Leviathan Wakes

One hundred fifty years earlier, Earth and Mars were on the verge of war, and the Belt was inaccessible. The Epstein drive changed everything, allowing much faster space travel. Now, humanity has colonized the broader solar system, and the Belt is home to 50 to 100 million people.

The Canterbury is hauling icebergs from a moon of Saturn to the Belt. Its chief engineer, Naomi Nagata, tells Executive Officer James Holden there’s a problem with the landing gear, but she can fix it. Holden knows she can fix it—she’s angling to get some equipment. Her assistant, Amos Burton, calls, asking her to lend a hand. To Amos, Naomi is the only boss.

Later, Captain McDowell summons Holden. They’ve picked up an emergency signal, and as the only ship in range, the Canterbury is obligated to render aid—though it will cost time and likely money, to the crew’s ire. They briefly consider ways of minimizing the effort, but Holden is intent on doing the right thing and ensuring there are no survivors who need help. He points out there might be valuable salvage, in any case.

Once they get close enough, Holden leads a small shuttle crew to investigate. McDowell suggests that if anything seems “off,” Holden should turn around instead. The ship is the Scopuli.

Detective Joe Miller works for Star Helix, a private security firm contracted to keep the peace on the Ceres station. He has lived on Ceres his whole life. With 6 million permanent residents, Ceres is an achievement of Tycho Corp and a center of commerce in the Belt. This commerce attracts a lot of crime, but something is wrong in Ceres’s underworld: The Golden Bough, one of the station’s organized crime groups, hasn’t been active lately.

Captain Shaddid calls Miller to her office and gives him an extra assignment, a favor for a shareholder: Jules-Pierre Mao, head of Protogen, one of the largest private Earth-backed corporations operating in the Belt. Mao is looking for his daughter, Julie. When Julie went to college, she became an activist for the Belter cause. She’s been working with the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) and recently went missing. Miller’s job is to find Julie, detain her, and send her home. The job doesn’t sit well with him: Living in the Belt requires moral flexibility, and Miller looks the other way often enough, but he’s never kidnapped anyone.

He goes to the eighth level, where his hole (apartment) is located. He looks at a photo of Julie Mao when she won a pinnace race at 18. He wonders how she went from being a rich girl flying her own spaceship to the target of his kidnapping assignment. He thinks both he and Ceres have more important problems.

After the Canterbury’s high-gravity flight to reach the Scopuli, Holden aches all over. He envies Belters’ ability to recover from high-G so easily. Naomi says the shuttle is ready to fly. She and Amos will join Holden, as will Alex Kamal, a pilot who formerly flew for the Martian Navy, and Shed, a medic.

Once the shuttle arrives at the Scopuli, its five-man crew discovers a hole in the side of the ship. There are no indications of life. Amos suggests bringing a gun, and Holden equips him. Holden, Naomi, and Alex suit up and head out, intending to carry out the salvage operation. Naomi operates the salvage mech to enlarge the hole in the Scopuli. Holden and Amos enter the craft and see no signs of any crew. The doors are all open, which means there’s no atmosphere, so there can be no survivors. Yet there are no signs of damage and no bodies.

Holden finds the Scopuli’s emergency beacon. He also sees a black box and asks Amos if it looks like a bomb. Amos says it’s a transmitter. This is the beacon they followed, and it could be rigged to trigger some other action. Holden orders everyone to return to the Canterbury. Captain McDowell calls Holden—they have a problem.

Miller is in the middle of his meal of fungal beans and vat-grown rice when he gets a call from a bar called The Blue Frog. Hasini, the bar manager, says Miller’s partner, Havelock, is there and seems to be having a bad night. Miller says to keep him happy for 20 minutes. Since he’s off duty, Miller takes the tube to the bar instead of police transport. He works his way through the noisy bar and finds Havelock. Miller tells Havelock that he’s there to pick a fight; Havelock replies that it’s a good night for it. Miller tells Havelock it doesn’t matter how many Inners he fights—Captain Shaddid will never like him. They leave the bar together.

As they walk down the corridor, Havelock rants about being a good cop. Miller agrees that he is one. Havelock says people are prejudiced against him for being an Inner. Earth and Mars have their rivalries, but Belters are too far out to care, Miller says. Inners are all the same to them, which means Havelock will never be included as a member of the team. That’s just the way it is.

Captain Shaddid issues an emergency broadcast. She’s interrupted by a man in an orange suit—an Earther. He looks enraged. He says his name is James Holden.

Captain McDowell tells Holden they found something strange and the Knight must return immediately. On a visual display, the captain shows Holden a mysterious spot in space near the Canterbury. It registers a warmer temperature. Holden asks Naomi what the spot could be, and McDowell says a ship has just emerged from the warm spot. Naomi suspects the ship is equipped with stealth technology. On the Canterbury, the crew reports incoming torpedo fire.

Holden gives orders to fly to the Cant as fast as possible. The Knight crew takes drugs to withstand the pressure as the shuttle accelerates into high G. Holden hears McDowell giving the order for maximum burn, but the maneuver doesn’t buy them much time. They’re going to be hit. McDowell tells Holden there’s no way to avoid it. He orders Holden to hide behind the asteroid, call for help, and make sure the pirates know there are witnesses.

Holden sees a brilliant light. Alex reports that the Cant was destroyed with a nuclear torpedo. All that’s left is a cloud of vapor. Holden is stunned and confused because pirates don’t destroy water haulers. He tells Alex to get them back to the asteroid, but then he catches sight of the ship that destroyed the Canterbury. He broadcasts a message that he’s going to send the name and photograph of everyone who died on the Cant. He tells the strange ship he will find out who they are. The ship targets the Knight with a beam. It doesn’t shoot, though—it’s just a threat. It disappears in high G.

As the Cant’s XO, Holden is now in charge of its remaining crew. He wants to follow the attack ship. Naomi tells Holden he’s being an idiot, and Alex says the attack ship must have been military. He saw stealth technology like that in the Martian navy, and the transmitter they found on the Scopuli has a serial number identifying it as a Martian part. Holden broadcasts a report that the Canterbury was destroyed by a ship with stealth technology and “what appear to be parts stamped with Martian navy serial numbers” (59).

Miller is furious. He tells Havelock that Holden just declared a Belter war on Mars. The destruction of a water hauler will not go unanswered. Belters take their air and water supplies very seriously. Havelock accuses Miller of being racist—promoting the “selective effect,” which suggests that Belters’ obsession with environment has made them less than human. Miller says Belters don’t take the long view when it comes to resources. They needed the water lost with the Canterbury.

When they arrive at the stationhouse, Shaddid says the information from Holden’s broadcast can’t be contained. Their job now is to control rioting on Ceres. Miller leads one of the riot squads. Havelock, being an Earther, has to sit this one out. Miller is surprised to find that all the riot gear is missing from the lockers.

Miller approaches a mob and sees a big shirtless guy murder a woman wearing a Martian freighter uniform. He gets onto a local broadcast system and warns the mob to stand down. He starts a dialogue with the big shirtless guy leading them. The guy accuses Miller of being an Earther. Addressing the mob in Belter lingo, Miller argues that the Inners are turning Belters against each other; they want the Belters to riot so they can shut down the station. The atmosphere shifts, and the mob falls apart. Miller arrests the man who murdered the woman.

Holden is drinking coffee. No one is speaking. Alex breaks the silence, telling the others they have to decide where they’re going. Naomi agrees and suggests they go to Ceres. Holden says no—the attackers went toward Ceres. Their fuel is limited. They’ll wait for the owner of the Knight to reply.

Holden thinks of his crewmates on the Cant—people he’s flown with for five years. The Canterbury was their home. He resolves to find whoever destroyed it and end them.

Legal counsel orders the Knight to fly to the Jupiter system, where they’ll be picked up by the Donnager, a Martian warship. The Martian government is not happy about being accused of piracy in Holden’s ill-advised broadcast. He’s told to follow orders explicitly and make no further announcements. Holden’s crewmates support him. He just relayed the facts, after all. They discuss whether to follow the orders and possibly end up in a Martian prison or run. Naomi votes for going to the Belt. Amos and Shed agree. Alex says they can’t run—the Donnager will find them.

Holden decides they’ll follow the orders in word if not in spirit. Naomi sets up a comm array that will broadcast wide. Holden records a call to the Donnager and announces that he and his crewmates on the Knight are cooperating with the investigation and are willing to board the Donnager for that purpose. He suggests that detaining them will further suspicion that a Martian vessel destroyed the Canterbury.

As they set out on their 13-day journey to the Donnager, they spot six cloaked Belter ships heading toward them.

Ceres is still mired in unrest a week after the Cant’s destruction. Miller and Havelock watch a masked OPA leader encouraging Belters to rise up against Mars and Earth, repeating, “Remember the Canterbury!” (80). The propaganda circulating on the station awakens an impulse in Miller to stand with the Belters—a dangerous impulse. Miller is aware of the negative treatment his Earther partner is receiving at bars and at work. He feels protective of Havelock, which he knows is not smart.

Havelock reminds Miller of the Julie Mao case. Miller goes to Julie’s apartment on Ceres’s ninth level. She has only a few items of clothing there—and an OPA armband. From her correspondence, Miller concludes that Julie is the type who would sacrifice for a cause but not spend much time reading its propaganda. He finds a folder labeled “Bullshit Guilt Trips” with 50 messages from the Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile stations in the Belt and on Luna (86). All but one was opened.

Miller reads a letter from Julie’s mother with news that her father is considering selling her prized Razorback. Miller sees the obvious emotional extortion. Julie’s parents knew how to hurt her, and she had taken the blow. Another message, this one from Luna, warns Julie that the Belt will soon become very dangerous and she should come home. This is not a bluff, the message emphasizes. It was sent two weeks before the Canterbury was destroyed.

The occupants of the Knight are growing weary of the confined quarters, lack of hygiene amenities, and unappealing rations. The shuttle wasn’t meant to accommodate long trips. It’s also still being tailed by the six strange ships.

Naomi tells Holden they’re getting a tightbeam from a Tycho construction site in the Belt. A message comes through from Fred Johnson. Fred was one of the most decorated former officers in Earth’s UN Marines. He became notorious as the Butcher of Anderson Station when he led a bloody massacre of insurgents who had taken over a station to protest an air tax. Later, suffering acute remorse over the bloodshed, he resigned his post and began working on behalf of the OPA. He successfully negotiated a peaceful resolution of a similar standoff and became a darling of the Belters.

Fred tells Holden he’s being played. He says someone is trying to start a war. No one he’s spoken to in the OPA knows anything about the Cant attack, and he doesn’t think Mars really wants start a war. Holden and his crew briefly consider taking up Fred’s offer to help but decide it would be too dangerous. They wonder again about the six ships following them but agree they are not powerful enough to take on the Donnager.

Miller and Havelock go to an entertainment shop to investigate a report. Miller discovers there’s a new protection racket starting up in the absence of the Golden Bough; Matteo, member of this new group, put the squeeze on the shop owner. Outside the shop, Miller sees a security camera. He checks it and sees Matteo wearing an OPA armband like the one in Julie Mao’s apartment.

Miller goes to a Belter bar. After a while, an OPA guy starts talking to him, checking his interest in joining the cause. Miller asks about the new protection racket, and the man tells Miller the OPA defends against economic terrorism perpetrated by Martians and Earthers. He gives a list of Belter grievances, then says he doesn’t know Matteo. Miller then asks the guy about Julie Mao. He doesn’t respond directly but tells Miller not to return to the bar. That night, Miller dreams of Julie Mao laughing. The next morning, Havelock tells him Matteo was found murdered. Miller says the OPA isn’t moving in on organized crime—it’s moving in on the cops.

Eventually, the Knight reaches the Donnager. The crew admires how clean and well made the Martian ship is. They are led to spacious quarters, and Holden is taken to see Lieutenant Lopez. Lopez knows Holden is from Montana and that he was discharged from the UN Navy for assaulting a senior officer. Holden says the navy was crushing the Belt and he didn’t like being the boot. Lopez asks if he’s an OPA sympathizer. Holden says no, he didn’t switch sides. He just quit playing.

Lopez comments on Holden being the only child of a family co-op. Holden acknowledges that he has five fathers and three mothers. He explains that Earth tax breaks allowed the family to have 22 acres of land—a national park by Earth standards—and that his genetic makeup comes from all eight parents.

There’s the sound of torpedoes, and Holden assumes the Donnager is shooting at the six following ships. There’s a warning blast: It seems the ships are shooting back. The investigation ends, and Holden rejoins his crew. Soon after, the Donnager is hit. Shed is suddenly decapitated as a shot penetrates the ship.