"The mirror is a window though
which we see ourselves - -
reversed and without form.
Our deepest lies reborn, true."

Wayfinder Hasturi
A.K.A. "The Mad Perseid"
AFC 217

[Refugee camp]

(Ground to air batteries are taking out craft.)
RHADE: Dylan, my guys are being overwhelmed. Ormuz's forces are moving in to our position. This refugee camp is the last free soil on Seefra Five. I don't know how long I can keep it that way. Bonus or no bonus, it may not matter.

[Corridor]

RHADE [OC]: People are dying by the hundreds from lack of medicine and food. It's mainly kids.
HUNT: Understood. Take cover and do what you can. Hunt out. Beka, did you copy that?
BEKA [OC]: My news is no better, Dylan. I've done my share of combat cargo drops.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: I've never seen air cover this thick. There ought to be a law.

[Command]

DOYLE: There ought to be laws against a lot of things in Seefra system.
HUNT: Laws don't mean much to jerks like Ormuz.
DOYLE: In the old days, I bet Andromeda could have destroyed a threat like him in three seconds.
HUNT: I miss the old days.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Er, Dylan? I'm still here.
HUNT [OC]: Yeah. Hold on, Beka.

[Command]

HUNT: We're going to find a gap in that sensor coverage. Just keep your PMA

[Eureka Maru]

HUNT [OC]: Charged and online.
BEKA: My PMA?

[Command]

HUNT: Positive mental attitude.

[Eureka Maru]

TRANCE: Incoming surface fire. Hold on.
(Bang!)
BEKA: Yeah, great talking to you, Dylan, But I'd better take that call. Maru out. Positive mental attitude my perky mortal ass.

[Command]

HUNT: Andromeda, how's our contingency plan? 
ANDROMEDA [OC]: The escape pods have already been loaded to sixty two percent capacity with relief supplies.
DOYLE: Six hours to completion.
HUNT: Lock in on Rhade's location. We'll dump the pods there.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: In six hours, Rhade's position could be overrun.
DOYLE: I'm detecting a zero point energy build up on this deck.
HUNT: Someone is tesseracting in.
DOYLE: We don't know they're hostile yet.
HUNT: Yeah, when are they ever not hostile?
DOYLE: Point taken. Behind you!
(A little grey figure is crouching, covering his head.)
HUNT: Hohne?

[Ouroboros]

(Hohne falls over the slipstream core railing, and is dangling above the exotic matter lens.)
HOHNE: Aah! Mister Harper? Oh, good show.
HARPER: Grab my shoulder. Come on. Now, on the count of three, you're going to climb up me, okay? Okay.
HOHNE: Yeah.
HARPER: Now, you ready? One, two three.
(But Hohne loses his grip on Harper's shoulder.)
HARPER: Don't. No, Dylan will kill me. Come on. No, don't!
(Their sweaty palms cannot grip, and Hohne falls to his certain death.)

[Command]

ANDROMEDA [OC]: The former Chief Technical Advisor of Sinti. First signatory to the new Commonwealth charter, Librarian of the Special Collections Division of the All Systems University library.
HUNT: And looking pretty healthy for someone who's been dead for three years.
HOHNE: Oh, dear.
HUNT: Yeah.

[Corridor]

HOHNE: So it would appear that when I plunged into the slipstream core, instead of being reduced to my constituent atoms in the exotic matter pulser, I actually fell through a stray tesseract that deposited me on the Andromeda, three years in your future, yes?
HUNT: Well, if it's any consolation, we've all had a turn at having the rug pulled out from under us.
HOHNE: And am I to understand That the Andromeda is currently held in some sort of a pocket universe, and all attempts to escape have so far been unsuccessful?
HUNT: It's a lot to absorb, I know.
HOHNE: Oh, indeed. My theories on space time will have to be completely revised. I must begin immediately.
HUNT: Yes, Hohne, but let's put that mind of yours to work on a more immediate problem. We're in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.
HOHNE: Oh, of course. Anything I can do to help. Just give the word.

[Machine shop]

HOHNE: Ah, Mister Harper? I understand we're going to be working together again.
HARPER: Wow. Wow. It's good to see you, Hohne.
HOHNE: Good to see you, too. My. I see your work is still as creative as ever.
HARPER: Well, you know me. I like to try and keep busy. Speaking of busy
HOHNE: Oh, busy, yes, well, after this crisis is over, I hope you'd like to work with me on a few experiments.
HARPER: After the crisis, sure. Then would be great. I haven't worked on real science in a dog's age and a half. Lately, it's been all about getting through the day.
HOHNE: Well, I'm sure Captain Hunt will be thrilled as well to be advancing the frontiers of knowledge.
HARPER: I don't know. For Dylan now, it seems to be all about the nitty gritty, up front problems, you know? The ones right in front of him. Like this one, in front of me. Where's
(Hohne hands him the part he is looking for.)
HOHNE: Well, that doesn't sound like the Captain Hunt that I know.
HARPER: Oh, don't worry. That Captain Hunt is still in there, waiting to jump out and save the universe. He just has to get back to it first. In the meantime, people change, if you know what I mean.
HOHNE: Indeed. Well, the aging process alone, even measured on a scale of nano seconds, can drastically
HARPER: Hohne, Hohne. For the love of God. I watched you die.
HOHNE: Well, actually, I fell through a stray tesseract just above the er
HARPER: Hohne, for me, you've been dead for like, three years now. With you standing here now, it's just a little weird, okay? I just need you to slow down a little, okay?
(Hohne puts down a small box.)
HOHNE: A small memento. For later. For you.
HARPER: Thanks.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Dylan, how about an update on some help with our current situation?

[Corridor]

HUNT: A problem that keeps getting worse.
RHADE [OC]: An understatement.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Ormuz's forces have driven nearly the entire minority population from their homes.

[Corridor]

RHADE [OC]: Every new refugee is an extra mouth we cannot feed.
(Meanwhile.)
HOHNE: So, if I am to understand, you need to drop twenty thousand tons of food, medicine, and relief supplies to relieve the suffering of a considerable number of refugees.
HARPER: Correct. Complication. Genocidal warlord Ormuz will shoot down anything bigger than a mosquito that tries to touch down on his territory.
HOHNE: An interesting problem. Have you tried disabling his air defences?
HARPER: Too dispersed.
HOHNE: How about loading the supplies onto re-entry pallets coated with stealth materials?
HARPER: Yes, I thought of that, but before we fabricated anything, the refugees would all be dead. And now I get to break the good news to
(They meet Hunt.)
HARPER: Dylan!
HUNT: What news?
HARPER: As far as we can figure it, our starving buddies are hosed, unless we can somehow make a cracker materialise on Seefra Five.
HUNT: Let's do that.
HARPER: Come again?
HUNT: Make the supplies appear on Seefra. I mean, it's not like you two haven't done that sort of thing before.
HOHNE: The quantum teleporter.
HARPER: The quantum teleporter. Genius! I'm sure I've got the plans somewhere. I've even got the parts still boxed up.
HOHNE: Yes, we did successfully send Captain Hunt through the Hephaistos Singularity and retrieve him safely. Sending supplies should be trivial in comparison. There are risks, of course.
HUNT: Risks we can live with.
HARPER: Wait a minute. The only reason that thing worked is because we were parked next to a black hole.
HOHNE: Oh, Mister Harper, with your brilliant mind, I should think you would relish a challenge.
HARPER: Well, if you put it like that. Hohne, let's make history again. It is great to have you back.
(Harper hugs Hohne.)
HUNT: I'll leave you two at it.
HOHNE: Humans.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: So, back to the contingency plan. Drop the pods and cover them as best we can with defensive fire. Dylan, they won't all get through.

[Command]

HUNT: Yeah, but it's better than nothing. What's our timetable?
BEKA [OC]: They haven't detected us yet

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: But it's only a matter of time. We can either go now or wait a day for another gap to open up in their defences.

[Command]

HUNT: We don't have a day, so we go now.

[Machine shop]

(Reviewing the teleport of young Captain Hunt in The Banks of the Lethe.)
HOHNE: And, while your work methods are, to put it mildly, unorthodox, you've done a magnificent job of storing the necessary data and equipment to replicate the experiment. Even without the presence of a black hole to provide us with a data sink and extra processing power. You're not going to embrace me again, are you?
HARPER: Yes. Hohne, I'm sorry I was a little strange at first. It really is great to have you back.
HOHNE: Yes. Though, from my perspective, I never went anywhere.
HARPER: Good point, but from my perspective, you didn't miss anything. Believe me. Three years of watching everything we worked for fall apart. The joys of your best friends betraying you. And now we're stuck here in this hole while God knows what's happening to the rest of the universe.
NISSA [OC]: Sinti Courier.
HOHNE: If my studies have taught me anything, it's that viewed from the proper perspective, everything makes sense.
NISSA [OC]: Are you receiving this? Come in.
HOHNE: Well, except this.
(A static image of another Perseid on a monitor.)
NISSA [on screen]: Sinti courier, this is Research Specialist Nissa. I'm calling from Hephaistos Research Station. Are you receiving this? Come in.
HARPER: Hephaistos Research Station. That's the black hole. The one where we found the Andromeda. The same one we sent Dylan through. It's
HOHNE: Fascinating, isn't it?
NISSA [on screen]: Are you receiving this? Come in. Are you receiving this?

[Conference room]

NISSA [on screen]: I'm calling from Hephaistos Research Station. Are you receiving this? Come in.
HUNT: Gentlemen, I asked you to come up with a better way to deliver relief supplies, not open a peephole to the known worlds.
HOHNE: A most unintended consequence, but fascinating nonetheless. It appears that ever since our first experiment with faster than light communication and teleportation four years ago, the Andromeda AI has, on some level, remained quantum entangled with the Hephaistos black hole, and that connection remains constant across space and time.
HARPER: And there's more. We think there already was, and still is, another quantum entanglement between you and the black hole. The teleporter must've just joined in on that connection. It's like a three way between the teleporter, you, and the black hole before the Fall.
HUNT: Are you telling me that that that message is from over three hundred years ago?
HARPER: No. We're actually watching the past.
HUNT: Can you send me back there now?
HOHNE: Oh, thus far the data pipe is still too narrow for anything more than limited information bursts.
HARPER: That's Perseid for we're working on it. And believe us, we are.
HUNT: Good.

[Refugee camp]

HUNT [OC]: Rhade, you're ready to receive.

[Command]

HUNT: Andromeda, commence cargo drop.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Cargo drop underway.
HUNT: Beka.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: See you on the other side. Maru out.
TRANCE: Point defence lasers standing by. Beka, the pods are experiencing thirty one percent attrition, and ground fire is targeting the Maru.
BEKA: Of course it is. Let's dance.

[Command]

ANDROMEDA [OC]: Orbital ECM stations are operating and baffling our sensors.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Ah ha. Finally, light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I'm sending teams to retrieve supplies from the surviving pods.

[Command]

HUNT: At least we've bought those refugees a little time. Beka, report.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: We're breaking orbit and heading to Seefra One now. Call us if you need us again.

[Command]

DOYLE: Funny, you don't look like a man who just saved hundreds of lives.
HUNT: It's not that. It's Hohne, his timing.
DOYLE: You mean with all the people and things coming through the Route of Ages at an unprecedented rate?
HUNT: He's just a big fat reminder of everything we left undone in the other universe.
DOYLE: You're not sure whether his return was pure coincidence.

[Machine shop]

HARPER: Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you keeping score, this is the Harper speaking. Hohne and I are going to be the co-dads, platonically speaking, of a bouncing baby teleporter.

[Command]

HUNT: Well, talk to me.

[Machine shop]

HARPER: There's one problem.

[Command]

HARPER [OC]: Er, kind of a big problem.
HUNT: I'm sure you and Hohne can fix it?

[Machine shop]

HARPER: Well, it's not that kind of a problem, boss. Tell you what, we'll just send you the image.

[Command]

NISSA [on viewscreen]: The enemy fleet could be here within a week. We barely survived the last attack. We're evacuating all personnel. We will destroy the station and all research materials we can't remove. Long live the Commonwealth.
DOYLE: According to your onboard records, Hephaistos was well within the borders of the old Commonwealth. If that station was under attack
HUNT: The Battle of Witchhead. The Commonwealth hasn't fallen yet. That changes everything.
HARPER [OC]: History, repetition.

[Machine shop]

HARPER: You do the long division. So, er, what do you think, boss?

[Command]

HUNT: I think I don't believe in coincidences. Huh.

[Corridor]

DOYLE: You can't be serious about this.
HUNT: I'm always serious about walking down corridors.
DOYLE: We don't even know if Harper's teleporter can get the supplies to the refugees, yet you already plan to use it.
HUNT: Doyle, I lost three hundred years of my life because of what's about to take place in that other universe, and now I've got a chance for a do over. Hohne, the transmission, the teleporter, it's all happened for a reason, and I know what it is. So when this mission is over, I'm going back to change history.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: I spoke too soon about that light. The supplies we retrieved are being distributed, but without enough to go around, I'm afraid we'll have a second war on our hands soon. How are Harper and Hohne coming along with the teleporter?

[Command]

HUNT: They needed a little more time, so hang in there.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: That's what I do.

[Command]

HUNT: Well, we've stuck our foot in the door. With any luck, we can open it wide enough to start teleporting the crew.
DOYLE: Not all of the crew.
HUNT: Yeah. Yeah, I know, the Andromeda. Well, as soon as we're on the other side, We'll figure out a way to bring her over.

[Maru crew area]

BEKA: So, Dylan wants to dice us into atoms and send us through a black hole.
TRANCE: Maybe it only sounds scary.
BEKA: Sounds like Friday night at Casa Valentine. The thing is, you won't see me setting foot into that teleporter. I have a pretty good life here, and I'm not going anywhere I can't take the Maru.
TRANCE: Well, Beka, the Maru isn't a person. It's a ship.
BEKA: It's my home. Look, just because I won't go doesn't mean you have to stay. We both know that Dylan probably needs you more than me, anyway.
TRANCE: Probabilities, possibilities. I do know that we wouldn't still be with him if there weren't a part for each of us to play.
BEKA: True. But not all of us can go supernova at a moment's notice and save a galaxy.
TRANCE: I guess you could call that looking on the bright side of things.

[Machine shop]

HOHNE: So, after numerous attempts to teleport inanimate objects
(Over on Hephaistos Station, three Perseids watch a metal box appear, collapse like a paper bag and burst into flames.)
HOHNE: And fruits.
(Exploding melons. The Perseids find it hilarious.)
HOHNE: I like that one. Well, we appear to have worked through our problems and met with success.
(A glass of bubbling liquid.)
NISSA [on screen]: By the great storms of Ugroth.
(One of his colleagues drinks the liquid.)
HUNT: It's very inspiring.
HOHNE: Inspiring, yes, but intriguing as it is, and though it is promising in terms of our mission to teleport supplies to the refugees, I admit I had quite a different purpose in asking you to join me here.
HUNT: Mmm hmm?
HOHNE: Well, I can't believe I never noticed it before, but the discrepancy is so minuscule, perhaps I simply wrote it off as a computational anomaly. I've been going through the records from our last experiment. In particular, the summary statistics of the quantum map created for the primary subject, i.e. yourself. The map on the left was created before we sent you through the teleporter, and the map on the right was when you returned.
HUNT: They er, they don't match.
HOHNE: The variance is point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one percent. As I said, minuscule. Ah! I knew it. See? Our discrepancy. Not a confluence of random anomalies, but a single anomaly.
HUNT: That strand of my DNA has changed.
HOHNE: Mmm hmm.
HUNT: The question is, why?
HOHNE: I have no idea, and in the area of recombinant genetics, Captain, I assure you, I'm no dilettante.
HUNT: Of course not.
HOHNE: Strange. The strand is inert, and yet the sequencing is purposeful, almost mathematical, like a code, or a specific instruction set. Probably just an artefact of the computation process. The equivalent of an end of file marker.
HUNT: Yeah, or the evidence of something else.
HOHNE: Harper did mention something about a Vedran connection. Paradine, he called it.
HUNT: Yes. It's a race of beings that can navigate the space time continuum.
HOHNE: Hmm. And you wonder whether your newly discovered heritage can explain this anomaly.
HUNT: Regardless, if that teleporter is capable of causing any kind of change, it's dangerous.
HOHNE: Perhaps.

[Corridor]

DOYLE: Let me get this straight. The teleporter definitely works, so we will be able to send the supplies, but it altered your DNA the last time you used it.
HUNT: There's a chance the alteration is something that only happens to Paradines.
DOYLE: Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the same thing would happen to anyone. And you still want to go through again?
HUNT: Well, do you have a better idea?
DOYLE: I do. Test it by sending me first. If the experiment fails, Harper can just build me another body.
HUNT: Yeah, right, like Harper can build androids who look like you all day long.
DOYLE: Why, thank you. You're not so generic yourself.
HUNT: What I mean is, he couldn't rebuild another Rommie no matter how hard he tried.
DOYLE: But.
HUNT: And I'm not going to risk losing you too.

[Eureka Maru]

TRANCE: If you're asking me, I think you should go. I think you will make it.

[Command]

HUNT: Why, because of this whole Paradine thing?

[Eureka Maru]

TRANCE: Paradines are a race of beings that can potentially travel space time without being destroyed by it. It could be that a mutable DNA type makes this possible. Maybe this is your destiny.

[Command]

HUNT: Yeah. Maybe.

[Refugee camp]

HUNT [OC]: Still having fun, Rhade?
RHADE: Oh, yeah, it's one big party down here.

[Command]

RHADE [OC]: I thought about your offer to teleport out of Seefra. I understand your concern about the trillions of lives at stake in the known worlds

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: So I'm not questioning your ethics. But what I do question is your survival instincts.

[Command]

HUNT: That's funny, coming from a guy in the middle of a war zone.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Ah, but as you've seen, greed can override instinct. Besides, the idea of being broken down into my constituent particles and then reassembled untold light years away by a machine that will likely introduce error into my DNA seems, to say the least, to be self-defeating. I'll take my chances in the war zone, thank you.

[Command]

HUNT: So you think I'm making a mistake?
RHADE [OC]: I think you've convinced yourself that what you perceive to be your

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Destiny somehow makes you invulnerable.

[Command]

HUNT: Oh, Rhade. Stay or go, it's up to you. See you on the flip side.

[Machine shop]

HARPER: All we need to do now is power this up. Hohne? This is your baby. Care to do the honours?
HOHNE: The practical work was entirely yours. After you, Mister Harper.
HARPER: No, really, I insist. After you.
HOHNE: No, please, I insist.
HARPER: How could I dare to take credit for your inspiration?
HOHNE: Well, I think you should do it because you've done most of the practical work.
HUNT: Gentlemen, please. Just do it.
HOHNE: Quantum connection is established. All linkages are nominal. Oh, dear.
HUNT: Oh, dear what? Tell me the teleporter is not malfunctioning.
HOHNE: Oh, no, the teleporter is working perfectly.
HUNT: Good.
HOHNE: It's just that the quantum entangled computations are having an unexpected, and, I must say interesting side effect.
HARPER: Uh oh. The suns are destabilising. Er, if they don't stop, they'll both, er, explode.
HUNT: Say that again?
HARPER: They're going to explode.
HUNT: And destroy this entire system. That's, that's just a great job, guys. Great job. All right. You two shut this thing down, and do it yesterday.
HOHNE: I assure you, Captain, this is merely a temporary setback.
HUNT: It damn well better be temporary, because if it's not, we're all dead permanently.
(Hunt leaves.)
HARPER: Sheesh! Check out Captain Touchy. You'd think we were about to exterminate all life in the Seefra system as we. Oh right. We are.
HOHNE: I don't understand this. The teleporter is offline, but the AI is proceeding as if the memory loads have remained constant.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: One of my drones refuses to respond to commands. The data link with the Seefran binary system is active.
HOHNE: Oh, that's unfortunate. We can hardly expect the suns to stabilise if we can't shut down the quantum computational operations.
HARPER: Then it's hello supernova, goodbye us. I sure am glad we thought of this. Well, it's been good seeing you again, Hohne, and, er, well, on the bright side, at least we got to, this way, we'll get to say goodbye. Yeah, so it's not all bad, right? It's been good.

[Command]

DOYLE: Solar flare activity continues to increase.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Disrupting communications and planetary power grids within one AU of the binary system's major axis.
DOYLE: On the positive side, Ormuz's defence grid has been rendered inert by the EMP. The refugees have a fighting chance now.
HUNT: Well, they've got no chance if there's a supernova.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Unless we can stop it.
HUNT: We have to take out that drone.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: Fire control is offline.
HUNT: Harper?

[Machine shop]

HARPER: Er, sorry, boss. Had to scrounge every inch of bandwidth to make the teleporter, you know, teleport.

[Command]

HUNT: Fine. Andromeda, set a course.
ANDROMEDA: Navigation is
HUNT: Offline! Of course it is. Harper!

[Machine shop]

HARPER: I'm on it, like an Aldeberan Soul Bat. Talk at you.

[Command]

HUNT: Beka.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Wait, let me guess. You want me to fly the Maru into the teeth of what amounts to an interstellar hurricane just so I can shut down yet another Seamus Harper science experiment, thereby saving all of our butts from certain doom.

[Command]

HUNT: Emphasis on doom.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Copy that. Oh, do me a favour? Do tell Harper that when I get back, I will be fitting him with a self-kicking butt. That should save us a lot of trouble in the future. Maru out.
TRANCE: Is there something wrong with Harper's butt?
BEKA: Other than the fact that he's always talking through it?
TRANCE: Sensor drones are in PDL range.
BEKA: Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Blow it the hell up. Let's get out of here.
TRANCE: Point defence lasers won't respond.
BEKA: There. Try now.
(Alarms, then the Maru loses power.)
BEKA: Okay. I'm about to get very cranky.
TRANCE: It's the solar flares. Everything is offline. We're dead in space.
BEKA: You know, if I'm going to die, I think I need a drink. Trance?
TRANCE: You know, I don't think I can die, not like humans do.

[Maru crew area]

BEKA: I always thought when I went, I would go out with a bang, not quiet like this. This is what it must be like in the sweet hereafter. Or else a party.
TRANCE: So you're saying there's life and then there's death, which is true, because first you're this, and then you're that, but really, it's all one thing. A sun gives life and light, and then it collapses and it takes light into itself.
BEKA: First a star, then a black hole.
TRANCE: Different forms of the same thing.
BEKA: So no party?
TRANCE: This is the party.
BEKA: Whoop de doo.
TRANCE: So does it really matter, then, where we are on the path of this and that? I mean, if it's all a party, what's not to like?
BEKA: Well, I don't know about you, Trance, but I like my parties with men, music, mayhem. In fact, want to dance?
TRANCE: Beka.
BEKA: Come on. Live a little.
TRANCE: All right.
(The girls twirl to some gentle music.)
HUNT [memory]: Trance, how do you know any of this is real?
TRANCE [memory]: I don't.
(Images from Spirit of the Abyss with Beka's angel doll.)
BEKA [memory]: I didn't realise it until today, but it's a big part of me. I am who I am because of having people like my dad in my life. People who believed in me. People like you.
HUNT [memory]: Our paths came together for a reason.

[Command]

ANDROMEDA [OC]: Dylan, the drone is still online, and power emissions from the Eureka Maru have dropped to zero.
HUNT: The EMP from the solar flares must be worse than we thought. Suggestions?
HOHNE: Only one. Use the teleporter. Save yourself.
HUNT: Excuse me?
HONE: The logic is compelling, I fear, but if we fail to stop the Seefran stars' destabilisation, no one in this system will survive. But if you go through the teleporter to Hephaistos before we are consumed by the inevitable supernova, you may be able to save far more than the relatively few sentients who inhabit this system.
HUNT: Few, as in tens of millions. You're asking me to leave these people here to die, along with my friends?
HOHNE: Yes. A simple cost benefit analysis. There are many worlds of magnitude, more beings in the known worlds beyond Hephaistos who need you, your leadership, your optimism, your example. The very things that inspired me to sign onto this project in the first place. What is Seefra, compared to those who could be saved if the old Commonwealth did not fall?
HUNT: Hohne, this is not open for discussion. I will not leave Seefra until our mission is complete. Understood?
HOHNE: Of course, Captain.
HUNT: You were right about one thing. I need to set an example. I'm going to start by shutting down that sensor drone myself.
DOYLE: But how?
HUNT: The teleporter.
HARPER: The radiation will kill you. Have your neurons reversed polarity?
DOYLE: If the radiation can shut down the Maru, what will it do to you?
HUNT: I started this and I'm going to finish it.
HOHNE: Not with the teleporter. Recalibrating it to project you anywhere other than Hephaistos will take slightly longer than we have.
HUNT: Fine. Andromeda, prep a slipfighter.
DOYLE: Dylan
HUNT: Doyle, you have command.

[Corridor]

(Hunt comes to a bulkhead door blocking his way. It will not open.)
HUNT: Andromeda? Andromeda. Harper? Doyle? What's going on with the ship's power?

[Machine shop]

HARPER: It wasn't us. We haven't even touched command controls.
HOHNE: You didn't touch the command controls, Mister Harper
(Hohne zaps Harper.)
HOHNE: But I did.

[Corridor]

HUNT: Hohne, what have you done?

[Machine shop]

HOHNE: I'm sorry, Captain Hunt, but as another who has lost years of his life, I'm sure you can understand that you're not the only one who has an appointment with destiny.

[Corridor]

HUNT: Damn it!

[Machine shop]

(Harper wakes up.)
HOHNE: Please. Please stay down. I don't want to hurt you again.
HARPER: Hohne, I know what you're doing. You can't do this. You can't send Dylan back against his own will. And we've got bigger problems now.
HOHNE: I am fully aware, Mister Harper, and I don't want Captain Hunt to die needlessly, so there is only one solution to this impasse.
HARPER: Hohne!
(Hohne steps into the teleporter and dematerialises.)
HARPER: Andromeda, can you bring him back?
ANDROMEDA [OC]: No, Hohne has severed my link to the teleporter control systems.
HARPER: And he's locked me out of manual. No, Hohne, not this time. Uh uh. All right. All right er, Mister Smarty Perseid, you think you're a genius? Well, guess what? So am I. You want to have a brain-swinging contest? Swing away.
HUNT: Harper! Hohne!
HARPER: He stole your idea. He teleported to the drone.
HUNT: He lied?
HARPER: Yeah, he lied to save us. The radiation's lethal, remember? Andromeda, reboot core control. It should reset your manual override link with the teleporter.
ANDROMEDA [OC]: It will take more time than we have. Both suns will go supernova before I can complete the process.
HARPER: I can't accept that. In fact, there are a lot of things I can't accept, like having to say please or excuse me, and at the top of that list is watching a friend die.
HUNT: We have to let Hohne finish, or Seefra will be destroyed.
HARPER: What? Hohne shouldn't even be out there. If anyone, it should be you or me. You don't get it, Dylan. I let him die once. I cannot let him die again. I wouldn't be able to deal.
HUNT: Harper, no. I said no. Look, I've watched more friends die than I can count, and every single time, I've thought, that should be me, but every single time the universe just thought differently. Harper.
(Harper pulls his gun on Hunt.)
HARPER: Back off, boss. In fact, you know what? You're not my boss. You're not my captain anymore, and if you don't get out of my freaking way, You're not my friend.
(Hunt jumps Harper, disarming him.)
HUNT: I'm sorry, Mister Harper. I'm sorry for everything.
(Harper gets into the teleporter just as it powers off.)
HARPER: All right. You really want Hohne's blood on your hands?
DOYLE [OC]: Dylan, the sensor drone is offline.

[Command]

DOYLE: The data link with the suns is inactive.

[Machine shop]

HUNT: You hear that, Harper? Hohne did it.
DOYLE [OC]: That is the most probable.

[Command]

DOYLE: Solar flare activity has already stabilised substantially.

[Machine shop]

DOYLE [OC]: Nuclear reactions in both stars have begun to stabilise.
HARPER: Hohne? What about Hohne?

[Command]

DOYLE: Hohne is transmitting no discernible life signs, Harper. I am sorry.

[Machine shop]

HARPER: She's sorry. You are sorry. Everybody's sorry.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: Honestly, Dylan, it was kind of beautiful, in an impending apocalypse kind of way. And now that it's been reclassified to an averted apocalypse, I feel I can appreciate it even more.

[Command]

HUNT: Yeah, but we were so close, Bek. I mean, we were almost out of here. And now the known worlds are falling apart, again, Hohne is dead, and Harper is

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: He'll get over it. He always does.

[Command]

HUNT: Yeah. Thanks, Beka. I owe you.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: You have no idea. Wait till you see the bill. Maru out.

[Command]

DOYLE: You're always saying that things happen for a reason. This is no different. And no matter what, I refuse to believe that Harper hates you. He's very angry, but hate? I'm not sure that's possible.
HUNT: Where Mister Harper is concerned, I think that anything is possible.
RHADE [OC]: Dylan, you read?
HUNT: Yeah. Go ahead, Rhade.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: You were right about Ormuz. The EMP from the solar flares did more than fry his defence grid.

[Command]

RHADE [OC]: They broke his back. He overextended his forces, and now he's going to pay for it.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: It's good to be on the offensive again.

[Command]

DOYLE: Launch detected from Seefra Five.
HUNT: Ormuz, trying to save his scrawny little ass.

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: Or so he thinks. This one's mine.
(Rhade takes control of the ack ack gun.)

[Command]

DOYLE: Ormuz is targeting Andromeda.
HUNT: Check that, Rhade. He's mine. Fire controls are back online, I presume.
DOYLE: Confirmed. What little we have.
HUNT: What little we have is more than enough. Goodbye, Ormuz. May you rest in pieces.
(KaBOOM.)

[Refugee camp]

RHADE: All's well that ends well.

[Command]

HUNT: Yeah. But it didn't come free.

[Machine shop]

(Harper activates the box Hohne gave him.)
HOLO-HOHNE: Mister Harper. If you've found this message, it means that I've succeeded in my mission, and I wasn't forced to damage you irreparably. My apologies, but I knew that you would not agree with the premise of my actions. Specifically, that I am expendable and you are not. In my lifetime, I have had many colleagues with whom I have enjoyed countless hours of scientific inquiry and intellectual exercise, but I have enjoyed no one's company quite so much as yours. I believe humans call this friendship, and if I understand the context correctly, the logical consequence is that this makes you my best friend. Forgive me if I offend. You once said, a man makes his own destiny. At the time, I didn't grasp your full meaning, but now I do. This is my destiny. I leave you to make yours.
HARPER: So, er, now what?
HUNT: You heard your friend, Mister Harper. We make our own destiny.