Exhausted from high g, Jim Holden oversees launch preparations for the shuttle Knight. Naomi confirms the salvage mech and reactor are ready, and Alex Kamal files a quick, efficient flight plan. With Shed and Amos aboard, Holden gets McDowell’s go-ahead, orders the torch kept hot for escape, and heads for the Scopuli’s signal.

They find the Scopuli resting against a lonely asteroid, an improbable coincidence that alarms Holden. Scans show no emissions, a shut-down reactor, and a visible hull breach. With no ships nearby, Holden decides to close and approach on Naomi’s mech, tethering the team and warning that any sign of a trap means immediate withdrawal.

At the breach, Amos identifies shaped charges consistent with a boarding action. Inside, the ship is cold and airless, with pressure doors left open—evidence that someone vented the ship deliberately. In engineering, Amos confirms the reactor was properly shut down after the attack. Valuable tools remain, suggesting it wasn’t robbery, deepening the mystery of the missing crew.

In ops, Amos begins cutting out the computer core while Holden searches communications. He discovers the ship’s beacon was never activated; instead, a separate transmitter, crudely powered by a taped-on battery, lured them in. Holden deduces the device could be rigged to send a secondary signal when found and orders an immediate retreat.

As the team prepares to withdraw, McDowell breaks in over comms with an urgent warning, signaling a new, imminent threat just as Holden is pulling his people out.