Bobbie prepares to execute Avasarala’s order to seize the Guanshiyin. Cotyar’s people bring the crate containing Bobbie’s Martian Goliath III armor to Avasarala’s room, and Bobbie confirms the room is not under obvious surveillance. Bobbie finds the suit intact but disarmed, concluding that Mao’s shipboard security will not have weapons powerful enough to penetrate the armor without also endangering the hull.

As Bobbie spends nearly three hours assembling and checking the suit, the process forces Bobbie to confront memories of Ganymede. Damage on the armor recalls the monster attack, Private Hillman, and Lieutenant Givens, making the suit feel like a tomb rather than protection. Bobbie denies being afraid, then suits up with Cotyar’s help, regaining the physical power of the armor while moving carefully to avoid hurting anyone by accident.

Bobbie attempts to use the keel elevator but finds it disabled, confirming that Avasarala and her team are effectively being held prisoner. Avasarala reminds Bobbie that the people on the ship were not on Ganymede and that killing them cannot bring Bobbie’s platoon back. Bobbie climbs through hatches instead, but the crew has blocked the ladder route with the elevator, forcing Bobbie into service corridors.

Bobbie emerges into a secondary galley and is immediately targeted by Mao-Kwik security personnel. Bobbie tries to speak, but the guards fire first; their plastic rounds ricochet around the room, accidentally killing one guard and causing chaos. Bobbie charges the remaining guards and disables them with the suit’s strength, then restores the elevator’s movement by removing a crowbar used to jam the hatch.

When Bobbie tries to ascend toward the bridge, the crew opens pressure hatches to block the elevator’s safe operation, choosing decompression risk over letting Bobbie reach them. Bobbie searches crew decks, reflects on Avasarala’s warning, and is relieved not to have a gun. After finding a route through an airlock, Bobbie exits onto the yacht’s colorful outer hull, discovers the ship is triple-hulled, and identifies a racing pinnace named Razorback in a second shuttle bay.

Bobbie reenters near the bridge and confronts the Guanshiyin’s captain and senior staff, who have no effective defense but threaten to scuttle the vessel through the XO. Bobbie states that the captain has illegally detained a UN undersecretary and demands that the ship take Avasarala wherever she chooses. The captain yields, and Bobbie contacts Avasarala, who orders an urgent intercept of Holden before Nguyen reaches him; Bobbie realizes the Razorback may be the faster option.