Chapter 57 - Chronos Imperium: Season 6, Episode 58A Ship of Ghosts

Chronos Imperium: Season 6, Episode 58

A Ship of Ghosts

FADE IN:

INT. HIGH-TECH BASE, SWISS ALPS - DAY

The holographic image of the crystalline spire on the Moon dominates the command center. The team stares at it, the sheer impossibility of their new mission sinking in.

JULIAN > So they're on the Moon. That's... a problem. We don't exactly have a spaceship.

LEO THORNE > No one does. Not one that can get there in time. A conventional launch would take days. The Architects are sculpting a new city every few hours. By the time we got there, we'd be fighting for a museum.

The mood is one of profound helplessness. They have a target, but no weapon to reach it.

SIDE STORY (THE GOVERNMENT)

INT. PROJECT STYX HEADQUARTERS - DAY

The same image of the lunar spire is on General Marcus Thorne's main screen. His top scientists are briefing him.

SCIENTIST > General, the energy readings are off the charts. It's the source of the global phenomena. But getting a strike team to the lunar surface is a logistical nightmare. The fastest we could manage is 72 hours.

GENERAL THORNE > We don't have 72 hours.

He turns to a secure, locked file on his computer, one he retrieved from the Analog Ghosts' headquarters. It's labeled: "Project Icarus." He opens it. The file contains old, theoretical schematics for a temporal-based transport system—a teleporter. It was a project the Ghosts deemed too dangerous and unstable to ever build.

GENERAL THORNE > (to his aide) > Get my top engineering team. Tell them they're about to start believing in science fiction.

The government is now in a desperate race to build their own impossible technology.

THE MAIN PLOT: THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN

In the team's base, KAELEN comes to a grim conclusion. There is only one person on Earth who collects "impossible artifacts," a man who might just have a spaceship filed away next to a cursed diamond.

KAELEN > We have to talk to The Curator.

The team is horrified. Going back to the man who sold them out is a suicide mission. But they have no other choice.

They contact him through a secure, untraceable channel. THE CURATOR appears on their screen as a smug, holographic projection.

THE CURATOR > Princess. So good to hear from you. I trust you're enjoying the... global redecoration? I find it quite tasteful, if a bit uninspired. To what do I owe the pleasure?

KAELEN > We need a ship. Something that can get us to the Moon. Fast.

The Curator's smile widens. He knows he has them.

THE CURATOR > As it happens, I do have a unique piece in my collection. A prototype experimental craft from an erased timeline. A true ghost ship. It can make the journey in under an hour. But my price for such a rare item has... gone up.

KAELEN > What do you want?

THE CURATOR > The same thing I've always wanted. The centerpiece of my collection. I want the Nexus. I want Kian. Deliver him to me, and the ship is yours.

THE CLIMAX

The team is thrown into a bitter, emotional debate. Julian is vehemently against it, refusing to trade one god for another. Leo argues that they could agree to the deal and simply betray him later.

KAELEN > We can't. If we betray him, he'll give our location to the Architects. We have to make him believe the deal is real.

She makes the impossible choice. She goes to KIAN. He is weak, his energy spent from holding back the sculpting wave. She explains the situation.

KIAN > (telepathically) > You would trade me? To save them?

KAELEN > I would do anything to save them. But I am not giving you to him. I am asking you to trust me. We are going to play the dragon's game one last time.

She returns to The Curator's hologram.

KAELEN > You have a deal. Give us the ship. When we return, Kian is yours.

The Curator's eyes glitter with triumph.

The episode ends with the team standing in a hidden, cavernous hangar. Before them is the "ghost ship"—a sleek, beautiful, and slightly translucent craft that seems to flicker at the edges of perception. They are about to embark on their most dangerous mission yet, in a stolen ship from a dead timeline, having just promised their only god to a monster.

FADE TO BLACK.

END OF EPISODE 58