The Expanse 1.5: The Butcher of Anderson Station Quiz

Answer: In a bar on Ceres Station

Fred was recognized throughout the Belt. Hanging out alone in a bar on Ceres was just asking for trouble, and in fact, that was what Fred was looking for. He got excited when he saw some tough looking Belters who looked like they might start a fight. He was caught off guard when, instead, they put a bag over his head and dragged him away.

Answer: The Outer Planets Alliance

Labeled a terrorist organization by both Earth and Mars, the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) was a group that advocated for Belter rights. It did sometimes use violent methods, but often in response to Inner (Earth and Mars) oppression.

Over the course of the novel series, the OPA would grow into a legitimate governing body representing the asteroid belt.

Answer: Dawes' parents named him after the company they worked for.

Dawes' parents named him after the Anderson-Hyosung Cooperative Industries Group, hoping to impress their employers. The group also owned Anderson Station. Fred asked if the station was like a brother to Dawes. Dawes said it was more like a namesake.

Answer: A three percent cargo transfer fee had been implemented.

A three-percent increase did not sound like much, but the Belters living out of the station were already barely living day-to-day. They could try to eat less food, use less fuel, drink less water, or breath less oxygen, but they were already on the edge of starvation. In the words of Marama Brown, "When there's nothing left to cut back on, how do you make it up then?"

Answer: A hypoxic brain injury

Belters were constantly living on the brink (which made the OPA more attractive). They barely had enough food or water, fuel for their ships, or even oxygen in their air. Adults could live on lean air (air with low oxygen levels) for a while, but it was particularly harmful to growing children. Marama's daughter was not a unique case; many Belter children faced similar issues.

They had spoken to the head office of the company, and the Outer Planets Governing Board, but no one from the inner planets was sympathetic. Up against a wall, the Belters took control of the station for their own survival.

Answer: The station's administrator

When the starving Belters brought their concern about the three percent surcharge on supply transfers to administrator Gustav Marconi, his response was, "Work harder and you can afford the increase." His actions would have led to the deaths of thousands of Belters, so they put him out an airlock.

The Belters were not violent people, did not hurt anyone else, and did not want anyone else to die. They had been put in an impossible situation.

Answer: He authorized the use of heavy weapons near life support systems.

On any given raid, the UN Marines could expect up to 60% casualties. Fred was cognizant of that number, and took every precaution he could to reduce it. It took his marines three hours to secure the station. They could have cleared the station in half that time, but he explicitly moved cautiously.

Soon after landing on the station, some marines found a makeshift barricade in a corridor near some life support systems. It might have been because the defenders thought that the marines would not risk damage to the vital systems. To Fred, he could let his soldiers use heavy weapons against the barricade and risk station damage, or he could risk up to 60% casualties. Thinking of his troops, he authorized the heavy weapons. Only later did they realize that the defenders probably would not have been able to stop the marines. The loss of life support meant that hundreds of people probably suffocated while trapped in their own rooms.

Answer: The station had surrendered.

The station had signaled their surrender, but the diplomatic team explicitly ignored it. The UN wanted to make an example of the Belters to dissuade future uprisings in the belt. Fred went in expecting a hardened defense. He only learned about the attempted surrender after the attack. For his work on Anderson Station, the UN tried to give Fred the Medal of Freedom, and offered him a promotion, but he left before they could bestow either. In his own words, Fred had become, "the poster boy for disproportional response."

Finding out why Fred Johnson acted the way he had after the events on Anderson Station was the reason why Dawes wanted to talk to him.

Answer: He did not properly check her spacesuit's seals.

Fred Johnson was depressed, and Anderson Dawes saw that he was on the path to suicide. Dawes was able to relate, and told Fred about the time he accidentally killed his sister. He was a teenager, and in a bit of a mood, so when he and his sister went out on a spacewalk, he only did a cursory check of her suit's seals.

When they were in vacuum, she twisted and an old seal gave out. Dawes was only able to watch in horror as his sister lost all her air. When Fred asked why Dawes didn't kill himself, he said that he still had three other sisters who needed their seals checked.

Answer: Wastefulness

When Dawes was a child, his father beat him if he spat anywhere other than the reclaimer. Belters couldn't afford to waste precious resources like water, and had that mentality instilled from an early age. On Earth, nearly half of the population lived on Basic, surviving on the excess produced by the rest. As a post-scarcity society, they did not have the same views about preserving resources.

Fred thought of himself as just one man, and if he died, that it would be no big loss. Dawes, on the other hand, recognized Fred's rare combination of training and talent, and wanted to save what he could. His meeting with Fred was more an interview than an interrogation. If Fred still wanted to die, Dawes asked that he do it without involving the OPA. Otherwise, Dawes had a position in his organization for someone like Fred.