- Tom and the remnants of the 2nd Mass learn to pilot a Beamer as part of their plan to destroy the Espheni Power Core, and the group draws straws to see who will embark on the dangerous mission.
- Tom and the remnants of the 2nd Mass learn to pilot a Beamer as part of their plan to destroy the Espheni Power Core, and the group draws straws to see who will embark on the dangerous mission. The threat of death hanging over everyone triggers long-simmering confrontations between many of our main characters, ultimately bringing the 2nd Mass closer together.—Anonymous
- Dingaan and Cochise are trying to find how to navigate the Beamer and Matt is snooping around the spaceship and accidentally finds a hidden command to control the Beamer. Tom wants to pilot the Beamer with Cochise, but the ship has an anti-Volm defense system. They decide to draw two names of volunteers to go in the suicide mission. Tom draws the name of Ben and then he cheats, pretending that he takes his own name. Meanwhile Lexi is trained by her Overlord to improve her abilities. However, she overhears a conversation of the Espheni Overlords about their true intention of using her powers not for peace. But they decide that she is becoming too powerful and they decide to kill her.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Lexi dreams that Ben has come back to join her, but he only holds up his bloody hands and blames her for what she's done.
Meanwhile, Dingaan tries to make sense of the beamer's navigation system. Cochise suggests that because it's remote controlled normally, they have to find a way to break that connection.
Tom sees Matt is poking around the beamer and warns him to be careful, but Matt is embracing his teenage rebellious years.
Cochise takes everyone outside to watch beamers returning to the moon on a homing beacon and explain an idea.
Meanwhile, inside the ship, Matt pushes a light under the stairs and a hatch pops open. Matt pulls on the tendons and the ship lurches. Everyone rushes back inside and before Tom can yell at Matt, they realize he's found a way to control the ship.
They're interrupted when they hear a Spanish broadcast in a loop.
Lexi meets with her Espheni brainwasher, who tries to help her embrace her powers of controlling gravity. He tells her to rip a tree out of the ground, saying she's setting it free. He guides her through it and Lexi blasts the tree to smithereens. She's knocked to her feet, unable to breathe, but he tells her she'll get stronger next time.
The scarred overlord that Tom torched watches them from a distance.
Meanwhile, back in Chinatown, Anthony reads a translation of the broadcast, saying the ghettos are being emptied in Andalucia and Italy. The aliens have a new more powerful weapon and people are being wiped out. "Go to ground, retreat, hide, survive. Or this is the end."
They picked it up on frequency 1776 and think it might be real. Maggie suggests they liberate a ghetto and get more fighters. But Tom is tired of small fights and wants to try to win the war by crippling the Espheni defenses. He volunteers to fly the mission.
Later, Anne wonders how Tom will possibly make it back. He says Cochise will be with him and thinks the ship will have enough stored battery power to make it after they drop the bomb. Anne thinks he needs to involve the people he's leading in the decision.
They're called to the beamer, were the ship has fried Cochise's Volm communicator with its defense mechanism. Cochise worries that it will lash out at anything Volm on the ship -- including him -- so he can't go on the mission.
He suggests that if they can get the beamer above the earth's atmosphere, the homing beacon will take the beamer to the moon. They just need to find the rest of the ship's controls.
They start walking around yanking on things, waiting to see what happens.
Ben tries to talk to Hal about Maggie, explaining that he never would have acted on anything if it weren't for the spikes.
The group gathers to determine the next move. Everyone begins to question Tom's insistence on flying the mission himself. Dingaan points out that he has 13 registered flight hours. Pope piles on about Tom being a glory hog. Anne supports Matt's idea of drawing names, but only of those who volunteer.
Later, Anne commends Tom for going along with the draw idea. He thinks it's a terrible idea and the person who's most qualified should go. Matt tells Tom he wants to put his name it, but Tom says no without discussion.
Lexi's brainwasher teleconferences with his lava rock, telling the other overlord that he has Lexi under control and she thinks her powers are for peace. Lexi makes her own lava rock intercom and joins in the call on the shadow plane, listening as they discuss their scheme for her. The overlord tells her brainwasher that she's becoming too risky and he should kill her. The brainwasher agrees.
Maggie checks on Hal and tells him the connection to Ben is driven by the spikes and is just physical. He tells her it's a convenient excuse for a lack of self control. When she tries to insist she doesn't want to be with Ben, he says they really hurt him.
Weaver catches Pope taking a name out of the draw and accuses him of being a coward. Pope thinks the moon adventure is a suicide mission. He keeps jawing until he mentions the skitterization and Pope's daughter, succeeding in provoking a fist fight. Weaver is wailing on Pope and about to bash him with a rock when Pope shouts that he didn't take his name out of the draw -- he took Weaver's and Mason's.
Pope tells Weaver the people need him and Mason but nobody needs him. He knows it's a one way trip and wants to be the martyr and throw the hail Mary for the planet. Pope essentially says he doesn't have anything to live for and Weaver tells him Sara might come back.
Weaver apologizes.
Later that night, everyone gathers around as Tom pulls names out of the skitter skull. It looks like everyone put their name in. He reaches in and pulls out Ben.
He puts his hand in to draw the second but draws from his own hand and pulls his own name.
In private, Anne asks Tom point blank if he fixed the draw. He admits it. Anne tells him this is the exact type of hubris that would shake people's faith in him. Tom can't let Ben go alone and tells her he just has this sense that he's supposed to go.
The next morning, Lexi meets with her brainwasher again. When she closes her eyes, he puts his hand around her throat, but she turns her powers on him. She knows she's not the bringer of peace, she's the bringer of war. She explodes him into Espheni dust.
Tom checks in with Hal and brings up Ben and Maggie. He tells Hal that Ben wants to see him before he goes.
Later in bed, Anne confesses she's worried about the mission. Tom promises he'll do everything he can to come back to her. Anne gives him a "second day anniversary present," a pocket book of quotations from Epiktotis, a Stoic Greek philosopher.
Maggie visits Ben on the ship to say good-bye. She says she'll miss him and hugs him. Their spikes light up and they start kissing. Maggie starts to break it off but they start up again. They're interrupted by Hal saying he came to accept Ben's apology. Hal walks off. Ben tries to go after him, but Hal won't listen.
Tom reviews things with Dingaan and hugs Weaver good-bye. Ben hopes to see Hal. Tom tells Matt he doesn't have to be so tough all the time. Tom thanks Anne for understanding him.
Ben goes on the ship and is surprised to see Hal. Hal tells Ben he forgives him. Ben admits he does have feelings for Maggie, but for her it's just about the spikes. They both know it's up to Maggie anyway. "Who knows, in the next couple of years, Matt will probably end up marrying her anyway," Hal says.
They're hugging when Tom joins them. They're about to blast off when Dingaan races over, announcing that he hears something coming.
They see a half dozen beamers flying overhead and duck for cover. But something explodes the beamers out of the sky and they crash down in pieces around them.
They wonder what happened.
Then Lexi walks into camp and up to Tom. "Hello, father," she says.
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