The moment they arrived at Tycho Station, Holden keenly sensed the tension in the air. There was calculation behind Johnson's smile, and the station's personnel movements carried an unmistakable air of irregularity. Determined to avoid being caught off guard, Holden quickly formulated a plan with Amos Burton, Alex Kamal, and the others. When Holden was threatened, Naomi reacted instantly—she activated the Rocinante's weapons system and issued a stark warning: if Johnson dared to harm any of their crew, she would blow a hole straight through the station.
Faced with this sudden reversal, Johnson had no choice but to abandon his probing and show genuine willingness to cooperate. During their conversation, Holden learned that Johnson had been searching for Paolo Polanski, the sole survivor of the Scopuli. This survivor, Johnson believed, might hold crucial information related to the Canterbury's destruction. Since Holden's team also needed the station's resources to continue their investigation into the truth, their interests aligned perfectly. A partnership centered on "finding Polanski" was thus forged.
Unfolding parallel to the Rocinante crew's standoff was the life-threatening ordeal of Ceres detective Joe Miller. Ever since taking on the case of Julie Mao's disappearance, Miller had pursued the clues with the tenacity of a bloodhound—an obsession that had inadvertently threatened the interests of the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), the radical Belter organization. Julie's whereabouts, it turned out, were inextricably linked to the OPA's secret agenda.In a dim cargo corridor, several OPA members launched a surprise attack, abducting Miller and dragging him to a hidden stronghold. The group's leader tried to coerce Miller into joining them, using the promise of more clues about Julie as bait and demanding he leverage his detective status to assist their operations. But Miller's inherent sense of justice and stubbornness made him refuse outright. "I only solve cases, not act as an accomplice," he declared—words that enraged the OPA members beyond restraint.
Miller was thrown into an airlock, condemned to be jettisoned into the endless void of space. Just as his fate seemed sealed, his friend Dawes arrived in the nick of time. Dawes gunned down the two OPA members holding Miller captive, snatching him back from the brink of death.
Beneath Tycho Station's facade of calm, far greater undercurrents were churning. Johnson was secretly advancing an ambitious project: the construction of a colossal starship, whose size and capabilities far surpassed any existing vessels in the Asteroid Belt. When news of this reached the ears of Earth's Undersecretary of State, it triggered immediate and intense alarm.
Given Johnson's complicated history of dealings with various Belter factions, the Undersecretary became convinced that he was colluding with the radical OPA. The massive starship, the official reasoned, could not possibly be for conventional transport—it was most likely a key asset for the OPA's planned armed operations. In response, the Undersecretary issued secret orders to place Johnson under close surveillance, authorizing the use of force if necessary to intervene.
Miller, having cheated death, showed no sign of backing down; if anything, his resolve to uncover the truth had only grown stronger. Following the fragmented clues he had gathered earlier, he tracked down an information broker who had once provided data services to Julie. From the broker's leftover encrypted device, Miller finally unlocked the real reason behind Julie's disappearance: she had been investigating a mysterious protomolecule originating from Phoebe, Saturn's moon—a substance that appeared to possess unusual energy properties.
The Scopuli's mission, Miller discovered, had been closely tied to this protomolecule, and Julie's disappearance was a direct result of her getting too close to the powerful interests safeguarding the protomolecule's secrets. Elated by this breakthrough, Miller immediately returned to the police station with the decrypted evidence, ready to report his momentous discovery to his superior.
What he did not anticipate, however, was that his superior had long since been bribed by those very interest groups. Confronted with irrefutable proof, his superior not only seized the data storage device on the spot but also fired Miller on the spot, citing charges of "abuse of authority and interference with critical operations."