Continuing their route back to Medina Station, Holden and Naomi discuss retiring from the Rocinante and settling on Luna or Titan. On the way back to to the Freehold system ring gate, Houston breaks free from containment but is soon recaptured. Though the Freehold people are upset, they relinquish Houston to the Rocinante. Unable to conscionably abide with these cruel terms, Holden changes the plan by allowing the Freehold to turn in their governor, Payne Houston, in exchange for not being cut off from the Gate Network. Holden's instruction was to inform the citizens of Freehold that they would be cut off from trade with the Gate Network for three years. Once the crew of the Rocinante lands on Freehold, Holden and Bobbie meet with the township's council. The Rocinante and her aging crew are commissioned by President Drummer to the Freehold system to address their repeated violations of Union guidelines. Camina Drummer is the fifth and newest president of the Transport Union and she prepares to launch the Transit Station at Lagrange #5 as a first part of the larger network.

Terra is part of the reformed Earth-Mars Coalition however the Belt is the superpower. The story continues three decades after the Free Navy Conflict. A price that will change the shape of humanity - and of the Rocinante - unexpectedly and forever. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it. In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices.

Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace. In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way.

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