Spiral, Spin, Ride the whirlwind. Knowing when the drumming stops, There'll be no second dance." Ulatempa Poetess "Rhythms" CY 9825 Command Deck - Crew is gathered around watching a hologram of Rev Bem. Rev Bem: Ever since my time on the Magog world ship I've felt lost, confused. I don't have answers but it's time I started asking the questions wherever they might lead. Until I see you all again - know this, wherever my path may lead even in the darkest places I will carry you all in my heart and you will light my way always. Rommie: That's the entire message. Beka: I knew he was having trouble but I didn't think it was this bad. Trance: The darkest places, I don't like the sound of that. Harper: Me neither. I say we track him down and drag him back here whether he wants to come or not. Tyr: Well he's a free ..... being. He's made his will known Beka: Besides even if we wanted to find him, where would we look? Dylan: Rev Bem can take care of himself and if he wants time to be alone I say we give it to him. Harper: Yeah, easy for you to say. (Walks away) Machine Shop 17 - Dylan enters. Dylan: Harper? Harper are you in here? Harper: NO! Dylan: Look I know you're upset but if Rev has to take off ... (Angrily walking away from Dylan) Harper: Rev promised me he'd find a way to get these Magog parasites out of my gut before they killed me. He made me a promise and OOHH! (Harper doubles over in pain, Dylan catches him.) Dylan: Sit here, come on. (Dylan guides Harper to the bunk) Take your medicine, come on. (Harper breathes in medicine, still wincing) Harper: It's not working. Dylan: Just lie down, there you go. Distorted voices: Sinti Don't let me go! Hang on to me Please! Hang on I got ya! (Harper looks past Dylan to see himself catching a Perseid who is sliding past on the floor) Dylan: Code red. Medical Emergency in machine shop 17! Andromeda: Dylan what's going on down there? Dylan: It's the Magog larvae in Harper's stomach. They're starting to hatch. Come on Harper. Med Deck - Dylan enters - Trance moves away from the bed Harper is on. Trance: Harper should be conscious in an hour or two but I'm not going to lie to you it's not good. Dylan: Details Trance. Trance: Well, the Magog larvae in Harper's belly have developed an immunity to the medicine we've been giving him. They're not going to respond to any more doses. Dylan: Don't tell Harper that. Trance: He has a week at most and then they're going to hatch. Dylan: That is just great. Harper: Sinti .... Beka: Harper? Harper: Sinti. Dylan: The Perseids of course if anyone can help Harper it's them. Beka. Beka: I'm on my way. Harper: I should.... Dylan: You should rest, save your energy. Harper: The Magog larvae what... whatever happens.... Dylan: Don't worry Harper. I won't let them hatch. Command Deck - Dylan enters. Beka: We're entering Sinti Space Dylan: Andromeda, relay all our current information on Harper's condition to Technical Director Hohne. Ask him for any help he can provide. Beka take us in Machine Shop - Harper is looking for something. Harper: Ow! OW! Double ow! Trance: Harper I have been looking all over for you. Harper: Liar. You never have to look for anything Trance you always find what you're looking for pretty much right away. Trance: Okay so I wasn't looking for you but as your acting physician I figure that it's time you got some rest. Harper: Uhh, uhn uhn uhn. You never went to medical school Trance so you are not a regular doctor. Huh. Trance: Lucky for you I'm not a regular doctor 'cause if I were you'd have been dead months ago. Harper: All right, maybe, maybe, but I've got less than a week to live and I'd like to spend every second on finding a cure okay? Now where's that damn nanomanipulator? (Trance hands it to him) Thanks. Hey look, ummm, thanks for everything, you know. Now if you don't mind I could use a little peace and quiet. Trance: Going. (Trance walks off) Harper: (softly) Owwww. Trance stops and comes back to Harper, kissing his cheek. Harper looks surprised and after she leaves he wipes the kiss off and presses his fingers to his lips. Harper: Engineer heal thyself. Airlock Dylan: Technical Director Hohne. Thank you for coming. Rommie: Harper will be very glad you're here. Hohne: Actually I should thank you for bringing this to my attention. I've looked at young Mr. Harper's proposal for removing the Magog larvae, captain. It's startling. Rekeeb: Ground breaking. Hohne: Cutting edge research with a willing fully interactive subject. Mr. Harper's condition will truly preset us with an exciting opportunity. Rekeeb: Once in a lifetime. Dylan: Glad to be of service. Hohne: Now if you'll excuse us we mustn't keep our subject waiting. Rekeeb the equipment. Dylan: (Walking away from the Perseids) Yes, the equipment. (Whispering to Rommie) Tell me again how brilliant he is. Rommie: Startlingly, uncompromising brilliant. One of the greatest minds of the age. Dylan: And Harper's only hope. Rommie: Uh huh. Dylan: Hmmm. Machine Shop Harper: Boom! No more baby Magog, miracle cure. Case closed. Rommie: So you want to remove the larvae by folding space? Hohne: Alice strings and tesseracts. Astounding. If we can work out the specifics of this technology we should be able to literally mold space and time to our will. Harper: Yeah that's the general idea. uhh frankly though I'll be happy if we can just extract my unwanted guests. Hohne: And uh you developed this technology by yourself? Harper: Well technically I uhh confiscated it from some very nasty characters. Hohne: The human allies of the Magog. Rommie: And their creator. Harper: You better believe it baby. They used it to walk through walls, I'm gonna use it to walk through walls, only this time uh stomach walls. Hohne: Oh. Rommie: Harper are you sure this is wise? You barely understand this technology, if it doesn't work .... Harper: I know I know. It'll twist me into an abstract painting. (Puts one hand over his head and one foot up by his ear) Harper - descending staircase. Hohne laughs. Rommie: Okay this isn't a joke. Harper: No it's not, I know. But the way I see it, Rommie, I got nothing to loose. Slip Drive - Dylan sitting on catwalk, Rommie standing at panel. Dylan: If you don't like Harper's plan give me an alternative. Rommie: I wish I could. Dylan: Then we have no choice but to let him go through with it. Rommie: And what if it doesn't work? What if we have to... Dylan: Stop the Magog from hatching? Rommie: To kill him. Dylan: If it comes to that I'll take care of it. Rommie: When you recruited the Maru crew I thought they were unreliable, unprofessional. Harpers closer to me than any engineer I've ever had. Practically closer than any crewmember that's ever served on me. Dylan: Like family. They all are. Hell, even Tyr. Rommie: We should have maintained military detachment. Dylan: Well Rommie we didn't. We couldn't, they needed us and the truth is we needed them. They're all we have. There. (Stands up) Maintain the power feed; let me know if there is anything else we can do. Rommie: Yes sir. Dylan: And transfer the specs for Harper's machine down to my quarters. (Walks out door and into a distortion.) Rommie did you ... Rommie? (Turns around to find a closed hatch) Weird. Alerts sounding Andromeda: Battle stations. Battle stations, all crew man your battle stations. Two crewmen walk past in another hallway Dylan: Stam? Thompson? Thompson! Andromeda: Battle stations. This is not a drill. Dylan: Thompson! (Running after the crewman) Andromeda: Battle stations. Man: Captain, all stations manned and ready. Woman: elapsed time 3 minutes 27 seconds. Man: Too slow. Dylan: (Sees a woman with braided hair going down a ladder) Major Vance. Kiley! (Runs and follows her down the ladder) Andromeda: Battle stations. Dylan: Kiley! Kiley! HoloRommie: Dylan how did you get down here? Dylan: This isn't deck ten. HoloRommie: Deck nineteen. One minute you were on deck nine the next you were 200 meters away, what happened to you? Dylan: I was with our crew. Our original crew and they were alive and they were on this ship. Dylan's Quarters Dylan: It was Thompson I'm sure of it. It was him, Stam, even Kiley Vance were all headed for battle stations. Rommie: Thompson only served with us for one battle Dylan: I know Hephestus. The Nietzscheans ambushed us and we were frozen in time. Rommie: He did die Dylan; I can show you the records if you want. Dylan: I know what I saw Rommie. Rommie: Then what are you suggesting? Time travel? Dylan: Not just time that battle took place over 500,0000 light years from here. (Exhales heavily) Am I losing it? Rommie: Maybe. Dylan: If I were it wouldn't be much of a surprise now would it? Rommie: It would be consistent with the psychological effects of a great deal of stress. Dylan: That's an understatement. Ever since hepehstus my worlds been in pieces. You know if I were hallucinating how does that explain how I disappeared from your internal sensors Huh? Or how did I move 200 meters in just a few seconds? Rommie: The problem is I wasn't programmed or equipped as a science vessel. My expertise runs more along the lines of making things explode Rev Bem was our theoretical physicist. Dylan: Yeah. He was also our ship's psychologist... but he's not here. Rommie: No he's not. Hallway HoloRommie: Harper is there a chance your machine is working already? Harper: I wish. Why? HoloRommie: Dylan experienced something strange on deck nine. Harper: Oh and of course it's all my fault. Well I hate to disappoint you but we've barely gotten started. My stomach is killing me literally. Dylan is the least of my problems. HoloRommie: I understand. Let me know if you need anything. (Holo dissipates) Harper: How about a new gut, hold the Magog eggs. Harper entering Machine Shop Harper: Tell me you got it all figured out. Hohne: Not all but we've made a good start. Rekeeb: Observe. Harper: You want to add a photonic resonator? Hohne: We need it to maintain absolute control of the string rotations. Harper: Aha because otherwise we'd end up playing Alice string roulette in the key of F. This may actually work Hohne: I must say, two year ago if you'd have told me that someday I'd develop a cutting edge application of string theory with a human from earth I'd have thought it as likely as a borillian meteor shower. Hohne and Rekeeb giggle Harper: All right all right. Look, the two of you at least pretend you're not having so much fun okay? Remember my life is hanging by a thread here. Rekeeb: An Alice string Perseids Giggling Harper: Oh see that's exactly what I'm talking about; science jokes. Distorted sounds, voices - Tyr enters Hohne: Mr. Anasazi... Harper: (nervously) Tyr? You need something? Tyr: This is clearly not my quarters. (Stalks over to Harper) Harper; I sincerely hope that you and your excitable friends aren't involving me in your experiments. (grabs Harper by the back of the neck) Harper: (gasping in pain) ahh! Ahh! Ooh! Ahh! Magog eggs remember? ow! OW! Tyr I promise on my potential list of lab rats you are absolutely 100 % dead last. Honest. Hohne: Did anyone notice that energy distortion? Puzzling. (opens door) Whaaaaah! Crew deck Andromeda: Hull breech in machine shop 17. Dylan: Hull breech? The machine shop is 50 meters from an outside bulkhead. Rommie: I can't seal it; my control over the airlocks has been disrupted somehow. Dylan: Come on. (They run out into a distortion and find themselves back in the same room) Okay explain this. On the Maru - Trance hears the distorted sounds and voices. Trance: Hello is somebody there? (Steps out into the hall and drops bonsai tree as robot swings at her with a metal pole) Whoa! Oh! You're not supposed to be here. Help! Machine shop Rekeeb: Help me! (Pulled along the deck by the wind) Harper: Oh no you don't hang on Rekeeb. Rekeeb: Please don't let me go! (Harper sees himself on the bed when the Magog began to hatch earlier) Harper: Hang on I got ya, I got ya! Rekeeb: Oh please! Hohne: Help meeeeeee! (Tyr releases the panel he's been clinging to and is pulled across the deck by the air. He grabs Hohne and pulls him back in and closes the door) (NOTE: if you listen closely, you can hear the skateboard that Keith was pulled along on.) Panting and gasping Harper: Whew! Tyr: GO! Distortion - they appear on Obs Deck Rekeeb: Oh what? Tyr: Lovely. Maru (Robot is still trying to hit Trance; Beka enters and fires at robot taking it down.) Beka: Ummm, I'm sensing freakiness. Trance: He's uh some kind of robot. Beka: Uh, he not just any robot Trance. This is one of the killer robots from the Pax Magellanic that we fought over a year ago. Trance: you think he's been hiding here this whole time? Beka: Not likely. What did you do Trance? Trance: Hey I haven't done anything, I swear. B: Okay then give me a theory. What's your best guess? T: Well I suppose it's possible that the Maru now and the Maru then have become connected somehow but if that were true there's only one possible explanation - Space and time have become very messed up. Distortion - back on the Andromeda Rommie: Finally! Comm. channel opens Dylan: Can anyone hear us? Tyr: Perfectly sir, however getting to your location is another matter entirely. Harper: Every doorway on this ship seems to be set on scramble. Beka: Guys we just ran into one of the Pax Magellanic killer robots from over a year ago. Trance thinks that time and space have become distorted somehow Trance: I said it was just a guess. Rommie: the crewmen in the hallway Dylan: Harper's tesseracting device, it has to be. Harper: I told Rommie, it's not working yet. Dylan: Maybe it doesn't have to work now to affect now. If the device you're building can reshape space and time it might also be distorting it. Rommie: from the time it was completed yes. Harper: In the future. Holy freaking Kali melons. So when we finish the device and activate it it's gonna send out some kind of temporal shock waves. Hohne: Yes. Backwards in time until now. Rekeeb: Temporal flux. Oh Dear. Tyr: Problem solved you've already stopped working on the device now we can disassemble it. Immediately. Hohne: I wish we could. Unfortunately under the current circumstances finding the correct machine shop is going to be rather difficult and I uh I uh took the liberty of uh assembling several miniature robots to begin the assembly process Dylan: so it's building itself? Now that is just wonderful! Rommie: Dylan we have a situation Dylan: we certainly do Rommie: No these disturbances aren't limited to the Andromeda Dyaln: What are you taking about? Rommie: They're also happening on Sinti and with a far greater degree of intensity than here and if we don't stop them they'll tear the planet apart Dylan: This keeps getting better and better doesn't it? Distortion as Tyr, Harper and the Perseids walk down a corridor Harper: Obs Deck again?! Tyr: all right, we need a plan. You! Come up with one now. Hohne: I assure you I'm trying. There must be a mathematically predictable pattern to the distortions but so far it eludes me. Rekeeb: Chaos theory. Tyr: And if you have nothing helpful to add, say nothing. Scientist give me a headache. Harper: They give me a stomachache. (Distortion heard and Kiley Vance appears) Kiley: What the... (Weapons powering up) Kiley: Intruders! Harper: No. No. No. No. uh this is all just a umm a spatial temporal misunderstanding Kiley: Nietzschean, drop the gun or we'll kill you where you stand! Distortion - Maru Airlock opens onto a beach scene of high winds and rain. Beka closes door. Trance: What was that? Beka: Uhh, monsoon season on Gahanna I think. Trance: you mean that door just opened to another planet? That can not be good. Distortion heard - shrilling screeches Beka: Crap! Kalderans, move back! (Weapons firing, bad guys falling) Hallway - Andromeda Dylan: Deck 57? This should be deck 19. This is like trying to pilot a slipfighter blindfolded. Rommie: I can't even connect to the ship's AI my core intelligence is spread out over six decks and right now haha its as scrambled as the rest of the ship Dylan: Okay, okay. Here's the plan We split up double of chances of success Hopefully we'll get to the machine shop, stop Hohne's experiment from finishing itself if not then maybe one of us can get to command Rommie: And move the ship away from Sinti Dylan: Yeah keep this thing from spreading to the planet. Go. Rommie: Going. (Dylan walks up ramp Rommie goes on down then turns back) Rommie: Oh, Dylan.... Distortion heard Rommie: Dylan? Dylan? Dylan is gone Maru- battle between Beka and the Kalderans Beka: why are there Kalderans on my ship? There shouldn't be Kalderans on my ship! There have never been Kalderans on my ship! Trance: Yet! Beka: You mean these guys are from our future? Trance: something to look forward to. (More shooting, screeching, bad guys falling) Andromeda - - Distortion heard - Dylan walks through doorway Dylan: Oh come on! I am getting sick and tired of this cut and paste ship! Okay, here's the deal, (points finger at door) you will open onto the command deck and that is an order on three! One... two... three... (Distortion sound - Dylan appears out in the hallway) Dylan: Good at least were getting warmer. (Sounds of gunfire and Dylan runs for cover, looks down corridor to see Tyr running toward him) Dylan: Tyr! What going on? Tyr: I was hoping you might know. Kiley: Nietchean give it up there's nowhere to run! Dylan: Kiley! Kiley: Captain Hunt? (Calls to men behind her) Hold your fire. Sir. (Salutes) Dylan; (salutes) Major Vance. Report. Kiley: What's going on here? Dylan: You first. Kiley: We were manning battle stations in response to the Nietchean ambush. We fund him. When he refused to surrender we opened fire. Tyr: And postponed asking questions indefinitely. Kiley: Captain none of these corridors lead where they should. Everything... it's different Dylan: I'll explain later right now I need to.... Gunfire and screeching heard Dylan: Now what!? Tyr: Kalderans. Gunfire, bad guys falling Dylan: Major hold off the Kalderans. Tyr! Find that machine shop, I'm headed for command. Go! Kiley: In Dylan Hunt we trust. Dylan: Kiley.... it's good to see you again. Kiley: You heard the captain Distortion - Harper and Perseids in crawlway Harper: This defiantly does not look like the latrine, which I suppose, is a good thing. Hohne: Oh dear this is all my fault. I never imagined the tesseracts machines side effects would be so disruptive. Harper: I just wish I knew what we did wrong. Rekeeb: Not did. Will do. These events are emanating from the future. Harper: Aggghhh! (Doubles over in pain, Perseids are oblivious) Hohne: Oh dear. Harper inhales medicine, panting: I wish you'd stop saying that. (Crawling into tunnel) Hohne follows: Now don't you see? We're experiencing the distortions now so that means we must have failed somehow in the future. It's a classic predestination paradox. The activation may be unavoidable destiny. Harper: I don't believe in destiny and I don't even believe in density except in the hands of Perseids. It's a compliment. I believe in Seamus Zelazny Harper. I cogito therefore I sum and I sum to cogito the damn machine right out of existence capiche? Hohne: I do, I actually do. You seek to defy fate through a sheer act of will. Harper: Yeah baby you better believe it a man makes his own density. Hohne: Destiny. Harper: Yeah that too. Hohne: Oh allow me. (squeezes past Harper to exit the conduit first) Harper: Okay (Distortion is heard as Hohne steps out) Hohne: Ahhhh! (Falls, catches railing) Oh my, I seem to have... (Harper climbs out, falls down stairs) (Distortion heard again as Rekeeb falls onto railing) Hohne: Down here! Mr. Harper? Harper jumps up and grabs Rekeeb: Oh no! Oh no you don't, come on! (pulls Rekeeb back to catwalk as Hohne slips more.) Hohne: Oh dear. Harper: Don't move Hohne! Hohne: I'm afraid I've never been very good at this sort of thing. Mr. Harper.... (Harper grabs Hohne) oh good show, ahhh. Harper: grab my shoulder, come on. Hohne: Yes. Harper: Now on the count of three you're gonna climb up me, okay. Hohne: Yeah Harper: Ready? One, two three (Pulls Hohne up but the Perseid slips back down) Hang on, no! No don't, Dylan'll kill me! (Hohne slips more) Come on, no don't! (Hohne screams as he losses his grip on Harper's hand and falls into the slip core.) (Rekeeb and Harper crawling through conduit) Rekeeb: there was nothing we could do, it was fate, irrevocable destiny. Harper: Bull it was bad luck, stupidity. There's no such thing as destiny. Rekeeb: But the universe is entangled on a quantum level who's to say how one event is bound to another? Perhaps all thing are predetermined. Harper: Al right the only thing predetermined is that you are going to shut up or I'm going to shove that chin in your mouth and shut you up. Rekeeb: Your human tendency toward violence .... Harper: Pales in comparison to my human tendency not to give up. We are gonna find that machine, we are going to make sure that nobody else dies because of it and nothing is going to stop us not even the laws of temporal mechanics. Comprende? Rekeeb: Uhhuh beyond all margin for error. Harper: Good. Now move! (Distortion sound as Rommie climbs down ladder and see Dylan) Rommie: Fancy meeting you here. Dylan: Is it just me or is there some kind of pattern to these jumps. Rommie: I've almost got it figured out, it's an inverse curve the faster we try to move toward our goal the more radical the jumps in time and space get. Dylan: So we give in. Rommie: Yes move at right angles toward our goal. Dylan: And let the tesseracts carry us in the right direction. Rommie, you have the helm. Rommie: This way. Maru- screeching sounds Beka fires on Kalderans, a shot from behind takes out a bad guy just about to get her in the back and Beka turns to see.....a cyborg version of herself. Beka: Thanks. Bekaborg: Don't mention it. Beka: you uhh, you're me. Trance is heard calling distantly: Beka Help! Bekaborg: I can't get into this right now. Later. (Leaves) Beka blasts a Kalderan chasing Trance Beka: Trance, you will never guess who I just met. Trance: a scary futuristic version of yourself? She went that way (points toward falling, screeching Kalderans. Metal clanging, Kalderans screeching. Beka and Trance run toward the commotion to find a red haired girl fighting off Kalderans with a sword. The girl pulls a gun, fires at a Kalderan and turns toward them shouting: Behind You! She fires killing a Kalderan Beka and Trance both look shocked Beka: Trance?! Gold Trance: Beka. I forgot how beautiful you were. Beka: uhh, thanks. Trances look at each other Purple Trance: You're me. From the future. Gold Trance: More or less Purple Trance: Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to? Gold Trance: No. Things are bad and there getting worse. I made a lot of mistakes. Purple Trance: So are we going to loose? Gold Trance: At best we are not going to win. You know what we have to do. Purple Trance: Is it the only way? Gold Trance: There is one perfect possible future but I have not seen it yet. Beka holds up hand: Ummm could someone provide me with a translation please? Purple Trance: Beka I have to go but don't worry I'm not really leaving I'm just. ...changing. Everything will be okay you'll see (Purple Trance walks off into distortion) Beka: where'd she go? Trance: She didn't go anywhere she grew up, she's me. Let's go. Beka: I want an explanation NOW! Trance: No you wouldn't understand. Beka grabs Trance's arm: Trance! Tell me what the hell just happened or I will drop you off at the next rock we find and leave you there! Trance: Beka if I tell you everything it would be very dangerous for me, for you, for everyone but please believe me this a watershed event in space and time and if we don't handle this crisis exactly right things are going to go very badly for us. Beka: Ok so that's why you changed places with your other self? To make sure things go right? Trance: Well I can't make things go right not exactly but I do know how they can go wrong because I've been there and believe me you do not want to live that future no one does. Beka: This is crazy I thought the past was immutable that it can't be changed. Trance: Well it can't but this is not the past h this is the present and I can fix it so come on. Beka: You can see probabilities right glimpse into the future? Trance: Sometimes. Beka: Good. Then you know what'll happen if I find out you're lying to me. (Beka and Trance walk out doorway distortion and Harper and Rekeeb walk in) Harper: This is new. (Gunfire) Harper: Fight! (Harper blasts Kalderans left and right while Rekeeb whimpers) Harper: Don't you carry a weapon? Rekeeb whimpers and shakes head 'No' Distortion - Door opens onto Andromeda command deck Dylan: Yes! Good job Rommie. Rommie: I've got major disturbances all over Sinti and my mainframe is still out of commission. (Andromeda speaking garbled, image flickering) Dylan: Assuming manual control. Rommie: We've got plasma leaks all over the ship the conduits must be tesseracting. Dylan: Just give me enough power to reach escape velocity. Rommie: Rerouting. (Alarms sound sparks fly, ship turns) Dylan: Come on Rommie. Come on! Rommie: We're out of orbit. Disturbances on the planet are abating, plasma leaks are approving critical levels. Dylan: Shut down the engines. Rommie: Done. Plasma leaks are under control; vectoring away from Sinti at a steady 15 psl. Dylan: Problem one solved. (Running out with Rommie) Now for problem two. Maru- Harper blasts Kalderan takes it's rifle debates and hands his pistol to Rekeeb Harper: Uhh, take this. Rekeeb: Please I'm just a simple field researcher I can't do this. Harper: Aaahhh! (Winces) Rekeeb if I can do this so can you now come on. Rekeeb: Wait, wait I've been analyzing the radiation signatures of the tesseract events, perhaps there is a pattern. Harper hands his rifle to Rekeeb and takes the data pad: Rekeeb this is genius. I take back everything I ever said about you. Now come on and shoot anybody you see Rekeeb: What are you doing? Harper: Saving our butts I hope. (Door opens in distortion) Rekeeb: You've harnessed a tesseract field. Harper: Yeah, thanks to those numbers you gave me this baby should lead us straight to the machine shop. Come on. Rekeeb: But those numbers were strictly theoretical if they're not correct you could be torn to pieces. Harper: I'm already being torn to pieces. Magog eggs remember? All Right. All right. If it makes you feel any better think of it like this you'll be participating in an exciting temporal experiment with a willing subject. Rekeeb: But if I am to be the experimenter how can I also be the subject? Harper: Like this (grabs Rekeeb and drags him into the distortion with him They land in a corridor) Rekeeb: This is not the machine shop. Harper: No really? Beka: Harper? Thank God. (Beka hugs Harper) I was worried sick Trance: Harper. Harper powers up his gun: Trance? Trance: It's me it's just a new me. Harper: What the .... Beka: Temporal mechanics give me a headache. (she pushes Harper's gun down) Harper: Tell me about ahhhh! (Winces) I'm telling you, one more like that and I'm gonna be the father of six baby Magog. Trance: Follow me. Harper: Follow you? We don't even know you. Trance: I'm still Trance and if you'd like d to get out of here alive I suggest you do as I say. Harper: What... Beka shrugs and they all follow Trance. Distortion sound and door opens - Dylan and Rommie enter Dylan: All right. Machine shop. (Door opposite opens and Trance and the others enter) Dylan: Good timing Beka.... what...Trance? That... that is you? Trance: Right, last time, I'm Trance, basically the same person only older and Harper only has a few minutes to live so I suggest you focus on him right now. Harper: The tesseracting machine is finished. Dylan: Good activate it take out the eggs and then you can destroy this thing once and for all. Harper: Uhh, Dylan, uhh it's not that simple.... Hohne, he's dead because of this.... because he tried to help me. Rommie: The Sinti government will be furious. Beka: Well whatever, we can't help what happened. Dyaln: Maybe we can. (Looks at Trance) You did by being here. How? Trance: The tesseracts, they've created a warp in space-time, one which allows a paradox, what we do here will reshape reality as we know it. It can change the future or the past. Harper: Uhh, what, uhh, what if..... what if we don't activate it huh? What if, ummm, what if we destroy it instead? Trance: Then the distortions will be cancelled out, I will return back to the future and my younger self will be restored. Dylan: And Hohne will be brought back to life. Rommie: But the Magog eggs in Harper's belly will hatch and he'll die. Beka: On the other hand if he activates the machine he'll be saved but Hohne will be dead and we'll be stuck with (points at Trance) (Weapon powers up) Rekeeb: No one move! (Dylan's lance powers up as does Harper's gun) Dylan: Don't be stupid. Drop the gun. Trance steps between Harper and Rekeeb, facing the Perseid. Rekeeb: Enough! Enough of this insanity, enough of the violence! Destroy the machine now or I'll kill everyone here and do it myself! Why aren't you listening to me? Hohne was the greatest mind of our age. We have to save him. Harper: Gee lay the stress on a little thicker why don't ya? (winces) Ahhh! Rekeeb: Don't move, I have the gun you have to do what I say! (Weapons firing in the distance) Harper: Oh No. Dylan: Not again. Rommie: Magog. (Dylan fires lance, shooting the gun out of Rekeeb's hand. Door opens and Tyr charges through fighting Magog. Beka, Dylan Rommie and Harper jump out in the 'Charlie's Angels' pose and fire at the Magog crowding in the doorway as Tyr tumbles in. Lot of gunfire, smoke and a Magog fingernail that gets cut off when the door closes.) Tyr: Did I come at a bad time? Dylan: No I'd say you came at a very, very good time. So Mr. Harper what do you want to do about the machine? Harper: I don't know, uhhh, maybe, uhh, maybe Rekeeb was right ....I mean I'm just a good looking, young, brilliant engineer. Hohne .... Horne's a genius. I mean if it's him or me he's the one that really matters. Rekeeb nods and Trance glances furtively around as she moves closer to the tesseract machine. Beka: Don't say that. Harper: No its true Beka. I mean he was one of a kind, he was the first one to commit to your new commonwealth and ... and he was my friend I can't just choose my life over his. (Harper powers up his gun and aims at the machine) Let's destroy it before I , uhh change my mind. Dylan: Harper if we destroy this machine you know what I'm gonna have to do. Tyr: What someone will have to do. I made him a promise I'll keep it. Harper: Thanks. Just try not to enjoy it okay? Trance activates the machine and Harper is startled by the sound of it powering up. The beam strikes him and he falls back, the Magog separate from his body disappearing in a crackle of energy. Harper falls to the deck, caught by Dylan and Beka. Trance: There. That's better. Beka: Trance? Dylan: What have you done? Tyr aims at Trance. Trance: I saved Harper's life. On the commend deck Andromeda: We're in orbit Dylan: Disruptions? HoloRommie: The spatial temporal effects of the tesseracts have ceased. Dylan: Good, contact the Sinti General Council, we'd better tell them what happed to Hohne. Med Deck Beka: Seamus? Harper inhales deeply and opens his eyes. Beka: Rise and shine Harper sits up abruptly: Ahhh, oooh (wincing with a hand over his stomach) My aches ache. Beka: Just be glad you're around to feel it. Harper looks to Rommie: The larvae? Rommie: Gone. Thanks to Trance. Harper: Yeah at the cost of Hohne's life. Beka: What's done is done. Harper: Yeah I'm not so sure anymore. Rommie: The important thing is, Harper you're alive and as for the cost there's no way to change that, all you can do is earn it. Harper pulls off his medicine dispenser. Dylan walking down ramp Andromeda: There's no sign of any dead Kalderans or Magog, all systems are fully operational again. Dylan: Good. What about Kiley? Andromeda: Gone. Dylan: That's too bad, she's a good officer. Andromeda: Was. Dylan: Yeah. That leaves only one last loose end. Obs Deck Dylan: What am I supposed to do with you? Trance: I don't know, keep me around I hope. Dylan: I'm trying to think of a persuasive reason to do that but I'm having trouble. Trance: Because you don't trust me. Dyalan: Trust is something you earn. Trance: Then give me a chance. Dylan: I always knew you had your own plans, but I also knew that your plans and mine were basically the same - peace, order, a better universe. Trance: My goals haven't changed. Dylan: Beka says the future you came from was a bad one. One where things went wrong and you came back to set things right. So tell me how saving Harper and loosing Hohne does that. How does that set things right? Trance: I don't know if it does. To tell you the truth, I didn't save Harper to change the past or the future for all I know I made things worse. Dylan: Then why? Trance: For the one reason that does matter. Because Hohne is a stranger and Harper is my friend. Dylan: Huh. Well. That's a change anyway. Trance: What? Dylan: Honesty. Trance: But it doesn't answer your questions dose it? About what to do with me. Dylan: No, it doesn't. But it's a start. It's a start.