"whoo-hoo!" "nothing like a little victory to relieve the night-duty blues." "now, if you're so sure you can beat me to the next slip-point, why don't we raise the wager?" "life... mine for yours." "i don't think so." "let's just keep it at a simple- and i use the term loosely- gentleman's bet." "in case you didn't notice, i've got a new ship now, so prepare for a little anti-proton-fusion-tank spillover." "you mean harper's afterburner?" "are you out of your mind?" "i thought it might be nice to come up and see if you wanted some company, see if you were getting into any trouble, and apparently you are." "trance, you remember agio?" "oh, from the cygnus drifts." "a group of nietzschean prides who like to rule their corner of the galaxy like a gang of criminals." "at least we rule our corner." "he's such a bonehead." "don't you want to see me beat him, just once?" "just to the next slip-point." "i promise, that'll be it." "dylan's going to kill us." "dylan won't know a thing, and andromeda can't even hear us." "she's on a ship-wide diagnostic." "the commonwealth has issued cautions when dealing with anyone from cygnus drifts." "their numbers are growing." "i can always hear you, harper." "yeah, well, i'm in command." "dylan said, and i command we give snob-io a dose of harper's afterburner." "trance, shut the ap solenoid valve, please." "with a whole lot of love on top." "closing the ap solenoid valves." "super-injecting more anti-protons into the accelerator tanks." "the mass in the tanks they're approaching capacity." "what are you trying to pull, child?" "that's "stallion" to you, and in answer to your question, agio, the sudden jump of mass pouring into our core under super-pressure will give us a super-burst of super-speed." "exceeding capacity." "eat our protons." "trance, open the valve, now." "[ alarm ]" "whoo-hoo!" "agio is space dust." "harper's afterburner, acronym-o-nomically known as," ""ha!" "take that, you loser. "" "[ alarm ] what the- the valve is wide open." "but it's supposed to automatically re-close to regulate the flow." "well, it's not." "it's wide open, and the spillover is spilling over right back into the tanks." "if fusion spills over into those tanks, we're going to spill into the great wide beyond." "somebody has to wake dylan." "i'm not waking dylan." "andromeda?" "don't bother." "i'm sure he's already awake." "andromeda, please, you've got to do something." "andromeda... what's going on?" "fusion from the core is beginning to spill over into the accelerator tanks." "harper is in command with trance." "oh... all right, cancel the monthly ship-wide diagnostic and report." "oh, harper... it's a simple night shift." "containing spillover in the accelerator tanks." "harper, what were you thinking, racing me, out here far from known commonwealth space?" "you two are lucky i don't- i'm picking up a signal." "attempting to identify." "it's coming from the distant globular cluster, far outside commonly charted space." "a signal from that far away would take thousands of years yeah, whoever sent it is probably long dead." "no. the signal is less than two hours old." "that's impossible." "come to me." "come... fire and ice... fire and ice... come." "the universe is a dangerous place, but in our future, my crew and i fight to make it safe." "i am dylan hunt, captain of theandromeda ascendant, and these are our adventures." "spillover in the accelerator tanks has been contained." "core is returning to normal." "we're picking up clicks." "i'm hearing a voice." "well, these would be clicks." "perhaps a signal coming from here." "no, this is a voice." "it's a woman's voice." "she sound hot?" "that globular cluster is located in an area nearly beyond known space." "that cluster's gigantic." "who knows what could be there?" "i say we don't go." "[ clears throat ] i'll take a back seat in the decision-making today." "it will take us 4 days, 5 hours, in and out of slipstream, to reach there." "it could take even longer to figure out which planet orbiting what star sent the signal." "and getting there will take us straight through nietzschean-patrolled space, which is to say the occupied regions of the surrounding galaxies are crawling with marauders." "who is curious about this voice?" "i'm always curious when i hear voices." "finally, i'm not the only one with voices in my head." "sorry." "dylan, i am picking up no audio signals." "interesting." "so there's a mystery here, you know, an adventure, a new horizon." "anybody want to investigate?" "fire, ice... a cloud... dylan?" "fire and ice." "rommie, are there any two-planet systems?" "you know, one fiery and one frozen, or maybe a stormy planet with an icy moon?" "yes, there is." "one." "ymir." "a giant fire-storm of a planet with an icy moon, buri." "a cloud... a cloud." "there is also a large cloud of charged particles." "of course there is." "dylan, your knowledge of the outer regions is quite impressive." "ymir." "our destination." "huh?" "now who's with me?" "all right, we'll vote." "all of those against?" "all of those for?" "i love democracy." "any sign of nietzschean patrols?" "no, i kept us low and quiet." "they're still out there, though." "all right, nice work." "why don't you take a breather?" "my turn." "hold your water, cowboy." "cowboy?" "ta-dah!" "you made up a whole day." "i thought you weren't interested." "i did a little digging in andromeda's archives." "the planet ymir is supposed to have some pretty amazing auroras." "colourful waves of brilliant light are said to wash over the ymirian atmosphere." "astronomers think it happens whenever the cloud of charged particles collides with ymir's moon." "so the cloud and buri are on colliding orbits?" "every 800 years or so." "the last witness of the ymirian auroras was about 750 years ago, which means we could be due for another collision any time now." "the next collision is going to occur within 36 hours." "coincidence?" "i don't think so." "somebody wants us to see this." "the signal just jumped exponentially, and dylan, it's not coming from ymir." "it's coming from the moon." "buri?" "but it's frozen, extremely inhospitable." "if anyone is down there, what's going to happen to them when they get hit with that cloud?" "what's going to happen to us if we go down there?" "well, we've got less than 36 hours to find out, and that signal is the key." "you have done well." "now come to me... quickly." "you heard it." "heard what?" "the woman's voice." "you know, the whisper." "no." "tyr, you have command." "on my way." "we are going to go and find out what's inside that moon and who is inside my head." "i know you heard it." "[ harper ]:" "boss, can we make this quick?" "it's freaking cold- chasing delusions into the middle of a giant snowball." "[ rommie ]: harper, stop whining and keep walking." "this way. this way... which way?" "huh?" "i heard that." "me, too." "so did i." "well, finally." "you call me crazy." "this way... maybe we're all crazy." "all right, which way?" "it's kind of hard to tell from a voice in our freakin' heads." "[ echoing ]" "this way." "there was a life form inside." "there was more than one of them." "what happened to this one?" "whatever they are, they're dying." "how long do they have?" "it's difficult to say." "take a guess." "not more than 30 hours." "rommie, time until our cloud hits?" "less than 32 hours." "another coincidence." "any luck deciphering that signal?" "yes." "it's automated." "my guess, timed by these beings to go off when the cloud approaches their moon." "distress call." "if so, then that cloud is endangering them, and we need to do something." "and if not?" "well, then, intervening could be a big mistake." "it's never easy." "tyr, we've determined that the cloud may be destructive or even fatal to the denizens of this moon." "i need you to prevent their collision." "even a slight diversion of the cloud's course could be detrimental to this system, possibly catastrophic." "are you certain you want to do this?" "no, but we don't have the time to wait and see." "divert that cloud, asap." "just make sure whatever you do is undoable, in case i'm wrong." "acknowledged." "well, tyr, how do you propose we divert a giant cloud of charged particles?" "improvise." "i don't know if i'm getting chills because i'm shivering or if i'm shivering because i'm getting the chills." "the vault of the heavens." "huh?" "what?" "ymir." "ymir?" "i don't remember the myth exactly, but ymir was born of fire and ice, like this system." "it's probably why astronomers chose the name." "ymir's body became all creation." "ymir's skull became... the vault of the heavens." "mythology?" "it's all greek to me." "come to me, closer." "all right, am i the only one who's starting to feel like the kid in the fable who's about to get cooked by the witch and her coven?" "oven." "he does have a point though, dylan." "how do we know we're not walking right into a trap?" "come down, closer." "look, i, uh... i don't know how to explain this, but i can somehow feel that we're not really in danger." "and if you listen, you'll feel it too." "this environment has been prepared specifically for us... well, you." "i've noted 11 different unused atmospheric venting systems, each exhibiting deposits of various trace elements." "the only venting system being used is the one providing oxygen." "huh, great, so the black widow has made her web nice and comfy for us." "i don't think they would gone to all this trouble if they had intended to harm us." "dylan... dylan, i need you." "thank you for answering." "we heard your call, and we're here to offer our help." "you came quickly." "you walked through our unprotected territory and took nothing." "i didn't even think of that." "you are worthy." "thank you for coming." "it's our honor." "it's okay." "these access ducts were built for lesser beings." "are you sure you know what you're doing?" "if we're going to push that cloud out of the way, i'm guessing we need to build a gravity field generator." "by increasing the size and power of my point defense gfg, you are decreasing my engine power." "and with it, we should be able to generate enough artificial gravity to push that cloud away." "the next panel, there's a set of cylindrical multicolored cables running into a circuit terminal." "disable the green one, and be careful- that panel is delicate." "what did you do?" "disabling the green cable." "you disabled output to my shields completely." "my systems are disrupted." "i'm assuming the jumpered gravitons will successfully couple with the cloud's particles." "it ought to push it out of the way." "assuming, of course, you can find a way to jumper gravitons to my shields now that you've destroyed that relay." "just tell me when we've entered the cloud." "coming about and entering the cloud." "now or never, tyr." "activating shields." "shields saturated." "releasing the gravitons and exiting the cloud." "tyr... tyr?" "at last." "get out of my head." "who are you?" "i am... a "queen," as you say, the queen of my kind." "your kind... your kind is dying." "and i must see to it that they survive." "you are very strong." "you resist our power." "of course i resist." "now release me." "i am sorry." "i cannot." "it is my duty to see that my race survives... but i need one thing." "i need to procreate... now." "oh." "that was interesting." "did it work?" "no. the cloud is still on a collision course with burl." "communication with dylan, my avatar, and the rest of the crew, for that matter, has been cut off." "how much time do we have?" "less than two hours." "well, that was a painful exercise in futility." "destroy that thing." "dylan ordered us to divert that cloud with minimal deviation, not destroy it." "and i am countermanding that order for his own good." "dylan, as you just informed me, has been cut off from communication." "now, would you rather ensure his safety or wait for an order?" "launch an emp bomb and detonate it in the center of that cloud." "the electromagnetic pulse emitter was severely compromised by your jumper cable attempt earlier." "i can't activate it." "wait." "i'm detecting a large nietzschean cruiser coming from behind ymir." "with a highly volatile gamma-ray burster." "you speak my language." "i do not." "i can project the meaning of my thoughts." "because your mind can understand, your mind interprets it as your language." "interesting language, however." "that's incredible." "your strength is incredible." "lesser men would not be able to keep their right minds right now." "you're much more... solid... than the average carbon-based biped of your stature." "i like it." "how is it that you're so strong?" "i come from a family of heavy-gravity worlders." "family?" "mm." "we do not have family at all." "if you were to strictly apply that concept to me, my family would be... you." "me?" "you were the best specimen of your race within reach." "we have taken the carbon-based life form for thousands upon thousands of years." "we have come to depend on it." "so, the right place at the right time?" "no." "the right man." "you have extremely high serotonin levels in your brain, and the fluid in your inner ear has become unbalanced." "somehow, these creatures have managed to mentally disorient you." "an extremely advanced form of peaceful pacification, i might add." "look, it's not that this isn't an attractive offer." "it is." "i'm honored... but it's wrong to hold someone against their will." "this is a weapon?" "it's a... yes, it's very dangerous." "why don't you release me and i will show you how it works?" "i cannot let you go." "there is no time to find anyone else." "besides... i like you." "thank you." "if you escaped- i won't. i want to help." "believe me." "but not like this." "the risk is too great." "you are too important now." "very soon, a giant cloud of energy will embrace our moon." "us." "when it does, i must create." "whatever race i mate with, that is what form my kind, still in cocoons, shall take." "you and i will mate, and my energy will be absorbed through the cloud by my people, so that they may take shape and live, until they grow old and weary, and return again to their cocoons" "to wait for it all to happen again." "huh. i thought the cloud was killing you." "no." "the cloud enables us to live." "what would happen if the cloud did not "embrace" us?" "that is preposterous." "we are cyclically intertwined with the cloud." "it is how we have evolved over the millennia." "but if it were diverted from its course and did not collide with your moon- then we would all die." "ah." "the nietzschean cruiser." "perhaps our opportunity has appeared right along with it." "i wonder how many more cruisers are in hiding." "there's no telling how long this one's been there." "we may only need this one, if you'll follow my lead." "i'm receiving a hail." "tyr?" "tyr anasazi?" "are you still humiliating yourself, tyr?" "humiliating nietzschean people?" "are you still playing second fiddle to that... human?" "to the commonwealth?" "nietzschean prides have joined the commonwealth." "we do what we must, for as long as it takes, until the time comes when we can do what we have been waiting for." "i have an offer for you, tyr." "a private matter." "request permission to come aboard." "well, i doubt our captain would appreciate your presence onboard his vessel." "now, about that moon- this moon- this moon, and particularly that cloud, are under the protection of the drago kazov." "they seem to have some significant interest in it." "the drago kazov?" "say goodbye to your cloud." "do it." "if you fire on that cloud, i will be forced to fire on you." "oh, i'm sorry, machine." "blood is thicker than wiring." "gladly." ""we do what we must. "" "he's launched an emp detonator." "it's speeding toward the cloud." "good." "[ rumbling ] didn't see that coming, did you?" "gamma-rays." "the most volatile energy in the universe." "that blast?" "2% capacity." "now, since you won't tell me what's inside that moon, i suppose i'm just going to have to beat it out of you." "one of us is going to regret this." "the cloud." "something has happened." "i changed its course." "you must put it back." "restore communications with my ship." "i cannot." "you must understand, i do not have the luxury of simply asking for a mate and hoping for an answer." "our whole world is at stake." "i cannot allow for the possibility of a refusal." "the wrong path leads to the wrong end." "i will only help if you release me." "you do not know what it is like." "this cave is all i will ever see of the entire universe." "for hundreds of years... i lay in my cocoon... listening... to space expanding, feeling suns dying." "the music of the universe, eternally." "i never experienced ambition, fear, dread, curiosity... until now when i can finally see." "but all that i can see is this cave." "what happens to you when the cloud hits?" "you and i become one, and my energy is absorbed through the cloud." "after that?" "can you really let my people die on principle?" "the entire race?" "can you?" "the choice is yours." "i spy with my little eye something that is... ice." "oh, please." "i could obliterate that inferior cruiser with one missile salvo if it were not for that gamma-ray burster." "my engines are at less than 1%." "every shot floods the ship's systems and renders me unable to attack." "this pattern prevents me from returning fire." "i register the recent trail of a nietzschean escape pod entering buri," "of zero life forms onboard the cruiser." "maybe the cruiser is in command of itself." "that would explain the obvious repeating attack pattern." "my sensors are down for 30 seconds after each hit from the burster." "that's just enough time for an escape pod to slip onto the moon unnoticed." "the attack was just a distraction." "[ crash ] an effective distraction." "i just experienced my first hunch." "that nietzschean is already on the moon." "[ gun cocking ] freeze." "don't move." "stay right there." "oh, my god, you're hot." "harper, seamus harper." "nice to- seamus?" "what they said." "lower your weapons." "dylan, you don't look like you're in a position to be giving orders." "i said, put your weapons down." "here we go again." "set me free." "the choice you make is who you are, and what kind of queen you will be." "if you create with me like this, your people will absorb the energy of an unjust act." "instead, they could absorb the energy of a fair and honest queen." "you choose." "what kind of race will you create?" "your kind." "i have restored communication with your ship." "you are free to go." "i'll meet you back at the maru." "but wait." "oh." "aw, come on, boss, don't we get to watch?" "go easy on the threads." "andromeda, return the cloud to its original collision course with the moon." "there is one problem." "it's been destroyed." "what?" "well, fix it, fast." "correction, two problems." "i'm in the middle of a battle with a nietzschean cruiser." "nice little dance you've got going here." "mind if i cut in?" "make that three problems." "i think it might be nice to father my own race." "oh, yeah, i've been listening." "she's mine." "i'll blow up this whole moon and everything on it." "dylan, the cruiser is powering up its gamma-ray burster and focusing it on the moon." "i suggest you get out of there." "did you know that the most energetic eruption ever recorded is a gamma-ray burst?" "harnessing gamma rays is a very volatile business, and we only have a few minutes before the burster can no longer be shut down, and then this whole moon, and all these pathetic worms infesting it, will die." "put down your force lance." "what are you doing?" "what are you, crazy?" "we're all going to die." "eventually, but not today." "gamma-ray weapons, huh?" "you know, any captain stupid enough to arm a ship with a gamma-ray weapon faces one major snag- should it ever overload, the ship literally vaporizes." "the interesting thing, however, is what is left behind." "andromeda, give us an example." "acknowledged." "gravitons should easily overload that weapon." "we tried them once already." "right solution, wrong application." "the gamma-ray burster will fire in 14 seconds... 13 seconds." "sorry about your ship." "six... five." "incorporating the cruiser's trajectory and velocity." "four... three." "orbit parameters complete." "two, one... activating the ramming-field cushion." "captain, the charged particle cloud is reforming." "it's approaching the moon." "it's time." "you heard the lady." "goodbye." "actually, i meant to say good night." "so, uh... [ clears throat ] how do we... do this?" "i mean, i know how i do it." "i'm sure, like your average carbon-based biped, you'll get the hang of it." "i'm not your average carbon-based biped." "your people... will never be human without humanity." "thank you... for helping us." "thank you." "so... you "persuaded" dylan to bring you onboard as his prisoner." "congratulations." "and i see dylan has taught you to come when you're called." "good boy." "you even let them have you declawed." "bone blades don't make the nietzschean." "but dna does- the constant effort to evolve through good breeding and better engineering- all of us on our own road to genetic apotheosis- a road marked by bones." "you're wasting my time." "drago's bones." "the mummified remains of drago museveni... the only means to verify the true identity of the resurrected progenitor when he comes." "until 18 months ago, the bones were held by the drago-kazov pride on enga's redoubt- held there until they were stolen... by you." "they never belonged to you, or the drago-kazov." "they belonged to all of us, and we want them back." "we?" "we!" "the products of drago-kazov aggression." "the bitter remains of shattered prides." "like you, tyr." "survivors." "superior." "the seeds of a better, stronger race." "like the seeds of a dragonia vine." "all you have to do, tyr, is give us the bones." "they will become a banner around which we rally to destroy the drago-kazov, and build a great nietzschean empire that our grandfathers could only imagine." "because you're just so superior." "so superior, you've become prisoner aboard a commonwealth vessel." "imagine that." "imagine." "if you change your mind, tyr... just look over your shoulder." "we're everywhere." "i thought perhaps you might find this interesting." "thank you." "did agio tell you anything useful?" "only that he's a fool... and that he should have died long ago." "really?" "have you any intuition about this?" "any sense?" "any fear?" "no." "i'm sorry. you're on your own." "yes?" "andromeda reports the moon is full of humans." "i'm having a hard time getting my head around this." "it's just basic science, really." "see, auroras occur when charged particles collide with atoms in the magnetic field surrounding a planet." "energy is released in the form of light." "and the queen?" "okay." "when the charged particle cloud envelops buri, a massive sheet of current flows between buri and ymir, bridging the two worlds like an invisible flux tube." "harper, this isn't science." "it's a miracle." "i know." "boss, until today, as far as i knew, auroras did not give life." "it's incredible, isn't it?" "yes." "it's beautiful." "we are looking at your myth, mr. harper... the vault of the heavens."