D-Day

**D-Day** is the tenth episode of the second season of *Another Life*, and the twentieth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 14, 2021 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

As the Achaia close in, the crew moves quickly to create a new weapon and save Earth. The time has come for the heroic to make the ultimate sacrifice.

## Plot

Niko, Richard, Bernie, Zayn, and Dillon are all in shock as they see that the Salvare blown up by the Achaia Ring. Everybody is happy that the neutrino bomb had worked, and Niko asks if it could work again, but William says that they do not have enough time. Mackenzie asks what they could do now, and Cas says that there was only one way to find out, which would be using Seth.

Cas and and Niko see each other again and give themselves a hug. Niko says that she knew Cas would succeed, but she tells her commander that it was not over yet and tells her to be careful.

Mackenzie and Niko interview Seth, saying that relations between humanity and the Achaia were in a bad spot. Nothing had warranted an attack on the Salvare, but he asks how they could defend themselves from a species that had saved her daughter's life. Niko tells him that wherever the Achaia went, death had followed, but Seth says that it is the other way around and says that their weapon was just a mosquito bite, telling them that the Achaia would be forced to respond unless they met their demands, which were new ones.

Erik wonders if artificial gravity was getting in their way, but William simply says that he was picking up a massive buildup of Cherenkov radiation, mentioning that dozens of wormholes were opening up, which was an Achaian invasion force.

Seth says that the Achaia's demand was to allow numerous Artifacts to land on Earth, and also to accept all of their gifts. This was advanced tech to help humans achieve their potential, but they also wanted the Salvare destroyed. He tells them that they have 24 hours to decide, and they ask what would happen if they refused. Seth tried to answer, but his head started hurting, and suddenly exploded.

The president says that they are out of options, so Mackenzie says that they could accept to destroy the Salvare, and discuss the rest later. However, Niko says that they should not give the Achaia an advantage, telling him that they want to enslave them. She asks him to let her do her job, while Cas supports her, but the president says that if they did not make it in time, he would accept their deal. Niko says that she needs something that is not on Earth, so both her and Cas go to the shuttle.

Niko and Erik see each other once again and hug. He gives her her wedding ring back, which she accepts back and tells him that she had seen Jana.

Niko gathers the crew and tells them that they have 59 rings around Earth, which Dillon says is too much for them. Everybody discusses how they could beat the Achaia and agree that they need to think outside the box. Cas wonders if they do not want what they have, but would blow up their planet if they did not roll over, which they cannot understand. Niko says that they are seemignly impenetrable, but William says that they are not.

William tells Niko that there were large pieces of the Achaian ring, which they could use in order to see how they could take them down. Niko says that she now recognizes William. They see the ring, which actually also contains an Achaian.

Richard asks William if the Achaian could access the ship, but he says that it could not access anything. Niko wonders why the Achaian was so muted, which William assumes is because they needed some sort of energy source in order to survive, so the creature had maybe an hour left to live.

William tells the crew that their coding was DNA, but they now had an analysis into the Achaia at a microscopic level. Zayn asks if it was a model of their DNA, but is told that it was a real scan. Ze sees that the characters were an actual part of the makeup of the Achaia, which was odd. Bernie asks why the Achaia need a written language, which makes Erik think that those things were not the Achaia, but William's evolution. Cas wonders what the Achaia really are and wonder if the real Achaia had been killed off. Niko dismisses that as unimportant and says that they need to fight them. Dillon suggests using a computer virus, which Erik says could be possible. Zayn mentions a flesh and blood version of a trojan horse and says that they could implant the virus into one of them.

Zayn tells the crew that every member of the Salvare has a hard wire that goes into their brain stem for Soma so they could inject the virus using Soma. Once the Achaian melded with it, it would catch the virus. Niko asks if ze wanted her to let an Achaian feed off a member of the crew and Zayn says that just long enough to get it back down to the Artifact and release it along with the malware. Niko asks what she needs to do, but Erik does not want her to and Cas volunteers instead, saying she knew how to beat the Achaia as well.

Cas gets ready to have the virus implanted, but William says that they are having trouble implanting it, but it could be done later. Bernie and Zayn disagree, but William says that the Achaian only has moments left. However, the crew is out of options. In the meantime, Niko leaves.

Niko reaches the Achaian, telling it that they had saved it and would take it back to its people inside of her. Erik tries stopping her, but she does not listen and the Achaian goes in her, making her collapse.

Zayn tells Erik and Cas that Niko is generally doing fine, but she was in a coma. Zayn has no idea if that is due to the Achaia or an injury. Erik says that the Achaia are draining her, while Richard, Ursula, and William say that they were finally able to mask a human virus with the Achaian code. Erik says that they could not release the virus remotely, since he would go in there and let the Achaian take over him, knowing he does not have Soma hardware. William tells Erik that Niko wanted to do it herself, so Erik says that he would do it alone.

Erik walks inside the room where Niko was at and asks if she could hear him. She starts moving strangely, cracking her joints as the Achaian talked through her. The Achaia says that it does not want her and tries ripping off her flesh since flesh was primitive and disgusting. Erik asks if Niko is safe, but does not get an answer.

Cas says that she should be there instead of Niko, so Dillon tells her that when he lost his leg in the war, everybody in his unit had died and he had felt a lot of guilt, but it had not been his fault. Cas holds his hand after that.

The Achaian feels trapped, but Erik tells it that it was keeping it alive as well. Erik asks if they brought it down to the Artifact if it would release Niko and resume peace talks. The Achaian refuses this offer and keeps cracking Niko's joints. Erik releases the virus after that, which was successfully transmitted to Niko's soma implant.

Bernie and Ursula say goodbye to William. She tells him that she would not abandon him, however, since she had done that with Gabriel.

Cas and Erik bring Niko to the Artifact, discussing who would be the one to bring her inside. She tells him to think about Jana, so Erik talks to the Achaian, telling it to open the door. Cas brings her in, but Erik kisses her before they go.

In the Artifact, Cas tells Niko that they are okay and the Achaian exits her body. Niko wonders if it had worked and the two of them are thrown around, hurting themselves. Cas tells the Achaia that they had done the right thing and asks for the same in return. The Achaia in Niko's mother's figure tells them that they are not going anywhere.

Erik stays vigilant at the clock and begs for Niko to hurry up.

The Achaia tell Niko and Cas that they could not make demands of them as if they were equals. Cas asks about negotiations, but the Achaia reveal that they were only going to go their way, which meant peace on their terms. The Achaia tells them that they were primitive, and also says that they would spread like cancer unless they were stopped.

William tells Ursula that the Salvare would provide insulation up to 2,600 Celsius at 2.1 million kilometers. He tells her that she should not be there, but she tells him that neither should he.

Niko asks Cas to say something as she is grabbed by the Achaia, who tells her that she had nowhere to go. The Achaia turns into Jana, who asks if she wanted to go back to Earth so she could abandon her again. Niko is taunted by the Achaia, who turn into the crew of the Salvare. She is slammed to the ground by the Achaia, who point a gun at Cas; they tell her that no human was innocent.

Erik sees as the Artifact starts splitting in half. Suddenly, the Achaian Niko was fighting starts feeling pain. Niko grabs its gun and points it at it, shooting it and destroying the Achaia. She grabs Cas and they leave the Artifact, which starts collapsing and is finally destroyed.

Cas tells Niko that she is fine and only has a concussion. Niko says that she would put her in command for the next mission. Dillon tells Richard that many different wormholes were appearing, but does not know of any natural causes for this. Niko wonders if maybe there were Achaian sympathizers and needs William, who cannot be reached. Niko says that the Salvare had made it, but Richard had not been able to find it.

Erik approaches Niko and tells her that Jana was there to talk to her. Niko approaches her daughter and gives her a hug. Niko asks how she had made it in there and her daughter tells her that it was thanks to her grandmother. Niko thanks her mother and asks her to join their family hug.

Bernie tells Zayn that he could have never left his husband or daughter and Zayn asks him to marry hir. Ze says that ze wants kids and to get married, which Bernie accepts.

Mackenzie approaches the crew and tells them that there was a wormhole in the Artifact field, which was coming from the *Salvare*. Niko sees William there, which he calls an Achaian trick, thanks to Ursula. He says that the signals bombarding the solar system were not Achaian and were coming from everywhere. Thousands of aliens were reaching out and greeting them, also thanking them for what they had done. Stunned, Niko suggests that they go and say hello.

A voiceover by Niko plays over a montage of the series' events and those who have been lost along the way stating "everything changed the day the Achaia landed on Earth. The question was no longer is there life out there? The question became, how much life? We ventured into the stars to find out. Sometimes a connection was made. Other times it didn't go so well. Our mission cost us. Some even paid the ultimate price. But now we know for sure that we are not alone. The universe isn't empty. It's full of life. There are hundreds of millions of habitable planets in our galaxy. Millions of friends to make. Humans are simply one branch of a whole new family tree. That's why we're headed back out there again despite the risks. To build something stronger. Something more. And the first step is to say... hello."

Some time after the defeat of the Achaians, a new mission is launched on the *Salvare 2* to continue the *Salvare's* mission. A more advanced ship than the *Salvare*, the *Salvare 2* uses a wormhole to travel to another planet.

## Cast

* Justin Chatwin as Erik Wallace
* Samuel Anderson as William
* Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Cas Isakovic
* Tongayi Chirisa as Richard Ncube
* A.J. Rivera as Bernie Martinez
* JayR Tinaco as Zayn Petrossian
* Dillon Casey as Seth Gage
* Lina Renna as Jana Breckinridge-Wallace
* Kurt Yaeger as Dillon Conner
* Rekha Sharma as Ursula Monroe
* Catherine Lough Haggquist as Annette Mackenzie
* Anousha Alamian as President Ryland Bhogal
* Neetu Garcha as News Reporter
* Helen King as Salvare Voice