This is all the medicine I could find.
I'm sorry.
The gods took your father in the night.
No.
No!
As long as we stay here,
there will never be enough to eat.
Never.
There may be other places we could live.
Places where the food is more plentiful.
All it would take is for one of the demons
to follow you back from the forbidden land,
and we'd all be struck down.
Have you ever seen one? Have you?
Has anyone here ever seen one?
A demon, a monster.
A beast!
The stories are true.
The gods used to live in this world.
They watched over and protected man,
but man grew selfish and cruel.
So the gods left,
allowing the demons to descend from the sky.
As survivors, we must dedicate our lives
to pleasing the gods
so that one day they will come back
and drive away the demons.
That is our fate.
Only if you believe in fate.
I'm sorry. I can't take you, Chrissy.
You don't think I can handle myself
out there as well as a man?
No, I don't. You arrogant greener.
I think you can handle yourself
better than most men,
which is why you need to stay and help with the village.
You know, your mother gave this to me before she died.
She hoped it would be passed down
to your children.
It's for good luck.
You better not let anything happen to you out there.
Easy.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa!
Whoa, whoa!
Easy!
So you're the beast we're all afraid of?
Not a lot of meat on that dragon.
I see you have been fortunate in the hunt.
I hope you thanked the gods.
Looks like a nonbeliever.
I believe what I can see.
Ah, nonbeliever, huh?
You from the caves?
You've probably never seen a god.
Would you like to see one?
What do you know about gods?
We have seen gods, Rock and I both.
You lying thieves.
Ah! Oh... Oh... Oh... Oh... Oh!
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute, we were hunting.
We have no time to show you gods
because we have no food.
We need food, we must hunt.
Nonbeliever.
Wait.
First you show me the god,
then we eat.
Look. Frozen ones.
The way to the great god village
is marked by these frozen ones.
When the gods left this world,
they ordered man not to look at them.
Those that disobeyed were frozen in place
for all of eternity.
When the gods lived here,
they could fly through the air.
They'd drive in chariots
in front of special caves with golden arches.
Golden. And the food would magically appear.
When the sun goes down, you can see the rest of the gods
in the night sky.
They're the bright lights up there
watching down on us.
No, no. Come, come.
The evil beasts hunt in the dark.
We need to find shelter now.
There's a cave over here.
Look at those poor bastards.
Now, they really, really angered the gods.
Carlo.
Let's eat.
Go, go.
What's a greener?
The grass is always greener on the other side.
Always looking for something better.
Something out there.
Maybe she was right.
Mm-hm.
God stone.
Sharp.
No, you... You keep it. You keep it.
Where we're from,
a good woman is a hard thing to find.
So if you were stupid enough
to leave a perfectly good woman behind,
why don't you tell me where she is
so I can go get her for myself, huh?
No... No!
Forget about me. Get the hell out!
I can't move!
No!
Oh, heavenly gods.
Don't breathe the air!
It's poison!
My chest is on fire.
It helps you breathe.
Take it.
I can't...
Take it!
Get off my brother.
What's he saying? Don't know.
Who is responsible for allowing this man-animal
to run around unsupervised?
He's the man-animal who shot the wrangler, sir.
I'm a little pressed for time.
Why don't you save the going-away jokes for later?
No joke, sir, I swear.
The man-animal somehow got ahold of his gun.
Really?
Show me.
Reach for the gun.
But, sir, I might get shot.
Sure you might, and I might suddenly grow a third arm.
I swear it shot the wrangler.
Any report filed today still has my name on it
and you are out of your skull bone
if you think that I am going to write on the report,
"Shot by man-animal,"
as the cause of death unless I see it.
If I obey your command,
I may get killed.
If you don't, there's a certainty you will.
Reach for the gun.
Well, I'll be damned.
Hm.
Kerbango!
The best security chief this planet ever had is leaving.
The least I can do is buy him a kerbango on the house.
Of course, I'm sure our little agreement is still in effect.
Now that you're leaving, that unfortunate little incident
won't somehow magically appear in my file?
Of course not. I'm a Psychlo of my word.
Because I've always told you
everything I've overheard in here, right?
And your information has often proved to be quite useful.
You know how they overreact back at home planet.
Yes.
I don't know what I'd do if they found out.
You'd better start figuring it out.
You just said it won't appear in my file.
I said it won't magically appear.
There'll be nothing magical about it.
I'm going to put it there.
Hey!
What about you being a Psychlo of your word?
I am a Psychlo of my word.
And I will honor our agreement to the letter.
As long as you were providing me with useful information
I wouldn't file the report.
But now that I'm leaving this pitiful excuse for a planet,
you will no longer be providing me
with useful information, will you?
I'm begging you. My son just got accepted into the academy.
First one ever in my family.
You know how much it costs.
Please. As a friend.
Couldn't you forget to file the report?
Well...
As a friend, I could forget to file the report,
but unfortunately, I'm not your friend!
Fool!
Teleportation sequence activated.
It is a pleasure to see you, Your Excellency,
and I would be honored to expedite
your clearance through security.
Please, call me Zete.
Does all of Earth look like this?
Oh, I'm afraid so, sir.
Pathetic.
All the green and the blue sky.
They told me this planet was ugly,
but this has got to be one of the ugliest crap holes
in the entire universe.
I couldn't agree with you more.
I hate these puny, undersized planets.
The gravity is so different.
Well, one does get used to it.
And the human animals, grossly undersized.
They don't make very good eating,
Your Excellency. Ah, yes.
My executive assistant, Ker.
Thank you. He has been fully trained
to replace me as chief of security.
As soon as my transfer goes through.
Well, Ker,
once we finish mining out
this miserable little planet,
let's do the universe a favor.
Let's exterminate the lot of them.
Oh, you're too much.
So they tell me.
Please, come this way.
Our spy satellites recorded those images.
What is this species?
Well, according to the Clinklo historians,
the species is called "dog."
Dog? Yes.
Obviously the superior race,
having the man-animal chauffeur it around.
Yes, well, dogs did prove to be more cooperative
than the man-animals.
For some reason, they weren't as useful
when it came to manual labor.
Ah.
I am honored by your visit,
Your Excellency.
Well, thank you, planetship.
You'll be pleased to know
that I've approved additional labor resources.
I'll have them sent here by the end of quarter cycle.
Thank you, Your Excellency.
Now, let's see...
...oh, your long-overdue transfer.
You must be looking forward to getting off
this disgusting excuse of a planet.
I just want to do whatever serves the corporation best.
Very admirable. And, I must say,
you've done a first-rate job here
as interim security chief.
Hear, hear.
I do what I can.
Which is why we have decided to keep you on
for another tour of service.
There must be some mistake.
Oh, home office does not make mistakes.
Of course not,
but have you looked at my file, sir?
It explicitly says that this is a temporary assignment.
Yes.
Are you not aware that I graduated top of my class?
Quite an accomplishment.
I don't mean to second-guess the home office,
but surely I could be of better service to the corporation.
Home office is well aware of your academic achievements
and obvious talents.
That's why we've decided
not to keep you here for another five cycles.
It's a joke.
Oh, thank you, sir.
I... I don't know
if I could've kept my sanity
to be here another five cycles.
We decided to keep you here for another 50 cycles.
With endless options for renewal.
Those options, of course,
being at home office's discretion, not yours.
The senator...
has a lot of friends.
Would you please tell the senator
that if I had even an inkling
that that was his daughter...
Watch your tongue.
The senator's exact words to me were,
and I'm quoting,
"If that blasted Terl tries to talk his way out of it,
have him vaporized on the spot."
But cheer up.
There's one bright side to this:
one day you're going to die, and when you end up in hell,
at least it'll be a step up from this place.
You haven't left for Psychlo.
Your powers of observation are simply startling.
Give me three pans to go.
I don't know what you're so down about.
You still get to be head of security,
which, from what I can tell,
is a pretty cushy job.
I can assure you that I was not groomed since birth
to have some cushy job
that even a moron like you could perform.
Ah-ha.
While you were still learning
how to spell your name,
I was being trained to conquer galaxies,
and to do anything less is a disgrace
to my entire family line.
That'll be six credits.
Put it on my tab.
You don't have a tab.
I do now.
I want some.
Okay. You're new here,
so I'll explain how it works.
I eat first,
then my men eat.
If there's anything left,
you can share it with the rest of them.
That's how it used to work.
Greener, let's just stay alive.
You're right, so I'll fight you.
No! No!
If we don't get food,
we don't have strength to escape.
So now we're escaping?
I am.
You come with me if you want.
Enough!
We fight, it's to the death.
Better say your prayers to the gods.
We have enough problems
without killing each other over food.
From now on,
we eat at the same time.
Sir.
I was wondering when you were gonna look at that.
It came in last week, and I put it right in your box.
I've wasted my time, haven't I?
Sir?
If you're going to lie to me,
at least have the decency to do a credible job
so I don't look like a complete idiot
for having tried to train you.
I'm not lying, sir.
I put the photo in your box
as soon as it came in, sir.
You are pathetic.
You wouldn't last one day at the academy,
and I saw you.
What?
You said we use picto-cameras
to spy on other offices,
but under no circumstance
do we spy on our own office.
That's right. We don't.
I do.
Start talking.
The photo's from last week's recon drone.
It shows a rock slide in the mountains.
It exposed a gold vein.
And you were waiting for me to be transferred
so you could turn it in
and get all the credit for yourself.
I didn't think you'd mind.
I don't mind.
Turn it in, but before you do,
pretend that you're not a complete imbecile
and check the compo gradients.
The mountain's full of uranium. No Psychlo can get there
without his breath-gas exploding.
There's no way to mine the gold, sir.
But what I do mind is that you betrayed me
over a lousy recon photo.
But it's worthless.
You said so yourself.
But you didn't know it was worthless.
I would never hurt you, sir.
I'm unarmed. You can't shoot me.
It's against regulations, sir.
I can make this up to you.
I promise. I swear.
Please, sir.
This...
You do not have to shoot me, sir.
Shoot you?
My most trusted colleague?
Of course not.
We have work to do. Come on.
Tomorrow morning we must warn the planetship
of the mutiny.
What mutiny?
The one that you're going to pretend is in the works
like your life depended on it,
because it does.
If the worker revolt takes place,
my informants tell me that the first order of business
is to separate you from your head.
Which is why there will be no revolt.
I am authorizing you to use
whatever means necessary to prevent it.
Well, the best way to stop it
is to increase profits,
and stop cutting the workers' pay.
Production equals profits,
and I've already ordered
as many new workers as possible
to boost production.
But we have to pay the new workers.
Maybe you were absent the day they taught
economics at the academy, Ker,
but nobody works for free.
Man-animals do.
What if we were to train them how to mine?
Man-animals operating machinery?
Have you blown a head gasket?
I will be the laughingstock of the universe.
Which is why you should have me
take a group of man-animals with equipment
out to a remote area...
Better you don't know where.
...and try and train them.
Have them do some test mining.
That way, if it doesn't work out,
no one will know.
Right.
And if it does work,
I will be vaporized.
It is against the law.
According to regulations, a planetship faced
with a profit-threatening situation
is relieved of all other ordinances
to pursue, to protect,
and to acquire said profits.
And there you have it.
We stick to the original plan.
Bring in new workers,
and they go on half pay as soon as they arrive,
and that is final.
Get down!
Run! Run!
Okay, now, pull his breath mask off.
Last time we didn't even stop timing
until his lungs burst.
That's the wager.
No way this man-animal
lasts more than four minutes.
Help, help!
Help me! Help me!
I need your air.
The wager's off.
The damn thing cheated.
The planetship is hiding something.
All we have to do is find out what it is,
then we'll have leverage over him.
And then we can get the gold.
What do you mean "we"? It's my plan.
I'm sending the gold to Psychlo,
then I'm getting off this stinking planet.
Aw, come on, sir.
You got to let me in on it.
I barely make any lousy credits in this job,
and I've got five wives to support, sir.
Ah, I don't know if I want to partner up with an idiot.
How do I even know that you understand the plan?
We train man-animals, who don't need breath-gas,
to mine the gold for us.
The home planet owns this planet.
The gold belongs to them.
That's the beauty of it.
Home planet doesn't even know the gold exists,
so those corporate crapheads
won't even know we stole it.
It's the perfect crime, sir.
Putting aside the serious violations
of teaching mining to an inferior race
and insulting corporate superiors,
each one in itself punishable by death,
so it is my duty to report you,
even though you'll be vaporized
and I will have to train a new assistant.
But it's your stinking plan, sir.
That's why I'm glad I have
a picto-recording of you laying out the plan,
and my reprimanding you for it.
Think of it as part of your education.
Education, heh.
Never engage in a criminal activity
unless you have a patsy to pin everything on,
in case you ever get found out.
Thank you.
That's great,
but why do I have to be the patsy, sir?
So you don't get any bright ideas
about getting rid of old Terl
and keeping all the gold for yourself.
But I would never double-cross you, sir.
Of course not, because I've already arranged
that if any unfortunate accident were to befall me,
this would go straight to the home office.
No!
Double or nothing
I can blow off one of its limbs without missing.
A lot harder to blow off its head.
That one does seem to be unusually
intelligent and resourceful,
but it's also defiant,
which means we'll need leverage over it.
Leverage? Over a man-animal?
Well, man is a primitive species,
so we'll need something primitive for leverage,
like food.
What do you think a man-animal would like to eat?
What do you think he would consider a treat?
How the crap should I know?
There's no way of knowing that, sir.
Hm.
Well, before we educate it on the learning machine,
we'll take it to the mountains,
along with a couple of the others.
Let them think they have escaped,
and then we'll sit back
and watch it choose it's favorite food.
Yes.
Look. Look.
Three days
and they still haven't eaten anything yet.
Precisely.
Now that the man-animals feel that they have
a safe enough distance from us,
soon they'll find their favorite food
and celebrate.
What is it?
Food. Food.
No spark, no flints, nothing.
You, Floyd?
There's plenty to burn,
but nothing to start a fire with.
That's their favorite food?
Of course it is.
They could have selected
anything they wanted. But it's not even cooked.
If man-animal prefers its rat uncooked,
then our job is that much easier.
If they like their rat so much,
how come those two aren't eating?
Don't you know anything?
Leader of the pack always eats first. See?
We're really going to have leverage over them now.
What? What is it? What are you doing?
I don't know. It tried to bite me.
They know about the button camera.
Don't be a knot-head.
It's a man-animal. It couldn't possibly know...
You sure called that one, sir.
No way do they know about the picto-cameras.
Move your fat ass and let's go round them up.
Ow! Crap! Lousy ceiling.
I thought I told you
to get some man-animals in here and fix it.
Great. This is great.
What the hell do we do now?
What are you thinking, Jonnie?
Don't you even think about it.
You wouldn't live the jump.
You wouldn't live the jump, Jonnie.
You wouldn't live the jump!
You can surrender and rot in those cages if you want to,
that's your choice, but I'm not going back.
So the monsters catch us.
They're just gonna take us to the mines.
No!
Run. Run!
They must be able to fly.
Man-animals can't fly.
Just because we've never seen them fly
doesn't mean they don't fly.
I'm telling you man-animals don't fly.
Right. You believe what you like, sir.
No. No!
No, no!
That is why I am a senior executive
and you are a lowly clerk.
Go!
How do you know what he wants?
They made me do this before.
Just follow what I do, and you'll be fine.
Don't touch anything. Get these creatures mad
and what they'll do to all of us...
Excuse me,
but I am your instructor,
if you will forgive such arrogance,
for I do not have the honor to be a Psychlo.
I am but a lowly Chinko language slave.
As you are listening to me,
I most likely do not exist,
as we may have been exterminated,
like many other races,
by the gas drones of our conquerors.
Please forgive my pretension
as I try to educate you in Psychlo,
the noble language of our superiors.
Understand? Do you under... Understand me?
Hungry, little fella?
Yes?
Obviously this is going to take a while.
Jonnie, Jonnie, Jonnie!
Carlo. Carlo. Carlo.
Oh, Carlo, I know who they are.
I know where they have come from.
I know. I can speak their language.
The monsters? I even know they
call themselves "Psychlos."
What did they do to him?
They... They made him look into a light.
And... And it's a god-machine.
No, it teaches. It's a knowledge machine.
It sends pictures through your head s-so fast.
Okay. It's spinning.
Come on. Let's go. Jonnie, come on.
No. No, I can't.
I have to stay.
I have to learn more about them.
This may be...
This may be our only way out of here.
So this is the monster's...
language.
No, no, no. This is... This is mathematics.
This is... This is the unifying language
of the entire universe, Mickey.
Look.
This symbol is called a triangle.
If all these sides are equal,
then these three angles must also be equal.
Uh, equal to what?
To each other.
It's the basic foundation of Euclidean geometry.
Seems pretty hard to understand.
No, no, only at first,
then it becomes clear in your mind.
You see, I learned something called molecular biology.
This... This is the symbol for water.
And... And engineering.
See? A wing, see?
And... And line and form
and artistic composition.
You see this? This... This is a square, like a cage.
I thought you were supposed to be working on stuff
to help us escape.
This will.
All this will.
Jonnie, Jonnie? Human.
Uh, the security chief
should secure the field vault
with an eight-digit combination code,
and, uh, do not use a personal
or employee identification number.
What's an identification number?
Uh, there. Right there.
How many numbers is that?
Eight.
Eight?
Eight. Eight.
Guess the creature's more clever than that.
Question is, how clever?
Uh, try the numbers backwards.
Oh! Shh... Shh!
Look at this.
It's a recording machine.
This is how he watches us.
Stop, Chrissy, stop!
What if he's not dead?
Hope is an admirable quality,
but foolish isn't.
I can't give you permission
to go out there and get yourself killed.
I don't need your permission.
I'm no longer a child.
Do you want lunch?
It's obviously too much to ask a man-animal thing
to learn a language as sophisticated as Psychlo.
What if he can understand Psychlo
and it's just pretending it can't?
What the hell would it do that for?
I don't know.
Maybe it's secretly listening,
trying to get leverage over on us.
Man-animal getting leverage over a Psychlo.
That'll be the day.
Well, what if this one is particularly stupid?
Maybe we should try to train another one.
No, there's no time.
As soon as they detect the gold,
the planetship will know exactly what we're doing.
We'll have to terminate the operation
and cover our tracks.
It speaks Psychlo.
Go on. Say something else.
You're gonna stay here as my prisoner
while you... You go and get a transporter.
Just because you've learned Psychlo
doesn't mean you become one.
If you don't follow my orders,
I'll have you killed.
Oh!
How exactly do you plan to do that?
Jonnie!
Mickey, no!
No!
If any of you rat-brains
knew anything about firearms,
you would know that you never store
loaded weapons.
You drop him now!
You drop him or I won't mine an ounce of your gold.
I'll have you vaporized
and I'll find someone else to mine the gold.
You don't have time.
You can't hide this from home office forever.
A man getting leverage over a Psychlo.
That'll be the day.
I think it's time
that we show our little friend a thing or two.
As long as you cling to the feeble hope
that you could ever get the better of me,
you'll be distracted from the more important things
that have to be done,
which is exactly why
I share the following with you.
When we attacked your planet,
all your soldiers and all their advanced technology
could only put up a measly nine-minute fight
before they were exterminated,
which is why man is an endangered species.
Everything you humans knew is here,
and you can look at anything you want
because there is nothing that will help you.
But I'm sure you'll find plenty of recipes
on how to prepare raw rat.
Satisfied?
Yes.
I have one more demonstration
for you and your little friends.
You will soon be relocated
to a new mining site,
and if any of you get any bright ideas about escaping,
just keep in mind
that although you know nothing about firearms,
I certainly do.
I graduated top marksman in my class
and I can kill any one of you
at over a thousand paces.
Tell them what I've said.
You try to run, he'll kill us.
That's it?
Yes.
Allow me to demonstrate.
Let's kill them! No! No! Wait!
Back down!
Shoot him!
To toy like this with me before you kill me.
I'm impressed. I'm honored.
It's not for you. It's for them!
We don't kill to torture, we kill for food.
Well, didn't you learn anything about your history?
Man was the only species that hunted animals for sport.
No.
There's hope for you after all.
I know everything about you.
You know nothing about us!
Get your men. Put those animals out of their misery.
Go do it.
Save what you can!
Now...
Let's give this demon what it deserves.
Shoot! Shoot him, I say!
Shoot! Shoot!
Why wait? Kill it!
Kill it and then we'll run.
Then what?
What kind of life is it to run?
Always living in fear of being hunted?
What about the others
we're leaving behind? What about them?
There's nothing. Nothing we can do for them.
Only the gods can free them!
Oh! You think the lights in the night sky
are gods waiting to come down and save us?
Do you?
Those are planets!
Planets like this one!
The great villages were built by our people,
by millions of men and women just like us,
willing to fight to the death
for one thing above all else:
Their freedom.
Do you think no one has tried? You can't defeat them!
That is our fate.
Yes, we can.
Yes, we can!
But we have to go back.
We go back and we learn about their weapons
and their machinery.
Our race is slowly dying
and will soon be gone forever.
Let it be said that we took this one chance
and fought!
Are you with me? Yeah!
Are you with me?
Yes! We fight!
Let's do it! Yeah!
If you're fighting the beast, me and my men are with you.
Thank you.
It's good to have friends out here.
May the gods be with you.
Surely someone as wise as you
has ways to stop me from shooting.
I know that if I had tried,
you would have killed me first.
Damn right, rat-brain.
That's the first intelligent thing you've said yet.
Rest break is over.
There's something I need you to see.
It's imperative you are properly motivated.
You don't know her?
No, I don't know her.
In fact, she's one of the foulest-looking females
I've ever seen.
While I tend to agree,
it's obvious that man-animals show a lack of aptitude
for strategic deception.
On the other hand,
what you show marginal proficiency at is...
drawing.
This was found on her when she was collected.
The collar around her neck has enough explosive
to remove her head from her body,
and this remote will activate the explosive
from anywhere on the planet.
So if you choose to disobey me,
let me show you what will happen.
Please. Please don't harm her.
I believe you. I... I...
Oh, don't worry, rat-brain.
Every collar has its own frequency.
I'm not going to blow up your little female friend.
Just, uh...
this one.
You've made your point.
Sammy.
I said I would mine your gold!
Please don't kill him! Please!
Fine.
As a gesture to our new working relationship,
I will grant you this one request.
I won't kill him,
but you may never ask of me anything again.
I promise.
As I said, I won't kill him.
Pleasure.
Stupid humans.
No, no, no.
What you did was right.
It was right for all of us.
Greener, you're a thinker,
and the gods respect thinkers.
You didn't kill Sammy.
Jonnie, this is not living.
This is... This is...
Cages! Cages!
Even if we were to escape
and go back to where we all came from,
it would be like you said.
We would look over our shoulders
waiting for the Psychlos to hunt us down.
I think that is not living either.
We all chose to fight.
Count us in too.
What's going on?
Someone in that cage
knows how to speak the Psychlo's language.
He's gonna help us fight them.
Ah, yes.
Ker, I'd like you to meet Chirk.
Hm.
She's, um... She's, um...
His soon-to-be newly acquired secretary.
Yes.
Really?
She's stupid enough not to be a menace,
good-looking enough to be decorative.
She gets drunk with economical speed
and has other advantages.
I can see that.
Don't you have some work to do?
No.
Ker!
All right, sir.
Now listen, missy.
I'm still waiting for the planetship's accounts.
Oh.
I had to go way beyond the call of duty
to get these.
I see. Well, that's why
I especially chose you.
So you'll keep your side of the bargain?
Uh, which was...?
You said we were going to have a huge house
when we go back to Psychlo next year.
We're going to be rich, right?
Right.
Just remember I could always inform planetship
of your little scheme.
Leverage? A female getting leverage. Ha!
I am going to make you as happy
as a baby Psychlo on a straight diet
of kerbango.
Well, isn't it interesting
that you have been keeping two sets of books
and telling all the workers
that the planet has been operating at a loss?
I... I only claimed
that it was running at a loss
to try and, uh, motivate them all to work harder.
Oh, yes, of course.
And it had nothing to do with the fact
that it could allow you
to cut the worker's pay
and keep all the extra credit for yourself,
did it?
Ah, that.
Well... Well, I... I can explain.
Well, unfortunately
the company requires me to vaporize you.
But on the other hand,
I could understand someone in your situation...
Being old and having no future...
Could come up with creative ways
to solve your financial problems.
Y-y-you can?
Oh, yes.
It's really of no interest to anybody
to have you not be planetship,
but it would be prudent of you
to start to share your authority.
Well.
But these forms are all blank, undated.
You... You could put anything you wanted on them.
You would run the entire planet.
And I would be nothing but a puppet.
Well, if you don't want to do it that way,
we could always do it by... the book.
What the hell does the planetship need
with all this mining equipment?
Well, that's not even the crazy part.
He has ordered me
to take a group of man-animals
out to a remote area with the equipment
to see if they can be trained to mine.
Man-animals being able to mine?
Yes.
The old Psychlo's gone completely insane.
Indeed.
But what can I do?
An order is an order.
You have a busy day, rat-brain.
First learning how to fly
and then onto the learning machine
for mining techniques.
Crash one more time, rat-brain,
and your little friend
will no longer be among the living.
Again. Again!
Never underestimate
what a little leverage can do, rat-brain.
That's good, man-animal.
This is the lever where we mine the gold.
Lever up, down.
Warning.
External sensors indicate
dangerous radiation levels ahead.
Land this. This is as far as I can go.
Land it!
Meet me back here in 14 days,
and I want the ship's cage at least half-filled with gold.
And even though I won't be at the mining site,
I'll be watching you.
How's your side?
It's good. Good, good, good.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Next time, you fly.
No, no, no, no.
I mean, even if we do mine enough gold,
we're gonna be lucky to fill half of that cage in time.
That's why we're not gonna do any mining.
Yeah, but if we don't deliver the gold in 14 days to Terl,
then he's just going to kill us.
Right, but I read about a place called Fort Knox
where the gold has already been mined.
Listen, there will be no mining,
but we are gonna deliver it.
Okay, so... So we have to pretend
that we're mining the gold.
We have to figure out where we're gonna get the gold,
then we have to get the supplies
to help our revolt.
Yeah.
This great village
was the capital for all of our tribes.
This is where our people's history was buried.
Here. When the Psychlos attacked Earth,
they sent out flying gas drones.
Our ancestors must have made it out
into these remote radiated areas,
and the only reason they survived was because radiation
has a lethal reaction with the Psychlos' breathing gas
and that was not good for them.
It's good for us.
Even if we fail, people will still be safe
so long as they stay in these areas.
They'll be safe from being hunted,
but radiation is also poisonous for humans.
So you see, either way,
if we don't take back our planet,
the last of humanity becomes extinct.
Start filling the cage.
We'll hide half in the mountains.
We'll deliver the other half to Terl tonight.
It's coming!
It's coming! Come on. Come on.
Why is it in bars?
I-I assumed, sir, that a Psychlo of your refinement
wouldn't settle for anything as course as raw ore.
Really?
Well, since you rat-brains have had enough extra time
to smelt it into bricks,
I will now expect the rest of the gold in seven days.
All it means is that we only have seven days
to take our planet back.
Based on what I've read about Psychlo security,
if we were to stage a revolt,
only using weapons that they don't perceive
as any real threat.
If we just use rocks and sticks
they're just gonna hurt us together
and throw us back in the cages.
But we're gonna stage this revolt inside the dome
so the Psychlos are gonna have to come inside the city
to round us up.
And that is when we blow the dome.
Carlo's gonna blow the dome.
They won't have breath masks on.
They can't breathe... They all die.
Carlo. Me?
I'm gonna blow the dome? You're gonna blow the dome.
Piece of cake. Piece of cake, piece of cake, piece of cake.
Okay, but what you have to remember
is that as soon as we blow the dome, boom. Stage two alarm.
What is that?
Thousands of gas drums and troops
are gonna be teleported down here.
We can't fight against that.
Then what's the point?
We kill all the monsters on Earth, they send more,
we get wiped out.
Well, the point is we don't let it get to stage two.
We're gonna destroy their home planet before it happens.
Their home planet? Their home planet.
Uh, of course, we're gonna need some extra supplies
before we can do that.
So our first stop
is the radiation bomb storage bunker in Texas.
Yeah. Is everyone clear?
Count us in.
Look. Flying machines.
Micky, these are flying machines.
They're weapons of some kind.
Flying spears.
It's a learning machine.
Teach us to fly.
You're right, it's like breaking a horse.
I need you to teach your men how to fly this in seven days.
Piece of cake, piece of cake.
Piece of cake.
Try to keep it level.
Jonnie, Jonnie! What is it?
I think I found one. Come on.
Come on! Nuclear firebomb.
Piece of cake.
How do we set it off?
I'm taking it to their planet to detonate it.
Will this be enough to blow up their whole planet?
Radiation reacts with the planet's atmosphere.
There's enough there to destroy it forever.
Let me do it.
Let me go to their planet and detonate the weapon.
That's brave of you, Mickey, but it's my plan, so I go.
Jonnie, you're the only one who speaks the monster's language.
You know things about them.
Listen, without you leading this revolt,
we might not succeed.
Beautiful.
You know he has no intention of sharing that gold with you.
What the hell are you talking about?
And what are you even doing here?
You're supposed to be mining the gold.
You really think the only reason he made that recording
was to have you as his patsy?
Do you, Ker?
No. He has leverage over you,
and it'll guarantee you never see an ounce.
How the blast do you know about those recordings, man-animal?
It really is amazing the collection of discs
you can find in Terl's personal vault.
First we trade. The disc...
I don't think so!
Because if you don't give me the disc right now,
I will blow your head off.
Hey!
Well, you wanna trade?
Let's trade.
Hurry!
Won't the Psychlo in charge
see I'm not wearing this collar anymore?
After tonight, it won't matter much either way.
Jonnie, I know you don't believe in fate, but
I've always known this was gonna be your destiny.
This is our destiny.
It's freedom for all of us,
for our children.
Children?
Ha-ha-ha!
What if this one is particularly stupid?
There's no time. As soon as they detect the gold,
the planetship will know exactly what we're doing.
We'll have to terminate the operation and cover our tracks.
As soon as they detect the gold,
the planetship will know exactly what we're doing.
We'll have to terminate the operation and cover our tracks.
I've been thinking.
80/20 is a pretty fair distribution of the gold.
But I should get the 80 percent.
And with my share,
I'm gonna fire all my wives
and buy new ones. Ha-ha-ha.
Maybe pretty ones this time.
Ker-bango. Ha-ha-ha!
Ha. Congratulations.
You finally learned how to get proper leverage
over someone, haven't you?
Uh-huh. Which means
that I haven't wasted my time trying to train you, have I?
You're not upset? Don't be crazy.
Do you know how long
I've waited for this day?
And I know just the perfect way to celebrate.
What are you doing?
You can't shoot me.
I made a copy and gave it to someone for safe keeping.
You are just too good of a teacher.
How about giving your old teacher
a clue as to who this might be?
You insult yourself, sir.
You know you taught me better than that one.
How the hell am I supposed to know who it is?
I don't know. Ha-ha!
I mean, it could be anybody on this damn planet.
It could be a mechanic.
No. It could be
a concubine. No, no, no!
It could be anybody in the communications office.
Wrong! Ha-ha!
I hate these things. I-I feel like...
Like it's a test that I'm not prepared for.
Well, hell, it could even be...
...our friendly bartender!
Please, I made a mistake.
Now give me the original disc,
and get me the rest of my gold.
Then meet me at the teleportation platform
in 2 hours.
Sir.
Quickly!
Come on. Hurry!
Jonnie, control bunker's to the right.
Three guards left.
Two from the guardhouse,
one coming from the north.
I'll take the two in the guardhouse.
Chrissy.
Jonnie, the shooting's triggered the alarm.
Five guards from the south,
heavily armed and moving fast.
They're between you and the bunker.
Jonnie!
The man-animals have escaped. They're running into the city.
Well, send some guards out
and round them up.
I'm busy! And don't bother me
with every little detail.
Gotta round them up.
Psychlos!
Seven, seven, three...
Greener? It's Carlo.
Explosives are set. Can I blow the dome?
Greener?
What's going on? Talk to me.
Talk up. What's going on?
Talk to me!
Hold on, hold on!
If I don't get Mickey to Psychlo first,
they'll send down the gas drones.
Well, hurry up! 'Cause I got company.
Yeah!
Oh, yeah!
Oh, oh! Yeah!
Yo!
Woo!
Here they are.
Hang on! I'm right on his tail!
Air-lock doors opened.
Okay. You know what you gotta do.
Go.
Greener, come on, come on.
I've gotta blow this dome now.
I'm teleporting Mickey and the bomb right now.
Hang on, I'm seconds away.
Jonnie, come on.
They're destroying the bombs.
It's now or never.
Now, go ahead! Blow the dome!
Go, go, go!
Teleportation sequence terminated.
Interrupting something?
Jonnie? Jonnie!
Why isn't it coming down?
The dome is holding!
It's not working. It's only cracked!
The dome isn't broken, Carlo.
We can't hold out much longer.
Attention.
This is Terl, your Chief of Security.
Exterminate all man-animals at will.
And happy hunting.
Run! Run!
Carlo, what's going on with the dome?
Hold on, I'm taking it out now.
Whoa!
Help us!
They're killing us!
We're not gonna make it!
I think we should pull out.
I'm blowing the dome...
in five...
four...
three...
two...
one.
Piece of cake.
Everyone underground now!
Go! Go!
Get down!
Teleportation sequence activated.
Psychlo War Center, this is a stage three alert.
I repeat, a stage three alert.
Initiate the gas drone extermination sequence.
You have been quite a challenge, rat-brain,
and you're going to make a hell of a conversation piece
when you're stuffed and hanging
on the wall at the academy.
Where's the rest of my gold?
I'll exchange it for my woman's life.
I know my life is over, but surely...
hers is of no consequence to you.
Thanks for reminding me, rat-brain.
Now, where is it?
Trust me, you don't wanna do that.
Trust me, there's nothing I want more.
Carlo came through.
Why don't you vaporize me?
Leverage.
If there are other Psychlo colonies out there,
they'll send out their gas drones and exterminate us.
But if they learn that it was your greed
that destroyed their home planet...
then all the credits in the universe
won't equal to the bounty that they put on your head.
But there is one thing that you rat-brains
weren't smart enough to realize.
Kill them!
I fixed the problem with it.
It works fine now... You imbecile!
What kind of crap-lousy game are you playing?!
Since I'm teaching them all about our technology,
they made me the head Psychlo.
Look at the bright side.
You may not be wallowing in luxury on Psychlo,
but at least you finally got your gold.