His father is Tabor Saroyan, the governor of Vistula. I suppose I should notify him personally.
Just how serious is his condition?
It's his nerves controlling his voluntary muscles and motor coordination. They're deteriorating, just like all the others.
Others?
Yes. The Computer Council has ordered that a definitive statement to the general public not be made just yet. But so far here in New Chicago, 25,000 case have been reported.
When did all this start?
Three days ago, while you and Buck were gone. And another thing: this disease, or whatever it is, has cropped up in other cities on Earth, but here in New Chicago it's much, much worse... You see, what the Computer Council is trying to keep secret is its effect on our defense squadrons, for they've been hardest hit of all.
— Dr. Elias Huer and Col. Wilma Deering discuss the condition affecting Regis Saroyan, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century's "Planet of the Slave Girls"
- Capt. William "Buck" Rogers and Col. Wilma Deering perform a training flight run in a Thunderfighter, call sign Earth Recon One, returning to Earth via Stargate 4. Rogers feels disoriented after exiting the space warp, and Deering notes that it is a normal reaction to those who've experienced the space warping for the first time.
- After exiting, they come across a pirate attack on a Thunderfighter referenced as Scout Three. Its pilot, a young man named Regis Saroyan, is scared and sick. Over the distress channel, Rogers hears Scout Three's call for assistance.
- Scout Three's leader, Maj. Duke Danton, admonishes Saroyan for lagging behind and instructs him to engage in evasive maneuvers while the rest of the Scout squadron loops back for him.
- From Earth Recon One, Rogers shares his belief that Scout Three won't make it, and Deering agrees with the assessment. Between Rogers' piloting skills and Deering's shooting, they are able to fend off the attack, saving Saroyan at Danton's chagrin. Rogers surveys Scout Three's damage, noting that he sustained a hit on his starboard side.
- After Danton and Rogers get into a verbal tit-for-tat, Danton challenges Rogers to repeat his statements regarding "Funk & Wagnalls" face-to-face in New Chicago's flight bay. Rogers agrees while Deering, recognizing the voice, smirks silently.
- The pilots make their landings, and Danton grills Saroyan, who is clearly clammy and feverish. Rogers is quick to note this, and catches Saroyan before he face-plants into the hangar floor.
- After Saroyan is taken away to the Directorate clinic, Danton identifies Rogers as being the one who interfered with a Directorate training mission. Before they get further into it, Deering arrives. Danton corrects himself after calling her by her first name, and in the ensuing conversation she confirms that Rogers had her permission to interfere
- After Deering formally introduces Rogers to the chagrined Danton, the conversation switches the subject to Rogers' status as a member of the Defense Directorate. Deering makes the suggestion that Rogers head up one of Danton's defense-technique training sessions, and after Danton becomes incredulous at the suggestion, Deering's tone shifts: she orders Danton to introduce Rogers to his class, so that he may instruct them on 20th century battle strategy.
- After Deering is told Regis Saroyan's name by Danton, she leaves. Further exacerbating the tension, Rogers stops Deering after he reminds her of drinks at his place at 1900 hours, she replies jocularly in the affirmative: "You know something, Buck Rogers? I'll be there."
- Rogers leaves the flight hangar after sharing a final, rhetorical question: "She's some kind of woman, isn't she?" Frustrated at being emasculated, Danton slaps a boom needle of Saroyan's fighter.
- Deering and Dr. Elias Huer visit a feverish and delirious Regis Saroyan in his medical room. Huer shares with her that Saroyan's father, Tabor Saroyan, is the governor of Vistula and notes that he'll contact the governor personally regarding his son's condition. Deering learns that other persons have been affected over the course of the last three days that Deering and Rogers were gone. Over 25,000 people in New Chicago have been affected, including cases cropping up in other cities. Most of all, the Computer Council has held off on a public announcement due to the more damning fact: the sickness has hit the Defense Directorate's pilot corps the hardest out of any other group.
- After Deering asks if the sickness might be a deliberate action from an unknown party, Huer brings her to the Science Directorate, introducing her to Dr. Mallory, his assistant Stella Warden and the ambuquad Carl. A haughty Carl retorts that it also finds Huer "less than memorable," obliquely noting that Huer introduced them last.
- Mallory reveals that, while an antidote to the poison has not been found, they have found the source of the poison, and have devised a means to test for it. To Huer's surprise, the source of the poison are food discs, consumed daily by millions of Terrans. Deering questions how such a thing is possible, as food production and distribution is highly regulated by the Food Directorate to prevent such things, and Mallory does not have an answer for that. The poisoned individuals, while not deceased and thus have a modicum of health, have not fully recovered.
- An exuberantly optimistic Mallory notes that with Carl's help they'll be able to find a remedy and return the pilots to full functioning ability in no time.
- Meanwhile, Rogers lectures a class of Defense Directorate cadets, noting the use of football in battle strategies. Danton comedically eggs Rogers on while his own cadets giggle and display incredulous immaturity during the lecture. Despite Rogers approach, the lecture degrades into a physical altercation that upheaves the lecture room, following examples of "sacking the quarterback," "clipping" and other types of tackles.
- Summoned by the commotion that could be heard in an adjoining corridor, Dr. Theopolis and Twiki make their way into the room to see Danton have the final word—dismissing his cadets after ordering them to report to the hangar at 0800 the next morning—after tackling Rogers and forcing him into a rack of helmets, pinning Rogers underneath its bulk.
- After Danton and his cadets disperse, Dr. Theopolis reacts to the display: "Two grown men fighting. How disgusting." As Rogers extricates himself from under the rack, he meekly explains that he was giving a demonstration.
