The Expanse 6: Babylon's Ashes [1] Quiz

Answer: Sam Rosenburg, chief engineer

Sam was the Tycho Station mechanic who would fix the Rocinante between jobs. In "Abaddon's Gate," she was brought on to the OPA battleship Behemoth, along with Pa. She and Pa began a secret relationship that was not revealed to the reader until "Babylon's Ashes," after Sam had been executed by Captain Ashford.

Answer: Avasarala did not say anything obscene

Avasarala was known for consistently using vulgar language, even when speaking to her peers. Being a short Indian woman, this was partially a cultivated tactic to disrupt people's expectations; to make them feel uncomfortable during negotiations. It was also partially her personality.

When Avasarala stopped swearing during her meetings with the crew of the Rocinante, all of whom she knew well and even liked, Holden knew that the situation was serious.

Answer: Bobbie Draper, former marine

Earth and Mars needed to work together against Marco Inaros. Avasarala was the acting head of the UN, and Bobbie Draper was a Martian who was also a friend, which made her perfect for the role. Holden originally refused to put his ship under command of some Martian mission commander until he realized it would be Bobbie.

Answer: Above the ecliptic plane

The solar system's planetary orbits are close to parallel with each other, making a plane that they all roughly sit in. This means that when someone is on a planet, moon, or asteroid, that their view of another planet could be obscured (usually by the sun). To get around this problem, you can travel above this disk to make sure everything is always in sight.

This is where Marco Inaros put the Azure Dragon, the ship coordinating the siege of Earth, so it could keep a constant eye on Earth and talk to Marco no matter where he was in the solar system.

Answer: A booby trap

The Rocinante disabled the Azure Dragon with a well-placed railgun round, and then docked with the ship. Bobbie Draper, a trained Martian marine in power armour, was just between the two airlocks when the trap was sprung. The Azure Dragon locked itself to the Rocinante, and even though Bobbie's armour would have let her tear through the airlock, it was probably rigged to explode if she tried.

At the same time, the crew of the Azure Dragon started sabotaging the Rocinante from the outside, disabling a communications array and a point defence cannon, and then cutting their way through the hull. It was up to Amos and Clarissa to go outside and stop them. Ironically, after spending all of "Abaddon's Gate" trying to kill James Holden and the Rocinante, Clarissa now found herself fighting to save it.

Answer: A railgun battery around Ring Station

Winston Duarte's factories on Laconia were already producing new technology, and he supplied his Free Navy friends with state-of-the-art railguns to defend Ring Space. The six guns were placed on three perpendicular bands circling Ring station, with a gun at each intersection.

The guns were larger than anything a ship could carry, and each gate was covered by at least two of the guns. With this defensive emplacement, Marco could control all traffic to the new colonies.

Answer: Filip shot a Star Helix security officer

Filip got drunk and irate at a bar on Ceres, and when a Star Helix security officer tried to calm him down, Filip shot the man. The officer didn't die, but just barely. Belter justice could be pretty harsh, and if Filip hadn't been the son of the most terrifying man in the solar system, he would likely have been put out an airlock. Even so, when Filip was in a holding cell, Captain Shadid was the only one with a key to make sure none of the other officers got their own revenge.

Filip would not be executed, but he'd also never be safe of Ceres, which was a problem. The solution was to literally make the problem go away. Anderson Dawes, the leader of Ceres, told Marco that Filip had to leave, and would never be allowed to set foot on Ceres for the rest of his life.

Answer: The Afghans

Marco compared the Belters to the old Afghans, and Earth and Mars to the colonial powers. He called the Afghans the breakers of empires; that every one that tried to colonize Afghanistan would deplete their resources, and eventually fail. He said it was because the colonizers and the colonized valued different things. If the English wanted a city, they could take the city, but the Afghans would move into the hills, undetectable, and would only fight on their own terms.

Marco called the Afghans the spiritual fathers of the Belters. Ceres was a station that Earth and Mars would take, but the Belters would fly away into the empty space between planets, moons, and asteroids, and strike on their own terms.

Answer: Amber

Most gemstones can be grown in labs from materials found anywhere in the solar system (carbon, silicon, etc.). Amber is fossilized tree sap; it takes millions of years, and can only be grown on Earth, making it exceedingly rare in the Belt.

Answer: Holden created and shared a series of slice-of-life videos

Holden was disturbed by the casual racism he saw from Earthers, including his own father. To combat this, he decided to use his fame to try to humanize the Belters. He went around Ceres Station looking for people willing to talk to him, and made a series of slice-of-life videos of regular people, showing Belters and Earthers largely had the fears and desires, but they just looked a little different when the gravity changed.

Holden got a good video of two Belters playing Shin-sin, a rhythm game like the Earther "Patty Cake," but with added spheres being tossed around. It was a game only possible in low-gravity.

Holden's videos were a hit across the solar system and many copycats sprung up, which was exactly what he had wanted. The whole system was coming together in empathy, and the apatite for war waned.

Answer: Naomi offered Bobbie a bunk on the Rocinante

Bobbie was a tribal creature, identifying strongly as a Martian and a marine. Then her squad was killed in "Caliban's War," and she learned that her government was partially complicit. She lost her friends, her support structures, and her best friend was the head of a foreign government. While she did have relatives, she didn't have a family who understood her.

The crew of the Rocinante was the closest thing she had, so when Naomi officially offered her a place among the crew, she was offering Bobbie a family that she hadn't had in years.

Answer: Ceres Station launched a missile at the Connaught

When Marco abandoned Ceres Station, he plundered it. When the Earth and Mars forces arrived, instead of meeting resistance, they would find a native population that needed to be cared for, straining their already thin resources.

This made sense strategically, but it meant that Marco was now responsible for hurting Belters, so Michio Pa broke away from Marco, and started attacking his supply ships to return those materials to Ceres.

It was a very tense situation when Pa showed up at Tycho in a warship, promising supplies to help. Only the Rocinante went out to meet them. The situation nearly became a senseless slaughter when an agent of Marco's launched a missile from Tycho Station at Pa's ship, but cooler heads prevailed. Holden shot down the missile heading for Pa, while Pa ordered her crew to not power up their own weapons, even to defend themselves, to avoid any appearance of being hostile.

Holden and Fred were furious about the attack, and apprehended the agent. Pa would not be an ally of the Fred Johnson's OPA faction, or the inner planets, but she made an agreement of non-violence with them.

Answer: Prax sent lab reports to Luna

Prax was a biologist working on Ganymede, the "breadbasket of the Belt." One of his employees had a new strain of yeast that was particularly hearty, able to provide good yields in harsh environments like Jupiter's moons. She wanted to send the data to Earth, who might be able to use the new strain after suffering an ecological disaster.

Unfortunately, her sympathies for Earth got her killed, and her data fell to Prax. Prax later sent the data to Luna.

Answer: They did not know Prax was responsible

The Free Navy knew that the data had been sent from Prax's lab, but had no idea who had sent it, and just wanted to impress upon Prax the importance of data security. Prax didn't realize this and, thinking he was caught, launched into an explanation of his concerns. Except his explanation went over the heads of his interrogators, leaving them flustered.

They asked Prax to take security more seriously, and ushered him away as fast as they could.

Answer: The crew were Pa's marriage group

In "Abaddon's Gate," Pa's lover was executed in front of her by her commanding officer. It took years for Pa to come back out of her depression and to trust and love again. Her marriage group started with Nadia and Bertold on Saturn's moon, Rhea. Later, Laura and Oksana joined, followed by Josep, and then Evans.

People from the inner plants would keep a ship crew and a family as distinct entities. For Belters, they often meshed, called the Doctrine of the One Ship. The Connaught's seven permanent crew, including Pa, were the seven people bound by their kebutah (a Jewish marriage contract).

When Pa approached her family as their wife to discuss Marco's treatment of Ceres Station, they all agreed to oppose him.