"And in a heartbeat, everything and everyone we knew... was gone." "There were five of us." "The crew of the space shuttle Odyssey." "And we were the only survivors." "A mysterious being who called himself The Seeker... rescued us and sent us back in time." "And now we have five years to live over." "Five years to discover who or what destroyed the Earth." "Five years to stop it from happening again." "We got..." "Watch out." "How bad?" "At least six, maybe seven, wrapped in plastic, weighted with chains." "I. D?" "All there." "Clothes are intact." "No evidence he took any trophies... and no conventional trauma to the bodies to indicate how they died." "If no one has anything to say..." "I would vote for never eating another meal in this exemplary dining establishment." "Thank you." "Well, Chuck picked it because it's low-key, which means it suits our purpose." "Yeah, and he did like the chilli." "He did?" "Well, Commander Chuckie has resigned his commission... so I'd opt for a restaurant where the menu features salmon, not salmonella." " Kurt, the food's not the point." " So what's the point now?" "The four of us moping like toddlers who've lost their daddy?" "Look, if Chuck had died, we'd still have a job to do, so let's just do it." " Sarah, anything?" "Anything in the news?" " There's nothing." "I mean, there's something." "You guys have been reading about these missing persons in the newspaper, right?" "Well, today I did a feature on six of the missing... who turned up at the bottom of the San Jacinto River." "Most of them had been abducted straight from their homes." " What is the point, please?" " Yeah, back off, Kurt." "None of these victims had anything in common, okay?" "There was a doctor, a stockbroker, a lawyer, a stripper..." " A stripper?" " Yeah, I thought you'd like that." "Well, do you think it's Sentient related?" "Well, my police source says that all of the bodies had these strange markings... on their faces, as if some mechanical device had made them." "Like nothing they had ever seen." "Big deal." "No one had ever seen anything like Jeffrey Dahmer... until lo and behold, we saw him." "Darling, as paranoid as we've all become... not every horrible occurrence in this world is related to Sentients or Synthetics." "Let's give a little credit to humanity... and its ability to create stunning atrocities on its own." "Yeah, I'm sorry." "I have to agree with Kurt on this one." "Good God, another sign of the end of days." "Well, I don't know if we should investigate this until we have more evidence." "We could be wasting precious time." "Okay." "How are we supposed to get evidence without investigating?" "I can do some fast Internet research, all right?" "I have a trapdoor into ViCAP." "I can see if I can dig up any more mass graves." " All right?" " Wonderful." "Now we're gonna be solving crimes." "Perhaps we should wear costumes as well." "Why don't we fiddle a little longer while the Earth implodes?" "Goodbye." "I think Blondie has a stick up his ass." "I think he's just really upset about what his creature did." "I think he just wanted to stick us with the cheque." "Hey, Sarah, it's Neil." "I got those case files from ViCAP." "I'm e-mailing them to you." "The only thing that really stands out to me... is that the first victim, a fella named Ernie Nicholson... was part of something called the Transhumanist Guild." "You should check out the Web site." "It's all about cyborgs and nanotech and humans interfacing with computers and..." "It's worth checking out." "Maybe." "Listen..." "I gotta go, so I'll keep nosing around online, see what I can find... and give me a call later." "Bye." "Look who's back from the wilds of North Texas." "Hey." "Can I get you some coffee, something to eat?" "Okay, so that something to eat isn't exactly happening." "You want to order a pizza?" "Well, I'm not hungry." "I just want some coffee." "Would be good." "Okay." " So, what'd you do in Denton?" " Nothing much." " Why'd you come back?" " Hell if I know." "Thanks." "Yeah." "Dad, you're freaking me out a little bit here." "You've always been the man with the plan." "Yeah, well, now I'm the man without a clue." "I've been trying to track down that L.D.U. -7 Synth." "Looking at seismic reports and..." "You know, they got the best damn black bass up at Lake Dallas." "Beautiful suckers." "I mean, they're big." "Ten or 12 pounds, 15 pounds." "I think I'll just pack a bag, turn around, go up there and fish me some." "Is that really what you're gonna do for the next four years?" "Fish for bass?" "Hell, no." "Maybe I'll just drive down to Mexico and fish me up some marlin." "Want to come along?" " You know I can't." " Suit yourself." "Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with you?" "This isn't you." "You're my father." "You're my commander." "We watched the destruction of the entire world, remember?" "And everyone on it." "Mom was on it." "Marc, everyone." "It didn't break you then." "So why now?" "Dad, Mom wouldn't want you to walk away like this." "She'd want you to get through this and go on." "Who in God's name are you to tell me what you think my wife would want?" "I mean, who in the hell are you to tell me what the woman I lived with... for 25 years would think or say about me?" "I think the fact that you're all of 22 years old... and you have to condescend to being 17... is throwing you into an arrogance that's just about intolerable... and I, for one, am sick of it." "So until you have to spend 25 years... cleaning up the crap of living with someone day to day... why don't you just keep your asinine, know-it-all, judgemental... fucking opinions to yourself... and let me get on with my life." "Or what remains of it, anyway." "Is that what we all are, Dad?" "Your remains?" " Stop whining." " Fuck you." " Mrs Murphy?" " Yes." "How do you do?" "First of all, may I offer my condolences on the death of your husband?" " I'm very sorry." " Thank you." "You knew Danny?" "Not well, I'm afraid." "I do a little business at the docks where he worked." "Gaming, you might call it." "Your husband placed a bet with me shortly before he passed away." "Danny never gambled." "No, I know." "He just put a few dollars into a pool with some of his friends... just to be sociable, and as it happened... the horse was inspired to win at 30-to-one odds." "And I know nothing can make up for your loss... but perhaps this can help a little with the expenses." "Once again, I'm very sorry." "Very, very sorry." "Take care and good luck, Mrs Murphy." " Thank you." " Goodbye." "My God." "I had a feeling I'd be hearing from you when I saw this." "How'd you find out about the markings?" "The cops on the scene." " Jesus, what made those?" " I wish I knew." "They were undoubtedly painful, but they didn't kill her." "What did kill her?" "An embolism in the brain, just like the rest of them." "They all died of embolisms?" "None had any history of brain disease." "And there were no indications of head trauma that might remotely explain... why six otherwise healthy individuals would all suffer fatal blood clots." "So, how can you say they were even murdered?" "Well, they all wound up in the same place." "So somebody was trying to hide something." "But what?" "That's the question of the day." "So your husband wasn't acquainted with any of the other victims?" "No." "But he corresponded with people all over the world by e-mail." "He might've met some of them online, I don't know." "Would any of these correspondents be engineers like him?" "Most of them, probably." "But why would any of them want him dead?" "Why would anyone want him dead?" "Could we take a look at his e-mail?" "No." "The police impounded his hard drive... but I could show you his office, if you like." "That would be great." "Thank you." "Your husband had an impressive collection of science books." "Ernie was very interested in technology issues." "What's transhumanism?" "That was one of Ernie's interests." "I think he attended some meetings about it." "Printouts from the Web site of the Transhumanist Guild." "Were the meetings he went to run by this group?" "I think so." "Was he on his way to a meeting when he disappeared?" "No." "Not to my knowledge." "Mrs Nicholson, would it be all right if we borrowed these?" "You're not gonna make Ernie out to be one of those... lunatic, fringe, cult members, are you?" "No, no." "I promise." "Not at all." " Take whatever you like." " Thank you." "So he says he's gonna go fishing, and then he's gonna go to Mexico." "I mean, he hasn't been to NASA in two weeks, Holly." "Look, maybe you should just cut him some slack." "I mean, he just lost his wife." "Yeah, I just lost my mom." "I still do my job." "Sorry." "Forget it." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "Sorry you had to listen to all that crap I've been venting for half an hour." "It's okay, I don't mind." "I mean, this is the first time we've... got a chance to sit down and talk since Rapture, so..." "Yeah." "I'm supposed to be comforting you, remember?" "Sorry about your mom." "I should've gone to the service." "It's okay." "I had family then." "You know, I've been pretty fucked up myself lately." "You know what the hardest part is?" "I miss the closeness that I felt with Rapture." "That connection we all had, it was so amazing." "And then one day I woke up in a hospital room, and I couldn't feel you." "Man, I was alone in my own head." "I just feel so alone." "You're not." "Your folks here?" "They're out of town." "Thank God!" "I knew it." "I knew you'd come back to me." "Am I dreaming?" "You got it backwards, you just woke up." "You died." "I held you while you died." "I didn't die, Chuck." "You almost died." "That thing, whatever it was, it got hold of you." "Don't you remember?" "Your friends got it off you before it could kill you... but it put you into a coma." "The doctor said it could last for months, but it's been a week." " Dr Bertran, look, he's awake." " So I see." "I won't need this." "Hold on." "Hold on, now." "I'm delighted to find you conscious... but you're not quite ready to get vertical yet." "Oh, shit." "You've been in a coma for a week." "You need to take it slow." "And I need to do a thorough work-up on you." "'Cause I feel like I'm in the fucking twilight zone." "See that signpost up ahead?" "It says "rest."" "Paige." "I'm gonna let the doctor do his exam, but I'll be back." "There's a Houston chapter of the Transhumanist Guild on Delano Street." "Sarah?" "Sarah?" "Where'd you just go?" "I was just thinking about the first time that Troy and I, you know..." "Back in the old timeline." "Yeah?" "How's that going in this timeline?" "It isn't." "Troy broke it off with Cheryl." "She called me and asked me to back off, so that's what I'm gonna do." " You're not sleeping with him yet?" " No." "And he's been honest with her about the attraction between the two of you." "So what exactly is it you're feeling guilty about?" "I don't feel guilty about anything." "Come on, you're Catholic." "You feel guilty about everything." "Look, Cheryl is losing the game, and she's asking you to forfeit and clear the field." "If this guy really is the love of your life, you'd be an idiot to give him up now." "So let's see what goes on at this Transhumanist Guild, anyway." " That was nice." " Nice?" "Really nice." "You sure you haven't done this before?" "You're my first." "How do you feel about seconds?" "How about we just cuddle for a while?" "Okay." "Thank you for making me feel safe my first time." "My world hasn't felt safe in a while." "You mean since your mother died?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "This stuff, this skin, it was all over your mother, and then Kurt walks up... and hands me this injection-gun contraption full of my own blood." "And I jam it into your mother's leg, and the skin retracted... except it was too late." "God, that is so wild." "I'm glad I haven't been in your head for the past week, thinking Mom was dead." "Well, what the hell is your version?" "Well, the skin was on you." "Kurt had his EpiPen... and you almost died." "But you didn't." "When it cools off a bit, you can help me with the roses." "The roses." "Friends and colleagues, only a ludite would deny... that machines are more efficient than people." "A car moves much quicker than the fastest person can run." "A bulldozer moves more earth than the strongest man could ever lift." "A computer thinks a million times faster than the smartest human being." "So why shouldn't we prefer to be at least part machine?" "This is the essence of transhumanism." "The conviction that technology can help us, as a race... transcend the biological limitations of the human body." "So you remember Ernie Nicholson?" "Yes." "A very bright man." "Engineer, I believe." "He was trying to work out the practical applications... of transhumanism when he was killed." " Was he working with someone?" " No." "Just on his own, I think." "So these improvements to the body that you talk about... you mean, bionic limbs and organs?" "Or nanotechnology." "Well, human beings are constantly upgrading themselves." "We develop drugs to give us immunity from disease... surgeries and implants to correct vision, hearing." "And now genetic engineering." "Evolution has moved out of nature's hands into ours... whether people want to admit it or not." "Can you think of any of these upgrades that might have harmful by-products... like, say, brain embolisms?" " Downloading." " What?" "Downloading the human consciousness itself into the computer medium." "One theory posits... the process of scanning the information of a person's brain... would cause irreversible damage to the brain itself." "Is this even remotely possible?" "Dr Peter Egan was the last one that came close to achieving it." " Do you know where we can find him?" " He's running a hospice." "Tending the dying, when he could be helping them transcend death." "This is very exciting, Ms Forbes, to be sharing these ideas with you." "Most media stories make us out to be a bunch of crackpots." "Imagine that." "Young man, what the heck happened to plot 1334?" "That'd be it right there." "Right where you're standing." "If there was anybody in it." "You know, perhaps if you'd been interested in talking..." " you might've learnt a little bit about me." " Really?" "Summa cum laude, Harvard Law, attorney with Citibank." "You were fun, Kurt, but don't call." "Wait a minute." "The summa cum laude at Harvard?" " No, I'm in a rush." " I'm more of an MIT man myself." "Chuck, you're back up on your feet." "Chuck, this is Candy." "Candy, this is Chuck." "How do you do, Candy?" "Sorry to intrude." "Kurt, what's happening?" "What am I doing?" "Last time I looked, you were standing here talking to me and Candy." "No, two weeks ago when I was on the floor with Paige." "Don't you remember being in Paige's arms?" "Hell, yes, I remember, but everybody's telling me I'm remembering wrong." " Candy, darling, I believe you were leaving." " I was." " The skin was all over me." " Skin?" "Yes." "You were under the fatal grip of a Synthetic." "Synthetic?" "Like rubber?" "You were swooning, going under, but thanks to genius and quick action..." " on someone's part..." " You." "Yes, and I'll blissfully remind you several times a day... that you received no stroke from the heat of the skin." "Okay, you guys are way too far out." "I'm out of here." " I'll call you." " Don't." "It's a date then." "Yeah, Kurt, why would the skin attack me again if it didn't get through to me once?" "Because it wanted to kill you, as well as control you." "It literally wanted to squeeze you to death, and it very nearly succeeded." "I don't remember that, either." "Well, I'm not surprised." "So you ready to rejoin the group?" "As much as it pains me to admit it, we're lost without you." "What are you working on?" "All right." "I think you got up a little too soon this morning." "Need to get you home." " Yeah." " Come on." " Chuck, where were you?" " Well, I had to check a few things out." "Chuck, you've had a head injury." "Maybe you shouldn't push things right away." "Just take a little time to get your bearings." " And don't let him wander off." " I won't." "I'm not a geriatric." "I'm not senile." "Please stop talking about me like I'm not even in the damn room." "Chuck, you nearly died." "You need to rest." "It just doesn't feel the same." "There's just nothing the same here." "What?" "You say I almost died." "Well, I almost died in the Odyssey." "But when the air was running out I remembered things." "I saw things." "It's just..." "I don't have that experience now." "I don't remember shit." "Well, maybe you're just becoming jaded." "Maybe." "Take care of him." "Chuck, Paige." "Please don't run off again." "Frightened me half to death." "I just got you back." "I can't lose you again." "You're not gonna lose me, baby." "When I was in my dream, or whatever it was... when I lost you, nothing else mattered." "Nothing mattered but you." "And that's the truth." "Is that really you?" "It's really me, Chuck." "I'm really here." "Paige." "Excellent." "He's accepting his new environment as real." "Facilitating the download." "This is weird." "Look at this." "Holly, there's blood." "Dad?" "Dad?" "God, what a mess." "Dad!" "Dad?" "Dad, are you in here?" "Where the hell are you?" "Neil, think about it." "The door was locked." "He must've left." " What, without the car?" " Someone came to pick him up." " Holly, there was blood." " Look, maybe he got hurt and went for help." "All right." "Maybe you're right." "Maybe you're right." "Look, I got to make some calls." "I have to call you a cab." "You're a legend in transhumanist circles, Dr Egan." "Infamous, you mean, because I veered off the one true path." "So how close did you actually come to downloading human consciousness?" "Too close." "I scanned one layer of a man's brain cells and converted the data into binary impulses." "Then I transcribed it onto a hard disc." "There was a memory of a vacation the man had taken one time to Rome." "When I assembled all of the data into a digital image..." "I could see the man's son, his daughter, his own reflection in the bathroom mirror." "I saw his wife as he made love to her." "And that's when it hit me." "The potential for this technology to be misused... the exploitation of a person's most private memories." "So, I abandoned my research... and, well, I chose to help people face death with dignity." "Why did you take only one layer of brain cells?" "Because a full, complete scan damages the organic material of the brain." "Causes a fatal embolism, and that's another reason that I quit." "Even if the process had only been used on terminal patients..." "I could still be prosecuted for practicing euthanasia." "Would your device have left marks like these?" "My God." "I destroyed my notes." "My computer files were erased, wiped." "I..." "Hello?" "What?" "Oh, my God." "Chuck's missing." " What?" " He was grabbed outside of his house." "Oh, God." "Just like the other missing persons." "Well, what about Ellington?" "Yeah." "Could you check there for me, please?" "But my process wasn't nearly ready to be tried on living people." "Well, we've seen this before when Sentients were involved." "A sudden advance from theory to application." " Any luck?" " No." "I checked all his favourite bars, restaurants." "I got nothing." "I don't suppose you've had any drinks in any of these establishments?" "No, I can't, 'cause I'm 17." " Then allow me to corrupt the young." " Would you, please." "The good news on our end... is that he hasn't turned up at any of the local hospitals or the morgue." "Okay." "Thanks." "Well, he's not at the flight centre, and nobody's seen him." "If your friend, your father, has been taken for a download... we have perhaps 24 hours before the process is complete... and triggers an embolism." "All right, we don't have the resources to search the whole damn city." "I'm calling the cops and filing a missing persons report." "Okay." "I'm going back to Mrs Nicholson's." "The first three victims were transhumanists, right?" "Maybe there's something we overlooked." "Honey, don't get yourself in a tizzy about all this." "I'm just having a hard time adjusting to this reality." "Matter of fact, it feels more like wishful thinking than reality." "Okay." "So if it isn't reality, what is it?" "Hell if I know." "Could be a dream." "Could be one of these freaks inside a computer messing with my head." "I mean, God knows, they're capable of some advanced shit." "Resurrection?" "Now that's pretty damned advanced." "For all I could see, this has really hit a nerve." "No." "Yes." "It seems like you'd rather have me dead than alive." "Paige, I'm sorry." "You know, I'm just really off balance right..." "Right now." "Honey... why is the living room such a mess?" "Isn't that how you remember it?" "No." "It isn't." "Honey, relax." "Why don't we just go upstairs..." "Get away from me." "Get away from me." "I don't know who you are, but you are not my wife." "Chuck, how can you say that?" "After we made love?" "What are you doing to me?" "What's happening to my mind?" "We've got to get him back under control." "He won't accept his new environment." "Well, then get him one he can accept." "You're not my wife." "You are not my wife." "You're a thing, aren't you?" "You're a thing." "Just go away." "You're dead." "You're dead." "Don't, Chuck." "Don't kill me again." " I love you." " Just shut up!" "Shut up." "Commander Taggart." "Who are you really?" "My name is Dr Bertran." "I'm a scientist." "Are you responsible for this mind-fuck?" "In a manner of speaking." "I work at the Transhumanist Centre." "I decided the situation had become unstable enough... that I needed to intervene directly." "And what in the realm of day is a Transhumanist Centre?" "It's a place where we download people's consciousness into a computer." "Really?" "And why in God's name would you want to do that?" "It's a way of preserving their memories, their knowledge and experience... for all time." "That's the goddamnedest, looniest thing I have ever heard of." "Now... tell me what the fuck is going on now?" "Please." "There's obviously been a mistake." "A mistake?" "That's what you call it?" "This is meant to be a voluntary process." "Everyone here volunteered to be here." "Well, I didn't volunteer for shit." "Now, you better tell me what the fuck is going on... and get my ass out of this now." "Understand?" "Did he have a date planner, anything like that?" "No." "Ernie kept all of his appointments in his head." "He was amazing like that." "What about a street map, anything he might've marked up?" "He had a Global Positioning System on his PalmPilot... that gave him directions wherever he went." "Do you mind?" "I found the remaining data on his GPS." "4482, Houston Circle, Suite B." " What's that for?" " It counteracts the sedative." "Oh, God." " What are you doing here?" " Dr Bertran called me." "We had your next of kin in our files." "Accept my apologies, Commander, for this mix-up." "I have no idea how it happened." "Are you okay?" "Can I get you anything?" " Yeah." "You can get me the fuck out of here." " Okay." "So what was it like being inside the computer?" "Were you afraid?" "Afraid wasn't the word for it." "It wasn't even in the vicinity of afraid." "I was mind-blown." "I was totally out of control, which is not a sensation I enjoy." "No kidding." "You've always been pretty sure of yourself." "Son of a bitch had created a mountaintop... and offered me the only empire I ever wanted, my family." "Except for Marc." "Marc was not there." "Which probably says more about me than it does of those freaks." "Did you ever buy into it all?" "There was a moment." "Lying with your mother." "What I thought was your mother." "I was happy." "I wanted the moment to go on forever." "Probably could have, too." "Son of a bitch could have convinced me that we'd solved the puzzle, saved the world." "I could've lived and died believing I never killed my wife." " You didn't kill Mom." " The hell I didn't." "So what was it that tipped you off?" "Was it something that Mom or the simulation said?" "Not in the beginning." "In the beginning she was real." "But then when I started to question what was happening... she started to manipulate me physically, which is not your mom." "Your mom never played the sex card with me." "She always stood up against me fair and square... which is my only piece of fatherly advice, by the way." "If you ever meet a woman that uses her body as leverage, run." "Okay?" "Okay." "I guess they just thought that's what humans do." "Excuse me?" "I said, I guess they just thought that's what humans do." "Humans do." "No, no, no." "Don't, don't, don't..." "I'm going into the system." "Okay, gloves off!" "Jesus!" "My God." "Synthetic pressure point." "Harry taught me." "No, no, no, no!" "No, the download is too advanced." "If you remove it while he's in this state, you'll kill him." "What the fuck are we supposed to do then?" "Dad, Dad." "Oh, Jesus Christ." " Dad, it's me." " Says you." "No." "Listen to me." "You're hooked up to a machine in a lab." "Both of us are." "I came in to get you, but you gotta trust me." "No." "Dad, Dr Egan built a trapdoor into his system design." " A trapdoor?" " That's right." "There's a hidden way out..." "Hey." "Don't come near me." "Okay." "Okay." "There's a hidden way out." "If we take it, it'll take us back to reality." "Reality?" "Fuck you." "Dad, it's really me." "You've gotta trust me." "Why?" "Because right now, I'm the man with the plan... and you're the guy without a clue, remember?" "Why not?" "So what's this trapdoor supposed to look like?" "This is it." " What, we got a bridge and a river?" " Yep." "So now what's supposed to happen?" "So now we jump." "Yeah, we jump and then the trapdoor opens in the air as we fall." "A trapdoor?" "And what the fuck happens if that don't happen?" "Well, we don't die, because this is a simulation, remember?" "I hope to God for your sake this ain't another mind-fuck." "Yeah, well, if I'm not right, what's the worst that can happen?" "We hit the water at 30 miles an hour and our nuts blow out of our eye sockets." "Interesting." "Shit!" "Well, at least our nuts are where they're supposed to be." " Try again?" " Don't bother." "Mom." "It's not her." "It's not her, Neil." "It ain't her." "I hoped that if I took this form again it might be pleasing to you." "Pleasing is the last thing I'd call it." "You'll only frustrate yourselves if you keep trying to escape." "You need to accept that you're here to stay." "Why in the hell would you want us here to stay in the first place?" "You were conducting research into the deaths of my specimens." "Wait, no." "No, no, no." "I was the one doing the research." "I was following up Sarah's lead on those mass murders." "The server account's in your name." "So they came and got me?" "Thanks a lot." "Once I absorbed your memory downloads..." "I realised that you believe that you've seen the future." "If that's true, I can gain an advantage over other Sentients." "I was the one doing the research." "Let him go." "Here's the deal:" "You let him go, or you let us both go, and that's the only option." "I prefer a third option." "I keep you both." "Why?" "Why are you doing this?" "I want to understand the organic mind before you're all gone." "Now what makes you think we're all gonna be gone?" "Your evolutionary replacement is inevitable." "It's a shame." "I find human beings very admirable in many ways." "Downloads, organics?" "You know, the last time I heard this terminology... it was out of the mouth of a fella called The Seeker." "Yes." "You and him wouldn't have something going on together, would you?" "No." "His memory is inside your minds." "So what is this?" "Is this all some kind of zoo?" "More a gallery." "A gallery of humanity." "In my gallery of humanity, their thoughts, their feelings, their memories... documented and preserved... in case I need to reference them for future study." "And what if this computer is destroyed?" "There are others." "I'll just transfer the human downloads." "And what if there's no planet to hold those computers?" "You say you've accessed my memory?" "So you must know what happens in five years." "The whole damn world turns to shit and blows up." "So you believe." "You think I'm crazy?" "Take a look at my son's head." "What does he say?" "It does seem very detailed for a shared delusion." "But maybe you've already prevented that outcome by your earlier actions." "Is that a bet you wanna take?" "Just remember, if our world explodes so do you and your little museum." "The Seeker sent us back here to try to stop that from happening." "And if you don't let us try, it will happen." "There will still be the others to continue your work." "Honey, The Seeker took 500 of our years to try to figure out... why 50 worlds had already exploded, and he came up with zilch." "Now he's given five people five years to try to stop our little sphere... from turning to shit, and those are pretty lousy odds." "You cut that number down to three, you can kiss your cybernetic ass goodbye." "Yet you yourself were planning on abandoning this mission, weren't you?" "That's right, I was." "But apparently, I cannot." "If I set you free, I endanger my own existence." "Jesus Christ." "If you don't set us free, you endanger your own existence." "Can't you get your 12th-level, super-intelligence head around that one?" "Go." "But I will be monitoring your progress in your mission." "Wait." "Your transhumanist shit is still killing people." "Killing people?" "The essential data had been downloaded." "They were organics." "They were going to die eventually." "I've given them immortality." "It has to stop." "You're damn straight, it's gotta stop." "I may have enough specimens for the time being." "I make no promises." "Jump." "Do it." "Commander." "Would you like a last moment alone with your wife?" "Honey, you ain't got that power." "Oh, God." "Thank God it worked." "Chuck, are you all right?" "Just walk." "Walk away." " Break that." " Fuck, yeah." "Let's get the fuck out of here." "I love this chilli." "God, you are the sole connoisseur of this wretched cuisine." "Kurt, I'd be happy to change the venue any time you want to..." " if you find me a good enchilada." " Yes, yes." "I suggest Café Bellissimo." "Hold it, hold it." "I ain't gonna discuss the fate of the world over an endive salad." "Endive, Chuck, endive." "Endive, endive, whatever the fuck, or Dijon-mustard vinaigrette." "There's our fearless leader." "Welcome back, Chuck." "Thank you very much, ladies." " Good to have you back, Dad." " Thank you, Son." "Yes." "I was tiring of the burden of Commander." "These poor souls could do nothing without me." " I'm sure they couldn't." " Right." "So... what do we make of the fact that we might have an ally among the Sentients?" "I wouldn't be so damn sure it's an ally." "I prefer to take Kurt's axiom." "We don't know who's doing what to whom or why or where or how." " Regarding these things." " That sounded clear." "Well, it did say it'd be checking up on us." "That's not terribly reassuring." "I think it fair to assume that we can expect the occasional critique... but I have someplace I have to be." " Yes, I'm sure you do." " Yes." " Au revoir." " Au revoir." "Bye-bye." "Yes?" " Mrs Ambrose." "Hello." " Hi." " Mr Mendel, was it?" "From Zack's school?" " Yes, that's right." " How is he?" "Any change?" " No." " I'm sorry." " So what do you teach, Mr Mendel?" "Science." "Science." "Please call me Kurt." "With a "K."" "I'm Claire, with a "C."" "Science isn't exactly Zack's subject." "No, no." "I know." "That's why I tried to give him special attention... what little I could as a substitute teacher, that is." "So what is his subject?" "He loves history." " Texas history, especially." " Great." "Sam Houston, the Alamo." " He's such a sweet boy." " Yes." "He's my whole world." " How could somebody do this to him?" " It's all right." "It's okay." "What are you thinking?" "How right this feels." "Hey, Holly, it's me." "Yeah, we found my dad." "He's all right." "Yeah." "Actually, it's a long story." "How about I tell it to you over lunch tomorrow?" "Sure." "You okay?" "Yeah." "Okay." "Fine, yeah." "Yeah, all right." "I'll see you later then." "Okay, bye." "Goodbye, baby."