547 – Starhunter Redux – Bad Seed

What happens when the least important man in the universe finally has value to the Orchard? Kenneth and Eugene discuss Bad Seed. Episode Synopsis Nevare, Orchard high muckity-muck and substitute Darius, decides it’s time to choose.  He is at odds with Tosca, another Orchard high muckity-muck and substitute Paquette.  It’s the whole internal Orchard “study it more”/“force it” debate that’s basically been forgotten since episode one. Tosca has sent a team to retrieve Dante Montana, because, apparently, it turns out someone thinks he’s important.   Her team raid the Trans-Utopian, kidnap Dante, reprogram Caravaggio for evil and meaness instead of good and niceness, and then order him to kill the crew and self-destruct the ship. Nevare intercedes. He arrives on the Trans-Utopian in time to save Lucretia and Percy, who are being slowly and inefficiently gassed to death.  He introduces himself to Lucretia.  “I’m an old ally of your dad you’ve never met and he’s never mentioned before.  I’ll be filling in for him in this story, since he’s dead.” Meanwhile, Dante has been given a Divinity Cluster cocktail so that he can psychically link to his missing son, Travis.  Tosca wants to find Travis.  Why?  Because Dante’s wife was also one of the evil Orchard researchers and was conducting medical experiments on herself during her pregnancy, resulting in Travis – the Star Child. Or maybe none of it is true, since Dante, in his own drugged mind, talks with Penny, his dead wife, but she concedes that he’s just talking to himself and isn’t getting any information he doesn’t already have. Meanwhile, Percy has been dealing, poorly, with Caravaggio.  Whatever. Nevare and Lucretia, with the aid of confederates, break into the station where Dante is being held, rescue him and give him an anti-Divinity Cluster cocktail.  Lucretia and Dante flee back towards the Trans-Utopian.  Aboard the Trans-Utopian, amongst the mess of Percy’s room, she’s found the smashed kaleidoscope she got back in Goodbye So Long.  Inside she finds the seeds everyone was looking for. A young Raider woman boards the Trans-Utopian and holds Percy at gunpoint.  She’s there from Travis Montana to get the device Dante uses to talk to his dead wife.  She gives it to her, but hides the seeds somewhere.  Sensing a chance to finally find Travis, Percy goes along with the Raider on the excuse that the Penny Walkman is difficult to use. She leaves a message with Caravaggio for Dante that she’ll be back, which, for reasons not clear, Caravaggio does not give to Dante when he inquires about Percy’s whereabouts.  Dante and Lucretia see the Raider shuttle leaving the Trans-Utopian and decide to give chase.