KLASHAR ZULE
I am Klashar Zule. I will be the death of you.
VERSAILLES
(wryly)
Think we should tell him he's already dead?
Jamison moves closer to the viewscreen.
JAMISON
Power down your weapons. We have no quarrel with you.
KLASHAR ZULE
But I have a quarrel with you.
JAMISON
You have fired on us without provocation.
KLASHAR ZULE
Only if you do not consider murder to be a provocation!
JAMISON
Please explain. I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
KLASHAR ZULE
You and your people ruined my life! You are responsible for unforgivable slaughter!
JAMISON
Where did this happen? When did it happen?
KLASHAR ZULE
Butchers! Your rampage ends here! Though you vanquished me once, I have come back... and I will have my full measure of revenge!
JAMISON
Please, let's consider this situation carefully. If you would just tell me more about what you say we've done, perhaps we can work together to find a solution.
KLASHAR ZULE
(enraged, ignoring her)
Since our last battle, it has taken me years to recover and prepare...but this day has finally arrived!I will stop you! I will remake my destiny!
Klashar smacks a control with his hand and his image vanishes from the screen, to be replaced by a view of the starfield with his ship in the foreground.
CHOKA
He's firing energy weapons!
JAMISON
Brace for impact!The ship rocks with the force of the strike. Control consoles spark and smoke.
LIM
His weapons are more powerful this time. They've already cut our shields to less than fifty percent!
VERSAILLES
(focused on conn controls)
That's the same ship, all right. We can't get away from it.
JAMISON
Return fire.
Choka fires the emanators.
CHOKA
He's too fast, Captain. All our emanator fire missed. I'm going to have to set up a new firing pattern.
The ship is hit again. Jamison calls out over the communication system.
JAMISON
Engineering. We need our gravity drive now.
MARTINSON'S VOICE
Not for a while, Captain! We have fresh damage from this attack!
JAMISON
(to Choka)
As soon as you have those emanators ready, Commander...
CHOKA
Firing.
(he waits)
All misses.
Again, Sojourner is hit.
LIM
Captain...we've lost our shields.
VERSAILLES
Here he comes again!
*****
23 EXT. JUNGLE - DAY
Brellora is still tracking Tulon with her scanalyzer. Pushing her way through some of the lush vegetation, she closes the scanalyzer and replaces it in its holster. She has spotted Tulon.
The Hephaestan is sitting on a large rock in a clearing. He is hunched with his back to Brellora.Cautiously, she approaches him. She keeps her emanator gun in her hand.
BRELLORA
(tentatively)
Tulon? Tulon, are you all right?
He does not respond, nor does he turn to greet her. She continues her careful approach.
BRELLORA
Tulon?
Tulon mumbles something incoherent. He is shaking violently, wracked by the fever of var zegg.
BRELLORA
(louder)Tulon?
TULON
(softly, with great difficulty)
This...is not Hephaestus.
Confused and worried, Brellora moves closer. She can see his face...and it is contorted in agony. Beads of sweat stand out on his skin.
BRELLORA
(concerned, apprehensive)
What's wrong, Tulon?
TULON
(haltingly)
I seem to be ill. I thought that I was on my way home to Hephaestus...but clearly...this is not Hephaestus.
BRELLORA
You must have been hallucinating. Maybe you've come down with something.
Suddenly, surprisingly, he laughs. The laughter is strained and unnatural.
TULON
Yes, you could say that I have come down with something.His smile twists back into a grimace of pain.
TULON
(struggling)I need to go to Hephaestus. I require my wife...Suline.
Brellora isn't sure what to make of Tulon's condition. Though she is worried that he might be ill, she is likewise wary because of his emotional outburst and earlier attacks. She moves a step closer to him but still remains a safe distance away.
BRELLORA
Tulon, let's go back to the podcraft. I'll find something in the medical kit to help you. Maybe I can get us back to Sojourner before too long.
TULON
(through strained snickers)Why would I want you to do that? My wife is not aboard Sojourner.
Brellora finally abandons caution and grabs his arm.
BRELLORA
Come on, Tulon. Let's go.
With an angry snarl, Tulon shakes off her grip and springs to his feet. For an instant, he glowers, breathing heavily, as if he is about to lunge at her; then, the madness drains from his eyes and he slumps against the rock. When he speaks, though he still seems to be experiencing great pain, he seems to have reverted to hisnormal, rational, unemotional self.
TULON
Where am I?
BRELLORA
(playing along)
I don't know. You brought us here in a podcraft. You thought you were going to Hephaestus.
TULON
My apologies. I was not in command of my faculties.
BRELLORA
But you are now?
TULON
That is...impossible to say.
BRELLORA
Do you have any idea what's wrong with you?
TULON
It is a condition peculiar to my people...an especially troublesome condition.
BRELLORA
Can you make it back to the podcraft?
TULON
(lashing out suddenly)
No! And if you touch me again...Face twisting with effort, he struggles to suppress the irrational rage. He staggers, shakes his head, then manages to reassert control over himself...though he is still in great pain.
TULON
It would not be wise...for me to return to Sojourner. I present a significant threat to the ship. For that matter...you are placing yourself at great risk...by remaining in such close proximity to me.
BRELLORA
But you said that your conditionis peculiar to Hephaestans.
TULON
Contagion...is not my concern. The threat lies...in what I might do to those around me...when I go insane.
Brellora stares. She knows very little about var zegg.
TULON
Leave me now. For your own sake, leave me.
BRELLORA
I can't do that. You have to come back to the ship.
She raises the emanator gun from her side and points it in his direction.
BRELLORA
I can't leave you here.
Again losing his tenuous emotional control, Tulon slumps to his knees. Cradling his face in his hands, he begins to sob.
TULON
(brokenly)
Do not...look at me. I do not want you to see...what I have become. I did not want anyone to see. It is so much worse...when someone sees.
Moved by his suffering, Brellora lowers the emanator gun and crouches beside him. She starts to touch him, then recalls his warning and withdraws her hand.
BRELLORA
Tulon, I'm your friend. It doesn't matter to me.
W
ith great, shuddering breaths, he quells his sobs. Shakily, he gets to his feet.
TULON
(deceptively calm)
I must go. Every moment that I tarry here is one less moment that I could be spending with my wife.
Spinning around, he charges off through the vegetation. Brellora raises her emanator gun, intending to stun him into quiescence...but she cannot quite bring herself to fire at him. Instead, she runs off after him into the jungle.
*****
24 INT. BRIDGE
Jamison, Choka, Lim, Versailles, and supernumeraries. Sojourner is still under attack. Another powerful blast rocks the ship.
LIM
Damage to all decks, Captain. Without shields, we can't take too many more like that one.
Jamison joins Lim at Ops.
JAMISON
Ensign, I want to back-flush the hyrdrogen collectors on the grav drive engines...expel a cloud of hydrogen exhaust at maximum dispersal.
Lim taps out instructions on the console.
LIM
Aye, Captain.
JAMISON
Ready the teleporter as well. Hopefully, the light show from the hydrogen will confuse him, slow him down long enough for us to get a fix on his weapons array.
LIM
Ready, Captain.
JAMISON
Expel the hydrogen.
*****
25 EXT. SPACE (OPTICAL)
Twin streams of bright red gas rush out of the hydrogen collectors on Sojourner's grav engines. The streams form a large cloud above and around the ship.
Klashar Zule's vessel is surrounded by the brilliant gas and slows noticeably.
*****
26 INT. BRIDGE
CHOKA
He's slowing, Captain.
LIM
Teleporter's locked on his weapons array.
JAMISON
Energize. Scatter the contents of the beam into space.Lim complies.
LIM
Transport complete.
(he smiles)
His weapons array is now a cloud of space dust.
JAMISON
Choka, lock emanators and fire.
*****
27 EXT. SPACE - SOJOURNER AND KLASHAR ZULE'S SHIP (OPTICAL) as Sojourner's emanators strike the other ship.
*****
28 INT. BRIDGE as Choka watches tactical readouts.
CHOKA
We hit him, Captain. He's sustained major damage.
VERSAILLES
He's moving off. Should we follow?
JAMISON
Negative.
She leaves Ops and walks to the center of the bridge.
JAMISON
We're in no condition to give chase. Mister Lim, how long until gravity drive is restored?
Lim consults Ops readouts.
LIM
It should be up and running within the hour.
VERSAILLES
Captain, our friend is moving off at grav speed. I'd say he's done with us.
JAMISON
What's his heading, Mister Versailles?
As he consults his readouts, Versailles looks puzzled.
VERSAILLES
Captain, this is odd. He's heading toward the same system that we traced the podcraft to...but his trajectory won't take him to a planet or moon. Captain...he's heading straightfor the system's sun.
Intently, Jamison weighs this information, trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.
*****
29 EXT. JUNGLE - DAY
Brellora pursues Tulon through the thick vegetation. She looks around, realizes that she has lost sight of him, and stops.
BRELLORA
(calling out)
Tulon? Tulon?
Receiving no response, she retrieves her scanalyzer and scans for the signal from his communication badge. Picking up the signal, she again pushes through the foliage.
BRELLORA
(calling out)
Tulon?
Forcing her way through some especially dense leaves, she catches sight of him.
*****
30 EXT. GROVE WITH ATTACKING VINES
Tulon has been grabbed by powerful, motile vines. As he thrashes and writhes, the vines tighten around his neck and chest and legs, working to choke the life out of him.
Thrusting her scanalyzer back into its holster, Brellora races to aid her comrade. Grasping the vine at his neck, she attempts to loosen it...but her half-Gorlack strength is not enough. Stepping to one side, she draws her emanator gun, then fires at the fat green stalk to which the vines are attached.
The vines go limp and release Tulon. As he falls, Brellora catches him and pulls him free of the deadly plant.
She lowers him to the ground. He is heaving and weak from the struggle, on the brink of losing consciousness. His head rolls around and he looks up at her...and his eyes seem to come into focus.
He whispers one word, a name.
TULON
Suline...
He collapses into unconsciousness as Brellora stares. Did he think that she was his wife?
FADE OUT.
END OF ACT TWO
*****
ACT THREE
FADE IN:
31 INT. CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM
Jamison is seated at her desk, drinking coffee. Tablet computer in hand, Choka is briefing her.
CHOKA
We've picked up a distress beacon from the missing podcraft, Captain. It's coming from that Temperate Class planet in the local system.
JAMISON
So at least we know that Tulon's put down on a habitable world...and if he crashed, there's a chance that he and Brellora survived.
CHOKA
(nodding)Someone had to trigger that beacon.The door CHIMES.
JAMISON
Enter.
The door opens and Lim hurries into the room.
LIM
Captain! I've finished my analysis of the sensor logs on Klashar Zule's ship.
JAMISON
What did you find, Jian?
LIM
His ship got younger.
CHOKA
What?
LIM
I was trying to figure out why our grappler beam wouldn't hold that ship...and it turns out the hull was emitting anti-graviton particles.
CHOKA
Which would repel the graviton particles in the grappler beam.
LIM
Exactly. Now here's where it gets interesting. There were radioactive particles present in the hull...and when I analyzed them, I noticed that they hadn't decayed between the two attacks. In fact, there was less decay in the hull the second time we encountered the ship.
JAMISON
That goes along with what I've been thinking, Mister Lim.
Jamison rises from her chair and thoughtfully paces out from behind the desk.
JAMISON
The first time this Klashar Zule attacked, he appeared to be advanced in age. We thought he'd died in that attack, yet he appeared again, and this time he looked younger. Jian, you say his ship itself was younger.
(beat)
After his latest attack, he headed for the sun of the nearest system. I think he was going to use a slingshot effect.
LIM
You fly fast around a star...the star's gravity boosts your speed...and you rip open a temporal rift.
CHOKA
He's a time traveler.
JAMISON
Exactly. When he first contacted us, he knew the name of the ship, he knew my name, and he said he wanted revenge for something we'd done to him...even though we'd never met him before.
CHOKA
But from his point of view, we had met him before. He'd met us in the future, then had come back in time.
JAMISON
And he died...but he attacked us again, later, and he was younger.
LIM
Because his temporal jumps were moving progressively further back along the timeline.
JAMISON
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