Episode 109: "The Path of Sorrows"

Opens with Captain Gideon, Max Eilerson, Galen, John Mathison are standing outside a tomb with the inscription "enter through the path of sorrows" written on it in many different languages. Derena Na'Fall comes down from the top of the tomb claiming there is no way in. Galen confronts her asking if there had ever been a time in which she could not get into a place, and people's lives depended on it. And if she failed and vowed never to let it happen again. She turned away with a tear, Galen reached over and took the tear using his finger and ran it along the crack of the tomb door. The door opened. As they're walking in Derena and Galen are talking and it revels that they had some sort of relationship in the past. Inside they found a luminious orb big enough for someone to sit in that seemed to be filled with smoke. In truth a creature existed inside it. The captian, upon finding the orb saw the creature and had a psychic enduced flashback in which you saw him in a space suit outside an earthforce ship that was jumping into hyperspace as another unknown ship came into space and destroyed it. The captain ordered the orb to be brought back to the Excaliber.

The next scene was Galen riding a transport car and John Mathison enters. They talk about the captain the John says "it seems like people like that are born to ask questions." Galen responds, "that would imply a directional universe." He then explains that the universe has no plan. John says that he would think Galen would be the one person to believe otherwise. Galen doesn't respond, but tells him this is where he gets off mentally, physically, and literally. "But do go on riding, give it some time and you might comes to the same conclusions I have" Galen says as he's leaving.

After bringing it back and running tests on it in the medical labratory on the ship Captain Gideon came and talked to the being in the orb. At this point no one else has seen it. The captain talks and the creature response telepathically. The creature tells Gideon that he is in pain. Gideon responce and then there is another flashback. Gideon is a Leutenant on an Earthforce ship. They're damaged and he is assigned to go out and inspect the hull and make repairs. As he is moving towards the damage with a jet pack the ship's engines engage. He radios for answers and hears them saying that they must jump. Then an unidentified ship comes into normal space, destroys Gideon's ship and then leaves. He is left floating in space. Eventually he sees a mass of sleek trianglular black ships passing through and tries to radio them for help. As he's passing out one comes to his aid. He takes off his helmet inside a dark room and the person who saved him introduces himself as Galen. The next scene is Gideon being debreifed by Earthforce. He can't remember how he got back, but does know what happened to his ship. They don't believe him.

The next flashback is Gideon playing poker. He's holding a full house (3 A's, 2 tens) and raises 100. Two of the other three players fold. The third says he only has 50 left and asks if he would take something as colateral. He sets a large box down on the table and unlatches it. Inside is a smaller, glowing green box. He explains that it is called an Apocolypse Box and is very old. He tells Gideon that it knows things and that it is much more valueable then 50 credits. Gideon accepts the colateral and reveals his winning hand (the other guy had two pair, jacks and sevens). The man begins to laugh and talk about how he's free. Then he warns Gideon that the box lies, not all the time, but enough. He then runs out of the casino and is hit by a car. Gideon and the others hear the crash and run to see what happened. Gideon yells for a doctor, but the man says "no, don't you understand, I'm free". And then he dies. Gideon kept the box. That's the end of the flashback. Gideon asks why he's doing this, the creature responds to relieve his pain. The creature says that he forgives Gideon.

John enters Med lab and sees the creature. The creature tells him that he's in pain. John then has a flash back. He's in psycore and in a higher up's office. The man he is talking to tells him that they have scored a great victory and captured most of the leaders of the rebels. He says that the conflict should be over soon. He tells John that they have one of the leaders captive at the facility they were in. He continues that she is a strong P12 so they were giving her sleepers to surpress her abilities. He says that the doctors are all P1 or P2 so he wanted John to give her the sleepers. John agrees. One one trip she tells him that the psycore is using him and that they've killed all the other leaders sent home. She also asks if there is anything he always wanted to do and he says that he wanted to be in Earthforce, but they wouldn't allow it because he was a telepath. John then uses his clearence to find out what happened to the leaders sent home to show her that she was wrong. He instead finds out that they were all terminated. The next time he goes to give her the sleepers he does not break the skin, thus not giveing her the drug. The next scene his higher up tells him that they raided the rebel base and found it empty for several days. John then goes to the leader he was helping and she tells him that she allowed herself to be captured so she could activate a telepathic homing becon allowing the rebels to know the location of the psycore base. She then tell him to leave and do what he always wanted. The last part is him leaving on a shuttle and the base being blown up. He tells the alien in the orb that he never told anyone that and that he was ashamed. The alien forgives him.

The next scene Galen bursts into Med Lab, "I know you. I know what you are, what you are doing to the others. And we are going to have a little talk. I've studied every record, read every story, and I know what you are. You feed off the feelings of others because you have no such feelings of your own." Galen continues and the creature disagrees. The creature says he lives off forgiveness. The talk and Galen flashes back to the deathbed of a girl he once loved. The scene goes through their last moments and the girl tells Galen that he must forgive God and the universe for what has happened in his life. After the flashback Galen argues with the creature, "Is that what you want me to do? Forgive God? Forgive the universe that took away the only thing I ever loved? There's nothing beyond...only tricks can be played to persuade ourselves otherwise. Nothing, even from you, can convince me that she deserved to die, and SHE DID NOT! She did not, but you do." Galen then raised his had to launch a fireball and the captain comes into the room. He convinces Galen that he is not a killer.

The captain tells someone to perpare a shuttle for launch so they can put it back where they found it. "I don't think it belongs to anyone, least of all us. It belongs to whoever needs to find it." He goes on to talk about forgiveness and how people need it, but don't want it.

The next scene is Galen being stopped in the hall and given a message. The message came from no specific origins and was mostly degraded. There were only two words that were made out, "Galen...Love." Over him opening the letter you hear the words of his lost love saying that if there was a great plan, a design, she would send him a message. He balls up the message and throws it down.

The last scene is Excalibur leaving orbit and an unknown alien finding his way into the tomb

Thanks to Galin for writing this report and thanks to Ranger for sending it in.