Brizon |
Mantrid's arms are sweeping through what is left of the universe, slowly destroying
everything in their path and converting all matter into more drones. As they
descend upon one particular asteroid, someone moves deep within it. The man, dressed
in the uniform of a Bio-Vizier, goes to the door of his cave, pushing a
switch which makes the door slide open. Outside a swarm of drones are laying waste
to his planetoid. The Bio-Vizier quickly shuts the door, and whispers to himself..."Mantrid". He walks over to his subject, who is laying prone on a slab, with an oxygen mask over his face. The Bio-Vizier lifts the lid which covers the victims body, and disconnects himself from the mass of tubes which are sucking various fluids from the greenish mess which used to be the subject's abdomen. "Thank you" he smiles at his victim, who can do nothing but look at the Bio-Vizier through terrified eyes. The Bio-Vizier re-attaches the tubes, which enter his stomach just like Kai's, to a portable flask full of secretions from his victim which he carries around with him. As the Mantrid drones finish off the asteroid, the Bio-Vizier looks down from his ship, a little Brunnen-G Stinger like the one Kai used to fly. He laughs as he heads off into space. On the Lexx, the crew are stuck. They cannot find Mantrid, and are helplessly watching the drones gobble up the universe. Stan is bemoaning the fact that Mantrid is so elusive, but Kai calls for patience, saying that as Mantrid is enjoying the game, he will come to them soon enough... Stan, however, is getting bored waiting. He decides to try and bring Mantrid out of the woodwork. "Lexx" he commands "broadcast everything I say over all frequencies" "As you command, Stanley" replies Lexx. Stan proceeds to address Mantrid, taunting him into showing himself with a long stream of abuse that floats out into the void. There is no answer. He then tries a different tack - putting a message out to all the planets left to join forces with them and fight Mantrid. "Maybe there's no-one left to hear it" mutters Stan. Resigned to waiting, they stare at the screen. "I can help you!" a voice crackles with static, "I can help you!" Carrying the Bio-Vizier onto the bridge, none of the crew are very happy about the form their saviour has come in. Kai puts him on the floor, saying "he is not breathing". Stan and Xev look at each other, while Kai comments that he is a candidate for mouth-to-mouth resucitation. "Be my guest" invites Stan. "One must have breath to give it" replies Kai. Xev looks at him. "I'll do it" she relents, and begins to breathe into the Bio-Vizier. "I think he's dead" she comments, until his arm comes up and starts to stroke her hair. She pulls away, disgusted. The Bio-Vizier, however, is ecstatic. He introduces himself as Brizon, Mantrid's old teacher. Mantrid was his star pupil, although he was talented only in his ability to copy and never had an original thought in his head. Brizon was the one with the real talent, and he takes pride in the fact that Kai was "one of his" also, as well as the Lexx. He designed it, and was in charge of all the undead assassins. I think Brizon would like us to think that he was in charge of the Divine Order itself. Xev and Stan are not happy about him being there and Xev makes it clear he is only there because of Mantrid. "Such a hurtful tone!" he chides Xev. "Listen Pal!" says Stan, waggling a finger in his face, "your lucky the worst your going to' get from us is a hurtful etone!" Brizon turns to Xev - "I can bring Kai back to life!" he reveals. "Really?" asks Xev, softening a little. He turns to Kai "Doesn't that interest you?" "What interests me" Kai replies, "is stopping Mantrid". Brizon says that nothing would give him more pleasure than stopping Mantrid, but first he must eat, or he won't survive the hour. In the galley, he detaches one of his tubes and uses it to suction goo food out of the clear dish. The crew look on in disgust. Stan wants to know how this sorry looking specimen is going to help them - "You've got breathing tubes full of gunk, and Mantrid's drones are eating up everything in sight". "Only temporarily, in both cases!" he replies. Brizon reveals that Mantrid's machine was in fact his invention and therefore he can stop it, but he will need a functioning Drone Arm. "Oh no!" says Stan "we're fresh out of Drone Arms!". His sarcasm is lost on Brizon, who explains that each drone arm communicates with Mantrid via a data stream. He has a code which will travel back via the data stream and shut down Mantrid's machine, along with all the other drones arms, everywhere. But where are they going to get a functioning drone arm? "This planet is on the border of the area which has been destroyed" reports 790. "It is likely that it will be next". On cue, the drone arms sail into view and begin dismantling the planet. Stan and Kai head out in a moth, Stan in a space suit. "We must get closer" says Kai. "But that's dangerous!" replies Stan. "Then we must find a straggler" says Kai. "But if it's a straggler, that means it's broken, and don't we need a working one?". Kai thinks. "That is true. We must get closer". Stan steers the moth towards the drone cloud. "I like your flesh" Brizon tells Xev on the bridge, "what do you think of mine?" Xev looks at him. "Let me answer for you...it's disgusting, decaying" But Brizon wants something from Xev. He wants her help, wouldn't she usually help a dying man? Xev looks at him. "You'd better get ready Stan" Kai instructs, so Stan puts on his helmet. Kai opens the moth's window, and fires at a drone arm, grabbing the struggling machine and pulling it inside the moth. "We can go now Stanley" he says encouragingly, as Stan whispers to himself "I hate my life, I hate my life!" Stan heads the moth back to the Lexx, and they disembark with the still struggling drone held tight by Kai. Brizon beckons Kai to him, and struggles to get the top off the drone, revealing a blue 'brain' inside. Brizon takes out a medallion that hangs around his (no doubt hairy) neck, and opens it. He is about to reprogramme the drone, when he stops and says "No!". Lexx calls to Stan "My exoskelton is being penetrated!" as the remaining drone arms attack him to retrieve their lost comrade. "What do you mean, no?" Stan explodes. "I am dying!" retorts Brizon "I'll help you if you help me!" "Stop the drones, and then we'll help you!" cries Xev. Kai aims his free arm at Brizon's head. "Stop the drones" he commands. "Or what?" asks Brizon. "Or I will kill you!" replies Kai. Brizon takes his medallion and opens it. He shines a blue light in Kai's face. Kai falters, then regains his balance. "Who do you want me to kill, Supreme Bio-Vizier?" "One or both of them," commands Brizon, "but not yet". Brizon tells Xev to remove her garment. She hesitates, but with Kai's weapon pointed at her, she doesn't have a lot of choice. "I must insert something into you" explains Brizon, removing a long needle from his bag, and instructing her to lie down. She does so, reluctantly, and Brizon pulls her dress apart above her abdomen, inserting the needle into her liver. She screams as he attaches her to one of his tubes, and starts sucking fluid out of her. "Aaaaah" says Brizon "that's better....". "Can you pull this thing out of me now?" asks Xev. "No," replies Brizon. "Then I'll pull it out myself" she mutters, grabbing the end of the tube. Kai moves towards her. "Kill her if she tries to remove it" Brizon commands him. "You'll die too!" spits Xev. "Not right away" replies Brizon, and motions to Kai to bring the drone arm to him, so that he can reprogramme it. Kai kneels beside him, with the top flipped off the drone, and Brizon zaps it with his medallion. The arm wiggles briefly and then deactivates itself. On the viewscreen, all the drones hang uselessly in space. "Are they all deactivated?" asks Stan. "All drones everywhere" replies Brizon. "Why the long faces?" he asks - "smile!" On command, Kai smiles possibly the goofiest smile I have ever seen, and holds it. "We've defeated Mantrid" exclaims Brizon. He looks around. "Ok Kai, you can stop smiling now" he says. Kai does. But now they must find Mantrid's machine. "He can't be far from his original position" Brizon explains, as his machine was not fully functional. "OK Lexx," commands Stan, looking at the still symbiotic Brizon and Xev, "Take us to Mantrid". 790 is loving every minute of Stan being tied up at the helm, even though he's naturally concerned about Xev. Brizon is trying it on with her, even though he doesn't have the equipment. No matter though, as Stanley does. Brizon's plan is to hook Stanley up to himself as well, then he can have the experience through them. "Tell us about your time as a Bio-Vizier!" Xev tries quickly. A large Y-shaped needle is getting closer and closer to Stan's anatomy. "Does she really want to hear thrilling stories?" he asks Kai, "Or is she stalling for time?" Kai looks blankly at Xev. Suddenly 790 (much to his own disappointment as he doesn't get to see Stan impaled) picks up the position of Mantrid's machine. Brizon is most pleased at the discovery of Mantrid's machine, surrounded as it is by a cluster of drone arms, all floating uselessly. Brizon calls to Mantrid, taunting him, insulting him. Mantrid's technicolour head appears on the screen, it's programming looking worse for wear; it moves jerkily, and the surface compositing is incomplete. Mantrid spits insults back at Brizon out of the side of his mouth: "You are a festering boil on the anus of a rodent..." Brizon turns and, grabbing Xev, gets in a moth and head towards Mantrids machine. The deactivated arms pose no problems, and they get easily inside, leaving Kai guarding the still constrained Stanley and 790. Brizon crawls deep into the heart of the machine, with Xev in tow. He sees what he wants to find. Mantrid's head is sitting on the floor, still with it's ruff and hat identical to Brizon's. Brizon reaches down in triumph at the prospect of finally beating Mantrid once and for all. But as he picks up the head and turns it towards him, the face disintegrates and is replaced by a fully functioning Mantrid arm, which grabs Brizon by the throat. Xev detaches herself from Brizon and runs back to the moth As Brizon is attacked, Kai falters, regains his balance, and turns away. Stan, gagged and bound, shouts through the tubing in his mouth "Gai!" Kai turns. "aa oo 'ack? " Stan calls. "Yes", replies kai, "I am back" and begins removing Stan's restraints. Xev lands on the bridge. "Quick, blow up the machine!" she cries, clutching her stomach where the line still trails from it. Stan, freed, commands the Lexx to blow it up. As the energy pulse spreads slowly towards the machine, the arms and the machines begin to disintegrate. Then they reconvene in the shape of a giant Mantrid's head. "A decoy!" exclaims Stan. "Yes" replies the Mantrid head made of drones. "I saw straight through his old code! I am the greatest Bio-Vizier who ever lived!" With Mantrid's manic laughter ringing in their ears, they retire to the cryochamber, where Kai removes the needle still stuck in Xev's liver. He does so, and closes the wound. "She will be all right" he comments. Stan turns to his companions. "So, any suggestions as to what we do now?" "Somebody? |
