With a blinding flash, the singularity is established in the infernal machine! As Defender Zik, Tanaka and Misha look on in horror, Dr. Wagner celebrates his achievement. Shoving Zik aside, Wagner sprints for the black hole, encouraging the others to jump in and experience the entire future of the universe in one leap of faith!
Wagner disappears into the singularity, and Zik begins to float towards it! Can he escape?!
Our hero Defender Zik descends into the nearby canyon with his friends, investigating a mysterious sensor shadow on rogue planet Hypnos. As they hike, Amelia notices that the regolith (space dirt) under their feet moves strangely as they kick it up. Zik reminds her that the planet they’re on has lower gravity than she’s used to; this is only the second world she’s visited!
Striking up the conversation, Mizhakwan mentions that she likes to keep her personal space suit’s gravity just a little less than Earth normal, to put a little spring in her step. Amelia loves the idea.
The team then notices that there are an awful lot of crystals growing along the floor of the canyon. They stop to inspect the delicate structures before noticing more of them further into the canyon.
As they pass by, the crystal… moves?!
Defender Zik is charging into action! The gravity of the hallway rotates sideways suddenly, allowing Zik to swing and making the Jairians fall!
One tumbles back down the hallway he came from, while the other two fall onto walls. As one struggles to regain his footing, Zik’s swing ends in a boot to the head for the other!
Now confronting the last Jairian, Zik steals the thug’s helmet and uses it like a club!
Defender Zik is still taking the time to help crewman Travis, who has a broken leg, to the infirmary! He has reduced the gravity in each hallway so that Travis can move without putting strain on his injury, and it seems to be helping.
But they’re interrupted by Jairian raiders! The thugs have come from the very intersection that has the infirmary door, so there was no avoiding this encounter. The Jairians ready themselves to attack!
Thinking quickly, your favorite space hero tells Travis to brace himself, and launches himself at the armored invaders. He tells Zoot to rotate the gravity in the hallway so that the new “down” is the way the Jairians have just come from. Just as he grabs a handhold, he tells Zoot to engage the gravity! What will happen?
As Zik and Amelia finish listening to Metallica, they get back into Zik’s story about the deadly spinning asteroid and it’s direct trajectory towards his home planet Zoz.
Zik’s strategy to spin his ship to match the rotation of the asteroid and land at the pole worked! He was able to land safely, anchor his mining ship, and fire up the powerful engines to begin pushing the asteroid on a new trajectory to hopefully nudge it away from Zoz.
In the meantime, though, his friend Ramesh is in serious trouble after that crash landing! Zik is unable to get into contact with Ramesh, meaning that he’s incapacitated somehow. Quickly donning his breathing and grappling gear, Zik prepares to save Ramesh!
Just in case his mining ship gets dislodged from the asteroid, Zik anchors himself to the hull. He carefully makes his way across the surface of the asteroid. It’s spinning so quickly that the stars appear to be whizzing through the heavens! Indeed, the closer he gets to the equator, the faster the rotation is, and eventually there isn’t even any gravel or stones left on the ground.
By the time Zik is near Ramesh’s ship, the force of the spin pulling him away from the asteroid is greater that it’s limited gravity, and up and down have reversed themselves! Zik is now fighting to stay attached to the asteroid, hoping that his grappling gear is strong enough to hold him!
