SECOND TRIUMVIRATE Chapter Two
By The Host
Here's the remainder of the extended pre-credits sequence, and all ready we're moving into the action. Also, this sequence introduces our new protagonist. Of course, it's not easy to see where this is going yet . . . I assure you, there are some surprises around the corner.
This represents the next eight and a half minutes, bringing us to the seventeen-minute mark.
Chapter three will be available tomorrow or the next day.
FADE IN:
EXT. SPACE
Darkness smothers a million pinpoints of desperate light. In
the midst of it all a lone starship lumbers along into
eternal night.
INT. STARSHIP - MEDICAL BAY - BRIGHT
WE DOLLY PAST beds in a medical ward, stark white in contrast
to the utter blackness of space. Dozens of bodies are stacked
in the room, on beds, on tables, and on the floor. PATIENTS
groan in agony, their faces twisted and pock-marked by some
angry and terrible disease. Twenty or so DOCTORS and
ORDERLIES and NURSES quietly and efficiently tend to their
charge, an air of barely-constrained chaos thick within the
room. In spite of the sounds of pain the scene is disarmingly
quiet; the medical personnel speak in harsh whispers.
ALEX WARREN, an athletic woman in her thirties, injects a
needle into a SICK MAN's arm. The man, whose face is covered
in disgusting boils, looks up to her with tranquil eyes. She
looks down at him warmly, and when she finishes with the
needle caresses his face. He smiles slightly; she smiles
back.
INT. STARSHIP - BRIDGE - BRIGHT
The starship's bridge is a wide, two-storied room with a
large bay of windows along the front. Dozens of OFFICERS work
on the lower level, moving from workstation to workstation,
doing their best to ignore the oppressing emptiness of the
space outside.
WE MOVE IN ON THE CAPTAIN, a young, disheveled man sitting on
the upper level with a half-dozen or so SECTION COMMANDERS
standing about him. One sits at a terminal against the wall
behind the captain chattering away into a headset. After a
moment he turns to the captain.
OFFICER
Captain, we have twelve more;
they're running out of room . . .
Captain?
CAPTAIN
(Disheartened)
Yeah, put them in multipurpose room
twelve.
OFFICER
Captain?
Suddenly the NAVIGATION OFFICER, sitting at another terminal,
spins in his chair.
NAVIGATION OFFICER
Captain! We have another vessel
approaching us. No ID yet but it
seems to be on an interception
course.
The captain sits up in his chair, speaking with a modicum of
hope.
CAPTAIN
You think they've received our
distress signal?
NAVIGATION OFFICER
Looks like it, sir. You'll be able
to ask them yourself in about three
minutes.
INT. STARSHIP - MEDICAL BAY - BRIGHT
The medical staff continue to tend to their patients. Alex is
swabbing a patient's arm when suddenly the faint RUMBLING of
the ship's engines stops; everything shakes for a second.
There is a quiet murmur of surprise throughout the room. Alex
slowly looks up and then suddenly turns and becomes a woman
of action. She strides determinedly for a tiny office in the
corner of the cramped space.
INT. STARSHIP - MEDICAL BAY - OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
Alex stomps into the small office, which is a mess of papers
and books and supplies. A TECHNICIAN is using the lone
computer terminal in the room; a DOCTOR is looking through
files. Alex disposes of the syringe in her hand and turns to
the other two, leaning herself against a small table.
ALEX
What the hell was that?
DOCTOR
What the hell was what?
TECHNICIAN
Sounds like the engines shut off.
Alex steps up and peers over the technician's shoulder as he
works.
ALEX
Why? Can you ask the bridge?
TECHNICIAN
Already asking.
(Beat; reads the screen)
They don't know.
ALEX
They don't know?
TECHNICIAN
They can't raise engineering.
Probably the virus is spreading.
Alex steps back in a huff.
ALEX
I thought they engaged filters in
the air handlers? I mean, Jesus, we
can't stay here.
The doctor looks disdainfully at Alex.
DOCTOR
We do what we do and leave the
engines to the engineers.
With that the doors to the medical ward open and a two men
run in carrying a third. Nurses try to push them into the
hall -- there's no room in the ward -- and another,
elsewhere, calls for a doctor. The doctor absently shoves his
files into Alex's hands and dashes off. She turns to the
technician, who looks at her expectantly.
ALEX
So what now?
The technician only shrugs. Alex throws down the papers and
marches out of the office, out of the medical ward, and the
technician shouts after her.
TECHNICIAN
Where are you going?
But she's already gone.
INT. STARSHIP - BRIDGE - BRIGHT
The captain and his crew wait quietly and, after a moment,
the communications officer speaks.
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Ship's in range, captain.
CAPTAIN
Nav, we have an ID on that vessel
yet?
NAVIGATION OFFICER
No, sir.
CAPTAIN
All right, the hell with it. Comm,
send a message. Tell them we need
medical supplies and a repair crew
immediately.
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Aye, captain.
They wait for a tense moment. Then:
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER (CONT'D)
Sir, we are receiving no response.
The captain's shoulders sag.
CAPTAIN
Send it again.
Another moment.
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Still no response.
The captain looks around at his officers, as if looking for
advice or, better yet, a solution. None is forthcoming.
CAPTAIN
Can you open up a--
At that moment Alex bursts into the upper level of the
bridge, chased by two GUARDS. Immediately the nearest men
jump into action and try to restrain her; the captain turns
and spins. She shouts at him.
ALEX
Captain, I don't know what the hell
you're doing, but we've got a
hundred men about to die and a
hundred more coming in and space
for maybe fifty, and supplies for
twenty-five, and we're in the
middle of goddamned nowhere, past
the frontiers and at least three
days from resupply, and the
goddamned engines have stopped.
The captain motions for the guards to let her go.
CAPTAIN
I know. I'm trying--
ALEX
Not hard enough.
CAPTAIN
There's nothing I can do right now.
ALEX
Send a team in a shuttle to find
help.
CAPTAIN
We can't spare the men.
ALEX
Everyone aboard this ship will die
otherwise.
The captain's face is bright red; his words receding into a
whimper.
CAPTAIN
I didn't ask for this.
ALEX
No, but I'm asking for you to deal
with it.
There is a tense silence, a stare-down, a stand-off. It is
broken by the communications officer, speaking quietly.
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Sir, unable to open a channel.
Alex looks confused, still trying to catch her breath.
ALEX
What's that?
An officer answers.
OFFICER
That is none of your business--
CAPTAIN
There's a ship approaching. We
think they picked up our distress
signal.
ALEX
They won't respond to you?
The captain shakes his head.
ALEX (CONT'D)
Why not?
NAVIGATION OFFICER
Sir, we have visual. Shall I zoom
in?
The captain continues to look at Alex for a moment before
turning to the vast windows. The entire bridge is deadly
silent.
CAPTAIN
Yes. Zoom in.
A section of space outside magnifies itself across the
windows. What the assembled crew sees takes their breath
away: an unbelievably large spaceship, darker than the depths
of space and seeming to suck in all the light around it. It
is gothic and organic, with sharp spires and threatening
points all at strange angles to one another, like a twisted
black thorn bush.
A moment of stunned silence passes. Then, a low, steady
RUMBLING -- deeper, at first quieter, than that of the
engines. It slowly grows louder.
INT. STARSHIP - MEDICAL BAY - CONTINUOUS
The rumbling gets louder and louder and becomes a visible
vibration. Everyone in the room stops what they're doing and
slowly looks up as petri dishes and syringes and other
medical equipment rattles and breaks. A shelf over some of
the beds collapses. Nobody makes a move.
INT. STARSHIP - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
The captain speaks quietly.
CAPTAIN
Helmsman, please get us out of
here.
HELMSMAN
I can't, sir. They seem to have us
in some sort of tractor beam.
The captain takes a deep breath and slowly turns to the
officers, and Alex, behind him.
CAPTAIN
Send someone to engineering. And
power up our weapons.
With that, Alex turns and runs.
INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
Alex runs desperately through a long, narrow hallway, almost
knocking some CREWMEN over, yelling for them to 'Abandon
ship' and 'Get the hell out of here!' She bangs on doors as
she passes but is met mostly with quizzical glances as she
passes, even as the vibration in floor and ceiling becomes so
strong that it's difficult to stand up. She runs and yells
and comes to a juncture and some stairs down to her right and
she turns and bounds down them, a MAN stepping out of her way
just in the nick of time, and even as she's racing down the
stairs the entire ship SHUDDERS with the impact of an
explosion, and sparks fly from electrical conduits and Alex
trips and falls down the last few steps, landing painfully on
her face. The man on the stairs holds on to the rail for dear
life as the entire room continues to shake violently; Alex
picks herself up and runs into the next corridor, her face
bloodied and her nose probably broken. She doesn't yell now,
just runs and sometimes uses the walls for support as the
ship tilts and yaws. Most of the PEOPLE she encounters are
now running, too, or huddling together, or trying to bang
down doors.
EXT. STARSHIP
A missile streaks towards the lame ship; it doesn't shoot
back.
NEW ANGLE as the warhead slams into the side of the ship,
EXPLODING in an orgy of flames.
INT. STARSHIP - MAIN HALL - CONTINUOUS
And the ship QUAKES with the impact, and the vessel's central
corridor -- a three-story affair, starkly utilitarian --
fills with acrid smoke. Alex emerges onto the top level, a
railing ahead of her and a balcony a few feet across; with a
flying leap she lands on the top rail and bounds higher,
grabbing onto a pipe above and using it to swing onto the
rail on the other side, landing with a thud on the catwalk
and running headlong through the door on the other side.
INT. STARSHIP - LIFT SHAFT - CONTINUOUS
Alex finds herself in an empty lift shaft plunging into utter
darkness just a few feet below. She throws herself across and
grabs onto the rungs of a ladder on the other side, climbing
down down down into billowing smoke as the ship is hit again.
After a moment she finds what she's looking for: an air duct
opening into the shaft. With her touch the grating, barely
hanging on, falls down the inky pit, and she wedges herself
in.
INT. STARSHIP - AIR DUCT - CONTINUOUS
She fiercely pulls herself forward towards a light at the
end, muted EXPLOSIONS all around her. Soon she reaches the
end of the shaft and pushes open the grating to reveal the
wide expanse of a hangar bay below her -- empty except for
two SHUTTLES.
INT. STARSHIP - HANGAR - CONTINUOUS
The air duct is easily thirty feet above the polished floor.
Alex peers down even as the ship is hit again. There it is,
her means of escape, and no way to get to it. Slowly she
draws herself forward and twists her body to put her feet out
before her, and sort of sits there on the edge for a second,
looking down and judging the jump. She'll almost certainly
break her legs. Finally, though, with the sound of another
EXPLOSION, she mutters to herself:
ALEX
What the hell.
And she jumps.
EXT. STARSHIP
The last missile strikes the surface of the prone vessel with
a tiny, distant explosion. And then, overhead, the form of
the sprawling black ship appears, slowly moving forward and
unfolding its horrific size.
SUPER OPENING TITLES
FADE OUT.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. Please don't forget to comment! And, as always, ignore any typos or formatting errors, as this is my first draft and Final Draft doesn't transfer to HTML.
Thanks,
The Host
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
NEXT CHAPTER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
8/19/2004 5:52:47 PM
(Updated: 8/19/2004 5:53:55 PM)
(Updated: 8/19/2004 5:54:25 PM)
(Updated: 8/19/2004 6:11:57 PM)
(Updated: 8/19/2004 6:13:24 PM)
(Updated: 8/19/2004 6:15:25 PM)
(Updated: 8/20/2004 3:16:10 AM)
(Updated: 8/20/2004 3:20:18 AM)
(Updated: 8/21/2004 5:39:14 PM)
Comment on this fan fiction!
|
