584 – Bugs – Whirling Dervish

Simon and Eugene discuss memory and learning in SciFi shows in general and using scifi as a MacGuffin rather than a way to explore the human condition in Bugs in particular, and we’ll be talking about the physics of ejecting from a stealth jet, and how the Bugs vision of the 1990s is purely private with no state or public sector. Episode Synopsis Two men expertly infiltrate an airline’s secure areas and lay a trap that leads to the destruction of a fuel depot. Team Bugs are hired by Mr. Bixon of the highly-suspiciously named Global Committee for Economic Equilibrium.  Strate Air is an up-and-coming small airline that’s preparing to make a big mark on the industry.  A cartel of proper airlines have paid an operative named Jerome to put Strate Air out of business.  The GCEE doesn’t want that to happen. Somehow Jerome’s plot involves an electronics firm that is developing a direct cerebral encoding device – a machine that can beam learning directly into the brain. While Beckett gets a personal demonstration of the device from Selina, head of the company, Ros learns more about the technical aspects of the device in hopes of understanding how this is tied to Strate Air.  While there, Jerome steals the device and the strangely-specialist-topic-for-an-experimental-learning-device of the Khazbek language. Ed infiltrates Jerome’s HQ and discovered Jerome is hiring a pilot and trying to teach him the Khazbek language.  Ed just escapes with his life, but the pilot dies trying to kill Ed. They try a new tactic.  Ed goes undercover as a pilot and is hired by Jerome.  He has a Dervish – Khazbekistan knock-off of an American stealth fighter.  He also has a Storm Burst missile, which can destroy a plane but make it look like it exploded in a fireball. Beckett realizes that Jerome will need to kidnap Selina to make her work the machine, and he tries to warn her, but it’s too late, and they are both kidnapped.  She is forced to program both Ed and Jerome to read and understand Khazbek. Ros has become suspicious of Bixon, and well she should, for he has been bugging them.  He claims it was because time was critical, but Ros still has her doubts. The caper goes down like this.  Jerome’s associate hacks a navigation beacon, allowing them to draw a Strate Air passenger jet (including Mr. Strate, CEO of the company) off course.  Ed and Jerome, in the Dervish, will intercept the jet and destroy it with the Storm Burst making it look like a catastrophic pilot failure.  For good measure, Beckett and Selina have been strapped to a bomb with only just enough time for them to escape on the timer. Ros defeats the navigation beacon hacking Ed thwarts the plane plan Beckett and Selina escape in the nick of time… get it?  Nick of time?  Nick Beckett? Finally, Ros discovers that Bixon was an imposter and does not work for or represent the GCEE, but who was he? …an associate of Marcel’s, of course, perhaps even his cousin, but Team Bugs don’t know that.  Yet.