Transcript for “Quality of Mercy”
Episode 2x15 
Originally Aired:  03/10/01  
Writer:  John Sheppard
Director:  Ian Gilmour  
Transcribed by Carol Murdock for "TWIZ TV.COM" - www.twiztv.com
Feedback:  murdockcarol@twiztv.com 

[Scene:  The jungle – A man and woman are being chased.  Veronica, Malone and Challenger are on the trail.] 

Veronica:  I don’t like this place 

Malone:  Well at least it’s peaceful.  We haven’t seen a dinosaur for miles.

Veronica:  We haven’t seen anything.  No birds no animals.  It’s like everything’s dead.  

Ty:  Come on.  

Malone:  Challenger we’ve got company.  

Challenger:  They look distressed.

Malone:  What’s the plan?  He looks like trouble.

[Lara tries to run and the trustee shoots her with a beam of light,]

Ty:  Lara! 

[Malone shoots at the trustee but the trustee deflects the bullets.  The trustee shoots Malone and Veronica with the beam of light.  Challenger and Ty run for cover and the beams miss them.] 

Veronica:  Are you all right?

[Challenger from his cover goes to shoot but Ty stops him.] 

Ty:  No, you can’t fight the trustees. Sentinel will come.

Veronica:  Ned look.

[An alien creature approaches.]

Challenger:  What in the name of creation?

Prin:  Return them to the compound.

Malone:  We’re not going anywhere.

[Malone gets up and before he can shoot, the Prin fires a beam of light at him.]

Lara:  Obey him or they will destroy you.

Challenger:  What kind of creature is that?  

Ty:  He is our master.  

**** Begin Intro****

At the dawn of the last century 

A band of explorers searched for a prehistoric world 

Driven by ambition

Secret desires

A thirst for adventure

And seeking the ultimate story

They are befriended by an untamed beauty

Stranded in a strange and savage land

Each day is a desperate search for a way out - of the Lost World

****End Intro****

[Scene:  The trail to the Prin compound.]

Veronica:  What was that thing? What did it do to Ned?

Trustee:  Keep moving you know the way.

Malone:  That weapon, it felt like every nerve in my body was on fire. What was it Lara?

Lara:  I have no name.

Veronica:  That’s what your friend called you.

Lara:  Be quiet, he’ll punish us.

Veronica:  What is this place, a prison?

Trustee:  Welcome home.

Malone:  Home, what kind of home is this?

Veronica:  Look at these people.

Malone:  Hey wait a minute we don’t belong here.

Veronica:  That’s right you’re making a mistake.

Trustee:  I do not make mistakes. Your job is labor.

Veronica:  Labor?  We’re not slaves.

Trustee:  My job is discipline and control.

Malone:  Okay…okay.  We’ll chat later.  

Veronica:  Malone something’s wrong here.  

Malone:  Yeah, a slave labor camp where none of the slaves seem unhappy.  

Veronica:  Lara who are all these people?  Where did they all come from?

Lara:  I told you I have no name, go way.

[Malone and Veronica follow Lara into a hut.  Lara pulls crystal necklaces from her pocket. ]

Veronica:  Your friend made those for you didn’t he?  You lived here with him?

Malone:  Why are you so afraid?

Lara:  Stop it, if the Prin learn about these things they will destroy us.

Veronica:  Learn about what things?

Lara:  [holding out the crystals.]  These things, our feelings.

Veronica:  You can’t show each other how you feel?  What kind of a life is that?

Malone:  You said the Prin, who are they?

Lara:  The Prin have been here since the beginning. They’ve always been our masters.

Veronica:  And why can’t you have names?

Lara:  We’re not allowed to own anything.  We’re all the same.

Malone:  No possessions, no emotions, no names?  They’re stripping you of all humanity.

Lara:  We are nothing. We exist only to work and obey.

Veronica:  Don’t worry your friend is safe.  He got away with Challenger.  They’ll bring help and then we’ll save you from the Prin.

[Scene:  The treehouse]

Marguerite:  What kind of creature?

Challenger:  It was human form certainly but quite grotesque to look at.  Like an entirely different species.

Roxton:  Yes, with a gun that shoots beams of light.

Challenger:  Technology the like of which I have never seen.

Marguerite:  Great, smarter with better weapons; I wonder how long they’ve been living on the Plateau.

Challenger:  According to our young friend here there are only two of these creatures. He calls them Prin.

Roxton:  Have you never tried to resist or fight them?

Ty:  We can’t, the Prin are our masters.

Marguerite:  Such loyalty, who says you can’t find good help.  [Marguerite notices his bracelet]  How charming, may I?

Ty:  Lara made it for me.

Marguerite:  Where did you get the pretty stones?

Ty:  Zone One.

Challenger:  Zone One?  Where is that?

Ty:  Where the Prin live.  Where they make us work.

Roxton:  Sound like some sort of a mine.

Marguerite:  It’s just not any mine, take a good look those are diamonds.

Ty:  The Prin don’t care about these stones.  They must throw them away.

Marguerite:  Well, they can’t be that highly evolved after all.  Rough gems of this clarity would fetch a fortune in Antwerp.  

Roxton:  Two of our friends are in trouble.  We’re on a rescue, not one of your bloody treasure hunts.

Marguerite:  I am ready to jump into battle anytime you are Lord Roxton.  But a girl can dream.

[Scene:  The mining camp]

Veronica:  The Prin just throw these stones away?

Lara:  Yes that’s why they must never see them.

Malone:  They must be mining something that’s more important to them.  How far away is this Zone One?

Lara:  An hour’s walk through the jungle.  The digging never stops, we work in two shifts.

Veronica:  How long until your next shift?

Lara:  Soon, the others will return after sixteen hours.

Malone:  Work sixteen hours and return home to this.

Lara:  Ty wanted to find a better place where we can show our feeling for each other when ever we wanted.

Veronica:  He has found a better place and so will you.

Lara:  No, Ty thinks we can be something we’re not, but he’s wrong.

[Lara walks away]

Malone:  How can we help her she doesn’t want to leave?  None of these people do. 

[Veronica looks at the two trustees by the entrance.]

Veronica:  Look at those two, hand picked to torture their own people.  How sick do you have to be to do that?

Malone:  I hear what you’re saying but we can’t do anything until we get out of here.  On the next shift change we’ll make a break.

Veronica:  Okay, but we’re coming back for them – all of them.

Malone:  Agreed.

[later a trustee sounds the alarm marking the shift change.  The slaves line up at the entrance.]      

Malone:  No discipline problem with this bunch.

[Malone and Veronica line up behind Lara]

Veronica:  First chance we get, we’re going to make a run for it.  Are you with us?

Lara:  The Prin will dispose of me if I get caught a second time.

Malone:  We’re not getting caught.

[two trustees come through the gates without any workers.]

Veronica:  What’s going on?  Where’s the second shift?

Lara:  I don’t know.

Trustee:  Your attention!  The other shift will not be returning, all of you are required in zone one to complete the project!

Veronica:  What project?

Trustee:  As the Prin designed the project so shall it be.

Malone:  That’s no answer.  

Trustee:  You will now put on appropriate coverings.

Malone:  Forget it.  We want to know what’s going on.

Trustee:  Open the gate!  It is time to go.  Do you need assistance with your coverings?

Malone:  Yeah, a little privacy would be great.

[The trustee zaps Malone and Veronica with his weapon.]

Trustee:  Privacy has no place in your existence…understood?

[Scene:  The trail to the mines]

Malone:  How close are we to zone one?

Lara:  We’re almost there.

Veronica:  We better make a move soon.

Malone:  Once we make it to that big tree we go.  This is it, follow my lead.

[Before Veronica and Malone make their break another slave takes off running.]

Trustee:  No one gets away today.  [The trustee zaps the runaway slave and he falls to the ground.]  Get him.  [The slave is brought before the trustee.]  Retirement comes early for you.  [The slave is killed.]  The unscheduled break is over.   [Lara takes the stones from the dead slave’s body.]  You will continue.  Leave him, he will be reclaimed later.

Veronica:  You heartless butcher.

Trustee:  He will now serve his higher purpose, as you all will very soon.

[Fade out]

[Scene:  The quarry]

Veronica:  This must be zone one.

Malone:  Nice place to visit, I wouldn’t want to work here.  I guess we just pick any job we want.

Trustee:  Stay with your unit.

Veronica:  I want to see the boss.

Trustee:  The Prin will retire you instantly for aberrant behavior.   

Malone:  What difference does it make?  You said we’re all going to be retired in three days anyway.

Trustee:  I said you can look forward to serving a higher purpose, now or in three days.  Understood?

[The Prin appear]

Trustee:  The compound is empty.  All the workers are here.

Prin1:  Even if we use all of them it will be difficult to meet our deadline.  Take two trusties and dismantle the compound.  Leave no trace of the workers presence.  

Trustee:  Understood.

[Scene:  The compound]

Challenger:  Looks like we missed the farewell party.

Marguerite:  What a disappointment.

Challenger:  I presume they’ve gone to zone one.

Ty:  Lara left this as a sign for me.  [Ty holds up the necklace.]  The Prin said this day would come.  

Marguerite:  What day?

Ty:  The end of the project, when the workers are no longer needed.

Marguerite:  Then what?

Ty:  They take us to the quarry and we serve our higher purpose.

Roxton:  Look at this.  [He hands Challenger Veronica and Malone’s clothes.]

Ty:  Your friends are workers now.

Roxton:  Which way to the quarry?

[Three trustees appear]

Trustee:  What are you doing here?

Roxton:  [aiming his rifle] That’s close enough.

Trustee:  Get them.

[Roxton shoots and hits one of the trustees.  The group runs.]

Challenger:  Come on!

Trustee:  They are not workers.  We must warn the Prin.

[Scene:  The trail]

Roxton:  How far to the quarry?

Ty:  An hour maybe less.  We must stay off the trail.

Marguerite:  Good idea but how exactly are we planning to invade it?

Challenger:  Well hopefully it won’t come to that.  If these creatures are as highly evolved as I believe they are…

Marguerite:  These superior creatures are planning to slaughter their entire work force.  If you ask me their evolutionary development fizzled somewhere between hyenas and trolls.  
Roxton:  You finished?  Which way?

[Ty leads the way.]

[Scene:  The quarry – Malone is chipping away at the ground with a pickaxe, Veronica is shoveling the gravel.]

Veronica:  Any idea what’s going on here?

Malone:  Something in this rock and gravel they’re after.

Veronica:  More valuable than diamonds?  Where’s Challenger when you need him.

Malone:  Marguerite and Roxton as well.

Veronica:  They’ll be here but will it be in time to save all these people?

Malone:  We can’t save them unless we can save ourselves.  Let’s check for blind spots.  There’s not enough trustees to watch all of us all the time

[Challenger, Ty, Roxton and Marguerite position themselves on the outskirts of the quarry.]

Ty:  This is how Lara and I escaped.  We ran toward this part of the jungle but we got caught in the light.

Challenger:  [looking through his spyglass] Lights I don’t see any lights in there.

Marguerite:  Can anyone see Veronica or Malone?

Roxton:  In those clothes at this distance everyone looks the same.

Challenger:  There they are Malone and Veronica with the digging crew.

[One of the Prin see them he shoots his laser at them.]

Ty:  The Prin!

Roxton:  Drop your weapon!

Marguerite:  What kind of a welcome it that?

[Roxton bullet hits the Prin in the arm and it runs off.]

Roxton:  Easy George his but ugly friend might be close by.

Ty:  You tried to fight the Prin.

Marguerite:  Yes, something your people should have tried a long time ago.

[Challenger bends down and looks at the spilled blood on the ground.]

Challenger:  Well I’ll be damned.

Marguerite:  Several times over I’m sure.  What kind of blood is that?    

Roxton:  Blue blood Marguerite, your favorite kind.

Challenger:  The trouble is this blue blood isn’t remotely human.  What kind of being have we discovered?

Marguerite:  One that is far too dangerous to study so get that nasty little thought out of your mind.

[Malone and Veronica are lurking around looking for a way to escape.]

Malone:  I think our best chance is that way.  When we get past the Prin it’s open ground straight through the jungle.  

Veronica:  Ready?   [They get closer to open ground.  They stop at a shed and hear people chanting.]  It’s coming from inside.  [They go inside the shed Lara and a few others are chanting by some candles.]  Lara?

Lara:  What do you want?

Veronica:  We’re leaving, will you come with us?

Malone:  Ty’s out there.

Lara:  Tell him I’m happy that he’s free, but the rest of us must serve our purpose.  As the Prin designed the project so shall it be.

Veronica:  Lara this isn’t your purpose.  You don’t have to die for the Prin.

Lara:  You don’t understand we only pretend to have emotions.  We give each other names and gifts of jewelry but it’s not real.  We don’t really feel anything at all.  

Malone:  And what about this?  It’s some sort of memorial to the worker who died on the trail…isn’t it?

Lara:  Tell Ty when I serve my higher purpose I will keep his memory, ask him to keep mine.

[Veronica and Malone leave the shed.]

[Prin1 waves a laser over Prin2’s wound and it heals instantly.]    

Prin:  Whoever these humans are that attacked you they appear to be as violent as our studies suggest.  But what brought them here?  What are they after?

[Scene:  Veronica and Malone are ready to make a run for it.]

Veronica:  We go together…ready?

[They run and trip a beam of light alerting the Prin.]

Prin:  Escapees or visitors?

Trustee:  I will find out.

Malone:  Keep running.

[The trustees shoot Veronica and Malone with their laser guns.  The two stop in agony.  There is a fight between Malone, Veronica and the trustees.  The trustees hold Veronica.]

Prin:  Retire them immediately!

[Malone goes to pick up one of the laser guns off the ground but it shocks him knocking him to the ground.  The Prin approaches Malone who holds his hand up.  The Prin sees the wound on Malone’s palm.]

Prin:  Red blood.  You’re human.

Malone:  Unlike you!   

Prin:  Bring them to the Perigee.

[Veronica and Malone are brought before the head Prin.]

Prin:  There were others of your kind about, presumably trying to rescue you.

Veronica:  And sooner or later they will.

Prin:  We were mistaken and we owe you an apology.  We assumed you were part of our project.

Malone:  What project is that, operation genocide?

Veronica:  You can’t just kill all those people.

Prin:  Now you are mistaken.  The workers are not people they cannot die.

Veronica:  We saw one die on the trail.

Prin:  No you did not.  I will show you.

[One of the trustees is revealed to be a machine.]

Veronica:  A machine?

Malone:  Robots?  All of them?

Trustee:  Workers and trustees alike, designed for only one purpose.

Prin:  To take us home.  Join me outside to understand.  Observe.

[The Prin uncloaks their spaceship hovering over the quarry.] 

Malone:  A spaceship?

Veronica:  You come from outer space?

Prin:  And that is where I must return.

[Fade Out]

Veronica:  Life on other planets it really does exist.

Prin:  Now you see it [the ship is cloaked] now you don’t.

Malone: Where did it go?

Prin:  It’s still there, an optical allusion I believe you call it achieved by the selective bending of light.

Malone:  This is incredible.

Veronica:  But why did you come here?

Prin:  We are explorers, when we were studying your planet an equipment malfunction resulted in us crashing a few miles from here.

Malone:  Just like us.

Veronica:  How long ago?

Prin:  Local time approximately two years.  There was minimal damage but in order to make repairs and mine enough fuel to take us home we had to create a work force suited to the environmental conditions of your world.

Malone:  So you built people to help you.

Prin:  Not people…machines.  Complex by your standards perhaps, but not by ours.  They’re tools nothing more. 

[Scene:  Outskirts of the quarry]

Ty:  The Prin are in there.

Roxton:  If we can neutralize them the rest should be easy.

Marguerite:  Easy?  Compared to what?

Roxton:  Ty take this [he hands him one of his Webley’s] You point this end at what you want to shoot then squeeze that trigger.  Oh and don’t lose it.

Challenger:  You’re right Ty freedom often begins with a glorious revolution.

Roxton:  Let’s go.

[The only get a few steps and Challenger stops them when he notices the censors.]

Challenger:  No wait!  Is this what you meant by the light?  That you and your friend got caught in when you tried to escape?  It’s some sort of photo censor cell but I have never seen such a coherent beam.

Roxton:  Yes, it’s very pretty but is it safe to go over?

[Challenger hops over the beam.]

Challenger:  I believe so.  Let’s go.

[They run into the compound.  Marguerite stops when she notices some uncut gems mixed in with the rocks.  She grabs a handful.]

Roxton:  Where’s Marguerite?

Ty:  Lara  

[Roxton tries to stop Ty from going to her but Challenger stops him.]

Challenger:  No wait.  He fits in.

Lara:  Ty…you came back.  [They run into each others arms.]  I never thought I’d see you again.

Ty:  You know I could never live without you.  We’re getting out of here all of us.

Lara:  What?  How?

Ty:  We’re going to fight the Prin.

Lara:  We can’t.  No one ever fought the Prin.

Ty:  We’re not alone.

Roxton:  Okay, time to make our move.

Trustee:  You already have.  Surrender your weapons.  The Prin have been expecting you.

[ Lara and Ty run off.  The others are being led to the Prin.]  

Marguerite:  Where are our friends?

Trustee:  They are in social consort with the Prin.  

Roxton:  More like prisoner in their cage.

Trustee:  The Perigee is not a cage.  It is a self constructed transport repair module.  See for yourselves.

[The Trustee uncloaks the spaceship.]

Challenger:  Mother of science.

Marguerite:  What on earth?

Roxton:  Not from earth from somewhere else.

[Roxton, Marguerite and Challenger are now standing with Veronica and Malone with the Prin.]

Challenger:  To be able to say with certainty that we are not alone in the universe.  What greater moment could there ever be?

Malone:  Well, it will certainly take up a few pages in my journal.

Veronica:  Flying to the stars, even I’d be tempted to leave the Plateau for a chance to do that.

Marguerite:  Well I’d be happy with a trip back to London.

Prin:  Our visit here is almost at an end.  In two more days the gravitational forces of your solar system will align with our return trajectory and we must leave.

Challenger:  Two days?  But can’t you delay a little?  There is so much we can learn from you.

Prin:  In our experience it is safer to allow emerging civilizations to discover the wonders and the terrors of science for themselves.  And if we don’t leave in two days; we will not have another opportunity for twenty seven years.  Which unfortunately will be much too late.  The atmosphere on your planet is toxic to us it will kill us in another year.

Challenger:  Will you be ready in time?  

Prin:  The ship has been repaired by tomorrow night we will have processed enough fuel.          

 Malone:  What about your workers?  The ship doesn’t seem big enough for all of them.

Prin:  It is the workers molecular circuits were taken from the ships guidance system.  Naturally they will be reclaimed.

Veronica:  Reclaimed to serve a higher purpose.

Roxton:  You mean taken apart.

Prin:  They are machines we need their components to take us home.

Challenger:  You may have started out to build robots but somewhere along the way you created life.

Prin:  That is quite impossible.

[Malone and Veronica are back in their normal clothes and are walking with Roxton and Challenger.]

Veronica:  It still feels like murder to me.

Challenger:  But is it now we understand what’s going on most of these workers really are no more than robots.

Veronica:  Ty and Lara have advanced beyond what they were designed to do.  You’ve seen it yourself.

Malone:  But what right do we have to try and stop the Prin from getting home?

Veronica:  What right do they have to destroy life, even if it was accidental? 

[Marguerite is walking with the Prin]

Marguerite:  This is a very impressive operation.

Prin:  Indeed, it takes several tons of aggregate to produce a few small ounces of fuel.

Marguerite:  I noticed some sparkling stones in that pile of waste.     

Prin:  You’re welcome to as many as you like.

Marguerite:  Really?  You wouldn’t mind if I took a couple of bags?

Prin:  Take them all.  Zirconium Silicate has decorative characteristics but serves no real purpose.

Marguerite:  Zircon?  They’re not diamonds?

Prin:  Examine their refractive index closely.

Marguerite:  Damit.

[Challenger and Veronica stand before a group of workers]

Challenger:  You have to show the Prin that you are more than just pieces of equipment.

Lara:  But if they see we have feelings they’ll reclaim us today instead of tomorrow.

Veronica:  Lara if you show them you’re alive they have to reconsider.

Ty:  We have to try Lara we have nothing to loose.

[The Prin along with Roxton, Malone and Marguerite join the group.]

Prin:  You believe you have evolved beyond your purpose.      

            

Veronica:  Don’t be afraid.

Ty:  We are your obedient workers but we have discovered life.  We respond to the world around us and to each other.  I am Ty, this is Lara and we’re in love.

Prin:  [to Challenger] This is the meaning of life?  [to Ty]  Who is your mother?  Who is your father?  Where do you come from?

Ty:  We come from you.  You created us we are your children.

Prin:  No you are machines nothing more.

Challenger:  Can’t you see, you may not have intended to but you gave these being life.  You can’t just take that away.

Prin:  Tomorrow all of these machines will be reclaimed our lives depend on it.  You will not stop us.

Trustee:  Your visit is now over - time to go.

[The explorers are escorted out of the quarry.]

Veronica:  I can’t believe we’re just going to walk away from this.

Roxton:  We’re not, what do you say Challenger?  Do you want to make a fight of it?

Challenger:  Not particularly, but it seems they’ve left us little choice.

Veronica:  It’s murder pure and simple.

Marguerite:  And what you’re considering could well be suicide remember the Prin are fighting for their lives as well.

Malone:  Whose side are you on?

Marguerite:  Moral quandaries are not exactly my strong suit but even I now we can’t just walk away from this.

Roxton:  Your call.

[Fade Out]

[Scene:  The trustees had led the group to the jungle.]

Trustee:  That is far enough.

Marguerite:  You’re not walking us all the way home?

[The trustees throw the group’s weapons and packs on the ground.]

Trustee:  Here are your weapons do not return.

Roxton:  Where’s our ammunition?

Trustee:  It is safe now.

[The trustees leave.]

Roxton:  I say we take them out now shorten our odds a little.

Marguerite:  Without bullets?   

Challenger:  Who needs them?

[Challenger pulls out a small sack with extra rifle bullets.]

Malone:  Ha…once a boy scout.

Challenger:  Oh I was prepared before Baden-Powell invented the little blighters.   

[Scene:  The quarry – Lara is digging along side the other workers.]

Ty:  Listen to me we can’t let them take our lives away.  We have to stand up and fight.  Come on don’t be afraid to let your feelings show.

Lara:  What can we do?

Ty:  We can destroy the ship if we destroy the ship they can’t use us to run it.

Lara:  But we can’t even see it.

[Ty pulls out one of Roxton’s Webley’s]

Ty:  I’ll take care of that.  As soon as you see it attack.

[Scene:  The trail back to the quarry.]

Trustee:  I don’t know about you but I will be glad to retire.

[Roxton appears behind the trustee and hits him on the head with his Webley.  A fight starts between the trustees and the explorers.  All the trustees are knocked out.]

Roxton:  Not a single bullet fired.  Maybe now we’ll have the element of surprise.

Marguerite:  Well a couple of these might not hurt as back up.

[Marguerite reaches for one of the trustee’s laser pistols.]

Malone:  No!  You’ll back up in a real hurry if you touch that!   

[The group makes their way to the quarry.  One of the trustees opens his eyes and gets up.]

[Scene:  The quarry - Ty is sneaking up to the platform.]

Prin:  Is that you zero?  [Ty shoots the control panal.  The spaceship flickers between being cloaked and uncloaked. ]  It is a violation of your operational directive to kill.

Ty:  Then don’t force me to do it.

Prin:  Your circuits will overload.  Your entire processing network will shut down in seconds.

Ty:  If I retire, you’re retiring with me.

[Lara leads the workers.]

Lara:  There it is let’s go!  Destroy the spaceship!      

 [The trustees form a line of defense around the perimeter of the spaceship]

Trustee:  No one gets through!

 Prin:  Hold your fire!

[Ty has the Webley held to the Prin’s chest.]

Ty:  Tell the trustees to drop their weapons.

Prin:  How long do you think you can survive without energy cells?  You need us as much as we need you.

Ty:  Destroy the ship!

[Challenger and the others appear.  Challenger fires his gun as the workers turn into a mob.] 

Challenger:  What the devil’s going on?

Prin:  Your interference has caused a riot.

Lara:  If we destroy the ship the Prin won’t need us.

Challenger:  If you destroy the spaceship our atmosphere will kill the Prin.

Ty:  Better them then us.

Roxton:  That sounds familiar.

Challenger:  Killing the Prin is no solution.

Ty:  Yes it is.  Attack!

[A battle starts between the workers and the trustees.]

Challenger:  Stop!

[Roxton fires his gun.]

Roxton:  All right enough!  Now back away!  Now!  [Roxton points his gun at Ty] Fair game Ty, I don’t miss.  

Prin:  You supply the means to kill me and you would now kill to save my life.

Malone:  Come on Ty put the gun down.

Ty:  But you told us to rise up against them!  Fight for our freedom you said!

Challenger:  It’s not quite that simple.  We misread the situation.

Ty:  But they’re going to kill us.

Roxton:  No they’re not.  No ones going to die.  I give you my word.

Challenger:  We can work it out.  Come on Ty you have to trust us.

[Ty lays down the gun.  A trustee runs from the crowd and graps Lara.  Ty runs to help her.]

Trustee:  You will all surrender understood.

Roxton:  Let her go.

Trustee:  The workers must complete the project.  All who resist will be retired.

Challenger:  This is no solution.  

Trustee:  The project must be completed…understood.

[Lara takes hold of the laser gun and both she and the Trustee are fall to the ground dying.]

Ty:  Lara…no…Lara.  Please don’t go.

Lara:  Save the rest.  

[Lara is retired.  Ty cries holding her dead body.]

Prin:  She sacrificed herself for nothing.

Veronica:  For nothing?  Can’t you see they loved each other?  She died to save them all.

Challenger:  A man from our world once said “Quality of mercy is twice blessed by those who give and by those who receive.”

Prin:  Perhaps there is a way.

[later]

[The voice of Ty can be heard coming from the console.]

Voice of Ty:  Initiating molecular systems check for departure; gravitational alignment in twenty eight minutes eighteen seconds. 

Roxton:  Sounds like the workers are running the show.

Marguerite:  Even without their bodies.

Prin:  Only until we return home.  Their minds, their sense of self, their will to live all those qualities of life will be preserved until new bodies can be built for them.  I give you my word.

Challenger:  There is always an alternative to conflict.  Sometimes it requires compromise and trust.  Now Lara’s death won’t be in vain.

Prin:  We have learned many things in our travels but perhaps this is the most valuable lesson.

Malone:  It could be the beginning of a whole new stage in evolution.

Prin:  Who knows what the future may bring.

Veronica:  Goodbye Ty.  Good luck to you and all the rest.

Voice of Ty:  Farewell and thank you.

Challenger:  Happy landings.

[Epilogue]

[Scene:  The group is leaving the quarry.]  

Roxton:  You’re traveling light I see.  Have you discovered something more important in life than diamonds?

Marguerite:  Well, humans might one day be replaced by machines but a zircon will never be a diamond.

Roxton:  You mean they weren’t real?

Marguerite:  I should have stayed at the treehouse.

[The spaceship takes off]

Veronica:  Losing Lara’s going to be very hard on Ty.

Challenger:  More than the others he understands the cost of freedom.

Malone:  Do you think they’ll make it home?

Challenger:  Oh I’m sure they will and if they can make it so can we.

[The spaceship flies off with a T-Rex sending it off with a growl.]

[End of Episode]