" Is this St Louis?" " Once." "Now we call it "Defiance."" "This town, it's a nice place to live." "So I keep hearing." "So, my lawkeeper told me that he found you and the Irathient girl in the Badlands." "She's my daughter." "Your daughter?" "I have to thank the owner of McCawley Mines," "Rafe McCawley, and his children, Luke, Quentin and Christie." "I'm going to gather up some muscle and pay Rafe McCawley a visit." "Our son is in love with the McCawley girl." "Would it not be something if Alak and Christie actually got married?" "What's going on, Luke?" "What have you got going?" "I'll be home for dinner, okay?" "Luke was murdered?" "Whoever did this, we'll find him." "You killed my son!" "No!" "Hey!" "Everybody needs to leave." "They're coming." "They're planning to attack right after dark." "Fire!" "Shtako!" "Yeah!" "How many dead?" "Forty-one." "Seal the bridge." "You shtako-coward!" "Elah Bandik of Yuke liro." "The honourable Datak Tarr of Shanje liro accuses you of cowardice." "Do you deny this charge?" "I do not." "Seeming is being." "How I act is how my liro is perceived." "Then your cleansing ceremony will begin now." "What are they doing?" "It's a Casti cleansing ceremony." "It looks like torture." "Yeah." "I thought we left that stuff behind in the Badlands." "Okay!" "All right, that's enough." "That's it." "You've had your fun, now you cut this man down." "This man is a deserter." "He threw down arms and ran from the Volge." "This man was brave to pick up arms in the first place." "Plenty of men lose their nerves the first time in combat." "Not Castithans." "In the laws of our god RA-yet-so, running from battle reflects upon the brothers of your liro, or caste." "This man, Elah Bandik, has taken the honour of every Castithan in Defiance." "This man?" "This little man has taken the honour of every Castithan in Defiance?" "Not that my people have to explain our religion, but we do this for Bandik's own good." "I'm sure." "Without this ritual, his FE-sho will be denied passage to the afterlife." "I don't care." "I'm shutting it down." "No." "Don't..." "Please." "I have no choice." "I must do this for my family." "Now, you cut that man down or I'm dragging every one of you in!" " And I'm starting with you." " What's going on here?" "Madame Mayor." "I hope you've come to put a muzzle on your new lawkeeper." "Our understanding with your predecessor dates back to the founding of this town." "Do you intend to dismantle that understanding three weeks into the job?" "I respect Castithan tradition much as Mayor Nicky did." "Keep this ceremony confined to the Hollows." "Of course, Amanda." "Call me Mayor." "Put your gun away." "Come with me." "I'm sorry." "You seemed upset." "I've seen worse." "They're not dickering over the price of a roller, they're torturing a man to death!" "Nolan." "You're from the outside." "I can imagine what this looks like." "I'm not sure you can." "Do you ever wonder why we have so few Irathients in Defiance?" "What the hell does that have to do with anything?" "About eight years ago, when Defiance was first founded, we had well over a thousand." "But for some reason, they didn't believe in vaccinating their kids." "Mayor Nicky saw Irathient kids dying for no good reason." "So they wrote mandatory vaccinations into the town charter." "Deputies went from house to house inoculating Irathient children by force." "The Irathients took up arms and there was an uprising." "What happened?" "They had clubs, we had Vo-Tech blasters." "What do you think happened?" "Some were killed and the rest left." "After that, the town council informally decided to allow the eight races to honour the traditional values of their own people." "All right." "You look me in the eye." "You tell me you think what's going on back there is right." "It's necessary." "You're not gonna stop this?" "No, I am not." "I'm not prepared to shoot up an entire town to rescue a man who says he doesn't want to be saved." "Besides, the Lady Mayor promised she'd try and fix it." "Promises are shtako." "Well, it depends on the person making the promise." "Let's just take a beat, see what the Lady Mayor's word is worth." "Time to wake up, Ben." "Vri-tex?" "You could have killed me with this!" "My priority was to keep you from talking." "I wouldn't have betrayed you." "Well, that's good, given what would happen to your family if you did..." "Yeah." "Or if you fail a second time." "Ah." "Okay." "A second time?" "I did everything you said." "I blew up the stasis net." "And yet the Volge were defeated and the town is still standing." "They beat the Volge?" " How?" " It doesn't matter." "Do you remember the old plan?" "Uh..." "The mines?" "But couldn't that destroy the very thing you're trying to find?" "I have faith." "You do as you're told." "No, no, no." "I can't go through this again." "I didn't sign up for this!" "You signed up for whatever it takes, Ben." "Hey, Dad." "Decided to come home?" "I saw you at the service for Luke yesterday." "I didn't know what to say, so I ducked you." "That was wrong." "With Luke gone, we need to set aside the small stuff and pull together." "Oh." "You agreeing to marry Datak's kid, that's the small stuff I'm supposed to put aside?" "Come on, Dad." "Accept the olive branch." "Let's eat." "How am I supposed to eat when all I can see is that haint..." "Don't use that word." "That Castithan putting his hands all over you?" "You think that's what your dead brother would have wanted?" "What he wanted doesn't matter any more." "It's about what we want." "I'm in love with Alak Tarr and I want to marry him." "Yeah?" "Well, I want you to call off this wedding and come home." "And if I don't?" "If you walk out that door again, there's no coming back." "Dad..." "Since Mom died, Christie's the only one been holding this family together." "And the one time she does something you don't like, you turn on her." " Oh, but Luke..." " What about Luke?" "Your brother was a good man." "Then why was he meeting alone in the woods with Ben Daris?" "The guy who brought the Volge down on us?" "McCawley." "I'll be right there." "Quentin!" "Get the roller." "There's been an explosion at the mine!" "Your deputy's gonna be fine." "But there's no sign of Ben Daris." "They took a hell of a chance busting him out in broad daylight." "Whoever jump started him used Vri-tex, dangerous drug, used in combat medicine." "Could be ex-military." "Mmm-hmm." "Quentin McCawley just hailed." "There's been an explosion at the mine." "There you are!" "Your friend Ben Daris attacked one of my guards and stole a bunch of gulanite and went underground." "He blew the L-9 shaft behind him so we couldn't follow." "This is on you, Amanda." "And you let my son's murderer get loose." "We'll get him back." "How many miners did you have in the shaft?" "None." "This shaft's abandoned." "It leads down to Old St Louis." "Old St Louis?" "When the alien terraformers went crazy, most American cities were obliterated." "But something strange happened with St Louis." "The terraformed earth folded over the city, and hardened before crushing it." "Some sections of the city are still intact, more or less." "Something's still not right." "What do you mean?" "Well, with the stasis net down, what was to stop Ben escaping through the pass?" "Why trap himself underground?" "Well, he stole 20 kilos of gulanite." "Wouldn't take more than two to blow that tunnel." "All right, so that's 18 kilos left." "That's enough to make a big bomb." "Yeah, not enough to do anything to Defiance." "Not from down there, anyway." "He can tell us who's behind the Volge attack." "We need to go after him." "So how long to clear this?" " Four hours, minimum." " No, too long." "We need another way down." " Here." "What's that?" " The Rat's Nest." "It's a maze down there, not to mention razor-sharp rocks and steep dropoffs." "Nobody bothered to map it since the L-9's always bigger and safer." "The map's in my head." "I discovered the Rat's Nest." "It's our best chance to get ahead of Ben Daris." "Quentin, go find Nak, and Levon, and a couple others, and break out some rappelling gear." "No way." "Absolutely not." "Mmm-mmm." "It's my tunnels." "It's my men." "It's my rules..." "Yeah, how do I know you're not gonna find Ben and shoot him?" "My word." "Or is that all of a sudden not good enough for you?" "I'll tag along with him and keep him honest." "No, no, no, no, no." "Listen, you're no miner." "It's too dangerous." "I'm not gonna get saddled with some topside flatfoot." "No offense, but I've done rougher descents during the war looking for underground bunkers." "Twenty scrip says my boots hit the ground first." "It's your ass." "No matter what, you've gotta make sure that he doesn't kill Ben." "The man did kill his son." "If it had been me..." "I know, but we need him alive for questioning." "Our first priority is protecting this town." "I'll bring Ben back alive, I promise." "Nolan!" "Don't risk your life for these people." "They're not worth it." "Some of them are." "I need you to stay here and help Tommy figure out who set our fugitive free." "And you are to stay far, far away from Elah Bandik." "You hear me?" "Everyone's talking about the Elah Bandik situation." "Don't start with me, Stahma." "It's one of our old laws." "It's a new world." "A new world." "The humans find this sort of thing unseemly." "I don't care what the humans think." "But their opinions matter." "If they're against us, we'll never be able to take control of the McCawley Mines." "I'm thinking about our son's future." "Think of your life back on Casti." "You were at the bottom liro, the lowest caste." "Your life was degradation and poverty." "Is the Castithan way really something you're eager to preserve?" "It is now that I'm standing on top pissing on those below!" "What's going on?" "It's Christie." "Rafe McCawley's messing with her mind." "I don't know what's gonna happen." "We may have to cancel the wedding." "Oh, honey." "Rafe McCawley needs a bullet in the head." " Dad!" " He doesn't mean it." "Oh, I do." "You know what the hot water does to your father's disposition." "Mother will take care of everything." "Oh." "You got a fix on that gulanite he's carrying?" "Yeah, I do and he's not far." "Let's go and nail the bastard." "Welcome to Old St Louis." "It's about time I got my clutter out of here, give you a chance to put your stamp on this office." "And now that I'm retired," "I'm thinking of taking up golf." "Oh, I once had a three handicap and no one can say I didn't because there's no one around except me who remembers the damn rules." "Poor bastard." "He's been up there for three hours, hasn't he?" "I hate this, Nicky." "I really do." "We have a town charter and we haven't followed it for years." "It has to stop." "Castithans are tricky." "They're obsessive about their past, who their ancestors were, what liro they were born into." "And they build their lives around ancient traditions that may once have had a purpose," "but none of them can agree on what it was." "They sound a lot like us." "They've lost their past." "It blew up when their planet did." "These sad little displays in the street, it's all they've got left." "You try to take that away, it'll be the I-raths all over again." "I don't believe that." "Defiance has changed a lot in the last five years." "Look, we came together to fight the Volge and won." "Now, I think we're building a bigger identity that's greater than human or I-rath or Casti." "I'm going to miss you." "Birch..." "Did chivalry die in the Volge attack?" "What's Ben's status?" "He's underground and on his way." "We need to leave town now." "It should only take him two more hours to reach the target." "Well, he was injured." "He may fail." "He's motivated." "I made sure of that when I woke him up." "I'll take your word." "But before we leave, there are a couple of folks I want to say goodbye to." "You let yourself get too close to these people." "I grew up with them." "I saw their babies being born." "Saw them raised." "What I do, I do for the benefit of all of us." "And because it must be done." "I take no pleasure in this, Birch." "You know that." "I know." "I just ran out of time, that's all." "No matter how much you get, it's never enough." " You okay there, old timer?" " I'm fine." "All right, let's take a break." "Yeah, well, don't stop on my account." "I need water." "All right, everybody, take five." "Jefferson Park." "I haven't been here since I was..." "Nine?" "You were a local?" "Yeah." "I gotta admit, though, it's all a bit hazy." "I do get the feeling my folks and I used to eat around here somewhere." "Probably Golden's, on the far side of the park." "That sounds right." "Best toasted ravioli in the state." "Yeah." "Pretty good gooey butter cake, too." "Now that I remember." "Right up there with penicillin for the world's greatest inventions." "I used to take Luke there when he was..." "Maybe three." "So, what about your family?" "What did they do before Arkfall?" "Dog food." "Dog food?" "My family made dog food." "Wait." "McCawley." "Your old man was..." " Yes." " ..." "Chow Down Brown McCawley." "How did that jingle go?" "I ain't singing it for you." "Healthy pups can't get enough" "They never wear a frown..." "Forget it." "It's not happening." "'Cause it's Chow Down time" "Chow Down time It's always Chow Down time..." "Man, I cannot see you in the dog food business." "Well, I wanted to be a photographer." "Sports stuff." "Some bikini stuff, just for fun." "Why didn't you stick with it?" "Well, I shot terraformed landscapes for a while, but gave it up." "Too depressing." "All it did was remind me of everything that the aliens took away." "Yeah." "So, look, Rafe, I wanna be clear." "This Votan we're chasing..." "The one that killed my boy?" "Is that the Votan we're talking about?" "We need to bring him back alive." "You know that, right?" "I don't know any such thing." "Predicting the future's a sucker's game." "You don't believe me, just take a look around you." "This is no place for a child." "I-rath!" "Bitch!" "Elah Bandik is under arrest." "For what?" "Loitering." "The signal's getting stronger." "Wherever he is, he's close." "I don't remember those towers." "It's a nuclear plant." "Went up during the war." "If Ben detonated the gulanite in one of those reactors..." "The radiation would get up through the tunnels in the Rat's Nest." "The radiation would kill everybody." "Penny for your thoughts?" "That is what you humans say, yes?" "My brother collected pennies." "The very old kind." "He said the copper used to be worth more than the coins themselves." "You were just thinking of him, weren't you?" "It is our duty to live our lives to the fullest, to honour those who have passed." "Which is why I was surprised to hear you're having second thoughts about the wedding." "I just want to slow down." "Take a pause." "Your father's putting that much pressure on you, is he?" "He's sort of a jackass." "Most men are." "It's a characteristic that transcends species." "You can fight him if you want to." "I don't think I can." "Just before I left my home world, my parents went to great lengths to ensure that I married a man that they deemed suitable." "At my side was a stranger." "Not very handsome, but he came from the highest liro and he was a man of great honour." "My parents believed this man of great honour would keep me safe." "What happened?" "I met someone else." "He was a scruffy young nobody, beautiful, dangerous, a wicked smile." "He'd won passage to Earth as payment for a gambling debt." "Datak." "He pursued me." "Aggressively." "My betrothed was furious." "He challenged Datak to a Castithan blood duel." "So they fought." "They never got a chance." "On his way to the duel, my man of great honour was accidentally flushed out of an airlock." "It was a tragic accident." "How do you get accidentally..." "Datak was a man I knew loved me beyond scope of reason." "He was a survivor." "A man who would stop at nothing to keep us both safe." "I understood the man I needed in a way my parents could not." "Is this a true story?" "It's going to be a beautiful wedding." " Watch your step." " Keep your eyes open." "That's it." "Stay together." " I haven't been here in a long time." " Still nothing?" "Uh-uh." " Is that it?" " That's it." "Bomb's deactivated." " Good." " Hey!" "Hey!" "We need this guy alive if we're ever gonna find out who the hell is behind all this." "You want to avenge Luke, I get it." "Rafe, you've got Christie and you've got Quentin sitting at home and someone is doing their damnedest to destroy the town they live in." "You know Luke begged for his life like a little girl." " Hey, we need answers from this guy." " I know what I'm doing, lawman." "Do you wanna know why he was helping me?" "Hey!" "What?" "You trying to die for the cause?" "It was because he needed money so he could get away from Defiance and get away from you." " Rafe..." " That's what's so laughable about all this." "You came down here to avenge poor ole Luke and he hated your guts!" "I mean, after what you did to his mother..." " Shut up!" " Hey!" "Now, you can do the right thing by your dead child or you can do the right thing by the two living ones." "But you cannot do both!" "Now, you make your choice right now!" "Tell Amanda" "I'm sorry." "It's pretty quiet out there." "The Mayor said she'll be right over." "Maybe we'll be all right." "They'll come for him." "This was a mistake." "You were stupid to help me." "You made a move and I backed you up." "That's what lawkeepers do." "Clancy taught me that." "You were stupid to listen to him." "Shtako." " How many?" " I can see Datak and that Bio-man." "You, go around the side." "Hand over the coward." "I'm afraid we can't do that, FA-vi Tarr." "This is a Castithan matter and will be handled by Castithans." "If you take another step, my first bullet kills you." "Charming girl." "Now, we can go around you or through you." "The choice is yours." "All right, get Levon in to the doctor." "All right, Rafe." "That's enough, Datak." "Irisa and Tommy are acting under my orders." "I've decided to pardon Elah Bandik of all violations of Castithan law." "Well, you don't have that power." "Well, if you take him, you're going to have to shoot up this office and kill me." "What do you suppose is going on in there?" "Nothing good." "Nak, you'd better come with us." " It's not your fight, Rafe." " I owe you one, Nolan." "So, what's it gonna be, Datak?" "Pointless bloodshed, or are we going to work out our differences together, peacefully?" "Madame Mayor, your passion has touched my heart." "We are indeed one community." "Enough blood has been spilled." "Tonight, let us bury our dead with dignity." "And later, who knows?" "Perhaps we can revisit these cultural differences with cooler heads." "I'll see you at the wedding." "Appreciate the help, Rafe." "That could've gone badly." "It would've been cleaner if it had." "I gotta go check on my man." "Amanda." "Let's go, Nak." "Come on, I'll walk you home." "You know it's not over with Datak." "I know." "Where's Ben?" "Dead." "He did say to tell you he's sorry." "Aren't we all?" "The town's safe, for the moment." "I'll take it." "You can give me the details later." "But for now, I've got 41 people to bury." "So, what'd you do, bust him out?" "I don't like chains." "You did the right thing." "Amanda helped." "Wow." "So we were right to trust her." "Are we ever gonna make it to Antarctica?" "Antarctica's not real, kid." " You sure of that?" " Nope." "No." "But this town is." "I'm sure of that." "Tonight we gather to honour the 41 souls who gave their lives to save this town." "They were our mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters." "But to us, they were heroes." "Thank you." "For letting me have some time with my family." "Of course." "What you're doing is brave and honourable."