For rights to this graphic novel/series, contact:
Jeff Weigel | 113 Villa Drive | Belleville, IL 62223 | 618-791-9005 | jeffweigel@charter.net
All artwork, text and design ©Jeff Weigel and may not be used without permission
Cover:
Interior pages:
(The following story synopsis picks up from the events in the preceding pages.)
In the days that follow, the kidnapped friends are put to work on the Quasar Torrent’s broken tractor beam. Rox asks Black Myk for word on her ransom, but Myk offers little news, leaving Rox to wonder if her parents have refused to pay for her return. When the pirate’s intercom announces the sighting of a space freighter, Black Myk jumps at the chance to try the newly repaired tractor beam. Rox and Zam witness the action as the pirates’ beam pulls in the freighter and the buccaneers demand the ship’s cargo. The victims comply and crates of valuables from far-flung worlds are brought aboard the Quasar Torrent. Afterwards, the crew cheers at their triumph, and Myk orders a party. At first Rox and Zam are distressed at what their work has wrought, but when the crew praises their prowess as mechanics they succumb to the flattery and join in the celebration.
Afterwards the pair returns to their makeshift apartment in the engine room, away from the crew. Rox worries about what they’re involved with and longs for home, but Zam shows no signs of homesickness. Ever the gearhead, Zam is attracted by the opportunity to work on a big, powerful ship like the Quasar Torrent.
As weeks pass, the friends explore every nook and cranny of the ship, and their experience as mechanics grows by leaps and bounds. They also learn more about the ship’s rough and tumble crew—all down and out natives of the worlds comprising this backwater sector of space called Far Rim. From conversations with the crew, they learn about the events that turned this motley bunch into pirates:
This section of space has been dubbed Far Rim because of its remoteness from the center of the galaxy. In times past, the worlds of Far Rim prospered from the traffic of spaceships traversing the sector on their way from a neighboring galaxy to the heart of Far Rim’s home galaxy. Then one day a wormhole was discovered on the outer edge of Far Rim. A galactic conglomerate called QuarkCorp staked a claim on the wormhole, exploiting it as a portal from the outer reaches of the galaxy to the center. The hole in space was christened Quark’s Gate, and it became a transportation shortcut that rendered starship traffic through Far Rim a thing of the past, like a small town cut off from its livelihood by a new interstate highway. The abandoned worlds quickly fell on hard times. Rox learns her dad, J’oh, was one of the many working stiffs left out in the cold by this turn in Far Rim’s fortunes. He and Myk worked together in the good old days as space truckers, but when opportunities dried up, Myk organized his colleagues into a pirate crew bent on plunder, and revenge against their tormentor: QuarkCorp. J’oh turned away from his old pal, choosing to run an honest-but-marginal space salvage yard and raise a family. And so the newly nicknamed “Black Myk” headed down a path to infamy, and the Quasar Torrent made itself a major thorn in QuarkCorp’s side.
Early on in their captivity Rox and Zam plot their escape from the pirate ship; they begin assembling a makeshift escape pod for themselves from parts they salvage from their work on the Quasar Torrent. At the same time, the pair starts to become comfortable with the outwardly scary-looking members of the crew. Rox, especially, sympathizes with their resentment toward QuarkCorp, and the pirates start to treat Rox and Zam like mascots. The young mechanics become a personal fix-it service for the pirates—repairing broken laser pistols and inventing robotic prosthetics for peg-legged members of the crew. The combination of Rox’s confidence and spunk, and Zam’s innocence and technical know-how make them popular with the buccaneers. Rox hangs and jokes with the them, becoming “one of the boys”. Zam reacts differently to life on board the Quasar Torrent—withdrawing for long stretches into the isolation of the engine room. Rox worries Zam’s obsessive fascination with the ship’s mechanical systems is taking a toll on their close friendship. Or could it be more complicated than that—is Zam harboring a secret from Rox?
Soon a growing number of energy cell failures across the ship make the young mechanics even more integral to the Quasar Torrent and its ambitious captain, Black Myk. Tales of “space gremlins” causing the mechanical failures begin to circulate among the superstitious crew. When a ship of mercenaries hired by QuarkCorp ambushes the Quasar Torrent, the ship’s tech problems almost cost the crew their lives. Rox and Zam save the day when they jury-rig the ship’s tractor beam during the emergency, reversing its polarities to convert it into a repeller beam to escape the pursuing mercenaries. Afterward, when Zam dismisses Rox’s concerns about the mechanical failures, Rox investigates an energy cell failure on her own. She finds strange, small tracks leading into a service hatch. There she discovers an actual gremlin chewing on an energy cell—a gremlin that looks like a miniature Zam!
Rox confronts Zam with the captured critter, and Zam opens a compartment door to release a whole flock of the creatures! Rox is stunned to find Zam has been harboring these...baby Zolorians!
Zam reveals her full story: Zam’s species originate from the planet Zolor. Zolorians are solitary creatures that abandon their eggs after they’re laid, leaving newborns to survive on their own from their earliest days (which explains why family is a such a foreign concept to Zam). Fascination with all things mechanical seems to be a trait evolution programmed into these creatures. Years ago, the lure of a visiting spaceship led an infant Zam to stow away on an old freighter leaving Zolar—a ship soon destined to end its days on J’oh’s salvage asteroid. The friends guess these Zolorian pups must have come aboard the Quasar Torrent in a way similar to what the young Zam experienced—by climbing on and squirreling away during one of the pirate ship’s visits to Zolor, or perhaps in stolen cargo that originated on Zolor.
The pups are the “gremlins” the crew’s been buzzing about. Zam’s been finding and collecting the pups during repair excursions, hoping to selter the babies from the crew, who would certainly exterminate the pests. But a few still roam between the decks and snack on the energy cells and cables installed throughout the ship, causing the power failures. (Zolorians feed on the chemical components of power cells, which explains Zam’s earlier interest in J’oh’s old, used cells from the garage.) Given the problems the pups have created on the ship, Zam has kept their existence a secret so far, even from Rox, fearing Rox’s interactions with the crew members could lead her to spill the beans about the “gremlins”. Rox swears to keep the babies secret and to do her best to protect them. Zolorian nurturing instincts being pretty limited, Zam has an odd way of relating to the youngsters; she begins to use them as assistants to work in spaces inside the ship that are too small for Zam to fit. Rox, on the other hand, becomes the pups’ doting aunt. The pair find they have their hands full making sure the hungry babies don’t get out of control to further damage the ship’s vital power systems, and preventing their discovery by the superstitious crew.
Black Myk’s grudge against QuarkCorp drives him to plan more raids on the company’s freighters. Rox is happy to help torment the corporation that caused so much misfortune for her family and her new friends on the Quasar Torrent, so Zam and Rox make new innovations on the ship (with the help of their secret assistants). The clever duo invent a cloaking field generator for the Quasar Torrent, which allows the ship to escape detection by QuarkCorp’s hired mercenaries. This cloaking device is put to a successful test when the Quasar Torrent manages to sneak past the mercenaries’ ship undetected during their next encounter. During this brush with the enemy the mischievous Rox and Zam use the ship’s lasers to etch humiliating graffiti onto the enemy’s hull. This prank seals the pirates affection for their young captives.
The only pirate who doesn’t warm to Rox and Zam is the surly Black Myk. The captain’s arrogant, overbearing manner with the crew begins to grate on the pirates’ nerves. When Myk overhears Rox mocking him for the bucaneers’ entertainment, he decides it’s time to get rid of Rox before she can undermine his authority any further. During a raid on a QuarkCorp freighter, Myk uses the fog of battle to try secretly ejecting Rox through an air lock into space! Taunting her, Myk reveals that he never contacted J’oh about Rox’s ransom because she and Zam proved to be such outstanding mechanics that he no longer saw the need to leverage J’oh into service. But now Rox is a liability, and he figures Zam can continue to maintain the ship after Rox’s demise.
Zam discovers Myk’s ploy and uses her tail—previously seen used as an amazingly extendable and dexterous tool— now employed as a formidable weapon to chase off the villain—but too late! The airlock has opened, and only the teamwork of Zam and the babies saves Rox from certain death. But now Myk has discovered the pups and realizes the young mechanics are responsible for the ship’s “gremlin” problem. At the same time, the pirates learn of Myk’s murderous plan to eliminate Rox. The angry buccaneers mutiny! Before Black Myk has the chance to reveal Rox and Zam’s secret to the crew, he’s forced to flee the Quasar Torrent in the young mechanics’ cobbled-together escape pod. During the turmoil, the crew catches a fleeting glimpse of the pups. In a superstitious frenzy they resolve to end this infestation of space gremlins. Soon, traps are laid for the pests and Rox and Zam must watch over their little ones more carefully than ever.
With Black Myk gone, the crew’s morale rises and the young mechanics become the toast of the ship—mascots to the outwardly tough but tenderhearted scalawags. Zam’s head is unturned by this treatment, but Rox begins to take her new popularity too seriously. Is she willing to trade her previous lonely life on the barren asteroid she called home for a new dream of becoming a self-styled pirate queen?
Soon, as a token of the crew’s regard for the kidnapped friends, the pirates tell Rox and Zam they’ll return them to their home if that’s what they want. But Rox has mixed feelings about leaving her newfound glamorous life, and Zam enjoys working on her new toy, the Quasar Torrent. And there’s one other complicating factor in this decision—what to do with the pups? The crew is still intent on exterminating these creatures if they find them. When Rox is allowed to call home and talk to her parents, the parents’ relief at hearing from their daughter turns into an argument when J’oh learns that Rox has been cooperating and befriending these disreputable pirates. The girl defends her new friends, tempers flare, and an angry Rox vows to stay with her new “family”.
Meanwhile, after drifting in space for days, the escape pod of Black Myk falls into the hands of QuarkCorp’s mercenaries. To save his skin, Myk quickly turns on his old shipmates and promises to reveal the secret of the Quasar Torrent’s cloaking system in exchange for his freedom. A plan is hatched to trap the unsuspecting space pirates.
Some time later, the Quasar Torrent attacks a QuarkCorp cargo ship using their cloaking device to sneak up on their prey. But Myk’s betrayal means QuarkCorp’s mercenary force is ready for the attack, and the tables are quickly turned on the buccaneers. The pirate ship is crippled in the conflict, and it threatens to shake apart as it flees its pursuers. Only one thing can hold the vessel together until they reach the safety of a port: Zam’s pups disperse throughout the ship, frantically repairing wrecked systems under Rox and Zam’s guidance until the ramshackle vehicle can crash-land back on the salvage yard asteroid. The pups are revealed at last, but since the young friends and their brood have managed to save the crews’ lives with their desperate repair work, the pirates greet them with gratitude. Besides, the pirate crew has larger worries now that their ship is a wreck.
Rox and Zam are reunited with Rox’s parents, and J’oh finds half of the crew are old friends from Far Rim’s good old days before the discovery of the wormhole. With Black Myk now out of the picture and with Rox and Zam home safe and sound, the entire group reconciles and begins to hatch plans to deal with QuarkCorp once and for all. Over the next weeks—with everyone pitching in under J’oh, Rox, and Zam’s direction—a small armada is cobbled together from the ruins of the Quasar Torrent and the decrepit vehicles in the salvage yard. A ramshackle fleet takes off from the remote asteroid, heading for a fateful reckoning with QuarkCorp’s mercenaries at Quark’s Gate.
The battle begins as the junker armada engages the mercenary ship right near the mouth of the wormhole. While the pirates’ fighters buzz and sting around the enemy, a small shuttlecraft weaves through the action and attaches itself to the underside of the QuarkCorp ship. Rox, Zam and the pups emerge from the shuttlecraft and board the mercenary ship, quickly making their way to its tractor beam apparatus. They find it’s much more sophisticated and powerful than the Quasar Torrent’s equipment. Undaunted, they set to work on the complex machine. Working against time as the pirate armada drags out the conflict at the mouth of the wormhole, the band of guerilla mechanics finish their work and prepare to leave. But Black Myk, now working for the mercenaries, has been monitoring the ship’s systems from the bridge. He notices strange fluctuations in the tractor beam’s power readings and guesses the cause. Rushing to the source of the trouble, the traitor arrives in time to confront the young saboteurs. At last, Black Myk will have his revenge on the kids who cost him his command of the Quasar Torrent!
As Myk’s ray gun draws a bead on Rox, a pup bolts from the group and latches onto Myk’s arm with all its might! With this, the other babies follow suit. Myk drops his gun in a panic as he’s swarmed! Just then, an intercom announces that the tractor beam will be engaged to snare the pirates’ attack ships. Rox and Zam react in panic—time is running out for their mission. They call to the babies to flee back to their escape pod. The babies release Myk and hurry after their leaders. A raging Myk, his spacesuit torn to rags, grabs his pistol off the floor and takes a shot just as the door seals on the teams’ escape pod and the small craft flies off to freedom. But Myk’s shot has blown a basketball-sized breach in the hull of the ramshackle shuttlecraft! Air rushes from the hole, threatening to whisk the friends and the pups into empty space!
Back on the QuarkCorp ship, the tractor beam begins to hum as it powers up. The huge device spins in its turret to point at the pirate armada just outside. The tractor beam seems to be working perfectly, causing Myk to wonder if he’s managed to foil the kids’ plan to wreck it. Then he notices the main terminals on the beam have been switched and the machine’s power levels have been greatly amplified! The tractor beam fires off its ray, but instead of pulling the pirate ships closer, the mercenary craft is repelled from its position, sending it straight into the wormhole. Myk watches in panic as the power setting of the beam spike uncontrollably. The ships of the junkyard armada are propelled away from the enemy and the backlash from the tractor beam’s discharge lurches the mercenary ship into the wormhole. The wild field of energy crackling from the sabotaged tractor beam claws the edges of the wormhole tighter—tighter—until the hole collapses on itself and disappears from existence, stranding the mercenaries and Black Myk on the wormhole’s “other side”—far away from Far Rim, on the opposite end of the galaxy. Quark’s Gate has disappeared from existence!
But what of the intrepid young mechanics that saved the day? Rox, Zam and the babies desperately hold on to pipes, panels and cables in the crippled shuttle craft to avoid being sucked out of the hole. It’s only a matter of moments until someone loses their grip and plunges out into space. Rox’s dismayed attempts to reach the babies are futile. Zam cries out, “Ohhh, I’m gonna hate this!” as she releases her hold and goes flying across the craft toward the hole! Rox cries out, “Zam, NO!” Then there’s a loud thud as Zam’s sturdy tail plunges squarely into the hole, serving as the perfect plug for the breach. Rox grabs a caulking tool and seals any gaps between the hole and Zam’s tail. Cabin pressure is quickly restored. Rox is thrilled and touched by Zam’s quick thinking to save her and the pups, but Zam’s only response is, “Get us back home quick, will you. This is kinda humiliating, and my tail is really cold!”
With the wormhole gone, QuarkCorp’s interest in this remote area of space is eliminated—Far Rim is once again open for traffic. The salvage asteroid is soon repurposed into a hub for local shipping, and the pirates settle back into their old, easygoing lives as interplanetary truckers—with J’oh as their manager and dispatcher. Rox, Zam and the growing pups operate the motor pool for the enterprise, and the now-veteran mechanics also work together designing fabulous, wild new ships for the line. Zam is at last learning what it means to have a family, with the help of the pups’ doting “Aunt” Rox and her parents. And Rox can finally build a life that reaches beyond the confines of a barren salvage yard. •••
For rights to this picture book, contact:
Jeff Weigel | 113 Villa Drive | Belleville, IL 62223 | 618-791-9005 | jeffweigel@charter.net
All artwork, text and design ©Jeff Weigel and may not be used without permission