Such Great Patience (2)
(seaQuest DSV - Bridge)
Bridger: Any report, Commander?
Ford: No contact with the boarding party, our sensors aren't penetrating.
Hitchcock: Captain, the launch is returning.
Ford: Thank God.
Hitchcock: SeaQuest to launch MR-5. (static over loudspeaker)
Bridger: (into speaker) Medical and security to launch bay.
(Launch Bay)
Shan: Open the hatch.
Crewman: Yes, sir.
(Shan enters the launch and finds that it is empty.)
(Bridge)
Shan: (on speaker) Shan to bridge.
Bridger: How are they, Mr. Shan?
Shan: (on speaker) They aren't sir. There's no one on the launch.
Bridger: How could that be?
Ford: Computer says the launch was not on autopilot, it was driven back.
Hitchcock: Captain, I'm showing someone inside our reactor.
Ford: Engine room.
Crewman: (on speaker) Engine room here, sir.
Ford: Who's in the reactor?
Crewman: (on speaker) Inside? No one, sir.
Ortiz: I've got the same thing over here. Someone breached weapons bay for a second. Not really an image, more like an echo of one.
Hitchcock: I've got him now in propulsion.
Ortiz: Telemetry guidance.
Bridger: Stem to stern, there's more than one. Your plans ready? (Ford nods) Let's do it.
Ford: Mr. Shan, engine room, code four.
Bridger: What about the signal?
Ortiz: I've broken it down into fragments. It's totally random.
Lucas: I've zeroed in on the wavelength. It registers in an area of Darwin's brain we never thought had to do with speech.
Bridger: Can he read it?
Lucas: Maybe, I have to filter it.
Bridger: Let's put you in your room. (to Ford) Put a guard on him. (to Hitchcock) Seal down the bridge.
(Alien Ship)
Krieg: These auxiliary lights aren't working either.
Keller: Tether up. Let's go.
(seaQuest DSV - Hallway)
Ford: Lost contact with sixteen crew members. We have confirmed sightings.
Westphalen: What does it look like?
Ford: Like "Oh my God, no." That's all our people have time to say.
Bridger: Crew quarters, galley, gym, he's looking us over.
Shan: For what?
Bridger: I haven't the foggiest.
Ford: Maintenance and engineering. (they turn around to go)
Bridger: All right, let's set up a check point right here.
Ford: Med bay.
Shan: Nothing can move that fast.
(Med Bay)
Westphalen: (looking around) Where are all my people?
Ford: The report said it was here.
(There is a scream outside in the hall)
(Hallway)
(As they enter the hallway they spot the alien. A female crewman is frozen with fear and Bridger moves her out of the way. Two guards run up behind the alien.)
Bridger: (to guards) Don't shoot.
(The alien points it's weapon at the two seamen and they disappear.)
Bridger: We, we won't hurt you.
Westphalen: Nathan, it doesn't register. My scan shows nothing in front of us.
Bridger: Why are you here? (the alien doesn't respond) We are friendly. (the alien sees Darwin and walks through the wall to get to him, leaving sand on the wall)
Westphalen: Nathan, that's sand.
Bridger: (touches it) It's hot.
(Alien Ship)
O'Neill: Uh, Commander, are you sure this is the right way?
Keller: It's the only way, Lieutenant.
Krieg: Reminds me of a science fiction story I read when I was a kid. These explorers found a downed space ship, just like we did, only after they went inside, it took off. Ship hadn't crashed at all.
O'Neill: What happened to the people?
Krieg: They were dissected, eaten.
O'Neill: They were. Oh, I get it, har har. Har har de ahhh. (falls down hole)
Krieg: Tim! (they finally stop his falling)
Keller: (to Krieg) You OK?
Krieg: Uh huh. (yells down hole) Tim, you all right?
O'Neill: (hanging at bottom of hole) Not really.
Keller: Hang on, we're gonna pull you up.
O'Neill: (looks up and sees the alien) No, I think you better come down here.
(seaQuest DSV - Bridger's Room)
Professor Martinson: This new life form is fascinating. There doesn't appear to be an interacting intelligence of freedom of will.
Bridger: Meaning what?
Professor Martinson: Though fluid, its motion is also rhythmical. It was earlier hypothesized that Mr. Ortiz's impending implosion was part of the ship's self destruct mechanism.
Bridger: Could he be part of that system?
Professor Martinson: Possibly.
Ford: It's a robot?
Professor Martinson: I would say more a hologram, a projection, like myself. I call attention to your earlier encounter with the alien. Notice the sand residue when it passes through the bulkhead.
Westphalen: Could this be silicon magnetics?
Professor Martinson: Unproven, though that would be an answer.
Westphalen: Such as our magnets attract iron, their's could attract free floating molecules of silicon which pull together into the shape we see.
Bridger: So while his magnetic field can go through that wall, the material he attracts can't.
Ford: That would explain why it scans like an echo. It's not really there.
Bridger: Can we stop him?
Professor Martinson: I'm afraid with our technology that might prove impossible in the time left.
Bridger: Than we have to talk to him.
(Alien Ship)
(Keller, Krieg, and O'Neill enter a large chamber where the alien signal can be heard. It's very loud.)
Keller: Look at this.
Krieg: Your headache back?
O'Neill: Yeah.
Keller: Mine too.
Krieg: This looks like the source of their power. How can their signal still be broadcasting after a million years?
Keller: I don't think a million years means too much to them, Lieutenant.
(seaQuest DSV - Lucas's Room)
Darwin: Help seaQuest.
Lucas: Yes, thank you. (alien enters the room) Very cool. (the alien looks at Lucas's computer that is playing the alien signal) That's your signal to us, do you recognize it? Try to figure out what it means.
Darwin: Rock, water, fire, cloud, center, unit.
Lucas: (as the alien turns to Darwin) That's Darwin. He's a dolphin.
Bridger: (opening door) Lucas. (pulls Wolenczak to him, the alien makes Shan disappear)
(Sea Deck) Westphalen: (they run into the room) Breathe, breathe.
Lucas: Chief Shan.
Bridger: (the lights go off) What the hell is that? (goes to speaker by the door) Bridge?
Hitchcock: (on bridge) Propulsion, guidance systems, and life support have been shut down in sequence. We're dead in the water.
Bridger: Can you float us?
Hitchcock: (on bridge) Negative, ballast control's gone.
Bridger: Great.
(Bridge - outside)
Lucas: I sped the signal up to the highest frequency we can manufacture. It's still not making any sense.
Bridger: Maybe it's the wrong direction. Slow it down, it might make a difference.
Lucas: Why?
Bridger: A million years ago, human beings weren't anything more than glorified apes. They weren't even in this part of the world. The most intelligent creatures, brain weight to body size…
Lucas: Dolphins.
Bridger: Yes.
Lucas: That's who the alien wants to talk to.
(The clam doors open and a dozen guns are pointed at them.)
Ortiz: Hold it!
Bridger: Lucas, get on it. (into vo-chorder) Darwin, come to the bridge, come to the bridge.
(Lucas sits down and slows down the signal, immediately a dolphin's clicks and whistles come over the loudspeaker.)
Westphalen: Good heavens.
Lucas: This is very humbling. They're not here for us.
Bridger: Do you understand this?
Darwin: Math, distance from rock water planet to fire star equals one unit.
Westphalen: The Earth's distance from the sun is one unit. They're establishing a mathematical equation.
Darwin: Distance from fire star to center of fire star cloud is one nine, then eight zeros.
Ford: The distance from our sun to the center of the galaxy is one billion nine hundred thousand times that.
Lucas: Yeah, that's right, that's an astronomical unit.
Darwin: Send message of cooperation, we will come again. There are numbers now, many numbers.
Bridger: Coordinates, they want an invitation to return.
Ford: (looks up and sees alien) Captain.
(The alien has it's weapon pointed at them.)
Westphalen: It's trying to protect Darwin.
Bridger: Tell him we're your friends. Tell him we understand his message, that's why we're all here.
(Darwin does so, the alien smiles then disappears and lights come back on.)
Westphalen: Extraordinary.
(Alien Ship)
Bridger: (on speaker) Scott, do you read me?
Keller: Nathan, you won't believe what's happened.
Bridger: (on seaQuest) I'll match you story for story, but right now you've got about fifteen minutes to get out of there. We're sending another launch.
Keller: I hear ya, hang on. (the group enters a room)
Krieg: It's the cockpit, Commander.
Keller: Oh dear God, give me insight, let me understand what I'm looking at before they destroy it.
O'Neill: (from around the corner) Commander Keller, I think you should take a look at this. (Keller and Krieg join him and see a dead alien) The Lord works in strange and mysterious ways.
Krieg: Commander, it's time to go.
(seaQuest DSV - Bridge)
Ortiz: Sir, that's Commander Keller, Krieg, and O'Neill heading back. I think you better take a look at that. (shows them another group of blinking dots)
Bridger: Are those life forms?
Ortiz: That's what I thought, but I wanted another opinion.
Ford: Well you got it, Mr. Ortiz. Pinpoint that location.
Ortiz: Aye, sir.
Bridger: Scott, we've got thirty-one signs of life about eighty yards from your position.
Keller: (on speaker) Extraterrestrial?
Bridger: That's the exact number of crew unaccounted for, including Crocker.
Keller: (on speaker, to group) Let's go get 'em.
Ortiz: Wait a minute, Commander. Something's going on here, they're disappearing off the alien ship. They're gone, sir.
(Sea Deck, by the moon pool)
(A crewman is walking by and suddenly all 31 missing crew members appear in the moon pool. The crewman goes over to the speaker by the wall.)
Crewman: Bridge.
(Alien Ship)
Keller: Come on, guys, stick to the center.
(Launch)
O'Neill: We're there, Captain, we made it back to the launch.
(seaQuest DSV - Bridge)
Hitchcock: Launch is safe in port, sir.
Ford: Engage, full speed reverse. (ship disappears off screen) It just dissolved.
(Ward Room)
Bridger: This meeting has not taken place. If anyone has a problem with that, please leave now. (no one leaves) We feel that these aliens want to have peaceful and intelligent encounters.
Ford: Why do I get the feeling you're talking to me?
Bridger: I'm talking to everyone, everyone who's wearing a uniform.
Keller: Look, we think that it's best if they do come again, that they be greeted with understanding, in their words cooperation.
Westphalen: In other words, by us.
Lucas: We're not gonna tell the military guys at UEO what happened.
(Everyone looks stunned.)
Crocker: That means we're gonna have to alter the data discs.
O'Neill: We're gonna withhold the location of the alien's galaxy?
Shan: If the UEO doesn't send an invitation, how will the aliens know to come?
Krieg: We send it, ourselves.
Hitchcock: That's why you had us align the WSKRS in a stacked array.
Ortiz: That would allow for a pinpoint transmission of a microwave signal at maximum power.
Keller: This is galaxy M100. It's a bright light behind the Cook nebula, here. Now they came from the end of this arm, here, circling a red giant star forty million light years from us. But the romantic in me hopes they're set up to receive our signal in less time.
Ford: What would this message say?
Bridger: Lucas?
Lucas: In the spirit of cooperation and knowledge, the residents of our planet welcome and invite you. Darwin has translated it.
Westphalen: With seaQuest as the return address.
Bridger: All in favor. (all raise their hand) Permission to transmit granted.
Lucas: Commander. (pushes the seaPoc to Keller)
Keller: You figured it out, Nathan. You send the message. (pushes the seaPoc to Bridger)
Bridger: You have shown such great patience, now, hurry.
(He presses the button that sends the message.)