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!
After a few hours hurtling at ludicrous speeds into deep space, all systems on the Temerity are running smoothly. Trent has been resting in his cabin while Dakaasin has been using the tactical station on the bridge to monitor the cockpit interface systems, but the start of his first shift on duty is coming up. Hungry, he decides to head to the galley for a quick bite before getting ready. He reflects on how cool it is that Zik was willing to hire him on as part of the crew, manning the tactical station and the Temerity’s considerably powerful weapons, despite having blown a huge hole in the side of the Kodiak! Adapting to life in space requires a whole new way of thinking, but Trent is confident he’ll get the hang of it.
Stepping into the hall, Trent catches a whiff of the worst odor you can smell on a ship: smoke! Throughout history, fire on a ship has been the worst enemy of sailors and spacefarers alike! He charges into the galley, following the scent and raising the alarm, but stops short at a strange sight. Mizhakwan, a medicine woman who Zik has trusted for years, is in the galley calmly creating a small smoldering fire in a seashell and fanning it with a feather. Trent has never seen these things before, and, completely bewildered, asks Miz what she’s doing.
Mizhakwan explains that’s she’s just doing a smudging, and Trent is just in time to give her a hand. Being a little shorter than average, Miz explains to Trent that he can reach all the hatches she can’t to let the smoke into all the spaces it needs to go to make sure everything is clean.
DEFENDER ZIK LORE BREAK!
You see, dear readers, a large number of the Zozian colonists who left Earth all those centuries ago were North American First Nations people. The leader of Project Zoz, the secret initiative to create the first human interstellar colony, was a billionaire engineer named Edward Eriksen, who had humble beginnings as the son of a Cree mother and a European father. Then, a prophecy was made by an influential Ojibwe medicine man about an imminent disaster that would burn the Earth. When Edward quietly put the word out among the elders that he was planning an interstellar exodus, they recognized the opportunity to do what the ancestors of the Ojibwe had done when the prophecy of the coming of Europeans had been made before they arrived – they would migrate away from the impending danger! They also saw the wisdom of establishing life on other planets, and thought they could help be stewards and protectors of that new branch of life. As a result, a large percentage of the colonists who were selected to accompany Edward on the journey into the unknown were representatives of numerous First Nations, especially from the Anishinaabe. These people brought with them their traditions, one of which is smudging to clean the energy of their living spaces.
Captain James Anchor gives the order to repel the Jairian boarders! He asks Riichi, Emma and Jason to arm themselves with tonfas and to follow him into the maintenance shafts. They will split up and defend their ship from the invaders.
Trent is astonished that they’re arming themselves with mere sticks. He offers to loan them his guns, but James Anchor informs him that on spaceships, no one fights with guns. There are too many important things all around you that can be damaged in a firefight! If you miss, or if the bullet passes through its target, you can easily damage something in a way that can kill you.
Before leaving the bridge, Captain Anchor makes one last preparation and announces it to the crew: The Christmas Tree is lit! The Jairians are understandably confused at that. But no matter, they’re right under the bridge tower! An eager Jairian grabs the ladder to begin the bridge assault – only to electrocute himself!
It turns out that the “Christmas Tree” is actually the ladder to the bridge, and it has been electrified! The Jairians quickly adapt to their new circumstances. If you can’t take over the command center of a ship, take over engineering! From there, you can override any propulsion commands, as well as disable the life support for the bridge crew! The lead Jairian instructs his team: some will head aft to engineering, some will head forward to disable the second howitzer. One of them, a “screwup,” is told to stay behind and guard the intersection, something he’s not happy about!
Oblivious to the chaos outside the ship, Amelia finds herself in the galley wondering what all the noises are. She sneaks a bite of pineapple before heading back to the infirmary to see Vera.
But that last second bite causes a fateful delay! The Jairian breacher attaches itself to the hull just outside the galley and cuts through the metal plating! The circular hatch created is flung inward explosively, and Amelia whacks her head on a cupboard trying to get out of the way!
The Jairian boarding party rushes into the ship, and poor Amelia is out cold on the floor!
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!
While Zik hammers away with his shotgun, Arata sees the damage the rocket has done on his security monitors. As it turns out, the main elevator for the mine was damaged! It fell all the way to the bottom, bouncing out of its shaft and crushing the legs of one of the miners at the bottom!
Zik hurries over to get a look at what’s going on. He sees right away that the miners are going to need help to free the poor man. He grabs a fire extinguisher and charges out of a side door, heading for the burning elevator building!
But Morren has spotted Zik and sends three of the Jairians after him! One gets stopped cold by the digger drones, but two more make it past! Worse, one of them is the kid, and Zik certainly doesn’t want to hurt him! What will he do?!
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?
Amelia hits the Emergency Open button on the tank control panel, opening the top of the tanks! But now she notices that Zik has gotten hurt! The Clonoid supersoldier is busy inspecting his badly singed hand as Zik falls back. Meanwhile, the Clonoid drone has picked up a blaster and zaps Trent right in the chest! A double whammy of deep trouble for our heroes!
