Defender Zik, now alone in the cave and out of contact with the others, gets his rock climbing gear ready.  Reasoning that using his jetpack is too risky under the circumstances, he unwinds the carbon fiber nano-mesh cable in his gauntlets and prepares to descend into the tunnel Mizhakwan fell into.

As he rappels into the crevasse, he calls out to Mizhakwan, who is finally able to answer! She assures Zik that she’s fine, it just took a few moments for her to figure out her burst transmission settings.  Not only is she okay, she’s ecstatic!

Zik discovers the reason Mizhakwan is so overjoyed as he reaches the bottom; there’s a cavern absolutely packed with glowing crystals! Sitting cross-legged in the back of the cavern, Mizhakwan cautions Zik to be careful where he steps, to avoid damaging the crystals. Mysteriously, several crystals are pointing spikes directly at Mizhakwan. When Zik enquires why, she replies with a confident “Watch!”

Defender Zik rushes over to the edge of the crevasse that Mizhakwan disappeared into and tries to establish radio contact with her.  A weak, unintelligible signal comes back, but they can hear her voice!

As relieved Amelia asks how they’ll get her out, Trent interrupts with another problem he’s found.  The crystals that are all around them are growing and moving closer! What’s more, they seem to get more energetic every time they speak!

A sudden realization dawns on Zik, and he gets everyone to stay silent for a moment. After switching his own broadcast settings to use a burst transmission, he explains how to do it to the others. This mode will compress what they say to each other into a tiny data packet so that they keep their emissions to a minimum.

It seems to work; the crystals react only mildly to Zik’s explanation. Everyone’s favorite space hero then begins to explain his cunning plan…