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Alex leaves the warmth of a new Tycho relationship to return to the Roci, where he can feel Holden's composure thinning before the coming operation.
Alex Kamal is the Rocinante's Martian-trained pilot, a loyal member of Holden's crew who helped fly the ship through Marco's ambush. On Tycho he has begun a joyful, undemanding relationship with station engineer Sandra Ip, finding in her softness and good humor a private refuge from the war.
Alex also recognizes the cost that the others may miss: Holden's calm confidence has become a performed role, with exhaustion and desperation just beneath it. Naomi grows quiet and concentrated, Amos subtly tense, and news of Free Navy killings and captures tightens the pressure on the ship. When Holden calls the crew to prepare to depart within thirty hours, Alex knows the separation from Sandra may be permanent but refuses false promises. They choose one last affectionate goodbye as friends and lovers, and he returns to the Roci's all-hands meeting with the grief already tempered by being back among his crew.
A middle-aged, stocky Martian man with a warm face, thinning dark hair, a mustache, and an easy Southern-inflected manner; he wears practical pilot's clothes.
Alex is the Roci's pilot and emotional barometer, attentive to both the physical readiness of the ship and the hidden strain in its people.
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