The barrage of grenades launched by Morren Mallor begins impacting the crater peak right above Defender Zik and Dakaasin!  As the dislodged rubble falls, Dak is unlucky and is struck by a large boulder! Fortunately, the lower gravity on this moon prevents a fatal impact, but she falls from her position halfway up the cliff!

Firing up her rocket boots, Dak guides herself to a safe landing, but she grips her shoulder in agony. A worried Zik calls down to her to see if she’s okay, and she reports that she’s got a dislocated shoulder, but is otherwise all right. But with any further climbing or combat out of the question, she urges Zik to carry on without her.  Your favorite space hero is going to have to rescue the hostages on his own, facing down a mortal enemy armed with a grenade launcher!

Springing from cover, Defender Zik and Dakaasin leap forward for their mad dash to the central peak of the crater! Quickdraw lays down some heavy covering fire with his sniper rifle, causing the Jairian in his sights to leap back behind a boulder to avoid getting zorched! As bullets and plasma beams fill the sky, Zik and Dak fly full out, low to the ground to take advantage of any cover they can get! After a harrowing few moments that seem like hours, they arrive at the central peak! They made it in one piece!

In his eagerness to reunite with his daughter, Gordon Mises gets ahead of the rest of the crew of the Temerity.  Defender Zik urges caution, because this scenario seems too much like an….

AMBUSH!

From hiding, Morren fires at the person who looks most like how he remembers Zik from their last encounter. But that person is the unfortunate Gordon, whose arm is blown clear off from Morren’s shot!

Gordon falls out of the sky, and while Zik scrambles to catch him, everyone scatters. Bullets are zipping in from all around the crater, and there’s a mad dash for cover while Sten, Tanaka and Trent Quickdraw give covering fire.

They reach the crater floor after some near-misses, and Zik calls out to the Temerity for support – Amelia, come back!

The grieving Tanaka is sorely tempted by the offer of an eternity of observation, without needing to act. While he’s lost in debate, a terrified Misha bolts from the lab through a side door.

Meanwhile, Defender Zik is trapped in the time warp! He screams out for help, hoping that his voice will reach Tanaka across the temporal abyss he finds himself in!

Zik’s voice snaps Tanaka into action, and he leaps to the aid of his good friend, shutting down the machine.  Zik falls to the floor of the infernal machine — is he okay?!

Amelia guns the engines of the Temerity! It’s high time to escape planet Hypnos!  As the meteorites rain down, Amelia flies low and flat, trying to escape the danger zone as quickly as possible before gaining altitude.

Zik arrives in the cockpit to help as the flight starts to get rougher, and nearly loses his footing. The Temerity screams through canyons as Amelia whips her around the deadly barrage!

Finally, they emerge from the zone of densest impacts and Amelia pulls the Temerity up and into the sky! Zik lets out a whoop and declares that Amelia’s piloting skills are already legendary! A relieved Amelia relaxes enough to smile at the compliment as they sail into space.

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!

Emerging from the cave, Defender Zik and Mizhakwan are amazed to find that the crystals have grouped themselves together and are merging into one giant mass! The crystal grows as the Temerity pumps out the radio waves at full power.

Once back on board, they head straight for the cockpit, where a concerned Amelia asks if they’re hurt. Francisco urges Zik to consider leaving at their earliest opportunity. When pressed for a reason, he explains that his study of the orbiting debris field has revealed that the passage of the ship caused a great deal of disturbance in the cloud!  Some of the debris is now falling to the planet, and the Temerity itself is in danger of getting flattened!

Defender Zik and Mizhakwan quickly realize that the mysterious sound is just the opening of an old Earth song by The Tragically Hip. The Temerity has arrived and Trent’s idea to lure the crystals is working! They’re leaving the cave!

The stranded duo watch in amazement as the crystals start moving more quickly, reforming and combining together as they make their way out of the tunnel. Once the way clears, they make a break for it up the crevasse!

Finally back at the surface, Mizhakwan and Zik are startled by what they see!

And for those of you who’ve never heard Gift Shop by The Tragically Hip, here it is! Enjoy!

Now that it’s clear that the crystals are reacting to the signals the crew are emitting, Defender Zik has gotten everyone to switch to a compressed burst transmission setting, so that they are only broadcasting a small amount of data instead of a full audio stream. Next, they step away from the edge of the crevasse that Mizhakwan fell into, because the last thing they need is another fall! Then Zik explains that he’ll lure the crystals on one side of the cave while Amelia and Trent Quickdraw quietly make an escape from the other side.

When Amelia asks what he’ll do, Zik explains that he intends to help Mizhakwan out of the pit. While he’s doing that, he asks the other two to lure the crystals from outside the cave in order to facilitate Zik and Mizhakwan’s exit. A nervous Amelia follows Trent as he picks his way through the lengthening crystals.  As they proceed, Zik switches off his burst transmission and begins luring the crystals towards him.

The plan works! Trent and Amelia make it out of the cave, but the crystals have grown so thick behind them that they can’t see Zik anymore! Worse, they’re absorbing nearly all of Zik’s broadcast signal, and they can no longer make out what he’s saying!