Co-Stars: Christine Tizzard (Mandy); Sadie Leblanc (Brooke); Matthew Willson (Young Drunk); Bruce Beaton (Roulk); Cindy Dolenc (Tiffany); Richard Zeppieri (Enixian Bouncer); Marcus Hutchings (Vax); Rogue Johnston (Drug Dealer); Steve Wilsher (Detective Lemat); Barry Stilwell (Janitor)

Originally Aired: 22-Oct-2001; Written by: Grant Rosenburg; Directed by: Neill Fearnley

A new designer drug called ‘Cloud Nine’ has hit the streets of Chicago and it makes the user feel "out of this world," which isn’t surprising since the powder was developed on the planet Enix.

Club 805 is the hottest rave scene in Chicago, catering to a very elite crowd: those who were on train #805 that fateful day when 218 Earthlings stepped on and 218 aliens stepped off. Club 805 is run by Fennis, an Enixian who has taken over the body of a twenty-five year old street punk and transformed him into a major clubber and drug dealer. The green powder he supplies to his fellow aliens in 805 is the same one he used to make in prison back on Sar-Top. It takes the edge off and helps one get through the day. Lately, Humans have discovered Club 805 and have become hooked on ‘Cloud Nine.’ One problem: for them the drug is extremely addictive. And deadly.

As Mel straightens out Kate’s disaster area of a bedroom, she comes across something strange: a hollowed-out pen. She opens it and a green powder comes pouring out. She has no idea what it is, but Daggon recognizes the drug immediately. When Kate comes home Mel confronts her. Kate is stubborn, saying she knows about ‘Cloud Nine’ but never touches the stuff herself. She refuses to divulge the location of the Club ... until later that night when she finds out that one of her friends has died from using the drug. Kate then takes Mel and Daggon to the site of the Club, but all they find is an empty warehouse. Club 805 has moved on. With ‘Cloud Nine’ hitting the streets and the death toll mounting, Daggon must find Fennis and shut him down. As he gets closer to the source, he learns that Zin is behind the scenes, pulling the strings and making a huge profit.

Synopsis: The entrance to an old warehouse on a dark and seemingly deserted street is guarded by a solitary man wearing a dark suit, a headset and dark sunglasses. Inside the place it’s another world, a typical ‘rave’-type nightclub for the beautiful people. To a driving backbeat of rock music, Club guests drink and drug themselves.

Jess and her two girlfriends, Brooke and Mandy, are having drinks there, checking out their surroundings ("freak show") from a tiny table, out for a good time and "hot guys." Mandy was given a pass and a pen ("What? He wanted your autograph?") by a guy she met while rollerblading on the boardwalk. They check him out at the bar ("Nice." "Very nice.") and find that he works for the owner ("Not nice." "Very not nice."). When the gals – especially Jess – are then hit on by a drunken jerk who won’t quit, the owner escorts him out and they’re given three pens on the house to compensate them for the hassle.

While Jess likes to portray herself as a good-time gal, she actually has a great deal of common sense and is very caring of her friends and concerned for their welfare. As Mandy demonstrates the secret of the deceptively normal-looking pens, showing that they’re really dispensers for a new kind of liquid drug administered as eye drops and points out that everyone there is using them, Jess is horrified. She has no time for it, just as she didn’t have the time for the pushy drunk who tried to come on to her. It’s in this scene that she sets the stage for the recurring gag throughout the episode (and several subsequent ones) whereby Cole comes to understand the meaning of the word "hot," as in sexual attraction.

———————————————————————

Outside, Kaden, the Enixian club owner, scares the bejeezuz out of the young drunk. He looks like a typical bouncer except that he’s incredibly strong and fast and his eyes glow a luminous pale green in the dark. In making things clear to the Human who had crossed the line in terms of behavior, he isn’t brutal or even particularly thuggish. He appears to have some compassion for the Human’s plight and doesn’t harm him when it would have been very easy for him to do so. Instead he advises: "Go home, my friend."

[Then again, perhaps Kaden’s just being sensible in that the aliens wouldn’t wish to draw attention to themselves and an assault charge would do just that. In the series there will be shown to be a wide variety of characters among the 218 escapees from Sar-Top. Some are certainly amoral, brutal and vicious, but not all of them].

———————————————————————

Above the Watchfire, Cole is single-mindedly working on turning his room into an electronic world, building and assembling the technological tools of Tracking with a computer at the heart of it. He’s crawling out from beneath his equipment-strewn desk just as Mel comes in, lugging a television set and several boxes.

Mel, cheerily: "Wooo! I found this in the basement. I think it still works."

Cole, whacking his head on the underside of his desk: "Owww!"

Mel, making sympathetic noises until she’s sure that he isn’t badly injured: "How many more of these do you think you’re gonna need?"

Cole, running more wiring: "Many more."

Mel, with a resigned sigh: "Many more..."

Cole, indicating the primary computer monitor: "Only this..."

Mel, relieved: "Great!"

Cole, finishing: "Only this screen needs to work."

Mel: "Right." She sighs. "If you don’t mind me asking ... What exactly ... are we doing?"

[Mel’s use of the third person plural pronoun ‘we’ is very telling. By phrasing her inquiry as ‘we’ she cuts right to the chase and makes it clear that, as far as she’s concerned, she and Cole have become a team, even though she has little idea of what he’s doing. A solid platform of trust is thus established between them].

Cole: "Looking for them."

Mel nods as if she understands, then brightens: "Got you a cell phone!" She hands him a blue and white Ericsson Cell Phone box. "Here ... Probably going to need it."

Cole, examining the box: "Cell phone!?"

Mel, a bit nonplussed: "Phone ... You can talk to people when they’re not near you."

Cole: "Why?"

He gently shakes the box and listens to something inside of it rattle.

The concept of communicating across great distances probably isn’t foreign to him, but he believes that he’s working alone at this point so he can’t understand why she thinks he’d need it. But he trusts her and her judgement on this and doesn’t interrupt, accepting the phone.

Mel, clarifying: "So you can reach me ... Look ... Anyone ... Anyway, I mean when you’re far away." She takes the box from him and opens it to show him as she ruefully goes on, "Except where there’s no signal, which is pretty much everywhere I seem to be."

Cole, now uncertain: "Where you seem to be?"

Mel dismissing the entire exchange: "Never mind." She then goes on to explain the cell phone’s modest technicalities. "The bars on the left show you how strong the signal is. The ones on the right show you how much power your battery has left." She then hands him two additional items. "Manual. Charger. The number’s on the back."

[Note that (a) she doesn’t show him how to actually use the phone and (b) the manual is useless to him because he can’t yet read the language!].

Cole, turning to his monitor: "What is this?"

The image of a train flies across the screen and he enlarges it.

Mel, looking: "Just ... a train."

Cole: "But I’ve seen this..."

Mel: "That’s right. Where I ... first dropped you off."

In a brief flashback, Cole recalls the train yard from the Pilot where a train bathed him in light as it bore down on him, forcing him to open a hyperspeed window to move out of its way.

Cole: "What is a train?"

Although he now has a word for the image, he still isn’t exactly certain what a train is, what it’s for. And he trusts his instincts that he’s onto something.

Mel: "Form of transportation?" She’s apparently doubtful how she can simply explain it. "Oh, ah ... Containers full of people ... hooked together ... that travel on..." She starts making odd whirling, chugging motions with her arms and legs that are puzzling Cole (and making him a bit dizzy) as he spins his head to follow her movements. "Long ... metal tracks."

Cole, delighted at making the connection: "Tracks!"

In another brief flashback from the Pilot, he recalls stumbling over train tracks that crossed the road as he made his shambling way over to Mel. And train tracks also passed by the location of the wormhole where he Collected Rhee. The implications for finding the escaped prisoners are now clear. He’s obviously very intelligent and can quickly analyze. He may be naive, as in out of time and place, but he’s far from being stupid.

Cole: "They came here same as me!"

Mel: "Why do they seem so much more advanced than you are?"

Cole, haltingly (and with brief Pilot flashbacks): "My lifeforce was whole. I made me from ... picture on the road. They have Humans to learn from ... I learn ... what I see and hear."

Mel: "Billboards! Maybe they did the same thing!"

Cole: "No."

He crawls back under the table to connect another wire.

Mel: "Why not?"

Cole: "In prison ... lifeforce was taken. Given back in small parts each day ... When they came they needed lifeforce quickly or they would die."

Mel, wide-eyed: "You mean Human bodies?"

Cole, emerging from under the table and taking his seat: "Yes."

Mel: "Oh! Well!" She seems to quickly absorb that piece of information. "So! The question is ... where would they find 218 people in the middle of nowhere fast..." She turns to look at the computer screen again, the both them then knowing the answer. "Train."

Cole, agreeing: "Train."

That’s exactly how Zin was able to get the other 217 alien escapees into Chicago: by hijacking the bodies of the unsuspecting and defenseless Human passengers on a train.

———————————————————————

Needing to know what the aliens now look like, Cole leaves to walk the tracks, starting from the train yard where Mel had originally dropped him off. They lead him to the Chicago train terminal and the 805 Bloomington commuter train, 5:30 arrival. While there, he helps himself to the video surveillance disc from an ATM machine.

Daggon can detect all manner of things through the layer of the Human body he created for himself. He can sense the electro-magnetic emanations of the camera at the station and is able to immediately home in on its location. He gets away with much that he does simply by adopting the modus operandi of many very successful crooks: confidence and front. He just goes about his business as if he has every right to be where he is and doing what he’s doing. There’s nothing furtive about his opening the ATM and taking the disc, for example. He doesn't seem in any way awed or cowed at finding himself on a strange planet amidst strange lifeforms. Nor should he be. He’s a Tracker, and he’s clearly visited other planets and experienced different alien lifeforms a number of times before, at least five times in the Migar Alliance alone. Thus, he walks around among Humans as if such a thing isn’t unusual for him.

———————————————————————

Back at the empty Watchfire, Mel and Jess have yet another conversation about how odd Cole is. It’s clear that Mel is feeling protective of Cole and Jess is feeling just as protective of Mel.

Jess, blithely: "I’m just gonna go see Cole for a second."

She heads for the apartment stairwell.

Mel’s head shoots up from her paperwork: "Why!?"

Jess, offhandedly: "Ahh ... I need some aspirin. We’re all out."

Mel: "We’re all out?"

Jess: "It’s just this club I went to last night was so loud. My head is still splitting."

Jess then breezes right by her.

Mel, hurriedly blurting out, stopping her: "He doesn’t have any, either!"

Jess, disbelieving: "He told you he doesn’t have aspirin?"

Mel, stumbling: "Yeah ... The other day I had a headache and ... I asked him for one."

Mel, feigning innocence: "What do you mean?"

[As if it’s the most normal and natural thing in the world for a woman to have picked up a very strange near-naked man from the side of the road, dress him in her clothes, take him home – and then keep him!].

Jess: "I mean ... He’s a bit odd ... In case you hadn’t noticed. You pick him up from the highway and he walks around here in his briefs..." She rolls her eyes and gives a little smirk. "Not that I mind having a peek once in a while..." she goes on, all but salivating. "But he is definitely ... How can I put this? ... Off? ... All during the day he’s always up there with his door closed. He doesn’t have a job ... What’s up?"

Jess, as if she hadn’t heard right: "Undercover?"

Mel, confirming with a bit more authority: "Undercover."

Jess: "Undercover for who?"

Mel, becoming mealy-mouthed: "I can’t say."

Jess, disgusted: "You don’t know!"

Mel: "Look, I had to take a leap of faith myself." She sighs. "He said it was so big he couldn’t tell me."

Jess: "Mel ... He’s hot as hell, okay? ... But you’ve gotta stop believing everything every guy tells you! ... And this one really is ... odd."

Jess walks away in frustration. Mel knows she won’t be able to hold off her curiosity indefinitely and she’ll have to think of something plausible to tell her.

———————————————————————

Mel hurries upstairs to speak with Cole.

Cole, as she comes into his room: "Hello, Mel."

He doesn’t even turn around, having heard her bustling footsteps and likely sensed her approaching presence before she even opened the door.

Mel: "Hi ... I need to talk to you about Jess."

Cole, holding out the ATM disc to her, more concerned with retrieving the information off of it than having yet another talk about Jess: "How is it work?"

Mel: "Oh! Here..." She shows him where such discs are to be inserted into the computer’s hard drive. He quickly runs the fast-forward and, as the images begin appearing on the screen, Mel continues, "She’s been asking a lot of quest- ... Where did you get this?"

Cole: "At machine at train place."

Mel: "You took this from the ATM at the station!?"

Cole just looks up at her and smiles. He’s really quite pleased with how easy it was.

Mel, scolding: "You can’t just go breaking into cash machines!"

Cole: "Why?"

Mel, exasperated: "Because that’s where people get their money!" She sighs. "They’re very sensitive about this kind of stuff here!"

Cole: "Zin!"

He slows the speed back to normal as Mel gasps in recognition.

Then a woman’s face fills the image area as she first uses the ATM machine, then makes use of her reflection off the glass to apply lipstick.

Cole, frustrated: "No ... I must see them."

By the time the woman moves away, there’s nothing and no one left to see.

Mel, hopefully: "Maybe there was another ... camera at the station..."

Cole: "There was not." He gets up to make a few more adjustments.

He’s a pro. He’d have made sure to check if there were any additional cameras facing the proper direction.

[Major plot hole here. Most commuter rail-lines sell monthly discount passes to their riders. And most regular commuters take advantage of this, usually paying for them by personal check or credit card. Some judicious hacking into the rail-line’s database would’ve yielded these names and probably their addresses because many of these passes are purchased by mail. At least it would have the addresses recorded from records of the checks and credit cards. Further hacking into the banks and credit card issuers for additional info (plus with cross-referencing to maps), and then hacking into the photo files of the DMV, would’ve likely yielded the appearance of at least half the people on that train – PLUS it would’ve given Cole a starting-point to begin searching from the last-known addresses for them all].

Mel, returning to what’s uppermost on her mind: "Look, I have to make up a story about you to tell Jess."

Mel, rolling her eyes and smiling with amusement: "She’s hot for you." She then clarifies as he looks at her in amazement, "She likes you."

Cole, hopefully: "You are hot for me?"

Mel, with a breathy laugh, flustered: "No! ..."

Cole, confused: "You like me!?"

Mel: "Yes, but it’s not the same kind of ‘like’."

Cole: "Why?"

Cole, placidly: "Yes, Mel."

Mel relinquishes his chair as he slides into it.

———————————————————————

That night on their way for a return visit to Club 805, Mandy takes another drop of the mysterious green liquid to get high for the evening, despite Jess’ strong disapproval. Now the affect of this Enixian drug on Humans is made tragically clear when she collapses in the street.

Jess and Brooke call for an ambulance.

———————————————————————

Later that night while Cole is calibrating the lifeforce storage cells of his containment vessel with his Collector, Mel again comes into his room, probably to have another conversation about Jess.

Mel: "Cole? ... I just wanted to talk to you about..." She stops, startled at seeing the containment vessel for the first time. "What’s that?"

Cole: "Holds lifeforces."

Mel, uneasy: "Could you be a little bit ... more specific?"

Cole, indicating his Collector in its locked position on the central hub: "This takes lifeforces from prisoners." He then indicates the containment vessel and its cells. "Then they are stored here."

Mel: "What are those?"

She reaches out a hand to pick up a cell.

Cole, gently grasping her wrist to stop her: "Each one is cell."

Mel: "Wait a minute. You mean that you suck the fugitive’s ... lifeforces ... out of their Human bodies and then ... put them into those balls!?"

Cole, pleased she understands that much: "Yes."

Mel, aghast: "Where did it come from!?"

Again demonstrating just how much he trusts her, Cole extends his hand to turn the two units first into a small metallic cube, and then to absorb it’s molecules into his body with a flash of light, revealing some of his ability in transforming matter into energy at will.

Cole: "Came with me."

He seems amused at her astonished expression, so typical of a lifeform that functions on a lower plane than a Cirronian.

Mel, clearly concerned: "So!" She follows him as he walks out of his room. "You’re going to be keeping dangerous alien prisoners in those tiny ... silver balls?"

Cole, assuring her: "No, I will take them back to Sar-Top."

Mel: "Sar-Top?"

Cole: "Yes. Prison on moon ... in Migar System."

Mel: "You mean like a solar system?"

Cole: "Yes. Where I come from. Six planets. My home is Cirron."

Mel: "And you were a Tracker on this ... Sar-Top ... prison?"

She follows him about as he wanders through the apartment in search of more electrical power objects for his computer array.

Cole: "No. I was ... Guard." He comes upon her new microwave in the kitchen. "Make sure Rhee stay."

Mel: "What was so special about Rhee?"

Cole, haltingly: "He killed ... my wife and daughter."

[He seems hesitant here, possibly about labeling his family with Human relationship terminologies. His eyes became more liquid, his voice went lower and his words all seemed to get thicker, indicating that he found it hard to talk about/mention them. It could also be that his race of energy beings are less emotional and that he’s going to be learning the Human emotional range along with everything else].

Cole, changing the subject, "You wanted to talk to me, Mel?"

Mel, stunned: "No ... No, that’s okay."

She’s shocked and saddened, but doesn’t know how to react to that piece of news. She stands there in her floral dress, clutching a vase of yellow flowers to her breast. She defines life, yet he talks of death and horrible loss. 

Cole, smiling at her: "Good night, Mel."

Mel, returning his smile: "Good night, Cole."

He unplugs the new microwave, tucking it under his arm and returning to his room with it while Mel is left standing there to ponder his revelations. 

It’s never said in the series just how long ago Daggon’s "wife and daughter" were murdered, or how long his grieving cycle might be, but any loss takes time to work through. Yet Daggon is a man who has accepted what has happened and who is focused on nothing else but making sure that those responsible are secured so that they cannot do the same thing to others. He left his usual occupation of Tracker to guard the murderer. He traveled through space to find and recapture him once again. And having done so, he still didn’t kill him, even though he could have. Instead, he contained him. What does this say about Cirronians and their views on life, love and revenge?.

———————————————————————

Still later that night at Club 805, Zin contacts Kaden via a nifty little audio/visual communication gizmo.

Vax, handing the gizmo to Kaden: "It’s Zin."

Kaden: "Kaden."

Zin: "What do you think you’re doing?"

Kaden: "I don’t know what you mean."

Zin: "One of them is in the hospital. From the drug."

Kaden: "I see."

Zin: "You told me that the Club was for our kind [Migarians] only! You said nothing about letting Humans in."

Kaden: "Humans will buy fek-maln faster than we can produce it!"

Zin: "You are jeopardizing our mission! I want them out of the Club! Do you understand?"

Kaden: "Of course."

Kaden signals Vax to start escorting any Humans who may be there out.

[The viewer has no idea what Zin’s game is yet, only that it’s important enough for him to personally contact the Enixian running the drug operation and order him to cease and desist].

———————————————————————

The next morning, Mel is busy setting out the complimentary snack bowls of chips, nuts and pretzels for the early lunch crowd when Jess comes hurrying in, late for work.

Mel, sarcastic: "Oh, good morning!"

Jess: "Sorry. I overslept."

Mel, irritated: "It’s ten o’clock!"

Jess: "I know, I know. I was up half the night."

Mel: "Look, Jess, I know you like to party –"

Jess: "It wasn’t that!"

Mel: "Then what?"

Jess: "My friend Mandy’s in the hospital."

Mel: "What happened?"

Jess, twisting up her hair: "She OD’ed. They think she’s going to be okay ... But they’re keeping her in the hospital a few more days ... I tried to tell her ... She’s gotta do everything her own way." She gives a short, mirthless chuckle. "And you know what? Her own way results in her having a heart attack this time." Cole comes downstairs as she’s talking, but Jess goes on, for once not even noticing him. "Stupidest thing ... Some guy sold her this drug, these ... green drops she put in her eyes."

Mel: "In her eyes?"

Cole, who had been walking towards the front of the bar, stops dead in his tracks, then makes an abrupt about-face and approaches Jess, probably for the first time ever.

Jess: "Yeah. They give these pens that were like droppers."

Cole, to Jess: "Where did she get this?"

Mel mouths ‘undercover’ to Jess behind his back. As if he has eyes in back of his head, Cole turns to give her a puzzled look, but she feigns innocent nonchalance and nibbles on a pretzel.

Jess, uneasily looking back and forth between Cole and Mel: "At a ... a Club down on Smithfield."

Mel, to Cole: "I’ll get my keys."

She gives a smug, squinty-eyed look to a puzzled Jess.

———————————————————————

Mel and Cole go in search of the Club. They’re walking down a warehouse alleyway.

Cole: "What do you call those drops Jess talks of?"

Mel, distastefully: "Drugs."

Cole: "You have drugs here?"

Mel: "Yes."

Cole: "There was a drug on Sar-Top. Fek-maln. Taken the same way."

Mel: "In the eyes?"

Cole: "Yes."

Mel: "So you guys have eyes..."

Cole: "All six lifeforms in Migar have visual organs."

Mel: "Great ... I think that’s great..."

Mel: "Um ... Jess said that it was at an old fish warehouse ... This must be it."

Cole: "How do you know?"

Mel: "Papazian Brothers was a fish company." She points out the blue and white rectangular sign mounted atop the building showing the name and an illustration of a swordfish. "The picture on the sign on top."

She pops a stick of gum in her mouth, hands another stick over to Cole, and heads for the entrance, instructing him, "It’s gum. You chew it."

Mel, as she struggles unsuccessfully to open the door: "Darn! ... Maybe there’s another way in."

She leaves the entry to peer in a window.

Cole studies the door a moment and immediately knows what to do to gain entry. Again he demonstrates that he’s pure energy. He has only to move his hand over objects and they obey his will. Doors open. Tracks give off all manner of information that he can read/take in. Here he simply holds his hand over one of the hinges to transfer some of his energy, and then removes the entire door.

Mel, impressed: "Fine!"

Mel, scolding as she follows him inside: "You’re not supposed to swallow it!"

Cole, relating the obvious as they look around: "There is no Club here."

The Club has packed up and moved, leaving behind a large and wholly empty warehouse space.

Mel: "Jess said it was set up like a regular club ... I guess it must be more like a rave. They ... they do move around ... from place to place."

Cole, kneeling down and sensing the floor with his hands: "They were here. Many of them."

Mel, discovering one of the dispenser-pens half-hidden between the floorboards: "Cole!"

Cole confirms it held the drug by tasting a drop of the fek-maln from the pen.

Cole, quietly: "Ye-s-s-s."

———————————————————————

Jess is wiping down a table when Mel comes rushing into the Watchfire.

Jess: "Did you check out the Club?"

Jess, hurrying over to her: "Yes. So what did you find?"

Mel, evasive: "Nothing."

Jess: "Oh, come on, Mel! You can trust me!"

Mel makes some stammering noises, not knowing what to say or how much she should tell her.

Jess, sarcastic: "Oh, I get it! ‘Mr. Undercover.’ Gotta keep things quiet."

Mel, pleasantly agreeing, trying to walk around her: "Pretty hush hush."

Jess, excited and not letting Mel pass by: "So, if he’s involved in drug cases, then he’s gotta be with the DEA ... or the FBI ... or maybe he’s with the CIA or the ATF!"

Mel: "He could be with ... any one of them, I suppose."

Jess: "Well, whoever he’s with, he’s got a pretty unique cover. Who would’ve thought that the Forrest Gump cop there was a government agent!?!"

Mel: "Well, guess that’s what ... having a cover is all about, right?" Mel finally makes it around Jess to the door of the stairwell. "I’m just going to go upstairs and see how he’s doing."

Jess: "Yeah. Maybe you should take him a box of chocolates."

Jess is giggling to herself as Mel goes upstairs.

———————————————————————

Upstairs, Cole analyzes the drug in the pen while Mel sits and watches.

Cole, pointing out the chemical analysis on the computer screen: "Very close to fek-maln. On Sar-Top it makes prisoners calm. For Humans a problem there could be."

Mel, dutifully correcting his syntax: "There could be a problem."

Cole: "Makes them very sick ... after a few times."

Mel: "Why?"

Cole: "Your blood is different. Fek-maln blocks your heart." Gesturing, he grabs her breast.

The idea here is that he’s trying to explain something he doesn’t quite have the vocabulary for, but he knows where the organ is located and doesn’t yet know enough to realize that a man touching a woman’s chest is a big gaffe. Jess has, after all, touched his chest at least once.

Mel, calmly removing his hand: "Mandy ... had a heart attack. Who’s selling the stuff?"

[Why don’t the Human bodies inhabited by Enixians similarly collapse from using the drug? This would seem an obvious question Mel should’ve asked].

Cole: "Only one can make it. An Enixian. Kaden."

Mel, grimacing in disgust: "Interesting looking ... man ... He is a man ... isn’t he?"

Cole: "He is male..."

He seems amused at Mel’s reaction. Maybe it pleased the eight-year-old boy that seems to live in every male of every species, no matter how old he ever gets.

Mel, uncomfortable: "Somewhat."

Cole: "Enixians are not beautiful."

Mel, with a breathy chuckle and a smile: "Glad there’s a universal standard."

Cole: "Is different for species." Letting her know that her assessment isn’t entirely accurate, he explains to give her an idea why their appearance is as it is. "Enix is on far side of Migar. Not much light. Their eyes more sensitive. As their hearing and smell is more sensitive."

[From this one assumes that Enixians have somewhat bat-like faces with huge, maybe insect-like multi-faceted eyes, big mobile ears and a bulbous snout-like or elephant seal-like nose].

Mel: "That’s why they put it in their eyes..."

Cole, confirming: "Goes in faster."

Mel, grimly: "How do we get this stuff off the street?"

Cole: "Destroy where Kadan makes it."

Mel: "First you have to find it."

He’s already done that, Tracking the gas emissions caused by the drug production to a factory building. He’s quickly able to zero in on the fek-maln factory because he has the ability to bend Earthly technology to his will. Although he’s been able to hack into satellites that give him coverage of the entire planet, he needs more than pictures of millions of factories in order to pinpoint the right one. Things like overhead electrical wires and phone lines as energy conduits become sensors for him and are being used to Track the components of particular readings, giving him the equivalent of eyes and ears all over the planet.

Cole: "Fek-maln starts as powder. When is it made, some of fek-maln ... will be it going in the air."

Mel, correcting him: "Goes in the air."

Cole: "Yes, it can be measured..." He points to the live computer-displayed aerial map, apparently obtained from satellite imagery. "Here!"

———————————————————————

Detective Vic Bruno is helping out the guys in Narcotics and has stopped by the Watchfire with Detective Lemat (who never says a word) to escort Jess down to the station for some questioning. Mel and Cole meet him downstairs as they exit the apartment stairwell.

Mel, surprised: "Vic..."

Vic, pleased: "Hi, Mel."

Mel, somewhat flustered: "Hi!"

Vic then notices the man who has come downstairs behind her: "Hey! ... Didn’t I see you..."

Cole, recognizing Vic and cutting him off: "Cell phone."

He holds up his phone so that Mel can see it and smiles at her.

Mel, shyly smiles back at him: "All right."

With a brief glance at Vic, Cole quickly leaves.

Vic, nervously clearing his throat: "I was just talking to Jess about, ah..."

Mel: "Hey! I thought you were working Homicide."

Vic: "Yeah, I am ... I’m just helping out. The boys over in Narcotics came up a little short-handed so..." Jess appears, looking on. "Ah, Jess is gonna come down to the station and give a description of that guy at the Club. We’re going to need you to come along, too."

Mel, puzzled: "Me? Why?"

Vic, awkwardly: "Just a few questions..."

Mel smiles knowingly to herself.

[Note: Detective Lemat’s name isn’t given in the episode, but it’s listed as being such in the guest cast].

———————————————————————

Following his map and Tracking Kaden’s fek-maln factory, Cole is bumped into and nearly knocked over by Tiffany, a tall blonde who’s about to get nailed with a parking ticket.

Tiffany: "Oh my God! I’m so sorry!"

Cole, righting her and steadying her back on her feet: "Are you okay?"

Tiffany: "Yeah!" She grins at him, looking him over. "Not bad." She grins even wider. "I didn’t put enough money in the meter and I saw trouble coming down the street." She nervously giggles as she indicates the meter maid. "She’s already nailed me five times this month. Excuse me."

She hurries over to her parked car.

Cole, following her: "Getting nailed is bad?"

Tiffany, flirting: "All depends on who’s doing the nailing, right?" She looks over to the approaching meter maid just a few cars away, then looks back at him. "Do you ... Do you have a quarter? I- I can’t get another ticket. I really can’t."

Tiffany, turning her attention to the meter maid: "Hi! I’ve got some change here. It’s just at the bottom of my purse. If you want to wait two seconds..."

The meter maid continues by. Cole has already generously zapped some of his energies into the parking meter, thereby saving her the ticket and the parking fine.

Tiffany, after looking at the meter: "I, uh ... I don’t know how to thank you ... Um ... how about if I buy you a drink sometime?"

Cole: "You are hot for me!"

He’s clearly more pleased that he’s finally understood the phrase than the fact that Tiffany is attracted to him.

Tiffany: "Uh, oh, you know..." she laughs. "Look, you know, I’m late for my therapist ... but do you have a number? ..."

With a huge sappy-happy grin on his face, Cole whips out his cell phone and holds it up so she can see the number [551-6023].

Tiffany: "Okay ... okay. Thanks."

———————————————————————

Meanwhile at the 27th District Police Station, Jess is describing Kaden to the computer sketch artist and Vic’s questions for Mel turn out to be about the ‘guy she’s living with’ and whether she’s dating anyone. As the artist’s image takes shape, a janitor who is going about his business in the room observes the process.

Vic, probing: "So, I hear you’re ... living with some guy ... That- that guy ... Was- was that the guy? Because I’ve ... seen that guy before."

Mel, tightly: "His name is Cole. And ... he’s not living with me. Yeah, that’s the guy."

Vic, soothingly: "Well, I didn’t mean it in a ... cohabiting ... sense of the word. Unless, of course, that’s what you meant."

Mel, hotly: "That’s not what I meant! And even if I did, what does this have to do with the investigation?"

Vic: "Well, I was just trying to make conversation."

Mel: "Let’s converse about something else."

Vic: "Okay ... You dating anyone these days?"

———————————————————————

In the meantime, following his map, Cole is still out on the streets Tracking down the drug lab where the fek-maln is being produced. When he arrives at the site a street pusher accosts him.

Drug Dealer: "Hold up, dog! ... Whatcha lookin’ for? Crack? Smack? THC? Meth? Ext? Hah? Hah hah!" [Cole mimics his body language and facial expressions to get the feel of it, this probably aiding him in determining honesty]. "You’re an Ecstasy man? Right!? Check this out. Got some real fine product right here. Forty a gram."

Cole starts to move away but the pusher follows and gets in front of him, blocking his way.

Drug Dealer: "Hey, hey! Damn, baby, you’re cold! Cold! You’re killin’ me here! I got expenses, you know? All right, check this. I’ll do you thirty, but that’s it!"

Cole’s new cell phone then rings. Not accustomed to its use (and not having read the manual because he can’t read the language yet), he bats at it, then yells at the antenna: "I am Cole."

Interrupted by the arrival of an expensive canary-yellow sports car, the pusher quickly disappears and Cole slips into hiding to watch as two Enixians in sunglasses enter the building. He then scales the building’s outside wall like a spider and pulls himself up over the rain gutter, making it to the roof, his Human body not an undue hindrance.

There through a skylight he observes three Enixians packaging and using the liquid drug.

[How did he know that there was a skylight up there? From his earlier overhead on-screen map!].

———————————————————————

Meanwhile, as Kaden is directing the setting up of Club 805 at its newest location, Vax comes over to hand the communication gizmo to him. Zin is paying him another electronic visit.

Kaden: "Yeah!"

Zin: "Your actions have jeopardized your place with me!"

Kaden: "What do you mean? The Humans are no longer in the Club."

Zin: "There’s one. A girl. She’s at the police station. And she’s giving them a detailed description of you."

Kaden, after exchanging looks with Vax: "I’ll have Vax take care of it."

Zin: "Make sure he does. Because if this continues ... I’ll consider it your error!"

Kaden hands the gizmo back to Vax and the muscleman leaves to attend to the problem.

After Zin disconnects, he nods his thanks to the fugitive janitor from the Police Station who’d provided him with the information.

———————————————————————

As Cole is trying to obtain a more extensive view of the interior of the fek-maln factory, he leans a bit too hard on the skylight’s glass and crashes through onto a table below, but he’s able to recover far more quickly than a mere Human could. Then attacked, he fights the Enixians off, easily able to overpower them with a minimum of violence, showing that he captures and contains instead of killing.

First confronted by a white-coated lab technician wielding a long wrench, he blocks the assault, then throws him crashing through container drums, knocked cold.

Roulk shouts, "Take him!" and a red shirted Enixian hurls himself at Cole. Cole grabs him out of the air and slams him down. Then, sensing Roulk closing in behind him, he spins away just in time as Roulk plunges a huge blade into red-shirt’s heart instead of into Cole’s back. He yanks the blade from the body and turns to face Cole as the Tracker takes out the common flashlight he’d modified, one assumes, to allow the light to penetrate Human flesh and bone.

[Note: Roulk’s name isn’t given in the episode, but it’s listed as being such in the guest cast].

Cole, as they circle each other: "Put down the ... weapon."

Roulk, disbelieving: "Because of that?"

Cole, warning: "I have made ... adjustments."

Not taking the warning seriously, Roulk attacks, forcing Cole to use the light. Howling in pain, Roulk drops the knife as Cole seizes him, driving him back into an interior dividing fence.

Cole, shining the light directly into his eyes: "Where is Kaden?"

Roulk, trying to shield his eyes with one hand: "What’s the problem!? We’re not doing anything!"

Cole: "You sell fek-maln to Humans."

Roulk, vehemently: "No! Kaden told us to stop that!"

Cole considers a moment, probably wondering if that order came from Zin, perhaps just being sensible in not wanting to draw unwarranted attention.

Cole, asking again: "Where is Kaden?"

Roulk, hissing: "At the Club!"

Cole: "Where is ... the Club?"

Roulk: "It moves from place to place!" He whines as Cole steadily begins increasing the power of the light. "It’s somewhere on the West Side ... I’m not positive!" Cole increases the power some more and he blurts out in a rush, "It’s in an old shoe factory on Seventeenth Street!"

Having extracted the information he needs, Cole turns off the light.

Roulk, hopefully: "So you’re gonna let me go now, right?"

Cole, gently, as if the very notion was ridiculous: "No."

He holds up his Collector.

It’s presumed that Cole then Collects Roulk’s lifeforce, then that of the lab technician. The dead Enixian he can’t do anything about. In all likelihood, the fugitives will probably ‘credit’ him with the murder. He probably also destroys the equipment in the factory so no one else can start making the stuff again anytime soon.

———————————————————————

At the 27th District Police Station, Jess finally announces to the police computer sketch artist: "That’s him!"

Vic, to the sketch artist: "Let’s get a copy of this out on the street, all right?" To Jess, "Thanks, Jess." To Mel, "It was great to see you again, Mel."

Mel, watching him leave: "Sure ... Vic."

Jess: "I usually make a list."

Mel: "What?"

Jess: "Vic. Cole. What to do. I make a list. You know. Pluses, minuses. Add ‘em up, subtract ‘em out."

Mel, as if the notion were laughable: "I am not making a list!"

Jess: "I’ll make one for you!" They leave the Police Station, walking down the street to Mel’s car. "You’ve got Vic ... Steady job. There’s a lot to be said about a steady job, you know."

Mel: "Jess!"

[Vic’s brief appearance as Mel’s past love is handled very well. He’s obviously a terrific guy and even the observant Jess knows the choice won’t be easy. It’s significant that Mel hasn’t weighed the pluses, and one is left with the impression that Jess’ one plus considerably outweighs all Vic’s other assets].

Just then Jess notices the sunglass-wearing Vax approaching them. "That’s the other guy from the Club! The one that gave Mandy that stuff..."

Mel, realizing the danger more than Jess can: "Omigod! Run!"

Vax leaps right over their heads and grabs them, smirking: "Ladies..."

Thinking quickly, Mel aims her keychain alarm at his ear and, as the Enixian writhes and howls in pain on the sidewalk, they jump in the car and escape, the car burning oil as they drive away.

[Note: The Human bodies inhabited by Enixians experience pain when exposed to light and high-pitched sounds because the alien lifeforces within drain energy from the Human body in order to maintain their powers].

———————————————————————

Cole has located the new site of the Club and is maintaining surveillance. As he watches a delivery in progress from the hidden shelter of an alley, his cell phone loudly rings, nearly exposing his location. Pulling it out of his pocket and swatting at it, the phone opens and he hears a voice.

Mel: "Hello? Cole?"

Cole, bringing the phone to his ear but not recognizing her voice: "I can’t talk now, Tiffany!"

Mel: "Tiffany?"

Mel: "Who’s Tiffany?"

Cole: "Someone I met."

Mel: "Someone you met?"

Cole, picking up on the stress in her voice: "You are upset."

Mel: "I am not upset! Where are you?"

Cole: "Old shoe factory on Seventeenth Street. The Club is here."

Mel, very satisfied by that bit of news but still upset: "Ah ha! Well! We just ran into one of Kaden’s friends outside the Police Station ... Came after us."

Cole, worried and now understanding the source of her upset: "Are you okay?"

Mel: "We’re fine... I have Jess making the list longer to take her mind off of it."

Mel: "Never mind. What’s your plan?"

Cole: "To follow them home. Take their lifeforces."

Mel: "What abo–"

Cole’s phone abruptly cuts off in a blast of static, then even that quits. He shakes it to no avail.

Mel, into the dead line: "What about Kaden? Hello? Cole? I’m losing you! What about stopping the drug?"

Cole, whispering into his phone: "No bars, Mel."

———————————————————————

Later as the afternoon draws toward evening, a familiar car drives up. Mel has unexpectedly arrived at the scene. Cole grabs her arm just as she gets out of her car and hurriedly leads her to the alley.

Cole: "Why are you here?"

Mel: "You have to shut this Club down!"

Cole: "They are here, Mel. I can capture many."

Mel, insistent: "That’s not good enough! It’ll find its way onto the street. That’s what happens!"

Cole, pushing her up against a brick wall and standing nearly on top of her, as if he has no concept of personal space, assuring her: "They are not selling fek-maln to Humans now."

Mel, nonplussed by his nearness: "Doesn’t matter! There’ll be a way. A forgotten pen ... A few exceptions to the ‘no Human’ rule ... Drugs are big ... business here. And this one kills people. Guaranteed. You said so yourself!"

Cole, surprised, and equally nonplussed at being so near to her: "You’re upset, Mel."

Unsettled, she pulls away from him, then turns back.

Mel: "You have got to get this guy, Cole!"

Cole, trying to cover his unease by checking on the Enixian Bouncer: "But I can’t go there. Zin has seen me."

Mel: "But the rest of them haven’t!"

Cole: "Zin knows, they will know."

[Daggon has no doubt at all that Zin would have passed on to everyone what his Cole morph looks like].

Mel, coming up behind him, her voice rising in desperation, pressing her case: "Without Kaden there’s no flek-malk, nothing whatever! It –"

Cole, gently covering her mouth with his hand to silence her: "Fek-maln. Their hearing is sensitive."

Mel gives him a quick, shaky nod of understanding and he returns to the front of the alley to see whether the Enixian Bouncer gives any indication of having overheard them.

Mel, coming up behind him again, quietly pleading: "Cole ... Please..."

Mel is less concerned with him capturing more criminals than with the deadly drug finding its way onto the street. She wants him to specifically target Kaden immediately in order to guarantee saving Human lives and is so very upset and unyielding about it that he has to acquiesce. And in so doing, he accepts her as his partner.

Cole, capitulating: "I need pictures."

———————————————————————

Several hours later, when it’s full dark, Mel begins screaming for help and making a fuss, luring the Enixian Bouncer into the shadows of the alley to investigate.

Mel, chortling as he rounds the corner: "Say ‘fek-maln!’" She snaps his Polaroid picture.

Since the Enixian is blinded by the camera’s flash attachment, Cole is able to easily grab him from behind and drag him into the alley, subduing him to Collect his lifeforce while Mel sees to the development of the photograph.

She hands him the picture. He looks at it a moment, then hands it back.

Mel, watching him add the temporary shape-shift atop his morph: "It’s working!"

Cole: "There ... a problem could be." He’s acting as if he’s making some minor adjustments.

Mel, correcting his syntax: "There could be a problem."

Cole nods.

[Note: Daggon tires quickly when he shape-changes because he hasn’t learned to control the process atop his Human morph yet. He’s also doing it in a very high-stress situation, which doesn’t help. He’s hard-pressed at this stage to put more than a few words together to make a sentence, so it’s not surprising that he still has some work to do learning to control this trick].

———————————————————————

The moment Cole enters the Club, Vax comes striding up to him, demanding: "What are you doing in here!?"

Cole: "I must see Kaden."

Vax, dismissively: "Kaden’s busy. It can wait."

Likely, Kaden is in a foul mood trying to figure out exactly what happened to three of his men as well as to his lucrative fek-maln factory.

Cole, insisting: "I must see him now."

Vax, hissing menacingly: "I said he was busy."

Cole: "There ... There could be a problem."

Vax: "What kind ... of problem?"

Cole: "The fek-maln. And a Human."

Vax considers that a moment, then indicates with a jerk of his head that Cole should follow him.

Kaden, as they approach: "Why aren’t you at your post outside?"

Cole: "Zin must see you. He is outside. In his car."

Kaden, annoyed: "Why doesn’t he call?"

Cole, holding up his cell phone: "No bars."

Kaden begins stalking to the door while Cole follows behind, only to have another Enixian call Kaden over and ask for a moment of his time.

Cole’s impersonation is beginning to flicker and he knows he’s on the verge of losing the shape-shift.

Cole, trying to hurry him along: "Zin must see you now."

Kaden, sneering: "Zin can wait!"

He turns his attention to speaking with the other Enixian.

At that moment Daggon’s impersonation gives out, his molecules realigning into his Cole morph.

Kaden, recognizing his lifeforce signature: "Daggon!"

He claps his hands but is unable to encourage anyone else to applaud along with him.

Kaden: "It’s so nice to see someone from home!"

He struts around Cole with bravado as Cole removes the sunglasses and headset, readying himself for trouble.

Kaden: "Even if we weren’t on the ... very best of terms ... How does it feel ... to have so many former inmates ... so close to you!?"

But Kaden can’t intimidate Cole. He’s fearless and thinks nothing of walking into the midst of many of his own former prisoners. There’s a resolve to Cole’s attitude that’s both admirable and disquieting.

Cole, agreeing: "There are many of you. And one of me." He whips out his Collector for all to see, calmly going on to explain as they all back away. "But some of you will go before me ... It is very..." He pauses and stares long and hard at Kaden, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he’s specifically there for him. "... painful."

Predictably, Kaden turns tail and bolts, but no species is faster than a Cirronian. Cole nabs him in a burst of hyperspeed, then drags him back into real time for his screaming Collection, spinning about to face the rest as the now vacant Human body Kaden had inhabited collapses in death.

Cole, threateningly: "Who will be next?" He brandishes his Collector like the weapon it can be as he makes his way to the door. "You?" His path clears and he flees, hearing Vax belatedly yell out behind him, "Take him!"

Outside, Cole makes a flying leap from the top of the stairs onto the roof of Mel’s waiting Mercedes.

Cole, to Mel: "Go!"

He clings to the roof as Mel floors it, making good their escape.

Just then his cell phone rings, but he has it down pat now. With one hand holding him onto the top of the car, he thumbs the phone on with the other and answers.

Cole: "Tiffany?" He grins into the phone, delighted. "No ... this is not a bad time to call."

———————————————————————

The tag is the next day at the Watchfire. Mel comes downstairs with a mug of coffee, yawning after an afternoon nap and ready to help Jess set up for the dinner and evening crowd. Jess is perched atop the bar and just winding up a phone conversation.

Jess, into the phone: "Okay. I’ll talk to you later."

Mel: "Mandy?"

Jess: "Yeah."

Mel: "How is she?"

Jess: "Better! But the doctors say it’s going to be a few months before she gets back to normal. They still can’t figure out exactly what she took. But it really messed up her heart."

Mel, calling out an apology to the tall, willowy blonde who’s just walked in the front door: "Oh! I’m sorry. We’re not open for a couple of hours."

Tiffany: "Cole asked me to pick him up here."

Mel: "Cole?"

Tiffany: "Yeah, that’s right. We met yesterday."

Mel, realizing who she must be: "Tiffany!"

Cole emerges from upstairs, dressed all in black and looking hot.

Tiffany: "Hey, there!"

Cole, responding in kind: "Hey, there!"

Tiffany: "I got the top down on the Beemer!"

Cole, to Mel: "Beemer is a car."

Mel: "I know."

Tiffany, attaching herself to his arm: "I’d love to see the new Lucas film."

Cole, to Mel: "Lucas is a director."

Mel: "I know."

Cole cheerfully waves goodbye as they walk out the front door.

Jess, turning to Mel: "Wha..."

Mel waves her off before her incredulous expression becomes the obvious question.