Scene 8.07 - A Unexpected Consequence To An Expected Demise
INT. Timeship Ventura
(THE BARON is avidly watching the visual cacophony of the previous scene from his tactical-quantum-scanner monitor.)
THE BARON
The Titans are right! The equation bears out! If we introduce quantum anomaly in maroon we will induce reassimilation of all clones to their hosts-
CLARKE
(Looking up from panel.) How did the Titans know to send us here? We arrived at the right time, to find our elusive needle in a-
ROMEO
Musta guessed; as always. They guessed Verne Zero would end here.
(CLARKE looks back to ROMEO and raises an eyebrow, curious. THE BARON moves across the koa inlay, clacking away in his cyber-metallic body. They all turn to watch VERNE and CLARKE 1's ship tumble down a funnel leading to a singularity.)
MS: VIEWSCREEN
ROMEO
Looks like a direct hit. Did we get him?
CLARKE
Affirmative, sir. Their craft is breaking apart...
ROMEO
Gentlemen: Prepare for your long-awaited reassimilation with your lesser halves.
(CLARKE stands.)
THE BARON
Aye, aye, sir. Even with my evil twin back inside me, it will be good to feel whole again.
CLARKE
I am curious to learn the thoughts of my more latent self, that bearded Clarke One. He has the memories of a billion lifetimes, and soon they shall be my own, as if we had never been apart and were only occupying two places at once-
THE BARON
We get it, Clarke...
ROMEO
The phatasms should perish any moment now. My studies of other subjects have shown that phantasmic discorporation and reassimilation always occur simultaneously, regardless of relativity factors so there shouldn't be a problem with interspatial-
CLARKE
Sir?
ROMEO
You'll easily reassimilate your clone as soon as he's dead...
CLARKE
I- I've gathered that, sir, that's expected, his body shall vanish to cuasality and merge into mine. (Breath. Pause.) You said you have studied other phantasmic discorporations? Care to elaborate?
ROMEO
Well, yes of course, it took my engineering of several parallel dimensions where restrictions would not govern my moral code to be able to conduct lab research regarding the Titan time-rift and the Zero-paradox itself-
THE BARON
(Concerned, perplexed-) You've studied dying people in a lab?
ROMEO
No, I never kept anyone in captivity -- yet in your dimension, however, it is much more interesting-
(The ship in the funnel implodes and then explodes with a nearly equal amount of force. Light and cosmic energy is discharged; sufficient to even cause a ship as advanced as The Timeship Ventura to feel a little nudge on the tripod action. The men react.)
ROMEO (Cont'd)
The fact that your dimension can use applications of quantum physics to rationalize the ability to clone and reassimilate conscious projections of sentient organisms and to also create alternate timelines using existing quantum principles-
CLARKE
(Woozy.) I- I feel myself reassimilating.
MS: BARON
THE BARON
(Woozier:) I don't... I feel... I feel like... I'm... slipping away...
FX: CHROMA KEY/DISSOLVE
(Like in Star Trek's Charlie X, THE BARON slowly fades away... Old soldiers and all that noise...)
CLARKE
(Shocked.) Baron! We- were set for grey-thirty four! The captain was still aboard the other craft! The Baron's gone!
CG: RAINBOW VERNE FALLING
ROMEO
No! They're both gone... I'm tracking both phantasmic signatures. (Looks at display panel, points to an infared/ultraviolet image of VERNE and THE BARON falling through maroon space in an inverted prism, nearly moving parallel to one another and only joining at an apex in the small part of the inverted triangle -- black.) I wasn't aware that there was yet-another part of the Verne duo. I believed the Baron to be the good essence and the one in the ship to be the- it seems that there was a trio involved. They're both reassimilating elsewhere. It's the only logical explanation for-
CLARKE
What happened to The Baron?
ROMEO
He has slipped dimensions, to coin a phrase; they're both heading toward a place we can't ever go...
CLARKE
What do you mean? This is a time ship! Isn't supposed to be able to go anywhen and anywhere? I mean, I met you over Zeta of all places...
ROMEO
True, it is a wondrous craft, and is nearly ubiquitous. Yet, it has a built-in quantum-paradox limitation, unlike myself. It cannot go anywhere that's too murky to see a way out. Logical that they would, though. (Tokes.) The Baron must have had an appointment there, and our quantum activity certainly made him keep it.
CLARKE
You sure talk alot. (Tokes, feeling fully reassimilated.) What are you babbling about now?
ROMEO
It appears The Baron is attempting to reassimilate with whatever part of him was left behind on the Roanoke...
CLARKE
What?!?
ROMEO
We're not going there, though, not without help from higher up. I got his trace... this was three minutes ago...
(He waves a hand and we see a chase camera of RAPIDLY ASSIMILATING VERNE/BARON, as a conjoined animated aura of spirit, helplessly-plummeting toward a spaceship, magnified for visualization.)
MS: VIEWSCREEN/SPLITSCREEN
(One half is blue funnel in maroon space slowly-crushing the ship CLARKE ONE escaped, the other a human man falling in space, already dead, yet glowing blue-and-green here-and-there as metallic sparks emit from a flailing mechanical body sans flesh, no longer commanded by an organic brain.)
CHASE
L/CG1: "QUANTUM SECTOR TWO - TRACKING"
R/CG1: "MAROON ROOM - INNERSPACE - TRACKING"
L/CG2: "YEAR - 7071 A.D., EARTH TIME "
R/CG2: "YEAR - 9969 A.D., EARTH TIME"
L/CG3: "DETAIL: USSS ROANOKE"
R/CG3: "DETAIL: RHS DECAHEDRON"
CLARKE
Wha- how did this happen?
ROMEO
(Displays THE BARON'S aura on monitor crashing into the Roanoke with metallic debris from his cyber-body, taking-out an important section of the hull of the ship as the other monitor displays a massive explosion/implosion/explosion/implosion.) There must be a miscalculation, or a factor we did not take into account -- he was not supposed to discorporate, nor travel time. He was to utilize your special reassimilation application of the gold room and should have reassimilated Captain Zero...
CLARKE
Before it began imploding... we pulled my other half from the... R-H-S Decahedron. What kind of queer name is that for a ship?
ROMEO
(Reading magnified stats while looking at the debris field...) It was built in the Edsel Galaxy.
CLARKE
What about Verne!? Is he dead? Is he reassimilating somewhere else?
ROMEO
He's alive somewhere -- the energy must be displaced- one moment, one moment. (Dulled, flat, blank stare:) Our quantum event, like the Baron's date with destiny aboard the Roanoke, must have triggered a hidden appointment he had with another place and another time. He is not in any detectable dimension of this hypersphere of space. (Pause.) He has yet to be discovered by any of my system monitors. I am working on that very task, it is paramount in my queue.
CLARKE
Colonel... (Hard stare, no unpleasant reaction. Tokes deeply, studious of the time cop.) Would you please answer a question of mine?
ROMEO
(Contrary to the gravity of emotion demanded from the situation, he briefly smiles. Pleasant, yet...) Sure.
CLARKE
...Were you manufactered?
ROMEO
Why, yes! Not very many humans have easily noticed. I am a mandroid. Despite all appearances, I am not a sentient being, like you; I have only been designed to appear and act as if I were a fellow human.
CLARKE
(Truly amazed, almost like watching a far-fetched science fiction movie in action. In CLARKE'S home dimension, robots are little more than novelty sex toys and even using historic holograms has been proven to be far more convincing when used as educational tools. Robotics, specifically, the creation of androids, is an abandoned pursuit in his home dimension, as no human-appearing robot could ever top the reality of a phantasmic quantum clone.) Fascinating. Am I the only living being on this ship?
ROMEO
There are no other life forms aboard other than idle bacterium floating about and the crop of weed growing in the hydroponic lab; solely for congenial diplomatic relations across all time periods, you understand.
CLARKE
Machine: Why did you specifically seek out The Baron and I?
ROMEO
(Curt:) Human: You are the only known record of the quantum anomaly, you filed your forms in triplicate over Zeta -- it's the only clue we have to who or what was behind the Prima Facie (Pry'-mah Fay'-shah) Quandary.
CLARKE
"We?"
ROMEO
"The Time Police."
CLARKE
The Prima-Facie Quandary?
ROMEO
The Universe will end; that is certain. Nothing has ever changed that; yet something has.
CLARKE
(Long pause.) I don't even remotely understand what in the hell you're even talking about.
ROMEO
I am sent to locate and collect any and all manifestations of Titan Zero, the man you know as Captain Verne.
CLARKE
Titan Zero?
ROMEO
Yes, I also serve the Titans, and myself.
CLARKE
Are you truly in the Time Police?
ROMEO
I am the Time Police.
CLARKE
You have completely lost me, and I'm a hard guy to mentally shake. I was up with you until the Titans, then it all just seems like a weird acid trip or something.
ROMEO
What would you like to know to help you better understand?
CLARKE
What is your origin of manufacture?
ROMEO
I am serial number 13734620473-28 of the Originator, built in Quantum Sector Nine through Holy Titan Intervention and at present, I personally carry the holiest of missions -- to also find your captain, and to study and record his every known action. My nickname is "Seventy-three" and I was crafted in the year of 8282 on planet Syd 78 of Star Cluster Beacon in Nebula Antatheros, Dark Cluster factory 3249-2. The Originator, from which all reflections of the Machine of the Titans, to include myself, are made; was actually constructed by humans in year 2272 on Earth in Quantum Sector Two, for protocol reasons, all in preparation of the planet's regime's Quincentennial Celebration. Our Originator was manufactured on May 4th in a warehouse owned by the once-human-owned corporation of Pilgrim Robotics, leased in the former United States' city of Casa Grande, Ari-
CLAKE
(Walks around, closely examining him. ROMEO doesn't react.) Fascinating. Are you designed to follow all human commands?
ROMEO
Not necessarily, I am programmed only to serve humanity. I am a more-evolved machine than the Originator. I'm an upgrade.
CLARKE
Colonel, I would like you to explain to me exactly what kind of studies you have been conducting on humans concerning-
ROMEO
I don't think I have to explain anything to you, Mr. Clarke. Forget about that; let's get your captain. That's what you want, right?
CLARKE
We'll discuss this at length later. I admit; he is my main priority. (Jarred. Doesn't pass.) So, Machine: You know where he is?
ROMEO
(Smacks lips.) I at least know where The Baron went, Human, and although we can't go in there to get him, it doesn't mean we can't fish him out from here eventually-
CLARKE
Where is he specifically, Colonel?
ROMEO
A place I cannot enter. He's where all you hypothetical and hypocritical humans go when you all finally decide to give up the ghost. He is pure, conscious, immortal energy within a dimension that has no causality, no parallel, no exit...
CLARKE
Where, Colonel?
ROMEO
Commander: Truly, where else would a man who thinks he knows the mind of God go after his physical death?
CLARKE
(Beat; truly unsure:) Where?
ROMEO
He's in hell, Mr. Clarke, he's in hell...
FTB