Scene 10.10 - Time's Up
INT. Mom's Mobby Lobby
(MOMS [CAMEO 8] sees the men, passed out and pissed out. Stains on the crotch, drool from the mouths -- the boys are all tripping like newbies, seemingly overdosing, with no tolerance of the powerful drug. MOMS snorts a line of blue powder from her powder-blue pinky nail and shakes her head. MOMS wears a Mu-Mu with an African pattern and sports a powder blue afro, cropped tightly to her head. She turns to SONNY [CAMEO 23] quizzically.)
MOMS
Boy... whatcha do now?
SONNY
Whatcha mean, Moms?
MOMS
Oooh! It's rainin' men in here... Tell me now, what all these boys doin' all passed out in my parlor and pissin' all over theyselves? Why you bring in all this lightweight riff-raff for... Tyrell?
SONNY
Theys the ones doing the big deal! Theys the ones that came with all the favorstubs, wantin' a ton.
MOMS
Fat chance if'n they'll get a ton but I'll sure try. So that chick passed out there is The Moon Queen, eh??
SONNY
The very one.
MOMS
Pretty girl. (Crosses to STEPHEN.) I've seen this one last week, sucking-up to She-Ra; one of her boys.
SONNY
He's sure got the pallor of a noob. He was talking all crazy befo' when we's doin' the deal and samplin' it...
MOMS
Hey! This one's Thelma's sister's boy, ain' it? I ain't seen him in five years, at least.
SONNY
Leo. Yeah, he's the one I know from befo'. Why they came to me for it 'nsteado' Mr. G.
MOMS
Boy, do they grow fast! Umm! Looking like a real man, he is. Ah... Mista G gets it from me anyhows.
SONNY
I know that.
MOMS
They all get it from me cuz theys don' know how I gets it. Glad they went to you, tho. You get the vig, Tyrell.
SONNY
Nice. Should I wake them up? Moms?
MOMS
Nah, nah, let them ride it out. When they get cleaned up, send them on up to the ket'tl. I'll meet ch'all there but make sure no one is tailin' yas. take the maintenence corridors. Use my keyprint, I'll take my spare ands head that way now. I got to get the thing opened up just right if'n I wanna get a ton o' it out.
SONNY
How long should I let them sleep it off?
MOMS
Hmmm. If'n they ain' awake agin in 'bout twenny minutes, they ain' gonna ever wake up. If'n that's the case... then I guess you knows what to do.
SONNY
Sho'. Airlock five.
MOMS
Wherever you put 'em, I don' need to know. Not my concern. An' that's only if'n they don' wake up.
SONNY
I'f'n you say so, Moms.
MOMS
(Exiting, stepping over the splayed men.) I say so. (Afterthought-) An' don't pinch they pockets neither.
SONNY
Damn! (Almost whispered:) How she know?
DISSOLVE TO:
EST. INT. ROOM C-A-1127
MS: DOORWAY
(SYLVAN and RAMONA stand at a doorway. SYLVAN, being led by RAMONA, pauses at the doorway of the little red door and stops, backs-up a step, unconsciously turns her back to the room and touches her earring as she leans her head to the side a bit. RAMONA patiently waits at the threshold of the automated doorway, keeping it open for her, in an unconscious-and-equally-needless gesture retained from the bygone Age of Chivalry. In the background, subtly, the iris of the eye on the chrome door incrimentally brightens a bit with each subsequent take to SYLVAN. In the establishing shot, the iris of the eye is black and lifeless, not blue and glowing. By the end of scene, it significantly adds to the lumination of the room. The iris lights blue during the initial cutaway, so we do not directly see any change, but notice it over time.)
MS: SYLVAN AND ROOM BEHIND HER
SYLVAN
Could you repeat that? This room is shielded; you cut out for a second.
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
(C-24 is floating in space, wearing the coolest of J-suits; nearly capable of space flight itself. Equipped with propulsion rockets, gliders and heat-dispersion tiles, it promises to be able to land one safely to Earth from orbit -- at least that's what the commercials for the J-Suit promise. The suit is more-widely known for its compatability with engineering tasks in zero gravity conditions. Magnetic, Electro-fusion powered, over 5000 tethered tools and pockets capable of holding six cubic meters of material in its netting and over two cubic feet of cargo in is holds, using secure-hatch technology. C-24 looks at the electric arc from a severed electrical cable attached to a large canister bracing two massive spokes of the spaceship's wheeled form at the exterior of the ship's hub.) I'm at the site now. Apparently, micrometeors destroyed a bolt holding a bracket for the com-cable and it all broke loose; it appears that it didn't take long for the excess cable to get whipped away. It's bad.
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
How bad?
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
It's got to be replaced entirely, which will take my crew at least two days to do.
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
Well, I guess that's bad. A few extra shifts-
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
No, no, mam, that's not the bad part. I have the manpower, but what I don't have is time to do it. Fixing a severed cable is pretty routine for us, cuz they designed this ship all wonky and we're out here half the time anyway. The real problem we're facing is that it's a class-one assembly -- it's a vital cable. (Pause.) It connects the memnomnics of the coupling to the ship's mainframe -- the coupling's gone into emergency self-preservation mode, and if we don't fix this cable soon, the coupling will decide to trigger the crisis bell.
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
What?!? Can't we circumvent the mechanism? It's just one coupling, right?
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
Yes and no. This coupling's an intregal part of the system that decides whether the ship stays together. I can't let this coupling stay separated from the mainframe or eventually the whole mess will go. And I don't think we can fix the cable in time. What should I do?
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
Get the ship talking to it-
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
I told you, mam, communication from the ship is out-
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
Use your shortwave. Be the interpreter. Tell the coupling what the ship says to do.
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
Hmm... I'll give it a shot, but we're short on time. It could all go in less than an hour.
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
Buy me as much time as you can. I'm working on another possible solution.
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
I'll keep you posted.
CUT TO: ROOM
SYLVAN
I- I'm going into a room that's shielded; report to Commander Joy in my absence.
CUT TO: SPACE
CAMEO 24
Will do. Roger. Out.
CUT TO: MS ROOM
RAMONA
Something the matter?
SYLVAN
Oh... The crisis bell.
RAMONA
Crisis bell? What's that?
CUT TO:
MS: EYE
(A maze of polished moving tiles and silver circles, half-circles and three-quarter circles upon the face of the chrome door begin to move oddly, as if an elaborate locking mechanism were opening. The eye's iris is at full intensity, nearly that of a spotlight. The ladies, standing at the doorway, sharing near-intimate space, do not notice the activity.)
SYLVAN
The ship was built to blow apart. When and if she's ever decommissioned, the ship's captain will blow ballast and ring the crisis bell. In old days, it meant a ship was sinking -- or crashing -- and the only option was to scuttle her.
RAMONA
(Louder:) We're scuttling this ship?
CUTAWAY: The door's eye suddenly moves -- looking toward the girls, iris darkened, not illuminating them.
SYLVAN
No, no, what happens is all the spokes of the wheel break off and the wheels start a landing sequence and land in an ocean somewhere on Earth and the spokes follow and are used as liferafts and supply depots until everybody's picked up and carried off to safety. The hub stays in whatever orbit it can maintain until they launch a salvage rocket. I guess it's fitting I'm at the core of the hub, because when the crisis bell sounds, there's no going back, and I can't stop it once it's started. This captain goes down with the ship, I'm afraid.
RAMONA
We're sinking? Er, crashing?
(RAMONA lights the blunt she was saving for bedtime and walks inward. Clack! Clack! Her magnetic shoes strike across the ceramic-tiled floor. Clack! Clack! Follows RONICA, who follows the blunt. The red door finally closes, as the women both take off their heels, aware of the artificial gravity and quickly realizing the floor may as well be made of ice.)
SWISH!
SYLVAN
One of the pieces that's holding us together thinks we are. If we can't convince it otherwise, we're all going back to Earth, one way or another.
MS: CHROME DOOR
(The eye follows the girls' progress across the room.)
MS: ROOM C-A 1127
(Suddenly, DAVE drops from a grate in the ceiling above -- Ironically, the exact spot where NANCY had nearly fallen to her death years before. He lands gracefully; experienced in dealing with less-than-ideal gravity conditions and fully-utilizing his armored spacesuit's counter-thrusters. He limply waves and levels his blaster at SYLVAN.)
DAVE
Eve herd enuff. You two, stee reet wear you are. Dent move a missle.
(The women put their heels down and raise their hands, only dropping one hand occasionally to toke and pass the blunt, looking at DAVE and each another without moving their heads. The eye locks forward and the door silently closes again and the consortium of locking mechanisms return to their standard place. The eye's iris dims a bit, but it does not ever completely return to the vacuous blackness of before.)
SYLVAN
David Donald Davis, I presume?
DAVE
Inze flush. Kill me Div. Ind vho ear you?
SYLVAN
(Fast. Eyeing the blaster the whole time:) I'm Captain Sylvan Shore. I am in command of this vessel. I'm more than happy to discuss your safe passage from this station to wherever you want to go. I have no interest in your apprehension, and I assure you, the manhunt was only ordered to prevent further damage to my ship. You trashed one of our better-working airlocks and I don't know what you did to our computer, but it's all water under the bridge and I've nearly forgotten about it already and am certainly willing to chalk it up as damage from last night's meteor storm if you will just please lower your weapon and let us talk this out.
DAVE
Nobiddy is interested in vaht Eye hivv tissay.
RAMONA
We are.
SYLVAN
Please, if you will go peacefully, you are by all means free to be on your way. I won't try to stop you; pinky promise. This isn't Osiris, Mr.- Dave, and the officers from there who are looking for you don't really have any jurisdiction over what I choose to allow to happen on my ship. Believe me, I have far more pressing matters to attend to than to worry about you being on the lam. You can even take my private shuttle -- you can't track it, and it's super fast and really cozy and even has a full wet bar. (Tokes nervously. No response from the stoic, ruthless murderer who has returned to the scene of his crime. Pause.) Please, my ship's about to blow up, and you swinging that blaster around isn't necessary. As I'm sure you very well know from experience, you don't wanna be shooting a gun in this room.
DAVE
You hiv bean mezzinformed, I don't velly will know frim ixpeery ance, and I'm not leaving this room fir nuzzing. Eve kim a lung, lung vay and eem nyet living jist yit.
SYLVAN
If- if you need to discuss this, I will be your hostage... willingly, but please-
DAVE
I dent need you is a histige! I kim here fir a veery, veery spissifik reezin!
(He points to the door. The iris has dimmed to nearly no light emitting.)
RAMONA
Wha?
DAVE
You two... yiss bath off you -- you ear ginny hep me open ziss dewer.
RAMONA
Door?
DAVE
Yiss, dewer!
RAMONA
That's not a door.
DAVE
Yiss et iz.
RAMONA
No, it's the faceplate. That's the Atavachron. It's a supercomputer.
DAVE
Nyet!!! It's a dewer. Eve seen it ippen vonce and eat vill ippen iggin! Hep me!
RAMONA
(Muttered.) I think he's bat-house crazy.
SYLVAN
Truly. Over the rainbow.
RAMONA
When he realizes that it ain't a door-
SYLVAN
Oh yeah, he'll off us for sure. I think we're gonna die in here, Mona.
RAMONA
No way to call for help?
RONICA
Nope. This room is shielded from most monitors; we're probably screwed.
DAVE
Hay! Vat are you ladies viking chitting ibait? Ziss is no team fir gissip! Kim ova ear ind hep me figger ziss out! And you! Bring zat blunt over here! Yiv skipped me twice new!
RAMONA
You can have the the rest of it, just let us go.
DAVE
Nyet! Vear oil in ziss tigither. Move, move!
RAMONA
(Tokes. Passes. Slowly steps forward.) I've always loved you, Syl.
RONICA
(Follows as slowly; hesitant.) Likewise, Mona. Too bad we won't get to see where it might have gone.
RAMONA
(Crossing:) Hmmm. Even in these last few moments of life, I'm still hoping for a miracle.
RONICA
(Crossing:) What, you thinking some "Deus Ex Machina" is going to come along?
RAMONA
Something like that. We'll know soon enough, I guess.
MS: Ladies stopping at the front of the massive chrome door. Mona passes to Dave.
FTB