Dune World (2021) Movie Script
- Beyond the trauma of human failure
lies the stillness of cosmic wisdom.
When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers
they shall meet with disaster.
I have thrown the three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us.
Who survive us!
Acting Captain Babylon.
Yes.
You have to be ready.
Raven?
A one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread.
But he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man.
And thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- Maybe it's time to clock out.
We're too close to the planet, Kondor.
Need to stay frosty.
- Aye, aye.
End of the rainbow dead ahead, Captain.
- Just fly it in a straight line, okay?
Can you just think about it?
I guess I'm just an
old-fashioned girl, Kondor.
I just think a marriage is
between two men and two women.
- You sound like my grandmas.
- Raven wasn't just a captain,
she was a great first wife.
And I don't think we're
ready for another captain
or a new wife.
Besides, you were brought on as a crewman,
not a third husband.
- Why not both?
We are nearing Caliban.
Orbit in retrograde.
Terraforming is a three of five.
- Sounds good, Link.
Oh, what about the robot?
- Does that thing even
have a pleasure circuit?
- Depends on what you call pleasure.
- Crew member, Kondor, is that a question?
- Uh, no.
I'd rather not know.
- Link, do you have a reading on that?
What?
Was that a passing meteor or something?
- Acting Captain Babylon,
it was from the surface of Caliban.
- Somebody messing with us down there?
- Negative, Crew member Kondor.
There are no human lifeforms
registered on Caliban.
It is currently operated
by machine systems.
- Registered down there
and being down there
are two different things.
- Is that a question,
Acting Captain Babylon?
- Pirates?
- I don't know if there
are pirates out this far,
but there are 27 moons out here.
Hard to tell what this is.
This is the mining ship
Robert Indiana from the port
of Elysium Mons and flying a Martian flag.
Calling moon Caliban.
Again, this is the Robert
Indiana under Martian flag.
We have a license to repair
and maintain the mining
equipment under authorization
from the Pangaea Supergov.
Babylon, it's Kidd.
I've got bad news.
- I don't need it, but go ahead.
- We got power dropping in
the engine since that blast.
What did we get hit with?
- Unknown.
All Link could tell us is
what it couldn't have been.
- Yeah, droids are funny that way.
What does your gut tell ya, Babs?
- I don't think it was
passing space debris.
It's from the surface.
Roger that.
- Did you hit your head?
I, I don't think so.
Are you okay?
- Do you feel it?
-What?
-Under your ribs.
- We're falling, we're
falling toward Caliban!
Kidd, are you there?
- Here, Babs, but the engines are gone.
Get ready to tuck and roll.
- Good advice, Kidd.
- Have you checked on our husband?
- Oh, no.
He was supposed to be
checking on the mining drones.
Chafe, are you there?
Chafe?
- I'm good, Babylon.
Just took a tumble.
- You're about to take another one.
Everyone, hang on.
- Collision imminent, collision imminent.
Chance of survival of human crew...
- Shut up, Link!
- Hang on!
You have to be ready.
You have to be ready.
Listen to him, Babylon.
Come back to us.
- When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers,
they shall meet with disaster.
- Kondor?
Kidd?
Kidd, are you there?
Chafe, is anyone there?
Link!
- Babs.
We're all going to die, Babs.
- Hey, hey, whoa, you're all right.
You're all right.
Everyone's all right.
- I thought I saw.
- We crash landed, but
everyone's all right.
Are you all right?
- Nevermind that.
Link, status update?
- Caliban had its origins
in the Edgeworth Belt.
Moved by a gas strike in
the proto-planetary depths.
And before terraforming was
composed of methane, ammonium...
- Something freaking useful, Link!
- Acting Captain Babylon,
we have crash landed.
- Ain't robots great?
- There is a nearby
station designated A-119.
It could be the location of the attack
or it could be a source for assistance.
- I thought this planet had
only been populated by machines?
Crew member Kondor, is that a question?
-Everyone okay?
-Oh, husbands!
- This is all very sweet,
but I'm trying not to die
so if we could figure that out.
Caliban has gotten
to level three terraforming
so plenty of air, but
the scenery ain't great.
Link said there was a base built here.
I'm assuming it was dropped from orbit
by the last mining mission
but it could be habitable.
- So what, we walk to
this base, this A-119?
- What base?
I thought the last mission was automated.
- Might have been left for
a later mining expedition.
- And if that's where the attack from?
Kidd, can we fix
the ship with what's here?
Fix?
Maybe, fly back to the space lanes.
- And this base Link detected, is it safe?
- 50-50?
- 50-50, I'd say more like 25-75, but hey.
I ain't the acting captain, so.
Link?
- Is there a question?
- Man, I've had pocket
calculators more useful than you.
Let's figure out a plan of action.
What are you doing?
I'm starting new
mining drones while we're gone.
If we get back with a
hull full of dispersium,
we'll all be able to retire
and clone a bunch of kids.
I need to ask you about something
strange that happened.
- Go on.
- We were hit with something,
some sort of blast,
but whatever it was gave
me a hell of a migraine.
- Did you hit your head?
- No, people need to stop asking me that.
I don't think so.
But even if I did, that's
not the weird part.
I've been having visions.
- Visions of what?
- Cloaked figures,
masked figures, and Link.
- Link what?
Acting Captain, are
you all right to serve?
- Stop calling me that,
Raven was the captain.
- But you are the one who has
to get us through this, Babs.
I'm just asking, Chief Engineer,
is it possible that we were
hit with a psychic blast?
- That's like saying a
magic wand can fly the ship.
There's no psychic ability that we know of
of that magnitude.
- No human psychic power.
- This mining operation is
automated by robotics, Babs.
Those were the mission specs.
- I guess you've always
trusted the Pangaea Supergov
more than I do.
I don't think we ever
got a straight answer
on what made Raven sick
after that last repair run.
The Supergov doctors said she had a
predetermined genetic inclination.
It had nothing to do with
whatever we ran into on Triton.
- Genetic inclination is a funny way
of saying it wasn't their fault.
- You're jumping at shadows.
- Am I?
- So, this dispersium
stuff's the real deal, huh?
- Well, if you mean dispersium can be used
as an energy source for
all types of engines, yeah.
- I wouldn't know about that,
I'm just a space jockey.
You're the route guy.
All I know is this
chick back at Tycho City
had some crushed up dispersium,
wanted me to snort it with her
the night before we shipped out.
I mean, isn't the brain
just a wet machine?
I didn't do it, I told her I don't snort
crushed rocks up my nose, baby, but.
- I wouldn't know anything about that.
- Hey, you're right,
that's a lot of money.
Seems odd that Pangaea would
pick a small group like us
to do the mining.
- It's a long way from home
and there's a lot of bad
stories about this place.
- Bad stories?
Listen, we did a lot of space runs
before you joined up, Kondor.
We lost our way from a repair
on Triton and there were a lot
of engineers that said we
shouldn't go there either.
- Who told you not to go there?
We're not finished on that one.
- Everybody ready?
- Do we got a choice?
- Transforming has proceeded by robotics
for 20 Martian years.
Oxygen levels are acceptable.
- It ain't exactly the
pleasure domes of Vegas, is it?
- We're miners, not pioneers.
- Well, we don't want to end
up pioneers, let's say that.
- The mining drones are on the move.
By the time we get the parts for the ship,
we should be well on our way
for a full load of dispersium.
- Let's do the same.
- Wait, hold up a second.
- What is it?
- It looks like trails.
- I don't see any tracks.
- I don't mean machine tracks.
- Is it an animal?
- Before the terraformers
landed here 20 years ago,
there wasn't any oxygen.
- I'd say it needed oxygen to survive.
Link.
- Is there a question, Crew member Kidd?
- Are there any other
bases in that direction?
- The only registered base is A-119.
- And it's the direction
we were already going?
- That is affirmative.
- What's your point, Kidd?
I know geography and I
can read surroundings,
and no machine made this.
- Calm down, I hate to see
Daddies and Mommy fight.
- Curiouser and curiouser.
We need to check this out.
- That's what guns are for.
- Let's go.
There's something up there.
- So, we're not the
first humans on Caliban.
- The mission launched 20 Earth years ago
on the ship Sigrid Unset.
The mission was to setup automation
to begin mining dispersium.
- I've flown the
spaceways for a long time,
moon to moon, and I've never
heard of a Sigrid Unset.
- Link, was the Sigrid Unset automated
or was it under human power?
- That information is not available
from the Pangaea Supergov.
You gonna answer already or what?
- Link, was this station A-119 intended
to be a workstation for human miners?
- That information is not available
from the Pangaea Supergov.
- Are you finally ready
to slag this robot?
- So, that's why there weren't
any bids on this place.
I mean, I heard rumors in the spaceway
but there are always
rumors in the spaceway.
- Funny how much of that comes true.
I know I've seen this stuff before.
- So, the Sigrid Unset
didn't drop all the equipment
and drones from orbit.
Somebody came down here
and started it all up.
This is why they
used the ruddy old mining
drones, all right.
- Yeah, but how does
someone die holding one?
- Maybe this person had
an accident or an injury.
- No space burial?
I don't know a single space jockey
that someone would leave dirt-side.
- Well, damn.
- Great, well, I'm guessing
he just killed himself.
Seriously?
- Try turning it off
then turning it back on.
- I hate it when the tech guys say that.
- What the hell was that?
- Someone took down our ship?
- That's weird.
- It's coming from the ground not the sky!
Run!
Run!
Chafe, no!
- Juice that bastard!
- Acting Captain, we gotta go.
-Is Link?
-Wait.
- We might need it.
- I am honored, Acting Captain Babylon.
- What was that thing?
- Whatever it was, a snake, a worm,
it was the mining
equipment that drew it out.
- How?
It must have been attracted to the sound.
I didn't see any eyes
on that thing, did you?
- I only saw teeth.
Then it must have been sonar.
- What, you're a zoologist now?
- I'm being logical,
Kondor, try it sometime.
- I got this far on instinct, gearhead.
- Will both of you shut up?
Link, were there any indigenous
creatures on Caliban?
- It was not reported
to the Pangaea Supergov.
- So, the whole crew died before
they got to send a report.
It's been that way since the beginning.
- It's looking that way.
- And now the government waits 20 years
to send another crew.
So, it's all just a bunch
of spaceways rumors.
- It doesn't matter, we lost a husband.
It's just the two of
us now, don't you see?
- It doesn't have to be that way.
- Hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, easy, easy.
We can mourn our husband soon,
but right now we gotta get to that base,
get to ground, and figure
out what that was out here.
Link.
Are we still on track for A-119?
- Negative, Crew member Kidd.
- Can we get back on track?
- Affirmative, Crew member Kidd.
- My husband, my wife.
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
We must embrace the world
that we are making together.
- This is Oracle,
the official holder of The Book of Changes
for the Caliban mission.
I have thrown three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us,
who survive us.
- Where did that come from?
It's that damn android!
- Link, status report.
- This unit seems to have sustained damage
in the indigenous beam attack.
- He better shut that switch off
before I nail him down
and do a dinner plate.
- Like I said, we might need this android.
Link, shut off external sounds.
That would include my vocal parameters,
Acting Captain Babylon.
- Finally, some good news!
- So, we're still on track to the base.
- Recalculating.
- Recalculating, damn, so
this thing broke its GPS.
- Damn it!
Damn it!
- Burn it fast!
- Think we got it?
- It's ass wasn't totally on fire
so I don't think we got it.
We better use our inside voices.
- Do you have a new lock on A-119?
- Are you really gonna trust his ass?
- It's the only way.
- Fine, so if this damn
thing's finally broken,
dibs on using its head as a salad bowl.
- Link, turn your voice back on.
Status report, quietly.
- We have arrived at location A-119.
- Damn it, so this thing
is broken, we're screwed.
I mean, what, it's just gone?
- If it was a module dropped from a ship
it could have gotten moved somewhere.
- Was that a question?
- Damn it, Link, yes,
consider that a question.
- A-119 was not dropped from
the atmosphere, it was built.
- Okay, so if it was built
by humans or even bots
there had to be a foundation somewhere.
- Damn!
- There's a hatch over
there, help me move it.
- Uh, could be anything down there.
- Probably more skeletons.
- It ain't the dead I'm worried about.
- Relax.
- Just more junk.
- Wait, I feel like there
might be some answers
here somewhere.
- If you can make
something out of this crap,
you're a better engineer than I am.
- That's not saying much.
Come on, sweetheart.
- This is Oracle,
the official holder of The Book of Changes
for the Caliban mission.
I have thrown the three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us,
who survive us.
- Who survive us?
I wonder if the Oracle thought
it'd be 20 years later.
- The ship had an oracle?
20 years ago, bigger
crews often had a member
who could read the I Ching.
The old captain swore by it.
- I mean I knew it happened,
I just never crewed a ship with an oracle.
- All right, you two figure this out.
I'm an old space jockey.
I don't like being down here
with nobody watching my segs.
I don't want to be down in a hole
with nobody watching the only way in.
- You do that then.
When I served on the Leonardo
Padoro we had an oracle.
- I didn't know that ship had an oracle.
What was that like?
- She was never wrong, if
that's what you're asking.
- Hidden dragon, dragon
appearing in a field.
Dragons fight in the meadow.
Their blood is black and yellow.
Horse and wagon parked, bloody tears flow.
Wading in the mud brings about
the arrival of the enemy.
Wading in blood.
Get out of the pits!
Get out of the pits!
Get out of the pits!
- After we get home, I'm
taking a milk run to Venus.
Screw this shit.
Those oracles will mess with your mind.
I don't dick around
with that I Ching shit.
Now, that's more like it.
It's one thing to shoot
a giant worm with teeth.
It's another to shoot a guy
in a mask with a bathrobe.
All right, buddy, I gave you a chance.
Not much of one, but.
- The one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread,
but he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man,
and thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- Well?
- Keep both eyes open for a start.
- Nothin'.
Hey, there's something up here.
Let's check it out.
Jackpot.
- Looks like 20 year old junk.
- Oh, I wouldn't call it 20 year old junk,
but it's 20 year old something.
- But will it work?
- It's worth a try.
- Well, it's all we got, Kidd.
- Then I guess it has to work.
- The one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread,
but he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man.
And thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- My husband, my wife,
don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
- Keep.
Chuck.
Keep.
Chuck.
Ooh, this little buddy is our ticket
back to the spaceways.
- Good, I was hoping this
wasn't a one-way trip.
- It can't be.
- Turn it off, Kidd.
- Run!
Run!
No!
Let's go, Link!
- Activating Protocol Nine.
- Link!
- Activating Protocol Nine.
Protocol Nine activated.
- It's gone.
Protocol Nine activated.
- Link?
- No.
Babylon.
Babs, it's me.
Babs, it's Kidd.
- Kidd?
How?
- Before we left Mars, I
uploaded a copy of my brainwaves
into a personality circuit in Link.
Then I slaved that circuit
into my biorhythm monitor
so it would only kick in if I died.
So, I'm dead, right, Babs?
Yes, you're dead.
- I did the upload before we left Mars
so I don't know what's
happened since then.
Are we on Caliban?
We're in the base
built by the first mission.
- And the rest of the crew?
- Kondor's watching the
backdoor to this place.
Chafe was killed by the same
creatures that killed you.
- Creatures?
- Some kind of giant worm.
- Seems like a crappy way
to die on a space mission.
- Well, these worms have
teeth, if that helps.
- I guess it does.
So, we lost Chafe and Raven this year?
Four have become two, maybe
a little less than two.
Let's not think like that right now.
You're here in some way.
You're still Kidd in some way.
- You're right, of course you're right.
Right now we need
to get back to the ship.
- Well, the good thing is that I'm also
connected to our ship.
It needs repairs.
But I can see the schematics
so clearly even from here.
I think I can fix it.
- That's good 'cause the
parts you were needing
from here went down that creature's mouth.
- Along with me, the flesh me.
- Kidd.
- No, you're right,
this is actually better.
The mathematics of the universe
are so clear to me now.
I should have downloaded my personality
into an android long ago.
You said Kondor was
watching this entrance?
- Yeah.
Maybe he headed back to the ship.
- Why would he go without us?
- I don't know, we'll just
ask him when we find him.
- That isn't a good sign, Babs.
He wouldn't have dropped that on purpose.
- Then we need to catch up
to him, sooner than later.
Let's go, Kidd.
I'm in touch, with the ship.
We're not far away, she's
eager to be reunited with us.
Don't forget who you're married to.
I'm Captain Babylon from
mining shop Robert Indiana,
flying a Martian flag.
We mean no harm.
We ran into some creatures
and lost two crew members.
We are just trying to
get back to our ship.
We didn't know there were
other inhabitants here.
Were your people here
when the first ship came,
the Sigrid Unset?
Did you know the crew
from the Sigrid Unset?
Did you know the Oracle from that ship?
Do you know what happened to the crew?
Are any of them still alive?
We are here in peace!
We just want to get back to our ship.
This is a peaceful mission.
- If we don't get out of
here, it won't be, come on.
We gotta go back down below.
- It's a dead end.
- We're dead if we stay up here, Babs.
It's the only way, we gotta try.
They quit following us.
- Whatever they are.
We can't stay down here forever.
- I know that, Babs, but
we need to figure out
who and what those beings are first.
Maybe there are some more files
on that data station we
came across back there.
In this form, I might
be able to dig deeper
than I could before.
Let's give it a shot.
Babylon, Kidd.
Babylon.
Kidd.
My wife, my husband.
That sounds like.
- Raven?
You have to stop fighting.
- No.
I'm waiting for you.
- That's Raven, but that doesn't compute.
Caliban is waiting for you.
- No, Raven would never
tell us to stop fighting.
- Does not compute.
Does not compute.
- Hold it together,
Kidd, I still need you.
- I will.
- Anything?
- This base is only sleeping.
- Beyond the trauma of human failure,
lies the stillness of cosmic wisdom.
When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers,
they shall meet with disaster.
- Can you change the
channel on that thing?
- My husband, my wife.
- Raven?
Raven?
- Don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together again.
- Kidd, that can't be Raven.
- My logic circuits are not registering.
- But it just can't be.
- We must all embrace the world
-that we are making together.
-Raven.
Raven.
- Kidd!
What now?
Kidd!
Kidd, no!
Kidd, I can't lose you a second time.
You're all that's left.
- I...
I can feel the circuits fading.
- No.
- But it doesn't hurt, Babs.
- It's, it's hurting me!
- Babylon, let me tell you something.
I downloaded my consciousness into Link,
but I also downloaded my consciousness
into a probe on the ship.
It launched when my first body died.
It's beyond Pluto now.
Beyond Hydra now.
It's beyond Styx now.
- Kidd, stay with me!
- I am beyond any place any
human mind has ever seen.
Babs, there are other human beings
out here beyond human knowledge.
I'm going to know them.
One day you may know them, too.
One day you may know them, too.
But I also downloaded my consciousness
into a probe on the ship.
It launched when my first body died.
- I don't know how to kill
you or if you can even die,
but I have to try, don't I?
I don't have anything else left.
You're not just the inhabitants
of this half-formed planet.
You are, you are the
original crew, aren't you?
The worms are the native species.
You don't have anything to do with it!
What happened to you?
What did they do to you, Kondor?
What did they do to your brain?
- They did nothing.
- No!
- The minerals we're mining, the dust.
It's in the air, it gets in your brain.
It works on your brain, we're evolving.
And it's beautiful.
- It's, it's not you anymore, Kondor!
It's not human, it's alien!
It's not evolution at all.
- It's better, I'm better than human now,
and you will be, too.
- No.
- You will join us.
When the next mission
comes, whenever it comes,
we will welcome them, too.
- No, there won't be anymore missions!
- There will be a next mission,
even if it is in 20 years.
The minerals here are too valuable.
- When the government knows
what these minerals can do...
- They already know.
There will be another
mission and another mission.
And we will grow stronger.
- No!
Goodbye.
- This is not goodbye.
You were a good pilot, Kondor,
despite the rest of it!
Listen to him, Babylon.
Come back to us!
My husband, my wife.
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
We must embrace the world
that we are making together.
You have to be ready.
You have to stop fighting.
I'm waiting for you.
Caliban is waiting for you.
- The simulation's over.
- What?
- The simulation's over.
- What, what are you saying?
Listen to him, Babylon!
Come back to us!
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
- No!
We must embrace the world that we
are making together.
- Run!
Run!
- This is the mining ship Robert Indiana
from the port of Elysium Mons
and flying the Martian flag.
Calling on Caliban.
Again, this is the Robert
Indiana under Martian flag,
calling the moon Caliban.
We have a license to repair
and maintain the mining
equipment under authorization
from the Pangaea Supergov.
No!
Kidd?
- Acting Captain Babylon.
- I...
I'm on Mars?
- We are in the training
center at Olympus Mons.
You have been in deep REM VR.
Your orientation to reality
should return momentarily.
- We were supposed to go to Caliban.
- The Pangaea Supergov required your crew
to simulate the mission
first for viability.
Result, the simulation of
the mining mission to Caliban
is over.
The mission will be a failure.
- A failure.
- You have returned to reality,
Acting Captain Babylon.
Are you in operating status?
- I'm okay.
Good thing we ran that simulation.
But there were a lot of
weird glitches in there.
- Acting Captain Babylon,
those with strong emotions, a strong will,
can sometimes overwhelm the simulation.
It is clear from your simulation
that you and your husbands
are not ready to return to space flight
since the death of your first
wife and captain, Raven.
- No, that's not all of it.
There were those weird people on Caliban.
What was that about?
- An extrapolation of scenarios.
- So, there was an original
human crew sent to Caliban,
like in the simulation.
- It can be extrapolated.
- And what happened to them?
- That cannot be extrapolated from data
supplied by the Pangaea Supergov.
Well, that sounds familiar.
Where are Kidd and Chafe?
- Just finishing their own simulations.
- I need to see them.
We...
We need time together.
- Acting Captain Babylon, a
reminder that the simulation
will fade from your mind in a short time.
The scenario you experienced
in the simulation was
just that, a simulation.
- That's good, there's
a lot I want to forget.
But maybe a few things good to remember.
Husbands!
- How did you guys do?
In my simulation, the
engines kept conking out
and we never even made it to the planet.
- In my simulation, the
mining drones hadn't gotten
far enough into the
terraforming to sustain us.
- How about you, Babs?
- The planet was hostile,
we didn't make it.
- Wow.
So, I guess we all had a total party kill.
- I survived mine.
- Well, it's a good thing
the Supergov gave us these
simulations before they
gave us the contract.
Saved everybody a lotta time.
- Yeah.
Guess we weren't ready for Caliban.
- I'll tell you what, we'll keep looking
for another repair contract,
maybe the other direction,
towards Sol.
I wouldn't mind being warm for a change.
- Sure.
But where's Kondor?
- Who's Kondor?
- Nevermind.
- Seems like your simulation
was a little rough.
- Mine just had some weird stuff in it.
Raven was there.
- Raven?
- Yeah, hey, don't worry about it.
The important thing is
that we're all together.
- What else would we be?
After Raven, now more than ever.
- Now more than ever.
Thank you, Link.
Link, is this real?
- Is that a question?
- No.
- Acting Captain Babylon,
are you returned to operating status?
My husband, my wife.
Don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
lies the stillness of cosmic wisdom.
When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers
they shall meet with disaster.
I have thrown the three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us.
Who survive us!
Acting Captain Babylon.
Yes.
You have to be ready.
Raven?
A one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread.
But he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man.
And thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- Maybe it's time to clock out.
We're too close to the planet, Kondor.
Need to stay frosty.
- Aye, aye.
End of the rainbow dead ahead, Captain.
- Just fly it in a straight line, okay?
Can you just think about it?
I guess I'm just an
old-fashioned girl, Kondor.
I just think a marriage is
between two men and two women.
- You sound like my grandmas.
- Raven wasn't just a captain,
she was a great first wife.
And I don't think we're
ready for another captain
or a new wife.
Besides, you were brought on as a crewman,
not a third husband.
- Why not both?
We are nearing Caliban.
Orbit in retrograde.
Terraforming is a three of five.
- Sounds good, Link.
Oh, what about the robot?
- Does that thing even
have a pleasure circuit?
- Depends on what you call pleasure.
- Crew member, Kondor, is that a question?
- Uh, no.
I'd rather not know.
- Link, do you have a reading on that?
What?
Was that a passing meteor or something?
- Acting Captain Babylon,
it was from the surface of Caliban.
- Somebody messing with us down there?
- Negative, Crew member Kondor.
There are no human lifeforms
registered on Caliban.
It is currently operated
by machine systems.
- Registered down there
and being down there
are two different things.
- Is that a question,
Acting Captain Babylon?
- Pirates?
- I don't know if there
are pirates out this far,
but there are 27 moons out here.
Hard to tell what this is.
This is the mining ship
Robert Indiana from the port
of Elysium Mons and flying a Martian flag.
Calling moon Caliban.
Again, this is the Robert
Indiana under Martian flag.
We have a license to repair
and maintain the mining
equipment under authorization
from the Pangaea Supergov.
Babylon, it's Kidd.
I've got bad news.
- I don't need it, but go ahead.
- We got power dropping in
the engine since that blast.
What did we get hit with?
- Unknown.
All Link could tell us is
what it couldn't have been.
- Yeah, droids are funny that way.
What does your gut tell ya, Babs?
- I don't think it was
passing space debris.
It's from the surface.
Roger that.
- Did you hit your head?
I, I don't think so.
Are you okay?
- Do you feel it?
-What?
-Under your ribs.
- We're falling, we're
falling toward Caliban!
Kidd, are you there?
- Here, Babs, but the engines are gone.
Get ready to tuck and roll.
- Good advice, Kidd.
- Have you checked on our husband?
- Oh, no.
He was supposed to be
checking on the mining drones.
Chafe, are you there?
Chafe?
- I'm good, Babylon.
Just took a tumble.
- You're about to take another one.
Everyone, hang on.
- Collision imminent, collision imminent.
Chance of survival of human crew...
- Shut up, Link!
- Hang on!
You have to be ready.
You have to be ready.
Listen to him, Babylon.
Come back to us.
- When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers,
they shall meet with disaster.
- Kondor?
Kidd?
Kidd, are you there?
Chafe, is anyone there?
Link!
- Babs.
We're all going to die, Babs.
- Hey, hey, whoa, you're all right.
You're all right.
Everyone's all right.
- I thought I saw.
- We crash landed, but
everyone's all right.
Are you all right?
- Nevermind that.
Link, status update?
- Caliban had its origins
in the Edgeworth Belt.
Moved by a gas strike in
the proto-planetary depths.
And before terraforming was
composed of methane, ammonium...
- Something freaking useful, Link!
- Acting Captain Babylon,
we have crash landed.
- Ain't robots great?
- There is a nearby
station designated A-119.
It could be the location of the attack
or it could be a source for assistance.
- I thought this planet had
only been populated by machines?
Crew member Kondor, is that a question?
-Everyone okay?
-Oh, husbands!
- This is all very sweet,
but I'm trying not to die
so if we could figure that out.
Caliban has gotten
to level three terraforming
so plenty of air, but
the scenery ain't great.
Link said there was a base built here.
I'm assuming it was dropped from orbit
by the last mining mission
but it could be habitable.
- So what, we walk to
this base, this A-119?
- What base?
I thought the last mission was automated.
- Might have been left for
a later mining expedition.
- And if that's where the attack from?
Kidd, can we fix
the ship with what's here?
Fix?
Maybe, fly back to the space lanes.
- And this base Link detected, is it safe?
- 50-50?
- 50-50, I'd say more like 25-75, but hey.
I ain't the acting captain, so.
Link?
- Is there a question?
- Man, I've had pocket
calculators more useful than you.
Let's figure out a plan of action.
What are you doing?
I'm starting new
mining drones while we're gone.
If we get back with a
hull full of dispersium,
we'll all be able to retire
and clone a bunch of kids.
I need to ask you about something
strange that happened.
- Go on.
- We were hit with something,
some sort of blast,
but whatever it was gave
me a hell of a migraine.
- Did you hit your head?
- No, people need to stop asking me that.
I don't think so.
But even if I did, that's
not the weird part.
I've been having visions.
- Visions of what?
- Cloaked figures,
masked figures, and Link.
- Link what?
Acting Captain, are
you all right to serve?
- Stop calling me that,
Raven was the captain.
- But you are the one who has
to get us through this, Babs.
I'm just asking, Chief Engineer,
is it possible that we were
hit with a psychic blast?
- That's like saying a
magic wand can fly the ship.
There's no psychic ability that we know of
of that magnitude.
- No human psychic power.
- This mining operation is
automated by robotics, Babs.
Those were the mission specs.
- I guess you've always
trusted the Pangaea Supergov
more than I do.
I don't think we ever
got a straight answer
on what made Raven sick
after that last repair run.
The Supergov doctors said she had a
predetermined genetic inclination.
It had nothing to do with
whatever we ran into on Triton.
- Genetic inclination is a funny way
of saying it wasn't their fault.
- You're jumping at shadows.
- Am I?
- So, this dispersium
stuff's the real deal, huh?
- Well, if you mean dispersium can be used
as an energy source for
all types of engines, yeah.
- I wouldn't know about that,
I'm just a space jockey.
You're the route guy.
All I know is this
chick back at Tycho City
had some crushed up dispersium,
wanted me to snort it with her
the night before we shipped out.
I mean, isn't the brain
just a wet machine?
I didn't do it, I told her I don't snort
crushed rocks up my nose, baby, but.
- I wouldn't know anything about that.
- Hey, you're right,
that's a lot of money.
Seems odd that Pangaea would
pick a small group like us
to do the mining.
- It's a long way from home
and there's a lot of bad
stories about this place.
- Bad stories?
Listen, we did a lot of space runs
before you joined up, Kondor.
We lost our way from a repair
on Triton and there were a lot
of engineers that said we
shouldn't go there either.
- Who told you not to go there?
We're not finished on that one.
- Everybody ready?
- Do we got a choice?
- Transforming has proceeded by robotics
for 20 Martian years.
Oxygen levels are acceptable.
- It ain't exactly the
pleasure domes of Vegas, is it?
- We're miners, not pioneers.
- Well, we don't want to end
up pioneers, let's say that.
- The mining drones are on the move.
By the time we get the parts for the ship,
we should be well on our way
for a full load of dispersium.
- Let's do the same.
- Wait, hold up a second.
- What is it?
- It looks like trails.
- I don't see any tracks.
- I don't mean machine tracks.
- Is it an animal?
- Before the terraformers
landed here 20 years ago,
there wasn't any oxygen.
- I'd say it needed oxygen to survive.
Link.
- Is there a question, Crew member Kidd?
- Are there any other
bases in that direction?
- The only registered base is A-119.
- And it's the direction
we were already going?
- That is affirmative.
- What's your point, Kidd?
I know geography and I
can read surroundings,
and no machine made this.
- Calm down, I hate to see
Daddies and Mommy fight.
- Curiouser and curiouser.
We need to check this out.
- That's what guns are for.
- Let's go.
There's something up there.
- So, we're not the
first humans on Caliban.
- The mission launched 20 Earth years ago
on the ship Sigrid Unset.
The mission was to setup automation
to begin mining dispersium.
- I've flown the
spaceways for a long time,
moon to moon, and I've never
heard of a Sigrid Unset.
- Link, was the Sigrid Unset automated
or was it under human power?
- That information is not available
from the Pangaea Supergov.
You gonna answer already or what?
- Link, was this station A-119 intended
to be a workstation for human miners?
- That information is not available
from the Pangaea Supergov.
- Are you finally ready
to slag this robot?
- So, that's why there weren't
any bids on this place.
I mean, I heard rumors in the spaceway
but there are always
rumors in the spaceway.
- Funny how much of that comes true.
I know I've seen this stuff before.
- So, the Sigrid Unset
didn't drop all the equipment
and drones from orbit.
Somebody came down here
and started it all up.
This is why they
used the ruddy old mining
drones, all right.
- Yeah, but how does
someone die holding one?
- Maybe this person had
an accident or an injury.
- No space burial?
I don't know a single space jockey
that someone would leave dirt-side.
- Well, damn.
- Great, well, I'm guessing
he just killed himself.
Seriously?
- Try turning it off
then turning it back on.
- I hate it when the tech guys say that.
- What the hell was that?
- Someone took down our ship?
- That's weird.
- It's coming from the ground not the sky!
Run!
Run!
Chafe, no!
- Juice that bastard!
- Acting Captain, we gotta go.
-Is Link?
-Wait.
- We might need it.
- I am honored, Acting Captain Babylon.
- What was that thing?
- Whatever it was, a snake, a worm,
it was the mining
equipment that drew it out.
- How?
It must have been attracted to the sound.
I didn't see any eyes
on that thing, did you?
- I only saw teeth.
Then it must have been sonar.
- What, you're a zoologist now?
- I'm being logical,
Kondor, try it sometime.
- I got this far on instinct, gearhead.
- Will both of you shut up?
Link, were there any indigenous
creatures on Caliban?
- It was not reported
to the Pangaea Supergov.
- So, the whole crew died before
they got to send a report.
It's been that way since the beginning.
- It's looking that way.
- And now the government waits 20 years
to send another crew.
So, it's all just a bunch
of spaceways rumors.
- It doesn't matter, we lost a husband.
It's just the two of
us now, don't you see?
- It doesn't have to be that way.
- Hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, easy, easy.
We can mourn our husband soon,
but right now we gotta get to that base,
get to ground, and figure
out what that was out here.
Link.
Are we still on track for A-119?
- Negative, Crew member Kidd.
- Can we get back on track?
- Affirmative, Crew member Kidd.
- My husband, my wife.
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
We must embrace the world
that we are making together.
- This is Oracle,
the official holder of The Book of Changes
for the Caliban mission.
I have thrown three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us,
who survive us.
- Where did that come from?
It's that damn android!
- Link, status report.
- This unit seems to have sustained damage
in the indigenous beam attack.
- He better shut that switch off
before I nail him down
and do a dinner plate.
- Like I said, we might need this android.
Link, shut off external sounds.
That would include my vocal parameters,
Acting Captain Babylon.
- Finally, some good news!
- So, we're still on track to the base.
- Recalculating.
- Recalculating, damn, so
this thing broke its GPS.
- Damn it!
Damn it!
- Burn it fast!
- Think we got it?
- It's ass wasn't totally on fire
so I don't think we got it.
We better use our inside voices.
- Do you have a new lock on A-119?
- Are you really gonna trust his ass?
- It's the only way.
- Fine, so if this damn
thing's finally broken,
dibs on using its head as a salad bowl.
- Link, turn your voice back on.
Status report, quietly.
- We have arrived at location A-119.
- Damn it, so this thing
is broken, we're screwed.
I mean, what, it's just gone?
- If it was a module dropped from a ship
it could have gotten moved somewhere.
- Was that a question?
- Damn it, Link, yes,
consider that a question.
- A-119 was not dropped from
the atmosphere, it was built.
- Okay, so if it was built
by humans or even bots
there had to be a foundation somewhere.
- Damn!
- There's a hatch over
there, help me move it.
- Uh, could be anything down there.
- Probably more skeletons.
- It ain't the dead I'm worried about.
- Relax.
- Just more junk.
- Wait, I feel like there
might be some answers
here somewhere.
- If you can make
something out of this crap,
you're a better engineer than I am.
- That's not saying much.
Come on, sweetheart.
- This is Oracle,
the official holder of The Book of Changes
for the Caliban mission.
I have thrown the three coins six times.
I have read the upper and lower trigrams.
This reading is for
those who come after us,
who survive us.
- Who survive us?
I wonder if the Oracle thought
it'd be 20 years later.
- The ship had an oracle?
20 years ago, bigger
crews often had a member
who could read the I Ching.
The old captain swore by it.
- I mean I knew it happened,
I just never crewed a ship with an oracle.
- All right, you two figure this out.
I'm an old space jockey.
I don't like being down here
with nobody watching my segs.
I don't want to be down in a hole
with nobody watching the only way in.
- You do that then.
When I served on the Leonardo
Padoro we had an oracle.
- I didn't know that ship had an oracle.
What was that like?
- She was never wrong, if
that's what you're asking.
- Hidden dragon, dragon
appearing in a field.
Dragons fight in the meadow.
Their blood is black and yellow.
Horse and wagon parked, bloody tears flow.
Wading in the mud brings about
the arrival of the enemy.
Wading in blood.
Get out of the pits!
Get out of the pits!
Get out of the pits!
- After we get home, I'm
taking a milk run to Venus.
Screw this shit.
Those oracles will mess with your mind.
I don't dick around
with that I Ching shit.
Now, that's more like it.
It's one thing to shoot
a giant worm with teeth.
It's another to shoot a guy
in a mask with a bathrobe.
All right, buddy, I gave you a chance.
Not much of one, but.
- The one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread,
but he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man,
and thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- Well?
- Keep both eyes open for a start.
- Nothin'.
Hey, there's something up here.
Let's check it out.
Jackpot.
- Looks like 20 year old junk.
- Oh, I wouldn't call it 20 year old junk,
but it's 20 year old something.
- But will it work?
- It's worth a try.
- Well, it's all we got, Kidd.
- Then I guess it has to work.
- The one-eyed man is able to see.
A lame man is able to tread,
but he treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man.
And thus is the reading
of The Book of Changes.
- My husband, my wife,
don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
- Keep.
Chuck.
Keep.
Chuck.
Ooh, this little buddy is our ticket
back to the spaceways.
- Good, I was hoping this
wasn't a one-way trip.
- It can't be.
- Turn it off, Kidd.
- Run!
Run!
No!
Let's go, Link!
- Activating Protocol Nine.
- Link!
- Activating Protocol Nine.
Protocol Nine activated.
- It's gone.
Protocol Nine activated.
- Link?
- No.
Babylon.
Babs, it's me.
Babs, it's Kidd.
- Kidd?
How?
- Before we left Mars, I
uploaded a copy of my brainwaves
into a personality circuit in Link.
Then I slaved that circuit
into my biorhythm monitor
so it would only kick in if I died.
So, I'm dead, right, Babs?
Yes, you're dead.
- I did the upload before we left Mars
so I don't know what's
happened since then.
Are we on Caliban?
We're in the base
built by the first mission.
- And the rest of the crew?
- Kondor's watching the
backdoor to this place.
Chafe was killed by the same
creatures that killed you.
- Creatures?
- Some kind of giant worm.
- Seems like a crappy way
to die on a space mission.
- Well, these worms have
teeth, if that helps.
- I guess it does.
So, we lost Chafe and Raven this year?
Four have become two, maybe
a little less than two.
Let's not think like that right now.
You're here in some way.
You're still Kidd in some way.
- You're right, of course you're right.
Right now we need
to get back to the ship.
- Well, the good thing is that I'm also
connected to our ship.
It needs repairs.
But I can see the schematics
so clearly even from here.
I think I can fix it.
- That's good 'cause the
parts you were needing
from here went down that creature's mouth.
- Along with me, the flesh me.
- Kidd.
- No, you're right,
this is actually better.
The mathematics of the universe
are so clear to me now.
I should have downloaded my personality
into an android long ago.
You said Kondor was
watching this entrance?
- Yeah.
Maybe he headed back to the ship.
- Why would he go without us?
- I don't know, we'll just
ask him when we find him.
- That isn't a good sign, Babs.
He wouldn't have dropped that on purpose.
- Then we need to catch up
to him, sooner than later.
Let's go, Kidd.
I'm in touch, with the ship.
We're not far away, she's
eager to be reunited with us.
Don't forget who you're married to.
I'm Captain Babylon from
mining shop Robert Indiana,
flying a Martian flag.
We mean no harm.
We ran into some creatures
and lost two crew members.
We are just trying to
get back to our ship.
We didn't know there were
other inhabitants here.
Were your people here
when the first ship came,
the Sigrid Unset?
Did you know the crew
from the Sigrid Unset?
Did you know the Oracle from that ship?
Do you know what happened to the crew?
Are any of them still alive?
We are here in peace!
We just want to get back to our ship.
This is a peaceful mission.
- If we don't get out of
here, it won't be, come on.
We gotta go back down below.
- It's a dead end.
- We're dead if we stay up here, Babs.
It's the only way, we gotta try.
They quit following us.
- Whatever they are.
We can't stay down here forever.
- I know that, Babs, but
we need to figure out
who and what those beings are first.
Maybe there are some more files
on that data station we
came across back there.
In this form, I might
be able to dig deeper
than I could before.
Let's give it a shot.
Babylon, Kidd.
Babylon.
Kidd.
My wife, my husband.
That sounds like.
- Raven?
You have to stop fighting.
- No.
I'm waiting for you.
- That's Raven, but that doesn't compute.
Caliban is waiting for you.
- No, Raven would never
tell us to stop fighting.
- Does not compute.
Does not compute.
- Hold it together,
Kidd, I still need you.
- I will.
- Anything?
- This base is only sleeping.
- Beyond the trauma of human failure,
lies the stillness of cosmic wisdom.
When people with poor wisdom
tread among sleeping tigers,
they shall meet with disaster.
- Can you change the
channel on that thing?
- My husband, my wife.
- Raven?
Raven?
- Don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together again.
- Kidd, that can't be Raven.
- My logic circuits are not registering.
- But it just can't be.
- We must all embrace the world
-that we are making together.
-Raven.
Raven.
- Kidd!
What now?
Kidd!
Kidd, no!
Kidd, I can't lose you a second time.
You're all that's left.
- I...
I can feel the circuits fading.
- No.
- But it doesn't hurt, Babs.
- It's, it's hurting me!
- Babylon, let me tell you something.
I downloaded my consciousness into Link,
but I also downloaded my consciousness
into a probe on the ship.
It launched when my first body died.
It's beyond Pluto now.
Beyond Hydra now.
It's beyond Styx now.
- Kidd, stay with me!
- I am beyond any place any
human mind has ever seen.
Babs, there are other human beings
out here beyond human knowledge.
I'm going to know them.
One day you may know them, too.
One day you may know them, too.
But I also downloaded my consciousness
into a probe on the ship.
It launched when my first body died.
- I don't know how to kill
you or if you can even die,
but I have to try, don't I?
I don't have anything else left.
You're not just the inhabitants
of this half-formed planet.
You are, you are the
original crew, aren't you?
The worms are the native species.
You don't have anything to do with it!
What happened to you?
What did they do to you, Kondor?
What did they do to your brain?
- They did nothing.
- No!
- The minerals we're mining, the dust.
It's in the air, it gets in your brain.
It works on your brain, we're evolving.
And it's beautiful.
- It's, it's not you anymore, Kondor!
It's not human, it's alien!
It's not evolution at all.
- It's better, I'm better than human now,
and you will be, too.
- No.
- You will join us.
When the next mission
comes, whenever it comes,
we will welcome them, too.
- No, there won't be anymore missions!
- There will be a next mission,
even if it is in 20 years.
The minerals here are too valuable.
- When the government knows
what these minerals can do...
- They already know.
There will be another
mission and another mission.
And we will grow stronger.
- No!
Goodbye.
- This is not goodbye.
You were a good pilot, Kondor,
despite the rest of it!
Listen to him, Babylon.
Come back to us!
My husband, my wife.
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
We must embrace the world
that we are making together.
You have to be ready.
You have to stop fighting.
I'm waiting for you.
Caliban is waiting for you.
- The simulation's over.
- What?
- The simulation's over.
- What, what are you saying?
Listen to him, Babylon!
Come back to us!
Do not fight the inhabitants.
Do not try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.
- No!
We must embrace the world that we
are making together.
- Run!
Run!
- This is the mining ship Robert Indiana
from the port of Elysium Mons
and flying the Martian flag.
Calling on Caliban.
Again, this is the Robert
Indiana under Martian flag,
calling the moon Caliban.
We have a license to repair
and maintain the mining
equipment under authorization
from the Pangaea Supergov.
No!
Kidd?
- Acting Captain Babylon.
- I...
I'm on Mars?
- We are in the training
center at Olympus Mons.
You have been in deep REM VR.
Your orientation to reality
should return momentarily.
- We were supposed to go to Caliban.
- The Pangaea Supergov required your crew
to simulate the mission
first for viability.
Result, the simulation of
the mining mission to Caliban
is over.
The mission will be a failure.
- A failure.
- You have returned to reality,
Acting Captain Babylon.
Are you in operating status?
- I'm okay.
Good thing we ran that simulation.
But there were a lot of
weird glitches in there.
- Acting Captain Babylon,
those with strong emotions, a strong will,
can sometimes overwhelm the simulation.
It is clear from your simulation
that you and your husbands
are not ready to return to space flight
since the death of your first
wife and captain, Raven.
- No, that's not all of it.
There were those weird people on Caliban.
What was that about?
- An extrapolation of scenarios.
- So, there was an original
human crew sent to Caliban,
like in the simulation.
- It can be extrapolated.
- And what happened to them?
- That cannot be extrapolated from data
supplied by the Pangaea Supergov.
Well, that sounds familiar.
Where are Kidd and Chafe?
- Just finishing their own simulations.
- I need to see them.
We...
We need time together.
- Acting Captain Babylon, a
reminder that the simulation
will fade from your mind in a short time.
The scenario you experienced
in the simulation was
just that, a simulation.
- That's good, there's
a lot I want to forget.
But maybe a few things good to remember.
Husbands!
- How did you guys do?
In my simulation, the
engines kept conking out
and we never even made it to the planet.
- In my simulation, the
mining drones hadn't gotten
far enough into the
terraforming to sustain us.
- How about you, Babs?
- The planet was hostile,
we didn't make it.
- Wow.
So, I guess we all had a total party kill.
- I survived mine.
- Well, it's a good thing
the Supergov gave us these
simulations before they
gave us the contract.
Saved everybody a lotta time.
- Yeah.
Guess we weren't ready for Caliban.
- I'll tell you what, we'll keep looking
for another repair contract,
maybe the other direction,
towards Sol.
I wouldn't mind being warm for a change.
- Sure.
But where's Kondor?
- Who's Kondor?
- Nevermind.
- Seems like your simulation
was a little rough.
- Mine just had some weird stuff in it.
Raven was there.
- Raven?
- Yeah, hey, don't worry about it.
The important thing is
that we're all together.
- What else would we be?
After Raven, now more than ever.
- Now more than ever.
Thank you, Link.
Link, is this real?
- Is that a question?
- No.
- Acting Captain Babylon,
are you returned to operating status?
My husband, my wife.
Don't fight the inhabitants.
Don't try to leave Caliban.
We can all be together once more.