Search

The Expanse – S06E05 – Why We Fight | Transcript

Drummer arrives on Ceres to aid the relief effort. Holden tries to convince Avasarala to release crucial information that might avert catastrophe. Amos and Bobbie get a little R&R. Naomi has a difficult and long-awaited reunion.
The Expanse - S06E05 - Why We Fight

Original release date: January 7, 2022

Drummer arrives on Ceres to aid the relief effort. Holden tries to convince Avasarala to release crucial information that might avert catastrophe. Amos and Bobbie get a little R&R. Naomi has a difficult and long-awaited reunion.

* * *

[Cara] Where are you? Are you there? Hello? Please, you have to help him. He’s my brother. He got hurt. He died. But I know you can fix him like you fixed Momma Bird. Please, where are you? I need your help, please. [crying] Please help me.

[child] Where are you?

[man] Cara, where are you?

[Gary] Cara?

[Dot] Baby!

Baby!

[Gary] Are you out there?

♪ ♪

Cara?

[Dot] Baby, we’re right here.

[keypad beeping] [Gary] Cara?

[Dot] Baby!

[Gary] Cara?

[Dot] Baby!

[Gary] Baby girl? Are you out there?

Cara?

[woman] Cara!

[man] Cara, where are you?

[woman] Cara! [Dot] Baby, we’re right here.

[man] Cara, where are you?

Baby girl?

[man] Cara?

Cara?

[woman] Cara, we’re here.

[Gary] Are you out there?

[Dot] Baby!

[woman] Cara!

Cara, are you out there?

[breathing heavily]

♪ ♪

[gasps]

[animals chittering]

[chittering continues]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Xan?

♪ ♪

Cara, is that you?

I feel weird.

What happened?

Well, you got hurt, really hurt, like, uh, killed hurt.

Oh.

I remember I was scared.

I heard talking, but I couldn’t see anyone.

What does it mean to be in substrate?

Everything looks… different.

Never saw that before.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

The dogs fixed you.

♪ ♪

[music swells]

♪ ♪

[pensive instrumental music]

♪ ♪

[woman singing in Norwegian]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[engines rumbling]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[gunfire, explosion]

♪ ♪

[alarm beeping]

[comms officer] Ring Comm Relay in position and active.

Telemetry looks good.

Comms, give me a wide-band.

[comms officer] Wide-band up.

Medina Station, this is the MCRN.

Your Free Navy sentries at the Ring have been eliminated.

Our weapons are now locked on Medina Station.

And unless you surrender immediately and unconditionally, we will open fire.

Acknowledge.

[computer beeping]

Torpedoes. Ready all tubes.

Plasma warheads only. Repeat, plasma only.

No nukes.

[comms officer] Yes, ma’am.

[sensor officer] Admiral, we’re picking up multiple plasma discharges from the surface of the Ring Station.

From the surface? What is it?

[sensor officer] Not sure yet, ma’am.

Still working on it.

[alarm blaring]

Collision alert! Multiple incoming!

[engines blasting]

All ships, emergency eva…

[explosion]

[Rosenfield] Obviously we didn’t have anything on board that would do the trick.

But we were able to salvage some appropriate hull stock from the Granicus, which is en route to us now.

The new frameworks should be in place by the time it arrives.

Would you like me to assign Filip to the detail?

Do as you wish. It’s of no concern to me.

They’re calling it my war.

Iapetus is just one station and an insignificant one at that.

One is all it takes to sow doubt.

That is what Drummer has done.

If enough Belters support the Inners, then we…

Yes, we could lose, which is why the only thing we need to care about now is getting to Medina.

With 1,300 systems and hundreds of colonies under your thumb, as much metal as we can mine, as many shipyards as we can build, anyone who wants access to that will have to ask you.

Drummer raided a defenseless supply depot.

If she wants to act like that makes her a hero, who cares?

[hand terminal beeps]

Yes.

[Marco] You’re surprised.

What?

Did you think it wasn’t going to work?

This calls for a celebration.

♪ ♪

[Kirino] All ships, emergency evasive…

The railgun is a Martian design, but it’s made out of a metal we’ve never seen before.

[Bobbie] Marco traded Protomolecule for Martian gunships and weapons.

Maybe this was part of the deal.

I thought the Ring Station was impenetrable.

How the fuck did they attach giant railguns to it?

They mounted the guns on titanium bands laid right along the surface.

The assembly holds itself together.

And since the station has effectively infinite inertia, it’s a perfect emplacement.

Our strike team took fire from five guns, but there are probably six.

From these positions, Inaros can rain hell on any point inside the Ring Space.

Jesus.

If Inaros gets behind the guns, the farms on Medina will be able to provision his forces indefinitely.

We could send in a swarm of fast nukes and blow Medina up.

The last time we detonated a nuke near the Ring Station, it powered up and nearly wiped out the entire solar system.

We have to stop them before they get through the Ring.

[Liaison] Based on the position of the Pella when it engaged Rocinante, there is still time to intercept them, but the window’s closing fast.

We have to mobilize now.

Abandon Ceres.

And consign every soul upon it to starvation and death?

Free Navy has been rounding up our nationals all over the Belt.

We don’t owe Ceres a goddamn thing.

We need to load up every warship we’ve got right now, max-burn to the Ring, engage, and keep firing until we run out of bullets.

MCRN Fleet concurs.

We don’t have enough ships, and we’re spread too thin.

We can get the job done.

Do you truly believe the odds are in our favor?

No, ma’am, but…

If we have to send more people to their death, the least we can do is give them a fucking chance to win.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

You’ll have my decision soon.

♪ ♪

What?

You seem a bit tired.

Stop mothering me.

Yes, ma’am.

The Martians have been urging a full-scale assault on Medina Station from the moment we arrived at Ceres and found it stripped.

They wanted to send a joint strike force to the Ring.

I refused to go along with them.

If you had, do you think it would have changed the result?

I want to know what you think.

It’s not my place to say.

Have I gone soft?

Was I trying too hard to be good when I should have been ruthless?

You used your best judgment.

And lost.

There is no prize for the best victim.

♪ ♪

Your torpedo picked a rotten time to misfire.

I’m not blaming you.

It was just bad luck.

The fight’s not over yet.

I don’t need platitudes.

We’re fucked, and it’s my fault.

Fine.

Maybe you have gone a bit soft, which might not be so bad in small doses, but now is not the time for self-pity bullshit.

It’s time to keep your eyes on the enemy and wait for the next time they slip up, because I still think we’re the good guys, and I’d rather do a little less soul-searching and a lot more fighting back.

♪ ♪

Go do something else.

♪ ♪

[Clarissa] The UNN engineer said that they’ve been ordered to reinforce our hull with carbon silicate lace plating.

What’s that?

Some kind of badass new armor.

They said it’s the same stuff they’ve got on UNN-One.

If it makes us harder to poke holes into, I’m all for it.

It reminded me of my father.

The lace plating is new metallurgy.

It came out of Protomolecule research.

The things my father did, he tried to justify them by saying the Protomolecule was the key to ensuring the survival of our species.

Stuff like this makes him seem right.

What the hell is Amos still doing out there?

Oh, he’s not out there.

He went into the station.

Why?

He didn’t say.

Do you know when he’ll be back?

[sighs]

He didn’t say.

Watch your step.

Based on the data, it seems clear to me that a significant number of these ship disappearances were indeed similar to whatever happened to the Barkeith.

The Ring transit data that my group was able to study, and there was a lot, suggests that there is a mass-energy threshold which precedes or perhaps triggers these events, which obviously would have dire consequences for the future use of the Rings.

I’ve embedded our analysis for you to see.

[computer beeping]

You were right.

Anytime anyone goes through a Ring, they don’t realize they’re taking a massive risk.

You said that every time you transit, you can feel those entities getting angrier.

Do you think they’re trying to get out?

Uh, I don’t know. Maybe.

The artifact on Ilus proves they can directly affect our world.

Avasarala needs to see this.

This is bigger than the war.

[chuckles]

Something funny?

No… something good.

♪ ♪

The supplies are solely food and fuel to help relieve the station.

We are giving it to you.

[UNN harbormaster] That doesn’t make any difference.

A UNN crew will board each of your ships and pilot them in and conduct a…

Your soldiers on my ships?

And conduct a thorough security screening.

Any Free Navy partisans or Belters with outstanding warrants will be immediately detained.

So it is the Inners’ policy to starve the Belt, again.

If you do not submit to these procedures, we will not let you…

Captain Drummer.

Secretary-General.

We are grateful for your assistance.

Your ships are clear to dock and will be treated as sovereign territory.

Your crews are also welcome on the station, as long as there are no disruptions.

We will be staying only long enough to unload the supplies.

There will be no disruptions.

It’s nice to finally meet.

Fred Johnson spoke well of you.

He spoke well of you too.

We didn’t agree on everything.

Then your gesture says even more about you and of the true OPA.

Inaros is an enemy to us both.

A century of oppression made Marco Inaros inevitable.

If not him, there would have been another.

Interesting perspective.

I’d like to hear more.

Perhaps in person?

I would be happy to offer the hospitality of my ship.

The Belters here are hungry, and I have food.

I came for them, not you.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

[engines rumbling]

[Rosenfeld] The Dusters were taken completely by surprise, and under the withering fire of our new railguns, every last one of their ships was annihilated.

To celebrate our victory, the captain has ordered that all of the rare Earther brandy we liberated from Ceres Station be made available to the crew at the end of our next shift.

[people cheering]

[people chanting] Marco! Marco! Marco!

[Pascal] Marco! Marco!

Oye, mi Pascal.

We double-time this shift, keyá?

Faster we finish, faster we get to drink.

Where’s Tadeo?

Oh, in the brig. Mi replace him.

Come on, let’s go.

♪ ♪

What are you doing here?

What did you do?

I couldn’t stop thinking about my brother.

There was no mention of him on the newsfeed, which was good, but still.

So I rigged a transmitter and I sent him a message.

[sighs] You broke radio silence.

Just one quick burst.

You could’ve given away our position.

You’re lucky that they didn’t space you.

I… I wasn’t thinking about me.

I was going crazy.

I just… needed to know that Mas was okay.

He was always there for me.

♪ ♪

[medic] Do this.

[grunts]

That hurt?

[grunts]

[medic] On a scale of one to ten.

Four.

This is less useful if you lie.

Eight.

[medic] And this?

[Josep grunts]

I had to regrow my spine.

He is having more pain than I did.

[medic] Looks like the gel was too weak.

Bad batch, maybe, or some problems with his genetics.

Maybe your Inner friends could give us some of the gel.

I will not beg favors from them.

There’s no harm in asking.

It wouldn’t make a difference at this point.

That limb will never be good.

It must be removed as soon as possible.

We will get you the best prosthetic made.

He will need something to control the pain until then.

[medic] Better not to.

The bad re-grow will compensate, make more nerve fiber, make the pain even worse.

How long before I pull my own weight again?

[medic] The arm will come off quick.

But the bad tissue must then be rooted out, all invasive nerve fiber be killed, and then must fit and integrate the prosthetics.

But even in normal times, it will take weeks.

[device beeping]

[Michio] These are not normal times.

[medic] Goddamn Inyalowda ration everything now, including surgery.

But for Camina Drummer and family…

…here’s my clinic in Midtown, outside Green Zone.

Come, and it will be done.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

[Naomi] Camina.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve actually spoken to each other.

And… now we can do it in person.

I’m here with the Roci on Ceres.

I’m sure you’re caught up in the relief efforts.

It’s… amazing what you did.

Oh, there’s so much I want to say.

Just let me know when you have a little time, and I’ll come to you.

See you soon.

♪ ♪

[Avasarala] We got some information from a Belter on Ganymede.

Not a spy.

Regular man, the botanist.

He risked his life and family to send us experimental biotech, simply because he believed it could help restore

Earth’s ability to grow food.

And?

Initial reports suggest he might be right.

Well, one good apple, sometimes that’s all it takes.

[intercom dings] [aide] Madam, he’s here.

Just a moment.

[Monica] People are responding well to the “Lucky Earther” piece.

Owain’s also getting death threats.

It’s just a stimulant.

This is no time to worry about the swim back.

Send him in.

Monica.

[Monica] Holden.

I heard you had some interesting times out there, as usual.

We should set up an interview.

Never, ever, ever again.

Thank you for seeing me so quickly.

I know you’ve got a lot going on.

You rarely waste my time. One of the few.

What’s on your mind?

Travel through the Rings is not as safe as we thought.

When traffic exceeds a certain mass-energy threshold, a ship will disappear in transit.

Abruptly vanish without a trace.

It’s connected to the artifact we discovered on Ilus, and it’s happened a number of times.

I think I need to up my dosage.

What?

Never mind.

What can we do about this?

I think we need to share it with Inaros.

Oh, James, you’re truly one of a kind.

Just hear me out.

If we can convince Marco that the danger is real, he might…

What, lay down his arms and say, “You’re right.

Let’s solve this together.

We’re one big happy family after all”?

You have to be the most naive person I’ve ever met.

Every time anyone uses a Ring, it puts all of us at risk, including the colonies and the trade routes.

And that problem is not just gonna go away.

Let me show you the problem we have right now.

[Holden] Those look like railguns.

[Avasarala] Yes, they are.

Very big ones.

They destroyed six Martian warships in a matter of seconds.

We cannot afford the luxury of worrying about the future until we end this war.

♪ ♪

Camina Drummer, how well do you know her?

What do you want with Drummer?

I need an ally, a Belter with ships and guns who’s respected by her own kind, to fight at our side against Inaros.

No wonder you saw me so quickly.

We need Drummer’s strength.

It’s really that bad?

We’ve lost more ships than we could afford.

Not long ago, Drummer was a fugitive with one ship.

She came to Ceres with eight, studded with missiles and guns.

Belters trust her. Some will flock to her.

And some will abandon the Free Navy.

That could make all the difference.

Drummer has no love for Marco, but she’s no friend of Earth either, and she’s not gonna trust you.

♪ ♪

[Avasarala] On Earth, I once put a Belter up on hooks…

…to suffocate him, to make him tell me things he wouldn’t have otherwise.

I did it because I could.

The Belt sees me that way because that is who I was.

It is not who I am now.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

On my tab.

[Bobbie] Someone’s got a bad case of shore leave.

Give me some of that.

[groans]

You’ve got lipstick and scratches on your neck.

Yup.

And is that glitter?

Yup.

So just drinking and fucking.

Till they run out of one or the other.

You?

Trying to forget how much I hate politics.

The old lady’s trying to win the game with a crap hand.

You think we’re gonna lose?

We can’t lose, not really.

But I don’t think we can win either.

Our grandchildren will still be killing each other over this shit a hundred years from now.

Might be time you got back to your ship.

I’m not sure I’m going back.

You serious?

I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing out here anymore.

We’re fighting a war.

[Amos] Are we?

‘Cause war is when you try to kill the other guy when you get the chance.

We caught a bad break with Inaros.

It happens.

It happened because Holden disarmed the nuke.

He saw Naomi’s kid on the Pella.

[laughs]

I don’t know, usually I get what he’s trying to do, but this?

Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to get us killed.

Then a couple times, he saved the whole human race, so I guess it balances out.

Not a man who does things by degrees.

War is the wrong place for good men.

Good or bad, it’s the same place for everyone.

Firing line. Drop ship.

Sitting in a crash couch, wondering if you’ll live long enough to unstrap.

Then what difference does it make if you’re good or bad, then?

Well, when you’re in the shit, not much.

But I mean, I fought for my planet.

I fought for money.

Was a time I would have said I fought for honor.

In the end, the only thing that matters is fighting for who’s covering your flank.

Doesn’t matter if they’re saints or assholes.

They’re your people.

They watch your back and you watch theirs, or you’ve got nothing.

Yeah.

That’s right.

So back to the ship?

Yeah.

Brothel first, though.

You want to come with?

With you?

Or with you?

Whatever.

So…

…that was the easy part.

Doctors are expert liars.

I’m sorry.

[Josep groans softly]

You have nothing to be sorry about.

The fight is not over.

And I can’t help you.

I will stay here with him.

We can take shifts.

No.

Camina…

I’m going to stay here with Josep on Ceres.

It’s okay for you to go.

The Inners control this station.

I will live under the Inners’ yoke, and I will help Josep find a way to also.

Because I know you will never be able to give up the fight with Marco now.

And we can’t help you in that fight anymore.

It’s okay.

You can go.

♪ ♪

I never loved you because you were fighters.

I loved you because you were builders.

I wanted us to build something together.

♪ ♪

Thank you, Bosmang.

Yam seng.

[indistinct chatter]

So what’s the verdict?

They have size. We have numbers.

No matter what they do now, they can’t engage us everywhere at once.

We can dictate how the forces will be spread.

The stage is set.

That sounds good.

It is good.

Was your father big in your life?

I never knew him.

So you improved upon the role.

Not as much as I hoped.

Here, there’s something I want you to see.

[Drummer] Camina Drummer did this to you.

Live shamed and die empty.

[Tadeo] At least it wasn’t the Inners who raided our supplies.

[Filip] Whose side are you on?

[Tadeo] I only meant…

[Filip] Drummer is our enemy.

Same as the Inners and anyone else who stands against us.

This is war.

And it won’t be over until we are dead or victorious.

Or else everything that we fought for, the blood that we spilled, the beratnas we lost, all will have been for nothing.

There is no turning back now.

♪ ♪

It was nice to see that kind of fire in him.

I wonder where he gets it from.

♪ ♪

You should be celebrating with everyone else, not wasting your time with me.

I still have privileged access to the ship systems.

I piggybacked a comm test to ping the Ceres network.

See if I could find anything about your brother.

Mas was on the docks when the water tanks exploded.

He’s dead.

♪ ♪

It’s my fault.

No, it’s the Inners’ fault.

No.

They occupied the station. Their soldiers…

No, I killed him.

I was on the crew that planted the bombs and rigged the docks to blow.

♪ ♪

They said no Belters would get hurt.

I thought we were just killing Inners.

♪ ♪

[announcer] Admission to the Green Zone requires a valid permit, and all Belters must submit to ID verification and security scan.

If you resist, you will be arrested.

Fo ademeshang fo da Sonya Geríng imim mowteng xudzho valit, unte kowl belta mowteng…

[marine] Next!

[announcer] …gif sif fo verifikashang ide unte sekáng sekuri.

[marine] Hands out, legs apart.

[announcer] Sili to mebi avita,

imim gonya leta go to fongi fode.

You there.

Are you talking to me?

Yeah, you’re Drummer.

And what of it?

You can go right on through. You’re precleared.

There’s no need. I will wait my turn.

Don’t waste your time on this.

You have more important things to do.

Drummer, how does it feel to be the Inners’ favorite pet?

Back in line.

♪ ♪

[panel beeps, door whirs]

[Naomi] Camina.

[Drummer] Nagata.

I’m sorry to just drop in on you like this.

I-I know you’ve had your hands full with the relief efforts.

It has kept me quite occupied.

My apologies.

No need.

It’s good to see you.

You as well.

[panel beeps, door whirs]

Please.

You have a fine ship.

I’ve kept it the same as Ashford left it as much as I could,

Considering what it’s been through.

It suits you.

I’m eager to meet your family, if you have the time.

They’re gone.

[Naomi] Gone.

You mean…

Oksana and Bertold left after I turned on Marco to save the Rocinante.

Serge was executed in reprisal.

Josep and Michio have decided to remain on Ceres so they don’t have to keep paying for the choices I made for them.

You blame me for all that?

I did what I did.

The fault is mine.

We have all lost a great deal.

Some more than others.

So your pain is greater than mine?

I was not saying that.

You know it’s the last thing I ever would have wanted.

I didn’t tell you about it because what good would it have done?

I’m sorry… from the bottom of my heart.

Don’t. Please don’t.

You didn’t come here to apologize.

Then why did you come?

I wanted to see you.

You know me well enough to know that silence meant I didn’t want to be seen.

So why are you here?

Holden asked me to talk to you on Avasarala’s behalf.

She wants you and yours to fight at her side against Marco.

♪ ♪

You should leave.

Camina, please.

Clear this deck!

♪ ♪

You come to me, running errands for the Inners.

It’s not like that, and you know it.

How do you do it?

Do what?

Work with them. Live with them.

Pick their side against your own over and over.

I picked my own side.

I despise Marco and everything he’s done.

Avasarala and her Inners are no better.

That was true once, but it’s different now.

♪ ♪

So what is it for me?

I can choose to wait for the bounty to go high enough that someone kills me, or I can put a collar on my neck and hand the Inners the leash.

This universe has no place for me.

I wish there were another way.

I tried to find one, but there isn’t.

Then we have to make one.

Tell me how.

Tell me, and we will help.

I don’t know how.

Then all we can do now is to stand by the people that we love.

What else is there?

Fuck you… you self-righteous shit.

♪ ♪

Fuck you.

[crying] Fuck you. Fuck you.

♪ ♪

[advance team member] Advance team confirms.

All units in place. The route is secure.

[security officer] Copy that, Advance.

Archangel is in the dock.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

And here I am.

♪ ♪

I didn’t really believe that you would leave your ship.

Would you have come to me?

Hmm.

Your security detail doesn’t seem too happy about it.

They don’t appreciate the value of a symbol as much as I do.

Then this is just symbolism?

I hope not.

I hope it’s a way forward for us both.

The system is filled with the graves of Belters who trusted Inners.

And my planet is now covered with the bodies of people who paid the price for that.

Why are you here?

Speak plainly.

Marco will get many more Belters killed before this ends.

You know that.

So you’re here to save us?

I’m here because you can help me win this war.

The sooner it’s done, the fewer the dead of both our people.

When the last shot is fired, when Marco is dead, will you remember us?

Will you remember the Belters who bled for your victory?

All I can do is promise that I will.

I have given your people many reasons to hate me but none to think I’m a liar.

Belters fighting alongside Inners against Belters.

I never thought I would live to see that.

Neither did I.

My people will not take orders from you.

I don’t expect them to.

♪ ♪

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read More

Weekly Magazine

Get the best articles once a week directly to your inbox!