When someone starts blowing up planets in another solar system, it’s Travis and the Gang to the rescue! Kenneth and Eugene discuss.

Episode Synopsis

Evil Scientists aboard Keres Station are doing evil things, in this case, blowing up a planet – in secret.

Elsewhere, the Trans-Utopian experiences a space earthquake which decreases the efficiency of their anti-matter by 50%.  This is quite impressive, really, since only recently their supply of anti-matter was zero point zero.  Anyhoo, it was caused by some electromagnetic surge that originated beyond the solar system.

Percy and Marcus will have to solve the engine problem en route however because they’re on their way to Keres Station for a commission.  The station administrator informs them that they are working with a lethal virus.  A former employee, Quinnell, stole a vial of the virus enclosed in a security box.  Their mission, should they decide to accept it, is to find Quinnell, recover the box, and return it to Keres Station – all without the authorities getting wind of the situation.  

Travis recognizes Quinnell as a member of the Feder Clan of Raiders.  They track him to Clarke Station and capture him easily while crapping, but not before he slips the box to a random stranger in the next stall – as you do in these circumstances.

The folks at Keres Station want Quinnell, but the box is more important.  Largely because they’re afraid of their backers. They are funded by the Orchard, and they’re a bunch of humorless hard-noses that will kill them if they find out they blundered.  

Quinnell has a secret scanner-proof transmitter and notifies his confederates on Clarke Station about the identity of the man who has the box – which they can presumably identify by Quinnell’s description of his ankles and perhaps a name tag stitched in his dropped trousers.  

The fugitive steals a ship, and a chase is given by the Raiders, who conveniently encounter the Trans-Utopian because space isn’t really that big.  (See also: how did an electromagnetic surge from another solar system arrive and affect this solar system so quickly.)

Travis and the gang make quick work of disabling the Raider ship and rescuing the guy with the box.  They’re on to him, he’s just a punk kid, so they lock him up, too – after relieving him of the box. 

Travis questions the Raider, who explains that he doesn’t know what the box contains but that it’s something big.  Some of his clan discovered something was up, and they were killed for it.  He infiltrated Keres to steal the box for the defense of his clan.  This has the ring of truth to Travis, and he instructs Carrivagio to open the box.

Meanwhile, Marcus discovers the signature of negative energy, a theoretical thing that might be an enormous energy source and hold the secret of faster-than-light travel.  He found the signature while studying the ongoing problem associated with the ship’s engines.  

They also find the signature coming from the box.

Inside the box is a (sort of) flight data recorder showing information on the planet’s destruction in the other solar system, which, coincidentally, will destroy that entire solar system.

Travis takes them back to Keres station but makes some alternate plans.  The folks at Keres don’t plan on letting the Trans-Utopian crew leave alive.  

They get their money for delivering the box and Quinnell, then while the Keres people are trying to double-cross them, they use the secret transmitter to execute an escape plan, escaping with Quinnell.  The box they returned was empty.

Keres Station is destroyed by the Orchard, and Travis and the gang contemplate whether or not the backers will pursue them.