Synopsis:
The K'tharr Silden Kress, the Teske Merlmer Kithrynn, the Human Ramirez Lorgio and the Sparrial Meliar Oolora arrive on the edge of the Federation at Stardock Alpha, intending to purchase a cargo ship. They select an unusual vessel, equipped with meter thick hull, horrible thrusters, and a Kaa military grade hyperdrive; the ship is named Klarg Star One. Following a brilliant bargaining session by Kress, the crew upgrade their vessel and head to the local bar, seeking employment. Turning down a chance to chart deep space, the crew ponders searching a large nebula, but finally follows up on a Federation Intelligence mission advertisement. They meet with the local agent, MacArthy. Despite several looks of extreme skepticism, they are eventually hired to investigate the remains of an abandoned Kaa Starbase on the edge of a massive radiation zone.

Following several jumps, and a victorious encounter with some pirates, the Klarg Star arrives at the Starbase. They disable a small Kaa patrol ship which had scanned them, leaving it on a course straight into the radiation zone; the surviving crew eject in a life pod. Upon docking with the base, the crew discovers the bodies of several dead Gormelite shocktroops, dead through the application of horribly large, strong claws. Despite evidence of massive explosions in engineering, the reactor core is intact and functional. The main computer is a bit schizophrenic, perhaps because it is a Thoron computer someone switched with the Kaa model originally on the base. The crew also notice strange grey mists, and a menacing black shadow which chases them back to the Klarg Star. Merlmer is stunned when he tried to telepathically scan it, and non-laser attacks don't seem to harm it. The crew retreat to the airlock in the nick of time, and depart the base. Upon reviewing the recordings of the station, the crew discovers the grey mists to be very slow moving aliens, and the shadow to be a rapidly moving alien with horrific claws and fangs. Sending several probes into the radiation zone via a spiraling nebula, the crew receives curious signals. One of the probes is attacked by large black ships with blue beams.

The crew decides to take the Klarg Star One into the nebula, and after several days encounter a time-distortion field, throwing them back to Alpha Centauri, during the height of the Human-Teske War. They quickly detect a Terran fleet moving in on them, then a Teske fleet preparing to engage...

Continue to Episode 2, or return to the Main List.