Zik wraps up the story of the attack of the space commies! Amelia has decided to make herself comfortable, pulling her chair right up to Zik’s and using your favorite space hero as a couch. He doesn’t seem to mind too much.

Meanwhile, over on the Kodiak, James has brought Trent Quickdraw onto the bridge to show him some of the features of Trent’s new battle armor. The visor has a bunch of cameras on it, one of which will allow Trent to see through walls! There’s a limited range, and he can’t see too much detail, but he can see enough… Enough to see that Zik and Amelia are a little closer than he’s comfortable with! While Jason may be jealous of the cool view settings in Trent’s armor, Trent is preoccupied with what he sees on board Zik’s ship!

So ends part two of Forging The Defender! There’s one more part to go, where Zik describes where the “Gallant” part of his name comes from. Tune in next week for that!

The fire is out! Zik manages to contact Arata on the intercom, which is somehow still operational despite the wreckage of the mine access building. Coordinating with the guys down at the bottom, he hauls on the elevator cables, trying to save the trapped miner, but to no avail! They barely manage to budge it. If only they had a little more help! Suddenly, Ryan appears at the opening of the building and gets the drop on Zik. Zik turns on all his charm to try and convince the young man to help him rescue the miner instead of killing him. Ryan thinks about it. He thinks about everything he’s seen his side do in the last hour, and he comes to a decision. He isn’t on the right side of this fight. He tosses aside his gun and prepares to join Zik to help the miner!

Captain James Anchor is on his way back to the bridge of the Kodiak with a fresh coffee. On his way, he stops by the medical bay to check up on Vera. Fiona has stabilized the sleeping Vera, and is confident that her lung cancer can be cured. James also asks for a status update on the blood tests that Fiona has done on all three of the Zernabian passengers. Sure enough, the divergence of the Zozians from the rest of the human species over the last thousand years has resulted in some new pathogens and viruses for which the Zozians have no immunity.  Fiona is working on it, though, and it won’t be long before she can create a vaccine!

Next, James Anchor stops by the hangar bay, where an off-duty Jason is teaching Trent more about how to use firearms. This time he’s holding it safely! Not with his finger on the trigger like before! Although, in Trent’s defense, he had never held a gun before and there wasn’t time during the riot to teach him properly. But that’s being remedied by Jason now! Jason is just as impressed at Trent’s innate shooting accuracy as Zik was.

Meanwhile, Emma is busy sifting through the battle data from their encounter with Queen Elcyra. She seems to be onto something unusual, but what could it be?

So ends Part 1 of Forging The Defender! We’ll dive straight into part 2 next week! See you then!

Zik is helping Amelia learn how to fly! He instructs her on how to ease out of the barrel roll she was just doing. She’s certainly having the time of her life!

The two ships are heading back towards Zoz, and Amelia wants to know how long it will take to get to her new home. Zik tells her that it’s pretty far, so it’ll take a couple of days to traverse all those light years. Plus, they’re not heading straight to Zoz – they need to make a stop somewhere else first.

Changing the subject, Amelia asks a personal question. She’s noticed that the other Zozians treat Zik as if he’s really famous, and she wants to know if she’s imagining it. As it turns out, Zik is quite famous back home! He begins the story of the time he saved the entire planet…

Tactical officer Emma makes the urgent announcement: Queen Elcyra has launched a barrage of torpedoes at the Kodiak! Captain James Anchor gives helmsman Gerald and weapons officer Jason some quick commands, and then announces an alert to the rest of the ship! Zik gets his crash helmet ready and moves to the secondary weapons console.

Meanwhile, there’s nothing Queen Elcyra likes better than crushing her enemies! She cackles with glee, giving Zik’s nickname for her more truthfulness than he probably anticipated!

Down in the medical bay, Fiona is helping Vera into a medical diagnostic pod. It doubles as an escape pod in case the attack goes badly for our heroes! Trent and Amelia aren’t sure what the alarm means, but Fiona explains it quickly. She’ll have to get some proper space-worthy clothing for Amelia and Trent! You don’t want to get sucked out a hull breach wearing a t-shirt or a robe! Fiona has a spare flight suit that should fit Amelia, and she offers Trent some body armor. Will the Kodiak survive the onslaught?

Queen Elcyra seems quite put out that an entire ship of people would laugh at the opportunity to escort her illustrious person to meet with their leaders.

Zik can’t take her arrogance any longer, and cuts her off mid-sentence! He gives her a piece of his mind and lets her know that Zoz has no leaders, nor does it want any! The long and violent history of humanity since the dawn of civilization has proven the point: people who submit to authority inevitably get tyranny!

The crafty, crazy Queen doesn’t seem too bothered by Ziks tirade. She orders her Clonoids to open fire on the Kodiak!

Tanaka jumps out of his snub fighter and gives a huge high five to Zik.

Meanwhile, as Zik begins to explain the story to Amelia (who has never seen an Earth animal), James Anchor interrupts to remind Zik that they aren’t safe where they are and need to evacuate as quickly as possible.

An elated Zik rushes back to find Amelia with Vera and a recovering Trent. He assures them that the new spaceships that have appeared are friends who have arrived to rescue them. The shuttle doors open and Zik eagerly greets his good friend James Anchor, who has brought some muscle to back him up. While Jason and Seamus keep a watchful eye for trouble, Zik quickly introduces his new Zernabian friends to James, and tells him about the insanity of Queen Elcyra. Zik also tries to compliment James on an incredible shot, but it was Tanaka who took out the giant clonoid from his snub fighter! The fighter lands, the doors open… and Amelia screams! What has she seen?

A shocked Amelia charges towards the factory, not believing that almost everyone she knows has just perished. Coughing, Zik emerges from the gloom and consoles her as well as he can. The reality is that the firebombs inside the factory that preceded the demolition would have immolated anyone inside. No one could survive that… or could they?

Several light years away, Queen Elcyra is racing to the prison planet to see to the prisoner uprising personally! She gets a status report, and it seems that the massive Clonoid soldier has tipped the balance in the fighting firmly onto her side; there are only fifty-six prisoners left alive! This pleases her, but she wants to know specifically about Zik. Will he still pose a threat to her?