Leviathan Wakes

Back on the Donnager, Holden’s crew is patching the missile hole. When the breach is sealed, Naomi says they have a couple hours of air in the room. Everything beyond is in vacuum due to ballistic punctures in the ship’s hull. They get to work: Naomi looks for emergency air, Alex tries to reach any other survivors on the ship, and Amos starts working on the comm panel.

The comm comes to life, and Lieutenant Kelly tells them to move away from the hatch, beyond which an improvised airlock has been rigged. Kelly is under orders to evacuate Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos because the Donnager is losing the battle and is being boarded. Alex tells Holden the captain will destroy the ship rather than allow intruders to access its data.

A squad of Martian marines leads the crew to the hanger bay, where their escape ride, the Tachi, awaits. They encounter interiors along the way, and the marines open fire. Kelly, who leads the crew toward the ship, is shot en route.

Miller goes to Shaddid and asks for interrogation transcripts. He tells Shaddid the Julie Mao case is related to the attack on the Canterbury: Julie was on the Scopuli, which was used as bait to draw the Cant. Miller wants to ask the Martian navy to hand over information on Holden’s interrogation. Shaddid resists, believing the Martian navy deliberately destroyed the Canterbury to provoke war and probably killed Holden and the rest of the crew. In her view, Miller shouldn’t be wasting time on Julie Mao: The war is not their problem, and they have police work to do. Later, he observes the citizens around him going about their daily lives. These are the people his job is about; Miller wonders why it isn’t his job to protect them from war.

Back at his hole, Anderson Dawes is waiting. He gives Miller a drive with information, including details on the disappearance of the riot gear. After Dawes leaves, Miller opens an encrypted channel and sends a message to Julie’s father. He identifies himself as the detective working on finding her.

Holden and his crew are under fire with no cover. Amos was shot down—he’s on the floor, Alex at his side. Holden thinks they’re dead. Just then, he sees a man aim a grenade launcher at them. The man explodes, killed by a marine. Taking charge, Holden gets Kelly and his crew to the airlock to the Tachi. Kelly lets them in and orders Holden and the rest to strap in. Alex takes the pilot’s seat and guides ship out of the hanger. Holden blacks out. Half an hour later, he wakes up in zero G. The Tachi has been at high thrust for a while. Holden asks Naomi what to do, and she angrily responds that she has no idea. He realizes that whenever he doesn’t know what to do, he asks Naomi—he’s been doing it for years.

The Donnager is gone, and Kelly is dead due to his injuries. Holden does a crude job fixing Amos’s injured leg. Afterward, he is beset by shakes, and Naomi sobs. It’s the first time Holden has seen her cry. He knows it’s his job to save the crew, but he has no idea what to do. Everything is a deathtrap. Holden decides they should go to Fred Johnson and sends him a message. Fred immediately responds with coordinates for a tightbeam conversation. Meanwhile, Alex and Naomi take respectful care of Kelly’s body. In doing so, they find a data storage device on him.

Fred tells Holden he’s surprised to hear from him—news has hit the nets about the Donnager. Holden tells Johnson they’re on a salvaged Martian gunboat and need somewhere to go. Fred gives Holden a new transponder code and coordinates.

Miller watches a broadcast by the Martian government that blames “the Belt”—not the OPA—for the 2,086 Martian lives lost with the Donnager. The Martian Navy will establish a military cordon in the Belt and take action to bring the attackers to justice. So far, it has destroyed 18 “illegal warships.” Miller realizes that if the situation escalates further, it will mean the end of everything he has ever known.

Shaddid calls Miller into her office, where Dawes is seated. Shaddid officially removes Miller from the Mao case and orders him to return all data on the case by the end of the day. Shaddid says his letter to Julie’s parents was a breach of policy and it didn’t go out.

Dawes tells Miller it’s just not a good idea for Star Helix to be the organization that finds Julie. Earth and Star Helix need to keep their hands clean, but the OPA has the resources to do it right, and Mao is one of theirs. Miller points out that the Scopuli was the bait to kill the Canterbury, and the Canterbury was the bait that ended the Donnager. Miller wonders why the suspects should be the only ones handling the investigation.

Asserting her authority, Shaddid says she’s not negotiating this. She dismisses Miller, telling him to go catch some bad guys. Miller agrees and leaves.

Later, Miller is back at the Blue Frog. The bar manager, Hasini, tells him he’s drunk and offers to get him home since it’s late. Miller contemplates “late”—he’s almost 50, so it’s too late to start again. It seems too late for everything. It occurs to him that he’s never seen a sky. He realizes the reason he’s feeling so low is not the job but the fact they took Julie away. He apparently has been talking about her all night, although he doesn’t remember. “You’re in love with her,” Hasini says (172). Miller realizes he is, in a way.

Holden and his crew are enjoying the aroma of coffee and food in the Tachi’s galley. No one is chasing them. No one knows where they are: They’re assumed dead alongside the Donnager crew. They have water, fuel, and food, and they’re well-armed. Holden says he’s inclined to take Johnson’s offer of refuge. The others agree.

After giving the ship a thorough inspection, Holden finds Naomi on the operations deck. She’s working on the transponder. She’s done everything, including branding the ship as a gas freighter and entering the new name Holden chose: Rocinante. When Naomi asks what the name means, he alludes to the titular protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes’s 17th-century novel Don Quixote: The ship’s new name means they have to find some windmills.

In time, the Rocinante arrives at Tycho Station. Tycho was an early pioneer of massive engineering projects that built the Belt’s habitats; it is now the largest mobile construction platform in the solar system. Despite that, it’s dwarfed by its latest project: the Nauvoo, a ship commissioned by a group of Mormons, who intended to embark on a 100-year trip to Tau Ceti, a star in the Cetus constellation that is similar to the Sol system’s sun. They enter an airlock, and Fred Johnson welcomes them to Tycho Station.

On Ceres, the six ships that took down the Donnager are hailed as heroes. The win gives Belters hope. Miller, meanwhile, feels stripped of years of lying to himself about being respected at his job. He’s nothing more than a functional alcoholic who’s been anesthetizing himself. Havelock was the only one who might have any respect for him. At least now he can stop trying to keep up appearances.

Miller thinks again of Dawes’s comment that the OPA has Holden. He questions how a ship could survive the Donnager attack without being all over the news feeds. He does the math to figure the probabilities, but following up on all of them would take a year. Even when he narrows the options by ship type, the list is still too big.

Just as he starts getting returns on his log query, the government of Ceres collapses. Shaddid says Earth is pulling out of Ceres, but the Star Helix contract is still in place. Miller wonders if the 6 million people on Ceres are expendable. The OPA will step in to fill the power vacuum left by Earth, but Mars will either take over the station or turn it to dust. Shaddid and Dawes were right, he thinks: Ceres under Earth contract was the best hope for a negotiated peace.

By morning, Star Helix is all that separates Ceres from anarchy. Shaddid calls Miller back to her office, where Dawes is waiting. She needs a strong team, and she doesn’t trust Miller. She fires him.

Holden wants to know why Fred and the OPA are interested in his crew; he gets testy as Fred dodges his questions. Fred can either tell them now, Holden says, or they’ll go back to their ship and try piracy. Fred leads them to a residential suite and starts talking seriously. War between Mars and the Belt would be suicide, he says. For now, the combatants are only shooting at ships, but eventually they’ll do something desperate, risking millions more lives.

Alex observes that Fred has ruled out both war and peace. Fred suggests a third option: a criminal trial. Someone can be blamed for the current situation. Fred says the four of them are the ace in the hole—the only witnesses to the destruction of both the Cant and the Donnager. He wants to use them to negotiate peace treaties.

Weeks pass, and the crew takes advantage of the amenities on Tycho. Naomi, Alex, and Amos find ways to entertain themselves and pass time, but Holden feels out of place. He returns to the Rocinante, where he feels at home, and thinks of everyone he’s lost. He knows Fred is right—a trial is better than war—but he wants vengeance. Eventually he crawls down to his cot and falls asleep.

Ceres Station has become unmoored. Star Helix ended its contract, and the OPA has claimed control of the station. Physically it’s the same, but its altered political status changes everything. Miller watches children play and envies their inclination to believe in their own invulnerability.

Miller wants to find Holden, believing he may have information to aid the search for Julie. Miller checks a message from Havelock, who has signed on with another security company, the Earth-based Protogen. He also checks ship logs, looking for leads. He sees the Rocinante and something strikes him as odd. He wonders why a gas hauler would be going from one consumer to another. Miller calls Havelock for a favor: to put a watch on the flight plans for the Rocinante. Now jobless, Miller has no access and no service weapon. He’s also running out of money.

More riots follow, and a curfew is set. Mars knew the Belt couldn’t win, and the Belt knew it had nothing to lose, Miller thinks. It was a recipe for disaster. Miller can’t do anything about that, but he can find Holden and learn what happened to the Scopuli. He’s a detective, after all.

Miller talks to his imaginary Julie, a construct he’s created to function as a companion. She thinks he’s pathetic for having nothing better to do than search for her. He packs up his meager belongings and books passage to Tycho. He realizes he’ll have to find Julie fast or get a job to finance the investigation. Havelock calls to say Miller’s “package” is heading for Eros, another asteroid station in the Belt. Miller changes his ticket to Eros.

On Tycho, Holden, Alex, and Amos are watching the war news. Mars is positioning itself as peacekeeper. Holden is impatient. He doesn’t want to hang around enjoying Fred Johnson’s hospitality—he wants to go after whoever destroyed the Cant. Naomi says they deserve their comfortable beds, food, and a chance to relax. She reminds Holden that he agreed to Johnson’s terms.

Holden says Fred owns them because he controls the purse strings. He thinks they should leave, get work, and make some money. The others are amenable, but they all want more time to unwind. Holden agrees to wait a few more days.

Naomi tells Holden she’s been a bad XO because she’s been too pushy about some things, but he’s done a great job keeping them alive. Feeling proud, Holden thanks her. Naomi says he’s not captain just because McDowell died: “You’re our captain, as far as I’m concerned” (217).

Fred tells Holden he wants to borrow the Roci. He needs a quiet ship to pick up something and bring it to Tycho. Holden doesn’t trust him and doesn’t want any part of a secret mission. Fred provides more detail: He needs someone to fly to Eros, pick up an operative named Lionel Polanski, and bring him back to Tycho. According to Fred, “Polanski” exists only on paper; someone used the name to check into a flophouse on Eros. Fred believes it’s a call for help.

They negotiate: Holden won’t loan his ship, but Fred can hire the Roci and its crew. To conceal their identities, Holden suggests disguising the Roci to look like the gas freighter it’s supposed to be. Fred agrees to camouflage the ship, and Holden informs the crew they’re going to Eros.

Miller is on a transport to Eros. The bar is open, and the drinks are cheap, but he’s not interested in drinking. He’s focused on Julie. A missionary strikes up conversation. After a little back-and-forth about what religion the missionary is selling (he turns out to be Mormon), Miller reveals that he used to be a cop on Ceres, where he was born and spent his whole life. The missionary asks if he’ll ever go back, and Miller says no. He wonders why he doesn’t feel any loss.

Eros is filled with cheap casinos, sex clubs, opioid bars, and show-fight arenas. Miller stops at a noodle place and runs into Sematimba, an old friend he worked with on a difficult security case. Miller asks about Julie, but Sematimba doesn’t know anything. Miller says the case started out as an abduction but might be something big connected to the war.

A riot breaks out nearby, and Sematimba leaves to police it. Miller heads toward a casino, reasoning that everyone who comes to Eros passes through the casinos.