As Defender Zik and Tanaka return to the beach landing zone, the Temerity approaches in the distance. Tanaka remarks that he and Zik make a good team, having already been through three death-defying adventures together! Zik heartily agrees, and again offers Tanaka a place aboard the Temerity. Tanaka accepts! Welcome aboard!!

But what did the insidious Dr. Wagner mean when he mentioned curing all the sleeping people? It’s a mystery for another day, because it’s time to wrap up this epic adventure through the time tunnel!

That’s right, Defenders, we’ve reached the end of this episode! We’ll be back shortly for an all-new adventure with your favorite space hero Defender Zik!

Taking charge, Defender Zik decides the strange gravity shift and animal noises need to be investigated.  He puts Ryan in charge of the landing zone, and gets the young Matthew to be his official helper. Ryan is to call for help for the stranded family, and hang tight until it arrives.

Then, Zik and Tanaka head into the jungle in the direction of the sounds they heard. Zik asks if Tanaka has any theories about what just happened, but neither of them understand what they experienced.  Gravity shifts that strong shouldn’t happen, especially deep within the gravity well of a planet!

To lighten the mood, Zik brings up the great prank that Tanaka pulled on Ryan earlier. Tanaka chuckles, remarking that it’s good to remind cargo haulers what real flying looks like from time to time! Zik mentions that it’s good to see Tanaka smiling again, but Tanaka admits to his good friend that being happy when you’ve lost your whole clan feels sort of impossible.

Now that everyone’s safely on the ground, Defender Zik inquires as to why the skycar was on fire. The driver isn’t sure, she just had an inertia warning, everything spun around, and the engine caught fire.  Before Zik can investigate further, however, something causes all of them to fall off their feet! There’s a loud humming sound and everyone’s thrown to the ground!

As they recover, an eerie and enigmatic ROAR comes from the jungle beyond the beach. Defender Zik intuits that something strange is afoot on this tropical island!

Acting fast, Defender Zik helps the amazed young boy out of the burning skycar and swoops back up to the shuttle! He hands the kid to Ryan and promises to head back over to get the kid’s mother. After zooming back, he repeats the process with the lady and hauls her out of the careening vehicle in the nick of time! As they scream into the sky, the skycar smashes into the jungle with a mighty explosion.

Everyone lands on a nearby beach, and the young boy runs out to meet his mother. Crisis averted!

In the midst of the mirth aboard the shuttle craft, Ryan detects an SOS — someone’s in trouble! The crew is nearby, so Defender Zik takes charge and they sail in to the rescue!

The troubled craft turns out to be a skycar with a burning engine. As Tanaka approaches and Ryan reassures the driver, Zik leaps out of the back of the shuttle, engaging his jetpack! He lands on the side of the skycar, rips out the rescue panel and leans inside.  A child gazes in amazement at the sight of Zoz’s favorite space hero, but his terrified mother is doing all she can to keep them aloft! She yells at Zik to take the child first, which Zik agrees to do.. but can he save the mother as well?!

The hangar bays doors of Bastion Station open, and the new shuttle craft is launched! All systems are in the green, and Defender Zik and crew head down to the atmosphere of planet Zoz to conduct their atmospheric flight test.

As Zik hands over the scanner controls to young co-pilot Ryan, a mischievous grin creeps over Tanaka’s face. While Ryan is in mid-sentence, Tanaka suddenly jerks the craft into a precipitous drop followed by a tight loop back to level. A terrified Ryan cries out that Tanaka should have warned them, but where’s the fun in that?!

In the hangar control room for Bastion Station, Defender Zik and Dakaasin go over the characteristics of the shuttle prototype while they wait for Tanaka. It’s a candidate for an upgraded shuttle for both Kodiak Planetary Security  and Zik Enterprises Merchant Marines (ZEMM), and it’s been created to be heavily modular at the request of James Anchor. The ship can be quickly converted to serve many functions, from cargo and crew transport, to search and rescue, and can even be outfitted for combat situations.

Tanaka arrives and wants to know if this is a live fire exercise. Dakaasin lets him know that they’re only doing an atmospheric flight test, with the modular repulsor wing arrays attached. As they enter the hangar, she explains that the extra-large repulsors are for rescue or escort missions where a larger bubble of debris repulsion is required. When a ship is in trouble in space, there’s often a lot of debris zipping around that needs to be brushed away!

They arrive at the shuttle to find Miki, Ryan and Sten, who’s doing some calibrations. Mikigaazo, as an alien new to the human world, has more questions than can be handled by an exacerbated Sten. Everything’s ready to go, so it’s time to get this test underway!

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?