Joseph

Team leader Doctor Maximillian Zarkov and Captain Cain Foster plan Mission al-Khwarizmi to approach the lab ship. Arcturus, discovers that the ship’s AI, Catalina, has been altering its programming and is under the control of Doctor Samuel Dudley. Arcturus and two Marines gain entry to the al-Khwarizmi and find encrypted communications logs between the ship and the planet Yatima, most addressed to and from Doctor Meryem Mahdavi. In the main lab, they find test strips indicating a virus, and that the missing Captain Yusef Mahdavi is in good health.

Zarkov and his team discover a flower and children’s shirt in the quarters of the Mahdavis and a tablet with the captain’s logs detailing how they have awakened something beyond their understanding. Arcturus finds a cryochamber containing a young woman being transformed by a techno-organic mold. Murad and Sethu detect an energy signature from the alien archive on the planet Yatima and Zarkov insists they retrieve it immediately. Foster argues that they need to secure the lab ship first. Dudley sits aboard The Nellie and requests a summary of the psychological profile of Zarkov and Foster from Catalina. He leans back in his chair and gazes at the spinning al-Khwarizmi.

Team leader Doctor Maximillian Zarkov and Captain Cain Foster plan Mission al-Khwarizmi. Arcturus is tasked to approach the lab ship using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), with two Marines tethered behind him: Corporal Moses Howard and Private Louis Fineberg. In a half second, Arcturus runs a self-diagnosis. It’s not good. Catalina, The Nellie’s AI, has been altering Arcturus’s programming. Furthermore, Catalina is subverting Arcturus’s programming at the command of Doctor Samuel Dudley. Arcturus’s suspicions are confirmed.

Arcturus snaps out of its self-diagnosis to attempt landing on the hull of the al-Khwarizmi. Arcturus misjudges its approach and bounds off the hull, as do the two Marines. Eventually, the trio gains entry to the al-Khwarizmi through the lander bay doors. The tension mounts. They make their way through the lab ship. It’s engulfed in darkness, and debris floats tumbles, and spins in the weightlessness. They explore the Bridge, and Arcturus discovers encrypted communications logs between the al-Khwarizmi and the surface of Yatima, most addressed to and from Doctor Meryem Mahdavi. Arcturus transmits the logs to The Nellie for Catalina to decrypt.

Arcturus and the Marines float through the cargo bay and the main lab. Everything appears safe. They find mattresses and blankets tied to the floor at one end of the main lab. Arcturus constantly checks for signs of contagion with his bio scanner. While Arcturus is engaged in vis duties, Corporal Moses Howard’s torch reveals that Arcturus is engulfed in a cloud of thousands of test strips that hang weightlessly about the android. Arcturus reads the results of every test strip in a second: every strip tested positive.

Further inspection reveals that the most recent test went back several days ago, and the earliest test went back seven years ago. And each test strip has printed the name: Captain Yusef Mahdavi. Despite the positive results, the missing Captain Mahdavi is reported to be in good health.

Arcturus relays this information to Doctor Zarkov and Captain Foster aboard The Nellie. Zarkov convinced that there is no threat of virus aboard the lab ship, argues that more people are needed to deliver faster results. Zarkov orders his sophontologist, Doctor Murad Bey, Research Doctor Amanda Sethu, and three more Marines travel to the al-Khwarizmi and make their way to the Bridge. While there, Zarkov discovers the quarters of Captain and Doctor Mahdavi. They also find a flower with a single petal glued on and a children’s shirt with a faded print of cartoon characters. A tablet is found fastened to the wall. Sethu bypasses the tablet’s security and discovers the captain’s logs. It begins with Captain Mahdavi excited by their find of the alien archive (proof we are not alone in the universe!), progresses to the precautions they are taking but excited with the results of their research (Doctor Gupta believes the archive will provide a cure for cancer) and the miracle of Meryem’s pregnancy, to horror: they are not safe. They have awakened something beyond their understanding. The final entry ends “Meryem… I am so sorry.”

While Zarkov and his party made their way to the al-Khwarizmi, Arcturus spun up the lab ship’s ring to provide a facsimile of gravity. Everything that had been hanging weightless in the ship collapsed to the floor at once. Arcturus and its Marines entered the auxiliary lab, where they found a single cryochamber: the source of the faint life signature The Nellie detected when they first entered the al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad system. The cryochamber is labeled Aisha al-Faris. Inside is a young woman. Instead of being suspended in aerogel, she is engulfed in mold that scintillates rainbows from the light of Arcturus’s torch. It can detect that the mold is techno-organic and that the mold is transforming Aisha into… something. To their alarm, Arcturus turns its head 180° to address the Marines assembled behind it.

Doctor Murad tells Zarkov that he and Sethu have been working with Engineer Evgeny Khytrov to scan the last known location of the alien archive below the surface of Yatima. They almost missed it, but they detected an energy signature at 432 Hertz, now it’s keening at 3 Hertz! “This isn’t good. This isn’t right. We need to figure out what’s going on, and fast!”

Zarkov tells Foster they need to get to the surface of Yatima and retrieve the alien archive immediately! This is the team’s sole task. Foster argues that they need to secure the al-Khwarizmi, room by room, methodically. Once Foster has determined their safety, can they go after the alien archive. Zarkov frustratedly acquiesces.

Aboard The Nellie, Doctor Dudley sits in his quarters, his tablet illuminating his face.

“This is good intel, Catalina. We’re ready to progress to stage 2. Provide me with a 500-word précis of the psychological profile of Captain Cain Foster and Doctor Maximillian Zarkov. And provide annotation on any items that occur in a Venn overlap.”

He leans back in his chair, taking a deep breath and letting his eyes drift to the porthole window overlooking the spinning lab ship below, the al-Khwarizmi. A map of their current sector is displayed on another tablet, dotted with markers and notes.

“I need to know everything about them. Every weakness, every strength. Every tendency and every behavior.”

Episodes

The crew of The Nellie is on a mission to Yatima, and the days pass by with routine setting in. Evgeny Khytrov works on the ship’s engines and life support systems with Arcturus, who studies the information on Yatima and finds discrepancies. As they approach Yatima, they detect a weak life sign on the al-Khwarizmi lab ship, leading them to plan an investigation and uncover the mystery behind the placement of Yatima in orbit.

Arcturus helps Engineer Khytrov, who is sick from cryosleep. Arcturus is summoned to CIC by Captain Foster and crosses paths with a glowering Doctor Dudley from the CIC escorted by two Marines. Captain Foster welcomes Arcturus and programs the android.

Khytrov visits doctor Dudley for cryosleep illness. The Doctor insults Khytrov with his terrible bedside manner and attempts to gather intelligence from Khytrov. The engineer is alarmed at how quickly Kind Corp assembled the mission to Yatima.

The Captain’s dinner. Captain Foster and Doctor Zarkov sit at the head of the table on either side of the ship’s Captain, Chao Shen. Khytrov serves a meal he has prepared of traditional Russian fare. A treat to celebrate The Nellie arrival in the system. From here on out, it’s rations. As the evening progresses, Captain Shen regales the table with his adventures, tells a risqué joke, and is slightly inebriated from the alcohol he’s been consuming. Sergeant Maximus Razorblade and Khtrov entertain the crew by performing with their respective instruments: a guitar and a harmonica.

Khytrov, also a bit drunk, forgets himself and asks Captain Foster about his role in putting down the Mars Insurrection. Khytrov immediately realizes he’s overstepped himself, and perspiration born of fear glistens on his brow; Captain Foster ignores the faux pas and Khytrov. Navigator Suying Zhang breaks out her erhu and plays a quiet, mournful song to break the tension. Each crew member has their emotional reactions to the music (Captain Foster’s face flashes anger for a microsecond), but for all, it is a reminder of home and the things they’ve left behind.

Captain Foster tells Arcturus that the android is above their fellow crew members. Doctors Dudley, Bey, and Sethu sit at the crew’s table with Captain Foster’s Marine watching the drama unfold. The Marines quietly keep to themselves, hunched over the meals like a pack of wolves.

As the music ends, Captain Shen raises his glass, “To the crew of The Nellie, may we continue to work together and make it back home safely.”

The days pass, and routine sets in aboard The Nellie.

The Marines engage in various activities, from target practice to working out in the gym in the cargo bay. In their downtime, they gather around to play cards while the corporal strums his guitar and sings the Bio-Nevolant Marines hymn.

Evgeny Khytrov can be found roaming the ship, always working on the engines and life support systems. He’s often accompanied by Arcturus, who lends a hand in tweaking and calibrating the various systems. Khytrov shares with Arcturus that his great-grandfather was part of the team on Boston Dynamics that built Atlas, Arcturus’s ancestor.

Arcturus studies the information about planet Yatima from the missing survey team against the data the ship’s sensors have gathered. Something does not add up.

Captain Chao Shen and Suying Zhang hold daily meetings in the ship’s computer center and keep Doctor Zarkov, Captain Foster, and Arcturus apprised.

Doctor Dudley is visited by Corporal Horowitz, who has dislocated his arm during combat training. The Doctor displays his usual terrible bedside manner and re-sets the corporal’s arm.

As The Nellie approaches Yatima, a pinnace from the al-Khwarizmi, the orbiting lab ship, disengages from its dock and makes a hard acceleration over the planet’s horizon. Telemetry predicts that the pinnace is positioned on the opposite side of the planet relative to The Nellie. A weak life sign is detected aboard the al-Khwarizmi.

Arcturus reports that his research indicates that Yatima is not local to the al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad system. Something intentionally put the planet in orbit around the brown dwarf. But by who? And why? The three decide to investigate the al-Khwarizmi and plan their next moves.

Episodes