A splash page, or rather an entire spread, show downtown Gaia, the capital city of New Mycenae. With a series of panels on the next page that push in on a suburb on the edge of the city, and eventually on one house.
Blast Bolton is at the front door, about to leave, for his first day as the first Space Marshal. He kisses his husband, actor Julian Keller, goodbye and hugs their three year old son Peter. He promises them both to be home for dinner. Julian promise that he will bring Peter to watch the launch.
The Space Marshals Corps Headquarters is a skyscraper on the far side of the city, from Blast’s home. At the back, where a parking lot would be, is instead the doors in the ground to the huge underground hangar for the Patrol Ships.
The Hangar is four stories deep, with galleries in three levels along the walls, large enough to hold several Patrol ships each. All together the hangar can hold 72 Patrol Ships. On this day there is one ship there, Themis, standing on the lowest level of the hangar, directly beneath the hangar doors. Director Grant meets Blast by the port side airlock of Themis. Grant tells Blast that they’ve “hit a snag.” The smallest space folder available is slightly larger than Themis, so it can’t be installed. They have to wait until space folders can be made sufficiently small to fit inside the ship, and that they would build Carrier Ships in the meantime. But they won’t have one of those for another year at least. Blast says he’ll use the super luminous drive instead, but Grant says that the ship builders from Lacedaemon advises against that. He orders Blast to only go up into space, orbit the planet a couple of times and then return. Grumbling Blast says he’ll follow orders and goes aboard.
In the cockpit Blast encounters a guy in his early twenties, who introduce himself as Richard Pettiford, (same name as the writer of the graphic novel.) Richard is wearing jeans cutoffs, a crop top and a pair of pink furry boots. He’s blond with a fringe that tends to hang over one eye. He’s very slender though he has a six pack. He explains that he’s doing some last minute finishing touches on the ship, installing a charger for his smartphone. Blast asks what a smartphone is. Richard changes the subject and tells Blast that there’s two things that can make time pass slower, extreme speed and extreme gravity. Blast doesn’t pay attention to that. He and Richard check out the rest of the ship. They end up in the aft compartment, where there’s bunk beds and a tiny galley. Blast assure Richard that though he’s married they have an open relationship where it’s okay to have have sex with others. Richard is more than willing. This leads to the first of many explicit sex scenes that occur in most of the graphic novels about Blast.
Richard puts his clothes back on and disembark. In the hangar Richard activates a small, portable space folder and steps through the fold that opens up. Blast catches the movement out of the corner of his eyes, but when he looks the hangar is empty. He is confused, since it should have taken Richard longer to get to the door. Director Grant calls on the radio and says Blast has been clear for takeoff the last twenty minutes and ask what he’s up to. The hangar doors above Themis are open and sunlight shines in through the cockpit windows. Blast lift off with Themis.
A huge crowd has gathered around the open hangar doors, at a safe distance, so nobody falls in. Julian stands in the front row, with Peter sitting on his shoulders, and both wave at Themis, and Blast, as the ship ascend from the underground hangar.
Blast is strapped into the pilot seat, so he won’t float around the cockpit while in orbit. Themis doesn’t have any artificial gravity deck plating. He’s drinking coffee out of a special cup with a bit of a corner on one side, that causes a capillary action, so he can drink hot liquids from the cup in a microgravity environment. He receives a distress call from the colony on Telemachus, that they’re under attack from space pirates. Blast calls down to the planet and inform them that he’s going to help them and take off at super luminous speed before they can respond.
Themis arrives on Telemachus after a short trip at super luminous speed. It’s a small colony of mostly prefabricated cube shaped homes. At the Town Hall the Mayor and his associates are surprised by Blast’s arrival, they haven’t sent any distress calls. There was an incident similar to what Blast describes, of space pirates attacking the colony, but that was seven and a half years ago, and the colonists fought the pirates off on their own. Blast is confused by this. He asks to use the colony’s communication array to call New Mycenae and see if they can straighten out the confusion, but the mayor’s staff says that the array is under repair and won’t be operational until next week. They apologize for having him make the trip in vain, though it wasn’t their fault, and insists he take off immediately and go home.
Outside the town hall a twelve year old boy, named Billy, asks Blast if he’s there to look for Billy’s older brother, Nigel, who disappeared shortly after his fifteenth birthday. Blast says that he isn’t and that the authorities are adamant that he leaves so he will.
The Mayor’s staff helps Blast fill Themis’ fuel tank and then watch as he prepares to take off. Things with the local authorities doesn’t seem to add up, so he gets suspicious and turns on the two way radio. He turns the channel dial until he hears the Mayor talking to someone on Achlys, a lawless planet on the far side of the galaxy. According to what the Mayor and his staff told Blast it wouldn’t be possible to make any radio conversation with anyone outside the star system for days. The Mayor discusses some illegal arms deal that a Captain Brooke is impatiently waiting for on Telemachus. Outside the ship the officials are gesturing at him to leave. He takes off, flies over town and gain a little altitude, to give the impression that he’s leaving, but when he’s sure nobody is looking he doubles back and land in a clearing in the woods, a couple of kilometers outside town and walks back.
He gets into town and finds Billy, and his parents, after a brief search. The parents are nervous about the town authorities seeing them talking to Blast but bring him into their home nonetheless. Billy’s older brother, Nigel, disappeared a week earlier, just a day after his fifteenth birthday. The day after Nigel disappeared a naked dead body was found in the woods, and they were sure at first that it was Nigel. It turned out to be the body of another boy who disappeared five years ago, shortly after he turned fifteen. That boy had been twenty years old at the time he died and he’d died of strangulation just a day before he was found. It was the local sheriff who had the body examined, though the Mayor and his staff tried to prevent it, and even tried to discredit the investigation and the sheriff. The next day the sheriff was found hanged in the woods along with the town doctor who examined the body of the boy. The Mayor declared the deaths of the sheriff and the doctor suicides and forbade any investigation. Blast asks them about Captain Brooke. They say that the trouble started when the ship Procrustes arrived, that Finnian Brooke is the Captain of the ship and his crew have usurped the power in town and made one of them Mayor. The Mayor is really just a puppet, and it’s Captain Brooke who calls the shots. Blast asks where he can find Captain Brooke and Billy’s parents tells him it’s covered by huge tarpaulin, making look like a huge, oddly shaped tent just south of town.
Blast leaves the house and head towards the “tent” that the family described. The cube homes are arranged in irregular blocks with a maze of alleyways leading through town. The Mayor intercepts Blast, and the official is flanked by two “bodyguards” who looks more like thugs, even henchmen, than bodyguards. The Mayor claims that Blast is under arrest for trespassing on the planet, but Blast corrects him, pointing out that the Mayor has no authority to do so, and that there’s no legal grounds for the arrest either. Telemachus is a colony of New Mycenae and that they are therefore automatically covered by the Space Marshals Accord, and in his jurisdiction. The Mayor tells his henchmen to restrain Blast and they try, only to be defeated and subdued by Blast, who cuffs them and make sure they remain calm until he can take them into custody on Themis. The Mayor runs away, trying to get to the ship before Blast.
Blast race after the Mayor, through the town. Another henchman takes a shot at Blast, but miss him. The superheated plasma from the henchman’s gun graze little Billy, who has been following Blast. It’s not a life threatening wound but the boy is in shock and Blast makes sure he’s taken care of by the townspeople before he takes up pursuit again. He catches the henchman who shot at him, and fights him. After subduing that henchman three more attack and he wins over them as well.
Aboard Procrustes, in the Captain’s Cabin, Finnian Brooke has a metal cage in one corner. Captain Brooke opens the cage to let his cabin boy, Nigel, out for a while, just long enough to have sex with him. Nigel is Billy’s missing older brother. He’s also naked, as Finnian has hidden his clothes. Finnian warns Nigel not to try anything like he did last time, or... Finnian is distracted by yelling from outside the ship.
The Mayor runs across the open field between the edge of the town and the ship, which is partially covered by tarpaulin. As he runs the Mayor yells that their cover has been blown and they have to leave.
On the bridge the helmsman wakes from a nap, sitting in the chair at the helm station with his feet on the instruments. He hears the Mayor’s voice through the ship intercom and starts the engines.
Captain Brooke yells at the Helmsman to turn off the engines, leaning out through the hatch to his cabin. Nigel tackles Brooke and pushes past him into the Crew Quarters. The naked boy runs to the stairs leading down. Captain Brooke runs after Nigel.
The ship lifts off of the ground. The tarpaulin that covered the ship slips off and lands on the ground. The Mayor shouts, “Wait for me.”
Nigel runs down the stairs, through the two levels of the Core of the ship. He’s pursued all the way by Captain Brooke. On the lower level, which is Deck Four, Nigel runs through the port airlock, which is open, and stops at the outer hatch. Captain Brooke goes into the adjacent Pressure Suit storage and gets a plasma pistol from the weapons locker, before he goes into the airlock.
Blast runs from the edge of the town towards the ship which has already lifted off and is two meters off the ground. The outer hatch is still open and the flight of stairs to the hatch is still down. Nigel is standing naked in the open hatch, hesitating for a second. It’s quite a long way down from where he is. The Mayor is almost at the place where the ship stood on the ground and cries for them to wait for him. Nigel climbs down to the bottom of the stairs, and jumps off the ship. Captain Brooke reaches the hatch and fires the plasma pistol and the shot goes right through Nigel, killing him instantly. The Mayor jumps and gets a hold on the bottom step of the stairs. He pulls himself up with the intention to climb aboard, but when his head is above the lowest step Brooke helps the Mayor climb aboard. Blast takes a shot at Brooke but miss. Brooke closes the airlock hatch and the ship ascend.
Captain Brooke enters the Bridge of Procrustes, and tells the Helmsman to turn the ship around and go back down to the Town Hall. They removed the ship’s Navigational Folder and hid it in the back yard of the Town Hall, for repairs, two years ago and never bothered to put it back when the repairs were done. Now they’re going to need it back aboard and installed if they’re going to escape the star system without the time dilation problems of traveling at Super Luminous speed.The Helmsman says they can pick up the remaining crew while they’re there. Captain Brooke says they’ll have to prove their loyalty and that they’re still useful, if they want back aboard.
The ship stops its ascent and dives instead, only to level out and fly over the roofs of the town, towards the Town Hall. Blast turns and runs in that direction too, knowing full well he doesn’t have a chance of keeping pace with the ship.
When the ship is halfway to the Town Hall an explosion destroys the Navigational Folder, half the Town Hall and kills the remaining crewmen from Procrustes.
Captain Brooke is in a mixture of anger and disbelief. The Mayor says that Captain Brooke told them to make sure that nobody snooped around the folder, which his men achieved by Booby trapping the folder. They either forgot that it was Booby trapped, or were careless when disarming the explosives. Captain Brooke glowers at the Mayor and then tells the Helmsman to take them out of there.
Blast stops and watch as Procrustes disappears into the sky, until it’s too far away to be visible to the naked eye.
Little Billy was nearly shot, but is going to be okay. He’s lost his brother, though, and he and his parents mourn the death of Nigel. Blast offers his condolences.
The town folks are grateful to Blast for getting rid of the fake Mayor and staff, that they are now free from the usurpers. They want to hold a festival in his honor. Blast graciously declines the invitation and says he should leave, as he promised his husband to be home for dinner. He gathers up the henchmen he caught and put them in stasis pods aboard Themis, so they won’t use up oxygen on the journey home, or try to escape. He asks the town folks to send a message to New Mycenae that he’s on his way home and that he’s had his first successful mission. Blast takes off before they have a chance to send the message.
On the Procrustes bridge the fake ex-mayor tells Captain Brooke about Blast Bolton, and the Captain wonders why someone would name their kid Blast. The mayor says he thinks it was an alias. The view through the bridge windows shows a strange distorted view of the stars outside, as if viewed through a glass sphere, and everything is blue shifted, because of the extreme velocity.
Blast lands Themis in the underground hangar, late at night. He’s a little confused since according to the chronometer in the cockpit it’s not that late. He’s too tired to dig further into it. He lets the robotic system in the hangar guide Themis to an empty berth, and unload the stasis pods, so the prisoners can be awakened and put on trial later. The hangar is full of Patrol Ships just like Themis. He didn’t think that they would be finished in one day, but he is still too tired to find out more.
Blast rides a mostly empty maglev subway train home, nodding off a couple of times.
At home, in the subway, the house is dark. He makes his way inside and brush his teeth, ready to go to bed right away. Someone stands in the door to the bathroom. Blast turns to face the person he thinks is his husband, Julian, and give him a kiss. But it’s not Julian, it’s Peter who’s now eighteen and says “Dad?” That’s the last panel, with a box at the bottom that reads “To be continued.”
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