A small planet is detected in
range of the Moon. When the
presence of the rare element
milganite is detected by Alpha's
computer, a survey Eagle is
dispatched to locate it, and bring
some back. Koenig leads the
survey team, including Helena, |
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Maya,
Tony, Alan, and Geologist
David Reilly. During the flight to
the planet, Reilly (an Irishman
transplanted to Texas, who sees
himself as a bit of a cowboy)
starts flirting with Maya, much
to Tony's dismay. They land, and
it's back to work. Looking |
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where
they believe the milganite
deposits are located, they find
no traces of milganite, but do
find an unusual glowing rock
formation. In order to study it,
they blast a piece off with a stun
gun. There is a sound like a
scream, and when they examine |
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the
rock, it appears to be
bleeding.They bring it back to
the Eagle to run more tests.
Tony attempts to look at it, and
is struck by a flash of light. Helena
examines him and he is dead.
But when she hooks his body up
to the medical monitors, they |
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record
normal brain activity. She
tries to restart his heart with no
success. Koenig orders them to
get rid of the rock, but Maya and
Helena argue that, if they are
going to help Tony, the answers
they are looking for are linked to
the rock. Reilly leaves to continue |
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his
search for milganite. Koenig
has Carter join him, then he and
Maya catch up with him in the
cavern. He can still find no traces
of the milganite reported by the
computer. He checks the fluid from
the rock and discovers that is has
blood corpuscles. Back on the |
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Eagle,
Helena is alone with Tony
and the rock. She is watching the
rock apprehensively, when Tony
sits up on the table behind her.
Tony is struck by another flash
of light, and leaves the Eagle.
Helena contacts Koenig to let him
know that Tony has left. The others |
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go
to look for him, but he returns
to the cavern, shoots off another
piece of the rock, and brings it
back to the Eagle. He sets it by
the first piece and lies back down
on the table. Helena tries to talk
to him to no avail. The two pieces
of rock fuse themselves together. |
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The
others return to the ship after
discovering that Tony had taken
another piece from the parent rock.
Helena tells them what happened,
and John decides to leave the
planet and dump the rock in space.
When they try to liftoff, they learn
that all the Eagle's systems are |
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dead.
When John tries to get rid of
the rock, it hits
him with a flash of
blue light causing paralyzing pain.
They sense that the rock has a
purpose, but can't figure out what
it wants. With an hour and 45
minutes before the Moon moves
out of range, they have to find |
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some
answers fast. They return to
the cave, and Koenig lets Maya
tranform into a rock to attempt to
communicate with it, but the rock
does not respond. Helena contacts
John to tell him that the rock has
changed color to green. He tells her
to get out,
but the rock won't let |
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her.
The rock starts searching
the Eagle with the green light. It
locates their stores of water and
absorbs it all. That was what it
wanted all along. All the rocks
had drained the planet dry. When
there was no more water, and they
started to die off. The rock takes |
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control
of the Eagle and lifts off.
It only gets a little way before it
lands again. Apparently it can't
leave the rest of itself behind.
It starts searching the Eagle's
computer for star charts. Koenig
believes that it will activate Tony
again to collect more of the |
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parent
rock. He decides to try to
stun Tony to see if that will break
the rocks control over him. Helena
notifies them that Tony has left
the Eagle, and they wait for him
in the cavern. When he arrives,
he blasts off another piece of
the parent rock. Before he can |
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bring
it back to the Eagle, they
stun him and he vanishes. He
re-appears back on the Eagle
and awakens free of the rock's
control. Koenig decides to try to use
Tony's commlock, which was left
when he transported, to open the
Eagle door to get them out. |
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When they look for it again,
it's
gone. Reilly took it to try to rescue
Helena and Tony. He manages to
get them out, but is stunned by the
rock before he can use his laser
on it. The rock takes him over to
gather more of itself. After having
Maya modify a stun gun to fire |
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four beams at once, Koenig
has
her transform into a rock again
so that Reilly will bring her back
to the Eagle, instead of more of
the parent rock. John and Alan
follow him back, and get in the
door before it closes. The rock
stuns them as Reilly puts Maya, |
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in rock form, next to the
other. It
starts to pull her closer to begins
the fusing process. Maya is able
to tell Koenig that the rock is using
most of it's energy to fuse her, and
that they should be able to break
free of it. They do, but the rock
turns red and tries to hit them |
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with a red light. Maya tells
them
that red is the color that kills.
Koenig fires the modified stun
gun and dehydrates the rock,
saving Maya, and freeing Reilly,
and the Eagle, of the rock's control.
They call Tony and Helena back
to the Eagle and prepare to |
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leave. They toss the rock out
and
lift off. They are almost out of
range of the Moon. As the Eagle
climbs, they discuss the fate of
the rock. It will die within hours if
it doesn't get water. They realise
that it did not want to hurt them,
it just wanted to survive. As they |
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approach the heavy cloud
cover,
Helena comments that it's too bad
that the clouds won't give up their
water in time to save the rock.
Maya says they can make it rain
by dropping nucleoid crystals into
the clouds. John gives the "ok"
and they jettison the crystals |
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from the bottom of the Eagle.
It
thunders and starts to rain over
the rock. Reilly muses that they
didn't get away with any milganite,
and Helena responds that they
did get away with their lives. They
continue back to Alpha with
virtually no time to spare. |
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