Prax wakes bound in an old office with Holden, Naomi, Amos, Wendell, and surviving Pinkwater mercenaries. Their gray-armored captors are not behaving like station security: they strip the prisoners, guard their belongings, and let a medical team cauterize the worst injuries. Amos, badly beaten but alive, jokes that the captors are unlikely to be official authorities.

Holden tries to warn the captors that the protomolecule is loose on Ganymede, but the commander ignores him. Prax also says that his missing daughter Mei was taken by a ship, but no one listens. The commander then receives alarming news over comms about firing, orders a team to secure transport by force, and has the prisoners’ leg restraints cut so they can be moved.

Once the prisoners can stand, Holden and Amos use a brief distraction to attack. Naomi, Wendell, Paula, and the other Pinkwater mercenaries join in, turning the situation around within seconds. The former prisoners bind the captors, recover their gear, and split up: Wendell takes his people toward the Somnambulist while Holden, Naomi, Amos, and Prax run for escape.

Explosions shake Ganymede, and Holden first assumes the protomolecule is breaking out, but the growing impacts suggest the station is being bombarded. Prax realizes his home is collapsing and that thousands will die, though Mei’s absence from Ganymede makes the destruction emotionally bearable because she may still be rescued. Naomi contacts Alex, who says the port is too dangerous, so Holden decides to head for the secret science-base landing pad instead.

Prax guides the group through damaged corridors to find emergency environment suits for himself and Naomi, then leads them away from the crowded port through old service passages. The route toward the secret base is blocked by vacuum and debris, forcing Prax to propose going over the surface. After finding a working service airlock, the group steps onto Ganymede’s surface under a sky lit by debris, plasma, and impacts.

On the surface, Prax admits that he has never navigated Ganymede outside a dome and only knows the secret base is somewhere nearby. Holden begins organizing a search, but Naomi points out that they may not need one: the Rocinante appears to be setting down nearby, giving them a possible way off the dying moon.