

## A Poisonous Sun

## Neil Hetzner

Copyright 2014 Neil Hetzner

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

FADE IN:

EXT. DRILL SITE IN NORTHEAST PERUVIAN RAIN FOREST -- EVENING

A rough cut clearing has been made in the middle of dense forest. Off to one side of the clearing is an oil rig attended by a CREW of a half dozen Peruvian Indians. On the far side is a cluster of various-sized tents, including a large mess tent. In the foreground the boss, SlICK, a forty year old American, burly, rough hewn, is yelling to his thirty year old Hispanic assistant, PAULO.

SLICK

(yelling over the sound of the equipment)

Keep it going, Paulo. Make hole, dammit, make hole.

PAULO

The hydrostatic pressure's dropping. We're looking at a blowout.

SLICK

Where'd you leave your balls today?

(to emphasize his point he makes a drilling motion)

Keep going. We're so close I can smell it.

(he grins)

PAULO walks back toward the rig and yells something to the crew. They shake their heads and point. PAULO steps near the rig, looks at a gauge, and begins walking quickly back toward Slick. SLICK emphatically makes the drilling gesture.

The sound of the drill changes. PAULO begins to run away. An Indian sees him and yells something. All the INDIANS start to take off, but there is a loud noise, sections of pipe explode out of the hole along with steaming water. Two INDIANS are hit by sections of pipe.

As the hole continues to spout water, an Indian woman in her twenties, ALOSA, a beautiful young woman, whose forehead is marred by white patches on her dark skin, comes running out of the mess tent toward the accident. Although her face remains stoical, her brilliant blue eyes well with tears.

INT. RADIOLOGY LAB WASHINGTON D.C. -- DAY

KEELY, a slight, wan-looking twenty-nine year old with a rash on her nose and cheekbones is being assisted by a LAB TECH into an MRI machine.

KEELY

I go into a million dollar machine to find out if someone is going to take a five dollar knife to me. Can you explain to me how the diagnostic tools can be so advanced, but the treatments remain so primitive?

LAB TECH

(laughing nervously)

They'll catch up.

KEELY

Dream on.

INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE -- AFTERNOON

KEELY is sitting in a small examining room dressed in a johnny. She types on a Palm Pilot as she waits for the doctor. DR. READ, a vigorous fifty year old, comes in the door and gently shakes KEELY"S hand.

DR. READ

(heartily)

How do you feel?

KEELY

(coldly)

You tell me.

DR. READ

There's been some more deterioration. I keep expecting you to stabilize, but your body has other plans.

KEELY

And it's very unusual and extremely inexplicable and quite anomalous and I'm dying. Ninety-five percent of people with lupus survive more than ten years, but I'm in the five percent. Is that about right?

DR. READ

(brought up short)

That survival rate of SLE depends upon treatment during the early acute phase. You let the symptoms ride for a long time.

KEELY

(very angry)

I was busy. When you were in med school did you go to bed every time you had a fever or felt tired?

DR. READ

(sadly)

No, I didn't.

KEELY

Well, it was the same for me. I was working on my Ph.D. I was occupied.

DR. READ

Keely, I wasn't accusing you. I was just trying to explain why it has been hard getting this thing under control.

KEELY

Look, you've got the right to accuse me. I did screw up. I just don't like the price I'm paying. Aren't there any weird new treatments on the horizon?

DR. READ

There are always experimental drug trials going on, and, of course, changes in protocols with the corticosteroids and cyclophosamidesa, but I don't see much out there that is very promising.

KEELY

But, there are things out there I haven't tried?

DR. READ

Yes, of course. But they are very iffy and, unless I can get you into a research program, very expensive.

KEELY

Not like death--a cheap sure thing. Look, Dr. Read, I'm twenty-nine and what I'm learning at this late stage of my life, what this damn disease has been teaching me, is that I can't afford not to take chances. The money's not a problem, thanks to a long sweet ride on Amazon.com and, even if the money were a problem, as far as I can tell, I don't have any other option. Pass me the pills.

EXT. PERUVIAN RAIN FOREST-- NIGHT

Something large and very white, TOPA, an alien, is flying gracefully just over the tops of the rain forest canopy. In the darkness it is hard for the observer to tell what it is, but there is a sense that it's not a bird. The aliens are a little over five feet tall. They have very pale skin, round faces and over-sized eyes and strong straight noses. They have tightly furled grey leathery wings that stop just below the waist and a piece of leathery flesh at the back of their heads which, in times of danger, opens to show a third eye.

INT. OFFICE AT CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS OF ORION OIL IN STAMFORD CT -- DAY

In a large office filled with geologic curiosities, DAVE MUNSON, early sixties, short, broad-shouldered and weathered, Orion's head of exploration, is standing toe to toe with SLICK. SLICK is angry.

DAVE

I went out on a long goddamn limb for you, Slick, and now you've left my bare ass bouncing in the breeze. I'm in front of the board tomorrow and you've got nothing for me to give them except some dead Indians. Jesus!

SLICK

Hey, Dave, how long since you been in the field? This is a twisted bastard of a project. I'm up nine thousand feet. We had to break the elephants in two to get them over the hump and even then the 234 was huffing and puffing like it just screwed Mama Cass. And then, most of the time, the forest is too thick to use the damn things. So, I start bombing, but the bomb and phone crew is from nowhere. Three of them take a walk in the forest and the rest of them act like they pulled the bones from their noses fifteen minutes before they signed on. Bad mojo. Plus, every time I get the least tickle, you guys want me to make hole. Give me a break. When we went in, you knew this was a long shot.

DAVE

(shaking his head emphatically)

No, that's wrong. What I knew was that I never wanted to prospect this piece. We sat here and I told you no. I said the initial geology was shaky. But, Golden Boy was sure he smelled the smell. So, Golden Boy went over my head to the Old Man and gave him a sniff. And, since that little taste of nose candy, we've spent a fortune wandering around some of the most godforsaken land on the planet and, month after month, you've come up with nothing but dirt...and, of course, dead bodies. Jeesus Joseph.

SLICK

(using his hands to deny Dave's evaluation)

The Old Man's always said there's no place at Orion for nickel and dime stuff. That to win big you have to bet big.

DAVE

And we did. We put big chips on the table, Slick, stacks and stacks of them, and all you've done is crap out. After the first six holes, we should have walked away.

SLICK

Right, Dave. Holes drilled on hurry-up data because I'm getting the big squeeze from Lima because you couldn't wrangle a decent contract and an even bigger squeeze from HQ. What's that? Instead of busting me, why aren't you on a plane to Lima with a bagful of green paper for those corrupt bastards?

DAVE

(ignoring Slick's accusations and talking over him)

Drilling dry, but Golden Boy keeps singing the song, and me, asshole that my mother bore, keeps listening.

SLICK

There's oil there.

DAVE

Where's the geology to support that? There's no damn geology. I've seen the stratigraphy. What you've been doing is just a guess and a gamble. And I know about gamblers. My old man was one. They're dreamers. Every jerk who ever's won a dollar at a crap table, even though since that glorious moment he's lost his shirt and the drawer he used to keep it in and the house he used to keep that in, thinks the next one, the next one's just gotta be. Just gotta be. Well, it don't gotta be.

DAVE reaches out to touch Slick's shirt.

DAVE (CONT'D)

And you're not gonna be. At least, not here. I want a geologist doodlebugging for me, not a goddamn junky gambler. I'm firing you before they fire me.

DAVE reaches onto his desk, picks up an envelope and shoves it toward SLICK.

DAVE (CONT'D)

This is for past glories.

Slick refuses to take the envelope.

SLICK

No goddamn way. I'm gonna see the Old Man.

DAVE

The Old Man will piss in your hat and shake what's left on your shoes. Hey, Golden Boy, you had your fun. You went through a pile of Orion money. Now, the fun's over, take this and get out.

DAVE again thrusts the envelope toward SLICK. SLICK backs away and the envelope falls to the floor.

SLICK

There's oil there and I'll convince the Old Man I can find it.

DAVE

In the month left before the lease expires? Slick, I can remember when you used to be the best there was. A big brain and a lot of balls to go with it. But....

SLICK

But...?

DAVE

But, now, the brain's gone south.

DAVE turns away from SLICK to stare out a window.

DAVE (CONT'D)

You're shitcreek lost.

EXT. DRILL SITE IN PERUVIAN RAIN FOREST -- NIGHT

TOPA is peering into the drilling camp from the edge of the jungle. He calmly studies the few people moving about, but becomes more agitated when he sees ALOSA, the cook, walk out of the big mess tent and cross the clearing toward her sleeping tent.

INT. KEELY"S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Keely's efficiency apartment is on the far end of the minimalist scale. The living room walls are white. What furniture there is is industrial looking in nature. The kitchen looks as if no one has ever made a meal in it. The nearest thing to food is a sizable collection of medicine vials by the sink. The living room is dominated by a computer set-up. The only art in the room are large photographs of the lines at Nacza(A centuries old pattern of miles long straight lines discernible only from the air above a wasteland in southern Peru), the Giant of Atacama(a 400 foot tall sculpture carved into a Peruvian cliff), Machu Picchu, the Candelabra(an 840 foot tall figure carved into a Pacific side cliff) and golden artifacts. KEELY is bent over staring hard at the monitor screen. She leans back, stretches, makes the sign of the cross and hits the ENTER key.

BURN IN: A pattern of letters appears.

BACK ON SCENE

KEELY leans forward. She plucks her eyebrows and blows then into the air, then a smile spreads across her face.

O.C. SOUND: knock at the door

KEELY is so engrossed that she doesn't appear to hear it. After a moment, she half gets up from her chair to get a different angle on the screen.

O.C. SOUND: there is a second louder knock

KEELY continues to rise and, distractedly, walks to the front door and opens it. She is very surprised to see her brother SLICK standing in the doorway.

KEELY

Well, look at this. My big bro must be lost.

SLICk gives KEELY a big hug. She tries to hide the pain the hug causes.

SLICK

Not like you.

KEELY

(confused)

How come you're back? Why aren't you drilling?

SLICK embarrassed and angry that he might have to explain what has happened, hesitates, then walks toward the kitchen alcove.

SLICK

Any beer?

(he sees the collection of pills)

No, of course not.

KEELY

(flustered)

I've got...

KEELY painfully bends down to a cupboard below the counter.

KEELY (CONT'D)

...some wine, I think.

Smiling, KEELY comes up with a bottle and displays it to her brother

SLICK

Sure.

As the following dialogue takes place KEELY inexpertly deals with opening the wine.

KEELY

I thought you were busy destroying rain forest.

SLICK

I had to come back for a meeting. After the meeting, I grabbed the shuttle to see how you're doing. What's going on?

(asked roughly to cover his concern)

KEELY

(coldly)

Don't you mean

(she makes her face sweet and her voice concerned)

What's going on?

(When Slick doesn't rise to the bait, Keely's voice gets more emphatic)

Like everybody else, I'm just waiting for my flight out.

(pauses, then laughs nervously)

KEELY pours SLICK a glass of wine.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Forget it. You know what? Data-girl has been messing in your neck of the woods. I think it's your neck. Let me show you.

KEELY walks back toward the computer and SLICK follows her. KEELY sits at her computer and cycles through screens. SLICK guzzles his wine as the following dialogue takes place

KEELY

Take a look.

SLICK

What am I looking at?

KEELY

The lines of Nacza.

(she points over to the photograph on the wall)

From what you told me, I think this is maybe six hundred miles from where you are. Right? Aren't you up in the northeast?

SLICK

Yeah, north and east of the head waters of the Ucayali. Where's this?

KEELY

Near the coast. West of Cuzco.

SLICK

Desert?

KEELY

For about a million years.

SLICK

I'd like to see some desert. I'm ass deep in the worst jungle I've ever seen. Nothing but rain, snakes, spiders as big as coffee cups, even a tribe of goddamn headshrinkers.

KEELY

The Shapras, right?

SLICK

Who knows? They don't wear name tags.

KEELY

They like alpha males? Alphas usually need some shrinking.

SLICK

(laughing)

I wouldn't know.

KEELY

(mocking his laughter)

No, I guess not. Well, I won't worry. You've made a career of escaping headshrinkers.

SLICK

(taking a big drink of wine)

It's why I'm so successful.

KEELY

You get a strike?

SLICK

It's there.

KEELY

A lot?

SLICK

(nods)

A lot. If the jerk-offs will let me find it.

KEELY

Why wouldn't they?

SLICK

Cause they've got no balls.

(begrudgingly getting into the details)

We've been drilling dry, so HQ's gone soft. I should have figured it'd go down this way. It's been a patsy's deal from the start. The primary term of the exploration lease we got from the Peruvian government was only a year. A year. Damndest thing I ever saw, but they were getting a lot of heat from a bunch of tree huggers. Nothing but jungle for a million square miles and those enviro jerks don't want a tree to fall. If we find and pump something before the lease expires, we have automatic rights to keep exploring the area and developing. But, if we don't score, there will be a helluva lot of pressure not to renew. So I've been doing the impossible--exploring and drilling at the same time. Something looks the least bit sexy, I drop a bit. That kind of MO, plus my boss' heart turning yellow, has turned what was always a long shot into a real Hail Mary. I had to go to the Old Man today and beg just to get the nod to go back down and keep going for the last month of the lease. That's two or maybe three more holes. Which is nothing. Needle in a haystack doesn't come close to describing it.

KEELY

How come?

SLICK

Because it's the damndest land God ever made. There's been a lot of movement that could form domes and anticlines. There's evidence of reservoir rock and just about everything else we look for, but the territory is so rough that it's hard to get more than a rough picture. And, in petrology, the picture is in the details. It's a set-up. I'm shooting blind, but if I don't score, I'm gone. The bastards.

KEELY

(solicitously)

Hey, you've always hit the target before.

SLICK

(angry)

What the hell do you know about it, Keely? You should see this place. Twenty thousand foot mountains. Gorges that drop straight down. The rivers run like fire hydrants. The stratigraphy looks like a maze out of a kid's puzzle book. When we started, I wasn't even sure we could get the damn equipment in it's so rough. We're in so deep we had to carve out fuel depots because the choppers can't make it in a single hop from the rail head. We're using Boeing 234s, biggest bird you ever saw, in ways no one ever has before. We had to cut the thumpers we use for seismic profiling in half just to get them over the mountains. And once we got them in there, we found out we couldn't even use them most of the time. After we signed the contract, the damn government said we couldn't clear cut what we needed to be able to do our arrays. So, I ended up using the thumpers about a tenth of their potential. Usually you thump with four trucks and a couple of hundred geophones spread out over five miles or more. We were only using two trucks and our phone arrays looked like something the Boy Scouts would do. Finally, I pretty much gave up on the elephants

KEELY looks at SLICK questioningly

SLICK (CONT'D)

Elephants, thumpers, same thing. Anyway, I started using explosives and satellite scans to make drilling decisions. And let me tell you, what comes off a satellite ain't nearly what I can get from pounding Mother Earth. It's a bitch, a royal bitch, but, goddamn it, there's oil there. I can smell it.

KEELY

Spoken like a true Krebs--febrile with folly.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATER -- NIGHT

A large amphitheater, carved out of rock and lined with terraced polished rock benches, is lighted by pale blue light. The light fixtures, variously sized glowing orbs, are found in all areas of the cave. The room is filled with ALIENS. The Aliens are quiet as they watch CAPAC, their leader, perched on top of an stone obelisk at the front of the room, make gestures above his head. He is holding a long rope that has big gold balls unevenly spaced (a quipu is a series of knots that the Incans used to communicate over distances). He uses the rope to carve lines and circles in the air. Finally, he stops.

CAPAC

We send our quipu of wishes and weeping to Our Mother, Pacha, the Blue Star. We ask her help to escape the wrath of Inti and his poisonous light. We humbly beg for passage to our home so that we may better worship her.

ALIEN DRUMMERS come onstage and pound on ornately chased gold and skin drums. When they stop drumming, all the ALIENS tip their heads to the ceiling, then they pluck at their eyebrows, and blow the hairs into the air.

CAPAC (CONT'D)

Bring the huaca.

From an alcove on the side of the amphitheater, two ALIEN PORTERS roll out a large piece of burnished metal equipment on polished stone wheels. CAPAC is surprised, then angry.

ALIENS

Where is the Quipu Master?

CAPAC

The Master in his follies forgets his gene-mates.

CAPAC murmurs an incantation, plucks and blows his eyebrows into the air, then comes down from the obelisk, lugging a large sphere of gold which is covered with quipu knots engraved into it. He inserts the gold into a door of the machine which has been opened by one of the porters. He touches a number of switches and dials on the machine.

CAPAC (CONT'D)

May Pacha's loving ears hear our fervent plea. May Pacha's mighty children, our deliverers, have smooth sailing through a black sky.

The machine, a transmitter of some kind, makes a smooth noise and then a series of very high pitched shrieks. CAPAC studies the dial and then frowns. He forces the frown from his face, adjusts switches and dials. The machine's noises change. He waits for a few seconds and then touches the dials again. The machine grows silent.

CAPAC (CONT'D)

We will send our quipu to Our Blue Lady another time.

ALIENS

Where is the Quipu Master? Where is TOPA?

CAPAC waves his arms in a complicated pattern of dismissal; however, APOKKA, a worried looking older alien seated in the front row, calls out.

APOKKA

The noise. What of the new noise?

CAPAC

What are all this world's noises? The groans of a sickened planet. The creak of her aging bones.

APOKKA

The sounds grow closer. They sound different than anything we have heard before.

CAPAC

Apokka, you are both an old friend and an old man, and you have heard many things in your long years. But, I listen to my old friend but I think that much of what an old man hears exists only within his head.

Some of the aliens laugh.

CAPAC (CONT'D)

You may think you hear another voice of this planet. Perhaps, you do. The sound may be new, but it is not different. It is just another form of the unending ugliness of this world. Nothing more.

INT. ALOSA'S HUT -- NIGHT

TUPA leans forward over the sleeping ALOSA. He has a small gold lidded cup that had a gold curved straw that clips around the rim. He opens the cup, sticks the straw in, slightly inhales and leans over ALOSA and blows the powder up her nose. After waiting a couple of seconds, TUPA pulls out a gold-handled dagger and touches the tip of the blade to ALOSA's forehead.

INT. KEELY"S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

SLICK, sprawled on Keely's couch, is still drinking wine although the bottle is close to empty. KEELY is sitting at her computer.

KEELY

Here, let me show you this something.

SLICK waves off Keely's request.

KEELY (CONT'D)

C'mon.

SLICK moves slightly.

SLICK

What is it?

KEELY

The Candelabra.

SLICK

What's that?

KEELY

For somebody who has been there for almost a year, you don't seem to know much about Peru.

SLICK

I know more than I want.

KEELY

The Candelabra is a huge pictograph carved into the side of a mountain right at the edge of the Pacific. It's over eight hundred feet tall. It's not far from the Lines at Nacza.

SLICK

(pointing to the picture on the wall)

Is that it?

KEELY

Yes.

SLICK

What's it supposed to be?

KEELY

(laughing)

No one knows for sure what the Candelabra or Nacza are about. The lines are a series of pictures and intersecting lines, miles and miles long, out in the middle of nowhere. They were made by removing rock from the desert. When you're up close, they disappear. But from up in the air, they're really vivid--at least in the pictures. There are arrows and what appear to be runways, plus pictures of condors, spiders, other stuff. Some people think they make up a navigational system.

SLICK

I remember hearing something.

(disdainfully)

Space invaders, right?

KEELY

That was Von Daniken's theory. He thought Nacza was an airport for aliens. Then there was a guy named Woodman who ran a bunch of experiments and decided that the ancient Indians flew hot air balloons.

KEELY touches the keyboard and the printer begins to hum.

KEELY (CONT'D)

They made cloth in that region two thousand years ago that is more tightly woven than almost anything we can make today. If you treat it with smoke and soot, it will hold air. There are the remains of some fire pits that might have been used to heat the air. For awhile Woodward thought the Candelabra was like an approach signal to the airport. It's just a couple of degrees off from being due west of Nacza. Another theory is that the Candelabra was like a light house for traders. There's some evidence that there was trade done on rafts from Peru to some Pacific islands. Remember Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki? That was what they were trying to prove. The Kon-Tiki, a balsa raft, made it to Easter Island, which is more than four thousand miles away. Sailing west to east, the Candelabra could be a point of reference.

SLICK

So what do you think?

KEELY

(nervously)

I think the Candelabra and Nacza may be linked in some way. There is a part of a condor at Nacza that almost looks like a variant of the Candelabra. From photographs, it's hard to tell if it's a duplicate or not. It almost look like some of the lines that made up the condor had been erased.

SLICK

What do you mean erased?

KEELY

Like part of the drawing was rubbed out by putting stones back.

SLICK

Why? What for?

KEELY

I don't know. If it was supposed to be a message, maybe someone later didn't like what the message said.

SLICK

(laughing)

So,those things are postcards.

KEELY

(trying not to show that her feelings are hurt)

Yeah. Could be. 'Having fun. Wish you were here.'

(sotte voce)

Not having fun. Wish I was there.

(back to regular voice)

You know, Peru is probably the most intriguing country in the world.

SLICK

Yeah, right. Trees, rocks, trees, rocks and trees. And, of course, don't forget the snakes and spiders. Truly fascinating.

KEELY

Nacza, the Candelabra, Machu Picchu, the Giant of Metacambo. The incredibly sophisticated roads and communication system the Incas had. Did you know they encrypted data--war strategy, relocation plans for conquered tribes, census data, you name it--by tying knots into yarns of different colors and lengths. It's called a quipu. Then they had a system of runners which could relay that quipu data at a speed of one hundred fifty miles a day. They could have raced the post office and probably won. And they did all this without having a system of written numbers or words. Plus, these guys are the top stone masons in the world--incredible buildings made up of stones as big as cars and all without mortar--though they never did figure out how to make a roof with anything but thatch. And unbelievable metal smiths. Look at this.

KEELY walks over to the wall and removes a picture of a large, intricately hammered gold sun.

KEELY (CONT'D)

This ikon, which the Incans called a huaca, is Inti, the sun god, who gave birth to the Inca dynasty. Inti served Viracocha who created the world. The Incas thought that after Viracocha, who was portrayed as an old white man, created the first man and woman on Lake Titicaca, he walked north to Ecuador and then out onto the Pacific.

SLICK

(not impressed, walks back to couch and throws himself down)

So Jesus is not the only God to walk on water.

KEELY

If you like that irony, then you'll love it that Viracocha was supposed to come walking across the Pacific to help the Inca in times of trouble. From 1527 until 1532 Huascar, the fourth Incan emperor and his brother Atahuallpa were at war with one another. Atahuallpa finally kills Huascar and soon after that he gets word of a white man walking across the Paciic. Everybody thought it was an emissary from Viracocha, but, surprise, it was Franscisco Pizarro and his four rogue brothers. Goodbye Incan civilization. Makes you want to vet your saviors before you open the door.

(feeling tired, Keely goes over and sits next to Slick)

SLICK

Your heroes don't sound too smart.

KEELY

(angrily)

They were smart as hell. They just got tripped up by their religion. Wouldn't be the first time. Slick, these guys were unbelievable. Look at the art. Look at the organization. Need a temple three hundred feet long and forty feet high? Order it up. Look at the fortitude. They were as tough as anyone that ever lived. They built buildings at 22,000 feet. Need a hundred tons of dirt to landscape a temple at the top of a twenty thousand foot mountain? No problemo, senor. Here we come. Baskets on our backs, sandals on our feet. Very cool stuff, but for me the coolest thing is the rapidity with which the Incas built their empire. One day they were just another tribe hanging out around Cuzco and fifty years later they dominated a region bigger than the Roman Empire. And ran it better than the Romans. Some very wild stuff. I wonder what they were smoking.. or chewing.

SLICK

(dismissively, slurring his speech a little)

Maybe very cool then, but the pendulum's swung back because now they're hunched over little peons humping pipe around my drill sites. What's the Latin thing Mom used to say?

KEELY

Sic transit gloria mundi. And it's true. Pizarro, one hundred sixty- eight soldiers, and a handful of horses brought them down.

KEELY stands up, pulls paper from the printer and walks over to SLICK.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Here, this is what I wanted you to look at. I've been screwing with the Candelabra and Nacza for years. Using all kinds of transformation algorithms, digital overlays, all kinds of crap. Standard spy stuff. Nothing ever looked like much, til just lately. Now, I think I'm on the verge of cracking this thing.

SLICK

And?

KEELY

(not sure whether to tell his brother)

And...I think the Candelabra is a stylized quipu.

SLICK

(pointing to the wall)

So, what's the message?

KEELY

Don't know...yet.

SLICK

Who's it to?

KEELY

(tentatively)

Who knows...maybe someone far away.

SLICK

Yoda and his friends?

KEELY, feelings hurt, moves into the kitchen.

KEELY

I knew I shouldn't say anything. You've always got to wield the knife.

SLICK

(getting up and following Keely into the kitchen)

I'm sorry, Data-girl. Jesus Christ, how much medicine are you on?

KEELY takes some pills and drinks them down with water she slurps from the tap. SLICK, though drunk, studies her taking the medicine and feels even worse about his cruelty.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Look, give me an alarm clock and I'll be off your screen, pronto. I've got to get an early shuttle to make my flight out of Kennedy.

KEELY

Sure. Then both of us can get back to our follies.

KEELY walks back to the living room, sits at the computer, looks at the Candelabra and then brings up a slide alongside of a stretch of DNA. There is a marked resemblance.

EXT. OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT--EARLY MORNING

Just after dawn, ALOSA is walking across the clearing to go to work. The camera is behind her. There is an almond-shaped bald patch on the back of her head. An Old Indian, SENCHA, approaches her, then stops dead and drops to his knees. ALOSA is confused. SENCHA murmurs something and ALOSA touches her hand to her forehead. She turns around to return to her tent and the camera shows a drawing that resembles the Candelabra, except more molecular, carved into her forehead. SENCHA hurries off.

INT. NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY -- NIGHT

A large room of partitioned work pods hold a scattering of HEADS bent toward flashing twenty-one inch monitors. KEELY stares at the indistinct imagery on her screen. She types on the keyboard and the screen changes.

BURN IN: A pattern of pulses.

BACK ON SCENE

KEELY leans forward, studies some detail, leans back, shakes her head in disbelief. She plucks her eyebrows and blows them into the air. After a moment she painfully pushes herself up from the desk and slowly makes her way through the maze of cubicles to find her boss, one-time two week fling JIM RANDEL. JIM, an older, sloppy looking man, looks up when KEELY taps her fingertips on the edge of a divider.

KEELY

Knock knock.

JIM

(distracted)

Who's there?

KEELY

Who ever knows without a lot of therapy. Has anyone else found anything weird coming off this new bird?

JIM

No. Why?

KEELY

I just saw a big blast of something in northeastern Peru.

JIM

(irritated)

Dammit, Data-girl, what the hell are you doing in Peru? Last I knew your scan was the Balkans.

KEELY

(sardonically)

Blame my new meds. Geographic dyslexia's a side effect. Accept my apologies. A girl shouldn't be wasting time, especially agency time, when she's got so little time left to make the world safe for democracy Or is it from? I sometimes forget.

JIM

(regretting he has said anything)

I'm sorry, Keely. They've been snarling at me, I just pass it down.

KEELY

Let the madness stop with you.

JIM

(chastised)

I don't even know what you're doing here.

KEELY

So what should I be doing? Go home and get some crossword puzzles? A book of anagrams? Or, really push myself, and go for the double acrostics? Look, Jim, I'm here because I'd rather solve these little national puzzles we dream up than think about the big personal one I've got. Okay?

JIM

I'm sorry. What about Peru?

KEELY

I was taking a look at where my brother's been drilling. He was here last week and talked about what a tough time he was having drilling down there. Actually, he didn't say drilling. He said, "Making hole." But, I wasn't sure I wanted to say that around you cause you might think I was talking feelthy again.

JIM throws his hands out in defense.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Just being thoughtful. Anyway, I figured I might be able to see a flare-off and know that his luck had changed. Nothing doing there, but then I noticed this thing maybe twenty klicks away. A pulse of some kind. Come take a look.

JIM

(laughing and waving off Keely's invitation)

Probably some Yanomama calling the World Bank on his Iridium and asking them to send more development cash.

KEELY

The Yanomamas are in Venezuela. It's the Shapras, some very cool headshrinkers, who live around where I'm looking. But, with any luck at all, they might still be pre-cell phone. C'mon, take a look. It doesn't look like radio and it's not thermal. It kind of looks like radiation, but the hand-print isn't familiar. Are the Peruvians giving up llama raising for nuclear physics?

JIM

Anomaly. The fucking leprechaun having fun.

KEELY

Probably, but...

(pausing, looking sicker, trying to take advantage of Jim's sympathy)

...Mr. Jimmy, please, if you won't look, can Data-girl?

JIM

Meaning?

KEELY

Please, Mr. Jimmy, can I take it home and play with it?

JIM

You know the answer to that. You bring a Slim Jim in here for lunch, it's classified.

KEELY

Northeastern Peru?

JIM

(looking Keely over, finally giving in)

You heard a yes, but not from me.

KEELY

Thanks, Mr. Jimmy.

INT. TOPA'S LABORATORY INSIDE THE CAVE COMPLEX OF THE ALIENS. -- NIGHT

The laboratory is a large room with smoothed rock walls. Along one wall is a shelf holding dozens of small jars, which contain skin samples. There are many quipus, some small, but many very large ones, hung from the walls. The middle of the room is dominated by stone counters upon which exotic but cobbled together scientific equipment rests. TOPA opens a small metal container which holds the skin sample he cut from Alosa's forehead. He prepares it and inserts it into a machine. He takes a step back from the machine and brings his hands to his head. He plucks eyebrows and tosses them into the air. He touches a control panel on the machine, a small ellipsoid monitor lights up and the machine begins to make a small hum. TOPA adjusts levers on the machine then waits. After a moment, the hum stops and the monitor screen fills.

BURN IN: The monitor shows a pattern of circles and lines that vaguely resemble the Candelabra.

BACK ON SCENE

TOPA studies the results, looks excited walks to the doorway of his laboratory. He pushes a button set into a small panel. A screen lights up and shows a picture of the tunnel outside the door. It's empty. TOPA unlocks the door and slips out.

INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE -- MORNING

KEELY is sitting in a chair seemingly calm and self-possessed. DR. READ is agitated.

DR. READ

You can't do this. You're signing your death warrant.

KEELY

Hey, I think we both know that somebody bigger than either of us signed that a long time ago. All I may be doing is moving up the date a little bit.

DR. READ

Dammit, Keely. You don't know that. You haven't given this new regimen a chance.

KEELY

I've tried everything you ever suggested. Nothing's worked. The lupus keeps winning. I step into sunlight for five minutes and my skin rots. I stay inside, and no matter what I do, my organs and joints keep racing toward their deaths. Well, screw them. I'm more than skin and joints and liver. I've got a brain, and it's getting damned tired of playing nursemaid to a bunch of whining parts. Before this particular mummer's parade is over, my brain's got some things it wants to do. I don't see why you have trouble understanding that. If you found out today you had terminal cancer, would you be in here tomorrow and the next day and the one after that? Or are there just a couple of things that might be more important?

DR> READ shakes his head in resignation.

DR. READ

Why even come to tell me? Why didn't you just take off?

KEELY

Because I want to give myself as much chance of accomplishing these things as I can. I came here to get a suitcase full of medicine, your beeper number and your e-mail address. If things start to happen, I'll be in touch.

DR. READ

Why would I go to that trouble for someone who doesn't even want to live?

KEELY

(angry)

Because you know that's bullshit. I'm someone who so desperately wants to live that she's willing to bet her life on it. C'mon, doc, fill up the bag with your latest magic.

DR. READ appraises KEELY, then shrugs.

INT. HELICOPTER OFF THE COAST OF SOUTHERN PERU-- DAY

KEELY is flying over ocean. She has on white cloth gloves, a large floppy white hat, sunglasses, white long-sleeved shirt and pants. Suddenly, the helicopter drops down and speeds toward the coast. The Candelabra comes into view. It gets larger and larger. Keely leans toward the pilot, MANNY, and says something. The chopper hovers. Keely unbuckles her seat belt to lean out of the cockpit so that she can take pictures with a digital camera.

INT. HELICOPTER ABOVE NACZA DESERT-- MOMENTS LATER

The chopper takes a steep angle to show off the arrow and triangle of the Lines of Nacza. It passes over the condor and the spider. All the time, KEELY is grinning and taking pictures in a way that looks like she could fall out of the chopper. MANNY becomes worried enough that he frees a hand to lean over to grab Keely's belt.

EXT. NACZA DESERT-- DAY

KEELY is stooped down looking at a pile of rocks. She stands up and walks a few feet further and stoops down again. She picks up a couple of rocks and studies them. She turns to MANNY, smiles and waves excitedly. MANNY, who is standing next to the helicopter, starts walking toward her.

INT. HELICOPTER OVER MOUNTAINOUS FOREST-- MORNING

The helicopter climbs up over an unending verdant mountain slope. Finally, the chopper crests the mountain and below is Machu Picchu. The chopper hovers, then lands.

EXT. MACHU PICCHU -- MORNING

KEELY is leaning on a walking stick and slowly turning around on the summit of Machu Picchu looking ecstatic. Suddenly, she slumps to the ground. While prostrate on the ground she digs in her pack, pulls out her Iridium phone, considers making a call to Dr. Read, shoves the phone back in the pack and removes some pill vials. She eats a handful of pills then, after a moment, she uses the stick to push herself upright.

INT. HELICOPTER OVER JUNGLE -- MORNING

Endless jungle unfolds beneath the helicopter. KEELY, dressed as usual in all her white gear, doesn't look good, but she does look happy. MANNY'S face looks grim.

MANNY

Senorita, if we don't find it soon we will have to turn back. My fuel gauge is reading half-empty.

KEELY

No, Manny, keep going. We'll be fine. They'll have fuel there. I'm sure of it.

MANNY

Senorita, I think you are a dreamer.

KEELY

It's been said before, my friend.

Finally, a large rough cut clearing appears. The drill site is filled with a bulldozer, two thumpers, a derrick, stacks of pipe, a mud mixer, cement mixer, and tents.

KEELY (CONT'D)

(nervous looking, shouting over the roar of the chopper)

Well, it looks like we've found El Dorado. Let's see what kind of reception we get.

PILOT

(looking out the window at a a dozen Indians moving toward where the helicopter will land)

A big one.

EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING DRILL SITE ONE.--MOMENTS LATER.

The helicopter lands in a swirl of dust. SLICK and PAULO stride toward the chopper with the crowd of INDIANS following in their wake. MANNY jumps down from the pod and helps KEELY in her struggles to get out. When he sees it's his sister, Slick's face darkens. He says something to PAULO. As KEELY painfully descends, SENCHA and a several other INDIANS display shock. They mutter among themselves, then quickly disperse. KEELY, trying to walk so that it looks as if she is in no pain, comes toward SLICK and reaches out her gloved hand for a hug from her brother. MANNY trails behind with two duffels of Keely's gear. SLICK ignores Keely's extended hand.

SLICK

What the hell, Keely? What are you doing here?

KEELY

Research.

KEELY turns to PAULO and sticks out her hand again. PAULO stares at the gloved hand and turns to SLICK.

PAULO

Who is this?

SLICK

This is...

KEELY

Data-girl!

SLICK

(not amused)

This is my sister. Who has no business being in a jungle at an elevation of eleven thousand feet. You look horrible.

KEELY

Travel has its costs.

SLICK

(gives Keely a slight hug)

Hey, I'm glad to see you. Just surprised. Let me show you around. We'll eat some lunch, then you can jump back on the gyro. It's too dangerous for you to be here. Let's take the tour and then....

(he points his hand skyward)

SLICK turns to MANNY.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Okay?

MANNY nods his approval. KEELYy looks crestfallen and angry.

SLICK (CONT'D)

(to Paulo)

While I'm playing tour guide, you keep working on the logistics for C-3.

PAULO

(shaking his head)

How? I don't see how we can do it.

SLICK

(glaring)

Godamnit, we're doing it. Now, put your balls on and go to work.

PAULO begins walking away from SLICK toward a medium-sized tent with a generator outside and an antenna running up a pole. SLICK follows and grabs Paulo's shoulder. KEELY tags along.

SLICK (CONT'D)

I got us in here. I can get us in there. We're gonna drill G-3. I know it's there.

PAULO

How are you going to drill? You know half the crew won't go in there.

SLICK

They'll go.

KEELY

Why wouldn't they go?

SLICK

Shut up.

PAULO

Ghostland.

KEELY

What do you mean?

PAULO

It's what some of the the crew call it. It's where the Gray God lives...and where we've had three crew members disappear.

KEELY

Lost?

PAULO

Disappeared. They were out stringing geophones. After we blasted, they didn't come back. We sent out search parties, but we didn't find anything.

KEELY

So what do you think happened?

SLICK

They took a powder.

KEELY

(gesturing to the surrounding jungle)

Seems a fuuny place for a powder.

PAULO

Some of the crew say the Gray God took them. I think maybe a jaguar. We've seen a lot of prints.

KEELY

Who's the Gray God?

SLICK walks off disgusted toward the two Vibroseis trucks, each of which is in two parts. These 20,000 kg trucks pound the earth with sonic waves which reflect back and provide date for rock formation profiling.

PAULO

Just that. Part dark. Part light. He is the egg of birth and the serpent of death. He chooses who lives and dies. Some of the Indians believe that any who go into the Ghostland who have not been chosen will die.

KEELY

Sounds a lot like Martin Luther. How do you know whether you are chosen? House size? Investment return?

PAULO

(touching his forehead)

You are given a mark.

KEELY

Like Cain.

INT. MESS TENT -- AFTERNOON

Although the tent is large enough and has enough tables and chairs to sit fifty, it is empty except for PAULO, KEELY, SLICK and MANNY. At the back of the tent, ALOSA, her back to the camera, is cooking on a large propane-fired stove. When ALOSA bangs a pot with a spoon, the men and KEELY get up from their table and walk toward the back of the tent. KEELY is involved in the conversation with PAULO until a plate is handed to her. She looks up and sees ALOSA. She takes in her dark-skin with its splotches of white, her long thick black hair, and her brilliant blue eyes, then stares for a long time at the pattern of scars in the middle of her forehead. ALOSA stares back at KEELY, then looks down at her gloved hands. After a long moment, she smiles. As she walks back to their table KEELY sees the bald spot on the back of Alosa's head and asks Slick.

KEELY

What's the story with the scars?

SLICK

(distracted)

What scars? Oh, her. Who knows?

They all sit down.

PAULO

She's one of the one's I mentioned earlier. She's chosen.

KEELY

But what do the scars mean? What are they for?

PAULO

I don't know. She just got them a couple of weeks ago. When I asked, she just said that they were a gift from the Gray God.

KEELY

And the blue eyes?

PAULO

Genetic anomaly.

KEELY

Of course. Why did I even ask? I should have known. It's the answer when there isn't an answer.

PAULO is spooked by Keely's flash of anger. SLICK studies his sister.

KEELY (CONT'D)

(looking around and trying to ease the tension)

Is it normal or an anomaly that we're the only ones eating lunch?

PAULO

(taking his time to choose his words)

The Indians will eat where they are more comfortable.

KEELY sorts through the things on her plate to see if there is anything that she can safely eat.

KEELY

Meaning away from my volatile brother?

PAULO

No. You.

KEELY

Me?

PAULO

(gesturing toward Keely's gloves)

They think you are from the Gray God.

SLICK

(laughing)

Can we drop this and get back to business?

SLICKk unrolls a sophisticated looking map and a series of aerial photographs. His fingers move from the map to the photos, linger, then waver uncertainly. He knows it's the last roll of the dice.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Goddamn this jungle. It's like working blind. The canopy is so thick you can't see the micro-details that let you start to zero in.

KEELY leans over the map and stares. She points to a highlighted section of the map.

KEELY

This is where you want to go?

SLICK

Yeah. It looks like there could be a big anticline there.

KEELY studies the map for a minute and then realizes that where SLICK wants to drill is almost the same location where the strange pulses were generated.

KEELY

These are the coordinates?

SLICK

Yeah.

KEELY

Hang on a minute.

(she reaches into her bag for her laptop, opens it and bangs away)

Slick, I'd like to go there. Real bad. I saw a weird pulse on my bird right about here.

(she touches the map)

A real anomaly. I think it'd be fun to check it out.

SLICK

Sure. Why not. We've got nothing better to do but send out a search party for Yoda and R2D2. You probably just saw us making the elephant dance.

KEELY gives SLICK a questioning look.

SLICK (CONT'D)

The thumper.

KEELY

You had the thumpers in there?

SLICK

Not right there. East of there. Then we switched to explosives until Paulo got hinky.

PAULO

(angry but shamed)

Three dead seemed enough. Especially after two others had died in the rig accident.

KEELY

Safe city. When were you thumping?

SLICK

(after a second to think)

The tenth through the twelfth.

KEELY

No way. My event was on the eighth.

SLICK

Event. Jesus. That's it. You're going back. We see any little green men, we'll call.

KEELY

(angrily)

Why not?

SLICK

Which of ten good reasons do you want? You should never have made this trip. What have you got, a death wish?

KEELY

Hey, bro, I don't want to hear that crap from you, too.

SLICK

I don't have time for this. You get your butt back on the chopper and get someplace safe.

KEELY

You bastard.

(looking at her watch and nodding to the pilot)

Well, Manny, it looks like we better hit the trail. Maybe we can make it back to Machu Picchu in time to see the sun go down.

MANNY makes a questioning gesture

KEELY (CONT'D)

Oh, yeah. I know I've worn out my welcome, but any chance we can get some fuel? Manny worries.

SLICK

This isn't a charity.

KEELY

What's the old saying. Who needs health, if you've got money. And money is all I got.

SLICK looks at her strangely. KEELY stands up and so does MANNY. SLICK starts to get up. KEELY puts her hand on his shoulder.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Keep working. We'll get the fuel, stow my gear, and then come back.

KEELY and MANNY walk toward the tent flaps.

EXT. OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

KEELY has her duffel bags open. She takes items from the two duffels and shoves them into a backpack. She tries to lift a duffel, but MANNY takes it from her. He reaches down and grabs the second one. They hurry across the clearing and hide the bags behind a pile of pipe. KEELY takes the backpack and puts it in the helicopter.

EXT. OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

The helicopter's prop is turning. KEELY is standing next to SLICK.

SLICK

How the hell are you paying for this?

KEELY

Amazon money.

SLICK

What are you talking about?

KEELY

Gotta go. Good luck with the drilling.

SLICK

It's my last shot.

(he gestures toward the rig)

Up until last night, I would have bet my life this one was coming in.

KEELY

Dry?

SLICK

Not dry, but not wet enough. It's not about finding oil. It's about finding enough oil that it makes sense to produce it.

KEELY

I'm sure you'll score.

KEELY tries to give SLICK a little body contact, but SLICK moves out of range and offers his hand. KEELY shakes it and grins and heads to the copter. The copter lifts off.

INT. HELICOPTER -- MOMENTS LATER

The copter is circling over a rough cut clearing. It begins to descend.

PILOT

I don't think you should do this, senorita. This is dangerous business.

KEELY

Flying in this aeronautical anomaly isn't? I'll be fine. I'm less than two miles away from the camp. I'll be there in a couple of hours. Thanks for all your help, Manny. You're one of the good guys.

EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING.--MOMENTS LATER. -- AFTERNOON

KEELY, with her pack on her back, looks up as the helicopter disappears over the treetops. She walks across the clearing to the remains of a dry well. She looks disgusted as she kicks away some trash left behind. After a moment, she slings her pack off her back, opens it and pulls out a satellite positioning unit. She takes her bearings, picks up a walking stick, grimaces as she eases her pack back on and trudges into the forest.

EXT. OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT -- AFTERNOON

SLICK and PAULO are standing just outside the door of the tent. SLICK gestures to the supplies off at the edge of the clearing

SLICK

Check all the gear before it gets loaded. I don't want to get out there and find out something is screwed up. Ferdie said he'd be in tomorrow by mid-morning. I want the cutters in the air no more than an hour after he lands. It's gotta go like clockwork. Keep em going until you're sure everything is A-1.

PAULO

These Indians....

SLICK

Paulo, we don't have time for this crap. They're going in there and that's it. Now, haul ass.

Angrily, PAULO moves off.

INT. CAPAC'S DWELLING -- AFTERNOON

CAPAC is seated at a stone desk off to the side of a room of polished rock. On the desk are a half dozen molybdenum prayer disks. CAPAC picks one up, murmurs something, puts it down, then picks up another. In one corner of the room there is a stalactite and stalagmite, one above the other. Water drips from the stalactite, runs onto a gold statue of a female alien which sits atop the stalagmite. From there the water falls into a pool whose overflow disappears into a hole in the wall. The room has a series of stone shelves which hold ornately carved gold bricks. One shelf holds a collection of centuries' old Incan enemy skulls that have been trepanned and fitted with gold cups and a curved gold straw that sticks out from a nostril hole. Another wall has a large window carved into it. Faint noises of pounding can be heard from the other side of the window. CAPAC looks up as TOPA enters the room.

CAPAC

As unexpected as the rumbling of the deepest rock, my brother appears and disappears. Your gene-mates ask me where do you hide. The have not forgiven you for delaying the Quipu ceremony. They believe you have offended Pacha and lessened their chances to return to our home.

TOPA

I apologize. I become lost in my work.

CAPAC

Your work is to be Quipu Master and Healer. Neither of which seems to hold your attention. What have you been doing?

TOPA

Studying the laws.

CAPAC

If you want to study Pacha's Laws, do like the others. Study with me.

TOPA

Pacha's laws interest me less than others.

CAPAC

What others?

TOPA

I....the...the laws above. Inti's Laws.

CAPAC

I do not want to hear of this. I am your brother so my tolerance is long, but how long do you think your gene-mates will overlook your folly? What effect do you think it has on the Gathering to have it suspect that its Master of the Message may no longer worship She to whom our pleas are sent? How long do you think it will be before the mystery of your science and the comfort of your medical skills will be outweighed by the harm you do to their faith? And when that moment comes when the scale tips, what do you think the price will be for your apostasy? Do you imagine that I shall be able to spread my arms wide and protect you from their wrath? I will no more be able to do that than I can protect them from the wrath of Inti. Stop your folly. You risk your life.

TOPA

It is my life to risk.

CAPAC

No, it is not your life to risk. Our Gathering is too small to have individuals. You risk my life and all of the others when you risk your own. Your folly becomes mine and that of the Gathering. You threaten all of us with your foolery. I hear whispers even now. How long do you think I will be able to protect you when those whispers grow to shouts?

TOPA

I don't want your protection. I want my freedom. I want my dream. I want to learn to live life under a yellow sun.

CAPAC

That will never happen.

TOPA

Why would Pacha put us here if not to learn to live under Inti's grace?

CAPAC

Stop. You endanger us all with that thinking.

TOPA

You are wrong. I harm no one but myself.

CAPAC turns his back on TOPA and walks across to a window in the wall. Below, dozens of aliens are mining for gold.

TOPA (CONT'D)

Can't you understand that if I choose to risk my life to understand Inti's ways, that I do that as much for you and my gene-mates as I do it for myself. I go to Inti's land above to find the key to unlock the prison that keeps us below.

CAPAC

That key will not be found. Our ancients ancients looked for that key when we first Fell. They looked at a time when their minds and spirits were strong, and their tools true, and they found nothing. How, so many generations later, with so much of their learning lost and their tools aging, do you expect to find a solution? You are filled with false pride.

TOPA

No, brother, I am filled with hunger. There is more truth to the story you tell, but to know it, you must do more than hang the old quipus on your walls. You must study them, and think and ponder. I have spent many years studying the knots to learn that our history and our memories grow further apart each day. For example, after we Fell and made our pact with the Incan emperor Pachacuti, Mancax and the others stayed under the glare of Inti for a generation. It was the time of the Teaching when we shared our knowledge of metal and stone and Pacha's way of Order and Obedience with the Inca, and the Inca shared the arms and legs of his people so we could make the Short Walk to Nacza. For all of Mancax's remaining years, he stayed in the desert and worked to repair the craft. It was not until after Mancax was killed by Xel, during the First Disobedience, that the ancients made the Long Walk to Macchu Picchu to build the stairway so we could make the first Messenging to Pacha, our Blue Mother. When that effort failed just at the beginning of the reign of Tupa Inca, Xel's only son, Rocax, killed his father and led the Second Disobedience back to the water near Nacza to carve the quipu asking Viracocha for his help. And it was not until after Rocax was overthrown by Xmanka and half The Gathering was killed by the soldiers of the Incan king Huascar that our ancients began to tie the knots that Inti had become wrathful. The ancients tried to hide from Inti's his baleful eye to protect themselves from harm. It was then that they left the mesatas and Macchu Picchu and sought the protection of the shade. And it was not until a generation later, in the time of Xel's grandson, Xejerl, that Inti began the Befowling and we retreated within the earth.

CAPAC

Where we have been safe for eleven generations.

TOPA

No, my brother, not safe. These Fowlings my gene-mates hate so much

(he grabs at his wings)

Continue to appear on us each generation. So, even though we hide from Inti, his wrath, if that is what these are, reaches into this gloom. Inti wants us for his own.

CAPAC

Are you saying that we turn our prayers from Pacha?

TOPA

We need to know Inti's ways and wishes. We need to learn Inti's laws so that we can live in His light. That is why I go above and use his gift,

(he spreads his wings)

So long ignored, to find the truth.

CAPAC

You will fly us to our death. It must stop.

TOPA

In time, all must stop.

EXT. JUNGLE -- AFTERNOON

KEELY, sweating, tentative,bent under her pack and using a stick to help her make her way, is walking in the jungle. She hears a twitter close by and stops. She looks around until she sees a small bird pecking at the jungle floor. After a moment, she notices a slight movement near the bird and realizes a spider is stalking the bird. She becomes so involved in watching the spider that she doesn't notice that a jaguar is approaching her. As bird and KEELY become more involved, the two predators come closer. Suddenly, the spider lunges and captures the bird. KEELY, unwilling to watch the bird being eaten, moves on. The jaguar holds back, and then follows.

EXT. JUNGLE -- MOMENTS LATER

KEELY stops at the edge of a small stream. As she turns around to look for something to use for a bridge, she sees a flash of the jaguar's coat. She becomes stock still except for her hand which slowly reaches around to her backpack. As KEELY withdraws her laptop, slowly opens it, and hits a few keystrokes, the jaguar slinks closer. KEELY looks up to see the jaguar thirty feet away, crouching in preparation to attack. KEELY points the laptop at the jaguar. The cat springs and, simultaneously, a blast of Jimi Hendrix playing Puple Haze fills the jungle. The jaguar twists in mid-air and bounds off.

KEELY

Mom never liked it much either.

KEELY has trouble holding the computer because her hands are shaking so.

EXT. JUNGLE -- EVENING

Night is descending and KEELY, exhausted, is staggering along. She finally stops, and after very carefully looking around, she leans back against a tree trunk. She reaches into her backpack and takes out some pill vials. She pops the pills and washes them down with a slug from her water bottle. After she wipes sweat from her forehead, she takes a deep sigh, and, in seconds, is asleep.

EXT OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT-- NIGHT

SLICK is leaning against a tent pole in front of the mess tent. Across the clearing in circles of bright floodlight, driven by the generator, the crew of INDIANS is stacking crates of equipment. PAULO is standing by. As the last crate is stacked, PAULO walks up to SENCHA. They talk for a few minutes with the old man shaking his head and PAULO pointing toward the jungle. SENCHA walks off and talks to the rest of the crew. The INDIANS are quiet and sullen.

SLICK

(to himself)

C'mon, you pussies.

SENCHA walks back to PAULO. PAULO talks some more. SENCHA turns and walks away. The other INDIANS follow him. PAULO walks up to SLICK.

PAULO

They won't do it.

SLICK

Offer them more money.

PAULO

I did. They're too scared.

SLICK

Goddamnit.

PAULO

Want me to radio Ferdie?

SLICK

For what? To cancel?

PAULO

No. To see if he can raise another crew.

SLICK

On this short notice? We don't have time. Those dinks are going.

PAULO

How?

SLICK

Leave it to me.

SLICK storms off toward his tent.

INT. SLICK'S TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

SLICK is sitting on his cot cleaning a handgun. There is a rifle alongside.

EXT. JUNGLE -- NIGHT

It is pitch black. There are jungle noises but nothing can be seen. The jungle noises are joined by the snoring of KEELY. There is a low growl from somewhere. The snoring goes on for a few more seconds until there is a high pitched tweet of the Iridium phone. The tweet repeats two more times. The snoring stops.

KEELY

Yeah. Yeah.

There is a rustling as the tweet continues. Finally, a tiny light appears and Keely's face is slightly lighted by the telephone's glow.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Hello.

INT. NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY -- NIGHT

Keely's boss JIM is leaning toward a speaker phone. Three other ANALYSTS are behind Jim.

JIM

Hey, Data-girl, what are you doing?

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

My God, Jim, it must be a damn slow night for you and the birds.

JIM

The eyes of democracy are ever vigilant, but somehow you're not showing up on our screen.

(Analysts titter)

Where are you?

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

Heart of Darkness.

JIM

I suppose the heart's better than the belly.

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

I didn't miss that by much. What can I do for you? Need some Balkan expertise? My little friend Slobodan acting up?

JIM

Nah, we're making do. Just wondered how the vacation was going.

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

Wonderful. Like a hike on the moon. A couple of hours ago I saw a spider eat a bird. Then a jaguar thought about doing the same to me.

JIM

Sounds too scary for me.

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

Really? But you're driving the Beltway every day in a Neon. Those SUV's all the G-14s drive are a helluva lot fiercer than any jaguar you'll ever meet.

JIM

(pause)

You're probably right.

(tentatively)

How are you feeling?

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

(pause)

Free. I'm feeling goddamn free.

JIM

Well, take care.

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)

Well, I can't promise that.

JIM

That Iridium is a helluva phone.

KEELY (V.O.)

(filtered)(sounding a a little wistful)

Goodbye, Jim.

EXT. JUNGLE -- MOMENTS LATER

The screen is pitch black. There is the sound of something stumbling through the brush. A jerkily moving bluish glow moves from the background to the foreground. It is Keely's laptop which she is using as a flashlight to find her way through the jungle. She is panting heavily as she moves off screen.

EXT. DRILL SITE IN NORTHEAST PERU--DAWN

KEELY comes staggering through the brush into the clearing. She looks around, then walks across the clearing toward the mess tent.

INT. MESS TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

As KEELY lurches into the mess tent, ALOSA looks up from where she is preparing breakfast. She hurries to KEELY, takes her pack, lends her an arm to lean on and leads her to a table near the back of the tent. KEELY falls into a chair and rests her head on the table. ALOSA rushes around to bring her food.

INT. MESS TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

KEELY'S head comes up when she hears ALOSA put a plate of food in front of her.

KEELY

Oh. Thanks.

KEELY looks at the food.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Uh, could I have some cold water? Please.

She reaches into her pack and holds up pill vials. When ALOSA says nothing, KEELY assumes she doesn't speak English. She begins to pantomime drinking.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Por favor. Wait. Wait.

She reaches into the pack tote and pulls out her Palm Pilot. She types, hesitantly reads

KEELY (CONT'D)

Poco de agua?

ALOSA

(in halting English)

I know.

ALOSA walks away.

KEELY

That's great.

INT. MESS TENT -- TWENTY MINUTES LATER

ALOSA and KEELY are sitting across from one another. Keely's plate of food is empty. ALOSA is pointing to Keely's gloved hands. KEELY reaches out toward Alosa's scarred forehead. KEELY painfully slowly rises and gets ALOSA a cup of coffee.

INT. MESS TENT -- LATER

An angry but determined SLICK comes storming into the mess tent looking for breakfast and his coffee. He is so distracted that ALOSA has to point out to him that KEELY is sleeping on top of a table in a corner of the tent with her head resting on her backpack. SLICK walks over and grabs KEELY by the shoulder. He pulls his sister into a sitting position.

SLICK

You're like a case of malaria.

KEELY

Try lupus. It's even more persistent. Good morning, brother.

SLICK

What in the hell is going on?

KEELY

(yawning)

Trying to catch some Zs.

SLICK

Are you trying to torpedo me? Where's the gyro?

KEELY

Home safe, I hope. I had Manny drop me at one of your dry holes. You sure leave a lot of trash. Can't you be a better eco-citizen?

SLICK

Then how did you get here?

KEELY

(nonchalantly, as she gets up and walks toward Alosa and the coffee pot)

Avias.

SLICK

What an jerk. I don't have time to babysit you.

KEELY

Hey, that's a thirty year old refrain. Look, bro, if I can walk through the jungle at night, I can probably pad around here without getting into too much trouble.

SLICK

Goddamn it, we're not going to be here. We're moving to C-3.

KEELY

How? I thought Paulo said the Indians wouldn't go.

SLICK

They'll go.

KEELY

(insistent)

How?

SLICK makes his hand into the shape of a pistol.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Somehow, I had the idea that that was a discredited management technique.

SLICK

I've got too much to do. Ferdie'll be here in a couple of hours. When he is done lifting, you're going back with him.

EXT. DRILL SITE IN NORTHEAST PERUVIAN RAIN FOREST -- MORNING

An incredible noise and the maddened thrashing of the trees announces the arrival of FERDIE in his Boeing 234 UT helicopter. Ninety feet long and with a sixty foot rotor span, the chopper is so big it looks like it barely has room to land in the clearing. After it lands and the dust settles, it can be seen that the craft is banged up as if it's seen a lot of work. FERDIE, a small man, who is grinning broadly, hops down and runs toward Slick. He is followed by his crewman, RAFE, a tough looking guy who saunters toward the group. SLICK shakes Ferdie's hand, nods to RAFE and motions him toward the stacks of gear that Paulo and the Indians had been working on the night before. KEELY comes out of a tent and walks toward SLICK and FERDIE. FERDIE stares at Keely's all white outfit and then grins.

FERDIE

What is this vision in white?

SLICK

Trouble and more trouble. It's my sick sister.`

FERDIE

She looks more tired than sick.

SLICK

Believe me, she's sick. When you head back, I want you to take her with you.

FERDIE

It would be an honor.

SLICK

And keep Rafe the hell away. That's a dog that sniffs all butts.

KEELY comes toward FERDIE with her hand stuck out.

FERDIE

The most exotic flowers are found in the jungle.

KEELY

(laughing)

Along with many serpents.

FERDIE

(laughing in return)

I am Ferdie.

KEELY

I am Data-girl, but you can call me Keely.

FERDIE makes a little bow.

INT. SLICK'S TENT -- DAY

SLICK is pointing out things on a map to FERDIE. PAULO rushes into the tent.

PAULO

Most of the crew's gone.

SLICK

Jesus, more crap like this happens and I'll start believing in the Gray God. Where the hell are they going to go?

PAULO shrugs.

FERDIE

They don't have to go anywhere, man. They're already there.

KEELY saunters in messing with her Palm Pilot. When she sees how angry SLICK is, she breaks into a big grin.

SLICK

What's the matter with you?

KEELY

I always get a little goofy when I'm babysitting.

SLICK jumps out of his chair and starts toward KEELY. KEELY puts her hand up in surrender.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Hey, bro, if all this

(she looks at her Palm Pilot)

choler is about the natives, I can help.

SLICK

You're beyond feverish.

KEELY

You give me carte blanche to hang out with you macho men until I'm ready to go, and I'll get your boys on Mr. Ferdie's whirlybird.

SLICK

You better change your meds. Now, go crash somewhere, we've got things to do.

KEELY

With Alosa's help.

SLICK

Who's that? The old man?

KEELY

The cook. That scar she has is the ticket. It means she's been chosen, or protected, by the Gray God. She can walk in the Ghostland. I asked her if I could go with her and she said yes. Those who go with her-- and believe-- will be protected. You take me, I take her and all of the others follow.

SLICK

What horseshit.

KEELY

Any more than the horseshit that the average petrologist shovels?

(pulling off her gloves)

If you think you want to drill C-3, let me know.

SLICK

(after a long pause)

What do I have to do?

KEELY

Do? For starters, listen. First of all, she doesn't trust you. You killed her brother.

SLICK

What the...

KEELY

On that blowout. Plus, she thinks you're an infidel. You're here to destroy the forest which will piss off the Gray God. I told her you weren't evil.

(grinning)

Stretching the truth, I know. I said you were just ignorant. I think if you make some kind of gesture to the Gray God, she'll take us in, and, under her protection, the others will follow.

SLICK

It's such bullshit.

KEELY

Keep up that mantra, bro, and you'll never get out of camp. Look, you want to drill. I want to hang out. We're lucky enough to have a Sacajawea who can help us do that.

(Keely seeing she is not making a big impression, toughens her talk)

C'mon, Slick, let's humor her. Whether she wants to light a candle and fumble with some rosary beads or kill a chicken and write out her laundry list with its blood, I say let's go along.

INT. TOPA'S LABORATORY -- DAY

TOPA stares at a read-out on a piece of esoteric, but battered, equipment. Suddenly, he turns, grabs a golden box and makes for the door.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR -- MOMENTS LATER

TOPA is moving quickly , and, as he moves, the sound of many voices can be heard.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATER -- CONTINUOUS

TOPA bursts into the amphitheater. There are scores of ALIENS milling around, not yet ready to take their seats. Below, at the front of the room, standing on the top of the obelisk is CAPAC. When he sees TOPAl enter the room, CAPAC makes a sound and a hand gesture and those in the crowd calm down and take their seats.

CAPAC

May Our Mother, Pacha, the Blue Star, shine upon you and those from whom you came. I have gathered you to tell you news of our Quipu. We have listened, but the Blue One has been mute. My ancient, my ancient's ancient and his ancient before him, back fourteen generations, back to the time of the Fall, have sent our plea out to Blue Mother's sky. And each time we have listened and heard nothing but silence.

CAPAC pauses and looks over the crowd which is downfallen. When he resumes speaking, his voice is louder and more insistent and the words he says and the responses from the ALIENS are said as a ritualistic chant.

CAPAC (CONT'D)

Are we lost?

ALIENS

We are lost.

TRISIP

Are we abandoned?

ALIENS

We are not.

CAPAC

Are we lost?

ALIENS

We are lost.

CAPAC

Are we forgotten?

ALIENS

We are not.

CAPAC

Are we lost?

ALIENS

We are lost.

CAPAC

Are we faithless?

ALIENS

We are not.

TOPA

(stands and says in a quiet voice)

Are we deluded?

His words hang in the air.

TOPA (CONT'D)

Yes, we are.

TOPA, holding the golden box before him, walks down toward his brother and stands before the obelisk.

TOPA (CONT'D)

We have turned reason into rhyme and a rescue into religion. Who among you has taken the time to read the quipus from long ago?

(he reaches into the box and pulls out a quipu)

No one. And why? Because truth cuts like a knife-- where religion comforts. For almost five hundred years we have beamed the same message to our old home.

(he changes his voice to mock his brother's chant)

Do they hear? We know not. Do they listen? We know not. Do they care? We know not. What we do know, if we look at the facts and not our dreams, is that each year our equipment grows older and our signal weaker. Look at this.

(he pulls a partially deformed sphere of gold from the box)

The huaca cannot even send a whole message anymore. If we do nothing, how soon before we ourselves are as mute as Pacha has been? And when we become mute, what then do we do? For generations, the ancients of my family have kept faith. They believed that Earth was but a mistake, an accidental resting place, from which we will return to our true home. There was a mistake. There was the Fall. If you read the old quipus, you would learn that for the first generations, our ancients hope was that they could repair those things which caused our Fall. Even as that hope was dying, even as our friendships with those above who worship Inti died, they made the struggle to bring our vessel from Machu Picchu to here. But, after the hope for the solution to come from within ourselves died, then, the hope for rescue grew. And, down through the generations, the hope of rescue has persisted despite all the facts that suggest that no one knows or cares that we are here. I, and a few others before me, have held a different view--one based on reason rather than religion. That we are here and here we will stay. And though this planet is not so friendly as the Blue Mother from whose orbit we flew, it is our home, our only home.

The CROWD murmurs angrily at this sacrilege.

TOPA (CONT'D)

(raises his hand which hold the quipu)

Read from the old times. You will learn that when our first ancients walked about this world they embraced its strangeness with open eyes and wonder. They shared our knowledge with the Inti worshipers. They became friends. There is even evidence that they mated and became sisters and brothers....

CAPAC

(interrupting)

No. They died. That is what they did. They died. Destroyed by Inti's evil light. And that is why this belighted planet is not and never will be our home. How can a place that kills be home? What foolery is that? My brother TOPA claims to love the facts. That is the critical fact. The light of this horrible yellow world kills us.

TOPA

(bending his head, conceding)

As we are. Not as we were and not as we can be. Our genes were changed. If they changed once they can change again.

CAPAC

(roaring)

Blasphemy. For three times five generations blasphemy. If we become like the people of this foul place, what have we become? Nothing. We have become extinct.

The ALIENS are out of their seats. TOPA begins to walk up the steps toward the exit. Hands reach out to threaten him. The crowd screams at him. At the top he turns and stares defiantly. Finally the crowd quiets.

TOPA

No, you are wrong, my brother. It is by not changing that we become extinct.

EXT. OPEN GROUND IN FRONT OF THE MESS TENT-- EVENING

One of the mess tent tables is in the middle of the clearing. SLICK, KEELY, FERDIE, RAFE and PAULO are standing around. A chant is heard as a procession of Indians emerges from the jungle. SENCHA, carrying a large basket, leads the parade. At the back of the group two natives carry a makeshift cage, which is attached to a pole, on their shoulders. ALOSA brings up the rear. The procession marches to the table and sets the cage upon it. The good-sized monkey inside it, obviously agitated, begins to howl. ALOSA prays over the cage, opens its door and reaches inside. The monkey quiets as she draws it out. Once out of the cage she touches her hands to its forehead and the monkey seems to go into a trance. Two natives take away the cage. ALOSA lays the monkey down on the table. The INDIANS pass by and each adds a fruit, flower, colored stone in a pattern around the monkey. SENCHA approaches ALOSA with the basket held in his outstretched hands. ALOSA reaches in and pulls out a intricately hammered silver face of the Gray God on a stick. The face of the mask has small holes in it. ALOSA pulls out a small flask, opens it, shakes a white powder over the mask. ALOSA lift the silver face, reaches into the basket and pulls out a silver knife.

SLICK

(whispering loudly)

Here comes the good part.

ALOSA stares sharply at Slick.

SLICK (CONT'D)

(defiantly)

Any guesses what we're having for breakfast?

KEELY

(whispering)

Your butt if you keep it up.

SENCHA withdraws. ALOSA holds the knife high over the prostrate monkey and chants out calls and the INDIANS chant responses. ALOSA stops and holds her hands to the sky for a moment. Suddenly, she stabs downward. The knife sticks in the table just behind the monkey's skull. SENCHA comes back with the basket. ALOSA pulls out the carved silver mask and lowers it over the monkey's face. She picks up the knife and manipulates it over the mask. She holds her hands up in supplication. She puts the knife down in the basket and turns back to the monkey. When she lifts off the mask, a bright red pattern of circles and lines that approximate those on Alosa's forehead, are on the monkey's forehead.

KEELY (CONT'D)

The Candelabra.

SLICK

(whispering to Paulo)

Goddamn circus.

PAULO

(whispering)

If you want that crew, you'll have to do it, too.

SLICK

(whispering)

What?

PAULO

(whispering)

The monkey's first. We're next.

SLICK

No way.

KEELY

(leaning toward Slick, grinning, but mesmerized)

How badly does Ahab want his whale?

INT. SLICK'S TENT -- NIGHT

SLICK is naked except for his shorts. His face is pale white and he has the red paint marks on his forehead. KEELY is still dressed with gloves, hat and shirt and pants. Her face is painted, too.

SLICK

(looking in a small mirror)

When do we wipe this crap off?

KEELY

We don't. It's like Ash Wednesday. It stays on until it wears off.

SLICK

She's breaking my balls.

KEELY

Wrong. She's giving you a ticket. Is everything ready for tomorrow?

SLICK

Never in this business.

KEELY

But...

SLICK

You got any idea what we're doing? It's about as simple as D-day. We've got to land a chopper where there's no place to land. We've got to set up a fuel dump. We've got to sling the rig and drop it in, then after that, we've got to transport three maybe more thousand feet of pipe, plus the engines, bits, mud, food for the dinks and on and on.

KEELY

So what's the first step?

SLICK

Hey, you're such a smart girl, you figure it out.

SLICK goes back to hunching over his map. KEELY leans back and gently touches the spots painted on her face.

INT. BOEING 234 HELICOPTER -- DAWN

Everyone in this scene has a painted face. SLICK is sitting in the front of the Boeing 234 helicopter with FERDIE. SLICK looks out over the endless jungle.

FERDIE

This is it. See anything?

SLICK

Didn't expect to. You can make a pass if you want, but I'll bet it's still Plan A.

FERDIE

No, you're probably right. I'll drop it down.

SLICK turns around in his seat and gives PAULO the high sign. INDIAN ONE, his face is painted with the red lines, stands up. He attaches a snap shackle on his harness to a winch cleated in the floor. The chopper door is thrown back and INDIAN ONE, with a backpack on and a large chain saw hooked to his belt, backs out of the chopper and PAULO winches him down to the tree tops. INDIAN ONE fights his way through the canopy and disappears. PAULO reverses the winch and INIAN TWO goes through the same drill. The camera shows a dozen other INDIANS in the same gear.

INT. BOEING 234 HELICOPTER -- MOMENTS LATER

The LAST INDIAN is being winched down and already there are gaps in the canopy from trees being cut down.

EXT. ROUGH CUT CLEARING -- DAY

A clearing in the jungle hums with activity. The sound of chain saws is drowned out by the deep thump of Ferdie's helicopter. A bulldozer dangling from a sling appears overhead. So much is going on that no one even looks at it. It slowly descends in a cloud of dust.

EXT. ROUGH CUT CLEARING -- DAY

The clearing is larger. Tents are up. Pipe is stacked. The chopper appears with the derrick suspended beneath it. The derrick is lowered to the ground and set.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATER -- DAY

The ALIENS are seated and looking apprehensive. CAPAC is on the obelisk looking distraught. TOPA is standing below him and off to one side. His arms are folded across his chest. He says nothing as if waiting for something. Suddenly, there is a deep, powerful, muffled noise. The aliens' fear grows. The sound of the drilling continues throughout the scene. After a moment, TOPA opens his arms.

TOPA

Something stirs? But what? Heart beat or death drum? Does it augur joy or sorrow? We cannot remain in ignorance. We must go to the surface to explore. Who will make this journey?

The CROWD is silent. The aliens drop their eyes. Then in a murmur that grows, the aliens begin to chant a phrase.

ALIENS

The Rule. The Rule. We cannot break The Rule.

LYFOL

For this once, we must break The Rule. We cannot live in ignorance.

ALIENS

You go. You go. You break The Rule. You go.

The CROWD rises to its feet.

ALIENS (CONT'D)

TOPA! TOPA!

TOPA raises his hand to quiet them. He smiles.

TOPA

Must fear always triumph over wisdom?

The drilling grows louder.

TOPA (CONT'D)

You would trust the word of one whom you accuse of apostasy? You, who just days ago shouted me down, denying all I say as lies, now want to send me into the light to bring back the truth?

ALIENS

(scattered answers)

Yes. No. Who? Then who?

TOPA

(pointing to CAPAC)

Send the one who leads you with such wisdom. Send my brother.

CAPAC

Yes, send me...and compound the foolery.

TOPA

(spreading his arms to encompass his brother)

Let us both go.

The ALIENS talk to one another.

ALIENS

(scattered answers)

Both. Both. Both.

CAPAC stares at them angrily.

INT. SLICK'S TENT AT THE NEW SITE -- NIGHT

SLICK is slumped at a camp table. There is a half-empty bottle of whiskey on the table as well as his drilling logs. He is poring over the maps. KEELY is on Slick's cot, in a lotus position, messing with her laptop. Suddenly, SLICK pushes back his stool and sweeps the maps onto the floor.

KEELY

Mosquito? Or a bigger irritant?

SLICK

Shut up, you smug bitch.

KEELY

Bro, if you smell the smell, how come it looks like you're drilling another dry hole?

SLICK

(jumps toward Keely as if he is going to strangle her)

Damn you..

KEELY

(laughing challengingly)

Stand in line behind God and the lupus. Hey, cool down.

SLICK

(slumping back in his chair)

You're right. You're not worth it.

KEELY

Hey, Slick, I'm sure you'll hit the target sooner or later.

SLICK

You know there isn't any later. This is my last shot.

KEELY

I thought the lease didn't expire until the first.

SLICK

It doesn't.

KEELY

So you've got five more days.

SLICK

I can't get anything done in five days. Hell, I don't even have a place to make hole. After those dinks disappeared we stopped exploring. I hate this damn jungle. It's like trying to operate on someone in a dark room.

KEELY

(acting distracted)

Well, you know, if it would help, I could get you a helluva lot better set of maps than you've been using.

SLICK

How?

KEELY

(looking up)

My new bird. Gives a god's eye view. Could be worth it.

(pausing)

But, I want a favor in return.

SLICK

What?

KEELY

(sarcastically)

Yoda's place. It's not that far from here, but it's still too far for me to walk, otherwise I would have disappeared days ago. If I get you a map you like, then I want you to have Ferdie drop a couple of the crew in to make a clearing and set up a little camp. Then leave me there to wander around. After a couple of days, when my curiosity is satisfied, come back and get me.

SLICK

The way you've been limping around here, you look too sick to walk across this clearing.

KEELY

(brushing him off)

I thought we had agreed that it's my life.

(sticking out her hand)

Is it a deal?

SLICK nods.

EXT. CAMP CLEARING -- NIGHT

KEELY is lounging in a camp chair, holding her Iridium phone to her ear with one hand and sipping bottled water with the other.

KEELY

(all of this is done with a put-on Hispanic accent)

Senor Jaime, como ca va? It's Keelyito. Deep in the rain forest of Peru with a por favor to ask of you, my amigo. I would like some feelthy satellite pictures of this place. If I give you the coordinates, can you run a scan maxing out on the tomography and burst it to me?

(pause as she listens)

Si, senor Jaime. I understand the complicationes, but it ees a request from your dying friend and one-time lover.

(pause)

Si, si.

(pause)

Mucho gracias, senor Jaime.

EXT. OUTSIDE SLICK'S TENT -- LATER

KEELY and SLICK are hovering over Keely's laptop which is on top of a table. The laptop is connected to the Iridium. SLICK is showing signs of frustration.

KEELY

C'mon, little guy, you can eat this. I think I can. I think I can.

KEELY taps on the keyboard.

KEELY (CONT'D)

This thing's like a toy compared to what I'm used to. Wait. Here we go. Take a look at this.

SLICK

How the hell do you get that kind of resolution?

KEELY

(grinning)

New bird. New science. New secrets. You should see some of the stuff we can do. Milosevic peppers his veal, we see it. He farts in his bunker and our screens light up.

SLICK

How far down?

KEELY

(understanding where this is going)

I don't really know. Never had occasion to push it. Everything I want to know is near the surface.

SLICK

But you might be able to see deeper?

KEELY

With the right algorithms, the right software, the right box, the right bird, the right weather, the right amount of time...and the right security clearance.

As SLICK stares at the computer screen, KEELY opens vials and selects pills. She stares at the pills in her hand, then rolls them across the table.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Hey, bro, this is what you get for now. Remember, we all gots to roll dem bones sometimes.

KEELY plucks her eyebrows and blows them into the air, and then picks up her pills.

SLICK

What the hell is that?

KEELY

This?

(she makes the plucking motion)

The Incans did it. It's like a Catholic making the sign of the cross. You know. Good luck and God bless.

KEELY pushes herself up from the table, then staggers as she makes her way across the clearing. SLICK is too engrossed in the computer display to notice.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR LEADING TO INTI'S DOOR-- EVENING

TOPA and CAPAC are standing by a stone door that has a horrific image of Inti carved into it. Behind the two brothers are a crowd of ALIENS. CAPAC, looking uncomfortable, turns to the crowd.

CAPAC

It has been many generations since any of The Gathering walked through INTI's door. You ask us to go to find the truth. I believe the Truth is in here, not in the poison of Inti's light. But, I will do as you ask. If we do not return, it is because Inti's wrath remains great.

TOPA

We will return.

TOPA moves to the door. He studies the seal of Inti, plucks his eyebrows and blows them into the air. He touches a lever and the door begins to open. The CROWD draws back, then scatters.

EXT. OUTSIDE INTI'S DOOR -- MOMENTS LATER

The area around the door is primitively landscaped. Fifty feet from the cave door is a large bone pile. Near the center of the pile is a large rock with a hole in it. Many silver or gold chains are attached the rock. The half-fleshed remains of the three LOST INDIANS from the drill crew have been connected to the stone by the Shapras in sacrifice to the Gray God. TOPA walks toward the bones as CAPAC stays back hovering by the door. TOPA bows his head for a moment.

TOPA

We beg your forgiveness.

TOPA steps back and spreads his wings like a cormorant. CAPAC takes a few steps away from the door, then looks around very tentatively.

CAPAC

It is worse than I imagined.

TOPA

These wasted lives sacrificed to us, who fear a moment in this world?

TOPA (CONT'D)

No.

TOPA (CONT'D)

The light? Inti's eye can be much brighter. But do not worry, He readies Himself for sleep.

CAPAC

(gesturing timidly toward the jungle)

No, all of this...growth.

TOPA

Much on this planet loves Inti's yellow light.

(he gestures to the bones)

Including those who lost it here. Come, we have a mission. Open your wings.

CAPAC

(shocked)

What?

TOPA

We must fly.

CAPAC

Never. I will not use that which debases me.

TOPA

Then you must stay here. Where we go is too far to walk and return before Inti's eye brightens. Fly with me, remain here until I return, or, you, the all wise leader, may escape back into your hole.

CAPAC

(tearing at his wings)

If I use this mutation, I become a mutant.

TOPA

No. If you use your wings, you fulfill the destiny that Pacha has designed for you. Would we be here and would we have been Befowled if Our Blue Mother did not wish it? Is there not a plan in this universe? Was the birth of life an accident? Why do you fear your destiny? Fly with me.

CAPAC

I cannot. Inti Befowled us, not Our Blue Lady. Inti wishes us to fly so that He may burn us with his golden light. He wishes nothing more than our death. He tempts us to our destruction.

TOPA

Stay then and cower in fear. I go to find what makes the earth shriek.

CAPAC

Brother, do not leave me.

TOPA

(touched by CAPAC's plea)

I must. Can you not believe that I believe that all will be well? Inti smiles upon those who worship his bright light.

CAPAC

I cannot affect a faith I do not feel.

TOPA

(pausing, thoughtful)

Come, brother.

TOPA opens his arms as if to embrace CAPAC. CAPAC hesitates, then moves toward TOPA. TOPA enfolds CAPAC in his arms, then turns him so that his belly is to CAPAC's back.

TOPA (CONT'D)

Can you not look around and feel Inti's benign majesty?

CAPAC

I cannot.

TOPA

You will.

TOPA spreads his wings and beats them until he begins to rise. CAPAC struggles then accepts his fate. As TOPAl gains altitude, the expanse of endless trees and then a glorious sunset appears.

TOPA (CONT'D)

Keep your eyes half-closed until it gets dark enough to see.

EXT. NEW DRILLING SITE CLEARING -- NIGHT

TOPA and CAPAC are at the edge of the drill site clearing. The aliens watch as a handful of INDIANS walk from the mess tent. TWO INDIANS break off to go check the rig. ALOSA steps out of the tent. CAPAC is surprised to see the mark upon her forehead.

CAPAC

(whispering)

Who is she to carry the Message?

TOPA

She is our half sister.

CAPAC

What blasphemy.

TOPA

Then think of her as another step in my struggle to find the way.

CAPAC

What are you talking about?

TOPA

Use your eyes, brother. Not your mouth. We will talk about it later.

CAPAC

How long do we stay here?

TOPA

Until we find the answer we seek.

EXT. NEW DRILL SITE CLEARING -- DAWN

Light is just breaking and CAPAC and TOPA have been waiting all night to understand what is going on at the drill site.

TRISIP

We must go. Inti's ire grows.

TOPA

We cannot leave. We know nothing. Would you fail The Gathering and return in ignorance? They want something from our world, but what is it?

CAPAC

How will my dying help gather that knowledge?

TOPA

Even if Inti were still angry at your love for the Blue Mother, he would not strike you down. He would do no more than pluck a day or two from the end of your life.

(he plucks his brows and blows)

Does a day less fill you with terror?

CAPAC

Those who farmed the Inca's gifts led lives shorter than by a day. You must fly me back. I command you.

TOPA

Facts command me. Nothing more.

CAPAC

You pick and choose your facts like a child sorting stones. Take me back. Now.

TOPA

You have wings. Lift them.

TOPA disappears into the jungle. CAPAC stands for a moment, indecisively, then tentatively spreads his wings.

EXT. CLEARING -- MORNING

TOPA continues to observe the camp. He is mesmerized when KEELY appears from Slick's tent and slowly, painfully makes her way across the clearing to breakfast.

INT. MESS TENT -- MOMENTS LATER

KEELY, leaning heavily against the table where the food is served, says a few words to Alosa. Then she walks to where Slick is seated at a table eating.

SLICK

How's the voodoo queen?

KEELY

Do you have to be such a jerk? She isn't deaf. A word from her and this is a ghost town.

SLICK

A word from her and my sister, with all her scientific training, takes up with her ghosts.

KEELY

Even though you're an atheist, would you shout in the Vatican or fart in Westminister Abbey? This is a holy place for them. Can't you respect that? You're already defiling it by tearing big holes in it. And, for what? You know, Big Bro, I have a hard time understanding how you can spend your life chasing after some black gunk that drips out of cars.

Slick jumps up and heads for the tent entrance. Keely follows him.

EXT. NEW DRILL SITE CLEARING -- CONTINUOUS

Slick comes out of the tent, walking fast toward the rig, and Keely tries to keep up as they have the following conversation.

SLICK

Pretty holy for someone who just last night weaseled me into giving her a hole of her own.

KEELY

Not to rip open the earth. If you do find oil, what happens around here? How much of this ineffable beauty goes as you develop the site and figure out how to pipe it someplace where it can get loaded onto ships for the poor energy-starved natives of my homeland? You'd wreck this place so some asshole, who couldn't start a fire without a blow torch or find food on a potato farm, can drive his soft white ass around in an SUV?

SLICK

Know what? I never even think of that guy. Look, kid, I hate wellheads and oil fields. Probably more than you. What I like is the puzzle. You're interested in the mystery of that candelabra thing or those funny pulses. I'm interested in mysteries, too. It's just a different obsession. Shit, I could have been a mining engineer or a fisherman and have just as much satisfaction as I get doing this. I don't give a damn about oil. What gets me off is finding out where Mother Earth hides her goodies. And you know what, Princess Pure, I'm putting the last of my chips on a number you gave me. I was up most of the night looking at those scans from your bird, and I'm damn positive I know where Mother Earth is stashing the goods. Now I've got about half the time I need to do the job, so wish me luck and step aside because this place is getting ready to hum. And if I score, then you can deal with your contribution to my efforts to destroy Mother earth.

A spasm of pain passes over Keely's face.

KEELY

So, when do I get my clearing?

SLICK

The answer is never. You look horrible. If I had an extra chopper, I'd med-evac you out of here pronto.

KEELY

(insistent)

So, when do I get my clearing?

SLICK

No time to talk.

(he starts to walk faster toward the rig)

Ferdie'll be here in a few minutes, then we'll drop the cutters and start disassembling the derrick.

KEELY

What about the thumpers?

SLICK

I don't have time. I have to go with what I've got. I don't like it, but it's all I can do. Your scan sugggests a serpentine plug on the kind of anticline where you could make hole and and come up dry a foot away from an ocean of oil.

KEELY

(tears in her eyes)

So when do I get my clearing? Dammit, Slick, I know you're pressed, but I may be a little short on time myself.

SLICK

(finally noticing the tears and taking a second to make a decision)

Okay. If Kevorkian can do it, so can I. There's some work to be done before we hoist, so I'll have Ferdie drop in two guys. I can't really spare them, but.... They'll start cutting. Not tomorrow, we'll be too busy moving pipe and derrick, but maybe on Thursday, I'll have him take you over.

KEELY

(disappointed)

That's the best you can do?

SLICK

That's all I'm going to do. And it's a helluva lot more than I want to do. So, just give me the damn coordinates, sit tight and stay out of trouble.

EXT. CLEARING -- MORNING

Keely is talking to Alosa, who is translating what she is saying to three Indians. Two of the Indians have their tree cutting gear by their feet. The Indians shake their heads, Alosa is adamant. Finally, the Indians agree. Ferdie and Rafe walk across the clearing toward the 234. Keely smiling broadly, forcing herself to walk without limping, comes up to Ferdie.

KEELY

(yelling)

Hey, Senor Ferdie. Wait up.

Ferdie stops and Keely, gasping, sticks out her thumb.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Can I catch a ride?

FERDIE

What for, senorita? I'll be back in half an hour.

KEELY

I know. I just want to see them go down. That's my hole they're clearing.

FERDIE

What are you doing with a hole?

KEELY

(laughing)

Just another gringa looking for El Dorado.

FERDIE

That's a long parade.

KEELY

Can I come?

FERDIE

Okay. Sure.

KEELY

Do I have time to get my pack? It's got my camera.

Ferdie nods and he and Rafe walk toward the helicopter.

INT. BOEING 234 HELICOPTER -- MORNING

Ferdie and Rafe are in the front of the 234. Keely is leaning over Rafe's shoulder. Three Indians are in the back. Ferdie points down. Keely nods and then yells.

KEELY

I'll go in back and see if I can give them a hand.

Ferdie shakes his head. Keely heads back. Roughneck One hooks up and disappears over the edge. An Indian winches him down. Roughneck Two hooks up. He nods to Keely and Keely slings her pack on her back before piggybacking herself onto the roustabout. They teeter on the edge of the chopper and then disappear over the edge. The third Indian winches them down. Ferdie, looking down through the pod, realizes what is going on. He shakes his head and makes the sign of the cross. He turns back to look at the wincher, who grins.

EXT. NEW DRILL SITE CLEARING -- MORNING

Slick is directing operations near the derrick and wellhead machinery as Ferdie lands. The rotor stops and Ferdie climbs out as Slick gesticulates to the Indians to begin loading. Ferdie walks over to Slick.

FERDIE

Lady overboard.

SLICK

What?

FERDIE

Your sister bailed out at the site.

SLICK

Shit. What a jerk. How?

FERDIE

Hanging on tight to Garcia. She looked like a monkey on its mom. You know, for someone who you keep telling me is dying, she gets herself into a lot of trouble. What do you want me to do?

SLICK

With her? Nothing right now. There's too much to do. We'll pick her up at the end of the day. Maybe she can keep her ass out of a sling until then. Goddamn, do I hate babysitting. C'mon, let's move, we've got a hole to make.

FERDIE

You sure you don't want me to go back? You and the senorita are family.

SLICK

So were Cain and Abel.

(pointing to the chopper)

Get over there and tell them how you want it loaded.

EXT. JUNGLE -- MORNING

Keely is sitting on a fallen log fidgeting with her satellite locator. In the background, the two roughnecks are cutting trees. Keely puts the locator back in her pack, gets up, swings the pack on her shoulders and limps off into the jungle.

EXT. JUNGLE --LATER

Keely is exhausted. She is fighting her way through thick vines. Around her birds caw and monkeys shriek. She stops to take a breath and her knees buckle. As she leans against her walking stick, she takes her pills out and has a drink of water. After she puts the water bottle back, she pulls out her locator, takes a look, studies her watch, and pushes off.

EXT. JUNGLE -- LATER

Keely is sitting against a tree breathing heavily. She seems almost comatose. Her head is back and her eyes are closed. There is a growl in the distance. Her head snaps up in attention. The growl repeats itself. She stares into the jungle. Suddenly, she leans her head forward, then cocks it. Slowly, she gets to her feet and pushes through the jungle. After a dozen paces she comes to a moss and vine-covered step. She climbs it and, painfully, the dozen steps that follow. At the top of the stairs, still under the cover of the canopy, is a building whose entrance is covered with vines. Keely struggles with pushing aside the vines. Finally, she takes off her pack, removes a flashlight, puts the pack on the top step and using her walking stick to push aside the vines, squeezes through the doorway.

INT. INCAN TEMPLE -- MOMENTS LATER

Keely has her flashlight on. She steps over the detritus left from hundreds of years--skeletons of small animals, dead leaves, etc. Exhausted, she leans against the doorway and studies the temple's interior. The walls are covered with moss. Keely wanders around, then moves to the front wall and uses her walking stick to scratch at it. The gold face of Inti begins to appear. Keely gets excited and starts to rub off the moss with her hands. She moves a step over and continues rubbing. The Candelabra appears. Keely starts to rub away something that looks like a giant almond when there is an incredibly loud roar. She whips around to see a BLACK JAGUAR at the threshold. She steps back as the jaguar slinks forward. It roars a second time. Keely brandishes her walking stick. She starts to move toward the jaguar. The jaguar growls and moves toward Keely. Keely steps back. The jaguar moves forward. Keely steps back again until she is touching the wall. Her head rests against Inti's face. She lifts the stick threateningly. The tip of the stick touches a spot on the Candelabra. There is a slight noise and Keely begins to slowly descend as the stone beneath her begins to lower like an elevator. The jaguar growls a third time and pounces toward Keely as her head disappears below the floor of the temple.

INT. TUNNEL--CONTINUOUS

The stone stops moving. Keely jumps off and the stone platform begins to ascend just as the jaguar's face appears in the hole above. The jaguar's head disappears as the stone goes back into place. Keely looks at the mechanism of counterweights that made the stone elevator work. She begins walking along the dark stone corridor with her flashlight sweeping back and forth.

INT. MESS TENT -- EVENING

Slick, Paulo and Ferdie and Rafe are sitting around a table. Empty plates and half-filled glasses are in front of them. Alosa is in the background cleaning up.

SLICK

That was great work today, Ferdie. I didn't think you could get the draw works and the mud pump in plus the engines.

FERDIE

Yeh, well, I think I'm pushing my luck. I had some unhappy needles.

SLICK

(ignoring what Ferdie is saying)

We'll start lifting the derrick first thing in the morning.

(looking at Paulo)

You ready to make hole?

PAULO

Yes. If you know where you want it.

SLICK

You saw Keely's scan. What do you think?

PAULO

(evasively)

What do you think?

SLICK

I think it's about time this table got cleared.

(turning toward Alosa and gesturing at the table)

Hey, get this crap out of here.

Alosa just stares at Slick.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Our priestess is a real genius. C'mon, get this out of here.

Alosa slowly makes her way to the table.

SLICK (CONT'D)

I can't believe my sister has fallen for the bullshit of this two-toned bimbo. Jesus.

Alosa gets to the table and begins to clear it.

FERDIE

Do you want me to go get her now?

SLICK

Yeah, yeah. Tell her the adventure is over.

EXT. NEW DRILL SITE CLEARING -- NIGHT

Ferdie comes running up to Slick who is standing by the derrick inspecting the rigging ties that will be used to lift it.

FERDIE

Senor Slick, I couldn't find the senorita. I looked and called, but she wasn't there.

SLICK

Shit

(yelling)

I hate babysitting geeks. What about the cutters? Didn't they know where she was?

FERDIE

The cutters were gone, too.

SLICK

(throwing up his hands)

Screw them. They want to play games out there, then let them live with the consequences. I'm going to bed. You better hit the rack, too. I want your best tomorrow.

FERDIE

She is your sister.

SLICK

So that puts her in about third place.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR-- NIGHT

Keely is walking along the cave corridor when she comes to an opening. She flashes her light inside and it throws back light.

INT. ENGINE REPAIR ROOM IN CAVE-- CONTINUOUS

She enters the room. As she makes her way toward the center of the room, she realizes that she is bouncing light off a exceedingly large motor of some kind. She draws closer and begins to examine the motor.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR -- NIGHT

Keely is back at the stone elevator. Her flashlight is much dimmer than it was. She uses the beam to see how she might get the elevator to work. She goes over to the counter weight and begins to heave at one of its rocks. The rock doesn't move.

KEELY

C'mon.

She heaves again and nothing happens. She follows the ropes from the rocks to the roof of the corridor and sees that there is a lock-catch. She can't reach it. She goes back to the counter weight, climbs on it and shinnies up a couple of feet so she can use her walking stick to push back the lock-catch. She unlatches it and slips down the rope. She is gasping for breath. She heaves the rock once more and it begins to move upward. The elevator stone above comes down. When it is low enough for her to climb on, she does; however instead of rising, the stone continues to descend. In frustration Keely uses the flashlight to look at the opening above her head. She stares at the counter weights until she realizes that one can be moved along a rope arm. As she moves off the stone to adjust the weight, the stone begins to rise. She grabs the counter weight, holds it in the air, shifts the fulcrum, lets go and then leaps back to the rock which has begun to ascend. She scrambles on and is carried upward.

INT. INCAN TEMPLE -- MOMENTS LATER

Limp with fatigue, Keely stands on the stone in front of Inti and, in the fading light of her flashlight, cautiously looks around for the black jaguar. The temple is empty. She moves to the doorway, draws a breath and slips through.

EXT. JUNGLE -- CONTINUOUS

Keely looks around the entrance-way for her backpack, but it is gone.

KEELY

(yelling into the jungle)

You bastard, give me back my pills.

Keely starts to go down the stone steps, but her flashlight fails.

KEELY (CONT'D)

(yelling into the night)

Who made me Job?

EXT. NEW DRILLING SITE -- JUST AFTER DAWN

The Indians are swarming over the derrick. Ferdie is standing next to Paulo and Slick watching them work.

FERDIE

Mon amigo, I'm not too excited about this lift. I was blowing oil yesterday. I'm ready for an overhaul. This damn thing is pushing the limit.

SLICK

(laughing)

Of a 234? Where are your cojones? This bird could lift two derricks and drop them on top of Acomani.

FERDIE

No, not even when she is healthy, and she is not healthy. She has been ignored. She needs a little tenderness.

SLICK

And she can have it--in a couple of more hours. Let's get this show on the road. This is no time for cowardice.

FERDIE

No, Don Slick.

(he makes the sign of the cross in a theatrical way)

EXT. NEW DRILLING SITE -- MOMENTS LATER

The 234 is hovering overhead. Everything is being blown around. A heavy cable descends. Two Indians grab it and hook it up to the sling that is holding the derrick. They cleat themselves to the cable and the helicopter begins to rise. The engine sounds like it is working hard. The chopper wheels out of sight. Slick turns to Paulo.

SLICK

Everything set on the pipe?

PAULO

We're ready.

SLICK

Check it again. I don't want any screw-ups.

PAULO

(angrily)

There won't be any. Why do you always second guess me?

SLICK

What the hell are you talking about? You getting the fever? Been out here too long? Go on. Check that pipe.

Paulo stalks off.

INT. BOEING 234 HELICOPTER -- DAY

Although it is still before eight in the morning, the chopper is already makinbg its second trip to the new site. The back of the 234 is loaded with Indians, Paulo, Rafe and equipment. Slick is in the co-pilot seat alongside Ferdie. The clearing with the derrick set and a pile of pipe off to one side comes into view. Slick grins and leans over toward Ferdie.

SLICK

Hey, man, what was that worry for? Pay dirt ahead. I can smell it.

FERDIE

(patting his controls)

Even when I'm cruel to her, she still loves me.

SLICK

(laughing)

She's the only one.

The engine sound changes. Ferdie becomes rigidly alert. The sound pitches up. The oil gauge needle drops. Slick unlocks his seat belt.

FERDIE

We're blowing oil. Hang on, I'm going down fast.

Ferdie focuses on the descent. The chopper shudders, cants and heads down. Ferdie fights the controls. The blades stops turning and, from about fifty feet up, the chopper starts to plummet to the ground. Fifteen feet from the ground, Slick jumps out. The chopper hits the ground and cartwheels into the bulldozer. Indians tumble from the helicopter. Paulo pushes Indians through the doorway before he leaps. The chopper bursts into flames. Slick runs toward the chopper, but is thrown back by the heat. A couple of Indians, clothes on fire, stumble from the 234. They hit the ground and start crawling. Paulo runs back, grabs them by the ankles and pulls them toward safety. He rolls them on the ground and extinguishes the fire. Slick looks back to the craft. He sees Ferdie's arms waving wildly, inside the pod and then nothing is moving. The bird continues to burn.

INT. INCAN TEMPLE -- MORNING

Scant light makes its way past the vines over the temple door. Keely is curled up in the corner. As the camera draws close on her, she stirs and wakens. When she sits up, the camera shows that she has the Candelabra scars carved on her forehead. She takes a minute to get her bearings, then looks around frightened. She starts when she sees her backpack a few feet away from where she has slept. She grabs for the bag and starts pulling out pill vials. After taking her pills, she leans back. A moment later, she goes back into her backpack and pulls out her Iridium phone, goes to the doorway, dials and waits. After a minute, looking confused, she puts the phone down. She stands, goes to the wall where she was rubbing off the moss the previous day and continues to clean it. As she wipes the gold frieze, the Candlelabra,, then a space ship, with small figures walking toward it, and a over-sized star appear. Keely stands back and studies what her work has revealed. She touches her head in wonderment and realizes something doesn't feel right. She explores her forehead with her fingers, then approaches the gold frieze and tries to see her reflection. With no success, she steps back and rubs her head again.

EXT. INCAN TEMPLE -- MORNING

Keely is just outside the entrance to the temple. She is back on the phone, but no one is answering. Exasperated, she shoves the phone back into her pack, takes a look at the satellite locator and starts climbing down the temple stairs.

INT. LYFOL'S LABORATORY -- EARLY MORNING

Lyfol is preparing the skin he has taken from Keely. He puts it into the machine. He plucks at his eyebrows and blows them into the air. The machine begins processing. He watches the monitor.

BURN IN

The monitor shows a pattern that is a duplicate of the Candelabra.

BACK ON SCENE

Lyfol is astounded at what he sees. He stares at the monitor, then checks his machine settings. Finally, he rushes toward the lab door.

INT. TRISIP'S DWELLING -- A FEW MINUTES LATER

Trisip is staring reverently before an image of XXilip. There is a noise at the door and Lyfol rushes in.

LYFOL

We are rescued. This hole in the earth can become a memory.

TRISIP

You abandoned me.

LYFOL

What are you...you mean in the jungle? I had to.

Trisip awkwardly spreads his wings.

TRISIP

I am lucky to be alive.

LYFOL

What I have discovered will make you more alive than you have ever been.

TRISIP

You endangered me. You are an apostate to XXilip and a traitor to the Gathering.

LYFOL

Listen. I have found...

TRISIP

(interrupting)

No, you listen. It has been many generations since any of XXilip's children have betrayed her. You must make the Amend for your actions.

LYFOL

Meaning what?

TRISIP

It is you who read the old quipus.

LYFOL

Plegiaing?

Trisip just stares at Lyfol.

LYFOL (CONT'D)

To one who flies? Never.

He rushes to the door to escape.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATRE -- AN HOUR LATER

The aliens are gathered. Trisip is on his obelisk.

TRISIP

My genemates, you have asked what was learned from your demand that I break the Rule.

He stares angrily at the crowd.

TRISIP (CONT'D)

Nothing. That is what was learned. You asked me to court Inti's wrath. I did, and what I found is what we have known for generations. Breaking the Rule leads to nothing.

ALIENS

What made the noise?

TRISIP

The noise was the same noise that has been made for many generations. It is the noise of this sick planet settling into her old age. The creak of her joints. Nothing more.

ALIENS

It didn't sound the same.

TRISIP

(enraged at the challenge)

What do you know? Have you lived so long that you know all the sounds this planet makes? I broke the Rule and went Above. I saw nothing to make such a noise. I saw only the fertillion that Inti makes.

ALIENS

Where is Lyfol? What does he say?

TRISIP

My brother says lies. Inti's lies. I have called this Gathering because of my brother. He worships Inti and mocks Our Mother XXilip. He betrays his brother and his genemates. He follows the call of that which will destroy us. My brother chases Inti's yellow light and all its evilness. He has lost his nature. For generations we have been wise enough to know that our survival and our strength comes from our sameness. My brother revels in difference. He must Amend. He must be plegiaed.

ALIENS

Yes. Yes. Amend him. Amend Lyfol. Plegia Inti's servant.

TRISIP

He knows his shame and so he hides. Look for him. Find him. Bring him here to Amend.

The aliens get up and leave the room with a blood lust in them.

EXT. JUNGLE -- DAY

Keely is making her way through the jungle. She is not graceful, but she is energetic and not limping as much as before. She stops to pick and eat a piece of fruit. As she munches, she tries the phone again and gets no answer. Suddenly, she changes directions and begins walking back the way she came.

EXT. TENT AT HELICOPTER CRASH SITE -- DAY

A couple of hours after the crash, Paulo and Slick are standing over the two Indians who were rescued by Paulo. They are badly burned and groaning loudly. Alosa is trying to tend to them.

PAULO

We've got to do something. They're in very tough shape.

SLICK

What do you propose we do? We lost the communication gear in the crash. Pound a drum? Light a fire and send smoke signals? Maybe flash a mirror? There's nothing we can do except what I've been saying. Sit tight and wait for someone to miss us.

PAULO

Like who?

SLICK

Ferdie had work lined up. When he doesn't show, a red flag will go up.

PAULO

And if it doesn't?

SLICK

Then we wait for three days. Those assholes from Lima will be here the moment the lease expires.

PAULO

They don't know where we are.

SLICK

They'll look until they find us.

PAULO

And if they don't?

SLICK

(screaming)

Then HQ will find us. They don't hear from us in a week, they'll have the army in here. They've got these coordinates. Guaranteed they'll be here--if only to make sure I haven't walked off with their equipment.

PAULO

(gesturing to the burn victims)

So we just watch and listen to this as we wait?

SLICK

No, dammit. We make hole.

PAULO

(stunned)

After all this? After six people have died looking for this oil. And they didn't have to, if you hadn't pushed people into doing things that weren't safe.

SLICK

If you're looking for some place safe to work, then get out of the damn oil business. We're making hole. If those people had to die, at least we can bring in this well and give them something to have died for.

PAULO

Your sister was right that night she called you Ahab. And what about her? Are you just going to leave her in the jungle to die, too.

SLICK

(face gets hard)

So, what's your solution?

PAULO

I go find Keely. She's got the Iridium. When I find her, I can call for help. If I leave now, and take a crew to cut, I could make it to her drop by tomorrow morning. We could have these two on a helicopter in by mid-morning tomorrow.

SLICK

You're dreaming. Look at them. You think they're going to last another six hours, let along twenty-four?

PAULO

It's worth a try.

SLICK

I say it's not. What's worth a try is something that has a chance for success and that is bringing in this well. We've got three days left to do that. That's worth a chance.

PAULO

And your sister? Do you really think she can last three more days?

Alosa is listening intently trying to understand what is being said.

SLICK

(face blank)

My sister couldn't last one day.

PAULO

(not understanding)

Then we need to...

SLICK

We need to do nothing. Keely didn't call last night to bust my balls, and she would have if she could have.

PAULO

If she's sick, all the more...

SLICK

Not sick. She's been sick for years. Now, she's not sick. She's dead. She knew she was dying and she wanted to be doing something foolish when it came. So be it.

PAULO

How can you be sure? You can't. There could have been a satellite screw-up or...

SLICK

(reluctantly)

When I didn't hear from her, I called. Four times. No answer. What does that tell you? You think she wouldn't answer her phone?

PAULO

It doesn't tell me anything except that we need to hurry.

SLICK

You want to me a hero, be my guest. But be a hero by yourself. You've been useless for weeks--but none of the crew go. You try to walk out of here with any of the dinks and you'll find the tragedies aren't over.

PAULO

By myself. You'd like that. You've been afraid of my skills ever since Dave sent me down here.

SLICK

Your skills would be more use in a nursery than out here. You go on your walk-about. We'll stay here and get the job done.

One of the injured Indians gives a particularly loud groan. Paulo studies him and then walks toward the back of the tent to a sophisticated first aid kit whose contents have been scattered about.

PAULO

Ahab.

Slick turns to leave the tent.

SLICK

Clueless and ball-less.

As soon as Slick leaves, Alosa gets up from her patients, studies them for a minute, then walks to Paulo.

INT. SEAWEED FARM IN ALIEN CAVE -- DAY

A rock door opens slowly. Lyfol, looking hungry, tired and fearful, peers around its edge before coming into a large cavern, bathed in blue light, which holds a undulating man-made tidal pool in which great swirls of seaweed grow. Along the edge of the cavern at regular intervals are generators and processing equipment. Lyfol is holding a polished metal octagonal box. He carefully looks around, picks up an implement of metal with a hook on the end, then moves to the edge of the pond. He crouches down and begins to tug at some seaweed with the hook. He opens the lid of the metal box and begins to stuff it with seaweed. He freezes, listens intently, then returns to his work. A moment later, he suddenly leaps upward, flaps his wings and flies toward the doorway. A half dozen aliens jump out from behind the equipment where they have been hiding. Some race toward Lyfol and the others rush to cover the door. Lyfol whirls from the door and circles above the pool looking for a means of escape. One of the aliens pulls at a weapon Velcroed to his hip. The gun shoots a metamorphosis ray which calcifies whatever it strikes. Lyfol throws the food processor box toward the shooter, then, when he misses, begins to fly evasive patterns. A ray is fired and misses, a second misses, but then a third appears to hit Lyfol. He plummets toward the water. The shooter holsters his weapon and all of the aliens run to capture him. Lyfol floats on top of the seaweed in the middle of the pool. The aliens reach toward him with the gathering hooks. Suddenly, Lyfol beats his wings frantically, bursts from the water, and flies toward the door. The aliens charge after him. Lyfol lands hard in front of the door, falls, tries to gather himself, but his right wing is injured. His third eye darts wildly as the aliens close on him. He reaches around with his arms to try to close the injured wing so that he can get through the narrow door. An alien grabs at the injured wing. Lyfol screams in pain, but manages to throw him off. He lurches forward, staggers through the opening and has just enough time to slam it closed.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR -- MOMENTS LATER

Lyfol, coming into view from around a corner in the corridor, is limping/running and breathing hard. His injured wing opens and its tip catches on the wall. Lyfol moans, staggers, regains his balance, roughly reaches back to hold the wing closed and keeps going. From behind, his third eye is large and fearful. Behind him are the sound of pounding feet and raised voices. He staggers a few more steps, then stops suddenly by throwing himself against the wall. He reaches up and touches a spot and the door to his lab begins to open; however before he can disappear, one of the aliens comes around the corner and sees him go through the doorway. The alien shrieks in disappointment. Lyfol slams the door shut.

INT. LYFOL'S LABORATORY -- CONTINUOUS

Lyfol is limping around his laboratory collecting gear. There are muffled noises by the doorway. He moves to the machine we have seen him operate earlier. Frantically, he starts to remove Keely's skin sample, but he is too panicked to get the job done. Lyfol's third eye, huge with fear, stares at the small monitor by the doorway that acts as his security system. The aliens are pounding at various spots on the wall. Reluctantly, Lyfol moves away from the machine, collects his gear, runs to the far side of the room, touches a spot and disappears through the opening door.

INT. CAVE ENGINE REPAIR ROOM -- CONTINUOUS

Lyfol emerges into the room that Keely had discovered which holds the large engine. He touches a spot and a soft blue light suffuses the room.

INT. INCAN TEMPLE -- MOMENTS LATER

Lyfol rises on the elevator into the temple. He leans against the wall and breathes heavily. After several moments, he limps to the door of the temple, steps through and stares at the sunlight, then afraid of the bright sunlight, he retreats into the shadows of the temple. He stares at the face of Inti that Keely has uncovered, plucks his eyebrows and blows them into the air. There is a slight noise and the elevator step begins to descend. Lyfol steps back, looks to the sunlight which he fears, then back at the descending step. He backs up toward the doorway of the temple, then backs through the doorway into the sun. He begins to try to unfold his damaged wing just as Keely rises into view.

EXT. JUNGLE --DAY

Alosa is gliding through the jungle and Paulo is stumbling behind, hacking at things with a machete.

EXT. CLEARING WITH THE CRASHED HELICOPTER-- DAY

The crashed helicopter is still smoldering. Slick, wearing a gun on his hip, and with his rifle slung under his arm is directing the Indians as they set up the drilling equipment underneath the derrick. Without Paulo to interpret, he is having a hard time getting the Indians to do what he wants them to do. He yells something. The Indians look at each other indecisively. Slick walks toward them.

SLICK

C'mon, get that kelly cock in place.

The Indians stare uncomprehendingly.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Christ Almighty, how many times before you learn how to do this?

He grabs hold of a large valve at the base of a long pipe.

SLICK (CONT'D)

Like this. See? It's not genius work.

Slick is grabbed from behind by one Indian as another pulls Slick's gun from its holster. A third grabs the rifle.

SLICK (CONT'D)

What the hell! Let go of me. Are you dinks crazy?

INT. INCAN TEMPLE -- DAY

Keely reaches her arm out toward Lyfol who is on the verge of rushing out of the temple door.

KEELY

Hey, stop.

Lyfol takes another step backward.

KEELY (CONT'D)

No. Don't.

Lyfol stands still. Keely is frozen on the spot, too. Each stares at the other. Finally, Keely slowly brings her hand toward her head and points at the Candelabra carving. She smiles, then points to Lyfol.

KEELY (CONT'D)

You?

Lyfol nods, then plucks his brows and blows. Keely slowly does the same things. Keely gingerly gestures over her head at the frieze.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Inti?

LYFOL

Inti.

Keely moves her hand along the wall until she touches the figure by the space ship.

KEELY

You?

LYFOL

My ancients' ancients.

Keely is shocked that Lyfol can speak English.

KEELY

How can you speak English?

LYFOL

What is English?

KEELY

What we are talking. How did you learn English?

LYFOL

I only speak the sounds that were in your skin.

Keely is beguiled.

KEELY

Whatever that technology is, it beats MIDI by a mile. Is that why you took my skin?

(she touches her forehead)

For the language?

LYFOL

No, language without a life worth communicating seems worthless.

KEELY

Don't tell the politicians. Why did you take my skin?

LYFOL

To be at peace with Inti.

(gestures toward the door)

KEELY

Have you been at war?

LYFOL

Some of the Gathering think so. I believe that Inti loves us and wants us to be His children. That is why I took your skin.

KEELY

I don't understand.

Lyfol wobbles a little and grabs for the doorway to steady himself.

KEELY (CONT'D)

(worried)

Are you okay?

LYFOL

I haven't eaten for a long time.

KEELY

Welcome to the club. Which actually is kind of weird because I feel very good. Why haven't you eaten?

LYFOL

It is not safe for me to be below.

KEELY

I don't understand.

LYFOL

The Gathering no longer welcome me. I will be plegiaed if they find me.

KEELY

What is that?

LYFOL

My legS and arms would be killed. And, these, too.

Lyfol turns so that Keely can see his wings.

KEELY

(even more fascinated)

Why? What have you done?

LYFOL

I want the Gathering to live in Inti's golden glow.

KEELY

I've had the same wish myself.

Lyfol staggers a second time and collapses to the floor. Keely moves toward him. Lyfol doesn't stir when Keely touches his arm. Keely keeps her hand on Lyfol's arm for a few seconds before letting it slide around to touch his wings. She is involved with touching them, but then notices the flap of skin on the back of Lyfol's head. She stares, reaches, brings her hand back and then reaches a second time. She lifts the lid and stares at the eye. The eye moves.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Cool.

Keely looks around the temple, then leans down and picks up Lyfol around his shoulders. It's obvious that she doesn't expect to do more than drag him a couple of feet so she can lean him against a wall; however she finds that he is easy to lift. She gets him on her shoulder and starts toward the temple opening.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Double cool.

INT. TRISIP'S DWELLING --DAY

Trisip is in his room with a half dozen aliens including STALIX, who is in charge of the search and MYRSUS, who had almost caught Lyfol at the pool.

TRISIP

How could you let him escape? Why wasn't there someone closer to the door? Why didn't you have a faster runner?

STALIX

Myrsus was by the door. He is the fastest, but your brother was faster.

TRISIP

My brother is old. Inti has aged him.

STALIX

Inti may have wrinkled him, but his wings give him speed.

TRISIP

He flew inside our world? What blasphemy. XXilip's anger can only grow. How long did it take you to get into his laboratory?

STALIX

No more than a few moments.

TRISIP

And he just disappeared?

STALIX

Yes. We searched the room, but could not find the other door.

TRISIP

Keep trying. Don't just look at the walls. Look at the floor and ceiling.

MYRSUS

Couldn't we set a trap for him there?

TRISIP

You can try, but do you think my brother is a fool?

STALIX

But, if we cannot catch him, what shall we do?

TRISIP

If we do not catch him, then we will try to drive him to Inti and then seal the entrances so that he cannot return. Go.

EXT. JUNGLE -- AFTERNOON

Keely is sweating profusely, but looking gleeful. She has Lyfol leaning back against a tree. Lyfol is conscious, but not very alert. Keely has a couple of tropical fruits in her hand and a bottle of water.

KEELY

Try to eat these. After you eat you'll feel better.

Lyfol shakes his head.

LYFOL

I cannot eat this. It will kill me. Anything that grows with Inti's light is poison to us. I cut my life short now just by being in Inti's glow.

KEELY

Sunlight harms me, too.

LYFOL

How can that be?

KEELY

I have a disease called lupus. Lupus attacks the autoimmune system, and lupus loves the light.

LYFOL

How can that be? You have Inti's quipu.

KEELY

What are you talking about?

Lyfol points to Keely's forehead.

LYFOL

The XXuchuan live under XXilip, our Mother, a blue star. Many ages ago, my ancients' ancients ancients traveled between the stars looking for presents to offer to XXilip. In this place, they found Inti's sweat and Mama Kilya's tears.

KEELY

Gold and silver.

Lyfol shrugs.

LYFOL

Dorado. We did not have these metals on our home. They were brought back and made into gifts for Mother XXilip. Many ages after that, we became proudful and looked to our feet rather than to the skies. We Fell. Mother XXilip was angered at our selfishness. Her blue light dimmed. To win back her blessings, my ancients' ancients decided to come back here to collect more sweat and tears. As their craft descended toward where our forebears had landed...

KEELY

(interrupting)

Nacza.

LYFOL

Nacza...that is a word long unspoken...the craft malfunctioned. It crashed far from Nacza in the high mountains. And when it landed, many lives were lost and great damage was done.

KEELY

I was below and saw a large machine. Is that from the ship?

LYFOL

Yes. After the Befowlment....

KEELY

Wait, what is that? The befoulment.

LYFOL

When Inti, in his anger, cursed us with these.

He slightly spreads his wings.

KEELY

Some curse.

Lyfol tries to put his wings back in and starts to fall over.

KEELY (CONT'D)

You've got to eat. Here, try this.

Lyfol shakes his head.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Then we have to go below.

Lyfol pauses, then slowly nods his head. Keely approaches him and offers his arm. Lyfol slowly gets to his feet. They begin to move down the trail.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Why do you think wings are a curse rather than a blessing?

EXT. JUNGLE -- DAY

Alosa and Paulo are making their way through the jungle. Although both looked tired, Paulo is obviously in worse shape than Alosa. Suddenly, Paulo stands up tall, takes a step, then stops. A second later he crumples to the ground with a small arrow protruding from his chest. Alosa scans the jungle on both sides of her. When she turns to retreat, she walks into the arms of a Shapra warrior. As he holds her a half dozen other Shapras gather around her. Paulo scoots forward a foot or two and manages to get to his knees. Alosa tries to break free to get to him.

INT. CAVE ENGINE REPAIR ROOM -- DAY

Blue light bathes the space craft engine. Keely is sitting across from Lyfol who is leaning against the giant machine.

KEELY

Feel any better?

Lyfol shakes his head.

KEELY (CONT'D)

We have to get you some food.

LYFOL

If we try to go to the ponds, we'll be captured.

KEELY

Isn't there someplace where food is stored?

LYFOL

No. There has never been a need. We harvest each day what the Gathering can eat.

KEELY

Just in time delivery. Cutting edge. Up above, ever since Adam screwed up, we have to store food for when the weather is bad.

LYFOL

What is bad weather?

KEELY

(laughing)

I never thought about there being no weather in a cave. Bad weather is too much rain or too little. Early autumns or late winters. Too hot or too cold. Things like that.

LYFOL

It sounds difficult.

KEELY

Well, it does make you plan...and, of course, make the occasional sacrifice.

Keely plucks and blows her brows. Lyfol tries to push himself up from where he has been sitting.

KEELY (CONT'D)

What's your plan?

LYFOL

I don't know.

KEELY

(reaching into her backpack and pulling out a granola bar)

Please, eat this.

LYFOL

I can't.

KEELY

But why not? Have you ever had one? How do you know you can't?

LYFOL

Inti's rays and Inti's food will kill us unless we become like you.

KEELY

(touching the scar on her forehead)

But you've been above and you're not dead. So, how do you know that my food will kill you?

LYFOL

We have known that for many generations.

KEELY

Yeah, well we knew the earth was flat for a long long time. If sunlight will kill you, then why did you go above?

LYFOL

I went to save the Gathering. To find the quipu that will let us live in Inti's glow.

KEELY

(touching her forehead again)

And that's what this is about?

LYFOL

(touching the space craft engine)

If we can't fix this

(touching himself)

Then we must fix this.

KEELY

When we were above, you said I had Inti's quipu. What did you mean?

LYFOL

Our bodies are made of quipus. Some of the quipus are unique to the individual. Some are general. Each of the Gathering has a qiupu that allows us to live in blue light.

KEELY

(interrupting)

Genomes. The Candelabra is a genome.

(laughing)

Unbelievable. The world's largest genome.

LYFOL

Genome?

KEELY

That's what we call them. A gene set. You've been looking for a gene set that would let you process yellow light. Wait, wait, did you get the quipu idea from the Incas? Or did you give it to them?

LYFOL

XXilip made the first quipu when the universe was only a cloud. XXilip...

Lyfol slumps to the ground again.

KEELY

We'll get back to the chat room later. Quick, before you pass out on me. What were you going to do with my quipu? How were you going to make it yours?

LYFOL

When my ancients ancients left XXilip's blue light, they brought a quipu maker and a quipu sender. In the Fall the quipu maker was destroyed, but the quipu sender survived. It is in my lab where it has been waiting for many generations for the right quipu. I had just discovered that your quipu was the match and was going to have it sent to me, when my brother decided he was going to Amend me.

KEELY

So, where's your lab?

LYFOL

On the other side of that door.

KEELY

Let's go.

LYFOL

My brother will have guards there.

KEELY

We have to take a chance on something. The pond, the lab or my cinnamon raisin bar. Which is it going to be?

LYFOL

I don't know.

KEELY

Eeny meeny.

Keely takes Lyfol by the arm, supports him and leads him toward a spot on the far wall to which he has been pointing.

KEELY (CONT'D)

You pray to XXilip and I'll say a quick one to Inti.

Lyfol bows his head and then plucks his brows and blows. Keely does the same.

KEELY (CONT'D)

This eyebrow thing could make the faithful look like Divine before too long. Okay, let's do it.

Lyfol touches a spot on the rock and the door way unlocks and slightly opens. Keely starts to look around the edge, but the room is dark. She pulls out her flashlight and shoots its beam into the room.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Hell, I don't even know what I'm looking for.

Keely pulls back and Lyfol comes around her, inspects the room and cautiously walks through the door. He reaches up and touches a round globe and it begins to give off blue light.

EXT. CLEARING WITH THE CRASHED HELICOPTER -- DAY

Slick is standing on the rig platform. He looks up at the top of the derrick, then turns around.

SLICK

You bastards.

Behind him, carrying loads of gear, are the Indians. Sencha says something and the rest of them form up. They process from the clearing into the jungle.

SLICK (CONT'D)

You bastards.

The camera pulls away to show Slick tethered to the rig by a long chain which is padlocked to his ankle. He walks with the chain toward a pile of pipe and slings one onto his shoulder.

INT. LYFOL'S LABORATORY -- DAY

Keely is watching as Lyfol removes a gleaming metal machine from a octagonal polished metal case. Lyfol opens a slot in the back of the machine, pulls out a small metallic package and opens it. He takes the smooth silver disk from the package and insert it back into the machine. He touches a small bump on the machine and it begins to make a noise.

KEELY

Was that a battery?

LYFOL

An energy source.

KEELY

What's it made of?

LYFOL

XXilip's smile.

KEELY

A great leap forward for science. How does this thing work?

(she queezes close to Lyfol to see what he is doing. Their arms touch. Each pauses, looks to the other, then somewhat reluctantly pulls away)

LYFOL

Your quipu goes in here. Then it is transferred into me by these.

Lyfol opens a door on the front of the machine and pulls out a cord that has a number of leads on it. The leads have needles sticking out the end of each. He carries the machine across the room and places it on a small pedestal carved from stone before he sits in the stone chair that is next to it. He sticks a needle into each ear, one up each nostril, one into his tongue and, finally, one into each eyeball. Each time he inserts a needle, Lyfol makes a horrible sound. Small drops of bright blue fluid flow from each wound. Keely is becoming faint. Lyfol hands Keely a final lead.

LYFOL (CONT'D)

Can you do the last one?

KEELY

Where? Oh, Jesus, I hate body piercing..

Keely walks behind Lyfol. Slowly, she reaches her empty hand up to the skin around Lyfol's third eye. Gingerly, she opens the skin, holds the needle close, then plunges it in. She staggers away.

LYFOL

Witness and welcome the birth of a new son, my Inti.

He touches a button and bites off the pain that tries to escape from him. He goes rigid and trancelike. Keely stares at his suffering until she can look no more. She walks away and tries to distract herself by investigating the lab. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she notices something. She jerks her head toward the monitor over the lab door. A group of aliens are making their way down the corridor.

KEELY

Oh Christ.

She runs across the room to where Lyfol is sitting.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Quick. C'mon.

Lyfol, whose lids, have closed around the needles, opens his eyes. Keely points to the monitor.

KEELY (CONT'D)

We have to go.

Lyfol slighly, but very painfully, shakes his head.

KEELY (CONT'D)

What do I do?

Lyfol is back in his trance. Desperately, Keely looks around the lab for something to stop the aliens. She starts toward the door, then stops and races toward her backpack.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR -- DAY

Trisip and a half dozen other aliens, including Stalix, are walking hurriedly down the corridor.

TRISIP

The sensor must be wrong. Who could be with him? Who else among us would turn from XXilip?

STALIX

It shows two.

TRISIP

We must not lose him.

STALIX

We will if he sees us.

TRISIP

How could he...you didn't destroy the monitor?

STALIX

No, I had no orders.

TRISIP

Hurry.

The aliens race down the corridor. Stalix reaches up for the lock and the aliens rush through the door.

INT. LYFOL'S LABORATORY -- DAY

The aliens stop dead in the lab which is dark except for the faint blue light coming from the corridor behind them. Sudenly, from the POV of the aliens, a picture of Inti, brightly glowing, moves toward them. The aliens shuffle backward and the laptop image of Inti that Keely is holding moves forward. Trisip who is behind the aliens prevents them from exiting.

TRISIP

Go, get him. It is a trick.

The aliens shuffle between their fear of Inti and Trisip's command. Finally, they begin to move forward. The picture of Inti hovers.

TRISIP (CONT'D)

Hurry, he will escape.

Keely, holding the laptop high, rushes toward the aliens. The aliens, Trisip included, bolt from the room. Keely slams the door closed, grabs her backpack and hurries toward Lyfol.

KEELY

We have to go. Now.

Holding her laptop in one hand, she pulls the needles from Lyfol's eyes, ears, nose and mouth. She starts to pull him erect and then remembers the needle in his third eye. She pulls that one out and lifts him. He begins to come to, but is very groggy. She gets an arm under him and begins to drag him across the room.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Where's the door? C'mon, where's the damn door?

Lyfol feebly points and tries to take a step. They stagger forward a couple of steps.

KEELY (CONT'D)

The lock. Where?

Lyfol reaches high, fumbles. The light behind them changes subtly as the aliens open the lab door. Keely turns to see the group of aliens backlit by the blue light of the corridor. She shakes Lyfol. He reaches up and makes contact with the lock. The escape door opens when Keely pushes it.

TRISIP

He'll escape.

The aliens rush across the lab. Keely reaches back to pull Lyfol through, but he has spread his wings and cannot be pulled through.

LYFOL

Go. Go to Inti.

He pushes her with his hands just as the aliens grab him from behind. Keely races away.

EXT. JUNGLE -- DAY

The tribe of Shapras are coming out of the jungle by the bone pile where Lyfol and Trisip left the cave. Alosa and Pauli's hands are already tied. Now, the Shapras tie their captives' feet and tie their hands to a large stone with a hole in it which has the remains of many other ropes tied to it.

EXT. CLEARING WITH THE CRASHED HELICOPTER -- NIGHT

Under moonlight, Slick, covered in sweat and dirt is adding a piece of pipe to the drill rig. He steps back for a seond to stare at the rig.

SLICK

I can smell it.

INT. CAVE ENGINE REPAIR ROOM -- NIGHT

Reluctantly, fearfully, Keely is walking past the space craft engine and back toward the door to Lyfol's lab.

INT. LYFOL'S LABORATORY -- NIGHT

Keely stands in front of the monitor and stares at the picture of the empty corridor. She reaches out and touches the door.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATRE -- NIGHT

The amphitheatre is filled with restive aliens. Most are paying attention to Lyfol, but there are others who can't ignore the sound of Slick's drilling that resonates through the rock. Trisip is on the obelisk. Lyfol is standing before him with his head inside a metal birdcage-looking mask. The top of the birdcage is attached to a chain which is slipped over a hook high on the obelisk. Lyfol can walk, talk and move his arms, but he can't go far. Two guards stand nearby.

TRISIP

It is nine generations since this room has born witness to a Gathering such as this. Nine generations since Mackatal was plegiaed for giving XXilip's egg to an Inca miner. Our ancients' ancient decreed that Mackatal serve out her years at XXilip's feet. We see her bones there still. Our ancients ancients knew the enormity of that crime and calcified all of the Inca who worked the rocks for XXilip's blessings. Today we are Gathered in shame to bear witness to the enormity of the crimes our genemate Lyfol has committed, crimes which surpass even those of Mackatal's. Our genemate Lyfol, my brother and the last born of a great family, Lyfol, who was entrusted with the past and future of this Gathering, has thrown our trust back into our faces. He has broken The Rule and gone Above. He has twisted your minds with his lies. He has brought a soldier of Inti into our life.

LYFOL

He has found the key to life above. He has banished the lies and false teachings of those who do not live but only fear. He has....

TRISIP

He is an apostate. A worshipper of the Befowler.

LYFOL

He is a truthseeker who fears not to look where others avert their eyes.

TRISIP

He is...

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR -- NIGHT

Keely is jogging along a corridor. She stops to listen and the muffled sound of Trisip can be heard. She tries to fix the location of the voice, then continues hurrying down the corridor.

INT. CAVE AMPHITHEATRE -- NIGHT

The aliens are out of their seats, waving their arms and jeering.

LYFOL

pathThere is no future if we walk the of our past. Listen. Listen to the world around you change. That noise you hear is the rush of the future. Above, man drills for oil. That which we have spent generations protecting our home against, he covets. He seeks and he he will find because he fears not. And when he finds the oil, he will have found us and all our fears.

TRISIP

Silence. Mute your heresies.

LYFOL

I have found what our ancients ancients sought so long ago. Inti's heart has changed. Inti's quipu is inside me. I am free to walk above. Free me from this

(he grabs and rattles the chain)

And I will share Inti's gift.

TRISIP

Plegia him. Include his tongue.

The guards begin walking toward Lyfol. Lyfol draws back. The door to the amphitheatre opens and Keely, swirled in her white clothes, walks in. As she begins walking down the stairs, the aliens are paralyzed. She reaches the bottom of the steps.

TRISIP (CONT'D)

Stop her.

The guards take a couple of half-hearted steps forward. Keely raises her hands to stop them.

KEELY

Avoid the wrath of Viracocha and of my servant Inti. Who wakes me from my slumber? Who spills darkness into my dreams?

TRISIP

Calcify her.

The guards reach for weapons velcroed to their sides but don't remove them.

KEELY

Who brings anger to my world? Who spills fear upon my blessed soil? Who worms holes into my flesh? Your ancient's ancients left my sister XXilip and her worlds for mine. I promised her I would tend to you until it was time for your return. She said your return would be as distant as a blue spark in a black sky until you learned to worship more than pride and failure. Your Blue Mother has left you here to learn from me.

TRISIP

You lie. You are from above. A descendant of those who labored here at our command. You are no more than an Inca's tool.

The guards regain some courage and begin to approach. Keely takes a step backward and reaches for the halogen flashlight she has stuck inside her waistband.

TRISIP (CONT'D)

Calcify her.

The guards pulls their weapons free just as Keely points the flashlight at Trisip.

KEELY

Calcify me. Vaporize you.

She threatens Trisip as she moves up the stairs. Three quarters of the way up, she yells.

KEELY (CONT'D)

Fly.

Lyfol spreads his wings. The one wounded earlier doesn't fully open, but he beats them and begins to rise. He flies toward the obelsik and unhooks the chain. Trisip pulls out his calcifier and aims it at his brother. Keely flashes the halogen beam in Trisip's eyes. The shot goes wild. Flying erratically, Lyfol makes his way toward the top of the stairs. Keely grabs an alien who is standing near her and holds her as a hostage. She backs toward the door. Trisip tries another shot and calcifies one of the aliens. The aliens are screaming. Lyfol's chain bangs into a couple of them as he swoops down toward the door. Keely pushes her hostage away just as one of the guards fires at her. The hostage is calcified. Keely smashes the doors open. The tip of Lyfol's wing is calcified just as he flies through the doorway. He crashes to the floor outside as Keely bolts after him.

INT. CAVE CORRIDOR-- NIGHT

Keely pulls Lyfol up, roughly compresses the calcified wing against his back and pulls him down the corridor as fast as his injuries allow. They both twist their heads back at the door.

KEELY

Oh God. Hurry. Hurry.

Lyfol pulls off into into a side tunnel and Keely follows him.

EXT. CLEARING WITH THE CRASHED HELICOPTER -- DAWN

Slick is pleading with the drill rig.

SLICK

C'mon, baby, c'mon. C'mon, Momma Earth. Give Daddy his due. Give it up, you cruel bitch. I can smell it and I can smell you. C'mon you whore, give it to me.

Suddenly, oil begins to spray from a blowout, then blasts upward in a huge spout.

SLICK (CONT'D)

I did it.

Slick dances a crazed jig on the derrick platform. Just as suddenly, the oil stops spouting. Slick stops his dance and stares.

SLICK (CONT'D)

You bitch.

He slips and slides toward the drill bit, pauses for a second, then grabs the turning shaft and is twisted up in the chain in a way that leaves the viewer trying to decide whether it's an accident or suicide.

INT. XXILIP'S CATHEDRAL-DAWN

A large room is dominated by a fifty foot gold statue of XXilip. Around the statue are intricately patterned spheres of gold like what was inserted into the XXigort-huaca. The ceiling of the room is decorated with the stars that filled the skies around their home planet. Trisip stands before the statue facing it. The aliens are spread out behind him in a tight cluster of curved rows. They are on their knees prostrated in worship.

TRISIP

We thank you, Blue Mother, for all your gifts. We pray that we be worthy of them. We drown our eyes in tears that we have never seen your lovely face. Our hearts ache to draw close to your comfort and love.

ALIENS

Dry our tears. Sweeten our hearts.

TRISIP

We have done your will, though it be but a whisper over a great void of time and space. We believe you know our love. We beseech you to bring us home.

ALIENS

Dry our tears. Sweeten our hearts.

TRISIP

We ask your forgiveness for our Failings and fears. We look to the sky for your sweet light.

ALIENS

Dry our tears. Sweeten our hearts.

TRISIP

Blue Mother, hear our prayer.

Trisip turns to the kneeling aliens and systematically calcifies them. Only a handful of the Gathering try to rise up or escape. When he is done, Trisip kneels before the statue.

TRISIP (CONT'D)

Why did you destroy what little we had?

Trisip turns the calcifier on himself. The cave room is very quiet for a moment then there is the sound of drips. Then drops of oil splash on Trisip. More dripping oil on XXilip, then a gushing noise.

EXT. CAVE OPENING BY BONE PILE--DAWN

The door to the cave opens and Keely walks through supporting Lyfol. He still has the mask on his face. The chain is wrapped around his waist. They come into the dawn sunlight. Keely takes a deep breath in relief. Lyfol slumps against the rock face.

KEELY

We made it. Now, I'll get that cage off.

She looks around for a tool and notices the huge pile of bones.

KEELY (CONT'D)

What the hell?

LYFOL

Presents.

KEELY

To the Gathering?

LYFOL

To their fears.

The sound of their talking has wakened Alosa who has been sleeping among the bones. Keely hears Alosa's movement, then sees her. Running to her, she shouts

KEELY

Alosa.

ALOSA

My friend.

Keely kneels among the bones to help Alosa, then notices Paulo nearby. Alosa sees her stare.

ALOSA (CONT'D)

He's gone to the Gray God.

KEELY

And my brother?

ALOSA

I don't feel his anger. Do you?

Keely begins to cry. She continues to cry as she unties Alosa's hands and legs. Alosa's face lights up.

ALOSA (CONT'D)

The Gray God.

Keely turns and sees Lyfol just behind her with his wings spread.

KEELY

In your eyes. Just a third musketeer in mine.

Keely helps Alosa to her feet, reaches for Lyfol and holds them tight. She helps them move down the trail. After a dozen steps, Keely begins to whistle a few notes that resemble "We're Off to See the Wizard." With an aerial shot the camera shows thwem walking toward a group of Shapras who are coming toward their sacrificial shrine.

FADE OUT
