"Contrast is the wellspring of desire.
A double-loop matrix
within the eternal continuum."

Metaphysical Conclusions of Jacob,
All Systems University, Special Collections,
CY 9030

[Saloon]

(The two suns are burning down through a cloudless sky. Harper is laying down the house rules to a man at the bar.)
HARPER: No. That's it, you're done. I told you. One drink per customer, no exceptions. You already had your one.
MAN: Harper
HARPER: And keep those paws off of me.
RHADE: Harper is going to get lynched if he keeps serving up saliva martinis.
HUNT: Saliva?
BEKA: This drought's got to end sometime.
DOYLE: Unless we can shift the planetary orbit further away from Methus Two.
HUNT: Excuse me, saliva?
RHADE: Maybe the answer's in the Methus diagram. Has Harper made any progress figuring it out?
HUNT: Not really. He's been too busy salivating.
HARPER: Hey, one drink maximum, Beka.
BEKA: Someone may as well drink Doyle's. Might as well be me.
(A woman walks into the saloon.)
MAN: Come on. One more.
HARPER: Get out! And here's what I think of your money, honey.
(The woman walks up to the bar.)
HARPER: What'll it be?
CELINE: Oh, you know, Harper. The usual.
HARPER: Okay, you know my name, but why is it I can't remember yours?
CELINE: Beats me. I tell you every day.
HARPER: Every day.
CELINE: It's Celine.
HARPER: Nah, nah. That's not possible, because I'd remember.
CELINE: On the bright side, I don't usually wait this long to tell you, so you'd better take it off fast.
HARPER: Take what off?
CELINE: Your cryo neck cooler.
HARPER: Nah. No, no, no. I paid four hundred canaa for this.
CELINE: You never listen.
HARPER: Celine, was it? Don't worry, Celine. I can take care of myself.
CELINE: Not as much as you think.
MAN: Harper. Won't give me another drink? Then give me that frosty necktie instead!
(And lifts Harper over the bar.)
HARPER: Wait a minute, wait a minute! No, it's mine!
CELINE: Hey, Zebey. Might want to hold that bottle a few inches to the left. Someone's going to leave the door open.
(A meteorite whizzes in and breaks the bottle.)
CELINE: I tried to warn you.
(Celine leaves the fight and goes over to Hunt.)
MAN: Come here, you.
HARPER: Ow!
MAN: Hold still!
CELINE: Dylan Hunt? Wait, what am I saying? You'd have to be dead. Hundreds of years dead.
(That gets the rest of the patrons interested.)
BEKA: Ha! Not bad for a dead guy. Especially a couple hundred years.
HUNT: Thank you, Beka.
CELINE: Oh. Right. I'm sorry. I was confusing you with someone from the old legends. A High Guard Captain.
(Celine leaves.)

[Town]

CELINE: And around we go.

[Saloon]

(Celine enters.)
MAN: Come on. One more.
HARPER: Get out! And here's what I think of your money, honey. What'll it be?
CELINE: Oh, you know, Harper, the usual. 
HARPER: Okay, you know my name, but why is it I can't remember yours?
CELINE: Beats me. I tell you every day.
HARPER: Every day.
CELINE: Celine.
HARPER: Nah, nah. That's not possible, because I'd remember.
CELINE: On the bright side, things get a little clearer every time, but that's only because you're smarter than the last twenty bartenders they've had in here. I don't usually wait this long to tell you, so you'd better take it off fast.
HARPER: Take what off?
CELINE: Your cryo neck cooler.
HARPER: Nah, no, no, no. I paid four hundred canaa for this.
CELINE: You never listen.
HARPER: Celine, was it? Don't worry, Celine. I can take care of myself.
CELINE: Not as much as you think.
MAN: Harper won't give me another drink, Then give me that frosty necktie instead.
HARPER: Wait a minute, wait a minute! No, it's mine!
CELINE: Hey, Zebey. Might want to hold that bottle a few inches to the left. Someone's going to leave the door open.
(The meteorite shatters the bottle.)
CELINE: I tried to warn you.
MAN: No, that's mine.
CELINE: Dylan? Captain Dylan Hunt?
HUNT: Hello.
BEKA: Not bad. Looks like Dylan's lucky day.
CELINE: So your name is Dylan Hunt.
HUNT: Yes, but no one on Seefra knows about the High Guard.
(Rhade decides to finish the fight for Harpers neck cooler.)
RHADE: Come here!
HUNT: You're not from around here.
CELINE: Oh, yes. Around and around.
HUNT: I couldn't help watching as you came in. You're quite, well, perceptive doesn't really say it.
CELINE: You have no idea.
HUNT: Enlighten me.
CELINE: You're like your namesake in more ways than looks.
HUNT: You still haven't explained how you know What this historical Captain looked like.
CELINE: That's complicated.
HUNT: I get the feeling a lot about you is.
BEKA: Dylan specialises in complicated. Lucky, lucky, lucky.
HUNT: What she probably means is that I know trouble when I see it, and I know that you're in it, so maybe I can help.
CELINE: I'm not the only one who's perceptive. Maybe, just maybe, you can.
(She steps back one pace and a man is thrown through the gap between them.)
HUNT: How do you do that?

[Town]

HUNT: So, what is
CELINE: Celine Yul'Tawn. Common sense that time. Can't accept your offer of help without telling you my name, now can I?
HUNT: Celine. It's beautiful. So what kind of trouble are you in, Celine?
CELINE: You're going to think I'm insane.
HUNT: Oh, well, I er, I like insane.
CELINE: I don't suppose you know what it's like to lose complete control of your life, to be trapped between your past, your future.
HUNT: Well, actually, I er. Let's talk about you.
CELINE: I'm sorry. I can't do this.
HUNT: Whoa. Look, Celine, I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on.
CELINE: I know. It's just I have to really be able to trust you. I have to know you better, I guess.
HUNT: Well I'm not opposed to that.

[Hunt's home]

HUNT: Here's your water.
CELINE: Thanks.
HUNT: You okay?
CELINE: It's been so long since I spent the whole afternoon walking. I'd forgotten how thirsty it can make a person.
HUNT: I hope it wasn't too monotonous for you. Seefra's not exactly a theme drift.
CELINE: I didn't notice. I've never had a better time.
HUNT: You're not bad company yourself.
(They kiss.)
HUNT: I think it's time to tell me what's going on.
CELINE: Time. Yes. It's about time. It's all about time. My god. A High Guard uniform. I knew it. You are him. You're The Dylan Hunt. Captain Dylan Hunt.
HUNT: I can't expect you to tell me the truth and then lie myself, so I am.
CELINE: We've met, Captain. It was just before you assumed command of the Andromeda. Before you left with the Commonwealth fleet. They had a parade in your honour. I'd climbed up on the railing to watch the procession pass.
HUNT: You're the Lieutenant who fell.
CELINE: And broke my wrist, yes. You carried me to the Med station.
HUNT: That was more than three hundred years ago.
CELINE: You're wondering why a woman from three hundred years ago is standing before you in this moment. I could ask you the same question.
HUNT: You could, but I'm not a woman.
CELINE: The last we heard, your fleet was ambushed.
HUNT: Witchhead. The end.
CELINE: The end?
HUNT: Of the Commonwealth. My First Officer, best friend, betrayed me. Gave the Nietzscheans the advantage they needed.
CELINE: The Commonwealth gone? But you
HUNT: Suspended on the edge of a black hole for three hundred years. That's my story. Now yours.
CELINE: Suddenly, my problems seem so small. I'll tell you. I will. But first.
HUNT: There are more ways than one to get to know each other.
CELINE: I'm not opposed to that.
(Later, Hunt is still asleep.)
CELINE: Oh, Dylan, I hope you can help me. I hope.
(Celine vanishes. Hunt wakes and finds the High Guard jacket she was cuddling on the bed.)
HUNT: Oh. What's this doing here?

[Saloon]

HARPER: No. That's it, you're done. I told you. One drink per customer, no exceptions. You already had your one.
RHADE: Harper is going to get lynched if he keeps serving up saliva martinis.
HUNT: Saliva?
BEKA: This drought has to end sometime.
DOYLE: Unlikely, unless we can shift the planetary orbit further away from Methus Two.
HUNT: Excuse me. Saliva?
RHADE: Maybe the answer's in the Methus diagram. Has Harper made any progress figuring it out?
HUNT: Oh, not really. He's been too busy salivating. Get it? Oh, come on, Rhade. It's called a good mood. Try it sometime.
HARPER: Get out! And here's what I think of your money, honey. All right. What'll it be?
CELINE: Oh, you know, Harper. The usual.
HARPER: You know my name, But why is it I don't remember yours?
CELINE: Beats me. I tell you every day.
HARPER: Every day, huh? That's impossible, because if I met you before, believe me, I'd remember.
CELINE: Take it off, Harper.
HARPER: Take what off?
CELINE: Oh, you never listen.
MAN: Harper, won't give me another drink, then give me that frosty necktie instead!
HARPER: No, it's mine!
CELINE: Hey, Zebey. Dylan? Captain Dylan Hunt.
HUNT: Hello.
BEKA: Not bad. Looks like Dylan's lucky day.
CELINE: I thought you'd recognise me. Celine? We've met before.
HUNT: Well, I think I'd remember.
CELINE: Not necessarily. Heads up!
(The meteorite whizzes in and smashes Zebey's bottle.)
HUNT: That's remarkable.
CELINE: I need help.
HUNT: It doesn't look like it.
CELINE: Looks can be deceiving. Can we step outside?
HUNT: Sure.

[Town]

HUNT: So we spent the whole afternoon and half the evening together, and I agreed to help you.
CELINE: You agreed to try, Captain.
HUNT: Captain. I don't hear that much around here.
CELINE: You don't hear yourself referred to as a High Guard soldier of the Commonwealth, Captain of the Andromeda, and the sole survivor of the Battle of Witchhead either, do you?
HUNT: You'd better tell me how you know all of that.
CELINE: That, and the fact your ship was trapped on the edge of a black hole, frozen in time for three hundred years because your First Officer, your best friend, betrayed you? The only way I could. You told me.
HUNT: Okay, I'm listening.
CELINE: You told me everything, last time in your room, before we got distracted.
HUNT: That's not possible.
CELINE: Never mind. Today is all I have, anyway. Thousands of them.
(She hands him her ID.)
HUNT: VAI. Vedran Astroengineering Institute. They developed the slipstream navigation system for the Commonwealth fleet. This card is dated CY 9789.
CELINE: That's when I worked for them, three hundred years ago. You could say we have a lot in common. Let me show you something.
(She unlocks a manhole cover.)
HUNT: Here.
(They lift the lid and go down the ladder.)

[Underground complex]

CELINE: I haven't had the guts to revisit this place till now.
(There is something rushing and snarling in the dark.)
HUNT: I can see why you've been reluctant to come back down here.
CELINE: Reluctant? Make that terrified.
HUNT: I remember a team from the VAI showing me the nav upgrades on board Andromeda.
CELINE: Its public directive. Its classified directive was to find the ways and means to secure our end of slipstream so forces from the Abyss couldn't find this system.
HUNT: The Abyss? There's a name I haven't heard in a while. It must've worked.
CELINE: That was the general plan, but my supervisors had something else in mind. They diverted funds from the V.A.I. and used the navigational technology for their own project. A portal to the Route of Ages.
HUNT: Seefra One is a portal to the Route of Ages?
CELINE: It wasn't supposed to be.
HUNT: And you were forced to go along with this project?
CELINE: Worse. I was duped. By the time I realised what was really going on, I tried to warn the rest of the VAI, my lab team. Showed them my calculations on the risks of altering planetary positioning, how it would lead to climate disruption. But my supervisors blew me off as a nut, so I blew the whistle on them and I've been paying the price ever since. I need my ID card.
HUNT: Oh. Yes, of course.
(It unlocks a very thick, heavy door.)

[]VAI lab]

HUNT: Well, at least you got to keep your security clearance.
CELINE: I'm a quantum mathematician, Captain.
HUNT: Please, call me Dylan. I mean, if we were, as you say, distracted together
CELINE: Dylan.
HUNT: Thanks.
CELINE: I calculated the risks before going up against my superiors. The odds were definitely not in my favour, so I overlaid their security code onto mine. When Methus Two started to blink, I knew the portal had been initiated, that Seefra's orbit was shifting.
HUNT: Kick-starting the drought cycles.
CELINE: And destroying the mechanism to fix it all.
(A computer just beeps at her.)
CELINE: Damn. I can't get it to work.
HUNT: A Methus crystal.
CELINE: My turn to be surprised. You know what this is already.
HUNT: Yeah, we have one. It may be the other half of this. We've been trying to decipher it. We had a hunch that it was connected to the drought. This could help.
CELINE: Broken? I don't know. Last I saw it, the crystal was whole. I'd snuck back in, intent on shutting it down, and that's the last thing I remember. Since then, I've been stuck in a time loop ever since. Three hundred years. I'm here, I'm gone. Here and gone.
HUNT: Pulled into a portal created by your supervisors.
CELINE: Or some deviation of it. My guess is there was a recursive algorithm in the code which never reaches termination state. It keeps bouncing me off a time loop somewhere.
HUNT: Look, I'm no quantum mathematician, but two halves should equal a whole, right?
CELINE: That's usually how it works.
HUNT: This has been hard on you. You should rest.
CELINE: What I need is to get as much accomplished as possible before the suns set on the horizon and everything starts over.
HUNT: Fine, then what I need to do is to get you back to your life.
CELINE: Maybe you already have. Maybe there's something else that can break the time loop. Something stronger than Vedran engineering.
(They kiss.)
HUNT: That's a nice idea, but I'm not taking any chances. Come on.
(They get jumped by the white-skinned beings living underground. Hunt shoots two then Celine throws off her attacker.)
HUNT: I'm very good with my forcelance.
(The last one runs.)
HUNT: Are you all right? Remind me never to pick a fight with you.
(Celine collapses into his arms.)

[Med deck]

TRANCE: She's very weak.
HUNT: She put up a hell of a fight.
TRANCE: It cost her. I think she's dying.
HUNT: Over three hundred years lost in a time loop, that's what it cost her. Trance, if you could just make sure that she
TRANCE: Don't worry.
HUNT: Thanks.

[Corridor]

HARPER: And then the Castalian banker, Paddy Black, turns to her bank manager and says, I've got a Magog in my office, and he wants a loan. All he gave me for collateral is this stupid statue. I don't know what this thing is. What should I do? The bank manager looks at it and says, why, it's a knickknack, Paddy Black. Give the Magog a loan.
DOYLE: And that's supposed to be a joke.
HARPER: It's an Earth joke, yeah. Maybe not the best one, but it always gets me.
DOYLE: Maybe it's your delivery.
HARPER: Everyone's a critic.

[Command]

HUNT: Seefra's orbital chart. We have until the suns get from here to here.
HARPER: And then we forget her again, just like poof?
HUNT: Just like poof.
HARPER: So, if she's in a loop that keeps on repeating, that means we must be too, right?
HUNT: Well, I suppose we must be.
HARPER: Even though it doesn't feel like we are.
HUNT: Yeah, but it does for Celine.
DOYLE: And if we're all in a loop, we have almost no time to get us all out.
HUNT: This is our best clue.
(The Methus part-diagram.)
HARPER: You mean our only clue. No offence, oh, omnipotent goddess, if this is one of the rare times you're listening
(The viewscreen flickers.)
HARPER: She's not quite functional enough for this type of analysis yet.
DOYLE Let me try. It's an algorithm. Let's see. Two columns. The first is polynomials describing interstellar coordinates.
HARPER: Hey! That's my girl.
HUNT: I'm impressed. Then every community on this planet must have a way station for global surveying.
DOYLE: That's right. The adjoining column looks like a set of polynomials describing Seefra's fixed position.
HUNT: Seefra One to the Route of Ages. Celine told me her supervisors were trying to alter Seefra's planetary positioning.
HARPER: By tapping into the gravitational forces at the gateway to the Route. That's risky, but resourceful.
DOYLE: Only problem, critical information's missing where the two halves broke. It would have to be estimated.
HUNT: And?
HARPER: Well, that's enough missing information to leave too many variables. Even my beloved Doyle couldn't calculate it with reliable accuracy.
DOYLE: We could ask Celine. She worked for these guys. She would know what the missing equations were, right?
HUNT: She's in no shape, not right now.
DOYLE: A cerebral memory boost would aid
HUNT: That would kill her.
HARPER: : Death's just a probability, and you do realise, Dylan, she's already dying.
HUNT: We aren't here to hurry that along. We're here to free her from the loop.
DOYLE: Which we can't understand
HUNT: She's a living being, not a means to an end.
HARPER: She's just stating the facts.
HUNT: Doyle, I'm sorry.
DOYLE: We just don't have a lot of time.
HUNT: Well, then, we're going to need a lot of luck.

[Med deck]

CELINE: Have the suns set?
TRANCE: Not yet. And people still remember you. At least for a little while.
CELINE: Where is he?
TRANCE: He's with Harper and Doyle.
CELINE: They're trying to decipher the Methus diagram from the crystal. I have to help them while
TRANCE: No, he wants you to rest while you still can.
CELINE: I remember the moments leading up to the time loop like it was yesterday. But that part of my brain that did the calculations, played with algorithms in my sleep, is as damaged by time as that crystal. You're much too young to understand.
TRANCE: I understand perfectly. Sometimes I think it would be easier not knowing what you were capable of.
(Trance puts her hands on Celine and transfers energy.)
TRANCE: Did that work at all?
CELINE: I don't know what you did, but I feel stronger.
TRANCE: I don't know how long it will last. I just wish I could do more, you know what I mean?
CELINE: That we do what we can.
TRANCE: Yeah.

[Corridor]

DOYLE: Let me get this straight. Guy says to his food server, what's this bug doing in my astral gruel? Food server says, the backstroke?
HARPER: Yes! You get it!
DOYLE: But bugs can't swim. Unless you're talking water bugs, but they're walking on surface tension, so technically, they're not swimming.
HARPER: Listen. You're being too literal. Like the server. He's too literal when he answers the question, what is the bug doing, when all the guy wants to know is how it got there. It's a play on words, A reversal of expectations. You think the server's going to say one thing, he says another.
DOYLE: Like talking with you.
HARPER: Exactly. And that's why I'm so funny.
DOYLE: Look, if you wanted me to get jokes, you should've given me a sense of humour.
HARPER: Tell me about it.
DOYLE: Like, I have the same problem with the algae farmer and his daughter. The zinc merchant sleeps in the barn. So what?
HARPER: All right, here's an easy one. I say, knock knock, you say, who's there? Okay? Knock knock.
DOYLE: Who's there?
HARPER: Orange.
DOYLE: The colour?
HARPER: No, no. You say orange who?
DOYLE: Orange who?
HARPER: Orange you glad to see me?
DOYLE: Oh, it's like the banana in the pocket joke. You're glad to see me.
HARPER: Er, well, no. Yes and no.
DOYLE: Okay. I get it. I have a knock knock joke for you.
HARPER: Okay.
DOYLE: Knock knock.
HARPER: Who's there?
DOYLE: Doyle.
HARPER: Doyle who?
DOYLE No, Doyle. Get it?

[Command]

HUNT: Celine, no.
CELINE: Let me use what little time I have. That data pad. You've got the Methus diagram on it. Show me.
HUNT: You need to rest.
CELINE: Dylan, it'll sap my strength faster to fight you, but fight you I will.
HUNT: We've divided the diagram into sections. Portal coordinates on the right, power components on the left.
CELINE: All we need to do is link the algorithms. It looks familiar. I just, I hate that I can't remember. Cerebral acceleration. You can do that?
HUNT: No. We rejected that idea.
CELINE: If that could stimulate the left hemisphere of my cerebrum
HUNT: Rejected. It's too dangerous.
CELINE: It's starting all over.
HUNT: I'll get you out of this. I promise.
CELINE: There's only one way out. The other side of eternity.
HUNT: I will get you out. Look, I was trapped in time once myself.
CELINE: Trapped and asleep. Not wide awake, suffocated by loneliness. It's no use. We have to keep starting over, and soon I won't be able to.
HUNT: I won't forget this time.
CELINE: You can't promise.
HUNT: I can. I did.
(She dissolves mid-kiss.)
HUNT: Celine? Celine!

[Corridor]

(Trance holds Celine's VAI ID.)
TRANCE: Footprints of a ghost.
HUNT: Well, not if my notes and the Methus diagram are to be believed. Not yet, anyway.
TRANCE: You like her.
HUNT: Like her? I can't remember her. Although, when I do look at this, I feel something.
TRANCE: Well, feelings are real, Dylan, and every association changes an outcome. She'll be back.
HUNT: I hope so, because she's the key to turning this planet around.
HARPER: I got it. I got it!

[Command]

HARPER: It came to me in my dreams. I guess genius never sleeps. What looks like the Harper sleeping is really greatness at work. True, I almost finished breakfast by the time I realised the note I'd left myself reading, remember Celine, was not referring to what I'd hoped. However, the important thing is
HUNT: The upshot, Mister Harper?
HARPER: Slipstream. Andromeda, pretty, pretty, please pull up source code for the slipstream navigation system and compare it with the Methus diagram.
ANDROMEDA [on viewscreen]: Slipstream nav system located. Linking sequence complete.
HUNT: Well, well, well. Looks like these supervisors found a way to factor slipstream into their algorithm.
HARPER: How better to steer a way to the Route of Ages?
HUNT: You have to sleep on the job more often, Mister Harper.
HARPER: Thank you. I'll try. Now all we have to do is translate this and shift Seefra One back to her proper orbit.
TRANCE: But we might need a little help with that.
HUNT: Celine.

[Town]

HUNT: All right, Celine. I'm on time, and this is where you said you'd be.
CELINE: Dylan!
HUNT: Hello. I think I know you better than I think I do.
CELINE: Yes, you do.
HUNT: Welcome back.
CELINE: And you thought only the Vedran code could break the loop.
(She slumps into his arms.)
HUNT: We haven't broken the loop until you're free. Come inside.
CELINE: No. To the lab. All the answers are all there.
HUNT: Not when you're this weak.
CELINE: I've made up my mind. And I'm doing the cerebral acceleration.
HUNT: You Can't risk your life like that.
CELINE: My life is over every day. If you really want to free me, you might have to let me die.
HUNT: I don't want to lose you.
CELINE: I failed to help Seefra once, Dylan. Maybe I can do it now. Please. Please.
HUNT: Let's go.

[Underground complex]

BEKA: We'd better hustle. Word gets out we're down in this mole hole, we'll be seriously outnumbered.
RHADE: Especially if Harper and Doyle screwed it up.
HUNT: Beka, your back!
(They shoot two subterranean dwellers.)
BEKA: Yeah, I'd say word's out. Anyway, maybe you two should go ahead.
RHADE: Yeah. We'll play welcome committee.
CELINE: It's now or never.
HUNT: I want now.

[VAI lab]

HUNT: All right, let's do this.
HARPER: Hey, nice to er, meet you. Again. I guess. Welcome to your lab.
CELINE: Everything's up and running.
DOYLE: With a little help from your ID code.
CELINE: I never thought I'd be happy to see this place again. I knew the minute I saw you that you were my answer. It'll work. I know it will.
HARPER: All right, this halo will help your brain create a virtual bridge between the crystal halves by boosting your cognitive functions.
CELINE: Let's hope there're still some left.
DOYLE: You'll feel some pressure when we infuse the cerebral nanoboosters.

[Underground complex]

RHADE: Oh.
(Beka and Rhade are still shooting the palefaces.)
RHADE: That was easy. Hmm.

[VAI lab]

DOYLE: Okay. We're online now.
CELINE: Ready.

[Underground complex]

(The next wave of attackers also have guns.)
BEKA: Yeah. Real easy.

[VAI lab]

HUNT: Celine. Celine! Celine! Shut it down. That's enough.
CELINE: No!
HUNT: Check her vitals.
DOYLE: Her internal systems are holding.
CELINE: Magnify the centre point of the panel where it's been linked.
DOYLE: Two hundred percent.

[Underground complex]

(Lots more shooting.)
RHADE: I got your back, Beka.

[VAI lab]

CELINE: How did you bridge the algorithm?
HARPER: We just ran what we had in our Vedran archives. Did it work?
CELINE: No, but it it's close. Do we still have the source code for the slipstream navs?
DOYLE: I equals one, minus omega squared over R cubed.
CELINE: Right. They went too far. They tried to use the flux component to seal the portal from this end.
DOYLE: But it sealed both ends.
CELINE: No, it just fractured the gravitational field of Seefra's orbit. That's why they couldn't control the planetary shift.
HUNT: And that's why you got caught in a loop.
CELINE: Harper, adjust the gap flux by two nanojoules.
HARPER: Right.
(The Methus crystal is glowing brightly. It's glow suffuses Celine.)
HUNT: Celine?
CELINE: I'm done.
HUNT: Celine!
CELINE: But I wouldn't trade the time with you.
DOYLE: Her vitals are dropping!
HARPER: Boss, it's working.
(Methus energy streams up out of the lab.)

[Underground complex]

(Still shooting.)
RHADE: Finally, some fun. Ha ha!

[VAI lab]

HARPER: So er, now what? We just toss her in?
HUNT: No, we go back to where it all started. Come on.
(Hunt picks up Celine and carries her out.)

[Town]

HUNT: This is where she arrives.
HARPER: The portal's coordinates, directly above the lab.
DOYLE: No wonder her time loop started here.
CELINE: Where are we?
HUNT: At the end. A new beginning. For you, anyway.
CELINE: The portal.
HUNT: You did it, Celine. You wrote yourself a one way ticket out of the loop. You can go back now, back to your life.
CELINE: This one. I want to stay here with you.
HUNT: You'd die. You know that. You don't have a future unless you go back and stay back.
CELINE: I loved you then. I love you now.
HUNT: I'm not opposed to that. Celine, tell them about Witchhead. They still have time. And the Magog Worldship. You have to warn everyone.
(Celine steps into the energy stream.)
HARPER: Oh! Er, Celine! Er, wait.
(Harper removes his neck cooler.)
HARPER: Here. A souvenir. It was just causing me trouble anyway.
(She waves goodbye and disappears in the energy stream. A few moments later, it stops. Later, Hunt is still skywatching.)
BEKA: You're going to get a sore neck.
HUNT: I er, I just figured if she was coming back
DOYLE: She would've arrived approximately sixty seconds ago.
TRANCE: It's a new day, Dylan, and she's free. She's out of the loop, or else we all would have forgotten.
RHADE: Or so we hope.
BEKA: Come on, buck up. The last thing you need in your life right now is another beautiful, brainy blonde.
HUNT: Yeah, that's the last thing I need.
(Rumble, crash.)
BEKA: What was that?
DOYLE: It felt like a planetary shift.
HUNT: It sounded like thunder.
(And liquid falls from the sky, to great rejoicing amongst the populace.)
HARPER: Rain, baby! Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Whoo!
HUNT: (sighs) Rain. Have a good future, Celine.