Chapter Forty-Six: Clarissa

Ashford watches Monica Stuart’s broadcast with Anna explaining a plan to power down the fleet to appear nonthreatening to the station. He orders the feed suppressed and demands Ruiz finish bringing the comm laser online. Cortez questions the broadcast’s optimism while Ashford asserts control.

Security footage resumes as suppression teams attack the studio. Clarissa, uneasy, keeps watching Anna plead for unity amid gunfire. An alarm from engineering shifts focus: Holden, Naomi, and Bull lead a coordinated assault through a jammed pressure door, overrunning Ashford’s defenders. Ruiz reports the firing connection is missing; Ashford can’t shoot.

As Bull’s coalition secures engineering, Ashford finds ship controls unresponsive and the bridge atmosphere being altered. Clarissa bypasses remote control and restores local environmental authority, preventing their gassing. With command locally stabilized, Ashford directs Jojo to assemble four captured Martian powered-armor suits for a counterattack to retake engineering and prioritize firing capability.

Amid preparation, Ashford expands rules of engagement: anyone not actively with them is an enemy. Clarissa debates redemption with Cortez and rejects it for sacrifice, still haunted by Ren’s death. An alert of possible tampering in the external elevator arrives. Ashford then calls Clarissa forward, insisting she understands the ship’s systems and assigning her a critical, unstated task.