Q'Thalas (Banshee Squadron episode)

Teaser

Past and present collide for Captain Nathan Cross and the former pilots of Banshee Squadron when eerily similar distress signals pull them into confrontations with an unthinkable enemy. What really happened to Matthew Cross? Who is really to blame? And is it happening again?

Chapters

The Present

The USS Eternity is exploring the Trans-Briar Patch sectors when a distress signal from the freighter USS Nkiru is received. Captain Nathan Cross sounds red alert and sets course to intercept.

The Present

Lee Carter, Samantha Beckett, and Josephine Schmidt are relaxing in Carter's cabin discussing their new assignment on the Eternity when the red alert sounds. They rush to their posts.

The Past

Carter and Schmidt are waiting in the Serenity spaceport terminal to say farewell to their former boss, Matthew Cross. Jo convinces Carter to finally ask Cross out on a date, but when Cross arrives, his heretofore unknown and unsuspected wife is with him. Carter feels like a fool.

The Past

Carter and Jo are assigned to escort the pleasure starliner SS Alpha Quietis, with Matthew Cross and his wife aboard, on its voyage. Unknown alien ships attack, luring the Banshees away so they can board the starliner and drain everyone's minds away.

The Present

The Eternity arrives at the Nkiru's location to find unknown alien ships attacking. The aliens lure the Eternity away so they can board the Nkiru and drain the minds of her crew.

The Past

Carter and Jo board the Alpha Quietis to look for survivors. They find Matthew and his wife, brain-drained, and suddenly realize the attack is the trademark of their dreaded enemy, the Jelly Brains. Matthew has left a message, the letter "Q" scrawled in chocolate ice cream on a table top.

The Present

Carter, Jo, Sam, and M'Rowan board the Nkiru looking for survivors. They find the captain barely alive and gain a single word from him before he dies, "Q'Thalas". Back on the Eternity, Cross calls a meeting, which quickly degenerates into angry bickering. Cross accuses Carter and Jo of being in league with the aliens. Violence erupts. Jo and Helmut Lang activate a countermeasure and expose the cause of the unnatural behavior -- large quantities of Smelly Jelly.

The Past

Carter sits brooding in a bar high in one of the towers in Serenity City, feeling terribly guilty about the Alpha Quietis and Matthew Cross. Jo joins her and tries to lift her spirits, but Carter is too drunk. Their discussion uncovers the startling fact that the Jelly Brains always seem to attack when the Banshee Squadron is present or nearby.

The Present

The briefing onboard the Eternity is resumed, rid of Smelly Jelly. The Jelly Brains' obsession with the personnel associated with Banshee Squadron is debated. A gigantic alien ship appears and the red alert is sounded. All rush to their stations.

The Present

Cross finds himself suddenly standing on a strangely-familiar plain facing his dead brother Matthew. Matthew claims to want to save Nathan. Meanwhile, Carter finds herself on a plain facing Jasmine Phoenix, who claims also to be not dead and there to save her. Matthew and Phoenix attack Nathan and Carter, but once again Doctor Lang's countermeasures force the aliens back. The giant alien ship retreats back into subspace. Since the Jelly Brains didn't get what they were after, Cross concludes they haven't seen the last of them.

The Present

Carter and Cross find each other at two grave sites in the small cemetery outside Serenity City. Carter tells Cross about Jazz, and Cross comforts Carter by telling her Matthew thought highly of her.

The Deep Past

Two figures are seen discussing the fate of the universe. One begins recording a message for future generations.

Memorable Quotes

• Cross glanced sideways at his faithful yeoman Jamie Piper and suddenly remembered why he was out here doing what he did. For the young. For the future.

Notes

• Q'Thalas is at long last a continuation of the Smelly Jelly/Jelly Brain plotline. The story will be continued in the very next story, Oo-oo-ah, and concluded in a third story, tentatively named City of the Gods.