“Black Box” is episode nineteen of season three of First Wave.
The pilot of a Gua craft is telling their base they are cloaking and initiating autohelm. Cade and Eddie are hiking in the woods; Eddie is struggling. The Gua control is asking the pilot, G4, how the flight was. Excellent, though she was tempted to drop the device on New York City. She’s told this is a beta run. G4 says she’s picking up unusual magnetic interference, origin unknown. Eddie says it’s about a mile to their destination, but they don’t even know what they are looking for. A magnetic power source, going by what one of the quatrains said. Possibly a Gua weapon. Control tells G4 that the magnetic signature is technological in source. She needs to prepare to eject and abandon ship. G4 says she won’t, yet, with the payload. Cade says they have three omega quatrains, discovered in the previous episode, “Checkmate”, left. He and Eddie see something crash over a ridge.
Eddie had discovered a powerful magnetic anomaly in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains which may be the reason for some recent satellite blackouts. Possibly a Gua weapon used to disable Earth’s defences. They enter a clearing and find a small dish. It might be Gua; it might be able to hit something in orbit. Cade wants to head over the ridge and see what crashed.
The wreckage doesn’t look like a satellite, nor does it have insignia. Cade spots Joshua amongst the wreckage, recovering something, and goes to confront him. Joshua doesn’t need Cade’s help fighting Mabus. This was a new project that Mabus kept under tight security. Joshua theorised a weakness in the ship’s shielding and brought it down. There’s nothing of value left. Eddie, meanwhile, is taking the item Joshua had recovered. Joshua wanted strategic data, obviously lost in the crash along with the pilot. Cade has spotted footprints.
The pilot survived, but is injured. She’s carrying something from the wreck and stops to treat herself and heal her injuries. She reports in; she didn’t recover the invasion data, as she had to leave the recorder behind, but has the device.
Cade is questioning Joshua, who thinks Cade is no longer capable of doing what is needed to win the war. Cade says he will do whatever it takes, but Joshua doesn’t think he’s capable of killing Jordan. Joshua says Cade should leave before either the human authorities or the Gua show up.
Joshua leaves and Cade returns to Eddie, who is looking at the item Joshua had recovered. Eddie thinks this is what Joshua was after. Cade disagrees; Joshua must know they have it, so why not come after them? Eddie wants to take it to the trailer to figure out. Cade says no; there may be a survivor. Eddie needs to figure the box out before the Gua arrive.
The pilot is hiding the box she had recovered and Joshua is tracking her. Cade is tracking them both. Eddie gets power to the recovered item and gets blown backwards. Cade contacts Eddie, who tells him the box has similar properties to what they’ve seen from quantum pockets. Though he doesn’t know if it is one. Cade wants some directions.
Joshua has found where the pilot healed herself. She is trying to call in when Joshua confronts her. He wants to know where it is. He recognises her insignia; she is part of the Second Wave Vanguard. He asks where the device is. The pilot says it’s a training mission. Joshua tells her not to insult his intelligence. All Second Wave Vanguard ships are equipped with a device They have other things, too, and the pilot hurls one at him and gets away when it explodes.
The device Joshua is after is a powerful explosive device. Because Joshua thinks Cade is no longer capable of winning, he wants to pursue other ways of defeating Mabus. And ways that include a dangerous explosive are not great, even though his logic makes sense.