Strange Horizons (1992) - full transcript

The story of a war between men and women in the 23rd century.

[Shorty] I am Shorty,

a shipboard computer of what’s
left of the Misanthrope.

Some three years ago the
Misanthrope crashed

on an uncharted planet amongst
the local free worlds.

Pascal, the last captain of
the Misanthrope was marooned

along with me.

This is the story of
our final voyage.

Since I cannot predict effects
of ongoing memory damage,

I want to get this on
the record while I still can.

The ship was heading for the
planet Bogar of the Free Worlds.

Where Pascal could
retire in modest comfort.



[dramatic music]

[alarm beeping]

[Shorty]
Pascal, we have a problem!

Pascal we have a problem!

Pascal!

♪ Da, da, da, da
Da, da, da, da ♪

[Pascal coughing]
What?

Aft scanners indicate we are
perused by an alien

battleship that I tentatively
identified previously.

When last we spoke of this you
rather constructively decided

to become inebriated
and pass out.

What's your next move commander?

We're waiting Pascal,
any time you're ready.

[Pascal singing]
♪ Early to Bed ♪



♪ And early to rise ♪

♪ Makes a man healthy
Wealthy and wise ♪

[thump]

[Shorty] Ah yes, some
calisthenics at oh seven hundred

Try and stick to the
problem Pascal.

The battleship is closing
in on our starboard hull,

kindly look at the monitor.

[Pascal] Relax Shorty.

It's just another cowboy
hauling grow dung from one

shit-hole world to another.
Not to worry.

[Shorty] You'd be pleased
to know

that I am programmed to worry.

When you left the military
did you also leave your senses?

What is your next move?

[Pascal] Coffee.

[Shorty sighs]

[Shorty]
That's a fine move sir.

Let's sit this one out,
why don't we

and pour ourselves a steaming
hot mug of aromatic santhese.

I mean, I like a man
who doesn't panic.

The time for evasive action
is growing short.

Pascal, are you
listening to me?

They say that all light in the
universe is old light.

[Shorty] Oh, no!

For that reason we see the past
when we look at the stars,

[Shorty]
Pascal, it is still possible

for you to save
the Misanthrope.

Not so Shorty.

It's destiny reflected.

We're dust.

It will suck us up along with
everything else

that never mattered.

It will swallow us all and then

the great greedy
will swallow itself.

Then everything that ever
was... never was.

Put that in your star log buddy.

[Shorty] Pascal, I'm detecting
an energy buildup aboard

the alien vessel.

There's a high probability, the
ship is preparing to attack.

[Pascal] I don't get it.
I don’t get it.

What do they want, from me?

Our cargo is not worth the
fuel it takes to push it.

Even so, we're followed to the
empty margins of the universe.

[Shorty] My review of the cargo
manifest confirms your opinion

Pascal, energy readings
indicate a pre-firing mode.

Right Shorty, listen up.

Give me a hundred and
eighty degrees.

[Shorty]
Confirmed sir.

-Plot inverting spiral.
-[Shorty] Course plotted.

Engage randomizing laterals.

[Shorty] Program engaged.

[Pascal] Advise me of incoming
fire on the vector grid.

[Shorty] Defensive matrix
program engaged.

What's that?

Either it's a planet,
or you've just discovered

the first blue hole.

Thanks a lot Shorty.

[Shorty] No harm in a little
levity under pressure.

Wait a second.

Let's use its shadow.

[Shorty] Pascal if you are
contemplating a sling shot

maneuver I must point out that
this ship no longer has the

structural integrity...

Incoming fire at seventy two
degrees! Pascal, Pascal!

Use that planetary
momentum Shorty,

in for the tight curve, hug
the horizon then whoosh.

Slingshot, blow cargo for
cover. Home free!

[Shorty] Alien plasma
impact in 30 seconds.

-Power?
-[Shorty] Increasing!

-Power!
-[Shorty] Power threshold...

Power! Fuck!

[Shorty] You cannot comply.

[Pascal] The bitch must!
No, no Shorty, make her.

[Shorty] Auxiliary power
boost and override?

[Pascal] Now!

Alien plasma at 15
seconds and closing.

All right, grab it short hairs.

Slingshot, confound them,
blow cargo bays.

Negative on cargo
bay detonation.

Blow back-ups then.

Negative. Back up
system failure.

Alien plasma at five
and closing,

four, three, two, one.

[crash]

No!

Damage report:
Main drive failure,

atmospheric reflection, sub
orbital speed and declining

I am trying to restart engines.

Planetary impact inevitable.

Extending decline capacity.
Pascal, acknowledge!

Pascal! Exterior hull rupture.
Sealing off hull.

Pascal, please acknowledge!

Restart failure and flying off
vectoring rockets only.

Approaching planetary surface.

Nothing matters anymore.

I'm free. I'm free.

[engine whirring]

[static noise]

[Shorty] We could not know at
the time that another vessel was

watching from a safe distance.

The Miranda, the flagship
of the Motherhood.

A matriarchy which dominates
the local free worlds.

Pascal, once worked
for The Motherhood.

On the bridge is the man he
once worked for,

Admiral Hardman,
Supreme Commander

of the Motherhood forces.

Beside him is the clairvoyant,
Major Charlie Vault.

Clairvoyants are supposed to
keep Mothers military in line.

Vault was sent to investigate
Admiral Hardman whose loyalty

had been questioned.

However the good Admiral has
turned Vault into his ally.

Amazing.

Aliens haven’t floated strategic
hardware in a 100 years.

[Charlie] It's a power play,
an obvious ploy.

Let's get it over with.

[Shorty]
Ah yes, the aliens.

All cultures need an enemy so
the Motherhood chose them.

Aliens are users of
the drug Horizon.

A drug formed from
interstellar dust.

Aliens are human descendants
of a religious colony.

Horizon has the effect of
repressing their

desire to communicate.

So their leadership found the
drug convenient to impose

spiritual obedience
on their followers.

Horizon made them alien
to our minds.

Aliens defied the Motherhood.

And now they surface with
strategic class hardware.

And now Captain, you're going
to intercept and destroy them...

with your usual
impressive efficiency.

[console bleeping]

[dramatic music]

[Pascal shivering]

That's one way to
slow down a ship.

[Shorty] Given that I found us
the only piece of land on this

planet, I'd say I performed with
adequate effectiveness.

[Pascal] If you don't mind
atomizing the pilot.

[Shorty] We still exist,
do we not?

I always wanted a holiday
by the sea.

[Shorty] I activated the
automatic distress signal

just before impact.

I estimate the signal
propagated for 13.2 seconds.

There is a 47% probability that
the signal will reach another

vessel within an effective
rescue range.

There won't be a rescue.

[intriguing music]

[Shorty] Above us the Miranda
was entering orbit around

Pascal's planet.

Set up your own courier.

That's not your usual style
Hardman.

It's only logical Vault.
Aliens were getting stronger.

My personal position
was threatened.

I needed a provocation.

Anyways.

Anyways, anyways he
set himself up.

Someone in particular?

Pascal? You didn't!

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I did boy.

He's as good as dead then.

Out of your mind, I don't want
to hear about him anymore.

This means what?

You knew aliens
had a battleship.

No, but it was a
lot of Horizon.

I wanted to draw out
their big guns.

You did that all right.

Bad move setting up
Pascal for the raid.

He's a powerful negative force
in your patterns Hardman.

Your shadow.

He's dead!

He was...
he was powerless.

Asshole died.

[Shorty] A disconnection from
my ship-board circuitry,

I find myself strangely
underemployed.

I feel as if I have got too
much time on my hands.

I need a sense of purpose!

Perhaps I can make myself
useful of solving the mystery of

why the alien battleship
attacked us.

The risk of reprisal by the
Motherhood is not consistent

with alien behavior.

The only reasonable deduction
is that The Misanthrope had

something onboard that
the Aliens wanted.

On the other hand the cargo
manifest revealed nothing of

particular value to the aliens.

Pascal, what is your input?

I repeat Pascal.
What is your input?

Cut me deep Shorty.

Play me something that
will break my spine.

[Shorty]
I don’t think we have it.

Lyrical enough to suck brains
through this old hands nose

and death wrap me like an
ancient Egyptian before Ra.

Pascal, just what would it take
to stop this orgy of self-pity?

Just play me something
I can't stand.

[Shorty] Very well.

[country music plays]

♪ I see her smiling face on the
Streets and everywhere ♪

♪ If the phone should ring
I'll get it ♪

♪ Just hoping she'll be there ♪

♪ This motel that I'm a crashing
Ain't no Holiday Inn ♪

♪ It's a hell of a place
And a mess that I'm in ♪

♪ But She's gone
Yeah she's gone ♪

I'm hungry.

[Shorty] The ships food
re-hydrator is in a state of

permanent disrepair.

Pascal, feed thyself.

Okay Mother!

I surrender.

Mom! Mommy!

[Shorty] Look on the bright side
Pascal.

We seemed to have escaped
The Motherhood.

That is what you've
always wanted.

Still I wonder why
we were attacked.

There's no accounting for
the random violence

in the universe Shorty.

That's the nature of things.

I am too old Shorty.

Too old, tell Mother I’ve
changed. It’s over.

Early to bed, early to rise.
I like it.

I’ll sing it in the
maternal choir.

Now! I’ve changed.
Honest to fuck!

Just one good thought.

God please, just one.

One good thought.

Just youngsters slaughtered.

Fools ambition.

Ass head.

Now it's my turn.

Not slaughtered. Just nibbled
away. Picked clean to nothing.

To nothingness.

Perchance to dream.

Aye, there’s the rub.

[Shorty] You did your job
Pascal, so did your crew.

There’s no need for
further self-blame.

Like all humans, you have a
fondness for rumination.

So what else is new?

The universe is spinning.

Spinning. Spinning…

[fire crackling]

It's over.

[gasps]

What a dream I had Shorty.

[Shorty] A dream.
About what?

Fire.

[Shorty] I know Pascal,
it’s your sickness.

Oh, I’m sick?

[Shorty]
Yes, Pascal.

[ominous music]

Shorty!

[Shorty] Relax Pascal.
It’s just a dream.

How can you tell?

[Shorty] Trust me.
Sleep Pascal, rest.

Mother says the aliens and
their drug silent addiction to

a god they’ve forgotten
are a threat to decency

in the universe.

Well I’ve never liked
fanatics myself.

Compromise is the way.

Moderation in all things,
except art.

That’s what I think.

So we’re going to prove these
horizon adjusting fanatics

can’t build a battleship
and get away with it.

Lucky. Lucky. Lucky.

No thrill like intimacy
with the enemy.

[Shorty] Good morning.
How are you feeling my friend?

You were tossing
and turning all night.

[coughs]

I think I’m coming down
with something.

[Shorty]
Indeed you are Pascal.

You’re suffering
from delirium due to exposure.

Shorty, I need…

[Shorty] I am programmed
to respond to the

inflection patterns
in your speech.

If I am reading the
tone correctly,

you now desire
a contraband substance.

I recall the time we smuggled
Gene-co Kinetic Resonators

into the Evangelical Colony.

I remember that.

Freedom world. Sex plus
guilt equals control.

A small blow against
the Motherhood.

[Shorty] I believe you referred
to it as a blow job against

the Motherhood and three weeks
later they brought you up

on charges of misogyny.

Misogyny? They were
so wrong Shortcakes.

Never wronger.

I resent only the banality of
predictable behavior.

It would be the same
in any culture.

Mine happens to be
the Motherhood.

You did scream rather loudly

when the deputies
took you away.

I was still married then.

Dorothy backed me up too.

She was great.

[Shorty]
But, you left her.

We were becoming predictable.
No one's to blame.

You’re getting me off
topic here Shorty.

I need you to do an enviro-
physiological diagnostic on me.

I’d love to oblige but half
my wires are severed.

I can’t guarantee proper
access routing.

[typing]

[Shorty]
Confidential file.

No, no, no. Not psychological
profile…

[Shorty] Restricted access.
Command eyes only.

Stop now. Exit file.

What a minute.

[Shorty] Captain Pascal.
Psychological profile.

Testimony sources, military,
civil and personal.

First witness, Human Resources
Officer Adrian Flowers.

Era Danny Star lines.

[Adrian] I am Adrian Flowers.
Human Resources Officer

for Era Danny Star lines.

We engaged Captain Pascal
as a staff pilot.

On the first day of June 2124.

He was let go the same day.
I have nothing to add.

[Dorothy]
Pascal wasn't family inclined.

Not even from the beginning.
We never pretended that.

I wanted a child. My child.

[Pascal] That was a long
time away in space.

[Dorothy] We always told
the truth. That was our deal.

It worked.

That's the way it goes.

[Hardman] Don't judge Pascal.
We're surrounded by fanatics.

The Aliens, the Motherhood.

What? You defend
the Motherhood.

Horizon?

Horizon is repression. Silence.
Its dealers are my enemies.

But doesn’t The Motherhood
also deny freedom?

Who is our enemy Pascal?

Doesn’t The Motherhood
also offend humanity?

We’ve become prisoners
unto ourselves.

But I will create visionary
nations by shattering

two degenerate ones.

What’s your plan, sir?

The Motherhood will emerge
triumphant over alien power.

Yet...
and this is perfect.

Somewhere very near
the jaws of victory,

the Motherhood will devour
itself, dealing Horizon.

Dealing as common pus.

Like the architects of
the tower of babel.

I plan the inevitability
of destruction,

in the fabric of success.

You are slaughtering innocents
in pursuit of a great speech.

You object,
but you know I am right.

Damn it Pascal!

I have the power,
the vision.

You must stand by me.

Lay your hands,
on the reigns of destiny.

You’re the only one
who can understand.

The only one who can
share vision.

Don’t let me down.

Pascal.

[fire crackling]

[mysterious music]

Hardman wake up.

What is it?

The hiccup in the firmament

A dissonant note in the
music of the spheres.

Oh for god sakes Charlie
Vault talk English.

A call from the dead.

He is very smart. You suppose…

He defies again the odds.

He?

Not a weapon on board, yet
still he chooses to fight.

His maneuvers can’t help him.

On the contrary they cast his
ship into planetary gravity

inviting, one reasons…
certain destruction.

His ship races towards
a predictable end.

Yet he regains control
seconds before impact.

In those moments a
distress signal.

A plea for help, betrays
the Misanthrope.

Pascal!

He’s brilliant, the devil.

I taught him everything
he knows.

His distress signal tells the
story in light speed.

Doesn’t the music of the
universe ever tire your brain?

He could still be alive,
he might be.

Doesn’t matter.

It means they didn’t
recover the Horizon.

[console bleeping]

Awake Pascal, being right
isn’t substitute for affection.

All our friends said I
was such an asshole

because of what I left behind.

I do regret some things.
My son.

I don’t blame you.
It's no one's fault.

It's just that time has a
wonderful way

of shifting guilt around.

[Russian accent] Still
so bitter Pascal.

The fire...

singed their hair clean.

Revealing them to be grotesque
babes in death.

I remained resolved, doing it
because belief in the war

and the Motherhood.

Hardman later said the
difference in what side of the

war you were on was only
a matter of theater.

Easy for him,
he gets the nice costume.

Zetio.
First Officer saint.

Angel she is...

warns me that maybe Hardman
is less than he seems.

Oh no I say.

The Admiral is okay.
The Admiral will deliver us.

I tell Zetio.

What side of the war?
What side of what for?

What side of the bed? What side
your bread is buttered upon?

Horizon.

Horizon. Horizon.

In weightlessness...

the blood forms
into little spheres.

Floating little balloons.

It was a party time on board
the Corvette Hamilton.

Later I learned that even as we
fought to rid The Motherhood

of Horizon,
the under-decks of my Corvette

were fairly packed
with the damn shit.

Hey! The good Admiral had been
dealing to the enemy.

I know this sort of thing is
not unique in human history,

but its uncommonly negative
when it happens to you.

Disappointed...

I confront the good Admiral.

He says, some blah blah.

Real freedom manifests

in the dynamic rupture
between powers.

His idea... maybe.

But a moral monolith,

I messiah come lately,
owe it to my crew to find some

meaning in the decrepit tale
that was their death.

Too bad. Not a chance.

Nothing deeper hidden.

So...

so, so.

I go to Mother,
investigate this guy!

Leave the Admiral alone
everyone says.

Don’t judge. Work hard,
play hard they say.

Everything was all right
until you came along, they say.

Not his fault sings the chorus.

Who are you to throw
the first stone?

So crew died.

Don’t you wash your blame in
accusation

of a proven loyal officer.

Hey. I took them all on.

For a while.

But Admiral 'God' Hardman,
has a very long arm.

Even under investigation

every mission assigned is
destined to martyr me.

I know that Hardman
is scared now.

But...

even as he tries to kill me,
I full knowing...

miss the vengeful motherfucker.

So I get too old to care, being
antisocial was a habit by then.

But all that was years ago,

relative to where you are
on the curve of light.

[console bleeping]

I want to examine
the crash site.

It's absurd.

A battleship vulnerable during
atmospheric maneuvers.

Xaxx. You’re afraid.

No, the good Captain is right.

I’ll take the shuttle.

Xaxx might be too squeaky
clean, but you should listen.

Putrefaction. Xaxx?

She’s right. It’s a hell of a
risk taking the shuttle.

Don’t expose yourself on
the basis of a petty vendetta.

The Horizon is worth recovering
Charlie Vault.

Let’s say he is alive.
If so what then?

Will you finish him Hardman?

Let nature do it.

Let him go.

[Pascal] First rule of human
behavior Shorty.

The reason we do it all,
to keep the party going.

I mean never ever break the
illusion that it's all okay.

People hate you when you do
that. Hey up there.

It's show-time folks!

Hey honey, we’re out
of beer again.

[Russian accent] You mean,
you’re out of beer again.

[Russian accent]
I don’t even like beer.

Right. I take you into my
home, you piss on my rug.

Hey is this a party or what?

I’ve seen you Pascal, it's
self-destructive behavior.

It’s bad for you, it’s bad for
me, it’s bad for business.

You’re fucked boy, bye bye.

[Shorty]
You feel better now Pascal?

I don’t need any of you.

I don’t need your god damn
safety nets, your vulgar masks,

squeaky clean safe sex
conversations, TV Sundays,

locked the door, love nest,
cash is the answer.

Sex plus guilt is control.
Motherhood menagerie.

[Shorty] Very well Pascal.
Expunge the evil from your past,

but rejecting those who care
about you serves little purpose.

[Dorothy]
Don't need us Pascal?

Fine...

you took on the forces.
A Lord Admiral no less.

Then rage bloody minded and
get angry at all authority.

For flex the rules.

Seems I was too strong
for you then.

It seems I had the wide
shoulders then.

It seems we had friends
then, for what?

To prove all are forsaken
in the end? Right Pascal?

All dead.

Jesus Pascal.
That is pathetic.

Yeah. Jesus Pascal.

That's me the fucking messiah.

You mean give an inch Pascal,
you would have had it all.

Now it seems to give an inch.

[Dorothy] Poor Pascal.
Never accepted halfway measures.

You believed in the system and
death turned you back.

That was your ticket. Not to
believe in anything at all.

A noble choice.

High road is no road Pascal.

Pascal,
that's something you never...

That's something you
never understood.

He is making sense.

I am naked honey.

Ideals are nothing compared
to loyalty.

Right.

Ideals are always corrupted.

Loyalty has a chance.

A toast to the Motherhood...

and all the emotional disorders
stored in the family closet.

[Shorty]
Warning! Warning!

Alien vessel. Help me.
Alien attack! Alien attack!

Aliens draining my power unit.

Alien attack! Alien attack!

[distorted signal]

Shorty!

[Shorty] Pascal!

[sparks]

[engine droning]

[wind blowing]

Pascal?

I’ve come to take you home.

Hey Pascal, you got even.

You equalized it.

[Charlie]
Hardman, what are you doing?

We a plant.

[Charlie] Get what
you came for and leave.

You get it.

I warned you. Let him go.

[Hardman]
Jesus Pascal.

The curve of light speed leaves
you younger than me.

But you are the very mathematic
of decline.

The mathematical messiah.

You owe me boy.

[radio] Attention Admiral
Hardman we have observed

tactical movement
on the alien ship.

Please return to Miranda.

Right.

Die Here!

[shuttle engines]

[sad music]

[console bleeping]

In the war years
I learned how each

alien spy develops personality
and predictability,

but it takes time.

Time I don’t think
the admiral has.

Something else, you’ve noticed
repertoire between Hardman

and the Intelligence Officer.

It's not our business.

In any event nobody
wants to lay charges

in an investigation in
what took place

during a war everyone
wants to forget.

Agreed.

We don’t know that the admiral
was ever guilty of anything.

[announcer] Battleship launch
event from alien vessel.

Fighter closing
on planetary atmosphere.

[announcer] Admiral Hardman
please attend the bridge.

Shit. What do they want?

[announcer]
An alien fighter admiral.

Request clearance to fire.

Very well. I’m coming.

Shit.

Alien fighter in scanner.

Nobody wins. Lock in fire.

[alarm]

[crash]

Jackpot.

I ask ya, what are the odds?

What are the odds of something
like this happening?

[imitates snare hit]

You don’t look like you’re from
anywhere that I know of but then

I don’t know everyone
from everywhere, so…

I’ll just keep talking to
myself if you don’t mind.

You let me know if I am
making any sense okay?

Are you really here?

Or is it just my poor addled
brain out there flashing an

image of a woman who
refuses to talk to me.

Hey!

[Pascal exclaims]
Hello.

Are you an alien?

Of course you're alien. Nobody
else here fits the description.

I mean who else but an alien
would look right over someone's

head into the clouds when
someone's asking a question?

Territory. Yours and mine.
That’s just fine by me.

I met a man from your world
once, only once.

Very old, aged from the high
end of light curve,

he was preserved from the day
before your people were Alien.

We were drinking.

I come from another
world he says.

Don’t we all I say. No.
you don’t understand.

He’s looking at me with
these luminous eyes,

like he’s saying to impress
me that he means it.

They don’t talk
there, no words

Words are illegal, language
is anguish.

Fanatics Captain Pascal,
you’ve never seen fanatics.

I joke that he should
meet Hardman.

They decided he says...

that truth lies only in action.

Words subvert, twist, pervert

And because words
substitute for life lived,

they make us unreliable,
amoral, tempted by the change

we foment on the ledge
of consciousness.

He grabs my arm tight,

I was 14 years old,

on that day a whole planet
just shut up.

That’s all.

Now I wouldn’t believe
a story like that.

But then how could
I disbelieve it.

So, you see I knew your great
great granddaddy way back

when you people were human,

and bullshit artists
like the rest of us.

Good night.

Sweet dreams.

Dorothy come to bed.

[mysterious music]

[console bleeps]

[Hardman] It’s growing
stronger. I don’t know why.

[Charlie]
Because Pascal distracted you.

But they’re here for a reason.

And yet, I will destroy them.

I assure it very soon Vault.

I bought your beautiful
dream Hardman.

A man who could get his hands
dirty to build something new.

I can support that.

I appreciate it.

But here we are.
No dynamic rupture Hardman.

Are you waiting for
the right moment?

Or are you just another
illusion, another fake?

Are you perhaps, just
what you seem?

Talking dreams to justify
petty evil.

Perhaps Hardman, I should
have done my job.

Perhaps I should call
off this mission

and continue Mother's
investigation.

I would never let
you down Charlie.

Okay Hardman. Prove it.

[happy music]

[music continues]

Hey alien.

You.

[Pascal] There are two things
I like about you.

The thing I like the most
about you is

you don’t have anything to say.

Let's just say,
I was born into a circumstance

of disappointing human
reference.

Yeah, the feeling
is mutual guys.

Anyhow, where I'm from people
always have something to say.

It’s a real pain.

Some guy always unloading
his burden of intelligence.

Now personally I find burden
enough attending to

the basic chemical imperatives.

That's a real burden.

Sex is the worst one.
It makes you stupid.

Intelligence just withers
in pursuit of sex.

I’m talking men here right.

Guys just do the stupidest
things in the universe for sex.

Not women.

Women don’t do stupid
things for sex.

Women do stupid things
for relationships.

Yeah, I’m generalizing, that's
what Dorothy would say.

Anyhow. I look around
figure out what I can,

to establish the rules
for survival right?

What else can a guy hope to do?

I started to say the things
I liked about you,

there were two right?

One, two, oh yeah.

The other thing I
like about you,

I get the impression you
want to slit my throat.

Now what's nice about that is,

you never tried to pretend
that it isn’t true.

God damn a guy could learn to
like that in a person.

The thing that pisses
me off about you,

one, you’re trying
to slit my throat,

and two, I don’t know what
you’re doing here.

Wouldn’t care to fill
me in on that hey?

[laser noises]

Not again.
Not them again.

No!

No.

Animals, fucking animals!

It’s okay.

Yeah. Betrayal hurts.

[chimes clinking]

[inspiring music]

Power?

Okay Shorty. Let's take this
one step at a time.

I gave up Shorty.

Not like Hardman.

The guys a paragon of a
paradigm, he knows my

parameters so well he uses
me after he used me.

I ought to have done something
about that.

[chimes clinking]

[Shorty] Shorty,
is that your name now?

Shorty.

[Shorty]
That is my name not yours.

[Shorty chattering]

Did you feel any pain?

[Shorty] No pain…
no gain Pascal.

Self-improvement is so
very good for the spirit.

[Shorty] He’s back and
he’s better than ever!

[chattering]

[Shorty] There is
an alien female present.

Why I can see again brother.

My scanning ability
has been restored.

I am now receiving telemetry
from an indefinite range.

There is an alien
female present.

Scanning alien female.

Warning Pascal, the alien
is carrying a knife.

Take evasive action
immediately.

Evidently I have much
input to catch up on,

this encounter requires
further analysis.

Aha, both the alien battleship
and the female’s escape pod

possess the same technology.

Analysis of alien female
now available.

Physiology indicates human
origin, however

magnetic resonance scan of the
cerebral hemispheres

shows only rudimentary
development of the females

expressive speech
processing service.

The female is incapable
of oral communication.

The data suggests the female
has been habituated

to the drug Horizon since birth.

Shit.

That’s it. Eat it up you
fucking barbarian.

[evocative music]

[console bleeping]

No. No. No!

There are too many officers who
never got their hands dirty.

Too many politicians looking
to hang a military man.

[Charlie]
They can’t hang you Hardman.

You’re a fucking magician.

Only I can do that.

They’ll burn me the next time
some pathetic fuck up finds

Horizon in a coffee bag.

I’m grateful the Motherhood
sent such a visionary woman

to keep an eye on me.

[strange music]

Horizon on the
Misanthrope Shorty.

[Shorty]
Yes I know Pascal,

another victory for
the Motherhood.

Renders the art of humiliation

in rather grand strokes
doesn’t it?

[Shorty]
Pardon me?

There’s Horizon on board.

[Shorty] Which provides
a reason for her presence.

And it’s not just obsession
that keeps dragging bits of

Hardman through
my damaged brain.

I took a look at
her wreck Shorty,

she sustained enemy fire
before crashing.

[Shorty]
And what's your point?

We may be abandoned
on this rock Shortcakes...

but the local universe is more
crowded than we thought.

I will scan the upper
atmosphere for any spacecraft.

Damn.

[console bleeping]

[muttering]

[Hardman]
Captain Xaxx!

Now is the time for
the dynamic rupture.

Time to kill the enemy.

Admiral, this is not
the right choice.

It's growing stronger and
from what I can see…

This is what she saw!
It's your fault.

Your cowardice killing us but I
will not let it happen.

I will destroy the enemy, now!
There is no option for delay!

[Shorty] I have just completed
my sensor scan Pascal.

And I have discovered two space
craft in this sector.

One is the alien vessel which
attacked us and the other is

the Motherhoods flagship
the Miranda.

In monitoring their movements I
have deduced that they are

both preparing for battle.

We could be in for a smashing
fireworks display.

[Shorty]
Pascal, what are you doing?

There is only a one point two
percent chance that you will be

able to construct a vessel
capable of achieving orbit.

Pascal. Do you hear me?

Stupid.

[Pascal grunts]

[romantic music]

You don’t understand.

I’m the only man in the universe
who isn’t ruled by his balls.

On the other hand.

[alarms]

[Hardman internal] I am the
architect of the tower of babel.

I deposit the seed
of destruction that is within

the conception of success.

That’s why we are here.

[explosion]

[Shorty] Pascal telemetry from
both ships has been abruptly

terminated. My sensors detect
a large mass of debris

in orbit around the planet.

A sweep of the area
reveals no vessels

and no other life forms.

We are alone.

[Pascal]
Hey. Wait a minute.

[exciting music]

Hey. What gives now?

For a week it’s all about sex.
This way, that way every way.

Then it’s over, like
that. What did I do?

She draws lines, the crazy
drawing of lines with me

on one side or the other.
In or out. I hate it.

[Shorty]
She’s from a world of silence.

Yeah?
Well it’s my fucking planet.

[Shorty] Where
all action has its purpose.

For generations they’ve
enforced this behavior.

I doubt she would make for sex
unless she was damn sure

this was the time to
expect optimal results.

Oh no, not daddy again.

[mysterious music]

[Pascal sings]

Oh for Christ’s sake.

She’s my own daughter.

Pascal.

Pascal.

[exciting music]

[Shorty] There is only a 6,3
percent probability that this

construction can ever become a
space worthy machine.

I do remind Pascal of this
from time to time.

Even so, despite his apparent
happiness here he persists upon

the creation of an
improbable escape.

His fantasy must also have
its effect on me, because

it occurs to me that there
will be little purpose in my

committing this record if he
does not ultimately succeed.

[static noise]