Cosmic Frontier

“
**Hunter:** *"We'll find a way back. We have to."*
**Gus:** *"Oh, my Titan! Th- that's a line from this book I found! Cosmic Frontier! It's a story that takes place in... the stars."*
**Hunter:** *"Why would anyone wanna go... up there?"*
**Gus:** *"I don't know. Humans like spreading their junk everywhere. But it's a story of people trying to get back home! Like us!"*
”

—Hunter and Gus talking about the book, "Thanks to Them"

***Cosmic Frontier*** is a science-fiction novel that was published sometime in the 1990s, which depicted a crew of space-faring travelers wandering the cosmos. Gus Porter, Hunter, and Camila Noceda are noted fans of the series, although Camila has attempted (and failed) to keep her appreciation for her work private.

## Background

According to Vee, *Cosmic Frontier* was written in the 1990s, but takes place in 2008. The novel depicts spacefaring travelers stranded somewhere in the cosmos, who attempt to return home while fending off "the enemy planet", who can clone individuals.

The series was popular enough to spawn merchandise and costumes, with both Camila Noceda and Manny Noceda collecting said merchandise at some point. Prior to the events of the series, Camila put her memorabilia into storage in the basement.

Years later, Gus Porter began reading the series and introduced it to Hunter, who quickly became invested in the series after noticing several parallels between O'Bailey's story and his own. As part of his "human disguise", Hunter created and wore a replica Chief O'Bailey's costume, which was then repurposed as a Halloween costume. Gus, meanwhile, went as Captain Avery.

In "For the Future", it's revealed that Gus had known about Hunter being a grimwalker since the events of "King's Tide", referencing O'Bailey's clone status as an analogue for Hunter's situation. Later, Camila comforts Luz by reciting the Astral Oath, shared between Captain Avery and his family: to love and protect each other just as they are, through supernovas and solar winds. After utilizing Philip's teleport glyph near the end of the episode, Camila congratulates Hunter on "beaming them up", referencing O'Bailey by name.

## Characters

* **Captain Avery:** The Captain, who strongly suspects O'Bailey's allegiance. Has a strong interest in getting his crew home.
	+ Avery's family
* **Chief O'Bailey:** "A clone from the enemy planet", tasked with infiltrating Avery's crew.
* **Security Officer Quando:** The Security Officer.

## Trivia

* *Cosmic Frontier* is based on the long-running *Star Trek* franchise.
	+ Specifically, three of the characters, Captain Avery, Chief O'Bailey, and Security Officer Quando are references to four *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine* characters: Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) serve as direct counterparts for their *Cosmic Frontier* characters, while Quando serves as an amalgamation of Chief Security Officer Odo (René Auberjonois) and Quark (Armin Shimerman)
		- Notably, Hunter dresses as Chief O'Bailey for Halloween, serving as a veiled reference to *Deep Space Nine*'s "O'Brien must suffer" episodes, considering that both Hunter and O'Brien have amassed a great amount of mental and physical trauma.
	+ The plot involving O'Bailey hiding as a clone resembles that of the *Deep Space Nine* episode, "Whispers," in which a replicant of O'Brien takes the original's place as part of a conspiracy.
	+ Vee also notes that the series was "written in the 90s about the year 2008" -- *Deep Space Nine* broadcasted its first episode on January 4th, 1993, and 2008 was one year before the J.J. Abrams-directed *Star Trek* reboot.
* The partial blurb found at the back cover of the book says "In a galaxy not far away at all...", which is a clear reference to the opening crawl of each *Star Wars* film which says: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
* It seems that Manny Noceda was a fan of this series, as there is a box of Circuit cosplays with his name on it in Camila's collection.
	+ The character of "Circuit" may be a reference to Data (Brent Spiner), who first appeared in *Star Trek: The Next Generation*.
	+ Camila reveals to Luz in "For the Future" that she is also a huge fan of the series.
* The "Astral Oath" may reference the oath of the Green Lantern Corps.