Thunderstone

Apra:
I messed up during the raid.

Drako:
How?

Apra:
I used your name.

Drako:
Learn from it. Let them try and trace it. After all, I haven't been born yet.

Drako:
Together we win or together we die!

Arushka:
You've made an enemy of a Nomad. Do you know what a bad idea that is?

Rolf:
No, and I don't care. Because you're the one who's locked up in here and I'm the one who controls the lock and your food and water supply.

Arushka:
Yeah, but the door's solid. You've got to come in to feed me, right? Look, I've been held prisoner before. I always find a way out.

Hal Bradbury:
Noah Daniels, it's an honor to talk to you.

Noah Daniels:
Yeah, likewise, Hal.

Hal Bradbury:
I'll cut straight to the chase. There's an opening on the show this afternoon. I wanna talk to you about what you've done.

Noah Daniels:
That's old news, Hal. You think people still wanna hear about all that?

Hal Bradbury:
Noah, you're the boy who discovered time travel. You're the boy who saved the world.

Noah Daniels:
Well, maybe this boy was just in the wrong place at the right time or-or the other way around.

Arushka:
Who are you, anyway? And why do you give the orders?

Drako:
Because I do. That's all you need to know.

Arushka:
If this is E-Delta, then where's everybody else?

Drako:
When we picked you up on Earth, what year was it?

Arushka:
2020.

Drako:
Here, it's 2065. It's 45 years since the first colonists came through the wormhole to E-Delta. The adults are gone. Double-crossed by good old planet Earth.

Arushka:
Why?

Drako:
It was war, Arushka. War between us and them. And I'm still fighting it.

Arushka:
Yeah, but that's no excuse for raiding Noah's house. We weren't at war with anyone.

Drako:
We want Noah.

Arushka:
Why?

Drako:
Revenge.

Arushka:
Revenge? What's he ever done to you?

Drako:
Noah Daniels left us for dead, and now he's gonna pay for it.

Drako:
Let's go hunting!

Drako:
Can't we just relax and talk?

Arushka:
What's there to talk about? I just want to go home.

Drako:
Why? What's there for you?

Arushka:
My friends.

Drako:
Believe me, Arushka. You'll never be happy 'til you move on from that old life and make a new one.

Arushka:
What, here? With a bunch of terrorists like you?

Drako:
We're not terrorists. We're fighting for something we believe in. You of all people should understand that. You're a leader like me.

Arushka:
No. You're not what I call a leader. You rule by fear.

Drako:
That's the price of survival. Anyway, it won't always be like that, I can assure you. You know, you should forget about Noah. You won't be seeing him again.

Arushka:
No. I'll never forget Noah. He's my friend.

Drako:
Haven't I given you everything you wanted? Freedom of the bioplex, time to see that animal.

Arushka:
Freedom? You call this being free? At home, I have a wildlife reserve to look after. With hundreds of birds and animals who know more about freedom than you ever will. And being with them is my life.

Noah Daniels:
Look at the kind of garbage they used to print. "Aliens kidnapped me." If you ask me, these old-timers had some really serious perception problems. Maybe it was a religion. See, there's nothing in the holo-education disks about this. All they say is that the possibility of alien lifeforms was a subject of interest. But this isn't an interest. This is a pathological obsession.

Myah:
You! You've changed time.

Noah Daniels:
I've changed history

Myah:
What, so we no longer exist?

Noah Daniels:
Not in this dimension.

Monsoon:
And now, who do I have the intense pleasure of meeting in the Nomad compound?

Liz Daniels:
We're Noah's parents.

Becky Daniels:
And his sister.

Monsoon:
Ahh.

Becky Daniels:
'Ahh' what?

Monsoon:
The family of Noah the Great.

General Ivan Cardell:
In three hours, the Nemesis Comet will enter our atmosphere heading straight to mid-ocean. We are looking at a full scale disaster. The intruder will plune into the Earth's crust, releasing billions of tons of boiling lava. Tidal waves will sweep the continents. There'll be earthquakes, fires, universal destruction. Every living creature on the surface of the Earth will be killed.

[Proprietress is filling the Beast with gas]

Proprietress:
Where'd you get this old rattletrap?

Noah Daniels:
Ah, this has... been in the family for years.

Proprietress:
Looks like it could've come out of the Ark. What's your name, anyway?

Noah Daniels:
Noah.

Proprietress:
That'd be right.

Chip:
Suppose it doesn't work.

Noah Daniels:
What?

Chip:
The energy source. Suppose it doesn't work. You'd be stuck here for good, wouldn't you?

Arushka:
It's just what your own people had to do when this comet fell, wasn't it? To go on, become something new. Could you be one of us, Noah? A Nomad?

Arushka:
Kwan, tell him the legend.

Kwan:
It was in my parent's parent's time. Legend says it was in the greening known as 2.

Noah Daniels:
2. And, uh, what did you mean by thundering?

Kwan:
Shaking and a terrible fire. Then, the death of the world followed by years of cold.

Noah Daniels:
Yeah, that's it. The Nemesis Comet. And you say your family survived.

Kwan:
50 greenings ago, our tribe made a great journey to find Haven, where the grass and trees had started to grow again.

Noah Daniels:
Greenings. And you said your time was...

Geneva:
The 8-5 greening. Yes.

Noah Daniels:
The 85th greening. So if the comet was in the second greening, a greening is a year. So that makes this 2085.

Arushka:
That means nothing to us.

Noah Daniels:
All right, all right. Let's just call this the 8-5 greening and-and leave it at that. The point is that I live in North Col in 2020, so I've jumped ahead... 65 years. 65 greenings.

Sundance:
Not very trusty, this time travel thing, is it? How do we know you won't mess it up again next time?

Geneva:
He's doing his best.

Noah Daniels:
To tell you the truth, it's unpredictable. You never know what's gonna happen on the other end.

Liz Daniels:
He's clearly traveling back and forth to a time before the comet.

Dr. Pretorius:
Undoubtedly. The animals show that. The question is, traveling where? And how? We're still no closer to duplicating what it is he's done.

Becky Daniels:
Why don't you try asking him? I mean if the PH-Ts can communicate him to us, couldn't it work the other way around, too?

Arushka:
We have to go back. Just one more time.

Noah Daniels:
Back?

Arushka:
Back to before the comet. To the circus.

Noah Daniels:
Are you out of your mind?

Arushka:
Otherwise Moshi will be all alone here. We have to bring back more animals.

Arushka:
I don't really want to go. I'll miss the animals too much.

Ivana:
You won't like it if you stay here. These people will steal your soul.

Jennifer Wilde:
Please, could you tell me where you're from?

Arushka:
I come from Haven, a place with no animals.

Jennifer Wilde:
Haven? Is that a suburb or what?

Arushka:
There are no animals because...

Jennifer Wilde:
Because?

Arushka:
Because it's a... it's a place in your future.

Noah Daniels:
Who is he?

Arushka:
It's okay, Noah. Monsoon's a friend.

Monsoon:
Noah. Surely not the Noah.

Noah Daniels:
The only one I know.

Monsoon:
The noble youth who rescued all Haven from the rule of the terrible Protectors. Who fought evil for the good of the people.

Noah Daniels:
Aw, come on. Give me a break.

Geneva:
See, Noah? You're famous all over Haven.

Liz Daniels:
He did say he was coming straight back?

Becky Daniels:
That's what he said.

Simon Daniels:
Well, if he's made it to Haven and teamed up with Arushka and the Nomads, I can't see him dragging himself away too quickly.

Noah Daniels:
I thought Haven was supposed to be a peaceful place these days.

Geneva:
I guess we can't expect things to be the way they used to be.

Kwan:
Yeah, you've been gone a while. Things change.

Arushka:
And unless you find a power source for your PH-Ts, you better get used to it.

Tao:
What ideas are in your head, warrior girl?

Arushka:
I'm not a warrior. I hate fighting. It's a waste of time.

Sundance:
Sometimes you have uses, time traveler.

Noah Daniels:
Thanks, Sundance. I aim to please.

Sundance:
Well, you know, if you did get stuck here, it mightn't be all that bad.

Noah Daniels:
For who? You or me?

Sundance:
Both of us. I could show you stuff, you could show me stuff.

Noah Daniels:
Eh, what sort of stuff could you show me?

Sundance:
How to live here, how to survive in this land.

Noah Daniels:
In exchange for?

Sundance:
Words. [hands Noah a book] Teach me how to read.

Noah Daniels:
So, who... who or what are these Protectors?

Arushka:
They hunt...

Chip:
Humans.

Noah Daniels:
This is great. What makes it taste so sweet?

Geneva:
Tree sap. Kwan likes sweet things.

Kwan:
Thank you, Geneva. Let's keep my cooking secrets in the family.

Noah Daniels:
Tastes a lot better than the soy beef we have at North Col.

Kwan:
What's soy beef?

Noah Daniels:
It's, um, uh, fake beef. You know, meat. The flesh of cattle.

Arushka:
People eat animals? How could they?

Noah Daniels:
People need protien. You must eat animals, too, don't you?

Arushka:
There are no animals in Haven.

Arushka:
Where are you from?

Noah Daniels:
You're not gonna believe this.

Kwan:
Try us.

Noah Daniels:
I've come from the future. I've traveled back in time to this primitive place.

Chip:
You a nutter or something?

Noah Daniels:
I don't wanna worry you but this has to be the past.

Kwan:
What makes you think that?

Noah Daniels:
What other explanation can there be? I mean, there's sunlight here, there's heat. We saw vehicles out there. The world just... just isn't like that anymore.

Noah Daniels:
All those lights up there, they're real stars, aren't they?

Chip:
Duh.

Noah Daniels:
It's just I've never seen real stars before.

Geneva:
Don't you have stars in North Col?

Noah Daniels:
No. I mean, I've heard of them, Mum and Dad have told me, but I never imagined they'd be like this. It's unreal.

Becky Daniels:
I don't care what anyone says. Noah's not dead. I'd feel it if he was.

Noah Daniels:
Dr. Pretorius, you think other human beings survived the Nemesis Comet?

Dr. Pretorius:
Some may have sheltered in caves or the like. Certainly there were other underground facilities like North Col in the world.

Noah Daniels:
So, it's possible we're not alone.

Dr. Pretorius:
One thing is certain: we'll never know as long as this impact winter lasts.

Liz Daniels:
You'd better wear all three sweaters, Noah, or you'll freeze.

Noah Daniels:
I'll be fine, Mum. It's great up there.

Becky Daniels:
Um, you want to do vent cleaning duty?

Noah Daniels:
I'd rather do a month topside than miss one trip in the holodeck.

Dr. Pretorius:
As well as the Earth and the other planets orbiting the sun, an infinite number of smaller bodies circulating. Meteors, asteroids.

Noah Daniels:
Comets.

Dr. Pretorius:
Precisely. And sooner or millions of years later, those smaller bodies disintegrate, like when they orbit too closely and are drawn towards a planet and smash into it's crust.

Noah Daniels:
Uh, like when the dinosaurs got wiped out.

Dr. Pretorius:
Yes. 65 million years ago. Far too long ago for anyone to be caring about. They certainly didn't believe it would happen again. Not to them.

Noah Daniels:
But it did.

Dr. Pretorius:
Another super-comet. The Nemesis Comet. First appeared in our skies orbiting dangerously close.

Noah Daniels:
And they prepare a nuclear defense.

Dr. Pretorius:
So they thought. Eventually, they were able to calculate it's course. A fifty-fifty chance that it would strike the Earth. And still the people weren't told. The arsenals were ready, the firing solutions were set, minus two days, it's coming. No argument.

Noah Daniels:
Nothing to be done.

Dr. Pretorius:
Except stand and gape. You could see it descending. First, as big as the full moon. Thirty seconds, three times as big as the moon. Ten seconds, you couldn't shield it with your hand. It began to glow red. The glare filled the sky. The sea boiled. There was no escape for man or beast. No shelter, no comfort, no time to realize that doomsday had come.

Noah Daniels:
Look at that. A city.

Arushka:
Such big boxes.

Noah Daniels:
Boxes? People lived in them. Worked in them. Millions of people all crammed in there together with their millions of cars. Poverty, dirt, crime, smog. You would not want to stay here.

Arushka:
But they have animals. Real animals.

Noah Daniels:
And in three years from now, the comet'll hit and all of this will be gone, including us if we don't get out now.

Arushka:
All these animals... will die?

Noah Daniels:
Yes. In the circus, in the wild, everywhere. None of them will survive.

Arushka:
This is why there are no animals in Haven.

Tao:
They can run but there's no place to hide.

Noah Daniels:
If this is a nightmare, I hope I wake up really, really soon.

Arushka:
Perhaps that's how it is where Noah comes from, hey? Too much knowing, and not enough feeling.

Geneva:
You've been asleep for ages and you're still tired?

Noah Daniels:
Time traveling with Arushka takes a lot out of you.

Tao:
You must be the clever one. Who are you?

Noah Daniels:
Listen, I just want to access your power supply.

Tao:
Share my technology with a Nomad? [laughs] Come on.

Noah Daniels:
I am not a Nomad.

Tao:
Then what are you?

Noah Daniels:
I'm not from here. Things are very different where I come from.

Tao:
Different? How?

Noah Daniels:
We're civilized, for a start. You call yourself a leader. You're a barbarian.

Tao:
Is that right?

Noah Daniels:
Well, you terrorize people, even little kids. It's pathetic.

Tao:
Brainwashed by Arushka. What a waste.

Noah Daniels:
She has nothing to do with it.

Tao:
Then why does the fearless, clever one need my power source?

Sundance:
He is trouble.

Noah Daniels:
Well, yeah, I saved your life, didn't I? Even though he grabbed me in the desert and tied me up.

Arushka:
I told Sundance to watch you. If you tried to run, he was to capture you.

Chip:
In case you're a spy.

Noah Daniels:
Listen, I'm a junior citizen of North Col. I haven't got an enemy in the world. I live a normal life with my mum, dad and sister and all I wanna do right now is get back home to them.

Arushka:
What's your place like? Your-your home.

Noah Daniels:
Different. It's a... it's a different time.

Arushka:
Time?

Noah Daniels:
Oh, I belong in the future. Like, officially, I haven't been born yet, if you can handle that idea.

Arushka:
Well, is it safe there?

Noah Daniels:
Well, no one's trying to send kids down the mines. Uh, we don't get sick. Don't have to worry about animals.

Arushka:
No animals. Like Haven.

Noah Daniels:
And no grass and trees and stuff. See, we live underground because in the future... Never mind.

Kwan:
In the future what?

Noah Daniels:
Forget it. You don't want to know.