- In the asteroid belt near Saturn, James Holden and the crew of the ice freighter Canterbury, on its way to Ceres Station, investigate a distress call from an unknown derelict ship, the Scopuli.
- In the outer solar system near Saturn, James Holden and the crew of the ice-freighter Canterbury, investigate a distress call from a mysterious derelict ship, the Scopuli. On Ceres Station, Detective Miller begins an off the book investigation of a missing heiress, Julie Mao.
- An opening crawl explains that humans have colonized the solar system and split into three distinct groups: Earth, Mars, and The Belt. The tensions are high and war between the three groups is imminent.
--- SPACE
A woman, later identified as Julie Mao (Florence Faivre), escapes from a locker on a deserted ship. After making her way to the main reactor, she finds that it is covered in a glowing blue substance. She sees a body trapped in the substance. It reaches out, as Julie screams.
---- CERES
Detective Joseph Miller (Thomas Jane) and his new partner, Dimitri Havelock (Jay Hernandez), are walking among a crowd of Belters on Ceres Station. Ceres Station is the most important port in the Belt. It is controlled by the U.N., the governing body of Earth. Miller and Havelock are employed by Star Helix, a company commissioned by the U.N. to provide security for the station.
They stop for a few moments to listen to a Belter rights activist preaching about how Mars and Earth are taking advantage of the Belt. Havelock suggests arresting the activist for inciting, but Miller declines. The activist notices Miller in the crowd and asks him if he knows what side he's going to be on when the war comes. Miller answers vaguely and the activist calls him a traitor.
Miller and Havelock continue to walk through the station as Miller gives Havelock a crash course in Belter society. Miller explains how low gravity effects the way belters look, giving them tall lanky bodies, low bone density, and stretched out limbs. Miller, who has lived in low gravity his entire life has spurs on his spine where his bones did not fuse together properly. Havelock points out that Miller dresses like an earther, as though he is trying to hide his Belter roots from his earther colleagues in Star Helix. Miller insists that his hat is just to keep the rain off his head.
As they make their way back to Star Helix headquarters, Havelock sees Miller accept a bribe from a belter named Vargas. Vargas is responsible for the air filters in the poor neighborhoods of Ceres Station. The bribe is for Star Helix to look the other way as he pockets the money that is meant to maintain the filters. When they arrive at headquarters, Miller sees one of the suspects in custody yelling at a colleague named Octavia ([linkAthena Karkanis]. He roughs up the suspect and gets an earful from Octavia. Havelock questions Miller about his use of force. Miller replies that there are no laws on Ceres, just cops.
Miller meets with his superior, Captain Shaddid (Lola Glaudini), and is assigned an off-the-books assignment to track down the daughter of Jules-Pierre Mao (François Chau). Mao is the owner of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile, one of the fifty largest corporations in the Belt. His daughter is Julie Mao, from the first scene. Julie had fallen in with the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) and become an activist for the rights of belters, against the interests of her family. Her father wants her found, detained, and sent home. Miller accepts the assignment, calling it a "kidnap job".
--- SPACE (NEAR SATURN)
Second officer James Holden (Steven Strait), and navigator Ade Nygaard (Kristen Hager) are having zero-g sex on board the ice hauler Canterbury. They are employees of the Pur'n'Kleen Water Company, currently on assignment harvesting ice near Saturn. When the ship's thrusters kick on, they fall suddenly back onto the bed. Holden is then called over the comms to try and locate the XO (executive officer) of the ship.
On his way to find the XO, he sees the ship's medical technician, Shed Garvey (Paulo Costanzo), complaining about the company being too stingy with medical supplies as he sews up a crew member that had just lost his arm. Holden asks Shed for some pills to help him sleep, but Shed tells him they are out. He does however have something stronger for the right price. Holden declines the offer.
Holden then runs into engineers Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) and Amos Burton (Wes Chatham). Naomi questions why Holden has not signed off on the repairs that the Canterbury desperately needs. He replies that it's cheaper for Pur'n'Kleen to pay off the widows than it is to fix the ship.
Holden checks in on the bridge with pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) before finally going to the XO's quarters to try and locate him. He finds the XO (Jonathan Banks) having a mental breakdown. He is standing in soil from a potted plant, crying, waving a gun, and asking to go home. The XO is restrained and sent to medical.
The captain of the Canterbury, McDowell (Joe Pingue), talks to Holden to convince him to become the permanent new XO. Holden does not want to take the promotion, as he would have to stop fraternizing with Ade. When McDowell tells him he could get back to Montana faster with a promotion, Holden shrugs it off, claiming he doesn't want to go back. When the captain presses him on why, Holden asks the captain about the figurines on the shelf in his office. The captain gets the hint and agrees to leave the past in the past. He tells Holden to hold onto the XO's badge, hoping it would grow on him.
They get called to the bridge where the Canterbury has just picked up on a distress signal from a ship called the Sopuli. The protocol for distress signals is that they must investigate, but the captain decides to wipe it from their logs and ignore it. He wants to get back to Ceres as soon as possible. Much of the crew is in agreement, but Ade voices her opinion that they should answer the call because one day they might be the ones needing help. Holden reiterates the captain's orders and tells the crew to disregard the distress signal.
Back in their quarters, Holden and Ade argue about the distress signal. Holden says he turned down the offer to be XO, but Ade thinks he should take the promotion. She informs him that this is probably her last run on the Canterbury. Holden is clearly upset at this news. He goes to the bridge and relieves the on duty crew member in order to be alone. He pulls up the distress signal and begins to analyze it. He hears a woman's voice in the signal saying "Please, help me". Holden looks conflicted, but ultimately decides to log the distress signal with corporate, forcing the captain's hand to follow protocol and investigate.
--- EARTH
Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), undersecretary in the U.N. is home playing with her grandchildren when a ship arrives to take her to a U.N. black site to interrogate a captured belter terrorist. He was taken into custody after being caught smuggling contraband stealth technology as a member of the OPA. The belter is being suspended by hooks on the wall, forcing him to feel the full weight 1g. The belter is obviously in pain and can barely lift his head.
Avasarala interrogates the belter to discern who the stealth tech is for and what they are planning to do with it. The belter refuses to give her any information. She informs the team to give him another 10 hours and inform her if he survives.
--- CERES
The effects of Vargas's bribery are seen as Star Helix responds to a health emergency outside of a poor neighborhood on Ceres Station. Many poor belters are forced from their homes, coughing and gasping for breath due to the dirty, faulty air filters in their living quarters. Miller and Havelock observe the scene. Havelock shares his disgust with Miller for accepting the bribe. Miller responds that Vargas pays their bosses even more. He advises Havelock not to try and save the whole department on his first day.
--- SPACE (NEAR SATURN)
Captain McDowell is furious that the distress signal was logged, and promises that heads will roll when he finds out who disobeyed his orders. He orders the crew to prepare for a high-g flip and burn so they can get to the distress signal quickly and shorten the delay as much as possible. The crew straps in and receive a dose of "juice" injected into their veins. The "juice" is a cocktail of drugs that help the body deal with the stress of being under sustained high-g force. The Canterbury performs the flip and burn maneuver and makes its way towards the distress signal coming from the Scopuli.
When the Canterbury arrives near the Scopuli, Holden, Naomi, Amos, Alex, and Shed board a shuttle named Knight to get close enough to investigate the ship. Captain McDowell tells the team to get out quickly if anything looks wrong and to not be heroes.
Before the rest of the crew board the shuttle, Naomi tells Holden that if Ade was the one who logged the signal, she would be living it down for a long time. Holden responds that he was the one that logged it. She looks disgusted and surprised. She advises him to keep it to himself.
--- CERES
Miller is off duty at a bar, drunkenly looking through the Julie Mao case videos. He notices his colleague Octavia, sitting further down the bar talking to a man. Miller makes his way over and scares the man off. Under the ruse of asking for a woman's opinion on the Mao case, he begins to tease her about their history. She is having none of it, but she does seem worried about him. She tells him to eat something because he looks terrible. Miller puts on his hat and stumbles out of the bar.
-- SPACE (NEAR SATURN)
The crew in the Knight shuttle arrive at the ship and determine that the ship is in fact the Sopuli, and that there doesn't appear to be anyone alive on board. Against the wishes of the crew Holden decides that he will board the Scopuli to look around. Amos volunteers to go with him. Once inside, they discover the ship is completely powered down and that hull has been damaged by a breaching charge. They request Naomi and Shed to board the ship and aid their investigation.
On the bridge of the Scopuli, they find the source of the distress signal: a small martian transmitter hidden under the control deck. Suddenly the crew on the Scopuli receive communication from the Canterbury that a ship has just appeared out of nowhere and is burning towards their location. The crew hurries back to the shuttle.
-- CERES
Miller returns to his apartment and notices a father with his young daughter outside the building. The daughter is watching a bird flutter around in the fake sky. The bird's flapping is much slower than we are used to in low gravity. He smiles at the girl and asks the father how old she is. The father tells him she is 2 1/2 years old. Miller tells the man that he doesn't have any kids.
Miller gets into his apartment and watches the girl play outside the window. The bird comes up and hovers just outside his window while Miller watches. He notices the girl coughing below. The girl coughs a few more times and Miller gets an angry look on his face.
Miller leaves his apartment and apprehends Vargas. He drags him to the docks and throws him into the airlock. Vargas pleads with Miller to let him go. He tells him they had an understanding, that he'd pay double. Miller activates the controls and the air starts being sucked out of the airlock. Vargas continues trying to plead for his life. While choking and gasping he promises that he is a changed man. Finally Miller opens the airlock and spares Vargas' life. Miller looks down and tells Vargas to keep the filters clean.
-- SPACE (NEAR SATURN)
Back on the shuttle, Holden and crew talk to the Canterbury. The stealth ship is still approaching. They determine that the ship must have extremely advanced stealth tech to have hidden so well. They conclude that only Mars could have tech that advanced. Coupled with the info that the distress signal was also sent by martian tech, they begin to believe they were lured into a trap by Mars.
The stealth ship fires several nuclear torpedoes towards the Knight. The crew believe they will be hit, but the torpedoes pass them by and instead, head for the Canterbury. Holden urges the Canterbury to drop their payload of ice to help with evasive maneuvers. But the Canterbury is too bulky and they were taken too much by surprise.
Ade tells Holden that she needs to tell him something, but before she can, the torpedoes hit the Canterbury and destroy the ship. The crew of the Knight look on in disbelief. The debris field from the destroyed ship is shown quickly approaching the small shuttle as the show ends.
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