The Scott and Jean Archives
Xavier awakens from a nightmare. An alien being has sought his help after being chased and struck down by Imperial ships.
Disturbed, Xavier calls a meeting with the X-Men in the middle of the night. THe next day, a space shuttle, Starcore, is due for launch to “study a unique solar vortex in space”. Xavier believes it has something to do with his dream, and the space crew might be in danger if the X-Men did not intervene.
At dawn, the X-Men infiltrate the base of the launch where the Starcore crew is preparing for launch. Cyclops, Jean, Gambit, Wolverine and Beast are to replace the Starcore crew for their space mission. With the help of Jean’s telepathy, the X-Men appear to Dr Corbeau as his Starcore crew. They carry on with the launch as scheduled.
When they arrive at the Eagle One Station, they are knocked out by gas. Under orders from Emperor D’Ken, the Eric the Red and the Shi’ar soldiers have Dr Corbeau captured and the X-Men disposed of, but Jean, the first to awaken manages to control the Eagle One Station crew (who were already mind-controlled by the Shi’ar) to stop the airlock from opening and throwing the X-Men out into space.
The X-Men interfere with the Eric the Red’s plans to destroy the rebel spacecraft emerging from a wormhole, the very craft in Xavier’s dream. Eric the Red and the Shi’ar soldiers abandon Eagle One after Cyclops’ attack compromised the space station.
The X-Men and Dr Corbeau retreat as well, only to find that Starcore has been damaged, leaving them unprotected from radiation when they re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Beast suggests they hide in the solar probe on board Starcore for protection but the auto pilot is down and someone would have to stay at the controls to manually land the craft.
As leader of the X-Men, Cyclops volunteers his life to land the craft, but Jean stops him and sacrifices herself instead, claiming her telekinetic shield will give her the most optimal chances among everyone on board. She telepathically acquires piloting information from Dr Corbeau.
As Starcore heads back to Earth, Jean finds her telekinetic shields compromising under the strain of the radiation.