Scene 7.13 - Mountains Of The Moon
EST: EXT. TELLUSIA, PHANTOM WORLD
CUT TO: EXT. POD
(Falling, white-hot, toward a planet...)
CUT TO: INT. POD
(The BARON has been thrown to a kinder, gentler area of the craft and is still having trouble getting his body to respond to his orders with any haste.)
THE BARON
(Screaming:) Turnkey!
(CAMEO TWENTY-FIVE is unconscious. He slowly awakens after many shouts. He notes the daylight immediately.)
CAMEO TWENTY-FIVE
Heyzicko! Wemaydit!
THE BARON
We're crashing! We're over a planet! Level her out, level-
(A starboard thruster explodes from prolonged contact with heat. THE BARON reacts, CAMEO-TWENTY-FIVE hardly notices -- The pod drastically-veers to the left.)
CAMEO TWENTY-FIVE
(Smiles and tilts his head to the position of THE BARON, as if to see Dr. Sickle one last time, as in a picture:) Zeeyourounzicko!
(Turnkey slaps a button and ejects. All the other seats eject as well. Unfortunately, THE BARON was not in one of the seats. He crawls to the dashboard of the craft. There are twelve massive holes in the ceiling of the craft. The air howls about him, throwing anything not-bolted-down about, which amounts only to a few cushions and inspection labels, but is still quite annoying to the man struggling to reach the cockpit area without being sucked-outside the craft. Yep, he's crashing. 4000 feet and falling.)
THE BARON
Come on! Level-off! Level-off!
(He pulls the stick as far back as it will go and it levels -- momentarily -- it's dropping at a much better angle, but still dropping.)
THE BARON (Cont'd)
No!
POV: POD
(He's nearly cruising horizontally over a vast ocean. The pod's quantum generator is still popping and sparking and arcing and eminating massive waves of maroon-room energy. The sky is plasmic and moving very quickly, as if years were passing in seconds -- or as if time were stagnant and only inertia was propelling the space-time continuum forward. Then from the generator's housing unit: A click, a small sputter, a snap and a burst of energy. The craft careens aloft for a moment, suspending the left-arcing descent for a brief second. The sound of a large pane of glass crashing and then crashing into smaller fragments and even smaller and smaller fragments exudes from the pod as it levels-off. The sky ceases to be plasmic. 3700. A loud blast like a foghorn sounds across the planet. 3500. The blast of sound recedes to a sustained hum. 3200. A bright, blinding burst of light forms at the horizon, like a nuclear explosion, sans cloud. 2750. THE BARON grabs the few cushions he can hold and does his best to use the remaining strapping material to secure himself against a wall of the pod. It's makeshift and inconvenient, yet is better than most bruised-and-panicked ensigns would probably manage in so few seconds. 1000.)
THE BARON (Cont'd)
What? What's that?
(Ahead -- The BARON is fast-approaching a large, skyscraper-sized chrome monolith, shimmering a variety of plasmic colors upon its surface.)
THE BARON (Cont'd)
What is that? What is that?!?
(500. THE BARON directly flies into the center of the monolith at white-hot speed. The hum stops and the monolith stops the plasmic display and simply reflects the area about it.)
SILENCE
(Pause. THE BARON, inside the pod, exits from the monolith from a lower place on the other side at a much, much slower speed. Also, the pod's hull is no longer at a white-hot temperature. The pod simply drops the remaining thirty feet to the ground, like a helicopter without a rotor.)
GUARDIAN
(Sky-scraper-sized. Epic Voice:) Time has resumed. All is not as it was.
(THE BARON stumbles from his craft, disoriented, yet hurt more from Turnkey's throw than from the pod's crash. A group of horses is heard galloping toward him in the distance.)
THE BARON
Where am I? What the devil are you?
GUARDIAN
(Shrinking. Monument sized. Booming voice:) We are now acquainted. I have helped you survive so you may help me.
THE BARON
(Approaching, walking through shubbery, transfixed:) What planet is this? What are you?
GUARDIAN
(Getting smaller. Only five stories high now. Deep Voice:) As to where we are, your guess is as good as mine. I am free from Nevermore, that is all that matters.
THE BARON
Free? Nevermore?
GUARDIAN
(House-sized. Low voice:) You have freed me from certain... demise. I, in turn, have saved half of your life. To the optimistic, one could say that our relationship is nearly in balance.
THE BARON
Relationship? What are you? Who are you?
GUARDIAN
(Still shrinking, man-sized, normal voice.) I am a friend. Come back to me soon and I'll help you find your other half.
THE BARON
My other half? What are you talking about?
GUARDIAN
(The size of a small rock. Tiny chipmunk voice.) I will be here, waiting for you.
THE BARON
(Looking down:) What ar- Hey!
CU: Ground
GUARDIAN
(Pebble-sized. Creepy fly voice:) Trust your dreams, they will guide you. Come back real soon, ya hear?
(He blinks-out as we see only a spark of light, like a bright piece of sand below. THE BARON looks up. Across the ridge are a score of mounted horsemen, dressed like Native Americans -- spears, sheilds, feathers in their hair and all. CAMEO TWENTY-ONE [LEADER[. CAMEO TEN, CAMEO ELEVEN, CAMEO TWELVE and CAMEO FOURTEEN separate from the line and approach on horseback.)
THE BARON
Just where in blazes am I?
(THE LEADER dismounts and walks toward him, cautiously.)
THE BARON (Cont'd)
(For lack of a better greeting, raises palm like he's swearing an oath:) How?
LEADER
(Returns with the bird:) How-now? (Points.) You were talking to the silver mountain. Who are you, off-worlder? What was that? Where did it go?
THE BARON
No clue on who he was or where he went, but me, I'm Julian Sickle -- where am I, what is this place?
LEADER
You are in the heart of our sacred hunting grounds. This place is forbidden to outsiders.
THE BARON
I don't mean to trespass; I crashed here; I come in peace. I'll be happy to leave if you'll only point the way-
LEADER
(He points up and shakes his head. Patient:) You will come with us; your arrival is predicted in our ancient legends. Our chief will decide when you may leave -- if you may leave.
THE BARON
So it's the ol' take-me-to-your-leader-thing, is it? (Totally outnumbered.) Looks like I don't have much of a choice -- can I get a few supplies first? I'm a doctor -- a medicine man.
LEADER
Heh! I'm the tribal medicine man. Get your off-worlder things, Medicine-Man, bring your phony pills and your ill-tasting nectars -- you will have a long walk ahead. (As THE BARON does. Sotto:) Walks-In-Shadows, Speaks-In-Whisper, go back to the village and tell Moon-Without-Hat that we are bringing the off-worlder from the burning egg -- tell him that we saw him speaking with the silver mountain, just as he had predicted. Tell him I suspect that we indeed have found the Coy-Yawn-Is-Yatzee and to keep watch for the Gargle-Mel. Burns-On-The-Nose, stay with me and watch him carefully -- I don't trust him. Crooked Smile, go with the others; back to the hunt!
(The others leave. LEADER mounts up.)
THE BARON
I got everything I can carry. I suppose you'll want my blaster.
LEADER
Oh no, keep that to protect yourself.
THE BARON
(Walking along.) Your bows and arrows are nothing to this -- it seems like you're beginning to trust me after all.
LEADER
I never trust an off-worlder. We saw you crash, you should have been killed. You may need your weapon tonight, to face the Garlge-Mel.
THE BARON
The Gargle-Mel? What's the Gargle-Mel?
LEADER
Moon-Without-Hat can explain it to you better, if he decides you are to be one of us.
THE BARON
One of you?
LEADER
It is that or death. We have no love for trespassers.
THE BARON
What's this Gargle-Mel thing?
LEADER
Heh! It is the test of the darkness.
THE BARON
A test? What kind of test? Who are you people?
LEADER
We are either your brothers who will fight to protect you or the ones who will assist the darkness in slaying you, for now, you need not know more. (Offers THE BARON a thick, lit blunt. THE BARON is impressed and wastes no time. LEADER sees the humanity within THE BARON and softens a little.) A being who lives is born to die. If you truly have cheated death, she will try to collect your soul. If death was in error and you are truly meant to live, then you will cheat her twice. That is the way of the world, that is fate.
THE BARON
Nah, nah, that's just really weird.
LEADER
That is our understanding of the way. You may see it differently, but nevertheless, you will face the Gargle-Mel.
THE BARON
Sounds like mumbo-jumbo, and I slept through Anthropology, so I'm sayin' -- What if'n I don't wanna?
LEADER
(Horse stops; slow walk. Smiles. Illustrates.) That means nothing. The Gargle-Mel lives in the night air between the light and shadow. You cannot escape her; no one ever has -- no door can bar her entry. And if it is your time she will find you whether you wish to fight or not. (Hears a large murder of crows suddenly bolt; flying from a distant tree into the twilight air. The wind picks up.) Come, we must arrive before nightfall, before the Great Beast Of Rallod awakens.
THE BARON
The Great Beast of Rallod? Is that that Gargle-Mel thing you're talking about?
LEADER
Ha! You off-worlders know nothing of our land. The Great Beast prowls every night and will steal-away men whose hearts go astray from their tribe. When they lose their Sha-koor. You must ripen and join our tribe or he will devour you for sure, for you have none. We must make you a mask, for you are walking about quite naked and if we do not fashion a mask for you, you will surely frighten our children.
(Oh, didn't I mention that every native is wearing an orante, functional and individually-distinctive mask? LEADER'S has two pairs of red and blue feathers on a black bed of crow feathers. His eyes are topped with little yellow and green feathers, looking like two caterpillars for eyebrows. The irony is that otherwise, boots and a meager loincloth are all that he immodestly wears. Apparently, most of the natives dress to the left, and none seem to have any body hair except what grows from the top of their heads. Jewelry, feathers and beads only in their hair, no piercings or tattoos anywhere. Their identity is shown only through the individuality of their masks.)
THE BARON
Okay. (Nearly jogging.) Say, can you slow-up a little? I'm still a little rattled from the crash and I think I might get sick-
LEADER
Very well. (Nods for him to hop on. THE BARON doesn't know what to do. It's awkward, but finally THE BARON is on the horse, behind LEADER.) You're surely a goner, Hooly-Ansicle.
THE BARON
Huh?
LEADER
If the chief doesn't order you to be killed outright, and even if you do defeat the Gargle-Mel who stalks you even now inside the daylight shadows, and even if you are the Coy-Yan-Is-Yatzee who our great legend foretold would come in a burning egg from a talking silver mountain, and even if you have a thousand of those fire-sticks you off-worlders treasure so dearly -- Any child can tell you that you surely will not last long around here if you cannot ride a horse.
(He kicks the horse a little and they gallop away, THE BARON holding on to LEADER for dear life.)
DISSOLVE TO: