Script – Season four

Episode 10

(music)

Shersheba:	It’s all your fault, Malakat.
Malakat:	What is?
Shersheba:	Neri gaining the pyramid’s protection. You should have stopped her.
Malakat:	A slight obstacle that will easily be overcome, highness.
Shersheba:	It’s no use. It won’t open again.
Malakat:	Not for you, I think.
Shersheba:	Did you locate the golden ankh?
Malakat:	It’s not here. I’m convinced Neri must still have it in her possession.
Shersheba:	Then find her. Get it back from her.
Malakat:	That is exactly my intention, but you and I must remain united in our purpose. Our enterprise is the greatest anyone from the ocean planet has ever undertaken. Success will guarantee control over the very earth itself and we will achieve it, Shersheba, if we remain united.
Shersheba:	But when, Malakat?
Malakat:	As soon as we locate Neri. And that will not be difficult. The answer lies in the study of our ancient laws.

---

Jakamarra:	PRAXIS agents have been all over the place while you’ve been away. Crawling about everywhere with the electronic gadgets.
Jason:	Well, did they find anything?
Jakamarra:	Nah.
Neri:	The golden ankh is safe?
Jason:	The ankh’s a long way off, Neri.
Jakamarra:	You’ve come back for it?
Neri:	Yes.
Jakamarra:	Then this is the time?
Neri:	This is the time.

---

Jakamarra:	You ready for a bit of a journey?
Jason:	How long?
Jakamarra:	More than a day maybe.
Jason:	Hey, Neri needs water, Jakamarra, and lots of it or she gets dehydrated.
Jakamarra:	Water’s pretty hard to find in the outback. Unless you know where to look.

---

(music)

Malakat:	Now, we know where the underwater pyramid is, we can find the missing piece in the puzzle. The remaining pathway in the secret watergate network. Let me show you. The meridian lines from the underwater pyramid and the so-called pyramid of mystery in Egypt form an angle which intersect at the earth’s axis.
Shersheba:	That means nothing to me.
Malakat:	But watch. By applying our sacred formula to this angle, we will find the missing destination of the watergate and that is where Neri and the golden ankh are most likely to have gone.
Shersheba:	Where, Malakat?
Malakat:	Wait. And watch. Ah, you see. In the far northern desert of this continent. In the land called by its inhabitants – the outback.

(music)

---

Brett:	One thing we know for sure. They’re not on the island.
Winston:	And Jason has signed out a deepwater helmet.
Cass:	So they’ve gone to the pyramid.
Dianne:	Then the sooner we go after them…
Brett:	Waste of time, mum. Without Neri, no one stands a chance of getting in.
Winston:	Except those other visitors from the ocean planet, Malakat and Shersheba.
Cass:	Yeah! If Neri and Jason are in the pyramid, they could be in some heavy duty trouble.
Dianne:	I don’t like this. We’re sandwiched between PRAXIS agents who obviously answer to no one and these ocean people of whom we know nothing.
Brett:	Except they all want to find Neri as badly as we do.
Dianne:	Then let’s see if we can patch HELEN into PRAXIS. Perhaps there’s been some communication between the two.
Winston:	Indeed, Dianne. If we’re going to be ham in the sandwich, we might as well add a little mustard.

---

Jason:	Jakamarra, we’ve turned up twice in the cave without warning and you’ve never asked who we are or how we got there. Why?
Jakamarra:	When certain people appear in the landscape, you can’t help but read the signs.
Jason:	What signs?
Jakamarra:	Signs that say that they’re a part of the landscape. That they belong.

---

Malakat:	It is unfortunate that the girl you are so anxious to question has eluded you. It is even more unfortunate for us.
Shelby:	Uh huh. How come?
Malakat:	She took with her an object of immense archaeological value.
Hauser:	What kind of object?
Malakat:	A golden ankh. A symbol of immortality in the great civilization of ancient Egypt.
Shelby:	Immortality. You don’t really buy all that stuff.
Malakat:	I like to keep an open mind. How do we know the spirits of the ancients weren’t transported to another planet? Another galaxy?
Shersheba:	Professor!
Malakat:	The point is, we each seek the girl for our own reasons. We should co-operate, share our information.
Hauser:	I’m afraid the agency has strict rules about liaising with outsiders.
Malakat:	You think your sources are superior to ours?
Shelby:	I know it.
Malakat:	Then you will undoubtedly know that your quarry is currently in the wilds of the outback.

(Cell phone ringing)

Shelby:	Shelby.
Brett:	Listen very closely. I’m only going to say this once. We know you’re looking for aliens.
Cass:	Our information leads us to suspect…
Brett:	Our information leads us to suspect that Malakat and his assistant are aliens themselves.
Shelby:	Hang on a minute. Who am I speaking to?
Cass:	Cut it.
Brett:	Check it out. That should get things going.
Malakat:	Do you have news?
Shelby:	Yeah, yeah.

---

Jason:	What you said earlier about being part of the landscape. What makes you so sure Neri belongs here?
Jakamarra:	It was told to me in a dreamtime story.
Neri:	Dreamtime?
Jakamarra:	Stores about the creation of our world. Very old. Very… Spiritual.
Jason:	And Neri’s in them?
Jakamarra:	Oh, sort of. In one of them. Maybe I’ll tell you about it sometime.

---

Hauser:	So, who was the call from?
Shelby:	I don’t know. They didn’t say.
Hauser:	What was it about?
Shelby:	A tip off that professor Malakat and the girl Shersheba are also aliens.
Hauser:	You don’t believe that.
Shelby:	I’m not taking any chances. I took his glass. We’ll get it checked out back at hq.
Hauser:	What about the information that the girl’s somewhere in the outback?
Shelby:	We’ll check that out, too.

---

Shersheba:	Are you sure it’s wise to but those agents onto Neri?
Malakat:	Why not? PRAXIS can lead us to her and to the ankh. Then they can take care of her. If you are to rule our people, you mustn’t have her blood on your hands.
Shersheba:	Why go to all the trouble of stealing your glass?
Malakat:	To check my fingerprints.
Shersheba:	But that would show we’re not from earth.
Malakat:	I have allowed for that.

---

Cass:	Looks like we’ve drawn a blank.
Brett:	Yeah, bummer. I guess HELEN isn’t as smart as we thought.
Winston:	I wouldn’t blame HELEN. It’s just that the PRAXIS communication system is far beyond her capacity.
Cass:	So what does it take to crack her?
Winston:	If only we knew. I find myself wishing we could penetrate deep into PRAXIS’ inner being, as deep as… As deep as Jonah inside the belly of the whale.

---

Brett:	Here we go. Right into PRAXIS’ belly.

---

Jason:	How’s the water?
Neri:	Cool.
Jason:	I said I’d give Jakamarra a hand with the food.
Neri:	Good, I am hungry.
Jason:	How’s it going?
Jakamarra:	Just about ready to cook.
Jason:	So, what do we having? [?]
Jakamarra:	Sausages and [?] if that’s alright with you[?]. They’re in the [?].
Jason:	No kidding. What is it?
Jakamarra:	Don’t know. Somethings back[?] there.
Jason:	Where?
Jakamarra:	A long way, too far to see.
Jason:	Something bad? Should we keep moving?
Jakamarra:	[?] till the morning.

---

Brett:	What’s taking so long?
Cass:	For your information, I’ve so far located two dedicated PRAXIS frequencies over four bands. That’s two more than HELEN found.
Brett:	So, why aren’t we listening yet?
Cass:	Because they’re scrambled, pebble brain. I’ve still got to crack the code.
Brett:	It’s getting late.
Cass:	Thanks for the news flash.

---

Shelby:	I checked all over. Nothing.
Hauser:	She must have moved on. She’s been here. This’ll give us a fix on her.
Shelby:	Sure got a lot of confidence in that imager.
Hauser:	With infrared readings, it’ll record any living organisms that have crossed the landscape in the past week.
Shelby:	Every lizard? Every kangaroo? How’re we going to tell if it’s the girl?
Hauser:	It uses traces of heat to build up an image. It’s foolproof. If she’s out here, we’ll find her.
Shelby:	Yeah? How about something a little more conventional? Tire tracks. So much for your high tech.

---

Jakamarra:

So the whale woman was saved from her enemies and hidden by the old people in the crystal cavern but it turned out that she’d brought a rock with her. An amazing rock that glowed in the dark. The old people thought it was magical, a rock that turned night into day. So they made the whale woman their leader. She lived with them for many years and shared her wisdom until one day, a huge bird like an eaglehawk, came out of the sky, picked up the whale woman and flew away. And that’s the dreamtime story of how my people got the gift of light.

Jason:

You’re not going to fly away and leave us, are you, Neri?

---

Dianne:	Can you beat those PRAXIS people? They’ve code locked it.
Winston:	Must have. Let’s go.
Dianne:	You got a screwdriver?
Winston:	Yes, but it’s strictly against protocol.
Dianne:	Do it!
Winston:	I wouldn’t want Brett and Cass to know about this.
Dianne:	They won’t. But we have to break into the PRAXIS system.
Winston:	What on earth?
Dianne:	I thought you were still in bed. And what do you mean by breaking in.
Brett:	What about you two? It’s okay, mum. I won’t tell if you don’t. Quick, close the door.
Cass:	Shhh!
Brett:	Cass is just about to break the code.
Cass:	Yeah! The signals clear.
Brett:	Great. Now all we’ve got to do is monitor all seven PRAXIS frequencies.

---

Shelby:	Gotcha. Okay, guys, come on out.

(music)

Shelby:	So, where are they?

---

Jakamarra:	Sorry about the footwork, folks. My people don’t like vehicles driven across this country. They say bad spirits sleep under the ground. It’s best to let them lie. It’s a good thing we broke camp early.

---

(Radio chatter)

Winston:	Yes, yes. I have something.
Cass:	Okay!
Richter:	Your conclusions about this man appear to be quite wrong, agent Shelby. The fingerprint check of the glass revealed him to be a professor Miles Malakat, a master of antiquities from the sorbonne and now a swiss citizen. Shelby, he’s perfectly normal. Human.
Shelby:	Just goes to show you can’t trust an anonymous tip off, sir.
Richter:	Where are you now?
Hauser:	Still at the campsite sir.
Richter:	The others have gone ahead on foot? What are you waiting for?
Hauser:	We’re still trying to pick up their movements.
Richter:	Right. Keep calling in.
Dianna:	Can you get a fix on that radio signal?
Cass:	I can try.
Richter:	I want a report every hour.

---

Jason:	They’re not following.
Jakamarra:	Like I said, this is sickness country. Bad things happen to those who don’t respect [?] laws.

---

Hauser:	No, it’s completely dead.
Shelby:	Why for crying out loud, just when we’re in spitting distance, should the image suddenly cut right out.
Hauser:	Well, agent, in a nutshell, if you’d checked the database, then you’d know this area is rich in untapped uranium deposits.
Shelby:	So?
Hauser:	So, uranium is a highly radioactive substance. It’s blocking the signal.
Shelby:	Oh, great.

---

(music)

Richter:	How far can they have got on foot? I thought you were close behind.
Hauser:	We were, sir. Only we lost the image.
Richter:	Care to tell me why?
Shelby:	Obvious, sir. We’re over uranium deposits.
Winston:	Uranium deposits?
Hauser:	Yes, sir. They’ve blocked our reception.
Richter:	Well, get it fixed, Hauser.
Shelby:	Yes, sir.
Dianne:	At least that narrows the field.
Cass:	Where are there uranium deposits in the outback?

---

Shelby:	What?
Malakat:	Good morning. May we be of assistance? Or is it that you don’t accept help from civilians either?
Shelby:	Why, if it isn’t the master of antiquities.
Malakat:	It is indeed. And I suspect we’re here on the same mission.
Shelby:	Maybe.
Malakat:	You realize, of course, the girl needs constant water. So we must check all the waterholes between here and the cavern. The cavern to which she will surely be returning.
Shelby:	Our equipment’s shot. How’re we going to find any waterholes?
Hauser:	And maps don’t depend on microchips.
Malakat:	Quite so. Now, perhaps we can locate the girl together.

---

Hauser:	If we continue traveling south-southwest, we should come to a…

(Beeping)

Shelby:	To a what? A pit stop at the end of the universe.
Hauser:	The imager’s working again.

---

Dianne:	What’s happened?
Cass:	PRAXIS have radioed headquarters again. Their scanner’s started working.
Winston:	And this time, we could pinpoint the signal. Within two miles of a big uranium ground.
Dianne:	Paul, are you there?
Paul:	Yes, Dianne.
Dianne:	PRAXIS are back on the air. Quadrant six, 143 degrees longitude and 24 degrees latitude do you copy?
Paul:	Copy you, over.

---

Jason:	Neri.
Jakamarra:	Let’s go.
Malakat:	Yes.
Jakamarra:	This way.
Shelby:	We gotcha now.
Jakamarra:	Faster!
Jason:	Neri!
Hauser:	Thanks.
Jason:	Great.
Shelby:	This way. Okay, everyone cool it. I’ll handle this.
Paul:	Hold it there. Release the girl.
Shelby:	No way, commander. You’re out of your jurisdiction.
Jason:	Wait! Why are you just taking her? They’re aliens, too.
Hauser:	You’re wrong. Our people have checked them out.
Paul:	Then your people are wrong.
Shelby:	Our people are never wrong.
Malakat:	A most interesting point of contention. I’m afraid we must keep to our original schedule. If you’ll excuse us.

(music)

Neri:	Go, Jason, go! Go, Jason, they must not have the ankh!
Paul:	Quick.
Malakat:	Stop them!
Shersheba:	No!

(music)