Crusade (1999) s01e10 Episode Script

And as the planetary quarantine enters its fourth month mass rioting continues in India South Africa, and parts of central America as they struggle to deal with the total collapse of their economies the result of lost income usually generated by trade with other worlds.
Across the planet spaceports normally crowded with travelers stand empty starships grounded by military order.
Even orbital transports have been banned, given the government's concern that they could be used to ferry Earth citizens to waiting starships and carry the Drakh Virus beyond Earth.
In the Vatican, Pope Bernadette II led a global day of prayer and fasting.
She called for churches everywhere to unite in the scientific community's attempt to find a medical cure.
Current efforts include using the Ranger fleet to search for possible leads on other planets which are then investigated by the deep-range military research vessel, Excalibur, launched shortly after the Drakh War.
Meanwhile in Earthdome, Director of Xeno Biological Research Dr.
Steven Franklin, appeared today before the senate to testify about the progress made in other research You said to alert you when we reached our destination.
We're coming into orbit now.
Thank you, Lieutenant.
I'm on my way.
Nothing much good on TV tonight anyway.
- We in position? - Aye, sir.
Drop probes.
Probes away.
Atmosphere is breathable.
No signs of life.
Definite presence of architecture, most of it intact and well-preserved.
Data seems consistent with what we've been looking for.
- Good.
Get the others up here.
Tell them - Just a moment.
We're getting some anomalous readings from one of the probes.
Let me see.
I want you to know that this thing has made a very large dent in my ship.
Did you ever think about looking outside before throwing things overboard? Maybe next time you'll let us know when you're coming.
So what brings you here this time? An attempt, in all probability, foolish and useless to prevent you from going down to that planet.
Galen, my people have been looking for this place since we left Earth.
Now that we're here, what could you say that would change that? How about if you go down there the odds are that none of you will return alive? Clear me for docking.
Put away the breakables.
Turn on the landing lights.
I'm coming in.
Matthew Gideon, Captain.
Attached to the Earth alliance starship, Excalibur.
To find a cure to the Drakh plague before it wipes out all life on Earth.
Anywhere I have to.
Who do you serve? And who do you trust? Our analysis confirms that the planet was once home to life forms similar to our own.
So whatever happened to wipe them out here may have relevance to the situation back on Earth.
Scans of the architecture reveal highly sophisticated alloys and building materials.
More significantly, nearly all the major buildings are still intact.
Whatever eliminated the population it wasn't anything like a bomb or a conventional weapon.
Then it could be a virus.
Naturally, I defer to Dr.
Chambers' analysis but based on the condition of the cities yes, I'd say it's possible.
I agree.
It's a perfect paradigm for our situation.
A paradigm.
How wonderful.
I'm sure the race that died beneath us would love to know that their fate had been reduced to a paradigm.
Sorry.
Do go on.
Ever since we started this mission the Rangers have been investigating stories about a highly advanced world whose population was wiped out during a war about 100 years ago using non-destructive technology.
No missiles, no radiation, no obvious poisons.
To all intents and purposes, it sounds like the Drakh Virus.
If it's the same virus, or even if it's close to it we can make a lot of progress toward curing this thing by looking at the steps another world took in trying to deal with a similar problem.
Best of all, the cities are still intact.
The place could be filled with unknown alien technology.
At first, I thought it was a legend like the Flying Dutchman.
But this is real, and it's here.
All we have to do is go down there, get inside those places, and take it.
As our resident lock pick, that's where you come in.
Or check out.
If you're smart.
You keep saying that, but you still haven't explained why.
There are good planets and there are bad planets.
There are healthy planets and unhealthy planets.
There are safe planets and dangerous planets.
This place is known to every Technomage as a bad place.
A diseased, dangerous place.
- You talk like that planet is alive.
- Everything is alive in its way.
Have you ever been in an empty house and felt an oppressiveness? A shadow of a soul? Now multiply that by a billion times and that is what is fairly radiating from this planet.
So now it's haunted? That's one word for it.
Or perhaps it's simply the understandable result of several billion people being murdered by something they could not understand or stop.
For 100 years, none of my order has come near this place.
The last one who tried died.
I appreciate the warning, Galen.
- But we're still going down there.
- And you will go alone.
At least this way you will have one surviving pallbearer.
Mr.
Eilerson, this is a breach in protocol.
According to the company, if the Head of the Xeno Archeology Division That would be me.
goes planet side, the second and the third in the division That would be you.
See how nothing escapes me? Yes.
We have to stay aboard ship.
That way, in case something happens there are at least one or two of us around to guarantee that IPX gets all the data we've accumulated so far.
Good in theory, lousy in practice.
It implies that I'm expendable.
I am many things.
I am bright, personable, charismatic and not a bad dancer, but expendable, no.
If Galen's right, and the planet is dangerous the company will be more motivated to send out a rescue team if all three of us are down there.
So shall we? Enter.
- You wanted to see me, sir? - Yes.
Before we go, I wanted to give you a copy of my logs and some additional information which might come in handy.
Help you pick your next destination in case something happens to us.
Then you're taking the story seriously.
I'd be a fool not to.
If Galen's this concerned, there's usually a good reason for it.
He's more than concerned.
He's afraid.
We're all afraid at one time or another, Lieutenant.
But this is too important an opportunity to pass up without at least trying.
That's all.
- I was just defending your honor.
- Must be a terrible responsibility.
I've gotten used to it.
Has it ever occurred to you, Matthew, that in all our travels together we have found no shortage of dead worlds dead planets, dead moons dead colonies, dead cities? If you get near a point Have you wondered why there are so many dead worlds out there? Let me tell you why.
It's because despite the best advice of people who know what they are talking about other people insist on doing the most massively stupid things.
This is one of them.
Take my advice.
Don't go down there.
What's down there, Galen? I don't know exactly.
Is that why you're so spooked over this? The unknown? My order takes pride on knowing all that can be known and most of all the rest.
So a thing like this is disturbing, yes.
But it's more than that.
Look, Matthew, to those of us in my order another Technomage is the only family we have.
And after I was asked to leave the order as a penalty for having too much contact with the outside, I came to rely on you.
And on the others and on this place.
Perhaps more than I should have.
I would hate to have to start all over again.
Then why don't you come with us? We could use you.
Because I would hate to die even more than I would hate starting over.
Matthew, be careful.
The legend has it that whatever is down there cannot be seen.
It cannot be heard.
It cannot be killed.
The only Technomage to land there sent back one last message: Genius loci.
- It's Latin.
It means - The spirit of the place.
Are you saying it's some kind of ghost or a Guess I'll find out soon enough.
- Shuttle 1, you are cleared for launch.
- Roger that, Excalibur.
Hold on.
We're getting chop.
What is it? It looks like one of the probes we dropped from orbit.
I didn't know they could survive a fall like that.
I guess they could survive the fall, but they couldn't survive you.
Come on.
All right, we'll set up base camp here.
Secure the area, then set up a watch detail.
Four hours on and off.
Nobody gets in or out of the compound without being stopped, challenged, or shot.
Your discretion.
Will do, sir.
Mr.
Eilerson I think you'll find this room right here to be to your satisfaction.
Where's Dureena? Pretty.
- Yes? - Dureena, where the hell are you? Upstairs.
I found a series of markers that led around the side of the main building and followed them up here, but dead ends.
So now I'm taking in the view.
- I've never seen two sunsets before.
- Dureena.
You said you wanted me to explore.
With proper security.
I'll send someone up.
Maybe not.
I don't think they'd like the view as much as I do.
Is that all you were able to bring back, just the one data crystal? Knowing how you work, I figure it'd take you at least a week to decode that one, so there really wasn't any rush.
I've decided to re-define our relationship.
You pretend that you can't speak.
I'll pretend I can't hear.
We'll get along famously.
Interesting.
Perhaps tomorrow you can show me where you found this.
I'd love to.
You're sure it's a data crystal? Positive.
It's of alien design and construction.
But all data crystals share certain fundamental technologies.
It shouldn't take me too long to decode it.
I'll run the translation program and we'll see what it has to say for itself.
Who's there? Stop and be identified.
No, that's not going to work.
Let's try this one.
so that some record will survive the death of our people.
Got it.
The war was over.
A week she said.
Three hours flat.
The gods did not favor us.
And so they sent the death that has no name the death that has no face and makes no sound.
It walks among us unseen.
It is the death that glides out of the darkness and cannot be stopped.
Already we have lost millions.
By this time tomorrow we will all be dead.
And we do not know why.
We do not understand.
I was just talking to her.
And I turned There was a shape.
Then, there was just something that attacked her out of the shadows.
- She screamed.
- She's dead.
"Death glides out of the darkness.
" Security, respond.
According to the guards, this appeared right before the killings started.
It's ordinary chalk.
The same kind as we used to mark the buildings.
Have you been able to translate it? It says, "Behold and die.
" I guess they did.
- Gideon to Excalibur.
- Excalibur here.
Send down a shuttle.
Tell them to land outside the city long enough to load on the bodies and then take off.
No one gets on or off the shuttle until we know what's going on.
I was wondering when you were going to show up.
You know, the other day I heard some of the crew talking.
You know what they call you? The specter at the banquet.
Whenever you show up, somebody dies.
I tried to explain to them that it's usually after someone dies that you show up to try and help but that doesn't exactly apply in this case, does it? How many lives could you have saved by going there with the captain? In all likelihood, none whatsoever.
By not going I was hoping to convince them of the seriousness of what I was saying.
As logic goes, reasonable.
As a justification after the fact, even better.
Which is it? What killed them? One died by strangulation.
Another, blunt force to the head.
The third had his throat cut.
And the fourth Nothing consistent? No, nothing supernatural about any of the deaths either except they were all murdered within seconds of each other by an unseen force that had the complete run of the compound.
So either we're dealing with one incredibly fast killer or seven extremely well-coordinated killers.
Or both.
Do you have an idea? I don't know.
I think I'll go find out a little more about this place.
Lieutenant, can I trouble you for a moment? Those probes you dropped into the atmosphere - are they still functioning? - About 60%.
- Good.
What frequency? - 9,000 kilocycles.
Why? Nothing.
Just curious.
It's interesting.
It has a thin atmosphere and an equally thin ozone layer.
Less than 30% of Earth normal.
Yes, which is probably why its buildings are so heavily shielded.
Because of the binary stars and ozone layer that thin it lets in a lot of solar energy during the day which would also heavily disrupt electronics.
It would.
Perhaps that's another reason why those of my order were told to stay away from this place.
It would certainly do much to limit their abilities.
Thank you.
- I think I may have - It's a virus.
An artificial virus.
They found traces of it in all the bodies to varying degrees.
It's nanotechnology, microscopic machines that Yes, Doctor.
Sorry.
The nanovirus invades the central nervous system and the higher function parts of the brain where it begins to rewire the neural pathways.
It can cause blackouts.
Even reprogram someone to act violently without remembering it afterward.
These victims only have traces of the virus in their system which probably means that it's the most infected cases that are doing the killing.
It makes sense.
Not everyone gets a cold at the same time to the same degree.
This area.
Can you enlarge it? Yes, I think so.
Some kind of glyph.
A glyph, yes.
A sign.
A signal.
A warning to others like us.
That thing, that obscenity, was made by another Technomage.
That's why we were taught never to come here.
They wanted to keep secret that one of us was responsible for this.
Don't go down there, Galen.
Now that we know that it's a virus artificial or otherwise, we'll have to quarantine I can look after myself.
It's the others who need to worry.
There are only four hours left.
- What happens in four hours? - Nightfall.
So that's where you're hiding.
Dr.
Chambers told me what she found.
What was that about nightfall? A nanovirus is too small to think on its own.
It requires a control center, broadcasting instructions.
When the sun sets, the solar interference diminishes.
The nanovirus will be activated.
The killing will begin.
- What about you? - Protected.
- Then you can help restrain the others.
- No, I must go my own way.
If the solar rays are interfering those transmissions must be coming from somewhere.
Somewhere safe, sealed.
Away from solar interference.
Where would you look, Matthew? - I'm going with you.
- No.
I must deal with this alone.
And you forget you are infected, too.
Goodbye, Matthew.
I just heard from Dr.
Chambers, and I was wondering When I'm gone lock the door from the inside and throw away the key.
Make sure nobody inside or outside can get it.
I told everybody else to do the same thing.
My guess is that as soon as the virus is activated the most infected will kill the least infected.
When they're gone, they'll kill each other.
The longer we keep everyone apart the more chance we have of beating this thing.
If we survive the next few hours, we'll dig you out.
You should be okay as long as the door holds.
Wait.
Where are you going? To follow a friend into hell.
Greetings, brother.
You've come a long way.
Sit.
It's been a long time since I had anyone to talk to.
If I want to sit and talk with the dead, I will draw a pentagram on the ground and conjure up someone more interesting.
The body that created me has long ago gone to dust.
But that does not make me any less aware.
Any less who and what I am.
An artificial intelligence.
If you wish.
Genius loci.
Even better.
I was asleep for a long time.
I thought my work was finished.
Then the others came and I awoke.
I stretched forth my fingers and I touched them in all the secret places where thought lives.
You make them murder each other.
Murder.
A word.
Nothing more.
Why? Our order is sworn not to use our skills for destruction.
Our order says many things.
It does a few of them.
Believes in fewer still.
The other side in this war offered me money, power, authority.
We all have a price.
My creator, whose shadow I am, had his.
You have yours.
He created me sent me here to coordinate the nanovirus he designed for the task.
It was remarkably effective.
An entire world dead in less than three days.
While the secret of their construction died with it his voice, his instructions, his creation I live on.
In these 100 years, I've been dormant but the nanovirus has not.
They were programmed to keep building more of themselves over and over, from whatever was around.
They were also programmed to protect me and enhance me.
I am more than I was when I arrived.
I will not go back to what I was.
And I will not go back to sleep.
As long as the killing continues, I continue.
More outsiders will follow these and others will follow them.
It will be glorious.
Now I know what it feels like.
Dureena, move aside.
I do not wish to hurt you.
If you can hear me, you have to The friend before you and a friend behind you.
Which one of them will you kill to get to me? Galen! Move! This will be a lot easier if you just take the rest of your cloak off.
I promise I won't see anything I haven't seen before.
You don't know that.
Come on.
Just a little.
Just take it down As I said.
- How's our patient? - Fine.
We're almost ready to leave.
Maybe you'll stay on for a while until you're healed? Sorry.
Can't.
- What's wrong? - Nothing, I My staff was the only thing I took with me when I left the rest of my order.
It was control mechanism, part of me.
The only one of its kind.
It was a gift from the one who taught me.
And now it's gone.
You had no choice.
There was no other way.
Why not? Only one Technomage can undo the damage done by another.
Energy responds to energy.
Sympathetic magic.
The staff was the one weapon at my disposal which could have dealt with it.
Both are creations of Technomancy.
Both are control centers.
And now both are gone.
- Can we have someone look for it? - We sent down a search team but the way is blocked by millions of tons of dirt and rocks.
A few breaks here and there, but too small for anyone to get through.
I'm sorry.
I know what it meant to you.
Gideon to Bridge, ETA to jump.
Any time, Captain.
The last shuttle just docked.
The last shuttle? I thought they were all back hours ago.
They were, sir.
One last shuttle was taken down to the planet's surface.
I swear, if Eilerson's gone back there to ransack the place Negative.
Mr.
Eilerson is in his quarters resting.
Then, who the hell's It's strange.
I've never met anyone who can do the things that he can but at the same time, I don't think that I've ever met anyone more Lonely? Yeah.
At the end of the day, he's always out there.
Alone.
At the end of the day, we're all alone.
Ask you a question? Why did you do what you did, shoot the bridge out from under me? I could have been killed.
You might have been under its control, but your instincts were still there.
Moving like that is pure reflex to someone who's been trained like you.
I see.
- Even if it isn't true, it sounds good.
- I thought so.
- Gideon here.
- Can you stop by the med bay ASAP? - I have something for you.
- I'm on my way.
So what have you got? Shortly after the control mechanism was destroyed the nanovirus became inert.
I had a ground team rustle up as many containers as they could find and bring them all here.
I've got buckets of the stuff.
Great.
It's good to have a hobby but what good does it do you if the virus is inert? Inert, but not incapacitated.
Just lacking in new instructions.
With Galen's help I was able to figure out a way to program in some new data.
Nothing as elaborate as it was set up to handle, but enough for this.
This inhaler contains a mix of liquid Teflon and a few million of the nanovirus.
Since the Drakh Virus is primarily airborne I programmed this as a counteragent to rest in the lungs and eliminate any virus coming in.
You have Is this a cure? No.
It sits in the lungs and coats anything that comes in down to 20 microns in size and sloughs it out of the system.
So we won't help anyone who's already infected where the virus has metastasized throughout the system and locked onto human DNA.
But once inhaled it will allow us, or anyone who's not already infected to move among people who are contaminated for roughly 48 hours without becoming contaminated ourselves.
Why 48 hours? The nanovirus has a built-in loop which periodically requires new instructions.
We don't have the technology to broadcast new instructions so after 48 hours, it becomes inert again.
Two more concerns.
We can't make any more of the stuff so we're limited to what's on hand, and you can't use it twice right away or it'll have some rather unpleasant side effects.
It doesn't matter.
This is a major breakthrough, Sarah.
Who knows? Maybe once the brain trust back home gets hold of this they'll be able to adapt it even further.
You should be very proud.
Good work.
You were right.
We did find something of value there.
A virus screen.
- We found a way to make it work.
- Yes.
- What do you recommend now? - Do not trust.
- Do not trust who? - Galen.
Music.