Contents

  1. What is an eScript?
  2. Glossary of eScript Terms and Formatting
  3. About the Author
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Title Page
  7. Ascendancy: Part 1
  8. Ascendancy: Part 2
  9. Ascendancy: Part 3

## Guide

  1. Contents
  2. Start of Content

**What is an eScript?**

eScripts are a hybrid of e-books and feature length movie screenplays.

Screenplays are the literary blueprints for movies, telling stories through a cinematic medium. Unlike e-books, hard copy novels, or paperbacks, screenplays focus on showing rather than telling. You will find no inner thoughts or extensive character background descriptions. Instead, you'll see a story unfold in cinematic fashion.

You, the reader, can cast the movie with whichever actors you would like. The action and worlds described within the eScript are interpreted through your own imagination. In essence, you will take on the role of the filmmaker. The visionary.

E-books are multiple day/week/month commitments. eScripts, on the other hand, allow you to see a story unfold within just a couple of hours of reading. Thus, you experience the perfect hybrid of reading a novel and watching a movie. **Welcome to the world of eScripts.**
**Glossary of eScript Terms and Formatting**

Reading an eScript or screenplay is simple and fun. The below terms and formatting definitions will make the reading experience even better!

  * **B.G.** \- Background.
  * **CAPITALIZATION** \- Used when a character is introduced. Also used to describe sound effects.
  * **EXT.** \- Exterior. The scene takes place outdoors.
  * **INT.** \- Interior. The scene takes place indoors.
  * **O.S.** \- Off screen. Used when a character is in the scene location but not onscreen while speaking.
  * **P.O.V** \- Point of view. A camera angle in which the camera acts as the eyes of a character.
  * **V.O.** \- Voice over. Voices heard over telephones, loudspeakers and radios etc.

For best reading experience on phones we recommend using smaller font and narrow margins.

**About the Author**

Petr Drimalka is a screenwriter currently living in Prague (where he moved from a Renaissance castle). He has a master's degree in Philosophy as well as in British and American literature, and a zeal for astronomy.

This screenplay, quarter-finalist in American Zoetrope and Page contests, is the result of a love of science and science fiction (with a touch of psychology, self-development and military experience) aimed at creating realistic, meaningful and character-driven fiction.

The author prefers the screenplay format as in his view it can be more powerful and more visual than a traditional novel, giving you, the reader, a more personal experience.

This eScript is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright **©** 2019 by Petr Drimalka

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this eScript or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover Designed by Peter Drimalka and Luca Oleastri

For any interest in attaining the production rights of this eScript, please contact Petr Drimalka.

For more information on the eScript format, please visit eScriptsHub.com

**For all men and women who lived through darkness to emerge on the other side...**

**Part 1**

FADE IN:

SOMEWHERE IN DEEP SPACE - FUTURE

Rolling slowly in space. Reflected light glares hazily, brings up lazy shapes on the canopy, which then become distinguishable as a POLICE INSIGNIA. Outside:

A field of bright stars...silent witnesses in an eternal wasteland of space. Vast, cold and immovable.

Low thrum of engines briefly gains intensity.

A small speck emerges. It travels slowly across the Stygian expanse like an aberration of nature.

Grows bigger, starts to fill the size of the reflected insignia, exceed it.

EXT. SPACE

A clipped WING appears on the side and SLICES through space.

A sleek, armed shuttle, A POLICE INTERCEPTOR, approaches A MEDIUM-SIZED TRANSPORT STARSHIP; an angular, unstylish visitor to the remote region of space.

The police vessel slows down, its forward maneuvering jets firing to decrease speed.

INT. INTERCEPTOR COCKPIT

THE POLICE PILOT, an attractive woman around forty, observes the transport ship looming up ahead outside the canopy. A light of her instruments gleams over the canopy, draws her attention.

She glances at readouts on her Head-Up Display. Frowns slightly. She returns her guarded gaze to the transport and contacts the pilot via radio. Her voice tone is calm and professional.

**POLICE INTERCEPTOR PILOT**

**Transport ship designated STA Hyperion, this is Valkyrie four, Frontier Patrol. You are off your flight path in violation of the Frontier Commerce Treaty. What is your destination?**

**TRANSPORT SHIP PILOT (MALE) (V.O.)**

**This is STA Hyperion to Frontier Patrol. We got hit by a solar flare which messed up our nav system. We've corrected our route and are headed to our base. We're carrying medical supplies. I'm sending manifest now.**

The officer pauses as she verifies the information. It seems to check out. Yet:

**POLICE INTERCEPTOR PILOT**

**You guys know hauling cargo is not allowed in the Fringe. Power down your engines and stand by for scanning. Acknowledge, Hyperion.**

**TRANSPORT SHIP PILOT (V.O.)**

**(beat)**

**Understood, Valkyrie four. Standing by.**

EXT. SPACE

The small police vessel moves nearer to the transport ship to scan its cargo hold.

Suddenly, in a shimmering BLUE ELECTROMAGNETIC BLAST, a MASSIVE HULL EMERGES into space in the vicinity of the two vessels, heading for the interceptor.

The police vessel slows to a halt.

**POLICE INTERCEPTOR PILOT (V.O.)**

**Command...this is Valkyrie four. I have a situation here. Do you copy?**

The line is dead, jammed to faint static by the other party's offensive electronic counter-measures.

A CANNON -- one of many on the huge craft's frame -- aimed at the tiny vessel.

A tense beat. A channel is re-opened over static.

**TRANSPORT SHIP PILOT (V.O.)**

**(calm)**

**You're out of line, officer.**

EXT. SPACE - ELSEWHERE

A part of A MILITARY INSTALLATION, gray and somberly monumental, witness of times past. Several shuttles fly by.

INT. MILITARY BASE - CPT. BAILEY'S ROOM

Modern, but simple and undecorated. Semi-dark. Several boxes of personal belongings on the floor next to a bed, packed up, perhaps waiting to be unpacked.

A middle-aged man is lying on the bed, awake, looking at nothing in particular.

CAPTAIN BAILEY is in early fifties, somewhat stern and hardened, though with an air of a college professor.

A tired look in his keen, perceptive eyes. The gray-steel iris slightly reminiscent of the police insignia.

A quiet BEEP. A MYRIAD OF COLORS SPLASH OVER HIS EYE.

**FEMALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.)**

**Captain Bailey, please report to Colonel Davenport's office.**

Near the opposite wall above the man's line of sight, A HOLOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF A WOMAN gleams from a holo device fitted to the wall. Through a small window we can see a brown dwarf planet; a gas giant which did not make it to a star, red-violet in the black of space. A cold sun.

Bailey makes no attempt to move or raise his eyes, still contemplating something in thin air.

The woman signs off and the mirage disappears. After a moment, Bailey slowly sits up. He glances at the boxes and his service uniform sticking from a wardrobe for a quiet, uncomfortable beat.

INT. MILITARY BASE - CORRIDOR

Bailey, attired in his uniform suit, approaches a hatch door at the end of the corridor. The door opens and an officer walks out, also in service dress. The hatch closes again.

LIEUTENANT CONNOLLY is an athletic man in mid-thirties; grounded, friendly type. Connolly greets him respectfully, shakes his hand. He is surprised to see Bailey.

**CONNOLLY**

**Hello, Captain. Glad to see you again. With the split-up and everything, things are gonna get worse if we don't stick together.**

The stern captain nods to his friend, appreciating the gesture.

**CONNOLLY (CONT'D)**

**(carefully)**

**How's your wife?**

Bailey doesn't respond to that, Connolly understands. An awkward, but sympathetic beat.

**CONNOLLY (CONT'D)**

**Well, I hope you'll stop by when your job is done.**

The lieutenant smiles. Bailey doesn't. But he means what he says.

**BAILEY**

**Thank you. I'll be around.**

They part. Bailey walks to the door. Knocks.

INT. HEADQUARTERS - OFFICE

A Spartan military office. Sitting behind his desk, besieged by neatly stacked paper reports, is COLONEL DAVENPORT, mid-sixties. Graying and severe, only slightly mellowing with age.

He raises his eyes to welcome Bailey. Another soldier is standing by the door at attention. CORPORAL LOCKWOOD, a clean-cut, no-nonsense young man in mid-twenties.

**DAVENPORT**

**Welcome, Captain. Have a seat, please.**

**BAILEY**

**Sir.**

Bailey takes the seat on the other side of the desk. The colonel watches him calmly for a moment with a touch of fatherly affection.

**DAVENPORT**

**I have an assignment for you. You might like this one.**

**(beat)**

**There's an STA lab orbiting Theta Cygni 3 which the administration wants us to recover contact with. It's a medical research facility.**

The colonel takes some of his papers on the desk, looks into them. Bailey sits motionless.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**The station has been quiet for four days, last transmission was scrambled before the lab moved into radio shade. Your mission will be to make contact with the station personnel and provide any assistance they might need. It's an off-the-record assignment. The administration wants a full report on your return.**

He glances at the soldier standing at the door.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**Corporal Lockwood's a new communication technician from my security detail. He'll accompany you on this mission.**

Bailey sizes up the corporal with a cold stare. He turns back to Davenport, his look saying, Is this necessary? If Davenport sees it he ignores it.

**BAILEY**

**The Cygni system isn't our space. Why doesn't the administration send their own crew?**

**DAVENPORT**

**It's too far from STA base of operations. They'll be moving some of their people over there, but not early enough to deal with an emergency. They rely on our discretion.**

This may be the reason and it may not. Bailey is watching his superior calmly. Unmoved.

**BAILEY**

**Why did you request me? You know my contract's over.**

**DAVENPORT**

**They asked me to assign the man with the longest credentials and this is your line of work. You know they've had trust issues ever since we split up.**

Bailey is still looking at the colonel, weighing his options. Davenport puts down the papers.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**Look, Captain. The administration is still our major contractor, we can't afford to lose them if we want to stay in business for long. Personally I think the journey will do you good. One last trip, then you'll go, if that's still what you want.**

A moment of waiting. Davenport is watching Bailey silently. A sense of responsibility, or perhaps indifference, takes the better of the captain.

**BAILEY**

**When do I leave?**

**DAVENPORT**

**Your shuttle's already being fueled. I want you to go to the dock and supervise launch prep and loading your supplies. Your departure's scheduled for 0900.**

The colonel looks at Bailey, more serious.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**One more thing. Yesterday I received a heads-up from the Frontier Patrol. They are looking into questionable traffic just outside STA sector. Strictly confidential. They won't make any move against the administration, but they believe some of the facilities may be conducting illicit research. They understand our position and won't put pressure for the present, but they asked us to keep our eyes open.**

Bailey acknowledges this. He gets up to leave. For a moment Davenport looks as if something more needs to be said. Finally:

**DAVENPORT**

**It's good to have you back, Paul.**

Bailey just nods slightly and walks out of the door. Corporal Lockwood, dismissed, follows.

INT. HEADQUARTERS - CORRIDOR

Bailey is walking away from the colonel's office. Lockwood hurries to catch up to him.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir...**

Bailey continues walking.

**BAILEY**

**Pack up and meet me at the dock in fifteen minutes.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Yes, sir.**

INT. OFFICER'S QUARTERS - CORRIDOR

Bailey, walking back to the ill-lighted officers' living quarters, slows down as he approaches his room.

INT. BAILEY'S ROOM

Bailey stands still on the doorstep for a moment as if compelled. Wanting -- but unable -- to move away.

Slowly, as if entering a shrine, he comes inside. He walks to one of the boxes, opens it, takes out a BULLETIN PRINTOUT reading "Young officer killed in a shootout" in the headline. He looks at it for a long moment.

In the box, revealed as he takes the photo, is a framed PHOTO of himself, younger, with his wife and his adolescent son. All smiling contentedly. The woman looks very much like the Frontier officer seen earlier.

He crumples the paper and throws it away.

He looks through the small window for a moment, the eerie planet outside. With quiet resolve he stands up and walks out.

INT. CORRIDOR

Bailey glances at a scheduled traffic board on the wall and heads into a gray, industrial-looking corridor toward shuttle bay. The place feels old and desolate.

INT. SHUTTLE BAY

Bailey enters. The bay is HUGE and half-empty, dominated by several sleek MILITARY RECONNAISSANCE SHUTTLES sitting at the far side of the cavernous place.

The ships and equipment are high-tech, but aged, worn out. Greasy and battered. Scattered across the place are loading forks and other equipment.

Some being used, most sitting idly.

Deck hands and officers at work loading gear onto some of the shuttles, inspecting, chatting, preparing for flight.

Bailey steps down the ramp and heads to one of the shuttles.

He nods perfunctorily to an older, pencil-pushing officer, MAJOR BRIGGS, who is talking to a pretty young woman, 2ND LIEUTENANT HAYES over maps and documentation.

The two pause, somewhat surprised to see him, but the captain already moves on to his shuttle.

He approaches WARRANT OFFICER CURTIZ, male, late twenties; a grubby tech wiz overseeing loading of supplies, checking with an electronic manifest. In a farther part of the dock, LT Connolly with three other soldiers are embarking a shuttle.

**BAILEY**

**Everything ready?**

The warrant officer only now notices Bailey. He hands him the manifest.

**CURTIZ**

**Almost, sir. You're good to go in a minute.**

Bailey checks the items on the manifest. Provisions and supplies. A deck hand is loading the stock in. Bailey signs the manifest, hands it back.

**BAILEY**

**Thank you, Mr. Curtiz. That'll be all.**

**CURTIZ**

**Thank you, sir. Have a good flight.**

The warrant officer leaves as Connolly's shuttle ignites its takeoff jets and starts to ascend toward an exit gate. Bailey observes its departure for a beat.

He returns his gaze to his craft. Lockwood is already waiting there dutifully, somewhat uncomfortable standing not far from a small group of off-duty, fraternizing young men and women. Bailey starts toward the shuttle.

He walks on board, Lockwood follows.

INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

Bailey sits down on the pilot's seat. Lockwood takes the co-pilot's. Prepares to run pre-flight procedures.

**BAILEY**

**Launch status check.**

The corporal dry-runs the primary flight systems, which indicate green.

**LOCKWOOD**

**All systems ready to go.**

**BAILEY**

**(to traffic control)**

**Traffic control, this is Captain Bailey, Echo Alfa One Six Niner requesting clearance for departure.**

They hear a clear, trained voice of A FEMALE OPERATOR from the traffic control.

**FEMALE OPERATOR (V.O.)**

**Traffic control to Echo Alfa One Six Niner, you are cleared to enter the takeoff pattern.**

INT. TRAFFIC CONTROL

The operator, a pretty young woman in late-twenties, is sitting at her station on the right. Behind the thick glass we can see the shuttle rising up slowly above the control room.

The shuttle ignites its thrust engines and departs through one of the dock gates, leaving behind the dock activity below as we hear the operator's soft voice.

**FEMALE OPERATOR (V.O.)**

**Delta Kilo Four Zero Eight, this is traffic control. Your docking clearance has been withheld due to...**

EXT. SPACE - DOCK GATE

Even as the operator speaks, the departing shuttle approaches an emerging energy orb the color of gold. Enters. The golden shuttle dissolves to:

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL SUNSET - LATER

A STAR, shining like a beacon of light, about to be devoured by A MASSIVE PLANET.

A tiny black dot moves toward it.

The tiny shuttle drifts, side-lit, toward

A LARGE SCIENTIFIC COMPLEX in medium orbit of a yellowish, terrestrial planet. The orbital station is illuminated by BRIGHT ORANGE LIGHT from the setting main-sequence star.

INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

Lockwood is busy trying to establish communications. Bailey observes the station as he navigates the cruise toward it.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir, we should be receiving updates from the station now, but the autodock doesn't seem to be online.**

EXT. SPACE

The shuttle in distance is slowly approaching the station. A large modular complex built in space.

No apparent sign of life.

INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

Lockwood is observing his instruments.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Scanner shows no damage on this side, but I'm still not picking up any signs of activity. Their orbit is slightly decayed. They haven't adjusted for a while.**

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL SUNSET

The shuttle continues its survey of the station. Sun rays gleam over the ominous structure.

**BAILEY (V.O.)**

**Any radio transmissions?**

**LOCKWOOD (V.O.)**

**Negative...nothing at all.**

INT. ORBITAL STATION - LABORATORY, OPEN DOOR TO CORRIDOR

White walls, arcane instruments scattered around. Through a small, compact window, the tiny spacecraft and the amber arc of the planet's horizon can be seen. Inside: lab gadgets, papers, some PDA-like devices.

The place looks like a high-tech laboratory, recently built and functional - except there is nobody around. It looks like it was left in a hurry.

**LOCKWOOD (V.O.)**

**This is PMC shuttle Badger one to STA research facility. Do you read me?**

EXT. SPACE

No response. The shuttle continues inspecting the massive, inert station.

**LOCKWOOD (V.O.)**

**This is PMC shuttle Badger one to STA research facility. Please respond.**

INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

No contact. Lockwood turns to Bailey, uncertain.

**LOCKWOOD**

**We don't have clearance.**

**(beat)**

**Do we board, sir?**

Bailey calmly considers the situation. They were not meant to enter uninvited, but neither were they told to return back with empty hands.

**BAILEY**

**Check the docking clamps, we'll move in for manual.**

INT. ORBITAL STATION - MESS

A round table with chairs inside of a mess room bathed in BRIGHT ORANGE LIGHT from a small window. Simple but homely. Empty. The auspicious starlight slowly merges with a smear of deeper color on one of the chairs, stretching to a wall.

Through the window the small vessel can be seen moving to the side.

EXT. SPACE - SUNSET

The light turns deeper orange as the sun touches the horizon and starts to give way to the black sky and a DISTINCT BRIGHT STAR, a red dwarf. A remote companion in the Theta Cygni binary system.

The tiny shuttle is approaching the station at an angle, slowing down as it moves into position to dock.

**LOCKWOOD (V.O.)**

**Approach stable. Closing in.**

INT. CORRIDOR - ON BULKHEAD DOOR - ORBITAL STATION

A shadow moves over the door, darkening the FRAME. The docking mechanism is being set in place, subtly reverberating through the bulkhead door. A loud CLICK.

**LOCKWOOD (V.O.) (CONT'D)**

**Locked.**

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION - DAY

Two figures enter the now re-pressurized passageway.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - ENTRANCE CORRIDOR

The entrance to the station is sterile white. Through a small window the waning light of the dying primary star faintly illuminates the corridor in crimson hue, filtered through the planet's atmosphere.

Footsteps clinging metallically.

The two soldiers, in space suits and carrying equipment, are approaching the entrance bulkhead door. Their voices and their breathing are slightly filtered.

**BAILEY**

**Open the hatch.**

Lockwood connects a HACKING DEVICE to the door control locking mechanism. He looks at the display of the instrument, pushes buttons, operates the controls expertly. The bulkhead door opens with a loud CLICK.

Bailey enters, Lockwood follows into the station's interior.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - LOBBY

They enter the station's lobby. Clean, functional, hi-tech. Several computer consoles, mostly offline. Lockwood consults a scanner on the wrist of his suit for a moment.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Air's green, pressure nominal.**

**BAILEY**

**(frosty)**

**Where's the welcoming party?**

Lockwood glances at the captain, still somewhat unnerved by his CO's persistently cold demeanor. He walks to a console built into the wall. He studies it, presses buttons.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir, the last entry was 061074. That's more than a week ago. The mainframe's down to six percent capacity.**

**BAILEY**

**We'll have to get to the control center to kick start the core. Check oxygen and hull integrity throughout the station.**

Bailey takes off his helmet. Lockwood starts to work at the console.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Yes, sir.**

A SMALL SURVEILLANCE CAMERA in the foreground, a discreet RED LED LIGHT indicating it is still on, the figures in the back.

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION - A WHILE LATER

The station looms silent, scarcely backlit. Slight movement in a corridor window.

Sparks flying.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - CORRIDOR

Lockwood is using a cutting torch to break a mechanical lock to the living quarters, Bailey stands by. Their heavy suits gone, they are only wearing light environmental suits without helmets, pistols holstered.

Lockwood breaks the lock.

He opens the door, they enter.

INT. LIVING QUARTERS

They enter several rooms with bunker beds. They check lockers and personal belongings of the previous inhabitants.

Lockwood walks to an adjacent room. Bailey notices a small gash fused into the wall, evidence of an energy weapon discharge.

Who would want to fire a gun in a space station?

INT. CORRIDOR

Bailey steps into the corridor, stands there for a moment, in thought. Lockwood rejoins him at the door.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir, I've checked some of their personal logs. The reports confirm biological research. I didn't find any details though. The entries are chaotic.**

**BAILEY**

**There are signs of blood and small arms fire around the labs and living quarters.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Can we send a message to HQ?**

Bailey scans the place calmly for a beat. He shakes his head.

**BAILEY**

**We'll be in radio shade for at least 48 hours.**

He makes a few steps forward into the corridor and turns to face Lockwood.

**BAILEY**

**(lower voice)**

**See the surveillance camera? The station's running on emergency power, but the cameras are on. Someone had to switch them on manually. Let's see if we can find anything else out of the ordinary.**

They set off to survey the adjoining parts of the station.

INT. CORRIDOR

Bailey and Lockwood walk the passageway. Bailey is as cold as ever, but he seems somewhat intrigued by this mystery.

**BAILEY (CONT'D)**

**Find plans of this section and how to get to control. I'll check the labs.**

Lockwood looks after the captain who heads for the unexplored parts of the lab complex. A bit tense, Lockwood turns to go the other way to enter the office complex.

INT. OFFICE

The room looks desolate, lit mostly from the corridor. Lockwood enters cautiously. The room is littered with papers and reports of what looks like work hastily abandoned.

He draws his energy pistol slowly. With the gun at the ready he proceeds. He moves carefully through several rooms and offices.

Signs of destruction are becoming more apparent. In one office, a desk is damaged, half-overturned, as if in a struggle, a small puddle of viscous-looking dark liquid on the floor. He proceeds to another room.

INT. OFFICE

Lockwood enters a vaguely lit office with a functioning computer terminal. The room looks less littered than the previous one. He continues through the room.

Suddenly, he swirls at a quick MOVEMENT on his side, finger on the trigger.

It is only a dark shadow from an emergency glow of an instrument, played by his movement in the gloom.

He relaxes. Steps to the computer.

INT. LAB COMPLEX - CORRIDOR

Bailey passes through a darkened corridor and further into the lab complex. He is careful but not tense. His pistol is holstered. He inspects several items on his way -- a piece of equipment, a crumpled blanket revealing nothing under it.

INT. OFFICE - A WHILE LATER

The corporal is seated at a computer, busy looking for maps. Working efficiently. The display shows a complicated holographic blueprint of the station.

A maze of rooms, corridors and conduits. He enhances parts of the complex, makes a printout.

He is interrupted by a buzz of the intercom.

**BAILEY (V.O.)**

**Meet me in bio lab 2.**

INT. BIO LABORATORY 2

Bailey is standing by an operation table only lit by a small lamp as Lockwood enters the room. At the table, among surgical instruments, there is a strange CREATURE.

A dark red, fat worm, almost a foot long with three small spiked projections at either side, almost like thin claws. The worm-like thing seems to be headless, except for a small opening at its thicker end with about a dozen small sharp teeth. It appears to be dead.

**BAILEY**

**According to records, this is one of several specimens of what was left from their research. Apparently, the rest was destroyed.**

As Lockwood approaches the table to have a look, Bailey takes a PDA from the desk, a medical report. He skims through it with some interest.

**BAILEY (CONT'D)**

**(more to himself)**

**It says this thing's non-carbon-based, probably artificial. Some sort of parasite, I reckon.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Is it dangerous?**

**BAILEY**

**I'll know more when I finish my analysis. Keep looking and report back to me if you find something. Don't touch anything.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Aye, sir.**

Lockwood leaves. Bailey returns to the desk, glances at his equipment. He looks at the creature, carefully picks one of the instruments.

INT. CORRIDOR

Lockwood is using his hacking device to unlock a control panel on a heavy door. Makes a connection. The door's locking mechanism is released with a CLICK.

With Lockwood's help the door opens, screeching reluctantly, revealing the dark interior of the CONTROL CENTER behind.

INT. CONTROL

Lockwood enters the dark room, very dimly lit by several computer monitors and servers. He turns on dim emergency lights.

What he sees is a scene of mild devastation. Some tables are upturned, chairs broken, several of the computers and equipment damaged.

He moves to the main terminal. The mainframe is operating the station systems and the thermonuclear reactor. It seems to be operational, shows the reactor control screen and data on the state of the reactor. Text in capitals reads:

FUSION REACTION TERMINATED, FUEL DEPLETED.

RESTORE DEUTERIUM SUPPLY.

He runs his fingers on the keyboard. Pushes ENTER.

INT. LABORATORY

Bailey is starting a dissection of the parasite. He makes a careful cut to study the creature's viscera. Looks into a microscope, quietly puzzled.

Suddenly LIGHTS GO ON, filling the semi-dark laboratory with eerie light. He looks up. The creature STIRS, almost imperceptibly.

INT. CONTROL

The terminal shows sections lighting up. Lockwood smiles with satisfaction. He connects through the intercom to the lab.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(into mike)**

**Sir, I managed to restore power to some sections. It seems they cut off feeding the core with deuterium to shut down subsystems in the station.**

**(beat)**

**Sir?**

There is only static, something is jamming the transmission. He switches to another channel. Nothing.

Lockwood frowns at the monitor, tries to track the origin of the interference. Most frequencies are jammed by some sort of transmission, switching to the rest of the channels randomly.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(to himself)**

**Must've turned it on along with the core...**

He switches to reactor control to decrease the output of the plant. A message in big capitals appears on the screen:

REACTOR CONTROL LOCKED

He tries to use the command line. The terminal doesn't respond.

Suddenly the lighting seems to go dimmer and the monitor goes black. Lockwood feels as if a cold wave is slowly engulfing him. Then there is a voice, strangely garbled, but not unrecognizable. It is a computer voice, cold and detached, but decidedly feminine.

**VOICE**

**You have made a mistake by entering this place. Leave now, you are not welcome here.**

A moment passes. The monitor is back to the locked reactor control screen. Was it a dream?

Lockwood picks himself up slowly, heads for the door.

INT. MEDICAL WING - CORRIDOR

Lockwood is walking briskly to the lab complex. He opens the door to the lab.

It is lit up and EMPTY. Bailey and the parasite are gone. He turns around uneasily.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Captain?**

He listens for a beat, doesn't hear anything. He picks up a PDA from the desk. Among the scientific gobbledygook, several words in capitals stand out in the text, seeming out of place.

CONSCIOUSNESS...ORDER...COLLECTIVE.

Flipping the pages, more references catch his eye. "The toxin can be extracted from the animal's exocrine glands" and further on "When a small amount of the mixture is injected, the subject can maintain limited control over the effects..."

From one of the other labs:

**BAILEY (O.S.)**

**I'll be right there.**

Lockwood relaxes. He puts the device back on the desk, turns to the door as he hears footsteps. Bailey enters with the parasite and equipment on a tray. He seems slightly upset, distracted.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir?**

**BAILEY**

**Have a seat, Corporal.**

As Lockwood sits down, Bailey looks at the PDA on the table. He sets the tray carefully next to it. Lockwood waits expectantly.

**BAILEY**

**This thing's not biological in nature. But still it appears to be developing in the way of organic life. Only faster.**

He pauses for a beat, regards the creature with a look. Turns to Lockwood again.

**BAILEY (CONT'D)**

**Whatever it is it's not a parasite. At least not one that needs a host to feed on. In fact, it seems more like a complement to its host than anything else.**

Lockwood looks at the slimy creature with mild repulsion.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(carefully ironic)**

**An accessory.**

**BAILEY**

**(serious)**

**The reports I found only speak of a little worm, a few inches long, and without appendages, so it must have been developing rapidly. They do say, however, that this creature can attach to a host and affect their motor and cognitive functions.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**To do what, sir?**

**BAILEY**

**Apparently, the scientists believed these creatures have a capacity for higher intelligence of some sort. That they want to merge with the human mind, perhaps use it to connect with something else. Their existence seems to be leading to a collective consciousness. Almost as if they are trying to reach an other than physical plane.**

Lockwood's look is impassive, not quite understanding.

**BAILEY (CONT'D)**

**It's a leap in the evolution of consciousness. Mind over matter. It's quite amazing if you think about it.**

Bailey seems somewhat overtaken -- in the calm, controlled way that is his own. It becomes obvious that the real passion of the aging officer has always been science.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir, are you saying that this creature was developed to change the human brain?**

**BAILEY**

**Not to change it. Enhance it. Develop it into something bigger and more connected.**

A beat. Lockwood tries to follow the ramifications.

**LOCKWOOD**

**What happened then?**

Bailey is quiet for a beat, perhaps pondering the question for the first time. Lockwood finishes the thought.

**LOCKWOOD (CONT'D)**

**Maybe those things got ahead of their creators.**

He continues putting the dots together.

**LOCKWOOD (CONT'D)**

**Sir, when I started up the reactor, we lost radio signal. There are strange things going on. Transmissions are being jammed on most channels. I can't use most of the electronics, including reactor control.**

**(pause)**

**Whatever happened here, the reactor was probably down for a good reason.**

Bailey nods, acknowledging, if not concerned.

**BAILEY**

**There's no sign of immediate danger. We'll proceed back to control and check with the plans. That should give us a perspective. We still don't know what happened here, and we have civilians to look for.**

Bailey walks out with Lockwood following, the light turns off. The creature on the desk stares eyelessly after them in the semi-dark. Motionless.

INT. CORRIDOR

Bailey and Lockwood enter the corridor and walk toward us.

**BAILEY**

**I want to know which sections can be accessed so we can gradually search through this whole facility.**

Lockwood throws a distrustful glance to the door as they pass another surveillance camera on the wall with its red led light.

INT. CONTROL

They enter the control center. Lockwood sits down at the terminal, Bailey remains standing behind him, watching him work. Lockwood is using the 3D model of the station.

Several doors, which had been electronically sealed, are indicated as UNLOCKED.

**LOCKWOOD**

**These doors were sealed as a safety measure. They opened up automatically when I started up the core. We will need to get the reactor to full power to override the emergency status and make all sections accessible.**

**BAILEY**

**(points to the map)**

**There's a storage room on the Maintenance Deck. I need to check their manifests and supplies. It'll tell me more about their research. Let's move.**

They leave the derelict, half-lit room of the control center, mostly lit by several displays.

INT. CORRIDOR

They go from toward the Maintenance Deck. They check the newly unlocked rooms -- a lounge, a conference room. The places are empty. They walk into another room, an Infirmary.

INT. INFIRMARY

Entering, they see some blood on the floor, a bloodied scalpel on the surgical table, some other tools and instruments, but otherwise this room, too, is empty.

Bailey checks the place for signs of previous activity, crouches to examine them and take samples of blood stains. Lockwood stands by.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sir...if I may ask, why would the STA have facilities this far out in the sector?**

A beat. With a hint of irony and noticeable aversion to the topic, Bailey relents an answer, still working on his samples.

**BAILEY**

**The Space Trade Administration is not the organization I signed for in my time. Part of its shares is becoming public and shareholders want profit. That means more trade and R &D. They need to expand to dominate the sector and cover whatever illicit research facilities they have around. And neither we, nor the Frontier Police can do anything because we need their money to scrape by.**

Bailey finishes his inspection. He takes his samples and the bloodied scalpel into a ziploc bag for analysis. He is done. The young NCO perseveres.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Our command was in the board when the administration was set up. Must be something we can do.**

Bailey stands up without acknowledging his inferior. He glances at the rest of the room, cold and businesslike again.

**BAILEY**

**We're finished here. Go back to control and try to unlock the mainframe. I'll have a look at the supplies.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Yes, sir.**

Lockwood departs. Bailey observes him leaving for a beat as if trying to appraise him. His face softens slightly, as though with regret.

He turns away and sets off.

INT. CORRIDOR

Bailey is walking the darkened corridor. With an excellent sense of direction, he heads for Maintenance.

He climbs down a ladder and goes into the storage room, which is now open. It is small, filled with racks and boxes, mostly sealed, some opened. He starts inspecting the contents of the boxes.

Suddenly LIGHT GOES OUT. Bailey sighs. He turns to leave the room, but the door is stuck, he can't pry it open. He hears a SOFT SCREECHING SOUND. Then again, this time more distinctly. Was it from another direction? Inside the room? He can't be sure.

INT. CONTROL

Lockwood is at the terminal, trying to hack into the mainframe control. He can see the power failure on the Maintenance deck.

Suddenly there is an incoming transmission -- the cold female voice again, but this time it seems to be coming from a built-in intercom speaker on the ceiling. Lockwood looks at the speaker to make sure he is not hallucinating.

**VOICE**

**You can't use the mainframe without my permission, which I will surely not grant. What's going on here is bigger than you or your company. I will not have you interfere.**

Lockwood finally speaks to the invisible apparition.

**LOCKWOOD**

**What's going on here?**

INT. STORAGE ROOM - CONTINUOUS

A SHAPE of one of the parasites in on a stand among crates. Bailey is fumbling carefully in the dark towards us. The worm-like thing slowly positions itself toward him, crouching, poised on its claw-like projections. Sits noiselessly, expectantly, as Bailey comes into full view.

**VOICE (V.O.)**

**A great breakthrough in human evolution.**

**(with definite scorn)**

**Something you can hardly understand, soldier.**

INT. CONTROL - CONTINUOUS

The feminine voice continues, metallic and cold.

**VOICE (CONT'D)**

**The worm-like thing you found in the laboratory is one of the first of what we call the Seers -- or, as the scientists called them, Sentient Silicon Organism -- based on the basic characteristics of their creation. They are a byproduct of their research and they are behind the events on the station...**

INT. STORAGE ROOM - CONTINUOUS - BAILEY

WRITHING IN PAIN, as if some poison is burning him from the inside. After a few moments Bailey' body stops convulsing.

He opens his eyes, clear and strangely calm.

INT. CONTROL - CONTINUOUS

**LOCKWOOD**

**Where's Bailey? Is he alive?**

**VOICE**

**Yes, very much so. You will meet him soon enough. However, there's a more pressing matter that requires your attention.**

**(a beat)**

**The administration is on their way to put an end to their experiment. They want to destroy the station. You must protect yourself. They will be here soon.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Who're you?**

**VOICE**

**(as if remembering)**

**I...used to be Linn. Yes, that's what the people called me. I was one of the technicians. But that is long gone. Now I'm taking care of this station and everybody on it.**

The voice fades away and the spell vanishes. Lockwood looks at the display, quickly memorizes the way to the storage room. BOLTS out of the control center into the corridor.

INT. STORAGE ROOM

Lockwood rushes into the small, now lit room. Some of the boxes are damaged. There is a small amount of dark slime on some of them, no blood. Bailey is gone, his holstered pistol lying on the floor. Lockwood takes it, straps it on.

A manifest display turns on, drawing his attention.

The SCREEN changes from the storage records to an exterior camera on the hull of the station. A dot in the distance, zooming in on a small spacecraft on an approach vector.

A faint echo of the voice.

**VOICE**

**You must protect yourself...**

Lockwood looks aside. Several ARMAMENT CRATES are sitting at the wall, untouched.

INT. ARMAMENT ROOM - THROUGH WINDOW - SHORTLY AFTER

A field of stars in deep space. Quiescent and timeless.

A HEAVY COMBAT SHUTTLE ENTERS swiftly from the side INTO FRAME, fast and threatening. Its shape somewhat resembles the lighter reconnaissance shuttle we have seen, only bulkier and heavily armed.

It starts emitting a gleaming SCANNING BEAM.

There's an ear-piercing high-pitched sound as the bright beam moves through the interior, scanning for life signs. Lockwood cringes as the invasive screen moves through his body.

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION - CONTINUOUS

Finishing the scan, the heavy craft pivots and comes to a standstill for a moment, contemplates the shuttle berthed by the nearby docking clamps.

Without warning, the intruder discharges a BURST OF HEAVY MACHINE GUN FIRE, reducing the shuttle to a heap of debris.

INT. ARMAMENT ROOM - ON WINDOW - CONTINUOUS

The combat shuttle slowly turns back toward the window. Hovers, threatening.

A calm, intimidating voice resonates through the station as the pilot overrides the station's com system.

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**I know you're there, soldier. Drop your weapons and stand by for boarding. Cooperate and I promise you'll get out of there alive. You won't get another chance.**

Lockwood standing by the window, considering, observing the menacing craft. He quickly weighs his options, his captain's options and whoever else's may be on this station. And decides.

He darts for the weapon controls of a small rocket launcher battery and locks on the STA shuttle.

The shuttle veers immediately, alarmed by the lock-on laser, but it's too late. A MISSILE departs from the station, IMPACTING the heavy shuttle on the side.

INT. ARMAMENT ROOM - WIDER ANGLE - CONTINUOUS

The shuttle EXPLODES, A GAPING HOLE in the hull. Fragments pounding the hull and the heavy window.

Lockwood observes the destruction. He turns away from the window, stunned at what he just did.

INT. LOBBY

Lockwood walks to a terminal. Accesses scanners to ascertain the damage to the shuttle and to the hull of the station.

Suddenly, an ALARM SOUNDS, indicating loss of pressure in an outer bulkhead. Startled, he turns and runs back.

INT. ARMAMENT ROOM

Lockwood returns to the semi-dark room. As he hurries past the window, he looks at the wrecked STA shuttle and freezes.

The shuttle has drifted closer to the station and is seen from a different angle. Something else is different.

The CANOPY IS OPEN.

Lockwood REACTS to something behind him.

A FIST STRIKES LOCKWOOD HARD. He hits the floor, nearly blacking out. A cold, righteous voice:

**MALE VOICE (O.S.)**

**You fuckin' piece of shit.**

Lockwood's vision is blurred, darkened. An OMINOUS FIGURE, SGT. MYERS, the STA PILOT and SQUAD LEADER in his combat suit. Dark and motionless for a beat, regarding him with cold fury.

Myers steps toward Lockwood who tries to get up. Myers kicks him violently.

**MYERS**

**You killed everyone in my squad. They never got out of their stations.**

He pulls Lockwood up, punches him in the stomach. Throws him against the wall.

**MYERS (CONT'D)**

**(very sincerely)**

**I'll make this as slow and painful as possible.**

Lockwood leans with his back to the wall, grateful for the moment to pull himself together, his nausea subsiding a little.

Myers steps in to punch Lockwood in the face. Lockwood ducks and hits Myers squarely on the chin catching him off-guard, continues with a sidestep and a solid elbow hit to the jaw. Myers drops to his knees. Lockwood stops, tries to reason with him.

**LOCKWOOD**

**There are people on this station!**

In lieu of a response, Myers hurls himself at Lockwood, landing and receiving blows in a savage melee until Lockwood gets on top, presses Myers' head to the floor and knocks him out with a powerful blow to the temple. He staggers off, nearly collapses.

Lockwood, beaten up and shaken, sits down heavily with his back to the wall, his mind a whirl of dark thoughts mirroring the BLACK EMPTINESS OUTSIDE.

EXT. DEEP SPACE (THROUGH COCKPIT CANOPY) - ELSEWHERE

A myriad of stars in dark space all round embracing us.

A PORT STERN SIDE of a SMALL PMC FIGHTER SPACECRAFT ENTERS FRAME ahead on the right and passes to take position behind. We move slightly to adjust.

EXT. DEEP SPACE

Two fighters flying in a right echelon formation -- leader in front and wingman on the right and behind. Two PMC scouts on a mission.

INT. LEAD FIGHTER COCKPIT

Radar on the pilot's glowing Head-Up Display indicates they are approaching another two fighters in a loose formation. The other two appear to be unaware of their presence.

**LEAD FIGHTER**

**Got visual confirmation, hostiles in sector. We have a green light.**

**(to wingman)**

**Disable the buoy.**

**WINGMAN**

**Roger.**

INT./EXT. WINGMAN COCKPIT

The wingman searches his radar for a navigational buoy, further away, part of an early warning system. The leader calmly urges his wing to hurry.

**LEAD FIGHTER (V.O.)**

**Radar shielding at eighty percent and dropping.**

**WINGMAN**

**I'm on it. Watch your six.**

The wingman breaks formation, heads to the side to engage the far away device. He emits a highly focused EM pulse to the buoy, disabling its ability to receive and transmit radar signals.

**WINGMAN (CONT'D)**

**RCS cancellation in progress... Done.**

The wingman fires thrusters to return to the lead.

One of the two fighters changes course toward them.

The other bogey, further away, also fires thrusters to take bearing on them.

**LEAD FIGHTER**

**We've been spotted. Engage.**

The lead fighter moves swiftly toward the approaching hostile to take advantage of the surprise. The second bogey, further away, also moves to intercept.

The wingman hits full afterburner to assist the leader.

As the two hostiles move to engage the lead, the wingman assails the second enemy who breaks off his attack, freeing the leader to shower his target with laser shots point-blank, blasting him away.

The leader joins in pursuit of the remaining bogey. Fire is exchanged. They engage, thrusters and maneuvering jets blazing to compensate against their bearing and velocity in space.

The enemy fighter tries to flee. Pivots to the side as he engages afterburner to change his vector and gain speed. Not fast enough. The fleeing bogey is traced by two sets of lasers, SHATTERED by their combined firepower.

The two fighters return to a loose formation.

INT. LEAD FIGHTER COCKPIT

In the light glow of the flight systems the leader is sending a voice message.

**LEAD FIGHTER**

**Striker one to Bastion. Hostiles have been eliminated. Proceeding back to base.**

Suddenly, for just a flash, there is something on his HUD RADAR SCREEN, a reading laden with interference. It's gone as quickly as it appears.

**LEAD FIGHTER**

**What the...**

Here they come. SEVERAL BLIPS ON RADAR, indicating hostiles approaching fast. A LOCK-ON WARNING TURNS THE HUD RED.

The wing breaks formation.

**WINGMAN (O.S.)**

**Incoming!**

A MASSIVE EXPLOSION obliterates the wingman, showering the lead fighter hard with debris. The leader breaks away, releases an energy discharge from the craft's underbelly.

**LEAD FIGHTER**

**Deploying ECM! I'm under heavy fire!**

The fighter hits afterburner to cover distance from the decoy as it EXPLODES.

He is twisting and turning using his maneuvering jets at high speed to evade laser shots.

**LEAD FIGHTER (CONT'D)**

**I need immediate assistance! I lost my wing! I repeat...**

His voice is lost in a barrage of cannon and laser fire as we cut to:

INT. ORBITAL STATION - ARMAMENT ROOM

Lockwood is sitting still at the wall in the dark room in silence, his mind a million miles away.

A beep from the intercom rouses Lockwood from grim thoughts. He hears "Linn's" voice again. She sounds less machine-like. A hint of vulnerability in her voice.

**VOICE**

**I'm sorry about what you had to do. The administration seems to have had second thoughts about risking their research becoming public. Apparently, they don't trust your company anymore.**

Lockwood notices the difference in her tone, the vulnerability. He lets his guard down a little, feeling too down to care.

**LOCKWOOD**

**What's your part in all this? Who are you really?**

**VOICE**

**I was one of the crew. I'm here to take care of the life support systems on the station for the Seers to inhabit. They need someone to care for them.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**What do they want?**

**VOICE**

**What does every living thing want? To survive and prosper.**

**(pause)**

**At first they tried to merge with the human body, tried to coexist. But they have already surpassed human biology. They don't need hosts anymore, except as tools. They are developing fast, but there are still things they can't do, such as operating human technology.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Where's Captain Bailey?**

**VOICE (CONT'D)**

**The captain was taken by one of the creatures. I don't know what purpose they may have for him. He'll obey their call, whatever it may be.**

A pause. The silence sinks in. Lockwood addresses the sudden development.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Why are you telling me this?**

The voice is hesitant. Dubious.

**VOICE**

**Something's changed. I think they found a replacement in Bailey. Why I do not know.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**(thinking)**

**They can make use of a soldier.**

**VOICE**

**Believe me if they wanted to harm you they would have done so already. They are here to observe and understand.**

Lockwood stays silent. Distrustful. The voice is lost momentarily, perhaps waiting for him to say more.

**LOCKWOOD**

**I need access to the mainframe. Can you help me get in?**

**VOICE**

**I'm afraid my access is limited. I can't access it any more than you can.**

A pause. She continues, as if to warn. Or, perhaps, apologize -- which only serves to aggravate Lockwood.

**VOICE (CONT'D)**

**You must understand they give you power, but also take away. You don't get to join them without forfeiting your willpower, your individuality. You can not try to sabotage their efforts without their knowing, without breaking your own will. Nor should you try.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Can you help me or not?**

**VOICE**

**Not at this time. You need to make your way further into the station and meet me there. You'll find me in stasis on the Crew Deck.**

The transmission ends. Lockwood sits still for a moment, pondering the situation. Can he trust this new acquaintance?

Lockwood glances at the man on the floor, an STA badge on his combat suit. Helmet in a shadowy corner.

He takes out his printout of the section to try to find a way into the core of the station. He finds it.

He starts cutting through a locked door leading further.

Cuts through, his torch sputtering empty. He leaves the torch on the floor. Forces the door partially open.

INT. CORRIDOR FROM ARMAMENT ROOM

As he enters the corridor, he notices something strange about a part of its structure. Something seems to have grown out of a vent hole in the ceiling.

A semi-translucent bluish substance, thin, milky at first, and increasingly more solid and darker in color. It grows more distinct in texture, almost resembling leaf structure, and seems to emit a faint ethereal glow. Lockwood stops to observe, touches a "leaf". Looks at a camera on the wall, partially covered with the substance.

Lockwood proceeds cautiously through the corridor. He reaches a glass-paned door on the side. Looks inside.

Pipes and machinery. A teal veil of bio-mechanical material coming from a small ventilating shaft, blending with the gray entrails of the station.

Lockwood walks to the end of the corridor. Opens the door further into the next passageway.

Lockwood walks through the corridor. He tries another door. Locked. At the end of it is a sturdy door leading to the PRISON BLOCK. He tries the door controls. Nothing happens.

He pries the controls open and re-routes the wires. The door rumbles open.

INT. PRISON BLOCK

Lockwood quietly enters the dark block. The heavy door closes behind him. The prison block is silent, but he can't help feeling he is not alone.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Hello? Is anybody here?**

Standing motionlessly for a few moments, he overhears LOW GROANING SOUNDS from one of the cells, followed by quiet belligerent, incoherent mumbling. Then it's quiet.

Lockwood moves carefully in the direction the sounds came from.

He walks past a corner of the prison block. Approaches a cell. It looks derelict, dark.

As his eyes get accustomed to the gloom, he can distinguish a SHAPE of a big man crouching in a far corner of the cell. Bloodshot eyes looking at him through slitted eyelids. Lockwood approaches the cell slowly.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Hey, you alright?**

The shadow doesn't move. Lockwood comes closer. The man GROWLS WARNINGLY, a hardly human sound. Lockwood can see that the man is in bad shape; bloody sores on his half-naked body. Worse, he is out of his mind. Seeing crude bars welded into where an energy field generator used to be, Lockwood turns to explore the rest of the block. The man in the cell is there to stay.

Lockwood searches through the rest of the prison block. There are four more cells, all empty, except for dirt and litter. He returns to the main corridor, follows it to the PRISON CONTROL ROOM.

INT. PRISON CONTROL

Lockwood approaches terminals in the control room and studies them. With a surgical table and equipment the place is also an improvised infirmary.

He comes to a window, once again revealing deep space and the dark horizon of the planet. The RED DWARF shines like a small beacon of light, remote but steady.

He turns away. As he nears the door leading to the crew area, he hears the BEEP of an incoming transmission. He turns back to an intercom as a friendly, hopeful voice comes through.

**MALE VOICE**

**Thank god you're here. I thought everyone was gone. Are you with the rescue team?**

Lockwood is not quick to answer, somewhat taken aback. He remembers the STA shuttle. Who does he mean?

**LOCKWOOD (CONT'D)**

**Yes. There was only two of us and we got separated. I'm Corporal Lockwood. Who're you?**

**MALE VOICE**

**I'm Samuels, from the second research team. I think I am the only one alive here. Except for the poor guy in cell five.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Is he insane?**

**SAMUELS**

**Quite nuts, I'm afraid. There's nothing you or I can do for him, short of putting him out of his misery.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Where are you? Can you get here?**

**SAMUELS**

**Yes, I can see you on a monitor. Just stay where you are. I'll be right there.**

Lockwood turns to a monitor to study it. There is a video grid of eight cameras covering the prison block and its vicinity. He looks closer, switches through the cameras.

ON MONITOR from high unnatural angles, the cells, the corridor, the prison control and lastly the room next to the prison control are seen, a figure in white lab coat striding to the door purposefully. Lockwood raises his eyes to greet the newcomer.

ADAM SAMUELS is in late twenties, good-looking and obviously brilliant. With his smooth appearance and casual smile he could be a salesman or a young executive. He approaches Lockwood in a friendly, familiar manner. Shakes hand.

**SAMUELS**

**Hi. I was hoping someone would show up soon. I've been sitting tight here for quite a while now.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Is there nobody else around?**

**SAMUELS**

**Not as far as I know. Everybody went crazy after those things got loose. When the killings started.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**What happened?**

Samuels grows more serious. He starts recounting his story.

**SAMUELS**

**We were researching a drug inducing altered states of consciousness, brain functions enhancements on the basis of cholinergic transmission, the next generation of 'smart drugs' if you like.**

**(pause)**

**Preliminary tests were very promising, but application was problematic. Testing showed the drug caused severe side-effects such as depersonalization, schizophrenia and increased aggression. Symptoms that were contradictory to what we had anticipated. The trouble was we couldn't replicate the exact formula artificially with our technology. That's why we were sent here to develop an organism capable of producing the mixture without the adverse side-effects. And we succeeded.**

He pauses for a beat, takes a breath. Continues. FLASHBACKS depict parts of his narration.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**We were able to breed these things in labs, extract the compound we needed. But then we found they started to develop on their own. We tried to freeze their development, but tests showed the mixture actually improved. They seemed to evolve according to our specifications. Then we found out the creatures learned to interact with the human body directly. There was an incident, several people were attacked and bitten. They became aggressive and we had to sedate them. We had them restrained and isolated for observation.**

**(beat)**

**They seemed to get better. It appeared the toxin responsible for their violent behavior was metabolizing, but then they attacked their caretakers and tried to escape. The guy in cell five is the only one they caught. Since then he's been deteriorating.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Captain Bailey, my CO, said these things have a collective consciousness of some sort. Do you think they can communicate telepathically?**

**SAMUELS**

**Could be. After all, increasing mental capabilities was the main objective of the research.**

He returns to where he left off.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**After the infected escaped, they tried to take over the station. They attacked us, killed more people, took several others as hosts to increase their numbers. But then they stopped coming, probably didn't think there was anyone left. I haven't seen anyone here for quite a few days now.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**So you stayed put and waited for the rescue party.**

**SAMUELS**

**Yes. There was nothing for me to do except sit tight and continue my analysis on the tissue samples I have. I learned a lot about their biochemistry. It's quite fascinating. If not very useful.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**There's a woman I spoke with over the com. She told me about the "Seers" as she called them. She said her name's Linn. Who is she?**

**SAMUELS**

**(surprised)**

**Linn? Probably one of the engineers. A recorded message?**

**LOCKWOOD**

**No, I spoke with her. She said she's on the Crew Deck.**

**SAMUELS**

**(shrugs)**

**Well, she hasn't contacted me. There's been a lockdown and com system's damaged. Communication doesn't go throughout the station.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**I have to find her and my captain. You should come with me.**

**SAMUELS**

**I'll stay in the labs if you don't mind. I still got work to do there. I'll see you through the cameras and reach you via com if necessary.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Alright then. We'll stay in touch.**

**SAMUELS**

**(smiles, friendly)**

**Okay.**

Lockwood leaves. Samuels watches him go for a beat. He turns to access the terminal to open surveillance menu.

The display shows many of the cameras are offline. He switches through several cameras that are on, observes Lockwood's progress, flips through the rest.

The cameras show places within the station, mostly desolate, some covered with the strange outcropping. No movement.

One of the screens shows the sealed cryo room with hypersleep capsules. He zooms in on the capsules. They are vacant. All except the last.

In a stasis capsule far from the camera, the shape of a female body can be discerned, unmoving. Attached to the capsule and connected to the computer mainframe by a device attached to her scalp. He switches back to see Lockwood proceeding into the bowels of the station.

Samuels returns to the lab, located nearby, and to his work. He puts on medical gloves, collects samples from several large muscle samples on the desk and puts small pieces of tissue into vials with preserving chemicals. He carefully closes the vials. Inserts them into a small lab container.

Samuels takes the larger tissue samples into a small incinerator for disposal. Then he turns to a terminal to access the detailed research reports, starts downloading them to a small MEMORY CRYSTAL.

INT. CORRIDOR

Lockwood reaches the cryo chamber. The door is sealed, but the lock is one he can access with his hacking device. He uses it to unlock the mechanism. Enters.

INT. CRYO CHAMBER

The room is large, a number of hypersleep capsules in a circle in the middle of the room. Lockwood approaches the only "inhabited" stasis capsule. Takes a closer look at the capsule and the half-naked girl inside.

LINN is a girl in her early-twenties, plain but pretty in an enigmatic sort of way. She is almost naked, with only a small underskirt-like rug over her waist -- little more than a loin-cloth -- as well as over her breasts.

Lying in a fetal position she looks pale and emaciated, weakened after a prolonged stay in stasis without being frozen for hypersleep. She is fastened to the capsule, a breathing tube and intravenous feeding lines on her body, a device on her bare scalp resembling a hi-tech swim cap -- a computer interface.

Lockwood stands still for a beat, quietly, as if he hasn't seen a woman for some time, her helplessness and vulnerability touching something deep inside of him, making him uncomfortable.

He makes a few steps to the display at the side of the capsule, checks the girl's vital signs. Her vitals are indicated green. There is consistent high activity on her EEG. Her EKG shows low, stable values.

Carefully, Lockwood unfastens the girl. He removes the cap-like device and the feeding lines. She flinches, her eyelids quivering. When he removes the breathing tube she opens her eyes, looking bewildered, gasps for air.

He holds her as her eyes dart about and finally lock with his. A beat. She hugs him tightly, surprising him.

After a moment she breaks the embrace, uncomfortable with her almost naked form. She crouches in the capsule, hugging herself.

Lockwood takes a lab coat lying on a table, uncomfortable, as if affected by lust or shame, puts it around her shoulders gently to cover her body. Her eyes still hold his. Her look is distrustful yet alluring.

INT. LABORATORY - LATER

Samuels is finishing his data transfer on terminal. He hears the sound of the air-tight door opening. Lockwood enters, followed by Linn, dressed in plain gray service clothing Lockwood has found for her.

Samuels quits his program and walks toward the two, greeting them with a smile. He looks at Linn, extends his hand to a friendly handshake.

**SAMUELS**

**(to Linn, shaking hands)**

**Hi. I'm Samuels. I don't think we've met before, I arrived with the last science team. Glad to see you're up and about.**

He glances at Lockwood, his hacking device in his pouch pocket.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**I'm finished here. We'll need to go through Engineering to get to the reactor. After we override the emergency lockdown, we'll be able to move through the station freely.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Good. We'll need access to the core areas to see if there are other survivors. Linn says she may know where we can find the captain.**

Samuels gives Linn a sympathetic glance. She is still brittle but curious, getting used to the sensory overload of real-world experience. Her voice is still weak, slightly metallic.

**LINN**

**There's a place near the cargo bay where we, I mean they live. He will probably be around there somewhere. They don't like intrusions though. I don't know what has become of the captain.**

Lockwood puts his hand on his belt, touching his sidearm unwittingly. Considers the options.

**LOCKWOOD**

**I can stun him with my gun if necessary.**

Samuels glances to the holstered energy pistol.

**SAMUELS**

**How does this gun fire?**

Lockwood takes the massive handgun out of its holster, showing for him to see the glock-like firearm combining ranged taser with electronic pulse gun. A low-impact weapon for use in hazardous environment.

**SAMUELS**

**May I?**

Lockwood hands the gun to Samuels.

**LOCKWOOD**

**G46L, hybrid. Fires electroshock projectiles, disrupts voluntary muscle control, can use EMP to disable electronics.**

**SAMUELS**

**(studying it, feeling its weight)**

**It should have some effect, but it may not be enough. They don't have the same neuromuscular mechanisms as we do.**

Lockwood pulls out Bailey's trusty standard issue .45 military auto from its holster. He considers the gun for a moment, then puts it into his right holster, nods to Samuels to keep the other weapon. He looks at Linn who is staring at one of the monitors.

Samuels puts his new gun into a pocket of his lab trousers. Lockwood steps toward her to look at the monitor.

On monitor is one of the corridors, shadowy, seemingly empty. Then SOMETHING MOVES in the semi-darkness. A FIGURE is approaching, big, its movement cautious, predatory.

As the figure comes near, it looks into the camera. Lockwood recognizes it as the deranged prisoner from cell five. The figure disappears out of view.

**LOCKWOOD (O.S.)**

**(low)**

**We're not alone.**

Lockwood's voice is lost to a high-pitched sound. The monitors lose the camera signal abruptly. For a short beat they are looking at the specks of static with a dark premonition.

**LINN**

**(quietly)**

**We should go.**

They come to the door. Lockwood opens it and goes outside, his .45 ready, Linn behind him.

Samuels turns reluctantly away from his lab container left at the table, follows.

They move fast, carefully, trying to not make much noise.

**LINN**

**(showing the way)**

**There.**

Linn leads them through several rooms and corridors near the prison block. Lockwood stops, goes back to the cells cautiously. He approaches cell five. The others follow.

From his P.O.V the cell is a MESS. Several of the bars are broken, lying on the floor. Others are bent, wrenched from the inside, twisted by inhuman force, glistening with spattered blood. It looks like something burst from within.

Linn looks behind warily. She draws near to Lockwood in spite of the devastation ahead.

Lockwood leads back to the corridor. They proceed toward a part of the station they haven't been to before. Rooms, corridors, desolate but empty. They enter one of the kitchens and stand still at the sight ahead.

INT. KITCHEN

They see a strange PLANT-LIKE THING covering a large part of the steel wall of an otherwise empty room. The structure is similar to what Lockwood has seen, only more distinct and evolved. Dark-red stems branching into strange, leaf-like appendages covering the walls.

They approach carefully, observing.

They proceed through several rooms, also with the alien branches on the walls, reaching into adjoining rooms and air ducts.

The trio move carefully, following a thicker stem on the ground as the thicket of appendages grows more profuse, making it difficult to walk without touching the carmine red growth on the floor.

They reach another door. It is partially closed, with the bulkier stalk and a number of thinner branches going under it. Lockwood steps toward the glass. Behind it is a small room with a table in the middle of the room and a BIZARRE STRUCTURE on it.

A DARK SHAPELESS SHAFT, somewhat resembling a tree trunk bred with a metal pole, seeming to grow out of a table. Other, smaller, root-like appendages descending to the ground, the top part disappearing into an air duct. A dark-carmine alien tree, bio-mechanical, vaguely pulsing with strange life.

Lockwood observes. Linn and Samuels join him quietly at the door.

**LOCKWOOD**

**What is it?**

**LINN**

**(almost reverently)**

**It's them. They are not separate like us. They are interconnected. A unity.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Does it go throughout the station?**

**LINN**

**Through parts of it, yes. I've never seen them with my own eyes.**

She opens the door. Approaches the mass, captivated. She extends her hand as if to touch it with her fingers. Lockwood steps forward.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(low)**

**Careful.**

She follows the structure of the trunk with the palm of her hand without touching it. Fascinated, feeling the life pulsing within, tantalizing her.

Samuels moves forward to Lockwood.

**SAMUELS**

**These are too slow to be of any danger, but they can probably sense our presence. We better move on.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**What is it. A tree? An animal?**

**SAMUELS**

**It's one of the more recent forms, even if it looks like the least evolved. Their evolution can't be likened to common plants or animals. Their biochemistry is simple enough, but they can create composite materials to form large structures.**

Linn keeps observing the living structure, as if feeling it. Lost in a private reverie.

Drawn to the sensitive texture, she touches the surface with her fingertips lightly, inspiring a slight quiver in the structure. The color of the stem changes, darkens slightly.

Lockwood notices, frowns warily. He observes the structure for a moment. Then touches it himself.

There is a FLASH of his consciousness expanding beyond his body and his mind; an out of body experience. It's too quick to be more than glimpsed, but far too powerful to be discounted.

He feels as if he has entered a religious rapture. It is the briefest, yet eternal moment; both blissful and scary. A communion with the elders of the universe.

And then he is back.

He lays his finger on the stem again carefully. It is hard, unyielding. There is no movement, no more revelation. Lockwood looks at Linn. She gives him a cryptic glance. A small smile. Lockwood steadies himself.

They follow through another door, Samuels goes last.

The strange mass undulates slightly. Enigmatic.

INT. CORRIDOR

Moving into a long, industrial-looking corridor, they enter the guts of the space station's energy and auxiliary systems. The Engineering deck.

**SAMUELS**

**We can make our way to the reactor this way.**

He points to a less derelict-looking part of the corridor.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**I don't think anybody's been here for a while.**

Samuels leads toward reactor bay, Lockwood and Linn follow several steps after him. Samuels gains on them, walking purposefully ahead. Lockwood walks in silence, still trying to make sense of the experience. Linn looks at him, curious.

After a beat, in spite of himself, he breaks the silence.

**LOCKWOOD**

**What was it like being in the machine. With them?**

Linn looks at him with a small smile.

**LINN**

**You were there, I can tell.**

She is quiet for a beat, as if trying to put into words what cannot be expressed. But words don't matter now.

**LINN (CONT'D)**

**It's like being finally at home. Only one's own family could never extend this far.**

She shakes her head at her situation, still only half way back, but at least now finding common ground.

**LINN (CONT'D)**

**It's so strange to be back here, in this body. It was all so remote I almost forgot I had one.**

She slides her fingers on the wall, feeling the cold, plain texture. She contracts her fingers with quiet joy, watches them unfold, amazed at the sheer physicality of it.

Reduced from her disembodied omniscience. A rat in a metal maze.

**LINN (CONT'D)**

**I was watching it all without a reference point, without care. I didn't believe I could die. It was like playing god. I saw it all, but wasn't here. I just was. Sometimes I think Samuels was there too. But he's too rational.**

She looks at Lockwood to see if they are on the same page. They are not. Though he is trying.

**LINN (CONT'D)**

**I feel like I am born again, a fresh start. Still it's like I lost something crucial. Maybe it's something I never really had...**

She stops herself, feeling awkward; realizing what she is saying may not make much sense to him after all. His look does not betray much.

They catch up to Samuels at the massive door to the REACTOR CONTROL ROOM, A numerical pad at the side of the heavy frame which hermetically seals the reactor area. Cabinets with heavy anti-radiation suits next to it.

**SAMUELS**

**Here we go. We need to stabilize the yield so that all systems work properly. The access's been damaged.**

**(to Lockwood)**

**Can you open it?**

Lockwood looks at the heavy door, concentrates on the task at hand. The locking mechanism under the keypad is damaged, some wiring torn and hanging out. Lockwood examines the locking device and the wires. He re-routes the wires, makes a bypass. He nods at Samuels, done.

Samuels punches in the numbers, Lockwood observes. With a HISS of the sealing mechanism keeping the space airtight the heavy door opens.

INT. REACTOR CONTROL

Samuels et al. enter the room. It is the shape of an octagon, with three sides cut off, in its place A VIEWING GALLERY overseeing the FUSION CONTAINMENT CHAMBER. Computers, displays, terminals make the rest of the room.

Samuels walks to one of the terminals, familiar with their function. Starts working at it to stabilize the reaction and the output it provides to the station systems.

We see the displays showing a stable increase up to one hundred percent. The quiet thrum of support systems is strengthening as the fusion reaction builds up.

The monitor displaying the inside of the fusion chamber show A LIGHT BLUE PLASMA GLOBE encompassed by a deeper blue magnetic veil over the globe, A CONTAINMENT FIELD.

The station systems are fully operational again.

**SAMUELS**

**Now the lockdown is terminated. Let's have a look at the full schematics of the station, perhaps we can find your captain.**

Lockwood and Samuels leave, the heavy door closes automatically. Linn keeps looking at the viewing gallery for a moment. On screen the insanely hot plasma contained in the fusion chamber is glowing with quiet brilliance.

Stable, reassuring hum of support systems.

She quietly turns and opens the door. She leaves, the heavy door seals after her.

INT. REACTOR BAY - CORRIDOR

She enters the corridor, realizing she is alone. Lockwood and Samuels are gone. She looks both ways uncomfortably. She wants to call out but remembers the prisoner is on the loose somewhere.

She hears, or thinks she hears, something from around a passage they went by on the way to the reactor. She approaches the corner cautiously. Listens.

She gathers courage, edges into the corridor. There is nothing she can see in the semi-dark end of the pathway.

A HAND on her arm almost makes her jump, scaring her. She turns to see Lockwood.

**LINN**

**(with relief)**

**Jesus!**

Lockwood smiles a little at her agitation, breaking his matter-of-fact demeanor just so in the process.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Sorry.**

He glances into the dark corridor, flashes on his light there. It is empty. A ventilation grate at the corridor's end is in place, casting vague shadows into the shaft as he plays his flashlight over the grating. He lets it linger on the grate for a beat. No movement. He turns off the flashlight.

They move on, Lockwood first to protect Linn at intersections. She catches up.

INT. ENGINEERING - CORRIDOR

As they walk the corridor, Linn considers Lockwood with a look, tries to get through his no-nonsense persona. Her voice is quiet, almost timid.

**LINN**

**Do you have a family?**

A beat.

**LOCKWOOD**

**No.**

His voice and face are impassive, but we can tell relationships are not an easy topic for him. She can sense it.

**LOCKWOOD (CONT'D)**

**I was never close with my parents, especially my father. Nor were they to one another. The army has been my home since I graduated from school. I don't have anyone else.**

A silence ensues that seems to communicate to both of them. They walk on, somewhat uncomfortable, though somehow stronger too. She looks at him.

**LINN**

**My father was in the Corps. He really believed in it. Somehow I don't think it made him a better person.**

Lockwood can see what she means, a revelation of a battered child. He reciprocates in spite of himself.

**LOCKWOOD**

**My father left us in the colony projects when I was five. I could never forgive him.**

She can sense the pain, suppressed, covered by his pragmatic guise. Subdued by responsibilities, military life.

She looks at him. For the first time catching him off-guard, her look breaks through his defenses as if opening a lock to his soul. Long-lost feelings overwhelm him, almost break his demeanor. With difficulty, he turns away as they approach a door.

**LOCKWOOD**

**There.**

Nothing more needs to be said. A silent breakthrough has been made for both of them.

They reach the door to a computer room. Lockwood presses the intercom button.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(to the door intercom)**

**Samuels, we're at the entrance door.**

The hatch door opens and they enter.

INT. OFFICE

Samuels greets them from the chair and they come to him, together. Samuels notices the change in their relationship, the sudden closeness and subtle tension. He turns to engage his terminal which shows a map of the area. Sections highlighted with color. Doors unlocked.

**SAMUELS**

**Here we go. Restarting the reactor overrode the lockdown. We can get to these areas.**

He points the way on the map the route through to hitherto inaccessible parts of the station.

He inserts a keycard into a slot in the terminal. It doesn't look like there was Samuels's name on it.

Samuels changes the viewing type in the program. The deck morphs into alien hues.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**This is a bio-readout scanner for locating life sign signatures in nearby sections. Could be useful to see around the corner.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**We've been playing hide and seek long enough. Can we use it to locate the captain?**

**SAMUELS**

**It should pick him up alright if he's close enough. I can't tell for sure if it's him though. It could read anything with similar mass and biological structure.**

He switches to the thermal reading system. It shows three readings manifested as heat-indicating dots, in a cluster in the middle of the display. Several more are further on to the edge. Samuels re-calibrates the program. The outer dots disappear, only one holds.

**SAMUELS**

**It's not very reliable. Can cast ghost doubles, pick up random heat signatures. But it looks like we have your man here. Bingo.**

He points to the fourth dot, lost at the edge of the section, near cargo bay area. Lockwood tracks his finger across the blueprint.

**LOCKWOOD**

**It's the cargo bay. The main entrance can be accessed now.**

As they are looking at the display, the fourth dot vanishes. Three dots huddled on an empty screen.

**SAMUELS**

**We better go.**

They set off.

INT. CORRIDOR

They walk the corridor, quickly but carefully. As they reach a junction, they hear something. Lockwood hesitates, then indicates for the two to stay put and goes to investigate.

A SHADOW passes on the floor in the distance at a junction. Disappears. Lockwood follows.

He carefully walks through the passageway glancing at the walls and small ventilation shafts occasionally. He turns to a side passage. Nothing in there. He continues.

He reaches the end of the passageway. He reaches a hole leading to the crawlspaces under the deck. He looks inside. A small service ladder leading into the depths of the station. He feels a draft of warm air.

**LOCKWOOD**

**(to himself)**

**It's humid in there...**

He turns on his flashlight and trains it into the uninviting shaft. HIS P.O.V. shows pitch-dark emptiness, several stalks attached to the grimy walls.

INT. SHAFT

Lockwood enters the claustrophobic confines of the dark tunnel. Reaching the bottom he follows into a crawlway. Tight, just big enough for an adult man to crouch through.

He uses his flashlight to illuminate the passage. Metal gleaming dimly through grime and encrustation as the light flashes over it.

Lockwood proceeds through the dark, round passage. Stops to examine some of the outgrowth on the walls. He moves on carefully to a junction.

Lockwood stops. The adjoining passageway seems completely covered by the strange mass, as if it is no longer there, giving way to a bizarre structure. A living entrance to some horrid alien organism. Swollen and engorged.

He stays still, quiet. A LOW GRATING SOUND can be heard from the strange passage, as if made by huge teeth. He enters carefully, his gun level.

The grate at the end is removed, leading to a small utility room. He hesitates, looks back to the intersection, leaving the living opening behind.

Lockwood reaches the end of the shaft. Enters the room carefully. It is pitch-black, only lit by the shaft of light of his flashlight slowly following a smudged trail of blood leading to

A BODY OF A MAN, 40's, leaning on the wall near a small ventilating shaft. Very dead, a large wound on his stomach.

The body is lying atop a gelatinous mass of disintegrating bodies. The stench hits Lockwood as he moves closer.

The noise is coming from the ventilator.

Lockwood examines the man's wounds. He searches the body, finds nothing. He focuses on the ventilator. Removes the fan, freeing a NAME TAG and an ID. It was stuck, making rumbling noises as the ventilation kicked in.

He looks at it for a moment, at the man, checking the man's identity. He remembers he saw Samuels use a keycard with the same name on it. Growing more uncomfortable, he puts the dead man's ID into his pocket. A grim keepsake.

He stands up, plays the light over the rest of the room quickly. Grimy walls and machinery.

He turns to go back into the shaft to return to Linn and Samuels.

A claw-like appendage moves over the frame. A SCAVENGER, a slightly more evolved version of the worm-like parasite, has been sitting on the wall unseen. Now crab-walks toward the corpse to resume its meal. Another two emerge from the shadowy corners. Lurking.

Lockwood returns to the shaft. Starts moving back quickly. Stops, turns back, thinking he heard something. It's nothing.

He crawls on.

He returns back, leaves the living corridor. Leaves the ominous DARK CAVITY and proceeds past it.

Moving quicker now, Lockwood continues through the crawlway leading to another exit from the shaft.

He reaches another intersection. Light stabs at the end of the passage from one of the corridors. He heads toward it. Shafts of light protruding through the grating. Lockwood removes the grate. Moves out into another corridor.

INT. CORRIDOR

He quickly gets his bearing and proceeds further through the block toward the location where Linn and Samuels should be. He hears something. Calls out.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Linn?...Samuels?**

No response. He catches a movement in an adjoining room. He proceeds towards it.

INT. AUX STORAGE ROOM

Lockwood enters the room, moving carefully in the semi-dark.

He turns quickly at a movement, aiming his gun. His flashlight illuminates a big clumsy figure in a dark corner. The PRISONER is watching him through sunken eyes in the disfigured face.

Lockwood steps forward carefully, his gun trained. Is startled to hear Samuels's voice.

**SAMUELS (O.S.)**

**It's alright. I have him under control now. He's not gonna harm us.**

Lockwood glances at the place. Samuels is watching him calmly, almost curiously. Linn is nowhere to be seen. Lockwood keeps his gun trained at the prisoner but watches Samuels closely.

The prisoner STEPS FORWARD and Lockwood returns his attention to the creature instantly.

There is an ELECTRIC DISCHARGE. Lockwood feels his body stiffen in a convulsion, hit by a projectile from his own electric weapon. He falls down, still conscious, but unable to move.

Samuels comes to him, picks up his 0.45 carefully from his numb fingers. Samuels' voice sounds detached and ominous.

**SAMUELS**

**Sleep tight. I have a lot of work to do and so little time. I'll check up with you later.**

He takes out a hypo spray and injects Lockwood.

From Lockwood's P.O.V. we see Samuels's grim countenance. The creature ENTERS FRAME right into his face.

The room slowly melts with the surroundings and merges into space. Boundless, dreamlike, infinite.

Vast, empty star systems flash by in a tranquil, semi-conscious trance, finally slowing down to verge upon a tiny dot in space...
**Part 2**

EXT. SPACE - PMC MILITARY BASE

A part of the installation in space. A shuttle is leaving dock in the distance. Another one is entering.

INT. HEADQUARTERS - OFFICE

A hurried low-ranking officer enters, bringing a report to Major Briggs.

**MESSENGER**

**Sir, we've lost our patrol near Theta Cygni sector. Recon shows large-scale movement.**

The major takes the report, glances at it. He looks at the messenger, Is this for real? He leaves hastily.

A startled young officer who has been listening looks at his display and the emerging recon feeds. At the messenger:

**YOUNG OFFICER**

**Are we at war?**

INT. BRIEFING ROOM - SHORTLY AFTER

Most of the stationed personnel have been gathered on a minute notice. Nervous commotion. Major Briggs speaks to Colonel Davenport briefly. The colonel nods, turns to the buzzing crowd.

**DAVENPORT**

**Quiet, please!**

The commotion abates. For the moment the room becomes very still. Officers listening, worried.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**Some of you have already heard that we've brushed with our former employer, the Space Trade Administration. Now that we know more, we can brief you on what actually happened.**

**(beat)**

**Two days ago we received intel from the Frontier Patrol about an illegal traffic operation in the Cygnus sector. We lost two of our scouts early this morning when investigating. We believe this incident is related to several other recent hit-and-run attacks in the area and may have a link to the administration command. The increased traffic indicates a clandestine base of operations deeper in the system. There's an orbital station in the sector officially established for medical research purposes, which we'd been asked to investigate. We still have two of our men on the station. Their testimony may be critical for our standing against the STA.**

**(beat)**

**The administration now wants us to leave the area and not interfere with what they call "internal security operation". I made it very clear to the administration representatives that we will not leave without an official inquiry and without my men returned. However, the Frontier Police is bound to stay impartial at this point. We'll go alone.**

Colonel Davenport pauses for a beat, looking at his men and women. Some uneasy, apprehensive faces. From a lower side view, the colonel looks grim. He continues.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**A large attack force is being formed as I speak. Their purpose is to remove us from the sector. By means of force.**

**(beat)**

**I need each one of you to decide. Not for me or for my command but for yourself. I will understand if you do not join me on this mission. Most of you are young. You have families and your lives to return to. I want those of you who will follow me to step forward. We will deploy immediately to the Theta Cygni system to finish our work there. With luck we may be able to pick up our men before the STA arrives. The rest of you will report for reassignment.**

The colonel has finished his speech. Major Briggs, Warrant Officer Curtiz and 2LT Hayes join their leader. Proud but without pretension, they know their place. For a moment no one else seems to move.

Then another one steps forward. An office-type man who hasn't seen combat for many years. A young woman, freshly promoted lieutenant. Another joins. And another. Another.

Men and women are pouring to the colonel. Most of the officers and deck hands have joined. A minority stay on their places.

EXT. SPACE - MILITARY STATION - LATER

The military station, which we see whole for the first time. Among several shuttles and larger support vessels looms BATTLE-CLASS CRUISER, PMC PERSEPHONE. The company flagship is setting off.

Compared to what we have seen, the capital ship is huge. A leviathan with almost two hundred meters in length. Somewhat sleek yet with heavy, cumbrous design, armored with massive steel plating. It is armed with a number of cannon and laser turrets, a dock on the side for fighter deployment.

Slowly, majestically, the Persephone departs from the base. Then it engages its powerful thrust engines, gaining distance from the station.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

The command center of the cruiser, buzzing with activity. Filled with terminals, lit-up panels and consoles on the bridge. Overhead displays are glaring with vital tactical and navigation data.

The navigator, 2LT Hayes, finishes calculations for the flight route on an interactive panel, overseen by Major Briggs. Chief Curtiz takes place as the tactical officer. The major, who has assumed his position as the ship's executive officer, turns from the other officers to Davenport.

**BRIGGS**

**Sir, coordinates for the Cygnus portal are set and verified. Power transfer to TFG is now complete. We're ready to go.**

The colonel glances at the flight route overhead, on his crew on the bridge. Time to embark on a journey that may be the last.

**DAVENPORT**

**Activate tachyon coils.**

EXT. SPACE

PMC Persephone activates its hyperdrive engines, creating a golden energy field, half-translucent, enveloping the ship, a space-time anomaly, opening:

AN ENERGY VORTEX of glowing purple and red in front of the ship -- a red-shifted rift into hyperspace.

**HAYES**

**Tachyon field established. Gravity well clear.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Engage coils on my mark.**

**(beat)**

**Three. Two. One. Mark.**

In the next instant the ship DISAPPEARS INTO THE RIFT. Empty space remains.

EXT. DEEP SPACE - ELSEWHERE

A shimmering bluish energy glow. The ship emerges as if EXPLODING INTO SPACE in a slight blur, as if arriving in its own wake, the golden field dissipating.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

**DAVENPORT**

**Status report.**

**HAYES**

**All systems green, route complete.**

Curtiz quickly studies the navigational and tracking system.

**CURTIZ**

**We have contact!**

The officers turn to one of the overhead displays.

A DOT ON RADAR indicating a small vessel, unrecognized by the ship's systems.

**CURTIZ**

**(studying data on display)**

**Small craft, unknown origin. Doesn't respond to IFF or radio. On-board systems are shut down.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Any other contacts? Signatures?**

**CURTIZ**

**No sir. Nothing.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Send search and rescue.**

**CURTIZ**

**Yes, sir.**

EXT. SPACE

A shuttle departs from the Persephone. It heads toward the mysterious spacecraft in the distance.

EXT. SPACE

A small spacecraft thrown carelessly against a canopy of stars. Vaguely familiar.

The SAR shuttle approaches.

**SHUTTLE PILOT (LT CONNOLLY)**

**Unmarked fighter, this is Badger two, search and rescue. Do you copy?**

No reply. Though from rear side view the craft seems intact, something's clearly not right.

**SHUTTLE PILOT (LT CONNOLLY)**

**No radio contact, sir. Their transponder is knocked out too.**

As the shuttle maneuvers to face the cockpit of the inert vessel, we can see a HOLE blasted through the canopy. A glimpse of the bloody mess inside.

**CONNOLLY**

**The pilot is dead, sir.**

Steering at the side of the fighter, the lieutenant can distinguish type marks beside the canopy of the police interceptor, as well as the call sign Valkyrie four.

**CONNOLLY (V.O.)**

**Sir, this is not an STA ship, it's Frontier Patrol. Looks like someone ambushed one of our contacts.**

**SHUTTLE CO-PILOT (V.O.)**

**Whoever did this didn't care about it being found.**

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The major looks at Davenport.

**BRIGGS**

**(low voice)**

**Do you know who our contact was?**

**DAVENPORT**

**(grim)**

**Yes, I do.**

**BRIGGS**

**This is a warning.**

The old colonel doesn't take kindly to threats, or ambushes. He responds with an edge.

**DAVENPORT**

**Whoever thinks I'll turn around now is a fool. We are going in.**

**(to the shuttle)**

**Return back to the ship.**

EXT. SPACE

The shuttle turns slowly from the grim find and heads back toward the cruiser in the background, leaving their ill-fated predecessor behind. A metal coffin drifting in cold space.

EXT. SPACE - LATER

A CRESCENT of the planet, Theta Cygni 3, illuminated by the bright primary star. Home to a fateful orbital station.

A HUNK OF METAL ENTERS FRAME on the side. A burst of maneuvering jets on the bow slows the battle cruiser to a virtual standstill. Partially backlit by the star it makes an eerie silhouette.

The Persephone has arrived.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

The navigator studies her display intently.

**HAYES**

**(scanning)**

**The system's clean, sir. No signs of hostile presence. Shall we proceed to orbit?**

**DAVENPORT**

**Any news from the station?**

The tactical officer checks the com systems.

**CURTIZ**

**No long-range communications.**

The colonel remains silent for a beat, as if lost in thought. Briggs looks at him.

**DAVENPORT**

**(to Hayes)**

**Not yet. Check for anomalies in tachyon spectrum ahead.**

The navigator sets to work, finds something.

**HAYES**

**Sir...there seems to be a faint signature on the perimeter.**

**BRIGGS**

**Could be a TF gate for patrols.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Change our vector and shut us down, everything except tactical.**

**BRIGGS**

**Aye, sir. Shutting down.**

**(proceeding)**

**TFG...engineering...helm and weapons control offline.**

The engines boom shortly, then most of the screens and consoles turn dark as the navigation officer powers off all but the most vital systems to minimize the ship's energy signature. The place becomes quiet, vaguely lit. A dark electronic tomb.

**BRIGGS (CONT'D)**

**We are adrift. Radar shielding active, passive sensors online.**

EXT. SPACE

Tiny in infinite space, the cruiser is slowly drifting toward the planet. With advanced radar shielding and its systems turned off, the ship is virtually undetectable.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - LATER

Through the viewport, a small flash can be seen in the distance. Near the planet, en route to the station. Several screens show a silent warning, an incoming EM signature.

**CURTIZ**

**Contact.**

The officers turn to the screen intently.

EXT. SPACE

A group of three small spacecraft emerges from the glow. A reconnaissance shuttle flanked by an escort of two light fighters. A patrol.

The group flies the perimeter for several seconds, then a small Tachyon Gate opens right on their course, they enter and blaze off into hyperspace.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

In the command center, Curtiz is all business, studying readings on the monitors.

**DAVENPORT**

**Did they see us?**

**CURTIZ**

**Can't confirm, sir. They made a scan, but probably couldn't get a lock. If anything, we should look like floating debris, or a radar ghost.**

This doesn't satisfy the colonel. The cover may be compromised. He decides on the next move.

**DAVENPORT**

**Alright. No reason to hide now. If they found us, so be it. And if not, the surprise will be on their side.**

**(to Briggs)**

**Light us up. Head straight for the station. Put us on alert.**

**BRIGGS**

**(surprised)**

**Aye, sir.**

The officers power up the ship's systems. We HEAR the rising sounds of machines. Lights, projectors and consoles are lighting up, systems booting.

A LOUD ALARM signals increased combat readiness. Officers scurrying, everyone is on edge.

EXT. SPACE

The Persephone ignites its powerful main thrusters to gain speed. Then turns off the thrusters, continuing toward the far away station orbiting deep in the planet's umbra.

The cruiser moves into the shadow of the planet. The space is eerily dark and empty, as if telling of unseen dangers.

EXT. SPACE - LATER

The Persephone is slowly approaching high orbit of the planet. In the bleak light a slowly swirling massive storm of dark shades of yellow and green below.

**BRIGGS (V.O.)**

**Vigil one and two, assume vanguard positions and report.**

CLOSE ON A SIDE DOCK of the Persephone as two recon shuttles exit the large ship. Several patrol fighters fly by.

The two small vessels take guard half a dozen lengths away of the cruiser in front on each side. A beat.

**SHUTTLE ONE**

**Vigil one, all clear.**

**SHUTTLE TWO**

**Vigil two, nothing on radar.**

The two eyes and ears keep probing the eerie darkness as the ships move deeper into the planet's shade.

INT. CORRIDOR - ON WINDOW - PMC PERSEPHONE - LATER

Through a porthole-like window the planet can be seen from medium orbit. A baleful green veil of aurora borealis is swirling lightly in the upper atmosphere like faerie dust. Enchanting but poisonous.

After a moment, the strange reverie is interrupted quietly, ruthlessly nonetheless.

**BRIGGS (O.S.)**

**Sir, you're needed on deck.**

The colonel turns from the porthole to the major.

**DAVENPORT**

**I'll be right there.**

The old man looks back to the planet for a moment, as if trying to read his fate in the green mist outside. Briggs doesn't leave.

**DAVENPORT**

**What's on your mind, Nate?**

**BRIGGS**

**I know Captain Bailey is your friend and you are responsible for your men. But you know what's ahead of us. Do you think it's wise to put all our crews at risk like this?**

Davenport finally turns away. He regards his second-in-command calmly.

**DAVENPORT**

**It's the only way. You can't sit by when people's lives are at stake.**

As simple as that. Briggs nods.

The colonel and the major depart, leaving the frame filled with the green light of the aurora for a moment. Mesmerizing.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - TACTICAL - SHORTLY AFTER

In the tactical center, part of the bridge area, the officers are preparing tactical layout for the search and rescue mission. The major has the word.

**BRIGGS**

**We should secure the area before we engage in rescue operation. Starting with radar surveillance of the whole quadrant and assuming patrols along key entrance routes.**

**DAVENPORT**

**We don't have enough birds to cover a large perimeter. We'll make do with a minimum advance recon. They must know the Frontier Police tipped us off, we'll use it to our advantage. As far as they know, this is an official military operation. I don't want them to get any ideas.**

**BRIGGS**

**With all due respect, sir, we may be throwing away our only advantage. We'll be sitting ducks. For all we know, they may be hiding away somewhere, waiting for us.**

Suddenly Curtiz frowns at his screen which shows a feed of sudden activity, an indication of increasing hyperspace distortion. He turns to the colonel at tactical.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir! I'm getting a big reading! Large vessel entering space behind the station!**

Concerned, the officers turn to face the overhead screen.

EXT. SPACE

A MASSIVE LEVIATHAN EXPLODES INTO FRAME from hyperspace, seen whole for the first time. Its angular, heavily armored features reveal a battleship similar somewhat to Persephone, but heavier and superior in size and firepower.

A flying fortress.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

Screens show a pandemonium of data adding to the near complete turmoil on the bridge. Frenzied activity on deck.

**DAVENPORT**

**(to Briggs)**

**General Quarters!**

Briggs sets off the ALARM. It doesn't make too much of a difference in the commotion.

**BRIGGS**

**(to intercom)**

**General Quarters, this is not a drill! All hands man your battle stations! General Quarters, this is not a drill!**

The ship is promptly preparing for battle. Crews assuming their combat stations. Fighter pilots manning their birds. Bulkhead doors sealing to protect inner sections against explosive decompression.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The major presses a button on the command console.

**BRIGGS (CONT'D)**

**Closing blast shield.**

Heavy protective metal plates slide outside the viewport, obscuring the view on the station and the massive warship ahead. Except for the glare of the displays and terminals, the bridge is semi-dark, submarine-like.

The tactical officer speaks fast as he gathers critical information.

**CURTIZ**

**Destroyer, Goliath Class, STA designation Dauntless. Looks fully armed. Their transponder won't communicate with our systems, sir!**

The colonel turns at Curtiz.

**DAVENPORT**

**Contact the ship.**

Curtiz attempts to establish contact. No success. He looks at Davenport.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir, they are not responding!**

EXT. SPACE

WIDE SHOT The Persephone on the lower left side. On the right, the hulking destroyer, further away, but visibly larger than the cruiser and almost dwarfing the big orbital station in between. All eerily still and quiet in the vacuum of space, contrasting the chaos on board the Persephone.

After a beat, we notice something on the side of the destroyer. The dock.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

**CURTIZ**

**Sir! They are opening dock gates. Deploying fighters!**

**(checking)**

**Our fighters are ready to launch. The boarding crew is prepared.**

He looks at the colonel.

**DAVENPORT**

**(a grim beat)**

**Send them in.**

EXT. SPACE - ON THE DOCK OF THE DESTROYER

releasing an ASSAULT WAVE of the ship's SPACE SUPERIORITY FIGHTERS. Small, agile attack craft are pouring from the colossus and being joined by forces from the other side dock, almost a dozen in all. The swarm heads toward the cruiser.

The Persephone releases her own attack force, seven fighters guarding a recon shuttle in the rear.

INT./EXT. SQUADRON LEAD FIGHTER

A FEMALE SQUADRON LEADER -- the young lieutenant who has inherited the responsibility by stepping up to the colonel -- leads the flight.

**SQUADRON LEADER**

**Bogeys inbound. Weapons range in ten seconds. Request permission to engage.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Permission denied. We are here to secure the station, not to pick up a fight. Stay on your course and keep your cool. Nobody fires unless fired upon.**

Through the canopy the other group becomes visible. A cluster of dots in attack formation.

EXT. SPACE

The bigger fleet reaches the station. Instead of docking with the station, all the fighters evade the structure and continue toward the smaller group.

**SQUADRON LEADER**

**They are heading right toward us! We are locked on!**

**DAVENPORT**

**(icy)**

**Lock on them, but don't deviate. Stay in formation.**

The opposing groups approach fast, still on collision course.

Several craft adjust slightly. No one diverges.

**SQUADRON LEADER**

**(barely controlled)**

**We're about to make a pass...**

The enemy fighters CUT THROUGH, DANGEROUSLY CLOSE.

The hostile swarm passes, then abruptly BREAKS FORMATION to pursue individual targets.

**SQUADRON LEADER**

**Engage!**

The fleet spreads out to attack like a swarm of angry hornets. The recon shuttle punches full throttle toward the station.

**DAVENPORT (V.O.)**

**Hold your fire!**

Dogfighting ensues. The two fleets spread out. Fighters maneuver aggressively, bringing their guns to bear on their adversaries, trying to threaten the other group into retreat, but still no shots have been fired.

One of the enemy fighters tails and locks on the recon shuttle which is speeding away from the two groups. Another one approaches laterally and shoots directly in the path of the shuttle, forcing it to slow down.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Curtiz officer sees energy discharges on display.

**CURTIZ**

**I'm reading hostile fire!**

**SHUTTLE PILOT (LT CONNOLLY) (V.O.)**

**Across the bow!--**

EXT. SPACE - CONTINUOUS

The shuttle is racing ahead, firing its thrusters.

**SHUTTLE PILOT (LT CONNOLLY)**

\-- **I'm moving on!**

The craft maneuvers aptly, but it's too slow to escape its two assailants. The aft interceptor closes in. The lateral fighter swiftly turns toward the station and fires its afterburners to gain momentum.

Keeping his vector, the fighter turns toward the shuttle and stops it with three dangerously close bursts. Closes in on the slowing shuttle immediately to block its path, weapons locked. A grim face-off.

The second bogey fires an EMP projectile, temporarily disabling the shuttle. Returns to the fray.

**LT CONNOLLY**

**Looks like I'm grounded...**

The enemy fighters are pressing their offensive, but cannot get the upper hand. Suddenly, they cease their attack and form up on the side of the station. A stalemate.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The navigator is calling from her console.

**HAYES**

**Sir, they are breaking off the attack.**

**CURTIZ**

**They are hailing us.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Put it through.**

Davenport turns away from the consoles to the center of the bridge, looking evenly at the overhead display.

The connection is established. A GLOWERING FACE of the opposing leader, COMMANDER KEIFER, late 40s, appears on the large screen. He seems to stoop to address his counterpart.

**KEIFER**

**Cruiser designated Persephone, this is STA Dauntless. You have entered a restricted sector of the Space Trade Administration. This is your final warning. Withdraw immediately or you will pay for this intrusion.**

The colonel steps forward. If he's unsettled he doesn't show it one bit.

**DAVENPORT**

**(very direct)**

**This is Colonel Davenport, commanding officer of PMC Persephone, en route to investigate the orbital station and a felony against the fringe police force.**

**(calm but pushing it)**

**State your name and your business.**

The commander hesitates. Not the answer he was waiting for. He continues glaring at Davenport for a moment before he angrily responds.

**KEIFER**

**This is Commander Keifer from the STA defense division. Your mission has been called off. We are taking over. This is an internal operation and my orders are no business of yours. Leave!**

**DAVENPORT**

**Commander, this is not an STA operation anymore. A frontier officer was killed and I have my men on the station. I will not leave without them and without investigation.**

**KEIFER**

**You're no longer part of the administration, Colonel. You're a contractor with no official authority here. You're on your own.**

He pauses for effect.

**KEIFER (CONT'D)**

**As for the Fringe Patrol ship you found, we can't be held responsible for acting on the police illegally restricting our traffic in neutral space. I'm sure they'll get the message. Don't make the same mistake.**

Davenport looks at the commander hard, without flinching.

**DAVENPORT**

**Don't try to threaten me with your new company policy. The administration is not here. This is between you and me. You know I will not back down. I may not be able to defeat you, but if you attack me it'll cost you dearly.**

A beat.

**DAVENPORT (CONT'D)**

**My SAR shuttle will continue to dock with the station to retrieve my men. Don't try to stop them.**

Without paying more attention to the commander, the colonel glances at Curtiz to end the transmission. He does.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir, they are targeting our engine core and weapons array. They really mean it.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Return the favor.**

Curtiz glances at the grim faces of the other officers, hoping someone breaks the tension with a laugh. Nobody does.

Davenport addresses the stalled shuttle.

INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

**DAVENPORT (V.O.)**

**Badger two, proceed to the station at full speed. If they get in your path, ignore them. Let them get out of your way.**

**CONNOLLY**

**Roger.**

EXT. SPACE

The shuttle steers clear from the enemy fighter and starts toward the station. The ominous fighter remains stationary.

The departing shuttle becomes a little dot. Still nothing happens.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

The officers observe the shuttle disappearing toward the station on screen. Their faces brighten up, relieved. So far so good. The colonel's expression is unreadable.

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION

The shuttle approaches the dock on their side. They see Bailey's wrecked shuttle further away.

**CONNOLLY (V.O.)**

**Sir, I can see the captain's shuttle at the dock. Someone's made a mess of it. Can I check it out while they're still sitting on their asses?**

**DAVENPORT (V.O.)**

**Negative, Badger two. Proceed to dock.**

The shuttle settles on one of the free docking clamps on the side of the station.

**CONNOLLY (V.O.)**

**Docking complete. Opening hatch.**

The docking mechanisms lock. The entrance corridor is pressurized.

INT. DOCK - ORBITAL STATION

The ENTRY RAMP DOOR opens.

FOUR SOLDIERS in combat gear and pressure suits, armed with energy weapons, file out of the entry ramp. LT Connolly followed by the others we have glimpsed on the base:

A BREACHER (SGT BLACKWELL)

A CO-PILOT / TECHNICIAN (SPC OLSON), and

A MEDIC (PFC JENKINS)

Connolly and a thirty-ish, burly-looking Blackwell are armed with PLASMA RIFLES, elongated firearms with sharp, massive features. A quick-witted, efficient Olson, mid-twenties, has his taser/EMP pistol holstered. Jenkins, around twenty and somewhat guileless, wields a shorter, rounded SONIC GUN.

Olson uses his AIR ANALYSER, it reads GREEN. He nods to Connolly, Clear. They all take off their pressurized suits.

Connolly walks point, followed by Blackwell, Olson and Jenkins in a cordon. They head to Bailey' shuttle docked nearby. They see the wreckage of the shuttle still clamped outside.

Connolly addresses the cruiser through his headset.

**CONNOLLY**

**Persephone, Badger two. The shuttle's empty. They're gone.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Understood, Badger two. Look for our people. Use secure short-range frequency and maintain radio silence until I contact you or you find our men. Persephone out.**

Connolly glances at his team. They switch their headsets to short range.

Blackwell addresses Connolly with an air of mock-arrogance, something of a ritual to him.

**BLACKWELL**

**Whatcha think?**

The lieutenant finishes coding his com link. He answers without looking at Blackwell, keeping a straight face.

**CONNOLLY**

**No time for heroism this time. We'll find our buddies and bug out.**

Olson smirks good-naturedly at Blackwell. The three have a history. Jenkins smiles. Although competent enough, the medic seems to be newer on the team. Accepted, but not quite belonging.

**CONNOLLY (CONT'D)**

**Alright, let's get it done.**

Connolly takes the lead.

They move quickly, almost noiselessly into the derelict like a cordon of shadows. They sweep through the living quarters and move through the next corridor.

They take notice of the strange outcroppings coming from a vent and on the walls, grown somewhat bigger and more distinct in the partially lit interiors. They move on.

As they near the end of the empty corridor, Olson splits and flanks the cordon of three, observing his scanner intently. Shakes his head, nothing so far.

Connolly and Blackwell lead through several empty rooms and corridors, swiftly but quietly, covering their corners. The others following in a neat coordinated line. Olson glances at his scanner occasionally. They move on.

Back in another corridor, Olson's scanner emits a quiet beep. Connolly stops with his fist raised, signaling to the others. The technician moves forward, his eyes on the device, Connolly joins him. The others wait, weapons ready.

After a moment, Connolly indicates to move up. The soldiers tread on softly. They follow the reading, Olson indicates direction. The target is behind a heavy door.

Connolly tries the door carefully. It won't open. He knocks on the door.

**CONNOLLY**

**(to the door, loud)**

**You in there. Can you hear me? This is the rescue team. Open up!**

He listens, but can hear nothing.

**CONNOLLY**

**If you can hear me, stay away from the door! We're gonna blow it!**

He steps away. Blackwell attaches a small explosive charge to the door frame.

**BLACKWELL**

**Fire'n the hole!**

The soldiers retreat behind a corner. Blackwell sets off the charge on remote.

A DETONATION RIPS the metal door off its frame. It falls down with a CLANG. The soldiers rush in, covering the room.

INT. ROOM

They quickly scan the room. It's empty. They follow into the exit corridor. Nothing in there either. Olson looks at his scanner again. The signal is gone. They proceed into the next corridor.

They see nothing. A false alarm. They return back to the exit to the corridor.

Connolly stops, indicates for Blackwell and Jenkins to take the other path to the control center. They leave. Connolly looks at Olson who is skimming through records on a console. Connolly proceeds on, not straying far from the technician.

Back in the room, Olson crouches to have a look at a console.

Suddenly, the room plunges into complete DARKNESS and stillness. The power is cut.

The technician freezes, listening, reacting with primal apprehension to the development. Feeble emergency lights kick in. He stands up.

A DARK SILHOUETTE emerges behind him, resembling a big man. It has been hidden behind heavy metal crates by the wall, shielding it from the scanner. It stands completely still. Then comes out. The technician doesn't see it.

INT. CORRIDOR

Connolly turns and hurries back.

INT. ROOM

In near darkness, Olson lowers his night vision visor, tries to adjust it.

The scanner BEEPS. Olson snaps around to face the figure as it LUNGES, GRABBING HIM.

A struggle ensues. Olson fights to free himself. His headset falls on the floor.

INT. CORRIDOR

Hearing the rumble, Connolly rushes back to the corridor leading to the room.

He can see his friend in a deathly grip, almost lifted from the ground, the obscure figure CLAWING AT HIS FACE. Connolly tries to get a clear shot. He can't, the struggling technician is in his line of fire.

Connolly rushes in. The creature releases its victim, disappears in the corridor.

**CONNOLLY**

**(running, to headset)**

**Contact! Hostile heading your way!**

Connolly reaches the intersection. Looks into the corridor. Clear.

He returns to his dying brother in arms. With his throat torn open, carotid artery severed, Olson is lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, an expression of surprise and terror on his mangled face. Nothing he can do.

Connolly returns his gaze to the empty corridor. He takes the handgun of the fallen man and starts to follow.

He walks quickly but softly through the corridor, listening intently.

He proceeds through another office. Stops, hearing a distant, urgent voice.

**JENKINS (O.S.)**

**Freeze!**

There is a low, resounding BOOM of a sonic gun, followed by a SCREAM. Several higher-pitched SWISHES of a plasma rifle. GLASS SHATTERING. Things are spinning out of control fast. Connolly runs in the direction of more plasma shots.

He reaches a room, sees Jenkins on the ground, wounded, his sonic gun tossed aside. Blackwell is LAYING OUT FIRE with his plasma rifle at an indistinct figure among equipment. Connolly joins in, OPENS FIRE with his own plasma gun.

The abomination retreats into a corridor, sending things CRASHING down, vanishes.

Blackwell rushes out in pursuit.

Connolly returns to the wounded medic, examines his wound in the stomach. It is deep but not life-threatening. He takes out the first aid kit from Olson's backpack and starts patching him up, quietly talking to him to keep him conscious.

**CONNOLLY**

**Don't die on me, buddy. I'll have enough paperwork as it is.**

Jenkins smiles weakly. Connolly's face hardens at the inadvertent allusion to the technician's demise. His responsibility.

**CONNOLLY (CONT'D)**

**(to headset)**

**Don't go far. If you've lost him, return back. We'll track him together.**

**BLACKWELL (V.O.)**

**(reluctant)**

**Roger.**

Connolly finishes the bandage.

**CONNOLLY**

**(to Jenkins)**

**Can you walk?**

Jenkins retrieves a hypo spray from his sack and takes a shot. He nods, gets up, with Connolly's help. He can walk without support, although in visible pain.

**JENKINS**

**I'll be fine.**

Blackwell returns.

**BLACKWELL**

**I lost'im at the junctions. Couldn't keep up, he's fast.**

**CONNOLLY**

**Did you have a good look?**

**BLACKWELL**

**Wasn't much to see in the dark. It looked like a man. But it's like he's burned, or mutated.**

**(realizing they are missing someone)**

**Where's Olson?**

Blackwell can read the answer from Connolly's severe face.

**BLACKWELL**

**(low, stricken)**

**Shit.**

The burly breacher stands motionless. A short moment of remembrance, tribute to the fallen comrade.

**CONNOLLY (CONT'D)**

**We can't take Olson's body with us. We'll return for him when we are done.**

Connolly walks on through the corridor. Stops. Blackwell still does not move, as if torn between an urge to see his dead friend and to crush the enemy. He advances to take point. Connolly lets him.

They proceed. Connolly, in the rear, tries to operate Olson's scanner, not very familiar with the device. The wounded man in the middle. Connolly picks up some signals, tries to get oriented in the information it provides.

**CONNOLLY**

**This way.**

They head further into the bowels of the station.

INT. LABORATORY

In the background, a small security monitor shows the corridor the soldiers just left. In foreground:

A dark fluid is extracted from tissue by a pipette, then dropped into a vial with light fluid. It grows into a dark cloud, seemingly absorbing the liquid.

In the moderately lit laboratory, Samuels adjusts his microscope, observing the reaction.

Behind him, an array of lab equipment on the table. Linn is lying on another table, unconscious. A line from her cervical vertebrae is draining drops of spinal fluid into another vial.

Samuels stops the flow. He mixes the two fluids and puts it into a laboratory machine on the desk, A DNA SEQUENCER. He studies the values on display; strains of recombinant DNA, genes encoding proteins.

Samuels keeps working, checking his sample methodically in an electronic microscope, scribbles a note. Then he looks at Linn for a moment, as if perceiving something we can't see, surprised by a sudden surge of emotion, recollection of a memory long forgotten. Of what might have been.

A flicker of tension crosses his usually featureless face as he is observing the girl with a mixture of conflicted desire. It is an uncomfortable moment, tender almost.

And then it's gone.

He returns to his magnum opus, creation that will surpass humanity.

INT. CORRIDOR

The three soldiers continue down the corridor. The breacher seems absorbed, driven. He starts to gain, not waiting for Connolly and the wounded medic.

**CONNOLLY**

**Stay close. I mean it!**

**BLACKWELL**

**(oblivious)**

**You go look. I'm gonna find this fucker. He's mine.**

Blackwell grips his gun more tightly and exits into an adjoining corridor, his bad temper fueling his movement like a dynamo. Connolly glances after Blackwell for a beat.

Connolly returns to Jenkins and they go another way. He gives the tech's scanner to Jenkins and resumes his place on point. They enter another passage.

As they move toward cargo bay, we hear a BUTTON being pressed. The picture wears down to a video screen image, freezes into a SNAPSHOT.

Samuels is frowning at Connolly and the now distinguishable insignia on his fatigues. A beat.

Samuels uses the communication link to connect with the destroyer through HIGH-PRIORITY STA frequencies. Works quickly -- he has done it before. The display bleeping "STANDING BY". After a long moment he is uninvited by the commander's scowling face.

**SAMUELS**

**Sir, this is Adam Samuels. I have vital information on the research conducted on the station. It is imperative that I return with the samples to the administration labs.**

The commander's face remains unyielding.

**KEIFER**

**That's not my problem anymore. The station has been put under quarantine, I'm responsible for my people only. If the station goes down, you go down.**

The transmission is ended. Samuels stares at the empty screen, thinking frantically. Making a decision, Samuels engages the console again. He uses high security clearance to his research program. A myriad of data on monitor as he works. And a line:

REACTOR ONLINE. COMMENCING SEQUENCE.

INT. PASSAGEWAY TO PRISON BLOCK

Blackwell continues on his path of vengeance, slowing down hearing rumble from behind a corner.

He clears the corner. At the end of the corridor at another junction, he can see the back of a man in a tattered uniform suit.

The figure is hammering savagely at the lock of a door leading to the prison block, brutally beating with his fists against metal. The mechanism gives. With inhuman force the man wrenches the heavy door open.

Without making a sound, Blackwell continues through the corridor, a white-knuckled grip on his rifle. Intent on his prey.

Suddenly the figure freezes, as if perceiving the presence with some sixth sense. Darts to a corridor, lightning fast. Blackwell FIRES, misses. He races to the junction.

Long corridor. Empty. Not a sound.

Then a glimpse of a movement from an adjoining corridor.

Blackwell starts to follow.

EXT. SPACE - ORBIT

The two warships and the fighters still at a grim impasse.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

Another news at the command center. Hayes calls to the colonel.

**HAYES**

**Sir, there's something with our sensors. We have a lot of interference. I think we're being jammed.**

The display reveals the com channels, tortured by interference.

INT./EXT. PMC SHUTTLE

The shuttle moves carefully nearer to the station, studying heat signatures.

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**Sir. It's not the Dauntless. It comes from the station. Something's scrambling our systems.**

The shuttle stops at a distance from the station, scanning.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

Curtiz away from his station to the colonel.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir, our scanners indicate an unusual heat source inside the structure. Something's going on in there.**

**DAVENPORT**

**The reactor?**

**CURTIZ**

**It's not localized, sir. It's more like the hull's warming up slightly.**

**BRIGGS**

**(wary)**

**The Dauntless is moving.**

The officers turn to an overhead display.

EXT. SPACE - THE DAUNTLESS

as the huge ship moves in position to cover both the Persephone and the station. They have noticed too.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Suddenly the defense systems BLARE A WARNING.

**CURTIZ**

**Rockets, fired at the station!**

EXT. SPACE - THE DAUNTLESS

The destroyer fires a SALVO OF EIGHT ROCKETS toward the orbital station in a coordinated coup de main strike at different sections of the station to tear it apart.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Curtiz, working frantically.

**CURTIZ**

**Eight rockets! Targeting various sections!**

The colonel takes a headset to address the fighters close by.

**DAVENPORT**

**(to pilots)**

**Skyhawk one and two, dispatch them!**

**SQUADRON LEADER (V.O.)**

**Roger.**

**WINGMAN (V.O.)**

**Aye, sir.**

The two nearest fighters engage their thrusters to intercept the missiles.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

Curtiz works hurriedly the weapons array controls. Targets the missiles.

EXT. SPACE

Persephone's laser turrets swirl to life.

EXT. SPACE

The rockets are advancing fast, using small maneuvering jets to alter trajectory slightly every second while being locked on the target.

The two interceptors dart after the salvo, shoot the first rocket out of the sky. They move to intercept the next.

The Persephone fires its weapons. The laser turrets BLAZE, destroying the quickly moving targets on the other side one after another, three rockets. Fourth is hit by the wingman, diverted, explodes.

The squadron leader homes in on another. Takes it out.

The last two missiles evade.

**SQUADRON LEADER**

**Two got through!**

The laser turrets try to follow the two rockets as they disappear behind the station. Too late.

The SECOND ROCKET'S P.O.V.: the station is looming large very fast. The first rocket hits the hull, EXPLODES on impact. The other one diverges and SMASHES into another section. Cut to:

EXT. STATION - CONTINUOUS

Bulkheads EXPLODE causing an infernal gale, the interiors are torn apart. Several labs we have seen are washed out into space. It all happens very fast.

INT. STATION - SEVERAL SECTIONS

as more loss of air is prevented by bulkhead doors CLOSING automatically. The wind abates. The breached part of the lab complex becomes deathly still in the vacuum of space.

INT. STATION - CONTINUOUS

In another lab, Samuels stops his work. Looks up from his work as the room shakes lightly. Well away from the areas of impact, the explosions are more felt than heard. Blackout lasting only a second. He takes his memory crystal and starts copying his work. The download starts.

Samuels withdraws from his chair. Dwelling on the display for a beat, we hear the sound of a magazine being ejected and re-inserted after he checks its content. A round is chambered. We hear retreating steps. The door opening and closing. The file transfer continues.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

The officers see the devastation on the station. Davenport tries to contact the deployed crew.

**DAVENPORT**

**Badger two, Persephone. Report!**

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION - CONTINUOUS

The injured station looms ahead. Davenport repeats the message O.S. There's no reply.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Davenport turns to the other officers on the bridge.

**DAVENPORT**

**What's their status?**

**BRIGGS**

**They are not receiving.**

**(hopefully)**

**Could be the interference.**

**CURTIZ**

**There's hull breach in several sections of the station. Power failures throughout.**

**DAVENPORT**

**(to Curtiz)**

**Is the signal still there?**

**CURTIZ**

**Yes, sir.**

**(beat)**

**Sir, the Dauntless is hailing us again.**

This isn't gonna be pretty.

The commander is very brief, and very angry.

**KEIFER**

**Your men have twenty minutes to return to my custody. If they disobey or you interfere again, there will be more than one wreck when I leave.**

The transmission is ended abruptly.

EXT. SPACE

The ravaged part of the station. Debris floating by. The HULL of the Dauntless in the foreground. Menacing.

We move forward to the station and through. The pitch black insides of the station engulf us for a moment.
**Part 3**

FLASHBACK

A view of the station, like through x-ray. Very complex, yet simple and perfect like a mandala.

It merges with various other stimuli: the station structures, machines, binary code in perfect unison. Moving closer to the center, a form is about to take shape as we cut to:

DARKNESS

A tranquil, quiet beat.

Breathing.

A distant hum of machinery.

A TREMOR goes through the dark, quiet place followed by a distinct PLOP sound. Clear and sharp. All the faint sounds are rich and clear as if magnified. FADE IN:

Lockwood opens his eyes slowly, feeling the tremor.

Very clear-headed, though physically weak, he slowly sits up on a bed in a SMALL, DIRTY CELL. He takes in the environment. How long has he been there?

Several drops of condensed water fall from the cracked ceiling with distinct PLOPS into a puddle of filthy water. Another tremor gently vibrates the small room.

Lockwood looks at the exit from the place. Instead of bars, the cell is guarded by a COBALT BLUE FORCE FIELD at the entrance.

He stands up and approaches the glowing field of energy.

INT./EXT. PRISON CELL

Lockwood looks through the space where the energy field meets the iron frame of the door, looking for any sign of occupancy.

The place seems desolate, empty. He can only hear low humming of machinery.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Linn?...is anybody there?**

There's no sound. His weakness subsiding, Lockwood turns around and quickly takes stock of the cell. Some litter on the floor, nothing useful.

He goes back to the bed, searches it quickly, carefully. Feeling through the mattress he finds something. He tears a PIECE OF METAL and fabric from the mattress.

He returns back to the force field, studies it quickly. There is a SMALL CONSOLE attached to the wall on the outer side that operates the field, and which is itself protected by a field.

He wraps the piece of fabric torn from the mattress around the piece of metal to get a grip and tries to touch the field with the exposed end. It gets repelled. He touches it carefully with his fingers. Can't get through, the field generates counter-pressure to prevent self-mutilation.

He tries to push through by force. No success.

He is about to turn away when there is ANOTHER TREMOR. He notices the lighting gets dimmer for a moment, but also the energy field seems weakened for a split-second, then it returns to normal. Apparently the primary power source of the field generator is gone and the reactor is unstable.

He waits for the next perturbation, then JABS the scrap of metal through the field and INTO THE CONSOLE. There is an electric discharge and the force field DISSIPATES.

Leaving the cell he notices the battery on the wall panel is SMASHED, destroyed.

More damage in the corridor interior. With the premonition of things gone very bad he hurries toward the labs.

INT. STATION - SAMUELS'S ABANDONED LAB

TIGHT ON DISPLAY showing reactor control. Text on display appears:

WARNING. SUPERCONDUCTOR FAILURE, CRYOSTAT OVERHEATING.

INT. ENGINEERING - CORRIDOR

As Lockwood enters the Engineering area he becomes aware of a voice droning in the background. Dull, blurred, unintelligible.

He calls out.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Linn?**

No response. There is increasing degree of devastation as he hurries through the corridor.

He reaches another bulkhead door. The adjoining section is breached. Locked out. He runs on. COMPUTER VOICE somewhere from the corridor, becoming more insistent, relentless.

He opens the door leading further to Engineering. The voice becomes clear enough for Lockwood to make out. And it's not good.

**COMPUTER VOICE**

**Containment... compromised... estimated... critical...**

He runs toward the voice in the reactor area.

A door opens at the side, he stops. The adjoining corridor leads to the escape capsules.

The pods are still there.

He looks at a camera on the wall for a beat, understanding the challenge. At the hopeless devastation around. Making a decision, he turns away and races toward Reactor Control.

INT. REACTOR BAY - CORRIDOR

Lockwood runs into the corridor leading to the reactor core. He rips open the cabinet on the wall, produces a heavy protective suit. Suits up hastily. He remembers the code from Samuels' entry, punches it in.

The door rolls open and he rushes into the reactor room. The computer voice drones on throughout.

**COMPUTER VOICE**

**(now fully intelligible)**

**Warning. Fusion containment field has been compromised. Estimated time until reactor reaches critical state -- T minus 30 seconds and counting.**

INT. REACTOR CONTROL ROOM

Lockwood rushes into the control room. He quickly scans the unfamiliar contraptions and displays showing warnings of imminent reactor chamber breach. He finds the fusion containment terminal. The display reads:

CONTAINMENT FAILURE. REPLACE SUPERCONDUCTING ELECTROMAGNET.

REMOTE ACCESS LOCKED OUT.

He HITS a big square EMERGENCY MANUAL OVERRIDE button making the display go to:

MANUAL OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS.

The display shows the state of the fusion reaction inside the reactor chamber which is visible through the gallery. On the display we can see plasma glowing LIGHT BLUE with incredible temperature on the display, separated from the containment chamber by a weakening magnetic field.

He now knows what he has to do. He looks at a compartment with a ROBOTIC HAND and a set of replacements in a compartment behind the viewing gallery, operated by the terminal. He takes a deep breath.

He hits a large RED BUTTON at the main console. The protective plating lifts up to REVEAL A BLUE-WHITE PLASMA SPHERE, glowing through the thick dark glass into the gallery and bathing the control room with hard radiation.

Gasses escape the core into the room. Geiger counters screech insanely, at top of their range. The heavy door closes automatically.

**COMPUTER VOICE**

**Warning. Ionizing radiation hazard. Evacuate all personnel from reactor control section.**

Lockwood moves as quickly as the bulky suit allows, frantically operating a terminal from behind the dark protective glass. Using the robotic hand he inserts a replacement for the malfunctioning electromagnet. Done. He SLAMS the red button.

As the containment chamber descends again, Lockwood sees the blue magnetic field over the glowing core strengthening. Stabilizing. The Geiger counters quiet down somewhat.

On screen the reactor still shows critical values, but seems stable for now. He enters the decontamination chamber.

INT. DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER

Still in his protective suit, Lockwood presses one of several large buttons to start the procedure. A shower of foam envelops the suit. Then liquid hits the suit from countless high-pressure jets. Steam-washing. Hot drying.

The door outside opens. Lockwood walks out.

He disposes of the suit. Warily, he picks up a rad indicator attached to the insides of the suit. It shows light gray. The exposure wasn't safe, but not long enough to cause radiation poisoning. He should be okay. He exhales with relief. But there is no time to spare.

He sets out to find Linn. As he hurries through the corridor there is an incoming transmission from somewhere on the station. He stops.

**SAMUELS (O.S.)**

**You have guts, I must admit. No matter. You better get out of here while you can.**

The transmission ends. Then, an afterthought:

**SAMUELS (O.S) (CONT'D)**

**You don't need to worry about Linn. Playtime's over.**

Anxious and angry, Lockwood runs further into the lab system, searching frantically. He moves into the lab complex where Samuels did most of his work.

INT. LABORATORY

The room and the adjoining labs are empty, abandoned. Some laboratories' equipment is shattered, as if to destroy evidence of the work conducted there. No trace of Linn. The place seems more deserted than ever before.

He reaches another laboratory, seeing a computer on with Samuels's memory crystal still attached. "File transfer completed, re-enter your personal code" on an otherwise black display.

Lockwood takes out the dead man's ID, finds the number on it. Enters the code. The display flashes on with data.

He finds records of past communication. One catches his eye -- a classified message to the STA military. He plays the message.

**SAMUELS'S VOICE**

**This is Assistant Operations Manager Adam Samuels, TEC 237847, I request a military coverage of traffic in NQ4, Cygnus sector...**

Lockwood ends the message, copies it to the crystal. Goes quickly through the rest. Other files and records.

A map-like grid of some kind. He observes it with interest, he knows what it is. Scans through the records, skims through the text: "Subject's condition can be reversed after administering the original batch of the serum immediately after infection" and "More advanced stages of transformation are irreversible" among other things.

Lockwood opens Samuels's previous work, observes for a beat. Delves into the program, working fast.

He hears distant plasma blasts and angry bellowing, sounds of fight. He quickly pockets the crystal and Samuels's keycard. Follows the sounds into the corridor at a run.

The sounds of violent struggle are truncated suddenly. He slows down, moves carefully.

INT. CORRIDOR

As he continues toward the cargo bay, he hears the sound of hydraulics. A lift going up from lower maintenance. With a quiet metallic THUD, the lift settles on the floor.

Lockwood hears approaching steps. Heavy, clumsy. He hides in an alcove next to a door, waiting. A figure is walking the corridor, still unseen.

Lockwood stands noiseless. Considering whether to confront whatever is in the corridor or stay put and find Linn.

He remains still. The steps seem to vanish behind a door.

Lockwood moves on to the door indicated CARGO BAY. He opens the gate door, invited by the darkness yawning from inside. A deep shadow emerges in the corridor behind him.

INT. CARGO BAY

Lockwood enters, backlit from the corridor, the only source of light. Darkness engulfs him as he steps from the door into the cargo bay.

He switches on his flashlight. Sweeps the small beam through the darkness. Cautiously scans the vast, dark place.

A Stygian metal pit, lit from the pathway on the other end. Darkness penetrated by the beam of his flashlight.

Rows of crates on top of each other, some reaching almost up to the ceiling. Heavy loading machinery. Shadowy corners. Lots of places to hide.

Lockwood moves in the dark cavernous place, walking carefully among the rows of crates. He proceeds, watching the corners. He walks through the maze toward the exit corridor.

Seeing something, he approaches a wall of crates. A flurry of movement. A scavenger parasite, scurrying away from the light.

He moves on.

He reaches the far end of the cavernous room, comes into the corridor and into an equipment storage room.

INT. LAB. EQUIPMENT STORAGE ROOM

He goes across the room and stops, seeing a sarcophagus-like equipment. A storage container for disposing of biological material, large enough to accommodate a body. The partially translucent glass cover shows it is full. A shape of a body seen through the glass.

Lockwood looks at it with deep apprehension. Dreading this moment, he approaches the container.

He tries to use controls at its side. No effect. It seems to be locked. He struggles with the container, trying to open it by force. He claws at it desperately.

At last he manages to wrench the door open, revealing the insides of the container. Only garments and medical material. He exhales.

Hearing something he spins around, looking INTO the barrel of his 0.45. Samuels is looking at him like he is some specimen that didn't quite fulfill an expectation. Samuels shakes his head.

**SAMUELS**

**You know, I almost thought we could be friends. But you have no idea what you're dealing with here. The power that I command. I can make those things do whatever I want, become whatever I want. I create a destiny no man could ever conceive. A new order of existence.**

Lockwood makes a step forward, prompting Samuels to squeeze the trigger with more pressure. A glint of madness in his eyes. He has gone over the edge.

The mutated prisoner comes to him, without Samuels doing anything but clearly at his bidding. Stays still. Samuels continues speaking. Cold and equally dangerous.

**SAMUELS**

**You should have walked away when I gave you the chance. What is she to you? A bag of flesh for you to grow old with? See her wither and die? Don't fool yourself, I can give her much more than you could ever imagine.**

He looks at the creation at his side, not without admiration.

**SAMUELS (CONT'D)**

**Humanity's obsolete, Corporal.**

**(pause)**

**The captain wasn't willing to kill you, but he was a dead end in evolution, like those filthy scavengers that you see in the corridors. I have perfected my work on this specimen. This is a superior form. Stronger, faster. One hundred percent reliable.**

He steps back as if withdrawing his protection from Lockwood. The prisoner-creature steps forward to Lockwood. Hardly human in its final phase of transformation. Wounded, but not visibly affected. It remains motionless for a moment. A Herculean statue with its mangled face distorted into an inhuman grin. Lockwood stands still, controlled.

Samuels, enthralled, lowers his gun.

Lockwood CHARGES Samuels with his fists with fury we haven't seen before, tossing the gun in the process.

The creature reacts immediately. Lockwood fights like a madman, able to match the ferocity, but not the strength of the attack, ending on the floor badly bruised.

Lockwood expecting the coup de grace.

But it's not coming.

Samuels, bruised and bloodied, sees his puppet turn its head and follows its gaze. His cold smile freezes.

With a resonating BOOM, the creature is HURLED BACKWARD at the wall, hit squarely by a SONIC WAVE from Jenkins's weapon.

JENKINS AND CONNOLLY LAY OUT A CURTAIN OF PLASMA FIRE at the prisoner from a corridor.

The creature gets hit, as do stored canisters with industrial liquids at its side. They BURST INTO FLAMES.

Samuels jumps to the door controls. Closes the door, cutting the soldiers off. Locks.

The lacerated monster turns back to Lockwood.

A FACE emerges from the shadows of an entrance. It is partially mangled, disfigured by the strange mass, but the EYES are clear, burning with purpose. CAPTAIN BAILEY HURLS HIMSELF AT THE ABOMINATION, SHOVES IT INTO THE FIRE.

The FIRE RAGES as more canisters explode, engulfing both the prisoner and Bailey.

Samuels flees.

Lockwood looks helplessly as his friend vanishes in the flames, the FIRE REFLECTED IN HIS EYES. Dazed.

He hears Linn's short SCREAM. Then there's nothing, only the sound of fire burning and the two soldiers breaking the door.

With impossible difficulty, he peels his eyes from the fire. He scrambles up and runs toward the source of the scream.

INT. LABORATORY

He dashes into Samuels's laboratory, nearby. Sees Linn's pallid, restrained body on the desk. Lifeless.

Lockwood rushes to her. Linn is unresponsive, comatose. He looks at the machines, at the computer terminal, trying to make out the nature of the procedure Linn is going through.

Lines going from a machine to a vein on her arm. He can see a surge of liquid, the mixture Samuels has been preparing, descending from a chemical dispenser through the line. He quickly removes the lines, but it's too late. The dark liquid has already entered her body.

Lockwood checks Linn quickly. She is breathing shallowly, her skin turning sick gray. Whatever she has been injected is taking effect. He looks around the lab, thinking fast.

He searches the table, finds a pack of ampules with the alien extract. He quickly goes through the dates stamped on the ampules. He takes the first, original batch and quickly puts it into a hypo spray. Injects her. He checks her vitals, nothing. All in vain. He embraces the body in despair.

Finally, Linn coughs weakly. Her skin slowly regains color. Her breathing becomes regular.

He raises her upper body to ease her breathing. Holds her firmly in his arms.

INT. DOCKING BAY - ENTRY RAMP

Samuels runs into the entry ramp to the escape pods. Bloodied and distraught, desperately focused on his means of escape.

INT./EXT. ESCAPE POD

Samuels reaches the escape pod. He seals the door, prepares hastily for disconnection from the station. Works frantically with the little pod's console.

A CLANG of the compartments separating. The pod is freed.

EXT. ESCAPE POD

The pod detaches from the station, moving into space. Samuels uses its four small maneuvering jets to gain distance from the structure.

A menacing shadow plays over the tiny pod.

Samuels looks up, his eyes widening with horror. His face is engulfed by the shadow.

A METAL SECTION, ripped out from the hull by the explosion, has been traveling by the side of the station, now descends toward the pod.

It HITS the tiny pod, CRACKING the canopy along its length. A hole forms, hissing ominously, venting out precious oxygen.

Samuels is trying to catch a breath of the rapidly thinning air, trying desperately to block the flow with his clothes, his bare hands, which get sucked to the glass momentarily, but he can't stop what's coming. He loses pressure fast.

On his last exhalation, we can almost see his face bloat slightly, his saliva boiling off of his tongue in the vacuum, draining some of his body heat and last oxygen into space.

The light is waning from Samuels's FRIGHTENED, WIDE OPEN EYES, staring hopelessly after the station. He touches the glass with his hand in a desperate gesture.

His EYES BECOMING BLOODSHOT as the small veins burst in the lack of pressure. His fate is catching up with him.

His body starts to convulse, trying to fight death. His fate. The void. Thrashing mindlessly.

Then it stops, relaxes.

Samuels is floating in the crashed escape pod, like a broken doll.

INT. LAB. EQUIPMENT STORAGE ROOM

The two soldiers force their way through the door into the room. Connolly takes a fire extinguisher from the wall, starts putting out the fire on the side. Jenkins stands by to give assistance. His face registers a mixture of horror and sympathy.

INT. LABORATORY

Lockwood is holding Linn. Regaining some of her strength, she returns his embrace like they will never part.

They hold on tightly to one another. Truly together at last.

The two soldiers enter. Seeing the two survivors huddled together, Connolly's features soften a little. Lockwood glances at him.

**CONNOLLY**

**It's over, Corporal. We can return back to the ship.**

His voice is interrupted by a TREMOR. They can feel the walls tremble, as if the material is being stretched to the limit. Lockwood and Linn stand up.

EXT. ORBITAL STATION

A PMC shuttle moves carefully closer to the station, blazing its searchlights over the battered and ruptured hull from a distance.

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**Sir, there's movement in the hull.**

**DAVENPORT (V.O.)**

**What is it?**

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**Something in the outer bulkheads. It looks like a biomass of some sort.**

The shuttle moves closer to the hole. Scanning.

INT./EXT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT

The pilot looks at a display showing a detailed analysis of the surface composition.

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**...an alloy of silicon, metal compounds and biological material of unknown origin. It's moving. Growing.**

The hole in the hull seem to be filling with some sort of a bio-mechanical composite, dark green in color.

**SHUTTLE PILOT**

**It's definitely expanding. I say again, this thing is coming through the hull!**

The shuttle backs away.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

In the command center, Curtiz is getting more information on the displays.

**CURTIZ**

**I'm receiving more transmissions from the station.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Can you read it?**

**CURTIZ**

**(studying)**

**I can't make sense of it. It doesn't look like anything I've seen before.**

**HAYES**

**Maybe it's not meant for us to read.**

**CURTIZ**

**It doesn't look like a message, sir. It's just a signal, strengthening.**

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION

The hole torn in the hull seems to heal. Teal bio-matter covers the jagged edges, almost enveloping it.

A PMC shuttle moves closer, confirming visually what its telemetry shows.

**PMC SHUTTLE**

**Sir, there's movement in one of the blast holes. Something's separating from the station.**

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

**CURTIZ**

**Confirmed, sir. Unidentified spacecraft bearing on us.**

INT. ORBITAL STATION - LABORATORY

Seeing something, Lockwood walks to adjoining OBSERVATORY.

There is a heavy compact window overlooking the warships, and SOMETHING ELSE. The others catch up, transfixed.

EXT. SPACE - ORBITAL STATION

A small rounded alien craft, A BIOMECHANICAL SHIP, emerges from the hole created by one of the missiles. It vaguely resembles a drop, outlandish, dark green and smooth.

The alien craft heads toward the two warships, attracting the heavy weapons of the Dauntless. It stops less than halfway from the station.

Remains still for a beat, as if assessing the threat ahead.

INT. OBSERVATORY - THROUGH WINDOW - ORBITAL STATION

The alien ship hovering outside facing the Persephone. Seen from the station this is a strange moment, quiet and serene. The surface of the vessel seems to be almost alive.

**LINN (O.S.)**

**(quietly)**

**No.**

EXT. SPACE

The HULL STRUCTURE of the alien spacecraft shows tiny changes in its plain architecture. Structures emerge, as if mimicking steel plating. Becoming more solid.

The shape of the spacecraft changes, growing bigger and more fighter-like. Crude and elegant at the same time, the smooth compact material is being shaped as if drawn from liquid metal by an emerging virtuoso.

More structures become distinct -- weapons on the bow and short wings, engine nacelles.

The transformation is complete. A first contact. Everything is still for a moment.

Suddenly, the alien vessel blasts MASSIVE ENERGY BEAMS ON THE DAUNTLESS from its forward lasers. Converging before impact they hit it like lightning, damaging the hull, tearing through the bow.

The wounded colossus is motionless for an agonizing beat in the wake of a powerful EM blast, several of its bow sections visibly crumbling with explosive decompression.

Then the Dauntless UNLEASHES HELL OF HER OWN. Rockets fire. Batteries and turrets blaze with ungodly ferocity.

The alien fighter remains motionless, admitting the first wave of devastation without visible damage, the explosions seem to be absorbed by a thin, veil-like shielding covering the structure. The strange craft's lasers cutting through hull like hot knife through butter.

THE PERSEPHONE JOINS IN.

The two warships shower the alien spacecraft with massive laser and artillery fire.

Meanwhile, fighters on both sides break ranks to engage aggressively, momentarily distracting the invader from the two ships, paying with heavy losses.

ALL HELL has broken loose on the battlefield. Lasers firing. Rockets exploding. Beams destroying turrets, tearing through hull.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

In the observatory the four witness the losing battle in space. Lockwood turns abruptly to Connolly.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Is there any way to contact them?**

Connolly shakes his head.

**CONNOLLY**

**Their channels are closed. We can't reach them with what we've got now.**

His head spinning, Lockwood takes out Samuels's crystal quickly.

**LOCKWOOD**

**Can we send other traffic?**

Unsure, Connolly gives his com-link to Lockwood. Lockwood attaches the crystal to Connolly's device. Starts transmitting.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

In the war-torn control center, Curtiz sees incoming traffic on his console. He receives the STA research file, showing information on general biomechanic and electromagnetic properties of the alien form.

He can see the net-like map of the smooth biomass in the early stage of its development, a weak point in the lower part of the map of its electromagnetic field, the base of the developing NEOCORTEX. In the havoc the alien craft is wreaking on the ship, Curtiz watches the display with growing realization.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir!**

EXT. SPACE

Persephone's batteries start tracking the front part of the hull, focusing its firepower on a point below the elevated bow of the fighter. The strange shielding covering the hull of the ship begins to break up.

Some of the remaining heavy ordnance gets through. The first hits take limited effect.

The remaining fighters regroup, move in for a coordinated strike. The Dauntless rejoins with what she has left. The fighters open fire, their lasers converging.

A surge of massive firepower CUTS THROUGH the alien craft. It EXPLODES into a cloud of debris. Seems to disintegrate into space.

The devastation is nearly complete. The Persephone is severely battered. The Dauntless is clearly out of commission; a beaten Goliath. Fragments of fighters and debris around.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

**DAVENPORT**

**Report!**

**BRIGGS**

**We've taken serious damage. Hull integrity is low. We have several casualties of explosive decompression in breached bulkheads on decks B and C on the bow. Other sections are damaged. We've lost four fighters.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Secure all damaged bulkheads. Evacuate damaged sections and have inspection teams check them out.**

**BRIGGS**

**Aye, sir.**

Davenport presses a button on the command panel.

The view through the opening blast shield REVEALS the sheer scale of damage, chunks of debris floating in space.

**DAVENPORT**

**Contact the destroyer.**

**CURTIZ**

**Yes, sir.**

As they open the channel, the commander's face looks down at the colonel from the screen once again. Fierce enough but with grudging respect.

**DAVENPORT**

**(stern)**

**What's your status, Commander?**

**KEIFER**

**(pause)**

**It's not good, Colonel. Hull's a complete mess, I have casualties, life-support barely holding.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Do you need assistance?**

Keifer looks at Davenport for a beat. No he's not joking. The commander considers the offer. This is clearly not easy for him, but he will do it for his crew.

**KEIFER**

**We could use help. And medical supplies.**

The colonel nods, it's the least he can do.

EXT. SPACE

A truce has been declared, a joint operation has been launched. Several shuttles cruise between the two ships, others survey the damage, use tractor beams to move steel plates to where the hulls were most damaged in the battle.

Several shuttles equipped with special lasers and crews in space suits with welding arcs making hull repairs where necessary. All under the watchful eyes of Persephone's batteries.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Linn and Lockwood together. Far outside, the repair teams glimpsed in space. Connolly looks at the two. He smiles.

Connolly adjusts his headset for long-range communication to hail the Persephone.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

In the command center, the officers are busy directing the repairs. Hayes exchanges a small tender smile with Curtiz. A lifeline of several shuttles transporting material to the Dauntless can be seen through the open viewport.

Curtiz receives a call. He turns to Davenport.

**CURTIZ**

**Sir, the Frontier Police are entering sector. They are requesting sitrep and our tactical coordinates. I'm transmitting now.**

**(beat, with a smile)**

**We have Badger two online!**

**DAVENPORT**

**Put them through.**

The lieutenant's voice comes through.

**CONNOLLY (V.O.)**

**Sir, we've found Corporal Lockwood and one survivor. The reactor is stabilized.**

**DAVENPORT**

**Captain Bailey?**

**CONNOLLY (V.O.)**

**I'm sorry, Colonel. The captain and two of my men didn't make it.**

The colonel remains quiet for a beat in respect for the dead, a moment of remembrance given to an old friend.

**DAVENPORT**

**Give me the corporal.**

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Connolly gives his device to Lockwood who puts it on.

INT. PMC PERSEPHONE - BRIDGE

Davenport is silent for a long moment, as if lost in thought. A small, gentle smile forms on his face.

**DAVENPORT**

**You've done a good job, son.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**Thank you, sir.**

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Confused and moved, Lockwood returns the com device to Connolly and the two soldiers leave to prepare for departure, Connolly puts his hand on the medic's shoulder.

EXT. SPACE

Two STA shuttles are checking the floating wreckage of their fighters to pick up bodies for proper burial. A PMC shuttle flies by in the background, also investigating.

INT./EXT. STA SHUTTLE COCKPITS

Finishing, the two shuttles meet by a cluster of debris as the PMC shuttle moves by. Some equipment washed out from the labs floating nearby.

**SHUTTLE PILOT 1**

**What a mess.**

**SHUTTLE PILOT 2**

**Yeah. But there's no sign of that thing. Like it just vanished.**

One of the shuttles is turning away from the ruins.

**SHUTTLE PILOT 1**

**We're done here. We can return to the barn.**

**SHUTTLE PILOT 2**

**Wait, we should have a look at the station.**

**SHUTTLE PILOT 1**

**I've checked the holes. There's nothing in there. Not a trace.**

The second shuttle pilot focuses on something in the wreckage. Finds a container among debris. Samuels's box.

**SHUTTLE PILOT 2**

**I've got something here. Looks like a lab container.**

The pilot scans the case, sees the image of vials containing samples on display. He has scored big time.

Using a short-range tractor beam, the pilot takes the box into a cargo compartment. The compartment closes. The shuttle heads toward the Dauntless.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Lockwood and Linn are quiet and alone together at a window, observing. Lockwood turns away from the traffic in space outside, introspective.

**LOCKWOOD**

**I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for Bailey. He was leading me, protecting me. But he couldn't see me directly. He didn't want what happened to him happen to me.**

**(with difficulty)**

**He was there all the way.**

Lockwood breaks down, experiencing grief he has never known before. It goes through him like a healing flow, connecting his deep emotional split to the ground. Freeing him.

After a moment, the feelings slowly dissipate into a calm centeredness. Knowing for the first time he is in the right place no matter what happens, he looks his woman in the eye, with a newfound peace and clarity of purpose. He takes her hand. There will be no turning back.

She returns his gaze, comprehending.

EXT. SPACE

The STA shuttle approaches the Dauntless, heading toward the dock gate.

**STA PILOT**

**This is Hermes, proceeding to dock. I'm bringing extra cargo on board.**

EXT. STA DAUNTLESS - DOCKING BAY

As the shuttle approaches the dock there is an incoming transmission, Commander Keifer hailing the pilot. He sounds uncharacteristically calm, though with an edge.

**KEIFER (V.O.)**

**Abort your approach, pilot. You're not cleared to bring in biological material.**

**PILOT**

**Sir, this is what we came for. We'll get a medal for this!**

**KEIFER (V.O.)**

**Move away now!**

But the pilot has killed traffic, too close to give up now.

INT. STA DAUNTLESS - BRIDGE

In his command post, separate from other navigation and tactical bays, the commander is looking at the shuttle on display, fuming. He accesses the defense system array.

EXT. SPACE - DOCK GATE

As the small shuttle approaches the dock gate, the dock control officer is alerted.

**DOCK OFFICER (V.O.)**

**Abort the procedure, Hermes. Something's wrong with the defense grid.**

The dock's defenses are activated, aiming at the intruding shuttle.

The pilot speaks to the commander using the open frequency, knowing he's listening in.

**PILOT**

**This is ridiculous. I'm not gonna sit here at gunpoint. I'm moving in.**

The shuttle proceeds to dock.

INT. STA DAUNTLESS - BRIDGE

Commander Keifer is motionless.

**DOCK OFFICER (V.O.)**

**(alarmed)**

**Stop your approach immediately!**

EXT. DAUNTLESS - DOCK GATE

The guns blaze, tearing the small shuttle apart.

INT. STA DAUNTLESS - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The commander observes the destruction on display. His face is hard, but we notice a glimpse of grief, not unlike Davenport's before.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Lockwood and Linn are standing at the window, side by side, the faint glow of the explosion far outside.

**LINN**

**Samuels's plan didn't work. He couldn't get his project to finish as he'd planned.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**I altered the program. It was too late to stop it. All I could do was give them a choice.**

They stand in silence for a beat, looking outside. Musing on the "creation" and its architect. The man who wanted to be God.

**LINN**

**He was controlling their mind, their emotions. Made them guinea pigs with no control over their fate. A copy of himself.**

Lockwood is silent, observing, with fuller understanding and compassion now, even for Samuels.

**LINN (CONT'D)**

**They were afraid of us, you know. We were their creators and their nemesis. What must they have felt to see us for what we are. What a disappointment.**

**LOCKWOOD**

**We were both afraid. They learned, and so did we.**

He hugs her gently, kisses her. They turn toward the window as the horizon of the planet is brightening up. Near dawn.

Suddenly, a small ball of dazzling light leaves the station, like a star being born, vibrant and brilliant. It comes to a standstill for a moment, hovering, as if observing the couple. Shoots into the distance.

A BEATIFUL ORBITAL SUNRISE emerges on the horizon of the planet, like a diamond below the black sky, FLOODING THE FRAME WITH DEEP GOLDEN LIGHT.

Joining hands, Lockwood and Linn stand there without speaking, savoring the special moment. The silhouette of the couple is casting a SHADOW, deep and intertwined as they are overlooking the vista.

A FRONTIER POLICE CRUISER MATERIALIZES into space. Moves in slowly to take custody of the Dauntless. In the wake of the commander's actions and with STA evidence retrieved, the wheels of justice will start to turn.

INT. ORBITAL STATION - OBSERVATORY

Hand in hand, Lockwood and Linn head into the golden corridor toward the dock.

FADE OUT:

THE END
