The Reborns discover information about the first settlers that will forever change them.
Teaser
As Feena and Duncan head toward the Skin Rider camp, she remembers bonding with him over Chinese takeout and a game of “Two Truths and a Lie.” Before reaching the camp, she suddenly points her spear at him and demands that he kneel and tie his wrists: she’s not sure he’s truly free of the parasite and intends to rescue Lynn alone. He objects, saying he can’t very easily tie his own wrists, and she needs his help to rescue Lynn. Suddenly he takes the spear, and uses it to take out a Skin Rider behind Feena. “Am I still tying my wrists?” he asks.Act 1
At the settlement, Abram tells Yellow Drone that rescuing Lynn was too dangerous, but it responds that Ezra would not be dissuaded, and reminds him that he promised to help find and destroy the Ancestor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t know where the Ancestor is.Jax walks alone, carrying Red Drone. He arrives at a hot spring, and dives in, swimming into an underwater tunnel. He surfaces in a cave, and puts on a robe waiting for him there. He takes Red Drone out of the bag, and starts a fire. Ancestors, he thinks. May I approach? He hears the reply in his mind: Come.
Silas confronts Ezra, telling him that Lynn is inside the crashed ship, resting while her Companion establishes itself. He tells Ezra that the Skin Riders have made their community great, but Ezra responds that there’s no freedom, asking whether he’d let them leave if they wanted to. “No one wants to leave,” Silas replies. Ezra asks whether Lynn wants a Companion. Silas does not reply.
Lynn crawls through the bowels of the crashed ship, looking for a way out. She comes to a vertical shaft, and after taking a moment to steel herself, begins climbing down.
Feena and Duncan debate what to do about the unconscious Skin Rider. Feena doesn’t want to kill him, but Duncan warns that if he wakes up, he’ll alert the other Skin Riders via his Companion. He argues that the human being controlled by the Skin Rider would thank them for killing him. She still refuses, and Duncan asks her what she’ll do when it’s him that’s asking to be killed. He begs her to promise to kill him should his Companion reassert itself. After some hesitation, she agrees.
A Skin Rider discovers that Lynn has escaped, and transmits the knowledge to the others. Silas doesn’t seem that worried: he’s confident that either they’ll find her, or she’ll return on her own when her Companion is fully developed. Duncan also receives the message and informs Feena of Lynn’s escape and Ezra’s capture. She recognizes that this will mean that the camp will have few Skin Riders in it, meaning it’s the best chance to rescue Ezra. She tells him to send them a message, saying that Lynn has been spotted somewhere far from the camp to draw them away.
Silas tells Ezra’s guards to leave them alone in the ship. Ezra continues to try to convince Silas to come with him, but Silas refuses, and demonstrates the benefits of the Companion. He holds his hand over a candle flame, and states that he can feel the pain as it burns his hand, but the Companion counters it. He then puts his hand in the Sparks jar to heal it. Ezra wonders why the Sparks don’t kill the Companion, and Silas responds that would be counter to everything the Sparks stand for. He tells Ezra that the only way to kill his Companion is to kill him.
As Feena and Duncan approach the camp, he tells her that she needs to trust him, and to pull back if he says they should. She recalls a night when she was preparing for a date with him, when he arrived early at her apartment. He told her that the agency has given him an assignment that requires him to leave and go silent. She thinks he’s trying to get out of the relationship, but he assures her that’s not true. He says that something big is about to happen, but he hasn’t been told what. In the present, she agrees: they pull back on his word. They enter the camp, and Duncan grabs two of the Skin Rider prod weapons.
Jax approaches a large, glowing, purple, crystalline structure. Setting down Red Drone, he bows his head, and both his Companion and then Ancestor glow brighter. He asks the Ancestor to teach him how the drone works. He sees himself in an open area, with four robed figures nearby. The closest one speaks with multiple voices: Behold, your Ancestors.
Act 2
Feena and Duncan discover Lynn inside the ship. Duncan sends Lynn and Feena outside the camp, while he searches for Ezra.Jax is surprised that the Ancestors appear to him as humans, but the speaker for the Ancestors replies that the knowledge of the drone comes from their hosts. Only those four Ancestors have that knowledge, so only they have come to speak with Jax. They agree to show Jax what they know.
Yellow Drone offers to answer Abram’s questions. There are 74 known people buried in the graveyard. Abram says that leaves 60 unknown, but Yellow Drone says one grave contains something other than a body.
Silas tells Ezra he finds it ironic that he accuses them of taking orders from the Skin Riders when he takes orders from the Obelisk. Silas reveals that he previously lived in the settlement with Ezra, or rather, one of Ezra’s previous clones, alone with Lynn and Kylie. Ezra thinks he’s lying, but Silas says he has no reason to lie about that. Duncan enters, and gives Ezra one of the prod weapons. He tells Silas that even if he’s not allowed into the settlement, that it would be better than being with them, and whispers to Ezra that he has Lynn outside. Ezra again tries to convince Silas to come with them, but he refuses. They leave and join Lynn and Feena. Duncan agrees to lead them away from where the Skin Riders are searching for them.
In a flashback, Duncan is brought to a military installation. After clearing security, he comes face-to-face with Eleanor, outside what turns out to be the settlement. In the present, Duncan, Feena, Ezra, and Lynn arrive at the settlement. Lynn steps through the shield, but it won’t Duncan in because of his parasite. Ezra asks Abram to tell the Obelisk that they’ll bind Duncan’s hands. But before Feena can do that, Duncan shoves Feena through the shield as the Skin Riders arrive, leaving him and Ezra facing them outside the shield.
Act 3
Abram reaches the Obelisk and starts communicating with it, and suddenly the shield grows to envelop Ezra and Duncan. Abram says that the Obelisk gave a condition: Duncan must stay locked in the courtyard until they are able to figure out how to cure him. Feena objects, but Duncan agrees. Ezra realizes that Duncan was also one of the settlers, before he was infected, and says he has some questions, and Duncan agrees to answer.The Ancestor apologizes to Jax for not being able to give him more knowledge about the drone, but he says it’s enough to start work. It expresses concern about Jax’s unrivaled hatred of the humans, saying that they need the humans, as they are far better hosts than the Karik. It warns that attempting to silence the human also dampens the strengths it brings to the bond with the Skin Rider. It says Jax keeps his human on such a tight leash because he fears what the human will say or do if allowed, but pushing the human too hard may break it. Jax responds that otherwise, he risks the human breaking free. Jax leaves the vision, and leaves the Ancestor.
Feena objects to Abram tying Duncan’s wrists, but Duncan says that it’s safest. Abram asks how Duncan is able to overpower the parasite, and he explains that it’s weak due to having been ill, but warns that it is still active and could eventually reassert control. Ezra asks who was in the settlement before, and Duncan responds that they all were. Kylie was also there, reborn as a child roughly the same age as she was when she died. Duncan reveals that due to the hardships of the first years at the settlement, quite a few children died, including his and Feena’s, and that Feena herself died during childbirth. Feena is shocked by this revelation, and Lynn suggests that Duncan and Feena should be left alone for a moment. As Feena begins crying, Duncan confirms to her that Abram had married them in the settlement, that he still loves her, and that their baby’s name was Rosalyn.
Abram believes that Duncan is sincere, and tells Ezra that he and Yellow Drone had identified his grave. He imagines that Lynn and Kylie must be buried there, too. Lynn is upset at feeling like she has lost Kylie all over again, and that she (her current incarnation) wasn’t with her when she died.
Jax activates Red Drone, but has disabled its defenses and flight capabilities, and tells it that it won’t be able to dissuade him from what he intends to do. Red Drone creates a hologram of Jax’s wife, Althea. Jax tells the drone to shut it off, but it doesn’t. She talks to Jax about her love for her husband, and urges him to fight against the parasite. Holo!Althea disappears, leaving Jax shaking with emotion.
As night falls, Feena removes Duncan’s bonds. In a flashback, Eleanor finds Duncan looking up at the night sky. Eleanor talks about how the myths behind many constellations are sad stories. She says the ancients looked up at the sky and saw sadness, while she sees sadness to come. Duncan says everyone around him seems to know something he doesn’t, and the only room in the installation his clearance allows him to access contains a bunch of psychological tests. Eleanor confirms that something dangerous is coming, and asks if he loves Feena enough to sacrifice his own life for her. When he responds in the affirmative, she hands him a card, giving him clearance for the installation.
Back in the present, Feena has fallen asleep, and Duncan’s parasite reasserts itself. Duncan apologizes to the unconscious Feena, saying that everything he said was true, and that he wishes he were stronger, so the parasite couldn’t take him. He gets up and enters the building.
Act 4
Red Drone tells Jax that the human mind is too delicate to be manipulated in the way he intends. Jax retorts that the mind is easily manipulated. Suddenly Holo!Jax appears and mocks the Skin Riders, saying that they are capable of nothing they haven’t stolen from the Skin Riders. He says Jax’s parasite is afraid of Human!Jax, so much so that he pretends that he doesn’t exist. He asks the parasite how it feels to experience Althea’s love, and to know it’s not directed at him, to sense the experience of humanity without it being his. Jax rips a component out of Red Drone, and Holo!Jax disappears.As Duncan walks through the facility, Abram tells Ezra about the memories Yellow Drone showed him about Eleanor, showing that the drones had help from humans (or something that looks human, in any case) to collect brain states. Tasha had died a year before the invasion, meaning this was going on long before the Karik invasion, and that Eleanor and the drones knew about the invasion before it happened, and what it would mean for humanity. They wonder why they wouldn’t have warned the humans. Was it to avoid mass panic? Was there warning for the governments of Earth, but it was kept secret from the populace? Whatever it was, it’s clear that non-human allies came to Earth to help humanity before the war.
Abram thinks maybe Eleanor’s brain state might be in Yellow Drone, and they could ask her for more information. Abram looks for Yellow Drone, but can’t find it, because Duncan used a control pad to summon it to a compartment, where it rested and deactivated. He then finds Abram at the Obelisk and knocks him out.
Ezra finds Lynn looking through Kylie’s belongings: dolls made from whatever materials could be found in their environment. She remarks that she’s been revived a few years before her death. He talks about the experience of holding Lynn as she died, but she doesn’t remember this. He says that he’ll do whatever is asked of him by whoever brought her back.
Elsewhere in the settlement, Duncan finds the Obelisk.
Act 5
In a flashback, Eleanor asks Duncan what the greatest human virtue is. He responds that it’s the capacity to love others, despite knowing their flaws. Asked what his own virtues are, he responds that he is hardworking, dedicated, forgiving, but seeks justice, a team player… and his feet never stink. Eleanor chooses to show him something, and brings him into a room, implied to be the one which contains the Obelisk.In the present, Duncan’s parasite struggles to maintain his focus as Human!Duncan remembers his past statement about love being the greatest human virtue. He cries out as he resists, attracting Ezra’s attention, but the parasite takes over and shoves Ezra out of the room and locks the door. Duncan activates a previously unseen interface on the Obelisk and manipulates it. Ezra runs into the courtyard and wakes Feena, and sees the overhead forcefield dissolve and a band of Skin Riders charge into the courtyard. They run into the building and shut the doors.
They return to the control room, where Abram has knocked Duncan to the ground. Ezra explains that Duncan’s rescue was a set-up to get him inside the settlement. The parasite tells them that he gave Duncan “a little extra leash,” allowing him to believe that he was in control, then reasserted itself once inside. The weapon has been hidden somewhere in the facility, and Duncan’s parasite says they’ll never find it. Ezra demands that he tell them where it is, but he’s not threatened, certain that Feena won’t let them kill him, and shoots a cocky wink in her direction. He then surprises Ezra and Lynn by telling them that Kylie is alive, but will be killed unless they give the Skin Riders what they want.
