Mariner:Season One

Mariner's first season, with teasers:

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1. The Beginning of the End: The two-hour premiere is a continuation of the story of The Countdown, the Space Voyage 2245 Season Four. After aiding the Vanguard, the race is on to bring Commander Joaquin Klausfelder's evidence that Commodore Radu Normandie knows more about the Zeniaks than he has let the Starmada know--all in the name of personal ambition. At last, the Zeniaks are turned back without destroying an inhabited system, but the Redoubt is heavily damaged. In honor, Klausfelder is given his own ship, the Mariner.
2. Yonder: Before departing on his mission, Klausfelder is a witness at Radu Normandie's court martial. Unknown to almost everyone, Normandie has some allies who substitute a clone and thus fake his suicide. He can then flee, in this case using the Mariner as an escape vessel. The ship has plenty of excess space, where he and a minion can hide. Some bickering amid the new crewmates even functions as a good distraction.
3. The Long, Long Dark: The Mariner takes time to traverse the void that surrounds the Antilles Cluster. While the crew and mission specialists are getting used to each other, Normandie is trying to covertly learn as much as he can about the ship. But then Shyanna, suffering nightmares about the R'Zikk, has what amounts to a temporary psychotic episode--paranoid, violent, unstable. She hides in the depths of the huge vessel, and search teams are sent to find her.
4. Scavengers: Shyanna, recovering from her episode, does not recall meeting Normandie (who is likewise recovering from that event). But the ship comes across a habitable moon of a gas giant, one surrounded by automatic weapons under the control of an alien. This alien presumes they are after the "treasures" on the planet--remnants of an ancient civilization known as the Eldren.
5. ...And the mame raths outgrabe...: Leaving the presence of the Eldren moon, Mariner goes again into the deep of space, where they are suddenly beset by numerous technical faults within the ship. The crew investigates, but finds nothing until Magnus begins malfunctioning, seeming to exhibit a split personality--and a homicidal one, at that.
6. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.: Finding themselves at a deep space outpost, Mariner docks, but are quickly swept up in station politics as the locals, the Jutal, see them as liberators from the Qromaxi, their proclaimed "creditors."
7. They, after long contention, will come to bloodshed...: Radu Normandie and his minion, Ivan Petrovich Ilyisky grow tired of hiding in the bowels of Mariner and come to blows, but separate for a time. There seems a growing restlessness on the ship, and even the best of friends among the crew feel anger at the slightest things...
8. Requiem for an Ocean: A dead planet confronts the crew and a shuttle mission to examine it gets in serious trouble, prompting a rescue mission. Eventually, they learn the planet's seas were killed with reckless industrialization by some now-vanished colonists (the Qromaxi most likely), while Septa and Vulia come to some understanding of each other in the process.
9. Icon Get It For You Wholesale: The Mariner picks up an escape pod with an alien on board who tells a story about accidentally being abandoned by a convoy. While they track said convoy, the crew finds the alien is full of stories about the Eldren, eager to sell them maps to the Antilles Cluster. When the catch up with the convoy, they find out he's a (very) low-level Qromaxi with a worse-than-usual reputation!
10. Rocs and Hard Places: There is a planet called Chasm, the home of gigantic predatory birds whose various parts are worth even more gigantic fortunes. Prospectors come to hunt the things, but only under the most rigid environmental regulations. Amid the Prospectors (of many races and creeds), the Regulators, the Qromaxi representatives, the Anti-Qromaxi guerilla groups and assorted tourists, the crew of the Mariner arrive. They need every drop of diplomatic skill available to emerge unscathed.
11. The Starship of Bells: Vulia finds evidence in a little-used area of the ship that suggests a murder decades in the past. The crewmen unite in trying to solve the old mystery, based on what records exist as well as the newly-discovered evidence. (Note: The title is a play on the famous Inspector Watson novel)
12. Yesteryears: A trace of tachyon emissions (possibly one of the other Argo ships) leads the Mariner to a strange artefact orbitting a large comet. Clearly ancient and artificial, the artefact seems to create a kind of psychodrama for those who enter it--but one (based on the corpses found) with potentially deadly results. They believe this to be a leftover from the fabled Eldren.
13. Bad Luck: In the depths of deep space Mariner edges along, recharging its engines when suddenly the ship jolts, all of its motion stopped. As the crew begin disappearing, Vulia begins speaking of "the Scavengers". When she disappears and reappears an hour later with news of the others somewhere still on the ship, the crew quickly realize that a quantum fissure has overtaken Mariner, and their lives depend on Vulia.
14. Led Here By A Star: The Mariner has spent weeks at the planet Wazoon, where a once-advanced people now roam frozen wastes, trading ancient treasures with a Qromaxi outpost. Amid growing tensions between the Wazoon and Qromaxi, a Monfareen ship shows up full of fanatics looking for Radu and blaming the Starmada crew! Yet strangely enough, everyone does come together because of a holiday they all happen to celebrate on the same date this year. Coincidence?
15. Remnants: At the edge of the Wazoon system, the ship's sensors pick up a strange artefact--what looks like a stone-age city on an airless moon. Even more curiously, it shows scorch marks. Finally they figure out an ancient weapon is in slow orbit, and continues attacking the fake city instead of Wazoon itself. Unfortunately, by discovering the weapon, they've allowed the weapon to register the ship, and it begins chasing them...
16. The Badlands: Mariner flies quietly through the vastness of space, and all seems well, until each crew-member in turn begins to act slightly irrational. As tensions mount and hatred boils, Mariner discoveres an ancient ship, filled with dismembered bodies. Stavros quickly discovers that they were psychically capable, and have left their imprint on this dead region of space...
17. Civilization of Glass: An odd planet--one whose upper atmosphere is deadly, but the lower valleys perfectly habitable--seems to be home of an odd colony of beings who seem like the Goracii. But the scanner readings are bizarre. Ultimately, it turns out the "colonists" are in fact holograms, a reproduction left by someone of an historical era. Why? That is a matter of theory.
18. The Dark Deep: Mariner has agreed to transport some bureacrats from one Qromaxi outpost to another in return for supplies. Along the way, they encounter what look likes a school of tiny multicolored comets. It turns out these are deadly creatures, but the Qromaxi won't tell the crew what they need to survive save at a price.
19. Neverwhere: Another weird planet--one with a single habitable island--hosts what seems to be a monastic order of Qromaxi, but relatively backward and peaceful ones. Simple villagers farm the lower island, whereas high in the mountains is a place Stavros and Fiver visit to find out what the monastery cares so much about. Turns out there's a cave that leads to alternate histories. In the one they visit, Radu Normandie seized control of the Mariner and is using the vast vessel to loot whole worlds. Fiver is helping the Qromaxi against him, and mourning the death of her lover, Stavros!
20. Ship in a Bottle: It has been days since the Mariner has been able to engage the Tachyon drive, and is running dangerously low on critical supplies. Tophora Stylm XI and Shyanna suffer from nightmares and waking terrors. After extensive search, the crew finds the batteries being drained by some unseen force. At that moment, a thinning of the fabric of space envelops them and they are trapped, the Tachyon drive their only hope. With the batteries draining, death is only days away, and Shyanna and Tophora Stylm XI are so consumed by the terrors they may just help the crew to their demise early!
21. "I come From a Place Whither I Desire to Return.": Transiting the vastness of interstellar space between jumps, Mariner picks up a traveller. Appearing out of practically thin air, the man walks around the ship, but grows more agitated by the day. He begins muttering about returning home. Incarcerated by the crew after trying to tamper with the engines, the crew are at a loss what to do with the man...and then he goes missing.
22. I Say, He Says, They Say: A humorous episode wherein an accident creates confusion and problems aboard ship. The Captain tries to figure out exactly who was responsible, but everyone's stories are slightly--and critically--different.
23. Songs of the Near and Distant Past: To their surprise, the crew come across a colony of feudal-era Qromaxi who live in and around a gigantic cathedral city dating from Eldren times. While a team of contact experts become lost during a typhoon, they uncover legends these Qromaxi have about the Eldren, about the Goracii and a race of small snake-like demons called the Ullah. The description hints that these Ullah waged war on the Eldren and Goracci, stealing their souls.
24. East of Eden: Mariner notifies the crew of a paradisical planet in their current trajectory, but before they can activate the Tachyon drive to get there a vessel appears before them, its hull no longer reflecting the radiation of space. In a language none of the crew understand Mariner informs them they are being told to stand down and prepare for boarding. When no boarding party comes Mariner investigates...it is Eldren technology, and no one at the helm. The crew can't move the ship, and they can't go aboard the vessel...
25. To Find Yourself, Think For Yourself.: The explosion of the Eldren vessel damages Mariner's computer core and the ship is dead in the water until repairs can be effected. Shyanna and Stavros begin discussing insanity and mental illness while waiting for repairs to be made, only to lose consciousness suddenly. When they awake, they are alone in Mariner, and they cannot find the crew...
26. De Luxx: Luxx is a resort built into a large comet in a spectacular trinary system the Mariner visits. Actually, the place seems nice enough and gets the crew some much-needed R&R. Until the con men start working on them, a couple of the crew find out the local wine is way more potent than they thought, some terrorists decide to frame our heroes for their crimes, and so on...
27. Battlegrounds: For the first time approaching the inner systems of the Antilles Cluster, the Mariner comes across the remnants of a space battle. The few survivors indicate some kind of civil war among the Qromaxi, along religious grounds. Some insist that demons called "Ullah" are possessing their kindred. Some Qromaxi turn out to contain parasites, controlling them and trying to seize control of the ship. At the end, all the "Ullah" are defeated. Or so everyone thinks. In fact, Danning is now under the control of such a creature as the mighty Starmada vessel heads deeper into the Cluster...

Preceded by: Space Voyage 2245 Season Three

Mariner Seasons

Followed by: Season Two