LEXX

Stanley is floating through a technicolour landscape wall to wall with images of Lyekka and Xev, among others. He's having a great time. Until that is Giggerota appears...

Stan wakes up, screaming. "What's the matter Stan?" asks Xev, rushing in from her bed. Stan explains his dream to her and she suggests he go and do something to take his mind off it. Something that makes him happy. Something that makes him feel manly. Stan heads for the bridge.

Meanwhile, on a distant space station, a shuttle lands. It's only occupant makes his way from the landing pad down into the interior of the ship. This is "Gubby's Narcolounger World" where your dreams become reality! As the pilot reaches the dark dingy office, Gubby swings back on his chair to reveal himself. "Not you again, Fruitcake" he complains. "Fruitcake" wants a ride, needs a ride, in fact. And he has brought something to trade. It is a broken drone arm that he says he 'found'. Gubby is less than impressed, but then Fruitcake whispers "there are patches in the sky", and tears roll down his cheeks. Gubby relents and lets him hop on the couch for a free ride.

Stan has found something to blow up, this'll make him feel better... A planet with a massive whole in one side - almost half of it is missing. A voice comes over the intercom. "Unidentified vessel, please leave. You have 30 seconds to comply" It is a robot with the same head as 790, but a mechanical body. Stan pretends to be an Assistant Deputy Inspector in charge of Beautifying this area of the galaxy, and this planet is ugly! The robot explains that this is a machine operated Manganese mining colony, and if the Lexx doesn't leave it will have to submit a report to the proper authorities. Stan is by now in a bad mood and commands the Lexx to blow up the planet in 60 seconds, if the robot can't suggest something to cheer him up. Xev, who has wandered up to the bridge, looks less than pleased that Stan is blowing things up for fun. The robot suggests the Narcolounger and explains that it allows you to enjoy and control your dreams. Stan orders the robot to transmit the co-ordinates to the Lexx, which it does. Pleased, Stan tells Lexx to cancel the previous order (to blow up the planet). As they turn to leave, the planet explodes. "What does the word 'cancel' mean?" asks Lexx.

Fruitcake gets on the couch and Gubby plugs in the Narcolounger controls. He reels off his spiel about the risks of the Narcolounger "...if you die in your dream, real death follows...", but Fruitcake is sitting with the smile of an addict about to get his fix, oblivious to the danger. As his client lays back, Gubby puts a clear glass bulb on a stand and prepares to allow Fruitcake to enjoy his dreams. "There are patches in the sky", Fruitcakes repeats, "Do you know the Wolfram T Galaxy?" "Yes" replies Gubby. "Take a look" Fruitcake implores, as Gubby switches on the machine, and Fruitcake is disintegrated and pulled into the machine. His image appears in the glass bulb. He is naked apart from some very fetching yellow underpants and surrounded by adoring girls. You can see why he wanted to get back so much...
Gubby plugs in his telescope and looks at the sky where Fruitcake suggested. Parts of the Wolfram T galaxy are missing, as well as large chunks of just about every other galaxy he can see. They have disappeared. There are indeed patches in the sky, and according to Gubby's computer, at this rate it will only take just over 100 days for the whole universe to disappear. Gubby loads up a huge pipe with something very narcotic and takes a deep breath.

"Welcome to Gubby Mark's Narcolounger World!" spouts the automated welcome message as the Lexx approaches. "Open every day!" it continues, until a computerised voice cuts in with "We're closed." Stan orders Lexx to "blast the station with every frequency...erm, not with your weapons though Lexx, I mean open every frequency channel...OK?". A very stoned Gubby appears on the screen "We're closed!". Stan purports to be an Inspector from the council on Dream Safety who Gubby had jolly well better let in or he'll blow up the station for non-compliance. The stoned Gubby, laughing hysterically, thinks 'what the hell' and lets them aboard.

Xev doesn't think it's a good idea that Stan rides the Narcolounger, especially since his Gigerotta dreams, but he insists. Gubby foregoes his spiel about the dangers of the lounger, on account of being off-his-face and Stan is soon sucked into the machine, appearing in a little glass bulb as Fruitcake did. He seems to be having a wonderful time with his wall-to-wall technicolour women. Kai (for he has been brought along just in case) is being as nosey as ever and has found the drone arm, and demands to speak to Fruitcake to find out where it came from. Fruitcake however is now surrounded by more beautiful girls and the sound of cheering, to which he is waving politely. This is one screwed up dude. Leaving Xev to watch in case Stan's dream turns bad and Gubby has to pull him out, Gubby takes Kai off to the computer. Taking another huge hit off the pipe, he tells Kai about the patches in the sky and shows him through the telescope, calling him "cute boy" (which I'm not sure I approve of...after all, he's rather well developed man!). Kai is understandably perplexed by this, especially having already seen the drone arm, which could be a Mantrid drone after all...
Gubby offers Kai a toke on the pipe, which Kai refuses. "The dead cannot get high" he explains. Does this mean he would if he could, we wonder?

Stan is having a lovely time, until suddenly he's not floating through images of loverly ladies any more, but standing on one of the decks of the Lexx. He turns around to find the robot whose world he blew up facing him. It accuses Stanley of destroying it's world, and says it wants to exist again (sniff!). Stan refuses to feel guilty and start to walk away, until the robot starts firing on him. Stan runs, only to be confronted at the next turn by Gigerotta...

Xev, still watching Stanley's globe, realises something is wrong. "Hey!" she calls to Gubby, "You've got to pull him out!" Gubby agrees, but is too stoned to operate the machine. Kai holds him up and offers to assist, but Gubby says he knows what he's doing, and takes two large electrical cables. Holding them in his bare hands, he connects them. His face turns a very strange shape, and then he disappears.

Stan is being chased by an angry Gigerotta. He tries to imagine her away, after all, this is his dream, but she won't go. She says that Stan feels guilty for all those people he killed, that he is afraid of death and that's why she's come to kill him (twisted logic, but this is a nightmare). The deck of the Lexx disappears beneath his feet and he is left standing on top of a pinnacle with only just enough room to stand. And then she pushes him and he starts to fall. A very long way.

Kai tries to work the machine now that Gubby has gone, but cannot. Xev says she will go in herself and retreive Stanley. 790 is not happy and wants Kai to go in instead, but he doesn't dream. Kai and 790 must go and work out how to retrieve them all.

Stan has landed on a platform, well half of him has. He appears to be missing his legs. Gigerotta is about to push him through the floor when Gubby appears, complete with his pipe. Gigerotta thinks this is wonderful fun and it will be far more poignant if Stanley sees everyone else die before him. She inhales Gubby through his own pipe! Stanley is falling further and further through the floor until he is just a head. He repeats to himself that he can wake up, this is just a dream!, this is just a dream!

Stan wakes up, screaming. Then Xev appears in the bed behind him, making a very peculiar sound. Then Gigerotta appears and attacks Stan again... then Xev appears behind Gigerotta... "Xev?" asks Stan, for it is indeed Xev. She has made it into his Dream, and is going to give Gigerotta a damned good thrashing. Until Gigerotta shrinks her, that is, and starts firing energy bolts.

Kai and 790 are attempting to figure out the machine. 790 plugs in to the console, but most of the systems are burnt out or faulty. The physical mass of the bodies is, however, not stored in the machine, but in storage chambers in the bowels of the station. Kai and 790 rush down the stairs. There, along the wall, are boiler shaped containers. One contains Fruitcake, and the other Stan and Xev. Although Kai cannot bring them out of the machine, he can bring them out of Stan's dream and away from Gigerotta. He starts opening various valves.

Gigerotta has caught up with Xev and is roaring at her, making her disintegrate. Xev disappears. Stan yells "You've killed her!", but Gigerotta looks confused. "No, actually..." she starts

Xev's body has been sucked through the tubing of the machine into Fruitcakes dream. She appears there, adoring him like all the other women in the dream.

Gigerotta looks even more confused when Stanley disappears. But not for long, for without Stan, there is no dream....

"Hey, you're not part of my dream!" says Fruitcake, as Stanley appears next to one of the adoring women. "Maybe not, but you're certainly part of my nightmare!" replies Stan. "Xev!" he exclaims. "Stan!" she replies, and stops being adoring.

Back in the storage chamber, Fruitcake's container now holds him, Xev and Stan. Kai and 790 climb back to the control panel at the top of the tower and finally work out how to use the machine. Kai throws the switch and Stan reappears on the couch, closely followed by Xev and Fruitcake, who asks to be put back. Kai returns him to his dream, as Stanley starts blabbering on about how grateful he is and how sorry and how he'll never blow anything up again and how he'll live every minute of the rest of his life to the full...
"And you may have fewer than you think" Kai comments. "Oh yeah, why is that, Party Pooper?" Stan demands. Kai explains about the patches in the sky. "Well we'll just avoid those parts then..." retorts Stan. Except that this galaxy itself is scheduled to disappear within 27 standard days, and after all, that drone arm (which seems to have disappeared) could be a Mantrid drone.

As The Lexx leaves the station, the little Narcolounger computer finally breaks down. And the drone arm smashes the bubble containing Fruitcake's dream as it flies drunkenly around the station looking for spare parts...