Treasure of the Mind
(Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt)
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Deck)
Scientist: Careful, that's it, keep it level. You, grab the starboard side. All right, two people can pass off. That's it, grab on, easy now.
(Westphalen is looking at artifacts retrieved from the bottom of the sea.)
Westphalen: This is completely remarkable.
Bridger: What do you say we find out what's really down there?
(Sea Crab)
Ford: Just swinging into position, Captain. This hose is a lot heavier than it looks. I need a few more minutes before we start blowing away the sand.
Bridger: (over radio) Just keep me informed.
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Deck)
Bridger: Mr. Hassan.
Rafik Hassan: Yes.
Bridger: What do you think?
Hassan: Well, this is fifth century BC Phoenician, the inscription could be Punic. Now that glass perfume jar looks first century AD Roman. And here we have -
Bridger: Clay tablet.
Hassan: Yes, just like Moses and the Ten Commandments, only these are probably Sumerian, they were the first to write in cuneiform. (Bridger picks up an artifact) Remarkable, isn't it? A menorah from ancient Judea. And here, thousands of years before Christianity, Isis, a goddess who promised an afterlife richer than this one.
Bridger: She was the patron of sailors, too.
Hassan: Leave it to a sailor to know that. However, all these cross too many centuries, too many cultures.
Westphalen: Mm hmm, yes, it's too unlikely that these are just the spilled guts of an ancient trading ship.
Bridger: Either of you care to take a guess?
Ford: (over loudspeaker) In position, Captain.
Bridger: (walks over to comlink) Bridge?
Katie Hitchcock: (on bridge) We're good to go, sir.
Bridger: OK, let's see how this contraption of yours works. (looking at screen) Commander Ford?
Ford: (in sea crab, ecstatically) Yee ha!
Bridger: Yee ha?
Ford: (in sea crab, excitedly) Give me more, Katie, give me more.
Hitchcock: (on bridge) OK.
Bridger: Commander, switch to your WSKRS view.
(All of their mouths drop open as they look at what is revealed as the sand is blown away.)
Westphalen: (amazed) My God, it's … but, but this was presumed to have been completely destroyed.
Bridger: Is that what we think it is?
Hassan: It's the soul of my ancestors, singing out across the centuries. This is the Great Library of Alexandria.
(Ward Room)
Hassan: The Great Library was actually a series of structures, each with a specialized function.
Westphalen: It appears that this was their receiving facility, their customs office if you will. Even antiquity had its red tape.
Hassan: In forty-seven BC, while Cleopatra ruled the Nile, Julius Caesar, mad with conquest, besieged our city, and set fire to the Library. But it was rebuilt and flourished for another two hundred years. Then, in one hundred fifty-one AD a gigantic earthquake shook the area.
Ford: And you think an earthquake could put an entire building thirty feet beneath the sea, totally intact?
Westphalen: Mm hmm. Liquefaction, a cataclysmic event can momentarily turn sand into quicksand.
Bridger: And nothing we've recovered carbon-dates beyond that time?
Hassan: Though the main library was actually intact for another century and a half until it was destroyed by my own people in a civil war, this time capsule has been patiently awaiting for our arrival.
Westphalen: And when word gets out, Egyptologists will descend from all over the globe.
Bridger: They're all ready here, claiming artifacts for their own museums.
Ford: Ships from Italy, Greece, Syria arrived this morning, with at least seven other nations on their way.
Westphalen: How did they find out so fast?
Bridger: Well, we're, uh, looking into that.
Hassan: Captain, think of the great excavations of our time. Pompeii, Chichen Itza, the great buildings at Baalbek; each deals with one era, one civilization. They are but slices of history.
Bridger: Your point, Doctor?
Hassan: This discovery encompasses history. Use your ship to preserve it, chase away the looting hordes, please.
Bridger: But it's your government that's given these ships passage.
Hassan: Politicians would carve this treasure for so many hungry mouths. These are the children of artists, of poets, don't orphan them again.
Bridger: Put Stingers and speeders on twenty-four hour alert. No unauthorized visiting.
O'Neill: (over loudspeaker) Captain, Admiral Noyce on the line.
Bridger: May I take this in private, please?
Hassan: (to Westphalen as they leave) And you thought I would bore him.
Westphalen: He was just being polite.
Noyce: (on screen) How are things in the eye of the hurricane, Nathan?
Bridger: Well, we still can't find the leak, Bill, and I don't know how the information's getting off the boat.
Noyce: (on screen) There isn't a confederation out there that didn't know seaQuest was going to Alexandria. You might as well issue orders by press conference.
Bridger: We've screened everybody aboard the seaQuest twice.
Noyce: (on screen) All right, we'll run another check at headquarters. In the meantime, Egypt has agreed to host a conference on the Library. You're to remain immediately.
Bridger: I know more about dentistry than I know about mediation.
Noyce: (on screen) I'm sending a specialized negotiations team.
Bridger: Good, who are they?
Noyce: (on screen) Gifted assets, trust their judgment.
Bridger: So what does that mean?
Noyce: (on screen) You're not gonna like it, Nathan, but believe me, they've, uh, proven their worth, many times over.
Bridger: So who are they?
Noyce: (on screen) Parapsychologists, ESP.
Bridger: Oh.
(Launch Bay)
Ensign: Mmmm. (pounding head)
Crocker: Seaman, what are you doing?
Ensign: Um, I don't want my mind read, sir.
Crocker: I don't think you've got a thing to worry about. Now why don't you get back to work on your duties, huh? Right now. (Ensign walks off, another crewman walks by humming) Hey. (follows crewman)
(Lucas's Room)
(Lucas is dreaming of swimming with Hitchcock. He wakes up and sits up in bed.)
Lucas: Oh wow.
(Launch Bay)
Crocker: Mr. Rossovich, (shakes hands) nice to have you aboard, Chief Crocker. Miss Rossovich, (shakes hands) my pleasure.
Louis Jacobi: Hey, stop pushing. (appears by stairs leading to launch)
Crocker: Are you all right, sir?
Louis: I'm just taking a break is all. (looks at Rossovich) And I'm happy with my weight so get off my back will you.
Dimitri Rossovich: Did I say anything, Louis?
Louis: You didn't have to.
Crocker: Can I give you a hand, sir?
Louis: You read my mind.
(Hallway)
Crocker: SeaQuest is over a thousand feet long, we support a complement of around two hundred twenty crew members, course that could be doubled if -
Savannah Rossovich: Papa, look.
Crocker: Yes, mam, that's Darwin.
Dimitri: The talking dolphin, we've been fully briefed before boarding, Chief. I know many classified secrets.
Crocker: Oh, of course, sir. Why don't we cut through here on our way to the, uh -
Louis: The ward room? (looks up)
Crocker: (looks up as well) Yes, the, uh, ward room. This way.
(Gym)
Crocker: (entering) Now, while you're on board, Captain Bridger wants you to have total access to all of our facilities. This of course is our gym, and through this door here is the officers' mess where you'll have full privileges also. (exits)
(Savannah stops to look at Lucas who is watching Hitchcock workout. Hitchcock is wearing a walkman.)
Savannah: (to Lucas) Naked Hitchcock?
(Bridge)
Hitchcock: (operating the HR Probe) Tell me I'm seeing this. Look at these columns, everything is so well preserved.
Bridger: What's that over there?
Hitchcock: (operating the HR Probe) What? Where?
Ford: I think I saw it too. Here, back up a little.
Hitchcock: (operating the HR Probe) It's a crack in the wall.
Ford: What is that?
Hitchcock: (operating the HR Probe) Air.
Bridger: The dome's formed an air pocket. It's possible the room upstairs is preserved.
Hitchcock: (operating the HR Probe) I can't get a clear image, my lenses are only designed to see through water.
Ford: Sir, request permission to … un-unless of course you prefer to be the first one over there.
Bridger: That's exactly what I'd like, but I have to go greet our friends from the UEO. Why don't you take Doctor Westphalen and follow archaeological procedures, and treat this as a wreck dive for safety purposes.
Ford: Aye, sir. Thank you, sir.
Bridger: Nice to see the boy so excited about exploration.
O'Neill: Captain, a Lebanese warship has just arrived claiming all Phoenician artifacts. It's like a parking lot up there.
Bridger: Do the best you can, Lieutenant.
O'Neill: (into radio) This is a no anchorage zone. Please stay in formation to the ship in front of you. seaQuest out.
(Ward Room)
Bridger: Well, everyone's blindly staking claims to archaeological treasure based on archaic ties. Greece wants everything that's Macedonian; Tunisia wants what's Carthaginian; Algeria, Numidian.
Dimitri: Excuse me, Captain, we are not here for a history lesson.
Savannah: Papa.
Dimitri: I need to know the policies.
Bridger: These are the policies. And you've been around long enough to know that national pride is not an ingredient in compromise. That's why I accepted your help.
Dimitri: I was not under the impression that you had a choice.
Bridger: Do I look like a man who doesn't have choices? You are aware that your presence causes uneasiness.
Dimitri: We are not a parlor act, Captain, our discipline takes too much effort to waste.
Louis: And even then it's pot luck.
Bridger: Is there anything special that I can do to make your people comfortable?
Dimitri: A quiet place to prepare, we've been traveling since yesterday morning.
Bridger: Chief Crocker will show you to your quarters. (all get up to leave)
Dimitri: Savannah.
Savannah: I'll be right along, papa.
Dimitri: This is where she apologizes for her father's behavior.
Crocker: Gentlemen, this way. (all leave except Savannah and Bridger)
Savannah: I would say he's usually not this rude, but I'd be lying.
Bridger: I'll try and cut him some slack. I suppose you still encounter some fear around your special abilities.
Savannah: Some people think we're going to steal their minds. Usually we don't say anything at all about the psi factor - that's our word for ESP.
Bridger: Anything beyond the five senses?
Savannah: Do we make you nervous Captain? I can't tell.
Bridger: I don't get nervous any more.
Savannah: Do you believe in what we do?
Bridger: I'm not sure what you do.
Savannah: Well, won't you be surprised. (walks away)
(Library of Alexandria)
Ford: The air is stale, but breathable.
Westphalen: After two millennia.
Ford: Well, we could pump fresh oxygen in.
Westphalen: Slowly, everything could deteriorate if we don't stabilize the humidity.
Ford: What's in all these pots?
Westphalen: Books, that's how they stored their scrolls for transport.
Ford: (laughs) I've never discovered anything before.
Westphalen: Well you've certainly started at the top, Commander.
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Deck, near the moon pool)
Ford: Be careful with it.
Bridger: I think I'm on the verge of losing my executive officer.
Westphalen: (swimming toward Bridger) You gave him to me.
Bridger: As a loan, not as a gift.
Westphalen: Well that's a pity, the brainwash is almost complete, he's forgotten he's in the military, he thinks he's Jacques Cousteau.
Ford: Captain, look at this, a two thousand year old library book.
Hassan: I suspect we'll find a papyrus scroll inside written with vegetable dye ink. It could be anything from the Bible to a treatise by Aristotle.
Bridger: I think it's important that some of these go to the conference.
Ford: Don't they have to be treated or something first?
Westphalen: Well, anything that's been in sea water needs to be desalinated, but these things were taken from the dome. They were never wet, and they are fragile, but they could travel.
Bridger: Why don't we prepare a sample of what we have?
Westphalen: Right. (swims off with others leaving Bridger alone)
Bridger: (Darwin swims over, Bridger looks up to see Savannah) Miss Rossovich, have you met Ensign Darwin?
Savannah: Not officially. And it's Savannah.
Bridger: Savannah, like Georgia.
Savannah: (walking over to moon pool) My father was born in Soviet Georgia, he likes the symmetry. Well, hello, Darwin.
Darwin: Melon lady.
Savannah: Would that be cantaloupe or honeydew?
Bridger: Melon is what we call this part of a dolphin's head. It's a very sensitive transmitting station. You and he just made a connection.
Savannah: Can I ask you a question?
Bridger: Sure.
Savannah: Did you call him down here?
Bridger: No, he comes when he wants to.
Savannah: Well, I couldn't help but notice, it seems like you were expecting him.
Bridger: Well, he always finds me when I'm in the water. He either hears me or picks me up on his sonar.
Savannah: Can't you just ask him?
Bridger: Well, uh, thought processes are a little different. The words are there but sometimes the meaning is elusive.
Darwin: Bridger rub.
Bridger: (laughs) And sometimes it isn't.
Lucas: (coming over) Hey, Darwin, wanna go for a swim outside?
Bridger: Exploring, alone?
Lucas: Well, yeah, I, … (leans over to Bridger) I thought maybe I could catch a ride with an excavation detail, you know, kinda go under their supervision.
Bridger: Asking permission would be a good idea, you may be surprised to get what you want.
Lucas: May I go to the library, please.
Bridger: Yeah.
Lucas: Thank you. (leaves)
Bridger: What can we expect from your team at the conference today?
Savannah: Well, we're not mind readers, we have extrasensory perception. It's like really good intuition. We offer insight and feelings, sometimes best guesses, but you'll be surprised how often we're right.
Bridger: What happens when you're wrong?
(Secure Compound, Alexandria, Egypt, Conference)
Bridger: Ladies and gentlemen, please. Thank you. The purpose of negotiation is to discuss what's fair for everyone.
Libyan: Then return my forefather's possessions.
Bridger: Mr. Kaakos, I promise you, that no one will leave here empty handed.
Libyan: Don't offer me tokens when Egypt has a major tourist attraction on her soil.
Hassan: We've already said we'll split the profits. Please, don't make this about money.
Tunisian: It is about imperialism, how Egypt has wrecked our precious culture of its art.
Hassan: Read your history, it was the Romans that homogenized the region.
Italian: That's ancient, let's focus on today.
Libyan: Oh, there's a good idea. (all start talking at once)
Bridger: (turns to his group) If we can't get a consensus from the moderates, we may as well go home now.
Savannah: The Italians are only interested in scientific access.
Dimitri: All I get from the Algerian is a sense of traveling over and over.
Westphalen: Traveling collections? It's how museums spread their wealth.
Bridger: Something bothering you, Louis?
Louis: Is anyone else hot? The Moroccan, he just got married. He'll agree to anything as long as he gets to go home.
Bridger: Whenever you're finished. (all quiet down) Thank you. Let's try to keep this informal, but progressive.
Libyan: What business does UEO have here anyway? The books in that library come from our forefathers' hands, our ancestors.
Bridger: This is a heritage that can be passed on to the whole planet.
Libyan: And what about Libya's heritage, how do we pass on that which is in Egypt's hands?
Bridger: Nothing is going to be confiscated. Qualified scholars from all nations will be accredited to the site.
Italian: I'll second that.
Bridger: We should also try to reach a consensus about traveling museum collections.
Savannah: Greeks know most of what's found will be theirs, they demand restitution.
Dimitri: Same with the Israelis.
Bridger: We should also be open to the possibility of paying for artifacts left on display. (to Dimitri) You've got me feeling a little omnipotent.
Dimitri: Caution, we are not infallible.
Bridger: Any word on the Tunisian?
Dimitri: Blind hatred; if he can't have the Library for himself, he's rather see it destroyed.
Bridger: (sees Hassan and Libyan fighting) Sit down. There's more history buried at the bottom of the ocean than all the museums of the world combined. We have got to realize that we can either be nurtured by it, or cannibalized.
Libyan: Conspiracy.
Hassan: Why must you maintain that the library be broken up? We are so close to agreement.
Libyan: No, we are nowhere near agreement. You hammer out detail till I want to vomit, but you don't deal with my problems.
Bridger: We tried, but you weren't willing to compromise.
Libyan: Who said compromise was a solution?
Bridger: The consensus is to we hold the Library together.
Italian: Art should be for everyone, Mr. Kaakos.
Hassan: Trust us, we will take care of this as if it were our own.
Libyan: I thank Egypt for preserving my people's treasures under their seabed, but we would have them returned. Either that, or you may continue without me.
Dimitri: He's bluffing.
Bridger: He's got me convinced he's gonna walk. Uh, Mr. Kaakos, the artifacts in this library have been together since before the Christian calendar, I sorry, but it doesn't make any sense to break them up now.
Libyan: Well I do not recognize your authority in this matter, Captain, My country will take whatever action is necessary to recover what is ours. Good day. (gets up and leaves)
Bridger: Mr. Crocker, alert Commander Ford, have him double our surveillance.
Crocker: Aye, aye, Cap.
Bridger: (getting up) Doctor.
Continued