A lot could happen in thirty-eight years. A lot could change. Amos thought about just the last nine years that he had been with the Canterbury and then the Rocinante. Whole worlds had been opened to them. Whole communities had died. That was the essence of the churn though. After a long, slow built-up there was a sudden flip and everything went upside-down. It was hard to predict exactly when it would happen. But you could feel it growing if you paid enough attention.
"I would've," he said, letting his head rest back against the wall behind him, "if I hadn't gotten off of Earth. There's a... it's like a lottery, I guess. You put your name in to get training on Luna and they only take so many people each year. Some people have waited decades to get called up. I had a friend who," he paused, but there was no harm telling Matt any of this. It wasn't like it was ever going to get back to the people in charge. Even if it did, Avasarala already knew and was doing exactly nothing about it. "He made fake papers for people - identification, birth records, that sort of thing. He got into the system and got me on another guy's ticket. He was dead, he wasn't using it. Someone may as well have."
Sure, there was a lot of other people who probably deserved the ride more, but Amos was the one who got it and he wasn't going to feel guilty about doing whatever it took to get out of Baltimore. He also didn't need to mention that the ticket belonged to his father or that he was the one who'd killed him. Just footnotes. Not an important part of the story.
"Anyway, it was twenty-five years or something. I just went back a few months ago cause my old lady died and I needed to make sure her stuff got settled. Quick trip. Then the rocks hit."