Welcome to week six of Decrypted: The Expanse.  This week's episode began with a rather tranquil-looking scene of red snowflakes settling in the weak gravity of one of Jupiter's moons.  But looks are deceiving; that "snow" is actually a fine spray of blood leaking from Bobbie Draper's power armor.  With one of Ganymede's orbital mirrors out of commission and heavy damage to some of the domes, the breadbasket of the outer planets is in real trouble.  But here's a question for the scientists: Would a fine spray of blood really form little red snowflakes in the cold vacuum of space? 

Draper is all that's left of her team, and the only remaining eyewitness to the battle on Ganymede.  With the aid of memory-enhancing drugs she's able to reconstruct the chain of events, but the Martian brass don't seem interested in hearing about the seventh man she saw before passing out. 

On Earth, Errinwright is still spoiling for a fight with Mars, but Avasarala has the upper hand.  Rather than a solar system-wide war, she proposes a peace summit.  The crew of the Roci is helping out with refugees on Tycho Station, but Amos is rattled when he realizes the rest of the crew have something he can't find—a sense of empathy.  He goes to find Cortazar, the Protogen scientist, who gives him a psychopathic pep talk. 

Meanwhile, it's becoming clear that the OPA is riven by factions and different agenda.  Fred Johnson wants peace, but Anderson Dawes isn't having any of it, unable to let go of his deep-seated mistrust of the inner planets.  Dawes rather effectively exploits the fact that Johnson and Holden were both born on Earth to discredit them in the eyes of the other Belters. 

We certainly aren't complaining about Dawes getting plenty of screen time this week.  Jared Harris (who plays the character) continues to delight us with his heavy Belter accent and political machinations.  Which makes this week's guest a rather fitting one.  This week, we're joined by Nick Farmer, the linguist responsible for Belter creole.  Nick and I discuss the show, the evolution of new languages, his favorite words in belter, and yes, we even touch on Klingon. 

I'll be analyzing, debating, and dissecting The Expanse every week with a different guest, and we'll post the podcast on Fridays throughout the season.  New episodes air on Wednesdays in the US, so you have time to watch before we get into major spoilers.  The Expanse season 2 will air in the UK on Netflix, although possibly not for another month or two. 

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Decrypted is Ars Technica's weekly podcast about the TV that obsesses us.  Currently we're dissecting The Expanse.  Listen or subscribe however you please above and let us know what you think—ideas, questions, and so on—through the comments section, on iTunes, or via e-mail