Scene 6.08 - An Overdue Explanation Revisited
INT. Bridge, Timeship Ventura
(CLARKE is in a strange, black-and-silver, futuristic U.S. Navy lieutenant-commander’s uniform. THE BARON is in a sleek, metallic, cyberbody wearing a traditional naval captain's uniform and looks much-healithier and much-less scarred; although his now-cut-to-military-regulation hair is still bone white. Both are on the bridge of an equally fantastic and sleek timeship, fully capable of P.K. Dick’s Law of Transversing: Moving without moving in both time and space. ROMEO ROMERO enters, aft: He is an early-middle-aged man, balding, with a facial scar below his right eye --a determined and hard-edged soldier in futuristic U.S. Army attire who commands the expansive vessel with a cold fist and an angry brow-crinkle. CLARKE looks up from his scientific viewscreen. ROMEO’S boots clog-clup-clog-clup across the mosaic deck of koa-and-ebony inlay.)
ROMEO
Mr. Clarke-
CLARKE
Still no sign of the Captain, Commander. He’s vanished.
THE BARON
Commander Romero, I still have a bead on the Ronica anomaly...
ROMEO
No, no, don’t interfere; I don’t know why she plays in this and that means everything here. Clarke, where is... the shipment?
CLARKE
They’ve reached Fourth Orbit, commander.
ROMEO
Don’t let them reach Third, we’re gonna escort them to First Orbit. (He sits, pours coffee, and pushes a magic-button and a phat, perfectly-rolled, lit joint is produced in a convenient, space-worthy ashtray. He hits deeply. The others follow suit at their respective stations.) Baron, open a hailing frequency. I want this for the pilot’s ears alone.
THE BARON
I’ve got their bridge, but I can’t establish a cone of silence, bro.
ROMEO
Very well... bro. Time-shuttle Demetridon, this is Army Colonel Romero acting under orders for the Federal Bureau Of Spacial Security aboard the Timeship Ventura. We are currently-occupying Second Orbit. You are restricted to orbit in your current position and are ordered to stand-down and prepare for immediate boarding-and-inspection.
(They are sitting in the cockpit aboard a massive shuttle. RONNIE, still wearing her trapeze-artist leotard, flies the ship. AZALEA is her co-pilot, still appearing as Marie Antionette.)
RONNIE
We read you. Welcome, Colonel. We have a Decree-Of-Trust issued by the Supreme Council that allows a conjunctional-orbit of-
ROMEO
Ms. Ronica, I am quite aware of your protocol papers, and your anomaly. (They listen closely.) You will be escorted by me, personally, to The Halls Of Supreme Confidence at a time and in a manner that I deem prudent and proper -- if I deem it prudent and proper at all. We’re crossing Third Orbit and will reach you very soon. We shall meet in the refueling basin adjacent to your cockpit. Please keep this quiet. Do not alert your cargo.
AZALEA
Cargo? (ROMEO nods to THE BARON.) Is that how military-types refer to me when I’m a passenge-
(The viewscreen cuts to a wide shot of Zeta, a fuzzy, orange gas-planet. It is massive, like Jupiter and New Trinity. It’s got light-purple swirlies here and there and a few green ones that betray signs of life -- the most interesting aspect of a planet that, by all appearances, would be completely inhospitable to any life, much less human life. There are five, distinct, man-made rings comprised of millions of individual satellites, ships, bases and clutter. It looks like constant rush-hour traffic, literally. ROMEO looks to CLARKE and THE BARON.)
ROMEO
Prepare for Spacial Osmosis. Helm, ship-to-ship docking protocol.
THE BARON
Bringing her about, sir.
CLARKE
Docking sphere engaged. Air-tight, sir.
ROMEO
Mr. Clarke, would you care to accompany me? Keep her flying, Baron.
BARON
Aye-Aye, bro...
(They go aft. THE BARON, now alone, feels an unexplained wave of contentment wash over him -- he momentarily feels at one with The Universe and feels cosmically joined with the Titans on the planet below and somehow spiritually-connected with VERNE and perhaps a soul in a more remote location. As quickly as the exhilaration unexpectedly crashed into his awareness, the feeling quickly subsides. THE BARON takes the captain's chair, disdainfully ditches the engineering and helm station's schwagful pinner and hits the magic-button to spark a phatty more-suitable for a commander: At home, finally...)
SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
INT. LIFT
CU: ROMEO AND CLARKE
(Lining the walls of the lift, there is a psychedelic backdrop of plasmic colors awash over various schematics of the massive ship. These intricate-and-colorful displays fluidly move in an organic conjunction with the lift itself. It seems as if the ship was breathing, pulsing with a heartbeat, almost as if it were alive.)
CLARKE
Resolution is my sole purpose, Colonel.
(It’s beyond a turbolift. It's an Uberlift. No buttons, nothing extraneous. Dark and sleek. Cool light-ropes.)
ROMEO
Docking Vestibule Seven. I appreciate you and The Baron signing up for this mission. In my time, you’re all famous people.
CLARKE
I must learn what has happened to my captain, Verne Zero, and how to solve his earliest paradox, and I will use any measure at my disposal to ensure his safety and also that of his counterpart, The Baron. (Steps on the roach of his pinner and casually extinguishes it with his boot.) It is the only logical course of action.
ROMEO
Mr. Clarke, I was lucky to find you. Your contribution to this ship has been invaluable to your branch of service and to your country. Please consider a longer tour of duty, Mr. Clarke; I sure appreciate having others aboard.
(Offers CLARKE his phat joint.)
CLARKE
I am afraid I cannot. (Declines the offer while taking the joint.) True, when your time-ship answered our need for... transport, it was a fortuitous event. (Hits the colonel's colossal joint.) However, my service to this vessel is only to correct what was not amiss before. Although I am stimulated from reading the massive stores of scientific knowledge contained in this vessel’s library and deep within its computer’s memory banks, my only true place is beside my Captain. (Passes it.) I will find him, Colonel.
ROMEO
I- I don’t want to affect your morale, but I think this Verne Zero that you seek may just a memory by now. Either The Phantom World, Oblivion, or who knows? Maybe Dark Star 99-66-99 got him after all. All I know is he’s not on any scanner and we haven’t seen any sign of him since we’ve been looking. Perhaps it’s best: He’s littered My Universe with more conundrums and anomalies than I can keep note of- (CLARKE’S gaze grows a little colder.) If there’s anything good about his absence it’s that we’ll get a break from... new problems to fix.
CLARKE
There is much still unknown; there is hope. Captain Verne is thorough; he solves problems in a... pragmatic way.
ROMEO
Sure, I suppose that’s why I've been cleaning up after him. You know he gave A.G. to a Nazi soldier in 1939? It’s been confirmed. He’s got Hooker’s Symplex 9.
CLARKE
Captain Verne is a carrier of Anthromycis Genoplexia?
ROMEO
Yes. History's been lying to us. His D.N.A. is not an exception. All my data confirms it.
CLARKE
And The Baron?
ROMEO
No great white hope from the past, either. Still like the rest of us, immunized and not afflicted with A.G. effects due to... Like the rest of us, he should be sterile, but in his case, we suspect something else; a way out, perhaps. It may be from The Roanoke, but we're not going to look -- that's the diceiest thing I've ever seen. If that was where he got it... I can’t figure out why Verne’s spreading an active culture or how he really got it in the first place. Humans thoroughly destroyed every known sample of the hideous germ in 88-88. The Great Outbreak did occur after a quantum event, one that was like Verne's own return to the fold...
CLARKE
Yes...
ROMEO
He even was born after the Great Purge of 55-55. -- by all accounts, he shouldn’t be active, yet he is. We should ask the Baron about it; I thought it best to let you approach the subject with him.
CLARKE
(Yeah, that journey to the ship's anterior/posterior took a while, but it's a big ship, not some apartment-complex-sized shuttle... See: Scale Of The Death Star versus Micro-Machine-Looking Shuttlecraft.) As they say Down-South: Count me in.
BETSY
([CANDY] The computer's moniker is one of those simple ironies that means little but gives it a glimmer of truth and substance; "Heavens to Betsy!" The ship computer’s voice:) Docking Vestibule Seven. In the time it took to bring you here, I’ve taken the liberty of preparing a care package for your off-ship voyage, Colonel.
(The doors swish open. AZALEA and RONNIE are standing. Both ladies, having only seen protocol from the receiving end, try their best to be official and gentlemanly and such.)
ROMEO
That won’t be necessary, Betsy. I’m only going to be here a few minutes.
BETSY
But... I even knitted you a sweater!
(A sweater is proudly-displayed from a sliding panel. It’s about as home-spun as it gets. It’s got ‘taken’ written all over it. Figuratively, not literally. The sweater, that is. The ladies pretend not to see.)
ROMEO
Ah, that’s great, Betsy. Why don’t you pop-it-over to my quarters and I’ll try it on later, okay?
BETSY
You don’t care...
ROMEO
Ah, Betsy, you know I care, I just got a little business here...
BETSY
You never...
(ROMEO pulls an ingenious blunt from the care package that is protuding from the panel.)
ROMEO
Betsy! Look! I’m sparking one of these up, okay? Quite thoughtful of you, really! Baby, how am I going to enjoy sharing it with my human friends if I have to worry about your fragile state of mind?
BETSY
(Stifling tears:) I’ll be... okay...
ROMEO
Thanks, darling. See me at lights-out tonight, okay?
BESTY
Eh? Can I be... Candy Striper, your favorite double-D hologram?
ROMEO
Uh, sure! You can be whoever you like... but now, sugar-britches, shoosh!
CU: HEINLEIN
(HEINLEIN has been listening-in; a cramped position on a storage shelf-loft ten feet above and twenty feet back, in the shadows. We see from his vantage point for a quick cutaway. HEINLEIN is the only character who speaks aloud in whispers to himself. His whispered dialogue is always accompanied by a close-up on his face.)
HEINLEIN
(Whispers aloud, to self:) Now who’s this dude? Why’s he in an Army uniform? Is he a time-cop or what?
ROMEO
(Clears throat, grunting one syllable:) Mr. Clarke?
CLARKE
Ahoy, Demetridon! Lieutenant Commander Clarke and Colonel Romero, request permission to come aboard.
AZALEA
Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Commander Clarke, funny how we keep running into each other. Welcome aboard, Colonel. (Quizzical:) Romero?
ROMEO
(Smiles, misreads it:) Call me Romeo, Mam. (Passes blunt to AZALEA.) I'm the one who's been helping you from afar all these years, I am very pleased to meet you; I wish I had words to convey to describe my feelings toward finally meeting you in person! I’ve seen EVERY old reel of EVERY one of your Vegas shows; I’m your greatest fan...
("Old" reels? ROMEO mentally kicks himself: “Shut-up, Row-mee, shut-up!” Yet, strangely, AZALEA is quite aroused by him. See: More Than Meets The Moistened Eye. [MTMTME])
AZALEA
Romeo Romero? Hmm. This is a surprise. I- (Hits it again.) I didn’t expect an official welcome from the Army. It’s just a vacation, really.
ROMEO
You may think this a mere voyage, Ms. Azalea, but you... You alone carry the hope and future of the human race.
(There is an awkward pause, almost like someone popped the question. The air thickens, ROMEO and AZALEA gaze at one another, one star-struck, the other, feeling an invisible embrace throughout her body, despite her ingrained, lesbian protestations. Is it... True Love? They keep looking at one another. It’s obvious to any observer in the vestibule what it really is... True Lust.)
ROMEO (Cont’d)
May I... examine... your... (Pause.) manifest?
(HEINLEIN adjusts his hiding-place in the shadows, shakes his head and gestures. He hits his one-hitter after delivering his whispered schpeel. He lightly taps the lighter against the cherried end, clearing it.)
HEINLEIN
(Whispered aloud, but no one hears as AZALEA hits the blunt again:) Nah, dude, go for the blonde, she's fine; naw dude, that girl’s fam! Ain’t no guy ever gonna hit that!
AZALEA
Oh, yes. Here, Mr. Clarke. (Passes the manifest to CLARKE, the blunt to RONNIE.) It’s shy of the complete forty-four you requested, but most of them, they’re all here. They don’t even know they’ve trans-versed space or nothin'. (Giggles like a school-girl.) They still think they’re in the clubhouse of my apartment building!
ROMEO
Yes, actors, who would have thought? I ask you, please keep them clueless about us until we all reach First Orbit.
AZALEA
First Orbit! Of course, anything you say, Romeo. You hear that, Ronica? Mum’s the word.
RONNIE
(Doesn’t understand the phrase, plays along, hits the blunt a second time:) Mum.
HEINLEIN
First Orbit! What’s Clarke up to? I need to get on that other ship; find out more.
(He begins crawling-above toward the air bubble leading to a sleek, nearly-undetectable hatch above the lift.)
CLARKE
Ms. Azalea, what happened to Dr. Wells? His name does not appear on this manifest.
AZALEA
He’s gone.
CLARKE
(Unconsciously taking the blunt from RONNIE.) Gone?
RONNIE
He was at the party, but disappeared when we got to the clubhouse. He didn’t vanish with Verne, that’s all I know. He must have disappeared when the Zeta anomaly occured, phfft! I don’t know how, where or why.
CLARKE
This is distressing. His quantum-path has lead him elsewhere. (Hits again.) How unfortunate, we may have lost his persona altogether.
RONNIE
You mean-
ROMEO
If the time-nexus passes the avenue of possibility before we find Dr. Wells, we won’t be able to re-seed his persona in the real world.
CLARKE
The colonel is correct. (Passes it to ROMEO.) If we do not find the doctor by the time we reach true reality, it will be as if he never existed.
CUT TO:
MS: HEINLEIN inside the hatch
(As HEINLEIN closes the hatch and the passageway leading to the bowels of the timeship darkens, a butane lighter ignites and BETSY [CANDY] appears as a hologram less than a foot away from HEINLEIN. He reacts slightly as he is surprised, but instead of weilding a weapon, BETSY weilds a monstrous blunt.)
BETSY
What'ca doin'? (Hits.) Goin' 'splorin'?
HEINLEIN
Uh, yeah. Who are you?
BETSY
(Passes. Offers hand, he shakes it.) I'm Betsy. I run this ship all by myself. C'mon! This way! I know all the secret passages and a nice little cozy room that even Too-cool-for-a-homemade-sweater don't even know nuthin' about.
(She snaps her fingers and hundreds of crawlspace border lights activate. A few stragglers blink on like cold florescent bulbs occasionally do. The tunnel is brightly-lit, leading to a larger hallway.)
HEINLEIN
This is some killer bud! Lead on, Betsy...
BESTY
What's your name?
HEINLEIN
I go by Rio.
BETSY
Neat. I like you Rio. Do you like me?
HEINLEIN
(Crawling and getting more-than-ample view of her posterior:) Oh yeah, you are fine.
BETSY
It's a seven-hour descent to First Orbit; are you hungry? I could cook you up a mess of food or if you'd like something to drink...
HEINLEIN
Sure. Whatever you say, we can hang-out, Betsy. Can I call you Sugar? Cuz you sweet.
BETSY
Do you have a girlfriend, Rio?
HEINLEIN
Not yet. You?
BETSY
There's a guy, kinda, but he's like a child, really. He wants a mother, not a girlfriend.
MS: Hallway with wall hatch
HEINLEIN
(Helps her down.) Sound like he don't know what he got and what to do with what he got.
MS: The pair face-to-face and close to each other, like slow dancing
BETSY
I bet you'd know what to do with what you got.
HEINLEIN
Damn right I do!
(He kisses her. She's all about it.)
MUSIC
DISSOLVE TO: