The Outer Limits (1995) s02e18 Episode Script

1 Jump point epsilon is secure, Roger, This is the captain, A few minutes ago at 0900 hours the fleet passed jump point epsilon, We are now in enemy space and proceeding under standard acceleration, For security reasons, the objectives of this fleet have remained secret, We're going after their home world, This ship carries the most powerful weapon ever built by man, a sub-atomic warhead, A doomsday bomb, It took nearly all of Earth's resources to create this ultimate weapon, As you know, humanity is at the brink of defeat, Men of the light brigade, the tide has turned, In six hours, a fleet of nine warships, manned by 600 of the best young men the United Nations of Earth can offer, is launching a surprise attack and will destroy the enemy's home world, I'm proud to say the light brigade will deliver the warhead that wins this war once and for all, Know that God is on our side, For our enemy is godless, Know that the millions who have died will be avenged, Know if we lay down our lives in the coming battle, it won't be in vain, for we will have ensured the very survival of humanity, I'll read you a passage from the poem for which this ship was named, Captain, we're pickup up multiple hits on radar! Oh, sweet Jesus! Sound general quarters! General quarters! General quarters! All hands to battle stations! What's happening? We're under attack, Increase speed to emergency flight, Get those control rods out, Prepare for maximum acceleration, Set a course for the enemy home world, Launch extra fires! All batteries firing well, They knew we were coming, Incoming missiles! Brace for impact! Engineering to bridge, Engines at 110%, at 1,5 gs acceleration, ( explosion ) Chief, we've got containment failure, I'm going to the next compartment, Keep up this acceleration! Aye, sir, ( screaming ) I'm trying to help! Man your post! But he's dying! Get back! You can't leave him! Man your post! ( screaming ) ( control voice ) There is nothing wrong with your television, Do not attempt to adjust the picture, We are now controlling the transmission, We control the horizontal and the vertical, We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond, We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive, For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear, ( ) You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to the outer limits, Warriors may be forged in the fires of battle, but heroes are discovered in the most unlikely of places, ( radio ) Light brigade! You're accelerating up, ,, I'm in engineering, wedge one, The engineer is dead, What do I do? Can anyone hear me? Light brigade! The reactor rods are maxed out, The hydraulics are off line, Tell me what to do! Turn it off! It's the link to command, They can't hear us, Skokes, Shine that over here, will you? Pretty cool, huh? You heard an Exeter fighter trying to hail command deck, Why aren't they responding? Maybe they can't, Maybe they're knocked out, Maybe they're dead, Oh, no, What's our status? It doesn't matter, Just answer the question! Our radiation badges are in the black, We've taken a lethal dose, It's not immediate, I need to know what happened, The reactor vented radiation into the next compartment over, You can see everyone there is dead, This was our last chance, We've lost the war, I don't want to hear that, We've still got a job to do, Yes, sir, I'm sorry, I'm just really, really scared, How long have we been at flank speed? I don't know, I got knocked unconscious, I don't know how long I was out, I remember feeling kind of weightless and then suddenly heavy, We're still accelerating, That tell you something? If they could have stopped us, they would have, What are you saying? That we got through? Yeah, we're headed towards their home world, We're on target, a few hours out, That's not much time, For what? To complete the mission, We could be the only people alive, How can we complete it? Keep the reactors on line until we reach the target, or we die trying, That clear? How are we? I said is that clear?! Yes, sir, ( generator starting up ) What happened? The brigade is still headed towards our target, Do you hear me? We can still use this bomb, And the fleet? We got the bomb, Nothing else matters, ( grunting ) My leg! Easy, Boramir, hang in there, I want you there to celebrate our victory, How did a cadet get assigned to the brigade? My father sits on the undf council, You're a councilor's son? He pulled some strings, Got me assigned to the fleet, Why would he do that? To be one of the 600, You know, one of the heroes, I don't have time to wait for you to grow up, Do as I say, and you might be a hero, Yes, sir, Check the engineer's board for red lights, All right, Ready? ( grunting ) We must slow the engines, Help me get the rods in, You know a lot about this weapon the captain was talking about, I thought everyone knew about that, Everything fore the mess deck is off limits to repows, Reinstated P, O, W, S, I lost my security clearance when I lost this, They do that? Yeah, they did, Tell me what you know about the weapon, Just one of them could destroy an entire planet, It breaks the bonds that hold matter together, How do you know all that? Before I left, they blasted one of the Martian moons, Lit up the sky three nights in a row, You saw that? You couldn't miss it, I thought they were bombing the Mars colony and would come after us, Then I saw my dad, He was looking up like he'd seen the most beautiful thing ever, Did he say how to arm it? No, he never talked about that, Most of the time, he didn't talk at all, All the control rods in the other compartments are at max, We got to slow down, These engines weren't built to handle acceleration for long, Closing these will help, ( grunting ) Glad he's on our side? Okay, there's three other compartments, We'll do the same thing in one of these, or this whole ship will blow itself up, They knew, didn't they? That we were coming, Yeah, they must have, The fleet was supposed to be a secret, That's for the officers to decide, ,, If they're still alive, Our job is to complete our mission, ( banging ) What was that? Maybe someone's coming to help, Maybe we've been boarded, By who? The enemy? Maybe, Stand back, Damn, Who are you?! I'm a weps! He's chief weapons officer, What are you doing down here? I thought I was the only survivor, Why did you come here? To complete the mission! What are you doing? Why haven't you closed those control rods? He thought you were the enemy, Ever seen the enemy? Yes, sir, I have, Do I look like the enemy? No, sir, You open that bulkhead, we'll be flooded with radiation, We must try, No, sir! If we don't get inside, the war is over! You understand the stakes? We are the last chance! You do what you're ordered to, Is that understood, soldier? Sir, that compartment's contaminated, If you open up that door, we will be dead within 30 seconds! Who'll complete the mission then, sir? Can you detonate that bomb now from here? No, Till they arm it from the bridge, it's useless, May I suggest that we depressurize the compartment, vent the contaminated air into space with the fire suppression system, We return through the conduit Through the escape hatch, We slow the ship, head for the bridge, We'll be exposed to lethal doses of gamma radiation, there's no question, but we'll survive long enough to complete the mission, But let's get to it, We don't have much time, Yes, sir, "Theirs was not to reason why, Theirs was but to do and die," It's from the charge of the light brigade, the poem the captain I never read it, Let's move out, ( beeping ) ( warning buzzer sounding ) Was the bomb hurt in the assault? No, it's the ship's most protected part, I was checking it when we got attacked It got knocked out on the second hit, So did we, I couldn't get through to command, Radiation? Everybody was dead at their stations, It's the same on every deck between here and command, Gunnery, maneuvering, Neutron bombs, Yeah, damn handy things, Doesn't destroy the ship, kills the crew, They used them to capture ships before, How come we're still alive? I was working inside the warhead casing, You must have been shielded by the reactor, Okay, let's go, Damn, red light, You can override it? Yeah, gimme a minute, We need to arm the warhead, We must move in and out fast, Every second down there is an hour off your life, Yes, sir, I go too, You up to it? It's been opened to space, When the hatches open, there's going to be a hurricane like you've never seen, I go, All right, Weps? Almost there, Okay, ready, If we don't make it You will if I must get you myself, If anybody tries to board, detonate that warhead, take them with you, You'll make it! All right, Hang on to something, One! Two! Three! Go! I can't budge it! Push! Whatever you guys do, hurry up and get out of there! Let's go! Go! Go! Go! Boramir, get out there! What are you doing?! It's the only way! There's too much air pressure! You don't know that! Must close it from inside! You can't do this! He's right We'll never close it from up here! The door is caught! It's too heavy! Go! Go! Come on! No! Boramir! Come on! ( screaming ) No! Go back to a vacuum in a few seconds, He won't suffer long, That's a hero, Let's go, We're slowing down, I can feel it, We're slowing down to one g of acceleration, The engine should maintain this speed to the target, We'll be there in a couple of hours, We better get going before this radiation sickness sets in, It's a way to go yet, All right, "Into the valley of death," Shouldn't we have turned back there? We can't get through the starboard access, That half of the ship was cooked by the neutron bursts, Too hot with radiation, How are we getting to the command deck? Through the core, ( cadet ) That's impossible! Not impossible, Just stupid, There's an access on every deck, It's two feet from the particle stream, How do you think I got down here? I trusted you back there, You trust me now, All right, listen up, Stay in close to the wall, The magnetic bottle will make you want to jump out of your skin, Stay looking at the ladder, What about the fuel pulses? Every eight seconds, It flashes from the emitter, Stay close to the wall, What happens if we don't get out the way? The magnetic bottle is designed to contain the particle beam, It won't stop you, Pulses are how hot? 10,000 degrees, give or take, I'd definitely stay out of the way, You ready? Okay, Follow me, I can't go in there, Come on, hero, Nothing can stop you now, No, ,, I'm going to be sick, Radiation It's going to get worse before it gets better, Your brains are going to feel scrambled, But keep moving no matter what, I never thought I'd see this, Congratulations, You just became sterile, I hope I didn't ruin any family planning, Oh, I can feel the heat, Think about something else, Keep moving, You're falling behind, I can't stop thinking, How did they know we were coming? They always know, Maybe they captured a scout that knew about the fleet, My dad thought that they had spies, On Earth? Never seen one of them before, have you? I know they're big monster-looking things with scaly lizard skin, green blood and weird eyes, You figure they'd stand out in a crowd, Maybe they surgically altered themselves to look like us, We know their medicine is superior to ours, Yeah, ,, Like everything else, I got to rest, Everyone in undf had to pass a retina scan, I thought that was just for us repows, Listen, I've been close to these sons of bitches, You know how much bigger they are than us? They're seven, eight feet tall, Not their females, The kid's right, When I was A P, O, W,, I spent some time with one, female, They're a lot smaller than us, How did you get out? Boramir led a raid on the prison, It was on a small moon cut right out of rock, All I know is boramir got me out, And now he's dead, All right, what's done is done, Point is, if we drop that warhead on their home world, we win, and they lose, It all comes down to that, Just one more deck, We're almost there, Let's move out! I can't focus, Hang in there, kid, ( cadet ) Oh, my head, Got to try going through the second time, Is that the way to command? All we have to do now Are you all right? ( vomiting ) Started already, Oh, God, ,,I'm sorry, I, ,,I can't help myself, It's not your fault, We'll all be like that soon, Just hang in there, The equipment looks intact, That's good, What? My father didn't lose his hair till he was 50, I can see the humor, Can you override that? It's secure from inside, So we can't get in? I didn't say that, There's an access through here, Too tight for me, One of you should make it, Okay, I'll go, You're way too sick, So are you, There's another access door on the other side, Unlatch it from underneath, When you get inside, just open the hatch, I can do it, Okay, hero, "Half a league, ,, "Half a league, ,, "Half a league onward, All in the valley of death Rode the six hundred," This your first time above the engineering deck? Yeah, How long you been aboard the brigade? Since the shakedown, Two months, I haven't been able to fly an Exeter fighter since I lost my hand, You? I arrived with the bomb just before we shipped out, Hey, weps, once we're in there, how do we arm this thing, anyway? Sorry, I have to do it myself, Security precautions, It'll be the end of us, No, ,, It's just that I got something you don't, "'Forward the light brigade, ,, Charge for the guns!' he said," You don't trust him, do you? Let's just say I don't like cadets, Why? 'cause he's a last-minute replacement? The only man I ever trusted just died trying to complete this mission, I did it, I got through, Way to go, kid, ( weps ) Cadet, gimme a hand, Take him, Got him, I told you, I got something you don't, It's an ocular interface, Your daddy told you? No, I just knew they were working on it, It transmits and receives data through the optic nerve, Just arm the bomb, Wait, I got a problem, What? Can't make that connection, Weps, keep trying, ( grunting ) Weps, keep trying! Don't give up! Break! Break! Weps! Weps! What happened? Data stream was corrupted, Random, ,,Light, blinding noise, ( groaning ) Did you arm the bomb? There's nothing I could do, When they attacked us, one of those explosions must have generated a massive e-impulse, The interface was overloaded, Are you just giving up? I'm saying it's over, ,, It's all over, the war, the mission, the whole damn human race, It's over, ( vomiting ) Oh, God, Come to think of it, God wasn't with us after all, Maybe he created them first, ( cadet ) We were supposed to win, This fleet was supposed to turn the tide, We didn't have a chance, My father said Your father was fooling himself, We all were, I know from experience, I served aboard the general Patton, But that was a disaster, Yeah, tell me about it, I thought she was lost with all hands, All but one, I was outside the ship in a maintenance tug when the enemy cruiser showed up, We were on the far side of the sun, We didn't think the enemy knew we were there, We were 29 ships, among them was the flagship of the fleet, against one enemy cruiser, They taught us that that fleet was attacked by a superior force, It was, A force of one that moved among our ships like a wolf among lambs, And I watched from a distance as one by one they all charged into their own slaughter until only the Patton was left, And I thought to myself, "Now, ,,now the wolf Will be punished, " But our best ship of the line died with the rest, Her blood stained the stars in a ball of red fire, We were supposed to turn the tide that day too, You can't win if you give up the fight, Haven't done enough, have I? There's no way, It's over, There's always a way, What is it? Can you detonate it? No, to arm it, I need the computer, Can you fix the computer? We've only got a couple of hours, We have a few hours, It's over, skokes, Tell me what you need! A miracle, Listen to me, They detonated a nuclear warhead 500 meters from this ship, generating an electromagnetic pulse that fused all the circuits in the main computer, It's pointless! ( static over the radio ) Listen, Light brigade! Please! Emergency! Skokes! What are you doing? Light brigade, please! What are you doing? That ship was 100 parsecs away, They can't help us, This can, He's right, Why are those circuits working? Communications has extra Shielding against r, F, , right? Maybe that's enough, It's a snowball's chance in hell, It's better than waiting to die, You don't have to access the entire computer, just the weapons systems, Put this in, You don't give up, do you? No, My brother was like that, My father gave a speech at a war rally last year, He said that humanity would triumph so long as we had hope, He said that in everyone there was a hero and that in our darkest hour that hero would rise up and we would honor them always, You don't understand, I've got a war to win, I don't have time to get sentimental, We're dying now, the three of us, Hand those over to the weps, Now! Yes, sir, ( pieces dropping ) It's a good thing you didn't drop the one we needed, Your dad would have been proud of you, kid, We're running out of time, We'll be over the target soon, Almost there, There, it's all I can do, Skokes, If I can't make it, ,, Tell me what to do, Go to the payload bay, Before you open the doors, you must type in a password, It's "John", That's my name, This key initiates a 30-second countdown, John, ,, Don't give up this time, Okay, you son of a bitch, let's dance, I'm in, Accessing weapons system, Locating warhead, arming sub-routine, Uploading command, Waiting for verification, The warhead is armed, You did it, Way to go, John, Wait a minute, Something doesn't look right, You, ,,You're one of them, Open the door! Go to hell! Open the door! ( skokes ) Your father was right, We had spies everywhere, We changed ourselves to look like prisoners and allowed ourselves to be rescued, Some have been able to change back, The retina tests were the hardest part, We had to use the prisoners' eyes to ensure we'd pass, ( groaning ) Most of our spies are female, about my size, Boramir was my mate, We were rescued from a prison together and waited for an opportunity like this one, Looks are deceiving, You're not getting to that warhead, hero, I need to get into the payload bay! Get out of my way! No! Let go! Get out of my way! They're trying to board the ship, Keep moving, Got to keep moving, "Cannon to the right of them, "cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered," "Stormed at with shot and shell, "boldly they rode and well, "into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell," ( computer ) 30 seconds to launch, 25 seconds to launch, 20 seconds to launch, 15 seconds to launch, 10 seconds, 9, 8, 7,, ,, You came through the jump point, What's going on? Oh, my God, ,, ,2, 1, launch, Cadet, answer me, What did you do? Oh, my God, skokes turned the ship around, What did you do? He turned it toward Earth while we were unconscious, My God, he turned the ship around, ( control voice ) The greatest horror of war is the fateful transformation of our children into heroes,