Scene 10.06 - The Mystery Unfolds
INT. COMMAND BAY - Isis Station
(RAMONA and CAMEO 24 stand at the doorway. SYLVAN has her back to them, looking across a large flat, black table with several schematics and computer displays dancing about its surface.)
CAMEO 24
Ms. Shore, Ms. Amaero wishes to speak with you.
SYLVAN
Politely tell her I'm busy. We'll open up the South Wing as soon as we locate this guy.
RAMONA
That's reassuring, Sylvan.
SYLVAN
Ramona! (Crosses to her, hand outstretched.) A pleasure, as always.
RAMONA
I thought I'd come up here myself to see what's going on.
SYLVAN
While you're here, you may as well help. Tell me, do station hub techs have access to your company's ATAVA shielding protocols?
RAMONA
Oh, no, no. That's all handled by a private security company. Your people aren't involved with it at all until it links to the mainframe, and from there that's y'alls area of expertise, not mine. What's up? You talkin' 'bout that madman loose? He a hacker or something?
SYLVAN
The worst kind. If you only knew.
RAMONA
Well show me what you know, and maybe I can help you find him. We can use the Atavachron to isolate his exact location.
SYLVAN
It can do that?
RAMONA
Honey, it does wonders. We never acquired a better piece of technology than the Atavachron. It's not like any scripting computer I've ever known -- It creates in seconds what our mainframes on Earth would take hours planning to construct -- and its holographic display system and neural-reality inducers are unequalled. The man who built it was a genius.
SYLVAN
You don't need to sell me on it, please just tell me about it. What man are you talkin' 'bout?
RAMONA
It's inventor, Hugo Genaistaenex, a pioneer in neuroscience.
SYLVAN
Hugo -- Professor G -- the guy that invented the J-suit, right?
RAMONA
Nope, guess again.
SYLVAN
Uh, those dream-script-computer-thingys like your computer-thingy, right?
RAMONA
Bingo. People have been playing with the human brain for centuries; he was just the first one to figure it out good enough to record dreams for playback. The scripting innovation came much later, and he didn't get any praise or monetary recognition for it while he was alive, even though there were many scientists we have to thank for the machines that we have today.
SYLVAN
You sound like a schoolteacher.
RAMONA
I'm just well-versed on the subject; it's my job. I'm sure you could tell me volumes about all these machines in this room -- they all look like random blinking lights and pretty space pictures to me.
(Of course; the controls, dials and clocks are all analog...)
SYLVAN
I'd rather get versed on your machine. Tell me all you know about it; what can it do?
RAMONA
I suspect it can do more than any of us can imagine. We got it second-hand this year with the acquisition of the DreamTek infrastructure and got all the leftover Midnite Movie museum pieces they had when the company folded way back when. The Atavachron was reactivated and installed on this ship over fifty years ago under DreamTek, shortly after the seventh Isis upgrade and, well, when we acquired it, our board decided it was best to leave it where it was since no one really knew how to move it, much less reboot it without costing millions in premiums, so we left it where it is now, doing whatever it's been doing all this time; we don't really mess with it except to re-route and broadcast our dream scripts; and it's really great at doing that -- saved us one-hundred fifty thousand in bandwith leasing the first month we started using it.
SYLVAN
Is that all you do with it? Why is it, like a museum piece? Does it still function?
RAMONA
Actually, because so few of us really know how to talk to it, we don't use it too regularly -- but the kids who work for me who are texting in perpetuity have informed me that it's user-compatable with the Ultranet here on Isis, and helps manage your computer library. I suppose it does a few entertaining things for this station; yet I suspect it was designed to do much, much more.
SYLVAN
Like what?
RAMONA
I've got my theories -- I do know it can be more than a just web server or a librarian -- I dunno, it can do all kinds of things...
SYLVAN
Yes, but could it... pick-out a specific person on the ship and locate them?
RAMONA
Absolutely. It can probably tell you the person's biorythyms; it's that good. We gotta go to the hub, tho.
SYLVAN
Why? Can't we just access the thing from here?
RAMONA
No, no, it's independent. When it was installed way back in the day, Isis command had stipulated that it was to remain completely separate from all Isis controls and power systems. Didn't want to run the risk, no matter how impossible, that there would be anyone "asleep at the wheel" -- literally.
SYLVAN
(To C-24, who steps in to report some new development:) Well?
CAMEO 24
We were able to track him to engineering, mam. He severed the Rom-I-O conduit and we haven't known his whereabouts ever since. We've lost him for good.
SYLVAN
Romeo!
ROMEO V.O.
Yes, Ms. Shore?
SYLVAN
Are you functioning normally?
ROMEO V.O.
Yes, mam. Other than dealing with an errant bot and conserving thirty percent of my processor load and halting all secondary functions; everything is quite normal.
SYLVAN
That doesn't sound normal to me. What is this 'errant bot' thing?
ROMEO V.O.
Apperantly, someone has tampered with its master operating system and has inserted new programming; it is using a large amount of its power allocation, almost exceeding it.
SYLVAN
Alberto, how can this happen?
CAMEO 24
Davis Junior was a primary engineer on this station, he knows Isis backward and forward.
SYLVAN
Yes, I know, but what does that mean for us?
CAMEO 24
Apparently, he can access anything on the ship he chooses and do what he wants to it.
SYLVAN
We're completely at his mercy?
CAMEO 24
There's no indication that he plans to harm us, or surely he would have tinkered with the life support systems at the hub. We're not sure what he wants, or what he plans to do.
SYLVAN
Nothing? We got nothing?
CAMEO 24
We've got the matter of the wonky hub coupling and the fact that the Rom-Eye-Oh unit has aborted performing all secondary functions. We can't undo it from here; we've tried.
SYLVAN
What are those functions, specifically?
CAMEO 24
Nothing essential to normal operations. Mostly dream scripts and entertainment broadcasts. Also, a few water fountains aren't working, but that's kinda normal on this ship -- that might be unrelated to his tampering.
SYLVAN
Personally look into that coupling, send out another squad to find our guy.
CAMEO 24
We're down to three squads-
SYLVAN
Dispatch all remaining reserves. Find him!
CAMEO 24
(Departing.) Yes, Mam.
RAMONA
So... There's a terrorist holding this ship hostage? What is this, crisis of the week?
MS: 360-Degree truck left, pan center - go around the girls, blurry chaos in background
(SYLVAN offers a cup of coffee. They blaze up while everyone around them acts completely crazy, like chickens with their heads cut off, all while our gals share a girl-to-girl moment.)
SYLVAN
Girl, don't you know it. His timing couldn't be worse for me. I don't know what to call this guy. At a minimum, he's an escaped murderer doing life at Osiris -- and what's worse is that he used to work here and decided to pay us a visit. Maybe he's really trying to get back to Earth and is just using us as a stepping-stone, I dunno. I'd let him take a shuttle if he'd just go and let me get back to work.
RAMONA
He's hacking the main computer?
SYLVAN
Apparently, which is why we can't seem to find him anywhere. We know he's still here; he didn't just jump out of an airlock -- even thouh... he kinda jumped into one... ...and now he's got all the wizards of war around me buggin' like it was the Fourth of July and yet no one's hearing any fireworks. It's why I'm asking about your Atavachron. It can't fix our coupling, but it can help find our guy... am I right in saying that?
RAMONA
How much does this guy know about this ship? He was a primary engineer or something?
SYLVAN
One of three brainiacs who crafted our last massive upgrade. He was a consulting engineer stationed here for the last si- well, four years here and three on Osiris. I'm told he was a good engineer, so I imagine we never gave him any credit for anything he ever did right. Maybe that's why he snapped. He's got access to all the systems, and we can't override anything. He could be anywhere, doing God-knows-what else.
RAMONA
You have any reels depicting the events of his crime? Maybe that's why he's here. Returning to the scene of the crime...
SYLVAN
Hey! You might be on to something there... He was locked-up long before I took command, so I don't know much about what exactly happened -- or where and how it all went down. Romeo! Show me some data concerning the crime committed by Technician David Donald Davis...
CG: Meter reading "Buffering" then "Translating: 100%"
COMPUTER HOLOGRAM V.O.
(CAMEO 22. A Russian "crawl" depicting other news stories goes by, to include stocks, the weather and such.The story is in Russian, but it is dubbed in English by a British-sounding correspondent.) Translating: The man who was convicted of the murder of an Isis station worker was sentenced today for several charges yesterday, during a court hearing on station Isis. The man was charged with unauthorized hardware modifications, unauthorized use of a distress call, non-emergency use of Government channels, terrorism in high space, computer piracy and capital murder in the first-degree. Donald Davis, age twenty-four, was found guilty on all counts, to include the murder of Isis Computer Programmer Nancy Lee. Davis was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Hardcourt, who had this to say to the defendent:
TITAN FOUR V.O.
(Naturally in English:) Never in my court have I tried such a heinous act. By your actions, you have not only shown disrespect for the law, disrespect for civilized dignity but also have brandished a patent disrespect for the inherent quality of human life. I am giving you the harshest sentence for the unspeakable crime you have committed. You are not only a disgrace to your profession, an embarrassment to your peers, you are the iconic affront to modern ethics and human dignity. May God have mercy on your soul, young man, because you'll get no mercy from this court. David Donald Davis, for the charges stated, I sentence you to life incarceration without possibility of parole. You will serve your time at a place to be determined by The Spaceways Department Of Corrections. Bailiff, remove this stain from my sight.
GAVEL: CLACK!
CG: "Translating: 100%"
COMPUTER HOLOGRAM V.O.
(It looks a little strange watching the final headshot where a beautiful CAMEO 6 was over-dubbed with the voice of CAMEO 22. Such is the way it is... [Translating:]) While Davis' court-appointed attorney argues that the jury may have not been exposed to all pertinent information, he maintains that his client is wholly innocent and speaks of possible new evidence and the appellate courts. For Soviet-Socialist Holo-Head-Cast, I'm Tasha Tysmyrnov, reporting, and translating for Isis Station Media, I'm Bob Wine.
SYLVAN
He also caused an evac alert and interrupted my readiness drill. Not to forget how all the disruptions caused by his antics has cost this station millions in fines already. Fines that I inherited when I took over -- fines I am still having to pay every quarter. I can't tell you how much of the junk cloud out there was once a part of this ship, but let's just say I'm the one paying for the extra fuel when Tella-Luna ships have to take the long way... Damn it! I want this guy found.
RAMONA
Computer: Is there anything specific about the murder itself? Specifics of the crime?
(A glitzy, fast-paced, hollywood-expose and slander-tabloid television show erupts. It uses stock photos of NANCY mercilessly, although she is rarely mentioned in the story and has little or nothing to do with an aging, retired, slightly-senile policemen's limelight-seeking philosophy of magic bullets.)
COMPUTER HOLOGRAM V.O.
(CAMEO 18:) Tonight On B! Exclusive!!! The Isis Murder, no D-N-A, no body, no apparent suspects. Was it another unexplained example of Hugo's Curse, or was it simply cold, blooded, murder? We found one official who was willing to talk -- and talk with us he did plenty.
CAMEO 26 V.O.
It looked like a room... covered in blood...
SOUND: GORY WHUMP!
COMPUTER HOLOGRAM V.O.
And B! Reporter Greg Manville was there to get every gruesome detail....
CAMEO 19
(Over-the-shoulder reporting, a la "60 Minutes":) You took pictures? You got pictures.
CAMEO 26
(Smiling, nodding slowly.) I got pictures. Not sure if your veiwing audience or even you yourself can really stomach them; pretty grisly stuff.
CAMEO 19
(Legs crossed, fingers interlocked, resting his top knee into his palm, arms forward, head back, smiling. Thumbs open up.) Try me.
COMPUTER HOLOGRAM V.O.
Hear it from one officer who was on the scene -- and see his grisly pictures!
CAMEO 19
I heard they confiscated all the footage, how'd yours get out?
CAMEO 26
What they gonna do? I'm retired now. What they gonna do? Take my pension?
CAMEO 19
The blood, the gore -- The Murder Of Nancy Lee: The Untold Story -- brought to you tonight on B!
SHOW OPENING
SYLVAN
Computer: Is this the best you got? What about the police report?
ROMEO
Those records have been sealed, Ms. Shore.
SYLVAN
Well, unseal them! Use my authorization -- ship emergency protocol.
ROMEO
Yes, Mam. (Beat.) I'm afraid the records have previously been deleted, Ms. Shore.
SYLVAN
What?!?
ROMEO
All the official files pertaining to the death of Nancy Lee have been erased for some time now.
SYLVAN
When? By who?
ROMEO
I'm afraid I don't know. There is no fixed datum from which to draw a conclusion.
SYLVAN
What DO you got?
(Well, here we are, back again...)
CAMEO 19 V.O.
Harry Bumgarten is an old-school cop. From a long line of police officers who have fought gangsters, union workers, civil rights agressors, communists on Union soil, drug abusers and illegal immigrants, Officer Weinbumgarten knew he was destined to follow in the footsteps of over forty generations of those sworn to protect and serve.
CAMEO 26
Hey, I always knew I was going to be a cop. In my house growing up, you really didn't have any other vocation you could look at; what, you gonna be a fireman? Sit on the other side of the bleachers during charity baseball? Or worse, you gonna be a mobster, a criminal? Not in my family, you don't.
CAMEO 19 V.O.
Officer Bumgarten knew his big case would arrive one day in a long career, but in his nineteenth year of service he stumbled upon a case that still horrifies the world today. The murder of twenty-two-year-old computer analyst Nancy Lee.
SHREECK-DUM-DUM-DUM!!!
CAMEO 19 V.O. (Cont'd)
With no body, you wanna speculate on cause of death? You agree with the coroner's report?
CAMEO 26
I do. Homicide by defrenestration; clear as day. Ms. Lee got soda-strawed by somebody who knew she was there. There was nothing left of her. Hell, we had to patch the porthole with crime-scene gel and then pressurize the cabin just to get a decent look and then the Feds came in and locked us out. But I saw it all, up close. It was a huge mess; oil and lubricants everywhere. Nothing was left intact. Tables, chairs, all kinds of stuff thrown about, everything was broken. If a guy wanted to cover up a crime scene and get rid of a body in one swift move, shooting a hole in the window was a pretty sure way of doing it.
CAMEO 19 V.O.
I hear ya got pictures.
CAMEO 26
I got pictures. (Laughs. Points to briefcase.) Oh yeah, I got a Pulitzer in there...
CAMEO 19 V.O.
Now, exclusively for B! Officer Bumgarter provides us with photos he took with his personal camera through an adjacent room's porthole while waiting for cabin repressurization. Be warned, the following images are of a graphic nature -- the crime scene of a murder in space. Gone... with the wind.
SOUND: EERIE WHOOOSH
MS: PHOTOGRAPH SPREAD with CG highlights and arrows
CAMEO 26
Granted, the lights weren't back on yet, but if you look at that ball of gel in the corner, you can see how everything was either sucked-out through the window or was movin' towards it until all the air ran out. On the floor there, in the middle, by that mess of insulation there, there you can see plain as day a whole bunch of things that could-a been used for a murder weapon.
CAMEO 19 V.O.
Hmmm. I think that's just some debris there -- from the duct-work, caving-in from the ceiling.
CAMEO 26
I think somebody struck her with summa that re-bar laying out there and shot a hole through the porthole from the other room.
CAMEO 19 V.O.
While the images in the photographs were hazy, even upon enhancement, the staff at B! could not discern any item in the photograph that could have been used as a murder weapon. Many on our staff were incredulous, finding difficulty understanding the officer's theory of how someone was able to shoot a hole through the window while shooting from an adjacent room. Others have described the photo as further evidence of what social media has described as another example of Hugo's Curse...
CAMEO 26
Hell, they ain't got the bullet -- it's gone, you won't find no bullet. It's either a magic bullet or it's Hugo's Curse. Prove me wrong.
SYLVAN
Romeo, that's enough.
RAMONA
Computer, go back to that photograph that was displayed.
SYLVAN
Was there something you saw there?
RAMONA
Uh- no... It can't be. Surely I would have known -- someone would have told me. Surely.
SYLVAN
What is it?
RAMONA
Computer, I see this image has been enhanced. Are you capable of enhancing it further?
ROMEO
Of course! The technology of photo enhancement, as well as artificial intuition, has exponentially grown in this decade. Piece of cake, Ms. Amaero. Here ya go... Viola!
MS: PHOTOGRAPH
(We see a crystal-clear view of a large room that had anything not nailed down sucked through a 24-inch porthole on the wall to the left, moonlight from the window being the sole source of light save the two portholes through the adjacent room -- with a dim yellow beam crossing the moonbeam stretching across the center of the room, one dim yellow light fanning away from our point of view is far more dim, perhaps from being filled by a burly policeman holding a camera-phone to the glass. A large, steampunk-looking brass kettle dominates the background, filling the right half of the back wall with a round-brassy-deco-motif, complimented by a small, red door to the left. The kettle is covered liberally with red lubricant dripping from green hoses hanging from the ceiling above. Because of the low light initially in the photograph, almost everything else appears monochromatic. A bulging, silver door of patchwork-looking, polished chrome adorns the wall to the right, opposite of the gel-filled porthole; completely unaffected by the previous events across the room. Etched into the chrome door is an unblinking, heavy-lidded eye, seeing all: As if the door's sculptor wanted one to think they were always being seen by One older and more seasoned; like a deity or a demon or an omniscient human personification of an imagined higher being or Something.)
SYLVAN
Looks like an engineering vestibule to me. You know where this is, Ramona?
RAMONA
(Long pause.) It's...
CU: RAMONA
RAMONA (Cont'd)
It's the Atavachron.
FTB