"Previously on Dark Matter..." "Her name is Alicia Reynaud." "She's corporate elite." "Do you think she's the one who had my friends killed over this?" "It's a key that allows someone to access pockets of interdimensional space-time." "This is my brother." "We are the future." "This is my only choice." "No." "There is another way." "Look, this is all just a giant misunderstanding!" "The funds should have been deposited directly into your account!" "That was a clerical error!" "Come on, Aldvik!" "You're... you're... you're, like, one of my best earners!" "You're the last guy I'd rip off!" "No, wait!" "Okay, okay, okay." "We'll go halfsies." "Sorry about this." "Hey." "Oh, Portia." "What a pleasant surprise." "Hey." "How you feeling?" "Rough." "I'm sorry about your brother." "I was wondering if you could give me a little something." "To help you sleep?" "More like help me get through the day, take the edge off." "No." "What do you mean, "No"?" "We just restocked." "Yeah, we did, but these meds are for clinical use, not recreational use." "You serious?" "Look, taking stuff is not gonna get rid of your problems." "It's just gonna replace 'em with bigger ones." "Trust me, self-medicating is not the answer." "Well, I guess you'd know." "I spent way too much time in lockup." "You think I don't know a user when I see one?" "You think you got me figured out?" "You think you know everything I've been through?" "Do you think that I like the way that things have turned out for me?" "Yeah, I'm a user." "So I know what I'm talking about when I say it's not worth it." "Just give me what I came for." "Thanks." "Hey." "Hey!" "Why don't you cut off his pinky?" "See how he reacts." "All right." "What the hell?" "!" "Come on!" "What if I'd actually been unconscious?" "Well, then I guess we'd be looking mighty foolish right now, wouldn't we?" " Surprised to see me?" " Yeah, surprised!" "And relieved." "Thank God you're all okay." "Wow." "That's an interesting response, considering you're the one that tried to set us up." " What do you mean?" " Alexander Rook." "What?" "No, no, no, no!" "Wait." "He set us up!" "I was as much of a victim as you guys." "In fact, now I'm like a double victim, being accused of something I didn't do." "And if you don't mind me saying so, it's rather hurtful." "Look, we're here for one of two things:" "information or revenge." " Who gets to pick?" " You do." "In which case, we'll go with the former, because, of course, if there's anything I can do to help you guys..." " Alicia Reynaud." " Business magnate, venture capitalist, ruthless criminal, bad news." " We're going after her." " Why?" "Because she came after us first." "But why?" " Oh, come on!" " How do we get to her?" "You can't!" "She only travels by clone." "Transfer transit." "She never leaves her headquarters, and that place is like a fortress." " That's how we get in." " How?" "The same way she gets out." "All right, you're coming with us." " Get up." " Well, where to?" "We scored big on our last op." "We're going shopping." "Come on." "You know, we never officially ended our professional relationship, so, technically," "I'm owed commission on that." "All right, it's looking good in here." "Well, glad I could help you source these materials." "I guess there's nothing left for me to do than to wish you all best of luck and bid you a fond adieu." " You're not going anywhere." " I'm..." "I'm not?" " You're coming with us." " I am?" "I-I-I can't." "I mean, I gotta get back to work." "I mean, I got..." "I got people depending on me." "Yeah, right." "What's to stop you from informing Reynaud and collecting some kind of snitch reward for your troubles?" "Oh, well, my... professional responsibility to you as your handler." "We fired you." "Hey, no paperwork was signed!" "Come on, guys!" "You're, like, my best clients!" "I mean, from a purely practical standpoint, it doesn't make any sense financially for me to screw you over." "So, we... we good?" "Yeah." "You're still coming with us." "Oh, fine." "Well, this brings to mind the response of the hunter when faced with Valmiki in the Sanskrit epic "Ramayana."" "Thank you." " What the hell?" " You're welcome." "You were supposed to stop him, not try and take his head off." "No, no, it's okay." "We got this." "No." "Come on." "I don't travel well." "'Cause even with the inertial dampers, all the ins and outs of FTL makes me queasy." "I have a special bracelet..." "Let's go to your quarters." "Yeah?" "May I come in?" "Sure." "You may find this hard to believe, but I once considered myself an outsider on this ship." "Yeah, well..." "I've been on my own for a long time." "This whole team thing takes a bit of getting used to." "In that respect, you're no different than anyone else onboard." "We can all empathize with what you're going through." "Really?" "So you've all lost brothers too?" "Not exactly, but we did recently lose a crew member." "Five told me about it." "He wasn't technically a family member, but losing him is very... difficult." "I'm sorry." "Do you not think you'll ever see your brother again?" "I'll never give up hope." "Well, remember... you're not alone." "And when I came back, the apartment looked like this, and he was gone." "We had plans tonight..." "dinner, the opera." "Those tickets were really hard to get." "Well, I understand you're very concerned about Mr. Calchek's well-being, and I can assure you we'll do all we can." "Yeah, whatever." "I'm sure he'll turn up, and when he does, he's gonna have to make it up to me." "I had to scramble to find a replacement date for tonight." "I got it." "This is the security cam from the station's L3 level hangar." "Recognize any of these other people?" "No, I..." "That's all right." "I know who they are." "You cracked transfer transit?" "Oh, I did that about an hour ago." "Then I cross-referenced the dates and times of Alicia Reynaud's public appearances over the last month with the transit database and came up with this... matching point of departure." "Her headquarters." "And the subspace address of her transit pod." "Well, can you unlock it?" "I just disabled its security protocols." "We're in." "You're good." "So for all we know, we could be transferring into a room full of guards?" "It's possible, but unlikely." "The odds of someone being able to hack into the transfer transit database, localize a specific pod's address, and bypass its security protocols to gain access are super slim." "Are you showing off?" "No!" "I'm just pointing out how tricky it can be to pull off something like this and... yeah, I guess I am." "Worst-case scenario, someone on the other side kills our clones or stops the transfer process midstream." "Then at least we'd know." "And we'd need to come up with another plan." "This plan's fine." "So who's going?" "Well, we've got three pods." " I'll take one." " No, you won't." "Why not?" "Those pods are designed to replicate organic material, which means that your nanites won't make the trip." "Without them, your clone might not make it." "I'll go." "Well, you'll need me to hack into their server, get the information we're looking for." "Besides, I'll be a clone." "The real me will stay nice and safe back on the ship." "We also won't be able to bring weapons, so we'll need someone capable in unarmed combat." "That would be me." "I'll accompany her." "So will I." " Well, I don't think so." " Why not?" "'Cause you're still on probation." "That's why not." "So what?" "You're volunteering?" "I guess I am." "All right." "You three get suited up." "We will meet you in the infirmary in 20 minutes." "What?" "Your outfit." "It's very snug." "They're made from a biosynthetic material that will allow them to travel with you." "They're specialty constructs." "DNA sequenced." "It's quite expensive." "Yeah, well, it's clingy in all the wrong places." "It's either that or you could travel naked." "I can do that?" "Don't even think about it." " Let's do this." " All right." "Now, this is just a fact-finding mission, so once we find out what this card does and how, get out of there." "If your clones get taken down before you return to one of these pods, you're not gonna remember a thing." "Now, if you get cut off from one of the transfer pods," "Six and I will be in the "Marauder"" "circling the skyways above the facility." "If anything goes wrong, you find a way to signal us." "If all else fails, we'll be scanning the rooftops for any heat signatures." "Get up there and we'll pull you out." " We good?" " Yup." "I'll go first." " Good luck." " Yeah." "It's so... snug." "He's through." "Okay." "My turn." "Ready?" "Yeah." "Good luck, Five." "Thanks." "This is so cool." "Come on, let's go." "No, we don't have to go anywhere." "I just need a computer that will give me access to this facility's servers." "This is perfect." "I'll hack in, get the information we need, never have to leave this room." "Okay." "Is there anything we can do?" "Sure." "Grab me those cookies." "Thanks." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Can anyone hear me?" "Hey!" "Come on!" "Hey!" "Oh, hi there!" "Hello." "I've been in here screaming at the top of my lungs for, like, half an hour!" "Took you long enough to notice!" "Oh, I noticed quite some time ago." "I just assumed you'd give up eventually." "You're annoyingly persistent." " Thank you." " How can I help you?" "Well, you can start by letting me out of here." "I'm afraid I can't do that, for safety reasons." "Oh, come on." "You actually think I could hurt you?" "No, but I'm sure I could hurt you, should you attempt to flee or jeopardize this mission." "Well, I don't..." "I wouldn't..." "I wouldn't... wait." "Wait!" "Look, look." "Can I talk to someone?" "Portia, Boone?" "I'm afraid no one is available." "Just wait!" "Wait, wait!" "Hang on!" "Just... hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" "Fingers, fingers, the fingers!" "I'm..." "I'm claustrophobic." "Confined spaces like this, they trigger my panic attacks." "I mean, being in here puts me at a health risk." "Your heart rate is elevated." "What?" "Very well." "You can accompany me to the infirmary." " Great." " However, should you attempt to escape or otherwise interfere," "I cannot guarantee your safety." "Be... best behavior." "Promise." "I'm also hypoglycemic, so... maybe we could stop by the mess, grab me something to eat?" "No." "Whoa." ""Whoa," what?" "Oh, man, I knew this wasn't gonna be as easy as you thought." "No." "I found out what the mystery device does." " It's part of a drive." " You mean like an engine?" "We already have one of those." "Not like this." "They call it a Blink Drive." "It creates transversible wormholes by accessing pockets of extra-dimensional space-time." "And you lost me." "Normal FTL creates a distortion in space that moves faster than the speed of light, pulling the ship along with it, but you're still moving from point A to point B." "With the Blink Drive, you don't technically move at all." "You just disappear from one place and reappear somewhere else instantaneously." "If we wanted to go all the way across the galaxy, it would normally take us months with refueling stops along the way." "With this, we could do it in the blink of an eye." "A fleet of warships equipped with this drive would be unstoppable." "Yeah." "That's right." "No wonder she's willing to kill for it." "I don't get it." "How does one little card move a ship across the galaxy?" "The card fits into an adapter which you can attach to the control systems of any ordinary drive." "You're saying we could turn the "Raza's" engines into one of these Blink Drives?" "We need the adapter." "It's in a lab... four stories up, on the other side of the building." "Let's go." "All right, I've locked us into an auto-flight pattern." "Scanning for heat signatures." "If anyone shows up on the roof, move us in fast." "You got it." "Come on." "Seriously?" "You look like a widdle scientist." "Are you okay?" "Yeah, just a little sore." "How goes the op?" "Everyone's in play." "Now we can only wait." "Right." "You know there are chairs to sit on and cups to drink from in the mess." "Well, this is kind of an impromptu picnic." "I was on my way to my quarters, and this thing caught my eye." "It's kind of amazing when you think about it." "I mean, they went in with the weight of the universe on their shoulders, and they came out free and clear." "Hardly." "Their memories may have been wiped, but their past still exists." "And the past has a way of catching up with you, whether you remember it or not." "Yeah, I get that." "I mean, we all gotta pay for it in the end, right?" "But if I could get a fresh start, huh?" "Even if it's just up here..." "You want to change?" "Make better choices." "Starting from today." "It... it's not that easy." "I didn't say it would be easy." "I killed a girl once." "She was 12 years old." "I was a ship's doctor on a colonist run." "Easy job." "Plenty of time to feed my habit, until we came out of FTL and ran into a meteor storm... and the ship just about came apart." "I mean, there was explosions and fire, and suddenly I'm staring at a dozen wounded people." "You were high." "Yeah." "I took care of most of them." "Patched them up." "And then they brought in this girl." "God, she was in... rough shape." "She had third degree burns." "She had internal injuries." "And, I mean, I-I could have saved her." "Only I got the shakes." "So I gave myself a little top-up before surgery." "Turns out it was a little too much." "She never made it off the table." "I'm sorry." "I tried to... stay clean for about six months after that." "I just... kept seeing her face everywhere." "Well, blocking something out is no way to move on." "I've been realizing that myself." "Which is why I was on my way to bring you these back." "You know... as soon as they came out of those pods, they went looking for their past." "From the sound of it, what they found wasn't too pretty." "Now they've got no choice but to deal with it." "So I guess we're all in the same boat." "Yeah." "I'm assuming this is it." "So we just take it?" "Well, there don't appear to be any safeguards in place." " No." " Guys, this entire facility is a safeguard." "We're in the vault." "All right." "I think we're good." "Password authentication required." " Password?" " Incorrect." "Oh, shit!" "Incorrect." " Go!" " Incorrect." "No!" "Drop your weapons!" "You're surrounded!" " Give, give, give, give!" " Go!" "Go!" "Okay, kid, I don't like this any more than you do, but you're gonna have to leave us behind." "Go!" "The important thing for you is get up to the roof, get the device back to the ship." "I don't want any argument out of you, all right, kid?" "You know she's gone, right?" "Oh, son of a..." "Oh, come on." "Seriously?" "You're finally awake." " Took you long enough." " Sorry I slept in." "I didn't realize we were in a rush." "Okay, what's the plan?" "I think I can free us, but it will require me to dislocate both shoulders." "Okay, do what you gotta do, huh?" " All right." " Once we're free," "I'll pop your shoulders back in for you, okay?" "Okay, no, no, not mine." "Yours." "Hang on a second." "Can we discuss our options?" "Gentlemen, I'm Alicia Reynaud." "And you are Marcus Boone and Ryo Ishida." "Or a version of them anyway." "I know you hacked my transit code, used the pod to break in here, and stole the adapter." "And I'd like to thank you." "Well, you're welcome." "For what?" "Because the adapter is useless without the final card, which I believe is onboard your ship." "And as long as the transit connection that brought you here remains open, my men can trace the signal." "Why don't you just make a new card?" "I'd love to, but unfortunately it's a one-of-a-kind prototype." "Which means you didn't develop the tech, you stole it." "Of course I did." "So I will find your ship, eventually." "But you could save me a lot of time and yourselves a lot of trouble if you just give me the coordinates." "Now, if by trouble, you mean death or torture, you're forgetting that these are clone bodies." "You can't really hurt us." "That's where you're wrong." "You see, the same way that you were able to target my transit pod," "I'm able to do the same in reverse, sending a powerful subspace charge back the way you came." "And if your bodies are still in their transmission pods, which I'm willing to bet they are, the charge will, in layman's terms, fry your brains." "As for hurting you, well, well, this is Mr. Ostrander." "He's a specialist in the field." "See, these bodies may be cloned, but they still do feel pain." "I think I'll do it both ways." "I'd like to cover my bases." "I'll check back soon and see if you've had a change of heart." "You know, there's something different about you." "From the first time we spoke?" "No." "From other service androids." "Yes." "I get that a lot." "I'm thinking some kind of..." "black market upgrade?" "What makes you say that?" "Oh, I dabble in black market upgrades and assorted illegal tech." "Enough to recognize one when I see one." "Interesting." "You seem to be running some sort of... emotive subroutine, but those are usually uploaded to more sophisticated models." "You know, caregivers, parental proxies, "companions."" "In your case, that doesn't make any sense." "No offense." "None taken." "So who did it, and why?" "I don't know." "I mean, when you think about it, it's an impractical adjustment." "And what's the point, right?" "Perhaps it was an experiment designed to test my machine-based responsiveness to human sentiments." "Or an adjustment required in order for me to respond to a complex but ultimately irrational scenario." "Or maybe it was a wholly impractical, completely illogical, compassionate act of kindness." "Could be." "I'm just wondering." " How's it coming?" " Almost got it." "You know having the travelers in the pods is just a legal requirement set up by GA convention?" "They don't actually have to be in there the whole time." "True, but since we have no way of knowing how long it will take the clones to complete their mission, it's prudent that they stay connected." "Besides, there's no harm in keeping them in there." "How you feeling?" "Not good." "I think my foot's asleep." "Well, let me wake it up for you." "Okay." "Oh, hey, kid." "You are a sight for sore eyes." "I mean that literally." " How'd you get in here?" " I hacked the door console." "How'd you find a stunner?" "Look, I'm resourceful, okay?" "Can you find a key for these cuffs?" "We need to get back down to the transit room." "Okay, I've got a lock on the "Raza's" location." " Send a ship." " Right away." "We have addresses for three departure pods." "What would you like me to do?" "Pick one and send the charge." "He... he doesn't have the key." "Look, just find anything to cut us loose." "There's no time." "See you back at the ship." "They're back." "How'd it go?" "I don't know." "I don't remember anything." "Neither do I." "That would suggest it did not go well." "Where's Five?" ""Marauder," are you there?" "We read you, "Raza." Over." "Three and Four just returned to the ship, but they have no recollection of their time in the facility." "That must mean their clones were terminated before they had a chance to return to the pods and relay their memories." "And what about Five?" "She's still active." "If you're concerned, I can pull her out." "No, let's hold off." "We'll give her some more time." "All right, let's just send the charge and end this." "No." "There's no way out of this facility." "Besides, this kid's good." "She reminds me of a young me." "I want her alive." "Come on, kid." "You can do it." "She'll come back with something." "Yeah, she's something else." "Really?" "That kid?" "Yup." "She have representation?" "What the hell was that?" " We've got company." " Great." ""Raza," you're outgunned." "Drop your shields and prepare to be boarded." "That was your final warning." "They're powering weapons again." ""Marauder," this is the "Raza."" "We read you." "Over." "We're under attack." "I recommend you return to the ship immediately." " We're on our way." " No, wait." "Picking up a heat signature." "Northwest corner of the roof." "Hold them off, "Raza." We're going after Five." "Four, Nyx, we just received word from the "Marauder."" "Please hold off on awakening Five." "Targeting ground-to-air defenses." "All right, bringing us in." "Go!" "Go!" "Welcome back." "Why aren't we firing back?" "Because I've diverted all remaining power to the shields." "I'm dropping the shields." "Wait." "What?" "Why?" "So that I can do this." "We've scored a direct hit on the enemy weapons array." "I estimate it will take approximately 30 seconds for them to re-power." "The "Marauder" has docked." "Get us out of here." "Jumping to FTL." "I'll be fine." "My memories are gonna be transferred back to my original body and this clone will be broken down and recycled." "It's... it's not gonna hurt." "And if it does, I'm not gonna remember." "I hope." "Okay, I'm ready." "I've been saying that a lot today." "So with this drive, we could go anywhere in the galaxy in an instant?" "That's right." "And we're the only ones who have one?" "So it would seem, at least for now." "This is what we've been waiting for." "It levels the playing field." "If we want to take the fight to the corporations..." "We never officially had a vote on that." "We can hit them anywhere at anytime, and they'd never see us coming." "But aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves?" "We don't even know if it'll work." "She's right." "We need to test it." "How long to hook up the adapter?" "I'm not familiar with this technology, but it appears that it was designed to be compatible with standard control systems." "Well, in the meantime, we've got one stop to make." "Well, I got to admit, this has actually been really nice." "Aside from the break and enter, the assault, threats, kidnapping, imprisonment," "I've actually had a really great time." " I'm glad." " And let's keep in touch, huh?" "Sure." "So... hugs?" "No." "All right, Android, let's get ready to launch." "Hold on!" "Hey... if you guys don't mind," "I could use a little time off the ship." "Oh, no problem." "Once we've done the test, we'll come back and pick you up." "Sounds good." "Hey!" "I think I'll join you." "That's not necessary." "I could use some R and R myself." "No, really, I..." "I got a bunch of stuff" " I gotta take care of, so..." " That's fine." "I'll meet you in the bar on M level when you're done." "We can continue that conversation we were having, only this time with chairs and glasses." "Sounds good." "Hey, is something wrong?" "I think if one of us doesn't go with him, he's not gonna be here when we get back." "If he wants to leave the ship, we're not gonna stop him." "He's in a dark place right now." "He's not thinking straight." "Nyx, what are you talking about?" "Look, I'm not sitting this one out." "I can help him." "I know I can." "Here." "Okay." "Android, let's go." "Okay, this should be far enough." "We're well out of visual range of the station but still close enough in the event anything goes wrong." "What could possibly go wrong?" "It either works or it doesn't, right?" " Are we ready?" " Yes." "Our target destination is 160 light-years from here." "Go big or stay home." "All right." "Do it." "Initiating Blink Drive." "Something's wrong." "Shut it down." "I can't." "Your friend's late." "He'll show." "Devon Teltherd." "Do I know you?" "No, but we know you... very well." "Joined the crew of the "Raza"" "in their escape from Hyperion-8." "Arranged the sale of four cases of Shadow to his connections in the Al-Bali sector." "Here on Regulus-12 to do the same... as predicted." "You got about half that right." "Do you see any Shadow around here?" "See, I'm here to make a personal purchase." "Where is the "Raza"?" "Long gone." "Hangar seven." "Docked under an alias." "Specs should line up." "I mean, check it out." "They left." "We want Nyx." "See, I'd love to help you with that, but..." "I can't." "She's one of them now." "Where did they go?" "I have no idea." "I can't help you with that either." "Back to the ship." "Let's look at the next predictive model."