The Expanse 3: Abaddon's Gate [2] Quiz

Answer: Sam had been the Rocinante's mechanic on Tycho.

The crew of the Rocinante had worked more than a year for Fred Johnson's OPA based out of Tycho Station. Whenever they needed repairs, Sam was the one who fixed the ship. The crew was quite fond of Sam, with Holden once joking to Alex, "You and Amos just trade this crush back and forth?" In "Caliban's War", when Holden and Naomi paused their relationship, Naomi stayed with Sam on Tycho.

Answer: Monkeys playing with a Microwave

Holden was thinking about humanity's strange history with the protomolecule so far; how it had been treated as a tool to redefine humanity, or a weapon. It hadn't been either of those things. "Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it's a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it's a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it's a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out."

Later, on the Ring Station, Miller responded to one of Holden's questions by saying, "Now you're asking me to explain microwaves to a monkey." Holden had never voiced the thought, confirming that his vision of Miller had access to his brain's inner workings.

Answer: A marine fired a grenade launcher.

Holden went to Ring Station, so both the UN and Mars sent a skiff full of marines to stop him (the Earth one pushed its luck and got caught by the speed limit). When Holden saw the Martians on Ring Station he called to them, and they responded by shooting at Holden. The station stopped the bullets and activated a robot to investigate. With their regular guns not working, one marine used a grenade launcher to destroy the robot. Other robots were activated, which disassembled the damaged robot and the marine who had shot it. The remaining marines retreated.

Miller reappeared and explained to Holden what had just happened. "That guy got happy with his grenade launcher? Just killed a lot of people... He taught the station that something moving as fast as a good baseball pitch might still be a threat."

Answer: Tilly Faegan, socialite

When Holden saw Clarissa's face, he thought it belonged to her late sister, Julie. Tilly Fagan, as part of the wealthy elite on Earth, had known the Mao children their entire lives, and knew one from the other. She recognized Clarissa right away, but she still couldn't make sense of the situation. There was no way Claire would be out at the Ring gate; she was back on Earth.

Answer: Anna saved Naomi.

Clarissa went to the Rocinante to kill Holden, but he wasn't there. She settled for destroying the ship, but Naomi stopped her. Clarissa had used a mech suit to access the Rocinante, and the added strength helped her in the fight with Naomi. She was just about to kill Naomi when Anna used a taser from behind, which disabled the mech suit (temporarily).

Anna patched up Naomi as best she could before Clarissa's mech suit rebooted itself. Then the two women ran and hid, Naomi falling unconscious in the process. Clarissa had to ditch the mech suit when it ran out of power, and then used her implants in a last attempt to open the storage locker Anna had hidden in. Clarissa was just a little too slow, and the crash after using her implants kicked in before she could open the locker.

Answer: The builders had been killed by another entity.

The protomolecule builders had a galaxy-spanning empire with their Ring network until an unknown entity attacked them. It started silencing individual solar systems, so the builders countered by purging those systems by making the stars go nova. The attacks didn't stop, so the builders didn't stop. Eventually, to save the unaffected nodes of the network, the Ring gates were deactivated.

The empire that had lasted millennia had just imposed a quarantine on itself, and had been waiting for the all-clear signal to reopen the network for two billion years.

Answer: The Behemoth's drum was spun up.

The Behemoth had started life as a generation ship, meant for a trip that would last multiple human lifetimes. The ship had a giant drum that would have been spun up to provide a simulation of gravity, with farms and people on the inside. When the ship had been converted into a war vessel, the drum had been forgotten, and a lot of the modifications actually interfered with the drum's ability to spin.

Bull recognized the need for gravity, and that the Behemoth's drum might be the only source around. He asked the engineers to undo the modifications so they could spin up the drum, and then offered to bring the injured from other ships over. This would let Bull disarm anyone who came and give the other navies more reasons to not shoot at the Behemoth.

Ring Station also had an unexplained gravity, but no one wanted to go there.

Answer: Pa put Ashford in the brig.

Technically Captain Ashford ordered Doctor Sterling to put Bull in a coma, and Bull ordered Serge, a security member, to take Ashford into custody. At that point the room grew still waiting for what Pa would say. Pa was not happy about having to make a decision, but sided with Bull, confirming that Serge should apprehend the captain.

This made Pa the new reluctant captain of the Behemoth. Pa had bristled at the idea of mutiny when Bull had mentioned it earlier to her.

Answer: Shutting down all ship drives

Miller was not in control of Ring Station, but could try to influence it if certain conditions were met. He figured he could remove the lockdown in Ring space if all threats (energy signatures) were removed, which meant turning off the main drives of every ship in three antagonistic fleets.

This was a tall order, so Holden used the newly-established Radio Free Slow Zone to broadcast this idea to the fleets. Holden had been responsible for starting more than one conflict but he was also known for his honest and earnest nature.

Answer: The engineering team build mech legs for him.

Sam's engineering team put together a set of mech legs that Bull could wear. They had magnetic feet so he walk anywhere on the ship (even places not build for accessibility) but it also made him slower than everyone else. He needed to manually drive the legs with a joystick, so he could not move and use his hands at the same time.

Doctor Sterling had recommended a medical coma so he wouldn't injure his spine further, but Bull declined because he still had work to do keeping people alive in the slow zone.

Answer: Forgive Clarissa Mao

Holden felt indebted to Anna for saving the lives of his crew, and was ready to give Anna anything she asked for. Amos echoed the sentiment. Holden was completely taken aback when Anna asked them to keep quiet about what Clarissa had done, and to forgive her.

Naomi reluctantly agreed, but Holden immediately backpedaled, and refused to forgive or keep quiet. At least until Alex spoke, saying, "I mean, Naomi only got beat half to death. She can cut this Clarissa slack, it's no big deal. But the captain's girlfriend got hurt. He's the real victim here." After a moment of fury, Holden processed what Alex had said, and followed Naomi's lead.

Answer: Destroying the Ring gate

Hector Cortez decided that coming through the ring gate had been a mistake, so he wanted to destroy the ring, dooming the ships on the inside, to spare the Sol system more trouble. Captain Ashford was a furious, humiliated man who just wanted to be in control of his ship again. The two men were happy to help each other for their own goals, so Cortez helped spring Ashford from his imprisonment.

With the slower speed limit, all conventional ship weapons were useless. The Behemoth had started as a generation ship, though, meant to fly off into the far reaches of space, which meant it had an incredibly powerful communications laser. The crew of the Behemoth had decided to weaponize the laser, giving themselves the only advantage among the stranded ships, and Hector Cortez wanted to point it at the Ring gate.

Answer: Captain Ashford executed Sam

Sam was lead engineer on the Behemoth, but she was also friends with Holden's crew. She was secretly working to sabotage the weaponized communications laser while giving Ashford false reports. After numerous unforeseen issues extended the timeline, Ashford ordered Sam and her second, Ruiz, to the bridge. Ashford asked for Sam's opinion, and then asked if Ruiz agreed.

Not sensing what was going on, Ruiz disagreed with Sam, and thought work could be going faster. Without another word, Ashford shot Sam and promoted a horrified Ruiz to lead engineer.

Answer: Clarissa let him in.

During his visions on Ring Station, Holden had seen the capabilities of the protomolecule builders. They had the ability to "pop" stars, making them go nova, destroying entire solar systems on a whim. Hector Cortez thought he could destroy the Ring gate to stop anyone else from coming through, but Holden suspected that if they attacked the Ring, the system might shrug off the attack, destroy the fleet in Ring space, and maybe just destroy Earth's solar system to be safe.

While the fighting in the Behemoth was raging on, Monica Stuart and Anna ran Radio Free Slow Zone, broadcasting this message to anyone who would listen. Clarissa, who had nothing to do on the bridge, listened in and finally started questioning what she believed. She even called Anna for a personal conversation. Hector Cortez and Anna each talked to Clarissa, and she decided to side with Anna by opening the door to the bridge for James Holden.

As the gunfight continued, it was Clarissa who stopped Ashford from firing the laser and then used her technician knowledge to flip a brown-out buffer to shut down the whole system.

Holden's side had originally tried to flood the bridge with nitrogen to knock everyone out, but Clarissa had been able to solve that issue by disabling the remote access circuits.

Answer: Anna purchased the Rocinante.

Anna wanted to make sure Clarissa got back to Luna safely for a trial, and the Rocinante was the only independent ship she trusted. Holden did not want Clarissa on his ship because her whole plot had been to kill him, and she nearly had killed Naomi.

The Rocinante crew also argued that taking Clarissa was too much of a risk with every government wanting her. When Anna asked how much it would cost to cover that risk, she was told, "More than you have."

Anna went one step further. She offered to buy the ship. Holden said it wasn't for sale, but he had missed Anna's intent. Anna knew about the Rocinante's legal troubles, and offered to buy the ship from Mars and give to Holden. The offer was so absurd that Holden agreed. Anna called her friend Tilly to use her expensive favour to have Tilly purchase the ship from Mars (or rather, Tilly's husband). Holden was stunned, but honoured the agreement he had made.