Another Life

The Achaia have come here as friends.

They want to be our friends.

Zakir has been destroyed.

That debris is headin' straight at us.

Niko, the debris is headin' straight for us.

Launch FTL. Get us out of here!

We're venting plasma from the impulse engines.

The damage has shut me out of the systems.

- Cas, Beauchamp. - On it.

Beauchamp, now.

Our hull has been compromised.

The FTL bubble's only at 89%. We can't jump.

The main blast will hit us in five, four, three, two, one.

I've stabilized the Salvare by matchin' speeds with the shock wave.

Thank you.

All right. Everyone, listen up.

I'm not gonna say that we're safe, but we are stable.

We've lost hull integrity just outside the observation deck.

Cas, thank God.

I'm okay.

Where the fuck is Beauchamp?

Zakir has been destroyed.

The Achaia obliterated it, and now we are caught in its debris field.

The FTL bubble is stabilizing us for now, allowing us to ride in the shock wave.

Debris pierced the ship. We've lost Beauchamp.

No. No! No, he was just behind me.

I know, Cas.

But right now, I need everyone to put our heads together

and figure out our next steps.

Regroup in the mess hall.

- How are you going to get there? - The long way.

The Salvare is currently located within this sector of the shock wave.

The wave is traveling at 113 million kilometers per hour.

In approximately nine hours and 46 minutes, the wave should dissipate.

We don't have that long.

Every time a piece of Zakir hits the FTL bubble, it degrades it further.

And it'll eventually fail.

We need to exit the shock wave before that happens.

- Now sounds like a good time. - We can't. The debris field's too dense.

At some point, the debris field will become scattered enough to fly out of it.

We need to boost the FTL bubble as much as we can.

- Do what you have to. - On it.

What if there is an Achaian ship waiting for us?

They'd have to find the Salvare first.

The shock wave is causing so much interference,

we're basically a snowflake in an avalanche.

Unless they can track me.

This thing in my head, what if it's some kind of homing beacon?

Zayn?

Well, the implant has infiltrated his entire brain.

His neural oscillations are spiking well above what would normally be seen.

- Can we dampen them? - Bernie and Oliver are engineering

a blocker to keep his brain activity from getting out

and any Achaian activity from getting in.

And you're not feeling anything from the implant?

It's not telling you to do things? It's not controlling you?

No, no. William deleted all the Achaian code.

That's... not entirely true.

I have something...

someone I need to show you.

Hi. It's nice to meet you.

In some ways, I feel like I kind of already know you.

How did this happen?

I created an avatar of you to work on our issues,

but it wasn't enough.

She wasn't... enough.

So to make her more alive... I augmented her.

- With Achaian code? - How is that even possible?

Their code is just another language. I combined it with ours.

And created an alien AI,

who has access to our entire ship.

As commander of the Salvare, I order you to delete yourself.

I can't.

You can't?

I won't.

I know my presence here is a shock, but I promise you,

the last thing I would ever do is endanger the Salvare or its crew.

You hijacked the ship.

- Tried to fly us into a black hole. - That wasn't me.

- That was my implant's coding. - Which is inside of you.

And you.

- Are you compromised? - No.

How can you be certain? You were a conduit.

And all of the Achaian code I extracted from Sasha's implant,

I transferred into her.

I've initiated multiple diagnostic checks.

I'll have August rerun the scans.

Just to be sure.

If we can't delete her, can we at least sandbox her?

- Limit her reach? - It's already done.

This is completely unnecessary.

She's confined to this space.

She no longer has the ability to interface with any of our ship's systems.

I'm... I'm sorry.

This was supposed to be a recon mission.

We fly to the star. We see what the Achaia want.

- We report back to Earth. - We always knew things could escalate.

"Escalate" is an understatement.

Oh!

I thought the FTL bubble was protecting us.

It is.

And that should scare you, because it terrifies me.

The FTL bubble will fail. It is only a matter of time.

And even if we make it through the shock wave in one piece, what then?

We head back to Earth.

Earth? We won't even make it to the nearest star system

without the Achaia hunting us down.

I need an expert.

And you waited until now to pull me out of Soma?

- We weren't at war before now. - You were. You just didn't realize it.

The war started the day they rammed that implant into Sasha's brain.

First thing I wanna do is talk to this new AI,

- get whatever intel we can out of her. - If she'll comply.

She doesn't exactly follow orders.

Oh.

And William? Is his coding okay?

August is running a complete diagnostic,

checking to see if there's any signs of Achaian infiltration.

August?

Did we lose Dillon Conner?

Dillon Conner is safe in Soma.

Soma?

Assigned to team three.

August Catawnee is our chief engineer.

Is that a problem?

It's a, uh... surprise.

William's acted autonomously for a computer meant to run this ship.

- His coding is constantly evolving. - You say evolving, I say design flaw.

But if we can get this new AI to spill the beans on the Achaia,

then hopefully it'll all be worth it.

Let's get you hydrated and up to speed. We've got a lot to catch up on.

And we have lift-off.

Fits.

- With enough give for all Javier's hair. - Hah!

- Look who's talking. - I mean...

Mmm?

No?

Will it work?

I haven't turned it on yet, but it should.

Hey. We're gonna be okay. All right?

We're gonna blast the Achaia out of space, then blast them off Earth.

And then you and me can go on a proper date.

Normal-like.

Like, in actual gravity.

Let's get this on Javier.

All right.

I haven't slept for 36 hours.

Hope that coffee's laced with speed.

No.

Having a kid, best way to train your body to operate without sleep.

Function, anyway.

It was your idea... for me to take over the mission from Yerxa.

Dubois told me before we left Earth.

I stand by that recommendation.

The only reason this ship is still in one piece is because of you.

I've never seen combat, Richard.

And I had never fought in a war before that mess in the South China Sea.

Still, four years later, I came home with the Medal of Honor.

Hmm.

- What's this? - That's your dream team,

the one Dubois asked me to put together for you.

Nicole Martin, combat medic. Three tours of duty.

Dominic Gray. He helped code our country's drone missile program

and made sure the Y-2038 problem didn't delete all of our bank accounts.

- He's a good guy to know. - Yeah.

It's an impressive list.

So then, why is some punk hacker running diagnostics on our AI?

- I woke up the crew I was assigned. - Yerxa's crew?

Ian and his crew had the most experience with the Salvare before this mission.

- That doesn't mean they're the best. - We have been through far too much

- for you to sit there and judge us. - Whoa.

I'm not.

I swear, I...

I'm just trying to understand why Dubois would saddle you with a lesser crew

on a mission as vital as this one.

Javier.

Javier.

Sorry. I just... I couldn't hear you.

How's it going?

Um, I'm just reviewing scans of William's routines and subroutines.

There's no signs of Achaian code hidden in his network.

Thank God for small miracles.

Thank human-engineered diagnostic technology.

I wanted to talk to you about something.

New AI, she won't take orders.

She's William without the safeguards.

Are you asking me to delete her?

I'm asking you if you even could.

Her... her code is enmeshed within a myriad of the Salvare's systems.

Most problematically, the particle accelerator and the FTL engines.

As soon as you're done with William, make it your top priority.

I'm not saying we're going to delete her, but I'd like to have the option.

What about the threat I pose?

If that contraption works and your implant remains dormant,

I don't foresee a problem.

And if things change?

I'll be forced to deal with it.

Mission comes first.

You've heard of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics?

Of course.