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This page is about the Tv icon TV character. For the books incarnation, see Lopez (Books).
Book-icon-simple Books character Tv icon TV character

Lieutenant K. Lopez was a key intelligence officer on the MCRN Donnager. He was tasked to interrogate the crew members of the Knight who managed to escape the destruction of the Canterbury. He used focus drugs to detect emotional and facial cues. Later, he was in charge of helping the former Canterbury crew members escape the destruction of the Donnager in the Tachi.

Personality[]

Like many Martians, he has been taught to despise Earth and its natives for their lack of conservation and for their indolence. Lopez believes the Earth population has gotten too dependent on free air, free water and free drugs.

Biography[]

After losing contact with Phoebe Station, the Donnager was dispatched to find out what had happened to the facility and its inhabitants. When it arrived, it found everyone dead, their bodies having been incinerated, and that all the computer cores had been destroyed. Lopez lead the ground team that boarded the station.

Upon the capturing/rescue of the Canterbury crew, Lieutenant Lopez personally interrogated all of the survivors. Believing Naomi to be a member of the Outer Planets Alliance, he tells the other members this in an effort to obtain information to the destruction of the Canterbury. The intent is to sow mistrust of her amongst the others and to deflect suspicion from Mars.

When Holden demands to speak to Captain Theresa Yao, it is Lopez who brings Holden into the Donnager's CIC where the lieutenant and the captain demand Holden recant any implications that Martians were responsible for the Canterbury's decimation. The captain of Mars' flagship deem it essential to quash the seething outrage that threatens to explode into war within the system. For the Martian officers, Holden must implicate Naomi and the OPA in Mars' place.

As they are trading these demands, the Donnager comes under attack by several unidentified stealth ships. At first, the Martians do not assess them to be a serious threat but it quickly becomes apparent that these are ships of impressive capabilities, being armed with railguns and highly-advanced torpedo guidance systems. Though several of the attacking craft are lost, they force Yao to divert power from the main drives to continue railgun fire, and the hostile ships get within close range of the now-hobbled Martian flagship in order to land breaching parties. When Holden states that those ships resemble the same design as the one that destroyed the Canterbury, Captain Yao determines that Holden must survive to testify. After sending Holden off, she hands the intelligence officer a data storage device and orders Lopez to escort Holden and the battle intel to the Tachi and reach a friendly station with them. During their escape, Lopez agrees to evacuate the rest of the Canterbury crew in exchange for their collective testimony, and discloses the destruction of Phoebe Station to Holden. Upon reaching the hangar, Lopez and his Marines provide cover fire in order for the Cant crew to reach the Tachi, but Lopez is critically wounded and all of his marines are killed in the process. Despite his injuries, Lopez manages to board the Tachi shortly after the Cant crew, and authorizes full control of the ship to them. When the Tachi escaped at high velocity, his wounds became fatal.

After his death, fellow Martian Alex Kamal put his corpse in a body bag. After the Tachi arrived at Tycho Station, Fred Johnson examined Lopez's body and found a data module on it. Johnson decrypted the module which provided details on the Amun-Ra-class stealth ships which attacked the Donnager.

Afterwards, Johnson promised to send Lopez's body to Mars.

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

  • "Safe" (voice only, uncredited)

Notes[]

  • In the novel, the experience of the crew from Canterbury with the officers of the Donnager isn't openly hostile or adversarial. Both Jim and Alex agree the best strategy is to comply. In the books, it was never a secret that Alex served with Mars. In the novel, at this stage, Naomi was never suggested as ever being affiliated with OPA.
  • The TV incarnation of this character fulfills the major functions of two characters from Leviathan Wakes.
    1. The Donnager's intelligence officer, a character of the same surname. He only questions Holden in the novel.
    2. The officer who boarded the Tachi to escort the crew from Pur'N'Kleen's Canterbury & Knight, a function that was filled by Lieutenant Kelly in the novel.
  • In helmet cam footage used in a briefing by MCRN Scirocco's LT Sutton to Gunnery Sergeant Draper and other commanders, Lopez's first initial is revealed as "K".[1] This may be an homage to Kelly.

Media[]

External links[]

References

  1. The Expanse TV series: Season 2, episode 1 - Safe


See also[]

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