|
Avalon Primer
The following is a brief (relatively) overview of the events which occur in the series.
"Shattered Heaven" The Miniseries
It’s the year 2289. And it bites.
Thomas Hatch is the last person you would expect to see living in the time of Captain Kirk, gleaming starships and one of
the most peaceful times in Federation history. Hatch is lazy, self centered, immature and very prone to shouting enough
foul language to scare even the most hardened of criminals. He was all but kicked out from his dream education at Starfleet
Academy, can barely hold onto a very crappy job and a tiny apartment and, to top it all off, loses his trophy girlfriend
after a particularly nasty argument as his adventure finally begins.
Hatch tries to get on with his life immediately after, but when he’s forced into taking a boring cargo running job for a
very nasty and egotistical Starfleet Captain, Grant Jameson, (the same man Hatch’s formerly mentioned girlfriend left him
for…) Hatch tries desperately to get a copilot to share his pain. Unfortunately, the only person in the galaxy willing to
talk to him, Anton Byron, shrugs Hatch off like everyone else, knowing it would be safer and much more pleasant if as few
people as possible came near that “asshole of the year.” With a few encouraging words, Byron leaves Hatch to face Jameson
alone.
Captain Jameson is the captain of the new Federation flagship: the USS Diadem, a pristine, perfect and gleaming example of
Federation glory. His crew is loyal to the point of robotic and his XO, Hatch’s former girlfriend, is just as sadistic and
petty as he is. She is the one who got Hatch this job just so he could ferry some unimportant archaeological finds from
their cargo hold to a research base on Mars. But the course plotted for him would lead Hatch and his extremely dumpy
shuttle through a raging and powerful ion storm! But not to kill him, of course. Her plan was simple, scare Hatch by
sending him into the storm and have Jameson rescue him, a perfect way to show her new man was infinitely more capable and
deserving of her affections than Hatch ever would be.
Hatch blindly takes the cargo from the Diadem and plots the aforementioned course, falling asleep long enough for the storm
to completely swallow his shuttle and cause enough damage to knock him out cold for what seems like several hours…
Hatch awakes in the middle of empty space in a shuttle barely keeping life support working. (not that it had much more
going for it anyway) Before he dies from exposure or goes space crazy, his shuttle is fortunately swallowed into the cargo
bay of a mysterious and dark ship. We don’t see much of this strange crew at first, only that the captain is Hirogen and his
more or less first officer is a very seductive and attractive looking female of indeterminate species. They pry Hatch away
from his shuttle and take him to their doctor, a rude and crabby doctor by the name of Isaac Sarola. He heals Hatch’s minor
injuries, including putting a small cast on his right arm, and allows the captain to introduce himself. The imposing
Hirogen is Zorin and his female companion is Siren. She looks more or less human except for the fact that the palms of both
of her hands are covered in open, massive holes! Upon seeing that, Hatch faints.
He wakes up just as the ship, the Avalon, makes a quick landing on a watery world called Tyvor. The crew takes Hatch with
them as they browse the marketplace, intending to sell him off to a local slave trader for a few extra bucks. But when the
trader, Vellik, gets a little too rough with Hatch, Siren has a change of heart and rescues him, by facing her palm forward
and unleashing dozens of slender, metallic tentacles from the holes! They spear Vellik’s head and retract instantly. Zorin
is furious at first, but gets worried when he notices a peculiar necklace around his throat. An ominous bird-like carving
that scares the entire crew to death. Zorin orders them all back to Avalon.
Unfortunately, the docking ring is blocked by a small army of men and women dressed oddly in flowing red robes. Their
leader, a man calling himself Rol’Gin, introduces Hatch to “Those Who Walk in the Light.” The other Avalon crewmembers call
them the Cult. The Cult is the most powerful organization in the galaxy and has enslaved untold trillions of beings and
hundreds of planets over hundreds of years. The crew is guilt tripped by Rol’Gin into joining his little “project” and
forced into formation behind his command ship, a humongous cruiser well over ten times Avalon’s size. Each ship in formation
with Avalon (over sixty) suddenly locked onto by its own individual tractor beam and lead off into unknown territory.
On the ship, Hatch gets to know the crew he’s been stuck with at least for now. Isaac tells Hatch of his time in a horrible
war that killed everyone he knew and loved and left his entire home planet a destroyed wreck. Siren doesn’t talk about her
past and Zorin just doesn’t talk at all. The rest of the Avalon crew is just as eccentric and odd as those we’ve met,
including the incredibly drug addicted Carlise, the often misplaced-heroic Ridek and the insanely cowardly Gor’tien. The
entire Avalon crew is comprised of only thirty three individuals who are all aboard for their meager profits and nothing
else.
While still being tugged by the Cult leash, Zorin is contacted by Sandrei, captain of another ship called the Typhon. They
tell Zorin of a plan to escape the tractor beam and run as fast as their engines can push them. She gets Avalon to go with
her for the promise of escape, but actually, when the plan comes into fruition, only uses Avalon as a scapegoat so she can
make a desperate escape. Zorin, in rage, tries to fight off both Rol’Gin’s massive cruiser and destroy the Typhon. He
succeeds only in destroying the Typhon, but Rol’Gin forgives Zorin for his crimes and takes Avalon back under his wing.
As they continue on at warp, Hatch makes his way to a room that looks like it hasn’t been entered in years. The only thing
occupying it is a three-foot high stack of metal and several blank computer screens at every wall. He sets to work tinkering
with it out of sheer boredom… and activates it! He begins talking to a sentient computer program he doesn’t yet realize is
none other than Avalon’s own computer core!
After days at warp under the Cult ship, they finally stop at an uninhabited planet and every ship is forced to land while
the Cult ship hovers directly above them. Rol’Gin, through an array of loudspeakers at the bottom of his ship, tells all the
crews of the captured ships to begin quarrying the planet’s natural stone and wood resources and to load them onto their
own ships. He doesn’t reveal why and threatens to destroy one ship an hour if they refuse. Everyone complies.
Hatch takes part in the back breaking labor that takes several days in the hot, unforgiving sun. As he works, he almost
forms a friendship with Carlise, but when his dormant moral side shows itself when he refuses to take drugs with her, she
snubs him and leaves with a few rude words.
Late into the night, Hatch does a bit of work loaded onto him by a nameless crewmember. Unfortunately, he is rudely locked
out of Avalon by lights out time and forced to sleep outside. As he tries to get comfortable, a pair of hands grab him from
behind and take him into a dense part of forest just a few meters away from Avalon. In this dense patch is a small shuttle
with its two occupants alive and very afraid. Azel and Shera, two Xindi cousins, tell Hatch that they came to this planet to
hide from the cult and were shocked when a cruiser suddenly appeared and kept them essentially trapped. Hatch offers to
hide them on Avalon provided they keep quiet and stay on his shuttle, which still rests in the ship’s cargo bay.
Azel and Shera hide in two cargo containers overnight while Hatch watches them until morning, where he gets two of Avalon’s
crew to lug them aboard. They get aboard and into the shuttle just as Hatch does. Azel reveals he’s got quite the mechanical
aptitude and gets the shuttle working again in but a few moments.
And suddenly, it goes wild! The shuttle, built in the 23rd century, still recognizes the Klingon empire as a mortal enemy
and loudly blares warnings of not only being in Klingon territory, but around their homeworld, Qu’onos, itself!
Unfortunately, the noise from the shuttle brings Isaac in running, who notices the Xindi in an instant. Isaac freaks out and
alerts the entire crew to their presence.
As Isaac does that, Hatch freaks out on his own. When he hears of them being in Klingon space, Hatch runs to the bridge in a
panicked state of mind, looks at all the back walls until he finds the one object he was searching for. A dedication plaque.
Avalon’s dedication plaque, proving once and for all it’s a Federation starship. He faints when he realizes it.
Just as Hatch faints, things go really really wrong for the Avalon. The Cult ship takes off in short order, dragging all the
ships in its unwilling convoy behind it, and then back into warp. They begin traveling through a region known as “broken
space”, a place where only sublight engines are supposed to work. But somehow the cult engines function just like normal.
Unfortunately, they happen to tear apart the other ships around Avalon, and she is but a few minutes away from being ripped
apart herself. Azel bribes his passage by saying he can fix their problem, but is completely out of his league in this
situation.
Fortunately, after coming to and going back to the computer room to recover, Hatch brings forward his evidence that the
computer can fix the problem for them. The crew doesn’t trust him for a moment, but Hatch doesn’t listen and gives
permission for the computer to work its magic. And, in just a few moments, everything is fine.
After a few more hours of gentle warp in broken space, Rol’Gin’s cruiser drops out of warp around a pristine looking world
with no visible pollution, industry or any of the ugliness seen around this new universe. This is Prime, the Cult’s home
planet. Two moons hover around the beautiful jewel of a planet, one rocky and gray, the other blue and literally a water
world. Rol’Gin sets his captives free and orders them to land at a spot just in front of the largest building ever
constructed by moral hands. The Avatar of Light, a tower several miles tall. The captive ships all unload their quarried
materials, their purpose for finishing the last few details of the magnificent building.
On the ship, the crew plots just how they’re going to get out of this one. The Cult news waves show that there is going to
be a massive ceremony in just 24 hours, the size and scope of which has never been seen before. And to help commemorate it,
several ships have been sent into Prime’s orbit and will be destroyed in a series of spectacular fireworks-like explosions.
Zorin makes a very hard choice here. Avalon cannot make it through broken space alone, but those ships can. He sends a team
of Carlise, Shera and Ridek to find a way to sneak aboard the Cult ship and commandeer it so they can escape.
As those three leave to begin their adventure, the rest of the crew, mostly Isaac, are furious at Hatch for activating a
sentient computer that has now completely taken control of the ship. In its pleasant female voice, the computer says it was
her ship all along, she was just lying dormant until Hatch woke her up. Isaac and Zorin were furious enough to finally knock
Hatch out and send him to the front door of the Avatar of light and drop him off. Hatch is discovered not long after that
by Cult guards and sent to a prison cell.
But Hatch isn’t alone in that cell. A woman, a regal, elegant, powerful woman is there with him. Adele Tiernan is her name.
She was once the most devoted follower of the Cult’s revered Prophet and his power until Sovari was chosen to be the
Prophet’s penultimate, a worldly speaker for the otherworldly Prophet. Sovari’s brief rule has seen the Cult turn from a
relatively peaceful organization to a ruthless, militaristic empire, bent on conquest and destruction. She turned her back
on Sovari and was sentenced to death at the Avatar’s ceremony. Hatch, by merely being in contact with Adele, has been
sentenced to the same fate.
The trio sent to the Cult ship in orbit finally find their way to get aboard by sneaking onto one of the last containers
filled with explosives and are very roughly shipped to their destination. They get aboard and find the ship nearly empty
save for a few guards and technicians wiring the explosives. Fortunately, Azel is a good enough actor to make the Cultists
think he’s much more dangerous than he really is and forces them off the bridge, leaving the three to get to work
deactivating the explosives and regaining control of the ship with ease.
Back on Avalon, a new Cult news report talks about the pending ceremony and how Adele plus a new heathen will be killed at
the climax, their blood consecrating the Avatar and making it a safe haven for Cultists everywhere. When Isaac hears that
name, Adele, he suddenly goes nuts, tearing past the crew he sees until he winds up in engineering. Grabbing Azel by the
throat, he orders Azel to “modify” the engines. NOW!
On the bridge, Zorin and Shera are waiting for more news when Isaac comes in. He calmly tells them that they’re going to
rescue Adele and leave Prime immediately… or he’ll activate the bomb Azel planet in the warp core and send them all to hell.
Ridek’s team is almost finished with their work until the Cult crew aboard realizes they’ve been duped and come back to the
bridge. They roughly arrest the team and undo just about everything Ridek worked so hard to accomplish. The Cultists don’t
shoot our heroes on sight, fortunately. Instead they intend to leave them on the ship, since it’s doomed to explode anyway.
Unfortunately for them, while the leader makes a short speech about that, Ridek sneaks about and palms his hand computer.
He activates the last thing the Cult would expect, the bombs themselves.
Zorin, Isaac and Siren all sneak their way into the Avatar of Light, fighting past hundreds of guards and soldiers until
they get to the prison cells. But waiting for our team is several dozen Cult soldiers. Our heroes are thrown into the cell
with no remorse, finally uniting Hatch with his Avalon chums. But the drama does not come from that. When Isaac sees Adele,
his entire mood changes. From a cold, miserable asshole, Isaac suddenly acts like a teenage lover trying to force a kiss
from an unwilling female. Zorin has to physically restrain Isaac so he doesn’t hurt anyone on his quest to touch Adele.
The drama is cut short, however, by the appearance of Rol’Gin! He reveals he’s been a follower of Adele’s ideas from the
moment she rebelled against Sovari and is willing to free her and take her to a safe place. Through a conversation, Rol’Gin
also agrees to free the captive Avalon crew and they can all leave together. Rol’Gin gets them out of the cell under the
pretense of pre-ceremony preparations… until they’re caught by none other than Sovari himself. Rol’Gin and Sovari confront
each other, ending with the death of Rol’Gin and the recapture of the crew, who Sovari orders to the top of the temple
immediately. The ceremony is about to begin.
They’re all taken to the top of the Avatar of light and tied down. On the ground, there are so many Cultists gathered it
looks like a Red ocean so large, it covers every horizon. Hatch and Adele are tied to very nasty looking execution machines
just as the ceremony begins. Through a very complicated looking and extremely large visual image projector, a face suddenly
appears. Not Sovari’s, not any living being for that matter. The Prophet’s very own visage coalesces! He gives a prophecy.
The final Prophecy. He gives a dark message that the end of the galaxy is near, and only those who march under the red
banner are going to survive it. With those final words, his face disappears, leaving Sovari once again in charge. He orders
Adele and Hatch to die on the spot. The machines they’re tied to slowly activate, bearing down with blades and screws onto
their heads! They just about muss up Hatch’s head when two things happen at once.
First, Siren’s hand tentacles unleash themselves onto the machines, coiling themselves into the deadly mechanisms and
stopping them completely. Second, the ship Ridek’s team commandeered suddenly falls from the sky, crashing right on top of
the temple, crushing dozens of Cult soldiers instantly and allowing Zorin the chance needed to free himself and Isaac. They
fight back against the remaining soldiers even as the temple roof burns from the damage, even shooting Sovari in the
shoulder to stop him from killing Adele himself.
Unfortunately, their good fortune is ruined when a dozen Cult security fighters appear over the temple, shooting at the
crashed but still functional ship, our crew on the temple and just laying waste to everything. But before all is lost,
however, Avalon appears from behind a pillar of smoke, destroying all the fighters in a short battle and rescuing her
stranded crew. Shera pilots the stolen Cult craft into orbit with Avalon trailing behind.
But it STILL isn’t over. Because waiting for our ships just in orbit of Prime is a fleet of massive Cult cruisers bent on
destroying the escapees. Fortunately, Avalon provides enough distraction for the stolen ship to escape but is nearly
destroyed by the hundreds of missiles the fleet of ships launch her way. But just before the missiles impact, in a fit of
desperation, Hatch presses a hidden button on a nearly hidden console nobody could power up before the computer activated.
That button just happens to raise Avalon’s shields, saving the ship and allowing them to escape Prime mostly intact.
After the battle, Hatch lies in his room more or less content with his new life in what he just learned in the 45th century,
the year 4427, even if he’s more or less Avalon’s janitor. Just before he falls asleep, he decides to name the computer
since it’s just as much a part of the crew as he is. Since he’s tired, he simply names her Ava and nods off.
The final shot shows how the Avalon makes it out of broken space: the crew hollowed out a part of the stolen ship’s cargo
bay that was damaged by the explosives and nestled Avalon inside, using it as a ferry to escape broken space and to keep
flying on more adventures.
Season One
Hatch’s first year of the Avalon was an eventful one. We join him and Avalon five months after “Shattered Heaven”, nearly
broken and ruined after months of Cult pursuit. But they have the fortune to land on Torrina, a friendly planet that fixes
Avalon and gives them a new start. Hatch falls in love with the Torrina princess Naomi, who even runs away with him when
Avalon departs. But, unfortunately, her actions seemed to make her look like a Cult spy and the crew would have no choice
but to dump her into space.
As the months dragged on, Hatch would learn of Siren’s horrific past as a pleasure slave after she was captured by her
former master once again, would realize the terrible secrets that keep psychic and telepathic individuals extremely
desperate to escape Cult grasp and even have himself cloned for a bit of money!
But it would all come to a head almost exactly one year after Hatch joined the Avalon crew. Siren revealed that, when she
was taken as a slave, she was once again abused and impregnated. But she is adamant that she doesn’t want the child born
into such a life from such a mother. Matters aren’t helped when Adele speaks of an ancient prophecy, the first one, which
seems to fit Siren’s situation perfectly. Fortunately, she wouldn’t have much time to worry about such things when Zorin
would make a fateful decision to take a Cult job offer to pay for food and repair his desperately out of repair ship.
Unfortunately, the Cult job takes a turn for the worse when the crew realizes their contact with the evil organization is
Chala, the telepath that almost destroyed Avalon and killed her crew. Why the Cult would use a telepath as their contact
when all telepaths are marked for a fate worse than death is a mystery our crew doesn’t have time to solve when they get
their mission: silently kill a beloved leader of a very heavily populated and powerful world and make an escape. Zorin,
Hatch and Chala make their way into the leader’s palace/home and get to his office when the entire security force gets wise
to their presence. Zorin and Hatch are forced to shoot their way out. Zorin is hit, unfortunately, right in the stomach just
as their escape ends.
Things on the Avalon aren’t so great, either. The moment the Regent dies, his entire military activates, all of it intent of
Avalon itself. Shera does some masterful flying work to escape their pursuers through the city, but is forced to crash land
in the leader’s own palace after losing Avalon’s port nacelle and taking severe damage. Hatch and Chala load Zorin into the
ship and they weakly take off into space.
Zorin is taken to sickbay where Isaac administers an anesthetic and begins working on the gunshot would. He’s interrupted
after only a moment by Siren, who, in tears, pleads with Isaac to abort her child. When he refuses, Siren unleashes her hand
tentacles once again on Isaac and Adele’s throats, strangling the very life out of them.
And finally, out in space, Avalon is still pursued by hostile forces, over thirty patrol craft each launching a dozen
missiles each. They overtake Avalon just as we end the season.
|
