Sunshine Express Yourself

"**Sunshine Express Yourself**" is the seventh episode of *Vagrant Queen*. It premiered on May 14, 2020.

## Synopsis

Elida leaves the team to take a scavenger job while Isaac and Amae battle hijackers on a train.

## Recap

When we last left our heroes, their ship had been towed and they were SOL. They're directed by the planet's yellow bureaucrats to get onboard the Sunshine Express train that will take them to the pound. When they board the train, Elida goes one way, and Amae and Isaac another. When Amae and Isaac find only one vacant seat between them, Isaac lets Amae have it and continues the hunt. That leaves Amae to enjoy the company of her new seat mate, and the libations and bonhomie she's brought onboard with her.

Elida finds she's a wee bit thirsty as well and pops a squat at the bar. It's there she runs into an old scavenging associate Scavex who offers her a cut in her next heist, but Elida declines. That is until she overhears Scavex mentioning the job's on Arriopa, and her interest is piqued, and she agrees to partner up. Isaac finally finds a seat, which just so happens to be next to a passenger with a bounty on her head. And when Amae's seatmate makes a move, Amae rebuffs it, and begs off to find Elida. Looks like Amae is starting to have feelings of love…

And on Arriopa, Lazaro is making his coronation speech to the masses, promising to end the cycle of tyranny that's kept the people in thrall. Yeah right. He also announces a summit with all the leaders of the galaxy, to be hosted at Arriopa, to celebrate a new border-less universe. The feed is broadcasted onto the train but is interrupted when two bounty hunters (the ones searching for Isaac's seatmate) open fire in one of the cars, setting in motion a stampede of passengers running for safety. Isaac is stuck with the stranger (a fugitive scientist requisitioned to Arriopa to work on the Sterzaad) and makes as if to have taken her hostage in order to buy time. He tries to call Elida and Amae on their comms, but Elida tossed hers away and Amae traded hers for information on Elida's whereabouts, so he's stuck.

Elida has detrained and is walking through a field in search of the next milestone in her scavenging mission — a ship. Amae wanders into Isaac's car to find him inexplicably holding hostage the scientist. The two bounty hunters perceive a connection between Isaac and Amae and take the latter hostage. The standoff is broken up when Sunshine Express security breaks in and zaps the bounty hunters into submission. Isaac, Amae, and the scientist take that moment to detrain as well, drop-and-roll style, and set off on foot for Winnipeg.

Meanwhile, some rogue Sunshine retirees have provided Elida with a ship, which she uses to promptly set course for Arriopa. It's during her solo flight that Elida recalls a memory: After she watched her mother die and was ejected into space in a capsule, she started receiving help signals from an unknown, but seemingly friendly source. But it turned out to be Republic guards masking their voices, and after discontinuing the signal, Elida learned to trust only herself.

The bounty hunters manager to escape the Sunshine Express and locate the runaways, demanding them to release to them the scientist. That's when a Republic ship arrives, and guards come marching out. First, they shoot one of the bounty hunters, and set the other one to flight. The scientist uses her weapon to disarm the guards and stun them, rendering them sitting ducks for Isaac and Amae. But while they're zealously taking down guards, the scientist is abducted by a rearguard and whisked away to Arriopa. Isaac volunteers to be the decoy and let Amae escape; he snaps into spontaneous jumping jacks just as the guards are taking down by errant shots. Looks like the bounty hunter came back to deliver retribution for her partner.

Shortly after, Isaac and Amae make it to the pound only to find out that their ship has been… misplaced. They're directed to a bus stop just down the road. En route, they find Winnipeg stranded in the grasses. How'd it get there? Elida had second thoughts about making the trip to Arriopa alone, so she came back and got the ship out of hock. The trio's back together again! But not without alerting the intergalactic parking authority to their whereabouts!

## References

1. ↑ Vagrant Queen Episode guide. *Zap2it*.