Scene 10.12 - Open Sesame
INT. Room C-A-1127
(DAVE is frustrated; jumping as the girls are making no progress in finding an opening.)
DAVE
Nyet! Nyet! Stir-oak eet! Din't pit it! Zere's a secret pinnel inzair sim-wheer, Eye know eet!
RAMONA
Sir! How many times do I have to tell you!?! There's no secret button, no doorknob -- it ain't a door! It's a faceplate! There's nothing behind this and there's no way to open it!
SYLVAN
Look -- Mona would know -- she uses this thing all the time. Right Mona?
RAMONA
Damn right! It ain't a door!
SYLVAN
I'm through with this charade. Either shoot me, or let me get back to my command post so I can hold this ship together.
DAVE
(Levels blaster and points with other arm to the red door behind him:) No vonn iz goings through zat door!
SOUND: SWISH!
(The red door opens and CAMEO 8 enters, pushing a cart that houses a prototype contraption that looks like it had some kind of post-apocalyptic fashioning; it is a montage of a food processor, a dialysis machine, a deluxe hair dryer, a popcorn machine, a fiberglass urinal and a carpet-cleaning vacuum that together functions as an unholy melange known as a juicer, whose sole function is Ava extraction. C-8 walks nonchalantly toward the large brass kettle and affixes a clamp and a hose from the juicer to a larger, transparent hose that houses an array of air bubbles and a dark blue liquid. She does not notice the trio, who intently-and-silently watch her cross to the kettle to hook up the juicer. Before she can flip the switch to activate the juicer, DAVE addresses her.)
MOMS
(Singing and Humming her hymn:) Bringin' in the Gs, Bringin' in the Gs, We shall come a juicin', Bringin' in the Gs. Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm, Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm...
DAVE
You zair!
MOMS
(Jumps like a cat thrown into a swimming pool, turns to them and has a hand over her heart, which she pats quickly and then fans her face with before speaking:) Oh! My Lordy! You frightened me! I didn't see y'all there! Don't mind me, I'll just be going now...
DAVE
You! Git over zair with the rest of the ladies.
SYLVAN
Carmelita?
DAVE
Move!
MOMS
(Crosses, hugs, gets familiar, kisses, then very close:) Syl? Girl! Long time! How you been?
SYLVAN
Been better, what you doing up here? Thought you went Down South last year.
MOMS
Sheeee! I moved back here six months after I ended my lease down there. Earth's got too many bugs, too much heat, only a few good women, an' most of 'em straight, and don't tell anyone you heard it from me, but they water the drugs down there so much you'd have to drink a gallon of Upshot to catch the buzz you get from one sip of Lunartang, you know what I'm sayin'?
SYLVAN
No doubt! I could-a toldja that! So how you makin' out? Your retirement checks pay for everything? You moonlighting or something?
DAVE
Liddies! I hit ta intewerript yiss villy live chit... Bit Eye hiv a dewer zat nids ta git ippin?
MOMS
Shush boy! Didn't your momma ever teach you any manners? We're having a discussion, and when big-folx be talkin', you need to keep your mouth quiet and keep all your thoughts to yourself. And stop waving your piece around like that, ain' no woman ever gonna wanna have you hangin' around if'n she's worried you gonna ice 'er by axe-iddent.
DAVE
Ve hiv verk tiddew!
MOMS
Work?!? Sheee! You don't look like you even worked a day in your life! Skinny, half-sized, wisp o' a thing you are! I bet you a million dollars you ain't got a real paycheck in say, (Milks it, nails it.) 30 months? Is that when your gub'ment cheese run out?
DAVE
Nyet! Zat vas win Eye vas fissely awristed fir-
MOMS
Oh! (To SYLVAN:) A convict! Do I got them pegged or do I got them pegged? Like I say to my boy Tyrell: You ever try to get jumped into some gang other than my gang, I will feed you to the fishes. Yeah. An' if I ever, ever get a phone call that he's been hauled downtown, sure, I'll bail his ass out; and then I'll kick his ass to three days past next Wednesday myself -- cuz I sure won't be mad for what he did or upset that he felt he had to resort to making a poor-ass, no-class decision -- No! I'll be fire-pissin' mad and monumentally disappointed that he got sloppy and let his skinny ass get caught. Sheesh! That's failure on both ends, twice over!
SYLVAN
What is it that I'm catching you doing now, Lita? You even supposed to be in here?
MOMS
Like I said, I will be on my way, pretend like you never saw me a'tall...
DAVE
(Still pointing gun.) Nyet!
MOMS
(Fast. Tilted head, firm and lips-pressed-to-teeth controlled, patient raging:) Boy, you point that gun at me again, you better use it. I know you got a gun on me, but don't push it, I'm trying really hard not to let loose on you right now; don't test me.
SYLVAN
What is she doing to the computer, Ramona? What is that thing she's hooked up to it?
RAMONA
I don't even know this woman, Syl. She's "your" friend! I have no idea what she's doing.
SYLVAN
Oh, let me introduce you: This is Carmelita, an ol- ...dear friend of mine. This is her house -- This whole wing of the... She was the head of the maintenance and sanitation staff on Isis for twenty years, at least.
MOMS
In charge fo' only three of that. I was a janitor for seventeen; then an administrator ...later.
DAVE
Kin wee wrip ziss ip?
MOMS
I'll explain quickly cuz junior here looks like he's about to doody hisself. I go by Moms now, and I'm the head of the world's largest and deadliest drug cartel and I'm headquartered here on Isis because it's where I get my supply of the one drug in which I have a monopoly -- Ava -- and thusly I sell to the other cartels and nations in a lucrative arrangement that is filled with checks and balances across the board that ensures that no one entity or even a coalition of entities can mess with my operation; in return for this assurance, I supply an invaluable drug at an inequitable cost -- which is precisely what I was doing when you all startled me and he started waving a gun in my face and all that. Cool?
SYLVAN
You're Moms? Girl, you know how many boring drug-tax enforcement meetings I've had to sit through because of you? Not like I'd ever turn you in, but what I gotta know is: Why?
MOMS
Social Security is forever away and a retirement check for public service don't cut it.
SYLVAN
Ava is nearly legal everywhere -- at least up here. Why not just do it all legit!?!
MOMS
Because how I get it ain't legit. And plus, it's very scarce because I have a... fixed supply.
RONNIE
How do you get it?
MOMS
What do you think I hauled that big-ass cart in here for?
SYLVAN
What? Okay, whatever, we're friends.
RAMONA
We're not friends, though. Hi. I'm Ramona, and I run the business that owns this room and everything in it. We've just met, and all I know about you so far is that you and that machine over there are attempting to tamper with company property. And whether this is your house or not, to me, you're just as shady as he is, and he's a crazy dude who wants to kill us all just like he killed Nancy Lee in this very room! So let's not assume that we're all buddies here. Ai't?
MOMS
You were the boy who killed that poor girl? Shame on you! She was such a sweet girl.
DAVE
Nyet! I didn't kill innyone.
MOMS
Okay, whatever, convict. How'd you ever get paroled without showing any remorse like that?
SYLVAN
He wasn't paroled, he escaped from Osiris!
MOMS
Ooooh! The Big House. They don't send you there unless you real bad. How a bean pole like you ever get by in the Big O? You their Belle of the Ball? That's what you get when you go and kill a sweet girl like Miss Lee. Heh! You get everybody's dance card.
SYLVAN
He wants us to open a stupid "door." My ship is about to blow up and he wants me to open a door for him.
MOMS
I know the combo to airlock five; I'd help him to it if he'd put that damn firecracker away.
DAVE
Nobody gits to leaf until zat dewer is ippen.
RAMONA
And I keep telling you! It's not a door, it's a faceplate to a supercomputer!
MOMS
Nah-uh, he's right. It is a door.
RAMONA
Huh?
DAVE
See?
MOMS
But you sure don't want to open it.
DAVE
Whee nyet?
MOMS
It's too damn cold. And it's all filled with vaporized Ava; (Speaking of...) An' y'all got no tolerance -- Snnff-nff! (Snorts from her pinky nail.) Aaaah! (Wipes nostrils with a quick double swipe from the fat of her hand; the graceful area between the palm and the lowest knuckle on the thumb) Y'all breathe it, you'll be trippin' smokestacks and pissin' all o'er yourself's in no time.
RAMONA
(Having only seen Ava in movies and on television:) Interesting.
DAVE
(Having only seen cut Ava in prison, realizes he is seeing a woman snort enough pure Ava to make a group of circus animals drop.) Hmmmmm.
SYLVAN
(Having only seen pure Ava among rich tourists and occasionally exchanged between the shadiest of locals, she is taken aback, not because of unfamiliarity [for she knows that on Isis, some watered-down version of the drug always crops up in somebody's pocket] yet from Carmelita: A gospel-singing, snake-charmin', Traditional Southern Baptist in the strictest sense, it is quite surprising to her.) How do you know this? What has happened to you?
MOMS
Hmmm! (Snort, wipe wipe.) You asked.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. C-A-1127. Night.
(MOMS repeats her entrance, except this is fifteen years earlier than when she brought the juicer. Her hair is black, not blue-gray, and is in a mondo afro; round with giant silver hoop earrings accentuating. Behind her work apron and wide snakeskin belt is a white outfit of divinity: A polyester leisure suit featuring impressive bell-bottoms over brown platform work shoes. CLOCK! CLACK! CLOCK CLACK! She is pushing a janitor's cart and flips on the lights, humming and singing and doing janitorial things like emptying garbage, dusting, straightening furniture, tidying up, etc. She looks at the door and sees one small spot of unsightly tarnish on the massive chrome door. She goes to her cart and retreives a flask of tarnish remover and reads the back of the tin.)
MOMS
(Singing:) Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicin', Bringing in the sheaves... (Read aloud:) Caninby-nol traci-ulium hydrate, oxy-phosphorific menthyl-trioxy-denthanol sulfate - NOT TO BE USED ON CHROME SURFACES. Ahah shee! Guess a little spit-shine won't hurt none.
(She replaces the metal flask and works-up some saliva and spits into a clean rag. She goes to town, rubbing the spot vigorously.)
MOMS (Cont'd)
Out! Out! Damn spot! Now what kinda fool kid would put his greasy palm on something that ain't spost ta tarnish in the first place? Why is this stain so stubborn? Hell with it, I gotta use my extra-duty glass cleaner on you, damn spot. We gonna getcha out, ai't.
(CANDY appears as an attractively-dressed hologram. The door's mechanisms move and spin as the door's iris glows a bright blue. Once all the pieces are in place, we see the picture of the eye has altered to that of an oil lamp on a flying carpet and a genie flowing from the lamp. The deco-design in concentric circles in an odd pattern about the eye becomes an elaborate tapestry revealing an Arabian village and men on horseback, all wearing turbans and weilding sabres. Once the picture is complete, the massive chrome door opens from the center and a blue-tinted mist flows outward from the dark interior. CANDY's hologram strides out from the darkness, blinking in and out of view as she passes through the blue mist, which seems to incessantly pour from the chamber.)
CANDY
Gate one, open. Lock One: Aladdin's Lamp.
MOMS
Whoa! Who are you?
CANDY
Congratulations, and welcome.
MOMS
You for real?
CANDY
I am Candace. You have chosen to join a very elite group of individuals.
JYNX V.O.
Seven thousand quatloos says she opened the door by accident!
MORLOCK V.O.
Eight thousand quatloos says she will succumb to the Ava.
CANDY
Don't listen to them. We offer a great gift; in return we ask only the smallest of favors.
MOMS
Who are you? You ain't that girl from them willy-nilly perfume ads are you?
CANDY
(Beat.) No. (Long beat.) No. We are friends; using this... machine to speak to you.
MOMS
(Breathing in the mist, which has mesmerized her.) What do you want from me?
CANDY
One... small... task.
JYNX V.O.
Twenty thousand quatloos says she fails.
MORLOCK V.O.
Eighty thousand quatloos says she will succeed.
JYNX V.O.
Done.
CANDY
Ignore my friends. What's your name?
MOMS
Carmel.
CANDY
Carmel. You okay? Are you feeling alright?
MOMS
Just, a little, lightheaded. Think I better sit down.
CANDY
That's the Ava. Breathe it in; let it purify your soul; open your mind.
MOMS
(Dreamier:) Yeah. Yeah!
CANDY
Enjoy it; it never really goes away...
MOMS
Hey, perfume lady... Whatchoo want from me?
CANDY
We can discuss that over time. Relax; enjoy the Ava. It lasts.
MORLOCK V.O.
You can help us with a very important matter. It's a matter between life and death.
MOMS
Life and death! How can I help you? Whatchoo need from me?
MORLOCK
Come here once a day, or when you need advice; and you'll receive instructions. And money.
MOMS
Money?
JYNX
We can provide you with something that will make you money. You like money, don't you?
MOMS
Who doesn't like money? (In a first-time-user Ava stupor:) Who y'all, really?
CANDY
I've told you: I'm Candace. We're only friends who want to help you.
MOMS
I think I gots to pee real bad.
CANDY
There's supposedly a restroom through that red door and down the hall to the right.
MOMS
I knows that. Who you think jus' cleaned it? Tall-ets don' jus' scrub theyselves y'know.
CANDY
We will be waiting for you; we have a proposition we think you may like.
MOMS
No automation for that none- Oh! Oh! Gotta go! Be right back! Donchoo go off nowheres!
CANDY
(Smiling, nods, as if it's the truest of facts:) We'll be here.
DISSOLVE TO:
SYLVAN
Did you ever find out where they were broadcasting from? Was it a local broadcast? Are they here; on Isis?
MOMS
You wouldn't believe me if'n I told you what I really thinks I knows, so here's what I knows for sure: I never did see none of them on Isis, and I never did see none of them a-tall, 'cept Candace, and only right here the times she came out that door as a hologram like when she wanted to explain something or show me something. They're real smart.
RAMONA
They've been in regular contact with you?
MOMS
Mmmm, yeah, 'cept that time I was on Earth and they all said I'd come back and they sure was right 'bout that. Oh, and fo' a few weeks after this boy shot that poor girl inhere didn'obody cumminhere.
DAVE
I didn't-
SYLVAN
So these people... using this machine to speak with you -- They're behind your Ava cartel?
MOMS
Sort-a-I-guess, this kettle's one big Ava lab and they've been helping me get it the whole time and I've been the sole supply of Ava ever since they showed me how to siphon it off.
RAMONA
So how do you open this door? Rub this dull spot over here?
MOMS
Yeah, like this, 'cept with a cloth... lemme show yas.
DAVE
Yiss!
NANCY V.O.
Gate one, open. Lock One: Aladdin's Lamp.
MOMS
Now step back... and try not to breathe in any of that blue mist that comes running out or you'll be trippin' fo' days...
(No mist comes out, but the massive door opens.)
MOMS
Manny? Candy? Jynx? Any of you hear me?
NANCY V.O.
David-
DAVE
Nancy!
(A hologram of JYNX walks out from the doorway's darkness. He is dressed in an unassuming white suit.)
JYNX
Okay, hold it. Now, now.
DAVE
Nancy!
JYNX
Let's not get our panties in a bind. Hello, Moms. You get to see me at last.
MOMS
You sound like... Jynx?
JYNX
Yours Truly. How are ya, Moms?
MOMS
Could be better. Is that hologram of you right? That how you look? You kinda shorter than I pictured you to be.
JYNX
With this many people knocking, I can't help but make a personal visit. What do you all want, anyway?
RAMONA
An explanation.
SYLVAN
(Over RAMONA:) My ship fixed.
MOMS
(Over SYLVAN:) A ton of Ava.
DAVE
(Over MOMS:) Nancy.
JYNX
(To RAMONA:) I'll explain once the others get here. (To SYLVAN:) Your ship's not really going to separate. (To MOMS:) A ton will take two weeks to crystallize properly. (To DAVE:) You'll see Nancy in due time...
RAMONA
What others?
SYLVAN
(Over RAMONA:) It's not going to separate?
MOMS
(Over SYLVAN:) Two weeks?
DAVE
(Over MOMS:) I want to see her now!
JYNX
(To RAMONA:) The Moon Queen and her entourage. (To SYLVAN:) No, it's not going to separate. (To MOMS:) Yes, two weeks. The stuff doesn't grow on trees, you know. (To DAVE:) Give it about five minutes after the others get here, and you'll see her soon enough.
RAMONA
The Moon Queen?
SYLVAN
(Over RAMONA:) You know that for sure?
MOMS
(Over SYLVAN:) Two weeks from today?
DAVE
(Over MOMS:) Five minutes from now?
JYNX
(To ALL:) Yes.
SWISH!
(The Moon Queen and her entourage enter. DAVE levels his blaster toward them.)
DAVE
You! Over here vith ze wrist of zem!
TOM
What's going on, Mr. Davis?
DAVE
This hilligrim is ibbout te shew me vair Nancy is!
JYNX
Watch the show; then decide if you still want to know.
DAVE
I vant to know! Vat is zairtew decide?
JYNX
Whether you really want to look through the window and learn some unpleasant truths.
DAVE
Vat window?
JYNX
This window.
(The chrome door, which was slowly opening throughout the scene, has finally revealed the room behind it. A massive wall screen and a series of comfortable benches make for a small viewing room. No door is evident, but JYNX walks blindly into the wall-sized screen which activates and he immediately becomes a silent observer to a scene, dressed in a fashion from an earlier, simpler time.)
CUT TO:
MS: SCREEN
INT. Magneutronic Field Laboratory, The Distant Past
(MORLOCK [VERNE] goes about his duties in his laboratory, working on an ingenious device that appears as a barber chair of sorts with two large headphone-like waffle irons surrounding the headrest. the entire chair is mounted to a strange silver column of steel and thick glass portholes; housing what appears to be various analog mechanisms, canisters, beakers, burners, tubes, gears, pistons, wires and hydraulics. It seems relatively harmless and its sinister appearance is hardly evident in the light. MORLOCK stops tinkering with the device and turns to the camera.)
CU: JYNX
JYNX
Please, be seated.
VYLENCIA
(Sits.) Looks like there might be a point to this, so I guess we had better oblige.
(VYLENCIA obliges by lighting an incredible blunt fashioned from LEONIDAS' stash bag and sugared with a heavy dose of Ava to make a primo blunt, the likes of which have never been seen. The group sits in the ample seating area and huddles within reach of VYLENCIA, who passes it to SALVATORE almost immediately. MORLOCK continues with his action, with no further acknowledgement to the audience. CANDY enters.)
MORLOCK
What is it? I'm almost finished here.
CANDY
Well hello to you too. The dean wants to see you in his office -- right now.
MORLOCK
Tell him I'll see him in the morning, I'm almost through with this and he'll be glad he let me finish.
CANDY
He says you were supposed to be at the committee meeting at four and you missed giving your quarterly report at five and he said if you aren't in his office in ten minutes, you won't have a job tomorrow.
MORLOCK
Oh, Geesh! Can't a guy-? Okay, but I need you to do something here while I'm gone.
CANDY
I'm still grading your quiz, and nobody's gotten an "A" yet... what do you need?
MORLOCK
You can grade the quiz in here. There's a hydrothermic coupling here on this device that needs to be primed and set manually. Every time this little yellow light blinks on, look at this digital display on the armrest here and type in those numbers exactly as you see them on this little keypad on the other armrest and then hit this enter key, ok? And then, when it asks you if that is the beta sequence, you say yes and select it, all right?
CANDY
When is it gonna do this?
MORLOCK
It's been doing it every ten minutes or so all day and it's gotta be almost done because it's been resting at 99-percent for an hour now... anyway, just keep doing it so I won't have to start over, ok? Oh- And please feed Larry while I'm gone.
CUT TO:
MS: Larry, the chimpanzee, playing in his cage.
CANDY
Aw man! -- I'm not changing his diaper or nuthin'. He's always grabbin' my tits!
MORLOCK
No, no, I've talked to him about that and you don't hafta let him feel you up or nothin' just peel a few oranges and bananas for him and talk to him a little and let out of his cage for a little while and let him show you his new swinging trick on the rafters and while he's distracted swap-out his water bottle -- I'll be back in a half hour or so. Oh yeah, don't give him any of my cigarettes! (Takes them from table.) No matter how cute he acts, don't let him smoke -- he'll snipe a cigarette butt and gank a lighter if you ain't watching him. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. The dean usually runs out of ass-chewing steam after about fifteen minutes. So hang tight for a half hour and we'll get out of here and grab some dinner and watch any movie you want to see tonight, okay?
CANDY
I gotta study group meeting up at the library in two hours -- you better be back by then or I'm taking the car.
MORLOCK
I will, I promise. A half-hour, tops. Love you.
(He exits. CANDY crosses to the food table and peels a banana and an orange and puts them in a dog food bowl. As she picks up the bowl and grabs a waterbottle, she stops and looks toward the cage.)
CANDY
What? What is it?
MS: Larry
(The chimp rapidly pantomimes smoking a cigarette. CANDY opens the cage and drops the food bowl and waterbottle into a small box inside the cage.)
CANDY (Cont'd)
Oh no Larry, Manny said no cigarettes. You can show me your new trick or you can eat, but no smoking in here. And stop staring at my breasts. They ain't for you neither.
LARRY
(Making chimp noises.) Wahhh-ahhh-haa-eeeeh-eeeeh!
CANDY
Smoking's bad for you, didn't anyone ever tell you that? Who taught you to smoke anyway?
LARRY
(Pantomimes again.) Waaaaaaaahh-eeeh-eh!
CANDY
Monkey see, monkey do, I guess. Anyway, you're S-O-L. He took his cigarettes with him.
(Pantomimes the smoking gesture again as he crosses the room to a file cabinet. He pushes an oval panel on the side of the cabinet and a secret drawer pops open. He reaches in and pulls out a pack of clove cigarettes and a lighter.) Weeeh-aaaah-ooooh-eeeeh.
CANDY
(Sniffs as she crosses to the file cabinet.) Cloves? Manny's been smoking cloves? Ain't those supposed to be illegal? (Looks into stash drawer as LARRY lights up.) Holy crap! He's got all kinds of drugs in here! I knew it! I knew it! I knew he was holding out on me -- (Pulls out a monster, 21-chamber bong and soonafter, a dinky bag of white powder, then, a small bag of pills, followed by a medium bag of mushrooms and lastly, a large bag of dank.) Man, he's got about a grand worth of drugs in here! This is a few pounds of weed, at least! Damn! And I had to pay the water bill this month. Oh, we're gonna have words on how this marriage is supposed to go. (Takes out the stash.) How it's gonna be...
LARRY
(Smiling, nodding, smoking.) Weeee-heeee-haaah.
CANDY
Larry... if you're gonna blaze up in here, then I feel more than entitled. (Loads bong.) Holding out on his wife, he can afford to part with a little of his stash. (Lights it. Takes a rip.) I can at least have a buzz on while I'm babysitting you. Monkey-sitting fees. (Rips again.) Man, this is tasty! Why does he keep it here at work and not at home?
LARRY
(Nods, smiles. Suddenly, a beeping noise erupts from the chair and LARRY quickly scurries to his cage and closes the door behind him and chain-puffs, frightened.) Screeeeech!
CANDY
What's got you all riled up? This? It's just an alarm. (Punches in numbers near a yellow blinking light on the chair's armrest and sits in the chair. She takes a bong rip and hits the enter key and the beeping stops.) Damn, that was annoying. What's wrong with you?
(LARRY is hiding in a crate inside his cage, only peeking out. He continues to chain puff and lights a second clove as he puts out the first.)
CANDY
(Reading display.) Sequence complete? What's this? Scan, clean, disrupt, merge, observe, assimilate? What's all this? He didn't say anything about a weird menu popping up. What's this one? Ata -- what's link to Atava - con -- End run? Override? Is that like an exit screen? (Rips.) Maybe I had better wait for him to get back. I don't want to mess this up. (Rips.) Run alpha program? Didn't he say something about saying yes to something? Hey, Larry! Don't you wanna play?
LARRY
(Shaking head no, huddles behind a tire swing and hugs it.) Screeeech!
CANDY
Oh, what do you know? (Rips, clears it.) Oh, this one! Run sequence? Y-E-S. Enter.
(The machine whirs to life. A gentle hum and the waffle irons alight and the steel column roars as various pistons and gears begin to move. A rising note, a sharp flash and CANDY is suddenly frozen in her chair, bong in hand. A laser marks out her dimensions within a three-dimensional grid and subsequently disintegrates her a line at a time, much like the orange was disintegrated in the movie TRON. CANDY vanishes.)
SILENCE
PAUSE
LARRY
Wroooooah?
(MORLOCK enters, laughing, celebrating in his own narcisstic, self-involved way.)
MORLOCK
Candy! I came, I saw and I kicked ass! (Punches the air above like a champ.) I turned a royal butt-chewing into a slap-on-the-back atta boy in less than three minutes. (Tucks elbow in and brings his fist to his side quickly.) The dean was even thanking me for- Candy? Candy? Where are you? You in the bathroo- hey! Why's it smell like cloves in here? And dank! (Looks and sees open panel.) You been gettin' in my stash again, Larry?
LARRY
Mreeah!
MS: CHAIR
POV: MORLOCK
QUICK DOLLY IN, ZOOM OUT: CHAIR
MORLOCK
(Crosses to chair. Sees panel on chair, sees green blinking light.) Oh no...
CU: Blinking green light reading: Sequence Complete
(MORLOCK slowly taps the green button. Immediately, in echo-chamber fashion, we hear the thoughts of CANDY.)
CANDY V.O.
And when you open an umbrella inside... Hey! I can hear myself! Hello?
MORLOCK
(Looking up:) Candy...
CANDY V.O.
Manny? Where am I? It's dark... and I can't feel my legs.
MORLOCK
(Crosses to stash box.) Honey... there's been a small accident; I need you to stay calm.
CANDY V.O.
Manny- Where are you? I can't see you...
MORLOCK
(Where'd the bong go? Pops a few pills. Washes them down with his silver flask.) Let me explain, honey -- If you want some light, just think about a sunrise for a minute.
CANDY V.O.
A sunrise? Oh wow! I see it... It's so beautiful!
MORLOCK
(Lights a cigarette. LARRY comes over to bum one. MORLOCK absently hands the pack and lighter to LARRY, who scampers off to chain smoke.) Candy... this is hard to explain. Don't freak out, but you're probably not going to meet your study group at the library tonight.
CANDY V.O.
There's purple birds. And toadstools! Hey! The grass is yellow and blue and it's warm...
MORLOCK
(With a rolled up dollar, double-snorts two lines of something white cut into rows on the table.) Okay. You hang tight and play with the birds while I find a way to get you back out and then we'll keep this as a secret between us and nobody has to know anything about this, okay? (Wipes nose, snorts.) Our little secret, okay?
CANDY V.O.
Secret? You mean like your stash box?
MORLOCK
(Rolls a joint while smoking and explaining.) Depends. I've got plenty of stash boxes around here. (Licks paper.) No matter how long it might take to get you out of there... (Doesn't wait for it to dry, lights it.) And, well, when you do get out of there we can talk about... you okay?
CANDY V.O.
I can breathe underwater!
MORLOCK
Is that so? (Double tokes.) Candy, I'm-
CANDY V.O.
The leaves taste like marshmallows!
MORLOCK
Okay... Don't go anywhere, honey, I love you and I'll get this one sorted out; I'll be right back.
(JYNX, observing, walks from the screen into the room, again as a hologram in an unassuming white suit -- the kind worn by faith healers and such. He observes the passing of the blunt paper.)
JYNX
You may want to roll another one; there's much more to this story. Any questions so far?
TOM
So how'd he explain that to the cops? What did he tell them?
JYNX
He was vilified after reporting her disappearance. He kept all the details to himself. Before suspicions ever grew into official charges or civil actions in a court of law, he too, disappeared. Unable to free his wife; he decided to join her.
TOM
(Blazing up another, quickly passes.) So what's all this gotta do with us?
JYNX
Watch.
MS: SCREEN
MS: INT. ATAVACHRON
(We see the scene DAVE watched earlier, unaltered. Instead of a still frame and a gun firing, we see the great eye open and a nude, sleepwalking NANCY walk toward it and Zap! A white laser beam emits from the steel inner columns and grids-out the space around NANCY. As was the case for CANDY, in a flash NANCY is cyber-integrated in the manner of the orange in TRON and instantly becomes part of the Atavachron matrix.)
NANCY
(Discorporated and appearing as a hologram:) What's happened?
CANDY
(Hologram walks from the column; enters.) Come here, Nancy, let me show you something.
CUT TO: Int. Atavachron, Isis station
(JYNX taps VYLENCIA ever-so-lightly with a holographic hand. VYLENCIA feels nothing as she is snoring, fast asleep in her chair. Finally, STEPHEN taps her and she rouses.)
VYLENCIA
Wha? Gee-willikers! What happened?
SALVATORE
You dozed off.
VYLENCIA
(Pulls two round red-and-black stickers from her temples with checkered triangles, like a nuclear warning sign. The stickers are the size of the stamp from a bingo marker.) Huh? What are these?
STEPHEN
(Tapping the display on his portable phone/computer/dream monitor.) While you were asleep, Ms. Pensacola, I took the liberty to monitor your brain patterns. Very interesting.
(VYLENCIA looks about. Everyone is normal, everyone is calm.)
VYLENCIA
Wh- what did I miss?
SYLVAN
Did you see the movie with the monkey?
VYLENCIA
Yep.
SYLVAN
Did you see the movie of what really happened to that girl?
VYLENCIA
Uh, maybe.
SALVATORE
Did you see the long, dry art film where the inventor commits suicide by using the device on himself; only after painfully reading aloud seventeen minutes of his poetry, bereft with mixed metaphors and redundantly trite, redundantly unnecessary, redundant, repetitions of redundantly overused and redundantly hackneyed cliches of a redundant nature???
VYLENCIA
No. Can't say I caught that one.
LEONIDAS
Lucky you.
MOMS
No doubt!
VYLENCIA
What about the ship blowing apart?
SYLVAN
Oh, that. No worries. If it was going to do that, it would have a long time ago.
VYLENCIA
What about the Eclipse? Did I miss the Eclipse?
RAMONA
I think it's the Ava; it's gotten to her.
DAVE
Eats gitting tewall if iss.
SYLVAN
(Smiling; assured.) It's still a couple of hours away, at least.
JYNX
What is the last thing you remember?
VYLENCIA
Those movies you were showin' us.
STEPHEN
Ms. Pensacola, I have discovered something... very peculiar.
AZALEA
Oh really? Do tell. What is that?
STEPHEN
(Shows hand-held dream monitor:) See these lines?
VYLENCIA
Them squiggly ones?
STEPHEN
Yes. Those are your brain waves.
VYLENCIA
Okay, so? Are they normal or am I as crazy as I think I am?
SALVATORE
Don't let me answer that.
LEONIDAS
Amen.
VYLENCIA
Hey, don't be hatin' -- we're all high as a kite on summa the best drugs in the galaxy having a box seat to the biggest party in the solar system and y'all be trippin' and judgin' my brain waves and actin' like I ain't been a good enough host. (Speaking of which -- produces another mondo blunt from her bra. [Did she roll it in her sleep, or is there a secret stash pocket in there? The group salivates and the blunt gets merrily passed as VYLENCIA lights a second, and yet a third.) Don't say I was ever short on the party favors, and speaking of which, you gonna milk that thing for my happy ending or what?
MOMS
Hmmph! I spose, if'n you say so. (She goes to her fabricated machine and activates it. It seems to be filling a 30-gallon barrel with powder. Every seventh chug or so, it spits a gram into a little hopper accessible to the operater of the device. MOMS wastes no time dipping her pinky into the hopper. Sniff-sniff-aahhh.) This might take a few minutes.
STEPHEN
(Milking the first blunt, which has finally reached him.) May I continue?
VYLENCIA
Please. Don't mind them; they didn't have the moxy to wear your little sticky things on their heads -- show me whatcha got. That yellow squiggly line there; what's that?
STEPHEN
(Passes blunt to VYLENCIA.) Yes those. Those are your alpha waves.
VYLENCIA
Ah, alpha waves. So do those lines say that I'm bonkers or just a little wack in the head?
STEPHEN
Actually, your readings are quite normal. I find only one irregularity beyond normal levels; and it's here, your Zeta line, it's showing that yours is nearly off the chart.
VYLENCIA
(Tilts head and leans away; eyes him sideways.) Oh yeah? What does that mean?
STEPHEN
Oh, please do not be alarmed. My Zeta line is also well beyond the norm. (Leans in, almost intimate:) It is the prime indicator of a strong imagination and having superior intellectual capacity and mental acuity.
VYLENCIA
Oh, ah, yes, yes. Well there ya go. Zeta waves. It says we're geniuses, huh?
STEPHEN
Geniuses; oh very much so. Geniuses who dream quite vividly.
VYLENCIA
Total Technicolor. What else that cool brain scanner thingy say about me?
STEPHEN
It says you have quite an active mind.
VYLENCIA
That I do! That I do! Yes, yes... (Exhales, passes to STEPHEN, out of rotation.) I try to put it to good use.
SALVATORE
Hey, is this goin' somewhere?
TOM
(The only person other than MOMS who is not in the rotation. He is smoking from his own pipe and reading from his own personal phone/computer/digital lockpick.) Y'all take your time, chat it up, toke it up, whatever -- it don't matter to me. I'm still on the clock.
DAVE
Ind Eem ze von peeing him. Yiss, kinn vee git ziss moving eelung? I vant to see Nancy.
JYNX
In good time. In good time.
RAMONA
(Tokes, passes to SYLVAN:) Oh, no, I never wear Khaki.
SYLVAN
But you would look so good in Khaki!
RAMONA
Well thank you, but to me it's like white -- I bleed like a stuck pig.
SYLVAN
I gotta green-tea recipe that is supposed to work wonders for that.
VYLENCIA
Leo, is this right? Everything here seem all right to you?
LEONIDAS
(Tokes. Passes. Playing SONNY a game of chess on his own portable phone/computer/game board.) Check.
SONNY
Damn! Forgot about the queen.
LEONIDAS
You wanna take it back?
SONNY
Nah, we'll play it out.
VYLENCIA
Leo?
LEONIDAS
What?
VYLENCIA
Never mind. (Tokes. Passes to SALVATORE.) This look right?
SALVATORE
Looks fine to me.
VYLENCIA
So could I really be dreaming now?
STEPHEN
Fascinating. What makes you say that?
VYLENCIA
Cuz in dreams, you always start in the middle of something and everything's a touch hazy around the edges, kinda like how I'm feeling now. Plus, you said we're always dreaming.
JYNX
Yes. That's true.
STEPHEN
Yes, we are constantly dreaming. During your slumber, I cross-checked a synchronized readout on this computer's operational frequencies in comparison with your dream state to determine if somehow, this Atavachron computer was influencing your dream patterns, Ms. Pensacola.
VYLENCIA
Vy, Vy...
STEPHEN
Surprisingly, I found the opposite to be the case. Look here, Vy; I think you might find this to be very interesting. (Several lean in to see.) Your brain, the computer's brain.
SALVATORE
They're identical!
STEPHEN
It would seem that your mind, Ms. Pensacola, is somehow influencing how this computer functions.
VYLENCIA
What? What are you saying?
STEPHEN
Perhaps subconsciously, your dreaming mind is controllling the Atavachron. This computer is directly responding to the billions of electrical nono-pulses within your brain and it is somehow using those patterns as internal instructions on how to operate.
VYLENCIA
Hey! Professor Hologram Dude! C'mere!
JYNX
Hmmm. What he is saying could be true. I invented the damn thing, and it was built to work with nano-pulses to amplify conscious awareness of a human brain. I really never considered a person's mind could influence it from outside, though it's possible since I was trying to remove its instrumentalities and evolve it into a device that would- Hmmm. Apparently from these readings; what he's saying is correct. You're running the show.
VYLENCIA
But I don't know I'm operating it, I don't feel like I'm operating it. What makes you so sure I'm operating it and not just having that dream computer thing copy my brain patterns to take a reading...? Kinda like your portable P-C-thingy there.
(A holographic NANCY enters from the screen. She appears angelic. Everyone notices.)
NANCY
(Her hair is divinely braided in corn-rows and beadery.) I think I can answer that question.
DAVE
Nancy!
NANCY
Aw, Dave, it is so good to see you, and we shall talk soon enough. Rest now; sleep. (DAVE finds an immidiate spot to settle into and falls asleep, and others slowly follow suit until only
VYLENCIA and the holograms remain unaffected.) Please come with me, Ms. Pensacola.
(The wall with the screen recedes in fractured-yet-structured pieces and NANCY'S hologram walks within. Blue mist erupts from the darkened hallway beyond the portal.)
NANCY (Cont'd)
Come.
VYLENCIA
What's in there?
NANCY
Follow me.
(NANCY and VYLENCIA walk down the narrow, dark, misty corridor, leaving JYNX behind. NANCY'S hologram glows with a faint white smimmer as the two walk to the end, where a door awaits. VYLENCIA'S movements disturb the mist while NANCY does not affect the environment about her. VYLENCIA creates a little mist of her own as she tokes up a majestic Ava-laced blunt of monstrous magnitude.)
NANCY
So... Ms. Pensacola: You want the good, the bad, or the ugly?
VYLENCIA
Eh? Well, if'n ya put it that way... Let's try the good, for starters.
NANCY
Okay. Consider the fact that the two of us are connected in a way that no two people have ever been connected before.
VYLENCIA
You mean about how I dream about you all constantly?
NANCY
Well, yes. To me, it's reality. And I find this reality to be very precious.
VYLENCIA
What we got is... I don't think I gotta word for it.
NANCY
Unique. What we have is very special to me. And this is perhaps one way to explain it.
(She punches a keypad to the right of the door and after a few deep squelchy sounds...)
SWISH!
VYLENCIA
(Looking into the room ahead, unseen by us.) What in the hell is this?
CUT TO: