#s8m19

[zrtranscripts]

Season 8, Mission 19: Dear Alice

Quarantine

~

SAM YAO: Let me get this straight. We came to Dearg to find out why the labs here wanted red fungus and to cure Janine, only to find out the labs are under lockdown with us trapped inside because everyone here is infected with red fungus. Are you sure you're infected, Frances? I mean, usually the fungus turns people a lot more... undeady.

JANINE DE LUCA: Yes, Miss Dempsey. In our experience, the red fungus creates a very dangerous form of zombie.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Not here. Not yet, anyway. Everyone here has traces of fungus in our blood from the water supply, but it's spreading in our systems very slowly. We don't know why.

JANINE DE LUCA: Hmm. Perhaps the red fungus found here is a variant of the one inside mainland V-types.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: We've been trying to keep ours from spreading beyond this base. I'm so sorry that we failed.

[door creaks open]

CASPER BRAAM: What? Who in God's name are you?

SAM YAO: Frances, someone in a lab coat just came in jabbing a laser pointer at us.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Calm down, Casper! I let them in. Meet Casper Braam, Sam. He's one of the grad assistants here.

CASPER BRAAM: You let them in? We agreed, Frances. We can't risk further contamination. You're too soft!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: It's too late, Casper! We failed. The fungus is out of the base. These people want help fighting it. I'm taking them to the computer core. They're friends of my sister, friends of Alice.

CASPER BRAAM: Oh. You're from Abel? We've heard all about you. Alice was a vivid storyteller. All right. I see why Frances trusted you.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: We need to help them. This is... look, this is Janine De Luca.

SHONA REID: Janine, you're looking really pale.

JANINE DE LUCA: I'm fine, Miss Reid. Little parched, that's all.

CASPER BRAAM: You're badly dehydrated. You're the one with the nanite infection? [sighs] All we can do is find stuff in our stores and boxes here that seem like they might help. Did that thing we found stabilize you?

SAM YAO: For a bit. She's started to get worse now. She can't drink here without being infected with red fungus. We need to get her out.

JANINE DE LUCA: I have a mission. I will see it through! That is our way at Abel.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: All right. Casper, take them to the computer room. You better hurry. You need to get what you came for and then take Janine somewhere where the water is safe. Run!

~

CASPER BRAAM: This is it. Our main computer core. I expect you're all impressed. [laughs] We do keep the computer banks in rather gleaming shape.

SAM YAO: Um, why are there all those mini drones whirring up by the ceiling?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh, they're all over the labs. They used to assist with experiments holding clamps steady and stuff. Since the scientists left, we've never been able to use them. They just hover up by the ceilings.

CASPER BRAAM: Come over to the main terminal. It won't take long to pull up all the red fungus data in our archives.

SAM YAO: Frances, are you able to come down and say hello to us? Well, in person, I mean?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Yeah. I just... I don't know. I've heard about you all for so long from Alice. It feels weird to meet you for real. And I think it'll make it real that she's not with you.

SAM YAO: Yeah, I get that.

CASPER BRAAM: Huh, I found the red fungus research logs. They're mostly encrypted, and we've never had luck hacking into them. They need a passphrase. We've tried all the passwords we know were used here.

JANINE DE LUCA: Something from Van Ark?

SAM YAO: Hmm. Try Sigrid? Or Hakkinen.

SHONA REID: Nope. Do you ken his birthday?

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, you read that biography of Van Ark. Put in variants of his birthday.

SAM YAO: No. Oh! Oh, hang on. Just a sec, just a sec. Try entering "her new land wakes." Paula told me he used that loads in his labs because, well, obviously he wanted to be extra creepy.

CASPER BRAAM: I don't believe it. We're in! "Van Ark research log, Far Hebrides sector. Samples confirm it, Mor Island is the origin of the fungus entity where the Vikings discovered - "

[computer shorts out, alarm beeps]

SHONA REID: I'm guessing the computer wasn't meant to short out like that.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Unauthorized retinas detected. Data bank locked. Initiating security protocols.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Retina scan? Crap.

SAM YAO: Uh, guys, those drones up by the ceiling, they've got glowing red lights now, and they're taking blue sparky sticks from a slot in the ceiling.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I've never seen them do that before. They've got taser rods. They're descending towards you! Five, the door on your left leads to a catwalk over a cavern. Run!

~

SAM YAO: Frances, can you see us? We're running across a series of metal catwalks in a huge rocky cavern filled with - filled with red fungus. Oh, that's not unsettling at all.

CASPER BRAAM: More drones are coming. There's at least a dozen chasing us now!

SAM YAO: Why would they even make drones that did that? Were they expecting to be invaded by zombies? Oh, wait. They probably thought their immortality experiments could go wrong and... yeah, I get it.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I see you on cams. You're over one of the underground storage bays. The fungus overran that part of the base weeks ago.

CASPER BRAAM: We always thought the scientists created the fungus. An experiment gone wrong. But the data log in there, what you say, it seems that they brought it here.

JANINE DE LUCA: [coughs] Indeed. And the data log specified Mor Island as the fungus's original home.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Those data logs need a retina scan. I should be able to register my own retina with the system, but not before you need to leave. You need to get Janine to safety. Casper, you're close to the high-security labs. Do you think -

CASPER BRAAM: Dr. Leeland's experiment? A risk, but it's our best chance. There's a stairwell built into the rock wall. We're going to head down it, towards the prototype testing labs.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Unauthorized personnel approaching high-security area. Initiating projectile countermeasures.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Uh-oh! The drones are firing darts at you now. God knows what drug they put in them. Head to the door. Run!

~

SHONA REID: So I'm guessing these are the high-security labs. You know, from the white walls, the beakers, and the sign on the wall saying "Keep Out, Unauthorized Personnel Only."

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Keep going through the labs until you find a workbench marked 47.

CASPER BRAAM: Dr. Leeland's favorite number. He always said the research assistants were too stupid to appreciate his work.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The scientists said that about all their lab assistants. And me.

SAM YAO: Well, they sound like horrible bullies.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Yeah. I was glad when they left. Until I realized they weren't ever coming back. I think maybe what kept me going was having so much of my sister here with me.

SHONA REID: Is this it? Big metal box like a backpack strapped to a hose.

JANINE DE LUCA: EMP gun. Disables electronics. Not ususally this portable.

SHONA REID: The drones are coming through the door. At least 20 now. Take cover behind the benches.

CASPER BRAAM: Here goes nothing. Triggering EMP!

[explosion]

SAM YAO: Wow! Okay. Big burst of blue light and all the robots fall down. Although... although they are twitching a bit on the floor.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Warning, hostile action detected.

SHONA REID: They're dragging themselves across the floor and piling together.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Targetting systems damaged. Lethal force authorized.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Dempsey, the robots are combining into one large drone!

SAM YAO: Oh, wow. I mean, it is terrifying, but it's also pretty cool! Those two drones look like eyes, and-and those ones are turning into arms, and - !

FRANCES DEMPSEY: They're pooling power. It's extending blades from its body. There's an exit to your left. Move fast! Go!

~

SAM YAO: Frances, we're in a winding corridor. That thing's after us.

JANINE DE LUCA: [coughs] The giant drone is now covered in spinning blades. It is accelerating fast. Do not let it touch you!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I tried to activate the fire door behind you, but that thing's too fast. It got through. I don't know what to do!

SAM YAO: Come on, Frances. You'll think of something, just like Alice. She always came through.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Alice died, Sam! She was smart and brave and I was just her nerdy little sister, and she died while I was hiding safe up here. And now you're going to die, too!

SHONA REID: What about your lasers?

CASPER BRAAM: What about them?

SHONA REID: They're guarding the exits, right? Could they destroy this thing?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh my God, she's right! The lasers upgraded themselves to target anything that moves. If that massive drone came into their sensor range... The nearest exit is a few floors down. It's a dangerous area, but it's your only chance. Take the stairs. Faster, all of you. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: When you exit the stairwell, way ahead you'll see a cave mouth with laser turrets on either side. There's a silver material found on this archipelago. Underground or in deep sea silt. The scientists used it for making power cells, transistors, even Janine's nanites. We need it to keep the equipment here going. The scientists mined it by expanding tunnels under the archipelago. This one leads all the way to Mor Island. And um... [door slides open] And I've come to say goodbye.

SAM YAO: Oh. Wow. Hi. You -

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I know. I look like her. People used to joke we were twins, born a few years apart. It's a lot.

SAM YAO: It's just really good to see you.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You, too. Look, we haven't got long. That thing will find its way down the stairs soon. Have you got the control box?

SHONA REID: It's here, smashed to bits.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Once I've registered my retina scan, I can use your password to get into the encrypted databases. We'll do everything we can to fix it.

CASPER BRAAM: We always wanted to show the scientists we're as good as them.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I feel like I know you so well, Janine, Sam. Everything Alice wrote about you... I'm ready. Tell me how she died.

JANINE DE LUCA: Your sister Alice fell in the line of duty. She undertook a mission to recover information about the zombie virus from a hospital infested with zombies. She was bitten. Runner Five here completed her mission. That information led us to learn enough about the virus that we were able to synthesize a cure. She died a hero.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Okay. Good. Then we're carrying on what she started. Casper, stay with them to guide them through the cave?  If I go back to the security desk, I can hack the lasers to delay targetting long enough for you to pass them. If you're fast, they'll catch the drone, not you.

SAM YAO: We can do it. And um... we'll see you again, okay?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Bet on it. Now run!

~

[laser whirs]

SAM YAO: Frances, we're in the cave. Storage containers here, uh, labeled Van Ark. Another one Dr. Tomorrow. Another one Li Chen.

SHONA REID: Keep moving! The lasers are scorching the ground behind us.

[explosion]

CASPER BRAAM: God! The laser exploded a case of some liquid of Moonchild's all over me. Oh... It's fine. It smells of vegetables. It's not burning. I'm okay.

[explosion]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The drone's destroyed! You're out of laser range. You can slow down.

SHONA REID: Always wondered what Dearg was up to. The answer is death traps.

SAM YAO: So this cave's dark and gloomy. We need to get Janine out. She's barely breathing.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Keep going straight. The cave should lead to Mor. I don't know what's in there. It's possible fungus has crept into the rocks.

CASPER BRAAM: I can't get back through those lasers. You'll have to quarantine me on Mor, put me in the auto boat.

SAM YAO: We will. Thank you. Thank you, Frances. For everything.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I'm so glad I got to meet you all. And you, Five. Thank you for keeping her colors alive. Sam, I know Alice never said what she felt about you. That was her choice. I want to respect it. But never doubt that she liked you.

SAM YAO: Really?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Yeah. And as long as I'm here, Abel has allies on Dearg.

~