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| Starring: | |
|
Ben Browder Claudia Black Virginia Hey Anthony Simcoe Gigi Edgley |
Commander John Crichton Officer Aeryn Sun Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan Ka D'Argo Chiana |
| Guest Starring: | |
|
Wayne Pygram |
Scorpius |
|
Writer: Naren Shankar Who also wrote: | |
Director: Tony Tilse Who also directed: | |
| CREATED BY: | Rockne S. O'Bannon |
| EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: |
Richard Manning Naren Shankar |
| PRODUCED BY: | Sue Milliken |
| WRITTEN BY: | Naren Shankar |
| DIRECTED BY: | Tony Tilse |
| EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: |
David Kemper Brian Henson Rod Perth Robert Halmi, Jr. |
| EXECUTIVE CONSULTANT: | Rockne S. O'Bannon |
| CREATIVE CONSULTANT: | Justin Monjo |
| EXECUTIVE STORY EDITORS: | Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman, Jr. |
| DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: | Russell Bacon |
| PRODUCTION DESIGNER: | Tim Ferrier |
| ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: | Andrew Prowse |
| MUSIC BY: | Guy Gross |
| COSTUME DESIGNER: | Terry Ryan |
| EDITOR: | Neil Thumpston |
| SECOND UNIT DOP: | Danny Batterham |
| STORY EDITOR: | Lily Taylor |
| SCRIPT EDITOR: | Grant McAloon |
| PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE: | Robert I. Wozniak |
| CREATURE SHOP CREATIVE SUPERVISOR: | Dave Elsey |
| VISUAL EFFECTS: | ANIMAL LOGIC |
COLD OPENMOYA, Crichton's Quarters Sitting in front of a makeshift chessboard, Crichton sits pondering ... stuff. Idly passing a pebbled ball about the size of a softball from one hand to the other... a game of solo catch... muttering quietly to himself. Aeryn, passing by in the corridor, is drawn to his open doorway. Leaning forward, pondering the board closely, Crichton makes a move. White Knight takes Black Pawn, putting the Black King in Check. Crichton, rolling the ball in the fingers of one hand, pauses slightly, his eyes refocusing away, then shift back to the board... FLASHBACK: Strapped in the Aurora Chair, Scorpius leans in close to his immobile head... whispering a half remembered message into his ear... "... remember me by, Crichton." A flash of wickedly long silver, the tip pressed against the back of his neck, and then thrust home... he screams in agony.... Momentarily frozen before the board, ball held poised in one hand, Crichton abruptly stands and moves across the room, fetching something propped against the wall. Crichton maneuvers past her, and walks out of his quarters, carrying a long metal rod. INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay & Main Passage Rygel and Zhaan carry on a discussion via comms. Rygel from the Cargo Bay, Zhaan in transit in the main passageway. She carries a couple of transparent 'bags' by their straps in the crook of her arm. ( Shopping in the Uncharted Territories. :) An abrupt 'chittering noise' is followed by the clang of a small metal barrel falling over not far from Rygel's hovering throne sled.
INTERCUT EXT. SPACE, A Transport Pod approaches Moya's open hangar bay doors. ( Stock CGI, Whoo Hoo! ) INTERCUT MOYA, Maintenance Bay Chiana rolls a covered cage into the Maintenance Bay, followed by D'Argo. Aeryn sits at a workbench... well... working. Giggling, Chiana lifts a metallic cloth off the top of the cage revealing a small alien lifeform inside the cage. Geez. It's um... all big head and 'batwing' like ears, tiny black eyes, antenna and small toothy mouth perched on a long thin neck. Weird. Somebodies Uncle in a bad mood... Must be seen to be believed! Chiana lifts the alien creature out of it's cage, cradling it in her arms like a baby. The Vorc lets loose with a well placed, and steady stream of urine... directly onto D'Argo's chest. Priceless moment! D'Argo's mouth is hanging open in disgusted shock. Chiana puts the Vorc down, a bit too late, and Aeryn... just quietly observes the react. The Vorc takes the opportunity to scuttle away and Chiana chases after it. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Banking off a small storage box against the wall at a junction, a ball rolls along the passage. Walking into frame from the side passage-- into the junction, following the ball's route, is John Crichton. Slightly bizarre American Astronaut. He hefts a long pole in his hands, slinging it across his shoulder. (You may remember this object as the long pole that saved him from being sucked into space in "Durka Returns" and also makes an encore performance in "A Clockwork Nebari" -- Trivia for free! ) The ball spins to a stop in a very good 'lie' in the center of the passage. As Crichton approaches it he swings the pole off his shoulder, bringing the end close to his lips... an improvised 'mic'... Before he can take his next 'stroke', Crichton's distracted by the sound of a low growl from a small access hatch into a subpassage. He turns toward the grill over the access hatch... Approaching the access, he leans close, peering down, through the grill. From inside the subpassage area, a smallish 'critter' leaps toward the grill, emitting a loud roaring growl, suitable for freaking out curious astronauts! ( and me too! ) With a frightened shout, Crichton leaps back from the critter behind the grill, whips out his pulse pistol and starts firing. Blowing the grill off the access port, he charges in close, the better to see; and perhaps hit, what he's been firing at, but there remains no sign of said 'critter'. END COLD OPENROLL OPENING CREDITSMy name is John Crichton, an astronaut... ...a radiation wave hit, and I got shot through a wormhole... now I'm lost in some distant part of the universe, on a ship-- a living ship, full of strange alien life-forms.... Help me. Listen please... is there anybody out there who can hear me? ....I'm being hunted by an insane military commander... doing everything I can... I'm just looking for a way home. ACT IMOYA, Main Passage access to Subpassage/Storage Compartment Crichton, Aeryn and D'Argo stand in the Main passage inspecting the storage compartment where Crichton spied the 'critter'. There is, of course, some disagreement. They do an excellent job of talking at the same time. Impatience rules the day. D'Argo grabs Rygel, chair and all, and slams him against the wall. D'Argo grabs Rygel and shoves his face against the damp urine spot on his clothes. Rygel's complaints are many but muffled. Crichton turns toward her, as Aeryn indicates the Vorc's size with a handspan distance of about 2.5 ft, then scrunches up her face and sticks crooked index fingers on both sides of her face to give an excellent impression of the Vorc's bizarre looks. Crichton's reaction to her description is blase, dismissing it as a possibility. INTERCUT MOYA, Center Chamber Zhaan sorts and stores food in the Center Chamber. It's very quiet. ( They need a CD player or something... speaking of which... ) Something scuttles about in the background, watching her as she works. A small storage barrel is knocked down and Zhaan hears footsteps. Moving to the barrel, she bends to right it when the thing watching her leaps out and scares the crap out of her. INTERCUT MOYA, Center Chamber Chiana arrives, pushing the 'Vorc cage'. Chiana joins Zhaan, searching for the Vorc, trying to coax it out of hiding. The Vorc, becoming more and more agitated with the search, scuttles across the floor. Chiana spies him, signalling to Zhaan. They 'converge' on the critter... The Vorc eludes capture and makes a break for the chamber door, running smack into Aeryn who hauls the critter off the ground by his scrawny little neck. Aeryn, determined to make her point, somehow manages to allow the Vorc to wiggle around and sink its tiny teeth into her stomach. She yelps and drops the Vorc, who scuttles away. From the floor, Zhaan manages a look of sympathy but Chiana, on the floor next to her, cannot restrain a small burst of giggles. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Crichton prowls the corridors, playing catch with himself again, tossing the ball idly from one hand to another. A sudden noise draws Crichton's attention away from his discussion with Pilot and down the hall. His expression is suddenly and intensely blank, the incessant toying with the ball stops and he stands frozen. Scuttling between large storage containers, a familiar, dark leather clad figure darts into the Cargo Bay in the passage ahead of Crichton. He slowly lowers his hand, releasing the ball, which drops unheeded to the floor. Crichton's hand releases the pulse pistol from the holster at his hip. INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay Crichton quietly enters the Cargo Bay, a slow pursuit of someone who 'cannot' be aboard Moya. He hears a soft rattling noise, and lifts his weapon to the ready, walking further into the bay between tall stacks of various sizes and types of storage containers. Muted clattering noises continue as Crichton approaches the source, his intensity is frightening as he comes about a large storage container and draws down on the intruder. Crichton, having been a fraction of a microt from blowing Rygel away, pulls the pistol up and away with no more than a disgusted frown, holstering the weapon. Crichton turns with a dismissive frown, and leaves. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Chiana & D'Argo prowl separate corridors on a Vorc hunt. D'Argo and Chiana meet at a junction in the corridor.
Chiana stalks off in a huff. D'Argo scowls, and in an intensely comical moment, mutters an unflattering pouty echo of Chiana's last words. D'Argo stalks off as well. INTERCUT MOYA, Aeryn's Quarters Outside the closed grill gate to her quarters, Aeryn pulls aside the bottom of her vest, examining two tiny puncture marks on her abdomen. Sighing disgustedly, she engages the door control. Stepping through the opening doorway into semi-darkness, one boot treads unerringly into a pile of Vorc poop accompanied by a lovely squishing noise. Groaning with disgust, one boot held gingerly above the squished pile, she hears a slight noise and looks over to her bed where the Vorc sits, eying her blandly, making cute little Vorc noises. It wiggles it's ears at her while she stalks slowly toward it, rage barely contained. Aeryn shoves the Vorc backward off her bed. The Vorc squeals as it falls. The Vorc bounces back up onto the bed, further aggravating Aeryn. She shoves the Vorc off her bed again. The Vorc zips around the bed and latches onto Aeryn's leg. ( Anyone with a dog will recognize this behavior... it's um, 'humping' her leg -- how do they get away with this stuff?! hehe ) The Vorc, still enthusastically, uh... recreating with Aeryn's leg, stops abruptly and begins sniffing the air with much wiggling of stubby nose and flapping of ears. Shrieking wildly it bolts from the chamber and scurries out of sight down the corridor. D'Argo bolts down the corridor. INTERCUT MOYA, Center Chamber Inside the Center Chamber, Chiana hears a noise and turns toward the corridor. INTERCUT MOYA, Subpassage D'Argo strides quickly down the subpassage, stooped slightly with Qualta Blade drawn, there's barely enough clearance in there for him. Aeryn stands, lost, at a junction point in a Main Passage. They bicker uselessly via comms. In the Maintenance Bay, Chiana and Rygel cower behind the central support pillar. Indeed, menacing growling and all, the creature Crichton spied in the storage compartment is looming over Chiana and Rygel, just on the other side of the support. In the subpassage, D'Argo wheels about, running in the opposite direction. Crichton pausing in a main passage, on a hunt of his own, wheels about and 'charges' toward the Maintenance Bay. Aeryn, hearing call to arms also runs in that direction. INTERCUT MOYA, Maintenance Bay Rygel, keeping behind Chiana, as she tries to keep the pillar between them and the slowly approaching creature. It continues to growl in a most unfriendly manner. They're both a bit terrified. The creature, growling wildly, darts around the pillar, trapping Chiana against a workbench. Chiana fumbles blindly on the workbench behind her, fingers finding and taking up a long metal pipe. Running down the corridor, Crichton flings a bit of useless advice. Chiana takes a sluggers swing at the creature's head, but it slams a long crooked arm into her gut, dropping her like a bag of cement. Rygel takes the distraction to make a 'hover' for it. Gasping, Chiana attempts to rise from the floor, but the creature slugs her again in the side and she is flung across the floor, colliding with the supports of another work bench. From the corridor, D'Argo charges in, flinging one of the wheeled shelves out of his line of fire. Before D'Argo can draw a bead on the creature, it launches itself at him. They collide and wrestle hand to hand, the creature taking a chunk of our D'Argo's neck before he can hurl the creature away from him. The creature drops to the floor and scuttles away as D'Argo takes a couple of hasty, badly aimed, pot shots at it. It disappears down the corridor outside the Maintenance Bay. In the aftermath, D'Argo stands panting heavily, one gloved hand pressed against his neck. He pulls his hand away, and with eyes slowly rolling up into his head, drops gracefully to the floor. END ACT IACT IIMOYA, Maintenance Bay Rygel, having abandoned his throne sled, sits behind D'Argo's body, sprawled on the floor. Rygel seems oddly worried, stroking the Luxan's face solicitously. Crichton arrives, surveys the scene briefly, and crouches to examine Chiana. Leaving Chiana to rise weakly to her knees, Crichton steps toward D'Argo. Kneeling beside him and placing his pulse pistol on the floor within easy reach, he checks the Luxan for injuries. Suddenly gasping harshly for air, D'Argo begins convulsing violently on the floor. Crichton leans into the flailing Luxan, trying to hold him steady. Crichton lies across D'Argo's chest, pinning his arms and chest to the floor, Chiana pins his legs as best she can and even Rygel is hanging on to one of the Luxan's arms, all three combined cannot quite hold D'Argo still, as he continues to convulse heavily. Aeryn arrives amidst the chaos, everyone shouting above the din of D'Argo's groaning. Aeryn flings herself down, also holding onto a leg, their combined efforts mostly ineffectual as D'Argo continues to flail wildy against the floor, gasping for breath. INTERCUT MOYA, The Medical Bay Zhaan uses the 'scanner thingy' on D'Argo, who lies still on the table. INTERCUT MOYA, Cell levels Aeryn and Crichton in the corridor outside vacant and closed cells, search out the creature. Crichton peers though the grill of one cell, and spying something, beckons Aeryn, pointing inside the cell. They both move stealthily to the cell door, key the opening sequence, and carefully step through the opening doorway. Weapons at the ready, they silently fan out across the room. Crichton, noting a trail of 'bread crumbs', follows it to a recessed point in the far wall. A rustling noise from that same point also draws Aeryn's attention. They both approach the niche cautiously, a closer exploration revealing the Vorc. Crichton moves to yank the Vorc out of the recess with a quick grab to the neck. The Vorc, just as quick, snaps at Crichton's hand. Crichton backpedals quickly, rethinking his 'plan'. Crichton exits quickly, leaving Aeryn to wrangle the Vorc. INTERCUT MOYA, Medical Bay Zhaan continues her work. Chiana comforts a now semi-concious D'Argo. His breathing is harsh and labored. D'Argo, panting heavily, nods; whispering something unintelligible to Chiana. Weak laughter trails off into weak coughing. Behind Chiana, Zhaan gasps in fear. INTERCUT MOYA, Subpassage Two DRDs glide down a subpassage, searching. Their eyestalk cameras sending the images back to the clamshell in Command. INTERCUT MOYA, Command Alone in Command, Crichton sits on the Strategy Table, eyes fixed on the clamshell as images of Moya's interior passages and compartments are displayed. At his console, Pilot manipulates controls, directing one image after another to the clamshell in Command. On the viewer an image of the hangar bay is displayed. An image of the appropriate bay appears on the clamshell, nothing visible but storage containers. The image on the clamshell is shot through with static. On clearing, the image projected is that of Scorpius' leering visage. Crichton's react is a silent denial of this vision. INTERCUT MOYA, Neural Cluster D'Argo comes to abrupt conciousness, gasping heavily. A hard rush of air from below seems to suspend him at the center of the neural nexus. Zhaan is near at hand. Rygel makes an entrance as Zhaan adjustments a few neural cluster connections. INTERCUT MOYA, Main passages Separately, Aeryn and Crichton continue their search for the creature. Aeryn hauls the Vorc on her back. The Vorc indicates a different direction with one long boney finger. Aeryn pries one of the Vorc's fingers out of her mouth. Aeryn sets the Vorc down on the deck, releasing it from a carrysac. Apparently not, cause the Vorc, in a highly agitated state, darts away rapidly. In the Neural Cluster a sudden hard gust of wind blows D'Argo back, tankas and hair flying dramatically. Still in separate passages, Aeryn and Crichton begin running with purpose, perhaps guessing where the creature may be headed. ( Or maybe it's an editing mistake... who knows! ) Quick shot of the 'creature' as it smashes one of the DRDs. Chiana's out joining the hunt as well, pulse pistol in hand. She pauses in the corridor as chamber doors swing closed automatically. Crichton reaches a junction at a run, slowing only with assistance from the corridor wall to shift direction and run down another passage. The creature darts into a main corridor, growling quietly. Chiana stands listening in her corridor, she runs back the way she came, exiting the corridor into a junction. Turning slightly sees the creature up close as it charges her. Shrieking she fires repeatedly at the creature, who darts back down the passage, eluding every shot. Crichton, hearing the pistol fire, increases his pace, as if it were possible. Wild shots ricochet off the walls as the creature scurries away unharmed. Crichton bolts into the junction from a side corridor and slams into Chiana, they slam against the wall-- rebounding off the wall, they fall in a tangled heap on the floor, Chiana on top. Crichton pushes her off and climbs to his knees. They both climb to their feet, Crichton stalking off in the direction the creature went, Chiana following. They're both entirely pissed. Crichton stops, grabs Chiana by the arms and walks her back a few steps. Pushing her gently, propelling her back toward the Medical Bay. Crichton then turns and heads back to his pursuit of the creature. Chiana stands, mouth agape in surprise. Crichton turns back again. Their irritation is greatly diminished, but both are still venting no small amout of frustration with each other. Crichton and Chiana bolt in the appropriate direction. At a corridor junction just ahead of Crichton and Chiana, Aeryn passes in front of them at a run, they fall in behind her. The doors to Command swing closed automatically. As the final door swings closed, locking automatically, a glimpse of the creature is seen scurring by inside Command. Running down the main passage, Aeryn, Crichton and Chiana arrive outside Command, lining up with backs against the closed door. The door swings open with a low hum on its pivot point. Aeryn and Chiana enter the main doorway, Crichton steps through on the pivot point side. They fan out across the darkened room, weapons at the ready. An immediate search reveals no sign of the creature. Crichton enters the recessed area at the side of Command. A familiar low growl causes him to turn abruptly, an annoyed look gracing his features, his pistol aimed at Scorpius. Out on the Command deck, Aeryn overhears Crichton's whispered comment. Crichton, exiting the recessed area, sticks his head out, responding to Aeryn's query. They continue searching, Chiana's fearful panting is really annoying. Crichton's searching meets with greater success in the next recessed area. But, he turns away with vast oceans of annoyance. Chiana moves next to Crichton, who's holstering his pistol. She peers into the space he indicates. Yup-- the Vorc grins up at them from the darkness of the niche. The Vorc becomes slightly agitated, growling and swiveling its head on its tiny neck. Aeryn glares at it almost expectantly. The Vorc, even more agitated, its head swiveling rapidly, almost spinning on its neck. A moment from The Exorcist, the Vorc's head keels back, mouth open wide, and literally 'vomits' the creature across the room. The Vorc's body turning 'inside out' as it sails across the room, landing in front of the trio. Transformed, the Vorc stands, in 'creature' form, roaring and growling. ( Okay... cool. Gross, but cool) END ACT IIACT IIIMOYA, Command Crichton, pistol holstered, pulls the pin from his gas grenade, it emits a high pitched whine. The girls, pulse pistols still in hand, pull the pins from their grenades with their teeth. All three roll the grenades in the creature's direction, the grenades emit a pinkish smoke (hey, reminicent of the gas from LGM!), and the creature keels over almost immediately. INTERCUT MOYA, Medical Bay INTERCUT MOYA, Neural Cluster Chiana sits on the neural nexus wall, holding D'Argo in her arms, his back leans against her, one arm wrapped around her leg. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Crichton and Aeryn walk side-by-side, Crichton's rapid-fire 'stream of conciousness', laying out possibilities. Crichton stops abruptly, placing a hand on Aeryn's arm, pulling her back to face him. Crichton takes off down the corridor again, Aeryn trailing after. They enter the cargo bay, still talking, walking abreast again. Splitting off, they walk to opposite sides of a large cargo container. Inside, the creature growls savagely, rocking the container repeatedly, throwing itself against the interior walls. Aeryn gives him a blank stare over the rocking cargo container. The creature's growls are unrelenting. Aeryn continues to stare at him, the creatures growling even 'more' insistent, and apparently very irritating. With a purely glorious scowl, Crichton slams his hand onto the top of the cargo container, two pounding beats. The growling ceases immediately, replaced by the plaintive cries of the Vorc. The Vorc's face appears in the circular port on the side of the container. INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay Standing on the same side of the cargo container, Crichton and Aeryn watch the Vorc through the view port. Inside the container a DRD rolls forward and injects the 'foot' of the Vorc with the microbes. The Vorc shrieks in surprise. Inside the container, the Vorc follows this conversation, looking from one to the other. At Aeryn's last words the Vorc starts screaming shrilly, hopping up and down. She stares at him blankly. Relently only slightly, Aeryn exercises her rusty 'tact' muscles. ( Ah, the humor of the language barrier. Aeryn and John talking to the critter like it's deaf, John making hand gestures ala "Through The Looking Glass" to describe D'Argo's appearance. hehe ) The Vorc continues hopping up and down, squealing incessantly... it's like having a conversation with a hysterical two year old. Okay, that reaction's easy enough to read, the Vorc looks at her like she's gone 'fahrbot'. The Vorc hops up and down enthusiastically. Crichton taps on the portal with his pulse pistol, getting the Vorc's attention. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Crichton and Aeryn trail the Vorc as it glides down the corridor, sniffing out the parasite. Interestingly, Aeryn's pistol is still holstered, Crichton's is in his hand, up and at the ready. In another passage, Rygel floats in his throne sled, he comms Crichton with his thoughts on letting the Vorc loose on the ship again. The Vorc has stopped in the passage ahead of Crichton and Aeryn, its ears and nose no longer wiggling. Silently turning its head this way, and that. They watch as the Vorc's mouth yawns wide again, spewing the creature across the passage and 'through' a tiny grate into a subpassage. Crichton and Aeryn bolt to the grate, peering through as the Creature disappears down the subpassage. Aeryn leads the way, going the 'long way' round. Rygel hears roaring from the passage ahead, he gasps fearfully, backing his thronesled. Aeryn leads the way in a full-on charge down a passage, they both have arms out and at the ready now. Rygel continues backing his thronesled in the passage, back to the entry to the cargo bay. Crichton and Aeryn arrive at the entrance to the Cargo Bay, clear visibility (and line of fire) is impossible due to the cargo containers stacked haphazardly throughout the room. Rygel cowers somewhere inside the room, surrounded on all sides by cargo containers. The creature is somewhere inside as well, its growling clearly heard. The creature continues to growl menacingly in the background, only partially hidden by the crates surrounding Rygel. Crichton rounds a large crate, Aeryn on the other side, he signals quietly to her. Rygel gasps and whirls about with his sled, the creature directly in back of him. Face to face Rygel first cowers and then growls, hurling himself at the creature. Crichton and Aeryn try to reach them, but he's trapped between the wall and a large crate, and Aeryn is similarly blocked by a couple of large crates. They both shout ineffectual warnings at Rygel. They fire from a bad position. Their shots richochet benignly off crates stacked between them, the creature and Rygel. The hail of pistol fire does serve to frighten the creature, and it drops Rygel to the deck and scuttles off. Finally able to advance to Rygel's position, Crichton spots the creature between crates, no clear line of fire between it and him. Rygel gasps for help from the floor. Rygel flops back onto to the floor, unconcious or 'dead'? Hearing growling, Crichton looks up again in time to see the creature scuttling toward an exit. END ACT IIIACT IVMOYA, Medical Bay Rygel lies gasping dramatically on the examination table. So, not dead then. Crichton walks back to stand by Chiana, who's been standing over a mostly unconcious D'Argo on another table in the Medical Bay. ( Hey, say what you will. That's one promise he's kept. ) Crichton turns to Chiana before leaving. INTERCUT MOYA, Main Passage Back on the Vorc hunt, Aeryn and Crichton come upon a trail of yellowish blood. This time, Aeryn has her weapon out at the ready and Crichtons remains holstered. (Hmm. Is there any rhyme or reason as to who goes armed and when?) Aeryn, leading the way, pauses at another junction examining the trail of blood. Crichton's attention snaps to the side passage, seeing Scorpius coming up behind Aeryn and leering over her shoulder. His pistol is in his hand in a microt, snapping off a quick shot that strikes the wall where Scorpius had been standing. Startled, Aeryn jumps, just a couple of feet from his target. Before she can query him further, the Vorc/creature growls and darts out of a side passage ahead of them, running down another side corridor. They pursue the creature, rounding the bend into the side corridor. Shortly coming to another junction, they stop. Aeryn searching the floor for a trace of blood to follow. They both run, but each takes a different corridor. Crichton pulls up short with an urgent warning. The imminent argument is curtailed by the creatures reappearance, roaring from behind them. Instantly alerted, they turn toward the sound, snapping off multiple rounds as the creature scurries though the junction and down the 'fourth possible choice' passage at the junction. Missing gloriously, they chase after the creature. Crichton pulls up short again, after only a few running steps, he backpedals rapidly ... Raising his weapon again, they both advance at a run down the corridor after the creature. ( And... geez, this ep has just GOT to be seen to be believed, the action sequences are charmingly addictive and completely RIVETING! ) INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay Back in the Cargo Bay, Crichton and Aeryn enter carefully, splitting off, advancing through the stacks of cargo. Crichton spots the creature, ineffectually hiding behind a container much too small to block its bulk. He turns to Aeryn, pointing and nodding, silently indicating the sighting, and giving her a silent 'circle around' gesture. He waits while she does so, and then stepping out from either side of the row of cargo, they flank the Vorc on both sides. Crichton draws down on the creature, but doesn't fire, even as it smashes the container it was hiding behind out of the way and roars menacingly at him. From the other side, Aeryn opens fire, taking it out, and down. Still aiming his weapon at the fallen Vorc, watching it as it continues to growl, Crichton glances toward Aeryn as she approaches but catches something else out of the corner of his eye. Crichton glances pointedly to something just behind her shoulder and she turns to look. Just behind her is a twining mass of black tendrils, the central mass, a black 'cocoon-like' structure, is fastened to a stack of cargo containers. INTERCUT MOYA, Medical Bay Chiana is snuggled up next to D'Argo on the medical table, they are both asleep, or seem to be. Zhaan continues working at her lab table. Rygel also seems to be asleep on his table, except on close examination, his eyes open, one of which suddenly... ( ICK! Alert ) POPS out, grows tiny legs, and skitters around on his face. Others of these tiny multi-legged critters crawls out of his mouth, some erupting from the skin of his face... (Ew, ick, ick, ick, no wonder no one's done a tranny of this ep! ) The eyeball critter slides back into his eye, makin' like an 'eye' again, another slips into this nose slits. (Oh, god, ick, ick, ick, ick!). INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay Crichton continues to hold his pistol on the fallen Vorc, but his and Aeryn's attention are both diverted to the big clump of black tendrils. They both glance back toward the wounded creature on the floor as it growls weakly, then look back at the "cocoon". The creature flails its long limbs on the ground, growling louding, struggling to its feet. Crichton sincerely levels his weapon at the creature, a grimly serious look on his face. ( Hey, he 'might' shoot it. ) The creature moves between Crichton and Aeryn, they back off, allowing it to slip between them and slice the cocoon open with one long clawed arm. The cocoon bursts open and Rygel, a very damp, weak looking Rygel, flops halfway out of the opening. INTERCUT MOYA, Medical Bay Zhaan continues her examination of samples at the lab table. 'Rygel', on the table behind her, slowly rises, growling quietly. INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay Crichton steps forward, shoving his pulse pistol in 'Rygel's face. Rygel answers in his own particular manner, as only he can-- when he's nervous anyway. He passes gas. Aeryn and Crichton exchange a long look, and then take off at a run! Crichton follows closely on Aeryn's heels, they are at a dead run and shouting warnings to Zhaan on the fly. INTERCUT MOYA, Medical Bay
Registering their warning, Zhaan looks up from her work. Sprawled next to D'Argo, Chiana's eyes open slightly, waking from a light drowse. Finally registering the low growling behind her, Zhaan turns just as 'Rygel' flings himself on her. They both fall to the floor, Zhaan struggling to keep the little critter off her throat. Aeryn charges into the room, her aim drawing down on 'Rygel'. Crichton bolts past her, and switching his pulse pistol to his off hand, grabs 'Rygel' by the scruff of the neck, and pulls him off Zhaan, hurling him across the room. Crichton switches his pulse pistol back to his right hand, and he and Aeryn open fire, missing spectacularly at first, but honing in quickly, blowing 'Rygel's 'head off under a fussilade of pulse pistol fire. Chiana flings herself across D'Argo's body, shielding him from harm. 'Rygel's' body 'disintegrates' under the fire and his 'empty' robe flops to the floor. The ensuing silence is brief, quickly broken by a raucous chittering noise as hundreds of tiny multilegged 'critters' skitter across the floor toward Crichton, Aeryn and Zhaan. Crichton tosses his pistol to Aeryn and bolts to the side of the room. Aeryn opens fire with both pistols, a bravely futile gesture, there being literally hundreds of these little critters. Crichton soon returns to her side, a long hose and nozzle apparatus fetched from a nearby table. Fire and ice combine as Crichton hoses the deck with what must be a fire supression system ( but, who knows! ), and Aeryn blasts the deck with unremitting pulse pistol fire. The area completely saturated, they cease fire. The only sound remaining, a quiet sizzling. The vapor blasted from the hose dissapates slowly, revealing hundreds of flash fried or frozen critter corpses littering the deck. Crichton takes one step forward, and Aeryn follows suit, their boots crushing tiny bodies under foot. They look at each other briefly, then turn to leave, Crichton discarding the hose apparatus on the floor. INTERCUT ( Technically, that should have been an act break, but it's not... this Act has a couple a tag scenes tacked on, with the break coming for the epilogue. This is the first tag. ) MOYA, Medical Bay Rygel, D'Argo, both feeling much better, with Chiana and Zhaan looking after them. INTERCUT MOYA, Cargo Bay ( Second Act IV Tag ) Aeryn sits on the Cargo Bay floor, cradling the Vorc in her arms like a baby. Crichton sits silently behind her, a comforting presence. The Vorc makes quietly weak high-pitched whimpers. The Vorc strokes her cheek with one long spindley finger, gasps quietly... ( and croaks. hehe I'm sorry... I mean...) and dies. ( The BBQ *thwaps* herself for that one! Maybe I'll go back and take it out later! hehehehehe *ahem* sorry... hehe *snort* ) Aeryn's furrowed brows and pursed lips express the keen pain of unfamiliar grief... ( or a better ability to restrain hysterical laughter... who can tell? Okay... this is why I haven't done the transcript for this ep yet... I can't get past this part! LOL! It's just me... really! Okay, seriously now! Everyone's really sad here... I'm sad too... Aeryn has tears in her eyes fer crissakes! ) Aeryn holds the Vorc in her arms, quiet tears fall from her eyes. Crichton, holding her from behind, comforts her as best he can, stroking her hair, hugging her gently, feeling her pain. ( Whew! Not exactly "Old Yeller" *sigh* ) END ACT IV( Whoo Hoo! Previews for "Won't Get Fooled Again!" ... one of my favorite all time eppys! Gotta watch that when I'm done here! ) EPILOGUEMOYA, Crichton's Quarters Crichton continues his interrupted Chess game. Aeryn keeps him company, sitting on the small chair at the table. Crichton crouches on the other side of the chess board, stroking his lips gently across the butt of his pulse pistol, deep into strategic thought. Setting the weapon down, he reaches out, making a move. White Pawn taking Black Knight (or Bishop... hard to tell). Standing, he moves to the opposite side of the table, crouching down at Aeryn's shoulder. Aeryn picks up a discarded Chess piece and examines it closely. Crichton scrunches his face up, abashed and nodding slightly. Crichton makes a move for the Black side. Black Bishop takes White pawn. Then moves slowly back to the other side of the board. Aeryn sets down the small chess piece she'd been toying with... ( a white pawn... *whew* ) and taking one last look at Crichton, pondering his next move on the board, stands and exits. Crichton makes a final move for the White side, White Knight advancing to take Black Pawn... Scorpius sits in the chair vacated by Aeryn, placing the Black King gently on its side on the board, conceding the game. Cut in close on Crichton for his react, and he gives none, his expression utterly blank. Next shot is wide, showing Crichton crouched unmoving on the far side of the table, chess board intervening, he has no 'visible' company. The Black King still stands erect on the board. FADE TO BLACKROLL ENDING CREDITS |