The Big Empty

On Ceres, Miller investigates the theft of water, now severely rationed due to the Canterbury's failure to arrive. In Julie Mao's apartment, he finds clues placing her aboard the Scopuli. On Earth, Avasarala sends the suspected OPA captive to Luna after her superior, Undersecretary Sadavir Errinwright, disapproves of "gravity torture", but the captive commits suicide underway. In the asteroid belt, the Canterbury's shuttle is damaged by debris from the ice haulers destruction. Using the last of their air, the survivors jerry-rig an antenna to place a distress call, which is responded to by the Martian navy's flagship, the MCRN Donnager. After Nagata identifies the distress transponder aboard the Scopuli as using Martian military technology, Holden broadcasts a message to that effect to the Solar System, as insurance against being killed as inconvenient witnesses.