"Well I agree Trance but this much I know, first contact missions are tricky but they can be a lot of fun." "Until they freak out when they see us." "Nobody's freaking out we'll do it by the book." "Besides, based on their mayday that we intercepted they've got bigger fears then seeing us." "Have you decided what you're going to say to calm them down?" "Well you know me with my speeches, but I was thinking uhhh," "Ladies and Gentlemen of the planet Savion I know that you're all terribly worried that a giant space creature..." "The Cetus." "... the Cetus will arrive and eat part of your planet but hey don't sweat it you're all worked up over an age-old superstition." "Not bad." "I know, I'm not good at giving speeches." "You know, their tech must be very young, their mayday was sent by radio signal." "Well then they may not even have space travel yet." "That's a good point." "Scan the planet for a detailed survey of its geophysical property's, also collect and analyse all radio transmissions they've sent over the last 50 years." "How do we get people to stop believing in a myth they've believed in for centuries?" "By getting them to believe in that other myth." "What's that?" "The one about the high guard captain, flying around the universe, making allies, restoring the commonwealth." "I don't think they'll ever believe in that one." "Ompah!" "Come on Beka, dance with me." "Friends don't let friends drive and polka." "Polka?" "Polka?" "Watch it or I'll polka you, it's called a swing baby." "Oh yeah, all the old hap cats on Earth were ah, doing it." "And you know what?" "It's a lot like love, it's ah, much better with a partner." "Great." "You know what?" "Go over there." "How about you Rommie, Care to ah, live a little?" "How about giving me the honour of this do-si-do?" "Thank you Harper." "But my attentions are currently focused on carrying out Dylan's Order." "Search the system's outer rim for the Cetus." "And if we have to, kill it." "Oh sure, a fairy tale space beast takes precedence over my ah, invitation." "As a warship I'm not optimally programmed for aesthetic distinctions however, I'd have to say this music is NOT my taste." "Alright, why is this music on?" "My fault." "Because I can't play it when Dylans here, which is always, he hates it." "Then I'm torn, between clapping my hands to applaud Dylan's good taste and clapping my hands over both your ears to simulate the pain you cause me." "Hey kids, it's just three days until Dylan gets back." "And why is our hero out responding to some minor planet's irrational panic over some mythical creature when there are far more real threats in known space?" "I know, we may as well be hunting for bighand." "Bigfoot." "Whatever." "Or the dreaded snarkasaurus of Qualus 4." "Come on guys, after two years you should know that this is what Dylan does." "He helps worlds that can't necessarily return the favour." "Very well." "Let them pursue their myths." "I'll consider this a much needed respite from the real threat, like your music." "Hey!" "What are you doing I was listening to that." "And I'm listening to this." "It's from an unidentified object approximately four light minutes out." "Then identify it." "Launch sensor drones for active contact." "Aye." "According to this data their society still uses digital clocks and combustion engines." "Their technology's archaic." "Huh, Savion's a clean slate." "With a lot of potential." "They might even become an important part of the universe." "You say that like you know." "I know when some things are worth saving." "Dylan, the planet." "What the hell did that?" "I don't recognize the rad signatures." "Yeah that's cause the radiations off the freaking charts." "It's lit up like a casino draft on New Years Eve." "I'm getting a composite image from my sensor returns." "Visuals." "Let's meet our stranger." "The Cetus." "It's supposed to be a myth." "I think it just came true." "Season 2 Episode 19 :" "Belly Of The Beast" "Sub-title:" "TEAM TRAD ANDROMEDA" "Script vo by:" "Kit" "Synchro by:" "Schwarzy26240" "Is it the Cetus?" "My databank contains 10,000 years of commonwealth history and no one's ever seen anything like this." "Or lived to tell about it." "What do the sensors say?" "Well I can't tell you it's mass nor can I tell you what powers it but..." "Does it tell you whether it's the planet eater?" "No, but that would be my guess." "Mine too." "Rommie contac Dylan, transmit our data." "Transmitting." "But Dylan is 44 light minutes out." "We won't get a response for 90 minutes." "Imagine what he'd say in the mean time." "Yeah, don't let the Cetus eat us." "There has got to be a good explanation for those scars." "How about the myth?" "The Cetus return every 6270 years to take a bite, and it looks to me as if the next will eat the planet whole." "I'm not ready to give up on science." "I want to analyze the geologic history of that planet." "We'll find an answer." "It didn't answer our hail." "Then it's not a ship or it doesn't speak our language." "Well let's stay out of its way or attack it but let's not sit here making idle chitchat." "Tyr you know Dylan's protocol, we talk first, kill later." "Well Dylan's not here I say we skip step one and proceed directly to step save our freaking butts." "I agree." "We don't even know if it's sentient." "We do know it's a trajectory for the planet." "Plot an intercept." "Aye." "What?" "Get in front of it." "The scars don't correspond to the tectonic plate boundaries." "This wasn't caused by earthquakes or volcanic activity." "Or meteors, at least no any meteors that I've seen." "Guess we didn't find your answer." "We found our answer, none of the above." "What's the radiometric dating of those scars?" "They're about 6270 years apart." "Just like the myth." "How along ago was the most recent one?" "6270 years ago, give or take." "Then whatever it is we're due for another visit." "So, are we finished playing what would Dylan do?" "Fire a warning shot." "No reaction it's still heading directly toward us." "I guess Mr. Cetus doesn't speak warning shot." "Perhaps he parlays full missile barrage?" "Parlays away Tyr." "This bogey is hostile." "Target it's vulnerable spots, it does have vulnerable spots right?" "Beats me." "Beats me?" "Two words I never expected to hear from a warship with a brain your size." "All right then, let's just throw what we've got and see where it sticks." "It consumed our missiles." "At least we know what it eats for breakfast." "Rommie did we damage it at all?" "I'm still too far away to tell;" "I can't even tell you if it's sentient." "All right." "Take us in closer;" "hit it with an AP burst and a laser barrage." "What are you thinking?" "It looks like I'll need a new speech." "Like what?" "Well how about this," ""Ladies and Gentlemen of the planet Savion, there might be something to your myth but don't worry the most powerful starship in the universe it out there, somewhere, protecting you."" "Oh that's great;" "now all you have to do is convince yourself." "Andromeda is strong Trance but if the Cetus can do that to a planet I...." "Incoming message from the Andromeda the lag time is 44 minutes." "Put it through." "Dylan, we've made active contact with the Cetus." "The thing is no myth, it's real and it's headed toward the planet." "We'll try to hail it and then see what happens." "Andromeda, this is Dylan." "Code black, exercise extreme caution; repeat extreme caution stay outside combat radius." "Dylan out." "Because of the signal lag, they won't get that message for..." "I know, I know, signal lag." "I hate physics." "You know what?" "We're going back." "I just hope 44 minutes isn't too late." "Did the sensor drones detect any reaction to our missiles?" "Not yet." "All right." "Tell me when they're inside two light seconds, we'll stay put at four light seconds." "When will your drones tell us whether it's alive?" "Hey if we had a really really long stick we could try poking it in the eye, if it blinks it's alive." "It has no eye, nor so far as we can tell any vulnerable areas." "Its gottta have something." "Did the drones see anything yet?" "They're within two light..." "It ate my drones." "Radiation's way up." "Battle stations." "Andromeda get us the hell out of here, hard 180." "Auxiliary power." "Rommie status." "Rommie?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "You don't know?" "What?" "Give her a break would ya Tyr?" "Functions overloading." "All her applications are under simultaneous assault." "Can you at least contact Dylan?" "Maru, Mayday." "Mayday." "We engaged the bogy with twenty gigatons of warheads, no reaction." "We're gonna go in closer and hit it with energy weapons." "Andromeda out." "That was 38 minutes ago." "Do you think they went in too far?" "No." "Until the sensor drones identified target areas they stayed outside the combat radius, probably at four light seconds." "How do you know that?" "Cause that's what I would do." "One more second, got it." "My power's is back on line." "Great." "All ahead full, maximum force." "Ohhh, it's not working, external pressure is increasing." "Power down." "The harder we push the tighter it seems to clamp down like inertial or strength or something." "I suggest we try copious explosives." "Go for it." "Full offensive sound off, firing." "We haven't picked up any more transmissions from Andromeda." "Dylan, if we're supposed to be saving the planet, why did we turn around to save the Andromeda instead?" "Because Andromeda is that planets first and last line of defence." "If it falls, so will Savion." "But the Cetus eats the Andromeda and gets filled wouldn't that save the planet?" "That might save the planet, but we" "would lose the universe." "Environmental systems failure, initiating auto-shut." "Harper, what's her problem?" "Simulation, mind scramble, outer hull rupture." "She can't disconnect from the core AI, it's dumping trillions of information into her by the milisecond." "Are we on line?" "Look at her, what do you think?" "Hey she wasn't built to be eaten by a giant space creature." "Neither was I." "Look, she's got god knows what poison eating away at her AI and burning through her entire outer body all because you dumped a whole payload of missiles on top of her skin." "Yes, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." "I think it's safe to say unless we get power back on line we stand no chance of survival." "Go get us manual control." "Harper you have to go to the slipstream core to get..." "She needs me." "Tyr!" "Harper look, the only way you're gonna help her is to get manual control." "Go to the slipstream core." "Go." "Digestive fluids." "Ahhhh." "Guh, na, ha" "I'm nobody's lunch." "Plasma fires." "Critical levels." "Fire control failure." "Did you hear that?" "She's a mess." "She's saying the outer decks are on fire and she can't put it out." "Then we'll do it." "Vent everything except deck twelve, that's Harpers route to slipstream core." "Holy hull breach." "Goodbye slipstream core, hello plan B." "They're venting the atmosphere, people need to be told these things." "We've closed to real time communications range." "Andromeda come in." "Andromeda." "We're getting a message." "Put it through." "Remind me to stop sending messages to myself." "It must have reflected off of something." "Yeah but what?" "Something nearby." "What is that?" "Trance enhance visual." "Can we contact them?" "I'm using a laser with sonic vibrations, maybe they'll hear." "Andromeda, do you read me?" "Andromeda come in." "They can't get out." "So what do we do?" "We'll go in." "We have point defence lasers and a few missiles, and proximity mines." "And that's all we have." "Beka already hit that thing with twenty gigatons of missiles." "We don't have payload like that even with the combat pod." "Ok, it time to think outside the box." "Think?" "Outside what box?" "When you've run out of conventional options you go to the unconventional." "Like weapons." "Exactly like weapons, specifically AP fuel tanks." "Outside the box, I like it." "Decks three to eleven one hundred percent vented." "Plasma fires suppressed." "Manually venting decks twenty-four to forty-three." "Manually venting decks forty-four to sixty-three." "Seven decks aren't responding, respond damn it." "That's almost the entire ship, except for command and slipstream core." "We don't even know if Harper made it to Slipstream core." "And until we get comm or manual control we won't know." "Venting Eighty-five percent completed, assisting life support, rerouting to command, adjacent conduits and slipstream." "Rommie?" "Are you Ok?" "The ship has almost shut down, so my AI isn't scrambled across the decks." "Can you contact slipstream core?" "We have to find Harper." "Harper?" "You know, short, fast talker, too smart for his own good?" "Hopelessly in love with you?" "I know Harper." "Harpers not in slipstream core." "A conduit, a conduit, my kingdom for a conduit." "Ohh crap!" "Do you think they're still alive?" "You should know Trance, after two years and everything the universe has thrown at them." "They've always found a way to survive." "He's in conduit one four seven trying to get manual control." "Harper?" "Andromeda?" "Better, it's Rommie I'm wearing a hologram." "And you wear it so well sweetheart." "Oxygen deprived and still full of attitude." "Hey, I'm not deprived, I'm depraved, and back at ya baby." "So, have you found a way to fix me?" "No." "But on the bright side we aren't Cetus crap yet." "Judging form the friendly stomach acid that's only because it's still trying to eat it's way through your bullring mesh exterior." "Well you've always said I have thick skin." "Yeah, well, it's only a matter of time before it cracks your crunchy shell and eats its way in to the centre of your chewy goodness." "How much time Harper?" "My guess?" "About an hour, tops." "Find a way to kill the Cetus." "Don't worry Rommie, I won't let it hurt you." "She's an impressive ship." "She's a survivor." "Just like Dylan." "I just know he's out there trying to save us." "Or maybe not." "The stellar position monitor just stopped, which means the Cetus just stopped." "Oh my god, it's trying to digest us." "It's trying to digest us?" "Dylan wanted to save Savion right?" "I mean it's the only reason we're in this armpit corner of the universe." "If the Cetus ate Andromeda," "I mean even though we're tiny compared to a planet, we'd have more then enough rich matter to satisfy its appetite." "Which means that Dylan could save Savion" "by doing absolutely nothing." "Dylan will make best efforts to save the planet and the Andromeda." "Really?" "And you're so sure because...?" "I trust Dylan to be Dylan." "So, the bomb kills the Cetus and let's the Andromeda go free, and we save the planet and the Andromeda." "That's right." "I call it my eat your cake and have it too plan." "Uhh, isn't it have your cake and eat it too?" "Trance, we're working on a bomb that could destroy a small planet, and you're quibbling over semantics?" "Anyone can have their cake and eat it, the real trick it eating your cake and still having it." "I see." "It's a common mistake." "You're going to have to fly pretty close to the Cetus if you're going to launch those bombs into it." "What if we end up killing ourselves?" "Well, then we'll be going out with a bang." "On my mark, drop the bombs." "Ready?" "Mark!" "Dropping." "You all right?" "We have got to install seatbelts." "How much you want to bet that was Dylan?" "His rendition of a valiant cavalry charge with the Maru's AP fuel tanks, and we're still trapped." "And that's the best-case scenario." "There's a worse case scenario?" "Dylan, Trance, they're dead." "In so much as in the next little while I imagine this creature will convert us all to energy," "I would expect you to take a greater interest in restoring the ships power." "I just never thought he could die." "I don't think he's dead." "Really?" "Well that's interesting the ship's sensors, or at least what's left of them, say he is dead." "That explosion equalled the size of the Maru's fuel capacity." "Hmm, machine logic." "I don't believe he's dead." "When did you find the faith?" "I have faith in nothing but this, when the universe collapses and dies, there will be three survivors:" "Tyr Anasazi, the cockroaches," "and Dylan Hunt trying to save the cockroaches." "Please, make yourself useful." "That was close Trance that was ahh, way too close." "Status on the Andromeda." "They're still trapped." "What!" "We have faced the Magog, Calderans, Pirians," "I will be damned if I lose my crew inside that thing." "We're getting a visual on the Cetus." "At least our AP bombs did some damage." "Give me a closer look." "Right there." "You see how all these roads lead to that one knot?" "You think that's Cetus' brain?" "Whatever it is it's our next target." "Now Harper and I just have to find a way to kill it." "Call me Ishmael but the rad patterns from Dylan's bomb created a juicy target and... he didn't die Rommie." "My sensors say..." "Right now your sensors say a lot of things but they're blinded and confused, like a lot of my dates." "It's a perfect example of why a powerful ship like you still needs a human engineer Rommie." "He's OK." "The Maru is out there, even if it is just a shell with a slipstream drive." "There's got to be something on board we can use to hit the target." "Are we still thinking outside of the box?" "Trance right now we're so far outside the box we can't even see the box." "Well then let's consider that the Cetus is kind of like us, in the sense that it eats to grow bigger, the only difference is that we don't consume matter we consume food, but if somebody wanted to kill us..." "They'd give us poison." "That's how we'll kill the Cetus, we'll give it exactly the opposite of what it eats," "which is antimatter, Hello?" "Once I get manual control I can reroute the antimatter from the slipstream generators to the main thrusters, then on three, two, one, Opah!" "Voila, the Cetus gets one hell of a hiemleck and spews us out like your autochef's three day old chopped liver faster then you can say uncle, or in this case anti." "Will it kill the Cetus?" "Who cares?" "We'll survive, you will survive." "I'll fail." "Dylan ordered me to kill the Cetus and save that planet so I need to know, how can I kill the Cetus guaranteed?" "Nothing is guaranteed." "Best chance?" "If we manually eject the slipstream drive into its belly, then maybe we can ride the explosion out but the hell I'm doing that." "Our orders are to save that planet." "Yeah well my job is to save you." "I have to carry out Dylan's orders, even if it puts us at risk." "Sorry, you're gonna live Honey." "Those are my orders." "There, that should do the trick." "I've set the Maru's slipstream core to overload, once it hits the target it'll rip the Cetus into a thousand pieces." "And let the Andromeda escape." "That's the plan." "What if the plan doesn't work;" "will they be ripped apart too?" "That happens if we don't do anything, all we can do is try." "So how are we going to get our slipstream drive into the Cetus?" "Strap it to a bullet." "What kind of a bullet?" "You're riding in it." "If Dylan still is alive, you just know he's out there doing everything he can to save us and that planet." "Your point?" "My point is we should be doing everything we can to kill the Cetus, not just save our butts." "Dylan expects us to save our butts." "And sacrifice Savion?" "If it means surviving to one day save many Savions, yes." "We're no good to the universe dead." "And we're no good to the universe if we're too afraid to risk our lives to do the right thing." "To help worlds that need help." "When the Magog attacked this ship I promised Dylan that even if he died, I would continue his mission." "Then by all means continue it." "But I will not die because of your misguided sentiment to memorialize a man who is not dead." "At the ships maximum speed I can penetrate it's skin and eject the slipstream drive right on top of the target." "But the Cetus's shape is constantly changing how can we be sure that we're going to hit its brain?" "We can't be sure but I know I can give it one hell of a headache." "Sounds dangerous." "It is dangerous that's why you're going to wear this." "This is not going to protect me in the event of an explosion." "Trance, you are not coming with me." "Yes I am." "No you're not." "Now put it on, that's on order." "When Andromeda's free use the comm mike to hail her." "Dylan." "Trance you're not coming with me." "Respectively requesting to come with you sir." "Please." "Besides this won't help me anyway." "Trance Gemini, welcome aboard." "I'm asking you not to do this." "And I'm answering you," "No." "You can thank me later." "For what?" "If I don't follow Dylan's orders to kill the Cetus and save the planet I might as well be dead." "Because I failed in my mission." "All right, you're under the influence of stomach acid, you're not thinking straight." "This isn't about following orders or ahh, completing the mission is it?" "It's about Dylan." "Because you think he's dead and you don't think you can live without him, right?" "I'm programmed to carry out orders." "Yeah well that's where we're different, you see I have a choice and I choose not to allow some stupid broken-hearted suicide especially when you're taking me with ya." "You're wrong Harper." "I do have a choice." "And that is where you're wrong because I just got manual control." "Ladies and gentlemen, ahh nietchian, thank you for flying Andromeda." "The sound of flowing air you now hear and crackling conservation is my genius and your survival once again." "Now, for those of you haven't heard Harper's plan here's the nutshell, rerouting antimatter to the main thrusters which will, when we power them up, send Cetus to heartburn hell and us in to chunky hurl heaven." "It might get a little messy but at least we'll all live." "I'll save us and raise you one." "If we eject the slipstream drive we'll kill the Cetus right?" "What is with the death wish?" "Yeah, sure if you want to die surfing an exploding vomit wave." "Hey I've surfed the reaction of an exploding star before I think I can ride out a little Cetus vomit." "I will not allow you to risk our lives by ejecting that slipstream drive." "So instead you'll just take over the ship after we've saved our asses." "You don't really believe that Dylan's still alive do you?" "You just said that so I'd think we'd still be safe after we got free." "Beka." "I once told Dylan that this mission was nothing but an excuse to reshape the universe according to his will." "It is." "In these two years, and for reasons I'm not even sure I understand, some significant part of me has grown to prefer that shape." "I do believe Dylan's alive." "Convince me." "If you really think that Dylan's still out there trying to save us, eject the slipstream drive." "Kill that thing before Dylan dies trying to kill it for us." "Want to reshape the universe or not?" "You're awfully calm considering we're about to die." "That's not necessarily true now is it?" "Not necessarily." "That's right, cause once we get Andromeda free" "they'll continue my mission." "And that is my life." "All ahead full." "You said you came from a bad future, what exactly went bad?" "In that future, I made some mistakes and uh, only Beka and I survived." "That does sound bad." "Looks like I've put you in a different kind of future, one you won't survive." "On the other hand, make a better one for everyone else." "I hope." "Uhh, guys?" "Maybe it's me, maybe I didn't explain the rules of the game very well but if you don't get out of here in less then two minutes we're gonna be turned into tasty chewy people bits." "Harper please." "Is this really what you want?" "No." "But it's what we have to do." "All right, for you." "Let's see if I can't eject this damn slipstream drive." "Dylan!" "The Andromeda is launching from the Cetus." "They made it?" "They made it." "Reverse thrusters." "Huh," "we did it." "You're right Harper, we killed the Cetus." "And saved the planet." "Dylan?" "They must have ejected their slipstream drive." "The Cetus is dying." "If we don't clear this area it won't be the only thing dying." "Ha ha ha ha, yes!" "We did it." "We did." "You could even say that we had our cake outside of the box and ate it too." "You could say that, yes." "Incoming message, it's from the Andromeda and it's in real time." "I love real time." "What Beka?" "I'm just glad we're on the same team, that's all." "Somebody say something, I just want to hear your voices." "Welcome back Captain." "Trance welcome back." "Hello." "You know for something that's supposed to be a myth, the Cetus did a hell of a lot of damage." "Yeah well, you should see the other guy." "Yeah well about that." "Ejecting the slipstream drive, it was risky and it's exactly what I would have done." "We know." "Your willingness to defy the universal odds is a disease that apparently we have all contracted." "Well I have to think that's a good thing because somehow we keep winning." "Where's Harper?" "Almost there Rommie." "He's almost here." "Ah, well," "I'll just say this now and get it out of the way." "I'm proud of you." "Two years ago you'd be thinking of your own survival and not that planet's" "I know you had another way out, but you did the right thing." "Now I know I can count on you to continue my mission even if I'm not here." "And one day the universe will count on it too." "Believe me that day will come." "Sooner then you think." "A freaking sock-foot kilometre in one minute and I still missed the inspiring speech." "Hey but I didn't miss the dancing." "Shall we?" "We shall." "ooh!" "Hey Stoic one." "We're alive, dance with me."