The Promised Land

**The Promised Land** is the second episode of Volume 2 and the fifth episode of Season 1 of *The Sojourn* series.

## Synopsis

When a desperate civilian vessel arrives at the *Avalon*, Lieutenant Ravi must respond to an increasingly dangerous situation in the Director's absence.

## Summary

As the episode opens, Cindra Tacira explains Empress Valendra's duties for the day. The two converse until Inquisitor Castian Vadric arrives, wherein the pair sneak away to an abandoned passage in the imperial palace. However, the two then overhear a conversation taking place in a secret crawlspace between Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis and Revion Jedrish Carradin.

Arvannis explains to Carradin that "the empress is of no consequence", before telling him to destroy the remains recovered from the Mariana. Valendra notices that High Cleric Darsellia Lantris and her Master Conservator appear to be in on the conspiracy. Whilst Lantris argues that it would be beneficial for the Holy Advari Empire to learn more about the Outsiders, Arvannis adamantly disagrees.

Meanwhile, Cassandra Farren and Elizabeth Ancelet prepare the *Siochana* for a return to the Vitrified Planet, leaving Lieutenant Jasper Ravi in charge of the *Avalon* and her Flotilla whilst they're away. Mathias Croft and Tamara 'Meds' Melari spend a lot of their time on the command deck, or otherwise finding anyone to share stories with, but boredom quickly sets in for Croft, who spends a lot of his time trying to toss coins into a shotglass at the bar.

Ravi visits the *Guinevere* for the first time, wherein Croft regales the time him and a friend broke into a place called Gustaf's on Rialtis IV by posing as waste removal workers. Meds arrives shortly after, having completed a run around the *Avalon*'s habitat ring, asking Ravi why he had come down to the *Guinevere*.

Before Ravi can explain, however, he receives a message from Midshipman Bankole that another vessel from Tantalus Cluster has arrived at the *Avalon*. The ship is the *Triumph*, a converted passenger ferry, that had illicitly travelled through Edric's Gate as the Avalon Fleet began making its jump.

Its commanding officer, Foreman Richard Sedgewick, declares that he is the leader of the Aiden's Prospect Agricultural Commune, and immediately begins demanding relief supplies. When these demands are not immediately met, the Foreman begins a fleet-wide broadcast, claiming to know the "truth" about the expedition's purpose - that being to ferry the elites of Tantalus to a so-called "verdant paradise" beyond Edric's Gate. The *Guinevere*, being the last remaining military vessel in the fleet, jams the broadcast soon after.

Bankole leads a team of engineers to the *Triumph*, wherein they meet Bridget Volkova, the de facto chief engineer aboard the vessel. The two discuss Sedgewick's claims about the "verdant paradise", but before Bankole can finish his repair, him and his repair team are taken hostage by Sedgewick and several armed guards.

Sedgewick demands the location of the supposed colony world, threatening to kill one hostage for every hour that passes before he gets his answer. Ravi prepares the CMC garrison to board the *Triumph*, but Croft and Meds challenge him on that decision. Croft says that him and Meds will go alone, but he doesn't have a plan until Ravi recalls his story about Gustaf's - they plan to sneak aboard the *Triumph* via the vessel's exterior waste disposal hatches.

Meds and Croft spacewalk over to the hatches, avoiding debris before climbing inside, finding themselves in the cargo hold, which is filled with sickly cows floating weightless in the zero-g environment of the vessel. They move on through, encountering the passengers of the *Triumph* - including Volkova - with at least 50 families worth of people aboard the vessel in cramped conditions. They explain to Volkova that Sedgewick was wrong - they've only just found a planet that's barely habitable - and that they should've stayed on Aiden's Prospect.

Volkova offers to take the pair to the bridge, wanting to try and talk Sedgewick down. As Croft and Meds breach the bridge, Volkova begins speaking to the crew of the bridge, explaining how the verdant paradise was a lie, and how even if it weren't, they would still be doomed to failure. Sedgewick becomes increasingly unreasonable and unstable as the crew begins to turn on him, ordering his crew to shoot the hostages, but they refuse to. Sedgewick then threatens to kill a hostage himself, but Meds tackles him first, knocking him to the ground and taking him into custody against his protests.

After the *Siochana*'s return, Liz and Ravi discuss what to do with both the passengers and the cattle of the *Triumph*. Both agree that getting the passengers of the vessel to the Vitrified Planet would make the best use of their agricultural skills, but Ravi suggests that the cows be slaughtered, due to how weak they've become during transit, and due to the conditions they were kept in being ripe for bacterial infections. Liz commends Ravi for his work. On the *Guinevere*, Croft and Meds both try and get land coins into a shotglass, just as Cass returns.

Meanwhile, Valendra and Vadric are forced to part ways again, with Valendra sending Vadric to make contact with the Outsiders, in hopes of uncovering the lies and deception that Arvannis and the other traitors in Valendra's court are trying to keep a secret. However, as Vadric's ship departs, Arvannis is overheard telling someone to follow the Inquisitor.

## Cast

### Main

* Larissa Thompson as Captain Cassandra Farren
* Emily Serdahl as Director Elizabeth Ancelet
* Ben Prendergast as Mathias Croft
* Laura Faye Smith as Tamara 'Meds' Melari
* Stephen Trafford as Inquistor Castian Vadric

### Supporting

* Lelia Symington as Empress Valendra the Sixth
* Matthew Kaufman as Lieutenant Jasper Ravi
* Tarek Esaw as Midshipman Arin Bankole
* Tim Parker as Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis

### Guest

* Pam Kearns as Bridget Volkova
* Kennedy Phillips as Foreman Richard Sedgewick

### Additional Voices

* Marta Da Silva as High Cleric Darsellia Lantris
* Amy Kay as Cindra Tacira
* Aaron Jones as Revion Jedrish Carradin
* Larissa Thompson as Unnamed Avalon Ops Officer

## Trivia

* "*The Promised Land*" is the first episode of the main series with a guest writer, being written by Rowan J. Coleman.
* When the episode was initially conceived, Foreman Richard Sedgewick's name had not yet been settled upon, leading to crew christening him with the temporary name "dickweed". His final name continues this trend - Richard is often shortened to "Dick", *Sedge* is a niche term for "weed" (as in garden weeds), and *wick* is a euphemistic term for "penis." Put together, and his name could be read as "Dick Dickweed."