"Four planets, not a single lead, and i pick up a freaking cold." "I can't wait to get back to my Andromeda." "Well, whoever these cobalt-nickel smugglers are, they sure are thorough." "Well, hopefully Beka fared better." "Why would anyone steal worthless rocks from so many planets?" "Worthless?" "Do you have any idea how many billion different things cobalt and nickel can be used for?" "I think you have rocks in your head." "Why don't i head-butt you so you can be certain?" "Oh, i'm certain, all right." "In fact, in heavy gravity worlds, does your head get sucked to the ground first?" "Insulting a nietzschean is not healthy for a human's health, especially one so itsy-bitsy." "Remind me to never take you two on a side mission again." "Tiny, get me a position on this courier ship." "Courier ship?" "I don't see one, fathead." "They're requesting confirmation of your presence, Harper." "Hell, confirm my presence." "Maybe i won some i money." "Please, boss?" "Something tells me i'm going to regret this." "Go ahead, Rhade." "Report." "Three templar ships in attack formation." "They're firing again." "Fire back." "The first set jammed our launch tubes." "Let's lose them." "Can't." "They're too tight." "We got blind-sided." "Major disadvantage." "Launch tubes cleared." "Targeting." "Jammed again." "Captain, we need a strategy." "Prep the escape pod." "That's not a strategy." "Prepping." "Find Harper." "Find him." "Check." "Bring me anyone who's alive." "Move out." "Search the entire ship." "Clear." "You destroyed the pod, and we needed the engineer alive." "It got caught in the crossfire, sir." "Shut your mouth and take us to slipstream." "We'll keep themaru." "Yes, sir." "Stay alert." "They still could be in here somewhere." "Going to slipstream." "Harper, you forgot the control." "I was so impressed by my new holo-matrix, i guess I..." "i'll get it." "Aw, Harper!" "We've been looking for you." "I've got him." "We're already in their system." "Our only chance for survival is if one of us remains undetected." "Rhade... a nietzschean protecting a human." "Too bad you can't tell a loser situation when you see one." "A loser situation?" "I only see a loser." "You're going to regret your inbred stupidity." "Take them aft." "Prepare for landing." "Acknowledged." "Mission accomplished." "We've got Harper, sir." "We're landing now." "Excellent." "Bring him in." "Yes, sir." "Move out." "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." "No sign of themaru." "How long have we got?" "I estimate the marketeer will take no more than 15 minutes to load up the contraband cobalt and nickel." "Great, so if we wait around for Dylan, we lose a smuggler." "Why are men always late?" "They might be in trouble." "Or they may have discovered something crucial." "The captain did order us... not to break off pursuit no matter what." "I know, but he has my ship." "Drop a beacon." "Let him know where we're going." "Deploying beacon." "Dylan's listening on our new vsas." "Vsas?" "Yeah, vsa." "Vocal to sub-audio." "Wired to the ossicles." "An earphone connected to the ear bones." "Nobody can hear but you." "Nietzscheans don't get one." "Just follow the path, boss." "It's some kind of facility." "Good work, Harper." "Leave the vsa open, but i'll do the talking." "Cough once for "no" and twice for "yes."" "Very funny." "Hey, i know that guy." "Which one?" "The one digging, or the one in the ground?" "Who makes people bury corpses in caves?" "Someone who wants to make sure they have to smell it every time they walk through here." "Lovely." "Patriarch." "Seamus zelazny Harper." "Earth born, boston, a survivor of magog infestation, and one of the commonwealth's top engineers." "You keep theAndromeda in fine shape." "Oh, her shape is fine, all right." "Too bad for me." "I'm a soldier." "Maybe your captain's told you this." "Funny, he never mentioned you at all." "Who are you again?" "Ow." "Right, now i remember you." "You've been alive for three centuries, right?" "Transferring from body to body." "You're admiral Stark." "Hewasadmiral Stark." "I was just about to commend your captain on dumping that trash in dreadlocks, but it seems he's traded it in for just more of the same." "Your name is?" "Telemachus Rhade." "Good strong name." "You keep repeating it to yourself." "Concentrate." "Make it your personal mantra." "It will help." "With what?" "A slow death." "For five lifetimes, i've watched your filth stain the universe, watched your people defile race upon race just by their mere presence." "You're a disgrace to that uniform." "Get him out of it." "Sleep deprivation device." "Whoa, whoa." "Now, we detected three life signs aboard themaru." "Where is he?" "Possibly on his way here?" "Oh, i look forward to that." "Now, Harper, i brought you here to build me a bridge from this planet to its moon." "You work hard, everything will run smoothly." "If you don't, then you'll die." "You are the wheat, my son... and you... you are the chaff, and the chaff must be separated from the wheat." "Do it here in front of the prisoners so they can take pride in their work." "Harper, you're breaking up." "Are you in trouble?" "Ready." "What happened?" "Get a medic." "No, no, no." "No, wait." "Don't kill him." "I won't help you." "You need me." "On the way down, i got a pretty good look at your bridge and the moon, and add two seconds of orbital data, and any kid could calculate what Harper's keen eyes are trained to observe." "And that is?" "Uh, the bridge and moon won't be aligned for at least a hundred years." "210, to be precise." "Yeah, right, so that leaves one of three options." "A) you made a stupid mistake, b) you're building a bridge you plan on never using, or c) you're actually building a bridge across time." "Okay." "Now, when i look in the mirror, i see the best person i know to achieve time travel, and you know that too." "That's why you lug heads kidnapped me." "No, no, no, no." "Wait, wait, wait." "No, no." "Let him live." "Let him live." "If you don't, i won't help you, and if you try to make me, i'll sabotage your bridge." "So you want insurance, do you?" "Fine, he lives until the bridge is realized." "After all, they won't be here for long anyway, will they?" "Throw him in the scrubber." "See if it can scrub the nietzschean out of him." "Anywhere a guy can get a drink around here?" "I'll tell you, when a pal has a close call but turns out okay... shut up and keep walking." "Glad he's okay." "Nice work, mr." "Harper." "All right." "All right, you got me, but before you let anyone know that i'm here, i have a proposition for you." "Sleep... tight." "Enjoying your accommodations?" "Time for another dance?" "I wish..." "but we need your strength." "Let's go." "Free period walk." "Rhade, how are you doing?" "You saved my life." "Thank you." "Thank me?" "No, no, no, no, no, thank you." "You gave yourself up for me and themaru to a bunch of racist freaks." "I owe you." "Blend in." "Hey, any friend of Harper is a friend of mine, you know, because i taught him how to program when we he was a kid." "That's right." "Woody's virtual she sims were better than anybody's." "You know, when you guys bust me out of here, i'm heading back to virtual smut." "It's too dangerous here in the high guard." "You were a high guard engineer?" "I've been here a while, okay, buddy?" "Don't judge a book by its cover." "About that..." "has anyone tried to escape?" "Uh, yeah, yeah." "I think you saw him on the way in." "I was burying him." "He's opening a slip portal." "Focus the lens on it." "We're going through the same door." "Portal focused." "Here we go." "What the... that was a converter surge regulator palpitation." "Unless corrected, propulsion shifts have a 16% chance of stalling." "Harper intended to fix that." "Perfect." "Remind me to strangle Harper." "Andromeda, once more." "Portal focused." "Shouldn't we be looking for themaru?" "Trance... hey, hey, what did i do?" "What did i do?" "Harper, it's me." "I didn't hurt you, did i?" "Oh, don't worry about me." "Ow." "So when the hell are we getting out of here?" "Well, i buried a couple of grenades and a force lance near the entrance." "Rhade?" "You look bad." "I'll feel better when i bury my bone blades in the patriarch's neck." "Careful, don't let anger cloud your judgment, but in this case, it's good to have goals." "I've got a goal... a big, fat, juicy burger when we get out of here." "Yeah, well, i'll see what i can do, but before you escape, we have one problem." "The patriarch's building a time bridge, as much as i hate to say it, boss, we are already here." "I mean, if we stuck around for a while, we could find out why, and maybe while we're here, i could learn a few things about this bridge." "It's got flaws, but i'll bet i could fix them." "Rhade, how long do you think you can tough it out?" "As long as you need." "As long as i play ball, they won't lay a finger on him." "The magog worldship is going to be here any day now." "A time bridge might be useful in all-out galactic war." "Learn what you can, mr." "Harper, but under no circumstances allow it to be completed." "Got it." "From your mouth to my brain." "I promise, boss, you won't regret it." "Good." "Now we need access to the patriarch's computer files." "Ask and you shall receive." "Hey, lughead." "Rhade... i need to speak to your patriarch." "Sorry, but i have to make it look good." "Now, get back to work!" "All i'm saying is i know why your bridge won't work." "You haven't even seen the plans." "How can you possibly know how it won't work?" "Stop me if i'm wrong." "You started with your basic space elevator comprised of carbon nanotube ropes with a dock that doubles as a counterweight." "Child's play." "Uh-huh, but you had the foresight to extend it from a speed ball spinning so fast, if it weren't for its mass, we'd all be catapulted off to earth, which wouldn't be such a bad thing" "if it weren't for the splat factor." "And they told me he was a genius." "All right, all right, i'm getting to it." "Think of it like a giant centrifuge." "The faster it spins, the greater the centrifugal force." "The greater the centrifugal force, the stronger the g-forces acting upon something trapped in the end of the bridge, but what is that something?" "A tachyon, a particle that moves faster than the speed of light." "You want to use g-forces to slow a tachyon below the speed of light as per the unified theory, creating time dilation around it." "Your problem is?" "You don't know how to make a tachyon." "You don't know what particle to use." "Bravo." "Now, the question is... do you?" "Oh, i know, all right." "The question is am i going to tell you?" "You see, i'm helpless." "I don't want to take prisoners, but i'm surrounded by people who aren't of your caliber, people with this... if only i could get it to pick up women for me." "You know, it's a shame, really." "A true genius like yourself never having any real money or equipment at his disposal." "We do all right on theAndromeda." "This one time... you sent a kalimelon back into the past a couple of minutes, and that was the successful part." "I guess it's all right if you want your place in the annals of scientific history to be bookmarked by exploding fruit and children's toys, but think of it..." "a bridge 210 years into the future, a bridge through which any living thing can jump." "The best scientific minds in the universe groveling at your feet, your name in the stars." "Now, that... that would be exhilarating, hmm?" "Yeah, it's pretty tempting, all right, but when all is said and done, what are you planning on doing with it?" "Hmm, yes, our motives are different, but does that really matter?" "I put it to you... should scientific progress be denied?" "Well, no, not if the universe has evolved to where time travel is the next natural evolutionary step, but if that were the case, it'd be popping up all over the place." "People would be discovering it... they could be working on it as we speak." "As we speak." "And the fact that you're so close only proves it." "Mm-hmm." "Seamus, it's not fair, but you're going to be left behind." "Keep moving." "Keep it up." "Ah, here we go." "Carbon nanotubes... charts, cobalt, cobalt and nickel, kilotons of it..." "to make carbon nanotubes." "Ha, and i think we found our smuggler." "Huh." "I know." "That's the time bridge." "Here's the moon." "Once aligned, it only lasts a day." "It's a hell of a one-shot deal." "I need to find out what's on that moon." "Salvation, captain." "Isn't that what we're all looking for?" "Well, if it's salvation you're seeking, patriarch, you should first ask for forgiveness for your sins... larceny, abduction, subjugation... my sins are for the good of us all." "The magog are eventually going to attack the trl-galaxy, and when they do, it will be the opportunity of a lifetime... five lifetimes, to be exact." "That's four lifetimes too many, and now i see you're dabbling in the space-time continuum." "Oh, not really." "I'm just trying to shorten time." "Everything we built has gone to the dogs, and i'm getting sick and tired of waiting for it to turn around." "It has turned around." "Oh, really?" "You did a fine job of slapping together that flawed, corrupted farce, biting the hand that built it." "You're a wanted man, Dylan," "Hunted by your own kind." "Not a very pretty way to enter into a war, is it?" "War is never pretty." "Well, i think war has great beauty." "Well... then you'll love this." "Cease fire, you idiots." "Grenade, sir?" "No, i don't think that will be necessary." "Do you, captain?" "I'm looking forward to watching you rub elbows with the grunts, finally getting your officer's hands dirty." "Oh... and that engineer of yours is quite talented." "He won't help you." "He already has." "Rest period!" "Rhade, i have to find out what's on that moon." "You have a better chance of making it on your own." "Don't worry." "I can handle whatever the templars throw at me." "Yeah, well, it's not you i'm worried about." "A little help here?" "Yeah, sure." "What happened?" "Buddy got thrown in the scrubber for slacking off." "The scrubber?" "It's an argon gas and radiation exhaust system." "Outside air is drawn in, saturated with the contaminants, and then pumped back out." "Outside air, huh?" "I think it's time for a protest." "I'm detecting a launch." "Scanning." "It's the smuggler's ship." "He'll fake us out at the next jump by opening a portal and dipping under." "We're not buying it." "We're banking with him, then we're ramming straight up his aft and taking out his thrusters." "He's opening a portal." "Beka, he's going to decelerate quickly." "Be ready for a dead halt." "Never been readier." "There he goes." "Reverse thrusters." "Pull back." "Andromeda, show me." "The converter's surge palpitation caused a momentary full stall." "Inertia plowed us right through him." "His choices led him to this destiny." "Or i got a little carried away." "A little." "Hey, what's that?" "Andromeda, are those weapons?" "Scanning." "Rifles, laser guided missiles, and force lances numbering in the thousands." "So, the big man likes small arms with his cobalt and nickel." "Beka, technically, this discovery counts as a successful mission." "Maybe we should check the beacon." "Andromeda, you heard the lady." "Get up." "No." "Get up and get back to work." "No." "I said... and i said no." "We'll work... once you remove these sleep deprivation devices." "You need us." "Look at our number." "We have control." "No work, no progress." "No progress, no bridge." "No bridge, well, that means no bridge." "You see, we decide whether or not the patriarch gets his stinking bridge." "Sit." "All of you, sit down." "Just sit down!" "We're going to take a little break now." "Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, it's not enough that you have to rain on my parade, you're going to take away all my fun too, huh?" "Yeah, like i said, we'll work once you take these things off." "You'll all work when i tell you to work." "Kill this one." "Wait, wait, wait." "Just getting by." "Uh, pt, as much as we admire the fancy little gizmos, they are starting to hinder productivity." "You know, if we outline proper work schedules, we can move up the completion date without them." "Yeah, we could do that." "You'd get your bridge sooner." "Really?" "Yeah." "All right." "They'll be removed, but at a price." "Throw the good captain in the scrubber, and the rest of you, get back to work." "Sooner?" "Hey, buddy, how are you doing?" "Woodman's here with your water rations." "Thank you." "How are you doing?" "I'm hanging out." "Time's up." "Whoa, got up too fast." "Okay, listen, i've got to talk to you about the baccarat tourney, okay, because... i need to get in on this." "I know what's going on here." "You're afraid of a little competition, isn't that right?" "Yeah, yeah and i'm just some scruffy guy with dirt." "You don't know what i could do with a card table... i don't have any cash... now, but..." "Look, i'm true to my friends, you know, even if they are guards, you know, keeping me on a planet forever." "You know what i mean..." "Hey!" "Maru, survey the moon..." "all parameters." "Entering orbit." "Initiating survey." "Hangars, runways, training facilities... housing." "What's the population?" "Sparse per architecture." "Only a few thousand and counting, averaging one male and one female per residence." "Andromedabeacon off starboard." "Danger, all systems failure." "Switching to e.b. O2 leaking." "42 minutes life support for your body weight remaining." "I have a location on themaru." "Life signs?" "Potentially, one." "Potentially?" "It is very weak." "Trance, get to... med deck." "He's coming to." "Good." "What the hell did you do to my ship?" "It's good to see you too." "The patriarch, he's our smuggler." "Still alive, huh?" "Well, he's also moving weapons, enough for an army." "That's it." "An army." "He's breeding an army to import from the future." "The future?" "It's never easy." "Harper, i can't let you do this." "Okay." "Point this thing at the mirror, would you?" "It's too heavy for me." "Harper." "He's quite simple for such an intelligent young man, isn't he?" "He made your fiction real." "Your whole race will soon be fiction, along with all that other genetically altered filth." "My supreme templars, the army of the future, will rid our universe of you and your kind." "Ah." "Maintaining orbit out of sensor range." "Why would the patriarch need an army so quickly?" "When the magog attack the trl-galaxies, it will be bloody." "No matter who wins, all sides will be severely weakened." "The patriarch wants to be ready when it's over to bring out his army of templars to cleanse the universe of survivors." "Target that bridge." "I don't want an inch of it left standing, but do not fire until we alert Harper and Rhade." "Gentlemen, the future cannot influence the past, right?" "Wrong." "We're going to prove that." "Lopsided temporality." "We're also going to prove that today, we didn't just push a tachyon to its limit, we pushed ourselves to the limit." "We did what he couldn't." "This is our bridge." "We built it, and he can't take that away from us." "Harper, you have to destroy the bridge." "Repeat, destroy the bridge!" "But we'll be the first ones, boss." "We've just got to see if it we did it, just for a millisecond." "Harper, don't do it, for god's sake!" "Shut up." "Prepare to meet your nemesis." "Lieutenant, two people are attacking on foot." "Acknowledged." "Sir, Hunt has returned." "Make sure he can't get in." "Secure the entry." "In the name of science, boss, we've just got to see." "Harper, no!" "We're outnumbered." "Clear a path." "Stay here." "No problem." "She's very good." "We have full power, Harper." "I've just got to see if we did it, just once, boss." "It's too important." "Harper, no!" "A luxon." "It worked." "A luxon." "It worked." "Get that mirror out of there." "Magog!" "No." "Ma... magog... and they've evolved." "Go, go, go!" "It's impossible." "Harper, shut it down!" "We can't." "It's already happened." "Overload the... too late." "Seamus Harper." "Such a historical figure in my lineage." "You served with red plague." "Rev. Rev." "You mean Rev Bem." "Right, my great- great-grandfather, the first to control his hunger." "I have lived my whole life for this." "I look forward to our children." "They're marking us... the ones they want to infest with their magog eggs later." "No!" "Woody!" "Oh, my god." "Oh, my god, what have i done?" "This is wrong." "You're supposed to be... your superior race?" "We ate them." "Watch him move as i tickle his left ventricle." "This one is for you." "You two, come with me to the landing bay, now!" "It's no good." "We're barely even slowing them down." "What took you so long?" "You're welcome." "Cover the exit." "Let's get to Harper." "Destroy the bridge." "We can't." "We can't." "Harper, snap out of it." "Look, boss, they marked me." "It's all my fault." "You're damn right it is." "Now, you made this mess." "Now you're going to clean it up." "Harper, you found a way to build it." "Find a way to destroy it." "Think." "Someone has to get to that panel and open it so we can point this emitter at the tubes inside." "Rommie." "Not a problem." "Have i ever told you how much I... shh." "You're in a lot of trouble right now." "Go." "Let's move it." "There, boss." "Good." "Harper, now!" "It's going to blow." "Go!" "We're leaving... today." "Everything isn't always what it seems." "You might have been the instrument, but you were not the hand wielding it." "Woody's dead, among others." "Magog from the future are probably... joining forces with the worldship, all because of me." "Harper, with or without you, they were bound to come." "I've always known that." "I've always known we cannot change it." "It is one of the reasons i'm here." "The war has begun." "How is it possible?" "We destroyed the bridge." "It won't be there in two centuries." "In another universe, we failed, and the bridge will exist, and they will come from there, or this universe will allow for another bridge to be built, and by some coincidence, as you call it... there's plenty of time." "Either way... they are here." "Nothing could have changed that." "You got treated like crap down there, and i didn't even stop to notice." "I'm no better than the patriarch." "Yes, you are, Harper." "You thought what you were doing was right, for the betterment of humanity." "Yeah?" "So did the patriarch." "Hmm." "Good intentions... the devil doesn't tempt us with measly offerings." "He knows what we want most, what you wanted most." "You believe in the devil?" "He's in every one of us... right here, aching to get out, but this... is what you have to listen to." "Understood?" "You're pretty enlightened for a... you know what?" "I'm never going to make another nietzschean joke again." "Yes, you will." ""I promise, boss." "You won't regret it."" "What you did was unforgivable." "If i can't trust you, i can't depend on you." "It's that simple." "If you can give in to the patriarch so easily, how can i rely on you when the magog attack, and how are you going to hold up against the abyss' tricks?" "If you're here to be let off the hook, Harper, it's not happening." "I just came here to apologize." "I'm sorry." "It won't happen again." "Please, please, don't give me the boot." "Well, that's strike two." "One more, and you're out." "Strike two?" "What was strike one?" "Careful." "Forgetting strike one is enough to be strike three." "Right." "Now i remember strike one." "That won't happen again either." "Dismissed." "What was strike one?" "Dylan, what was strike one?" "Well, there wasn't one, but he works better under pressure." "Hmm." "Well, he finally did get around to fixing my antl-proton converter palpitations." "See?" "Case in point." "He finally fixed it, huh?" "Hmm." "Wonders never cease."