Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.
Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

Karm'Luk P'an Ku,
The Joy of Lucidity
C.Y. 8633

[Hydroponics]

(Beka is doing flies, lifting a pair of weights from the side to above her head.)
TYR: No touching. Beka, how many times do I need to remind you about your form? Now don't clang the weights.
BEKA: Sorry. I guess I'm just not really focusing.
TYR: The Maru?
BEKA: This is the longest it's ever been out of my sight.
TYR: He gave you the Andromeda. I'd call that sufficient collateral.
BEKA: Yeah.
TYR: Your form.
BEKA: All right. Only the Andromeda is dead in the water right now. So Dylan gets to run around looking for parts, uh, ow, and I have to sit around here on my butt all day. Besides which, the Maru is not just a ship. It's my livelihood. It's the hospital where I was born. I opened Christmas presents in the airlock when I was a kid. And after the Salvage Guild's debutante ball, it's where I lost my ah.
TYR: Can we concentrate on training, please?
BEKA: How am I supposed to concentrate when he took Trance?
TYR: That's a good thing, isn't it? What did you call her? Your lucky charm?
BEKA: My lucky charm. My lucky charm. Not Dylan's.

[Eureka Maru]

HUNT: Rev, Harper, we finally located an AP Solenoid valve here on Sigma Tau Five, so you can stop looking and, well, enjoy Seneschal Drift.
(The airlock door opens.)
HUNT: By the time you get this message, we'll be a few days away from picking up and heading home, so we will see you soon. Dylan out. Trance, did you manage to pick up
(A trio of thugs in motorcycle helmets enter. The first starts shooting but the stuns don't affect Hunt very much. The other two go hand to hand until the taser man can get a good shot in and they finally get Hunt to his knees, where he can be punched and kicked out.)
COMMANDO: That's enough! Take him.
(They drag hunt away, leaving behind a decorated pin or button. Later, Trance enters carrying a box.)
TRANCE: Hey, Dylan! You'll never believe what that weaselly old Nightsider wanted to charge us to put the valve into the cargo hold. Oh, I wasn't going to, oops.
(She steps on her own tail and drops something. She stoops to pick it up again.)
TRANCE: I wasn't about to let him rip us off like that, so I happened to mention how big the Andromeda was, and I said hey, why don't you give us a volume discount. Dylan? Dylan?
(She sees what might be blood on the bulkhead and the pin on the floor.)

[Cell]

(In a very high rise building where the same logo on the pin is also on the wall. Hunt is fastened to a chair and being questioned by a woman.)
HUNT: Where am I?
LAWYER: Confess.
HUNT: I confess I don't know where I am.
LAWYER: You're being a little glib, aren't you, considering the seriousness of the charges? Murder, terrorism, conspiracy.
HUNT: I did all that while I was unconscious?
LAWYER: Only the last charge is current. The others date from your previous visit. So why don't you tell us about that mission.
HUNT: I don't know what you're talking about.
LAWYER: Really? Then how did you get this?
(A circular scar on his torso.)

[Memory - Spacedock]

CREWMAN: Admiral on deck.
(A woman enters behind Hunt. He doesn't turn around.)
HUNT: Admiral Stark.
STARK: How did you know?
HUNT: Let me think. Sealed orders. No signature, no mission specifics. Now who else would it be?
STARK: That's employing good, practical intuition. Nothing you picked up from that ivory tower war college on Tarn-Vedra.
HUNT: No, ma'am. I picked that up from Sarah.
STARK: Sarah? You'd better be taking good care of my niece, Commander.
HUNT: Why do I get the feeling that after every date, you receive a report in triplicate?
STARK: Very astute.
HUNT: So, when are we going to talk about the mission.
STARK: There is no mission, unless you agree to it.
HUNT: It's one of those missions.
STARK: Yes, one of those missions. It's voluntary, so if you don't take it, I won't think any less of you.
HUNT: That's very comforting, ma'am, but you still can't tell me anything about it.
STARK: I can give you a number. Five billion people at risk.
HUNT: And how many of these people will have to die?
STARK: If you do it right, none.
HUNT: Then I accept.
STARK: Good. Your code name will be April. You'll get your exact mission details after site arrival. Now there's someone I want you to meet.
(Gaheris Rhade enters.)
STARK: Mister March, meet Mister April. Mister April, Mister March.
RHADE: Good to meet you.
HUNT: Likewise.

[Cell]

HUNT: April.
LAWYER: What? What was that?
HUNT: Dylan Hunt. Commonwealth Captain. HE5095C21922.
LAWYER: So, Captain Hunt, you admit you're from the Commonwealth. That's a start. Now why don't you tell us how you got that scar.
HUNT: Dylan Hunt. Commonwealth Captain. HE5095C219
(The lawyer beckons someone over. The lights go down and they start hitting Hunt.)

[Eureka Maru]

TRANCE: Button. Button. Who's got the button. Computer? How long will it take to send a message to Rev and Harper on Seneschal Drift?
COMPUTER: Using available courier ships, estimated time of delivery, eight days.
TRANCE: Eight days. Right.
TRANCE: Er, hi, guys, this is Trance. I just, you know how sometimes things happen that you can't quite predict and sometimes they're good and sometimes they're not? Well, this is one of those not times. Help.

[Cell]

(Hunt is thrown face first into the wall. The lawyer enters.)
LAWYER: Frankly, I don't understand your reluctance. The Great Compass already knows the truth. He just wants you to admit your wrongs so he can help you, set you on the true arc. So end this. Admit your intent. You were planning to assassinate our leader and overthrow his government.
HUNT: That's not true.
LAWYER: Why is this so difficult for you to talk about? You'd think it would be easier after your first mission.

[Memory - Mobius corridor]

(Hunt and Rhade are in civilian clothes. Rhade is reading a flexi.)
RHADE: This is the mission?
HUNT: This is the mission.
(Rhade drops the flexi into an incinerator bin.)
RHADE: You've got to be kidding. Kidnap Chancellor Ferrin?
HUNT: Extradite him.
RHADE: Kidnap him. Then smuggle him to Tarn-Vedra so he can stand trial.
HUNT: Well, he certainly deserves it. His invasion of Xangbristol Four has destabilised this entire sector. Face it, he needs to be removed.
RHADE: Mobius isn't even part of the Commonwealth. Neither is Xangbristol.
HUNT: People are dying. We have to do something.
RHADE: Fine. Then let's find Ferrin and put one through his head. Problem solved.
HUNT: You see, this is why I am in charge.
TANNOY: All passengers for King World shuttle report to central clearing.
(They are met by a man in a plastic jacket and spectacles.)
VENETRI: Nice spring weather we're having, hmm?
HUNT: Yes, let's hope there's no June gloom.
VENETRI: Some say on Mobius, the rainy season starts in March or April. I say it's May.
HUNT: Mister May. I'm Mister April, this is Mister. March. We understand that you're familiar with the corridors here.
VENETRI: Oh, more than familiar. I designed them. Up on the surface, you probably saw the Congress hall? Mobius Stadium? Those are mine. I'm Ferrin's architect, which makes me closer to him than his first mistress.
RHADE: Then why don't you kill him and save us the trouble?
VENETRI: Kill him? I was told that this was
HUNT: The truth, which is that this is a non-violent extraction. Correct?
RHADE: If you say so.
HUNT: Good. Then let's get to work. Which way?
VENETRI: This way.

[Cell]

(Hunt is back in the chair and being tasered.)
HUNT: Dylan Hunt. Commonwealth Captain. HE509
LAWYER: You're about to have an important visitor.
(A familiar bespectacled figure.)
VENETRI: Mister April.
HUNT: Venetri. How?
LAWYER: You will show him the proper respect. This is our supreme leader, ruler of the sovereign system of Mobius. The Great Compass. Clear the room.
(Venetri gives Hunt a drink of water.)
HUNT: You're alive after all these years.
VENETRI: I could say the same about you, Mister April. Captain Hunt.
HUNT: I prefer Dylan.
VENETRI: That's refreshingly honest of you.
HUNT: Venetri, why are you doing this to me?
VENETRI: After you left Mobius, I took the liberty of uncovering your true identity. Not very difficult.
(Venetri holds up a moving image of Hunt with Admiral Stark.)
VENETRI: The High Guard golden boy, flying about in his great starship, defending the Commonwealth's interests. When I learned that you had perished, I felt a loss. And then I saw this
(Hunt with President Lee.)
VENETRI: You, back from the dead, working to restore the old Commonwealth. Two worlds signed up already. I noticed that the leader of one of those new worlds suffered an unfortunate accident.
HUNT: He was murdered by his own people.
VENETRI: Where have I heard that before.
HUNT: Is that, is that why you had me brought here? What, because you think I
VENETRI: I don't think. I know. I know you, Mister April. I know how you work, I know what you do, and I don't want to see you succeed again.
HUNT: What the hell happened to you?
VENETRI: You happened.

[Memory - Mobius corridors]

RHADE: Where are you taking us?
VENETRI: Don't worry. You've already gone farther than any of the others.
HUNT: The others? We're not the first?
VENETRI: Didn't you know?
RHADE: How many attempts?
VENETRI: A dozen. Look, I know I should've helped them, but Ferrin was. Look, I will lead you through. I promise, okay?
RHADE: I thought you were dating our sponsor's niece?
HUNT: Huh. Maybe that's why she sent me.
(They go through a doorway.)
VENETRI: Hold on. Pheromone sensors. They recognise body odour. And people they don't recognise, they kill.
RHADE: You actually designed all these death traps?
(Venetri uses a spray on an overhead sensor.)
VENETRI: Yes, I did. At first the corridors were built simply to withstand attacks from space, but A good architect brings physical form to the dreams of his client.
HUNT: Yeah. In your case, your client is a paranoid dictator.
VENETRI: Unfortunately. Soon, he wanted to live here. A hiding place, deeper and deeper, unfindable. I took my inspiration for all of this from the Winchester Mansions.
RHADE: An old Earth legend.
VENETRI: We're good. The house was designed for the heir apparent to the Winchester gun fortune. She kept building and building. Endless dead ends, hiding places, staircases that went nowhere. Anything to fool the ghosts of the Winchester gun victims she thought would come back to haunt her. Ferrin's a bit like that, too. He waits. He knows he's guilty. I think, secretly, he wants to die.
(They go on to an area with a black and white checkered floor. Shades of Who.)
VENETRI: Wait. This is what I've told you about.
HUNT: It's been a while since I've played hopscotch.
RHADE: Especially the kind where a misstep could blow off your foot.
(They follow Venetri across, stepping where he steps.)
HUNT: So how did you get mixed up with a butcher like Ferrin?
VENETRI: I won a contest. He picked my design for the Arc de Victoire. Then all the rest followed. Dominion Library, Nollendorf Station. But then, I brought him my most fantastic vision yet. The Cathedral of Light.
HUNT: What happened?
VENETRI: I told him it would elevate the spirit of the people, but he smashed it with both fists.
(Venetri jumps off the squares.)
RHADE: And that's going in. How do we get out with someone who doesn't want to leave?
HUNT: Mister March, I think you're becoming a pessimist.
RHADE: I'm a realist. And I think we need to revisit a realist's solution. Ferrin should be eradicated.
VENETRI: I was told Ferrin would live.
HUNT: Ferrin will live.
RHADE: Read between the lines, Mister April. Our sponsors want Ferrin gone. They sent twelve teams in to make sure he'd be gone. When all twelve failed, they sent us. That's how much our sponsors care about saving lives.
HUNT: There's a difference between risking lives and ending them.
RHADE: The only difference is in who dies. If the choice is between his survival or ours, I choose ours. What do you think, Mister May?
VENETRI: I er, I'm an architect. I build things. Walls, ceilings. All I want is peace, sanity, cathedrals.
RHADE: What you want, what we all want, is to exert our will over others. Nietzsche makes this clear. We're here today to see whose will controls. Ferrin's, or ours. Pretending otherwise is either hypocrisy or foolishness.
HUNT: Well then, it's foolishness. But it's the foolishness I choose to live by. We do things by the book.

[Command]

(Tyr is lounging in the slipstream chair reading Beyond Good And Evil by you know who. Beka drums on the console.)
BEKA: It's too quiet in here.
TYR: All right. (reads) We are born sworn, jealous friends of solitude, of our own deepest, most midnight, most mid-day solitude.
BEKA: You know, Tyr, a lot of people think you're selfish because you're always reading, you're always lifting, and you're always exercising. But the way I see it, I think you're just always trying to improve yourself. I never had that luxury. I never really got into the philosophy thing, you know.
TYR: You've been too busy surviving. I respect that. Still, there's a great deal Nietzsche could teach you.
BEKA: Like what?
TYR: To create your own values. To live life consistent with your deepest instinctual drives.
BEKA: Such as?
TYR: Survival.
BEKA: Got it covered. What else?
TYR: Reproduction.
BEKA: I'm going to lift some more weights.

[Memory - Mobius corridor]

(A guard stands up ahead.)
HUNT: Wait.
RHADE: No magic gizmos to avoid him? So, now we'll really see if you're a fool or just a hypocrite.
VENETRI: Don't worry. All architecture has a human element.
(Venetri walks up to the guard.)
VENETRI: Take this money. I want you to ignore my friends as they come by.
RHADE: Ferrin should examine his hiring policy.
HUNT: Yeah.
(A second guard comes up.)
GUARD 2: Who are you people? Identify yourselves!
(Rhade attacks with a knife. The first guard throws Venetri his money back and attacks Hunt. Rhade's arm blades slice the guard's throat. Hunt kills the other one.)

[Cell]

(The image was projected onto the wall.)
VENETRI: There. Now you've seen it for yourself.
HUNT: The footage is a lie. It's been altered.
VENETRI: You're a killer.
HUNT: No, I'm a soldier.
VENETRI: This wasn't a war. You came here as a Commonwealth assassin. You murdered to achieve your own ends. You're a hypocrite, just like Mister March said.
HUNT: Dylan Hunt. Commonwealth Captain. HE5095C21922.
LAWYER: Let me tell you something about this man you killed. He was a widower. After he died, his five children lost their sole provider. They were sent to a homeless camp to raise themselves the best way they could. I am descended from that man. That homeless camp is where our family lived, until after seven generations the Great Compass found me and personally sponsored my education.
VENETRI: You think your hands are clean? There are some people I'd like you to meet.

[Mobius corridor]

(Hunt is dragged through a crowd of people who hit him. Then he is hung from a cross beam and firing pins are cocked.)
COMMANDO: Ready! Aim! Fire!
LAWYER: The Great Compass has decided to spare you for now. In light of his mercy, do you have anything to say to us?
HUNT: I think we're all a little tired of my name, rank, and serial number.

[Memory - Mobius corridor]

VENETRI: So much blood. Nobody said there'd be any blood.
RHADE: What did you expect?
VENETRI: I only had the best intentions! The very best!
HUNT: We all did.
VENETRI: No! I don't belong here! You do what you do, but I only had the best intentions.
HUNT: We don't have time for this, Mister May.
VENETRI: Mister May, Mister April, Mister March. Why don't you just say who you really are?
HUNT: You know who we really are! We're soldiers doing a job. When soldiers do their job, sometimes people die. Now go to your meeting with Ferrin, and when you're alone together, give us the arranged signal.
VENETRI: But
HUNT: Don't worry we'll take care of them. Go.
(Venetri leaves.)
RHADE: So, you have some iron in your blood after all.
HUNT: I do what I have to do.
RHADE: It's admirable. I don't know how much more I can stand of that rabbit.
HUNT: Give him some credit. He's a brave man going up against Ferrin. Besides, he's right. These men shouldn't have died. We made a mistake.
RHADE: If we'd made a mistake, we'd be the ones lying on the floor.
HUNT: I'm just saying, no more screw-ups.
RHADE: Agreed.

[Cell]

(Hunt is face down on a mattress.)
HUNT: Dylan. Hunt. Commonwealth Captain. HE5095C21922.
TRANCE: Trance Gemini, acting Search + Rescue Officer, number six.
HUNT: Trance?
TRANCE: Here, I want you to drink this very slowly. It's water.
HUNT: How?
TRANCE: How? Well, when two hydrogen atoms love each other very much, they bond with an oxygen atom.
HUNT: How did you find me?
TRANCE: Oh. That was easy. I had this.
HUNT: You found me with a button.
TRANCE: Yeah. Didn't Beka tell you what I used to do before I joined the crew?
HUNT: I take it you weren't always an environmental systems officer.
TRANCE: No. I had all sorts of jobs. The one I was really good at was, well, finding things.
HUNT: Finding things.
TRANCE: Yeah. You know, first I would find things, and then I would take them, and give them to people who wanted it.
HUNT: You were a thief.
TRANCE: No. Thieves have bad intentions. I never do.
HUNT: Oh.
TRANCE: But I am going to steal you now, so let's get out of here.
HUNT: Well, I'll expect a full report when we get back.

[Memory - Mobius corridor]

RHADE: You've got to hand it to Ferrin. He's ruthless and efficient. He runs an orderly society.
HUNT: Didn't you tell me an hour ago you wanted to kill him?
RHADE: I said I admire him. I didn't say I like him better than me.
HUNT: At least you're consistently Nietzschean in your views.
RHADE: Thank you.
TANNOY: Alert. Alert. Intruders on level thirteen.
HUNT: They found the guards.
RHADE: We don't have time to be subtle or nice anymore. We have to kill him.
HUNT: I take it back. You're not consistently Nietzschean.
RHADE: What do you mean?
HUNT: What's to stop them from killing us, huh? Try a hostage. A high-level hostage?
RHADE: Mister April, I like the way you think.

[Mobius corridor]

(Hunt and Trance hide from some running guards.)
TRANCE: The exit's that way.
HUNT: I can't go yet.
TRANCE: Dylan, take it from a professional. Alarms, bad.
HUNT: I know, I've heard them before, but I started something wrong here and I have to make it right.
TRANCE: Well then, we'd better hurry.

[Command]

TYR: Manually discharging capacitor bank A.
BEKA: Manually discharging capacitor bank B.
TYR: Manually evacuating pion reservoir A.
BEKA: Manually evacuating pion reservoir B.
TYR: Venting complete.
BEKA: I never thought I would miss an AP solenoid valve this much. It seems like we're doing this once an hour now.
TYR: It'll become even more frequent if Dylan doesn't come back soon with a new one.
BEKA: Okay, so what can we do that doesn't involve reading books or lifting weights?
TYR: Eating.
BEKA: Eating's good.
TYR: Do you like meat?
BEKA: Generically speaking?
TYR: Come to the Obs deck in one hour.

[Mobius]

(Hunt and Trance are at the end of a ventilation shaft, or similar.)
TRANCE: It's all clear.
(She starts to climb out. Hunt pulls her back and holds up the grill.)
HUNT: I thought you said it was all clear.
TRANCE: It was, then.
HUNT: That's Venetri.
TRANCE: You're kidding. Who's Venetri?

[Clone chamber]

(Trance and Hunt follow Venetri in.)
HUNT: Venetri. Venetri, I'm talking
(But the person standing there is an empty shell.)
TRANCE: Whoa. That's not Venetri.
(There are clones in various chambers around the room.)
HUNT: My god.
TRANCE: None of them are. Yuck.
HUNT: He grows clones for new body parts. That's how he stayed alive for the last three hundred years.
TRANCE: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'd say this Venetri must feel pretty flattered.
HUNT: The perversion of life. The paranoia, the torture. Venetri makes Ferrin look positively sane. I have to stop him.

[Mobius corridor]

TRANCE: There's only one problem. How are we going to find him? The real him.
HUNT: You tell me. You seem to be very good at finding things.
TRANCE: I told you, I had the button.
HUNT: Trance.
TRANCE: I guess I'm a good guesser?
HUNT: Yeah, maybe. Or maybe you're not guessing at all. Precognition. You can see the future, can't you?
TRANCE: That depends.
HUNT: On what?
TRANCE: Well, there're all kinds of futures. I can, anyone can foresee any number of possibilities, all of which are constantly diverging. Contingencies arise, imperatives vanish, and all the while we tread our way through chaotic uncertainty, never knowing which of hundreds of possible realities we could find ourselves in, and
HUNT: Trance? Which way?
TRANCE: Left.
HUNT: Thank you.

[Observation deck]

(Tyr is expertly chopping beef and vegetables for a stir fry. Beka enters. Soft music is playing.)
BEKA: Hey. Sorry I was late. Shower's like a trickle and er. Where'd you get all the candles?
TYR: I rendered them from the fat of my enemies.
BEKA: Can't wait to see the entree.
TYR: Koret bird steaks and Antares langoustines. I picked them up on our last shore leave.
(Beka sits. Tyr lays a napkin across her lap.)
BEKA: Wow. You're quite a Renaissance man, Tyr. Gourmet chef, mercenary killer.
TYR: I took it up because a former employer of mine appreciated fine dining. When he refused to pay me for one of my jobs, I prepared him a tiramisu laced with strychnine. As I recall, he quite enjoyed it, for precisely twelve seconds.
BEKA: Thanks.
TYR: My father would say, eat well and grow strong. Or perhaps we should raise a glass to our good Captain Hunt, wherever he is.
BEKA: I'm sure he's fine.

[Mobius]

(Hunt and Trance are fighting a pair of guards. Hunt takes the gun from his, and watches Trance hanging onto the back of the other with her tail around his throat.) HUNT: You picked wrong.
TRANCE: Yeah, I did, but that's the thing about guessing. Ninety percent of the time, it's fifty fifty.
HUNT: Uh huh. Guess again.

[Observation deck]

BEKA: So, do you think there's a shipboard romance going on here?
TYR: Well, you had a heavy workout and we were bored. So
BEKA: I was talking about Rommie. The way she looks at Dylan.
TYR: Oh. Well, what would be the point? They're not the same species.
BEKA: What? What do you mean exactly?
TYR: I mean that cross-species breeding is a ridiculous concept. It's pointless. From a Nietzschean perspective, at least.
BEKA: Are you saying that you could never be interested in a human woman?
TYR: Yes. That's what I'm saying. Exactly.
BEKA: Ah. Not in a million years?
TYR: Never.
BEKA: Not in a million, million, million years? Tyr, on behalf of human women everywhere, I'm insulted.
(Beka blows out a candle, looks Tyr in the eyes, drops her napkin onto his lap and leaves.)

[Mobius]

(A keypad is pulsing.)
HUNT: Wait.
(Hunt remembers himself and Rhade arriving at the same keypad.)
HUNT: This is it.
(Rhade puts his thumb on the keypad. Hunt touches his scar.)
TRANCE: Dylan, are you okay?

[Memory - President's chambers]

HUNT: President Ferrin, I'm here under the authority of the Systems Commonwealth
(Ferrin turns and shoots Hunt. Rhade opens fire, then Hunt joins in.)
RHADE: We should have come in firing.

[Outside the President's chambers]

HUNT: Rhade was right. The only way I'm going to get the outcome I want here is with a bullet.
(Trance lassoes his gun arm with her tail.)
TRANCE: Dylan, stop. Think.
HUNT: I have. And when I come out, the people of Mobius will be free.
TRANCE: And Venetri will be dead?
HUNT: That's one possibility.
TRANCE: There are others, you know. In fact there are one million, three hundred forty two thousand and sixty three others, and some of them? Some of them are really great. There's even a mathematical possibility that everything will turn out perfectly.
HUNT: Can you control that?
TRANCE: No. Life is chaos. Chaos is life. Control is an illusion.
HUNT: Venetri's control over these people is no illusion, and I'm going to end it now.
TRANCE: You mentioned Ferrin. Who was he?
HUNT: He was a very bad man.
TRANCE: What happened to him?
HUNT: He was killed. It was an accident.
TRANCE: So you're going to repeat on purpose with Venetri what happened by accident with Ferrin?
HUNT: I suppose I am.
TRANCE: What makes you think that's going to work any better? Dylan, you're trying to control what's going to happen here, but you can't. The only thing you can control are your own intentions. All the rest is just a roll of the dice.
HUNT: Then how do we improve things, Trance, huh? How do we make things better? Because intentions aren't enough.
TRANCE: But they're a start. It's kind of like the way you describe the slipstream to me. You can't quite control what is going to happen. There are so many different paths, but your intentions can help determine where you're going to end up. So if you start with good intentions, you have a better chance of ending up with good.

[President's chambers]

(Venetri is looking at his model for the Cathedral of Light.)
VENETRI: Lines straight. Never, never crooked. Always, always so straight. Never crooked. Straight and pure, headed right towards the vanishing point.
(Trance and Hunt enter.)
VENETRI: I tried interrogation. I tried torture. But nothing reveals your bad intentions better than that gun. I have my truth. You're a liar. You've always been a liar.
HUNT: I never lied to you.
VENETRI: You said it would be non-violent. You lied. You said Ferrin would be taken to trial. You lied. You said the guards would live. You lied.
HUNT: That was a mistake, and you know it.
VENETRI: You installed me to oversee free elections. You said the Commonwealth would back me up. The Commonwealth collapsed.
HUNT: No one wanted that.
VENETRI: Because of your lies, I was left alone to fend off coup attempts, assassinations, terrorist attacks. You left me no choice. It was chaos. I had to impose structure.
HUNT: You became just like Ferrin.
VENETRI: I became what you made me.
HUNT: No one could've anticipated how things were going to work out. You know, I'm sorry that it was
VENETRI: You're sorry. What are you sorry about? Your time as Mister April gave you everything you wanted, hmm? Didn't it? Didn't it, Captain Hunt?

[Memory - Stark's office]

STARK: You both did well. I know this isn't the way we wanted things to turn out, but you made the best of a bad situation. In the end, the people of Mobius will be much better off.
HUNT: Yes, ma'am.
STARK: I have your next assignments. Mister Rhade.
(She hands him a flexi.)
RHADE: First Officer commission on the Andromeda Ascendant.
STARK: You earned it. You saved Dylan's life. At great risk to you, above and beyond the call of duty, you pulled Dylan off that planet. My compliments. As for you.
HUNT: I don't deserve anything.
STARK: Why not?
HUNT: You said if the mission's done right, no one dies. People died.
STARK: We analysed all the possible outcomes of your mission, Commander. It was always a possibility that Ferrin would end up dead. Frankly, we were fine with that. Now, your mission.
HUNT: If you don't mind, I'll pass.
STARK: Your last mission was voluntary. This one is not.
(Hunt takes the proffered flexi.)
HUNT: Yes, ma'am.
STARK: Congratulations, Captain Hunt.
(Hunt gives the flexi to Rhade.)
RHADE: Captain, it will be a pleasure to serve under you.

[President's chambers]

VENETRI: Rhade was right. Fools and hypocrites. I'm a fool for believing you, Dylan. And you are the hypocrite.
TRANCE: No! That's not true.
HUNT: Trance, he's right. I am a hypocrite. Everything I have and everything I am came out of what happened here. By accepting the Andromeda, I sanctioned it.
TRANCE: Dylan, you may have got the Andromeda from something that you're ashamed of, but look at what you're doing with it. You've saved lives, planets. You're using the Andromeda to make sense of a senseless universe.
VENETRI: Another fool believer. Why don't you enlighten her, Dylan? Why don't you show her what the gun is all about. Why don't you do what you came to do. Kill me!
HUNT: I know what I want here today, Venetri. The same thing I've always wanted. Justice. Freedom for the people of Mobius. But I'll be honest with you, I don't know right now how things are going to turn out. Maybe all I control here are my own intentions. So I'm not going to kill you, because the basis of my Commonwealth is persuasion, and I think you're open to being persuaded.
VENETRI: What makes you think that?
HUNT: The fact that you haven't killed me. That you let me escape. That you want to know the truth. Because deep down you want to know where you went wrong. See, all that tells me there's still a shred of decency left inside you. A shred of belief in something other than this. I'm here to offer you another possibility. Maybe even the perfect possibility.
VENETRI: And what would that be?
TRANCE: The Halcyon System. They're rebuilding. They've recently come into quite a bit of capital and I know that they need architects.
HUNT: I once knew an architect. He had good intentions.
VENETRI: You're just going to let me go? After all I've done?
HUNT: I'm not going to do anything. I don't have the right. I never did. Besides, violent action breeds violent men and I think Mobius has had its fill of violent men, don't you?
VENETRI: I could turn power over to the Senate, but it could create chaos. The dissidents might rise up.
HUNT: Then include them in the government. Set up a process for a peaceful transition. Write a blueprint, and then leave things in the hands of the builders.

[Command]

(Sexual tension fills the air.)
TYR: Manually discharging capacitor bank A.
BEKA: Manually discharging capacitor bank B.
TYR: Er, manually evacuating pion reservoir A.
BEKA: Manually stimulating, evacuating, pion reservoir, er, B.
TYR: Venting complete.
BEKA: Well, I guess that clears the air.
TYR: The Maru's approaching. I'll prepare Hangar Deck fourteen.
BEKA: Yeah, good idea. I'll, er, stay here.
(Later, Hunt enters with Trance. He is reading her report.)
HUNT: I looked for you. I found out where you were. I travelled to where you were, and I got you out. That's your entire report?
TRANCE: You wanted something more?
HUNT: No. That'll be fine. Hello, Tyr. Hello, Beka. It's good to be back home.
BEKA: How was your trip?
TRANCE: Completely uneventful. How was everything here?
BEKA: Uneventful. Completely uneventful.
(The lights get brighter.)
TYR: Harper's finished installing that AP valve. We can leave now.
HUNT: Good. Andromeda.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Aye, Captain?
HUNT: All ahead full.