Zik gets into an argument with the Jairian who’s demanding they surrender the mine. The man won’t back down! He refuses to leave and start his own mine elsewhere, he’s here for the resources available at this mine!
Frank interrupts the discussion and asks the Jairians to leave, or he will have to declare them trespassers.
The unhinged Jairian has had enough! He shoots Frank dead! A shocked Zik watches as his friend collapses in front of him!
A whole bunch of Jairians armed to the teeth have emerged from the cargo hauler! Zik notices that the thugs are partly made up of trained mercenaries, and there’s a teenager among them! One of the Jairians, presumably the leader of this gang, demands to know who is in charge.
Frank informs them of his role as head of security and general operations, and guardedly welcomes them to Baker Mine.
The lead Jairian demands the surrender of the mining facility, proclaiming it and the employees free of what he calls the corporate slavery of the mining company, Delta Mining Systems.
Zik and Tanaka blurt out their incredulity at this statement. As Zik explains to Amelia, he’s never been scared of anything, and sometimes it leads him into trouble!
Zik and his friends stop what they’re doing to absorb the shocking news! A radical group of socialists has stolen the colony ship that was used to bring humans to Zoz! These Jairians, taking their inspiration from Hugo Jaire, have declared a socialist revolution!
As your favorite space hero absorbs this shocking moment in history, the colony ship arrives in orbit around the planet he’s on! The radicals launch a cargo hauler from the colony ship, headed straight for the mining facility they’re at.
Our friends head outside to the landing pad to see what these scoundrels want. Zik reflects that in hindsight, it would have been wise had they all been armed, but only Frank is carrying! Uh oh!
Welcome to Beta Lalande 4, home of Baker Mine!
The Zozians have started expanding to nearby star systems in search of resources. In the case of Baker Mine, they have found a nice deposit of palladium, among other things on the same planet. One terraformed atmosphere later, the mineral rich planet is ready to be mined! Why terraform the atmosphere? Well, Delta Mining Systems, who run this mine, plan to be working here for a very long time, and it’s inevitable that a deadly atmospheric accident of some kind will occur eventually. It’s also far cheaper to terraform an atmosphere over that length of time than to pay the extra insurance rates it would cost to have such a complex running in a vacuum. It’s just safer and cheaper to make sure walking outside doesn’t kill you.
While a drone unloads Zik’s asteroid rubble into the processing plant, your favorite space hero hangs out in the security office with his pals Tanaka and Arata for a spirited game of dutch blitz, a card game popular among the Chadee.
But they’re interrupted by the station chief Frank, who sees something alarming on the news!
Tanaka jumps out of his snub fighter and gives a huge high five to Zik.
Now we see what a Chadee is! They are a race of genetically engineered chimpanzees, who were given the ability to speak and understand at a human level by one of the geneticists that helped rebuild Earth’s ecosystem on Zoz. The development of the Chadee was very controversial when it became public, and the scientist responsible was widely condemned. Ultimately, the Chadee were accepted into Zozian society, although not everyone is comfortable with it, often calling them chimps or monkeys in an insulting way.
Meanwhile, as Zik begins to explain the story to Amelia (who has never seen an Earth animal), James Anchor interrupts to remind Zik that they aren’t safe where they are and need to evacuate as quickly as possible.
James Anchor is addressing his crew, but who is this mysterious Tanaka? And who or what are the Chadee? Are they mighty warriors? Maybe James has a secret weapon in case Queen Elcyra decides to attack! Stay tuned, faithful readers, because there’s a lot of excitement and action coming this year!
