Better Living Through Morganite, part I

An Earth 2 Episode Summary
by Ariadne[April 17, 1995]

Teaser: Night. Adair leaves the dome and props up a fallen awning. Underneath, Morgan is asleep on guard duty. In narration, he says that it is night 66 on the planet, and the nights keep getting longer. Their new winter camp kept out the snow, but not the cold, or the dark, or the voices they heard in their sleep.

Adair enters the dome. Hearing voices, she goes toward them. They are coming from holographic images from Yale's hologrip; he is having a nightmare. She turns it off, and the nightmares stop. Morgan comes up behind her. Adair leaves for another part of the dome, and he follows. In narration, he says that night, of course, is when ghosts come out. He never knew what Yale's ghosts were, but he knew they couldn't be ignored anymore.

Talking to Adair, Morgan compares Yale to that big elephant in the middle of the room that nobody wants to talk about. But you've got to talk about him sooner or later because he's going to sit on you and break your head. Does she know what really bothers him? It's that it's her elephant, and it's his head. Adair asks if Yale has harmed anyone or even said a cross word. Morgan replies that it is only a matter of time. They recalled those mind washed criminals for a reason: to dismantle them before they dismantled everyone else. No one knows anything about Yale, not her, not them, not even the cyborg. She doesn't like his calling Yale a cyborg; he is a human being with peripheral enhancements. Morgan answers with a definition she can't dispute; the man is a ticking time bomb. Sleep well, Devon; he won't.

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Act I: Lightening appears in the night sky. Morgan, still on guard duty, sees it, then notices his coffee cup shaking. He attributes this to his shaking hands, then is scared by another lightening bolt. The ground starts shaking violently. Everyone starts yelling and running from their tents. Danziger pulls True from the transrover, where she had been sleeping. Alonzo crawls out of a tent, frantically dressing and yelling to Julia to get out. She runs out through another door.

The earthquake stops abruptly. Everyone is alright. They are standing around in small clusters; Julia and Alonzo deliberately stand far apart from each other.

Magus asks Danziger if he saw the lightening bolt that landed behind the hill just before the shaking started. They decide to check it out. As they leave, Danziger tells Alonzo that he left his shoes in Julia's tent. Alonzo shuffles his stocking feet and looks caught out.

Bess calms Morgan. He says space stations move; planets don't. It was the one thing he liked about this place.

In the dome, Adair checks on Yale. He says they must leave the camp immediately; he has a terrible feeling about this place. She asks about his nightmares; is anything bothering him?. He insists he is fine.

Magus and Danziger check the area where the lightening bolt stuck. They find a warm cave and they enter, Magus rather reluctantly. Inside, they find a hot, glowing rock.

The next morning, Julia checks out the rock with her arm scanner; it is not radioactive or toxic. It stores and releases energy and seems to be an ideal power source. Danziger and Adair hope to use it to supplement the generators. Yale is annoyed by a high frequency vibration emanating from it; only he can hear it. Morgan asks how much is down there. Danziger wants to use it to run the vehicles. Yale cannot believe they wish to embrace a completely unknown substance; he angrily leaves the dome. The group looks uncomfortable, then Adair asks that Julia confirm her tests and that Danziger collect more rocks. What should they call it?

As Morgan and Bess enter their tent, he tells her they will call it Morganite. They will stake a claim and bring a crew from home to mine it. Bess tries to temper his enthusiasm. They bring out the geo-lock they brought with them; it is used to stake mining claims. The geo-lock is leaking, so they plan to check it out.

They take it to a remote area and remove one of the four rods. Bess places it in the ground and starts to set it up. She wishes Morgan had cracked the abort code. A Koba is watching them, and Morgan flicks his scarf at "the vicious little rodent thing." Bess sets the geo-lock for a 5 meter range, but Morgan says 10 meters - he hopes to get the "rat." They initiate the geo-lock and run to a safe distance. The geo-lock sends out a zone of petrification; all within it is blackened. It still works.

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Act II: Julia watches Yale chop wood. He tells her that she was right; physical exertion does combat the aggression. The tests she ran on him were inconclusive. He says that cyborg science has never fully understood how body and machine interface. He worries about what he thought he heard from the rock. She tells him that the biological scans she ran on the rock indicated an impulse similar to that of a nervous synapse. She thinks he might be overreacting to his emotional state and suggests he investigate his memories. He refuses. She tells him to see her if any other symptoms develop.

Morgan watches Zero hand Danziger the rock he has collected and tells Bess that he feels like every rock they take comes out of him. She says if there is that little rock that 2 or 3 crates make a dent in the supply, it isn't worth fighting over.

Zero tells Danziger there is more rock embedded in the tunnel walls. Danziger warns him not to let it touch anything; it is hot enough to melt Mylar. Zero, who is 12% Mylar, asks if it will melt him. Danziger replies he should be so lucky.

Adair asks Danziger if she can speak to him in private, and they go into the dome. She tentatively starts to talk, but he interrupts; she is worried about Yale, as they all are. The crew can see he is slipping. She is annoyed, then tells him of how, when the Yales started breaking down, her parents brought him in to be examined. They were told there was no hope; he would break down like the rest. Her parents wanted to get rid of him, but she wouldn't let them. She convinced them he was different somehow, that if they cared for him enough, he would stay balanced. For a while it seemed she was right. Now she worries that she was naive. Danziger hopes Yale remains stable and that Adair will be the first to recognize the warning signs. Most mind-modified cyborgs have a design flaw - a self-preservation program that denies the occurrence of glitches. If he starts lying to her, it will indicate a serious turn for the worse. If there is a turn for the worse, Adair will not do what they did on the stations; she will not line Yale up and shoot him down like a rabid animal. Danziger says that the Yales that weren't caught in time became rabid animals. Adair says she knows Yale, and it will not happen. Danziger says they all care about Yale; he is one of their family now. She must trust them to treat him with the dignity he deserves, just like they trust her to warn them if their safety is at stake.

Morgan and Bess approach the tunnel. He asks why they should bother with the survey. When she asks why he's standing so far away, he says it's his legs - they're frozen; he thinks they're frightened. He doesn't want to go down there with her; he hates little places like that, he hates the dark. He will stay up there and make a business plan.

Bess enters the tunnel and explores it. She finds a vein of the mineral in the wall and chips some off. As she explores further, she runs into Danziger. She blathers that she's collecting rocks; her father was a miner back on Earth and taught her a lot about rocks and mining. Not that she's mining Morganite. Morganite? She tells him she and Morgan have staked a claim, and that he and True could make their own, elsewhere.

They hear voices and go to check them out. It is two Terrians setting up three staffs in the middle of a circle of rocks. A lightening bolt strikes in the cavern, and it quakes. When it is over, the rocks glow.

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Act III: Bess and Danziger tell the group about what they saw; the Terrians were trying to attract lightening or make earthquakes, and the quake revealed more veins. Julia has been studying the rocks; they resemble the Terrians. She suggests that the Terrians and the planet are one species; the veins may be nerves, or circulation, or intelligence, or their communication network. Bess says it was like the Terrians were trying to talk to the planet; they have to return all those rocks. Danziger protests that the rocks are their best chance of surviving the winter. Alonzo says the Terrians haven't complained about their using the rocks; he has had no dreams. Morgan agrees with Bess that they should take no more rocks. Adair suggests they keep the rocks they have, but not take any more until they get more answers. As they leave the dome, Morgan whispers to Bess that she was brilliant.

Morgan is shocked to find out that Bess wasn't acting; she doesn't think it's right to take something from the Terrians that they might need. He reminds her that since they got to this hellish planet, he has been tied up, shot at, poisoned and pronounced dead; he is not going to go home with nothing but a few good anecdotes. The first law of pioneering is "to the survivors, go the spoils." She says that when the opportunity is right, they will get their spoils. He used to think that way, too. He spent 5 years on level 4 doing the work of guys who got promoted over him. That was because he was the sucker who waited for his big chance, while the smart guys were making their chances happen. This is their big chance. They came out here to be a part of something big. Why is she backing out for the sake of some dirt people? She says it isn't right. He asks if she's ever heard of loyalty, of sticking together through thick and thin. She angrily leaves. He says, Fine, he will stake his own claim.

Adair is working in the dome loft when Danziger, Baines, Walman, Magus, and Alonzo enter the dome. They think they are alone. Danziger says whatever they decide, keep it to themselves; he doesn't want Adair to get riled up. Baines asks what they are going to do about Yale. Alonzo reminds them that they don't know for sure he is going to lose it. Magus says almost all the ex-convicts inducted into the Yale program had mindwash failure; most went years ago. Danziger says they all hope Yale remains intact, but on the chance he doesn't, the safety of the group is more important than any feeling they have for him. He's talked to Adair; it's hard for her - it's hard enough for them. They decide to take turns keeping a 24 hr armed watch on Yale.

Yale is giving an uninterested Uly a lesson on the differences between them and the Pilgrims. When Uly starts playing with a piece of equipment, Yale yells at him, shaking him. Yale leaves the tent. Adair reassures Uly, then goes to talk to Yale.

Adair asks Yale what just happened. He doesn't know; he cares for her and Uly more than anyone. She says he can fight this. He answers that he is a Yale series tutor, an artificially rehabilitated criminal, like all the others; their fate is his fate. She says that's not true. He says the man buried deep within him never went away, and the line between them wears thinner everyday. She says that whoever he once was is just a memory. She knows him; he is a good man. He talks of the nightmares, the faces, the pain and the suffering he caused. She cannot help him! She was always a stubborn little girl, and she is still stubborn. She cannot help! He leaves. She is in anguish.

Yale leaves camp and leans against a tree. He sees images of him and another man rounding up an unarmed group of radical biologists and shooting his weapon. He angrily beats his robotic arm against the tree, damaging it.

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Act IV: Night. Bess enters their tent and leaves a note for what she thinks is a sleeping Morgan. Actually, it's a roll of bedding under the blanket.

Morgan sets up the geo-lock for a 1 km zone size; he _thinks_ the camp is further away than 1 km. The zone is set to start in 20 minutes.

In the dome, Magus tells Adair they cannot find Yale. Uly brings her Yale's gear; he has left her a note. Yale says he's a danger to the group, not because of what he was, but because of what he finds himself becoming. He has to say goodbye.

Yale enters the tunnels and hides from Bess, who is down there as well, surveying.

Morgan returns to the tent and finds Bess' note telling him that she is surveying in the tunnels. Morgan panics, remembering the geo-lock, and goes running back.

Morgan searches the tunnels for Bess. He calls for her, saying they've got six minutes.

Danziger shows Adair the thing he found while searching for Yale. She identifies it as a geo-lock, a chemical claim-staker; it petrifies the earth so no one without a key compound can penetrate it. He remembers the Morganite and says the Martins must be trying to stake a claim. Adair is outraged. When they see they zone is set for 1 km, they run back to camp, calling on gear to warn the others.

Morgan is frantically searching for Bess; they have 3 minutes to live. Yale finds Bess as they see Terrians set up another reaction. The lightening bolt and earthquake start again.

The group at the camp flees the earthquake and impending geo-lock zone.

The quake shakes Morgan to the feet of two Terrians. Bess hears his cries for help and goes to find him.

The geo-lock goes off. The group watches the zone approach the camp.

Bess and Yale find Morgan. She recognizes the sound of the geo-lock, and they try to flee away from it. Yale says the earth is dying. The zone stops before it reaches them, but not before it freezes a Terrian into the wall. The other Terrians investigate. Morgan, in narration, says at that moment he understood what Bess was trying to tell him from the start; opportunity comes at a cost.

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Last modified (HoTMetaL): Wed Apr 19 12:42:43 1995 by ftmexpat@best.com using HTML3.0 & Netscape Extensions formatting to the authors text.

Better Living Through Morganite, part I

An Earth 2 Episode Summary by Ariadne[April 17, 1995]

CONTENTS:

An Earth 2 Episode Summary
by Ariadne[April 17, 1995]