“Better Than Martians”

Directed by: David Kemper & Dan Brecher

Written by: John T. Kretchmer

Summary: Commander Scott Keller and his crew are returning from the first manned mission to Mars when their capsule crash lands in the Pacific Ocean and starts sinking. The seaQuest is dispatched to rescue the group, but things are complicated by a Vietnamese president in search of a public relations coup, a mutinous army general planning to hold the astronauts hostage, and freak currents pushing the space capsule in the opposite direction from the seaQuest.

Guest Starring:

Kent McCord as Commander Scott Keller

James Shigeta as Vietnamese President Hoi Chi

Steve Williams as U.S. President

Aki Aleong as Army General Tran

Una Damon as Sakata

Richard Herd as Admiral William Noyce

Co-Starring:

none

Featuring:

David Lodge as Reporter, Scott Shevlet

Ellen Leyva as Female Reporter, Allison Castle

The twenty-first century ... Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on Earth – the ocean. As Captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians; for beneath the surface, lies the future.

Scott Keller: Have you ever looked up at the night sky and dreamed of flying to another planet, sitting on top of a thundering rocket as the Earth fell away beneath you? But if there were no other reasons than to go into space, the awesome challenge would have been enough. That’s part of why we went to Mars. Some say the enormous cost of our mission would have been better spent at home; thousands of causes are more worthy than mapping the red planet’s polar ice caps. I understand their concerns, but I also see advances from our mission benefiting everyone back home on Earth. One thing’s for certain though, just the thrill of what we did could galvanize an entire generation of explorers and scientists. Think what they might be able to accomplish.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) After decades of research, four hundred billion dollars, and two years since lifting off from Earth, the first manned mission to Mars is about to come home. Now, all activity here on Earth has come to a virtual halt, much as it did when the Wayfarer’s Commander, Scott Keller, took his first historic step on the red planet nearly one year ago. Twenty-four months ago the two man, two woman...

Manilow Crocker: (comes over) Mr. Ortiz, Mr. O’Neill, we’re about ready for ... for the, uh... (notices screen)

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) ...and in less than one hour, its descent slowed by three giant parachutes, the Wayfarer capsule will triumphantly glide into the Atlantic Ocean, it’s eighty million mile round trip voyage complete...

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck -

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) ...Represented by the world’s four preeminent space programs, the Mars mission symbolizes the global cooperative commitment, (Lucas walks over, looks at scientist) to learning more about our planet as well as the rest of the solar system. (Krieg walks over, sees Lucas) Led by American Commander Scott Keller, (Krieg turns Lucas’s head back to screen) the Wayfarer team has now spent three straight years together... (Lucas looks back at scientist)

- seaQuest DSV, ward room -

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) ...After being selected from hundreds of highly qualified astronauts and scientists, the crew endured one year of rigorous training in Houston and Florida before taking off on their historical voyage. Now, the world excitedly awaits for the Wayfarer crew to emerge from their capsule...

Katie Hitchcock: Jonathan, are you looking? Jonathan? (points at screen, Ford stops typing and looks)

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) ...with answers to the mysteries about the red planet which have intrigued scientists, as well as laymen for hundreds of years. Now, if you look up into the sky you’ll see...

- under water, coral reef, near seaQuest -

Kristin Westphalen: This regrowth is spectacular, Nathan, but, shouldn’t we be getting back?

Nathan Bridger: There’s one more slope of the reef I want to see.

Kristin Westphalen: I think it’s what you don’t want to see that’s keeping you out here.

Nathan Bridger: Your professional opinion is I can’t stop history just by avoiding it?

Kristin Westphalen: I think that’s the way it works, yes.

Nathan Bridger: All right, all right, let’s go back.

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck, by the moon pool -

Kristin Westphalen: (taking off air tank) That reef has grown all the way back. There is life everywhere.

Nathan Bridger: People have done a terrific job.

Darwin: Many fish, good food.

Nathan Bridger: Oh, yeah, everybody’s got their own agenda. (Bridger climbs out of water)

Kristin Westphalen: (laughs) Oh, I suppose we better go and see how your friend is getting along.

Nathan Bridger: I suppose. (grabs towel)

Kristin Westphalen: (drying off) The world’s in love with space travel again, there goes our funding. They’ll trade living reefs for a few alien rocks.

Nathan Bridger: The pendulum swings both ways, it’ll come back again. (into comlink) Mr. O’Neill.

Tim O’Neill: (on comlink) Here, Captain.

Nathan Bridger: What do you say we listen in, on my old friend Scott?

Tim O’Neill: (on bridge, into headset) Aye, sir, tapping into secure transmission.

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) Roger mission control, beginning de-orbit burn flight routes. Coming back at you one six eight zero four four two nine

- Wayfarer capsule, entering Earth’s atmosphere -

Scott Keller: I’ve reloaded new coordinates, we match perfectly. You copy, Houston?

NASA Dispatcher: Roger, you guys look sweet on a cross range re-entry at nine three eight miles. We’re showing AV Bay Fan Alpha hot. See what you can do.

Scott Keller: Roger mission control, AV Bay Fan Alpha switched off, speed seventeen thousand miles per hour.

Sakata: We’re captured by atmosphere, point oh five gravity and building.

Scott Keller: Deorbit angle of attack, minus point three five degrees. We’re beginning ionized burn.

NASA Dispatcher: Nice flying, Scott. We’ve got a circuit breaker in R-7 we’d like you to push back in.

Scott Keller: I see it, Houston. Freon loop on bravo, engaged.

Sakata: Engaging bravo, that’s a roger. Got a problem here, Scott. Stuck thruster on four.

Scott Keller: Re-engage.

Sakata: No response.

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck -

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) Stabilize.

Sakata: (on loudspeaker) Too late.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Houston, we’re tumbling.

Sakata: (on Wayfarer) No response at stick.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Shutting down thermal hydraulics.

Sakata: (on Wayfarer) Switching to rate gyros.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Inertial platform engaged.

NASA Dispatcher: (on loudspeaker) Talk to me, Wayfarer.

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) Guys, we’re heating up.

Nathan Bridger: Come on Scott-man, pull her out.

Sakata: (on Wayfarer) Eight ball’s gone crazy.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) We’re losing control authority.

NASA Dispatcher: (on loudspeaker) We’ve lost you on our screens, Wayfarer. Do you copy? Come in, Wayfarer. Scott, are you there?

Scott Shevlet: (on screen) ...As a matter of fact, we’re told everything is going A-OK.

- Indian Ocean, off Christmas Island, seaQuest DSV, ward room -

Allison Castle: We’re not getting any concrete information from space command yet, but I’ve got to speculate that Wayfarer’s crew is dead. I don't, I don’t know how to put into words what I’m feeling at this moment to have such a triumph turn so quickly into tragedy. We’re standing by for further confirmation...

Nathan Bridger: (entering) Ready, Mr. O’Neill.

Tim O’Neill: (on loudspeaker) Aye, sir, on screen.

Nathan Bridger: How bad is it, Bill?

William Noyce: (on screen) Commander Keller got some semblance of control thirty miles up. We estimate they hit at six times the safe velocity.

Nathan Bridger: Where?

William Noyce: (on screen) They crashed in the Andaman Sea off Burma. That’s why I’m calling you.

Nathan Bridger: That’ll take us ten hours to get there. Why don’t you send some jet copters?

William Noyce: (on screen) Well, the capsule sank on impact. We don’t know exactly where or how deep, but we have reason to believe that some of them are still alive. A signal buoy popped to the surface ten minutes ago. It’s attached to the capsule by wire, it can only be activated manually. Nathan, we have no recovery assets in the area.

Nathan Bridger: We’ll plot a course immediately. (to Hitchcock) Prepare to get underway.

Katie Hitchcock: Aye, sir. (leaves with Ford)

William Noyce: (on screen) Nathan, you’ll be entering Montagnard Confederation waters, you’ll have to go on military alert.

Nathan Bridger: Why? We’ll radio ahead, it’s a rescue mission. (screen turns to President)

President: (on screen) Ah, Captain Bridger.

Nathan Bridger: Mr. President.

President: (on screen) Captain, I’m sure you’re aware of Southeast Asia’s bitter war over ocean floor mineral rights. Every vessel passing through the area gets fired on by one side or the other.

Nathan Bridger: We’re prepared for that.

President: (on screen) I’ve received assurances by all sides that no one will stand in your way, but this is now a military recovery.

Nathan Bridger: Sir, with all due respect, our mission –

President: (on screen) Your vessel’s been loaned to me for the next ten hours. Hell, it was our tax dollars that built you.

Nathan Bridger: There were some private grants.

President: (on screen) Just do it my way. Any questions?

Nathan Bridger: No, sir.

- Southeast Asian Peninsula, Presidential Villa, Montagnard Confederation -

Hoi Chi: I’ve given the United States my assurance. Thank you for your kind advice, gentlemen. (two men leave room) Why must you always be so hard line, Tran?

General Tran: Mr. President, I do not trust the United States.

Hoi Chi: It’s a new world, Tran, you must wake up to that.

General Tran: As young boys, even living in different countries, we shared the same experience: the Americans tell us they will leave in two years, they mean twenty; they say two hours, they mean two years.

Hoi Chi: I promised not to impede their search, hardly an invitation to colonialism. Without overtly interfering, I’d like to find the capsule first.

General Tran: But why, Mr. President?

Hoi Chi: It’s time the Montagnards made headlines without death and destruction as the banner. Now go and rescue the astronauts.

General Tran: Yes, sir.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Nathan Bridger: OK people, what do we have?

Katie Hitchcock: Well, we got a rough idea of where the capsule went down. GPS satellite has it in the mid-Andaman Sea, right in the middle of the war zone.

Jonathan Ford: They’re drifting due west in the Indian counter-current at five knots. Intercept course already plotted.

Nathan Bridger: Make way, full speed.

Kristin Westphalen: We do still have teams out studying the reef.

Nathan Bridger: We’ll send a launch out until we return. Prepare the hyperbaric chamber, we’ll have to put those core samples into quarantine. Lieutenant Krieg.

Ben Krieg: (comes over) Yes, sir.

Nathan Bridger: You’re gonna be in charge of the rescue effort. Check with medical on supplies.

Ben Krieg: Right away. (leaves with Westphalen)

Nathan Bridger: Lieutenant O’Neill?

Tim O’Neill: The Wayfarer’s back-up radio has a sub-surface capability, Captain; high frequency, narrow band, short range.

Miguel Ortiz: I could deploy the WISKRS in a curved hydrophone array, if we stacked the signals.

Nathan Bridger: Give it a shot once we get further up the Sumatra coastline. (Ortiz leaves) Oh, and bone up on your Montagnard dialects.

Tim O’Neill: Aye, sir. (Bridger walks over to moon pool)

Darwin: Darwin help.

Nathan Bridger: Yes, we have a long way to travel but I have no doubt that you will. Chief, (Crocker comes over) as of this moment, we are on military alert.

Manilow Crocker: Aye, Cap. (walks away) Hold it, private. Bring your teams to full alert.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge, later -

Crewman: All stations ready at full tactical alert.

Tim O’Neill: Captain, I’ve got the Wayfarer.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) I know somebody’s listenin’, so pick up the phone. This is command capsule Wayfarer calling anybody who’s out there.

Nathan Bridger: (on radio of Wayfarer) Wayfarer, we read you. Signal sounds like you’re under water.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Well, it’s funny you should mention that. You have a very familiar voice.

Nathan Bridger: It's Nathan Bridger, Scott.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Oh, God, (laughs) don’t tell me we crashed near your island hideaway.

Nathan Bridger: I’m on the seaQuest now.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) What happened? It break down, they have to bring you back to fix it?

Nathan Bridger: Well, under the circumstances I don’t think you have much to crow about.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) What are you talking about? Eighty million miles and this is our first little fender bender. Bet you run into things with that submarine of yours all the time.

Nathan Bridger: Nice to hear your voice, Scott.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Likewise, Nathan. Tell me you’re close by.

Nathan Bridger: I can’t, we’re about eight hours away.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Oh boy. Where’s everybody else?

Nathan Bridger: We’re it. What’s your status?

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Well, Petrovich’s got a lot of broken bones, the rest of us are banged up pretty good too. I've got a slow leak and this water’s getting awful cold.

Nathan Bridger: Great, just give us the details.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Well, we’re about forty feet deep. Floatation column only partially deployed, it’s all that's keeping us from going to the bottom. I’m in your world now, Nathan, got any ideas?

Nathan Bridger: Well, you could bleed some of your pressurized air into the cabin. That’ll keep the water from seeping in.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) And when we run out?

Nathan Bridger: I’ll rescue you.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Yeah, and never let me live it down.

Nathan Bridger: Not a chance. Now listen carefully, I want to put some of my people on.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Wait a minute, before you go, Nathan, what’s the security clearance on your crew?

Nathan Bridger: You can speak freely.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Well, you know we took a lot of geologic core samples all over the Martian surface.

Nathan Bridger: Of course. Any signs of life?

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) In a big way: Yuwenia Bentleyi.

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck -

Darwin: Lucas, what is Mars?

Lucas Wolenczak: It’s another planet. It’s, uh, it’s kinda like a new island.

Darwin: How far is island Mars?

Nathan Bridger: (walking in) Too far for you to swim, that’s for sure. About a hundred trillion dollars away.

Kristin Westphalen: (laughs as Bridger walks over) We’re a fine pair of scientists, aren’t we? Life is discovered on another planet and we’re both miserable.

Nathan Bridger: What’s your excuse?

Kristin Westphalen: I remember seeing you on TV years ago.

Nathan Bridger: You saw me on TV?

Kristin Westphalen: Lobbying the Appropriations Committee to try and finish building seaQuest. And you nearly lost to Space Command.

Nathan Bridger: There was one senator that wanted to build an orbiting brewery.

Kristin Westphalen: (disgusted) Futurists.

Nathan Bridger: Oh, it was a bad day all around. I remember, after the testimony Carol and I went out to dinner, just to be alone, get away from it all. And that was the night we got the call, that our son Robert had been killed in action. I never went back to that shipyard.

Kristin Westphalen: Let me show you what your friend Scott found. Meet Yuwenia Bentleyi.

Nathan Bridger: Sounds like a ballerina.

Kristin Westphalen: Yeah, but she’s a snail. No, she's a primeval earth mollusk, I assume that your friend found fossils of similar creatures.

Nathan Bridger: I assumed he’d find algae or other microorganisms.

Kristin Westphalen: This kind of evolution proves that there was water on ancient Mars for a considerable period of time.

Nathan Bridger: You gotta hand it to him, Scott. (ship rocks) Bridge, what the hell is going on here.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Jonathan Ford: Reverse engines. Still determining, Captain.

Miguel Ortiz: Contact lost with lead WSKR, sir.

Jonathan Ford: Freeze WSKRS, Mr. Ortiz.

Miguel Ortiz: Frozen, sir, all stop on EVAs.

Manilow Crocker: All stop on main drive.

Katie Hitchcock: It’s a mine field, Captain, we’re in the middle of a mine field.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge, a little later -

Jonathan Ford: (as Bridger and Westphalen enter) Sub surface mines, Captain, the bottom’s freshly disturbed, somebody just buried them.

Nathan Bridger: Who?

Miguel Ortiz: I’ve got an unidentified submersible leaving the other side of the mine field, no acoustical match to our library.

Nathan Bridger: Well, keep track of him as best you can.

Manilow Crocker: Cap, those are KSL-8 anti submarine detonators. They’re pressure wake activated.

Nathan Bridger: Who uses those in this area?

Manilow Crocker: Everybody.

Katie Hitchcock: Captain, should I put divers out to disarm the mines?

Nathan Bridger: No, we’ll just lose time that way.

Jonathan Ford: We can back away, re--route north.

Nathan Bridger: No, shortest distance between two points. We’ll have to make sacrifices to clear the mine field, starting with the WSKRS. (Ortiz grimaces) Now, now, we’ll buy you new toys once you get to Pearl.

Miguel Ortiz: Aye, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna send a WSKR out, blow up the mine field, and then move forward behind it.

Tim O’Neill: Captain, Commander Keller. Go ahead, Commander Keller, you’re patched in.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) How you doing, Nathan?

Nathan Bridger: (on radio of Wayfarer) Great, how are you, pal?

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Well this pressurized air business is slowing the water down, but it’s a losing battle.

Nathan Bridger: Well, if it looks like you’re going to sink, abandon the capsule, we’ll find you top side.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Can’t move Petrovich and I’m not gonna leave him. Besides, we haven’t felt Earth’s gravity for two years.

Kristin Westphalen: Muscle atrophy would leave them too weak to free swim to the surface. I’ll go and speak to him.

Nathan Bridger: I’ll drive faster, Scott.

Kristin Westphalen: Commander, Doctor Westphalen, tell me a little about your condition. Any signs of nitrogen narcosis?

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) None.

Kristin Westphalen: Good. Hypothermia?

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) Water temperature’s dropping rapidly.

Kristin Westphalen: All right, here’s what I want you to do....

- seaQuest DSV, bridge, later -

Jonathan Ford: We’re through the mine field, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Any WSKRS left?

Jonathan Ford: No, sir.

Nathan Bridger: How are you holding up?

Miguel Ortiz: Oh, I’m all right, sir. They died a good death. We’re in open water.

Nathan Bridger: Let’s dive into the nearest trench, take us off the map. (to Hitchcock and Crocker) Then, you two are going to come out of that trench in a launch, carrying about two hundred feet of reflective streamers. We’re going to make a really big signature.

Katie Hitchcock: So anybody tracking us will think we’re the seaQuest?

Nathan Bridger: Yes, exactly.

Manilow Crocker: Got you, Cap.

Nathan Bridger: Now, you can play havoc with their twelve mile limit if you want to, but just buy me time so we can slip out.

Katie Hitchcock: Yes, sir. (leaves with Crocker)

Nathan: (approaches O’Neill speaking in Vietnamese) Any luck?

Tim O’Neill: Well I made it all the way through to the Montagnard President’s summer home. The nearest I can figure it, why should they talk to you, when they can scream at our president.

Nathan Bridger: Tell them if they want to skip the middle man we can clear up this disagreement.

Tim O’Neill: Aye, sir, um, this isn’t my best language.

Nathan Bridger: Just don’t insult their Grandmothers.

Tim O’Neill: Aye, Captain. (returns to speaking in Vietnamese)

- Wayfarer -

Nathan Bridger: (on radio) Please, you're out of your mind. I don’t agree with you at all.

Scott Keller: What are you talking about Nathan, we command the two most sophisticated ships ever built.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I measure my accomplishments by how much they cost.

Scott Keller: Yeah, well you’re talking families and normal lives. Ambition eats those for breakfast.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) No, I’m talking cold hard cash.

Scott Keller: Well, here we go again.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Look, I applaud your finding life on Mars, but you always knew it was there.

Scott Keller: Yeah, well, the building blocks are universal and atoms do tend to combine.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Trophy to prove a thesis.

Scott Keller: Well what are you doin’ down here on the bottom of the ocean? I mean, you go out, and find little critters, put ‘em in a jar, hold them up to the light and you go “Whoopee, neat.”

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Them little critters have great implications for mankind.

Scott Keller: Yeah, well so do little critters on Mars. Only you have to go out there to find ‘em.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) I know what kind of life you’re really dreaming about finding, but until we learn to travel at the speed of light —

Scott Keller: Yeah, I know, it’s all one spectacular waste of money.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Four hundred billion dollars for a snail.

Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker in Bridger’s room) Nathan, if the world is captivated by it, they’ll allocate the funds for more research.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room, incredulously) He wants more.

Scott Keller: Hey, Nathan, if you don’t rescue me, you’re gonna lose your major competition for tax-payer dollars.

Nathan Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind, Scott-man. (Keller laughs)

- launch -

Katie Hitchcock: It's getting ugly here, Jonathan. We’ve got nine ships following us around and everybody’s targeting everybody else.

Jonathan Ford: (on radio) Just another half hour, Katie, keep up the good work. SeaQuest out.

Manilow Crocker: You know, my father fought along side the Montagnards in Vietnam. Those are some tough people.

Katie Hitchcock: Smart, too, looks like a few of them aren’t chasing us anymore

Manilow Crocker: Well, why don’t we, uh, cross over their twelve mile limit and see if we can’t get ‘em interested again, huh, Commander?

Katie Hitchcock: You got it, Chief.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Jonathan Ford: We’ve got their signal buoy locked in at thirty miles, Captain, but without WSKRS we can’t pinpoint the capsule itself until we’re closer.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Steam on in fellas, we got a nice little indoor swimmin’ hole here.

Nathan Bridger: Hang on, Scott, we’re almost there. Release the rescue launch.

- launch -

Ben Krieg: Roger, Commander, rescue launch on the move. Oh, I can’t wait to talk to these guys. Damn! Forgot my camera. I mean they lived on Mars for a month.

Kristin Westphalen: We live down here for longer than that.

Ben Krieg: Oh, not the same.

Kristin Westphalen: No, I entirely agree. You can hardly compare hurtling through space in a closet with building a livable habitat underwater. (sighs) It’s just that the whole of my professional life is at the end of a funding yo-yo and I sense the money that I need to complete my work going elsewhere.

Ben Krieg: Tell you what, when we get to the capsule, what do you say we mess with their snail samples?

Kristin Westphalen: In what way?

Ben Krieg: I don’t know. Make escargot? (Westphalen laughs)

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Miguel Ortiz: Unidentified sub approaching at eighteen degrees, sir.

Jonathan Ford: Is it the one that laid the mines?

Miguel Ortiz: Hard to tell. They’re putting out a lot of extra noise; they don’t mind us knowing where they are just so long as we don’t know who they are.

Jonathan Ford: (looks at Bridger, Bridger nods) Target solution on the intruder. Lock in and flood all tubes.

- Montagnard Confederation, Presidential Villa -

General Tran: The seaQuest beat us there. Mr. President, they are aiming at our rescue sub.

Hoi Chi: Well, we gave it a good try. Be supportive in any way we can.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Miguel Ortiz: They’re turning, sir, showing tail.

Jonathan Ford: Stand down from targeting sweeps.

Nathan Bridger: Nice job.

Jonathan Ford: Thank you, sir.

Ben Krieg: (on launch) Uh, seaQuest, we got trouble here.

Nathan Bridger: (on radio of launch) What is it, Lieutenant?

Ben Krieg: We found Wayfarer’s signal buoy on the surface, sir, but it’s not attached to anything. There’s no capsule here.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer, angrily) What’s he talkin’ about, Nathan? Where the hell are you?

Nathan Bridger: In the wrong place, Scott.

- launch -

Manilow Crocker: Commander.

Katie Hitchcock: Something’s locked on to us.

Manilow Crocker: Torpedo dead ahead.

Katie Hitchcock: Evasive maneuvers. Chief! (launch hit)

- Andaman Sea, west of Burma, seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Scott Keller: (on radio) What do you mean it broke off?

Nathan Bridger: Well, currents in this area are westward and that’s the way the beacon went, and that’s what we followed.

Scott Keller: (on radio) Then where the hell am I?

Jonathan Ford: Commander Ford here. There’s a freak sub-surface current running in the opposite direction, you were swept up in that.

Scott Keller: (on radio) Are you sure?

Jonathan Ford: Well, we’re locked on to your radio signal now. You’re on our navigation screens and you’re a hundred and twenty miles away.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) You wanna tell me about negative buoyancy again.

Nathan Bridger: Now we’re not gonna let that happen.

Scott Keller: (on Wayfarer) Don’t make any more promises you can’t keep, Nathan. I got three of the bravest damn people here; they been to Mars and back. Now, don’t you let ‘em die in your dinky little salt-water pond.

Nathan Bridger: Just keep broadcasting, Scott, forty minutes.

Ben Krieg: (comes over) Captain, there’s been no signal from Commander Hitchcock or Chief Crocker since the launch went down, and they were inside Montagnard territory.

Nathan Bridger: Have the UEO send out search choppers right away.

Ben Krieg: Yes, sir.

Tim O’Neill: SeaQuest calling UEO Command...

Nathan Bridger: (to Ford) I don’t care if you have to burn down the engine room and melt the drive train, get this boat to those astronauts.

- seaQuest DSV, Bridger’s room -

President: (on screen) I know you have problems I don’t understand, but I was told those astronauts would be safe by now.

William Noyce: (on screen) Mr. President, Captain Bridger has already explained about the sub-surface currents.

President: (on screen) I’m not interested in explanations. Captain, I assumed that you would take these things into consideration. And what the hell was that decoy stunt into Montagnard territory?

Nathan Bridger: I am in the middle of a tactical maneuver, there are lives at stake. That’s what dictates my actions.

President: (on screen) Don’t give me attitude, Captain.

William Noyce: (on screen) Question is, does you dislike of the space program play a part in this?

Lucas Wolenczak: (on screen) Oh, come on, you jerks.

Nathan Bridger: Lucas.

Lucas Wolenczak: (on screen) I’m sorry, Captain, I was just flipping through the communications band.

President: (on screen) I thought this was a secure channel.

William Noyce: (on screen) It is sir, that’s the Wolenczak boy I've been telling you about.

Lucas Wolenczak: (on screen) How could they possibly think you screwed up on purpose?

Nathan Bridger: Lucas, thank you, that’s enough. (Lucas disappears from screen) Mr. President, I’ll pretend the question wasn’t asked.

President: (on screen) I’m sorry, Captain, we’ll let you get back to your work..

Nathan Bridger: Thank you. (screen goes blank) So, what do you think?

Jonathan Ford: Sir?

Nathan Bridger: The beacon. Am I so petty that I’d refuse to anticipate something going wrong? Oh, come on, Jonathan, level with me.

Jonathan Ford: You doubt yourself because others do, or because you do?

Nathan Bridger: I know I’m not perfect. And today it really worries me.

Jonathan Ford: Than I think you all ready know the answer to that question. If you deliberately left your friend out there to die, you wouldn’t have the courage to ask yourself that.

Nathan Bridger: Thanks.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Nathan Bridger: OK, let’s nail this puppy down.

Miguel Ortiz: Sir, there are three Montagnard anti-submarine ships dead ahead on the surface. Our present course will take us directly beneath them.

Nathan Bridger: I know that. Tell me about the submarine.

Miguel Ortiz: There’s too much extra noise to make a positive ID, but I’m guessing she’s a German made Santa Rosa attack, or an Italian Torino class.

Nathan Bridger: How fast did she move?

Miguel Ortiz: Well within either's range.

Nathan Bridger: Depth?

Miguel Ortiz: Both boats can go that deep.

Nathan Bridger: Retreat path?

Miguel Ortiz: Due east, toward the coast, dove into a trench.

Nathan Bridger: Just as if she knew her way around, huh.

Miguel Ortiz: Like a Montagnard would, and they buy Santa Rosas.

- seaQuest DSV, ward room -

Tim O’Neill: Captain, Montagnard President, Hoi Chi.

Nathan Bridger: Thank you for taking our call, Mr. President.

Hoi Chi: (on screen) Your Lieutenant intimated trouble if I didn’t.

Nathan Bridger: I think we already have that, sir.

Hoi Chi: (on screen) Despite what your President intended, steaming around like a colonial power only inflames my enemies.

Nathan Bridger: I apologize for our behavior, we should never have been on military alert.

Hoi Chi: (on screen) And how does your hindsight explain breaching our twelve mile limit with a sea launch?

Nathan Bridger: My responsibility as well, born of circumstance.

Hoi Chi: (on screen) What could possibly motivate you to breach international law?