ah, what'd you say, pinback?
ah, what was that again, i still can't hear you?
talby, talby, this is doolittle. do you read me? talby?
talby, do you read me?
talby!
i need a diameter approximation.
i'll check it.
pinback.
your ghf reading is minus fifteen.
yes.
in a second.
pinback, i have a computer reading of nine five seven seven.
lock fail safe.
hyperdrive sequence begun. hit it, pinback.
unlock fail safe.
well.  now what? what do, you have for us now. boiler?
find me something, i don't care where it is.
fuck that shit.
it's a goddamn wild goose chase. remember when commander powell found that 99 plus probability of sentient life in the magellanic cloud?
remember what we found? fourteen light years for a fucking mindless vegetable that looked like a limp balloon and went squawk and let a fart when you touched it. remember?
so don't give me any of that sentient life crap. find me something i can blow up.
which one?
any planets?
any of 'em any good?
what?
who cares. don't bother me.
commander powell is dead.
fred.
i hereby name this star fred.
sounds good. chart a course for the veil nebula.
let's have some music in here, boiler.
ship's log, entry number 1,943. dark star cruising at light speed through sector theta 990. en route to veil nebula for destruction of unstable planet. our eta is 1700 hours. ship's systems continue to deteriorate.
the short circuit in the rear seat panel which killed commander powell continues to be faulty. uh.  storage area 9.
and because he's sitting next to it, it continues to bother pinback. storage area 9 self-destructed last week, destroying entire ship's supply of toilet paper. that's all.
talby.
here's some breakfast.
you know, talby, you really ought to eat with the rest of us. you spend too much time up here.
must get lonely being up here so much.
 should spend some time below, see more of the rest of the ship.
you'll have plenty of time for that, you know. figure it this way: twenty years in space and we've only aged three, so there'll be plenty of time to stare around.
phoenix asteroids? never heard of 'em.
you know what i think about, talby?
it's funny, but i kind of sit around, you know, a lot of time to myself.
i can't talk to the others, but with time to myself, i think about back home, back home at malibu. i used to surf a lot, talby. i used to be a great surfer.
the waves at malibu and zuma were fantastic in the springs talby. i can remember running out on the beach early spring mornings with my board and a wet suit.
waves would be peaking really high and glassy. hit that water. ridin' the wall just perfect.
i guess i miss the waves and my board most of all.
don't worry about it. we'll find out when it goes bad.
i wish i had my board with me now. even if i could only polish it once in awhile.
out where?
who cares?
yes, talby, what is it?
sounds good, talby. let me know if anything important comes up.
he just likes it up in the dome, that's all.
what's my first name?
good stuff. let's vaporize it.
lock fail safe.
sh, talby, don't bother me now.
not now!
i read the same here.
i have a negative drop. the bomb is still in the bomb bay. try it again, pinback.
ah, negative drop.
rechannel all safety relays --
-- remove thrust drive repellant --
-- remark.
this is lieutenant doolittle calling bomb #20. i repeat previous order, you are to disarm yourself and return immediately to the bomb bay. do you understand?
bomb, this is doolittle. you are not to detonate, repeat, you are not to detonate in the bomb bay. disarm yourself. this is an order.
only one thing to do. i'll have to ask commander powell. i'll have to ask him what to do.
commander powell? commander powell, this is doolittle. can you read me?
commander powell, this is doolittle. ah, there's something serious come up, sir, and i have to ask you something.
commander, sir, we have a big problem. you see, the veil nebula bomb, bomb number 20, is stuck. it won't drop from the bomb bay. it refuses to listen and plans to detonate in -- -- less than eleven minutes.
what's that, sir?
well, sir, the dodgers broke up, disbanded over thirteen years ago.
you don't understand, sir, we can't get the bomb to drop.
yes sir. negative effect.
negative effect.
that's correct, sir.
what should we do, sir? the time is running out.
commander powell? commander, hello!
sorry, sir, you faded out there for a minute.
what were you saying, commander, about the bomb?
commander? are you still there?
we're running out of time, sir.
sir?
i already have, sir, and pinback is talking to it now.
sir?
hello, bomb, are you with me?
are you willing to entertain a few concepts?
fine. think about this one, then: how do you know you exist?
but how do you know you exist?
intuition is no proof. what concrete evidence do you have of your own existence?
that's good. very good. now then, how do you know that anything else exists?
right!
all right now, here's the big question: how do you know that the evidence your sensory apparatus reveals to you is correct?
what i'm getting at is this: the only experience that is directly available to you is your sensory data. and this data is merely a stream of electrical impulses which stimulate your computing center.
exactly.
that's it.
why don't you have more time?
now, bomb, consider this next question, very carefully. what is your one purpose in life?
and you can only do it once, right?
and you wouldn't want to explode on the basis of false data, would you?
well then, you've already admitted that you have no real proof of the existence of the outside universe.
so you have no absolute proof that sergeant pinback ordered you to detonate.
yes, of course you remember it, but what you are remembering is merely a series of electrical impulses which you now realize have no necessary connection with outside reality.
that's all beside the point. the concepts are valid, wherever they originate.
so if you detonate in.
 you may be doing so on the basis of false data.
you have no proof that it was correct data.
i'm coming in now. i'm down by the emergency air lock. too much trouble to come in the ventral lock. would you blow the seal on the emergency hatch so i can come in?
hello, pinback, are you there?
talby was in the air lock. you blew him out of the ship. i'm going after him. turn on his helmet radio so i can contact him.
talby, talby, can you read me?
talby, can you read me?
calm down, talby. i'm coming.
whoa!
here i am. i think i'm spinning.  we're both falling, talby, in opposite directions, away from each other. my -- my jetpack's gone.
bomb must have gone off inside the ship. nothing we can do about it now. hey, it looks like.  the skipper. he made it. commander powell made it!
yeah, the skipper always was lucky.
looks like i'm headed for the planet, talby. going right toward it.
guess you're right.
oh yeah?
phoenix?
no kidding?
yeah?
i really liked you too, talby. hey, some debris from the ship! it's coming right by me.
Hey, Talby! I've grabbed a piece of the ship, and I think I've figured out a way!