In a distant system, Defender Zik stands by in the Temerity as Ramesh and his crew finish shoring up the heavily damaged Vigilant Gaddi. It was a narrow escape, but the jumps they’ve made thus far have proven to be effective at throwing the Clonoids off their trail. But hyperspace has been hard on the broken hull of the Gaddi, and they’ve stopped within the ring system of an icy world to patch what they can before continuing.
In due course, Ramesh radios over to say that they’re ready to go. Zik asks how the refugees are holding up, to which Ramesh reports that they’re furious enough to have nearly staged a mutiny. Only being reminded that they would be stranded in space without a pilot calmed them down. The two old pals then review the battle; Zik tries to keep positive about it, but Ramesh is more of a realist than an optimist, and points out that a 60 percent survival rate isn’t exactly a victory. Conceding the point, Zik admits that Elcyra seems to have duped the Zozians into attacking, before springing the trap with her insanely powerful capital ship. The Zozians have achieved a pyrrhic victory, and have gotten a rude awakening about how far the rest of humanity have advanced technologically in the past thousand years!
Ramesh declares that he’s not confident the Gaddi can withstand more than one more jump without undergoing catastrophic hull failure, so the two decide to head straight back to Zoz from here. As they leap into hyperspace, however, a drone tucked away on one of the larger ring rocks begins broadcasting a report back to its operators…

Defender Zik’s Temerity crew charges into a one-on-six confrontation with a squadron of Clonoid snub fighters! Dodging as many plasma blasts as it can, the Temerity plays a game of chicken with its foes, reducing two to scrap metal in its first pass. But the Clonoids get some shots in and Sten is dispatched to fix the resulting problem with one of the Temerity’s engines.

As the dogfight continues, Sten gets the engine back into phase, and another two Clonoids bite the dust! One final pass, and the enemy is vanquished! The Temerity crew heads back to the landing zone as the Zozian rescue party disembarks, keeping a sharp eye on their scanners.

Zik looks through the window into the room with the fire.  His trusty colony computer Zoot informs him that there’s still someone in there, stuck under a bulkhead! Your favorite space hero adjusts his visor to display a light wavelength that can help him see through the smoke, and he enters the room.

Inside, he stares out into open space through a big hole in the hull! Uh oh!  He grabs Travis and gets him out of the room.

As he exits, Leslie and Saeki come charging onto the scene. Zik allays their fears for their fellow engineer Travis, and informs them of the hull breach. Saeki dashes into the room to fix the hole while Leslie helps Zik set the fracture in Travis’ leg.

Once the splint is in place, Zik helps Travis to the infirmary while Leslie stays behind to help repair the damage to the Kodiak.

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.

Our refugees board the shuttle and James Anchor gives the order to take off. The first stop: Zik’s ship! As the shuttle rises into the sky, Vera peers out of the window and bids her dear friends an emotional farewell. Soon, the shuttle and its Chadee escort arrive at the cave where Zik’s ship is hidden. Zik and Seamus, the Kodiak’s chief engineer, get out to go and inspect the ship. A curious Amelia tags along. Seamus pronounces the patch job to be good enough for now while Zik changes clothes.  Our hero steps out in his new (old) outfit, and Amelia praises his fashion choices!

Time to clear the air! And it looks like Zik has heard all this before…