A week after the dramatic rescue of the living crystal from planet Hypnos, a lot has transpired! News of the newly discovered alien species has Zozian society awestruck. The people on the planet have prepared their immune systems, and it’s now safe for the Zernabians to come out of quarantine, but the new debate is where to house this new alien… or is it even alive? As the debate rages as to whether a crystal can be alive, a decision is made to grant the crystal a local moon to call home. There is a moon of one of the local gas giants called Aletha which offers a very similar environment to what Hypnos was like before the cataclysm that made the crystal homeless, and the decision is made to allow it to call Aletha home.

Mizhakwan has been interacting with the crystal intensely during the week, and has helped it to pick out a name for itself. Mikigaazo, which means “he is found (by them)”, is the name it chooses, although everyone immediately shortens it to Miki.  Todd has the bright idea that Miki should have a humanoid robot to control, so that it can more easily interact with humans, and he and Dakaasin whip up the Mikibot 1.0 platform for it to try out.

With all this out of the way, it’s finally time to introduce the Zernabians and Miki to the planet Zoz! Zik quickly organizes a big party at his father’s house on Talia Island, inviting Francisco’s band Anaconda to play. During the concert, Vera and Tanaka hang out by the fire with Dr. Taylor, as they’re still recovering from their medical ordeals. Tanaka, sporting a new cybernetic arm, strikes up a conversation with Windrunner, a champion Coup player. Another Coup player, Heavy Club, invites Vera to come to the potlatch he is holding soon to celebrate the wedding of his daughter.

Meanwhile, Zik is helping Miki calibrate the Mikibot by teaching him to dance, the awkwardness of which sends Amelia and Trent into gales of laughter. Seeing them laughing and enjoying themselves is a welcome relief for Dr. Taylor, who’s been worried about them.  He remarks to Vera that the two Zernabians seem to have a good chemistry together, which reminds Vera to ask him a question…

Crank the volume!! The song being performed by Anaconda is Panama by an old Earth band called Van Halen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuKDBPw8wQA

That’s a wrap for Episode 4: The Hypnos Hiatus, my dear Defenders! I will be taking a small break as I prepare for Episode 5: Endarkenment! See you soon, and Happy New Year!!

Over on the Vigilant Gaddi, Ramesh has solved the mystery of why Naser keeps missing his shots: he’s a Jairian mole!  He’s been missing on purpose to protect his comrades! That dastardly spy even sent a message to the Jairians the minute the Kodiak departed to help Zik!

Ramesh engages a secret security device that Zik Enterprises had built into the ship especially for such emergencies.  Naser finds himself locked out of his control panel, and his suit is magnetized to the back of his seat! He pulls a knife, but that too is pulled to the chair, where it remains stuck.

Now it’s time to show these Jairians what the Gaddi can do, even with only one cannon left!

Over on the Jairian battleship, Rachelle is in an argument with her remaining breacher pilot, who wants to abort the mission. I can’t say I blame him, seeing as he just watched two ships just like his get blown to bits with one shot each from the Kodiak’s howitzer! Rachelle urges him to press forward, saying that their greatest chance remains in taking the warship. She orders the fighters to screen the remaining breacher; fight for your lives!

Meanwhile, the pilot of the battleship is having a hard time. He’s trying to pick off the cannons on the Vigilant Gaddi, but the cargo ship keeps spinning, hiding the cannon from his line of fire! Who is that great pilot?

It’s Ryan! The tactic is something Captain Ramesh has come up with. For some reason, Naser has been unable to hit the battleship, so Ramesh has improvised, hoping to pin the battleship down with a game of cat-and-mouse.

Ramesh runs a diagnostic on the targeting systems. There’s nothing visibly wrong with it! So why can’t Naser hit his targets?

The target of the Jairian raiding fleet is the cargo convoy presently guarded by Commander Ramesh of the Vigilant Gaddi.  Ramesh has seen the enemy approaching and hasn’t been able to establish contact with them.

It’s pretty obvious that the intentions of the Jairians are hostile, so Ramesh calls for an all-stop, and for the fleet of cargo vessels to establish a defensive formation.

Now it’s time to warm up the guns, get some target practice in, and hope they can hold out until the cavalry arrives…

With the rescue balloon inflated, Zik and Haven begin a rapid rise to the surface of the water. The shark starts to follow, but Haven finally manages to activate the shark repeller!

On the surface, Zik spits out his breathing unit to tell Ramesh and Todd to help them out of the water quickly! There’s no holding back a great white shark, so they need to get into the boat pronto!

Once safe, they drive the boat to the dock on the island, and Zik helps Haven out of the boat. Todd’s call for help managed to attract some attention, and a transport ship from the University of Port Rothbard, Haven’s research sponsor, arrives to help. A journalist from Zoz Broadcast News arrives as well, drone camera rolling!

Haven tells the whole story of her discovery, the avalanche, and how Zik rescued her to the reporter. And then she says the fateful words that will cement Zik’s legacy for all time! Zik will forevermore be known as Zik the Gallant Defender of Zoz!

Later that evening, once all the excitement is over, Zik and Haven go for a romantic walk on the beach on Talia Island. The couple has strong feelings for each other, and they begin a relationship with a kiss at sunset.

Just as Zik dives into the ocean, Todd sees something on the underwater scanner that terrifies him: the sharks! He tries to warn Zik, but he’s too late!

Zik is already diving down to Haven’s lab quickly with the help of one of the dolphins. When he gets there, he finds the main airlock entrance is unobstructed and easy to get through, but the door to Haven’s lab is jammed shut!

He hauls on the stuck door with all his considerable might and finally gets it open. A grateful Haven thanks your favorite space hero and introduces herself.

But they still have to escape the damaged lab, and those sharks are still out there!

Zik, his brother Todd, and Ramesh follow the panicked dolphins in their boat. On the way, Ramesh comments that Zik’s father seems to have aged since Ramesh visited last. Zik explains that it’s because his father has been suffering since the loss of Zik’s mother in a mountain climbing incident.

Soon they approach an island, the one next to Haven’s lab. Todd notices signs that part of the island seems to be freshly missing. They check the underwater scanner, and sure enough, they see the rubble from the island and the lab underneath. Todd points out that there’s someone trapped inside!

That’s all your favorite space hero needs to hear to spring into action! Zik instructs Todd to call for help, and asks Ramesh to find the underwater breathing unit stowed below-deck. He strips down and dives in, unaware of the danger that lurks in the cloudy water!

Haven is stranded in her underwater lab after the avalanche! Her communications are knocked out and she can’t last forever locked in her lab. She has the bright idea to ask the dolphins for help, and gets them to race off to the nearest inhabited island for help. They swim to Talia Island, where Zik lives with his father and brother.

Ramesh happens to be visiting, helping Zik with his plans for the newly formed Zik Enterprises. Everyone is out on the beach chatting, when Ramesh sees the dolphins leaping about out in the bay. The dolphins chatter and squeak wildly as they try to get their attention.  Finally, the humans clue in that something is up, and Zik, his brother Todd, and Ramesh pile into their boat and race off after the dolphins!

Zik has to use his grappling hook to make it the rest of the way to Ramesh’s crashed ship, but he finally gets there! He discovers that his friend is alive, but unconscious. Tying Ramesh to his back, Zik prepares for the trip back. But before he leaves, he sets the ship to fire its engines once per revolution of the asteroid so as to push it in a uniform direction, as well as to slow it’s rate of spin. That accomplished, Zik starts to haul himself back to his own ship with Ramesh in tow. Upon his return, he stows his friend in the bunk, which Zik explains doubles as an escape pod for the mining ship.

Hey Zik pals! Do you use Webtoons to read comics? Well, Zik is now on Webtoons as well!  I’m reformatting my back catalog of pages and uploading them as soon as they’re ready, so it’s a good opportunity to rediscover Episode 1: Prison Planet. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you know when a new page is up!

It’s story time! Zik starts telling Amelia the tale of how he saved the entire planet of Zoz. The story begins with a distress call from some scientists who had been studying a recent gravitational anomaly in the Zozian solar system. They noticed during their observations that a large asteroid was heading straight for Zoz!

Zik and his friend Ramesh happen to be fairly close to the asteroid in question, so they anchor the ore they were mining and set off to investigate. But when they arrive, they notice something highly unusual: the asteroid is spinning extremely rapidly! What will our hero do?