The Expanse 8.5: Auberon Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soil Science

Auberon could support outdoor farming of Earth crops, which was rare among the colony worlds. Life from the two biospheres seemed to just ignore each other when they came into contact. Scientists on Auberon were studying farming on Auberon to see if it could be replicated on other colony worlds. This is why Mona, who had a PhD in soil science, was sent to Auberon.

Answer: Major Overstreet from "Perseoplis Rising" (book 7)

"Auberon" took place shortly after "Persepolis Rising", the seventh novel in the series. Major Overstreet was the former head of security for Santiago Singh, the Laconian governor assigned to Medina Station. When Singh wanted to pursue particularly harsh measures against the population of Medina for resisting, Overstreet shot the governor. Biryar knew Overstreet's history, which made him uneasy.

Answer: Manure

Indole (2,3-Benzopyrrole) is a real compound that naturally occurs in feces and coal tar. During the trip to Auberon, Biryar and Mona were concerned about the foul smell, but were assured that everyone got used to it quickly. It was very different from Laconia, which smelled like mint.

Answer: Auberon's day was only a third as long as Earth's

Auberon had a roughly 8-hour cycle, with half of it light, and half dark. By convention, a "day" was a light-dark-light cycle, and a night was the dark-light-dark cycle. All bedrooms needed blackout blinds so people could sleep through the night. It took the Rittenaurs a while to get used to having a period of darkness in the middle of every day.

Answer: Veronica was skimming money from the company.

Xi-Tamyan Agricultural Concern was lousy with politics and corruption. During the reception when she landed on Auberon, Mona had met Dr. Carmichael, who had been working on a project and was nearly at a breakthrough when her funding was pulled because she refused to pay the bribes.

When Mona started at Xi-Tamyan, her first task was to audit the records. She found out that her liaison, Veronica, had her names on almost every patent and project, making a small amount of money on each, which altogether made her very wealthy.

Answer: A public execution

During the execution, Biryar thought, "Laconians were severe within their group, both to forge the iron discipline that had led them to victory and to demonstrate to others the sincerity of their beliefs."

Laconians were held to a higher standard than everyone else. Biryar found it strange that the Auberon thief on the other side of the transaction would likely not die, and might even go free, while the Laconian ensign, after apologizing, was executed to send a message.

Answer: A kiss

When Lara kissed Biryar, he pulled away immediately and apologized for giving any false impressions. He was happily married in a monogamous relationship.

Erich was puzzled. He was trying to figure out what Biryar wanted. It wasn't money (he had tried to bribe Biryar on his first night on Auberon) or sex. Erich decided to investigate Biryar's wife. His agent in their house staff had told him that the couple had been fighting, but no longer.

This was the right way to go. Mona had been angry with Biryar because he wasn't using his authority more to directly undo the corruption at Xi-Tamyan. She stopped being angry when she authorized projects in Biryar's name without him knowing.

Answer: Erich grabbed the pistol.

Erich had a prosthetic arm that had its own threat detection (and could play the piano, even though Erich couldn't), and could react even faster than Erich could. When it saw Biryar pull out the pistol, it reached out automatically to grab the gun. The quick movements always caught Erich off guard and hurt a bit as he was yanked around by his own arm, but it kept him alive.

Answer: Erich missed his old useless arm.

Erich had grown up with an underdeveloped arm, seen in "The Churn" (book 3.5) and "Nemesis Games" (book 5). He was a genius with computers, setting up many automated systems to keep himself alive. He would sometimes use his small stature to lull other people into a false confidence, but secretly had automated guns watching every move, ready to keep him alive or shoot on his command.

In the thirty-plus years between "Nemesis Games" and "Auberon", Erich had had his feeble arm replaced with a fancy prosthetic. But secretly, his missed his old, real arm.

Answer: Kill the local Laconian security team

To save Mona, Biryar needed to get rid of his Laconian security on Auberon. They would be compelled to report Mona if they found out about her transgressions at Xi-Tamyan, and she would likely end up dead, one way or another. Erich offered to have the security team killed, after which Biryar could insist that his security be drawn from the local, more flexible population. Erich would finally have leverage over the governor, and Biryar would not be a widower.

Early in the novella, Biryar had been studying his mnemonics to remember everyone important on Auberon. He was having trouble until Mona suggested a particularly lewd one. She said it only worked if he committed to the process. At the end of the novel, when Mona asked Biryar why he wasn't answering priority calls from his chief of security, he told her that he had committed to the process. Biryar asked Mona to keep everything above board going forward.