"Previously on "Dark Matter"..." "What is this place?" "Hyperion-8, Galactic Maximum Security Detention Facility." "I want us to escape." "What do you need?" "The crew of the "Raza" is not getting off this rock alive." "The warden's been paid off." "The fix is in." "Android, get us out of here." "I am unable to establish a neural link." "Is he going to make it?" " Friend of yours?" " He was." "The crew of the "Raza" escaped last night." "And our asset?" " Onboard the ship with them." " Now let's go get them." "No!" "No!" "I got her." "Who the hell are you?" "What are you doing on our ship?" "_" "Those nanites of yours, do they keep you from getting drunk too?" "Yeah, I think they might." "Well, I guess there's a downside to everything, huh?" "You miss him, don't you?" "You had me convinced he was the traitor." "Seemed like the right call at the time." "I know why he came onboard, why he changed his face to look like Jace Corso." "His wife was murdered, and you were the number one suspect." "He came for revenge." "And when he had the chance, he didn't take it." "You and me and the rest of us on this ship were all he had, and now he's dead." "The only question is now what are we going to do about it?" "You know, if I had to guess, I'd say it was the same guys who tried to off us in prison, Traugott." "You're really gonna take on all the corporation?" "It's not just Traugott." "It's Ferrous and Mikkei and the whole damn system." "Mikkei helped us escape." "Because it was in their interest to do so." "They play us like puppets, and we play along, we always have." "So we're going to take them all on." "The three of us need to make sure we're on the same page." "About what?" "Our situation on this ship." "We're strangers to them." "We need to be careful." "Oh, they had their memories wiped." "They're pretty much strangers to each other." "No, I saw how they were in lockup." "They're a team." "They'd gladly sacrifice all of us to protect each other." "And they're not all that bad." "The kid gave me these clothes." "Come on." "They have no reason to see us as a threat." "Are you sure about that?" "For now you can move freely back and forth between here and your quarters." "The rest of the ship is off limits." " Why?" " Because we don't trust you." "We helped you escape." "More like you glommed onto our plan." "I provided the riot." "Without that, none of this would have happened." "And you'd still be in your cell, wouldn't you?" "Look, you have no reason to fear us." "Except the fact that you're carrying guns and we're not." "Get used to it." "We are 22.4 light-years away from the nearest inhabited station." "No one will find us out here." "Ship status?" "All systems functioning normally, yet I'm still unable to re-establish my neural link." "Well, try to reset manually." "We need that link." "Anything?" " I'm afraid not." " I don't get it." "Why can't the ship find your signal?" "I think I may have a theory." "What are we looking for?" "Once she wouldn't cooperate back at the prison, they started probing her neural network." "The procedure was quite invasive, and as I suspected, it appears to have damaged my higher functions, including self-diagnostics and my neural link." "Can your nanites fix it?" "Yes, but I will have to shut down in the meantime." "Well, how long?" "Approximately 32 hours." "Well, we're not going anywhere, so now is as good a time as any." "Go ahead." "That's odd." "What is it?" "The computer is scanning the medical database." "Why?" "It could just be a routine systems check." "Two, this is Arax." "Go ahead." "I have a proposition for you." "I'll be right there." "So let's hear it." "You can't stay out here forever." "Obviously." "You need somewhere safe to resupply." "It just so happens I know a place." "It's a hollowed-out asteroid in the Arkeon system." "It's fully stocked... artificial G, hydroponics dome, everything you need." "The best part is their remaining mineral composite is 80 percent lead, zero EM penetration." "I can help you out." "You know, we've been wanted for a really long time, and we've gotten along just fine without any help." "Let me guess, sticking to independent stations and colonies, filing false registration, occasionally bribing local officials." "Do you really think that's still going to work?" "You escaped from a galactic lockup." "That is a level of defiance the corporations just can't accept." "And even your allies, and I'm sure you have some, are going to have to back off." "Now if you still think this is business as usual, you're dead wrong." "Well, I'll take that under advisement." "Hey, how's that robot?" "She shut down to self-repair." "She'll be fine." "I just thought it might be nice if someone checked in on her once in a while." "Knock yourself out." "What's with you?" "I got the mother of all headaches." "Ah, damn it!" "Whew." "You might want to take it easy with those." "Thanks for the advice, Doc." "What are you doing in here?" "Headache, very bad." "Catch." "Isn't that a little weird, both of you getting really bad headaches at the same time?" "I don't know." "How do you feel?" "I'm fine." "I guess it's just coincidence then, huh?" "Whoa, are you okay?" "Guys?" "Guys!" "Two?" "Two, this is Five." "I've got an emergency in the infirmary." "Three and Four are down." "I don't know what happened." "They just collapsed." "They're both unconscious." "Two, are you reading me?" "Oh, shit." "Two?" "Come on, wake up." "Wake up, please." "Two, Two." " Oh, easy there." " Sorry." "Is everything okay?" " Yeah, everything's fine." " Are you sure?" "You seem a little upset." "No, I'm fine." "Okay." "Listen, I know that we don't know each other, and we haven't really had a chance to talk." "Maybe some other time." "Oh." "Okay, think, think." "Oh, there you are." "Okay." "This is not normal operating procedure." "Do you remember anything from last time?" "There is a log showing I was activated once before, but the file contains no data." "Someone must have deleted it." "Oh, weird." "Anyway, the short version is, you have no physical form, no neural link, you're just a projection based on our android's default settings, and now I'm going to need you to get past that" "so you can help me out." "As you wish." "Take a look at this." "It's a recent diagnostic of The Android." "Unfortunate." "Significant damage." "She should shut herself down completely and effect repairs immediately." "Yeah, she already has, but the question is, can I reactivate her before her repairs are complete?" "I would advise against it." "Her nanites will have to reconfigure several million neural pathways." "If you interrupt that process, you could do even further damage." "I was afraid you might say that." "Why do you wish to reactivate her early?" "My whole crew is down." "They just collapsed, and I have no idea what happened, and I'm stuck on this ship with three complete strangers, so what the hell am I supposed to do?" "I have insufficient data to present a reasonable response." "Hey, have either of you guys seen the others?" "Not for a while, why?" "I think something's wrong." "Any change?" "They're exactly the way I left them." "I mean, they're still breathing, but I can't wake them up, and it's been over an hour." "Do you intend to wait until your android's repair cycle is complete before doing anything?" "I'm not sure." "Because without a better understanding of your friends' medical condition, that could be very dangerous." "You said one of the others was a doctor." "Yeah, supposedly." "Then maybe he could help." "Or maybe he's the one who did this." "It happened before, some kind of neurotoxin." "Why would he do that?" "I don't know, to take the ship." " Why would he spare you?" " I don't know." "How would he get the necessary materials onboard?" "I don't know, okay?" "I've got no clue how any of this happened or why or who I'm supposed to trust." "Then you're in a very difficult situation." "Yeah, that much I figured out already." "Thanks." "I've got no choice." "What the hell is going on?" "I need your help." " Strange." " What?" "Well, they show all the outward signs of a coma, but their brain activity is unusually elevated, especially in the medial temporal lobe." "And do you have any idea what's causing it?" "Well, there's no obvious signs of trauma, no abnormal pathogens, blood work seems clean." "We should scan Two as well." "No, you'll just get the same results." "There's no point." "Look, Kid, I know a safe place where we can lay low for a while." "They've got a medical facility better than what you have here." "It might be their only chance." "All right, you've got navigation." "You're going to have to give me a few minutes." "The system's not what I'm used to." "Okay, well, don't take too long." "I'm going to go check on Two." "Two?" "Two?" "Two, if you're hearing me, please respond." "Arax, finally." "I've been waiting for your call." " Is something wrong?" " It's Two." " She's gone." " What do you mean she's gone?" "Well, I left her in her quarters." "I even locked the door." "Well, she must have come to, opened the door from the inside." "Except she's not answering her com." "Well, maybe she collapsed again." "Look, don't worry." "We'll find her." "I'll check the mess." "You check between here and the infirmary." "Okay." "Two?" "Where the hell did she go?" " Okay, that's far enough." " Oh, my God, you're all right." " Don't move." " What are you doing?" "You took the words right out of my mouth." "I was looking for you." "Something happened." "You collapsed." "I didn't want Devon to take you to the infirmary." "I don't know who Devon is, and I don't know who you are." "What?" "What I do know is that if I don't start getting some answers," "I'm going to blow your head off." "What do you mean you don't know me?" "Should I?" "We've been living and working together on this ship for months." " I don't think so." " You lost your memory again." "My memory is fine." "I remember what I had for lunch yesterday." "What I don't remember is some little green-haired girl sitting at the table ever." "This doesn't make any sense." "You are trying my patience." "But you woke up on the floor of your room, right?" "Doesn't that seem a little bit odd?" "Maybe we partied a little too hard last night." "No, your nanites would protect you from that." " What did you say?" " Your nanites." "I know about your nanites, because we're friends." " Rook sent you." " No." "I'm going to send you back in a body bag." "What the hell is going on?" "No!" "Hey, you're awake?" "What's going on?" "Who's your friend?" "I have no idea." "How did we get in here?" "You got me." "The last thing I remember is having a couple drinks, hit the sack, and then I wake up in here." "It's The Android." "Looks like she's offline." "Okay, shit just keeps getting weirder." "Boone, you read me?" "Yeah." "We've got intruders onboard." "No kidding." "Ryo just took one of them down." "Was it a girl?" "Teenager?" "It was a guy in his 20s." "Then she's still out there." "Go find her." "I'll start looking." "Secure him." "Hey, Boss Lady, you mind filling me in on the details?" "I'm a little hazy here." "You know as much as I do." "First we'll secure the ship." "Then we'll figure out what happened." "Roger that." "I got her." "I'm telling you we work together." "We escaped from prison together." "I even saved your life once." "Yeah, right." "Got them all locked up." "Did they say anything?" "Yeah, the kid wouldn't stop talking." "Don't buy a word of it." "Well, it may not be as crazy as it seems." "What are you talking about?" "I dropped us out so we could hang tight until we get a handle on things." "Then I started checking systems." "Everything seemed fine until I looked at the date." "We've got over a year of missing time." " That's insane." " Yeah." "I went to bed last night, woke up 14 months later." "Nah, they're bluffing." "They just screwed with our computers." "Why would they do that?" "How the hell should I know?" "What if she's telling the truth?" "She said we were trying to go straight, turn over a new leaf." "Does that sound like the truth?" "It does seem unlikely." "14 months, huh?" "Shit." "The vault." "Go with him." "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." "You changed the lock." "I don't know what you're talking..." "The vault, the pass code." "Back off." "You changed it." "Yeah, we changed it, actually, several times." "You're coming with me, and you're going to open it up." "Okay." "I can do that, but I can tell you right now you're not going to like what you find." "What's that supposed to mean?" "There was a lot of money in there." "We spent most of it, but I think it's Sara you're worried about, right?" "You know about her." "There was an accident." "We were under attack." "Her stasis pod lost power, and she didn't make it." " You're lying." " Why would I lie about that?" "I'm sorry." "Sit." "Well?" "The kid was right about the vault anyway." "Money's gone." "Sara's gone." "What's that?" "It's one of my lock boxes." "I found this with her stuff after I put her in stasis." "I was going to give it back to her when she got better." "I have to say, I'm surprised to see you display this much sentimentality." "It's unexpected." "You won't see it again." "What is she doing here?" "We needed her help." "I'll take her back." "No, it's fine." "She might be able to help confirm my theory." "What theory?" "I figured it out." "I know what happened to us." "What's the last thing you remember before today?" " Getting drunk." " Before that." "We were planning our mission to Ellara Six." "The only way in was to use The Android to penetrate the bio-field." "Exactly." "There was a chance that The Android could become compromised, so each of us uploaded a brain scan to the computer to give it a pattern to recognize and possibly link with." "We were going to test it the next day." "Oh, my God." "That was supposed to be a last resort." "What?" "Back at the prison, they damaged The Android." "She couldn't link." "That's why she's offline." "But before that, you set the computer to search for active links." "And it's been doing that ever since." "Except somehow in trying to link with you, it reset you to the day that you uploaded those scans." "I don't have a neural link in my brain, kid, just a headache." " What about you?" " No." "I can link." "Really?" "Yes." "The ship is like an extension of my own body, shields, engines, weapons." "It's an incredible rush." "Okay." "So you can control all the systems." "Not yet." "This ship is extremely complex, but I'll get it." "Fine." "Next question, what do we do with them?" "We can't keep them onboard." "They're a liability." "Agreed." "It just so happens that I know a black market serillium operation that'd be happy to have them." "They're always looking for new people." "You can't do that." "No?" "This is what I've been trying to tell you." "You're not like this anymore." "You're not cruel, vicious people who would sell someone into slavery just because they're inconvenient." "It's not just because you're inconvenient." "It's also for the money." "Please, this isn't you." "Get her out of here." "No." " Please." " Come on." "Are you getting closer to obtaining full control?" "Not yet, but I can feel it." "I'm getting stronger." "It's like all the power in this ship is pulsing through me." "I feel almost invincible." "We should shut down the link." "Why the hell would we do that?" "We don't need it." "A crew of three cannot maintain a ship of this size without an android." "The girl said she'll be back online in less than 30 hours." "And you trust her?" "Even if that is true, how do we know they haven't messed with her programming?" "In case you haven't noticed, we're playing catch-up." "We need to run diagnostics, check systems logs." "The fastest, most efficient way to do that is with a link." "Maybe, but you know what could happen if you maintain it for too long." "I can handle it." "Yeah, well, I don't think it's worth the risk." "Are you trying to test me?" "Because I'll show you what I can do soon enough." "If she gets full control, she'll be able to supersede all manual input." "Then we have to get to the bridge and cut the link before that happens." "How do you suppose that we do that?" " What took you so long?" " This is a big ship." "I didn't know where they put you." " Where did you get these?" " Three's quarters." "Practically an armory." "What, you can't kill them." "Well, I got news for you, Kid." "Once they realize we're out, they won't hesitate to kill us or you." "We take the bridge." "Lock down the ship." "Hey, you coming?" "I'm going to the infirmary." "There might be another way." "Okay." "Son of a bitch." "Guys, we got a problem." "What is it?" "Somebody broke into my room, stole all my guns." "They'll head for the bridge." "We can cut them off." "You go." "I need to concentrate." " If they get to the bridge..." " It won't matter." "Not if I get control first." "Go." "She's not ready." "She's at a very delicate point in her repair cycle." "Well, then, I guess I'll have to go with my backup plan." "Plan to do what?" "The computer recognized a neural imprint that Two uploaded over a year ago." "It used that imprint to establish a link." "Interesting." "It's more than interesting." "It means the memories aren't gone, not completely." "They're just inaccessible." "Somehow, the link opened up that side of her mind." "It closed off the other." "I'm still not seeing any indication of a plan." "I have her memories, everything that made Portia Lin what she was, and if I access them with this, the computer will recognize a similar imprint." "Thereby allowing you to establish a link of your own." "Exactly." "That's not a good plan." "Why not?" "A direct neural link between a ship and a human mind is inherently dangerous." "At first, it may induce a state of euphoria, which can affect judgment." "After that, there is a high probability of brain damage." "Then I better make it quick." "I should also point out, that device is not designed to be used in this manner." "That's what she said." "Do you see anything?" "Wait." " Is there another way around?" " I don't think so." "If we want to get to the bridge, we have to go through them." "I need to close the gap." "Cover me." "Whoa, wait!" "Is it just me, or is she crazy?" " Come." " Yeah, she's crazy." "Boone, what's your situation?" "We got them blocked in for the moment." "If we run out of ammo before they do, we're in trouble." "Don't worry." "I've got it." "Okay, that's it." "They're not going anywhere." "Nice." "Someone's been accessing ship systems from the infirmary." "Yeah, it must be the girl." "She wasn't with them." "Okay, no problem." "Just get down there and kill her." "Roger that." "Damn it." " She's got the door locked." " Give me a minute." "Any luck?" "I managed to link, but I can't make sense of it." "Well, you need to try harder, because you're running out of time." "Why, what's happening?" "The computer has initiated an encryption program." "It's only a matter of minutes before your lock code is compromised." "All right, I got the computer on it." "In the meantime, I'm going to take care of the others." "Is she letting us out?" "You better hope not." "That's an air lock." "She's trying to open the outer doors." "They're locked down as long as the inner doors are open." "It's a failsafe." "Unless she can override it." "Oh, shit." "What's wrong?" "I can see the information, but I can't manipulate it." "She's blocking me." "She's too strong." "I can't do it." "Use her memories." "What are you talking about?" "Use her memories against her." "Find one where she was at her most vulnerable, where she was afraid and alone." "Yeah, I'm not sure she has moments like that." "Everyone has moments like that, but you need to hurry." "If she links with the computer for too long, she will lose herself completely." "Come on." "Almost got it." "What is this?" "You recognize this place?" "Something bad happened to you here." "This is where you were at your weakest." "I don't think so." "It's the fear, and this moment for you, it's so powerful that it robs you of all your strength, all your will." "I'm done playing the frightened little girl." "Let's see how you like it for a change." "You have to finish her." "You have to show no mercy." "No." "No, not like this." "I know what happened to you." "They treated you like a slave." "And when you escaped, they hunted you like an animal." "No one ever showed you anything but the worst we have to offer." "They made you this way." "But I've seen the other side of you, and I want her back." "I want my friend back." "Please, please sever the link and end this now." "It's over." "Her scan is also normal." "No residual damage from the link, probably thanks to her nanites." "That's one hell of a story, Kid." "I wish I could remember some of it." "Well, I wish I could forget all of it." "What I don't understand is, if our memories were wiped, then how did the link bring them back?" "That's the thing." "They were never really wiped." "They're still there." "You just can't get to them." "It's like a part of your brain has been walled off." "However, I believe if each of you were to download the brain scans you left in the computer back into your consciousness, you would be able to access the memories." "Are you serious?" "And because no neural link is involved," "I believe you could retain your current memories as well." "Sign me up." "Let's do this." "No, you can't." "What the hell are you talking about?" "Don't you get it?" "With those memories, you're different people." "You're overreacting." "Actually, she has a point." "If you access the old memories, you would be exposing yourself to old personality traits and behavioral patterns." "You would become effectively what you were." "Ugh, you don't have to worry." "I've decided we're not going through with it, for now anyway." "I'm glad, but that's not why I'm here." "What's this?" "It's one of the boxes we found in the vault." "None of us knew how to open it, but your old self knew the combination." "Yeah?" "Hmm." "It's got some personal items I thought you might want." "Hmm." "That belonged to Sara." "Anyway." "Hey." "Thank you." "You're welcome." "You're not going to believe this." "We just got a signal from one of the subspace transponders." "Who?" "Marcus Boone."