Scene 3.30 - The Time Portal
EST: EXT./INT. Guardian - Timeless
FADE IN:
LS: Guardian Of Infinity
(The Guardian is once again playing the history of The Cosmos. WELLS is quite bored with the Guardian already and is engrossed in his pocket video game. The Eliza suddenly roars into the wall of the skyscraper and disappears. WELLS glances upward.)
WELLS
Whoa! That was heavy! Was that The Eliza?
GUARDIAN
Yes, they have passed on, to what was.
WELLS
Yeah. Pretty heavy.
VERNE
Verne To Wells.
WELLS
I’m here, Julie!
(There is massive distortion, as VERNE is not using RONNIE to transmit. We hear his own version [recorded by VERNE ONE] of the recorded message ASIMOV heard earlier playing in the background, and then afterwards, we hear the opening audio for Angels Of The Rainbow.)
VERNE
Doc, that thing’s taken over my ship’s controls. I’m not headed toward the Guardian anymore, I’m flying straight into it. And for some reason, my monitor’s playing an awful Western.
WELLS
That’s terrible. There isn’t much space for you to land here anyway. Good luck on enduring another movie.
VERNE
Don’t you hear what I’m saying? I’m going to go through the portal. I won’t be able to pick you up. You’ll be stuck here!
WELLS
After I finish this level, I’ll save my game, maybe I can find a way to rig this here watercraft to follow you.
VERNE
Negative. Those water-sliders aren’t designed for space travel. We don’t know what’s on the other side of that anomaly. It’s a risk you don’t need to take.
WELLS
What should I do, then? Dag nabbit, run, run already!
VERNE
Is there a problem, Doc?
WELLS
Oh, nothing! Nothing! I’m just trying to beat my high-score. I’m playing “Peaceful Protest” and the cops just wasted all my college students.
VERNE
(Suddenly no distortion. The Guardian begins replaying the history of The Cosmos.) Doc, there seems to be an area surrounding the Guardian that is impervious to its distorting effect. Huh. Communications are fully restored on The Archimedes. Doc?
WELLS
Hear you loud and clear, Julie. Drats! The cops just got all my union workers, too!
VERNE
I need you to stay put and try to find a way to get the Guardian to bring The Eliza back.
WELLS
I can try, but I think they’re gone, Julie.
VERNE
Where did they go?
WELLS
I guess the question is really, when did they go? I think they went back in time.
VERNE
Terrific. How will I ever find them?
WELLS
There is a theory, you know, that time is like fluid. Aw, now they got my immigrants!
VERNE
Who?
WELLS
The cops.
VERNE
Cops?
WELLS
(Puts game away.) Aw, it’s just a stupid game anyway. (Stands, brushes dust off of legs.) Even if you get to the last stage, the dogs come in and kill you anyway. I can never get past that part.
VERNE
Dogs? Doc, I don’t think we’re playing from the same sheet-of-music here.
WELLS
I see you coming in, Julie. Man, you’re going fast!
VERNE
Sit tight, Doc. I’ll make it back, somehow.
WELLS
Good luck, sir. Hey, Julie! Can’t you just eject from the ship?
VERNE
Negative. The ejection seat doesn’t have any more pressure in its tanks. I’m going in, Doc.
WELLS
Any last instructions?
VERNE
Sit tight, wait for my return. If all goes well, it should seem like I never left and I should be back within moments.
WELLS
And if you don’t come back?
VERNE
When you feel you’ve waited long enough, I want you to-
(The Archimedes flies into the skyscraper and is gone.)
WELLS
Hey Guardian! Where’d he go?
GUARDIAN
Don’t you mean, when did he go?
WELLS
Yeah, yeah. When?
GUARDIAN
He has passed on to, what was.
WELLS
Man, you just said that! I mean specifically, when did he go?
GUARDIAN
He has gone to your home planet. A time before your race ventured to the stars.
WELLS
Yeah, the final frontier and all that. (Pause. Looks around.) So if he was successful-
GUARDIAN
If your friend was successful, don’t you think he would have returned by now?
WELLS
I guess that means I’ve waited long enough. (Heads to water-slider.) Hey, Guardian-
GUARDIAN
What is it that you want already!?
WELLS
Jeez, touchy. Maybe you SHOULD take up smoking. You’d think all alone out here with no one to talk to, you wouldn’t be so rude to the only guy who’s bothered to ever strike-up a conversation with ya.
GUARDIAN
My apologies. I’m just busy, that’s all.
WELLS
Busy? What do you got to do?
GUARDIAN
(We hear a mumbling, as if he’s talking to someone else inside the obelisk.) Well, er, uh, equations.
WELLS
Equations? What kind of load is that?
GUARDIAN
And I must monitor the portal of Nevermore.
WELLS
The portal of what?
GUARDIAN
Nevermore, it’s, well, you wouldn’t understand.
WELLS
Try me.
GUARDIAN
It’s- technical.
WELLS
No it ain’t, you just made it up.
GUARDIAN
No I didn’t.
WELLS
Yeah you did, I ain’t never heard of no Nevermore.
GUARDIAN
That’s because I’ve done a good job keeping it a secret.
WELLS
Some secret if you told me. So what does Nevermore have to do with the Captain and all my friends?
GUARDIAN
It’s complicated.
WELLS
(Leans back in chair, puts feet on dashboard, hands behind head.) Go for it. I got all day.
GUARDIAN
Very well, the land of Nevermore is as old as The Universe itself.
WELLS
Hey Guardian, show me some video along with your story.
GUARDIAN
Er, there is no video of the land of Nevermore. This is the land of Nevermore.
WELLS
Well, give me a laser light show then. This is boring.
GUARDIAN
Like this?
WELLS
Yeah man, that’s real cosmic.
GUARDIAN
Can I go on?
WELLS
I dunno, CAN you?
GUARDIAN
The land of Nevermore is as old as The Universe itself.
WELLS
You already said that-
GUARDIAN
Yes, and that’s all I’ve been able to say.
WELLS
Okay! Okay! Touchy! Look, I could care less if I’m in Nevermore, The Phantom World or Wonderland. I want out of here like everyone else, and I’d be out of your hair already if I could go back in time and join the captain, but I can’t.
GUARDIAN
Of course you can, I am the Guardian Of Infinity. You may use me to travel time.
WELLS
Won’t I just appear in space or something?
GUARDIAN
No. You would be sent, here.
(We briefly get a shot of a serene fishing village. We don’t see the man and dog that WELLS describes. We see a brief shot of a sweaty WELLS 1 hiding in the palm tree shadows, observing the two...)
WELLS
Well, look! A neat little fishing village! All peaceful and quiet! No problems there! Look! That man doesn’t even have a collar. Aw, and he’s petting the dog. And look! All those people on the other side of that fence, just waiting to have their turn to pet the dog! What a neat place! (Looks briefly at monitor on dashboard.) Sure beats watching a Western!
GUARDIAN
This is where the others have gone.
WELLS
Oh! Well, isn’t that quaint! No wonder they didn’t come back! Earth is beautiful! No pollution, no toxic fumes, no overpopulation. You’re saying I could go there, too?
(WELLS 1 intently watches and eavesdrops on the pair, patient.)
GUARDIAN
I am quite sure your mode of transport would take you there, although it will be altered when it reaches the other side.
WELLS
Altered?
GUARDIAN
It will appear as a craft in chronological synchronization with the time-stream you inhabit.
WELLS
Whatever that means! So how am I supposed to get back if I go in?
GUARDIAN
The red button under the glass on your dashboard should bring you back safely.
WELLS
This says for emergency use only.
GUARDIAN
Well, uh, getting-back would be an emergency, wouldn’t it?
WELLS
Yeah man, I guess so.
(WELLS 1 walks off, gaining as better vantage point, moving to a small camp nearby. We see a golf cart and an assortment of surgical tools and a small portable quantum generator at the encampment. WELLS 1 watches them with space-age binoculars.)
WELLS
So what do I have to push to go into that quiet little fishing village there?
GUARDIAN
The green button, what else?
WELLS
I don’t know if I’m going to miss you very much, Guardian. Your conversation skills seriously lack charm.
GUARDIAN
Take your false sentiment and work it, I’m a time-portal, not a talk show host.
(WELLS gets his own Nemo-esque look to the camera.)
WELLS
So when I go into this portal-
GUARDIAN
Oh, just push the button already!
WELLS
Okay, here goes nothing. Hope I don’t need a fishing license, them fish were jumping, just begging to get hooked!
(He pushes the button. We get to follow his action. At first, it’s black-and-white, then negative, then fireworks, like Time Tunnel. Then it’s like that long, drawn out sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey where David Bowman goes into the monolith. You know, plasmic landscapes, colorful, warp-speed-lookin’ stuff. Interspersed still-frames of WELLS show him in euphoria, completely wasted.)
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