Kyla, Ray and Corey deal with a labor strike.
Tala and Polly encounter danger on their trip to the North Pole of Mars.
LONG HAUL
Ray meets with Corey and other leaders. The water shortage is so acute that the only solution is to build a second pipeline to the North Pole. But they learn that the Workers Alliance has gone on strike.
Tala and Polly set out for the North Pole in a rover to haul water back to the colony. Tala gets a message urging them to be on the lookout for another rover driver team who have disappeared.
Venancio gets two new employees to replace those arrested: Shayla and LORI SOBEL, a young woman with a Georgia accent. Venancio urges Troy to evaluate the women as potential recruits for the smuggling gang.
Corey tries to deal with Joe Douglas to end the labor strike, but Joe wants Corey to create a new Martian board of directors. Corey refuses.
Ray goes to the Pakistanis and warns them against Corey’s possible attempt to get the Pakistanis to become strikebreakers. But the Pakistanis have learned that Ray helped a Daedalus executive (Troy’s father) responsible for a horrific industrial chemical spill in Pakistan to escape justice. In return, the executive approved Ray and Kyla’s tickets to Mars.
When Troy observes Shahyla eating an expensive lab steak, he questions her about it.
Shahyla hints she has an uncle with powerful criminal connections. Venancio soon wants to meet this uncle. Lori hints she may be interested in becoming a member of the criminal gang, but the gang wants Lori to provide them with a sample of the drugs she’s smuggled.
Corey gets the Pakistani community in Bradbury to act as strike breakers and scabs.
Tala and Polly stop for the night at a residence hut, a small building rover drivers use on their trips back and forth to the North Pole. It is Polly’s birthday and she phones her family to celebrate. When Tala asks Polly what she wants for her birthday, Polly kisses her. Tala refuses her advances and takes Polly outside to see the stars.
Kyla joins the police in trying to prevent violence between strikers and Pakistanis. But a riot breaks out and both Kyla and Garrett are injured.
Ray warns that Corey that his legacy will be nothing but bloodshed if he lets the strike continue and people are killed. Corey announces that he has agreed to the terms of the Workers Alliance. The strike ends.
Tala accidentally drives their rover into a ditch. Tala and Polly try to winch the rover out of the trap as a sandstorm arrives. When Polly almost gets lost in the sandstorm, Tala is distraught until Polly is found. Tala makes love with Polly.
Shahyla promises to introduce Venancio to her uncle. But when Lori shows up at the meeting to show Venancio her drug samples, her electronic bug detector alerts Lori to Shahyla’s hidden microphone. Lori shoots Shahyla.
Polly and Tala discover the murdered corpses of the two missing rover drivers hidden in the sand. Who is killing rover drivers?