Battlestar Galactica: Transcripts: S03E07: A Measure of Salvation
Helo: Previously, on Battlestar Galactica.
Basestar: Baltar’s Cell.
Baltar: Some people in the Fleet believe that the legend of Earth held perhaps the greatest promise for our survival.
Caprica: Do you know how to find it?
Baltar: Not really, no.
Three: There was a hope — my hope — that if you knew the way to Earth it would justify keeping you alive a little longer.
Baltar: Now when I say that I do not know exactly where Earth is, that is not to say that I do not know a very great deal about its probable location.
Basestar: War Room.
Leoben: A baseship, the one we sent to investigate the pulsars in the Lion Nebula, we’ve lost contact.
Six: The missing baseship, it’s been infected by some kind of disease.
Simon: If an infected cylon dies and carries this disease with them into a resurrection ship, it could rapidly spread, potentially infecting our entire race. If one of us is resurrected, the disease will follow.
Doral: Then no cylon can board that ship without risking infection.
Baltar: I’ll go. Yes, I’ll go. I can go to the baseship. I can make observations about the Cylons, their physical condition, bring back information about this disease which now threatens all of you.
Sick Basestar: Command Center.
Baltar: Do you know what this is?
Six: Must be some kind of beacon left by the Thirteenth Tribe. The beacon carried the disease, left by some humans like you to destroy us.
Basestar: War Room.
Three: You noticed nothing suspicious on the infected ship?
Baltar: Nothing whatsoever. I am just as baffled as you are.
(Caprica notices the beacon, stays quiet.)
Athena’s Raptor.
Racetrack: Just like the scriptures say. There it is. The Lion’s Head nebula and the blinking eye… Holy crap! It’s the road to Earth!
TEASER
Athena’s Raptor.
Apollo: This is combat. Prepped and ready, Plan A. We’re approaching the baseship.
Athena: This is just so wrong.
Apollo: What the hell happened here?
Athena: Whatever this is, it’s something new.
Galactica CIC.
Adama: Go.
Helo: Apollo, Galactica. You are cleared hot.
Athena’s Raptor.
Apollo: Roger that, Galactica. We’re in pretty close now, and by the look of it, that ship’s in no condition to put up a fight. I’ve never seen anything like this. Shall we proceed?
Athena: Hang on, guys.
Helo, on comms: Use extreme caution, Apollo.
(They enter the basestar and investigate.)
Apollo: Galactica, Apollo. We’re in.
Galactica CIC.
Apollo, on comms: Galactica, Apollo. No sign of life. Ship appears to be abandoned and powering down.
Infected Basestar: Command Center.
Apollo, spotting a fallen Six: What the hell?
Racetrack: Gods, what happened here?
Gunny Mathias: I don’t know, but their frakking resurrection ship is gonna overheat.
Apollo: Galactica, Apollo. We’ve reached the control center. Thirty, maybe forty dead skinjobs. Mathias, set a perimeter!
(Athena is out of it.)
Apollo: Sharon. Athena! See what you can pick up with the computers.
Mathias: Three fireteams, each doorway. Go.
Athena, putting her hands in the basestar’s data port gel: Okay, I’m gonna try to call up the database. If I get a connection, put the SSR leads in the water over there. Reduce the error correction level for higher throughput.
Racetrack: You sure you want to do that?
Athena, accessing the database: It’s how it works.
(The viewscreens in the command center go crazy.)
Athena: Oh!
Hotdog: You okay?
Athena, shaken: Uh, yeah, the datapoints are almost completely corroded. I don’t know if I’m gonna get much out of here, but let’s try.
Apollo: What is going on? (Sees a Six moving.) Frak me! This one’s alive! We’ve got a live one over there!
Mathias: Danelli, Peters, cover the Major!
Apollo: They’re alive!
Galactica CIC.
Apollo, on comms: Galactica, Apollo. We’ve got a … one, two, three, four, five living skinjobs down here. I say again, five living.
Helo: Are you taking fire?
Apollo, on comms: Negative, negative. They seem in pretty bad shape.
Helo: Don’t take chances. They make any threatening moves —
Apollo: Oh, you can trust me on that one.
Sick Leoben: Heavenly Father…
Mathias: Major, what do we do? Should we take ’em out?
Apollo: Hold your fire, hold your fire!
Six: Heavenly Father…
Mathias: keep away from the trackers!
Apollo: I said hold your fire!
Cylons, moaning: Grant us the strength … the wisdom…
Apollo: what are they doing?
Cylons: …And above all…a measure of acceptance.
(Athena stares, stricken. Takes an Eight in her lap.)
Apollo: Hey, Athena, what are you doing? Athena! Athena!
Cylons: The strength… the wisdom…
Sick Eight, to Athena: Traitor. Save yourself.
Athena: From what?
Six: Get away from us.
Athena: What happened here?
Six: A beacon. We brought it aboard. Carried disease. We’re infected.
Athena: Infected?
Mathias: Oh, son of a bitch!
Apollo: Okay, okay, okay! Settle down! Keep back! Watch the doorways. Get the doorways!
(Cylons moaning, Athena stares at her hands.)
Apollo: Galactica, Apollo. We have a situation down here. The Cylons have been infected with a disease. We have all been exposed. We’ve all been exposed.
CREDITS
41,420 survivors in the Fleet
Galactica CIC.
Doc Cottle: They’ll have to come aboard under quarantine procedures. Clear a path from the hangar deck to sickbay and sterilize it. And the Raptors after they’re in.
Gaeta, leaving: I’ll handle that.
Dualla: How long will they have to stay in quarantine?
Cottle: I won’t know that until I do the blood work. Could be days, weeks. There’s no way to tell. You said they picked up this disease from a beacon?
Adama: According to the Cylons.
Cottle: Always good to have the source of the pathogen. Can you bring it aboard Galactica?
Adama: No, too dangerous. I want to limit our exposure.
Cottle: What about the prisoners?
Helo: Prisoners?
Cottle: The disease is more advanced in their systems, so it’ll give at least an idea of what to expect as it progresses. And when they die, it’ll tell me how long our people have to live.
Adama: How many prisoners?
Cottle: How many you got?
Athena’s Raptor.
Helo, on comms: Apollo, Galactica. Alpha check.
Apollo: Galactica, we have you in visual range. Approaching starboard hangar.
(The sick basestar explodes.)
Apollo: Holy frak, what was that?
Galactica CIC.
Gaeta: Massive energy discharge from the baseship. It exploded, sir.
Helo: Apollo, Galactica. Are you all right out there?
Athena’s Raptor.
Apollo: Uh, yeah, affirmative. We’re still here. What the hell happened?
Helo: Baseship exploded. Must have self-destructed. You guys are lucky you got out when you did.
Apollo: Roger that.
(Apollo stares at Athena, who acts weird.)
Basestar: Baltar’s cell. He wakes up naked as Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” adagio sostenuto, begins to play.
Baltar: Nothing the matter, I trust?
Caprica: We have some questions.
Three: How long have you planned to betray us, Gaius?
Baltar, laughing: Funny.
(They look at him sadly.)
Baltar: You’re joking, of course.
Caprica: You’re only making this harder on yourself.
Baltar: Wait a minute. I have been more than very accommodating since I arrived here. I helped you find Sharon’s baby. I’ve helped you with a map towards Earth.
Three: We know about the beacon, Gaius.
Caprica: You knew it was out there. You knew it contained a deadly virus.
Baltar: No, I didn’t. I didn’t. That’s not —
Caprica: Was the virus created by Galactica?
Three: have you been in contact with them since you’ve been onboard? Or did you plan this before the evacuation of New Caprica?
Baltar, calmly: This is a most profound misunderstanding. Uh, I had nothing to do with the virus or the beacon. Yes. Yes, I did discover it on the baseship. And I should have told you about it sooner, and I didn’t. Um, because I thought, you know, you– you’d try and link me, you know, to the virus…. (Caprica and Three whisper, suspiciously and sadly.) Which is, hello, you know, what’s going on right now. I was wrong, and it was a mistake, and I fully admit my responsibility. It will never happen again. And I hope you’ll accept my most, uh, yeah, my most humble apology. on a brighter note, I have a working theory as to where this beacon may —
(Centurions arrive.)
Caprica: I’m sorry, Gaius.
Three: Things would have been so much simpler had you only told the truth. We think you know more about this virus, and we intend to find out.
Chip Six fugue: on a beach.
Six: Relax. Have a drink.
Baltar: I can’t. (He whimpers and gasps.) The pain. The pain.
Six: It’s all in your head, Gaius. Pain, pleasure. They’re just neural impulses sent to the brain. You decide how to interpret them. They can be pleasant. Or unpleasant.
(Baltar screams in both the projection and the interrogation..)
Baltar, screaming: No! No, please! Please!
(Caprica is visually distressed. Three finally turns down the pain inductor.)
Three: I want it to stop, Gaius. I don’t want you to feel this pain. And neither does Caprica, do you?
Caprica, crying: No.
Baltar, exhausted: I love you.
Galactica quarantine.
Hotdog: you feel anything yet?
Racetrack: Yeah, I feel sick. Sick of you buggin’ me.
Hotdog: You didn’t touch any infected skinjobs.
Racetrack: Not my fault you’re clumsy.
Hotdog: You can kiss my infected ass.
Cottle, entering: Well, you can kiss it, but it’s not infected. I got your blood work back. Humans are immune to the virus. You’re all healthy.
(All sigh with relief.)
Apollo: All right, people. Nice job. Let’s get outta here.
Cottle, grabbing Athena: No. You stay put for a while.
(Outside quarantine, Helo grabs Cottle.)
Helo: No, no, no, no, no, no. Please tell me she’s okay.
Cottle: I haven’t done her bloodwork yet.
Helo: What? Oh, I see. She can wait because of who she isn’t. (Shouting back into the room.) Sharon? You’re gonna be okay. Promise.
(She nods, scared.)
Helo, to Cottle: You come for me, Godsdamn it. You come for me the second you know.
(Inside, Athena cries.)
COMMERCIAL
Galactica brig.
Cottle, indicating a Doral: Take him. He’s the furthest gone.
Doral: No, no, no, no.
Colonial one.
Roslin: You can keep the Cylons alive. Cottle: I can’t cure them. But yes.
Adama: How long?
Cottle: Indefinitely. I identified the virus. We know it as lymphocytic encephalitis. The disease is carried by rodents. Rats, mostly. But a couple of hundred years ago, humans developed an immunity. Now I can create a simple vaccine that will dramatically reverse the effect of the virus on the Cylons. But, uh, they have an antibody in their blood which breaks down the RNA of the vaccine. So they will need regular, close-interval injections of the vaccine. Or they will die.
Apollo: Can I ask the ugly question here? Is there a reason to keep them alive?
Helo: We could interrogate them for intelligence.
Adama: I agree. We have a lot of unanswered questions.
Apollo: Yeah, okay. But they’re not gonna talk.
Roslin: well, they might if we dangled the vaccine. They don’t need to know it’s a stop-gap, not a cure.
Apollo: They prayed on the infected ship. Karl’s wife said it was something called “the prayer to the cloud of unknowing,” whatever the hell that is. Anyway, the point is, she said they only use it when they’re facing an imminent death that is final. No possibility of downloading. They’re ready to die.
Roslin: They may be ready to die, but it doesn’t mean that one of them won’t jump at a second chance.
Galactica interrogation room.
Simon, in a collar: It infected everything. Baseship. Centurions. Raiders. Until we were finally abandoned by the other Cylon ships.
Apollo: Why? Why not just put you under quarantine until they found a cure?
Simon, breathing hard: Fear of spreading the disease. They told us that there was a bioelectric feedback component to the pathogen. It corrupts how our brains manage our immune systems. If one of us dies and is resurrected, the disease will follow, infecting the resurrection ship, and the Fleet.
Adama: Why were you in this area in the first place?
Simon: We were sent. We were sent here to look for the Lion Nebula. Baltar said it would point the way to Earth.
Helo: What did you just say?
Gaeta: Baltar — Baltar’s alive?
Simon: Baltar is on our baseship. He’s helping us find Earth.
Adama: He’s using our navigation charts. Along with our map from Kobol. He’s leading them to Earth.
Simon: We want a new beginning. Much like you. (Laughs.) I gave you information. She said that there was a cure.
Adama: Doc Cottle will be giving you the medicine.
Cottle: Take him back to the infirmary.
(The Marines march him out again, gasping and coughing; Apollo chuckles.)
Adama: What the hell’s so funny?
Apollo: I think I just thought of a way to solve all of our problems. To get rid of the Cylon threat for once and for all. We can wipe ’em out. We can destroy the entire Cylon race.
Colonial one.
Apollo: We jump to an area we know the Cylons use as a supply line. NCD2539. We stay there, exposed; we look as if we’re spoiling for a fight. They’ll send their Fleet. And where there’s a Fleet, there’s a resurrection ship. And once the resurrection ship is within our reach, we execute our infected prisoners. We bug out. The executed prisoners download into the resurrection ship, and with them, the virus.
Roslin: You’re sure the virus will download to a new body?
Apollo: The Cylons are sure of it. They left their wounded out here to die alone with no hope of being rescued. Tells me all I need to know. And once the virus is in the resurrection ship, there’ll be no stopping it.
Adama: Rescuers become carriers of the plague. Cylons themselves don’t believe that they’ll develop a cure.
Roslin: Oh, my Gods. This could be the end of the Cylons entirely.
Apollo: Forever.
Helo: Genocide? So that’s what we’re about now?
Apollo: They’re not human. They were built. Not born. No fathers, no mothers, no sons, no daughters —
Helo: I had a daughter. I held her in my arms.
Apollo: And she was half human. These are things. Dangerous things. This is our one chance to be rid of them.
Helo: You can rationalize it any way you want. We do this… we wipe out their race… then we’re no different than they are.
Roslin: Captain, I respectfully disagree. The Cylons struck first in this war and, not being content with the annihilation of billions of human beings, they pursued us relentlessly through the galaxies, determined to wipe us out.
Helo: They tried to live with us on New Caprica.
Roslin: …What did you say?
Helo: They tried to live with us on New Caprica.
Roslin: You weren’t on New Caprica. To my recollection, you didn’t set foot there. So out of respect for the hundreds of men and women on your crew who suffered through that snake pit, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that. You would serve your Fleet well if you’d remember occasionally that the Cylons are a mortal threat to the survival of the human race.
Helo: I’m talking about right and wrong. I’m talking about losing a piece of our souls. No one wants to hear that, right? Let’s keep it on me. Yeah, I’m married to a Cylon. Who walked through hell for all of us how many times? And she’s not half anything, okay. How do we know there aren’t others like her? She made a choice. She’s a person. They’re a race of people. Wiping them out with a biological weapon is a crime against — is a crime against humanity.
Apollo: But they’re not human. They’re programmed.
Roslin: We will take your input under advisement. Thank you both.
Apollo, leaving: Thank you, ma’am.
(Helo lingers.)
Adama: Dismissed.
(Roslin and Adama look at each other.)
COMMERCIAL
Basestar: Baltar’s interrogation and Chip Six fugue. Baltar shakes as Three turns the pain higher.)
Six, fugue: I can help you. I can guide you through the torment and beyond, but you’ll have to do the work.
Baltar, gasping: I’ll do anything. (Basestar.) Anything!
Three: Then tell us what we want to know. How was the virus invented? Did they make a cure?
Six: (VO.) Look at me. (Projection.) Look at me. When you make love to me, Gaius, you don’t always think about me. Your mind wanders. I know that. You think of equations, puzzles, your laundry.
(Interrogation: Baltar, screaming.)
Six: (VO.) It’s the nature of the mind to disconnect from the body, enjoining on its own. (In the projection, climbing onto his body.) Separate your mind from your body. Keep your mind in that room. Use your intellect against her. Reason. Logic. Analysis. Find the holes in her psyche.
Baltar, in the interrogation: I can’t … the pain —
Six, in the projection: The pain’s only in your body. So keep your body here with me. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.
Three, turning down the machine: You see, Gaius, this is what the absence of pain feels like. It’s easy to forget.
Baltar: I had nothing to do with the virus. It was a coincidence.
Three: There’s no such thing as coincidence. God wills the universe according to his design.
Six begins to undress: Now. Focus on her. As a Cylon, not a woman. Be a scientist. Examine her faith. What’s your analysis, doctor?
Baltar: I’m a scientist. And as a scientist, I believe that if God exists our knowledge of him is imperfect. Why? (Interrogation.) Because the stories and myths we have are the products of men. The passage of time. That religion in practice is based on a theory. Impossible to prove. Yet you bestow it with absolutes like, “There is no such thing as coincidence.”
Three: It’s called faith.
Baltar: Absolute belief in God’s will means there’s a reason for everything. Everything! And yet you can’t help ask yourself how God can allow death and destruction and then despise yourself for asking. But the truth is, if we knew God’s will, we’d all be Gods, wouldn’t we? I can see it in your eyes, D’Anna. You’re frustrated. You’re conflicted. Let me help you. Let me help you change. Find a way to reconcile your faith with fact. Find a way towards a rational universe.
Three: I don’t know what your game is, but it’s not going to work. (She shows him an electrified prod.) You intentionally led one of our ships to that beacon, didn’t you?
(Three sticks the prod in his ear; Baltar screams.)
Six, in the projection, as they make love: Give your body to me. only your mind is there. Feel me. Feel this where she wants you to feel pain. Look at me. Look at me, Gaius. Do you want me to believe you’re worth saving? Do you? Do you? Say it.
Baltar, in the interrogation: I want you to believe in me. Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Please, please don’t stop. You have to believe in me. You’re all I have left.
(Baltar and six gasp and moan; Three is stricken by his words.)
Six: Now tell me you believe in me. Tell me you believe in my strength. Oh, God, say it!
Baltar, in the interrogation: I believe in you! I believe in you.
(Three stares, confused and moved.)
Baltar, in the projection: I love you. I love you with all my heart.
(Three weeps, touching his face.)
Baltar, in the interrogation: I love you with all my heart.
(He loses consciousness both in the projection and the basestar. Three touches his lips, clearly moved; Chip Six grins.)
Galactica: Agathon quarters.
Helo: How?
Athena: Cottle said it had something to do with carrying a half-human child. How the fetal blood cells enter the maternal circulatory system, causing the mother to create antibodies … whatever. I’m immune!
Helo: Oh, my Gods.
(They kiss passionately.)
Athena: Our baby… saved my life. She’s gone forever, and she saved my life. Hera kept us together.
Helo: Share this.
Athena, going for his trousers: This. You mean us? Together? You mean us?
Helo: Them, them. I mean them.
Athena: Who’s “them?” (Her smile drops as she figures it out.)
Helo: They’re gonna execute the infected prisoners. But not until we jump into a Cylon region with a resurrection ship present.
(Athena begins to cry.)
Helo: The infection’s gonna spread everywhere.
Galactica: Adama’s office.
Adama: There’s a point I’d like to make.
Roslin: Mm-hmm?
Adama: The law forbids me to use biological weapons without a direct presidential order.
Roslin: Which means you’re passing the buck.
Adama: on this one, yes. Helo’s right on one thing. We start destroying entire races, even mechanical races, we’re liable to tear off a piece of man’s soul.
Roslin: The Cylons are coming to Earth. If they find us, they are coming for us. Those are the stakes. They always have been, bill.
Galactica: Agathon quarters.
Helo: We’re talking about the genocide of your entire race.
Athena, whimpering: Yeah. You think I don’t know that? I made a choice to wear a uniform. To be a person.
Helo: You were a person before you put on that uniform. Okay? You were a person before I fell in love with you. You don’t have to prove that.
Athena, angrily: I have to prove it every day. (Calmer.) Let me tell you something, Helo. My people may die. My entire race may be wiped out. But this Cylon will keep her word, even if it means she’s the last Cylon left in the universe. Can a human being do that?
Galactica: Adama’s Office.
Adama: Posterity really doesn’t look too kindly on genocide.
Roslin: You’re making an assumption that posterity will define this as genocide. If they do, at least there’ll be someone alive to hate us for it. The Cylons are our mistake, we created them. All right, Admiral Adama. As President, I have determined the Cylons be made extinct. The use of biological weapons is authorized.
Adama: So say we all.
Roslin, laughing softly: …So say we all.
COMMERCIAL
NCD2539: Raptors and Viper squad jump in.
Galactica CIC.
Dualla: Jump complete. Dradis is clear. No Cylons, sir.
Adama: They’ll be here soon enough. Get our birds in the air.
Gaeta, over PA: Commence Viper and nav Raptor launch.
Galactica Hangar Bay.
Athena: Let’s do this, Racetrack.
Pilots: Let’s go. Take up this bird. Move that.
(Helo climbs through Galactica‘s innards, and opens a lockbox.)
Galactica Hangar Bay.
Chief: Get it out of the way. Go.
Pilots and Deck Crew: Let’s go, let’s go! Come on!
NCD2539: Athena’s Raptor.
Racetrack: CAP is away, nav bird has them on dradis.
(Helo unplugs something.)
Galactica CIC.
Dualla: Dradis contact. A pair of Cylon Raiders. Keeping their distance for now.
Adama: Didn’t take ’em that long. They’re just scouts. They’ll jump away and report back to their Fleet. See if they take our bait.
(The Cylon party jumps in.)
Dualla: Got ’em. There’s a resurrection ship with them.
Adama: Then it’s time to execute our cylon prisoners. Call it in.
Gaeta, on phone: Terminate the prisoners.
Heading toward Galactica brig.
Apollo: Head shots, okay?
Mathias: Yes, sir.
Apollo: Let’s do it.
NCD2539: Vipers.
Starbuck: All right, let’s see if we can’t frak up some toasters on this joy ride, people.
(Raider battle.)
Hotdog: Bogies holding hands, I’m notching like hell up here!
Starbuck: Hotdog, Starbuck. Quit your bitchin’ and continue to cover as fragged.
Galactica brig; Apollo and Mathias reach the Cylon prisoners.
Apollo: Frak! They’re already dead. They’re already dead.
Galactica CIC.
Gaeta: Sir, you should hear this.
Apollo, on comms: They were dead before the resurrection ship was in range. They didn’t download the disease. We missed our window.
NCD2539: Vipers.
Starbuck: Galactica, Starbuck. A second baseship just jumped in.
Galactica CIC.
Adama: Call our birds in. Spool up. Let’s get the hell outta here.
Gaeta: Commence FTL. Sir, we lost time waiting to hear from quarantine. We’re gonna take significant fire while we spool up.
(Vipers land violently on Galactica.)
Adama: Continue jump. Take us back to our Fleet.
Gaeta: Yes, sir.
Galactica: Agathon Quarters.
Helo: They’ll be coming for me. You or me.
(He laughs and turns his back. Athena stares.)
Helo: Seems like they’re always coming for one of us… I’m not a traitor. I love my people. I love this ship. Besides you, the first thing I wanna see on any morning are the lights in that CIC. I did what I thought was right. If it was a mistake, fine. I can live with that. It’s you I can’t live without.
Athena holds him: I’ll always love you, Helo.
Galactica: Adama’s Office; he offers Roslin tea.
Roslin: Hmm, no thanks.
Adama: The prisoners died of asphyxiation. The air purification system was reversed. Sucked the oxygen out. When this happens, the deadbolts are automatically activated on the door. Someone did this manually.
Roslin: Someone? Seems to me there’s only one or two likely suspects. Who will head the investigation?
Adama: No one. I’m closing the book on this.
Roslin: How convenient.
Adama, standing: Cottle’s report on the virus. He thinks that it was simply an accidental contamination of the beacon we abandoned on the sick baseship.
Roslin: Somebody sneezed, maybe.
Adama: Yeah, an entire race almost wiped out because someone forgot to wipe their nose. (She laughs and takes off her glasses.) According to Cottle, the virus was an exact match to one reported over 3,000 years ago. Right around the time that the Thirteenth Colony left Kobol.
Roslin smiles: That beacon … was a signpost to Earth.
Adama: I think we’re on the right trail, Laura.
Roslin: Yes, we are on the right trail, Bill. So are the Cylons.
(Adama sighs and looks at her.)
Transcript taken by Ryan Bechtel (2005)
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