"It's called GS92196." "It's a guard station for starship service and repair." "A real jewel in the Commonwealth crown." "Perhaps once." "But it's probably long gone by now." "This station's in easy striking distance of the Dihedra system." "The last time I checked, the scariest thing about Dihedra was the size of the bills at the resort hotels." "Yeah, well, those hotels may still be serving lunch, but we'd be the main course." "The entire system is infested with Magog." "Everyone knows that." "Almost everyone." "The ship's weaponry is severely depleted." "We couldn't even return fire on a single Magog probe, much less a full assault horde." "All the more reason to check out the guard station." "If it is still operational,we can stock up on slipfighters, drones, spare parts..." "Look, I grant you, it's a long shot." "But maybe we'll get lucky." "Those are Magog assault ships." "This is the Commonwealth Starship Andromeda hailing guard station niner-two-one-niner-six." "Please respond." "Guard station, are you reading me?" "Whoever's on that drift probably can't even breathe, let alone signal back." "Nietzschean slavers have been here, too." "What a popular destination." "It must be on all the tourist maps." "It looks like the station's still pressurized." "The atmosphere is breathable and the AG fields are powered and running." "Any life signs?" "There seem to be indications of habitation near the generator complex, but scans are inconclusive." "Prepare for docking." "Keep an eye out for the quartermaster's office." "And stay alert." "We're short-handed enough as it is." "Battle damage." "It's fresh." "A Magog." "Don't touch it!" "It's venom!" "I heard about a guy touched a fresh kill...three days later, his guts were teeming with Magog eggs." "You can't get infected from a dead Magog." "That's a myth." "I prefer to think of it as a cautionary tale." "Gee, I'm glad we left Rev and Tyr behind!" "I'd hate to tick off the locals!" "They must think we're more Magog!" "Or they're more Magog." "This is Dylan Hunt, Commander of the High Guard Starship Andromeda!" "We come in peace!" "They've stopped shooting." "Yeah, they've probably gone to get bigger guns." "Hail the High Guard!" "Hail the High Guard!" "Is it really you?" "I'm..." "Captain Dylan Hunt." "High Guard?" "I'm a High Guard officer, yes." "I never thought I'd live to see the coming of the High Guard." "I am G-Stat-Comm Kate Nassan at your service, High Guard." "Are you all right?" "I am old." "Don't worry about me." "She couldn't be more than twenty." "Where are the adults?" "We're right here." "No, no, I mean the people my age." "High Guard, no one's as old as you." "So, you're the oldest one here, and you're in charge." "For now." "When I die, my Onced-Off Hayak will assume command." "I led the victory this morning." "We drove off a Magog assault." "When Hayak dies in a couple years, my brother Mapes will lead our people." "He's gotta be sixteen." "Look at the peach-fuzz." "Well, come on." "Enough talk." "The High Guard is with us." "We should be celebrating!" "The long night has come" "The system Commonwealth, the greatest civilisation was fall and now one ship, one crew are about drive back the night, they'll gush up the light of civilisation on the starship Andromeda hope lives again" "TO LOOSE THE FATEFUL LIGHTNING" "High Guard, we've prepared the Mish Brief." "Shall we transmit?" "By all means." "Onced-Off!" "Tell the tale!" "Tell the tale!" "Tell the tale!" "Sit." "You'll enjoy this." "Begin Mish Brief." "Transmit." "During the fall of the Commonwealth, many of the Guard Station's original crew were killed, wiped out, leaving only us." "Their children and their children's children." " Generation after generation." " Don't worry, it's just a costume." "Ever since then, Magog and Nietzscheans have plagued us." "Our people have fought off attack wave after attack wave." "Friends die." "Family members get killed." "But we always survive to fight out next enemy." "Because we're Commonwealth!" "We're stationeers." "We have survived, and we have waited for the Day of Lightning." "And now that day has come." "End transmit." "That was, uh, very nice." "Bring the offering." "It's her gift to you, High Guard." "What are they?" "Cheek-horns she carved out of a Magog." "We collected these for three hundred years." "And now they're yours." "These children desperately need spiritual guidance." "It would seem that they're doing just fine without it." "Yeah, well, these kids are very in touch with their inner savage." "You have to admire them." "Everything they've created here, they've done on their own." "No one's helped them." "Yeah, maybe." "But, uh, they could use a little help." "I thought Triangulum Measles was bad..." "you hear Nassan's cough?" "It's probably some kind of radiation poisoning." "Beka, find out where the leak's coming from." "And you, scavenger hunt." "Find out what they've got that's useful." "Maybe we can barter." "Perhaps they've be interested in some training..." "improve their tactics against their enemies." "With guidance, they can overcome their enemies from within." "Um, hello?" "These kids take one look at you two and you'd be sliced, diced, and packed in a crate number 527." "Beka's right." "Undoing three hundred years of hatred and fear will take time." "But I think I know how to start." "Why are you smiling at me?" " What is that?" " Shoot it." "I've never seen someone like her before." "Nononononono...this is Trance Gemini." "She's a good friend of mine." "It's purple." "The Commonwealth was an alliance of many types of beings, not just humans." "There's nothing about purple things in the scripture." "And what scripture is that?" "The scripture..." "all that's contained in the room of knowledge." "Maybe you can show me that room, but first, I want you to get to know Trance." "I promise I don't bite." "You're pretty." "...." "High Guard blue prints, procedure manuals, stored on flexis." "Oh, man!" "I'm dreaming." "You know what this is?" "That one's about the ship made flesh." "But why am I telling that to the High Guard when you know everything here by heart, like I do." "Hey, look, if you don't mind, I'm gonna borrow this for a little while and, uh, see what else I can scrounge." "Uh, Nassan, there's no way you could've memorized all this." "But I have, High Guard." "It's my duty." "And I have to make sure Hayak knows it, too, before I die." "All right,... frequency switching must occur how many times a second to avoid external sensor jamming?" "That's not what that says." "That volume's about the Free Can See Witches." "Our people must remain free in order to recognize the enemy." "For fifteen generations now, every G-Stat-Comm's known that." "That's not exactly what it says." "Look, read right here." "I can't read." "All hail the conquering hero." "Have fun looting?" "You know it, baby." "I scored you an entire crate of quintiflop logic chips." "That's quite a bonanza." "And you ain't seen nothin' yet." "300 year old Neuverin Weisbrau." "God is good." "You want some?" "I could pour it into a spectral analyzer or something." "Thanks, but I prefer the logic chips." "I can fix that." "I've tracked the radiation to this area on Level 19, but they say it can only be entered by the High Guard, using the "words of the past"." "Words of the past?" "Passwords." "Whatever it is, you gotta say it if we're gonna get in there and find that rad-leak." "Did they say what they were using this room for?" "Some mumbo-jumbo about a noble shrine." "If this were a standard GS, it would probably be a dry dock facility." "But you've seen the place." "Kids are living in the machine shops, growing food in the armory Playing basketball in the hydroponics garden..." "There's nothin' wrong with that." "Any idea what's causing the radiation?" "Could be a million different things:" "a leaky AP Valve, a cracked Mag Bottle..." "Yeah, you're right." "It could be anything." "But whatever it is, it's robbing these kids of their full lives and we've got to get it off the station." "Here it is." "High Guard, this is the moment." "The one every generation's waited for and dreamed about." "I understand you need a password..." "the "words of the past"." "Exactly as you said." "My High Guard access code generally does the trick." "Commonwealth Captain Dylan Hunt." "Access Code:" "Lexic Dark 52278 Alpha 771." "Checking." "Authorized." "It's the Day of Lightning!" "Beautiful." "Type 2 Arc Glide Slipfighters." "Hayak and Mapes." "As we practiced." " Alert Status Five!" "Arm all systems!" " Wait!" "Combat readiness factor 5591." "That radiation..." "it's from voltarium, isn't it?" "It's consistent with voltarium, yeah." "Do those slipfighters carry Nova Bombs?" "You mean Noble Bombs." "Of course." "And now they're ready to destroy our enemies." "Victory!" "Victory!" "Victory!" "Victory!" "Those children now have the ability to destroy two dozen solar systems, and I gave it to them." "Do not blame yourself." "You could not know there were Nova weapons in a docking bay." "The last adult commander must've rigged the slipfighters." "And before he died, he told the kids "Wait for the High Guard to return with the password."" "Their interpretations have been wrong, but Dylan, their hearts are good." "With those bombs, you could have your Commonwealth today." "If I use Nova Bombs, I wouldn't be restoring civilization, I'd be founding an empire." "If you don't want to get your hands dirty, I know people who would pay dearly for those things." "We'd all be as rich as the king of Nightsiders." "I won't buy my Commonwealth, either." "If it's to mean anything, people have to join voluntarily and with full knowledge." "Even children?" "Even children." "I have a vision." "A great vision of a restored Commonwealth." "THE VICTORY...the victory is over ourselves." "It's over the darkness in each of us which compels us to fight enemies." "We need to move forward together, looking forward to the day when true victory means we have no more enemies." "Death to the enemies!" "No." "No." "I mean death to the enemies inside ourselves." "Together, you and I, we can bring unity over revenge, peace over war, civilization over barbarism..." "High Guard, if you want peace, then bless these holy warriors." "Right." "The High Guard blesses you, Mapes, and you..." "Gando." "Gando." "Bring us peace." "I hope you had more luck treating Nassan than I did in teaching those kids." "Dylan, her conditions incurable." "She has a couple months to live, at best." "What about the others?" "Well, the older ones, like Hayak, won't make it either, but Mapes...his generation and anyone younger, I think we can save." "I'll just have to inject the nanobots to repair the genetic damage." "But we are going to have to get rid of that voltarium." "Inject the nanobots." "I'll take care of the bombs." "I'm in the station." "Heading for the fighter deck now." "Nassan?" " I need to talk to you." " Yes?" "All the information you have... everything is based on what you were told by the previous G-Stat-Comm, right?" "Yes." "And everything the kids know is based on what you tell them." "Tell them that peace is the way." "They know that already." "You'll k-kill our enemies, and then we'll have peace." "N-no, that's not what I'm talking about." "It's..." "Thank you, High Guard!" "The Day of Lightning is beginning." "The Day of Lightning?" "Our two Holy Warriors are on their way to fill the Dihedra System with Magog blood." "Who authorized that?" "You did, High Guard." "When you blessed Gando and Mapes to carry the Noble Bombs." "NOVA." "Bombs." "They're NOVA BOMBS!" "Beka, report to the station." "Help Tyr." "Andromeda, prepare for launch." "Yes, sir." "Rev, Trance, Harper, Command." " I'm busy!" " NOW!" "Get up here!" "Engaging slipstream... now." "Andromeda?" "The slipfighters have cut all communications." "They're not responding to hails." "They have a twenty minute headstart." "It's going to be difficult catching them." "I'm banking we're better pilots." "We'd better be." "If just one of those slipfighters reaches the Dihedra sun, it'll destroy the entire solar system." "Acting Impossible, Harper reporting for duty." "Man the First Officer's station." "Configure for fire control." " Wait a minute, isn't that Tyr's job?" " Improvise." " Where's Tyr?" " It's a secret." "Prepare harpoons." "We've GOT to intercept them." "We can only retrieve one ship at a time." "Which one?" "Right or left?" " Right." " Left!" "...it's just a choice." "You know." "Fifty-fifty?" "You heard the lady." "Move to intercept." "Maybe that'll discourage the other one." "Harpoons ready." "First target ship in range." "Fire." "Trance, go see to the pilot." "Andromeda, move in on target two." "He's going too fast!" "We're losing him!" "He's almost reached the sun." "Can we destroy his ship?" "Our missiles will never catch him in time." "The system is doomed." "And if we're not careful, the chain reaction will destroy us as well." "We have to try!" "Continue pursuit." "We're not gonna make it." "He's still out of range." "We have to turn around." "Seven seconds to impact." "Andromeda, hard 180!" "Maximum delta field." "Three seconds." "Two." "One." "Engage slipstream...now!" "Andromeda, is there any chance anyone survived the Nova?" "I'm sorry, Dylan." "All the inhabited planets were incinerated." "So many lives." "A whole solar system of your people." "Gone." "Why did you stop me!" "?" "!" "You're welcome." "OK, so Tyr has most of the equipment in place." "We just need your help for a couple seconds" "Fine, fine." "I'll help you sabotage the kids' slipfighters." "But personally?" "The kids are not the problem." "They committed genocide." "That's the problem." "Yeah, not when it's justified." "There's no justification for genocide." "Tell that to the Magog." "Harper, I didn't grow up on Earth, but I understand how you must..." "No, you don't." "Listen, I had two cousins, Declan and Siobhan." "They were twins, actually, about my age." "We grew up together, you know?" "We used to share between us whatever little scraps we could find." "And then the Magog came." "And these Magog didn't have the courtesy to just kill and eat my cousins." "No, my cousins were left alive, paralyzed, to host little Magog eggs that fed on their insides and grew until my family had two choices." "Either kill my own cousins, or wait for the Magog to hatch and kill us." "So, you know what?" "I say "Good on 'em!" Good on these kids." "The Magog of Dihedra, gone." "Their planets, gone." "Their solar system, gone." "Their killing, murdering ways!" "Gone!" "FOREVER!" "Soon, the High Guard will return to bless more of our holy warriors, and to bring more peace to our enemies." "Peace to the Neitzcheans of Centauris A!" "Peace to the Magog of Albadar!" "Peace to the slavers of Zoran Drift!" "PEACE TO ALL OUR ENEMIES!" "High Guard, you really are here." "I was afraid I was dreaming." "I know all about dreams." "I want to share mine." " It's about peace." " Yes, peace." "We destroyed our enemies." "You destroyed a solar system." "Filled with Magog." "Some of whom may be innocent." "Innocent Magog?" " No one's gonna cry over their deaths." " I will." "Meet an innocent Magog." " Put away the gun!" " Sound the alarm!" "No." "I understand her fear." "If she feels more comfortable, she can keep the gun trained on me." "Let me talk to you." "If after one hour, you still want to kill me, I won't stop you." "Who's in there?" "High level High Guard conference." "Then I should be included." "The High Guard wants to talk to the G-Stat-Comm alone." "Is she near death?" "Hayak, the High Guard moves in mysterious ways." "Have you ever wished for life without fear?" "Without enemies." "One that wasn't a constant struggle for survival." " Life IS struggle." " That is what your life has been." "But what if everything you knew changed?" "What if there could be a life of peace?" "It doesn't matter what I think." "I'll be dead soon." "It matters for your brother, and all the generations after you." "All my life, I've worshipped you." "Waited for you." "Absolute faith that no matter how horrible our enemies had made our lives, you'd come and save us." "I have come to save you." "From yourselves." "We don't live in mortal fear of ourselves." "We don't worry about getting eaten or raped by ourselves." "We live in fear of Magog." "And you, you haven't said anything to change my mind about wanting to kill you right here, right now." "Very well." "But you did go one hour without killing me." "And if you can go an hour, maybe you could go a day." "Then a week." "Then maybe, just maybe, a lifetime." "What's she doing?" "Kill it." "High Guard, come immediately to the Noble shrine." "Something's leaking." "I'll be right there." "Rev Bem, you're fifty meters from the airlock." "Go." "I'll meet you ship-side." "So, are you ever going to tell me what you're doing locked in my ship with all the sensors cut?" "I can't." "It's a secret." "Harper, c'mon." "We're friends." "We have no secrets." "Oh." "Ok." "What's your natural hair color?" "I can't tell you." "It's a secret." "Hey!" "Well, then let's find out." "I didn't understand it either, at first." "But then I started to think." "What if our children could always live here at peace." "And every time I would think that way, the next attack would come, and the next." "We only survived because we had faith in the High Guard." "And now he's here, and he's brought friends." "And today I met one of his friends." "Is that what he is?" "A friend?" "Here's High Guard's friend." "Divine Spirit, forgive these children." "Mia, your turn." "Cut him down." "But High Guard, how are these kids going to learn if we don't teach them?" " Nassan's teaching you a new way." " Hayak, listen to the High Guard." "I've listened enough." "The both of you, talking to this Magog, drinking his words like milk." "I don't blame you, Nassan." "You're dying, you're not thinking clearly." "But you...you're the High Guard." "Yet everything you say spits on our sacred scripture." "If you're really our Messiah, you'll beat this Magog to death yourself." "I am the High Guard, and I am your Messiah." "But my ways are not your ways, and if what I say differs from sacred scripture, then what I say is the truth!" "And I say "Cut Him Down!"." "As you wish." "Fourteen broken ribs and a ruptured something that only Magog seem to have." "It's akin to a pancreas." "Oh, I see." "OK." "So, um, what's a pancreas?" "It's..." "OK." "All right." "OK." "The nanobots are just fixing your ribs, OK?" "We did it. 22 Type 2 Arc Glide Slipfighters rigged for remote control." "Our control." "Once we get out of here, we can remote fly those babies and their Nova Bombs off of GS9-whatever right into our hangars." "Where at least they'll be our problem." "Or our solution." "Only gods should have that much power." "Funny." "Today, that's who you said you were." "I keep picturing you just hanging there." "It seems so unforgivable." "No transgression is unforgivable, except pride." "As a humble servant of Providence," "I should be working towards releasing any anger I felt towards those children throughout the ordeal." "I didn't want my last thoughts in this life to be dark." "Even if you can forgive them, I can't." "We're leaving." "Dylan, there's so much more to teach them." "They'll have to learn on their own." "Trance has injected everyone with the nanobots." "Once the bombs are off their drift, the kids won't be exposed to radiation and they can live a full life." "Hopefully, they'll mature on their own into people we could include into the Commonwealth someday." "But some of them were coming around." "Like Mapes." "We're leaving." "That's final." "Now go shut the airlocks and prepare to depart." "What's really bothering you?" "I want my dream of a restored Commonwealth to come true." "But that's no good if it's based on a lie." "I am not a Messiah." "If there's anyone I've met who could be a Messiah, it's you." "It's not me." "I am humbled." "But please don't tempt me to commit the transgression of pride." "That's exactly the transgression I'm worried about committing." "My vision is to found a Commonwealth based on the principles of truth, but today I compromised." "That may be true, but I do believe you are a messenger... of light, of hope, of goodness." "Of civilization." "I think if you keep this forefront in your mind, you'll make the right compromises." "Trance!" "Trance, please let me in." "I want to come with you." "Oh, Mapes." "You can't." "We're leaving." "But I will come back." "I promise, I will." "Don't leave me here with Hayak." "He thinks I've been compromised." "As soon as Nassan dies, he'll kill me." "Please!" "All of your brains must be in your tail." "Dylan, something strange is happening." "I'm getting peripheral sensations." "Someone's cut my internal sensors." "Contact Harper, now." "...Harper has locked himself in the Maru." "Hands up!" "Don't move!" "Nietzschean, freeze!" "Move move!" "Everybody get down, right now!" "I'll shoot!" "Suddenly my ribs hurt again." "Get off my ship." "You don't have any power over us." " Actually, I do." "From here." " Oh?" "Soon, I'll launch your Arc Glide fighters and fly them with their "Noble" bombs onto my ship." "Turn on your display." "We're jamming your data link..." "Dylan." "The real High Guard would know that." "That's scripture directive 23-20." "But you're not the real High Guard, are you?" "Maybe there is no High Guard." "Or maybe I'm the High Guard." "And I've just blessed twenty-two holy warriors." "Each one of them, right now, is in an Arc Glide slipfighter targeted for a different solar system." "The Day of Lightning is NOW!" "Look at this." "It's not enough that Dylan's friends with Magog." "He holds hands with Nietzscheans, too." "I can assure you, Dylan and I are not friends." "Let me join you." "I can train your holy warriors to command a galaxy." "Seven of our holy warriors are headed for Nietzschean systems." "This is flight leader Mapes." "I know I speak for w-we holy warriors...every one." "We are sad, but proud to give our lives until we are all reunited..." "Until we are all reunited in the great Commonwealth beyond known space." "Lester, I told you all to take Nanobot Inhibitors." "Get him, Tomodoko." "Hayak, what's happening down there?" "We're fine." "They tried nanobot probes to paralyze our neuron systems." "You took N.I.'s before you boarded." "We're not children." "We're holy warriors." "We've been fighting our entire lives." "Line 'em up for execution!" "You're not allowed to give that order." "At least not while she's alive." "Nassan." "I'm glad you've lived to see the Day of Lightning." "Tell the Noble Warriors to return." "The High Guard's already said he doesn't want the Day of Lightning." "That's when we thought he was our Messiah." "But he's not." "Ask him." "Well?" "I'm sorry, Nassan." "I'm not a god." "I'm not a Messiah." "I'm just a man." "I lied because I wanted your help, and I still do." "Everything I've believed in my whole life..." "I don't..." "I don't know what to say...what to do..." "You're sick, incapacitated." "I proclaim myself G-Stat-Comm." " You can't do that." " I can." "I have." "Tie her up with the others." "This is Defcon One!" "The Day of Lightning!" "Now do as I say!" "Ready." "Aim." "Who are you?" "I am Andromeda." "The ship made flesh." "You're just another liar, like all of them." "Kill her!" "I don't think so." "Oh!" "Artificial gravity field." "Don't it just suck?" "Dylan may not be a god, but on this ship, I am." "Andromeda." "How?" "Your secret project." "THAT is the Andromeda I know, love, and gave human form to." "OK, let's get those slipfighters." "One minute, twenty-seven seconds before the fighters hit slipstream." " Harper, unjam this thing!" " Data link unjammed." " If one gets through..." " Forty-three seconds to slipstream." "Forty-two." " We're in range." " Link established." "Good." " Andromeda, eject pilots." " Ejecting pilots." "Give me an Arc Glide self-destruct sequence." " Execute." " What is wrong with you?" "!" "?" "Take over the fighters." "Order them to enter slipstream and self-destruct." "Those empty fighters are transitting into slipstream with our bombs." "They're not our bombs." "They're no one's." "There's your Day of Lightning." "Take the Maru out." "Pick up the kids in the cockpits and return them to the drift." "Tyr and I will escort these kids back." "Maybe you could help, too, Andromeda." "...first, restore AG Field." "Nice work." "Hey!" "Don't forget, I created her!" "Now who's the god?" "Captain." "It's good to finally meet you." "Face to face." "This is strange for me to..." " see you like this." " Me too." "Strange." "But nice." "I'm so used to talking to you on the holo-screen." "Waking up in the morning, having breakfast, you seeing me getting out of the shower." " Can we just say..."on many occasions"." " Of course." "So, I...uhh..." "hope your new avatar won't change our...uhh" "Sir." "Commonwealth protocol prohibits anything other than a purely professional relationship." "Well then, Andromeda." "Welcome aboard." "We have survived and we've waited." "But now, Dylan Hunt, the High Guard, has given us a new Mish Brief." "Not to prepare for the Day of Lightning, but for membership in the restored Commonwealth." "As your new Onced-Off, I proclaim." "Begin Transmit!" "Captain Dylan Hunt, commanding officer." "Nova containment authorized." "Ten Break Alpha." "Sir?" "Are you sure you want to retain a Nova bomb on board ship?" "No." "But all the same, Ten Break Alpha."