Tanaka and his fellow Chadee pilots exit the Kodiak and head to the Jairian fleet. They’ve been told to hold their fire in case the Jairians decide not to tempt fate and retreat.

Rachelle isn’t backing down, however! For whatever reason, she doesn’t want to return empty handed. She decides that their best odds of success lie in attacking and boarding the Kodiak directly. She orders most of her fleet to do just that, but the Vigilant Gaddi has some teeth that need to be pulled! Along with a handful of fighters, she hangs back to neutralize Ramesh’s ship, promising to join the main fleet in the assault on the Kodiak once she’s done. Her ship opens up on the Gaddi!

That’s the sign James Anchor was waiting for! It’s time to dive in and drive off the attackers! He gives the order to Tanaka, who leads the charge into the main group of Jairian ships! The battle is on!

A large raiding fleet of Jairians is approaching the cargo convoy!  The Kodiak is finally in communications range, and James Anchor broadcasts an ultimatum: leave the convoy alone or face the consequences!

Rachelle, the Jairian fleet coordinator recognizes James’ last name. She tries to scare him off with an ultimatum of her own.

But James Anchor is a stalwart guardian! He gives the Jairians a final warning and then issues orders to prepare for battle!

The Jairians approach the convoy… will the Kodiak make it in time to save them?

The target of the Jairian raiding fleet is the cargo convoy presently guarded by Commander Ramesh of the Vigilant Gaddi.  Ramesh has seen the enemy approaching and hasn’t been able to establish contact with them.

It’s pretty obvious that the intentions of the Jairians are hostile, so Ramesh calls for an all-stop, and for the fleet of cargo vessels to establish a defensive formation.

Now it’s time to warm up the guns, get some target practice in, and hope they can hold out until the cavalry arrives…

Zik is in the secondary hanger with some of the engineering staff of the Kodiak, working the kinks out of his newly repaired ship. The team solves the plasma imbalance problem Zik detected during his training flight with Amelia.

As they wrap up the repairs, the red alert alarm sounds for the third time in the past couple of days. As Leslie gripes, Zik decides to head up to the bridge.

Up on the bridge, Captain James Anchor gets a status report from Tactical Officer Emma. The ship is closing in on the convoy they were protecting when they left to rescue Zik, but Emma has seen another fleet on the scanners. It’s a Jairian raiding party!

A furious James Anchor can’t understand how the Jairians could have already found out that the convoy was unprotected.

In the Kodiak medical bay, Amelia is visiting Vera, and recounting the stories Zik told her during their flight. She’s never lived anywhere but the desert prison planet, so his description of living on an island was especially exotic for her!

When Amelia mentions that Zik’s father is a pineapple farmer, Vera leans back, remembering her youth before Queen Elcyra. She hasn’t tasted pineapple in decades!

Amelia excitedly tells her that there are some pineapples in the galley. She runs out to get some, promising to continue with another of Zik’s stories.

Vera chuckles to herself, amused at how Amelia is totally unaware that she’s glowing.

WELCOME TO EPISODE 3! Brawl In The Void is going to be an intense episode, so strap yourselves in!

Zik space-walks over to the Kodiak to help investigate the Clonoid stuck to its hull.

They scan it and determine that it’s dead, but still transmitting a signal to the Clonoid central computer. That means Queen Elcyra used her hapless drone as a tracking device!

James Anchor gives the order to float the Clonoid behind the main engines. A curious Trent is informed that once then engines are lit up, the Clonoid will be atomized!

Zik and Amelia rejoin the Kodiak, and they all set off again for the convoy that the Kodiak is supposed to be protecting.

And that’s a wrap for Episode 2 of Defender Zik! I hope you enjoyed these tales from your favorite hero’s past! Next week, we start the exciting Episode 3, where we rejoin the convoy only to find Ramesh… well… no spoilers!

The Epilogue of Forging The Defender begins! We have one loose end to tie up before the next exciting episode!

Tactical Officer Emma has discovered the Clonoid that evil Queen Elcyra has fastened to the hull of the Kodiak during their brief encounter. Captain James Anchor orders a full stop so that they can deal with the situation.

Zik and Amelia, once notified, circle back in their ship to help out.

Emma explains what she’s discovered to Captain Anchor, and Zik, listening in, is able to spot the Clonoid attached to one of the struts holding the bridge.

Captain Anchor informs Zik that they will be sending some crew members out to get the Clonoid off the hull, and Zik offers to help!

As they travel back to Zoz, Zik wraps up the story of how he met his ex-girlfriend Haven. Amelia is curious though: why is Zik no longer dating Haven if they got along so well? Zik explains that it’s because he and Haven live in different worlds; she spends her time under the waves researching, he feels more at home travelling the stars. Their day-to-day experiences couldn’t be more different!

Amelia tells Zik not to worry. He’ll find someone who shares his love of flying! Hm, I wonder if that reminds us of anyone?

So ends the third and final part of Forging The Defender! It was fun spending a bit of time on Zoz, and exploring the Zozian civilization a bit. I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane! We’ve got a bit of an epilogue coming up next, and then the gripping action of- well, no spoilers!

Back in space, Amelia notices something wrong with what Zik has just told her. Haven’s comment belies the fact that she hadn’t heard of the “famous” Zik! But Zik explains that Haven gets so absorbed with her work underwater that she barely notices that the rest of the universe exists. She was only barely aware that Zik had saved her life once before during the incident with the asteroid!

Zik continues his story. The underwater lab is starting to buckle under the weight of all the rocks that have fallen on it. Haven wants to leave using the submersible she usually uses to get to the lab, but Zik informs her that the bay doors are blocked by debris! There isn’t time to clear it all away before the lab collapses!

A frustrated Haven begins stripping off her clothes in preparation to swim to the surface. She gathers some necessities: a waterproof bag filled with her all-important research data, some emergency balloons designed to allow someone to be lifted rapidly to the surface, and a device that emits EM waves designed to repel sharks. Zik is a little surprised to hear about the sharks!

Outside the lab, Haven starts to play with the EM shark repeller, but she can’t remember how to activate it. Zik notices that it’s too late to get it going; a shark has arrived, and it’s noticed them! Uh oh!

Amelia is curious about the type of girl Zik likes to date, so Zik starts telling his next tale! The last lady he dated was Haven LeClaire, a marine biologist.  She had an underwater lab near Zik’s island home on Zoz, where she was researching dolphin and whale communications. On the day they met, Haven had just made a breakthrough: she had learned how to communicate with dolphins! She was also close to discovering how to communicate with humpback whales, and there was a lot of activity around her lab. The ocean was crowded!