The Expanse

Unidentified Belter ships,

you are entering restricted space.

Veer off now, or we will fire!

Barbapiccola, this is the UNN Tripoli.

Shut down your drive now, or we will fire.

Respond immediately.

We are unarmed. This is a refugee ship.

Mama, I'm scared.

Whatever happens, we will be together.

Together.

Tripoli, you are not authorized

to fire inside the Ring Space.

Barbapiccola, the OPA orders you to comply.

We will not.

We've been begging for a port

since Ganymede fell.

No one would let us land.

If you're going to kill us,

just do it now, or let us go!

Go.

Go! Go!

Go! Go! Go!

Go! Go! Go!

Go! Go! Go!

Now, that's a good cup of coffee.

Did you speak to Naomi?

It was lovely meeting her,

except it was through a screen.

It's such a shame she couldn't come down and see the farm.

Mom...

That was a long trip you were on.

She could have taken those gravity drugs on the way.

It's not that easy.

Those drugs are brutal.

I wouldn't have asked her to do that for me.

And this isn't her home.

Most Belters have mixed feelings about Earth.

Here.

It's for your next long haul.

Think I need to reread this?

What did you see out there?

It's hard to put into words.

Storm's coming.

Mmm.

I'm gonna go close up the house.

I'll be right in.

Gonna be a real turd-floater, huh?

Perfect words for every occasion.

Hey.

We gotta talk about that ride.

The ride? Yeah, I know.

Next clue to the case.

We're leaving tomorrow.

Are we going to the Ring?

We're going to New York.

What the hell's in New York?

Tall buildings, good pizza,

Secretary-General of the United Nations, who summoned me.

So you can ask her, tell her to let you go through the Ring.

I have, a hundred times.

I'll bring it up again,

but something must have changed if she wants to talk.

We gotta talk about that ride, kid.

Next clue to the case.

I wonder what that rain tastes like.

I used to love the rain when I was a kid.

I'd sit out here and watch the lightning storms.

Sounds beautiful.

We gotta talk about that ride, kid.

Next clue to the case.

You got it, Miller. I'll take care of it.

I hope we get a chance to meet in person one day.

You know, I'm quite a dancer.

Holden never stops saying.

Fong kopenga tolwanda ert el Belte

fong kopenga tolowabda Ert.

Okay, okay, okay.

- Bye, now. - Bye!

- Bye-bye! - Bye! Take care!

That was agonizing.

Yes, it was.

I'll see you soon.

Love you.

New railgun's looking good.

I just need you to check out the thrust compensator.

If this thing's not tied into our drive just right,

we're all gonna get tossed into the ceiling every time it fires.

I'm on it.

Hey, Amos.

Melba?

Please, Clarissa.

I get one vid message a month now.

I...

didn't have anyone to call.

- Okay. - So you coming down the well?

Nope.

Not even to feel the surf through your toes?

There's a lot of past in my past. I'm gonna skip it.

At least you have the choice.

I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in here.

Like Dad.

Yeah, they really threw the book at you.

I called to say thank you.

For what?

The months heading home,

letting me work in the shop with you,

- it kept me sane. - You're a good mechanic.

I've been thinking about something.

Remember when you sent me to check on the...

the seals in the air lock?

Yep.

The safeties had been overridden, and...

if I wanted to, I could have blown the outer door

while I was in it, killed myself.

Yep.

Was that on purpose?

If I was staring down a lifetime sentence,

I'd want to have the option.

It was kind of you to make the offer.

But Anna was right. I...

- I don't deserve the easy way out. - Stop it.

You breathe in, you breathe out,

eat, shit, sleep,

you take whatever they give you,

and you give nothing in return.

I have to go.

They have me doing dream therapy.

I don't really understand it, but...

the doctor has flowers in her office,

and I can smell them through the glass.

Good luck with that.

Can I bother you again sometime?

Sure thing, Peaches.

What I want is more ships at the Ring blockade.

All I need from you is to make that happen.

Our assets in the outer planets

have been decimated. We don't have the ships.

We could redeploy elements of the Home Fleet.

You forgot about Mars?

It's a new day. We're all friends now.

Madam Secretary, if I may...

Nancy, don't start this shit with me again.

Half our population is unemployed,

and we've been given the biggest opportunity

to give them jobs, to give them a purpose in a century.

Every week, another colony ship filled with our constituents

shows up at the blockade, and we make them wait.

They're sitting ducks for pirates.

They want to explore new worlds. We should let them.

When Columbus arrived,

at least he knew what was waving at him was human.

We've sent out hundreds of probes through the Rings.

Not one of them has turned up any little green men.

You haven't seen it yet, so it doesn't exist.

That's your argument?

You can't control a goddamn gold rush.

When the stacks of body bags came back from the Yukon,

thousands of hopeful idiots lined up to be the next corpses.

The only reason there weren't any riots in the streets

when we fired on the Ganymede ships was because they were Belters.

Sooner or later, an Earth ship will try to run the blockade.

Are you going to shoot down our own citizens,

or are we gonna turn this situation to our advantage?

We are going to do what I goddamn said we are going to do.

So do it.

Are you familiar with the Barbapiccola?

Refugee ship from Ganymede.

One of the four that slipped through the Ring

before the blockade went up.

They were never heard from again.

We heard from them again.

The Belters have been installing comm relays

through the Ring gates,

prioritizing those four systems.

The relays went live two days ago

and started picking up broadcasts from one system.

By some miracle, the Belters on this world survived.

About a hundred or so.

They're calling the planet Ilus.

Makes sense.

Ilus was a brother of Ganymede.

Who gives a fuck?

I didn't bring you here to teach me mythology.

The planet is practically made of lithium.

They're mining it.

Belters struck it rich. Good for them.

They also found this.

That looks like the work of the protomolecule.

Doesn't appear to be active.

And for a few hundred years,

we thought Phoebe was just a ball of ice orbiting Saturn.

I want you to go to Ilus.

Are you still talking to Miller?

It's more like he talks to me.

You said the worlds on the other side

of those Rings were killed...

genocide on a scale

that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

You have the insight to the protomolecule

that no one else does.