Episode 711: Bridge to Heaven, Part Two
Part 1, 2, Special Features
So much for the 'willing' portion of the 'sacrifice'. Kiera and Joshua engage Ome Kami in conversation while Arden walks around the robot, looking for any place he can to either turn it off or hack into it. He finds nothing that he can exploit without a screwdriver.
Kiera: Define biomass.
Joshua: How many people have willingly sacrificed themselves to the biomass. I'd like to know before I become one of the numbers. I would like to have the whole history of the process.
Arden: Your gallant forebearers.
Joshua: Right. Exactly.
Ome Kami: There have been an unfortunate number of sacrifices required for the biomass.
Joshua: If this is supposed to be a helpful thing, why is it unfortunate?
Ome Kami: All individual life is valuable.
Joshua smiles. He's been saying that all along and it's a vindication of sorts to hear it from a robot.
Joshua: So what's the procedure? How does this actually work?
Arden: (to Joshua) Really?
Joshua: Yeah. (off Arden's look) Fine. I won't ask.
Arden: You asked already.
Ome Kami: We can provide for sedation if you wish, if that would make you more comfortable.
Joshua: Um, what happens if we change our minds and don't want to be willing sacrifices to the biomass?
Um, Joshua? Didn't you catch what the robot said about possible harm to the ship and the use of scarce ammunition to force you to do so? You know, like, two minutes ago?
Oh well, apparently not.
Ome Kami: Your willingness to sacrifice is a noble trait, one of the best of mankind.
Joshua: What if we're not particularly noble at all?
Arden: That is irrelevant.
Joshua: What if we were just a bunch of scumbags?
Kiera: Genetically messed up scumbags.
Ome Kami: Antisocial behavior cannot be tolerated.
Joshua: Yeah, okay.
Rina: See there?
Kiera: What if we were to tell you we are not actually from this ship? We're from another system.
Joshua: Which is the system you're heading towards.
Ome Kami: Your sacrifice will be noble nonetheless.
Joshua: All right, so, we've hit the wall here.
Kiera: But what if we lead you home?
Ome Kami: That does not compute.
Kiera: We are not from this ship.
Ome Kami: This is home.
Kiera: No, home is somewhere else where we're came from.
Ome Kami: Ah. You may have lingering feelings of regret and homesickness travelling so far from your home. These are normal.
Kiera: (to Nika) Give him the coordinates of where we just left. Tell him that's home.
Nika: (outraged) I will not.
Kiera: You can just pick any random point.
Nika: I will not.
Kiera gives up and turns back to Ome Kami.
Kiera: We are not from this ship. We are not from Old Earth.
Ome Kami: (soothingly) You are feeling confused and alarmed over your pending sacrifice. That is normal.
Kiera: (dead serious) No.
Joshua: (watching) This is kinda fun.
Ome Kami: I am summoning some assistants to help you make this great sacrifice.
Rina: And that would lead to my question: You and who's army, bub?
Nika: (sighs) Okay ….
Kiera: I would very much like to go back to our ship. We're going back to our ship. We have a separate ship from this one.
Ome Kami: Your sacrifice—
Kiera: If we get sacrificed there will be no one to fly our ship.
Rina: Sayonara, sucker.
Rina's already heard more than enough. She's actually ready to start shooting. Her hand is in her coveralls, going for her gun. The others quickly debate what to do. Knock it over, hack into it? Before it can call the guards. No, it's already called them. Rina waits for their decision before drawing her gun, waiting for the order from her Captain. Her XO is the one who actually gives it.
Joshua: Somebody kill it.
Arden: Kill it?
Joshua: Not kill it. Restrain it, I guess. (off Rina's look) Sorry.
Rina: I'll only kill it a little bit. Remember, I have experience in killing robots.
Joshua: I know, I know…
Kiera: That's true. You are a professional robot killer. Let me stand back.
Nika: Dammit.
Kiera: Putting down the wise robot.
Nika: Now we'll get the mean robot. It's probably coming with bullets.
Kiera: We had Yin. Now we will have Yang.
Rina draws. She shoots. She hits but the shot is only a glancing one.
Ome Kami: You're angry. Perhaps I can offer you a sedative. Or a calming—####
It fizzes. Rina shoots again and the bullet again bounces off its mark. Rina shoots one more time and her gun misfires and jams. The shot ricochets and she gets hit by her own bullet. She's got her mesh on and it saves her a gunshot wound. Even so the impact packs a helluva wallop. She curses.
Rina: Die, damn you! (sees her gun) Ispravitʹ, chert vozʹmi!
Arden: Even when there's no one shooting at her, she gets shot.
Kiera: Sorry, I'd help you but I'm laughing too hard.
You have to admit, it is kinda funny. In a schadenfreude sort of way.
Nika: Holy crap!
Kiera: This is why she doesn't get a gun. Ever.
Rina: (snarls) Make me.
Kiera: (to Joshua) Congratulations on the lovely girl you've married. I'm going home now.
At the far end of the corridor, aligned perfectly in a straight shot with the shrine's entrance, a set of elevator doors opens. Reinforcements have arrived. Out of the elevator step a bigger robot, much bigger, about 9 feet tall, with articulated arms and legs, built like a football linebacker on steroids wearing battle armor.
Rina: Diermo. We've landed in Tokyo Disneyland.
Nika: Ohhhhh, crappity …
Kiera: Big feet. Big feet robots are never friendly.
Joshua: (politely) Kon'nichiwa, Great Killing Machine!
We all take cover, with half the crew to one side of the shrine's doorway, the other on the other. Rina, however, had been admiring the Zen garden before things went to hell with Ome Kami and she's trapped in the middle of the graveled space, perfectly centered, and in full view of the approaching battle bot. She still has two bullets remaining in her pistol and she's packing two extra clips. She'll be fine. Meanwhile, the others are griping.
Kiera: Who's gonna feed Jahn if we're dead?
Joshua: You guys are having no fun. We are on an ARK. If we're only going to be on an Ark once, we should be having fun.
Kiera: I was already on an ark where we have.
Joshua: I've never been to one.
Kiera: Beggar, you still with us?
Beglan: Yes.
Kiera: Betcha you're regretting this.
Arden: Yes, he is.
Joshua: Are you regretting any of this, Beggar?
Arden: Yes.
Joshua: No he isn't. (to Beglan) Please say no.
Beglan: I don't want to die, personally.
Kiera: I don't want to be recycled.
Beglan: I had a feeling that somethin' like this would explain the fate of the ship. Sort of what I imagined, actually. Though I would prefer not to have so much running.
Um, could we please stop arguing about fun and start dealing with the nice big robot sent to kill us? Rina brings her gun right up and starts to shoot—dammit, it's jammed. She works clear the stove-piped bullet cartridge and yells to her Captain.
Rina: Some grenades would be pretty nice right about now, don'cha think?
Kiera: Yes, we came to an ancient Ark ship and we're going to blow it up.
Nika: Everything's shiny! Eff you!
Rina: Not to fret, Captain.
Nika: (to crew) We need to scatter because I got the feeling he's not going to be alone.
Nika calls to Joshua opposite her at the doorjamb.
Nika: Joshua, what's down the corridor to starboard?
Joshua: What direction is that?
Nika: (points) That way.
He sees nothing but hallway. Hallway to either side. We're still in the hospital portion of the ship, so there are long hallways that intersect each other every 80 feet or so, with nurses stations where they meet.
Nika: Run. Let's just run.
Kiera: Where?
Nika: (points) That way.
Down one of the hallways toward a nurse's station. It's better than staying in the shrine, a room with only one exit that's currently in a straight line shooting range of the killer robot. In short, the shrine is a killing box and we're all standing in it arguing like idiots, instead of taking advantage of the maze of corridors outside to hide in.
Der!
Looking through the doorway, the crew sees one of the robot's hands collapse and retreat into its forearm as a big tube advances to take its place. A cannon? A grenade launcher? A Gatling gun?
Nika: Gun! Big damn gun!
Kiera: Let's run …
The robot fires off an electrical blast down the hallway at the crew, still taking cover in the shrine. Everyone ducks aside and the energy blast hits the rear wall and dissipates.
Nika: GO!
The crew scrambles out of the shrine and down the starboard hallway, splitting up to check the doors running along either side. Nika and Arden get into a room, see it's an exam room with nothing they can use. Beglan and Kiera are trying the doors on the other side of the corridor. Joshua stays behind in front of the shrine's entrance, where the elevator corridor intersects the one the crew is running down. Standing fast like Horatius at the bridge, Joshua faces down the robot. Rina refuses to leave her husband to face it alone. He tells her to get behind him.
Nika leans out from the cover of the doorway and shoots the robot. Ping! Her shot bounces harmlessly off its armor. The robot keeps coming. Joshua pushes Rina after the others.
Joshua: Go check doors.
Rina: Come with me.
Joshua: Go check the doors.
Rina goes. She knows there's no arguing when he uses that tone. Rina ducks through the first unlocked door she encounters, spies a fire extinguisher in the room beyond, and goes for it.
The robot sees Joshua and sees multiple targets fleeing down the hallway. It turns for the multiple targets. Nika has the robot in her sights and she says to Arden:
Nika: (steely) Get them out of here.
Arden: You go.
Nika: I can't. Because it will follow all of us down the hall. I need some distance before I can do that.
Hearing this, Joshua jumps on the robot's back. Woo! Ride'em, Cowboy! Arden leaves cover and shoots the robot. It's a solid hit but the robot's armor soaks the damage. Nika takes her chance to run after the others down the hallway. The robot shoots another energy blast and it clips Nika. She falls stunned to the deck. Joshua meanwhile gets a firmer grip on the robot's back and yells.
Joshua: Taxi?! I wanted to go to the Mall!
On the back of the robot to either side of him, Joshua sees the robot has fins like wings … and those wings are equipped with missile launchers. He tries to see what he can do to disable them without falling off the robot. Beglan tries to hide in one of the rooms but Kiera hustles him further down the hallway for the next intersection.
Kiera: We don't want to get trapped. Go, go, go. Deeper in.
Beglan doesn't hustle but slows down and starts to freeze.
Kiera: Beggar? (slaps him) Walk.
Meanwhile, Arden leaves his cover and picks up Nika and starts moving further down the corridor. Joshua's trying to get a handle on the missile launchers as he's riding the robot. Kiera's managed to get Beglan to move and hustling to the next intersection in the hallway, they see another robot like the one behind her coming down the crosswise corridor.
No going that way.
Kiera: Hells Bells, get behind the desk.
Beglan: How do you think this is safer?
The man has a point. There's little difference between trapping yourself inside a room and trapping yourself in the nurses' station. Kiera grabs Beglan's arm and turns back the way they came. If nothing else, they can help the others who stayed behind to cover their aborted retreat.
Kiera: Back toward the danger, little one.
The robot Joshua's riding tries pitching him from its back and it gets lucky: it manages to grab hold of Joshua with its free hand. It plucks Joshua off and holds him off the deck like a rag doll, dangling him from his forearm. Joshua starts yelling in Japanese everything he can think of that might shut down the robot.
Joshua: Take me to your leader. I want some sushi. Shut Down Passcode 11111111…
Meanwhile, Rina's set up the fire extinguisher and is ready to knock off the valve assembly, turning it into a missile pointed at the robot. Joshua can see what she's doing and groks her intent.
Joshua: That's so AWESOME! Do it! Do it!
Of course, there's no way she can really control where it flies once she knocks the assembly off. It might hit Joshua and kill him. Then again, it might hit the robot and kill it. She's done this trick with a fire extinguisher before on St. Albans, she knows it will work.
Joshua: Wow. I might get shot by a torpedo. Do you see that, Giant Killing Machine?
Rina has a heavy pipe wrench from her tool bag and Clang! she strikes the valve assembly. The contents are under pressure and it's enough to send the assembly shooting off backwards and the extinguisher zooming forward like a rocket-launched grenade. The extinguisher hits the robot and topples it over.
SLAM!
Joshua manages to avoid getting his arm snapped in half in the robot's grip when it goes down and he also manages not to get crushed by the robot, either. Even so, bouncing off the deck isn't painless. The robot is down but not entirely out for the count. It will be getting up in a moment. Joshua is still caught in its grip and he can see his crew ranged up and down the hallway. Dammit if he's going to make the grand sacrificial gesture and engage the killer robot, the least they could do is hide.
Joshua: Would you people get into a room already? Get in a roooooom! Get a room, people!
Kiera's heading back toward the shrine with Beglan in tow, yelling that something's coming the other way. She sees the robot is down and smoky crap floating a hand span off the floor. She doesn't question it but tries to make for the best way past the robot. Arden is still carrying Nika to safety and she's still unconscious. Slow going. Joshua readies himself to move should the battle robot try to use him to lever itself up—as a cane, Joshua would snap like a dry twig. Rina hears Joshua yelling and actually starts does as he asks. Other rooms might have other fire extinguishers and she's prepare to shoot as many of the darned things as she can find at the robot to kill it and get Joshua free of it.
Joshua: (yelling) I'll be along shortly. Get in a room!
Rina: (yelling back) I love you.
The robot stands up. Joshua yells at the crew.
Joshua: Would you people get in a room?
Rina: Would you please stop bitching? I'm in a room already.
The robot advances a few steps, holding Joshua off the deck like a doll. Kiera is hampered by Beglan dragging his feet and tries to pull him along faster. Nika revives in Arden's arms.
Nika: Arden, put me down.
Joshua would likewise like to be put down but the robot advances toward the crew, holding Joshua like a cudgel.
Joshua: Whoa! Please do that Master Killer Robot! That would be awesome! New experiences all the time! Other than that, we are not having any fun on this Ark.
It swings him in Kiera and Beglan's direction. Kiera and Beglan slide down the wall to floor level and try to dodge. All the while Joshua's shouting at the robot. It's not clear if he's trying to confuse it or make friends with it. He calls out to it, giving it a pet name. Giving a pet name to a robot that would likely break him in two as let him go? Seriously? Joshua doesn't need to be medicated, he needs to be sedated.
Arden puts Nika down and asks if she's okay. Nika takes one look at Joshua being swung through the air like a flail and sighs.
Nika: We have to rescue Joshua I take it.
Joshua: No, no, I'm good!
He's still trying to get free. It's taking all he's got not to have his arm snap off at the end of each swing. The robot turns to Kiera, who's trying to eel past it around the corner and she freezes against the wall. Joshua, meanwhile, is getting spun around like a human nun-chuck.
Joshua: I think he's about to …(spins) … I think he's about to activate … (spins) … the special vomit feature on this ride … (to robot) … Well … (spins) … this has been a wonderful relationship … (spins) … If you think you can put me down now … (spins) … I'd really appreciate that …
Nika shakes off her stun and grabs Arden and starts hustling for the best way out. Not the way Kiera came, given the redhead was screaming something was coming from that direction. No, she's heading for the robot and the corner Kiera's turned. That way leads to the elevator the robot came out of—but it's a way off the hospital level and if they can hop that elevator before the reinforcements arrive …
Nika: (shouting) Rina! Move it!
Rina's searching another room and she gets another fire extinguisher just as Nika starts yelling. She runs out into the hallway again with the extinguisher in her hands. Arden gives the robot a quick once-over, looking for vulnerable points like joints and gaps in its armor where a well-aimed bullet can do more damage. Of course, the robot still has Joshua and for this sort of shot to work, it's best if Arden is right up next to the robot itself. The way the robot is slinging Joshua around, however, there's a good chance the shot will go right through Joshua into the robot. Aiming for a few precious seconds would increase the odds of a better outcome. Joshua's not unaware of Arden's analysis, Reader that he is.
Joshua: You might just want to … (spins) … aim at me.
Arden: I will when I get closer.
Joshua: Thing about … (spins) … getting closer, you're not going to be able to … (spins) … aim. It's going to hit you … (spins) … with me.
Kiera: That would be kinda cool.
Joshua: So you might just want to … (spins) … stand back there and … (spins) … aim.
The robot has plans of its own. One of the fins on its back rises, crests its shoulder, and it shoots a projectile right into the knot of targets made by Kiera, Beglan, Nika, and Arden. They dodge out of harm's way, flinging themselves for whatever cover they can find. Nika leaps back the way she came. Rina's close enough to duck back into the room she's just left. Kiera dives in the opposite direction toward the elevator. Beglan freezes where he is. Everyone save Rina takes some damage and stun—Beglan worst of all. He's still alive, being tougher than he looks, but he's hurting. Joshua takes some stun as well and yells to his crew.
Joshua: Keep running! … (spins) … Not that anyone's listening to me but… (spins) … Keep running … (spins) … Ohh, Beggar …
Kiera is running for all she's worth for the elevator. At Joshua's cry, she realizes that Beglan is not following her and turns around to check for him.
Joshua: He's fine … (spins) … Keep going!
Nika runs to Beglan and tries to get him up. Rina runs out of the room, extinguisher in her hands, going hell bent for leather at the robot. She closes the distance and gets within point blank range of the robot—dangerous, but it also puts the robot point blank range of her, as well. Arden moves in behind Rina and aims for the full amount of time required to get in a really good shot. Joshua escapes the robot's grasp but is still tangled with it.
Joshua: Rina, love? Please head for the elevator.
Rina: Not without you.
Joshua: I'm coming. I'm almost free. (scrambling) Seriously. I'm almost free. (to the crew) Keep running!
Kiera: (yelling back) Where's Beggar?
Joshua: He'll get there!
Beglan is curled up in a ball, shivering in full-blown fear reaction. Nika tries to get him to his feet but he's gone heavy and shakes her off. Kiera runs for the elevator again and starts hammering the call button for it.
Rina eyes the missile launcher and gauges the extinguisher is just the right size to jam into it. She'll have to jump on its back to do it. She takes a few running steps and throws herself at the robot, plants a foot on its leg and gets a boost up to its back.
Rina: Let go of my husband you pizda diermo piece'a crap!
Wham! she jams the extinguisher down the barrel of the launcher. She tries to free Joshua next but she's unsuccessful. For his part, Arden has to decide to shoot from where he is and possibly hit Rina or Joshua, or get closer to the robot and put himself in harm's way to reduce the risk of shooting his crewmates. He decides to get closer. He shoots but misses. Luckily, the bullet misses his crewmates, too.
Joshua is grappling the robot in an attempt to get loose, getting looser but still not all the way free. It has him in a pincer grip. Nika hauls on Beglan to get him up and around the corner toward the elevator. He resists, too frightened to risk moving and making himself a target.
Nika: C'mon. We gotta get outa here. Beggar, don't you dare leave me here by myself. Just come on, would you please? (changes tactics) Beggar if you chicken out on me now after making me fly blind through a canyon, I swear to GOD I'm gonna haunt you through hell!
No, no, no, no … Beglan crumples up in Nika's arms, heavy as lead.
At the elevator, Kiera's eyes are boring twin holes into the doors—come on, come on, come on, you stupid elevator! Beglan's not moving to join her, Nika's not moving to join her, this is bad, this is bad. She gives up on the elevator and runs back toward the crew. Jumping off the robot, Rina steps back, draws her gun and yells at everyone.
Rina: Fire in the hole!
Joshua: Run Arden!
Arden: Are you still—
Joshua: I'm working on it … (twists around) … I'm going to be free … (swings) … Run, Arden. … (kicks) … Better some of us get out of this than none.
Rina: Run!
Arden ignores Rina and looks around for Nika. He sees her struggling with Beglan and runs over to help her. Arden takes one end of Beglan, Nika takes the other, and together they literally carry Beglan out of there. Rina aims, sets her sights on the extinguisher, and calls out to her husband.
Rina: If we die, we'll die together.
Joshua: We're not going to die.
Rina: If we win, then we'll win together. Either way, it's a win.
Joshua pulls a fast one and slips free of the robot in true dramatic fashion. He hits the deck and dances away, fist upraised. Victory is sweet!
Joshua: See?!
He yells at Arden and Nika.
Joshua: Run, slowpokes!
Joshua hangs back, not willing to leave Rina to face the robot alone. The robot aims its hand cannon at Rina and fires with a loud buzz and a flash. She dodges the blast, missing it by a cat's whisker. Rina rights herself and raises her gun, an itty-bitty David against a mighty Goliath. She's got only one bullet left and she won't have time to reload. She'll have to make this bullet count.
She shoots. She hits the extinguisher. It blows.
BOOM!
Amazingly enough, its armor absorbs most of the blast and the shrapnel, but the explosion is enough to make the robot rock, spin, and totter on its feet … and …
CRASH!
It hits the deck, incapacitated at last.
Joshua rushes over and picks up Rina and spins her around, planting a big kiss on his wife.
Joshua: That was AWESOME!
Rina returns his kiss and Nika screams.
Nika: RUN!
Holding hands, the couple runs for the elevator just as the doors slide open. Everyone piles inside. We slap the close button and press the floor most likely to hold the bridge: 001
The doors close. The elevator glides up. We wilt with relief.
Kiera tries to revive Beglan, slapping him lightly on the cheek. Come on, wake up. Before she can say much more, however, the elevator stops, its motors abruptly going silent. Rina slings her tool bag around to the front and opens it up.
Rina: Here. Take my gun.
She thrusts it and her two extra clips to Nika, then gets her tools and pops the instrument panel open. She starts yanking wires and splicing them, hoping to rig a bypass on the emergency stop and get the elevator working again. While she's busy doing that, Nika covers the doors with her pistols in case the opposition breaks through. Arden reloads his gun and Kiera works on reviving Beglan—no telling when their engineer will need his help, right? Beglan is wedged in a corner, refusing to come out of his defensive shell. Kiera puts some steel in her voice and she grips his face, her green eyes boring into his.
Kiera: (fierce) Rosalie needs you. Wake up. You've got to come back for Rosalie. Come back for me. Come back.
She gets through to him and Beglan starts shaking off his shock. Good thing too, because the doors jerk open as Rina loses control of the elevator … then she curses and with sparks flying, she gets control back and slams the doors shut again.
Nika: We do not have time to search for the bridge. We have got to get out of here.
Arden: Why? Because of the robots coming after us?
Kiera: We are now declared hostile. They are going to be looking for us.
We can climb out of the elevator and go up or down the shaft. The exits off the shaft would lead to the corridors we'd just left, which might be crawling with robots. But even so, we've a better chance evading the robots in those corridors than trapped in an elevator where they can get to us.
Rina: Anybody wanna abseil down? Or climb?
Nika: (kneeling) Beggar, can you climb?
Beglan: (whispers) I think I can climb.
Rina: Then I'll jam the elevator.
Rina takes control of the elevator, runs it up a few levels before jamming it between decks, effectively sealing off the doors. Then she monkeywrenches the controls right up, making it impossible for the elevator to be called up or down. Then we pop the hatch on the elevator roof and start climbing the shaft.
Fifteen decks later we call for a stop and catch our breath and listen for pursuit. Nothing comes back to us and we quickly work out a plan. We'll go five more decks, then pry open one of the elevator shaft doors and get out.
When five decks go by with still no sign of pursuit, we pick a door and pry it open. One by one, we haul ourselves onto the deck and look around. And stop, stunned by what we see. The ceiling soars impossibly high overhead, fading into the darkness, a darkness dimly lit by a veritable redwood forest of pillars made of ring after ring of cryogenic tubes …
The frozen passengers of the Bridge to Heaven and, God willing, the salvation of Mankind.
The columns stretch farther than the eye can see from side to side in what must be a chamber running the length of the ship. There are thousands of people in suspended animation, perhaps tens of thousands. Surely there will be enough here to find a cure.
We start looking for a terminal that Rina and Arden can hack, looking to download all the information we can. While they're doing that, Nika starts thinking on what to do next. We have the best pilot in the Verse, a kick ass engineer and two brilliant doctors. There are several options the crew can take. Hack the systems and take away as much information as possible back to Highgate. Try to revive enough passengers to make a viable genetic base from which to create a cure. Mark the coordinates in space the ship lies and give them to our military superiors.
As the hack goes through and Arden starts filling his databook with information, Nika realizes the Alliance might find the ship after we leave and either destroy what she holds or commandeer it for themselves, to keep the cure from those who oppose the Core.
That said, there is no way around one cold hard fact: We cannot leave the ship behind. We will have to fly her back to Highgate ourselves and keep her safe until a cure can be found.
We can do it. We have the best damn pilot in the Verse. We have a kick ass engineer. We have an incredible astronomer who picked out the Ark from the countless billions of stars in the sky. We have two brilliant doctors capable of medical miracles. And we have a man whose bottomless optimism will not let us quit—ever.
We have a ship that has already proven its ability to travel a mind-staggering distance to make it this far. History tells us that the engines on the Arks are actually capable of going faster—even now, 500 years later—than anything currently in use, the better to traverse the distance from Earth. Amenoukihashi was drifting because her engines were programmed to turn off and have her coast the rest of the way in. Her engines should still run. If Rina can turn them back on, we can put the Ark on course for Highgate and fly her home.
It's not the first time the crew has walked aboard a ship, commandeered her, and taken her somewhere her original owners hadn't intended. It began with Summer's Gift, then on to Exeter, and now, as the mother of all shipjackings, one of the legendary Ark ships from Earth herself.
But that will have to wait. The crew has been up for nearly 24 hours straight, has traversed miles on foot, fought robots, and climbed the equivalent of a fifteen story building. Even heroes need a rest from their labors. As an ironic twist, during their quick reconnoiter of the cryo-deck for a suitable bivouac, the crew discovers a tram system designed to cover the long distances they'd slogged through unaided. If luck is with them, they'll get it up and running later. For now, they find a defensible spot to rest—a chamber off the cryo-deck—and make ready for the morrow.
The Bridge to Heaven drifts, the cradle of a forest of dreamers, and our crew finally sleeps, marshalling their strength to answer Destiny's call.
Part 1, 2, Special Features
Go back to: Sleeper of Athens | Go Foward to Taking Heaven
Go back to Season Seven, May 2523 to Feb 2524
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