Planet of Ghosts

Planet of Ghosts is the nineteenth episode of season one of Sethakeya.

## Main premise

After escaping the alternate universe by falling back into the Carmentine Rift, the Sethakeya crash lands on a mysterious extremely quiet possibly dead world. A world ravaged by a virus believed to be dead.

## Synopsis

After reentering the main universe through the Carmentine Rift after the events of Slaver Ship, the Sethakeya is somewhat crippled and is forced to land on the only planet within range that has signals indicating sentient life that can assist. At first, Kyan - and most of the crew - believes the whole planet is mechanical, but she soon realizes to her horror that the exterior is only a tightly bound shroud of satellites and probes. The Sethakeya crashes through it and into the planet's atmosphere proper. Ank manages to get one of the probes after it smashes through a window and takes it into her room to examine it. Kyan then decides to explore the planet with Eckert - with Finn tagging along. Jah and Remmed stay behind to fix the ship with the help of several repair droids.

Once they leave the ship, the survey team finds an extremely quiet planet - seemingly completely dead. The architecture around them is seemingly well maintained but there are no signs of life. Finn very quickly manages to find what appears to be a group of natives, however, none of them notice Finn even when he takes out a gun (stolen from his Slaver Ship universe self) and fires it in the air. All of them go through their routines with no notice of anything at all. They are very stalwart in their roles. One of them crosses the street a lot, another seems to always sit at the outdoor eatery. Another is trying to sell something and keeps walking between the same 9 people. Eventually they come to a place where people are breaking down and visually glitching, and they realize they are directly under the space where the ship broke through the wall of debris. Kyan very quickly realizes that the "citizens" encountered by the survey team are actually holograms - something that Finn had realized after he walked right through one of the citizens and passed right through them. The survey team splits up to follow various holograms in the hope of finding something sentient that can explain what happened to the planet.

Ank manages to reactivate the probe - which forms a hologram of one of the natives walking in a circle. Eventually, the hologram breaks down completely and Ank considers harvesting the probe's parts - hopefully so that she can find the probe's hard drive. After finding what appears to be an activator for another device attached to the probe, Ank searches through the various probes that the droids have removed from the Sethakeya's hull and finds the probe that it belongs to. This begins a historical record of the planet (named Vhara Prime) - detailing the beginning of its failed space age. This space age failed due to the massive amount of space junk in the atmosphere of Vhara Prime. The Vharans decided to work on their planet instead - forming one massive biome of cityscape.

While following a hologram, Finn catches sight of a being in a bulky environment suit darting around the buildings. Realizing that he isn't a hologram, Finn chases after the being.

Remmed finds another one of the historical probes and presents it to Ank - who activates the probe. This probe talks about how the Vharan civilization ended - with a deadly disease dubbed the Leamentine Plague spread several thousands years ago by a warring race (which Ank assumes is the Salvomagians). Due to the fact that they were trapped on their planet with the extremely deadly Leamentine Plague, the Vharans died out. Before they died out, they set up a massive array of probes to show daily life on Vhara Prime before the plague. Ank then realizes that Finn - along with Kyan and Eckert - are on the planet with the Leamentine Plague. Ank then gets a message from Finn about the suited being. Ank grabs one of the Sethakeya's HostEv suits and runs out of the ship in search of Finn.

Finn manages to stalk the suited being - using techniques he learned from Ank such as getting on all fours - into what appears to be an asteroid crater. Almost immediately afterwards, the being notices Finn and knocks him out by hitting him on the head.

Ank catches up to Kyan and Eckert - who have regrouped after finding nothing of note besides the holograms - and tells them about the Leamentine Plague. Kyan then reveals that she had trackers put into Ank and Finn so that she could track them. Ank then begins looking for the tracker as Kyan and Eckert activate the tracker in Finn.

Finn wakes up on a surgical table with the suited figure standing over him. The suited figure realizes that Finn isn't some native predator that managed to survive the Leamentine Plague and is instead an alien being - which he assumes to be his "relief" in the "Survey Corps". Finn isn't a member of the Survey Corps and is confused by this. That is until the suited being mentions the Great Houses. He then introduces himself as Shade Kreff and gleefully removes his helmet - revealing a desiccated face with flaked off skin. After Finn reacts with shock to this, Shade jams his helmet back onto his head and starts freaking out about being infected with the Leamentine Plague. Ank then walks in and grabs Finn as he faints. Shade then notices Ank and salutes her - declaring her to be above "his rank" in the Great Houses' Survey Corps.

Ank puts Finn in one of Shade's spare suits after making sure that it isn't infected with the Leamentine Plague and brings him back to the Sethakeya with Shade following closely behind. Bringing him to Exity (the medical bot), Ank demands that Exity cures Finn. Exity gets to work as Kyan leads Shade into a "quarantine" cell in the brig. Exity is able to get a cure for the Leamentine Plague somewhat easily - before the main symptom of desiccated flesh can affect Finn - and injects it into both Finn and Ank. Exity mentions that the minor nerve damage caused by the Leamentine Plague will be cured in a few hours - as Finn begins ranting in nonsensical German (a language that he never learned). It is then that Ank suggests giving the cure to Shade. Shade then begins screaming in agony as a red glow emanates from his room. Running into Shade's room, Ank finds his entire body glowing red - although a lot of it is contained within the suit. Ank then rips the suit off of Shade as the glow finishes - revealing that he has morphed into an inhuman being with greyish-green skin, multiple limbs, and tendrils. Shade - afraid and angry - asks how "the change" could have failed. Ank looks at Shade. He very quickly realizes that something has gone extremely wrong with "the Homeworld". Ank then reveals that she destroyed it in a war. Shade attempts to beat Ank but is stopped by the delirious Finn hitting him over the head with a chair.

After showing that Shade's change has burned off all of the Leamentine Plague from his body, Shade is kicked off the Sethakeya by Kyan. The repair droids have completely repaired the Sethakeya by this point. Before the ship can leave, Ank puts her HostEv suit back on and follows Shade back to his lair. Shade initially assumes that Ank intends to kill him - as they are (as far as he knows) the only two members of the Great Houses still alive. Instead, Ank gives Shade a small device which should allow him to warp off of Vhara Prime. Ank then leaves before Shade can activate the device - heading back to the Sethakeya. Back inside the Sethakeya, Ank slumps into the nearest chair and takes out a switchblade with the symbol of the Great Houses on its hilt. Ank then stares at it as the Sethakeya leaves Vhara Prime.

## Characters

* Captain Kyan Namada
* Ankarstian
* Finn
* First Officer A'tal Eckert
* Ensign Jah!Kev\_Vosk
* Ensign Alla Remmed
* Shade Kreff
* Exity

## References

* The planet is within the Chyjikil Spiral - a galaxy ravaged by the Salvomagians.

rest to be added