Orkus

Ruth and Adam look for signs of toxic waste, but are warned away from a bubbling pond by a group of old men – who claim that they were young men only a day ago before they inhaled a toxic gas. Ruth and Adam begin to show signs of rapid aging as well. As Jonah and Samuel try to find an antidote to reverse this unnatural aging, something probes Ark II with a form of energy that simply passes through the Ark’s outer skin, and then addresses Jonah. Introducing itself as Orkus, the disembodied voice offers an antidote to help Ruth and Adam, but insists that Jonah bring Ark II to a specific location. Not trusting Orkus, Jonah goes to the specified coordinates via jet pack instead, finding a shielded amphitheater where Orkus holds court. None of Orkus’ people age or die, and suffer no hardships, thanks to a series of machines called the Providers. But the Providers themselves need something: the energy stores that keep the Ark moving. Jonah must decide between the lives of his friends, or the end of Ark II’s mission.

written by Robert Specht & Chuck Menville
directed by Henry J. Lange, Jr.
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Geoffrey Lewis (Orkus), William Benedict (Malcolm), Monie Ellis (Alicia), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Bearing more than a slight resemblance to a number of classic Star Trek episodes, Orkus wraps up the series. This episode reveals that Ark II has a self-destruct mechanism (an odd feature for “the last mobile storehouse of scientific knowledge”), and presumably it’d pack quite a wallop if allowed to explode. Depending on one’s interpretation, there’s a possibility that Orkus and his people played some role in the downfall of human civilization, which they claim to have witnessed in the early 21st century. Be on the lookout for a bunch of people in vaguely Greek-like robes, hanging around a simple gazebo fashioned out of ordinary garden lattice and glass globes, for they will be the death of us all.