Episode Recap: White Rabbit

Melantha Jhirl finds Captain Eris in a nature dome on the Nightflyer, and he tells her
about his mother importing her consciousness into the ship – that his mother is now the
ship. Jhirl helps him to stop hearing his mother. They kiss. But boy oh boy, mother is up
to no good – she is making poor D’Branin’s dead daughter appear and torture him. Oh, and the random crew member? Another ship “malfunction” locks him into that cold
storage cargo hold and it’s probably not going to end well.

D’Branin and Rowan head to quarters and find a shocking surprise: the space probe
that they sent to intercept the Volcryn ship. The huge probe named “White Rabbit” that
they had shoved off into deep space to rendezvous with the alien ship is now somehow in the center of D’Branin’s room. And it looks like it’s seen some deep space action, with and dust all over the exterior. This will require some studying… did the Volcryn do it?

Back in isolation, Thale is meeting with Matheson. He starts sensing extreme cold and
the shocking sensation of death. The telepath has an episode, and knows that someone is now dead on the ship. Matheson goes to tell Eris, and together with Thale they search for the source of his experience. He leads them to the cargo hold and the dead crew member, who has been frozen solid.

Rowan and D’Branin pull Lommie into their probe investigation team in D’Branin’s room, while mother seems to be increasing the heat in his quarters to a very uncomfortable degree. Eris and Jhirl head to the room and find out what’s going on. The mother in his head begins to scream even more – she wants that probe off of her ship. But the group is able to convince Eris to hold his mother off for one day so they can investigate further the possible contact from alien life.

Matheson has an experience in the memory pod showing how close she and D’Branin
once were. They dated before he got together with his wife Joy, and it seems like
Matheson still has feelings.

Back in D’Branin’s sweat box quarters, the group finds that the probe is bleeding and
there is organic material inside. Could that be the lifeform of the Volcryn? A blood test
reveals: The it’s a match to Karl D’Branin. Holy wha? Against the recommendations of
her peers, Lommie plugs the port from the probe into her arm. Danger!

D’Branin saves a message to his wife telling her that it’s OK for her to release all
memories of him. Looks like he is prepping a break-up, but the message remains
unsent. And Lommie has an intense experience with the probe that Thale shares before she is able to unplug. Then the probe begins to release blood and die.

Due to a vision created by mother Cynthia Eris, D’Branin learns that after they split up,
Matheson was pregnant with his child and chose not to have it. It’s a big revelation and
instead of tearing them apart seems to bring them closer together.

Then Lommie tells D’Branin that the data in the probe tells her that it was out in space
for more than one thousand years. How is that possible?