[A MUSIC BOX plays in the background]

 

DEVLYN:  Time for bed now.

 

RILEY: Daddy, are Martian’s friendly?

 

DEVLYN: They’re…complicated.

 

RILEY: Why?

 

DEVLYN:  Well, we are here as their guests. Think of it this way. You know how you didn’t want that one kid at school to be invited to your birthday party?

 

RILEY:  Alex.

 

DEVLYN:  Yeah, Alex.

 

RILEY: He showed up anyway.

 

DEVLYN: And were you mean to Alex?

 

RILEY: No.

 

DEVLYN: Was he mean to you?

 

RILEY: No.

 

DEVLYN:  Do you like Alex now?

 

RILEY: Not really.

 

DEVLYN: That’s OK. Your friendship with Alex is like ours with the Martian’s. We showed up to their birthday, uninvited, but they’ve been welcoming to us, and we haven’t been mean to them.

 

RILEY: Oh. But what if they want to be mean?

 

DEVLYN: Then your old Dad will have to teach them a lesson.

 

[Riley giggles]

 

DEVLYN: Now, get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.

​

[Eerie music fades in]

 

DEVLYN: As we descended into the planet’s core, to search for Mathias, we found much more than we bargained for. We thought we were prepared for what lay beneath the surface of the planet, but we soon discovered why no human, until now, had made the journey.

 

[Eerie music fades out]

 

SARAH:  Which way?  Damn it. I can’t find a path.

 

[The disembodied sound of a child giggling echoes through the air]

 

DEVLYN: Did you hear that?

 

THEO: Hear what?

 

DEVLYN: It’s this way.

 

RAVEN:  Are you sure?

 

DEVLYN: Yes.

 

THEO: How?

 

DEVLYN: I just am, all right?

 

[Footsteps]

 

THEO: We’re going in circles.

 

SARAH: Devlyn. Where are we going? Devlyn?

 

RILEY [Echoing]: Daddy?

 

DEVLYN:   Riley? Riley are you there?

 

SARAH: Raven? Raven Where are you?

 

HOG [Echoing]: Sarah.

 

SARAH: Hog?

 

HOG [Echoing]: You failed us, Sarah.

 

SARAH: No. No, I didn’t.

 

HOG [Echoing]: You let me die!

 

 

RAVEN: Sarah?! Sarah?!

 

CAPTAIN RICHARDS [Echoing]: You have failed your mission, lieutenant. You have brought shame to your rank and your unit.

 

RAVEN: Captain? No, I carried on with the mission.

 

CAPTAIN RICHARDS [Echoing]: You let your unit die!

 

RAVEN: There was nothing I could do.

 

CAPTAIN RICHARDS [Echoing]: It was your job to get them home.

 

RAVEN: No!

 

CAPTAIN RICHARDS [Echoing]: It was you who should have died.

 

RAVEN: No. It’s not my fault. There was nothing I could do!

 

 

 

DEVLYN: Riley? Where are you?

 

[The disembodied LAUGHTER of a CHILD echoes]

 

[Something rustles in the foliage]

 

RILEY [Echoing]: Daddy, help.

 

DEVLYN: I’m coming.

 

[Running footsteps]

 

DEVLYN: Riley? Riley, are you there?

 

RILEY [Echoing]: I’m in the cave, Daddy. Come and find me.

 

DEVLYN: Riley!

 

MATHIAS: Hello, Devlyn. It’s been a while.

 

[Footsteps]

 

THEO: Hello? Where the hell is everybody? Hello?

 

AARON [Echoing]: Theo.

 

THEO: Aaron?

 

AARON [Echoing]: You left me, Theo. We were supposed to be in this together.

 

THEO: Where are you?

 

AARON [Echoing]: This was our project. This was our discovery!

 

[Theo FIRES her blaster]

 

THEO:  Fuck you, Aaron. It was my breakthrough. It was my theory that got us here. I was the architect. You were just the assistant. Brought in to build my vision. You were always useless. I will see this through to the end, and it’ll be me, and only me, who will have made man’s greatest scientific achievement since we colonized the solar system.

 

 

DEVLYN: Mathias. Where’s Riley? Where is my daughter?

 

MATHIAS: I have to say, I’m surprised to see you here, Ranger. I thought you would have perished with the other earthlings on the surface. But that’s always been a thing with you humans. Showing up where you’re not wanted. And no matter how many of you die, more always appear.

 

DEVLYN:  I was just doing my job.

 

MATHIAS:  This is my planet. Those were my people you had slaughtered. Our land where your colony decided to build. And so, I took it back.

 

DEVLYN: What about the Martians you left on the surface? Didn’t they have some say? Yet you drew first blood.

 

MATHIAS: They are weak. Martian blood has always been strong. We were once the greatest military force in the universe. But our leaders chose to go underground. Hide from the prying eyes of earth lest we be attacked by its primitive inhabitants whose planetary might had barely just grazed the moon at that point.

 

DEVLYN:  You killed innocent people.

 

MATHIAS:  And you killed innocent Martians. Blood on both sides has been spilt. Why should you think that your people would live here without consequence? Your politicians try to scam us thinking we are naïve to their greed and treachery. Our planet is older, our civilization more evolved. I warned my people of what would happen if we trusted the humans and it nearly ruined us. It wasn’t until I took things into my own hands that we would be able to restore our civilization back to greatness. Now your planet is uninhabitable, your people scattered about the universe.

 

 

[Footsteps]

 

RAVEN:  Sarah?! Sarah, where are you?

 

[Footsteps approach]

 

SARAH: Raven! Raven, I’m over here.

 

RAVEN: Oh, thank God. I was looking everywhere for you. Where’s Devlyn?

 

SARAH: I-I don’t know. One second, he was with me, then I turned around and he was gone. What is this place?

 

[More FOOTSTEPS approach]

 

THEO: This is the Martian core.

 

RAVEN: I didn’t think we were that deep beneath the surface.

 

THEO: The Martian core isn’t like Earth’s. Think of it like an egg. The wasteland above, acts as a shell protecting the Eden beneath.

 

SARAH: I don’t understand. How could we not have known?

 

THEO: Why do you think the colony was placed here in the first place? The problem was none of our technology could penetrate the surface. That is until someone else did the job for us when it attacked the colony.

 

RAVEN: The colony was bait?

 

THEO: Save the conspiracy theories for someone else. This was pure coincidence.

 

RAVEN: And you’re happy that a whole colony of our people died?

 

THEO: Breakthroughs in science are not without sacrifice. Intergalactic colonization needs its first test subjects just like any vaccine. As a biologist, I am thrilled at the opportunity to finally get to study all of these incredible species. Think of the breakthroughs they will bring to

mankind.

 

RAVEN: And the hallucinations.

 

THEO: Must be something in the plant life reacting to us.

 

SARAH: There’s not gonna be any breakthroughs if we don’t find Devlyn and get the fuck out of here.

 

THEO: I saw him go into a cave nearby. Follow me.

 

[Running footsteps]

 

DEVLYN:  And so now you mean to conquer earth?

 

MATHIAS: Earth will be split among the remaining planets and their civilizations. While I have promised to eradicate your species from the face of the galaxy. Once we’ve reclaimed our own planet, my bounty hunters will search the galaxy for what’s left of your vermin race and exterminate every last colony till balance and order have been restored.

 

DEVLYN: You’ll never succeed.

 

MATHIAS:  Look around at what remains of your race here on Mars. With a simple strike, we annihilated your colony. And by your species’ own hand, nearly wiped yourselves from existence.

 

DEVLYN: Negotiating with them is pointless. Let’s find the child and go. We can worry about the rest later.

 

MATHIAS: Ah, yes. Your so-called, “Patient 0.”

 

THEO: What would you know of it?

 

MATHIAS: While I must admit, your species disgusts me, your attempts to combine our DNA with yours had led to some, impressive results. Ones that will help us to make use of what remains of your species.

 

DEVLYN: Theo, what is he talking about? Who’s “Patient 0?”

 

MATHIAS: Frankly, I’m surprised. I never would have thought the good Doctor could have convinced you to come all this way unless it had been to retrieve…Your daughter.

 

[Footsteps approach]

 

DEVLYN: No. It couldn’t be.

 

[Eerie music fades in]

 

[END OF EPISODE 7]