...Knock, knock, knock on the devil's door.
Do not invite him to dinner; his beasts will
come for more.

High Priestess Misabo Ahm in Triumvirate
War Council
CY10091

[Eureka Maru]

HARPER: Ah-choo! Four planets, not a single lead, and I pick up a freaking cold. I can't wait to get back to my Andromeda.
HUNT: Well, whoever these cobalt-nickel smugglers are, they sure are thorough.
RHADE: Well, hopefully Beka fared better. Why would anyone steal worthless rocks from so many planets?
HARPER: Worthless? Do you have any idea how many billion different things cobalt and nickel can be used for? I think you have rocks in your head.
RHADE: Why don't I head-butt you so you can be certain?
HARPER: Oh, I'm certain, all right. In fact, in heavy gravity worlds, does your head get sucked to the ground first?
RHADE: Insulting a Nietzschean is not healthy for a human's health, especially one so itsy bitsy.
HUNT: Remind me to never take you two on a side mission again.
RHADE: Tiny, get me a position on this courier ship.
HARPER: Courier ship? I don't see one, fathead.
RHADE: They're requesting confirmation of your presence, Harper.
HARPER: Hell, confirm my presence. Maybe I won some I money. Please, boss?
HUNT: Something tells me I'm going to regret this. Go ahead, Rhade.
(Bang!)
HUNT: Report.
RHADE: Three Templar ships in attack formation. They're firing again.
HUNT: Fire back.
RHADE: The first set jammed our launch tubes.
HUNT: Let's lose them.
RHADE: Can't. They're too tight. We got blind-sided.
HARPER: Major disadvantage.
HUNT: Launch tubes cleared. Targeting.
RHADE: Jammed again. Captain, we need a strategy.
HUNT: Prep the escape pod.
HARPER: That's not a strategy. Prepping.

[Maru crew area]

(The escape pod is launched, and blasted to smithereens. The Templars board the Maru.)
LIEUTENANT: Find Harper. Find him. Check. Bring me anyone who's alive. Move out. Search the entire ship.
(Hunt, Harper and Rhade are hiding behind a holographic wall, watching all this. The Lieutenant picks up an empty Sparky cola can and throws it away. It rolls through the holographic wall to their feet.)
TEMPLAR: Clear.
LIEUTENANT: You destroyed the pod, and we needed the engineer alive.
PILOT: It got caught in the crossfire, sir.
LIEUTENANT: Shut your mouth and take us to slipstream. We'll keep the Maru.
PILOT: Yes, sir.
LIEUTENANT: Stay alert. They still could be in here somewhere.
PILOT: Going to slipstream.
(The Lieutenant picks up a small device. With his back to the wall, he tests it. The wall disappears, then reappears again. Then Harper sneezes. The Lieutenant leaves.)
HUNT: (sotto) Harper, you forgot the control.
HARPER: (sotto) I was so impressed by my new holo-matrix, I guess I. I'll get it.
(Harper sneaks out carefully, but still gets caught.)
HUNT: (sotto) Oh, Harper.
LIEUTENANT: We've been looking for you.
RHADE: (sotto) Captain.
LIEUTENANT: I've got him.
RHADE: (sotto) We're already in their system. Our only chance for survival is if one of us remains undetected.
HUNT: (sotto) Rhade.
(Rhade leaves the hideaway and hits the Lieutenant.)
LIEUTENANT: A Nietzschean protecting a human. Too bad you can't tell a loser situation when you see one.
RHADE: A loser situation? I only see a loser.
LIEUTENANT: You're going to regret your inbred stupidity. Take them aft.
(The Lieutenant deactivates the holographic wall, but cannot find Hunt.)
PILOT: Prepare for landing.
LIEUTENANT: Acknowledged. Mission accomplished. We've got Harper, sir. We're landing now.
PATRIARCH [OC]: Excellent. Bring him in.
LIEUTENANT: Yes, sir. Move out.

[Command]

TRANCE: No sign of the Maru.
BEKA: How long have we got?
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: I estimate the marketeer will take no more than fifteen minutes to load up the contraband cobalt and nickel.
BEKA: Great, so if we wait around for Dylan, we lose a smuggler. Why are men always late?
TRANCE: They might be in trouble.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Or they may have discovered something crucial. The captain did order us
BEKA: not to break off pursuit no matter what. I know, but he has my ship. Drop a beacon. Let him know where we're going.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Deploying beacon.

[Cave]

HARPER: Dylan's listening on our new VSAs.
RHADE: VSAs?
HARPER: Yeah, VSA. Vocal to sub-audio. Wired to the ossicles. An earphone connected to the ear bones. Nobody can hear but you. Nietzscheans don't get one.

[Eureka Maru]

HARPER [OC]: Just follow the path, boss. It's some kind of facility.
HUNT: Good work, Harper. Leave your VSA open, but I'll do the talking. Cough once for no

[Cave]

HUNT [OC]: And twice for yes.
(Harper coughs once.)

[Eureka Maru]

HUNT: Very funny.

[Cave]

HARPER: Hey, I know that guy.
RHADE: Which one? The one digging, or the one in the ground?
HARPER: Who makes people bury corpses in caves?
RHADE: Someone who wants to make sure they have to smell it every time they walk through here.
HARPER: Lovely.

[Laboratory]

(Lots of shiny stainless steel and the end of the tether to a device hanging in near space.)
LIEUTENANT: Patriarch.
PATRIARCH: Seamus Zelazny Harper. Earth born. Boston. A survivor of Magog infestation, and one of the Commonwealth's top engineers. You keep the Andromeda in fine shape.
HARPER: Oh, her shape is fine, all right. Too bad for me.
PATRIARCH: I'm a soldier. Maybe your captain's told you this.
HARPER: Funny, he never mentioned you at all. Who are you again?
(The Patriarch slaps Harper.)
HARPER: Ow! Right, now I remember you. You've been alive for three centuries, right? Transferring from body to body. You're Admiral Stark.
RHADE: He was Admiral Stark.
PATRIARCH: I was just about to commend your captain on dumping that trash in dreadlocks, but it seems he's traded it in for just more of the same. Your name is?
RHADE: Telemachus Rhade.
PATRIARCH: A good strong name. You keep repeating it to yourself. Concentrate. Make it your personal mantra. It will help.
RHADE: With what?
PATRIARCH: A slow death. For five lifetimes, I've watched your filth stain the universe. Watched your people defile race upon race just by their mere presence. You're a disgrace to that uniform. Get him out of it. Sleep deprivation device.
HARPER: Whoa, whoa!
PATRIARCH: Now, we detected three life signs aboard the Maru. Where is he?
(Rhade is stripped to the waist while the sleep deprivation device is fastened to Harper's forehead.)
PATRIARCH: Possibly on his way here? Oh, I look forward to that. Now, Harper, I brought you here to build me a bridge from this planet to its moon. You work hard, everything will run smoothly. If you don't, then you'll die. You are the wheat, my son. And you, you are the chaff. And the chaff must be separated from the wheat. Do it here in front of the prisoners so they can take pride in their work.
(Harper coughs twice.)

[Outside the cave]

(Hunt is planting explosives around the stockpile of stores.)
HUNT: Harper, you're breaking up. Are you in trouble?
(Cough, cough.)

[Laboratory]

LIEUTENANT: Ready.
(The Templars use two forcelances to give Rhade a nasty electric shock through the neck.)

[Outside the cave]

(Hunt shoots a hole in a storage drum. The spray starts a nearby guard screaming.)
GUARD: What happened?
GUARD 2: Get a medic.
(Hunt runs into the cave.)

[Laboratory]

HARPER: No, no, no. No, wait. Don't kill him. I won't help you. You need me. On the way down, I got a pretty good look at your bridge and the moon, and add two seconds of orbital data, and any kid could calculate what Harper's keen eyes are trained to observe.
PATRIARCH: And that is?
HARPER: The bridge and moon won't be aligned for at least a hundred years.
PATRIARCH: Two hundred and ten, to be precise.
HARPER: Yeah, right, so that leaves one of three options. A, you made a stupid mistake. B, you're building a bridge you plan on never using, or C, you're actually building a bridge across time.
(The Patriarch signals Rhade's release. He drops to the floor.)
HARPER: Okay. Now, when I look in the mirror, I see the best person I know to achieve time travel, and you know that too. That's why your lug heads kidnapped me. No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. No, no. Let him live. Let him live. If you don't, I won't help you. And if you try to make me, I'll sabotage your bridge.
PATRIARCH: So you want insurance, do you? Fine, he lives until the bridge is realised. After all, they won't be here for long anyway, will they? Throw him in the scrubber. See if it can scrub the Nietzschean out of him.

[Cave]

HARPER [OC]: Anywhere a guy can get a drink around here? I'll tell you, when a pal has a close call but turns out okay
LIEUTENANT [OC]: Shut up and keep walking.
HARPER [OC]: Glad he's okay.
HUNT: Nice work, Mister Harper.
(He is tapped on the shoulder by a forcelance.)
HUNT: All right, all right, you got me. But before you let anyone know that I'm here, I have a proposition for you. Sleep tight.
(Hunt knocks the guard out, then drags him away.)

[Scrubber]

(A hot box with a large slow fan blowing dust into it.)
LIEUTENANT: Enjoying your accommodations?
RHADE: Time for another dance?
LIEUTENANT: I wish, but we need your strength. Let's go.

[Laboratory]

TEMPLAR: Free period walk.
(The slaves leave.)
HARPER: Rhade, how are you doing?
RHADE: You saved my life. Thank you.
HARPER: Thank me? No, no, no, no, no. Thank you. You gave yourself up for me and the Maru to a bunch of racist freaks. I owe you.
RHADE: Blend in.
WOODY: Hey, any friend of Harper is a friend of mine. You know, because I taught him how to program when we he was a kid.
HARPER: That's right. Woody's virtual She Sims were better than anybody's.
WOODY: You know, when you guys bust me out of here, I'm heading back to virtual smut. It's too dangerous here in the High Guard.
RHADE: You were a High Guard engineer?
WOODY: I've been here a while, okay, buddy? Don't judge a book by its cover.
RHADE: About that, has anyone tried to escape?
WOODY: Er, yeah, yeah. I think you saw him on the way in. I was burying him.

[Command]

(Tracking the smuggler.)
TRANCE: He's opening a slip portal.
BEKA: Focus the lens on it. We're going through the same door.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Portal focused.
BEKA: Here we go.
(Bang! Alarms.)
BEKA: What the?
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: That was a converter surge regulator palpitation. Unless corrected, propulsion shifts have a sixteen percent chance of stalling. Harper intended to fix that.
BEKA: Perfect. Remind me to strangle Harper. Andromeda, once more.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Portal focused.
TRANCE: Shouldn't we be looking for the Maru?
BEKA: Trance

[Laboratory]

(On his way back, Harper is grabbed by a guard and pushed against the wall.)
HARPER: Hey, hey, what did I do? What did I do?
HUNT: Harper, it's me. I didn't hurt you, did I?
HARPER: Oh, don't worry about me. Ow. So when the hell are we getting out of here?
HUNT: Well, I buried a couple of grenades and a forcelance near the entrance. Rhade? You look bad.
RHADE: I'll feel better when I bury my bone blades in the Patriarch's neck.
HUNT: Careful, don't let anger cloud your judgment. But in this case, it's good to have goals.
HARPER: I've got a goal. A big, fat, juicy burger when we get out of here.
HUNT: Yeah, well, I'll see what I can do, but before you escape, we have one problem. The Patriarch's building a time bridge and we don't know why.
HARPER: As much as I hate to say it, boss, we are already here. I mean, if we stuck around for a while, we could find out why. And maybe while we're here, I could learn a few things about this bridge. It's got flaws, but I'll bet I could fix them.
HUNT: Rhade, how long do you think you can tough it out?
RHADE: As long as you need.
HARPER: As long as I play ball, they won't lay a finger on him.
HUNT: The Magog Worldship is going to be here any day now. A time bridge might be useful in all out galactic war. Learn what you can, Mister Harper, but under no circumstances allow it to be completed.
HARPER: Got it. From your mouth to my brain. I promise, boss, you won't regret it.
HUNT: Good. Now we need access to the Patriarch's computer files.
HARPER: Ask and you shall receive. Hey, lughead.
HUNT: Rhade.
HARPER: I need to speak to your Patriarch.
HUNT: Sorry, but I have to make it look good.
(He hits Rhade.)
HUNT: Now, get back to work!

[Patriarch's office]

HARPER: All I'm saying is I know why your bridge won't work.
PATRIARCH: You haven't even seen the plans. How can you possibly know how it won't work?
HARPER: Stop me if I'm wrong. You started with your basic space elevator comprised of carbon nanotube ropes with a dock that doubles as a counterweight.
PATRIARCH: Child's play.
HARPER: Ah ha, but you had the foresight to extend it from a speed ball spinning so fast, if it weren't for its mass, we'd all be catapulted off to Earth. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing if it weren't for the splat factor.
PATRIARCH: And they told me he was a genius.
HARPER: All right, all right, I'm getting to it. Think of it like a giant centrifuge. The faster it spins, the greater the centrifugal force. The greater the centrifugal force, the stronger the G forces acting upon something trapped in the end of the bridge. But what is that something? A tachyon. A particle that moves faster than the speed of light. You want to use G forces to slow a tachyon below the speed of light as per the Unified Theory, creating time dilation around it. Your problem is? You don't know how to make a tachyon. You don't know what particle to use.
PATRIARCH: Bravo. Now, the question is, do you?
HARPER: Oh, I know, all right. The question is am I going to tell you?
PATRIARCH: You see, I'm helpless. I don't want to take prisoners, but I'm surrounded by people who aren't of your calibre, people with this.
HARPER: If only I could get it to pick up women for me.
PATRIARCH: You know, it's a shame, really. A true genius like yourself never having any real money or equipment at his disposal.
HARPER: We do all right on the Andromeda. This one time
PATRIARCH: I know, you sent a Kali melon back into the past a couple of minutes. And that was the successful part. I guess it's all right if you want your place in the annals of scientific history to be bookmarked by exploding fruit and children's toys. But think of it. A bridge two hundred and ten years into the future. A bridge through which any living thing can jump. The best scientific minds in the universe grovelling at your feet, your name in the stars. Now that, that would be exhilarating, hmm?
HARPER: Yeah, it's pretty tempting, all right. But when all is said and done, what are you planning on doing with it?
PATRIARCH: Hmm. Yes, our motives are different, but does that really matter? I put it to you. Should scientific progress be denied?
HARPER: Well no, not if the universe has evolved to where time travel is the next natural evolutionary step, but if that were the case, it'd be popping up all over the place. People would be discovering it. They could be working on it as we speak.
PATRIARCH: As we speak.
HARPER: And the fact that you're so close only proves it.
PATRIARCH: Seamus, it's not fair, but you're going to be left behind.

[Cave]

GUARD: Keep moving. Keep it up.
(Harper coughs and drops a key card. Hunt picks it up and uses it to access a computer terminal.)

[Laboratory]

HUNT: Ah, here we go. Carbon nanotubes. Charts. Cobalt. Cobalt and nickel. Kilotons of it, to make carbon nanotubes. Ha. And I think we found our smuggler. Huh. I know. That's the time bridge. Here's the moon. Once aligned, it only lasts a day. It's a hell of a one-shot deal. I need to find out what's on that moon.
PATRIARCH: Salvation, Captain. Isn't that what we're all looking for?
HUNT: Well, if it's salvation you're seeking, Patriarch, you should first ask for forgiveness for your sins. Larceny, abduction, subjugation,
PATRIARCH: My sins are for the good of us all. The Magog are eventually going to attack the Tri-galaxy, and when they do, it will be the opportunity of a lifetime.
Five lifetimes, to be exact.
HUNT: That's four lifetimes too many. And now I see you're dabbling in the space-time continuum.
PATRIARCH: Oh, not really. I'm just trying to shorten time. Everything we built has gone to the dogs, and I'm getting sick and tired of waiting for it to turn around.
HUNT: It has turned around.
PATRIARCH: Oh, really? You did a fine job of slapping together that flawed, corrupted farce, biting the hand that built it. You're a wanted man, Dylan, hunted by your own kind. Not a very pretty way to enter into a war, is it?
HUNT: War is never pretty.
PATRIARCH: Well, I think war has great beauty.
HUNT: Well, then you'll love this.
(Hunt fires, then ducks behind a forcefield that rebounds the shots back to the shooters.)
PATRIARCH: Cease fire, you idiots.
LIEUTENANT: Grenade, sir.
PATRIARCH: No, I don't think that will be necessary. Do you, Captain?
(Hunt surrenders.)
PATRIARCH: I'm looking forward to watching you rub elbows with the grunts. Finally getting your officer's hands dirty. Oh, and that engineer of yours is quite talented.
HUNT: He won't help you.
PATRIARCH: He already has.

[Cave]

(Hunt has a sleep deprivation device on, and his jumper.)
GUARD: Rest period!
HUNT: Rhade, I have to find out what's on that moon.
RHADE: You have a better chance of making it on your own. Don't worry. I can handle whatever the Templars throw at me.
HUNT: Yeah. Well, it's not you I'm worried about.
WOODY: A little help here?
HUNT: Yeah, sure. What happened?
WOODY: Buddy got thrown in the scrubber for slacking off.
HUNT: The scrubber?
WOODY: It's an argon gas and radiation exhaust system. Outside air is drawn in, saturated with the contaminants, and then pumped back out.
HUNT: Outside air, huh? I think it's time for a protest.

[Command]

(Near a drift.)
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: I'm detecting a launch. Scanning. It's the smuggler's ship.
(They follow.)
BEKA: He'll fake us out at the next jump by opening a portal and dipping under. We're not buying it. We're banking with him, then we're ramming straight up his aft and taking out his thrusters.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: He's opening a portal.
TRANCE: Beka, he's going to decelerate quickly. Be ready for a dead halt.
BEKA: Never been readier. There he goes. Reverse thrusters! Pull back! Andromeda, show me.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: The converter's surge palpitation caused a momentary full stall.
BEKA: Inertia plowed us right through him.
TRANCE: His choices led him to this destiny.
BEKA: Or I got a little carried away.
TRANCE: A little.
BEKA: Hey, what's that?
TRANCE: Andromeda, are those weapons?
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Scanning. Rifles, laser guided missiles, and forcelances numbering in the thousands.
BEKA: So, the big man likes small arms with his cobalt and nickel.
TRANCE: Beka, technically this discovery counts as a successful mission. Maybe we should check the beacon.
BEKA: Andromeda, you heard the lady.

[Laboratory]

LIEUTENANT: Get up.
HUNT: No.
LIEUTENANT: Get up and get back to work.
HUNT: No.
LIEUTENANT: I said
HUNT: And I said no. We'll work, once you remove these sleep deprivation devices. You need us. Look at our number. We have control. No work, no progress. No progress, no bridge. No bridge, well, that means no bridge. You see, we decide whether or not the Patriarch gets his stinking bridge. Sit. All of you, sit down. Just sit down! We're going to take a little break now.
PATRIARCH: Dylan, Dylan, Dylan. It's not enough that you have to rain on my parade, you're going to take away all my fun too, huh?
HUNT: Yeah, like I said, we'll work once you take these things off.
PATRIARCH: You will all work when I tell you to work. Kill this one.
HARPER: Wait, wait, wait. Just getting by. Er, P T, as much as we admire the fancy little gizmos, they are starting to hinder productivity.
WOODY: You know, if we outline proper work schedules, we can move up the completion date without them.
HARPER: Yeah, we could do that. You'd get your bridge sooner.
PATRIARCH: Really.
WOODY: Yeah.
PATRIARCH: All right, they'll be removed. But at a price. Throw the good Captain in the scrubber. And the rest of you, get back to work.
HUNT: Sooner?

[Scrubber]

(The guard checks that the bottle has only water in it. Woody no longer has a sleep deprivation device on.)
WOODY: Hey, buddy, how are you doing? Woodman's here with your water rations.
HUNT: Thank you.
WOODY: How are you doing?
HUNT: I'm hanging out.
GUARD: Time's up.
(Woody stands and turns. There is a screwdriver in his belt.)
WOODY: Whoa, got up too fast. Okay, listen, I've got to talk to you about the baccarat tourney, okay, because I need to get in on this.
(Hunt takes the screwdriver and works on a grill at the far side of the scrubber box.)
WOODY: I know what's going on here. You're afraid of a little competition, isn't that right? Yeah, yeah, keep playing with the guards, they've got showers, and I'm just some scruffy guy with dirt. You don't know what I could do with a card table, given the stakes. I don't have any cash, now, but, er, that's fine.
(Hunt gets through the grill.)
WOODY: Look, I'm true to my friends, you know, even if they are guards, you know, keeping me on a planet forever. You know what I mean. That games is so waiting right about

[Outside the cave]

(Hunt gets to the forcelance and grenades he stashed earlier.)
GUARD: Hey!
(The shooting and grenade throwing starts. Hunt gets to the Eureka Maru and lifts off, chased by three small ships.)

[Eureka Maru]

HUNT: Maru, survey the moon. All parameters.
COMPUTER: Entering orbit. Initiating survey.
HUNT: Hangars, runways, training facilities, housing. What's the population?
COMPUTER: Sparse per architecture. Only a few thousand and counting, averaging one male and one female per residence.
(He goes to slipstream and comes out safely.)
COMPUTER: Andromeda beacon off starboard. Danger, all systems failure. Switching to EB. O2 leaking. Forty two minutes life support for your body weight remaining.
(Hunt passes out.)

[Command]

ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen: I have a location on the Maru.
BEKA: Lifesigns?
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Potentially, one.
BEKA: Potentially?
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: It is very weak.
BEKA: Trance, get to
(Trance is already leaving.)
BEKA: Med deck.

[Med deck]

TRANCE: He's coming to.
BEKA: Good. What the hell did you do to my ship?
HUNT: It's good to see you too. The Patriarch, he's our smuggler.
BEKA: Still alive, huh? Well, he's also moving weapons, enough for an army.
HUNT: That's it. An army. He's breeding an army to import from the future.
BEKA: The future?
HUNT: It's never easy.

[Laboratory]

RHADE: Harper, I can't let you do this.
(Rhade still has his sleep deprivation device. Harper does not.)
HARPER: Okay. Point this thing at the mirror, would you? It's too heavy for me.
RHADE: Harper.
PATRIARCH: He's quite simple for such an intelligent young man, isn't he?
RHADE: He made your fiction real.
PATRIARCH: Your whole race will soon be fiction, along with all that other genetically altered filth. My supreme Templars, the army of the future, will rid our universe of you and your kind.
(Rhade lunges for the Patriarch and gets zapped.)

[Command]

(The Andromeda Ascendant comes out of slipstream by the orbital tether.)
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Maintaining orbit out of sensor range.
BEKA: Why would the Patriarch need an army so quickly?
HUNT: When the Magog attack the Tri-Galaxies, it will be bloody. No matter who wins, all sides will be severely weakened. The Patriarch wants to be ready when it's over to bring out his army of Templars to cleanse the universe of survivors. Target that bridge. I don't want an inch of it left standing. But do not fire until we alert Harper and Rhade.
(The Maru launches.)

[Laboratory]

(Woody and Harper celebrate with a high five.)
HARPER: Gentlemen, the future cannot influence the past, right? Wrong. We're going to prove that. Lopsided temporality. We're also going to prove that today, we didn't just push a tachyon to its limit, we pushed ourselves to the limit. We did what he couldn't. This is our bridge. We built it, and he can't take that away from us.
HUNT [OC]: Harper, you have to destroy the bridge. Repeat, destroy the bridge!
HARPER: But we'll be the first ones, boss. We've just got to see if it we did it, just for a millisecond.
RHADE: Harper, don't do it, for God's sake!
LIEUTENANT: Shut up.
PATRIARCH: Prepare to meet your nemesis.
GUARD [OC]: Lieutenant, two people are attacking on foot.
LIEUTENANT: Acknowledged. Sir, Hunt has returned.
PATRIARCH: Make sure he can't get in.
LIEUTENANT: Secure the entry.
HARPER: In the name of science, boss

[Cave]

HARPER [OC]: We've just got to see.
HUNT: Harper, no! We're outnumbered. Clear a path.
(Rommie readies two forcelances.)
ROMMIE: Stay here.
HUNT: No problem.
(Rommie goes into superfast blur mode and takes out all the Templar guards.)
HUNT: She's very good.

[Laboratory]

WOODY: We have full power, Harper.
HARPER: I've just got to see if we did it. Just once, boss. It's too important.
HUNT: Harper, no!
(Harper turns on the machine. A green light bounces off the mirror up into space. It hits the future moon and something returns down the same path.)
HARPER: A luxon. It worked. Get that mirror out of there.
(A creature drops in to where the mirror was, and sniffs the air.)
MEN: Magog! Run! Run!
PATRIARCH: No.
(And another, which starts shooting. More keep coming.)
HUNT: Magog, and they've evolved.
(The Magog, which are versions of the new Bem, set up a defensive barricade.)
HUNT: Go, go, go!
PATRIARCH: It's impossible!
RHADE: Harper, shut it down!
HARPER: We can't. It's already happened.
WOODY: Overload the, er
(A Magog shoots out the controls.)
HARPER: Too late.
(The Magog seize Woody and Harper.)
MAGOG: Seamus Harper. Such a historical figure in my lineage. You served with Red Plague.
HARPER: Red. Rev. You mean Rev Bem.
MAGOG: Right, my great great grandfather. The first to control his hunger. I have lived my whole life for this. I look forward to our children.
(He sprays Harper and leaves.)
HARPER: They're marking us, the ones they want to infest with their Magog eggs later.
WOODY: No!
HARPER: Woody! Oh, my god. Oh, my god, what have I done?
PATRIARCH: This is wrong. You're supposed to be,
MAGOG: Your superior race? We ate them. Watch him move as I tickle his left ventricle. This one is for you.
(The lead Magog removes his hand from inside the Patriarch, and another Magog starts eating him alive. When he is dead, Rhade breaks the Magog's neck.)
MAGOG: You two, come with me to the landing bay, now!
(More Magog keep coming down the time tunnel.)
HUNT: It's no good. We're barely even slowing them down.
(Rhade joins Hunt and Rommie, with a Magog gun.)
RHADE: What took you so long?
HUNT: You're welcome. Cover the exit. Let's get to Harper.
(Hunt and Rommie run to where Harper is cowering.)
HUNT: Destroy the bridge.
HARPER: We can't. We can't.
HUNT: Harper, snap out of it.
HARPER: Look, boss, they marked me. It's all my fault.
HUNT: You're damn right it is. Now, you made this mess. Now you're going to clean it up. Harper, you found a way to build it. Find a way to destroy it. Think!
HARPER: Someone has to get to that panel and open it so we can point this emitter at the tubes inside.
HUNT: Rommie.
ROMMIE: Not a problem.
HARPER: Have I ever told you how much I
ROMMIE: Shush. You're in a lot of trouble right now.
HUNT: Go.
(Rommie gets to the panel.)
HUNT: Let's move it.
(Hunt and Harper swing the emitter around.)
HARPER: There, boss.
HUNT: Good. Harper, now!
(The green beam fires at the panel.)
HUNT: It's going to blow. Go!
(They return to Rhade and Rommie.)
HUNT: We're leaving.
(Harper cannot move. Hunt drags him off.)
HUNT: Today.
(The Maru streaks away from the planet as the explosion destroys its ring system.)

[Slipstream core]

(Harper is making repairs.)
TRANCE: Everything isn't always what it seems. You might have been the instrument, but you were not the hand wielding it.
HARPER: Woody's dead, among others. Magog from the future are probably joining forces with the Worldship, all because of me.
TRANCE: Harper, with or without you, they were bound to come. I have always known that. I have always known we cannot change it. It is one of the reasons I'm here. The war has begun.
RHADE: How is it possible? We destroyed the bridge. It won't be there in two centuries.
TRANCE: In another universe we failed, and the bridge will exist, and they will come from there. Or this universe will allow for another bridge to be built, and by some coincidence, as you call it. There's plenty of time. Either way, they are here. Nothing could have changed that.
(Trance leaves.)
HARPER: You got treated like crap down there, and I didn't even stop to notice. I'm no better than the Patriarch.
RHADE: Yes, you are, Harper. You thought what you were doing was right, for the betterment of humanity.
HARPER: Yeah? So did the Patriarch.
RHADE: Hmm. Good intentions. The Devil doesn't tempt us with measly offerings. He knows what we want most. What you wanted most.
HARPER: You believe in the devil?
RHADE: He's in every one of us, right here, (head) aching to get out, but this, (heart) is what you have to listen to. Understood?
HARPER: You're pretty enlightened for a. You know what? I'm never going to make another Nietzschean joke again.
RHADE: Yes, you will.

[Hunt's office]

HUNT: I promise, boss. You won't regret it. What you did was unforgivable. If I can't trust you, I can't depend on you. It's that simple. If you can give in to the Patriarch so easily, how can I rely on you when the Magog attack. And how are you going to hold up against the Abyss' tricks? If you're here to be let off the hook, Harper, it's not happening.
HARPER: I just came here to apologise. I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Please, please, don't give me the boot.
HUNT: Well, that's strike two. One more, and you're out.
HARPER: Strike two? What was strike one?
HUNT: Careful. Forgetting strike one is enough to be strike three.
HARPER: Right. Now I remember strike one. That won't happen again either.
HUNT: Dismissed.
HARPER: What was strike one?
(Harper leaves.)
ROMMIE: Dylan, what was strike one?
HUNT: Well, there wasn't one, but he works better under pressure.
ROMMIE: Hmm. Well, he finally did get around to fixing my anti-proton converter palpitations.
HUNT: See? Case in point. He finally fixed it, huh?
ROMMIE: Hmm.
HUNT: Wonders never cease.