Spiral, spin, ride the whirlwind.
Knowing when the drumming stops,
There'll be no second dance."

Ulatempa Poetess
"Rhythms" CY 9825

[Command]

(The crew are watching an important message from someone we haven't seen for quite a while.)
BEM [hologram]: 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.
(The hologram disappears.)
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?
HUNT: 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.

[Machine shop]

HUNT: Harper. Harper are you in here?
HARPER: No.
HUNT: Look, I know you're upset, but if Rev has to take off
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 ow!
HUNT: Sit. Here, come on. Take your medicine, come on.
HARPER: It's not working.
HUNT: Just lie down. There you go.
VOICE [OC]: Sinti. Don't let me go. Hang on to me. Please! Hang on. I got you!
(Harper sees himself holding onto someone for grim death.)
HUNT: Code Red. Medical Emergency machine shop seventeen.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Dylan, what's going on down there?
HUNT: It's the Magog larvae in Harper's stomach. They're starting to hatch. Come on, Harper.

[Medical]

TRANCE: Harper should be conscious in an hour or two, but I'm not going to lie to you. It's not good.
HUNT: 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.
HUNT: Don't tell Harper that.
TRANCE: He has a week, at most, and then they're going to hatch.
HUNT: That is just great.
HARPER: Sinti.
BEKA: Harper?
HARPER: Sinti.
HUNT: The Perseids. Of course. If anyone can help Harper, it's them. Beka.
BEKA: I'm on my way.
HARPER: I should
HUNT: You should rest. Save your energy.
HARPER: The Magog larvae. What, whatever happens
HUNT: Don't worry, Harper. I won't let them hatch.

[Command]

BEKA: We're entering Sinti space.
HUNT: 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: 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: Uh, uh, uh, uh. 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, because 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 holds it out.)
HARPER: Thanks. Hey, look, er, thanks for everything, you know. Now if you don't mind, I could use a little peace and quiet.
TRANCE: Going.
HARPER: Ow.
(Trance returns and kisses Harper on the cheek. She leaves.)
HARPER: Engineer, heal thyself.
(He strokes his cheek where she kissed him, then touches his fingers to his lips.)

[Cargo hold]

(A grey Sinti ship has docked in the hangar bay. Hohne and his assistant, Rekeeb, are supervising the offloading of their equipment.)
HUNT: 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 Mister 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. Mister Harper's condition will truly preset us with an exciting opportunity.
REKEEB: Once in a lifetime.
HUNT: Glad to be of service.
HOHNE: Now, if you'll excuse us, we mustn't keep our subject waiting. Rekeeb, the equipment.
(Hohne and Rekeeb leave.)
HUNT: Yes, the equipment. Tell me again how brilliant he is.
ROMMIE: Startlingly, uncompromising, brilliant. One of the greatest minds of the age.
HUNT: And Harper's only hope.
ROMMIE: Ah ha.
HUNT: Hmm.

[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. Frankly, though, I'll be happy if we can just extract my unwanted guests.
HOHNE: And you developed this technology by yourself?
HARPER: Well, technically, I, er, confiscated it from some very nasty characters.
HOHNE: The human allies of the Magog.
ROMMIE: And their creator.
HARPER: You'd better believe it, baby. They used it to walk through walls, I'm going to use it to walk through walls. Only this time, stomach walls.
HOHNE: Hmm.
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. Harper descending staircase.
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.

[Slipstream core]

HUNT: If you don't like Harper's plan, give me an alternative.
ROMMIE: I wish I could.
HUNT: 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
HUNT: Stop the Magog from hatching?
ROMMIE: To kill him.
HUNT: If it comes to that, I'll take care of it.
ROMMIE: When you recruited the Maru crew I thought they were unreliable, unprofessional. Harper's closer to me than any engineer I've ever had. Practically closer than any crewmember that's ever served on me.
HUNT: He's like family. They all are. Hell, even Tyr.
ROMMIE: We should have maintained military detachment.
HUNT: Well, Rommie, we didn't. We couldn't. They needed us, and the truth is, we needed them. They're all we have. There. Maintain the power feed. Let me know if there is anything else we can do.
ROMMIE: Yes, sir.
HUNT: And transfer the specs for Harper's machine down to my quarters.

[Corridor]

(The sound goes wobbly.)
HUNT: Rommie, did you?
(The slipstream core is no longer behind him.)
HUNT: Rommie? Weird.
ANDROMEDA: Battle stations. Battle stations. All crew man your battle stations.
(Two crewmen walk past the intersection.)
HUNT: Stam? Thompson? Thompson!
ANDROMEDA: Battle stations. This is not a drill.
HUNT: Thompson!
(He runs around the corner to see lots of crewmembers running for their battle stations.)
RHADE [OC]: Captain, all stations manned and ready.
ROMMIE [OC]: Elapsed time, three minutes twenty seven seconds.
HUNT [OC]: Too slow.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Battle stations. All crew
(Hunt sees a woman going down a ladder.)
HUNT: Major Vance. Kiley!
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Battle stations.
HUNT: Kiley!
(Hunt slides down the ladder and through another wobble in reality.)

[Another deck]

HUNT: Kiley! Kiley!
HOLO-ROMMIE: Dylan? How did you get down here?
HUNT: This isn't deck ten.
HOLO-ROMMIE: Deck nineteen. One minute you were on deck nine, the next you were two hundred metres away. What happened to you?
HUNT: I was with our crew. Our original crew. And they were alive and they were on this ship.

[Officer's mess]

HUNT: 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.
HUNT: I know. Hephaestus. That's when the Nietzscheans ambushed us and we were frozen in time.
ROMMIE: He did die, Dylan. I can show you the records if you want.
HUNT: I know what I saw, Rommie.
ROMMIE: Then what are you suggesting, time travel?
HUNT: It's not just time. That battle took place over five hundred thousand light years from here. Am I losing it?
ROMMIE: Maybe.
HUNT: 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.
HUNT: That's an understatement. Ever since Hephaestus my world's been in pieces. You know, if I were hallucinating, how does that explain how I disappeared from your internal sensors, huh? How did I move two hundred metres 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.
HUNT: Yeah. He was also our ship's psychologist, but he's not here.
ROMMIE: No, he's not.

[Corridor]

HOLO-ROMMIE: Harper, is there a chance your machine is working already?
HARPER: I wish. Why?
HOLO-ROMMIE: 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.
HOLO-ROMMIE: I understand. Let me know if you need anything.
HARPER: How about a new gut, hold the Magog eggs.

[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: Ah ha. 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 think it as likely as a Borillian meteor shower. Tee hee.
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.
(More childish giggling.)
HARPER: Oh, see, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Science jokes.
(Tyr enters from a distorted corridor.)
HOHNE: Mister Anasazi
HARPER: Tyr? You need something?
TYR: This is clearly not my quarters. Harper, I sincerely hope that you and your excitable friends aren't involving me in your experiments.
(Tyr takes Harper by the scruff of his neck.)
HARPER: Ah! Ah! Ooo! Magog eggs, remember? Ow. Ooo, ooo. Tyr, I promise, on my potential list of lab rats you are absolutely one hundred percent dead last. Honest.
HOHNE: Did anyone notice that energy distortion? Puzzling.
(Hohne opens the door. The distortion is still there. It turns into a airlock open to space, and the air starts being sucked out of the room. Everyone grabs something solid. Hohne is clinging to the doorframe, being pulled out into vacuum.)

[Officer's mess

ANDROMEDA [OC]: Hull breach in machine shop seventeen.
HUNT: Hull breach? The machine shop is fifty metres from an outside bulkhead.
ROMMIE: I can't seal it. My control over the airlocks has been disrupted somehow.
HUNT: Come on.
(They run out and end up running straight back in again.)
HUNT: Okay, explain this.

[Eureka Maru]

(Trance is tending her bonsai when she walks through a distortion.)
TRANCE: Hello? Is somebody there?
(A man takes a swing at her with a metal pipe with a spear tip on the end. She drops the bonsai and the dish breaks.)
TRANCE: Oh! You're not supposed to be here. Help!

[Machine shop]

(Rekeeb loses his grip.)
REKEEB: Help me!
(Harper grabs his hand as he slides past.)
HARPER: Oh no, you don't. Hang on, Rekeeb.
REKEEB: Please, don't let me go! Help!
HARPER: Hang on. I got you. I got you.
REKEEB: Please!
(Harper sees himself seeing this happening in his vision.)
HOHNE: Help me!
(Tyr lets go of his stanchion and skates to Hohne, pulling him inside. Then they get the door closed again.)
TYR: Go!

[Observation deck]

(They take a few steps in the machine shop and end up here.)
REKEEB: What?
TYR: Lovely.

[Eureka Maru]

(Beka enters and shoots the man.)
BEKA: Er, I'm sensing freakiness?
TRANCE: He's er, some kind of robot.
BEKA: He's 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.
BEKA: Okay then, give me a theory. What's your best guess?
TRANCE: 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.

[Corridor]

ROMMIE: Finally!
HUNT: Can anybody hear us?

[Another corridor]

TYR: Perfectly, sir. However, getting to your location is another matter entirely.
HARPER: Every doorway on this ship seems to be set on scramble.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Guys, we just ran into one of the Pax Magellanic's killer robots from

[Corridor]

BEKA [OC]: Over a year ago. Trance thinks that

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Time and space have become distorted somehow.
TRANCE: I said it was just a guess.

[Corridor]

ROMMIE: The crewmen in the hallway.
HUNT: Harper's tesseracting device. It has to be.
HARPER [OC]: I told Rommie. It's not working yet.
HUNT: 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.

[Another corridor]

HARPER: In the future. Holy freaking Kali melons. So when we finish the device and activate it, it's going to 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 er, I er, took the liberty of assembling several miniature robots to begin the assembly process.

[Corridor]

HUNT: What, so it's building itself? Now that is just wonderful.
ROMMIE: Dylan, we have a situation.
HUNT: We certainly do.
ROMMIE: No. These disturbances aren't limited to the Andromeda.
HUNT: 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
HUNT: This keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

[Observation deck]

(Harper, Tyr, Hohne and Rekeeb walk through a distortion.)
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 stomach ache.
(Kiley Vance appears with two troopers.)
KILEY: What the? Intruders!
HARPER: No, no, no, no. Er, this is all just a er, a spatial temporal misunderstanding.
KILEY: Nietzschean, drop the gun or we'll kill you where you stand.

[Eureka Maru]

(Different scenes appear beyond the door before Beka manages to close it.)
TRANCE: What was that?
BEKA: Er, monsoon season on Gahanna, I think.
TRANCE: You mean that door just opened to another planet? That cannot be good.
(High pitched screeches.)
BEKA: Crap! Kalderans. Move back!
(Running gun fight.)

[Corridor]

(Hunt drops down a ladder.)
HUNT: Deck fifty seven? This should be deck nineteen. This is like trying to pilot a slipfighter blindfolded.
ROMMIE: And I can't even connect to the ship's AI. My core intelligence is spread out over six decks, and right now, it's as scrambled as the rest of the ship.
HUNT: Okay. Okay, okay. Here's the plan. We split up. Double our chances of success. Hopefully we'll get to the machine shop and 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.
HUNT: Yeah. Keep this thing from spreading to the planet. Go.
ROMMIE: Going.
(Rommie turns her back.)
ROMMIE: Oh, Dylan?
(Hunt has vanished.)
ROMMIE: Dylan?

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Why are there Kalderans on my ship? There shouldn't be Kalderans on my ship. There's never been Kalderans on my ship!
TRANCE: Yet!
BEKA: You mean these guys are from our future?
TRANCE: Something to look forward to.

[Officer's mess]

HUNT: Oh, come on! I am getting sick and tired of this cut and paste ship. Okay, here's the deal. You will open onto the Command deck, and that is an order. On three! One, two

[Junction]

HUNT: Three. Good. At least we're getting warmer.
(Gunfire. He dives for cover. Tyr runs into view.)
HUNT: Tyr, what going on?
TYR: I was hoping you might know.
KILEY: Nietzschean! Give it up. There's nowhere to run.
HUNT: Kiley!
KILEY: Captain Hunt? Hold your fire. Sir.
HUNT: Major Vance, report.
KILEY: What's going on here?
HUNT: You first.
KILEY: We were manning battle stations in response to the Nietzschean 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.
HUNT: I'll explain later. Right now I need you to
(Gunfire, screeching.)
HUNT: Now what?
TYR: Kalderans.
(More easy killing.)
HUNT: Major, hold off the Kalderans. Tyr, find that machine shop. I'm headed for Command. Go!
KILEY: In Dylan Hunt we trust.
HUNT: Kiley, it's good to see you again.
KILEY: You heard the Captain.

[Maintenance conduit]

(Another distortion.)
HARPER: Okay, this definitely 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 tesseract 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: Argh!
HOHNE: Oh dear.
HARPER: I wish you'd stop saying that.
HOHNE: But 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'd better believe it. A man makes his own density.
HOHNE: Destiny.
HARPER: Yeah, that too.
HOHNE: Oh, allow me.
HARPER: Okay.
(Hohne goes past Harper and falls out of the end of the conduit into -)

[Slipstream core]

HOHNE: Argh!
(He grabs the catwalk railing on his way down.) Oh, my. I seem to have
(Harper tumbles down the ladder. Rekeeb falls onto the railing.)
HOHNE: Here, Harper.
HARPER: Oh, no. Oh no. you don't. Come on!
(Harper pulls Rekeeb onto the catwalk. Hohne slips and grabs a lower railing.)
HOHNE: Oh dear.
HARPER: Don't move, Hohne.
HOHNE: I'm afraid I've never been very good at this sort of thing. Mister Harper?
(Harper grabs Hohne's arm.)
HOHNE: Oh, good show.
HARPER: Grab my shoulder. Come on. Now, on the count of three, you're going to climb up me. Okay?
HOHNE: Yeah.
HARPER: Ready? One, two, three.
(Harper pulls Hohne up, but his grip slips. Hohne is hanging onto Harper's hand alone.)
HARPER: Hang on. No. No, don't. Dylan'll kill me. Come on. No, don't.
(Hohne's hand slides out of Harper's grasp, and he falls the depth of the Andromeda Ascendant's core, which is a very long way down.)

[Maintenance 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 things are predetermined.
HARPER: All right, the only thing predetermined is that you are going to shut up, or I'm going to stuff 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 going to find that machine. We are going to make sure nobody else dies because of it, and nothing is going to stop us. Not even the laws of temporal mechanics. Comprende?
REKEEB: Mmm hmm. Mmm hmm. Beyond all margin for error.
HARPER: Good. Now move!

[Corridor]

ROMMIE: Fancy meeting you here.
HUNT: 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.
HUNT: So we give in.
ROMMIE: Yes. Move at right angles toward our goal.
HUNT: And let the tesseracts carry us in the right direction. Rommie, you have the helm.
ROMMIE: This way.

[Cargo pod]

(The surviving Kalderans climb out of the body of the Maru to find Beka waiting for them. Someone else shoots one that is creeping up behind her. It is another Beka, with mechanical arm and eye at the very least.)
BEKA: Thanks.
CYBER-BEKA: Don't mention it.
BEKA: You er, you're me.
TRANCE [OC]: Beka! Help!
CYBER-BEKA: I can't get into this right now. Later.

[Eureka Maru]

(Beka takes out the Kalderan chasing Trance.)
BEKA: Trance, you will never guess who I just met.
TRANCE: A scary futuristic version of yourself? She went that way.
(A dead Kalderan falls at their feet. They run forward to see a long haired golden girl decapitate a Kalderan with a sharp blade. She throws some Matrix somersaults and uses a forcelance.)
TRANCE 2: Behind you!
(Golden Trance shoots between Purple Trance and Beka to kill another Kalderan.)
BEKA: Trance?
TRANCE 2: Beka. I forgot how beautiful you were.
BEKA: Er, thanks.
TRANCE: You're me. From the future.
TRANCE 2: More or less
TRANCE: Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to?
TRANCE 2: No. Things are bad and they're getting worse. I made a lot of mistakes.
TRANCE: So are we going to lose?
TRANCE 2: At best, we're not going to win. You know what we have to do.
TRANCE: Is it the only way?
TRANCE 2: There is one perfect possible future, but I have not seen it yet.
BEKA: Er, could someone provide me with a translation, please?
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 a distortion.)
BEKA: Where'd she go?
TRANCE 2: She didn't go anywhere. She grew up. She's me. Let's go.
BEKA: I want an explanation now.
TRANCE 2: No, you wouldn't understand.
BEKA: 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 2: 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: Okay, so that's why you changed places with your other self. To make sure things go right?
TRANCE 2: 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 2: Well, it can't, but this is not the past. This is the present, and I can fix it. So, come on.
BEKA: You can see probabilities, right? Glimpse into the future?
TRANCE 2: Sometimes.
BEKA: Good. Then you know what'll happen if I find out you're lying to me.
(They walk into a distortion, and Harper and Rekeeb walk out of it. )
HARPER: This is new.
(Gunfire.)
HARPER: Fight!
(Harper shoots Kalderans.)
HARPER: Don't you carry a weapon?

[Command]

HUNT: Yes! Good job, Rommie.
ROMMIE: I've got major disturbances all over Sinti, and my mainframe is still out of commission.
(Lots of versions of Andromeda flicker on the viewscreen.)
HUNT: Assuming manual control.
ROMMIE: We've got plasma leaks all over the ship. The conduits must be tesseracting.
HUNT: Just give me enough power to reach escape velocity.
ROMMIE: Rerouting.
(The ship turns on a sixpence.)
HUNT: Come on, Rommie. Come on!
ROMMIE: We're out of orbit. The disruptions on the planet are abating. The plasma leaks are approving critical levels.
HUNT: Shut down the engines.
ROMMIE: Done. Plasma leaks are under control. We're vectoring away from Sinti at a steady fifteen psl.
HUNT: Problem one solved. Now for problem two.

[Eureka Maru]

(Harper takes a weapon from his latest corpse and hands his own to Rekeeb.)
HARPER: All right, take this.
REKEEB: Please, I'm just a simple field researcher. I can't do this.
HARPER: Ow! Rekeeb, if I can do this, so can you. Now, come on.
REKEEB: Wait, wait. I've been analysing the radiation signatures of the tesseract events. Perhaps there is a pattern.
HARPER: 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.
(Harper presses buttons and opens the main door. There is a distortion outside.)
REKEEB: You've harnessed the 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, er, 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.

[Corridor]

REKEEB: This is not the machine shop.
HARPER: No, really?
BEKA: Harper. Thank God. I was worried sick.
TRANCE 2: Harper.
HARPER: Trance?
TRANCE 2: It's me. It's just a new me.
HARPER: What the?
BEKA: Temporal mechanics give me a headache.
(Hello, Kathryn Janeway.)
HARPER: Tell me about it. Argh! I'm telling you, one more like that and I'm going to be the father of six baby Magog.
TRANCE 2: Follow me.
HARPER: Follow you? We don't even know you.
TRANCE 2: I'm still Trance, and if you'd like to get out of here alive I suggest you do as I say.
HARPER: What?

[Machine shop]

HUNT: All right. Machine shop.
(Golden Trance leads the others in through another door.)
HUNT: Good timing. Beka, what. Trance? That, that is you?
TRANCE 2: 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's finished.
HUNT: Good. Activate it. Take out the eggs and then you can destroy this thing once and for all.
HARPER: Er, Dylan, it's er, 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.
HUNT: Maybe we can. You did by being here. How?
TRANCE 2: 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: What if er, what if we don't activate it, huh? What if, er, what if we destroy it instead?
TRANCE 2: Then the distortions will be cancelled out, I will return back to the future and my younger self will be restored.
HUNT: 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
(Rekeeb powers up the Kalderan rifle.)
REKEEB: No one move!
(Hunt and Harper point their weapons at him. Trance moves to block them.)
HUNT: Don't be stupid. Drop the gun.
REKEEB: I've had 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 you? Argh!
REKEEB: Don't move. I have the gun. You have to do what I say.
(Weapons fire outside.)
HARPER: Oh no.
HUNT: Not again.
(Swarm ships start pumping their crew into Andromeda.) 
ROMMIE: Magog.
(Hunt shoots the rifle out of Rekeeb's hand. Tyr enters, fighting Magog. The crew open fire and the door closes safely.)
TYR: Did I come at a bad time?
HUNT: No, I'd say you came at a very, very good time. So, Mister Harper, what do you want to do about the machine?
HARPER: I don't know. Maybe, er, 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.
BEKA: Don't say that.
HARPER: No, its true, Beka.
(Golden Trance moves to the machine.)
HARPER: I mean, he was one of a kind. He was the first one to commit to your new Commonwealth, and he was my friend. I can't just choose my life over his. Let's destroy it, before I change my mind.
HUNT: Harper, if we destroy this machine, you know what I'm going to 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?
(Golden Trance activates the machine. Harper is lifted into the air and suspended. The Magog larvae move forward out of his body and vanish, then he falls back gently. She turns off the machine.)
TRANCE 2: There, that's better.
BEKA: Trance?
HUNT: What have you done?
TRANCE: I saved Harper's life.

[Command]

ANDROMEDA [OC]: We're in orbit.
HUNT: Disruptions?
HOLO-ROMMIE: The spatial temporal effects of the tesseracts have ceased.
HUNT: Good. Contact the Sinti General Council. We'd better tell them what happed to Hohne.

[Medical]

BEKA: Seamus? Rise and shine.
(Harper sits up.)
HARPER: Ah, oh. My aches ache.
BEKA: Just be glad you're around to feel it.
HARPER: 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.

[Corridor]

ANDROMEDA [OC]: No sign of any dead Kalderans or Magog. All systems are fully operational again.
HUNT: Good. What about Kiley?
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Gone.
HUNT: That's too bad. She's a good officer.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Was.
HUNT: Yeah. That leaves only one last loose end.

[Observation deck]

HUNT: What am I supposed to do with you?
TRANCE 2: I don't know. Keep me around, I hope.
HUNT: I'm trying to think of a persuasive reason to do that, but I'm having trouble.
TRANCE 2: Because you don't trust me.
HUNT: Trust is something you earn.
TRANCE 2: Then give me a chance.
HUNT: 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 2: My goals haven't changed.
HUNT: Beka says the future you came from was a bad one. One where things went wrong and you came back to set things right.
TRANCE 2: So?
HUNT: So tell me how saving Harper and loosing Hohne does that. How does that set things right?
TRANCE 2: 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.
HUNT: Then why?
TRANCE 2: For the one reason that does matter. Because Hohne is a stranger and Harper is my friend.
HUNT: Huh. Well, that's a change, anyway.
TRANCE 2: What?
HUNT: Honesty.
TRANCE 2: But it doesn't answer your question, does it? About what to do with me.
HUNT: No, it doesn't. But it's a start. It's a start.