The soul is larger than the sky
Deeper than the ocean,
Or the abysmal dark
Of the unfathomed center.
- Enoch Vere de Vere,
Lamentations Sous-terre", CY 9734
[Eureka
Maru]
(Under
attack from three raiders.)
BEKA: Who the hell are these guys?
HUNT: Nietzschean Pride markings. Tyr?
TYR: That's Mandau Pride. They're parasites. Slavers.
BEKA: I hate to break it to them, but I don't plan on spending the rest
of my life in a uranium mine.
(Beka barrel-rolls the Maru.)
BEM: They're still behind us.
(Bangs! Sparks!)
BEKA: What the hell?
HUNT: Another one, twelve o'clock!
BEM: We're in need of assistance. I'll contact Andromeda.
HUNT: No. She's still dead in space.
BEKA: Losing engine power.
HUNT: Tyr, Rev, assess the damage.
[Maru
engine room]
(They
put out fires with CO2 extinguishers.)
TYR: The starboard thruster is going critical! I'm shutting it down!
BEM: No, no, no! Not the AP tanks.
[Eureka
Maru]
BEM
[OC]: Beka, we're losing containment.
BEKA: Rev, vent the tank
[Maru
engine room]
BEKA
[OC]: Now!
TYR: We've got no reserve fuel!
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA:
It's either that, or turn into a fireworks display.
HUNT: Do it!
[Maru
engine room]
TYR:
Venting!
(The Maru sways.)
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA:
Thank the stars for momentum.
HUNT: They're still on us. If we keep this up, they're bound to find
the Andromeda.
BEKA: Slipstream?
HUNT: It's our only option.
BEKA: You got it.
(Beka takes them into slipstream.)
TYR [OC]: Beka!
[Maru
engine room]
TYR:
Life support is failing! We've got to land now!
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA:
Now he tells me. Bailing to the nearest system.
(They come out of slipstream.)
BEKA: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Where to?
HUNT: Detecting an ice world in the third orbit. Any sign of pursuit?
(Three raiders come out of slipstream. Bang!)
BEKA: That's a yes. Do we run, or do we land?
HUNT: We land.
BEKA: Going in.
HUNT: Venting O2 tanks for deceleration.
BEKA: We're going too fast. Brace for impact.
(Alarms are going off everywhere as Beka brings the Maru to rest in ice
and snow just below an impressive range of mountains. The men get
thrown around a lot.)
[Officer's
mess]
(Or some
other random room on Andromeda. Rommie drags in another dead Magog to
add to the pile.)
TRANCE: Eww. Stinky!
ROMMIE: Well, at least this is the last of them. Or so I hope.
TRANCE: I can't believe it's taken us three weeks to clean up all these
bodies.
ROMMIE: Harper, we could use a little help here.
(Harper is wearing a gas mask and plastic gloves, and sitting shaking
on a chair.)
HARPER: Help? You want a little help? Fine, I'll help. I'll get them
all.
(He shoots the corpses.)
HARPER: You want some? You like that, huh? How's that?
TRANCE: Harper, stop it!
HOLO-ROMMIE: Harper, I need you to concentrate on your work.
HARPER: Oh, you just want me to sweep them under the rug and forget
about it, is that it? Forget that I was swarmed by dozens of Magog and
my guts infested with parasites?
TRANCE: I think what she's trying to say is, you know, the medication
we gave you, it has put the larvae in a dormant state, so
HARPER: Well, gee, great. I hardly even have to think about them.
HOLO-ROMMIE: I'm just saying that you should try to move on.
HARPER: Oh, like Rommie's supposed to just forget about being impaled,
right? Is that it? Or like how you can just forget about your entire
original crew being wiped out by Magog, or seeing your Perseid
captain's guts ripped out. You can just put it all behind you, move on
and concentrate on your work. Is that it?
ROMMIE: I can when I need to.
HOLO-ROMMIE: It's called compartmentalisation.
HARPER: Compartmentalisation? More like schizophrenia.
[Eureka
Maru]
(Everyone
starts to regain consciousness.)
BEKA: Guess we'll be a little late getting back with those parts.
HUNT: Snow.
BEKA: Blood. Yeah.
HUNT: I'll be fine. What about the others?
BEKA: I'll check. Just hold still. You're, er, you're dripping on my
ship.
[Maru
engine room]
TYR:
Reverend Behemial! You dead?
BEM: Tyr Anasazi of the Kodiak Pride. Clearly I am not in heaven.
(Beka enters.)
BEKA: Hey! Are you two okay?
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA:
Sonic boom. The Nietzscheans?
HUNT: Oh, yeah. They're still looking for us.
BEKA: And I always thought slavers were lazy.
HUNT: Ha.
BEM: Beka, the emergency locator transponder is no longer functional.
TYR: And even if it did work, it would only help the Nietzscheans to
find us.
BEKA: Well, on the bright side, we are covered in highly reflective,
heat dampening snow. It makes us harder to find. On the not so bright
side, we have no fuel, no heat, and minimal GFG.
HUNT: All right, then let's mobilise. Tyr, Rev, fix the engines.
Cannibalise parts if you have to. Beka, you and I will take
BEKA: Yeah. My first job is to repair your forehead.
HUNT: I'll be fine.
BEKA: Yeah. Okay, tough guy.
(Bem dips a claw into the blood Hunt has dripped onto the floor
grating, and sniffs at it.)
[Maru
engine room]
(Bem is
making strange noises.)
TYR: Hand me a laser torch. Do Magog get concussions? Your health
affects my health. I need to know your condition.
BEM: Then I must confess, I am a little light headed. I have been
fasting. A ritual purification for those I so recently killed.
TYR: For the Magog that boarded the Andromeda?
BEM: Yes, and others on the Worldship.
TYR: How long since you've eaten?
BEM: Since we left the Worldship.
TYR: Three weeks.
BEM: I had intended on breaking my fast when we returned to the
Andromeda, but apparently it is the Divine's will that that is not to
happen.
TYR: I don't suppose you could eat the emergency rations?
BEM: No. A Magog must kill its prey to begin the digestive process. On
the Andromeda, I keep a supply of live salmon in the hydroponics
garden.
TYR: But we're not on board the Andromeda.
[Maru
crew area]
TYR: You
honestly don't expect him to starve himself to death, do you? He's a
Magog.
HUNT: Tyr, this is Rev we're talking about.
BEKA: Rev and I have been shipmates for seven years. I trust him with
my life.
TYR: You weren't on the Magog Worldship. You didn't look into his eyes.
He was just like all the others. Feral.
HUNT: Then our first order of business is to find food for him.
TYR: There are no live prey animals on this planet so far as we know.
Which means the only viable food source for him right now is us. We
should lock him up.
BEKA: Rev Bem has more self control than anyone I've ever met.
TYR: Then let him practice it in chains.
HUNT: If Beka trusts him, I trust him. Besides, we're going to need all
hands to get out of here. What's the status on the engines?
TYR: The engines will be fine. What we need is fuel.
HUNT: Look, where there's snow, there's water. And where there's water,
there might be settlements.
BEKA: And where there's settlements, there's fuel.
HUNT: I'll go outside and see if I can spot any heat signatures on the
horizon.
TYR: I should go as well. I'm the best suited for hostile environments.
HUNT: Thanks, but no thanks. Having a Nietzschean along may cause
problems with any potential allies.
TYR: Captain Hunt. In the past few months, you've been placing yourself
in a number of very risky situations. It's not a healthy trend.
HUNT: Thank you, Tyr. I didn't know that you cared.
[Maru
airlock]
HUNT:
Maintain radio silence. We don't want to give away our position.
BEKA: You got it.
TYR: And what does the captain expect me to do in his absence?
HUNT: I expect the Acting Weapons officer to help Beka and Rev fix the
ship, and protect them if necessary.
TYR: From what?
HUNT: From whatever.
(There is a stand of pine trees nearby. Hunt uses his binoculars to
zoom in on a building further away. He then shoots his forcelance at a
tree, creating a scorch mark. There is a rumbling noise, and a big sink
hole opens up. He carries on towards the building, marking his way by
scorching more trees.)
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA: I
thought you were helping Rev.
TYR: I thought you told me he could help himself.
BEKA: He can. And so can I.
TYR: You may dislike my concerns about your Rev Bem, but they're valid,
nonetheless. And if you've misplaced your trust, your life is forfeit
as well as mine.
BEKA: You want to talk about misplaced trust? Who were those
Nietzscheans?
TYR: I've told you. Slavers.
BEKA: Slavers are nine to five bad guys. When the going gets tough,
they find easier marks. They wouldn't care enough to chase us through
slipstream.
TYR: Then who are they?
BEKA: Why don't you tell me? When we first saw them, after Topeka
Drift, they were flying past us going the other way. Then they doubled
back twice, like they recognised us. Like they recognized the Maru.
TYR: So?
BEKA: So, what did you do that time you took off in my ship for three
weeks? As I recall, when we found you, you were being hunted by the
entire Drago-Kasov Empire.
(The Maru creaks and rattles.)
[Near
the building]
(Hunt
can now make out three men outside the building. He looks through his
binoculars and a bald man looks back at him through a monocular.)
KIYAMA: Form up! Go! Follow me!
HUNT: Nietzscheans. Great.
(Hunt fires first, and more armed men appear to start chasing him. He
falls, and another sink hole opens up.)
[Maru
crew area]
(The
Maru creaks.)
BEKA: Another one. Rev, did you hear that? Rev?
BEM: I, I'm sorry. My focus seems to be elsewhere. Would you please
excuse me? I seem to be in need of some private contemplation.
(Bem leaves.)
BEKA: Dylan's been gone too long. He's in trouble.
TYR: I don't doubt it. What would you like me to do? He insisted on
going out there alone.
BEKA: Tyr, if it weren't for Dylan, you'd be back on the Worldship
getting your guts eaten out by Magog larvae. But you're right. Why
should you care?
[Hillside]
(The
armed men catch up to Hunt. One grabs him and they tumble down the
slope. There's a fight which ends up as three against one until someone
shoots Hunt's assailant. It is Tyr.)
HUNT: That's a good shot.
KIYAMA: Come on, let's go!
MAN 2: Down there!
KIYAMA: Don't let them get away. After them! Move it!
(Hunt and Tyr run.)
[Maru
engine room]
BEKA:
Hey. How you doing?
BEM: Hungry.
BEKA: I hate planets. The dirt, the unregulated temperatures, and the
water, which I also hate, unless it comes in bottles. Water turns into
snow and ice, which I also hate, like I hate pretty much every kind of
weather. I hate weather. Have I mentioned that? Rev, you're a monk.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the Divine had wanted us to suffer
through weather, he never would have given us space travel. Am I right?
BEM: So, now you believe in the Divine?
BEKA: Let's just say that sitting on a crashed starship, freezing to
death, I'm open to the idea. But even if I don't believe, I believe
that you do, and that your belief is so strong that it can overcome
your other nature. I guess what I'm trying to say, Rev, is that I trust
you.
BEM: Then I shall fervently pray that I do not betray that trust.
[Woods]
HUNT:
This way! Follow the trees!
(The Nietzscheans pass ammo clips to each other.)
TYR: They're low on ammunition.
(Hunt and Tyr jump over a ridge and slide down the snow.)
KIYAMA: Tyr Anasazi! We know you're out there. Give up. Maybe we'll let
you live. Get him!
HUNT: Anything you want to tell me?
TYR: No, not particularly.
(The shooting starts again.)
HUNT: We'll save the conversation for later.
[Conduit]
ROMMIE:
I thought you were supposed to be working in the engine room.
HARPER: I know, I know. All right, fine. It was kind of you and Trance
to exempt me from clean up. Thank you very much. You can go now.
ROMMIE: Harper, I need you in there. I think there might be a leak in
one of the AP transfer lines. I've shut them all down, but there's too
much rad interference for me to find the leak.
HARPER: Oh, a ruptured transfer line.
ROMMIE: Yes, Harper. I need you to find the leak before the mag bottles
start to overload.
HARPER: Look! I can't go in there, all right? I, I can't deal with
being in the engine room, or anywhere else where I was attacked. It
stinks like Magog and I feel a little Magogophobic, okay? Don't look at
me like that, Rommie. I can't! I
want to help. I want to fix the ship. I just, I can't.
[Eureka
Maru]
(Beka
opens the doors for Hunt and Tyr to run in.)
HUNT: We lost them about a kilometre away.
TYR: If they don't follow your tree markings back here.
HUNT: Well, I ran out of bread crumbs.
(Beep beep beep whoosh boom.)
BEKA: Overshot by over a hundred metres. At least they're bad shots.
HUNT: It may not matter. Sinkholes. The bedrock in this area's
unstable, and if they keep shelling us, it could
(The Maru tumbles down into the ground, nose first. Hunt lands on top
of -)
HUNT: Beka.
BEKA: Oh. I didn't think you went in for hugs.
HUNT: Oh, I, er, I love hugs. It's the kissing that freaks me out.
BEM: I realise we are all fallen angels, but twice in one day?
HUNT: Tyr, status.
TYR: This entire area is riddled with tunnels.
HUNT: Must be an old mining planet.
BEKA: How far down are we?
BEM: Seventy three metres below the surface.
(Rocks fall on the hull.)
BEKA: It's okay, baby. You'll be all right.
HUNT: Let's spread out and inspect the damage.
(A little later, Bem comes down a ladder.)
BEM: Considerable damage in the aft section.
BEKA: Great.
HUNT: Come on, we're not dead yet.
TYR: I have a suggestion. Assuming the Nietzscheans are still looking
for us.
HUNT: You mean looking for you. Like I said, a conversation for later.
What's your plan?
TYR: We lure them to the Maru. We blow it up. They're dead. We
commandeer their ships to get home.
HUNT: Beka?
BEKA: No one's blowing up my ship.
HUNT: Tyr?
TYR: It is precisely because this ship is perceived as our only means
of escape that it makes the perfect trap.
BEKA: No! I don't care if the Maru is buried beneath a thousand
kilometres of rubble, or roasting in the heart of a sun, or up on
blocks in the Imperial Museum of Tarn-Vedra. No one's blowing up my
ship.
TYR: How would you propose to get us home?
BEKA: This is my home. It was my home before I met you, it's my home
now, and when the Andromeda has been blown to hell by the Magog, and
each and every one of you is dead, it'll still be my home. Sorry, that
was a bit much.
HUNT: No, no. It's, er, it's okay. I'd be upset if someone suggested
blowing up the Andromeda. Maybe there's an alternative. I mean, we're
inside a system of mining tunnels, so let's see what's out there.
[Mines]
BEKA:
What did they use to mine in here, anyway?
BEM: Well, whatever it is, we're stepping in it.
HUNT: This is squorm refuse.
BEM: Squorms.
HUNT: Everyone back to the Maru, now.
[Eureka
Maru]
BEM:
Squorms are genetically engineered macro fauna that tunnel through ore
laden earth. The perfect biological miner. They process the ore
internally
(Bem's stomach growls.)
BEM: They process the ore internally and excrete it as refined metal.
HUNT: Not to mention that they're huge and extremely bad tempered.
TYR: How huge?
BEM: I once. Please, excuse me.
(Bem leaves.)
BEKA: I got it.
(Beka follows Bem.)
TYR: How huge?
HUNT: You saw the diameter of the tunnels?
TYR: Mmm hmmm.
HUNT: That huge.
TYR: And they only eat ore?
HUNT: As long as there's plenty of it. If not, and they bump into, say,
the, er
TYR: The Maru.
HUNT: Yeah. Then we become food for the squorms. Yeah.
[Maru
engine room]
BEKA:
Rev! Rev, what are you doing? You can't digest this!
BEM: Beka, without food, a Magog's body, my body, will ravage itself. I
will begin to digest my own intestines, muscle, bone, nerve endings.
BEKA: Well
BEM: I fear the process has already begun.
BEKA: Then, er, we'll just have to get you something to eat. How does
Nietzschean au jus sound?
BEM: Beka, do not even joke! I will not kill! Not even my enemies. Not
even to survive.
BEKA: You did it before, on the Worldship.
BEM: Yes, much to my never ending shame. If I was truly of the Divine,
I would have let them kill me, and yes, even you, before I took a life.
I was weak. I chased my prey. I smelled their blood and I relished it.
And I recognised something. It completed my creation. Beka, I liked it.
[Medical]
(A red
light is being beamed at Harper's stomach. The larvae are on a screen,
along with Harper's heart.)
HARPER: How's it going, fellas? Comfy? Getting enough beer, hmm? What
about you, turd brain? What's that? Oh, no? Well, here. How about some
more?
(Harper takes a drink from a bottle.)
HARPER: You're not satisfied, are you? That's not what you're looking
for. I give you freaking thieving little parasites a home, food,
conversation and what do you give me in return? Grief.
(Harper finishes the bottle and adds it to the crate of empties.)
HARPER: Oh, damn. You drank all my Neuverin Weisbrau. Now what have I
got to live for? A big fat nothing.
(Harper pushes away the scanner and takes out his gauss pistol.)
HARPER: All right. Stinky, Turd brain, up against the stomach wall.
(He presses the muzzle to his chest and powers it up. Rommie enters.)
ROMMIE: Harper! What are you doing?
HARPER: Rommie, go away. Rommie, go away.
ROMMIE: Harper, put the gun down.
HARPER: Go away!
ROMMIE: What are you thinking?
HARPER: I'm thinking I got a situation here, and I got to fix it.
ROMMIE: Trance has worked medical miracles before. She
HARPER: Oh, give me a freaking break! There's no cure for this, and you
know it. I got an irrevocable appointment with a painful, horrible,
violent death, and no one can fix me, Rommie. No one can fix me.
[Eureka
Maru]
BEKA:
He's so weak already. We have to do something before he starves himself
to death.
HUNT: Yeah, but we still need fuel. It sure would be nice to find some
friendly locals.
TYR: The only people on this rock are Nietzscheans.
HUNT: Hey, maybe we could feed them to Rev.
BEKA: Er, already suggested that.
HUNT: Huh. Tyr, any ideas that might change their minds about killing
us?
TYR: Killing them first?
HUNT: All right. Then we split up. Scout the tunnels. The first one to
find a way to the surface calls the others.
BEKA: What about Rev?
HUNT: He'll stay and preserve his energy and pray. Hopefully for all of
us.
[Mines]
HUNT:
Beka.
BEKA: Coming.
(Hunt has found a tunnel with large metal rings running along it.)
BEKA: Well, I'll be damned. A magnetic accelerator.
HUNT: They must have used this to launch the refined metal into orbit.
BEKA: Is it functional?
HUNT: Well, all it needs is power. These squorm tunnels lead right to
it. Tyr, come in. Tyr?
BEKA: There's probably too much rock between us and him. Too bad. He
might've been forced to smile.
(Something is watching them, and growling.)
BEKA: Okay. So, we hook this thing up to the Maru's auxiliary power
unit, use our GFG to lower our mass to nothing, and, er crap. How do we
get the Maru up here?
HUNT: Extend the coil this way. Float it up the tunnel to the mouth of
the accelerator. Power it up and shoot the Maru straight into space.
BEKA: Just like a bullet out of a gauss gun.
HUNT: Yep.
BEKA: One problem. What do we use to extend the coil?
HUNT: When you have lemons, you make lemonade. When you've got metallic
squorm dung, you make
BEKA: You make metal wire.
HUNT: Yes.
BEKA: Nice.
HUNT: Tyr. Tyr, are you reading me? Tyr?
(They hear a vague howling.)
HUNT: Squorms. They're homing in on the magnetic fields of our weapons.
Turn them off.
BEKA: It's not the guns.
HUNT: The Maru!
[Eureka
Maru]
(Lots of
blips on the proximity detector.)
BEKA: Squorms, from every direction, closing in.
HUNT: Weapons locker.
BEKA: It's empty.
HUNT: Figures.
(He presses some buttons.)
HUNT: There. I've discharged the Maru's magnetic field. That should
hold off the squorms for a while.
BEKA: Rev? The guns?
BEM: Tyr took them while I was in the engine room, meditating.
BEKA: And you didn't stop him?
BEM: Well, I, I'm sorry. I assumed it was all part of your plan.
HUNT: Yeah, it's all part of a plan, all right. It's just not ours.
[Mines]
TYR:
Kiyama? Hafiz! Can you hear me? I know some of you are out of
ammunition. You'll need these. Kiyama, I know you're out there. I can
hear you breathing.
KIYAMA: You think you can buy us off with trinkets? You used your last
credit on Enga's Redoubt.
TYR: I wanted to come back for you. I was shot down by Dragans.
KIYAMA: You know, that's funny. Because the last time that we saw you,
you weren't exactly making an heroic attempt to rescue us. In fact, if
I remember correctly, you were dashing off in the Maru while we got
shelled by an entire Dragan security division.
TYR: I couldn't risk them recapturing our prize.
KIYAMA: Drop the mask, Anasazi. You never planned on ransoming back the
bones at all. You were always
going to keep them for yourself!
TYR: If I did? Whoever possesses the mummified remains of Drago
Museveni controls the fate of the entire Nietzschean people. And right
now, right now, that's Tyr Anasazi, the Kodiak. It's me! You can
cooperate with me and stand by my side, or you can fight me and they'll
be lost to you forever. Make a decision.
(Kiyama and his men move forward.)
[Tunnel]
(Hunt is
building an accelerator coil.)
HUNT: Well, we're almost there. I'm sure it'd be easier with another
helping hand.
BEKA: Yeah. Unfortunately, one of them is slowly starving to death, and
the other one's out betraying us.
HUNT: We don't know that.
BEKA: Well, somehow, I don't think Tyr took all of our guns for
Nietzschean show and tell.
HUNT: With Tyr, you never know. Still, he's been gone a long time. I'm
going to go find him.
BEKA: And if he's betraying us?
HUNT: Then I'll be the first to know.
[Mines]
TYR:
Those are two fully charged gauss guns. Consider that compensation.
(Kiyama powers them up and points them at Tyr.)
TYR: Where's Hafiz?
KIYAMA: Covering us.
TYR: Oh, please. I've demonstrated my good faith. It's your turn.
Hafiz, show yourself.
KIYAMA: No, Hafiz is quite comfortable where he is. That's the key to
happiness, isn't it? Knowing what you want, sticking with it?
TYR: I'm offering you a chance to shape the fate of the Nietzschean
people.
KIYAMA: We don't care about the Nietzschean people. We just wanted the
ransom.
TYR: Kiyama, Kiyama, Kiyama, Kiyama. Would you like to know the real
reason I left you behind on Enga's Redoubt?
(Tyr turns, bends down and picks up some squorm poo.)
KIYAMA: Yeah.
(Tyr throws the poo at Hafiz like a discus, knocking him out, then
runs.)
MAN: Kill him!
TYR: Because you're just so uncompromisingly inferior!
[Conduit]
ANDROMEDA
[OC]: Reactor overload. Power Reactor One going critical. Unable to
vent due to damage in the AP line.
ROMMIE: Harper, if you don't get in there and fix that line, we'll blow
up! Do you hear me? You're going to die!
HARPER: Good. 'Cause in case you didn't notice when I had that gun
shoved into my gut, I want to die. I don't
want to live another day with these freaking' monsters inside of me.
ROMMIE: Harper, look. I know how you feel.
HARPER: Huh. What have you been drinking? You don't know how I feel.
ROMMIE: What about inside of me? The only reason we encountered the
Magog Worldship in the first place is because some backup copy inside
of me, a me I didn't even know existed, came out! Came out and started
shooting, tried to kill us. All of us. What else is there inside of me?
What other demons do I have to worry about?
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Reactor critical in seventy seconds.
ROMMIE: That's why you can't die, Harper. Because I need you. And if
you're gone, who's going to fix me?
[Slipstream
core]
ANDROMEDA
[OC]: Sixteen seconds, fifteen, fourteen.
HARPER: Come on!
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven.
HARPER: Gotcha. Ha! Ah.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: You did it. You fixed me.
HARPER: Yeah? Well, tell you what. From now on, let's fix each other.
[Maru
airlock]
BEKA:
Rev.
(Loud groans.)
BEKA: Rev?
(Bem is hiding behind a grating.)
BEM: Beka, please, shoot me.
BEKA: You know, I'm not exactly an expert on spirituality, but I do
know that just letting yourself die is a sin. A sin against nature,
against the Divine, and most of all, against us. Rev, we're your
friends, and we need you. You can't just give up.
BEM: Beka, please.
BEKA: Rev, you remember back on Tesla Drift, after they repo'd the Maru
and Bobby had left me for the last time? I felt like my world was
crashing in on me. I just wanted to check out.
BEM: I remember.
BEKA: You asked me one question. How dare I presume to know what the
Divine had in store for me? You said that somehow all my anxiety, and
all my pain, and all my despair had a purpose, even if I couldn't see
it. So now, Rev, what about you?
BEM: Beka, I was not created by your Divine. I was created by the
Spirit of the Abyss as an instrument of fear and destruction. That is
my purpose. How could my death not be moral?
BEKA: You're a great man, Rev, but I still don't think you can know the
Divine's plans for you, even if He didn't create you.
BEM: Beka, please, forgive me.
BEKA: Rev.
[Eureka
Maru]
(Beka
powers up the engines, and the magnetic accelerator powers up, too.)
BEKA: Well, I'm good to go.
[Mines]
KIYAMA
[OC]: This way!
(Tyr turns to see a gun pointed at him.)
TYR: Hello.
HUNT: How you doing?
(They shoot an approaching Nietzschean.)
HUNT: Good to have you back. You still owe me that conversation.
KIYAMA: They're here!
HUNT: Let's go.
TYR: Yes, let's go.
KIYAMA: Tyr Anasazi!
[Eureka
Maru]
(Hunt
and Tyr make it back on board.)
BEKA: Well, it's about time.
HUNT: Hi.
BEKA: Hi.
HUNT: Found Tyr.
BEKA: Good.
HUNT: We can leave now.
BEKA: Moving us to the launcher.
TYR: Magnetic coils? Those things'll attract every squorm on the
planet.
HUNT: We'll be long gone by then. Let's bring it.
(Kiyama runs in between the coils and starts shooting at the Maru.)
BEKA: We're blocked.
HUNT: Slow down. With GFG on, we don't have enough mass to ram them.
BEKA: Too late. No breaks.
TYR: No problem.
[Tunnel]
(A
squorm breaks through the tunnel wall and attacks the Nietzscheans.)
HAFIZ: Kiyama!
[Eureka
Maru]
TYR: And
here comes its mother.
(She drops down from above, taking the men into her mouth then
continuing downwards.)
HUNT: Bon appétit.
BEKA: We're at the launcher.
HUNT: Hit it!
(The Maru is propelled along the tunnel and out into the atmosphere.)
BEKA: We're escaping the atmosphere. Let's hope we've got enough
momentum to slingshot the sun and scrape up some fuel.
HUNT: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, don't they?
BEKA: And they want to blow you up.
HUNT: Bring us home, Beka.
[Bem's
quarters]
HARPER:
Hey, Rev. How you doing? I heard things got a little rough down there.
BEM: Yes. They did. But things seem to be better now. And you?
HARPER: Oh, pfft. I'm just peachy. It was a cake walk up here.
BEM: I'll keep you in my prayers.
HARPER: Thanks. I really mean that.
[Hunt's
quarters]
TYR: You
wanted to see me?
HUNT: The travellers aid database we downloaded on Glitterdust. I found
this.
(Hunt hands Tyr a flexi.)
HUNT: It's a nice photo. And, hey, they want you alive.
TYR: Ten million Dragan Eagles. I'm flattered.
HUNT: I'm tempted. I could do a lot with that much money.
TYR: I'm sure. Still, somehow I doubt you're truly prepared to turn me
over to the Drago-Kasov Pride.
HUNT: Give me one reason why not. Your extracurricular activities have
put my ship, my crew, and my mission in jeopardy. You are becoming a
liability, Tyr.
TYR: A liability. Am I so? Well, I also happen to be the best, I am the
only soldier you have. I personally delivered Enkindu and Schopenhauer
into your alliance. I have saved your ship, your crew, such as it is,
and your mission on many an occasion. And while I may have earned the
wrath of the Drago-Kasov Pride, they wanted to kill you long before
they ever heard of me.
HUNT: Oh, then I guess that makes it all right.
TYR: If you would like me to leave, sir, you have but to ask.
HUNT: One question, Tyr. One simple question. Why are you on my ship?
TYR: To be perfectly honest? At first, at the very first, I thought
there might be a way to take it from you. And it made an ideal platform
while I planned my extracurricular activities. But then, well,
something happened.
HUNT: Enlighten me.
TYR: Then came a ship the size of a sun, filled with five trillion
septic, hungry Magog, coming our way. My way. Something like that will
make a man rethink his priorities.
HUNT: Yes. Especially an ambitious man with ulterior motives who wants
to live long enough to see them through.
TYR: Whether I like it or not, I need you, sir. And I shall be so bold
as to say you need me, as well. So. Shall we have a game?
(Tyr gestures to the 3D go board. Hunt places a white piece.)
HUNT: Your move.
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