RAID ON THE STELLAR QUEEN
By Marc Scott Zicree
Rondu and Dia board the Stellar Queen for a trip to Altair 6 for a summit meeting, leaving Rob and the Orbots behind to watch over things.
Prior to leaving, the Orbots get to look at the Stellar Queen’s new Anti-Matter engine. While examining the massive unit, Bort accidentally damages a damper coil. But before the engine runs away with itself, Tor replaces the damaged damper with the emergency back-up unit. Everyone and everything is safe, but Bort blames himself for nearly causing a catastrophe.Later, as the Stellar Queen is cruising along, they pass an area known as the Sargasso Star Cluster, an area of extreme gravity. Many ships have been caught in the Sargasso’s pull, and have never been seen from again. The captain of the Stellar Queen assures Rondu and Dia that the Queen can safely avoid being
trapped by the void. But as he tells them this, a smaller ship begins to buzz the bridge. Space pirates! And they have tow cables on the Stellar Queen. They begin to pull the ship into the star cluster. As the captain attempts to order the Anti-Matter engine to full power, he finds that his bridge is already full of the boarding party of pirates. All are captured except Dia. She manages to get a distress call out to the Galactic Patrol before she too is captured.The captain of the pirates, Shrike, has plans for Rondu. He knows of Rondu’s unique life-force, and he plans on putting to his use. He places Rondu into suspended animation.
The Stellar Queen is dragged along side the pirates base, deep in the heart of the Sargasso Star Group. Shrike has the Anti-Matter engine stripped from the Queen, and places it in his base command center, along side his massive master computer. But, in rapidly taking the engine, Shrike doesn’t take the engine’s energy dampers. He then takes the stasis stung Rondu and places him inside a special conduit on top of his master computer.
Mighty Orbots arrives, having followed the Stellar Queen’s ion trail. Shrike engages the anti-matter engine, and fires a energy burst at Mighty Orbots. The burst envelops the multibot, and causes it to drop towards the nearest star in the Sargasso group. As things begin to heat up, Rob has Bo cool them off by freezing them in ice. Realizing they need more power, Rob has Crunch separate and chow down on some of the many fragments of ships around them. (NOTE: This is the only time in the series that a part of Mighty Orbots is seen leaving the larger robot by itself, without the rest of the Orbots separating as well ON PURPOSE. For a short time, Mighty Orbots can be seen without its left lower leg. Let’s see Devastator do that!) He quickly goes on a feeding frenzy, converts the material into energy, and rejoins the rest. Mighty Orbots jets away from the star.
Dia sees her chance to escape. While the pirates are busy tending the anti-matter engine, she steals a space-going flight suit, jumps into an air-lock, and jumps ship. (Where she was thinking of going is anyone’s guess!) As she streaks away from the pirate’s stronghold, Mighty Orbots spots her. Cupping her into the gestalts hands, Rob has Boo teleport them all into the pirate’s command center.Mighty Orbots lands with a massive thud on the floor of the command center, sending pirates scurrying away. Shrike counters by activating his master computer. The computer uses Rondu’s life-force to create a Satan, a massive evil creature bent on destroying the Orbots. It tackles Mighty Orbots, sending them both tumbling out a hatchway off the base.
Dia attempt to stop Shrike’s computer. But before she can do anything, Shrike uses his eye-beam to place her in suspended animation.
Meanwhile, Mighty Orbots is fighting with the massive Satan. Rob is trying to figure how to return the life-force back to Rondu without killing the Satan, which would surely do the same to Rondu. Flinging the creature against the dome of the pirate’s command center only made the critter break into 5 smaller Satans - how convenient! Rob has the Orbots separate for a one-on-one showdown. Moving the battle into the wrecked spaceships around them, the Orbots easily defeat the smaller Satans.
Shrike is beside himself. His Satans defeated? Not for long! He sends the power of the anti-matter engine directly into his master computer. Now the Orbots must face a mega-life-force creature! And to make a situation worse, they’ve got to save everyone from a pending anti-matter explosion, as the a-m engine has now gone critical!
(NOTE: This was the only episode in the series that did not deal with Umbra or Shadow in any way.)
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