TRIUMVIRATE SE Chapter Thirteen
By The Host
EXT. UNDERGRONUD CITY
WE FOLLOW a glass-walled elevator up, up, ever up the side
of one of the city’s great towers, past neon lights and
thousands of vehicles, headlamps gleaming, until finally it
nears the tower’s lofty peak, and then stops. WE PUSH
FORWARD, through the elevator, and follow a throng of
PEOPLE, outlandishly dresses, into. . .
INT. LEENO’S TAVERN -- CONTINUOUS -- DIM
Leeno’s is one of the Underground City’s most swinging hot-
spots, home of fast women and faster drunks, expensive booze
and arrow collars, white spats, and lots of dollars. WE MOVE
THROUGH the undulating CROWD to a corner table surrounded by
the Black Aces, sans Doyle and Davies.
The Aces are drinking, talking, laughing, having a good
time. All except Macy. He scowls over his drink and,
finally, stands up unnoticed. As he strides through the
crowd WE FOLLOW.
Macy is looking for somebody, searching. Presently he finds
him: Jack Davies is sitting alone nursing a drink. Davies
takes a long swig of the draught as Macy approaches and sits
beside him. They each remain silent a moment, observing the
scene.
MACY
You have a few of those?
Macy nods, indicating the drink in Davies’ hand. Davies
sniffs and wipes his mouth roughly with his hand.
DAVIES
A few.
MACY
Why don’t you come on over.
DAVIES
I’m fine where I am.
MACY
Okay. . .
He puts his feet up and returns to watching the crowd.
MACY (CONT'D)
Okay.
Davies takes another drink, stands and leaves. Macy pulls
his feet to the ground and, after a moment of surprise,
springs up to follow Davies.
INT. CORRIDOR -- BRIGHT
Admiral Dawson strides through a decidedly less busy
corridor and passes through a set of doors.
INT. CONTROL CENTER -- CONTINUOUS -- BRIGHT
The base’s control center is a room of monitors and
workstations, efficiently organized and efficiently run. It
is dominated by a central rostrum which Davies now marches
to. All OFFICERS in the room immediately snap to attention
as he enters. STATION COMMANDER EXLER JOGGINS, a young and
clean-cut officer, salutes.
JOGGINS
Admiral.
DAWSON
Commander Joggins, give me
internal communication.
JOGGINS
Yes, sir.
He nods to the COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, who promptly moves to
a nearby terminal and punches something in. The
communications officer then turns and nods to Joggins.
JOGGINS
Go ahead, sir.
DAWSON
May I have your attention, please.
INT. CORRIDOR -- BRIGHT
All SOLDIERS and OFFICERS halt in their tracks and listen to
the Admiral’s voice.
DAWSON (CONT’D) (V.O.)
This is Admiral Dawson.
EXT. PLEASURE GARDENS
So, too, have all OFF-DUTY OFFICERS in the pleasure gardens
stopped whatever it was that they were doing to pay heed to
the message now filtering through.
DAWSON (CONT’D) (V.O.)
All officers, commissioned and non-
, are to report to an emergency
meeting in their assigned
Officers’ Briefing Rooms
immediately.
INT. LEENO’S TAVERN -- CONTINUOUS
Davies waddles over to the table where the others sit and
plunks down heavily beside them. Steve turns to him while
dealing out a hand of some sort of playing cards.
STEVE
Hey, look who’s decided to join
us, mister anti-social.
Davies just holds up his drink in reply. Willem looks up and
smiles.
WILLEM
Hey, Jack.
Getty nods a greeting. Macy arrives at that moment. He
speaks to Getty, Steve, and Willem. Davies pays no attention
to anything beyond himself and his drink.
MACY
Guys, keep an eye on him, he’s,
uh...
Macy holds his right hand up to his mouth and dips his head
back as though he were drinking.
STEVE
Oh, yeah? Our dear friend Jack’s a
lush. You want in, Davies? Will I
deal you a hand?
DAVIES
Fuckin’ right.
Davies holds up his drink again. Steve laughs to the others
and prepares to distribute the cards again when Holden Doyle
walks up behind them. Steve sees him first.
STEVE
Here comes Holden Doyle to piss on
our party!
Doyle smiles.
DOYLE
How’d I know I’d find you guys
here?
STEVE
You lookin’ for us, cap’n?
DOYLE
‘Fraid so, boys.
(Holds up a palm-sized
monitor)
Just got our orders from the
Admiral. We move out tomorrow
afternoon.
Willem and Getty throw their cards down and Steve curses.
Macy looks up inquisitively.
MACY
Against who?
DOYLE
Against the United Star Systems.
Shoulders sag around the table. Steve curses again, throwing
down the remainder of the deck. Davies, in timely fashion,
belches.
INT. QUARTERS – BRIGHT
The Black Aces are assembled in the lounge area of their
quarters. Holden is passing a hand-held monitor to each of
them. Davies looks miserable. When’s he’s finished, Doyle
moves to the front of the room and addresses them.
DOYLE
We’re about to engage in a mass
attack against MacGuffin base.
That’s an underwater spacecraft
production facility. We’re going
to need a few of those or else our
fleet is going to get steadily
smaller while the United fleet
gets rapidly larger. What they
want us to do is to infiltrate the
station and disable their weapons
systems and countermeasures.
They’ve got a small patrol
squadron and very big guns that’ll
outclass any number of bombers we
can throw at them. Our boys might
get one clean run if the element
of surprise stays on our side, but
after that those guns can’t be
shooting anymore or we’re out of
commission. Don’t screw up, guys.
This is our first attack and the
USS won’t give us many more
targets of opportunity like this
one.
WILLEM
Who’s on what detail?
DOYLE
Willem, you’re gonna be our hacker
– you have to get in their system,
cut out their guns, make a mess
big enough it’ll take them a while
to clean it, and then get out.
Macy and Getty and Steve are gonna
get you to their weapons station
in the first place: Macy and Getty
are strong-arm; Steve’s on
demolition duty.
STEVE
Sweet.
DOYLE
I’ll pilot us there. We’ve got a
modified gunship with umbilical,
should be able to get you in. Once
there, if all goes well, they’ll
think you’re one of them. You’ve
got the right uniform to blend in.
DAVIES
Sir, what do I do?
DOYLE
Davies, you’re going to stay with
me. This is the real thing, Jack,
not training. I’ll be blunt: I
don’t think you’re ready.
MACY
Sir, with all due respect, I don’t
think that’s a wise decision.
DOYLE
Macy, you’re not in the Fleet to
think.
Steve guffaws.
STEVE
Ouch.
DOYLE
Enough, guys. Go suit up. We leave
in eighty minutes.
The crew jumps into action, Davies perhaps a bit more
reluctantly than the others.
AUTOR'S COMMENTARY:
The first bit, in Leeno’s tavern, I really like. There’s a
similar scene in Gemini’s Redemption, but I’ve fundamentally
changed the character interactions in this one. Davies is
feeling sorry for himself and, I’ve gotta admit, I do too.
So does Macy. Macy honestly surprised me here: I’d intended
for Macy to be a jerk, a rival to Davies, petty and cruel.
Steve was supposed to be caustic outside but sweet on the
inside. Here, though, Macy has turned out to be a decent
guy. Steve is still . . . just . . . caustic. The briefing
is a purely functional scene, nothing more; it does its job.
I do like the bit at the end where Macy stands up for
Davies.
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4/11/2003 10:14:15 PM
(Updated: 4/12/2003 5:42:50 PM)
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