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…

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!

Not long after the adventure at Planet Hypnos, Bastion Station is alive with activity. It’s always a busy place, but Tanaka, visiting the station, has taken a moment to have a talk with Mizhakwan. She’s been concerned for his wellbeing after the explosion that wiped out the Kodiak Chadee clan, and Tanaka is opening up about his grief and his sense that he no longer has a purpose. As Shogun of the Kodiak Chadee, he was respected and had the duty to safeguard his family. Now that they’re all gone, he feels lost in failure. He describes himself as Ronin.

Mizhakwan suggests that perhaps founding a new family, or carrying on by founding a new clan might help, but Tanaka doesn’t see that as a path for him. He finds himself just watching other people as opposed to taking action himself. He says that nothing is worth doing, which alarms Mizhakwan. She cautions him against the dark path of nihilism, which can only obliterate the soul. In stead, she suggests the happiness of pursuit; Tanaka should find a way to help someone close to him, even in a small way. That will help him find his emotional footing again.

Just then, Zik sends Tanaka a message about being ready for him to come to the hangar. Mizhakwan suggests that this is a great opportunity to try finding joy in helping. Tanaka is skeptical, since he’s really just here for work, but Mizhakwan insists that he can find purpose and joy in the act of helping his friends.

WELCOME BACK, DEFENDERS! After a short break to get things prepared, we’re in full swing on production for Episode 5: Endarkenment! Sorry for the grim opening, but it gets lighter very quickly! I promise to give you a LOL on the next page to make up for it. Speaking of the next page, I’m going to get to it right away! See you soon!

Within the hour, the eager crew of the Temerity is on board and ready for launch! Zik takes the sleek spacecraft out of the hangar, commenting on how much pep the engines have. This is a ship that really wants to fly!

Zik checks the status of the systems with Dakaasin, who is in Trent’s weapons post on the bridge, monitoring the engineering systems closely on this maiden flight of the Temerity. Everything checks out, so he tells Amelia to engage the hyperdrives.

The Temerity jumps to superlight speed and streaks out of the Zozian solar system!

On the elevator to the bridge of Bastion Station, Zik asks Zoot to send a get-well-soon message to Tanaka. Zoot can be summoned as a holographic image now, which is something Zik still has to get used to. The colony computer’s sarcasm remains intact, however!

Arriving on the bridge, Zik asks what the new discovery is all about. Francisco, the science officer for the Temerity, explains that he’s found an unusual rogue planet not too far away. The planet’s readings on the scanners are diffuse and fuzzy, as if it were a comet with a tail.  However, the drifting planet is to far away from any stars at the moment, that the evaporation process that produces a comet’s tail would be impossible here.

Trent, still new to living in space, asks Zik’s brother Todd what a rogue planet is. As someone always enthusiastic about scientific discovery, Todd gives Trent an explanation: it’s a planet drifting alone in space, orbiting no stars, just drifting through the galaxy.

This space oddity is an excellent first target for exploration, Zik decides. He clears a departure time with orbital traffic controller Jolene, and sends word to the rest of the crew of the Temerity to prepare for their first adventure! Set your azimuth, Defenders, we’re off to Planet Hypnos!

In the infirmary of Bastion Station, your favorite space hero gets an update on the efforts to protect his fellow Zozians from the diseases that have been floating around the rest of humanity while they’ve been separated for the last thousand years. As it turns out, enough Zozians have gotten their immune systems ready that Doctor Taylor is happy to report that Zik and the crew of the station will be able to leave quarantine soon. Zik also gets an update on Tanaka’s condition, which has stabilized following his surgery.

Taking his leave with Amelia, Zik inquires as to the reason the Doctor seemed annoyed with her.  Amelia discloses that she’s been having a hard time sleeping on the space station, because it’s so quiet compared to her tent on the Zernabian prison planet, and because she’s getting nightmares about all her friends dying in the factory explosion.

Zik sympathizes, and says that he’s noticed the difficulty the Zernabians have been having adjusting to all that’s happened. That he’s been keeping things fun during quarantine hasn’t gone unnoticed by Amelia, and while she’s grateful, she just can’t sleep.

To cheer her up, Zik lets her know that the Temerity is being prepped for launch, and that if she wants to copilot with him, she’s welcome. An excited Amelia heads off to get suited up, while Zik boards the elevator to the bridge of Bastion Station.

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?