Io

Story so far

Io emerges as the target of the crew's search. Reasoning that the Ganymede site was only a field lab — deliberately placed where a war would erupt — Prax concludes the enemy's real, well-protected research base must lie close by in the Jovian system, near enough to deliver the unstable protomolecule constructs before they slip their programming. A secret station is impossible amid Jovian traffic and observatories, so it must be a moon.

Prax's tariff searches on tightly controlled mutagens show supplies routed through Europa and quietly bounced onward — the shipping containers returned for credit on a transport out of Io. The evidence points, powerfully if not conclusively, to Io as the location of the lab run by Strickland/Carlos Merrian, where Mei and the other abducted children may be held. The Rocinante sets course there.

Appearance

A Jovian moon, referenced as the crew's destination rather than described; a well-shielded base is presumed hidden somewhere on or beneath its surface.

Role

The Jovian moon deduced as the enemy's true protomolecule laboratory and the crew's next destination.

Relationships