ALARA BORTUS CLAIRE ED GORDON ISAAC JOHN KAYLON KELLY LEAD_KAYLON MARCUS MEN PAST_KELLY REBEL REBELS SHORTER_MAN TALLA TALLER_MAN TY YAPHIT MEN TALLER MAN Over here. LEAD KAYLON Pursue. SHORTER MAN Look out! GORDON I thought we'd be safe here, at least for awhile. ED There's no such thing as safe anymore. ED Can't we go to quantum? GORDON Every time we get hit the drive goes offline. There's an ice moon orbiting the planet. I could take us inside, buy us some time to reset the drive. ED What do you mean “inside”? GORDON Like... not outside. ED Do it. ED You ever flown inside one of these? GORDON Nope. ED Should I be worried? GORDON Yup. ED There's a large cavern off port. GORDON I see it. ED Bring us about. GORDON What? ED Trust me. ED Okay, go, go, go! GORDON Quantum drive is back on online. ED All right. Get us outta here. ED Man, that was close... GORDON It's getting impossible to find a system the Kaylon haven't occupied. ED Yeah, well, they've managed to wipe out half the known galaxy in less than nine months. GORDON So where do we go? ED Calivon. GORDON What are you insane? They're just as dangerous as the Kaylon. ED Yeah, but last I heard the Kaylon haven't taken them on yet, probably because it's close to an even match. We could... hide out on the edge of their system, hope they don't notice us. GORDON Can't be worse than anywhere else. ED Lay in a course. ED Oh man, I hope this thing works. GORDON Yeah, I can't remember the last time I had a decent meal. ED Oh-ho-ho, look at this... what'll it be? GORDON One Twinkie. ED Really? GORDON What? ED We almost got killed getting this thing and you're having a Twinkie? GORDON I wanted a Twinkie. You want half? ED Yes, I want half. GORDON Here. ED Oh my god. GORDON Oh my god. ED My god. GORDON It's so good. So good. ED This is unbelievable. This is unbelievable. GORDON That is so good. ED The hell was that? GORDON We just dropped out of quantum. ED God, what the hell's wrong with it now? GORDON Wait a minute, this isn't on our end. Something shut us down. An outside signal. ED From where? GORDON From that. ED Scavengers. GORDON Crap. ED Wait a minute, how the hell could they access our computer? GORDON I have no idea. ED Okay, um... don't panic. GORDON Don't panic? They're gonna cut off our skin and wear it like a suit. GORDON What do we do? ED We fight. I'm not gonna let our last meal be a Twinkie. ED You ready? KELLY Don't shoot. Hello, Ed. ED ...Kelly? KELLY It's good to see you again. GORDON You know this woman? ED Yeah, we... went on a date, like seven years ago. I called her a buncha times, she never called me back. KELLY Yeah. That's... kind of why I'm here now. KELLY What I'm about to tell you is gonna be a lot to take in. ED Well, a girl who blew me off seven years ago just hijacked my shuttle in a stolen freighter, so... consider me warmed up. KELLY Are you at all familiar with the starship Orville? GORDON That's the ship the Kaylon used to get through Earth's defenses, right? KELLY Yeah. We were all supposed to be aboard. ED What do you mean “supposed to be”? KELLY You were supposed to be the Captain. I was supposed to be your First Officer. Everyone here was part of your crew. ED Okay, well that's a much more appealing version of events, but it's-- it's not reality. KELLY Yes, it is. In an alternate timeline. GORDON Is this like, one of those crack house ships I've been hearing about? ED Wait, how would you know about an alternate timeline? KELLY Seven years ago, I was accidentally sent forward in time to what would've been six months ago. I was aboard the Orville. I saw you there. Along with everyone else in this room. Before the Orville returned me to my own time, Dr. Finn gave me a memory wipe. But it didn't work. And I ended up doing something that changed history. ED What? KELLY I said no to a second date. ED Huh? KELLY In the other timeline, we got married. Long story short, I had an affair, we got divorced. Out of guilt, I helped get you command of the Orville. And because you were Captain, the Kaylon were defeated. ED Because I was Captain. KELLY Yes. ED I stopped the Kaylon. KELLY Right. ED I had to swim with my shirt on until I was 20. KELLY Just listen. Because you were in command of the Orville, Dr. Finn signed on. CLAIRE I always like to be posted where I'm needed. Apparently I felt you could use my help. KELLY She and her sons had a relationship with the Kaylon emissary Isaac. That relationship is what got him to turn against his own people. The Kaylon lost the battle. ED And... you all believe this. TALLA It's not hard to believe. I served on the Orville with Captain Griffith. And we all thought Isaac was our friend. JOHN Kelly tracked every one of us down, and the things she knew... no one could've known unless they'd been there. KELLY Ed... We have to try and restore the timeline. CLAIRE And the only way to do that is for me to go back and correct the memory wipe. ED Half the known galaxy wiped out by those people... because we didn't go out again. GORDON Wait, wait, wait, wait-- e-even if all of this were true, and there were a way to go back-- and that's a lot of “ifs,” what if the memory wipe fails again? I mean, w-we're right back in hell. CLAIRE The reason it didn't work is that Kelly's brain is deficient in a protein called Beta-secretase. It's something that could've easily been missed, and apparently that's what happened. With the proper injection, the memory wipe will take hold, and history will be restored. ED Every sickbay in the Union is in pieces. Can you replicate this protein? CLAIRE No. JOHN There's an underground. A resistance to the Kaylon expansion. GORDON Yeah, I know about the resistance. Thought they'd been destroyed. JOHN Yeah, that's what they wanted the Kaylon to think. But there are still a handful of cells. I have a contact in one of them. They can get us a dose of the protein. ED And then what? KELLY One thing at a time. The resistance base is remote, and we're gonna have to avoid a lot of Kaylon. We'll need a good pilot. GORDON Someone want to show me the helm? TALLA Come on. KELLY I'm sorry. I saw... us. You and I. We'd been through so much pain and heartbreak, and to be an observer from the outside... I only did what I thought was right. To protect us both. ED Oh, that's a hell of a decision to make all on your own. KELLY If you saw your own future and all the mistakes you made, wouldn't you try to fix it? ED I might consider how it would affect other people. Come on, you took temporal law at Union Point. You go back in time, you kill Hitler, you stop World War II, you don't know what'll happen. You could make things worse. KELLY I know that now. ED Y'know, I remember having a really great time with you that night. And then when you basically ghosted me, I thought it was the end of the world. Turns out I was right. KELLY It's good to see you again. MARCUS Man. This is one big-ass asteroid field. JOHN It used to be a planet. MARCUS What? JOHN There's a black hole just outside of this star system. It's slowly sucking it in. TY Wow... KELLY There. That's the one we want. Let's prep the shuttle. Talla, keep the long-range scanners at maximum while we're gone. It'll eat up a lotta power, but we need to watch for Kaylon. TALLA Got it. Good luck. CLAIRE Talla. Look after my boys. JOHN This way... YAPHIT What do you want? JOHN Yaphit. It's me, John. YAPHIT John? John who? JOHN From the Orville. We served together for years. YAPHIT Oh. Oh yeah, right, sorry. A piece of me got blasted off last week, a little bit of my memory was in it. JOHN We need to see the Lieutenant. YAPHIT Okay, hang on. REBELS YAPHIT Lieutenant! You got company! JOHN Well, well. Long time no see. ALARA John. I almost didn't believe it when I heard you were alive. JOHN Yeah, still alive and kickin'. ALARA So glad the Kaylon didn't get you. JOHN Oh. I appreciate you saying so. ALARA Who are they? JOHN Ed Mercer, Kelly Grayson, Claire Finn. This is Alara Kitan. ED It's nice to meet you. JOHN Alara used to be Chief of Security on the Orville. ED Chief... of Security? JOHN Yeah, don't let the small package fool you. You can count on her. ALARA Have to be able to count on someone. JOHN How you doing? ALARA Gravity treatments are kicking my ass. But other than that, pretty good. I got what you asked for. KELLY You're lucky you guys are still in one piece here. ALARA The Kaylon usually don't destroy resistance bases from space. They want captives to interrogate for information on other cells. Who's the doctor? CLAIRE That's me. This is perfect. ALARA Can you tell me what this is about? JOHN Uh, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. ALARA I've already learned not to believe anything you say, but try me. REBEL Lieutenant! They found us. ALARA Where's your shuttle? KELLY South of here. ALARA There's a back way out. Go. We'll lay down cover. JOHN Alara. We have room for you. ALARA They need me here. Go. REBELS ED Mercer to Keyali, we have a Kaylon problem. TALLA We know! REBEL REBELS KAYLON You will surrender. ED You want the top or the bottom? KELLY I like to be on top. KELLY Grayson to Keyali, you're gonna have to meet us halfway. TALLA Acknowledged! TALLA There they are. GORDON Hey, kid, what's your name again? TY Ty. GORDON Ty. Hey, you see that red button in front of you? That's the tractor beam. When I tell you, I need you to hit that for me, okay? TY Okay... GORDON Get ready, Ty... now! TALLA They're in! Let's go! TY Mom, I did the tractor beam! CLAIRE That's great, Ty. KELLY Get us outta here! GORDON Oh, crap. ED What? What's oh crap? GORDON Quantum drive is off-line. KELLY Oh, crap. GORDON Hang on! KELLY We can't outrun them. We need somewhere to hide. ED What about the black hole? GORDON Are you nuts? We'll be crushed by the gravity. JOHN Uh, not if we slip just inside the event horizon. They won't see us because light can't escape. KELLY What the hell. Take us in. GORDON Wow... ED Turn us 70 degrees to port. GORDON What the hell... ED It's time dilation. JOHN This deep inside the gravity well of a black hole, time moves more slowly for us than it does for them. For every second we're in here, a couple of hours pass out there. GORDON Come on... give it up... TALLA According to the chronometers... two full days have passed. GORDON Man. How was your weekend? JOHN Quantum drive is back online. KELLY Set a course for Earth. ED Earth? What are you talking about? There is no Earth anymore. It was destroyed by the Kaylon. KELLY I know. But if we're gonna recreate the time jump, we need to access Isaac's files for the Aronov device. Which are on the Orville. GORDON I thought the Orville was lost. JOHN We took a heavy hit that plunged us into the atmosphere. The ship was in freefall, but a lot of us got out in the escape pods. We've been able to calculate the coordinates of the crash site, and we think the Orville is still intact. ED Intact where? KELLY At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. KELLY Anything? JOHN We've been able to access part of its memory core. No tactical information, but we're still digging. KELLY Okay, keep at it. TALLA Oh, by the way, Ed was asking if you could stop by his quarters. ED Come in! KELLY What's all this? ED Well, I figured even though we've been battling the Kaylon and running for our lives, this is still technically our second date. KELLY I've already had my second date with you. ED Second date in this timeline. KELLY Fair enough. So... what have you been up to the last seven years? ED I've been pretty focused on my career, actually. I was Commanding Officer of the Epsilon Eridani outpost. KELLY But... you wanted your own ship. ED I did. Yeah. I did. Got close a couple times. Probably would've been only another year or so if not for the Kaylon war. You served on some ships though, yeah? KELLY Yeah. How'd you know that? ED I might have looked you up a couple of times. Couple dozen times. KELLY You stalked me. ED Idle curiosity. KELLY ED What was I like? In the other timeline? KELLY You were a perfect gentleman. ED Oh. Well, that's boring. KELLY No, you were... you were really sweet. ED Well, then why did you end it? When you went back? KELLY I'd seen what happened to us. And I thought I had a chance to save us from it. ED Did we hate each other? KELLY No, no. She loved you. I loved you. Whoever you wanna call it... we regretted hurting you. And you regretted hurting us. ED You realize if we succeed... KELLY ...none of this will ever have happened. JOHN Most of the tactical stuff is protected by quantum encryption codes. But look at this. ED What is it? JOHN It's the Kaylon Connectome network. KELLY Which is? JOHN You could call it a brain web. Every Kaylon is connected to every other Kaylon through one central computer system. It's how they communicate. KELLY Is this something we could use to our advantage? JOHN I don't know. Gimme a little more time, I might be able to make some sense of it. GORDON Hey guys? I just wanted to let you know, we're approaching Earth. CLAIRE My god... GORDON Ed. The moon... ED Any life signs? KELLY What about the Orville? GORDON I think I got it. It's at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. CLAIRE Is it intact? JOHN It looks that way. ED That's seven miles down. Can we handle that kind of pressure? JOHN Not in this trash heap. Especially with the beating we took. But if we divert enough power to the deflectors... a Union shuttle might. ED Has anyone ever tried this in a shuttle? JOHN Not that I know of. GORDON Everybody hold your noses... CLAIRE I don't even see any fish... KELLY The Kaylon were thorough. GORDON Passing two miles... JOHN Hull pressure 4,690 psi and increasing... GORDON Five and a half miles... TY Momma... GORDON Passing six miles... We should turn around, this is insane. TALLA Wait, look! JOHN I'm detecting low-level energy output and minimal life support. GORDON Doors are still open. We're in luck. KELLY Get us in, fast. JOHN I've got a link to the main computer. Pressurizing the bay. TY It's scary in here. MARCUS Are we the only ones on board? TALLA No. One life sign, five decks above us. ED Talla. You wanna open this jar of pickles? JOHN Bortus. It's us. ED My god. That was so unnecessary. BORTUS I apologize. I did not know who you were. JOHN Bortus, man, I can't believe you're still alive. BORTUS It is good to see both of you again. TALLA What happened? BORTUS The Captain and the First Officer were killed in the battle, so I remained at the helm to ensure that all the escape pods launched. But I could not prevent the crash. I have been surviving on minimal life-support and combat rations. GORDON Eesh. Rough cuisine. CLAIRE Nine months. My god, it must've been so lonely. BORTUS My mate Klyden and my son Topa escaped in the pods. If they survived, they are to meet me on Moclus. It is that hope which has... sustained me. TALLA Bortus... Moclus was destroyed. GORDON Oh man, I'm... I'm so sorry. KELLY Look... I know this is gonna sound crazy, but we may have a chance to make it right. BORTUS Bridge to Lamarr, what is your status? JOHN We've got partial main power. ED Look, you-you got the wrong guy for this job. BORTUS If what I am told is true, and we are able to restore the timeline... then that is your chair. ED I've never captained a starship. KELLY Oh yes you have. BORTUS Sit. Scans show clear. No enemy ships in the vicinity. KELLY John, do we have enough power to ascend? JOHN Barely, Commander. But we can't stay down here. ED Okay... helm, maneuvering thrusters at one quarter. GORDON Aye, sir. ED Take us up. GORDON We're not moving... ED Maneuvering thrusters to one half. GORDON Come on baby, fly... GORDON We're up! Ten meters... 15 meters... 20 meters and climbing... TALLA Five miles to the surface... ED Steady as we go. Engineering, stand by to bring the main engines online. JOHN Ready here... GORDON Approaching the surface... GORDON Passing through stratosphere. ED Switch to sublight engines. KELLY What's the verdict? JOHN It's no good. The file's incomplete. Isaac never finished the calculations. KELLY Can you fill in the blanks? JOHN Oh, I'm good, but I'm not that good. It'd take me years to figure it out. CLAIRE So what do we do? ED We need to get inside Isaac's brain. BORTUS Isaac is on Kaylon. When we returned him, he was disassembled. JOHN But I bet you all his data still exists. I have an insane idea. ED KELLY Hey. ED Hey... Drink? KELLY Always. ED KELLY ED Do you think John can do it? KELLY He said he'd notify us. All we can do is wait. Am I a terrible person... that part of me wants this timeline to continue? ED You're asking the wrong guy. KELLY In the middle of this nightmare universe... I've felt this weird sense of comfort. Being with you. ED Well, maybe we'll fail. Have to go find some place to live in secret. KELLY Some nice little house on a deserted planet. We could have a couple of kids... boy and a girl... ED We'd have to learn how to farm. How to cook. KELLY Look at the sunset every night. ED Look at you every morning. You know, Gordon's probably going to have to live with us. KELLY Shut up, you're ruining it. JOHN Okay, so there's good news and there's bad news. ED What's the bad news? KELLY What's the good news? JOHN I'll give you the good news. I found an access point into the Kaylon Connectome network. I can basically piggyback a scan once I reactivate the Kaylon in the lab. GORDON Well, what's to stop it from shooting up the place once you do? JOHN I won't bore you with the details, but I cut a few wires under the hood. Now once I'm in, I gotta find Isaac. TALLA What do you mean... “find him”? JOHN Every individual Kaylon has the equivalent of a neural identification code. It's how they know who's who in all the crisscrossing signal packets. I can track him down, and essentially download his consciousness into the Kaylon body we have on board. And once I have Isaac, I can fill in the missing pieces from his calculations. And, hopefully, send Dr. Finn back to the right point in time. ED You said there was bad news. JOHN Yeah... Well, I'm gonna need total access to the quantum drive to power the transfer, which means we gotta be parked. Full stop. And once I'm in the system, there's no way to hide it from the Kaylon. It'll act like a homing beacon, screaming out our coordinates. BORTUS It will not be long before they come after us. KELLY So we need to work fast. ED Well then... let's get to it. KELLY Any luck? JOHN Nah. Not yet... Come on, where are you Hang on... Yep, that's him. Okay, here we go. Start the clock. ISAAC John Lamarr. What are you doing? JOHN Well, welcome back, handsome. ISAAC Whatever your intent, you will fail. Your intelligence is far inferior to ours. JOHN Yeah, well, that's why you're gonna help me out. If you don't, I'm gonna pick your brain a little. ISAAC Your species' extinction is inevitable. It would be far more efficient to surrender. JOHN Not today, my man. ISAAC We have found you. BORTUS Bridge to Captain. There are four Kaylon vessels closing off the port bow. ED How far out? BORTUS Approximately two minutes. KELLY John. Talk to me. JOHN Wait a second... Okay, boom. Got it. That's enough outta you. I've input the calculations. We're ready. Okay, I gotta go to engineering to feed juice from the quantum drive. I need you to monitor the graviton levels. Let me know if they drop below 1.7 GEV. ED We got it, go. CLAIRE Boys... I have to say goodbye to you now. TY Mom... I don't want you to go. CLAIRE I know, sweetie. I don't want to leave, but I have to. And I'll see you real soon. In a much better place. MARCUS What if it doesn't work? CLAIRE It'll work. I love you both so much. BORTUS Kaylon vessels will intercept in one minute. KELLY Doctor! JOHN Easy, baby. Don't get worked up. JOHN Quantum field is at maximum. KELLY Graviton levels are at 1.46. JOHN That is too low! I need another 20%! Gimme whatever you can, I'm gonna have push us past the red line. ED Mercer to bridge. Transfer all power access including life-support to engineering. BORTUS Aye, sir. GORDON Systems are overloading! TALLA Kaylon ships will intercept in 31 seconds. ED Graviton levels are rising... KELLY It's working! JOHN Okay! That's it! Now we just gotta ride the wave and hope we don't hit the rocks. ED If this doesn't work... Will you marry me? KELLY Yes. JOHN Oh, no... PAST KELLY Coffee. PAST KELLY Claire? What... what are you -- CLAIRE Kelly. The memory wipe didn't work. PAST KELLY I know. But how did you -- CLAIRE Just trust me. You're gonna go back to sleep. PAST KELLY What's that? CLAIRE The future of the galaxy. See you real soon. ED Hey. KELLY Hey... ED I hope I'm not calling too early. Did I wake you up? KELLY No, I was already awake. What's goin' on? ED Well, um, I know this goes completely against the cool guy playbook, but I had a really great time with you last night. And, I was wondering if I could take you out again. KELLY I'd love it.