Everyone scrambles for cover as an incoming meteorite interrupts their rescue operation! Hiding under the Temerity, the shocked away team watches as a meteorite impacts the cliff wall next to them.

Sten asks Francisco about his 45 minute estimate for the arrival of the meteorites, since it’s only been about 20 minutes since they got outside.  It seems that everyone misinterpreted Francisco’s math; he meant that every minute they stay increases the chances that they’ll be hit during that minute! By this point, they have a 25% chance of getting hit right now!

Zik rallies his friends and gets them to really hustle to get the last of the crystal onboard the Temerity. They start tossing the crystal from one to another, which proves to be a completely new experience for the crystal! Despite the danger, they’ve shared the concept of fun, and let it experience flight (albeit briefly) for the first time.

Amelia, in the cockpit keeping the ship primed to skedaddle, sees another meteorite hit the next valley over on her sensor display.  She urges everyone to really hurry, because they could get pulverized at any moment!

The alien crystal continues its story, revealing how the explosion of the gas giant tore the crust off this moon.  Most of the crystal’s home was incinerated by the immense cataclysm, which completely destroyed the gas giant.  The moon itself then flew right out of the solar system, and headed out of the galaxy as it cooled. The crystal was able to conceal itself from discovery by the aliens that tried to kill it.

Appalled, Defender Zik realizes that he’s hearing a story of attempted xenocide! As everyone continues to help move the crystal into the cargo hold of the Temerity, the crystal explains that it went into hibernation for tens of thousands of years until the moon was pulled back into the galactic rim by gravity.

Suddenly, Amelia interrupts to warn everyone that the leading edge of the meteorite storm is here! An early meteorite is about to hit nearby– take cover!!

Defender Zik and the crew of the Temerity have a short window of time to help the living crystal of Planet Hypnos escape the impending meteorite storm! The crew hustles outside, with the exception of Amelia, who remains in the cockpit to keep the ship ready to fly out of danger.

Outside, Dakaasin puzzles over how to cram all that mass of crystal into the hold. It doesn’t look like it will fit until the crystal offers to make itself denser, thereby cramming itself into a smaller volume.

It explains that it is a singular being, and its consciousness splits and merges as it fragments and recombines itself.  When Zik organizes the crew into a human chain to relay the crystals into the ship, the crystal is confused by the term “human chain.” Zik explains that humans can’t split and combine the way the crystal can, but that they often work as a team to accomplish a common goal. Once again, the crystal brings up a mysterious other alien life form it has encountered, which was like humans in that each individual had its own consciousness.

While they work, Zik asks the crystal about these other aliens, wondering whether it was they who stranded the crystal on the rogue planet.  As it turns out, Zik is partially correct.  The aliens are the cause of the stranding of the crystals, but that Hypnos was actually once a moon orbiting a distant gas giant.  However, in a stunning act of attempted xenocide, the aliens detonated the gas giant!

Defender Zik checks in with the engineers on his new ship, The Temerity, so see if they can take her out for a spin.  Chief Engineer Dakaasin lets Zik know that all systems are ready to go! Sten is always obsessed with doing calibrations to optimize weapon performance, so he’s tinkering with the Point Defense System, and will be working on the big Vakarian cannons next. Zik wants to go on a journey, so it’s time to get the sleek spaceship ready to fly!

As Zik heads to the bridge, he decides to take a detour into the infirmary.  Dr. Lucien Taylor has been working closely with doctors and hospitals across Zoz to help everyone on Zoz get their immune systems ready for contact with the rest of the galaxy! No one wants a repeat of what happened when Europeans and North Americans started mingling for the first time in the 1500s.

But when Zik gets to the infirmary, he sees Amelia in her pajamas apologizing to the doctor for something. What’s going on?

Welcome back Defenders, to Episode 4: The Hypnos Hiatus! After a brief interlude to get the first two Defender Zik books printed, we’re back!

Our story opens with your favorite galactic hero trying out his new space suit outside Bastion Station.  The research station orbiting Zoz is administrated by Zik’s brother Todd, who is monitoring the flight. Zik reports that all its systems are nominal, and Todd replies that Chief Engineer Dakaasin will be happy that her new suit design is working well.

Zik enters the station’s hangar to let Dak know personally. She and her assistant Sten are getting the final tuning done on the Temerity, Zik’s new space cruiser! They’ve been working hard on it while Zik and everyone who went to Zernabia is in quarantine on the station, and the results are beyond Zik’s wildest dreams!