"Look at that." "It's magnificent." "Heart-stopping." "What piloting." "Ah, they were wussies." "Made me look good." "Nonetheless, your battle skills are exemplary." "Please, i could do it blindfolded." "Have." "Funny." "I can recall you saying you liked to do it blindfolded." "Blindfolded?" "Never mind, Rhade." "It's just Harper frothing." "Mm." "Oh, my goodness, look at that maneuver." "Even i envy me." "Amazing how a battle can divert conflict." "Excellent recreation, Harper." "Please, stop." "It's a simple matter of extrapolating the 3-d scenario from my battle records, and then..." "I'm picking up two unidentified ships entering our security zone." "Neither has propulsion." "Magnify." "Both ships date Commonwealth year 9877." "Rate of drift speed indicates they will enter our zone in 30 seconds." "Hmm." "Looks like a traveling museum." "Rommie, life signs?" "Two, one on each ship." "Let's hope they're in better shape than their ship." "Yeah, right." "Look at that damage." "Beka, bring us in." "Wait a minute." "How come we always have to be the ones to rescue people?" "Because i love to see you squirm." "Mr. Harper, it's not our job to avoid trouble." "That's a good thing, 'cause it's sure got a way of finding us." "Smells like a trap to me." "We're being hailed by one of the ships." "It appears to be a simple low-band radio signal." "Let's hear it." "Help!" "Someone, please!" "Dear god!" "Receiving a Transmission from the second ship." "Please, i beg of you, if you cherish life, stop her!" "You must destroy him now." "Sounds like she's trouble." "Hey, just your kind of woman." "Scans of both ships indicate all weapon systems have been drained... my guess, it's from firing at each other, and neither has propulsion to go... anywhere." "Hell of a one-way trip." "Ladies and gentlemen, i give you determination without strategy." "Let's bring them into separate hangars." "The ship's configuration is Trillin." "What?" "Trillin?" "They don't exist." "Well, except for those that... do." "If memory serves, wars turned their star system inhospitable over a millennium ago." "Their battles just went on and on." "Both sides took slaves... that's very good, Dylan." "Thank you." "My records indicate they are indeed an ancient race known for their ruthless fighting ability, and they have had no known contact with anyone Commonwealth for centuries." "Hold up." "Huh." "Just once i'd like to rescue an ugly woman." "And ruin my chances of being smitten by or smoting a beautiful woman?" "Leave me alone." "I can't love straight when i'm in think." "Whatever that means." "Captain." "Rhade needs you on hangar deck two." "On my way." "Get her to med deck." "I and my people praise your capture of the fifth council persecutor, Zara." "I've chased her many weeks, since she escaped and stole the fighter she was piloting, so give me fuel, and hand over my prisoner." "This is lieutenant commander Telemachus Rhade, and you are?" "Forgive me, captain." "I've been alone in space a long time." "My manners have eroded." "I am general Lach of the planet Trillin." "Perhaps you would like to see a medical officer." "What?" "This?" "Your prisoner did this." "Disease warfare." "Zara is guilty of exterminating my race, so, manners aside, captain, i must insist that you give me Zara." "Guests don't make demands on my ship." "That, captain, is unacceptable!" "General." "Put him in the brig." "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." "So how about we lighten the mood, huh?" "You look like you could use a joke." "How do you get a one-armed magog out of a tree?" "Wave." "How can you tell when a nietzschean is lying?" "What did one perseid say to the other?" ""Why the long face?" What'd he say back?" ""Well, i'm feeling a little blue."" "I'll be back." "Don't worry." "I've got a million of 'em." "Don't worry, boss." "She's okay." "A few cuts, some abrasions, severe dehydration..." "Zara is very lucky that we got to her." "No, i mean she's not the mass-murdering, genocidal type." "I know, 'cause i'm a good judge of character." "I could tell by her response when i... accidentally brushed up against her." "I mean, look at her... eyes, boss." "Sweet, sensitive." "I'll bet she cares for all living things." "She hasn't said a thing since she woke up." "That's because she's shy, and even still, i can sense a growing bond between us." "She hasn't even looked at you, seamus." "I can build on that." "Historic chronicles were found on Zara's ship." "Why don't you go see if you can figure out what's on them?" "But, boss..." "dismissed." "The bond!" "Leave." "Go help Rommie?" "Go." "There was a bond." "Rommie's scan of Lach shows that his condition is not contagious, though it can be Transmitted through blood contact." "I have isolated him until i can identify the condition and see if i can fix it." "The nanobots are designed to accelerate the healing process." "They will help with the pain." "I can see from your eyes you're in pain." "Pain is a reminder you're alive." "Where i come from, we've learned to cherish pain like an old friend." "I am unaccustomed to kindness." "I'm trance gemini, medical officer, and you're on theAndromeda ascendant." "You're perfectly safe here." "How long do you intend to confine me?" "Well, you're not confined at all, unless you give me reason to believe that you should be." "Am i the only one rescued?" "We also rescued the one called Lach." "Ooh!" "Why are you afraid of him?" "He told you i'm a criminal?" "My people call me a hero." "They're alive because i have the skill to protect them." "What is your fight, Zara?" "What is it that you want?" "I am the leader of the fifth council of the south... what's left of it." "What do i want?" "Peace." "I was taken in battle, sentenced to die... but as you see, i am not easy to kill." "Where were you headed?" "Anywhere, looking for help." "I'd lost instrumentation." "My... my people... my entire race spends every moment just trying to survive, and if we live, our reward is seeing those we love eliminated." "Lach is the criminal." "Well, the atrocities he accuses you of, they did happen." "It began near the turn of the second centaur moon, 10,000 or more of your years." "We were a world of two races, one of art, one of power and greed." "The people, north-worlders, like Lach... he and his lineage invaded." "My people were driven south, herded like animals into camps, even the people who knew only beauty and creativity learned to fight back." "It was the beginning of the wars." "We call it "the night of tears,"" "the beginning of the darkness." "Zara's ancestors stole power and began driving my people to the north half of the planet." "We... cherished progress, building a better world." "We wanted only peace." "You fought back." "What else do you do when your existence is threatened?" "This great ship of yours was not built to create art, was it?" "No one's tried to stop these wars in all this time?" "How do you stop a fire when the other side controls all the water?" "I assume you're prepared to provide proof that Zara is guilty of war crimes?" "I am the proof." "But if you need more, come see for yourself." "Come to my planet." "Save my people." "I don't ask for me... i can't be saved... but for them." "So, who's telling the truth?" "Uh, they both are." "Just ask them." "They quote history as proof." "History is full of lies." "Ain't that the truth?" "And constantly being rewritten." "You know, these two give "dysfunctional"" "a whole new meaning." "I say we just let them duke it out." "Sure, let's put them in the same room together." "If Zara admits to causing Lach's illness, and she can tell us what it is, that might help us save him." "You know, this could get ugly." "Better remove anything breakable." "Liar!" "Murderer!" "Ask yourself this question, Lach." "How far will your venomous deceit take you before you die?" "And that will be soon." "I will live long enough to see your miserable end." "All right, all right, all right." "Okay, i told you." "You fight, and you get the naughty cuffs." "Infidel!" "Nonbeliever!" "This is going well." "This beast has slaughtered women, children, the old, helpless... my actions are justified!" "I will do anything to survive." "All right, enough." "Enough, already." "Thank you." "Now, we've established you're both horrible, murderous, despicable specimens, but i have to say, Zara, using disease warfare really tests my compassion." "How about compassion for the extinction of my race by his hands?" "South-worlders aren't a race." "You're beneath the lowest regurgitation of filth." "My people are gentle, loving, and caring, captain." "Kill him while you can." "You hypocrite!" "Your blood will decorate my hands." "All right, that's it." "That's it!" "Cretin!" "That's it." "Put them in the brig." "I will kill him!" "Your entrails will be my dinner!" "I'm afraid your blood has been infected." "Well, that's good news." "What's the illness, trance?" "I can tell you what it isn't." "It's not viral." "It's not parasitic." "It's nothing i have ever seen before." "Your organ cell structures appear to be intact, but there is increased neural injury at the pre-stem level." "Unfortunately, that's going to become painful very soon." "Trance, no more." "That's enough good news." "There is more." "Because you are a heavy-worlder, the pathogen is going to spread more rapidly through your blood than through Lach's." "Because my metabolism's faster, i'm getting sicker faster." "That's great." "Dylan, this illness is alien." "I do not yet have enough information to know what to do." "Nor do i." "Dylan, i highly recommend we return to tarazed immediately and allow the experts there to check you out." "No, i'm a wanted man and this is a wanted ship, so tarazed is out." "Besides, if what you say is true, i'll be dead long before we get there." "I'm afraid so." "That's all the good news i can handle for one day." "Is the crew in any danger?" "Not unless Lach gets hungry." "Yeah." "Oh, Dylan, you have to understand you may not be able to walk soon, much less command." "If there's an answer, we need to go to the source of the illness." "Well, both sides have been searching for a cure." "They just haven't been sharing any information." "You see, Lach's people are sick, and therefore they need a cure." "The slaves, however, are healthy, and therefore able to produce weapons." "Zara's people, on the other hand, are healthy, but her slaves are sick, and therefore unable to produce weapons, hence the desperate desire for a cure." "Well, then we'll just have to make them share their information, now, won't we?" "Oh!" "All right." "Lie down." "Can you pass..." "thank you." "Try to relax." "It's getting better." "Oh, yeah... this is great." "It's good." "Okay, Dylan says to go to the crazy people's planet, we go, but we go prepared." "All missile tubes prepped and loaded." "Set a course for the Trillin system." "Boss, we already have." "Dylan, i thought they knocked you out of commission." "Oh, not today." "Just set a course." "Captain, should you be on command?" "Rhade..." "Dylan?" "Mm?" "You're too weak to be here." "Rommie... you are no longer my friend." "Prepare... prepare for... the library." "My... my father's... no, the magog worldship is coming." "Captain?" "I'm afraid i'm going to have to relieve you of command." "Well, that's no relief at all, 'cause my power is not absolute." "No one can move me." "What, are you two idiots?" "Why didn't you catch him?" "I thought you had him." "Blood tests show that there are minimal corresponding sequences between you, Zara, or Lach." "They do confirm that, because you're a heavy-worlder, the disease has run faster." "Now, the medication i've given you has reduced your fever and should help with the pain soon." "It already has, thanks." "Yeah." "Beka and Rhade will find something." "Of course they will." "That planet is death in so many ways." "Harper's converted Zara's disks." "Show me." "You need to rest." "I need to see." "The Trillin system." "Only inhabitants within 3-k light years are on planet one of the system." "Low-frequency radar and infrared scans reveal a thin layer of ash in the troposphere which has reduced most growth and light." "Infrared visual optimal due to ash." "Sonar-extension augment-read, on." "There are extensive ruins along the south of the planet." "No habitation in any of them." "There is, however, one active settlement, remnant population at best." "That settlement is located just south of the equator, close to what appears to be a small mountain range." "Try north." "Several large cities present and intact, but empty." "The remaining population is in one encampment, just to the north, on the other side of the mountain range." "I estimate one-tenth of one percent of the original population has survived." "They've worn their hate down to as pure a point as possible." "Let's get down there." "Rhade, you've got Lach." "Harper, you're with me." "And with Zara, don't forget." "Seamus, you're proof that even here, there's a capacity for love." "Love?" "Who said anything about love?" "That's almost downright human of you, Telemachus." "You insult me after i say something nice?" "Easy." "This is how fights start." "Now, just so you understand, you're in my custody." "I have the remote on your restraint, and i'm not Harper." "One wrong move, and i zap you with a nice juicy electric charge." "Got that?" "I'm the Harper." "On instruments." "There's something down there." "That's not a mountain range." "It's the wall." "My people built it to keep the north-worlders from invading." "Behold the wall." "Security fence." "It took centuries to build." "Looks like someone missed their anger-management classes." "It's one of the great achievements of the universe." "A very limited universe, perhaps." ""Greatness" isn't the first word that comes to my mind." ""Admiration"? "astonishment"?" ""Envy," even?" "Envy." "Yes, that must be it." "You must admit it takes a great people to build that." "The north-worlders?" "And so the south-worlders look upon you in awe." "The south-worlders?" "You think they're capable of such an achievement?" "Their sections fell and had to be rebuilt by us." "Because of that wall, it's still possible that one day my people may return to what they once were." "I can only imagine what that was." "That's a hell of a line drawn in the sand." "How can you hate someone so much to build a wall like that?" "Except blindly, and for so long, you forget why the first brick was laid." "This is why." "Tell them to stay back." "It's all right." "He's here with a Commonwealth starship." "He's here to help." "I have orders to remove your restraints once Zara is a safe distance from you." "You mean me from her, don't you?" "And what is a safe distance?" "The hospital's this way." "Zara has returned!" "Zara, we thought you were dead." "All of you, listen to me." "There is a Commonwealth starship above us." "These are officers of that ship... a ship, i must warn you, that could wipe out our camp instantly." "Now, we're not threatening anyone." "We just need your help." "Zara, why don't you tell them why we're here?" "Their captain is sick." "They want a cure." "He has northerner's disease." "You see?" "Asking them to help is asking them to commit suicide." "Just take us to whoever is working on the cure." "Your girlfriend's from nice people." "I wasn't looking at her people." "You still have slaves to do your work." "They're not sick... and there's much work to be done." "South-worlders constantly probe our perimeters." "Nothing we can't handle, though." "Like the wall handled it?" "My people have been at war for as long as time has been recorded." "I don't expect you to understand." "We didn't start this." "Why am i not seeing children?" "They were the first to succumb." "Their immune systems weren't strong enough to fight Zara's poison." "Meet our greatest lifesaver, dr." "Crax-q." "Doctor?" "Have you succeeded in killing Zara?" "She's back at her encampment." "Then the war drags on." "Who's this?" "Telemachus Rhade, Commonwealth officer of theAndromeda ascendant." "Welcome to the sphincter of the universe." "Their captain has contracted the disease." "They think they can cure it, build on our research, so i will leave you for now." "Best wishes with you." "You think you can cure this?" "You can look at centuries of our science and find the something that we have overlooked?" "Our superior technology may succeed where yours can't." "Well, our technology is what got us into this mess." "Where would you like to start?" "Blood experiments?" "Cell studies?" "Skin research?" "I'm interested in the children, in their immune system." "Perhaps that's where the answer lies." "If we can find the right information, all your work won't be in vain, doctor." "I'm not a doctor anymore." "I'm an undertaker." "Our leaders have promised us everything you could dream of." "Do you see any dreams being fulfilled here?" "I don't even know if your technology can read these." "We'll figure it out." "Thank you, Telemachus, for bringing me home, and for the beautiful slipfighter." "Don't be foolish." "TheAndromedacan destroy you in seconds." "I have nothing to lose, but you... don't you care about your captain?" "Indicate the disease was not created." "Zara's people didn't make, much less ever use, biological weapons." "So it's naturally occurring." "And Zara's people are immune?" "I don't know." "And in Dylan, it just spread so fast." "We've tried everything." "Well, there is a solution, trance." "Obviously we haven't tried everything." "Well, it's a figure of speech." ""Everything" implies infinity, and infinity is not constructive." "Well, how many possibilities have you explored?" "You're missing my point." "What we need is a linear solution." "Ladies." "Ladies!" "I'm dying here, okay?" "A little respect." "Captain, i have lost contact with Rhade." "Rommie, get to the surface." "Prep a slipfighter." "Trance." "Something to drink?" "So you think the strain was created by accident?" "And you have no clues as to its origin?" "They question our doctors to see if we created the northerner disease." "Fools." "What is it?" "Confirmation, Zara, of another slipfighter flying low into northern territory." "FromAndromeda?" "Affirmative." "Scouts report northern activity on the ground." "They seem to be preparing a bombing raid against us." "You." "With me." "You've had us set up." "Beka?" "Go, trance." "Final blood tests confirm... you came here to send coordinates to my enemies so they could attack us." "Guards!" "Take them into custody." "This is why i should never leave the ship, hey, what the hell's going on?" "Hey!" "Oh!" "Okay." "Okay." "Okay." "This is not good." "Beka?" "Beka!" "Trance." "You're awake." "Yeah." "Put the history back on." "Here." "Drink this." "Dylan, things on the planet aren't going so well." "It doesn't matter." "The answer's here... the chronicle of the slaves." "How can living creatures treat each other like that?" "Oh, they always manage to find a reason." "I wonder what your thoughts are on the afterlife now?" "Get me out of here." "Gauging from the activity outside," "Lach's taken my slipfighter." "My guess, he's attacking Zara." "Initiating a final offensive." "Beka and Harper are there." "I saw them moving barrels of something orange." "Yeah, it's gelatinized fuel." "Many post-industrial societies used it in suborbital aircraft as bombs." "The gelatin sticks to everything, the fuel incinerates it." "The good old days." "Okay, let's go." "Look, just because" "Rhade's slipfighter is in the air doesn't necessarily mean he's attacking you." "Then you've nothing to worry about." "We're not fools, you know." "The strong always help the strong." "What Lach doesn't know is i've drawn him into my trap." "We have fighters hidden that have been waiting for generations... waiting for today." "You've set up an ambush?" "Northern fighters!" "Oh, great." "This one's going to be close!" "Trance." "There it is." "It's what i saw." "It's all right, Dylan, you're feverish." "No, look." "Trance, it's there." "See?" "It's the answer." "Look at the slave children." "That's the answer." "Closing on northern fighters." "I'm detecting fighters from the south." "Where'd they come from?" "Apparently the south has risen." "Trance, can you read me?" "Go ahead." "In about one minute, everything in Zara's camp is going to be incinerated, including Beka and Harper." "Who... in... slipfighter... not responding." "Andromeda, target my old slipfighter." "Target all the northern ships." "Lach..." "one of the war... incendiary bomb..." "which warship... i am unable to acquire an accurate suborbital target." "Trance... ship with fuel bomb is heavier... needs more power..." "it's hotter." "Find it." "Andromeda, run an infrared scan at the northern fighters." "Calculate speed and isolate which one of them is burning hottest." "There." "Relay coordinates to Rhade." "Your arrogance led to your death, Lach." "You never expected we'd meet you fighter for fighter." "You surprise me, Zara, but i still have my surprise for you." "Ship two, do you have a lock on the village?" "Village in sight, sir." "Begin bombing run." "Andromeda, we have the attack force on visual." "Which ship has the bomb?" "Information relay..." "incomplete again... again... thick particle layer... all right." "We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." "Incoming!" "Huh." "Ever feel like it's your lucky day?" "Uh-huh." "Funny thing is usually whenever i do, it hasn't been a very good one." "Unfortunately, i think this is just Lach softening them up" "great." "I can't wait to see what's next." "Closing in on target, weapons engaged." "Five seconds to activation." "For all those who have died, and those left to remember what we did on this day, blow them to hell." "No... how is it that... possible?" "Nice shot, Rhade!" "Not bad..." "for a nietzschean." "Nice shooting, Rhade." "My southern family, now we take the fight to them." "Finish it on the ground." "Very well." "We'll finish this where it began." "Lach is headed to Zara's camp, no doubt to finish the battle hand-to-hand." "Would you like me to send a security detail?" "Yes... get them all back up here right now." "You still want to help me?" "Technically, i never actually said i wanted to help you." "I only wanted to... take cover!" "Cut them off!" "Surround them!" "I see you brought some friends, Zara." "At least i still have some." "Drop your weapons." "All of you... drop your weapons." "Take another step, and i'll kill them both." "Apparently she's not the girl of my dreams after all, Rhade." "Shoot her!" "Zara, Lach... you can't win this battle." "Put down your weapons before you force me to take them." "Thank you." "I'll take that." "Do as he says." "See?" "We should have gone directly to tarazed." "Perhaps." "Keep moving." "Zara and Lach, Lach and Zara... youarethe cure." "Your separation five millennia ago secured the biological failure of both your groups." "The fact that Lach's people began to suffer first is merely a matter of chance." "A similar fate, different pathogen would eventually have destroyed Zara's people as well." "Assuming you hadn't murdered each other first." "So you're saying our biology is what's killing us?" "There never was a southern race, or a north." "You are one people who need each other to survive." "Watching your historical chronicles," "Dylan recalled a story of how the sides separated politically, eventually creating two races." "The enforced separation limited your gene pool and weakened both races." "Lach's blood has infected mine, but Zara's blood will heal me." "So we need to take our slaves' blood to ensure our survival?" "No." "That will only heal you temporarily." "You're so corrupt that even your solutions are devised in hate." "The result of your wars... down to the last one, you've both lost." "The only true cure is to end the war." "You must have children of mixed blood to carry on in health and peace." "For northerners and southerners to thrive, we would have to... well, people have been known to enjoy it." "You'll have to prove this insanity before i believe it." "Oh, i certainly intend to." "I took the samples of Zara's blood, mixed and processed it with Lach's, and ran tests." "The results proved to be successful in destroying the illness." "Your combined blood is the cure." "But first, i need a fresh blood sample from Zara." "You are not putting that blood in me." "No... in me." "All i require is an extraction." "What's it going to do?" "Kill me?" "What are you feeling?" "It's a burning sensation... could be lunch." "Ow!" "Maybe not." "The cure has worked faster in Dylan for the same reason that the illness spread faster." "We're going to return you to your planet now, and now is the time to make peace, not war." "Though the things you will have to change will be the hardest..." "your hearts and your minds, 'cause that's where hate lives." "Your future, your children's future, is in question, and true love is the only answer... so, sinceAndromeda has no further business in this star system, we will be on our way." "It's been a limited pleasure meeting you both." "Glad you're still with us, boss." "Yeah, i'm glad to be with you too." "Preparing for slipstream." "Uh, but first, there's something i want to do." "Rommie?" "Target locked." "Target?" "Locked?" "Something you want to share with the class?" "Enhance infrared." "What are you doing, Dylan?" "Oh, i'm just giving them a head start." "Fire." "Now, that's what i call breaking down the walls of communication." "Can we go now?" "Sure." "I will be happy when we do." "Any particular destination in mind?" "Anywhere but here."