After a few minutes, Defender Zik and the crew of the Temerity are on their way! Zik congratulates the team on an excellent scramble time, and lets them know that this time, it’s not a drill! There is a real mission afoot, with a good chance of combat! After months of playing cat-and-mouse with the elusive and violent communists, there’s finally an opportunity to confront them directly in an effort to foil their hijacking. Francisco locks in the navigation to Gamma Apodis, and they hit the hyperdrive! It’s go time!
The infirmary celebrations are interrupted by an urgent call for Defender Zik to come to the bridge of Bastion Station. Zik gives the Zernabian siblings a congratulations and hurried off to see what the problem is. On the bridge, he finds Gordon Mises, head of the Zik Enterprises Merchant Marine division, with a worried look on his face. One of their light transports has been hijacked, and Gordon’s daughter is among its crew!
Taking stock of the situation, Zik asks if Jolene has sent for Kodiak Search And Rescue. She replies that she has, but that all the Kodiak ships are otherwise engaged in a large fleet exercise to test their integration as a planetary defense force. Zik decides that they won’t pull any of James Anchor’s ships from that effort, and that they can handle it themselves in the Temerity. Gordon insists on coming along to help his daughter, and the crew of the Temerity is scrambled to their ship!
Welcome to Defender Zik Episode 6: Apodian Ambush!
Our story opens in the infirmary aboard Bastion Space Station, with Doctors Taylor and Rundenfurt having called a little reunion to share some test results. Zik and Vera are already present as Trent and Amelia arrive, and are asked to have a seat.
Vera takes the floor to explain some very important news the new arrivals. She’s been a surrogate mother to both of them, taking care of them since they came to her from separate prison camps a year apart. Watching them as they grew, Vera was always struck by how similar they were at times. She asked Doctor Taylor to check, and her suspicions were totally confirmed – Trent and Amelia are half-siblings!
Amelia squeals in delight at the news and grabs Trent. She gives her stunned brother a huge squeeze and a big kiss on the cheek. Now she understands the way she’s always loved him! And for Trent, this explains his constant awkwardness around her – loving her deeply, but feeling strange about romance.
Our hero Zik inquires as to how this could have happened. Vera explains, and with that, let’s have a…
DEFENDER ZIK LORE BREAK!
In the beginning of the Zernabian prison camps, couples who produced children were split up from each other. You see, Queen Elcyra understood that the family is the foundational unit of civilization, so she kept families from forming. The evil monarch did everything she could to remove her prisoners’ will to rebel.
At first, Elcyra only kept the remaining Zernabians around as a source of genetic material in case her Clonoids failed. But shortly after Amelia and Trent were born, she came to the conclusion that her backup genetic stock was no longer needed. Sadistically, instead of freeing her slaves, she decided to sterilize them and work them to death.
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…
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!!
Now that it’s a little calmer, Zik reiterates his admiration for Amelia’s flying, because she really saved their bacon! He even gives her the name Amelia Firebird to commemorate her great deed! Amelia thanks him, and timidly asks about how Zik can so readily charge forward when there’s danger, especially when it involves falling rocks! The trauma of the factory explosion caused Amelia to freeze up when the meteorite nearly crushed Trent. Zik explains that he faced the trauma of his mother’s death in the avalanche head-on by learning to do the very thing that killed her: rock climbing. In fact, it was during those rock-climbing lessons that Zik met Dakaasin, who was in the same class!
Just then, Trent and Francisco enter the cockpit, wondering if they’re out of danger from the meteorite storm. Zik assures them that the danger is past, thanks to Amelia, and asks how everything is going elsewhere on the ship. Trent explains that there were some messes made as things fell down, and he may have learned some new Zozian swear words from Sten in the process! Laughing, Zik asks them to get ready to shoot their way through the asteroid cloud orbiting planet Hypnos, because it’s time to head home!
But first things first. Zik sends a priority message to James Anchor, because unlike the last time when it was merely Clonoids, Zik has found aliens first! Time to settle the 50 Z-buck bet!
Defender Zik checks on Trent as they recover from nearly getting crushed by the meteorite debris. Trent thanks Zik, who assures them they’re now even when it comes to cliff-related mishaps.
A worried Amelia checks in on them, and urges them to get on board the Temerity as quickly as possible, as more meteorites are falling nearby! Sten and Dakaasin call them into the top hatch, since the cargo hold is now too full to get on board that way.
Once on board, Zik lets Amelia know they’re ready to go! Dak and Sten hustle off to get the engines calibrated to compensate for the huge additional mass they’ve taken aboard. Amelia tells everyone to hold on, and gunning the engines, she launches the Temerity off planet Hypnos!
The crew hurries to get the last of the sentient crystal on board the Temerity, as the meteorite storm begins! Trent Quickdraw has moved farther from the ship to get to the last shards, which lie outside of the repulsor field the ship is generating as a protective umbrella.
At the last moment, Amelia shouts a warning over the radio – another meteorite is striking nearby! Sten sees that Trent is right below the strike and calls out a warning. But is he too late?!
No! The lower gravity of Hypnos causes the falling debris to tumble more slowly than it would in Earth gravity, so Zik has just enough time to zoom over with his jetpack and push a surprised Trent out of harm’s way! They slam into the cliff wall just in time!
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!
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!
The decisive Defender Zik announces that they’re going to presume the crystals on Planet Hypnos are alive, and begins to get on top of the situation. He starts by asking a flustered Francisco for the exact time the meteorites will present a danger to the ship. Amelia asks if she should land, but Zik wants to be certain of the intentions of the crystals before risking getting too close. He directs a now-rebooted Zoot to begin establishing a dialogue with the crystals.
Francisco reports back with an estimate for the meteor strikes, prompting Zik to tell everyone to set a 45 minute timer so they all know when to leave. Always eager to help, especially when it comes to using guns, Trent Quickdraw offers to shoot the meteorites as they approach. Zik replies that it would just rain smaller debris down on them, which could be even more dangerous. Instead, they should max out their repulsors to deflect anything they can.
Dak, Sten and Mizhakwan are asked to make room in the cargo hold, in case they’re leaving Hypnos with a guest. Then Zoot announces that he’s already established communications with the crystal, because it’s copying and rearranging the words he sends in an intelligent way. It’s time to make formal contact with an alien life form!
