Mariner:Season Two
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Mariner's second season, with teasers:
SEE DISCUSSION PAGE
- Future Tense Imperfect : The Mariner finds a planet colonized by two different races so long ago each insist they are native and the others "invaders." As the ship tries to get supplies, they see their arrival spark a new conflict.
- In A Bottle: While the ship lingers between star systems for extensive repairs, everyone's nerves begin to get on edge. It doesn't help that Shyanna is having another episode, in this case involving rampant sexuality while Professor Gideon thinks perhaps he's found a series of clues about the lost Goracci colonists. A mysterious ship approaches, making everyone tense, but in then end it turns out to be a courier from the Starmada.
- Trading-N-Danger: A pair of Qromaxi merchants steal Magnus while the ship is docked at a huge space station. While various efforts at rescue are mounted, it is Magnus himself who turns the two Qromaxi against one another by hinting at valuable secrets.
- Masks: After the Mariner leaves the space station, the touristy masks purchased by Shyanna begin to affect the crew, as they enact out a story from what turns out to be Eldren mythology. In particular the Eldren seem to have worried about the "Slayers," who seem to have warred upon all peoples sometime in a long-forgotten age.
- Never The Twain: They find an earthlike planet that is nearly impossible to locate because it dwells inside a cloud that obscures sensors (and keeps the rays from its very hot sun at bearable levels). Exploring, a team finds a colony there of some species they don't know--a species at war with itself for so long there're only a handful of each side left. No one can see any difference at all between the factions, as each side manages to steal advanced weapons from the crew members and they wipe each other out.
- Only A Game: At an outpost, Tophora buys what looks like a really interesting board game and later persuades Fiver to play it. The game has unintended side effects, trapping not only the players but everyone in the ship in a kind of 'pocket dimension' where people are forced to act out the gameplay.
- Customs: The Mariner finds itself surrounded by an armada of small, heavily armed ships from the Qromaxi Cartel. It seems the crew hasn't been paying the correct fees, taxes, surcharges, etc. to do business in Qromaxi space. It is either pay up, or blow up. But, for better or worse (maybe both), the bureaucrats are willing to accept payment in trade--which leads to some very strange negotiations.
- The Captain's Hat: Checking out a huge (and ancient) orbital station which is now the site of an inter-system marketplace/bazaar, Captain Klausfelder is kidnapped by the Vot--a telepathic race devoted to the overthrow of the Qromaxi. While he resists their efforts to mentally take all his secrets, a certain amount of tension arises from lines of command back aboard ship.
- People and Their Pets: The Mariner strays into what appears to be a race--not of ships, but of dangerous space creatures that have been domesticated by some Qromaxi for such events. Hurting the creatures would be a severe insult, but on the other hand they present a genuine threat to the ship...
- Hunt or Gather: At a friendly-seeming outpost, Security Officer Sarukai ends up trying to solve a murder that might in a weird way be connected to the serial killer Doctor Holmes back on Earth.
- Ford of the Strings Part One: Fellowship : An elderly Qromaxi named Wandelf insists he knows the location of an ancient Goracii artefact called the Ford of the Strings--a kind of teleportation system across all time and space.
- Ford of the Strings Part Two: Towers : In a city on the planet Markon, the crew of the Mariner try to follow Wandelf's notes to find a map to the Ford. Meanwhile, as the planet moves into winter, its plantlike inhabitants revert into savage mammals and lay siege to the city.
- Ford of the Strings Part Three: Return: Professor Gideon claims leadership of a small colony of Goracii, which allows Magnus and Fiver to reach the hidden Ford of the Strings, and destroy the evil sentient computer that controls it and threatens to start a cluster-wide war.
- Twice Chosen: In the wake of the explosion which destroyed the Ford of Strings, Mariner comes across a wreck in space, another Argo-class vessel. It turns out to be the Mariner itself! Descendants of an alternate version of the crew are found dwelling on a barely-habitable world nearby--and their legends make the current crew look at each other in a new light.
- Cat of Nine Tales: A light-hearted episode wherein the Mariner trades transport for a felinoid alien in return for general information about the region. The alien is a bit of a rogue, a card shark and a ladies' man as events progress.
- Life Boat: Fiver and Stavros end up marooned in a damaged shuttle, adrift within an asteroid belt. While their crewmates mount a search-and-rescue mission, the two mismatched officers argue and very nearly have a romantic encounter.
- Gorgons: Mariner sits in orbit around Chehuloth, an agrarian planet, and is negotiating for food-stuffs with the local population when they receive a warning from their long-range scanners. There seems to be a convoy of battleships coming toward them, and from the reaction of the natives, these Itsho may spell doom for the crew.
- Within the Pale: Hiding amid the rings of a gas giant, the crew works to repair their ship. An obscure ball game and its rules are found--an artefact left over from the ship's first, long-ago mission--and personal issues come to the forefront amid competition between crew members.
- One Eye: The Mariner finds itself under attack by a long warrior, a Vot eager to prove his mettle. Sarukai, the security chief, eventually finds a way to kill the lone warrior fanatic.
- In Memorium: Deep in interstellar space, the Mariner crew finds an asteroid within which has been placed an Eldren tomb. The individual buried, however, still retains a kind of psionic existence and seeks to take over the crew--with Shyanna, Tophora Stylm and Danning as the noticeable exceptions. These three must find the weapon this Tyrant's people sealed in the tomb against her.
- Wheels of Fortune: On a casino planet run by the Qromaxi, three different groups from the crew explore different missions--one to gather intelligence, another to buy supplies, and a third (unauthorized) one to have some fun. All three intersect in interesting ways.
- Rendez-Vous: The flotilla and its colonists are handed off by the Vanguard who must stop to effect repairs to damage taken from the Kulofi Federation. Mariner escorts them onward to the secret planet discovered in Never The Twain dubbed "Redoubt", but unrest begins among the colonists, and the crew are forced to mediate.
- En Route: Leaving the Vanguard to fend of the Itsho, Mariner the Bolt-Hole flotilla is taken the last light-years to Redoubt. As they draw nearer, Danning is at-long-last revealed to be under the control of an Ullah, seemingly setting up the colonists to become hosts to more such creatures. To protect the colonists and themselves, Stavros finds a way to make humans invulnerable to Ullah control. However, removing the parasite from Danning will kill her.
- Mise En Scene: At Redoubt, the colonists have begun to behave strangely. So too have the crews of both Starmada ships. It turns out only Professor Gideon is totally unaffected, and it is through his efforts that an ancient device is found on the planet--one that evidently was supposed to prevent mental illness yet has broken down. His further scans reveal an Assassin ship, cloaked in orbit. While Professor Gideon and the Mariner crew strive to restore the device on the surface, the Vanguard is dispatched to engage the Assassin ship ... (concluded in SV2245's finale.)
Preceded by: Season One |
Mariner Seasons | Followed by: Season Three |