Alex Kamal (Books)

This page is about the  books character. For the TV incarnation, see Alex Kamal (TV).

Books character	TV character

Alex Kamal is a space ship pilot of the Rocinante, where he also manages fire control.

Appearance[]

Alex has thinning black hair, a round cheerful face and a deep brown skin coloration appearing to be South Asian. Martian-raised, he has a frame thicker than a Belter’s but with a spreading waistline.

He speaks with a Texas accent, common to the settlers of the Mariner Valley, where he was born an only child to older parents.

Biography[]

Background[]

At some point, Alex went to school in Londres Nova. He has an ex-wife, Talissa.

He served in the MCRN for twenty years, stationed on Hecate Base on Olympus Mons at bootcamp, and later on the Bandon. His most recent job was one of the pilots for the Canterbury, flying the Ceres-to-Saturn circuit shuttle.

Eros Incident[]

Main article: Eros incident (Books)

“Welcome to the future” —  Spoilers for Leviathan Wakes follow.

When the Cant received a distress signal from the Scopuli on the asteroid CA-2216862, Alex was part of the crew of the Knight consisting of James Holden, Naomi Nagata, Amos Burton, and Shed Garvey sent to investigate. Shortly after Holden and Amos find the transmitter in the Scopuli, a stealth ship appears and fires six torpedoes at the Cant. Alex flies the Knight back to the Cant but is then ordered to return to the asteroid while Holden continues broadcasting the SOS when the Cant is destroyed. Alex then tells Holden about similar stealth ships that were part of the Martian Navy when he was.

The Knight is contacted by Wallace Fritz of the Pur'n'Kleen Water Company who orders them to be picked up by the Donnager and assist the MCRN and assist them in their investigation if the destruction of the Cant. The Knight is then followed by six ships.

When the Knight docks in the Donnager the crew is escorted to their quarters while Holden is debriefed. The Donnie is then attacked by the six ships that followed the Knight. Upon Holden's return to the crew their room is punctured and Shed Garvey is killed. While the Donnie is being attacked and boarded, Holden and his crew are escorted to the hangar bay by Lieutenant Kelly and three marines. After a gunfight in the hangar bay, the crew escapes on the corvette class light frigate, the Tachi.

The crew claims the Tachi as salvage and Holden renames it the Rocinante, for which Alex becomes the pilot. Upon arriving at Tycho Station, Fred Johnson escorts them to their rooms and explains his situation. An all out war between the Belt and Mars would bring about a horrible amount of deaths. However, there is one way to spare all the bloodshed; view the destruction of the Canterbury and Donnager as a criminal act instead of an act of war allowing for a trial incriminating a group that both the OPA and the Martian Congressional Republic can agree on. In the event of a trial, Holden and his crew would be the star witnesses having experienced both ship's destruction firsthand and give Fred and the OPA credibility in the process. Fred leaves, giving them freedom of Tycho, and puts all their expenses on his tab. Later, Alex is seen playing darts, bragging about the abilities of Martian dart throwers.

Three days after arriving on Tycho, the crew has dinner together. During dinner, Holden discusses his boredom. After discussion, the crew decides to become private contractors delivering cargo during the war with their stealth ship. After dinner, Amos and Alex attempt to play the card tables. Holden later agrees with the crew for the Roci become private contractors for the OPA with their first job being to pick up a crew member from the Scopuli expected to be holding up on Eros.

The Rocinante lands on Eros and the crew makes their way to the flophouse where Scopuli crew member is registered. Amos notices someone following them who appears to be a cop. Upon their arrival they get into a gunfight and are helped by Miller who had been following the crew. With the help of Miller's old friend Sematimba the crew avoids going to jail. Together, they find the mutated body of Julie Mao, who has recorded the location of the the asteroid where the ship that attacked the Scopuli was. While the crew discusses their next move with Miller, they receive a message from Fred saying that a mole was found on Tycho leaking their location. Meanwhile, a nuclear explosion on Eros put the station in lockdown. The new security force who has taken over Eros from Protogen not long before, Carne Por la Machina, starts ushering the population to radiation shelters. Miller recognizes one of the security officers as a former criminal on Ceres and deduces that they are carrying the riot gear that had been stolen from Star Helix.

While Holden and Miller investigate, Alex and the rest of the crew hide in a maintenance hatch. Before Holden leaves, he orders Naomi and the crew to make their way back to the ship and leave if he and Miller are not back in three hours. When Holden and Miller do not return in time Naomi has the crew return to the Roci. Upon arriving at the Rocinante they wait just a little while longer until a severely injured Holden and Miller arrive, and they leave Eros and travel to the location of the asteroid Julie had written down.

After heading back to Tycho and learning the coordinates of Thoth Station, the Rocinante and Guy Molinari head to assault the station. During the battle at Thoth station with Alex flying and managing the Roci's fire control, the Rocinante is able to take out the comm array and the two ships defending the station. Once Fred and the crew of the Rocinante arrive at ops where Miller and the rest of the OPA have secured it and captured Antony Dresden, Dresden begins to explain the protomolecule and Protogen's involvement. Miller eventually hears enough of Dresden and shoots him in the head much to everyone's surprise. Holden begins yelling at Miller, telling him to find his own way home.

On their way to guard Eros, Holden and Naomi break the news about their relationship over breakfast to Alex and Amos, who are quite amused and happy. Once Eros dodges the Nauvoo the crew of the Roci begin to panic; however, Alex maintains a sense of calm due to his military training. Holden opens up a channel to the Ravi asking if they would like to follow Eros as it has now somehow become invisible to radar. Holden then opens a channel with Fred. They concluded that Eros is heading towards Earth and decide to detonate the bombs on the station in hopes of slowing down the ship. While waiting on Miller to contact Julie the Ravi begins threatening the Roci. However before any damage can be done Eros stops jamming radar sensors and heads toward Venus.

On the Rocinante's way back to Tycho the crew watched Eros's decent on Venus wondering what will happen next.

Ganymede Incident[]

Main article: Ganymede incident (Books)

“We are not alone” —  Spoilers for Caliban's War follow.

In the eighteen months since the Eros incident, Alex and the crew of the Rocinante have been working as pirate hunters for the OPA.

Holden, Naomi, and Amos are sent under the guise of the crew of the Weeping Somnambulist to investigate while Alex kept the Roci hidden in case they needed to escape or where captured.

Conflict on Ilus[]

Main article: Conflict on Ilus IV

“Enter a new frontier” —  Spoilers for Cibola Burn follow.

Alex remains with Naomi onboard the Rocinante while Holden and Amos go down to Ilus. As the planet went into chaos, the Rocinante's fusion drive is shutdown by the planet. Without engines, Alex uses the Roci's Railgun as a drive to stay in orbit around the planet.

“Catching fire” —  Spoilers for Nemesis Games follow.

Alex begins feeling regret and guilt for leaving his wife the way he did back on Mars. As the Rocinante is in dry dock for what will be weeks of repairs following the Ilus incident, Alex is of a mind to go to Mars to make amends.^[3]

Upon arriving on Mars, he makes arrangements to meet Bobbie. His visit to his ex-wife, Talissa, is of course unsurprisingly unhappy.^[4]

Alex Kamal visits Bobbie, she is attacked in her home days later but he happens to return in time to answer a request she'd posed.^[5] Their mission is to investigate missing Martian naval ships. Alex finds strange records for Tsuchi and Apalala, Bobbie asks him to check with MCRN officers who could be more receptive to inquiries from a former member of the same branch rather than inquiries from a marine such as herself.

Bobbie reveals that Chrisjen Avasarala had given her Julie Mao's racing pinnace, the Razorback, which allows her and Alex to go investigate strange transponder signals for Pau Kant coming from the Hungaria asteroids.^[6]

Through a Chief Petty Officer friend named Fermín Beltran, Alex manages to meet with Commander Winston Duarte at Hecate Base. The commander is able confirm off-record that there have been significant losses of ships and equipment which are being concealed. He claims records are unavailable and the government is not so much concealing the problems so much as they are "downplaying" it. A technical contact named Kaarlo Henderson-Charles, whom Alex is instructed to seek out, is found murdered in base housing.^[7]

Free Navy ambush near Mars[]

Main article: Free Navy ambush near Mars

While Bobbie and Alex approach the Hungaria asteroids, they are fired upon but narrowly escape by approaching the flotilla of MCRN ships escorting Martian Prime Minister Nathan Smith at extreme speed, then dumping core to destroy one of two pursuing torpedoes but stranding themselves with the hope that the MCRN ship destroys the other torpedo.^[8] They pass out in the process but awaken on that ship.^[9]

Captain Choudhary of the MCRN ship reveals a daring plan to use the Razorback to escape with the prime minister. He implies that it would be Alex and Bobbie to be sent on the mission to the PM's rendez-vous on Luna. When the rogue MCRN frigates controlled by the Free Navy loyal to Marco Inaros begin boarding MCR PM Nate Smith's ship, Alex and Bobbie manage the frantic escape with the Prime Minister on the way to meet Avasarala at Luna. To defend themselves, they have missiles keyed to follow the Razorback's targeting laser.^[10]

Following the stern demands of Holden and support of Martian PM Smith, they must redirect the Razorback to rescue Naomi on the Chetzemoka.^[11] Once they arrive on the scene, Alex uses two of the remaining missiles. The first he fires to carry Bobbie towards Naomi with fresh oxygen. Bobbie is able to bring Naomi aboard the Razorback. Then, following the instruction of Naomi, Alex fires the final missile at the Chetzemoka to destroy what had previously been intended as a gift for her son, Filip Inaros.^[12]

Alex and the others onboard the Razorback are picked up by Holden and Fred Johnson when they arrive at the site on the Rocinante.

Ceres Offensive[]

Main article: Ceres Offensive

“Fires in the dark” —  Spoilers for Babylon's Ashes follow.

Alex Kamal is at a bar with the Roci crew and other Consolidated fleet personnel celebrating taking Ceres. A drunken Alex is still shocked that the Free Navy would abandoned it and is still waiting for it to be a trap. Alex exchanges looks with Sandra Ip but then he starts to converse with Holden. Holden notices how Alex has sobriety meds to make sure everyone is sober if they have to agree to anything or give consent. When Holden tells Alex of how one of his fathers called Naomi a Skinny, Alex helps Holden with coming up with the idea of documenting belters on Ceres to humanizing them. When Alex gets back to a table with Sandra there, she notices the Sobriety package and smiles to him before asking him how he is.

Following leaving Ceres to Tycho station, Alex continues sleeping with Sandra Ip, even staying in her quarters on Tycho. Then while Alex is at a restaurants that Ip recommenced, Holden contacts him to inform him that they will be shipping out in a few hours. Alex however tells Holden he prepared for this and has already prepared the Roci to leave at any moment. Afterwards he goes to meet Sanda at the ship, they say their goodbyes but they decide to go back to her place one more time. Back onboard the Roci, the crew meet up with Holden. He informs Alex that the Consolidated fleet's plan to take back the Medina station and the Slow zone.

“An old enemy returns” —  Spoilers for Persepolis Rising follow.

In the thirty intervening years since the Bombardment of Earth, Alex has remarried and divorced Giselle. Through that marriage, he has a son named Kit.^[13]

Medina Station Insurrection[]

Main article: Medina Station insurrection

During the Medina Insurrection by the Underground, Alex and Naomi escape to Freehold system onboard the Rocinante with Bobbie and Amos following them on the stolen Laconian destroyer the Gathering Storm.

Underground-Laconia Conflict[]

Main article: Underground-Laconia Conflict

“The enemy is here” —  Spoilers for Tiamat's Wrath follow.

Four years into Laconian rule, Alex meets up with Naomi and Bobbie on Deep Transfer station 3 at a restaurants to catch up after not having seen each other for a while. Afterwards Alex is onboard the hidden Gathering storm, which he is now piloting. Alex shares his unease of piloting the Storm to his co-pilot Casper Asoau, which he describes how the ship scares him as it feels dangerous and alien to him.

In the lead up to the Siege of Laconia, Alex goes back to Freehold to get the Roci which had been stored in a hidden cave. Once happily back onboard the Rocinante, Alex prepares to take the Rocinante to the Laconia system.

Trivia[]

• Alex Kamal used his favorite song by the Dust Runners as a ring tone for his hand terminal.^[14]

See also[]

• James Holden
• Naomi Nagata
• Amos Burton
• Kit Kamal
• Rocinante
• Rocicorp

References