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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''{{PAGENAME}}''}}
{{title dab away}}
{{infobox episode
{{real world}}
|title = ''Dead Drop''
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image = [[File:Dead_Drop_cover.jpg]]
|image            = Dead Drop (audio story).jpg
|publisher = [[Big Finish Productions]]
|number            = 1.1
|starring = [[Chase Masterson]]
|range            = Vienna (series)
|writer = [[Mark Wright]]
|number in range  = 1.1
|director = [[Ken Bentley]]
|main character    = [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]]
|producer = Mark Wright
|featuring        = [[Crevo Finn|Crevo]]
|music = [[Howard Carter]]
|enemy            = [[Chtzin]]
|sound = Howard Carter
|setting          = ''[[Custodian (Dead Drop)|Custodian]]''
|editor =
|writer            = Mark Wright
|cover = [[Damien May]]
|director         = [[Ken Bentley]]
|series = ''[[Vienna (audio series)|Vienna]]''
|producer         = Mark Wright
|season = ''[[Vienna: Series One]]''
|music             = [[Howard Carter (composer)|Howard Carter]]
|episode = 1.1
|sound             = Howard Carter
|release date = 5 February 2014
|cover             = [[Damien May]]
|previous = ''[[The Memory Box]]''
|epcount          = 1
|next = ''[[Bad Faith]]''}}
|publisher        = Big Finish Productions
'''''Dead Drop''''' is the first episode in ''[[Vienna: Series One]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It starred [[Chase Masterson]] as [[Vienna Salvatori]].
|audio anthology  = Vienna: Series One
|release date      = 5 February 2014
|format            = 1 CDs<br/>Download
|production code  = BFVIENNA002
|isbn              = ISBN 978-1-78178-267-5 (physical); ISBN 978-1-78178-633-8 (digital)
|series            = ''[[Vienna (series)|Vienna]]''
|prev              = The Memory Box (audio story)
|next             = Bad Faith (audio story)
|soundcloudtrailer =
}}
'''''Dead Drop''''' was the first story of ''[[Vienna: Series One]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was written by [[Mark Wright]] and featured [[Chase Masterson]] as [[Vienna Salvatori]].


==Synopsis==
== Publisher's summary ==
Dwarfed by the burning star of the [[Hyspero system]], two devastating battle fleets face each other across the stars. On one side, the [[Dyarid Primary Vanguard]], commanded by Admiral Salaron aboard the starship ''[[Custodian]]''. On the other, a [[Chtzin]] battle cluster.
Dwarfed by the burning star of the [[Hyspero system]], two devastating battle fleets face each other across the stars. On one side, the [[Dyarid Primary Vanguard]], commanded by [[Salaron|Admiral Salaron]] aboard the starship ''[[Custodian (Dead Drop)|Custodian]]''. On the other, a [[Chtzin]] battle cluster.


Bounty hunter [[Vienna Salvatori]]'s latest assignment brings her aboard the ''Custodian'' – but completing her mission and earning some poldaks is the easy bit. When all hell breaks loose with the Chtzin and the ''Custodian'' is left crippled and plunging towards the sun, a simple assignment turns into a battle for survival for the galaxy's deadliest assassin.
[[Bounty hunter]] [[Vienna Salvatori]]'s latest assignment brings her aboard the ''Custodian'' – but completing her mission and earning some poldaks is the easy bit. When all hell breaks loose with the Chtzin and the ''Custodian'' is left crippled and plunging towards the sun, a simple assignment turns into a battle for survival for the galaxy's deadliest assassin.


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
Lieutenant Paley gives the all clear for fleet perimeter regarding a reconnaissance mission. Ensign Roaig hails Admiral Salaron from the docking bay. Roaig is then told that Salaron is in conference with Supreme Commander [[Jamela K'lynn]] and is not to be disturbed. Roaig tells his colleague that there is a signal from transport frigit alpha nineteen, who has their new executive officer aboard. Roaig is feeling uneasy about their new arrival.
[[Roaig|Ensign Roaig]] calls [[Salaron|Admiral Salaron]] to the ''[[Custodian (Dead Drop)|Custodian]]'''s primary docking bay as the new executive officer is arriving aboard [[Transport Frigate Alpha-19]], but [[Paley|Lt Paley]] informs him that Saloran is in a meeting with [[Jamela K'lynn|Supreme Commander K'lynn]]. Salaron explains to K'lynn that [[Galazar|Captain Galazar]] sent three fighter squadrons into the [[Chtzin]]'s territory without K'lynn's authorisation, leading to the fighter squadrons being destroyed and the ''[[Vanquish]]'' being badly damaged. For this, K'lynn kills Galazar with her mental powers, destroying his [[brain]], and then releases Salaran to continue his mission of keeping the Chtzin from entering the [[Dyarid Protectorate]].


Jamela K'lynn states that Salaron has failed her for the last time, to which Salaron is highly apologetic. Salaron recalls to her that during a patrol of the [[Chtzin]] borderland, Captain [[Galazar]] ordered three fighter squadrons into enemy territory without authorisation from the Supreme Commander. This caused the Chtzin to retaliate, thus causing the fighter squadrons to be lost. K'lynn then turns to Galazar and uses her powers to explode his brain. She then orders Salaron to get the carcass cleared.
Going by "Commander Arcadia Corinth", [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]] is welcomed to the ''Custodian'' by Salaron and passes a [[memory scan]] to confirm that she is not a [[spy]] of the Chtzin, who can influence people with their powers. Salaron introduces her to Paley and Roaig and has a [[service robot]] show her to her quarters where her [[memory box]] opens and she consults her [[assignment crystal]], learning that she is to [[assassination|assassinate]] K'lynn, a psychic and former [[Monk of the Inside]] who sought [[Asylum (politics)|asylum]] within the Dyarid Protectorate after the [[mass murder]] of novices, in return for 9 million [[poldak]]s. An opportunity presents itself when K'lynn summons her to her inner sanctum as the Chtzin fleet begins an attack and wipes out a cloaked squadron.


Salaron informs K'lynn that they are in shrouded orbit of Hyspero's star, in between [[Hyspero Major]] and [[Hyspero Minor|Minor]]. K'lynn warns Salaron to never underestimate the Chtzin, stating that the Chtzin must not be allowed to enter the Dyarid Protectorate. K'lynn releases Salaron from conference to perform his other duties. Salaron receives Roaig's message and the frigit is allowed to descend,
When Vienna draws a [[gun]] on K'lynn, K'lynn reveals that she sensed her despite the memory box and that she knows her true name. She is invulnerable to Vienna's attacks and uses her powers to choke her and probe her mind, finding a psychic bomb which washes back through the mental link and explodes K'lynn's [[brain]]. However, Vienna is unable to report this to her employer as her device cannot reach the [[Hyperspatial Data Network]]. Salaron runs into her on the way to the inner sanctum for K'lynn's advice on the Chtzin's attack and she pretends to discover the body with him. He accuses Chtzin spies and they return to the command deck where she helps shoot down the enemy [[devastator]]s until two cruisers drift into the ''Custodian'''s line of fire. The ship's [[shield]]s fail and the Chtzin land a hit.


A lady by the name of Commander Arcadia Corinth requests exits the frigit and requests permissing to board. She is welcomed aboard the Custodian by Salaron. To ensure Corinth is not a Chtzin spy, he performs a [[memory scan]] on her, which confirms her identity. He offers her a tour before showing her her quarters. He informs her that since the fall of the [[Wrath]] Empire, the Chtzin are approaching their territory in the remaining power vacuum. Salaron explains that the Dyriad Protectorate is a peaceful mission, whereas the Chtzin is a brutal, warrior race. He explains that Chtzin are an arachnid species with a hive mind, enabling them to get inside your head and influence you. Corinth is also warned to be weary of speaking about K'lynn so flippantly.
Vienna orders a withdrawal, but the ''[[Armageddon (ship)|Armageddon]]'' drifts into the ''Custodian'''s [[warp corridor]] after warp has been initiated, resulting in the ''Armageddon''{{'}}s destruction and the ''Custodian''{{'}}s warp engines being taken out. As K'lynn's death has not yet been proven, Vienna's ship will not return for her per her own orders and she goes with Paley to get the warp engines working to escape the [[gravity|gravitational pull]] of a [[star|sun]]. They take a [[ventilation shaft]] to avoid Chtzin who have come aboard and reach Engineering, on the way to which Vienna kills a Chtzin-controlled [[Belkin|Chief Belkin]] and kills a group of Chtzin by disabling and re-enabling local gravity to cause them to fall to their deaths. Roaig warns them that they have 17 minutes until impact and the engines will take 10 minutes to warm up.


The Custodian finishes his sweep of the perimeter and heads for the far side of Hyspero Minor. Salaron and Corinth walk onto the bridge, making Corinth note that it makes her old ship, the Samaritan look like a museum piece. He points out the nodes arranged around the bulkhead, creating a data net, which itself meshes every battle computer in the fleet together. Paley informs Corinth that the Chtzin battle tactics are so random that it's mathematically impossible to guess what they'll do next. Salaron finishes the introduction and they arrange to meet at thirty-three hundred hours, leading Corinth to head back to her quarters.
Locking themselves in, Paley starts work on the engines and the [[elevator]] so that they can escape back to the bridge, but the Chtzin use their powers on her to get her to let them inside. Vienna punches her to bring her back to her senses and they get away in the elevator once the engines are online, also restoring the Hyperspatial Data Network. Salaron's [[data pad]] is on speakerphone when it transfers Vienna her fee for killing K'lynn and the announcement opens his memory box, reminding him that he ordered the hit because of his [[syndicate]]'s distrust of outsiders. Because of the Chtzin's influence, Salaron forgets the warp codes and Vienna realises that K'lynn was using her [[array]] and [[node]]s to connect the minds of those aboard.


Corinth speaks into her personal log, stating that she was hired by the Dyriad High Command, in the name of the Premier. She opens her bag and activates her [[memory box]], remembering her real identity as [[Vienna Salvatori]]. She pulls out her [[assignment crystal]], which informs her that her mission is to infiltrate the Custodian, gain access to and eliminate Jamela K'lynn, who is a Monk of the Inner Place, exhiled from the Isolationist Order on Straif after she murdered an entire order of novices. K'lynn has highly developed [[Telekinesis|telekinetic]] powers. The crystal informs her that, if successful, she will receive nine million [[Poldak|poldaks]].
Vienna uses K'lynn's array to find and delve into Salaron's mind, where she sees a white-haired man from her past before finding the codes and reminding him of them. The ''Custodian'' initiates warp jump, but the jump is corrupted and it only half-enters [[warpspace]]. Paley dies from wounds inflicted by the Chtzin and Vienna realises that Roaig has been under their control and [[sabotage|sabotaging]] the crew with fatal errors the whole time. His error in the telemetry causes the ship to split in half as it falls out of warp, so Salaron calls for an [[evacuation]] whilst he intends to remain on board. Vienna punches him and forces him to give her the name of the white-haired man, [[Crevo Finn]], before he dies and then takes an [[escape capsule]] off the ship.


Custodian Command picks up a modulating energy signature from the Chtzin battle cluster. Salaron orders his crew to maintain shroud protocols and to hang fire. He orders Roaig to move all ships towards the asteroid field, where the Chtzin are sitting. As Salaron actives tertiary alert, Vienna uses this opportunity as a diversion, and begins her assignment. Luckily, Corinth is called to the Supreme Commander's Inner Sanction on Deck Seventeen.
The capsule overheats and Vienna passes out, [[dream]]ing about her time on the ''Custodian'' and seeing Crevo. The capsule is rescued by her ship before it can fall into the sun and it wakes her up, offering her new assignments which she refuses. She transfers her funds to the [[hospice]] on [[Miracle 3]] and includes a coded message saying that she has found Crevo.
 
The Chtzin fleet enter battle formation, giving them ten minutes before the Chtzin is within range of the Custodian. Salaron relays the information to the Inner Sanctum. Within the Inner Sanctum, "Commander Corinth" reports for duty. She is welcomed by K'lynn, who beckons her closer. Vienna takes no time to reveal her identity and points a weapon at K'lynn.
 
Despite being cloaked, the Chtzin are moving on an intercept course. Salaron refuses to fire, accepting that it could simply be a lucky guess from the Chtzin. At this, squadron forty is lost. K'lynn reveals that a memory box is useless against her. K'lynn enquires for her next move, using her name. At this, Vienna beings to shoot, causing K'lynn to laugh as the gun does nothing.
 
Meanwhile, Chtzin missiles are heading straight for the Custodian and its fleet. In the Inner Sanctum, K'lynn grows tired of Vienna and beings to choke her. K'lynn tells her that she can use the array around her to speak to the tiniest insect. She uses her powers to see the pain and suffering within Vienna's soul and wishes to 'release' her. Suddenly, K'lynn is set back and Vienna points out that she's blinded her with firecrackers. What she's actually done is hidden a defence mechanism inside her mind, that when probed with feedback into the telekinesist and work like a 'psychic bomb'. K'lynn mind suddenly explodes.
 
Salaron orders Paley to return fire, full power. He places Paley in command, orders someone to look for "Corinth" and heads to the Inner Sanctum. There, Vienna surveys the mess before confirming the termination of Jamela K'lynn. However, she fails to transmit the confirmation the [[Hyperspatial Data Network]]. Salaron enters and is surprised to Vienna. He heads towards where he expects to find K'lynn but is shocked to find her murdered. He blames Chtzin spies. Escaping the blame, the two of them head back to the bridge.
 
Salaron and Vienna enter the bridge and reveals the death of K'lynn to the troops. He then takes temporary command of the Primary Vanguard. Vienna is shown to a weapons console. Roaig manages to take back control of the Custodian, and Vienna hits a direct hit, leaving fifteen enemy ships. Two cruisers break formation and block the line of fire. Salaron orders them back in formation. With a failed shield, the Custodian is finally hit by the Chtzin.
 
When Salaron is stumped, Vienna gives the order to withdraw, to which Salaron agrees. Paley gives the order to the other ships to meet at their rendezvous point. As they prepare to warp jump, one of their fleet veers off into their path. Depite this, they enter warp, impacting with the other ship. While all hell breaks loose around her, Vienna is desperately trying to get her ship to meet with her, enabling her to escape the ship. The ship explains that due to her inability to prove the termination of K'lynn, the extraction protocols cannot be enacted, which are Vienna's own orders.
 
Vienna returns to her duties to avoid detection. Chtzin are now on-board, and the Custodian is in the gravitational pull of the sun without engines. Roaig estimates that they have roughly an hour before impact. Vienna gives the orders to pass thirty decks down, through the Chtzin filled corridors and get the warp drives working again, much to Roaig's horror. Vienna asks for a schematic and decides to go herself. She notes a vertical ventilation shaft, straight to engineering and asks for zip lines. Salaron pairs Paley with Vienna, making her directly responsible for her safety.
 
Preparing to enter the ventilation shaft, Vienna and Paley note a group of Chtzin and prepare to fight their way through. As they find an opportunity to run for the shaft, Paley temporarily zones out. Vienna snaps her back into the room and points out the nodes surrounding the place, all of which are part of the data net. Vienna notes their strange configuration. They kick their way into the shaft and begin their long descent.
 
On the bridge, Roaig and Salaron note that engineering is full of Chtzin. Salaron reckons that the Chtzin are waiting for them. As Vienna and Paley arrive on the right deck, they have only two sections between them and engineering. Paley notes that normally placid Chief Belkin and another member of the crew are brawling to the death. When Paley attempts to call him, he turns around and makes a run for her, before assaulting her. Vienna whips out her gun and kills him. She explains to Paley that the Chtzin indeed get inside people's heads and make them act dangerously.
 
On the bridge, Roaig is failing to get in touch with Vienna or Paley. He assumes them to be dead. Salaron calmly orders him to continue trying. With an estimated thirty-one minutes before disintegration, Salaron suggests Roaig begins to find a Deity to pray to. Down below, Vienna and Paley make a run for engineering before getting raided by Chtzin. As Vienna shoots at them, Paley is failing to get the doors open. Vienna gets Paley's gun and provides Paley with enough time to unlock the doors.
 
Vienna notes that her physical approach isn't making much headway and thus allows the Chtzin to enter her mind. She guides them to the 'psychic bomb' inside her mind but realises that it doesn't work on Chtzin. Time for Plan B, she realises, and orders Paley to hold onto something. Vienna momentarily disables the gravity in the area, sending the Chtzin flying. As the gravity re-establishes itself, the Chtzin are sent hurtling to the floor, and to their deaths. Paley manages to open the doors.
 
Vienna tells Salaron that they've reached engineering. She reports that all engineering crew are dead at the hands of the Chtzin and that Paley is working on the warpdrive. Roaig tells her that they have seventeen minutes before they enter the sun but also that the engines will need ten minutes to warm up. They seal themselves into the room and away from Chtzin. Meanwhile, Paley is working on the service elevators for a quick way up to the top deck.
 
Meanwhile, the Chtzin are trying to blast their way through the doors. Suddenly Paley gets taken over by the Chtzin and attempts to open the doors and let them in. Vienna instructs her to fight them, threatening to shoot her. As a compromise, Vienna punches her, bringing her around just as the engines and elevator begin to warm up. They ride the elevator to the top.
 
As they prepare for warp-jump on the bridge, the elevator opens and out step Vienna and Paley. Just as they go to enter warp, Vienna's datapad announces the transfer of poldaks aloud, much to the shock of Salaron. Salaron questions the 'assignment completion received'. At that, a memory box unlocks in Salaron's mind, not to the surprise of Vienna. Vienna dramatically reveals to everyone that Salaron hired an assassin to murder K'lynn, and that she is said assassin. He explains that a syndicate of like-minded individuals raised the bounty in the hope that once K'lynn was assassinated, they would be offered asylum by the Premier.
 
Within no time to spare, Roaig asks Salaron for his codes to enter warp-jump. Salaron no longer remembers them. Vienna concludes that it's the Chtzin messing with his mind, forcing them to die. With four minutes remaining, Vienna works out that the Chtzin aren't the only race with a hive mind. When K'lynn was alive, she used the nodes and the data web to meld the minds of the crew together and make them work better. With this, Vienna grabs Paley and takes her to the Inner Sanctum.
 
Vienna moves K'lynn's body and takes her seat, plugging herself into the interface. Inside the data net, she can hear all the voices of the crew and the Chtzin. She then finds Salaron's mind and goes deeper inside. There, she finds a familiar and terrifying voice. Without the time to focus on that, she instead finds the codes and places them back inside his head, allowing them to warp jump and escape.
 
Leaving the chair, she notes that Paley has been mortally wounded. Vienna leaves Paley to rest and runs back to the bridge where the warp jump is failing. Threatening them at gunpoint, Vienna influences them to read the warp codes line-by-line to find the corruption. Roaig realises that its his error, not to the surprise of Vienna, who points out that he's a Chtzin spy and doesn't even know it. Roaig is devastated by this news and they realise that the Chtzin have won.
 
The ships falls out of warp, ripping the ship in half. Salaron calls to abandon ship. Before leaving Salaron to go 'down with his ship', Vienna punches him and demands she tell him to explain who the white haired man with burning, silver eyes is. With his dying breath, Salaron tells her that the man's name is Crevo Finn. When her extraction protocols fail once again, she boards an escape capsule and launches.
 
Stuck in an overheating capsule, Vienna begins to hallucinate about Crevo Finn. She is then awoken by the voice of her ship. She refuses any new assignments. After sending her funds to Miracle 3, she creates a coded message telling the recipient that she's found Crevo Finn.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
* [[Vienna Salvatori]] - [[Chase Masterson]]
* [[Vienna Salvatori]] - [[Chase Masterson]]
* [[James Hayward]] - Ensign Roaig
* [[Roaig|Ensign Roaig]] - [[James Hayward]]
* [[Alisdair Simpson]] - Admiral Salaron
* [[Salaron|Admiral Salaron]] - [[Alisdair Simpson]]
* [[Alison Thea-Skot]] - Lt. Paley / [[Jamela K'lynn]]
* [[Paley|Lt Paley]] / [[Jamela K'lynn]] - [[Alison Thea-Skot]]
 
== References ==


== Worldbuilding ==
=== Individuals ===
=== Individuals ===
* Under the guise of Corinth, Vienna states that she is from [[Webster's World]], formally of the [[Samaritan]].
* Under the guise of Corinth, Vienna states that she is from [[Webster's World]], formerly of the ''[[Samaritan]]''.
* Jamela K'lynn is the Supreme Commander of the [[Primary Vanguard]], installed at the behest of the [[Premier]].
* Jamela K'lynn is the Supreme Commander of the [[Primary Vanguard]], installed at the behest of the [[Premier]].
* K'lynn was once a [[Monk of the Inner Place]].


=== Technology ===
=== Technology ===
* The [[Custodian]] is a hyperdreadnought, is thirty clics end-to-end, has thirty decks and warp propulsion.
* The [[Custodian (Dead Drop)|Custodian]] is a hyperdreadnought, is thirty clics end-to-end, has thirty decks and warp propulsion.
* [[Salaron]] places the Custodian on tertiary alert.
* [[Salaron]] places the Custodian on tertiary alert.
* Vienna attempts to transmit the termination confirmation to the [[Hyperspatial Data Network]].
* Vienna attempts to transmit the termination confirmation to the [[Hyperspatial Data Network]].
Line 103: Line 75:


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* The [[Wrath]] Empire has since fallen, leaving a power vacuum, which the [[Chtzin]] and [[Dyriad Protectorate]] both wish to fill. (AUDIO: ''The Acheron Pulse'' et al)
* The [[Wrath]] Empire has since fallen, leaving a power vacuum, which the [[Chtzin]] and [[Dyriad Protectorate]] both wish to fill. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Acheron Pulse (audio story)|The Acheron Pulse]]'' et al)
* Vienna uses a [[memory box]] to hide her true identity and pass a [[memory scan]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')
* Vienna uses a [[memory box]] to hide her true identity and pass a [[memory scan]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')
* Vienna's mission is recorded on an [[assignment crystal]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')[[Category:Vienna: Series One]]
* Vienna's mission is recorded on an [[assignment crystal]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')
* Vienna once again sends her fee to [[Miracle 3]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')
 
== External links ==
{{bigfinish|vienna-series-01-932}}
 
{{Vienna}}
 
{{TitleSort}}
 
[[Category:Vienna: Series One audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 09:56, 12 May 2024

RealWorld.png

Dead Drop was the first story of Vienna: Series One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Mark Wright and featured Chase Masterson as Vienna Salvatori.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Dwarfed by the burning star of the Hyspero system, two devastating battle fleets face each other across the stars. On one side, the Dyarid Primary Vanguard, commanded by Admiral Salaron aboard the starship Custodian. On the other, a Chtzin battle cluster.

Bounty hunter Vienna Salvatori's latest assignment brings her aboard the Custodian – but completing her mission and earning some poldaks is the easy bit. When all hell breaks loose with the Chtzin and the Custodian is left crippled and plunging towards the sun, a simple assignment turns into a battle for survival for the galaxy's deadliest assassin.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Ensign Roaig calls Admiral Salaron to the Custodian's primary docking bay as the new executive officer is arriving aboard Transport Frigate Alpha-19, but Lt Paley informs him that Saloran is in a meeting with Supreme Commander K'lynn. Salaron explains to K'lynn that Captain Galazar sent three fighter squadrons into the Chtzin's territory without K'lynn's authorisation, leading to the fighter squadrons being destroyed and the Vanquish being badly damaged. For this, K'lynn kills Galazar with her mental powers, destroying his brain, and then releases Salaran to continue his mission of keeping the Chtzin from entering the Dyarid Protectorate.

Going by "Commander Arcadia Corinth", Vienna is welcomed to the Custodian by Salaron and passes a memory scan to confirm that she is not a spy of the Chtzin, who can influence people with their powers. Salaron introduces her to Paley and Roaig and has a service robot show her to her quarters where her memory box opens and she consults her assignment crystal, learning that she is to assassinate K'lynn, a psychic and former Monk of the Inside who sought asylum within the Dyarid Protectorate after the mass murder of novices, in return for 9 million poldaks. An opportunity presents itself when K'lynn summons her to her inner sanctum as the Chtzin fleet begins an attack and wipes out a cloaked squadron.

When Vienna draws a gun on K'lynn, K'lynn reveals that she sensed her despite the memory box and that she knows her true name. She is invulnerable to Vienna's attacks and uses her powers to choke her and probe her mind, finding a psychic bomb which washes back through the mental link and explodes K'lynn's brain. However, Vienna is unable to report this to her employer as her device cannot reach the Hyperspatial Data Network. Salaron runs into her on the way to the inner sanctum for K'lynn's advice on the Chtzin's attack and she pretends to discover the body with him. He accuses Chtzin spies and they return to the command deck where she helps shoot down the enemy devastators until two cruisers drift into the Custodian's line of fire. The ship's shields fail and the Chtzin land a hit.

Vienna orders a withdrawal, but the Armageddon drifts into the Custodian's warp corridor after warp has been initiated, resulting in the Armageddon's destruction and the Custodian's warp engines being taken out. As K'lynn's death has not yet been proven, Vienna's ship will not return for her per her own orders and she goes with Paley to get the warp engines working to escape the gravitational pull of a sun. They take a ventilation shaft to avoid Chtzin who have come aboard and reach Engineering, on the way to which Vienna kills a Chtzin-controlled Chief Belkin and kills a group of Chtzin by disabling and re-enabling local gravity to cause them to fall to their deaths. Roaig warns them that they have 17 minutes until impact and the engines will take 10 minutes to warm up.

Locking themselves in, Paley starts work on the engines and the elevator so that they can escape back to the bridge, but the Chtzin use their powers on her to get her to let them inside. Vienna punches her to bring her back to her senses and they get away in the elevator once the engines are online, also restoring the Hyperspatial Data Network. Salaron's data pad is on speakerphone when it transfers Vienna her fee for killing K'lynn and the announcement opens his memory box, reminding him that he ordered the hit because of his syndicate's distrust of outsiders. Because of the Chtzin's influence, Salaron forgets the warp codes and Vienna realises that K'lynn was using her array and nodes to connect the minds of those aboard.

Vienna uses K'lynn's array to find and delve into Salaron's mind, where she sees a white-haired man from her past before finding the codes and reminding him of them. The Custodian initiates warp jump, but the jump is corrupted and it only half-enters warpspace. Paley dies from wounds inflicted by the Chtzin and Vienna realises that Roaig has been under their control and sabotaging the crew with fatal errors the whole time. His error in the telemetry causes the ship to split in half as it falls out of warp, so Salaron calls for an evacuation whilst he intends to remain on board. Vienna punches him and forces him to give her the name of the white-haired man, Crevo Finn, before he dies and then takes an escape capsule off the ship.

The capsule overheats and Vienna passes out, dreaming about her time on the Custodian and seeing Crevo. The capsule is rescued by her ship before it can fall into the sun and it wakes her up, offering her new assignments which she refuses. She transfers her funds to the hospice on Miracle 3 and includes a coded message saying that she has found Crevo.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Custodian is a hyperdreadnought, is thirty clics end-to-end, has thirty decks and warp propulsion.
  • Salaron places the Custodian on tertiary alert.
  • Vienna attempts to transmit the termination confirmation to the Hyperspatial Data Network.
  • Vienna has programmed her ship with 'extraction protocols', which state that her ship can only retrieve her from her location when she has proven that her assignment is complete. The ship cannot override these instructions.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Chtzin are arachnids with a hive mind.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

v • e
Vienna
Pilot
Series One
Series Two
Series Three
Series Four
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