Air Date: Aug 25, 2000
Written by Justin Monjo
Directed by Ian Watson
Transcript by Xenajules2
Edited and put on-line by Bluey
Episode 2.16 - The Locket
PROLOGUE
Looking out through Moya's forward viewing screen there are strange green and yellow swirling clouds all around, with a sort of a rainbow through them. There is a sound almost like wind. John is leaning against a control console, resting his chin on his folded arms, and staring at the mist.
D'Argo approaches him: "Anything?"
John: "Nothing. Thanks." D'Argo hands him a cup.
John: "There's no sign of her on any of Moya's sensors. Course we can't see more than 300 metras in this stuff....it's thicker than pea soup."
Pilot: "Crichton. Moya's never traveled in a stellar mist as compressed as this. I'm having trouble accelerating and navigating." We see Stark listening as Pilot comms.
Pilot: "Perhaps Aeryn's experiencing similar difficulties out there in a transport pod."
D'Argo: "Let's hope that's all it is, Pilot."
Stark is still listening, arms crossed, a serious look on his face.
Zhaan approaches him from behind: "Stark?" He turns to face her. "Stark, is that you?"
Zhaan's face breaks into a wide smile and she clasps her hands on Stark's arms.
Zhaan: "I never thought we'd see you again. I was meditating. When did you come aboard?"
Stark: "Almost two solar days ago. I finally returned the transport pod you lent me after we escaped from the Gammak base. I'm glad you woke. I must talk to you privately. I have something important to tell you."
Rygel arrives on his throne sled: "Hmm. What are you doing out here, Zhaan. I thought you were locked in your chamber, meditating."
Zhaan: "I was, but I woke early from my time with the Goddess." She hurries over to where John and D'Argo are still staring out at the mist.
D'Argo: "Aeryn went out to that. We haven't heard from her since. Perhaps you sensed the danger and that's what woke you."
Zhaan: "How long's she been gone?"
John: "One solar day. Thought we'd hide in this fog, or whatever it is, from the Peacekeepers. Aeryn went on long-range recon and she hasn't come back yet."
Zhaan: "No signal from her?"
John: "Nothing."
Suddenly, there is the sound of staticy beeping.
Aeryn (voice sounds distorted): "Moya. Is that you?"
D'Argo: "Aeryn?"
John: "Aeryn?"
D'Argo: "Where the hezmana have you been?"
Aeryn, still sounding distorted: "D'Argo. I'll come onboard now, it that's all right."
John: "Yeah! We've been lookin for ya. Aeryn?"
The signal seems to have gone to static.
John: "Aeryn?! Pilot, I've lost the transmission."
Pilot: "I'm locked on her position, but...some kind of opening is forming in the mist. I can see a planet below us now."
John looks perplexed.
Outside, the mist is swirling in a different pattern. A transport pod appears, rising through the mist and enters Moya's docking bay.
As the hanger doors open, John, D'Argo, Chiana, Zhaan and Rygel are watching and waiting. The transport pod has landed. Its hatch opens and stairs descend. The pod looks as if it is falling apart, as do the stairs.
Rygel: "What did Aeryn do to it?"
Chiana: "Well..."
Rygel: "Looks like she's been in some kind of...battle."
Chiana: "I told you. I told you she shouldn't have gone out in the mist."
John and Chiana step a little closer to the pod and continue staring...waiting.
D'Argo: "Why isn't she coming out?"
John looks back at him and holds up his hand: "D'Argo."
D'Argo picks up a pulse pistol and tosses it to John. John catches it and adjusts his grip. He runs towards the transport pod stairs.
John runs up the stairs, followed by Zhaan and the others. John pushes the inner hatch open to find that the transport pod is overgrown with vines.
John: "Whoa. What the hell?"
Zhaan follows John into the pod: "This is zeccan leaf."
John: "Yeah, so?"
Zhaan takes a piece of vine and feels it: "I gave Aeryn a plant before...before I started my meditation. She said she was suffering from head pains. So...Chewing zeccan leaf provides a potent neuralgesic affect."
John, wandering around a little in the vines: "You don't think maybe this is overkill for a headache?"
Zhaan: "Well, no. No. The plant I gave her was this tiny." She indicates with her hands, maybe six inches to a foot size.
John still has his pistol at the ready. He whispers: "Blue! Over here!"
John lowers himself to look at a shrouded figure that is lying face down before him.
John: "Hey."
The figure gasps and starts. It half sits and turns its face upwards: "John." It becomes apparent that the figure is a greatly changed, aged Aeryn.
Old Aeryn: "John, you have got to get out of here. You have to get out now."
END OF PROLOGUE
ACT ONE
Aeryn has removed her headcovering. Her hair is fairly short and totally white. Her face is wrinkled and aged looking and her voice is unsteady.
Aeryn: "How long...how...how...how long have I been here?"
John: "Not long. Maybe an arn."
Aeryn: "An arn?"
John: "Yes."
Aeryn: "The mist. The opening...it...it goes. I have to go back to the planet. My granddaughter's waiting..."
John starts talking on top of her: "Sit back down..."
Aeryn: "...for me. Ennixx can't survive without my transport pod!"
John: "Aeryn! Shhh."
Aeryn: "There's no other way off the planet. No, I...No. I only came back to warn you to get out of the mist as soon as possible, while you still can."
John: "Aeryn, Aeryn..."
Aeryn: "No."
John, takes her hands: "Stop it, stop it. You can not have a family, a granddaughter. You've only been gone for one solar day."
Aeryn: "One day?"
John: "Yes."
Aeryn: "Hmm."
John: "Look. You're wearing the locket..." He picks up and holds the locket that Aeryn has around her neck: "The locket that Chiana gave you. The one that says "Sorry I smashed your prowler." The one she stole from the last commerce planet we were on."
Aeryn: "She stole it?"
John: "Yes."
Aeryn: "She told me she bought it."
John: "Well, that's Chi."
Aeryn: "Look. If I've only been gone one solar day, then why am I so old? Why...why...why everything I've lived...my memories...everything?"
John: "Aeryn. Aern, we don't know! We're trying to find that out. Maybe...maybe your mind created the memories to compensate for your body getting old."
Aeryn: "Look at you!" Her voice has tears in it: "I'd forgotten how beautiful you were."
Aeryn tenderly traces a finger down the side of John's face: "You're so young." She smiles at him. "I'd also forgotten how wrong you could be. If I've only been away for one solar day..." She fingers the locket: "How did this locket here get so old?!"
John: "Aeryn. It's an antique locket."
Aeryn: "I don't care what any of you say, I have lived for a hundred and sixty-five cycles. I have had three sons and watched them die, and I have a granddaughter..."
Zhaan: "Aeryn, stop."
Aeryn: "...who will die if I don't get to her!" Aeryn struggles to get away from John.
John, holding her arms: "Aeryn. Aeryn. Aeryn."
Stark comes into the hanger: "May I?"
Zhaan: "Please."
John and Aeryn continue to struggle. John says "Aeryn" repeatedly.
Aeryn: "No!"
John: "Stop. Stop."
Aeryn: "Please."
John: "Stop it. Stop it."
Aeryn: "Get your hands away from me." She is lying down, flailing away at him.
John: "No. No."
Stark comes closer and lifts his mask so the light from his face shines on Aeryn. She is crying, as Stark completely removes his mask and places his hand on her head.
Stark: "There. Take my thoughts. There. Can you feel it?"
Aeryn: "Mm mm."
John: "Shh."
Aeryn's crying eases.
John whispers to Stark: "Thank you." He gets up: "Zhaan."
John and Zhaan walk a little way away from Aeryn and Stark.
John: "Do you have any idea what's happened to her?"
Zhaan: "Not as yet. I know it is Aeryn. Same DNA, same blood composition, same scars. By my best calculation, she
has aged one hundred and sixty cycles."
John: "In one day?"
Zhaan: "I've heard of rapid aging, but nothing this fast."
John: "Is it reversible?"
Zhaan: "It's unlikely."
John comms: "Pilot?"
Pilot: "Yes?"
John: "You've got anything yet?" He and Chiana are on Command, listening and eating.
Pilot: "I've been analyzing the stellar mist. It seems to be contracting more, but Moya's sensors don't find any toxins in it that might have caused Aeryn to age like this."
John: "Have you analyzed the planet?"
Pilot: "Yes. Its atmosphere is acidic and barely life-sustainable."
John: "Could Aeryn have survived there for a hundred and sixty cycles?"
Pilot: "No. She wouldn't have survived one."
Chiana is in the doorway to Aeryn's transport pod. The pod's insides are totally overgrown with vines.
Chiana sighs in amazement: "Would you look at this frelling place?"
Rygel: "Fascinating. What are we doing here?"
Rygel and Chiana enter the pod.
Chiana: "Oh, we're just seeing if Aeryn came back with anything."
Rygel: "But why? She's only been gone a solar day. You don't believe that other yotz, do ya?"
Chiana: "No. But she still might've come back with something...interesting."
Rygel: "Are you gonna steal it?"
Chiana: "Course not."
Rygel laughs evilly as D'Argo arrives at the transport pods doorway.
Rygel: "You're worse than me. I like that." Rygel continues to laugh.
D'Argo: "What are you doing in here?"
Rygel (still laughing): "Nothing. We're looking...for clues..."
D'Argo sighs in exasperation.
Rygel: "...to see if we can find out how this terrible, terrible thing happened to Aeryn."
D'Argo grabs Rygel's lips and holds them closed to shut him up.
Rygel: "Mmmm!mmm!"
D'Argo: "Chiana."
Chiana pops up from inside the vines where she has been hiding: "Yah?"
D'Argo: "There's no dignity in what you are doing. Zhaan would like someone to look after Aeryn. Would you do that please?"
Chiana: "Well, you know Aeryn. Why don't you watch her?"
D'Argo: "Chiana..."
Chiana: "Ah, frell! I don't see why it's always gotta be me! I mean. why do you always get the girls..."
D'Argo shouts: "Just do it! She may be dying."
Chiana quietly approaches the sleeping Aeryn and gently touches her arm with a finger. She stares intently at her as she lightly rubs her forehead. Aeryn coughs and wakes.
Chiana: "Hey. I didn't mean to wake you."
Aeryn looks over at her and smiles: "Hi Chiana." She coughs again and puts a hand on Chiana's shoulder.
Aeryn: "Would you help me sit up?"
Chiana: "Sure." She reaches around Aeryn and lifts her to a sitting position.
Chiana: "Is that okay?"
Aeryn smiles at her: "Mmm."
Chiana whispers: "Hey."
Aeryn nods and points: "There's some water over there..."
As Chiana turns her head to go get the water, Aeryn sticks a hypospray in her neck and squeezes it. We hear a hissing sound as the drug deploys.
Chiana gasps.
Aeryn: "I'm sorry. Don't make a sound Chiana."
Chiana: "Huah!" Her head flops backwards onto Aeryn's arm.
Aeryn: "No, no, no."
Chiana continues to make gasping, crying sounds as Aeryn lowers her.
Aeryn: "I'm sorry Chiana. That's it. That's it. I'm sorry. It's just I don't have much time...and neither do you. Shhh."
In Pilot's den...
Pilot: "Aeryn...what happened to you?"
Aeryn is standing, looking at Pilot. She reaches out to touch him with one hand.
Aeryn: "I lived, Pilot. If you don't believe me, you still must convince the others to stay out of the mist."
Pilot, watching her, sighs.
Aeryn: "I'm glad I got a chance to see you one last time, my friend."
Pilot: "What do you mean? I'll see you...again."
Aeryn's voice breaks a bit: "No, you won't." She pats him once. "Good-bye."
Pilot sighs a deep sigh as Aeryn turns and walks away.
A transport pod is exiting Moya.
D'Argo comms from Command: "Pilot, you let her leave?"
Pilot: "She asked me not to alert you. You're all free to come and go."
John: "Are you certain this mist is harmless?"
Pilot: "It seems to be, yes."
John: "And, if I go down to the planet I'm not gonna age 200 cycles, right." He gets up from the console where he had been sitting.
Pilot: "Moya has not sensed anything on the planet to cause the accelerated aging we observed in Aeryn." John starts to leave Command.
D'Argo: "John. We do not know what made Aeryn grow old."
John turns back to answer him: "She will die if I don't go. I'm gonna go get her, pick her up, bring her back. I'll be on the surface 30 microts, max. Worse case scenerio, I age a couple years."
D'Argo watches as John leaves Command.
A transport pod can be seen and heard flying through the mist, towards the planet.
We see the backs of John's legs as he descends the transport pods stairs. He steps out onto a totally barren, windswept landscape.
John hollers: "Aer...yn? Aeryn!" He takes a couple of steps away from the pod and tries again.
John: "Aeryn!"
Off in the distance, barely visible through the sandy haze, Aeryn appears by some rocks, holding a rifle.
John: "I've come to take you back to Moya!"
Aeryn: "Go back, before it's too late!"
John: "I'm not leaving without you. Aeryn, look around you. Is this where you lived for the last hundred and sixty cycles? You could not have lived here!" Aeryn is approaching him, but John still has to yell to be heard over the wind.
Aeryn has to shout as well: "I didn't live here. I lived on another planet...another place."
John: "Aeryn, there's nobody here. No one. There's nothing."
Aeryn, still shouting: "You don't know what you're talking about! Now please, just go."
Aeryn has come all the way to John, and he grabs her arm. When he does, she tries to pull away.
John: "Aeryn, no! Come back with me to Moya."
Aeryn: "Just stop it! Don't..."
Aeryn slips and falls to the ground behind a rock.
John: "Aeryn...whoa!"
A shot from a pulse weapon hits the top of a boulder near John's head. He pulls his weapon and wheels around to see who is shooting at him.
A woman, dressed similarly to Aeryn, with a scarf over her head, is looking at John, with her rifle pointed right at him.
Woman: "Put the rifle down. Now."
John lets the rifle fall limp in his hand.
Woman: "You touch my grandmother again and I will kill you."
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
John is standing on the barren, windswept planet. Aeryn lies nearby with her granddaughter sitting beside her holding a rifle that is pointed at John.
John: "Wait a minute. You're Aeryn's granddaughter?"
Woman(Ennixx): "Of course. Who the frell are you?"
John: "I'm John Crichton."
Ennixx: "You're Crichton?"
John: "Yah."
Ennixx: "Huh. She wasn't making it all up. You're real."
She and John look closely at each other. They are facing each other, over the fallen Aeryn.
Ennixx: "All her life, Grandmother's talked about you. About a...a ship."
John: "Moya."
Ennixx: "Yah. Everyone...my father... her own son thought she was crazy. She kept returning to this Bulla forsaken hellhole every cycle, checking to see if you'd come back."
John: "She's only been gone for one solar day."
Ennixx: "A DAY? I'm twenty-four cycles old. I'm her granddaughter."
John: "Well, I saw her... yesterday."
Aeryn starts to cough.
Ennixx: "It's all right, Nana. I'm here." She puts a hand behind Aeryn's head.
Aeryn: "No."
Ennixx: "I'm here."
Aeryn, still coughing: "John, go. Leave." The woman helps her lift her head.
John: "No. I came to take you back."
Aeryn struggles to sit up, while John and Ennixx help her.
Aeryn: "But the opening only last for four arns. It goes away. You have to go...now."
John: "I'm not gonna leave you."
Aeryn: "I'm trying to save you. If you don't go, you'll get trapped for fifty-five cycles. Trapped like I was." She has struggled to her feet and they all start to walk towards the transport pod.
John: "Aeryn, what the hell is goin on!?"
Aeryn: "Crichton. Go back to Moya. If you want to, come back in eight arns when the opening reappears. Come back down and you will find me then, but you must go now or you will be trapped."
They have reached the transport pod. John goes over to the stairs. He turns to look at her again and gestures to her: "Eight arns! Be here!"
On board Moya....
D'Argo is with Chiana who is sitting, head in hands, by the bed where Aeryn had been laying.
D'Argo: "How's your head?"
Chiana: "Like I've been kicked by a systic. Why did Aeryn spike me?"
D'Argo sighs: "Chiana...I didn't want to embarrass you in front of Rygel in the transport pod, but..."
Chiana: "You could never embarrass me."
D'Argo: "Maybe not. But you're one of us now. There's no need for you to act like you're not."
Chiana: "D'Argo...I always do what I want, okay? I don't know why. It's just the way I am."
D'Argo: "I understand that, but..."
Chiana: "Yah, but you're not gonna change me."
D'Argo: "I'm only just beginning to realize that."
Chiana: "You're pretty straight...huh?"
D'Argo: "Yes I am."
Chiana: "We're not gonna make it... are we?"
D'Argo stands, looking into Chiana's eyes.
Zhaan comms: "D'Argo! You'd better get up here. John's on his way back."
D'Argo finally turns to leave as Chiana watches him go.
A transport pod is flying through a black sky, leaving a trail behind it.
Inside, John Crichton sits at the controls, comming as he flies.
John: "Aeryn was telling the truth, or part of it. She had some kinda life down there. I met her granddaughter."
Zhaan and Stark are standing on Command, listening to John.
Zhaan whispers to Stark: "Granddaughter?"
John: "Yah. She said that they had to stay. She had to get back through the opening in the mist before it....whoa!"
The pod is jolted with a loud crash.
John: "Man. You guys feel that up there?"
D'Argo joins Stark and Zhaan on Command.
Pilot comms: "Crichton! Moya's sensors indicate that the opening in the mist seems to be closing."
John: "Estimated time to the hole, fifteen microts."
The crew on Command is listening as John's comms signal begins to break up.
John: "Man! Holding this thing together is a bitch."
D'Argo: "John, you're breaking up!"
(the only sound from John's comms is static)
Pilot: "Crichton. The planet is disappearing from Moya's sensors!"
D'Argo: "Pilot, what's happening?"
Pilot: "I don't think the transport pod will be able to survive entry."
D'Argo comms frantically: "John. You have to break entry. Break entry now!"
John: "Naw, that's okay. I can hold this thing together."
D'Argo: "John! John, can you hear me?"
There is no answer from the comms but static, then an open sound. Zhaan tries to clear the signal but to no avail.
D'Argo: "Pilot, what's happening? Pilot!"
The transport pod keeps flying towards the hole.
John: "Gonna make it. Gonna make it. Gonna make it. Entering the mist....now."
As the pod approaches the hole in the mist, Moya is visible for just a moment before the hole suddenly closes and the pod is thrown backwards into a normal night sky.
John: "Pilot? Pilot?" He tries a different channel: "D'Argo?"
Aboard Moya, Zhaan is in her quarters, meditating. The camera pans across her room and rests on her nude figure seated indian style on the bed, hands held out, resting on her knees.
Stark comes to her doorway: "Are you in prayer for Crichton?"
Zhaan takes a deep breath: "Yes." and releases it: "And Aeryn."
Stark opens her door and enters. He holds a silver cup, which he starts to give to Zhaan. He sees that she has closed her eyes again, and he quickly sets the cup down on a nearby table and goes to her.
Stark: "Zhaan..."
Zhaan opens her eyes at his voice, and smiles.
Stark: "I've thought of something we might try to attempt to discover what's happened to them."
Zhaan: "Tell me."
Stark: "An ancient named Delik theorized about what he called "Center Halos". He believed that scattered throughout the universe were mists where all dimensions met..." Stark uses his hands to illustrate: "...and time ceased to exist."
Zhaan: "What, uh...do you think that Moya is caught in one of these...Center Halos?"
Stark: "I thought...if you and I joined spirits..."
Zhaan: "Joined with you? What would that do?"
Stark: "I've been told that Delvians, during a mind link, can sense the time continuum."
Zhaan: "Yes, that is what we strive for, but...few have achieved it."
Stark: "I thought, maybe together, we could catch a glimpse and see if there's a void in the time continuum around Moya. See if no time exists in the mist."
Zhaan: "But, if I join spirits with you, your mind might overpower mine."
Zhaan looks at Stark's face and he looks back.
Stark: "It is possible."
Zhaan nods, then smiles. She gets up and puts on her robe. She stands in front of Stark and starts to put her hands on his head.
Zhaan: "Like so..."
Stark: "I will lead you."
Stark takes both her hands in his and clasps them between their bodies and touches his forehead to hers. The light begins to glow around them and a 'whoosing' sound can be heard. They both begin to glow as they fight to keep their hands clasped together. The room appears to begin to spin, faster and faster around them. The nearby table starts to shake, jiggling the water glass until the water begins to splash out. Zhaan has to grit her teeth to hold on. The room spins faster and faster. The pitch of the noise continues to rise. Until, suddenly, the glass falls off the table...and stops. The room is no longer spinning around Stark and Zhaan. They are stuck in slow-motion now, as they try to communicate with each other. Just as suddenly, Zhaan screams and they are thrown apart. Both Zhaan and the water glass wind up on the floor. Stark is thrown backwards against the wall and, with his mouth wide open silently screaming, he sits with his hand to his head.
Pilot comms: "Zhaan. What just happened? Moya's readings just went all over the scale, and then everything froze. I couldn't move! Could you feel it?"
Zhaan: "Yes, Pilot."
Stark is still obviously in some kind of pain, still backed up against the wall, but he is making no noise.
Zhaan, near tears: "We felt it."
END OF ACT TWO
ACT THREE
There is a moon hanging large over the planet. Just a faint wisp of clouds interrupt the blue sky. On the planet, two women, one older, one younger, are planting trees with purple leaves or flowers, and talking.
Ennixx: "What happened to him, Nana?"
Aeryn: "Oh, Crichton. He was happy for a few cycles there, too."
John is standing, his back towards the women, amongst a stand of grown trees, some distance away.
Aeryn: "Something must have reminded him..." Ennixx helps her to rise. "Thank you...of his past." Aeryn brushes the dirt off her hands. "I still think about it sometimes...Moya."
Ennixx: "You've never been as sad as him."
Aeryn: "Well, perhaps I hide it better."
They walk to another small tree that is lying on the ground and they kneel down beside it.
Ennixx: "Will he ever be over it? I've done all I can. We took him from the barren planet. Showed him our favored world."
Aeryn: "I know, you've tried. We've all tried, but Crichton was always stubborn."
A couple of smaller figures cross behind Aeryn and Ennixx.
Ennixx: "Why are those from the outside always so unhappy?"
Aeryn: "Because we weren't born here. This is your home, not ours. Give Crichton a few more cycles. He'll come around."
John is still a ways off, apparently alone, in a stand of grown trees. He hunkers down to pull a blade of grass, then stands back up.
John: "You can rack off. I'm gonna do what I wanta do."
Scorpius (or his clone) appears, walking with John. (This is the entity that John named "Harvey" in WGFA.)
Harvey: "No, Crichton, no. I need the wormhole knowledge that you have locked in your brain." Harvey taps John on the forehead with his finger.
John laughs: "Ha, ha, that's great, Scorpy. You ain't never gonna get that. I'm dyin. I'm dyin right here, on this planet. And you ain't never gonna get what's in my head."
Ennixx approaches Crichton: "Still talking to those visions in your head?"
John, to Harvey: "Sure." and to Ennixx: "Yah, yah, yah. Yah, he's bitchin again."
Ennixx laughs quietly, and Harvey disappears.
John: "Right, he's gone. Bastard. Wonder if he's still lookin for me?" John looks up at the sky. Ennixx stands there, looking at John.
John: "Oh well."
On Moya's Command, D'Argo, Chiana, Rygel, Stark and Zhaan are gathered.
Zhaan: "Stark has developed a theory. He believes it's possible that Aeryn was telling the truth. She has, in fact, lived for one hundred and sixty cycles."
Chiana: "How?"
Rygel: "Ah, yotz! Have you been drinking felip juice?"
Stark: "Now,...when Zhaan and I joined an arn ago, did any of you experience anything...unusual?"
Chiana: "Well, yah."
Stark and Zhaan both lean towards her in anticipation.
Chiana: "That was you guys?"
Stark: "And Rygel? Did you experience anything?"
Rygel: "My throne sled stopped. Huh. I froze in midair for a microt."
Stark: "And you were still conscious?"
Rygel: "Absolutely."
Zhaan: "Stark believes that Moya is trapped in what is known as a center halo, where time does not exist at all. We believe...when we joined for a moment we all experienced this absence of time in the mist."
Stark: "You see, it's possible that Aeryn aged normally down there on the planet."
D'Argo: "So it's us."
Stark nods.
D'Argo: "It's us who are not growing old."
Stark nods again: "Yes."
Rygel: "I don't believe it."
Chiana: "You gotta be frelling with me." She laughs a nervous little laugh.
D'Argo: "So, this means everyone we know...Crais, Scorpius, my son...they're all old now?"
Stark: "Yes. It is believed that nothing ages in a halo and eventually it hardens, and everything inside it is trapped without time, forever."
D'Argo steps closer to Stark: "Pilot says the mist is hardening now!"
Stark: "Yes."
Chiana: "Well then, let's go. Let's get out of here."
D'Argo walks over to a command console and comms: "Pilot! How long until the planet is due to reappear?"
Pilot: "If what Aeryn outlined still holds, the opening will reform in the mist in less than one arn."
Again we see the very large moon overhanging a green planet with wisps of clouds in its sky. We can hear John's voice before we can see him. He is singing.
John: "I'll go no more a-roving, with you, fair maid."
The camera sweeps downwards, past some tall, slender trees with purple leaves or flowers on the tops. John comes into view walking, following Aeryn through the trees. She gasps and sits down on the ground.
John: "A-roving, a-roving, ah, since roving's been my ru-i-in. I'll go no more a roving, ah. These have grown." He looks upwards at the tree tops.
Aeryn gasps: "Yes. It seems like yesterday when we planted them."
John stops, bends over and grasps his knees, to catch his breath.
John: "Ha-yup." He straightens up.
Aeryn: "How's your knee?"
John: "Oh, it's fine. Just chasin beautiful women up and down the hills."
Aeryn laughs: "Hah! Well, why don't you come and sit down here, old man, or you'll give yourself a heart attack." She gets up off the ground and walks over to a stump and sits down.
John: "Don't...don't...don't you "old man" me woman. You're two hundred cycles older than I am." Aeryn laughs as John groans and sits on a stump near her.
John: "Ennixx and that sleepin pill she married have arrived."
Aeryn: "He's not that bad."
John: "He's boring. Just like everything else around here. Bor-ring."
Aeryn: "Well, I warned you. I tried to make you go back."
John: "I know you did." He's fiddling with a stick while they talk.
Aeryn: "John, I gave up being who I was, what I was a hundred cycles ago. Why haven't you?"
John: "Cause I ain't a gardener. I never wanted to be one. That's all we do around here...garden. Plant things. I was a pilot, Aeryn. Astronaut. I was what I wanted to be. I ain't gonna ferget that, and I can't accept this."
Aeryn: "Do you regret this?"
John: "What?"
Aeryn turns to look at him, then turns her head to face straight ahead: "Spending the last 55 cycles here with me?"
John sighs: "Aeryn. You are the one thing which has kept me from doing a kamikaze in the transport. I just hafta try to get back to my old life. Just...for a day. That's the hope. Hope. That's what keeps me goin."
Aeryn: "All right. Just don't be too disappointed if...it doesn't happen. If you can't... Ohh!"
Aeryn stops talking and groans. She bends over to her left and grabs her side.
John: "You okay?"
Aeryn: "Yes. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." She puts her hand up to her chest, under her right breast. "It's just the same old pain. Same pain."
John: "Okay. Let's, uh, get you back to the house." He stands up with a groan. "You can lie down." He comes to help Aeryn get up. As she stands, something falls from her to the ground.
Aeryn: "Uh! Give me that!" She tries to bend down, but John stops her.
John: "I got it. I got it." He bends down and picks up her locket from the ground.
Aeryn: "Give it to me."
John: "I got yer locket." He swings the chain so that it ends up in his hand and looks down at it. "Whose, uh, image you got in here, anyway?"
Aeryn: "You know who's in there."
John: "Your husband? He's been dead ninety cycles. Why would you have his image in there?"
Aeryn: "Oh, just to drive you crazy."
John: "You know what I think?"
Aeryn: "What?"
John: "I don't think it's him in there. I think you got my picture."
Aeryn: "Don't flatter yourself."
John: "Yeah! Yeah, my picture. Surrounded by roses and hearts and yotz."
Aeryn smiles: "Open it, then."
John: "What?"
Aeryn: "Take a look inside. You'll see his image; the only love of my life."
John fingers the locket for a moment, then looks back into Aeryn's eyes.
John: "No....no, I don't wanta see his ugly face." He puts the locket and chain into her hand. "Come on. Let's get you back to the house." He puts his hand on her shoulder and they begin to walk away.
Aeryn: "He wasn't ugly, you know."
John: "Yah, you keep talkin about him, you can walk down by yourself. Hell, you can roll down the hill."
Aeryn laughs.
They walk together, talking and laughing, but we can only see and not hear them.
Moya is sitting, trapped in the hardening mist.
On Command, everyone is gathered.
D'Argo comms: "Pilot, are you picking up any transmissions?"
Pilot: "There's nothing!"
On the barren planet, John, Aeryn and Ennixx are standing, being buffeted by the wind. There are several fires burning in the distance. John takes his comms badge out of a storage container.
John: "Fifty cycles, I've kept this thing sealed up. Hope it works."
He presses on the badge and it makes an electronic 'beep' noise.
John comms: "Pilot, can ya hear me?" He laughs.
John: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Been waiting to say that fer fifty damn years. Feels good. Pilot! Can you hear me?" John walks away from the women, still trying the comms.
Ennixx: "Why are you going?"
John: "Pilot?"
Ennixx: "Stay with us."
John, from a distance: "Pilot!"
Ennixx: "Look, come back to the favored planet and I will take care of you."
Aeryn is smiling at her granddaughter.
Ennixx: "The mist is dangerous..."
Aeryn: "Ennixx, listen to me. I grew up a Peacekeeper. We are born in space, and we must die in space."
Ennixx: "But what about...?"
Aeryn: "Now, I have spent most of my life down here with you, and it has been glorious. But when I die, I belong up there."
Ennixx bites her lip to keep from crying. She smiles and nods.
Ennixx: "Good-bye, Nana."
Aeryn: "Good girl." She hugs Ennixx. "Now go, before I change my mind."
Ennixx runs away.
John: "Pilot?!"
Aeryn walks towards John, using a thick walking stick for help.
John looks up at the sky as he comms again: "Pilot?" Aeryn looks skyward as well, shielding her eyes with her arm. John turns to Aeryn: "Nothin. I'm not gettin anything."
On board Moya....
Pilot: "Wait! Something's happening. The opening in the mist. I can see it forming!"
On Command, D'Argo adjusts the controls. He leans over to speak directly into it: "John, Aeryn, can you hear us?"
He is answered by nothing but static. Everyone else gathers closer, to listen.
D'Argo: "John." No reply
D'Argo, louder: "John?!" He puts his head down on his arms.
On the planet...
John looks at the comms badge: "Aw, maybe this thing's bust. Maybe Moya decided not to wait for us."
Aeryn puts a hand on his shoulder. "No." She shakes her head.
John tries the comms once again: "Pilot? Can you hear me? Pilot?!..." He continues...
On Command....
"Anybody...there...pick up the damn phone..." John's voice can be heard faintly, through the static. "...ya useless pieces of sh..." He is cut off by static.
D'Argo: "We hear you."
John jumps: "Hoh! Hah!" He twirls around, arms in the air. "Hoh! Hoh! Hah! D'Argo!" He brings the comms badge over to Aeryn and holds it next to her ear.
John: "Here. Listen to this."
John comms: "D'Argo! It's me, John."
D'Argo: "John. Are you all right?"
D'Argo comms: "Can you make it back to Moya, or you want us down there?"
John: "Oh, no, no, no. It's alright! We can get back up to you."
The crew all listens to John.
"We will come back up!"
John: "Right away!"
Aeryn is laughing.
John: "They waited!" He hugs her and they laugh together.
John: "Oh, hah, hah, hoh, oh! They waited!"
Aeryn: "Yes, they did. Come on." She starts to lead him to the transport, but collapses backwards, with a groan. John catches her.
John: "Aeryn, baby. You all right?"
Aeryn: "I'm all right. I'm fine. Let's get back to Moya."
John helps her begin walking again: "Goin home...goin home."
Moya is still stuck in the mist. A transport pod approaches from below, and enters her docking bay.
As the hanger doors slowly open, we can see John sitting at the bottom of the transport's stairs. He is holding Aeryn in his arms. He looks up.
Zhaan hurries to the doorway to the hanger and looks in.
Zhaan breathes: "John." She sees what he is holding and her face falls. The others gather around her.
John is holding Aeryn on his lap, her head propped against his shoulder. He strokes her hair. He looks up and sees his friends.
John, taking several breaths: "I tr...I tried ta get back here before, uh... So...so we co...could...uh...you uh... (breath) she, uh...she died. On the way."
Aeryn's head falls limply backwards, off his shoulder. John holds her tightly so she doesn't fall.
John: "She's gone. Aer...Aeryn's gone."
John pulls her body to himself and sobs into her shoulder.
END OF ACT THREE
ACT FOUR
Everyone is gathered in the hanger, around the gurney where Aeryn had been when she first arrived from out of the mist.
John:
"The opening is on some kind of interdimensional orbit. It appears in the mist over the barren planet every fifty-five cycles."
Zhaan: "Do you know how to get us out of the mist?"
John "Well, you could go back down to where I was."
Chiana: "Well then, let's do it. Let's go down there"
John: "Ah, there ain't nothin down there, Chiana. Just a few planets, a small colony of people. I searched it from end to end. There just isn't anything there."
Rygel: "It still sounds better than being stuck up here forever."
John nods: "Yah. Maybe. But I have had...a lot of time to think. I believe that, if we can get out of the mist, at the exact point that we entered it, (he sighs) I might be able to get my life back. Might be an arn later, maybe 200 cycles later, but I, uh..."
D'Argo: "But, how do we get back to that exact point where we entered?"
Pilot clears his throat loudly: "Ah..uh, huh...I might have an answer for that. I'm not sure, but I think we just have to go backwards."
D'Argo: "What do you mean, Pilot?"
Pilot: "Since we've entered it, I think the mist has been moving with us. I think the back of Moya is still right at the edge of the mist."
Rygel: "Then, go for it. Just...back up."
Pilot: "I've been trying to, but I can't. The mist has hardened so much in the last arn, Moya can no longer move."
Chiana: "You mean...we're stuck?"
Pilot: "I'm afraid so."
John: "Have you tried starburst?"
Pilot: "A Leviathan is not structurally designed for a reverse starburst. It could destroy us."
John: "Pilot, just do a small jump and get us back to where we started."
Pilot: "No. If we're going to try and starburst out, I think we should go forward, down to the planet, not backwards."
John: "Is that what you want? You want that? You wanta live your life...on that planet? The place where you'll never see anyone you know, ever again." John looks around the group, each in turn, as he is talking.
Rygel sighs.
John: "I have done that. And let me assure you, whatever the risk, it is worth getting your life back."
D'Argo is the first to speak: "I'm with John. I do not want to live a life without a past. I wanna see my son again."
Zhaan nods.
Chiana: "Me too. I never wanted to go into the mist anyway."
Rygel: "I guess I'm in agreement as well."
Zhaan: "Goddess be with us all. Pilot! Start initiating the sequence for reverse starburst."
John gets up and starts to walk away.
D'Argo: "John!"
Zhaan looks and sees where John is headed: "Leave him, D'Argo."
The stairs to the transport pod are still open. Inside, it is over-grown with vines. John enters and goes to the bed where Aeryn's body is laid.
John: "Aeryn..." He sits down on the bed, beside her. "We're gonna try to get out of this. I told 'em our plan, and, uh..." He stops talking and sighs. He lowers himself off the edge of the bed, onto the floor.
John sighs again: "Oh, baby...there are so many... places that I wanted you to see...people. There's this lake, in Maine. Used to spend summers there when I was a kid. Had more mosquitoes than a dog had fleas. My dad and I, we'd camp out there, and, uh...one night, the astronauts landed on the moon. I remember lookin up at the sky. I knew right then what I was gonna do with the rest of my life. I couldn't have been more than four years old. Huh! I really wanted you to see that." He sighs and tsks: "Oh! Damn, baby, I...I miss you already." His voice is tearing up: "Who else am I gonna tell this crap to?"
He sniffs, then gets up onto his knees and leans over her body. "I love you." He kisses her once and gently strokes her hair. As his hand comes down, it stops at the locket around her neck and he picks it up. He half sits back down on the floor, leaning his elbow on the bed, to look at it.
We hear Aeryn's voice:
"Take a look inside. You'll see his image. The only love of my life."John opens the locket. Inside is a photograph of the young John Crichton. John closes the locket as he starts to cry.
Pilot: "Priming first phase of reverse starburst. Kahaynu, protect Moya." Pilot presses a large contol paddle.
The sound of starburst priming is heard, but nothing can be seen of it from outside the ship.
Inside, the sound builds until there is a loud crash. John is jolted across Aeryn's body. There are sparks flying inside the transport pod.
John: "What now?"
Stark runs over to Zhaan, in the maintenance bay.
Stark: "Zhaan, what's going on?" He leans against the gurney, next to her.
Zhaan: "Pilot!? What's happening?" As Zhaan speaks, the pitch of her voice goes lower and lower.
Pilot: "Priming for starburst..is...making...every..thing.....st..o..p."
Pilot's words and movements are all in slow-motion.
Zhaan: "We must break free!"
The pitch of Pilot's voice keeps switching from lower than normal to higher: "My arms...I can't...move. You must initiate...manual starburst...from Command."
D'Argo: "Doing it!"
D'Argo rushes towards the command console. He reaches out his right arm, to press the control, but he is frozen before he can touch it.
D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel all scream: "Nooo!"
Pilot: "N.....oh......oh.....oh!"
D'Argo: "I can't reach...the panel!"
Chiana: "He...lp...us...!" Her voice wavers all over the place as well.
Stark is holding onto Zhaan's arm for dear life.
Zhaan: "Stark! Crichton and I once shared Unity, so I can help him. If we join, we can keep time alive for him."
Zhaan reaches up slowly and puts her hand on the back of Stark's head. She brings their foreheads together, with a grimace. As they touch, a light begins to shine from them, brighter and brighter, until they are surrounded by white light.
Zhaan's voice projects: "John? John?"
In the transport, John hears her call. "John?" He looks around but doesn't see anyone.
John: "Zhaan, how the hell're you talkin to me?"
Zhaan's voice:
"I fused my spirit with Stark. You must get to Command and initiate starburst."John: "Why can't Pilot do it?"
Zhaan's voice:
"He can't move. No one can move except you. I don't know how long I can keep time alive. Hurry, John."John: "I am too old...(mouthed only) fer this crap."
John begins to run down Moya's corridors, but he seems to be traveling in slo-motion. There are a lot of clanging sounds as he runs and the light around him seems to fragment.
Zhaan's voice...screaming:
"Hurry, John! This is ripping up apart! You must...you must keep going...keep going...keep going..." The same phrase continues to echo as John runs onto Command, to where D'Argo is frozen, arm outstretched. John reaches under D'Argo's arm and presses the starburst control.
Outside, the familiar blue lights form along Moya's outer hull, but instead of traveling forward, she travels backwards in a straight line, back out of the mist.
The corridors inside Moya are totally empty and quiet. Coming into Command, everyone is looking out the forward view screen. Chiana is standing next to D'Argo. John and Aeryn are each at seperate consoles.
John: "What the hell is this stuff?"
Pilot: "It appears to be some kind of stellar mist. I'm running tests on its chemical properties now."
John walks over to stand next to Aeryn, looking at her display.
D'Argo: "What do you think, that we should go in there?"
Rygel: "Well, it might be a good place to hide from Peacekeepers."
Chiana goes up to John and Aeryn to get a better look: "Scorpius hasn't been chasing us in a while. I'm not sure we should go in there."
John reaches across Aeryn to press a control. She lifts his hand and pushes it away.
Aeryn: "Don't worry, Chiana. I'll fly a long-range recon in a transport pod to make sure it's safe."
Zhaan is in her quarters meditating. When Aeryn says those words, Zhaan's eyes pop open.
Zhaan: "No. NO!"
Aeryn leaves the control console and goes and picks something up from the console D'Argo is sitting on.
D'Argo: "What's that?" Aeryn is carrying a small pot with a little plant sticking out of its top.
Aeryn: "Just something Zhaan gave me for my headaches." Aeryn smiles and starts to leave Command.
Zhaan: "Pilot! Pilot!" Zhaan is screaming as she runs. "Stark!"
Stark steps into the corridor and grabs her.
Stark: "Do you know what they're about to do?"
Zhaan: "Yes, and these frelling comms don't work. Pilot! Pilot!" They both start running.
John: "Pilot, it looks like we're all agreed here."
Chiana: "Except for me."
John: "Except for Chiana. Let's head into the mist."
Pilot: "Accelerating now."
Zhaan and Stark run onto Command, passing Aeryn on her way out.
Zhaan: "Pilot, stop! Stop the acceleration!"
Stark stops when he sees John.
Stark: "You're young."
John: "Uh huh."
Stark turns quickly and looks at Aeryn, also young, who has come back onto Command to see what's happening.
John: "Zhaan, you all right?"
Rygel: "What are you doing here? I thought you were locked in your chamber, meditating or some yotz like that."
D'Argo: "Shut-up, Rygel. What's the matter, Zhaan?"
Zhaan: "Don't you remember?"
Aeryn: "Remember what?"
Stark: "Just trust us. Don't go into the mist."
John and D'Argo look a little incredulous.
John: "Why not?"
Zhaan looks around at Stark before she answers: " We had a vision. We sense there's danger in there."
Chiana: "I told 'em. I told 'em we shouldn't go in there. I...I felt something too, Zhaan."
Aeryn looks doubtful as well.
John and D'Argo exchange a glance.
John: "Pilot, uh...change of plan. Hang a louie...that's left, away from the mist."
Pilot: "Hard acceleration...away."
Moya flies safely past the center halo mist.
Zhaan
and Stark are walking together down a corridor. Stark is carrying something small that he keeps fiddling with as he walks.
Zhaan: "Stark? How is it that Crichton and Aeryn are young again?"
Stark: "We seem to have returned to a time just moments before Moya went into the mist."
Zhaan: "None of them remember anything, yet...yet, we do."
Stark: "Because we've returned to a time before any of it happened, they have nothing to remember Zhaan. I think we only remember because we were joined when Moya broke free."
Zhaan: "Well, what about Aeryn's life, and the family she had?"
Stark: "Let's theorize that through every opening in the center halo, our world splits into an infinite number of universes."
Zhaan: "Are you saying that Ennixx could still be alive?"
Stark: "Yes. And mourning the loss of her grandmother."
Zhaan sighs.
Stark: "But...it's time to tell Ka D'Argo why I came aboard."
Zhaan nods.
Stark and Zhaan enter Command, where D'Argo is standing at a contol console.
Stark: "D'Argo....um, I've been waiting to show you this." Stark hands D'Argo the slender container he has been carrying.
D'Argo removes the photograph that is inside.
Stark: "I found it in a manifest of slaves being sold to the Caton mines."
D'Argo: "Who is this?"
Zhaan: "The manifest lists him as...as Jothee, son of Ka D'Argo."
D'Argo: "My son."
END OF ACT FOUR
EPILOGUE
D'Argo is holding the picture of Jothee: "My son is being sold into slavery."
D'Argo stares at Stark for a microt, then he growls and lashes out, first at Zhaan, then he attacks Stark.
Zhaan: "D'Argo!"
D'Argo jumps on top of Stark and holds him on top of a console, choking him.
D'Argo: "How long have you known? Why didn't you told me?"
Stark: "I...I just found out."
Zhaan comes to stand where D'Argo can see her: "D'Argo! Stark wanted me awake before he told you. D'Argo, let him go...please! There's plenty of time. The auction isn't for a few solar days. We will find a way to rescue Jothee. D'Argo... D'Argo...."
D'Argo shakes his head, but doesn't let Stark up.
Zhaan, whispers: "D'Argo..."
D'Argo: "All right." He lets go of Stark's throat. "I'm sorry, Stark. I, uh...." He climbs off Stark, breathing heavily: "I've got...I've gotta...save my son, Zhaan. We've gotta find a way."
John carries something heavy into the maintenance bay and sets it down with a thud. Aeryn is already there, working on something by herself, under a lamp.
John sighs. He taps a tool on the table twice and sits, looking over at Aeryn.
Aeryn: "What?"
John: "Nothing. Um... Do you get a feeling?"
Aeryn: "About what?"
John: "I don't know. I...I just have this...feeling...something happened."
Aeryn: "Between us?"
John: "Yah."
Aeryn: "Well, what kind of something do you think happened?" She starts to smile.
John: "I don't know."
Aeryn is grinning now. "If something happened, I'm sure we would have remembered."
John: "Yah." He finally gives up and looks away.
Aeryn: "Come here. Have a look at this."
John walks over to her.
Aeryn: "That's, uh the locket Chiana gave me. I found it in the transport pod and somehow it's fused shut. I'm trying to..." (she is digging at it with a tool).
John: "Did you put something in there?"
Aeryn: "No, nothing." She finally manages to pry it open with a grunt. There are flakes of something shiny in the bottom of the locket.
Aeryn: "Looks like something disintegrated in there." She dumps the flakes into the palm of her hand. John picks some up with his thumb and forefinger and rubs them together. They both push the flakes around in her hand, but there is nothing to be seen.
Aeryn: "Hmm." She dumps the flakes out of her palm and they glitter in the light as they fall.
John and Aeryn each look up from the falling flakes, to find themselves staring into each other's eyes.
END OF EPILOGUE
