This case… is not what you think it is.

John and Eugene discuss “This Case to be Opened in a Million Years.”

Episode Synopsis

Spring gets a call from the Personnel department.  All space staff are periodically required to return to Earth for vacation.  He can either start his 7 day vacation on Earth – NOW – or he can be relieved of command and shipped back to Earth – NOW.  He reluctantly chooses the former and heads off, leaving David in command and with instructions to investigate the freighter crash.

The company is Italian, and the controller, Santanini, isn’t terribly helpful.  His company accepts nuclear waste from Earth, stockpiles it on the moon, then sends shipments of it into space for disposal.  He objects to the Star Cops inspecting the containers due to continued radiation leakage.  This suits David just fine as he seems particularly uninterested in being exposed to radiation.  Colin; however, thinks something is afoot.  Unfortunately, with David unwilling to push very hard, the moonbase commander won’t overrule the ban on health and safety grounds.

On the flight to Earth, Spring is saddened by the prospect of his first vacation since Lee was murdered, but he soon meets a nice Italian lady named Leena and they hit it off.  She convinces him to go to Italy, where she’ll meet him in a few days in the catacombs.

Rome is a bust, after two days of continual rain, Spring decides to cancel his appointment with Leena and go somewhere else on holiday.  But he can’t find her contact info, and when he inquires with Kenzy to check the personnel records of the lunar mining company that she said she worked for, Sunzec, there is no record of her.  Curious, he sticks around until the scheduled rendezvous.

On the moon, Santanini, the Italian controller of the Italian nuclear waste company makes contact with the controller of Sunzec, an Australian… of Italian descent.  Something nefarious is afoot and they meet clandestinely in the cafeteria.  Santanini must make good on his commitments and get the shipment moving.  Santanini asks for some exploded blasting charges.  Kenzy sees them, but does not overhear the conversation.

At the Catacombs, Leena doesn’t show, but the Italian engineer that was put off moonbase on drug charges is waiting for Spring and tries to murder him.  Spring kills him.

Later, Spring consults with the local police detective in charge, an Italian, but he doesn’t promise much in the way of assistance.  Spring plans to leave immediately and then discovers large amounts of money have been deposited into his account.  Returning to his room, he encounters someone planting drugs in his room.  When he tastes them to see what they are, he falls into a hallucinogenic stupor, during which the Italian police detective and an Italian photographer arrive and take Spring’s picture.  When he awakes the next morning, he returns to the moon early.

On the moon, Kenzy and Colin are still suspicious of both the Italians and Sunzec.  Spring returns and is given the blasting charges supposedly found at the sight of the accident.  It was sabotage, probably by the same engineer that tried to kill Spring.

Spring is charged with corruption and David put back in charge.  He declares the case closed, but Kenzy goes to Sunzec for a poke ‘round with Colin as backup.  She discovered that Sunzec has found Uranium 235 and is selling it illegally to lesser nations.  She’s captured, but Colin saves the day.

Spring use Box and discovers that the launch was planned to allow it to swing by an abandoned space station, perhaps to smuggle something off the moon. Despite being relieved of command, breaks into the supposedly radioactive waste and discovers it’s Uranium 235.  Santanini followed him and is about to kill him when David, overcoming his fear of radiation, saves the day.   The Italians have been beaten, for now.

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