Air Date: March 30, 2001
Written by David Kemper
Directed by Tony Tilse
Transcript by Xenajules2
Edited and put on-line by Bluey
Episode 3.03 - Self Inflicted Wounds: Part 1: Could'a, Would'a, Should'a
PROLOGUE
Moya is flying by a planet with a moon and what looks like rings.
Inside, D'Argo and Aeryn are moving a cryopod.
D'Argo: "Why the Hezmana don't we just jettison this thing into frelling space? Crichton! First he wants to question these creatures, then he wants to bury them. I mean, why don't we just open the last chamber and ask them... where Earth is?"
Aeryn: "And then he'll die in the first 30 microts like this one did."
D'Argo: "Well, death isn't always a bad thing, Aeryn. Who wants to live when your place in the universe has been suspended?"
Aeryn: "Jothee and Chiana are just kids, D'Argo."
D'Argo: "I don't want to discuss it."
Aeryn: "They were rebelling. They weren't trying to hurt..."
D'Argo interrupts: "Rebelling!? Rebelling is smoking some galla root. Rebelling is not sleeping with...Ahggg!"
He bumps into the strange ship's defense shield and gets a shock. He swears in Luxan and walks around to shake it off.
Aeryn: "Look D'Argo, if you want to talk..."
D'Argo: "I'm not ready."
As they 're going past the ship, Aeryn says: "Now that ship I'd like to jettison."
D'Argo: "What if there's some weapon aboard that we can use?"
Aeryn: "What if the next system we set off destroys us all?"
D'Argo: "We're already destroyed Aeryn. It's just that some of us don't know it yet."
Zhaan is sitting in front of a mirror in her burned-out quarters, looking at the sores on her head. Stark peeks in at her from the doorway. A tear runs down his face.
Pilot: "I am as concerned about Zhaan's welfare as you, Commander. However..."
John: "Stark says that we gotta get her in the ground
soon. How long?"
John is throwing a ball repeatedly at the clamshell viewer and when it hits, it makes Pilot jump. Pilot's voice is shaken by the jumps.
Pilot: "A planet meeting Zhaan's atmospheric reequirements is less than an arn away."
John: "So, hetch it up baby. Come'on, let's go."
Pilot: "I simply thought you'd like to see
thisbefore it went away."
John: "What?" He looks in the main viewer. There is a wormhole.
John: "Ho..ly... Pilot, take readings. Complete spectrum roll, diffuse electron analysis across the electromagnetic range. It's only theoretical, but look for a dimensional bend in the halo effect." John starts to leave command.
Pilot: "Commander!"
John: "I know! I know! Zhaan. Look, scan on the parabolic curve. Give me a chance to dip in for some readings. Prepare to launch my module."
Pilot: "Commander!"
John: "Pilot... my call."
Pilot: "There's a ship approaching. I...I think!"
John: "Where?"
Pilot: "Not sure. These readings can't be."
John: "Pilot, save the 'Golly, gee whiz!' for later. Just tell me where it is!"
Pilot: "It's traveling too fast. Too... impossible!"
John has walked back into command and is facing the main viewer.
John: "Alright, so far I got not sure, can't be and impossible. Where the hell is it?"
Pilot, gasps: "There!"
Something that looks like a spiral of bubbles is coming out of the wormhole aimed directly at Moya. John starts to run out of command.
John: "Pilot! Starburst!"
As the bubbles get closer, we see a face in one of them.
END OF PROLOGUE
ACT ONE
Moya looks almost like a whale with a harpoon stuck through it, twisting through space.
A DRD runs up to John, who is lying facedown on the floor. It bumps into him and wakes him up.
John: "Pilot! Pilot? That ain't part of Moya. What the hell?"
As he gets up, he sees, inside Moya, part of what was visible in the exterior shot. It looks like giant, white tinkertoys going at all angles, down through Moya.
John: "Aeryn? D'Argo? Zhaan? Pilot?" He runs to a console. Cables are dangling from the ceiling. An alien begins to stand up also, a female in a silvery dress. Her head is golden, with a red verticle stripe down the center.
Pilot: "Commander. What did...? Did we...?"
John: "I don't know. Some kinda collision. You ok?"
Pilot: "Moya and I... Hard to think. Ahhh!" The clamshell viewer goes blank.
A second alien, a male, walks out from behind a pipe. He appears to be blue and has large ears, somewhat like gills.
Alien Male: "Neeyala! We have extensive damage."
He and John see each other at the same time. Johns draws his pistol and points it at the alien. The alien hisses and the camera zooms in on his ear. It has strange looking holes on a cartiledge ridge. The holes open.
Alien Male: "Alien penetration of our vessel!"
Neeyala: "An impact during phase resolution."
John: "What the hell did you do to Moya?"
Alien Male: "We must maintain integrity as described."
Aeryn's voice: "Crichton, my comms aren't working." She comes in, sees the aliens and draws her gun.
Aeryn, to John: "What did you do?"
Everyone is shouting. John grabs Aeryn.
Alien Male: "Neeyala, back off. It carries a weapon!"
Aeryn: "Get down on the floor, now! Get on the ground!"
John: "Hold it! Stop it! Stop! I don't think they understand what we're saying."
John makes a show of putting his pistol down on the console.
Chiana's voice: "What the frell happened?"
Zhaan's voice: "Dear Goddess, help. Moya is in agony."
John lays his gun down on the console.
Chiana: "Someone answer!"
Stark: "Tier 3 is dark, ruptures everywhere."
John: "Zhaan, D'Argo, you guys ok?"
D'Argo: "I am, but Moya is frelled."
Zhaan: "Anyone hear from Aeryn?"
Rygel: "What about me? No one asks about me."
The female alien flares her ears and Rygel hides behind a pillar.
Rygel: "Ohhh."
John: "Listen, Pilot's not in too good a shape. Is anyone nearby?"
Stark: "I'm on my way."
D'Argo: "I'll meet you."
Alien Male (Kreetago): "So many different tongues, yet they communicate."
John: "Pip, you still there?"
Chiana: "Tier 6 is a total loss."
Kreetago: "A consortium."
John: "Sparky, go help her."
Rygel: "Doesn't simply shooting them dead strike you as viable?"
John: "Just go! DRD. Translator microbes."
A DRD zips over and injects the female alien.
Neeyala: "They're injecting me with something!"
The male's ears open wider and he yells: "Fight while you have strength!"
John holds his hands up and grabs Aeryn's gun: "No, no, no! Stop! Please just wait... wait. Just. My name is John Crichton. Can you understand me?"
Neeyala gasps: "He speaks... and I comprehend."
Kreetago: "They have altered your mind."
Neeyala: "I am Pathfinder Neeyala, commanding research vessel Rado Sss'lana."
Pilot: "I don't
know what's wrong. I don't know what is happening to us."
Stark and D'Argo are with Pilot, trying to calm him down.
D'Argo: "All right. Just calm down, Pilot, and tell us how you feel."
Pilot: "Well, I feel... gauh.." He vomits green gunk and hits Stark in the face with it.
Stark: "Awhh!"
Pilot: "Awhh!"
D'Argo: "I had no idea that he could do that."
Stark: "I had no idea anyone could do that!"
Pilot: "I apologize. Colors... lights... sensations. This region of space... I cannot function under the bombardment."
Stark: "Can we isolate you from the stimulii?"
Pilot: "Neural clusters. Containment nexus circuitry."
D'Argo: "Reroute it?"
Pilot: "Dis"
Stark: "Buffer the leads?"
Pilot: "Dis"
Stark and D'Argo, in unison: "What?"
Pilot, yelling: "Disconnect!"
D'Argo: "Right!"
Stark and D'Argo run out of the room as Pilot vomits again.
Moya is spinning through the wormhole, impaled by the alien spaceship.
Neeyala: "We were regaining dimensionality when our ships collided. They must have been subjected to a massive burst of photonic distortion."
Neeyala, John and Aeryn are in the midst of the alien ship, inside Moya.
Neeyala: "Once the Phaztillon generator is repaired, we'll dose ourselves and hope your living ship doesn't interfer with non-thermal dimensional forces."
Aeryn, to John: "Do you understand any of those words?"
John: "Yah. I watched all kinds of Star Trek. It's just the order they're in."
Neeyala: "You said you studied wormholes."
Kreetago: "More trickery, Neeyala. Of course they would say..."
Aeryn interrupts him: "You can shut the frell up, I think, because if you're not going to take the translator microbes, you don't participate. Tell him that."
Neeyala: "You've seen our research vessel. If we're to trust each other..."
Aeryn: "Yes, I'll take him around our ship. Come on."
Aeryn and Kreetago leave. There is a third, smaller alien activating some controls.
John: "So, keep it simple. How do we get the ships apart?"
Neeyala: "Display! Wormholes always gravitate toward each other in segmented loops."
A holo-image appears before John and Neeyala. There is a jolt.
Neeyala: "First jolt means we've exited one fragment of wormhole..."
There is another jolt.
Neeyala: "...and then quickly into another. Only this gap (she points to something on the hologram) is large enough to permit escape."
John: "And how often do we pass it?"
Neeyala: "Every third of an arn."
John: "Right, so we activate your Phase.."
Neeyala: "Phaztillon"
John: "Generator and then we'll seperate."
Neeyala: "In theory. However, we're not even sure how far into the turbulence zone this collision threw us."
John: "Say that again?"
Neeyala: "We've ricocheted into the distorted region that divides a wormhole from normal space/time."
John: "What? What, you're... you mean... we're not even on the fairway? We're in the rough?"
Zhaan is shaken by another jolt. As she looks up, she can see, outside her window, a planet with a moon. There is another jolt, and when she looks out, a giant serpent is going past. Stark grabs her as she stumbles and she gasps.
Stark: "I didn't mean to startle." He helps her sit.
Zhaan: "I am to die soon. The Goddess has chosen my harbinger."
Stark: "A magnificent planet lies just out there, to rejuvenate and sustain you."
Zhaan: "The serpent lies between."
Stark: "You are ill. Hallucinations."
Zhaan: "My Stark." She takes his face in her hands. "My wonderful Stark. So afraid to let go."
Stark: "I have a darkness, which frightens lovers away. Whenever I assist the dying, I cannot help but absorb a tiny spillet of their existence. Over the cycles, the endless parade of death, I have accumulated a vast resevoir of evil. I cannot bear to lose the one thing that mitigates this twisted core of my existence."
Zhaan pulls him close. She is crying.
Everyone is on different levels. D'Argo is in the neural cluster, ripping cables.
D'Argo: "None of what you said makes any sense."
Stark: "I think he said we're in the wall of the wormhole."
John tries to explain to them what Neeyala has told him.
John: "Well, that's kinda what she said. Look, we gotta wake Pilot up. He has to give us starburst when we hit this particular gap."
Zhaan: "But can we do that while joined to another ship?"
John: "I'm not sure, but they're dead in the water, so Moya's gotta pop us free."
John, Aeryn and Kreetago meet at a junction.
Aeryn: "How do we get the ships seperated?"
John: "Save that for later." To Kreetago: "Col. Klink! Yo! Inspection is over. Aeryn, I need you to take Neeyala's count down. The rest of us are going to seal the breaches before starburst. I have the oxillary conduits."
He starts off down a corridor.
Aeryn: "I'll check the Hammenside hatches on the way to command."
To Kreetago: "Move it! Now! Go!"
Stark: "I'll go to Pilot."
Zhaan: "I'm close to the filter coeurvase."
Rygel: "And I'll take the cargo bays."
D'Argo: "Well, I'm going to need someone up here with another pair of hands."
Chiana climbs into the neural cluster: "What can I do to help?"
D'Argo: "Two tiers down, four chambers across, Moya's external pressure sensors, yank 'em all."
Chiana: "I mean, what can I do about us?"
D'Argo: "That relationship does not exist."
Chiana: "We could die. It exists for me."
D'Argo: "If you did not want to marry me, you could have found some other way to tell me."
Chiana: "When I'm cornered I... I don't think clearly."
D'Argo: "At least now you're speaking the truth."
Chiana: "External pressure sensors?"
D'Argo: "Yank 'em all."
Chiana: "I'm kinda in the mood to be destructive."
D'Argo yanks another cable. Sparks and smoke fly.
Rygel is coughing. There is a cloud of steam rising from the cryopod.
John runs into the cargo bay to find Rygel by the cryopod.
John: "What did you do?"
Rygel: "Ehh! I was checking the hangar. This started leaking."
John: "It regulates with self-venting."
Rygel: "I tried to close the valve, but it wouldn't turn."
John: "Because it was already sealed."
Rygel: "Umm, then I twisted the other way."
John: "Rygel! You opened it, opened it, opened it!"
The pod makes a hissing sound and the top opens.
John and Rygel both gasp for breath in the steam that comes out.
Rygel: "I'll bet 40 mazots she gurgles and dies before she can tell you where Earth is."
As the steam clears away, we can see a female interon, still asleep, with golden hair.
John climbs up onto the the pod to look at her.
John: "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Wake up and die."
Her eyes pop open. They are bright green.
Jool: "Who are you?"
John: "My name is John. Listen. We don't have much time."
Jool sits up: "Correct. Yours is up. Get...! Don't touch me!"
Rygel is surprised
She stands up and climbs out of the pod.
John: "Do you know me? My race?"
Jool: "Sebacean. Intellectually suited to carry weapons and die marching in formation."
She is walking near the pod, examining the cargo bay.
John: "Human. Your species and mine might be related."
Jool laughs: "Of course they are. I have a brother who's a Stanerian lizard."
John: "Have you ever heard of Earth?"
Jool: "On Trintika Major, the predorian fly transmits a fatal rheumatoid disease called Arth."
Rygel: "Ahh. Very similar."
John gives Rygel a shove and he groans.
Jool: "The animal speaks?"
Rygel growls and starts after her. John grabs the back of the throne sled.
John: Whoa. What's your name?"
Jool: "Jooluska Tunii Fenta Harvalis"
Rygel laughs: "What do they call you for short?"
Jool: "My whole name."
John: "Listen, Jool... what's the last thing you remember?"
Jool: "How long have I been in this chamber?
Rygel: "Manifest says twenty-two cycles."
Jool begins to scream an amazing screeching scream that melts metal.
John: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Lady! Dial it down!"
Aeryn: "We're ready Crichton. Prepare to starburst in five microts."
John: "Aeryn, I can't hear a thing you're saying."
Aeryn: "Three microts."
Jool is still screaming. Rygels floats over and knocks her out. The sound stops.
Aeryn: "One microt."
Neeyala: "It's time."
Aeryn: "Starburst!"
Stark is holding Pilot's head in both his hands: "Die later. Starburst now!"
Starburst begins to travel up Moya. When it hits the other ship, there is an explosion. Everyone is thrown forward, then backward. Things are sliding all over the decks. People are groaning as they hit things.
John: "Kill starburst! Kill starburst!"
Moya is spinning out of control through the wormhole.
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
Moya is spinning in the wormhole, with the alien ship still slicing through her.
Chiana goes to help D'Argo who has hit his head.
Chiana: "Bad?"
D'Argo: "Is two of you bad?"
Chiana: "That so depends."
D'Argo: "Well, it's not bad enough."
Chiana: "You should have Zhaan take a look at it."
D'Argo: "Zhaan does not have much respect for my head."
Chiana: "You know, it's ok to be in pain D'Argo. But, since you're all right, I'll get back to work." She leaves.
D'Argo grunts.
On command, Zhaan is attempting to help an injured alien, who keeps pulling away.
Zhaan: "Here... It's cut, let me..."
John walks past the struggling Zhaan and lightly touches her arm.
John: "We're going to have to seperate before we do anything. Suggestions? Zhaan, you ought to hear this."
Aeryn: "Umm. Am I wrong, or is your Phaztillon generator the key?"
Neeyala: "Correct pronunciation, and yes."
Aeryn: "Can you repair the damage before we're all incapacitated?"
John gets a flask and pours a drink which he shares with Aeryn.
Neeyala: "The belief is so. However circumstances, you will attest, are less than conducive."
Sparks fly from something on the alien ship. They all pause to look at them.
Zhaan: "Pathfinder Neeyala, if your crew will not accept translator microbes, then I cannot communicate. If I cannot communicate, I cannot heal."
Neeyala: "Uh, we have rules against alien exposure. It is sufficient I have broken them."
Zhaan: "I understand, but under these extreme circ..."
Two more aliens come in. One's left leg is missing below the knee and his "dress" is tattered as well.
Alien: "Pathfinder! Pathfinder, help him, please! His leg. We need help!"
Zhaan: "Tell her to follow me. My lab is the only place I might heal him."
Zhaan takes them to her lab.
Neeyala: "Besides my people healthy, I need empirical information about our position in the wormhole. Despite the danger, would you help?"
Stark is with Pilot, holding his head.
Stark: Can you hear me?"
Pilot's eyes are closed and he is unresponsive.
Stark: "Crichton... stopping starburst midway through took everything out of him."
John comms: "We need him to get the hanger doors open."
Stark: "Right now, he can't even open his eyes. There's not much else I can do, Crichton."
Aeryn, Neeyala and John are walking together through Moya. Neeyala is carrying some kind of shiny silver instrument.
Neeyala: "Does this negate our plan?"
Aeryn: "No it doesn't. I can open the doors from Pilot's console."
Neeyala: "Yes." She nods.
Aeryn: "May we have a moment?"
Neeyala: "Oh. Mmm."
Aeryn takes John aside and speaks to him quietly.
Aeryn: "Insane?"
John: "Since birth."
Aeryn: "Suicidal?"
John: "Test pilot."
Aeryn: "Do you trust her?"
John: "If we don't do something, we're gonna die."
Aeryn: "I'm worried you're a little too excited by all this."
John: "It's wormholes. That's what Scorpius wants."
Aeryn: "Scorpius is dead. That's what you want."
John: "Aeryn, it could be a tool or a weapon. Let's get there first."
Aeryn: "Let's get there alive.... first."
Aeryn leaves to go to PIlot.
Neeyala: "She doesn't like you."
John: "Naw, it's a phase. It's part of her charm."
Neeyala: "I admit to some scepticism myself."
John: "This way." They leave.
John is rubbing the side of Farscape One: "My module jams in wormholes."
Neeyala: "If this is some kind of... jest."
John: "Just give me the gizmo and tell me what to do."
Neeyala: "Without this data, our assumptions would be worse than gues..."
John interrupts her: "Flight times and vectors, that's all I need."
Zhaan comms: "Crichton, is Neeyala with you?"
John: "Yes... Blue."
Zhaan: "Please tell her I couldn't save Cresto. I'm sorry."
Neeyala: "I do appreciate the risk you take for us, and our families. We shall return that effort in selfless kind."
She hands John a recording instrument: "Use this to record as much positional data inside the wormhole as you can."
Zhaan is inside her lab. She is holding what looks like a crystal and praying over the body of the dead alien.
Zhaan: "Varishta... gailin, gailin. Varishta..."
A wind comes up and blows over them both. Zhaan appears to be stricken by the wind and clutches her midsection.
Stark and Aeryn are with Pilot. Stark is rubbing Pilot's face while Aeryn works at the console.
Stark: "It's no use. Even with the isolation D'Argo's providing, we're traveling too fast for Pilot to cope."
Aeryn: "It's all right. I know the hangar door configuration."
Stark comes to stand very close to Aeryn. He stares at her face and neck.
Aeryn: "Is something wrong?"
Stark: "You're very pretty."
Aeryn: "But I'm not Zhaan, right? Never be her. It's all right, Stark. We're going to get her out of here and we're going to put her in the soil she needs to heal."
Aeryn turns her head to look at Stark, and he backs off. She goes back to work.
On the alien ship, the young alien, Shreena, talks to Kreetago.
Kreetago: "Despite your fears, this must be accomplished."
Shreena: "The generator's leaking phazic restin ions. Lethal, Kreetago."
Kreetago: "I know what they are, Researcher."
He walks around behind the generator and comes up closer to Shreena.
Kreetago: "Expose yourself briefly as possible. Accomplish the task Pathfinder has laid out for you."
Shreena: "May I interdict, Kreetago?"
Kreetago: "No! The knowledge this ship has amassed must be saved. Even if we die in the process." He leaves.
Shreena turns something on the front of the generator and it opens.
Jool: "I can't believe my cousins are dead."
Rygel, eating: "They didn't suffer. Much."
Jool: "Animal. How did they die?"
Rygel: "Oh. If you must know, we were at a surgical facility where you were all frozen. Crichton needed a brain.." Chiana comes up behind him and smacks him on the head.
Chiana: "storm on... how he could rescue you." She gets something out of the cupboard above Rygel.
Chiana: "We saved, uh... two pods."
Jool: "One of my cousins survived?"
Chiana: "Yah, for 30 microds. Then he oozed this... this black gunk. We don't know how the other one died, do we Ryg?" Rygel snickers.
Jool: "What is it you're
not telling me?"
Chiana: "Well, that we're in a crisis, hairdo, so you can either help, shut up, or go back to sleep."
Jool: "I won't be spoken to like that by some ... alley whore."
Rygel: "How could she know that about you?"
Chiana smacks him upside his head again.
Rygel: "Did you know she had a fiance, til she slept with his son?"
John hurries in and grabs Rygel's shoulders.
John: "Buckwheat, you still want to get off this boat, man?"
Rygel: "More than ever. This creature sheds... ohh! Uhh. uhh."
John picks him up out of his thronesled: "Cause your Uncle Sam needs you."
He carries Rygel out. Chiana is eating and pulls a long hair out of her mouth.
Neeyala is at her control console: "We enter conventional space within 30 microts. Once clear, spiral hard, 71 degrees, vector bleeker."
John: "Roger, copy that."
He and Rygel are in the module.
John: "Thanks for the intel. This is Farscape One. Y'all leave the light on for us."
The module exits Moya and enters the wormhole. The module begins to shake.
Rygel: "What's happening?"
John: "It's your basic, ass-kickin wormhole Ryg. How you doin' back there?"
Rygel: "Lousy!"
John: "Excellent! Turn on that alien gizmo... maximum power."
Rygel turns on the recorder. Suddenly, everything goes quiet. The module is no longer shaking.
Rygel: "Are we... dead?"
John :"Oh, no. Rygel, you know what this is?"
Rygel: "No."
John: "The Holy Grail. The Zone. We are in the F'in zone, man. This is the dirty little secret of the universe. It all works if you know how to use it."
Rygel: "Can these things take us home?"
John: "In a heartbeat. If you know where you're going."
END OF ACT TWO
ACT THREE
D'Argo is still ripping cables. Aeryn comes to check on him.
Aeryn: "D'Argo!" He rips another one. "D'Argo. Pilot... has been unconscious for over an arn now."
D'Argo: "Well, why didn't you stop me earlier?"
Aeryn: "Well, somehow I have a feeling this isn't about him anymore."
D'Argo: "I'm sorry. I'm angry with myself because I can almost forgive her."
Aeryn sits down on a ledge.
Aeryn: "Why don't you?"
D'Argo: "How can I trust Chiana with my heart? Can you trust Crichton again?"
Aeryn: "He trusts these aliens."
D'Argo: "We know nothing about them."
Aeryn: "I think wormholes blind him."
D'Argo: "Well, at least he has a hobby."
Aeryn: "Help me keep an eye on it?"
D'Argo looks over the edge of the column Aeryn is sitting on, right into the mouth of the serpent. It flies straight up, past them, at tremendous speed.
Aeryn: "What the frell was that?"
D'Argo: "Zhaan told Stark she saw a serpent. She said it was an omen for her."
Aeryn: "Did it look like that was aiming for Zhaan?"
The module is flying through the wormhole. Rygel is keeping track of their revolutions.
Rygel: "Wormhole. Normal space. Wormhole. Oh, what are we doing here?"
John: "Making 17 loops to their 1. Each time we lap'em, it calibrates their position in the slower wall of the wormhole."
Rygel : "Engrossing. Who cares? It's only collecting images. None of which mean anything."
John: "Well, you gotta know how deep the do-do is, Ryg, if you're gonna dig your way out."
Rygel: "Next gap is the big one, right?"
John: "Yep."
Rygel: "Why don't we just escape?"
John: "Does it ever bother you, being selfish?"
Rygel laughs: "It's self-preservation. And, No!"
John: "What about our friends?"
Rygel: "Yah, what friends? We were thrown together against our will and we're all just trying to make the best of it until we get the chance to screw the others and get what we want. I vote out at the next gap."
Zhaan and Stark are with Pilot. Pilot's eyes are barely open. Zhaan is feeling his face.
Pilot: "P'au Zootah"
Zhaan: "Hello Pilot. Soon you must deploy the docking web to rescue Crichton and Rygel."
Stark: "You're masterful with him."
Zhaan: "I am but a servant. This you will learn."
Stark: "I could never replace you."
Zhaan: "Stark, you must. For me... you must remain here and minister these souls. I'm relying on it."
Stark: "But I love you."
Zhaan: "If I did not feel the same, and more, could I ask this sacrifice of you?"
Aeryn comms: "Zhaan, I need you to meet me in command."
Zhaan: "It must wait, Aeryn. We're about to deploy the docking web."
Aeryn: "No. Your omen. The serpent. Is anyone else meant to see it?"
John and Rygel, in the module...
John: "And the big gap. Exit clearly marked. Normal space."
Rygel grabs a control, there is a jolt, an alarm sounds.
John: "Hey! Whoa! Ho! Ho! Get your hands off those controls!"
Rygel: "You have no right to make decisions for me."
Rygel bites John's hand and pulls the control. The module is flung out of the wormhole.
Rygel: "We're free! Escape! Save our lives."
John: "Guido, we're going back!"
John turns the module around, then hits Rygel in the nose with his elbow, "Smack", "smack", "smack", "smack", "smack".
The module re-enters the wormhole.
John: "Son of a bitch!"
Rygel: "You broke my nose!"
John: "You ain't got a nose, Guido. You got slits."
There is a large jolt.
Rygel whimpers.
John: "Whoa! Farscape One to Moya. Positive contact with the docking web. Hey! Nice catch guys."
Rygel: "I won't forget this Crichton. I swear you've attacked me for the last time."
John: "You brought it on yourself, Rugrat."
Aeryn has Neeyala by the neck, holding her face down on her console.
Neeyala: "You delay my preparations for Crichton's data. The serpent is harmless."
Aeryn: "Less than convincing. Try again."
Neeyala: "I never imagined that you would encounter this beast. Otherwise I would have issued warning. You must believe me."
Zhaan: "How can we, Neeyala? Look at what you've done to our ship!"
Neeyala pulls herself free of Aeryn and stands up. Aeryn puts her hand on her holstered pistol. Neeyala's gills flare.
Neeyala: "Noo! What I have done? It is
you who have destroyed my life's endeavor whilst I have suffered your probing, your confusions and your smell! Do you not think that my bristles contain enough poison to dispatch you all? Yet, when I fail to overload what are clearly inferior intellects with a drist of needless information, you bring weapons to bear. Kill me if you will. Let's see how you fare on your own."
Aeryn: "Do you feel better? Now, about the serpent."
Neeyala: "The creature you have seen exists exclusively inside wormholes. Corporeal only when the generator shifts are phase present."
Aeryn: "Which one would have to do to repair it."
Neeyala: "I doubt it even senses us. Be less alarmed."
Jool and Chiana run in. Jool is screeching. Chiana is yelling: "Will you shut up!"
Aeryn: "What happened?"
Chiana: "Something really wierd, and I tried to shoot it.."
Zhaan and Aeryn, in unison: "Shut up!"
Jool keeps screaming.
Zhaan: "Neeyala said that the serpent doesn't even know we're here."
Jool has finally stopped screaming. She looks past Zhaan and starts screaming again. The serpent appears to be swimming among the pillars of the alien ship, coming right at them. Aeryn pulls her gun and shoots it several times. Chiana shoots it too, as it comes towards them. The guns seem to have little effect on the serpent, but it goes away.
Jool's screams are melting metal connectors again. Chiana puts her hand over Jool's mouth
and the sound finally stops.
On another tier, Stark and D'Argo meet.
D'Argo: "I thought you were with Pilot."
Stark: "I thought you were in the neural cluster."
D'Argo: "Filtration's down on tier one, you can't even breathe in there."
Stark: "Junctions are frying everywhere. Pilot can't stop it."
D'Argo: "Well, you had better tell that four-armed, bug-eyed whiny little slijot to get his dren together."
Stark: "It's not him. The stresses on Moya are frying junctions everywhere."
Stark pulls open a junction box to show D'Argo.
Stark: "She's dying, D'Argo. The wormhole is killing her."
In Zhaan's lab, Rygel picks up a scalpel and tries to hide it from Zhaan. She has bandaged his nose.
Zhaan: "Do you hope some day to be Dominar Rygel?"
Rygel: "I am still Dominar. Always Dominar."
Zhaan: "I mean ruling from a throne instead of a throne sled?"
Rygel: "They'll never know if I kill Crichton."
Zhaan holds out her hand for the knife: "But you will."
Rygel groans and puts the knife in her hand.
Zhaan: "Fool the others if you like, but I see the larger goodness in a small Hynerian. Seperating this alien ship from Moya must be your first priority Rygel."
Rygel: "Have I ever told you that I appreciate your counsel?"
Rygel closes his eyes as Zhaan smoothes his eyebrow.
Zhaan: "Continuously, by accepting it."
Rygel sighs.
John is sitting by Pilot, looking into the alien recording device. The scenes it has recorded are flashing by very quickly.
John: "It's amazing, the number of species picked up by Neeyala's gizmo."
Now, they are being projected onto a drive-in theatre movie screen. John is standing, leaning against the grille of a convertible, drinking something from a clear glass bottle. Harvey is sitting in the front seat.
John: "Thousands of cultures, spread out across the galaxy."
Harvey: "I resent you calling me here at a whim."
John: "That's the way it works, Harvey. You don't like it, I could toss you back in the dumpster."
There is a roaring noise from a trash container off to one side, as it raises and lowers its lid.
John: "You think Scorpy's still alive?" No response. "Do you think Scorpius is still alive?"
Harvey: "Without doubt."
John: "What's he doin with the information he stole from my brain?"
Harvey: "The knowledge placed there by the ancients is by now centerpiece of a sprawling new research facility."
John: "If he masters wormhole technology, what will he use it for?
Harvey: "Faster delivery of pizzas."
John: "Neeyala thinks it's possible we can seperate the ships. But, only one will survive. We have to pick which one."
Harvey: "Yes, it's a shame about Moya. She'll be fondly remembered."
John: "It's not a done deal."
Harvey gets out of the car and comes around to stand beside John.
Harvey: "Did you call me here... to talk you out of your guilt?"
John: "No. It's just the information amassed inside their ship..."
Harvey: "No contest! I sit here inside your feeble brain, listen to the arguments bounce off the hollow spaces. How could you not choose science over a beast of burden? You disgust me John. I long for the dumpster."
John sets down the recorder and looks at Pilot.
Harvey's voice: "Pilot and Moya are to die, John. Take the wormhole knowledge that's fallen in your lap and call it a day."
John picks up the recorder and looks into it.
END OF ACT THREE
ACT FOUR
Zhaan, D'Argo, Stark, Jool, Rygel, John and Neeyala are gathered in the cargo bay.
D'Argo: "I cannot believe..."
John: "Thanks, D'Argo. that's all."
Zhaan: "How is it even a choice?"
Rygel: "Because some of us want to live."
Stark: "If we use starburst to push..."
John: "What? You... you didn't get slammed against the wall hard enough the last time?"
D'Argo: "So we recover the data from the
precious ship and leave in Moya."
Neeyala: "Our craft itself is
the knowledge base repository."
John: "The ship is one giant computer chip. It's all or nothing."
Zhaan: "Then nothing. We will never abandon Moya while I am still alive!"
Rygel: "Frelling martyr." There is a large jolt.
Stark: "Why not seperate in one of these gaps?"
Jool: "We need the density of the wormhole wall to help pull us apart. Do you have only one good ear also? Uh! I'm not dying just because a ship can eat and crap."
There is an even larger jolt. Jool falls on her butt.
Everyone is shaken and falls back a step, exclaiming.
D'Argo: "Okay. So, we seperate. What then?"
Neeyala: "One vessel slides into the wormhole core, maintaining a chance of enduring. The other tumbles, uncontrolled, through the wormhole wall into normal space, to be atomized by differentials in speed and density."
Zhaan: "There's still not a choice. Moya and Pilot are living beings. They must be afforded every opportunity."
John: "Zhaan, the bio-mechanoid parts on my ship were fried."
Neeyala: "Calculations indicate that your leviathan's design will work against her survival."
Zhaan: "Forgive me, Pathfinder Neeyala, but I do not count you as unbiased."
Rygel: "Uh, like you are? You know what you and Pilot have in common besides big eyes? You're both dying. And now you want to take us with you!"
John throws a ball and just misses Rygel's head.
John: "Can it, F. Lee. Zhaan, Pilot is unconscious. Moya's nexus system is so backed up the Roto-Rooter man couldn't get it..."
Zhaan interrupts: "I know the litany, John. How desperate you must be for this wormhole knowledge."
John: "Unfair."
D'Argo: "You place your obsession above the lives of your friends."
John: "What?"
Stark: "What have these strangers done to so earn your trust?"
Zhaan: "We must check the back-up systems."
Neeyala: "Tsk, tsk, tsk." in disgust.
Zhaan: "I need to know that Pilot and Moya are truly beyond hope. Let's go."
All leave, except Rygel and Jool.
Rygel gives an evil laugh: "You want to know what really happened to your cousin? What Crichton won't tell you?"
Zhaan is going through a corridor in Moya. We hear Chiana crying. She comes up to Zhaan.
Chiana: "How're ya feeling?"
Zhaan: "You missed the debate."
Chiana: "The... that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I feel guilty."
Zhaan: "What possibly for?"
Chiana: "I love Pilot and I love Moya, but I don't wanna die here."
Zhaan: "There's nothing wrong with a decision of the heart, child. In the time that is left, use your mind to satisfy your soul that it is correct."
Chiana, sobbing, goes into Zhaan's arms.
John and Aeryn meet at a junction.
John: "Hey, how'd you go?"
Aeryn: "Ahh, well, if it wasn't Moya, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
John: "Yah, it's the same everywhere. Total meltdown."
Aeryn: "I'm gonna make a run through the iron back-wash chamber, see if there's anything I can do."
John grabs her arm: "Hey, you all right?"
Aeryn: "No."
There is another large jolt and they split up, going in opposite directions.
Jool enters the area they just left. She is carrying a pulse rifle and her hair, instead of golden colored, is bright red.
John is checking a pipe which is venting steam. He hits the pipe several times with a tool, trying to budge it. Jool comes in behind him, takes aim, and shoots. Nothing happens but a whining noise from the rifle. While she is checking the gun, John turns around: "What the hell are you doin? And what happened to your hair? It's red!"
Jool brings the rifle back up and points it at him.
John: "You're not planning ta.."
Jool shoots and misses. She gasps. John runs behind a wall.
Jool: "Yes!"
John: "What the hell you tryin to do?"
Jool: "You lied to me! You butchered my cousin's brain so you could steal a wellit of his neural fluid."
She fires again. John flings himself sideways, away from her. Jool fires twice more.
Jool: "A member of the intellectual elite. 16 advanced degrees, traded for the likes of you!"
Jool looks for John, but can't find him. He leaps out from behind a wall with a pulse pistol pointed at her.
John: "Cut it out, lady."
Jool: "If we're to perish, then at least you'll die first!'
Jool shoots again, at point blank range, and misses John but hits the strange ship from the space station. A blue triangle appears on the side of the ship, then disappears again. D'Argo hits Jool on the back of her head, with his tongue, knocking her unconscious.
D'Argo: "I thought you were good with women."
John: "I am."
D'Argo: "Did you see what happened when she fired at the ship?"
John: "Actually, no. I was looking at the pulse rifle."
D'Argo walks over to the ship and runs his hand lightly along the force field.
D'Argo: "There's a small gap in the force field,...
A part of the force field changes color as D'Argo's hand passes over it.
D'Argo: "...which, unsurprisingly, is the key to its access."
The force field turns off.
D'Argo: "Now, John. We're trapped in this farn of a wormhole, Pilot's unconscious, Moya's dying and my son has slept with my betrothed.
Lock this woman up!"
On the alien ship, Shreena is closing the Phaztillon generator.
Shreena: "Entreaties Pathfinder."
Neeyala: "I do not enjoy sending you to your death, youngling, but options are depleted."
Shreena: "I want to live!"
Neeyala: "More importantly, do you want your family to live? You know what happens to ours, should this ship fail to return."
Shreena: "Will you tell them?"
Neeyala: "That you thought of them to the end. Attention now, Shreena. Time is limited. These creatures, I will distract them. They must not know your true mission."
Shreena puts her hand back on the generator.
Chiana is at a junction box, fixing it. As soon as she finishes, it burns back out.
Chiana: "Frell!"
She looks around. John joins her, then Aeryn, Rygel, D'Argo, Stark and Zhaan do also.
Chiana: "I checked this panel and it was fine, but before I had the chance to close it, it shorted out. There are dozens more just like this on this tier."
Rygel: "Then why are we standing here? That hatch could blow!"
Chiana: "He's right. Functioning DRD's are overmatched. There's no way we can repair all the damage."
Zhaan: "Let us not forsake our friends until we are undeniably clear that..."
There is a very large jolt which interrupts her. Zhaan passes out and Stark catches her as she falls.
Aeryn: "Well, that settles it then. We will go with Neeyala. And we will abandon Moya."
END OF ACT FOUR
EPILOGUE
Moya spinning in the wormhole, still impaled.
In Zhaan's quarters, Stark is helping her drink.
Zhaan: "I have failed my purpose Stark."
Stark: "You protect, heal, give hope."
Zhaan: "This ship and her pilot are to die."
Stark: "As do all things. Once out of the wormhole, you will heal in the soil of the fertile planet. And, one day, your gifts will again help others."
Stark is holding her and rocking her.
Chiana is kneeling and crying, alone in the middle of a corridor. D'Argo finds her.
D'Argo: "I cannot take you back, Chiana, but I won't leave you alone in pain."
On command, Jool's hands are tied behind her back and her mouth is gagged. Rygel is eating something and Aeryn is at a control console.
Neeyala walks to her console and asks Aeryn: "Have you... ever been responsible for another's death, Officer Sun?"
Aeryn: "Yes, I have."
Neeyala: "This is my first time."
Aeryn: "Did you know your crew well?"
Neeyala: "Enough to steel my determination. On their memory, I will not fail."
Scenes from the recorder are flashing by. It seems that they are all familiar scenes from the Uncharted Territories.
John: "Pilot, you should see all these cultures that you could touch with one wormhole. Man, I wish you were going with us. Hey, Pilot. I'm sorry."
Pilot snores gently.
John: "I'm so sorry. Could'a, would'a, should'a." He sighs.
John brings the recorder back up and watches. It shows the same scenes as before until, suddenly, he sees a shot of the Three Stooges, Larry, Moe and Curly! As he's looking at it, in amazement, the serpent rears up out of the depths of Pilot's den and lunges for him. He jumps away. The recorder is dropped and broken.
John: "Oh, boy!"
He jumps to get away from the serpent ends up hanging from a ledge, by his fingertips.
John: "Aeryn! Hey!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
