The Expanse (2015) s05e02 Episode Script

Mayday, mayday, mayday.
This is Molina, captain of the Earth.
We have been attacked by We are in need of immediate Mayday, mayday, mayday.
This is April Molina, captain of the Sulaiman Al Mahri out of Earth.
We have been attacked by an unknown vessel.
Please respond.
Mayday, mayday, mayday.
This is April Molina, captain of the Sulaiman Al Mahri out of Earth.
We have been attacked by an unknown vessel.
They are attempting to board our ship.
We need immediate assistance.
We are a peaceful colony vessel.
We have no They're jamming the comms.
Incoming tight-beam.
Tight-beam lock.
- Pirata Belta.
- What this shit? This ours! You want a kill, find your own.
Don't worry about what I want.
Worry about what I am due.
A tenth of all you collect No tithes here! And no prisoner killed without permission from the controlling faction.
And I haven't given you my permission.
Sohiros dead! Who are you to tell us who we can kill I am Camina Drummer.
You respect my claim, or you die and become a story I tell the next captain.
Maybe that, or maybe we finish you.
They not gonya make it easy.
What would be the fun in that? They target lock us.
Signal the Mowteng.
Yes! Nice shot, Mowteng! They're trying to power back up.
At least give them a chance to be polite.
We will, but if they target lock us again, kill them.
No! It's almost time.
You not hungry? Where is the hot sauce? You won't need it.
Oksana did the cooking.
More water, then, please.
Yeah.
Dzhemang.
Goods transferred.
You got your cut.
Go tell everyone I am in control of this area now.
Ya, bosmang.
Out.
Sulaiman Al Mahri, we have retransmitted your distress call to the UN.
Inners should be here to pick you up in a few days.
How do you fucking sleep at night? You people took everything from us! Not everything.
All of our Serge, time to leave.
Aye, Captain.
Underway.
Every time.
Still working, ke? Still work to do.
Not many victories in life.
Im a sin fo let them pass unmarked.
This was a good day! You're right.
It was.
We woke up in debt, and we gonya fall asleep with money to keep flying.
Maybe even a little extra fo share.
The more you share The more your bowl will be plentiful.
Hey, that too.
Make the Belt love us.
Mm, love na make the next pirate surrender.
Fear does.
Easier after today.
You were very scary.
No one watching.
You can enjoy the win a little.
Won't make you less frightening.
If nothing else, we stop them before they could space anyone.
Yeah, dead bodies bring attention.
The Inners will only be distracted by their problems back home for so long.
Then we did good.
Inner attention is measured by Belter corpses.
- Hmm.
- Camina! You have a bounty on this ship? What is that? It's the Tynan, Klaes Ashford's ship.
I never thought I'd actually find it.
Something I can do for you? Maybe.
Timothy.
Lydia was always waiting for you to turn up.
Come on.
Kitchen's mostly packed up.
Only thing I have left is tea.
How long were you with her? I moved in here ten years ago, uh, but I knew her a little bit before that.
I'm Charles.
Were you good to her, Charles? We were good to each other, boy.
How did she die? She spent every waking moment hoping to see you again.
You show up now, and that's all you want to know is Tell me.
It was an aneurysm in her sleep.
She died because we got old and we had a lot of mileage on us.
She she went to bed fine, and when I woke up, she wasn't there anymore.
That's how she died.
You need to beat me up to make yourself feel better about abandoning her here? Just do it.
Was she happy? I don't know.
I think so but there was so much she kept to herself.
What am I going to do? How how the fuck am I gonna go on without her? Tea tea sounds great.
I knew some of what her life was before.
I didn't care.
She just did what she had to do to survive.
Well, you can't judge someone by what they do to make rent.
Sometimes you can.
You were in that world too, right? She told me some of it.
Did she? Yeah, just that you were born into it.
When you got old enough, the Johns didn't want you, so they started you working muscle.
But she knew that they would use you up till there was nothing left.
Float to the top or sink to the bottom.
Everything in the middle is the churn.
She told me that.
She saved you? No one really saves anyone.
She taught me how to save myself.
Thank you for being with her.
No, I spent the best years of my life in this house.
The best years of her life too, I hope.
I'm gonna miss this place.
Why are you leaving? It's not mine.
It was hers, some kind of favor from her old life.
She let me stay, but now that she's gone, the guy who owns it, he wants it back.
What was his name? Erich.
That's all I know.
Stop packing.
Keel laid ahead of schedule.
Your work crews are doing well.
Yeah, they're going fast, anyway.
Something wrong with that? Psh, apart from building gunships for Belters? You know what your problem is? Oh, my dick's too big? Grow the fuck up, man.
This is serious.
Why the hell you still doing this, anyway? I know how much mud you ate, 'cause half the time, I was in the same foxhole, eating it with you.
So we're doing "remember when" now? No, I'm just saying you could be sitting on a beach with a colonel's pension.
Oh, you gunning for my job? Fuck you.
I barely want the job I have now.
Then you should've been more careful with your money.
If you weren't stone-ass broke, you could've said no when I offered.
Yeah, I'm supposed to be grateful now, right? This is important.
The Belt protecting and policing itself is a good thing.
You know what your problem is? Tell me.
You think that if someone's an underdog, that means they're the good guy.
You've got a good ship! You can tell when they chime like this.
What? The tone.
Your ship has a good tone.
Thanks.
Were you trying to sleep? Only a little.
Well, the noise will stop once we have the last of the hull plating attached.
When is that gonna be? Twelve hours, 18 if I do it perfect, six if you don't mind dying later on.
Eighteen sounds great.
It's going to stay loud.
You could go back to your room on the station, catch some actual shut-eye.
I know.
But the Roci's home.
I'll get some earplugs.
This'll rattle your skull, dusiwala.
Earplugs won't help.
Holden, I know that you're avoiding me, and I just want to let you know that I understand.
Really, I do, but also, I haven't been completely honest with you.
I'm shocked.
There is another piece to this.
I have been holding on to it because if it gets out, it's gonna send some people running for cover, but it proves that someone is going after the protomolecule.
Meet me, and I will tell you about it.
Just you.
I've got a room on level eight.
I'm embedding the directions.
I appreciate your candor about not being candid, but there's really nothing I can do.
But it proves that someone is going after the protomolecule.
God damn it.
Monica? Fred, we have a problem.
Hey.
Come in.
Howdy.
I didn't know you were coming over.
I would've cleaned up the place.
Ah, we need to talk.
You were right.
You were low.
I wasn't listening.
I'm a shitty friend.
Amos says worse than that five times a week, and I know he'll take a bullet for me.
I'm pretty sure I already have.
Why you shutting me out? - Of what? - I don't know.
That's the problem.
I see you, and you're living like You have a problem with my place? You are snapping at nothing.
You're angry, and it's not 'cause of something I did.
Well, it wasn't until now.
Fine.
Wait.
Holy shit.
I've been buying for months.
This is all black market.
You got enough here to gear up an army, Bobbie.
This is a rounding error on what's being moved.
You're not selling this shit, right? Of course not.
That's good.
Avasarala is funding me.
You're working undercover for Earth to infiltrate Mars? Avasarala is the only one I know for sure who isn't in on it.
No way.
There's no way someone walks off with one of these.
That ain't possible.
Uh, turns out, it is.
There have been a series of major force reductions, which means a whole lot of gear no one is using and a bunch of people who are about to lose their paychecks.
Easy math.
You gotta go to the police.
What, that's funny? The police are in on it.
They're the delivery service.
Military police, then.
This is all coming from the military.
And it's not just Goliath suits going missing.
I've got a possible lead on stealth missiles.
Those are first-strike weapons.
Anyone buying one of those wants to attack a planet.
Now you see why Avasarala is funding me.
Shit.
I don't know if it's a single huge conspiracy or half a dozen small ones, but someone high up in the chain of command is in on it.
Emil Sauveterre? Nah, that's a mistake.
- You know him? - Yeah.
Flew with him on the Asander back when I was active-duty.
You and I are patriots, but Captain Sauveterre, he's got more dust in his veins than blood.
No, there's no way a guy like that sells weapons to someone that can use them against Mars.
This guy was my entry into the black market, and he had access that was coming from somewhere way above his rank.
He was stationed at a low-level logistics office filled with people who didn't belong there.
Okay, what's that got to do with Sauveterre? He signed the transfer orders.
Everyone in that office was by his say-so.
You're stretching.
He must've rubber-stamped thousands of transfers.
Look, I know it's a long shot, okay? All I have left are long shots.
You tried talking to him? What, walk up and say, "Excuse me, sir, are you illegally selling weapons to the Belt?" He's a senior lecturer at the war college.
We don't travel in the same circles.
He'll talk to me.
Fresh crab goulash.
Get your crab goulash! You need something? Is this Erich's corner? Do you work for him? I don't know any Erich.
I just need you to give him a message.
Tell him Amos Burton wants to talk.
Hey, man, why don't you go fuck yourself? Please, stop hitting me.
I understand you're just doing your job, but I need a friend who will take a message to Erich for me.
Do you want to be my friend? Yeah? Go now.
Erich's gonna kill you.
I thought you and I were friends.
I have a team going over the room and another on surveillance.
The blood you found was definitely hers.
What about the hotel's cameras? Yeah, the news there isn't good.
Someone deleted the footage.
So it was someone inside station security? I'm looking into that.
Have any ships left since she was taken? No.
I've issued a temporary lock on all the docks.
I'm gonna keep digging on this end and find out who scrubbed that video.
She said someone was going after the protomolecule.
She had proof, and then minutes later, she's grabbed; That can't be a coincidence.
My people will find her.
Your people are a part of this.
We don't know that yet.
And I shut down the port before anyone could leave, so So dead or alive, she's still on this station somewhere.
Hey! We we can talk! You want to talk? Sir, you described the Ring Space as an asymmetric tactical choke point.
The Rings permit equal access from both sides, so Yes, but that is not the asymmetry we're discussing.
Tactically, there is no advantage to holding either side of a Ring.
Yes, the Gates each allow equal access into and out of a single system, and so each of them individually represents a symmetrical choke point.
You paid attention in your freshman year.
Bravo.
The Ring Space they share, on the other hand, acts that way for all the systems.
This allows a much smaller force to hold all the Rings simultaneously and thus asymmetrically exert power.
If you'd like to educate yourself further, Mr.
Gavin, there's a good analysis on the topic by Bree and Colton.
I suggest you read that.
I'm afraid we're out of time for this lecture and this term.
But I will leave you with this.
Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act.
It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyze every possible obstacle and begin nothing.
Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers.
These were the words of Xerxes, Persia's king of kings, though he probably spoke them in Old Persian.
History has borne out Xerxes' wisdom.
The tactics of the battlefield have changed with the invention of the stirrup, the machine gun, the airplane, the Epstein drive.
Political and economic worlds changed when the Europeans colonized the New World and when Mars declared its independence and now, again, with the opening of the Ring Gates.
Every new invention or discovery alters the strategic and tactical landscape.
The doctrine of grand strategy is the way in which we face these changes without losing sight of our purpose, how we adapt to the new reality and remain faithful to our overarching goals.
In these lectures and workshops, we have considered the Ring Space as a radical alteration of the tactical, economic, and strategic landscapes, and I hope we have given each of you the insights to carry the dream of Mars from being a planet circling a lonely, single sun to a vision of humanity that can encompass a thousand stars.
Thank you all.
- very much, sir.
- Good luck.
Thank you, sir.
- Ah, yes.
- It's been a real honor.
Good luck.
Admiral Sauveterre.
Hey there.
Not sure if you remember me.
Senior Chief Alexander Kamal.
Back on Mars.
What's the occasion? Ah, there was just some personal business at the base, and I heard you were giving a lecture.
I saw you were, uh, talking about the Ring Gates.
I was out there.
It'd be an honor to buy you a coffee.
I could give you my firsthand account.
You pilot a stolen Martian ship for an Earther captain.
I don't think we have much to say to each other.
Don't mind him.
It's been a long term.
He's very tired.
It's not you.
You sure? Sure as hell seemed like me.
He also doesn't like being upstaged.
I don't see how I could've upstaged him.
First pilot to safely transit the Sol Ring, first Martian to set foot on an exoplanet.
Yeah, that's just me being in the wrong place at the right time.
Everyone in this room would disagree.
It's an honor to meet you, Senior Chief.
Lieutenant Babbage.
Emily.
I'm one of Admiral Sauveterre's aides.
You can call me Alex, and it's a pleasure to meet you, Emily.
If you have an opening in your coffee schedule, maybe I could take you up on it I mean, if that's not presuming.
Oh, um no, no, it's not.
Babbage? Here.
Duty calls.
Find out why he's here.
Already on it.
Erich says to come with me.
Mother.
Ashanti.
Mm, I wanted to say good-bye before we left.
So soon? Well, the boys have school next week.
Hire them a tutor.
This is what your father and I did for you.
Then you can go wherever you like.
Yes, then they can go wherever I liked.
Your childhood wasn't so bad.
- Mm.
- Stay a little longer.
You could come home.
I can't.
Father misses you.
- Mm.
- I know he won't say it, but he does.
He's back at Columbia now, getting ready for the semester.
If you went to him, you could patch things up.
What I'm doing here is still important.
Arjun understands that.
Well, maybe he understands that you would rather do anything than admit this part of your life is done.
Eight-seven colony ships have reportedly made the transit to the new systems this quarter.
That's below our estimate, but it's within the target range.
However, we should take that number with a grain of salt.
And why is that? There are some discrepancies within those reports.
The OPA denies it, but there is the possibility of some ships making the transit without being officially recorded.
That sounds like a security issue.
Perhaps we can take a moment to address that.
- Do you have something to add? - I do.
I would like to discuss the Hasami, the science ship that was attacked.
Why? It speaks to the larger issue of the security threats from the Belt.
I have information from reliable, confidential sources that Belters are buying Martian military supplies on the market, including highly sensitive materials like stealth composites.
I am aware of those reports.
If the buyer is Marco Inaros and one of his ships destroyed the Hasami, it suggests Admiral Delgado, you're familiar with those reports.
Do you agree with her? With which part, Madam? Was it an Inaros ship? Fifty-fifty.
- Higher than that.
- Not much.
Chrisjen, you're on Luna to do a job.
It isn't this.
If you'd prefer not to be involved in these discussions, you're more than welcome to submit your thoughts in writing.
Understood.
Good.
Now let's get back to work.
Once we have the situation in hand, we'll resume normal traffic.
Can I tell them what the security issue is? No! - This is gonna get ugly.
- It's already ugly.
You know what I mean.
You could lose control of the station.
I already lost control.
I'm trying to get it back.
- Guys? - It's not the way to do it.
Even if I could find her, I can't track down who took her and run this at the very same time.
Guys! What'd you do? There was a button.
I pushed it.
Jesus Christ.
That's really how you go through life, isn't it? Look, there's a signal coming in.
Monica? Monica, can you hear me? She can't.
She's recording but can't receive.
Where the hell is she? Could be a cargo hold.
Or a shipping container.
No, no! Oh, shit.
My team reports no sign of her in the dock so far.
It's easier to hide a person in a container.
I'm telling you, she's here.
Fred, there has to be something on thermals.
Nothing that looks like a body, not yet.
Holden.
Tell me you found something.
I've got one that's warmer than the others.
Might be an atmosphere inside.
That's gotta be it.
She's in there.
Guide us in.
Come on! Don't cut into it until the blister's in place.
We don't need to ventilate her air while we're saving her life.
You know I work in space, right? This is carrying live soil.
That's why it had atmosphere.
This isn't the right container! Trying to figure how you're gonna get back out? "Amos Burton wants to talk.
" That's weird, right? Everyone knows Amos Burton's been dead for, what, a couple decades? Long enough that no one's even asking who killed him anymore, but now Amos Burton wants to talk.
It's a common name.
Not around here, it's not.
Around here, there's only one Amos Burton.
What the fuck are you doing, Timmy? Lydia died.
That's not an answer.
We had a deal.
I'm gonna need to change that deal.
Fuck you.
You killed Burton for me instead of killing me for him.
You got his name and a way off the planet.
I made sure Lydia was taken care of her whole life.
Now she's gone, you think you can come back? I'm not back, and Lydia is not gone.
- I went to the funeral.
- She's got a guy.
He loved her, and as long as he's here, a part of her is too.
- The husband? - He keeps the house, and once he's died of natural causes, you can do whatever you want, but Lydia would not want him sleeping in an alley, so I don't either.
That's all this is? Well, shit! You should've just said so! You scared the fuck out of me, coming to my place like this.
That was not my intention.
Yeah, the old guy can stay.
I don't give a shit.
Hang on.
We'll drink on it.
Erich you don't have to test me.
I'm not here to take anything that belongs to you.
Goddamn, that's good.
All this is really about the house? It's about Charles.
All right, fine.
Good.
You've changed.
What the hell happened to you out there? One thing and another.
Yeah, here too.
I mean, look at all this.
Do you remember when we were just street trash, sitting on the docks, watching the shuttles leave, wishing we were on them? I'll never forget that.
Burton's fake ID won't hold up if you get arrested down here.
It'll lead back to me.
I've got a lot to lose.
You did good, brother.
Next time you go up the well, don't come back.
I love you, and I miss you, I do, but show your face in my city again, and I'm putting you down.
It's good seeing you again, Erich.
Hold on! There's a medical team on the way.
You just got a dose of hyper-oxygenated blood.
It packs a wallop.
We never would've found you if you hadn't put a hole in your seal, so good job.
I'm not dead.
You're not.
Wow.
For what it's worth, I thought you held your temper pretty well.
I wanted to slap that condescending smile off her face.
As public floggings go, I've seen worse.
Thanks for having my back in there.
She goes out of her way to humiliate me.
Shocking, after the kindness you showed her when your positions were reversed.
She should thank me for toughening her up.
The new lion kills the old pride's kittens.
It's always been that way.
Let the young ones screw up for a while.
Their kids will be along shortly to push them out to pasture.
Fuck that.
Why do you think the science ship was destroyed? Bad things happen to good people? Yeah, don't be an ass.
I remember the old days, sitting in my office, trying to put myself into my enemy's mind, anticipating them.
That was the job, a job we don't have anymore.
When was the last time a Belter pirate took down a ship in the inner planets? I don't remember one.
Because it's the most dangerous place in the system for them to operate.
Much easier pickings in the outer planets.
Fewer eyes.
Why would Marco Inaros do that? Venus is a long way to go for a target like that, definitely high-risk.
If it were you, why would you do it? Why would you take the risk? Maybe not piracy, then.
Maybe something to do with the mission the Hasami was on.
That would be the place to start.
I know what you're doing.
Is it working? What you did today was hard.
When you're hurt, hurting others is easy.
It takes strength to choose not to.
When life has not treated you with kindness, doing the right thing anyway always takes strength when you can even tell what the right thing is.
I love you, Timothy, but I'm not righteous.
I can't teach you to be that.
Maybe you and I can imagine a version of me that is good and kind and wise.
I'll pretend to be her.
You can pretend to love me enough to listen.
Maybe that's enough for people like us.
Hey! What you doing on my dock, old man? No.
What you mean, no? I mean no.
Psh, yeah, whatever, asshole.
Chrissie, I'm gonna need a favor.
I'm getting ready to go back to the ship, and I'm not coming back to Earth ever.
But there's someone that I should see first, and I'm gonna need your help arranging it.