| Bad Dream | |
|---|---|
| Season 8, Episode 4 (93) | |
 transcript | |
| Air date | April 16, 2016 |
| Written by | Jon Graham |
| Directed by | Jon Graham |
| Episode guide | |
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"Bad Dream" is the fourth episode of the eighth season of Arby 'n' the Chief.
Summary[]
PAL reveals the cause of the ship's high alert status to be the imminent failure of a critical component of the ship's communications system.
Synopsis[]
On-board the ship, the klaxon is still blaring as Cortana heads back to the control room while trying to make contact with PAL, looking around at some of the damage the ship has sustained from unknown events. After noticing Arbiter is not with her, Cortana tells herself to remain calm and contacts PAL on her headset, only to apparently get its voice mail. Cortana leaves a message and hurries to the control deck, but keeps telling herself to remain calm and everything will be fine.
On the control deck, PAL is panicking as it realizes they are screwed. Cortana arrives and wonders what's going on, but as PAL says they are all doomed, she wonders if it is the warheads in cargo. PAL, however, tells her that is not the problem and shuts off the alarm. Cortana soon seems to understand what PAL did and goes to confront him. Meanwhile, Arbiter hurries back to the control deck himself, and arrives as Cortana gives PAL a stern talking-to regarding its behavior. When she brings up the sentries guarding the core, PAL reminds her that they are not to go near the core as that's where its brain is. When Arbiter asks about the alarms, PAL says that there's a problem with the satellite box and its trying to fix it. When Cortana mentions that keeping in contact with Earth is important to the mission, PAL realizes its error and explains how they can repair it to restore contact with Earth. However, the box is located on the outer hull of the ship, so one of them will have to go with PAL to retrieve it to take to the repair bay for fixing.
Arbiter volunteers to go with PAL, despite Cortana's concerns, and requests a helmet. At the airlock, Cortana speaks to PAL about it being drunk and when the rest of the crew is to be awoken from cryo-sleep, learning that they will be awoken in another 24 hours. Cortana hopes one of them in an engineer who could help repair the satellite box, but PAL says no as it can do it. When PAL turns to see if Arbiter is ready to go, Arbiter is seen wearing the same armor he wore on his avatar on Xbox Live. After discussing what to do and how to keep in contact, Arbiter and PAL head out to retrieve the satellite box to repair it and restore contact with Earth.
Cortana returns to the control deck as Arbiter and PAL leave the ship to begin retrieving the satellite box for repairs. Once outside, Arbiter and Cortana check to see how long Arbiter can remain outside before he's out of air, and at a rate of 1% per 15 seconds, he's got 20 minutes to retrieve the box and come back.
As Arbiter and PAL make their way to the satellite box, PAL only makes Arbiter more nervous with mentioning all the bad stuff that could happen to him without his protective suit. Five minutes out, and Arbiter reaches the satellite box, but hits a snag: The panel's screws won't budge, even after several attempts. Though Cortana suggests returning to the airlock to see what other tools they can use, Arbiter decides to try using his Plasma Pistol, firing several overcharged shots at the panel, and manages to remove it that way. As he tries to remove the box itself, he makes pretty good progress, when he is suddenly struck by something that damages his personal shields. Luckily, the shields took the blast and recover, but as PAL reveals it to be a result of mircometeors, Cortana finds that they damaged Arbiter's suit and his air is depleting faster than before. Despite her orders to return to the airlock at once, and PAL agreeing with her for Arbiter's sake, Arbiter refuses to leave without the satellite box, and manages to retrieve it. Cortana orders him back to the airlock at once and to conserve the air he has left.
Arbiter starts making his way back, but begins to feel dizzy. When he checks for PAL, it's not there. When he tries contacting Cortana, he gets no response from her either. Arbiter keeps trying, but gets no response.
Arbiter then finds himself back on a Halo: Reach map, seeing a hallucination of Claire, then finding a Scorpion Tank that is soon blown up by something, before seeing hallucinations of Colin and Tyler, then looking up a where flames are belching out of a building. Shortly thereafter, he finds himself on another map, and as he explores, he soon turns around to find Eugene standing behind him, who apparently wonders where he's been. As Arbiter asks if he can help, he hears and turns around to see PAL, only for Eugene to tell him that the ship and PAL are all a bad dream and he's back in reality. However, the scene abruptly changes back to the outside of the ship as PAL wonders why Arbiter is hesitating to get back to the airlock when his life is in danger. As Cortana wonders what is going on, PAL tells her that Arbiter is just standing on the edge of the platform like he's about to commit suicide, to Cortana's horror.
Back in the dream, Eugene asks Arbiter to come over to his side of the river and he'll explain everything after mentioning that this map was where it all started. Arbiter is hesitant, but Eugene keeps telling him to come over and ignore PAL. However, Arbiter is about to cross the river and join Eugene when Cortana's voice stops him and she appears next to PAL. As Arbiter is torn between what to do, back on the ship, he's passed out and being taken back to the medical bay by Cortana and PAL, who keep telling him to hang on.
When Arbiter finally regains consciousness, Cortana and PAL are relieved, but Cortana is angry with PAL for not warning them about the micrometeorites first before Arbiter even went out there. Arbiter had been out for a few hours, but despite that, they get to work with repairing the satellite box. In the repair bay, it turns out that the satellite box is in perfect working order, which means something else cut off the uplink, and both Cortana and Arbiter look at PAL for an answer. After Cortana leaves PAL at a loss for words after reminding him how he is the ship, the decision is made that Cortana will go and put the satellite box back, but will need extra protection from the micrometeorites, so she asks PAL to retrieve an Overshield for her.
After PAL leaves, Cortana reveals she was tricking him so she and Arbiter can discuss things in private. Cortana is worried that PAL is malfunctioning and broken, but Arbiter is hesitant to believe that. Cortana decides she has to do something about PAL before the rest of the crew are endangered, so she makes a decision: Replace the satellite box, then pull PAL's plug.
Unknown to either of them, PAL overheard the entire discussion...
Cast[]
- Microsoft Sam as PAL-9001
- Microsoft Mike as The Arbiter
- Microsoft Mary as Cortana
- Jon Graham as Eugene Black
Transcript[]
- Main article: Bad Dream/Transcript
Watch the episode[]
| Season 8 |
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