the main narrative details, follows the same path: he grew up amid economic and social difficulties, and had to witness his mother's slow death from Huntington's disease, the very reason that prompted him to scrabble his way up the ladder through academic studies. Once he's contacted by Protogen though, and participates in the experiments with the alien molecule, his total, chilling indifference toward his fellow beings comes to the fore, causing any empathy he might have engendered to vanish into thin air. Cortazar is supremely self-centered, thinking only about his own advancement first and, once he becomes a prisoner, about his escape -- no matter what or who gets trampled in the process.

What I found fascinating here is the fact that he's a compelling character despite his total failure as a human being, a testament to the authors' powerful storytelling and skill with words: in true "mad scientist" fashion, Cortazar not only is able to observe the protomolecule's destructive potential with a dispassionate eye, he admires the alien construct for its complexity and ability to adapt and evolve -- the fact it does so by literally cannibalizing everyone it finds in its path is for him just a part of its fascinating nature. Much worse, though, is his attitude toward his fellow prisoners and particularly the one who becomes his lover during the long imprisonment: once given the chance to be freed in exchange for information on the protomolecule, he accepts these terms and leaves everyone behind him, not for one moment wondering about their feelings or plight, because, in his own words "in the end I didn't actually care".

So very chilling...