"Official secrets keep good lies
turning in every mouth."

High Senator Bonn,
Fifteenth Congress of Tal
CY 3343

[Eureka Maru]

VIRGIL [OC]: Seefra citizens, this is Virgil Vox, where the music rocks while my conscience talks. We've got to ask ourselves, why a drought? Why a dying sun? All of us castaways, in a way.
HUNT: Well, I know I feel like one.
BEKA: You and me both, except I'm making a bundle on the Maru, while you're stuck rebuilding the Andromeda.
HUNT: Nanobots do the building. I supply the raw materials.
BEKA: Well, maybe once you find a slip point, I'll catch a ride out of this lovely sinkhole.
HUNT: If that sun doesn't kill us first. Besides, why do you want to leave? You just said you were making a bundle here.
BEKA: Money isn't everything, Dylan.
HUNT: Ha. Seriously, Beka, thanks for hauling this carboxite for me.
BEKA: At six percent interest, don't forget. Oh, and by the way, it goes up to twenty five percent if you're late on the payments.
HUNT: You've got to be kidding.
BEKA: It's not me, Dylan. Half goes to Rbarton and his thugs so they don't shoot me out of this sector.
HUNT: I'm glad money doesn't mean everything.
VIRGIL [OC]: Vegan Diatribe. Their latest, Lies of the Flesh.
(There are a lot of ships on their tail.)
BEKA: That on and off sun gives me the creeps. It ain't natural.
VIRGIL [OC]: The sun blinks and we all stare. And when it goes, all Seefra goes with it. You, me, and fireballs from the sky.
HUNT: Speaking of fireballs, we've got four of them. Attack profile.
BEKA: Crap. Rbarton. And I already paid him.
HUNT: Apparently it wasn't enough.
VIRGIL [OC]: I ask you, who's out there fighting for you, for me?
BEKA: Tell us, Virg, because we need him now. Auxiliary power online.
HUNT: Arming weapons.
VIRGIL [OC]: There is someone on the right side. I'm thinking of one Beka Valentine. She and her ship and her friends come courtesy of a timeless path.
BEKA: Did he say me?
VIRGIL [OC]: This one's yours, Valentine. A simple song, a child's ditty.
(Music plays.)
BEKA: I know that song. What is it?
VIRGIL [OC]: A secret for you, Beka Valentine. Find me to find out.
HUNT: Incoming.
VIRGIL [OC]: Watch for (??) sing the song.
BEKA: Sorry, Virg, got a race to run.
HUNT: Firing.
BEKA: That ammo costs money.
HUNT: Put it on my tab.
BEKA: That's three you owe me for.
HUNT: Four it is. Firing.
(One of their pursuers flies into an asteroid.)
HUNT: Okay, let's do this with brains. Hit retros hard. Make this vector on my mark.
BEKA: Er, Dylan, are you kidding? That'll take us right back at them.
HUNT: Andromeda, this is Captain Hunt.
ANDROMEDA [on screen]: I am here, Captain.
HUNT: Andromeda, we are under attack. I want you to come in hot. Make yourself look big, bad, and ugly.
ANDROMEDA [on screen]: Aye, aye, sir.
BEKA: Dylan, what are you doing? Everyone knows Andromeda's dead in space.
HUNT: Maybe they're not everyone. Now, Beka, full retro!
(The Eureka Maru pivots and flies through their attackers, back to the Andromeda.)
BEKA: What if they call your bluff?
HUNT: I think they just did.
BEKA: They're closing fast. Couple of seconds, they'll have us dead to rights.
HUNT: The carboxite. Dump it.
BEKA: Dump the rocks? Dylan, you need those to rebuild the Andromeda.
HUNT: Dump it.
BEKA: Dumping.
(The last three ships fly into the hail of rocks and explode.)
BEKA: I'm impressed.
HUNT: People have been throwing stones for a long time. 
VIRGIL [OC]: Virgil Vox on the box. Watch for the man who sings the song at his daughter's grave. Beka, find me, and find your secret. Until tomorrow, with more of
BEKA: This could be huge.
HUNT: Well, Beka, why don't we go find us your little secret?
VIRGIL [OC]: Virgil Vox, over and out.

[Saloon]

RHADE: Interesting. Virgil's secret might be worth some money.
BEKA: Huh. My secret, my money.
RHADE: Or your funeral.
TRANCE: We'd really miss you.
HARPER: Three hot bevvies, table fifty four.
BEKA: Harper.
TRANCE: Seamus. Black arm band means trouble.
HARPER: Only for Sembler. For me, it means a steady job. Okay, there I was, minding my own business
DOYLE: Not likely.
HARPER: My story, okay? So, road to Grunswick, I'm on foot, guy comes along in a cart, offers me a ride.
BEKA: Sembler?
HARPER: No. I say, sure, why not? I've got a bone spur on my foot. It's kind of gross. You want to see?
TRANCE: Oh, no.
HARPER: Anyway, we're riding along, we come across a burning house. Guy out front, totally helpless.
TRANCE: Sembler.
HARPER: No. But all of a sudden, he runs in the house, two or three minutes go by, he comes staggering back out, dragging another guy who's out cold and half dead.
RHADE: That's Sembler.
DOYLE: No, Sembler's pulling the cart.
HARPER: That's my girl.
DOYLE: Process of elimination.
RHADE: Sembler's a horse.
HARPER: No. However, after an experience like that, we became friends for life.
BEKA: So what's with the arm band?
HARPER: It was a short life.
BEKA: Very stylish, and now, we're busy, so run along and run a tab.
HARPER: Speaking of short lives.
BEKA: You don't think I'll live long enough to pay my tab?
HARPER: I mean, don't take it personally. Tell you what. On the way out is fine.
BEKA: Anyway, as I was saying, Virgil said something about a timeless path.
DOYLE: Timeless path.
TRANCE: Could be the Route of Ages. What's the Route of Ages?
BEKA: It could be anything. He also mentioned a man singing this song at his daughter's grave.
(Beka plays a recording of the music.)
BEKA: The weird thing is, I know this song, from somewhere.
TRANCE: Knowing from somewhere. I'm familiar with that. It is your most important clue. I think.
BEKA: It's in my memory. I just can't quite place it.
(Hunt joins them.)
HUNT: Er, that song. It's Vedran. My mother used to sing it to me.
BEKA: That's right. Vedran. My dad used to sing it to me, too.
DOYLE: It originally comes from a town on the other side of the planet. A place called Boyagen.
BEKA: That's weird. How would my dad have known it?
HUNT: So what is this place?
DOYLE: Boyagen. All nine Seefran planets are the same, but more people disappear from Boyagen than any other location in the system. As a result, they are a very guarded people.
RHADE: An understatement. They kill intruders on sight.
HUNT: Sounds to me like getting into Boyagen is, er, going to take some doing, Beka.
BEKA: Exactly. That's why I'm talking to you guys. Give you a free hauling of carboxite.
HUNT: It's your secret not mine. I don't like the odds.
TRANCE: I can't blame them. Nobody likes to have both buns on the hot seat.
BEKA: Rhade?
RHADE: Sorry. Got to wash my hair.
HARPER: Hey, don't look at me. Seriously, don't look at me.
RHADE: Of course, for a piece of what Virgil's got for you, you could persuade me to let it go another week.
HUNT: Here we go.
HARPER: Don't waste your time, big boy. A piece of nothing is nothing.
DOYLE: And a piece of something's something.
BEKA: Smart lady. Five percent of whatever it turns out to be.
DOYLE: Ten.
RHADE: Each.
BEKA: Great.
HUNT: Well, it's almost like you're a crew again. Almost.

[Eureka Maru]

BEKA: I'm going to go to half power. I'm going to drop you just outside of town. I'm laying low. Rbarton's not been pleased with me. Never mind. This is how you earn your percents.
RHADE: Which is now fifteen.
BEKA: What?
DOYLE: Ditto.
BEKA: What?
RHADE: If we can't find you a way into Boyagen by tomorrow morning, you don't have to keep our deal.
BEKA: Yeah, I'm going to hold you to that.
RHADE: Okay.

[Boyagen]

(Men in thick cloaks and hoods, carrying weapons, pass each other.)
TANNOY: Report all outsiders.
MAN: Security in silence.
MAN 2: In us all.
TANNOY: Only together we survive.
RHADE: Clear.
TANNOY: Mourn the disappeared.
(A woman takes a bouquet into a structure with suns either side of the doorway.)
DOYLE: This must be where they remember the dead.
TANNOY: Be watchful.
MAN: Intruder! Stop right there!
DOYLE: Don't shoot. Don't shoot. We don't want to hurt anyone.
(She offers her gun, then punches the man who comes to take it. Rhade deals with another man.)
TANNOY: Outsiders mean death.
DOYLE: Nice work. We think alike.
RHADE: I wouldn't count on it. They won't be out forever.
TANNOY: A stranger is a danger.

[Wall of Remembrance]

(A labyrinth of walls made up of labelled slabs.)
TANNOY: Strength in isolation. Be aware. Mourn the disappeared.
(The woman touches a name plate on a slab and a hologram of a man appears.)
DOYLE: Creepy.
RHADE: Remembering the disappeared. Beautiful and dark.
TANNOY: A friendly face is a familiar face. Isolation in strength.
(A bald man conjures up the hologram of a little girl with an angel doll.)
HOLO-MALA: Hi, daddy.
AVINERI: Mala, you're still gone, and I still have trouble living without you. (sings) Two suns shining in the sky. Looking down on you and I. Like the suns I'll always be
RHADE: He's singing the song at his daughter's grave.
(He records the scene.)
AVINERI: (sings) Here for you and you for me.
TANNOY: Intruder. Kill. Security penetration.
(Rhade and Doyle run out.)

[Boyagen]

TANNOY: Warning. Outsiders.
(They split up. The men they knocked out earlier are just coming round.)
TANNOY: Intruder. Kill. Security penetration.
(Rhade knocks one out again and takes his cloak.)
(Another man runs out of the Wall of Remembrance.)
MAN: Hey, you!
TANNOY: Warning. Outsiders.
MAN: Hey!
DOYLE: Hey yourself.
(She knocks him out and takes the cloak.)

[Saloon]

BEKA: Perfect. He's my way in.
RHADE: How? The girl we saw looked about seven when she disappeared.
DOYLE: The date on the wall backs that up.
HUNT: She'd be about your age right now.
TRANCE: You could be Mala.
BEKA: Exactly. Go in, gain the father's trust, find Virgil, get prize.
TRANCE: Virgil chose you, Beka. And he chose Boyagen.
HUNT: Just don't get yourself killed.
BEKA: That's why I'm going in native.
RHADE: Make sure you come back so we can get paid, or I'll kill you myself.
BEKA: They're so cute at that age.
HUNT: I think he's trying to be scary.
BEKA: Ah.
(Thugs enter, and a man gets kicked to the floor.)
RBARTON: For your own safety, technology violations are not allowed in the Seefra system. We all agree on that. And that violators must pay.
HARPER: I told you, Beka. Rbarton and the tech police.
RBARTON: My tech police caught this violator trying to sell an anti-proton generator that doesn't work. But still, it's a violation. Correct?
PATRONS: That's right. That's right.
RBARTON: So long.
(And electrocutes the hapless man.)
HUNT: Hey! What the hell was that for?
RBARTON: And you, Dylan Hunt. You and your friends here show up out of nowhere with technology we can't explain. That's a violation. Unless, of course, you can explain it to me.
HUNT: Oh, you wouldn't understand. You see, it's a little too complicated, but we're all in the wrong place at the wrong time.
RBARTON: Beka Valentine, you owe me money for transporting technical materials through Police Protected Territory, but I have a proposal.
HUNT: Sounds like a threat to me.
RBARTON: Is there any other kind? Virgil's secret's likely worth some revenue. I want half. The larger half.
BEKA: No freaking way.
RBARTON: Guess I'll have to go over your head. Let's you and I talk aboard that beautiful ship of yours that also came out of nowhere.
HUNT: Yeah. I'm er, I'm too busy for visitors.
RBARTON: Doing what? Regulations require an inspection for illegal technology.
TRANCE: But there are no regulations or laws here.
HUNT: Oh, I've got one. No one boards my ship without an invitation.
(Rbarton signals his thugs.)
HARPER: Er, don't look now.
(Hunt turns and gets punched.)
HARPER: I told you.
(The thug gets thrown over the bar. Doyle helps Hunt, then involves Rhade, while Beka stays out of it with her drink. Trance hides behind the bar with Harper.)
HARPER: That table goes on your tab!
HUNT: Well, don't help or anything!
BEKA: You're doing great.
RHADE: You're welcome.
RBARTON: Glad you know your loyalties.
BEKA: Yeah. I haul cargo through your zone. Doesn't make us buddies.
RHADE: Why don't we just use our guns?
HUNT: That's a good question. Rhade? Behind you.
HARPER: Dylan!
HUNT: Yeah?
HARPER: Here!
(Hunt catches the object.)
HUNT: Harper, what am I supposed to do with a spoon?
(And knocks two thugs out with it. Then Harper fires two shots. The fight stops.)
HARPER: All right! Let's see who wants to keep fighting now!
TRANCE: Or drinks for half price!
HARPER: What?
(Hunt grabs Rbarton and puts his forcelance to his throat.)
HUNT: You I don't like.
RBARTON: But I like you. Want a job?
HUNT: Yeah. Sure. Does it come with a dental plan?
RHADE: Whoa. How much?
RBARTON: Enough even to make your sad face smile.
HUNT: Oh, I doubt that.
RBARTON: Think about it. See you. Soon.
(Rbarton and his thugs leave.)
HUNT: That guy. That guy's toast. Beka, I'm in. But whatever I owe you, we're now even.

[Eureka Maru]

RHADE: Beka, this locator beacon is real old.
BEKA: What? It worked last time I used it.
HUNT: Yeah, but that was in another universe.
BEKA: It'll work fine, okay? Just you guys, make sure you get the visual effect right.
HUNT: Don't worry. We are here to serve you, Beka.
BEKA: That's right. That's what I like to hear.

[Boyagen]

TANNOY: A stranger is a danger. A friendly face is a familiar face.
BEKA: Okay, make it look good.

[Eureka Maru]

RHADE: The coordinates are locked.

[Boyagen]

BEKA: And in the right spot, please.

[Eureka Maru]

HUNT: Oh, what the heck. Er, what do you say we boost the flash by, oh, I don't know, sixteen percent? Give her a bigger entrance?
RHADE: Dylan, I like the way you think.
HUNT: Show time.

[Boyagen]

(There is a meteorite landing close to where Beka is hiding, then she pops up, coughing, and is instantly surrounded by armed men.)
MAN: Intruder! Intruder!
BEKA: Thanks a lot, guys. Hey, wait. Where am I?
MAN: This is Boyagen, and you are an intruder.
BEKA: This is Boyagen? Wait. If this is Boyagen, then I'm not an intruder. Let me show you. Take me to the wall. I'm on the wall. It's me. It's Mala Propina. I'm Mala Propina. Dad.
(Avineri touches her face.)
AVINERI: You are Mala.

[Avineri's home]

BEKA: Sorry my being gone was so difficult for you.
AVINERI: It's of no consequence now. Is it proper to ask? Can you talk about where you were all the years? What it was like?
BEKA: I'd rather not. Not yet. But I'm here now, and that's what's important.
AVINERI: No one has ever come back. Ever.
BEKA: Avineri. Dad. I want to be honest with you I'm not the same. But now, being here, I know that this is my life. I can't explain it, but somehow, I know that I'm home.
AVINERI: You have returned, Mala, but you've come at a bad time. This place, our home, this planet, the failing sun. If it goes out, we will die.
BEKA: If?
AVINERI: Your return brings hope. Gives me such joy.
BEKA: I missed you so much.
AVINERI: (sings) Two suns shining in the sky. Looking down on you and I.
BOTH: (sing) Like the suns I'll always be, here for you and you for me.
AVINERI: I have something for you.
(The Clarinthian angel doll.)
BEKA: I had one of these!
AVINERI: Of course. Your favourite.
BEKA: It was my favourite. This is all so strange.
AVINERI: Strange isn't a bad thing, only unexpected.
BEKA: What is it?
AVINERI: Mala, I do have something, a secret, I want to tell you.

[Wall of Remembrance]

TANNOY: Strength in isolation. A friendly face is a familiar face.
AVINERI: I can't keep this from you, Mala, not if we love each other. Not if you are who I think you are.
TANNOY: Be wary.
(He invites her to walk through a holographic wall.)

[Studio]

BEKA: It's a transmitting studio. Does this belong to Virgil Vox?
AVINERI: Yes. These have been modified to carry his voice.
BEKA: If I ask you a question, will you answer truthfully? Are you Virgil?
AVINERI: No, but he comes from here. This is his studio. This was sent to me. Listen.
VIRGIL [OC]: Avi, be watchful. Someone will come. You will know her as your own. It is time to pass your secret to her. I left a message for only her.
BEKA: Virgil wanted me to be here.
AVINERI: You are chosen, my daughter. An honour, a responsibility, a true path.
BEKA: Chosen? For what?
(Avineri puts a code into a pad and a person-sized drawer slides out.)
AVINERI: Designed for a specific organic composition. There is no danger. You are my daughter. Please.
BEKA: Well, then. Ahem. Only, I'm not crazy about tight spaces.
AVINERI: Confinement is temporary. I've given you my deep trust and you, in return, must trust me.
BEKA: I do. Of course. I think.
(Beka lies down, and the drawer slides back into the wall.)

[Compartment]

BEKA: Er, lights? Hello? Avineri? Dad? Dad!
VIRGIL [OC]: No reason to fear. Awareness has chosen you to watch, listen, learn.
(Beka is in a virtual Boyagen.)
VIRGIL [OC]: As you know more and more, you'll question more and more, Which seems a paradox, but isn't.
(And into a virtual Wall of Remembrance.)
VIRGIL [OC]: So, are you ready now to receive my message? Millennia past, when everything is nothing, Enigma realises itself. The Vedran mind comes into being. It constructed planets and suns, the nonpareil of their manifold creations. A place of peace. Refuge from a universe caught in the chaos of selfishness. The Seefra system was born, and the Vedran separated it from the malevolence of all other things. Isolated it to flourish. But nothing can withstand the corruptions of desire. The inhabitants began fighting for what they already had The Vedran, almost all, left their creation behind to learn by their mistakes, which were many, and the Vedran creators closed off all escape and entry, imbued the people with a fear of the very technologies which could free them. Centuries later, now, the suns are failing. You are key to their salvation.
(On a virtual Command deck.)
BEKA: What? How can that be?
VIRGIL [OC]: Because you're from this place, as we all are. You are to secure the Methus Plate, original architecture of the twin Vedran suns. Give them to the one who led you here. But to get the Methus Plate, you must trust, even in the face of your fears.
BEKA: How?
VIRGIL [OC]: Reveal who you are.
BEKA: Who I really am? They'll kill me. Virgil?
(And back to reality and the confined place.)
BEKA: Oh, great. Avineri? Avineri, can you hear me?

[Eureka Maru]

RHADE: She hasn't moved for some time.
HUNT: She could be sleeping. It is that time.
RHADE: Or dying.
HUNT: Beka can take care of herself. Let's go see if she's sleeping.
RHADE: Sleeping. Huh.

[Compartment]

BEKA: Avineri, are you there?
(She reaches up to a switch, and squeals.)

[Boyagen]

MAN: Security in silence.
TANNOY: Be watchful.
HUNT + RHADE: In us all.
(They are wearing the stolen cloaks.)
MAN 2: Security in silence.
HUNT + RHADE: In us all.
TANNOY: Only together do we survive.
RHADE: Dylan.
TANNOY: Mourn the disappeared.

[Wall of Remembrance]

RHADE: It's this way.
TANNOY: Report all outsiders.
RHADE: Dylan.
(They get to Mala's memorial.)
TANNOY: Only together do we survive.
HOLO-MALA: I love my dolly.
TANNOY: Mourn the disappeared.
RHADE: Now what?
HUNT: I don't know but she sure is close by.
(He leans against the wall, and falls through.)
HUNT: Whoa!
RHADE: How the hell does he do that?

[Studio]

RHADE: Somebody was here.
HUNT: I'm getting a faint reading right here.
RHADE: Maybe Andromeda can break the code.
HUNT: Rhade.
(He holds up his forcelance.)
RHADE: That'll work.
(Bang. The drawer opens. It is empty.)
HUNT: She was here.

[Cave]

(Beka tumbles down a rocky slope.)
BEKA: Ah! Ouch! That is one hell of an emergency exit. Dylan, come in. Rhade, do you read?

[Rbarton's room]

(Avineri is badly beaten.)
RBARTON: Where is Beka Valentine?
AVINERI: I don't know who that is.
RBARTON: How about Virgil Vox. Where is he?
AVINERI: I can't tell you. Please.
RBARTON: Can't or won't? It's a distinction pain can eliminate.
(Rbarton brandishes a red-hot poker in Avineri's face, then burns his leg. He holds a crystal.)
RBARTON: Virgil's transmission is on this, isn't it? His secret knowledge. How do I read it? Please understand, I don't want to drag this out.
(More torture.)

[Avineri's home]

(The place has been trashed.)
BEKA: Dad?
(Even the angel doll is broken. Someone enters and she swings a poker at them.)
RHADE: Easy.
BEKA: Someone's got him. Avineri, we've got to find him.
HUNT: Well, we all know who has him. Rbarton.
RHADE: He probably followed her here from the start. Is Virgil's secret worth this much trouble?
BEKA: I know Virgil's secret. He told me in a message.
RHADE: And? Is it worth anything?
BEKA: My father's life.
HUNT: So what's the secret?
BEKA: This entire system, your home planet, Dylan? The Vedrans built the eight other planets, the suns, everything, piece by piece.
RHADE: And now it's falling apart, piece by piece.
BEKA: Except there's something, it's called the Methus Plate. It's supposed to outline the architecture of the suns.
RHADE: To fix the blinking sun.
HUNT: And you have this Plate?
BEKA: No. And Virgil said nothing about where I'm supposed to find it. Although
HUNT: Although.
BEKA: Although if I come clean about who I am, this Methus Plate is supposed to drop into my lap.
HUNT: Well, we need that Plate, Beka. But first, let's find your dad. Rbarton has him because he wants Virgil's secret, so let's give him what he wants. Rbarton?
RBARTON [on comms]: Any luck, Captain?
HUNT: I want to make a deal. Virgil's secret in exchange for the old man.
RBARTON [on comms]: If I had what you want, I'd make a deal.
HUNT: You, you're really a funny guy. This is a three second offer.
RBARTON [on comms]: Meet me in Boyagen in one hour.
HUNT: Hunt out.
BEKA: Dylan, no. We can't tell him Virgil's secret.
HUNT: We won't have to.

[Boyagen]

(Beka has a cloak, too.)
TANNOY: Strength in isolation. A friendly face is a familiar face.
(They see a little girl.)
MALA: I love my dolly.
(She waves and goes inside the Wall of Remembrance.)

[Wall of Remembrance]

AVINERI: Mala. Mala.
BEKA: Avineri. Dad!
AVINERI: I didn't reveal a thing. Nothing.
RBARTON: Don't you just love a family scene?
HUNT: Don't even think about it.
RBARTON: Then give me Beka. She knows Virgil's secret, and I want it.
BEKA: You tortured my father!
HUNT: Beka!
RBARTON: I didn't lay a finger on him. And he is most certainly not your father. You know that, don't you? She's not Mala. Her name's Beka Valentine.
HUNT: Let him go, and maybe I'll let you live. Okay, go ahead. Kill him. But I guarantee you'll be next.
BEKA: Dylan. Dylan, this is no good. The only way out is for us to make the trade. Me for Avineri.
HUNT: Can't let you do that. He'll kill you.
BEKA: Dylan, he's my father. I don't have a choice.
HUNT: Nope.
BEKA: Come on. This will work. You'll figure something out. And when you do, I'll haul four loads of carboxite for you, for free. It's practically enough to power up the Andromeda.
HUNT: Make it six and it's a deal.
RBARTON: Let's go, Valentine.
BEKA: Six. Done. Six.
RBARTON: Take him.
HUNT: On second thoughts, Beka, put it on my tab.
(He shoots Rbarton in the shoulder.)
HUNT: Next one won't be a warning shot. Now, get lost.
(Rbarton draws his gun, and gets himself and his thugs killed.)
HUNT: Should've done that a long time ago.
RHADE: I won't argue with that.

[Avineri's home]

AVINERI: I feel the sun.
BEKA: You know I'm not your daughter.
AVINERI: Trust goes beyond facts.
BEKA: I wish I were.
AVINERI: How do you know you're not? There, behind the picture. Something there for you.
BEKA: This?
AVINERI: Take it off. The wall itself, it's Vedran technology. Put your hand on it. Now, tell me who you really are.
BEKA: Beka Valentine.
AVINERI: Tell me who you are.
BEKA: I'm Rebecca Valentine. I don't know what you want me to do. I'm Mala Propina.
(A casket appears.)
AVINERI: The Methus Plate is yours.
BEKA: What do I do with it?
AVINERI: That was never told. It was my fate which told me you were the one. Your fate must take it the rest of the way.
(He dies.)
BEKA: I came here for a prize and I found (sings) Two suns shining in the sky, looking down on you and I. Like the suns I'll always be here for you.

[Command]

HUNT: It's a fragment. Now if we only knew what to do with it.
BEKA: I still don't understand why I was chosen.
TRANCE: Because you were born there.
HUNT: And born somewhere else as well.
TRANCE: Believe me, you'll get used to it.
BEKA: And I thought I had a weird childhood before. The angel doll, the children's song, all of that. Was that my childhood here, or my childhood on the Maru?
HUNT: We've all seen too much to believe there's only one truth or one set of facts.
TRANCE: It will all be revealed if we're patient.
RHADE: I'm not good at patience anymore.
BEKA: Me neither.
HUNT: No one said you have to be good at it.

[Studio]

VIRGIL [OC]: Seefra citizens, this is Virgil Vox, with the music that rocks while my conscience talks. This one's for all of those born before their time, going out to those who pay a price for good and vice. Which is all of us, after all, because everybody's got demons. All I can say is, do whatever gets you a good night's sleep. It's up to you and me, each of us, to do what needs doing, and we don't have to fool ourselves.
TRANCE 2: There's plenty needs doing but, and here's the thing. You can't look for someone else to show you the way. No, sir. So, my listeners of my heart, this is Virgil Vox, giving you my blessing.

[Command]

HUNT: Hunt here.
VIRGIL [OC]: Captain Hunt.
HUNT: Captain Hunt. Haven't heard that in a long time.
VIRGIL [OC]: What's time in a place like this? Or rank?
HUNT: Hey, you're the one who called me Captain. So, where are you, Virgil?
VIRGIL [OC]: Here, there, everywhere. Nowhere, my man.
HUNT: Do you ever not talk in puzzles?
VIRGIL [OC]: Not yet.
HUNT: Well then, puzzle me this. Why Beka? Why all of this here together but apart? So now I get the silent treatment? Yeah. Look, you're the one who contacted me, so what can I do for you? I'm going to bed.
VIRGIL [OC]: Sleep tight.
HUNT: How about something smooth to take me there?
VIRGIL [OC]: Already done. Virgil Vox, back on your box. This ray of sunshine goes out to all of us who are castaway, like the late great crew of Andromeda Ascendant.