"Dylan." "We have been like beasts of burden, the two of us, yoked together to a cause, but now... now the end is near." "That sounds like good news, Rev." "Now more than ever." "No distance could ever change that." "No fall from grace." "Well, i'm just south of heaven." "The commonwealth shoved me outside the gate." "That's all." "I too have been shown another way, a way full of changes, both physical and spiritual." "It has become as... as confused as it is lonely." "Rev, you're on juko." "I can't imagine a worse place." "Out of the darkness comes the light." "I now know the weapon that can stop the darkness." "It will be here soon." "I need your vow that you will come alone." "This must be between us." "I'll, uh..." "i'll take that under advisement." "You and i must carry this gift, this darkness, on our shoulders... or embrace its weight under a fall, if that is what the divine intends." "You're not making sense, Rev." "Alone?" "On juko?" "That's where he's found paradise?" "On the planet of the killer junkies?" "They're sentient beings, Harper, suffering from chemical dependencies." "Ahem." "Thank you, trance." "And let's not forget the killer pimps." "And let's not forget Rev bem." "He's the one who's in trouble here." "Yeah, if you call being insane trouble." "Harper, sarcasm." "I thought you liked Rev." "I do, but he's got to be crazy going to juko." "The planet juko." "37% murder rate, highest in the known worlds." "Case in point." "So many dead that the corpses are routinely used as a source of fuel." "But i'm sure one hero with a force lance can defy the percentages." "Et tu, Rommie?" "Or he'll nicely heat a two-bedroom flash-house." "Okay, okay, thank you both for your optimistic and unwavering support." "Ahem." "Rhade, would you like to add something?" "You're going to a magog?" "This one's got religion." "Eat, lay eggs, eat some more." "That's magog religion." "Ugly." "Many claim that evil is ugly, but it's more often disguised in beauty." "That is why we are tempted by it." "The greatest evil can be a lie spoken from a sincere face, whereas the greatest good can be masked by fear and hate." "Ugly is ugly, and beauty is beauty." "It's that simple." "We'll go in stages." "I'll take themaru." "Make sure you give me enough lead time." "Gotcha." "Okay, i think that's enough lead time." "Rommie?" "Drop pods are small enough to hide within the infrared footprints of supply ships descending to juko." "Magog swarm ship." "Someone's got a sick sense of humor." "It's not meant to be funny, Dylan." "Rev?" "What the hell is that?" "Rev, what's going on?" "What's the matter, old friend?" "Afraid of the dark?" "Ha ha ha." "You were right to fear the dark, my friend." "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." "Damn it." "I can't get a reading from his comm." "Nice job, Rhade." "Try his force lance." "You can do that?" "Academy boys." "Let's go left." "Let's go right." "Nobody listens to the nietzschean." "Andromeda, we're blind down here." "See if you can pick up a signal from Dylan's force lance." "I've detected the residue of multiple sustained electrical discharges." "Where?" "Seven meters ahead of you." "Stay in my wake." "What's this?" "Huh." "Beta-amyloid stinger." "Junkies use them to shoot and extract beta-a from the spine." "Someone's got a sick sense of humor, though." "The outer casings of these look like little magog swarm ships." "How's the rush?" "Injection's sweeter than a three-day flash binge." "Full injection, though, will knock you out cold for hours." "Andromeda, no sign of Dylan or Rev... found Dylan's force lance, though." "It's fried." "Huh." "Collectors." "The long arm of pish." "Uh... themidian breach?" "It's a prison ship." "Heading into a black hole." "Excellent." "Midian breach, this is captain Dylan Hunt of theAndromeda ascendant." "Counter your drift into the black hole." "Or don't." "Ship-wide." "All decks, report." "All decks, report." "Is there anyone on this ship?" "Last egg in the crate." "The story of my life." "Beta-a's are like nano-recorders." "They soak up the content and circumstances of emotions that spike from the brain's limbic system." "Life stories captured." "Every moment of fear and joy, and every intense emotion in between." "So the collectors now probably have all this information about Dylan." "Commonwealth records indicate that beta-a was originally used as a psychotropic drug." "In theory, a magic bullet." "The silver charge flows from the spine to the brain." "Inject beta-as from a healthy subject into an emotionally disturbed patient... the donor's strength will overwhelm the patient's weaknesses." "The collectors most likely did this to Rev, thus explaining not only his location, but his behavior." "The cathartic high is addictive, and addicts will shoot until their brains fry." "I've found more information about beta-a." "Correlating." "And this is?" "Dr. Sakkai saguro, pioneer of beta research." "What little history i can find on her indicates she worked alone, kept her patients in seclusion, and disappeared shortly after the first few of them died." "That's not why she ran." "Covert agenda?" "Collusion with the collectors." "Rommie?" "Yes?" "They can use Dylan's beta-a against him somehow." "They don't want to kill him." "They want to break him." "Break him with what he fears most." "You want to watch all of Dylan's emotional conflicts play out like one long nightmare." "Fine." "I can somehow rig a protein analyzer to render images, but there will be billions of them, and it's not going to work without a sample of his beta-a protein." "Can we synthesize the protein using Dylan's dna?" "Well... argosy archives contain dr." "Saguro's research into beta-amyloid synthesis." "We could follow her model for the process." "I don't know what kind of result a synthetic sample's going to yield." "Dr. Sakkai saguro?" "The pin-up girl of pain?" "I knew she was trouble the second i saw her on screen." "You have images of her in your database?" "Mm-hmm." "You two, out." "Harper, priorities." "Dylan is missing." "I know, i know." "Worst fear." "I'm all over it." "Good." "The core is active." "Dylan..." "Dylan?" "Dylan?" "Rev." "Leaving you to die slowly... trademark of the collectors." "They are hand-in-glove with the magog, but they are not leaving you here to die." "Trust me." "Trusting you is what got me here." "Our captors extracted beta charges from your spine." "Collectors or magog, i've covered every deck." "There's no sign of them or anyone." "They are gone." "They left me here for you." "Well, if so, then thank the divine for small favors." "Not here..." "here, the divine is dead." "All is dark." "But the black hole... the black hole, that is a beautiful thing." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Rev, and this all looks butt-ugly to me." "Come on." "Come on." "Give me something, damn it!" "We're running out of time." "You have all the time in the universe." "The dying spirit always has the understanding of time." "Rev... that weapon you mentioned, the one that could stop the darkness, any chance of it helping us get out of here?" "Of course." "If i had it under my control and knew how to use it." "Since our last meeting, you've adopted fatalism and dark comedy." "I do not joke." "Rev, i know you didn't put both of our lives at risk for nothing." "To the contrary, Dylan." "This is all for nothing." "You must feel it, this power that dwarfs that black pit outside." "You must know by now that you are what the darkness, what the abyss fears, but killing you would make you a god to those who believe in the forces of union and creation." "Your gospel would spread like a vedran wildfire." "So trapping me here somehow crushes all opposition to the abyss." "Well, let's see, now." "That's fatalism, dark comedy, and optimism." "Who are we to know the devil's design?" "Yeah." "Well, here's my design." "I'm alive, that core's alive, and we will find a way to get out of here." "Ahem." "We're looking for a high guard captain who was abducted." "Might be in the company of a magog monk." "His name's Dylan Hunt." "We think the collectors might've used stun prods to take him down." "Would've put up a fight." "Would've been noisy." "Like these zombies would even notice." "My dress has come loose." "Would you button me up?" "Happy to." "I can show you the way." "If you want to find your captain, you need to search the underground for the woman who runs the beta trade... saguro." "They're questioning." "My guess is they have your name." "Bring them in on their backs." "You'll need help finding an entrance." "Hey!" "Why did you attack us?" "Nietzschean beta is potent." "Given the chance, we would drain you dry." "You're a user." "You must know saguro." "We need to find her." "Help us find the entrance to the underground, and you'll get your fix." "I'm a street buyer." "Saguro's at the top of the chain." "I wouldn't know where to start." "Try again." "Try really, really hard." "There are rumors of an access point somewhere." "Good." "Help us find saguro, and i'll get you a pop of pure nietzschean." "As if anyone could ever handle that." "Okay." "Follow me." ""Pop of pure nietzschean." I like that." "Just shows you how desperate these people are." "Hang on, Rev." "Maintenance corridor is just around the corner." "I'm... i'm sorry, Dylan." "I must rest." "In here." "You all right?" "You must feel the fear by now." "What are you talking about?" "Do you not have thoughts of the end?" "What would you miss most if life was to end?" "That's negative thinking." "It's useless." "You wait here." "I'll be back in no time." "This all looks the same." "The only entrance i've seen is a rat hole." "She's playing us." "I never said i had a map." "Well, you're definitely taking us in circles." "What are you doing?" "We want to get underground, right?" "Back up." "Right." "That was interesting." "A circle." "Yeah, well, just think of it as a shortcut." "Of course." "Feeling better." "What have you found?" "Collectors forgot to lock up." "Oh... door to the hangar deck is open." "Themidianis still making breathable air." "Inject enough of it in a super-cold state into the heat of the core, and that pressure change will cause an ignition strong enough to start the engines." "Your got your inspiration from an open door?" "Mm." "I'm pumping air through pipes in the hangar." "The deep cold of space will do the cooling." "Rev, take cover!" "Rev!" "Rev!" "Rev!" "Are you all right?" "It would appear my ultimate fate has not yet been decided." "The ship, Dylan?" "One engine destroyed." "Gas escaping cracks in the hull has accelerated our drift into the event horizon." "And you, Dylan?" "How do you feel now?" "Are your thoughts collected?" "Do you see now what you could lose?" "Tell me." "Tell them." "An endless tunnel." "Seems kind of pointless." "And yet the shortest distance between two points." "What is it?" "They're on their way back to you, still on their feet." "Very well." "You promised me... i don't have any weapons." "Don't sell yourself short." "You can put your guns away." "We share the same cause." "We're here for Dylan Hunt." "Your cause, to help captain Hunt save the commonwealth." "I lead a cell of collectors who believe he will succeed, that he very well should." "Really?" "Then why didn't you stop them from taking him?" "Stop them?" "I gave them the idea." "It was my plan." "Right." "Great." "Well, then we're all cool." "Pish believes the answer to the Dylan question is no longer to kill him, but to turn him to the other side." "Since persuasion would never work, they opted to break his will." "Oh, of course... the nietzschean would understand." "I made sure beta-a was the chosen method for finding the weakness in his armor." "You injected Dylan with beta-a?" "You're making it really hard not to shoot you." "No." "I did better than that." "What captain Hunt faces, he has to face alone." "If he succeeds, he will find the strength to win the war that's coming." "If he fails... we all go to hell in a bone basket." "And this makes sense to you?" "Mm-hmm." "No." "You're coming with us." "Ladies, take notes, because the Harper has outdone himself yet again." "What you are about to see on the screen is the protein reader." "Now, a protein reader interprets emotional content biochemically encrypted on beta-a proteins." "Normally we'd have to sit through a never-ending stream of terrors, tics, and foibles to get the good stuff, which you will see activate on this screen." "You mean a person's most gut-wrenching fear?" "Exactly." "I took Dylan's dna into vr, built a synthetic version of his beta-a, rigged this puppy that triggered the most intense response, and boom!" "Brilliant hypothetical results." "Allow me to demonstrate a non-hypothetical result." "Ooh." "Harper?" "Sorry." "Little serotonin surge." "It's kind of nice." "It's working." "Come on, not even one hypo in the med deck?" "What?" "That's funny?" "Not funny." "Pathetic." "Pitiful." "Dylan... good cannot exist without evil, light without dark." "They define one other." "They are both inside us and around us... but balance is your cause... your mistake." "The abyss is not so interested in your emotional weakness as it is in your darkness." "It is through this darkness that it can enter and grow." "I don't fear the black hole, Rev." "It's losing everyone that i care about." "Then that is your darkness... but no matter." "We are going to die in this insufferable hole, and you... you cling." "You cling to hope like a lamb being dragged to slaughter." "Hoping maybe the butcher might drop the rope." "No matter how grim the circumstances," "Rev bem would never say that." "I just did!" "Now... embrace your darkness." "Kill me!" "I have failed... as always." "Help me." "I'm afraid." "I cannot stand the fear." "I have lost the light." "You haven't lost the light." "It was temporarily eclipsed." "But now it's back." "It's good to see you, Rev." "Dylan." "I really didn't want to fight you." "The collectors, they waited for me to surface." "They knew you would come to me." "Then they injected me with the entity." "I could... i could not fight the darkness." "You can't blame yourself, Rev." "But, Dylan, don't you see?" "I became worse than magog." "I did the darkness's bidding." "I helped them to lure you here because i thought i should." "Which leads us to that weapon that can stop the darkness." "Dylan, i must confess." "You are the weapon." "I... you knew." "I knew." "If you can survive this day, history will take a new course." "Survival's looking pretty slim, Rev." "We're only a few minutes from the event horizon." "Now who's a pessimist?" "As collectors, we analyze knowledge." "Patterns emerge." "Patterns that shaped history shape our future." "My group has seen that Dylan will win this war, as long as he's prepared." "She's telling the truth." "Yes." "However, good intentions aside, truth also proves you helped the collectors plan Dylan's abduction." "Where have they taken him?" "Isn't that why you built the reader?" "Genius." "Who designed these modifications?" "He did." "He did." "This is your work?" "Hmm." "We should make babies together." "You two, out." "No." "Whatever." "Why does it always take a fantastically beautiful but evil genius to recognize the genius in me?" "Harper... sorry." "How do we find captain Hunt?" "Reader's useless." "Until... we get a real sample of Dylan's beta-a." "So far we've been stuck using a synthesized... a show of goodwill." "Allow me." "Oh, you're allowed." "Stop... stop... the socket's ticklish." "Of course!" "We are so freaking stupid." "Why didn't we think of this?" "Dispatching slipfighters to search all nearby black holes for any ship drifting toward the event horizon." "The last of the slipfighters is back in the hangar." "What's the word?" "Midian breach." "It's a prison cruiser." "Drifting toward black hole one-one-six-seven tachen." "Feeding coordinates into navigation... and going to slipstream." "Dylan, there is something." "I saw a slipfighter in the hangar there when the collectors brought us here." "Okay, now, that's the Rev i know and love." "The abyss will give you a choice... the magog or frozen eternity." "It will not let you survive to continue your quest." "I don't care what choices the abyss gives me." "I'm here to kick its butt." "I have located the midian breach." "Surprise, surprise." "Look where it's heading." "That's just a little too familiar." "Let's hope we've got enough time." "Dylan is on that ship." "Awaiting your orders, Beka." "Uh, well... they're out of range of our bucky-cables, and we can't get any closer." "Of course." "It's a test." "Maybe it would be best if we let the future play itself out." "Which means?" "Get him out of there!" "Hang on." "All right, Rev. Let's go." "No!" "I said let's go." "No, leave me." "I am not worthy." "My journey should end here." "I don't have time for this." "Please." "No." "I have lost the way." "No, we're just getting started." "Dylan, the doors." "Open says me." "Now, there, Rev. That's the way." "Uh-huh." "Uh-huh." "You like it?" "Uh-huh." "Uh-huh." "Well, then you're going to love this." "Hang on!" "Well, there's your light, Rev." "I see." "I see." "I'm picking up a slipfighter in that debris." "Hello, boss." "Rhade, you're on themaru with me." "Come on, come on." "Trance, prep the med deck." "We've got them." "I'll be ready." "Whoo." "All in a day's work." "Piece of cake." "Chocolate cake..." "with the Harper on top." "Mm." "I like cake." "Me too." "The final battle with the entity will come." "And i'll be ready for it." "The beta in my spine caused me to betray you, but i also betrayed myself." "This was my darkness." "It is as important to the way as the light." "Rev, you have to embrace the darkness." "That's how i fight." "You have learned this?" "Victory comes from accepting the unacceptable, the darkness in all of us." "I can only control what's in me, and use it when necessary." "This i learned from you." "Then i have taught you well." "I thank you, friend, for showing me the way." "We won this battle together." "You get some rest." "It's good to see you, friend." "Do not fear the dark and the light." "It's about balance." "They cannot exist without each other." "Trance... i have a confession to make." "I've always known who you are, but i did not understand." "I could not grasp it." "I was blind." "No." "I hid my light until it was time." "I too had much to learn." "A confession?" "From you?" "An affirmation." "My journey has been as long as yours." "I had to learn to hold the light lest its brilliance destroy me." "Trance, i long to stay here..." "here, amongst my friends." "And so you should." "I'm sure Dylan feels the same way." "I long to sleep... to sleep the sleep of peace." "Dream well, old friend." "Rev is sleeping." "Comfortable and secure." "That's good." "He wants to stay with us." "We're the closest thing to family he's got." "Dylan?" "This time, were you afraid that you would lose?" "I fear losing you." "And the rest of the crew." "A moment of vulnerability from our captain." "Let's keep that our little secret."