In the metal corridors of Tycho Station, a spy disguised as a staff member quietly approached Holden and his crew’s ship, the Rocinante. Taking cover in the flow of station personnel, he successfully infiltrated the vessel. Evading the crew’s patrols, he quickly accessed the communication system and sent an encrypted message—one that directly targeted a Martian fleet patrolling the nearby star system, accurately revealing Holden and his team’s location.
Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of the United Nations of Earth paid a solo visit to Holden’s family. With no entourage or official ceremony, his arrival carried an obvious tentative intent. Centering his questions on Holden’s previous public video and the ship’s movement trajectory, he tried to gauge from the family’s words and reactions whether Holden intended to incite conflict between Earth and Mars, and if he was the mastermind behind the interplanetary turmoil. Faced with his relentless questioning, Holden’s family remained vigilant—defending Holden in their words while revealing no critical information, as underlying tension simmered beneath the calm surface of their exchange.
On Ceres, Detective Miller made a breakthrough in his investigation. While tracking down the missing girl Julie, he pieced together scattered clues—including ship registration records and the Belt’s secret intelligence network—to successfully pinpoint the whereabouts of the mysterious ship, the Anubis. Miller keenly sensed that the secrets behind this vessel were closely linked to Julie’s disappearance and even the instability of the entire Solar System. Without hesitation, he packed his gear and resolutely decided to head to Eros, determined to lift the mysterious veil of the Anubis.
Aboard the Rocinante, the crew soon learned that a Martian patrol ship was closing in. Amid the crisis, Amos proposed a direct and brutal solution: wait for the patrol ship to approach, then seize the opportunity to kill the Martian patrolmen to eliminate future troubles. But this suggestion was immediately met with Holden’s firm opposition. He never forgot that it was the Martian soldiers who had come to their rescue during a previous crisis. Unwilling to harm their former saviors to save himself, Holden insisted on finding a bloodless resolution, leading to a heated argument between the two.
As the Martian patrol ship’s signal drew nearer, the crew jointly worked to crack the storage room containing the docking codes. Amos raised his gun at the ship’s airlock, planning to fire the moment the Martian troops boarded. Holden, however, firmly resisted this decision, going so far as to aim his own pistol at Amos. Just as the Martian landing pod completed docking and the soldiers prepared to storm the vessel—amid their constant information warnings—Naomi and the others finally cracked the storage box holding the codes, successfully dispelling the Martians’ doubts and allowing the ship to evade inspection right under their noses.
While the crisis was temporarily averted, greater danger loomed. The spy who had infiltrated the ship was not a Martian agent, but a planted spy of the United Nations. After relaying information back to Earth—including the Rocinante’s successful evasion of Martian inspection and Holden’s team’s operational intentions—the UN leadership held an emergency consultation and reached a unanimous conclusion: Holden’s existence had become a key factor in intensifying interplanetary conflicts. The information he possessed and the stance he upheld could push the conflict between Earth and Mars into total chaos. In the name of “upholding the stability of the Solar System,” the United Nations ultimately decided to eliminate Holden, as a deadly conspiracy quietly brewed against him.