Conducting experiments with hydrogen plasma in two small, self-contained space station labs positioned safely away from Starlab, Maura and physicist Dr. Paul Kramer are startled when a large, bat-like, jet-black spacecraft approaches them. Kramer’s lab pod is destroyed, while Maura is caught outside in the middle of a spacewalk. Examining a new ISA vehicle, the Solaris, Graydon and Buddy receive the distress signal and set out in the Solaris to help. Maura is found barely alive inside the hydrogren tank in her lab pod – a tank with no opening large enough for a human being to enter. As she tries to find out what happened to her, a non-corporeal being of pure energy named Echo appears, revealing that it transported her inside the tank to save her life. As for the black spacecraft, its occupants, the Draconians, want more hydrogen…and they’re planning to steal it from Earth’s atmosphere.
written by Ron Thompson
based on an original story by Skip Press
directed by Lee Hansen
music by Jim KirkCast: Roger Dressler (Narrator / Commissioner), Linda Gary (Maura Cassidy), Bruce Phillip Miller (Captain Jon Graydon), Corey Burton (Jerry Lyden), Chuck Olsen (Captain Buddy Griff), Peter Leeds (Warp), Laureen Tuttle (Vina), Janet Waldo (Echo), Joe Muscolo (Mosk), Pete Renaday (Dr. Paul Kramer), Ellie Tompkins (Dr. Valerie Reed), Renee Farquhar (Special Voices), Barbara Rounds (Special Voices), Tom Rounds (Special Voices), Nikki Wine (Special Voices), Scott Payton (Special Voices)
Notes: For the second story in a row, a very specific date is given in narration: July 19, 2026. Professor Starsmith’s new interstellar drives are already being installed on new ISA vehicles, such as the Solaris (The Starsmith Project).
LogBook entry by Earl Green