Static Enigma

With W4sted missing, Shack and Morph search the area to try to establish what may have happened.

## Episode 8

The episode opens up with a pan from a mountain near Shack Lake. The next shot is of the Base With A View, with Morph standing on top of it, looking for W4sted. Morph has the sudden idea to use the Sensor Drones to find out where W4sted is, only to have that idea crash to the ground when the batteries in his Sensor Drones run out of charge, crashing the drone.

After some banter with TIUS, Morph heads out to check out his old base for parts, finding the Potato Cannon on the way there and finally agreeing that the idea was a bit too ambitious. After this he heads to his old lab to recover some data. The Lab is still in decent shape, but still worse than he remembers it being, and the systems left are running off of what little residual power exists. Morph has another Malfunction with his suits display, as it is showing static.

Morph is very impressed that most of the things inside the lab are still intact, and he is even more impressed when he notices the scanning bay is still intact as well. Morph links with the computers in the base and he gets 86% of original data from the lab. He heads to the roof of his lab to see if he can spot any Drones or parts from the lab. Morph doesn't see anything so he heads down and walks to outside the Perimeter Wall. He asks TIUS again if it can detect a W4stedspace but still, no answer. Morph finds a piece of Shack's old Ultralight when he is called back by Shack to the Rancor, where the Ultralight is staying. Morph questions Shack's decision to put the Ultralight on the roof but Shack assures him it will be fine. After struggling to get the truck started up they drive back to the old base.

## Episode 9

The Episode begins with a shot of Morph walking into the Kitchen, only to find Shack talking to W4stedspace. Morph shows that he is frustrated with the Captain for not telling him that W4sted is back. W4sted tells the two that he needs to talk with them. He starts by apologizing that he hasn't spoken to them sooner about it and how Morph's nanites helped his head out with his paranoia issues.

Then w4sted explains the dreams he has been having, in which he was digging a tunnel for no reason whatsoever and then found he was doing it in real life too. About the dream in which he was falling in an endless tunnel and then finding the tunnel was actually there in his mine. Though skeptical, the other Survivors agree to investigate, suiting up and taking the Warden's Redemption to the Bunker.

Arriving at the base, there's clearly not much left aside from a control panel for the now non-existent doors. W4sted's attention briefly wanders as he remembers what happened that night, commenting that it had "landed directly on top." The crew are able to pick their way back into the more sheltered recesses behind the base. Morph comments that he had never been back there, to which w4sted replies that he had intended for the Bunker to be a place they could fall back to -- and "look how well that turned out." Morph also notes the existence of the Workbee off to one side.

Descending into the tunnel, w4sted notes he is certain he dug that, but not the giant shaft. Morph notes that it would take even Potatoes months to excavate that area, and that it is highly precision digging. When Shack tries to pull back, Morph points out that there could be some connection to everything going on. Shack retaliates by pointing out what happened the *last* time the Survivors found an underground base.

W4sted comments that there is no reason how something in his dreams could be here -- to which Morph quietly mutters there are several possible explanations, then chimes in on the side of the commander. As they brainstorm ways to get down the hole, Morph offers pitching hydrogen tanks down to give them fuel to get back up, as well as using Potatoes -- an option that is roundly shut down by the others. Before long, the conversation wanders into a discussion of the gender of Potatoes.

As the trio get back on task, Morph is tasked to build something to get them down to the bottom of the hole and back out safely. He enlists Potatoes' assistance to retrieve supplies from Silo Base, which after some initial confusion on the part of the mining drone, are eventually delivered as requested, stating "Box is difficult and resisted me. Resistance is futile." TIUS notes that she was indeed responsible for telling Potatoes about the Borg, that they are her favorite part of Star Trek.

With the supplies he needs, the doctor proceeds to improve the path to the shaft, seal up its top with a solid deck, shore up its walls, and finally, installing a hangar door to provide access to whatever craft he will design to lower the Survivors into the hole.

When TIUS expresses some apprehension about who could have build the shaft and what for, Morphologis has a reply. "Well, we're scientists and explorers. We don't fear the unknown -- we relish it!".