Scene 3.07 - Gimme Shelter
INT. Storm Shelter, Tellusia
(VERNE and VERNE 1 are near a large machine. VERNE is using his portable, communicator device.)
VERNE
(Over squelching, he turns a small knob:) Verne to Eliza, Verne to Eliza, come in, Eliza.
VERNE 1
I told you, magnetic fluctuations prevent normal communicators from working outside the-
VERNE
(Putting the device to his ear, he hears nothing but static:) Yeah, yeah, has the storm passed? I want to get back to my ship.
VERNE 1
You have work here to do. You can call your ship on this device. I call it the Atavachron.
VERNE
Da wha? Whatever. (Clacks shut his portable communicator, goes to machine, suddenly interested.) Hmmm. Why didn’t you mention this earlier? This thing’s a communicator?
VERNE 1
Yes, and much, much more. (Begins firing-up the mad-scientist-looking machine. Lights ignite, test-tubes and beakers bubble, air compessors breathe, fans whir, Tesla-coils connect and arc, dynamos hum and and lightning-balls in vacuum glass spark varied hues:) It’s a quantum housing for a native form of energy that I discovered and was able to contain and separate. I found it on a curious little island near the equator- (Tries to dissuade VERNE from touching it, to no avail:) It’s a delicate device, with precise controls. Tampering with it might cause quantum displacement.
VERNE
Verne to Eliza. (A random hall panel appears on the viewscreen. VERNE knows it immediately.) Hey! That’s my ship! Bravo section!
VERNE 1
Yes. How do you know how to operate the-
VERNE
We think much alike, you and I. You built it the way I would. (Points to two odd-shaped, white, chrome-studded protrusions:) I take it that these are modified, plasma-induction manifolds, pirated from two of the other, replicated ships.
VERNE 1
(Flatly:) Yes.
VERNE
Well, a few more adjustments and I should be seeing the bridge. (Does so with little effort.) Hey, how do you get this thing to zoom out?
VERNE 1
It’s really not designed to do that-
VERNE
Why in blazes not? I can only see half my bridge- and look! It’s all crashed upside-down!
(VERNE 1 tries to reach to a particular button on a panel near him, VERNE tries to anticipate and beat him to it as if he knew what button to push, VERNE 1 pauses, waits for VERNE to finally put his hand down and then pushes the yellow button and VERNE nods and unconsciously moves his hand for a bounce in the direction of the button, as if he knew it was the yellow one all along. The monitor image flips vertically. The ceiling is now the floor. CLARKE walks by the screen, unaware he is observed. He walks off, right.)
VERNE (Cont’d)
The gravity network is out. There’s Clarke! Verne to Clarke!
VERNE 1
The voice modulation relay switch is on the left, next to the-
VERNE
Yeah, next to the quantum displacement element override. You should really label these things, I almost hit the wrong button.
VERNE 1
(Like an anal-retentive computer programmer:) You shouldn’t be ‘hitting’ any of the buttons.
VERNE
Verne to Clarke. Come in, Clarke!
CLARKE
(Enters the screen wearing a ludicrous, environmental suit that has a huge bubble-head piece, like Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet, with spindley mechanisms and moving parts inside the bubble head, with a helmet and array of wires going into CLARKE’S chrome baldcap, like Ming-Von-Sydow's cap was in Flash Gordon --The suit is colored orange like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey. A red, plastic plate-thing on his chest lights up when he speaks, like the Robot in Lost In Space. He nearly walks by, stops, then turns and slowly approaches. He walks up and looks full front into the camera.) Captain Verne, is that you?
VERNE
Yes. You weren’t planning on going anywhere, were you?
CLARKE
I thought an initial survey of the ship’s exterior would-
VERNE
Negative. There’s hostile life outside the ship and I don’t want to risk any further mishaps. Stay on board and get the ship repaired until I can get back to you.
CLARKE
(We see the suit go limp. Wheelie-bobs stop wheelie-bobbing. Deflated:) Yes, sir.
VERNE
I want all the crew to assemble on the bridge. Get my ship ready for flight as soon as possible. Cargo-Unit Azalea will be reaching you within the hour. I got a new theory about-
CLARKE
(Taps the camera’s glass, wheelie-bobs move again, curious, leans in:) Did you say Azalea, sir?
VERNE
Yeah, there was some life in her corpse after all. Make her feel at home. She wants to take a shower. Let her do so, but ensure that she doesn’t go anywhere near the cargo bay. I don’t need her to start second-guessing me by waking up her girlfriends.
CLARKE
Understood, sir. When can we expect you to return, sir?
VERNE
Well, the tsunami’s passed. (Quick, to VERNE 1:) This paradox thing, will it take long?
VERNE 1
I have been working on this problem for over seven-hundred millenia...
VERNE
Look, I’ll be there for dinner. You have your orders, Clarke, Verne out.
(VERNE quickly taps a random, unmarked button and the screen goes blank.)
VERNE 1
Your science officer looked pretty excited about the prospect of seeing Tellusia.
VERNE
Well, that’s just too bad. (Pause, looks away, grimaces, gives it consideration because VERNE 1 mentioned it, yet feels still as resolved, as if answering his own mind’s objection with the avalanche of evidence to support his theory that he shouldn’t have even stopped off in this sector of space to begin with:) Tough turkey! I don’t have time to entertain Clarke’s delusions of discovery. I just want to get this wrapped-up and get us to Halceron post-haste; that is, if I can ever get The Universe taken off hold. That's odd, how come there’s no auto setting for a grey-room on this thing?
VERNE 1
You may not want to go to Halceron even if you do manage to restore normal space. Here, look at this. This will show you the first paradox, the one we didn’t create and the one we can’t do anything about. Once you know it, it’s much easier to unravel the one that we did create.
VERNE
We?
VERNE 1
Well, the time-loop paradox is my fault, but it’s the only reason why we can meet, and how we can both venture to Tellusia without breaking the Q-S-I-2. I created a paradox when I chose to use the green-room to prevent the terraformation after it had already happened everywhere; you created a paradox in Azalea by not limiting her Zeta abilities like you would have for a conscious person -- all while leaving your scale perimeters wide-open; which luckily gave me an eternity to work on both of our problems.
VERNE
What’s the paradox with Azalea?
VERNE 1
I figure the same as us, more or less; she’s fragmented. Seeing the original paradox helps you understand why these conundrums appear as a replication, when they aren’t. It helps give you a different basis of perspective to solve your problems.
VERNE
There you go lumping-me-in with your past mistakes. So far I’m only counting one paradox by my hand.
VERNE 1
You’re forgetting the one we both did when we were the same person. You know the one.
VERNE
What one?
VERNE 1
You know. It was a few thousand years ago, give or take a century; but certainly not forgettable...
VERNE
What- what are you talking about?
VERNE 1
On the Roanoke, where else?
VERNE
(Pause.) That wasn’t a paradox. That was a decision.
VERNE 1
Call it what you want. Maybe I know a few things you don’t about what really happened there.
VERNE
I doubt that very much. So this is all about The Roanoke?
VERNE 1
Among other things, but seeing what we cannot change, helps us change the things we can.
VERNE
I doubt we have the wisdom to know the difference. (Pause.) How come we didn’t read this as a pre-existing paradox? Wouldn’t we have known all along?
VERNE 1
The government didn’t want us to know, and for good reason. Try not to get upset about it.
VERNE
Whatever it is, I’m sure I can take it.
VERNE 1
See, it all started when a tornado hit this quantum-research facility near Norman, Oklahoma.
VERNE
Quantum research facility? When was this? Like ten thousand years ago? The Stone Age?
VERNE 1
Almost. Now watch.
VERNE
Norman, Oklahoma -- isn’t that -- is that us? Me?
VERNE 1
Yes.
(We see a boy and his dog running across a field. The boy is throwing a stick and runs to the dog, getting closer to the fenced-in facility. A large thunderhead looms on the horizon. The boy pets his dog. He throws the stick again and runs closer to the skeletal generators as lighting flashes on the horizon and the boy, care to the winds, follows his dog between massive, multi-colored beams that comprise the outdoor, cubic structure of unknown purpose or function. He’s a kid with his dog, not caring about the storm. Note: Don't have a red beam at the facility, have brown instead. The colors are blue, yellow, green, brown, white and black.)
VERNE
I was so young, then.
VERNE 1
Yes. Yes we were.
FTB