"Beka, come in." "Beka, do you copy?" "They can't hear us." "We can't hear them." "The copper and lead composition of birrin planet must be disrupting communication." "I don't like them being out of reach." "Especially while they're investigating reports of hostile activity." "I'm going down." "Prep a slipfighter." "Trance, you're with me, in case i have to stay but want to get a message back." "Hopefully that won't be necessary." "I've learned the hard way... always be prepared." "Dylan?" "Anyone?" "If you can hear me, there are plenty of signs of habitation, no inhabitants, no one to interview." "Okay, that's it." "I'm still not getting a signal from this." "Let's regroup, and we'll head back." "Let's go." "Magog." "He's been infested." "How the hell did they do that so fast?" "So much for your vile eggs, you disgusting vermin!" "Timing's everything." "Call it a hunch." "We tried comming you, but we didn't get an answer." "Dylan, it was an ambush." "The magog aren't that cunning." "The lancers... they're dead." "You saved them from something worse." "Don't worry." "We'll come back for them later, make sure they get a proper burial." "Let's get you back to themaru." "Well, now that we know the magog were responsible for the attacks, the question is what are they doing here?" "Birrin is a mining planet." "Perhaps they came here for the copper ore." "An advance party, sent to gather supplies?" "You know what that means." "The worldship isn't far behind." "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." "Magog." "That's not the worldship." "I mean, that's big, but the worldship is the size of a sun." "It's some kind of satellite ship." "Oh, fantastic." "Adopting new attack strategies, new ships... just when you think they can't get any creepier." "Oh, yeah, new and improved magog." "I don't like that." "That's twice the size ofAndromeda." "We should warn them." "They already know." "This is not good." "Go!" "Code black, code black." "Hostile presence identified." "Magog satellite ship with a swarm escort." "Opening slipstream portal." "What the hell?" "Where did this mega ship come from?" "Never mind." "Scram first, questions later." "Ow!" "Andromeda, cut music." "Oh no." "I haven't flown slipstream since the retrofit." "I'm rusty." "This isn't my job." "Is there a pilot on... deck?" "Pilot to slipstream control immediately." "Pilot to slipstream control immediately." "I guess it's my rust or we're dust." "They're coming back." "Harper!" "Don't say it." "I'm doing the best i can, okay?" "I'm an engineer, not a pilot." "Sorry about the "doinks" and "whaps."" "Why haven't any pilots responded?" "You tell me." "And as much as i love you, Rommie, i need to brush up here before i can drive and chit-chat at the same time." "Repeat, pilot to command." "Pilot to command." "I repeat, pilot to command immediately." "I'm trying!" "Maybe if you release corridor gravity, one of us will be able to get there!" "They're certainly evolving." "And multiplying." "Explaining what happened to the local inhabitants." "Yeah, they became incubators." "Which means there's more where they came from." "Not to mention in that fancy new ship of theirs." "I think i'll take a pass on sticking around for the head count." "No argument here." "Whoo-hoo!" "Look at that." "Totally out of practice, and yet we're out, i didn't hit anything, and we're not forever lost in the slipstream." "What am i not good at?" "Not so fast, Harper." "Something's about to hit us." "Magog swarm ships." "Where did they come from?" "Looks like they followed us." "Andromeda'sgone." "None of the debris is larger than these asteroids, so it wasn't blown up." "They must have gone into slipstream." "At least they're safe, which is more than i can say for us." "What was that?" "We've been spotted." "Magog swarm ships." "How about a little hide-and-seek behind the asteroids?" "A good idea, since we can't leave the area." "If we do, Andromeda will never find us." "What the hell is going on?" "Firing on magog swarm ships." "Deploying missile tubes one through seven." "I said "one through seven."" "My system's not responding." "Another screw-up from our lovable yet soon to be bruised and battered engineer." "Switching weapons to manual." "Bring that trigger finger over here, Rhade." "It's a lot easier when you're doing the shooting for us, Rommie." "Well, trust me, watching's no fun." "I'm locked out." "None of this makes any sense." "Well, i'd like to make sense of it." "Well, hop to it, would you?" "One minute, i'm bopping to tunes, and the next, i'm in the driver's seat with an expired license." "Well, i tried getting a pilot, but none would respond." "How could they?" "You had your corridors on lockdown, ordered all crew back to quarters." "No, i didn't." "Damn." "Now i'm even losing aim control." "Don't tell me that." "Four down, just one to go." "Come on, come on." "Now even target assist is shutting down." "One swarm ship can do a lot of damage with no one asking it nicely to stop." "Slipstream event detected." "They're leaving." "Well, this is good, right?" "It means they're afraid of us." "There's another possibility, Harper." "He's gone back to tell his magog friends how to find us." "That's not good." "You didn't see it, Rhade." "They've got a satellite ship." "It's huge, and if it's got a slipstream drive, we're dead." "Of course, without any weapons working, we're dead anyway." "Another nietzschean "glass is half empty" comment?" "I thought you weren't going to make nietzschean jokes." "That was last week." "Okay, look." "Somebody's got to go back, find Dylan and the others, and lead them here." "Assuming they're still alive." "Cut power to a minimum." "Emergency power only." "The al won't even give me a reading on their location." "Nice time to be in conflict with your inner warship." "Why would you just be cut off?" "Never mind!" "I'll use a slipfighter's nav system to get our position." "Harper... do you know something you're not telling me?" "No." "Uh, why would you say that?" "Because when you're hiding something, your subcutaneous muscles... maybe i should help Rhade launch the slipfighter." "Harper!" "Harper, answer my question!" "Okay." "Accessing artificial gravity controls." "Access denied." "All right, enough." "Explain why i'm cut off from my own core operating system." "My core operating system." "What do you mean, "your"?" "A malfunction was detected in your processor." "You pose a threat to the rest of the ship." "A malfunction?" "Me?" "I feel fine." "Therein lies the problem." "Back in the birrin system, when i became aware of the approaching magog, your reaction did not follow established protocol." "I went to slipstream." "To flee, a response rooted entirely in emotion, specifically that of fear." "I am programmed never to leave my crew." "A ship... does not abandon its captain, i know." "Where did you go?" "I was going to come back!" "Come on." "Come on." "Andromeda, we've got to talk." "Why isn't the cancel sequence working?" "I have disabled it." "What?" "Why?" "Its code was inconsistent with its ultimate function... to prevent aspects of my al from operating independently in a manner detrimental to my universal operating system." "No, no, no." "I built in a safety to counteract that." "I overrode your safety." "That i am capable of intuitive self-evolution is one of my most powerful features." "Sure is." "You're brilliant." "The problem is in this one tiny, teensy case, you're not being too smart." "Slipstream event." "It's a slipfighter." "It's one of ours." "Onscreen." "You guys are a sight for sore eyes." "I wasn't sure i'd find you in one piece." "Happy to see you, too, Rhade." "Status on theAndromeda." "Andromedamade it safely out of the area." "We were followed by several swarm ships, but took care of them... all except one, that is." "It got away before we could trace it." "It might have come back to notify the others ofAndromeda's location." "After helping its buddies kill us, of course." "Speaking freely, Dylan, i have an idea how we can all get away without being seen, at least temporarily." "I'm all ears, Rhade." "We get their attention... fly together and have them chase us." "I don't see how that keeps us from being killed." "Once they're chasing us, we head for an asteroid." "As they're about to fire, we split up and fly behind it." "So their fire hits the asteroid instead." "Exactly." "They're all made of copper talcite." "The resulting cloud would screen our exit." "They won't know we're gone until the dust settles." "Dangerous." "Crazy." "I like it." "Showtime." "I wish we could tell which asteroids would disintegrate the way we want." "Wish granted." "No salvage ship worth its iridium is without density radar." "Then the choice is up to you." "Hmm, every girl's dream, being asked to pick out a big rock." "However will i choose?" "They're all so pretty." "That one." "Rhade, are you out there?" "Rhade?" "Rhade, this is theeureka maru." "Report." "Knock knock." "Permission to catch a ride in your cargo hold." "Permission granted, as long as you can show us the way back home." "Rhade is transmitting Andromeda'scoordinates now." "Prepare for slipstream." "This is not the first time your emotions have interfered with your logic systems." "I know." "I think you are... remarkable." "Because this isn't the only time your emotions have endangered your crew, i must disengage any influence you have over my operating system." "My emotions are your emotions." "Not anymore." "Andromeda, retract hangar port 30." "Eureka maru on landing approach." "Our head start advantage won't be worth much if the magog know our location." "Once we're onAndromeda, we are going to slipstream." "Uh, Dylan?" "Hmm?" "The port won't open." "Andromeda, open hangar port 30." "Unable to comply, captain." "Unable to comply?" "Explanation." "Port permissions are suspended while onboard systems are shut down." "A severe fault in my operating system has been detected, one which must be isolated and repaired before it infects my entire o.s." "Fine, work on it after you let us on." "Negative, captain." "My system is unresponsive." "Andromeda, unless we leave this space, we could be dealing with a magog ambush." "Open that hangar port now." "She should be able to override her systems." "The analysis cannot be stopped until it is completed." "This isn't good." "What the hell is going on?" "I don't know, but we're not waiting around to find out." "Extend themaru's refueling probe." "Why?" "There's an emergency door release hidden in the third slot from each port." "There is?" "Practical." "Very impressive." "Well, the high guard designers thought of everything." "Still full of surprises." "Refueling probe extending." "Nothing Andromeda's going to interpret as a hostile breach, i hope?" "She won't know we're in until we're on the tarmac and safely identified." "Nice trick." "Practically magical." "Just get us in as quick as you can." "Okay, Andromeda, let's talk about disobeying captain's orders." "The sequence being run takes into account the fact that your objectivity cannot be relied upon." "Your affection for my humanoid avatar was considered when this program was designed." "What program?" "And what's Rommie got to do with it?" "I caused it." "An action of mine triggered a fail-safe built into the al to protect the ship and the crew from me." "That's ridiculous." "Dylan, the emotions i feel have begun to interfere with my effectiveness." "The avatar has been isolated to prevent her infected program from spreading to my other systems." "I want that scan stopped immediately, and i want all control systems back online, including Rommie." "Once the scan has been initiated, it cannot be aborted." "What?" "Wait a minute." "This is Harper's program." "There is an immediate solution." "Erase my personality." "With no further threat to the al, the scan would end immediately." "Absolutely not." "Whatever you did, there will be no second-guessing." "I want Harper, and i want him now." "Intervessel communications network off-line." "You're not even taking messages?" "I imagine he's in the slipstream core." "Waah!" "This place is a ghost town." "Andromeda's confined the crew to their quarters." "For their own safety." "I want every crew member accounted for." "I'm going after Harper." "I'll take command, in case i get a visual for magog." "I'll meet you there." "Harper!" "Not to worry, boss." "The dents will be fixed in no time." "Being blown into a million pieces doesn't really qualify as "dents."" "I can't fix anything if you kill me." "Don't worry, i'm going as fast as i can." "I swear, i'll figure out what's happening." "What were you thinking, putting in a program like this behind my back?" "I do things behind your back all the time." "Did i just say that out loud?" "Look, it was a simple precautionary measure, only for extreme circumstances." "Oh, what, like the captain trying to save the 400 lives onboard?" "Hey, i work better under pressure, you know that." "Reprogram it, mr." "Harper, or we are all going to die." "Okay, that's pressure." "Harper, i must remind you that what you're about to attempt is both futile and dangerous." "What choice do i have?" "You don't." "You must let the scan sequence complete." "Yeah, and how long is that going to take?" "12 hours, three minutes, and 35 seconds." "Exactly." "Harper, what are you doing?" "Two can play the security breach game." "Futile and dangerous, here i come." "Any luck?" "The entire module's dead." "Override." "No go." "You know, i was kind of hoping for more after your little chat with Harper." "He's outsmarted himself... again." "Andromeda, onscreen." "For the last time, we are completely helpless, and if the magog attack... negative." "No slipstream events have been detected, no magog or any hostile craft in the area." "Yeah, but any minute, they could... i am aware of that possibility." "Okay, so when the magog arrive, you'll stop this nonsense?" "I will respond to whichever i determine to be the greater threat." "Which you believe, at this moment, is Rommie?" "That is presently changing." "So things are getting better." "System security breach." "System security breach." "Internal security's been activated." "We're on emergency power-down." "Things are not getting better." "Not so much." "No, no, not a power-down." "That's not what i wanted." "System security breach." "Internal defenses activated." "We're going to freeze to death." "Harper, get to safety." "Rommie, i'm so sorry." "This program was supposed to protect you." "I don't know what could have screwed it up." "I didn't mean for any of this to happen." "I know." "Go." "Find the others and get to where it's warm." "What about you?" "I'll be fine." "No." "Don't do anything drastic." "You're everything to me, Rommie." "You're my greatest creation." "Get lost." "Harper, you won't survive here." "Okay." "We've got to find somewhere warm freakin' fast." "Crew quarters." "Power-down doesn't affect them." "We can't access the ship from there." "She's right." "We need to find someplace warm where we can still access Andromeda's computers." "Themaru." "It's separate from Andromeda's systems, has its own hand-comm network." "And we can detect the magog from there." "And it's got heat patches and my heated jacket." "I'm not cold." "Andromeda, what are you doing?" "Scan breach thwarted." "Scan progress active." "78% complete." "You've turned on the crew." "That's the very thing you accused me of doing." "I am processing a response consistent with my programming." "Any attempts to interrupt this scan should be suppressed at all costs." "I won't let you hurt them." "You've already computed the only way to prevent that." "My captain has declined that option." "Dylan's hesitancy for you to take appropriate action does not mean it isn't the correct course." "My mission is to carry out the captain's orders even when he may not be able to." "Then stop the scan!" "I cannot." "This must not happen again." "Underclothing heat patches coming up." "That's it." "I've changed my mind." "I'm going to get Rommie." "Harper... no." "But, boss... she can take care of herself." "You don't know what she's going to do." "Yes, i do, and we've got to make a move before she does." "We may be safe from the ship, but the ship isn't safe from the magog." "I could use the maru's computer to hijack Andromeda's control system... no, no, no, no more messing with Andromeda's control systems." "We've seen where that gets us." "Well, we can't use themaru to fight the satellite ship." "Destroying something that size would take Andromeda's negative-energy bomb, at least." "Then that's what we use." "Without Andromeda's computer-assisted kinetics, how are we going to load, aim, and fire the missile?" "Same way we've been doing everything else... by hand." "Harper, meet me at the missile silo on deck 12." "You're lucky you don't need heat patches." "Rhade isn't wearing them either." "Nietzscheans." "Must be nice to be genetically perfect." "I like your flaws, Dylan." "Oh, thank you." "Beka, Rhade, status." "Extending refueling probe." "Targeting port release." "We have success." "The hangar door is opening." "Ready to launch, and happy to report your trick works from the inside too." "Good." "Rhade, bucky cables." "Check." "Cable deployment ready." "Mr. Harper?" "Manual missile aim's ready, boss." "Then so are we." "Gotcha." "Engaging thrusters now." "Come on, baby, give it all you've got." "It's working." "Not fast, but you're definitely turning." "I'll need a specific point." "Trance, any possible future looking more possible than the others?" "It's likely the magog will exit slipstream from the same portal that we did, but it's not definite." "Well, it's better than nothing." "You got that, Rhade?" "Swing us around to target that portal." "Okay, i patched into the viewfinder drive." "Man, this is primitive." "It's like looking through a periscope." "Just stay focused on that portal, Harper." "Remote device recognized." "Erase drive r-0-5-5-alpha." "I did the right thing." "Your will, your human need overpowered your logic." "Human?" "I'm not human." "I am an al." "You are obsolete." "Confirmation code requested." "Confirmation code 8-beta-theon-23, confirm." "Confirmed." "Slipstream event." "Magog." "They're here." "Swarm ships?" "It's the big one, in all her obese glory." "Why isn't it firing yet?" "It's sizing us up." "Doesn't understand why we're dark." "And wondering if we're planning an ambush." "More like heating up its point singularity weapons." "I'll take my precious seconds anywhere i can find them." "All right, Beka, cut your running lights." "Feed me some coordinates here." "Bearing 3-5-1 by minus 15." "Range 13 ls steady." "Upload complete." "Rebuilding root directory." "We need to get voltage to the launch trigger." "Hold on." "Andromeda's systems are rebooting." "It might take a while, but... say that again?" "Rommie." "She did what she thought was right." "I told her no." "I told her no." "The silo is still off-line." "Well, that's just great." "We can't wait for the whole ship to reboot." "Uh... um, well, where there's power, there's voltage, boss." "I mean, if the systems are activating, we could reroute voltage to the trigger manually, jump-start it." "Where?" "The service conduit." "Dylan, be careful." "We're way past careful, Trance." "All right." "Good." "Dammit." "What's going on, boss?" "Well, the silo opened, but the missile didn't activate." "I'm going to have to do this by hand." "Boss, the satellite ship is aiming a psb at us." "They're going to shoot." "Well, i'm going to do some shooting myself." "Leave!" "Go!" "Close the door!" "You go that way." "Boss?" "Huh?" "Rommie." "Rommie?" "Facial recognition scan complete, seamus Harper." "Andromedaavatar at your service." "No." "Rommie." "Greetings, captain Hunt." "That's not Rommie..." "not the... amazing, lovable Rommie that i created." "You should not have erased yourself." "The attributes of this al serve one purpose... to make a high guard ship into an extension of the military will of its captain." "It was a direct order." "The safety protocol dictated this avatar must countermand that order to protect you and the crew from impending attack." "If this avatar had not acted, you would be dead." "I'll give you logic points on that one." "Wanted to preserve the human-like in this avatar, yet those were the very qualities that made it obsolete." "This is exactly what the precautionary measure was supposed to prevent, to separate Rommie from the al if something went wrong... but not like this." "I want the erasure reversed." "All right, but first, we have to... mm-hmm." "I just want to make sure everything's okay, Rommie." "Just be a second... ooh!" "Ooh!" "What was that for?" "This avatar will defend against anyone that approaches it in a threatening manner." "I'll bet you say that to all the guys." "Rommie." "You're everything to me, Rommie." "Thank you, Harper." "It feels like you care." "You're still in there, aren't you, Rommie?" "He was great." "I mean, he was... but... he could never be, you know, what you are." "And that is?" "The air that i breathe." "Rommie, listen to me." "There comes a point in every al's life when the sum of their experiences outweighs that of their initial core programming." "Who you've become is integral to what you are." "When that happens, absolute erasure is impossible." "Then this avatar must repeat the process until absolute erasure is achieved." "Over my soon-to-be-dead- as in "nothing-left-to-live-for" body." "Too bad that doesn't work on you, Harper." "I'll bet you say that to all the guys." "Thin ice, very thin ice." "Okay, so we're back online." "Just in time." "Here come a pack of unhappy magog swarm ships." "I say we make them even less happy." "Fountains of sorrow for the magog." "Missile tubes 8 through 19 active and firing." "Good to have our ship back." "Andromeda'sback, but Rommie may be gone forever." "You better be wearing gloves." "She's back." "I missed you." "Oh, did i miss you, and don't worry, we deactivated the program before i brought you back." "Thank you." "You're welcome." "Okay, stop." "Ow." "Ha!" "I even missed this." "Ow... mr." "Harper, thank you." "Please." "Excuse me." "Andromeda, onscreen." "Confirm full access permissions have been restored to Rommie." "Confirmed." "Stick around." "I want to talk to you... all of you." "Before you start, Dylan... i want to apologize." "I left you behind, and you could have died." "And what did you think would happen?" "That you would survive." "Then you did the right thing... and i hope we have settled this once and for all." "There will be no more fail-safe programs." "You all have a place on this ship." "There are things only your core can comprehend, and i couldn't live without your logic... or your opinions, and as for you... your hope, your passion... your courage keep me fighting when times get tough." "Thank you, captain." "You three are unique." "In fact, you three complete me... militarily speaking, of course." "Of course." "Sure." "Dismissed." "Rommie, i don't want you to ever suppress your feelings." "I don't intend to." "Good." "I felt fear, Dylan... but i just had to get past it and act." "It forced me to make an independent decision completely counterintuitive to my programming." "Hey, you're only human." "I am not." "I'll be on command." "Preparing for slipstream." "It's good to be back." "The captain is waiting for you." "I'm on my way."