Protector Temujin Felix MacAvity Adapted from the novel Protector by Larry Niven Disclaimer THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT IS A SCRIPT ADAPTATION BY TEMUJIN FELIX MacAVITY, FROM THE BOOK Protector, BY Larry Niven, AND EXISTS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE PROFITLESS ENTERTAINMENT AND SAMPLE SCRIPTING EXPERIENCE OF MR. MacAVITY. ALL RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP OF THE SCRIPT ITSELF ALONE ARE RETAINED BY MR. MacAVITY, AND ANY INTEREST MAY BE EXPRESSED ONLY TO MR. MacAVITY. MR. MacAVITY DOES NOT HAVE ANY CLAIM TO ANY OWNERSHIP OR RIGHTS RELATING TO THE BOOK FROM WHICH THIS SCRIPT WAS CREATED AND ALL SUCH CLAIMS MUST BE DIRECTED TO Larry Niven OR HIS REPRESENTATIVES AND NOT MR. MacAVITY. BLACK The PROTECTOR speaks. PROTECTOR (Voice Over, V.O.) In the beginning was a protector, and his people were called the Pak, and his name was Phssthpok. FADE IN EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The tail of a cylindrical Bussard ramjet is blasting a trio of incandescent columns of yellow flame. A cable extends from between the jets, and drops out of sight. Between the jets, against absolute blackness of outer space can be seen a few distant stars. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The ramjet is off in the distance, partly eclipsed by the hellish glare from its jets. Much closer, a cable appears from the distance of the ramjet, obviously hanging back from the ramjet in the far distance. Slowly a sixty or so foot diameter sphere appears, attached to the near end of the cable. A round window in the wall of the sphere is pointed towards the ramjet. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Through the round window of the sphere, PHSSTHPOK is seen seated in his crash chair, staring straight out. He is a humanoid figure, but with spherical bulges at all his joints. His skin looks like a bodysuit of leather. His mouth is a beak, his head is swept back, a bony ridge running up his forehead. He is wearing nothing but a long vest with scores of pockets. Under his left hand are some controls, with more controls in panels around the couch. Under his right hand is a bin of what look like yellow roots about the size of a sweet potato. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Phssthpok stares out at the view before him. After a long while, he blinks. A hand that looks like a collection of walnuts reaches into the root bin, makes a selection, and pulls it out. The hand delivers the root to Phssthpok's mouth, which opens and closes once, twice, again, separating the root into three chunks as he eats. His left hand moves over the controls beneath it, selects a knob, and gives it a twist. The view through the porthole moves to the side, the bright light moving out of sight, the stars beyond it shifting. Soon, against the passing background of stars, a small looking sun moves in from the opposite direction, and as Phssthpok stops twisting the knob, the sun stops in the porthole's center. As soon as the light stops moving, Phssthpok blinks, then blurs into motion, selecting controls, adjusting dials. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT As the control cabin stares into space, off behind it and on a long cable, the ramjet starts to flare up and out, it's glare less hellish, its color a bit cooler. As the ramjet flickers, far ahead of the control cabin, on yet another cable, is an egg shaped capsule that extends forward towards the small sun far in the distance. It is about forty feet wide and sixty feet long, with its wide end leading the way. EXT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT While still far in the distance, a larger and brighter sun stands out again the background of stars. A singleship made of a bulbous control cabin, a cluster of machinery and netting, and a long, incandescent violet tipped stinger slides into view. A logo near a hatch reads; "Hummingbird". Off behind the Hummingbird, quite larger than the sun ahead, but still one object against a field of stars, is Saturn. INT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT There is a steady HUMMING sound in the background. On a small box of the mining magnet set by the main control panel, a dial marked "MONOPOLE SCAN" shows an arrow that points backwards, set against a three dimensional grid. Nicholas Brewster SOHL is strapped into the Hummingbird's control couch. He is black, but the skin of his face, head and neck are absolutely black, with a straight line at the base of his neck being the beginning of skin that is more of a chocolate brown. He has a couple of days of tightly coiled white stubble on his jaw and on either side of a couple of inch high, pure white crest of white, tightly coiled hair that runs from his forehead to the back of his head. He is watching a power dial which is slowly creeping upwards. The mining magnet flashes, and the arrow starts to swing to the left. It gets to a set point, then wavers back towards the rear of the control cabin and the rest of the ship, then swings back off to the left again. Nicholas's face splits in an ear to ear grin. He stabs at a console and a screen lights up with is face, a camera over the screen starting to blink. A readout flashes text as the COMPUTER speaks. COMPUTER (speaker) Engaging Communications Laser. Please enter target coordinates: EXT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT The comm laser dish unfolds and rolls around. After a moment it settles in place, and the center module glows bright red as Sohl begins to transmit. SOHL (Voice Over, V.O.) This is Nick Sohl, repeating, Nicholas Brewster Sohl. INT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT SOHL (Cont.) I wish to register a claim for a monopole source in the general direction of--- On a screen of stars with a label of COMMUNICATIONS LASER GUIDANCE CONTROL the center is occupied with a brilliant yellow spot. There is a circle around it with a label and a string of numbers; SOL; Approximate Distance; In the corner of the screen is a readout of a collection of numbers underlined with a final line of Communications Target Reference; CERES Sohl pauses to peer at the mining magnet needle, and then out a porthole, then continues. SOHL (Cont.) ---of Sagittarius. I want to offer the source for sale to the Belt government. Details follow, half an hour. Sohl taps on the laser controls, and the readout display lights up. COMPUTER (speaker) Transmitting message. Repeating Message. He taps on the main controls. The humming sound fades out. A readout screen flickers. COMPUTER (speaker) Fusion Propulsion Engine; INACTIVE EXT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT The glowing flame at the end of Hummingbird's stinger goes out. INT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT Sohl has unstrapped himself from the chair and pulls his spacesuit out from behind him. A painting can be seen on the front as he climbs into the suit, then snaps the helmet shut and reaches for the jet backpac. The painting is of an orange background on which is a girl. She is short; her head barely reaches Nick's neck ring. Her skin is a softly glowing green. Only her back shows across the front of the suit. Her hair is streaming bonfire flames, flickering orange with touches of yellow and white, darkening into red-black smoke as it sweeps across the girl's left shoulder. She is nude. Her arms are wrapped around the suit's torso, her hands touching the air pac on its back; her legs embrace the suit's thighs, so that her heels touch the backs of the flexible metal knee joints. Sohl straps the backpac into place. EXT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT Sohl is floating in space, Hummingbird a mile off behind him. He is carrying a telescope and the mining magnet. He peers at the mining magnet, then starts peering through the telescope. INT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT The comm laser controls are blinking, and the screen is lit. The readout displays; Message Received The gaunt, 181 year old face of Martin SHAEFFER is talking to the empty acceleration couch. SHAEFFER "---Must call in at once, Nick. Don't wait to take your second fix. This is urgent Belt business. Repeating. Martin Shaeffer calling Nick Sohl aboard singleship Hummingbird---" Sohl has his helmet open as he settles into the control chair and taps at the laser controls. The readouts flicker and the screen blanks, then fills with a view of Sohl again. SOHL Lit, I'm truly honored. A simple clerk would have sufficed to record my poor find. Repeating. Sohl taps at the controls. The laser displays read out; COMPUTER (speaker) Transmitting message. Repeating Message. He starts unsnapping the fasteners on the spacesuit. The comm screen lights up with Shaeffer's face. Shaeffer's expression is strange. Sohl is now out of the suit and the suit is nowhere in sight. He is sitting in the control chair and is clipping the mining magnet back into place on the keyboard as Shaeffer speaks. SHAEFFER (Bantering) Nick, you're too modest about your poor find. A pity we're going to have to disallow it. One hundred and four miners have already called to report your monopole source. Nick gapes. SHAEFFER (Cont.) They're all across the system. It's a hell of a big source. As a matter of fact, we've already located it by parallax. One source, about forty AU away from the sun, which makes it somewhat further away than Pluto, and eighteen degrees off the plane of the solar system. Mitchikov says that there must be as big a mass of south magnetic monopoles in the source as we've mined in the past century. Nick snaps his mouth shut. SOHL Outsider! SHAEFFER Mitchikov says that big a source could power a really big Bussard ramjet---a manned ramrobot. Nick nods at that. SHAEFFER (Cont.) We've been following the source for the past half-hour. It's moving into the solar system at just over four thousand miles per second, freely falling. That's well above even interstellar speeds. We're all convinced it's an Outsider. Any comments? Repeating--- Sohl taps a button and the screen blanks. He sits. After a while, he taps on a control and the screen lights up with his face. SOHL Nick Sohl calling Martin Shaeffer, Ceres Base. Yes, I've got comments. One, it sounds like your assumption is valid. Two, stop blasting the news all over the system. On a screen of stars with a label of COMMUNICATIONS LASER GUIDANCE CONTROL the center is occupied with a brilliant yellow spot. There is a circle around it labeled; SOL SOHL (Cont.) Some flatlander ship might pick up the edges of a message beam. We'll have to bring them in on it sooner or later, but not just yet. EXT. HUMMINGBIRD --- NIGHT As Hummingbird floats against a background of stars, the center is occupied with a brilliant yellow spot. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) Three, I'll be home in five days. Concentrate on getting more information. We won't have to make any crucial decisions for a awhile. Four--- There is no four. Sohl out. The yellow spot shrinks as more stars crowd into view . . . EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT A very small, very bright yellow spot shines against a background of stars. Much closer is a random scattering of large white and grey blobs. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT A HUMMING sound is in the background. On a screen of stars with a label of COMMUNICATIONS LASER GUIDANCE CONTROL the center is occupied with a brilliant yellow spot. There is a circle around it with a label and a string of numbers; SOL; Approximate Distance; The A.D. number here is Much larger than in the Hummingbird. In the corner of the screen is a readout of a collection of numbers underlined with a final line of Communications Target Reference; NOT ACTIVE Like Sohl, Jack BRENNAN is a standard Belter in appearance. He looks like an undermuscled basketball player and has straight brown hair in an inch-wide crest that runs from his forehead to the top of his neck. He is white, so the skin of his hands and head above the neck looks like leather, while everything else is vanilla milkshake white. On the front of his suit is a florescent painting of a seascape with mountains floating above the ground and a woman and child, both with windows through them; Dali's "The Madonna Of Port Lligat". Brennan is staring at the telescope screen. In its center is a cluster of dullish looking free floating rocks and something that reflects brightly. He reaches out to a control, taps it, and the humming sound fades out. A readout screen flickers; COMPUTER (speaker) Fusion Propulsion Engine; INACTIVE Brennan pulls on his suit helmet. EXT. ROCK CLUSTER --- NIGHT Looking much like Hummingbird, Brennan's ship floats in space in the near distance as Brennan jets way from it. All around a bit further out are white and grey blobs, rocks, pebbles. Brennan's destination is a cluster of rocks with a bright metallic object among them. As Brennan approaches, the metallic object is a long slim cylinder with a set of labels painted on it; NASA PIONEER XX Brennan floats in space, still, then pulls a device off his belt, aiming it at the cylinder. When he pushes a button a light flares. As the light fades out, he jets closer. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The tube is now attached to Brennan's ship, strapped to the fusion tube, just below the lifesystem bubble. Brennan is standing on the fusion tube, looking at it. He looks up, turns, to stare in the direction of the sun. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The main viewscreen lights up with a controls listing. COMPUTER (speaker) NAVIGATION CONTROL Still fully suited up, Brennan taps on a few keys and gets a listing of; COMPUTER (speaker) Nonstandard Orbit. Origin; URANUS. Destination; LUNA A graphic schematic appears of a side view of the solar system. A line starts out near one side and jumps up above the system plane then gradually points down and into the inner system. Brennan taps one last key. A readout glows. COMPUTER (speaker) Course Set. Fusion Propulsion Engine; ACTIVE A pair of triangles flash as they appear on either side of the course line, points in, at the line's outer system end. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The end of the fusion tube lights up, glowing incandescent violet, and the ship starts crawling forward. As the tip of the stinger shifts to a brilliant blue-white glare, the ship moves faster. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Phssthpok is seated in his control couch, staring at the telescope screen. On it is a magnified image of Earth, with the Moon peeking past one side. There are faint spots of violet light moving in the area of both the Earth and the Moon. Phssthpok taps a button and the image expands, centering in on a trio of violet lights moving across the Moon's face. One of them, behind the other two, brightens to an incandescent blue- white and accelerates past the others and off the screen. Phssthpok taps on the controls some more and the view pulls way back from a much smaller Earth and Moon as a bright yellow circle appears, far to one side. The Earth and Moon drift down and out of sight, along with the yellow circle, and then stars start moving out in all directions as the view centers on a bright blue-white spot that stays still in the center of the screen. Phssthpok stares at the bright spot for a bit, then starts adjusting other controls. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT The egg on the end of the cable drops through space, hanging from the control cabin. The control cabin drops through space, hanging from the ramjet. The ramjet flare begins sparkling and shifting, again, as it continues to drop. EXT. CERES --- NIGHT Ceres is a huge mass of rock floating in space, decorated with lights and glowing bubbles. Ships of different sizes, cargo ships, singleships, whatnot, are floating in Ceres' vicinity, coming and going. Hummingbird slides into view, angling to blend in with all the rest of the traffic. At one point on Ceres' surface a pattern of lights directs attention to a central point, a crater that's heavily built up with brightly lit structures. Ceres TRAFFIC CONTROL can be heard directing the flow . . . TRAFFIC CONTROL (V.O.) Singleship Hummingbird cleared for docking at port 42. INT. SOHL'S OFFICE VESTIBULE --- NIGHT The door slides open and Nick steps through, his spacesuit and helmet tucked under an arm. He hangs the suit and helmet on a waiting hook and pats the painting affectionately before going through the next door. INT. SOHL'S OFFICE --- NIGHT Shaeffer is in one of the guest chairs, his long legs sprawling across the rug. A folder is on the floor by the chair. Nick steps past him and around his desk and drops into his chair. He closes his eyes for a moment, then, eyes still closed, speaks. SOHL Okay, Lit. What's been happening? Shaeffer picks up the folder and digs through it. SHAEFFER Got it all here. Yah. The monopole source is coming in over the plane of the solar system, aimed approximately at the sun. As of an hour ago it was two point two billion miles out. For a week after we spotted it it showed a steady acceleration at point nine two gee, largely lateral and breaking thrust to warp its course around the sun. Now it's mainly deceleration, and the thrust has dropped to point one four gee. That aims it right through Earth's orbit. SOHL Where will Earth be then? SHAEFFER We checked that. If he goes back to point nine two gee at---This point, he'll be at rest eight days from now. And that's where Earth will be. Lit looks grim. SHAEFFER All of this is more than somewhat approximate. All we really know is that he's aimed at the inner system. SOHL But Earth is the obvious target. Hardly fair. The Outsider's supposed to contact us, not them. What have you done about anything? SHAEFFER Mostly observations. We've got what photos of what looks like a drive flame. A fusion flame, somewhat cooler than ours. SOHL Less efficient, then . . . But if he's using a Bussard ramjet, he's getting his fuel free. I suppose he's below ramjet speed now, though. SHAEFFER Right. SOHL He must be huge. Could be a warship, Lit. Using that big a monopole source. SHAEFFER Not necessarily. You know how a ramrobot works? A magnetic field picks up interstellar hydrogen plasma, guides it away from the cargo pod and constricts it so that the hydrogen undergoes fusion. The difference is that nobody can ride them because too much hydrogen gets through as radiation. In a manned ship you'd need enormously greater control of the plasma fields. SOHL *That* much more? SHAEFFER Mitchikov says yes, if he came from far enough away. The further he came, the faster he must have been going at peak velocity. SOHL Um. SHAEFFER You're getting paranoid, Nick. Why would Any species send Us an interstellar warship? SOHL Why would anyone send us a ship at all? I mean, if your going to be humble about it . . . Can we contact that ship before it reaches Earth? SHAEFFER Oddly enough, I thought of that. Mitchikov has several courses plotted. Our best bet is to start a fleet from the trailing Jupiter Trojans sometime within the next six days. SOHL Not a fleet. We want the Outsider to see us as harmless. Do we have nay big ships in the Trojans? SHAEFFER The Blue Ox. She was about to leave for Juno, but I commandeered her and had her cargo tank cleared. SOHL Good. Nice going. We'll want a computer, a good one, not just a ship's autopilot. Also a tech to run it, and some spare senses for the machine. I want to use it as a translator, and the Outsider might talk by eyeblinks or radio or modulated current. Can we maybe fit a singleship into the Ox's cargo hold? SHAEFFER What for? SOHL Just in case. We'll give the Ox a lifeboat. If the Outsider plays rough someone might get away. Lit stares at Sohl. SOHL (patiently) He's big. His technology is powerful enough to get him across interstellar space. He could be friendly as a puppy, and someone could still say something wrong. Sohl picks up the phone handset. SOHL (Cont.) Get me Achilles, main switchboard. Sohl hangs up---and the phone goes off, RINGING, in his hand. He picks the handset back up again. SOHL (Cont.) Yes? CUTTER speaks into his ear CUTTER This is Traffic Control. Cutter. Your office wanted anything on the big monopole source. Sohl taps a button on the phone. SOHL Right. What? Cutter's voice comes from the phone. CUTTER (V.O.) It's matching course with a Belt ship. The pilot doesn't seem to be evading contact. Sohl's lips tighten. SOHL What kind of ship? CUTTER We can't tell from this distance. Probably a mining singleship. They'll be matching orbit in thirty-seven hours twenty minutes, if neither of them changes their minds. SOHL Keep me posted. Set nearby telescopes on watch. I don't want to miss anything. Nick hangs up. SOHL (Cont.) You heard? SHAEFFER Yah. Finagle's First Law. SOHL Can we stop that Belter? EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The ship's exhaust is still blue-white as it zips through space. SHAEFFER (V.O.) I doubt it. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The course line triangles in the navigation readout are nearly halfway through the course schematic. SOHL (V.O.) We're going to need to know who that is. SHAEFFER (V.O.) We'll start checking destination statements. Brennan is staring at the telescope screen. He is frowning. On the screen is Phssthpok's ramship flame. SOHL (V.O.) And while that's being done, we need to figure out what he'll do . . . SHAEFFER (V.O.) He's in a high speed course traveling above the plane of the solar system, or the outsider wouldn't be able to match courses with him. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan's ship is traveling through space, the tip of its stinger an incandescent blue-white. The tube marked PIONEER XX makes the ship look slightly off balance, but the ship is still straight. SHAEFFER (Cont., V.O.) That means he's smuggling something. SOHL (V.O.) Right. Look for smuggling convictions when you start pulling files. And in the meantime, he's going to be more aware than usual of anything around him or trying to match courses with him, because that could mean a goldskin cop, and there goes all his cargo. Off in the distance behind Brennan, Phssthpok's drive flame is flickering. SHAEFFER (V.O.) But the Outsider is way too big for a goldskin, and he's moving way too fast even if he is decelerating . . . SOHL (V.O.) So, either his drive system is better then ours or he came from beyond Pluto, and in either case . . . INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan is staring at the telescope screen . . . . and it's clear view of Phssthpok's ship. SHAEFFER (V.O.) He's the Outsider . . . The first alien species to contact humanity . . . INT. MONITORING STATION --- NIGHT On a main screen, the two ships can be seen head-on, in apparent close proximity. Someone is monitoring the controls. SOHL (V.O.) And of course we, the Belt Government will have spotted a light source moving at quite the wrong speed in quite the wrong direction, so he knows that right now we're tracking the two of them--- SHAEFFER (V.O.) He's not going to smuggle anything now, we know what he's up to, and he knows it too! And he's a Belter, so, since we must already know about the Outsider, he's not going to use a communications laser that Earth might pick up, so that leaves what to do about the Outsider . . . EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The glare of the fusion motor jets out behind Brennan's ship. Ahead of it, on the main part of the life system, are ports marked; DANGER Altitude Jet Exhaust Port DO NOT BLOCK Far off behind Brennan's ship, Phssthpok's is slowly getting closer. SOHL (V.O.) The only way to attack the Belter is to ram him or fire a laser at him. He can change course at whim, so he can't be boarded unless he allows it. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT On the back wall of the cabin are a trio of sketches, done in charcoal. One shows the head of a woman, with a longer crest than Brennan's and with eyeshadow and lipstick. The other two are individual pictures of a pair of young girls done from the shoulders up. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) And, since he's a Belter, any family he has are also Belters, equally self sufficient, already taken care of . . . Brennan watches his instruments. SHEAFFER (V.O.) Sooo . . . Could history forget the man who met the Outsider? INT. MONITORING STATION --- NIGHT As someone monitors telescope controls, the two ships can be seen head-on on a main screen. They are a pair of bright spots in apparent close proximity, one larger and vaguer than the other, both distinct from a few tiny points of stars in the far background. SOHL (V.O.) Right . . . . I want every telescope we can spare tracking those two . . and get me those files as soon as possible. INT. SOHL'S OFFICE --- NIGHT The image from the monitoring station can be seen on a smaller main screen. Sohl's desk has a couple of stacks of folders, one of four, one of six. Shaeffer holds two more as he stares down at Sohl's desk. Sohl leans back in his chair, staring up at the monitor. Sohl looks at Shaeffer SHAEFFER We've eliminated these two. Shaeffer looks at the file stacks. SHAEFFER (Cont.) Why do you have two stacks? Sohl gestures to the smaller pile. SOHL We want one of these four. He stares back up at the monitor. SOHL (Cont.) He's not running, so that eliminates the other six. Two have never been caught smuggling, so they're too cautious to either smuggle or get caught. One, I know she's a xenophobe. And three are old timers, so they're too old to have a history of taking chances. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The two ships are in parallel, the cargo pod of Phssthpok's ship slowly moving up by Brennan's'. A bright yellow spot can be seen in the far distance. SOHL (Cont. V.O.) So one of these other four has had the colossal arrogance to appoint himself humanity's ambassador to the universe. Serve Him Right If He Blows It, but Which One Is He? INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan taps on some controls. A readout screen flickers. COMPUTER (speaker) Fusion Propulsion Engine; INACTIVE INT PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Still in his pressure suit, Phssthpok is watching the telescope screen as the drive flame of Brennan's ship goes off. He taps on controls on his own control panel. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT Brennan's ship is a few hundred feet away as the cargo pod floats by. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan watches as the control cabin of Phssthpok's ship moves up to stop a few hundred feet from his ship. As the sphere moves, the round window swings around to keep pointing at Brennan's ship. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Phssthpok stares out at Brennan's ship. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan watches Phssthpok's control cabin. He flinches as Phssthpok steps through the control cabin's round window. Phssthpok is carrying a pistol shaped object. Brennan scowls, then unstraps himself from his chair and moves to the airlock. At the airlock he slips his suit boots into a pair of sandals stuck to the wall in front of the airlock. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT The airlock door opens and Brennan steps out onto the hull, the sandals holding his feet in place. He stares out at Phssthpok. EXT. PHSSPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Phssthpok stares out at Brennan. Phssthpok crouches slightly, then jumps towards Brennan. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Brennan's eyes bulge momentarily as he watches Phssthpok. Phssthpok drops towards Brennan's ship like a falcon diving. Phssthpok lands on the hull, right next to Brennan, his legs flexing slightly to absorb the impact. Brennan looks down slightly towards him; Phssthpok is about five feet tall to Brennan's six or so. Brennan sees the face inside Phssthpok's helmet, and recoils, takes a long step backwards. Phssthpok reaches out, wraps a glove around Brennan's wrist, and jumps. Brennan gasps and yanks at the hand, but Phssthpok is too strong and they are already away from his ship. INT. SOHL'S OFFICE --- NIGHT CUTTER (intercom) Nick. Sohl looks up from his desk. SOHL Here. CUTTER (intercom) The dossier you want is labeled 'Jack Brennan'. SOHL How do you know? CUTTER (intercom) We called his woman. He has only one, a Charlotte Wiggs, and two kids. We convinced her it was urgent. She finally told us he was off searching the Uranus Trojan-points. SOHL Uranus . . . that sounds right. Cutter, do me a favor. CUTTER (intercom) Sure. Official? SOHL Yes. See to it that Hummingbird is fueled and provisioned and kept that way until further notice. Fit it with strap-on boosters. Then get a com laser focused on ARM Headquarters, New York, and keep it there. You'll need three, of course. CUTTER (intercom) Okay. No message yet? SOHL No, just hold a laser ready in case we need it. Sohl taps on the intercom then reaches over to the small pile, picks up Brennan's folder, and opens it. EXT. PAK ORBIT --- NIGHT Pak is Very obviously not Earth, just from it's arrangement of continents and seas alone. Also, space around Pak is jammed with stars, almost more stars then there is dark to separate them. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) Too bad the man had children. INT. TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT Phssthpok is sprawled in a chair, staring. Sounds of VOICES, PAPER SHIFTING, ASSORTED ELECTRONIC NOISES can be heard. PROTECTOR (V.O.) Phssthpok's first clear memories dated from the day he woke as a protector. He could conjure blurred memories from before. But his mind had been vague then. Phssthpok is studying a monitor screen. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) As a protector he thought sharply and clearly, but he had to get used to it. Phssthpok swivels the chair around to face the room behind him, and many other protectors. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There had been others to help him, teachers and such. All at once, the other protectors are studying tactical screens of their own, clustered about a projection map table, as various readouts flash data, assorted screens show assorted videos, of protectors speaking, of other meeting rooms, of combat. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There was a war, and he had graduated into it. Three hundred years earlier several hundred major Pak families had allied to refertilize a wide area desert area of the Pak world. EXT. PAK LANDSCAPE --- DAY The area is desert, empty, dusty, bleak. Noises from the tactical room can still be heard. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Erosion and overgrazing had produced that desert, not war, though there were some mildly radioactive patches all across it. In a blur, greenery quickly appears, some clouds appear in the sky, a plain forms. The tactical room noises fade. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) After all, no place on Pak was entirely free from war. Much more sedately, an apelike humanoid infant plays by a small pool-like lake, near a couple of adults. Some animal can be heard CHIRPING. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The heartbreaking task of reforesting had been completed a generation ago. A nuclear bomb erupts in the distance, smashing a shock wave across the plain. After a bit, there is an earthshaking ROAR from the explosion. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Immediately and predictably the alliance had split into several smaller alliances, each determined to secure the land for it's own descendants. INT. TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT On the map, of the highlighted area of former desert, part of it has reverted to brown again. The protectors in the room COMMENT at each other as they look at things, PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) By now most of the earlier alliances were gone. A number of families had been exterminated, and the surviving groups changed sides whenever expedient to protect their bloodlines. A particular blob of territory near the ocean is colored blue. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok's blood line, from the Valley of Pitchok, now held with South Coast. Phssthpok has a couple of other protectors with him as he taps on his monitor screen. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok enjoyed war, but not because of the fighting. As a breeder, he'd had fights, and war was less a matter of fighting than outwitting the enemy. On a monitor screen, a graphical model of an atom is whirling around. It disintegrates PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) At it's start it had been a fusion bomb war. As a collection of atoms disintegrate, flinging bits all over, EXT. PAK PLAIN --- DAY Another nuclear explosion rips across the plain, and a mushroom cloud climbs into the sky. EXT. BUILDING --- DAY Some protectors are standing by a building, and spin around as everything flashes. They all spin to face the light, then a shock wave smashes them into and past the building, as it smashes the building as well. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Many of the families had died during that phase, and part of the reclaimed desert was desert once more. INT. TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT On a monitor screen, a bunch of randomly placed atoms are whirling about. A central group of them suddenly glow green and form an orderly lattice as the others explode. The lattice grows to fill the screen. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Then South Coast had found a damper field to prevent fissionables from fissioning. Others had swiftly copied it. EXT. BATTLEFIELD --- DAY An artillery team of protectors is firing a gun, reloading, firing again. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Since then the war had been artillery, poison gas, INT. LAB --- NIGHT A trio of protectors are intently staring into the guts of a biological experiment PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) bacteria, psychology, infantry, even freelance assassination. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM --- NIGHT A room full of protectors is staring intently at a series of screens, paperwork of sorts all around them. The tactical room map lies over them. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) It was a war of wits. Could South Coast counteract propaganda designed to split off the Meteor bay region? As the meeting continues, a large section of the map by a different part of the reclaimed area glows. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) If Eastersea alliance had an antidote to river poison Iota, would it be easier to steal it from them, or invent our own? EXT. ORCHARD ROAD --- DAY A trio of very Earthlike dune buggies with built-on rocket launchers blitzes through the trees, past a trio of medium sized ape-like humanoids. Above the trees, off in the distance, a column of smoke suddenly blasts into the sky. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) If Circle Mountains should find as inoculation for bacteria strain Zeta-Three, how likely was it that they'd turn a mutated strain against us? Should we stick with South Coast, or could we do better with Eastersea? It was fun. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM --- NIGHT A cluster of protectors is staring at a large monitor screen and its image of something microscopic dancing around in a medium. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) His own Virus QQ would kill all but eight percent of breeders, but would leave their protectors unharmed A screen by it lights up and a map appears, then a section turns red and the red section bulges out on one side. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) . . . unharmed and fighting with doubled fury to salvage a smaller and less vulnerable group of strain-resistant hostages. The protectors shake their heads. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) He agreed to suppress it. EXT. PLAIN --- DAY A rainstorm crawls across a plain, towards hills in the distance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Then Eastersea Alliance built a pinch field generator which could set off a fusion reaction without previous fission. And there had been a mighty flash over the Valley of Pitchok. Over and past the distant hills, the sky switches to incandescent white, then fades as the storm clouds boil. INT TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT The room is empty. On the projection map, the entire desert area is linked to Eastersea. The Pitchok Valley area is grey. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The war ended within a week. Eastersea had the recultivated desert, the part that wasn't bare and sterile from seventy years of war. EXT. PITCHOK VALLY --- DAY A cluster of protectors is standing near an obvious new burial ground. Some of the protectors hold infants, infants that are the ape-like humanoids. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The infants and breeders of Phssthpok's line had lived in the Valley of Pitchok for unremembered generations. He had seen that awful light on the horizon and known that all his descendants were dead or sterile, EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Stars are occasionally sprinkled through a relatively empty sky. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) that he had no blood line left to protect, that all he could do was to stop eating until he was dead. Phssthpok and Brennan drop down and land by the porthole. Phssthpok reaches through the porthole, grasps a handle, and pulls the two of them through the clear surface as if it were transparent taffy. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT While still hanging onto Brennan, Phssthpok sheds his spacesuit, leaving his vest, then turns to look at Brennan. Abruptly Phssthpok takes two handfuls of Brennan's suit and pulls them apart. The suit holds, stretches, then rips from crotch to chin. Brennan has his mouth shut, eyes wide open. Finally, as Phssthpok still holds him in mid air, staring at him, Brennan takes a cautious sniff. BRENNAN You son of a bitch. I could have died. Phssthpok strips off the rest of Brennan's suit like peeling an orange as Brennan tries to fight him. Brennan bounces a fist off of Phssthpok's face and Phssthpok only blinks. Finished with the suit, Phssthpok holds Brennan out for inspection. Brennan slams a foot into Phssthpok's groin. Phssthpok looks down, watches as Brennan kicks twice more, then looks back up again. Phssthpok looks Brennan over from head to foot. As Brennan tries to fight, then simply hangs in space, Phssthpok probes Brennan's scalp along the sides of the Belter crest; massages the knuckles of his hand, tests the joints beneath the skin. Abruptly, Phssthpok jumps across the room, digs into a bin along one wall, and comes up with a folded rectangle of clear plastic. He shakes it to unfold it, then pops it open by running fingers along one edge. Catching Brennan who tries to fight again, Phssthpok stuffs him into the bag and seals it. BRENNAN (Cont., screams) I'll suffocate! Phssthpok doesn't respond and starts climbing back into his suit as Brennan tries to open the bag from inside. Suited up, Phssthpok tucks Brennan under an arm, then drags him back out through the porthole. The bag puffs out to its full extent. Brennan stops struggling. The two of them disappear around the edge of the control cabin. EXT. TROJANS --- NIGHT Jupiter sits off in the distance, a backdrop to the Blue Ox, a large cylinder with a control cabin at one end, the flared end of a fusion tube at the other, and an open lid running down one side of the cylinder, hovering above an asteroid. Standing at the edge of the open cylinder and looking in is Erina EINAR. He is seven feet tall, overweight, and all curves. On the front of his suit is a painting of a Viking ship with snarling dragon prow, floating half-submerged in the bright, milky swirl of a spiral galaxy. As he watches, a preying blond Belter crest brushes the top of his helmet. In the cylinder the fusion tube runs up the center of the cylinder. Strapped in on one side of the tube is a singleship, and scattered across the rest of the inner cylinder is a number of other objects, all also strapped in place. Einar nods. EINAR Go ahead, Nate. NATE La Pan is perched near Einar with a hose that's pointing into the cylinder. He flips a switch on the hose controls an starts spraying fluid into the cylinder. Soon the cylinder is filled with foam, and the spraying stops. Einar steps back away from the edge of the cylinder. EINAR (Cont.) Close 'er up. Nate slams the lid shut. EINAR (Cont.) How much time we got, Nate? NATE Another twenty minutes to catch the optimum course. EINAR Okay, get aboard. You too, Tina. A slender figure, TINA Jordan, arches up from the asteroid surface towards the Ox's airlock as Einar watches. NATE Sold. Einar watches as Tina climbs into the airlock, then stares out into space, then starts following Nate up the cylinder towards the control cabin. INT. SOHL'S OFFICE --- NIGHT On Sohl's monitor screen are three blobs in a line, a fourth hanging nearby. Sohl is staring up at the screen. CUTTER (V.O., intercom) Nick? The Blue Ox wants to take off. SOHL Fine. CUTTER Okay. But I notice they aren't armed. SOHL They've got a fusion drive, don't they? And oversized attitude jets to aim it. If they need more than that we've got a war on our hands. Sohl taps on the intercom, then stares into space. After a moment, he picks up Brennan's file, then stares back up at the screen. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok and Brennan drop along the cable to the surface of the cargo pod. As he lands, Phssthpok leans forward to touch a flat nosed tool to the surface of the pod, then pulls himself and Brennan through the hull. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CARGO POD --- NIGHT The light here is slightly greenish. Phssthpok and Brennan pop through the wall. Phssthpok unzips the bag and as Brennan comes tumbling out, gasping for breath, turns and disappears back through the wall. Brennan laughs, painfully, then starts to look around. On one side is a number of squarish crates that look like they're made of wood. On the other side, a big freezer-like rectangular box with a lid. Brennan sniffs the air, then looks down. Below him is a net holding a large number of the roots Phssthpok has been eating. Brennan kicks against the wall and bounces down to the net, grabbing it to hold on. He sniffs again, taking a deep breath. Suddenly he starts tearing at the net, trying to get a root out, and then screams, and stops tearing at the net. He looks around the hold, then looks back at the net as his hands reach back out to the net, again start tearing at it. He kicks himself away from the net. He fishes the bag out of mid air, looks at it. he seals and unseals it. He looks around then kicks himself over to the large box. The lid does have a hand. but it doesn't budge. Brennan looks up at the roots, then yells in frustration and pulls again. The lid pops open, revealing a mass of almond size seeds locked into frost. Brennan wrenches one out as the air past the lid starts fogging up. He closes the lid, then pops the seed into his mouth. After a moment of concentration, he spits it out. He looks at the bin, then at the roots, then kicks his way across to the boxes. He is unable to tear a box loose from the wall. He tries the lid, and it slowly tears open with a creaking sound. Inside are plastic bags filled with a dark dust. Brennan pulls one out and feels it, looks at it, looks at the seed bin, laughs, then chokes it off, then dives at the roots. Brennan screams in pain. His hands are bruised and torn. His left pinkie is sticking off an a strange angle, and starting to swell. In front of him is a hole in the net, and then he looks at the root he has in his right hand. He throws the root as hard as he can and curls up in a ball, crying. BRENNAN Why?!!! What does he want with me?!!! Why Am I So Hungry?!!! The root smacks into the back of his head. Brennan grabs it instantly and bites into it. After a pause, he bites again, and swallows. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Phssthpok drops onto the ship, with his rocket pistol clipped to his belt. He looks up and down the ship, then goes to the rear of the ship. He looks over the decorated tube strapped to the ship, then continues on to the drive tube. He opens up an access panel in the side of the tube, peers in at the circuitry and such inside. He pops an instrument off his belt and holds it inside. INT. PAK WORKSHOP --- NIGHT Phssthpok is one of several Protectors looking at a drive system on a table, its guts exposed, as Brennan's ship is also past the table with Phssthpok also peering into the access port. The two Phssthpok's look up at each other, then look back and forth between the two drives. Finally, Phssthpok on Brennan's ship nods, and closes the access door. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Alone again, Phssthpok clips the scanner back onto his belt, climbs up the ship to the control cabin, and disappears through the door. INT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Phssthpok gives the controls a quick look, then turns to the rear of the cabin. Peering into hatches, he traces tanks of liquids to where the assorted tubes join and what they connect to. Pulling his head out of a hatch and closing the door, Phssthpok turns to the pictures on the back wall, staring intently at them. Finally, he turns to the front of the cabin and starts examining the controls. He peers at controls carefully, touching things, opening panels, carefully. As he does so, he appears opposite himself, as if the portholes were gone, at a different, opposing, set of controls that look rather like those of his ship, which light up and display data as he looks over assorted controls in Brennan's ship. He looks at an instrument on the side of the controls. Peering at himself, his alternate is looking at an instrument that is much larger. After a moment, he pulls his scanner off his belt. Swinging open a panel, he activates the scanner. Inside the panel is a core of gadgetry with a label reading Magnetic Monopole Grid Unit Phssthpok's scanner starts flashing. Phssthpok immediately clips the scanner back on his belt as he dives for the airlock. EXT. BRENNAN'S SHIP --- NIGHT Phssthpok dives out of the control cabin and leaps into space. Pulling the rocket pistol off his belt he points it back towards the ship, squeezes, and as it flares, zips away. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CARGO POD --- NIGHT With the rocket pistol flaring to slow him down, Phssthpok drops onto the cargo pod, then switches instruments and dives into the surface. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok pops through the wall, reaching for a handhold, and misses as he stares across the cabin and simply floats in space. Below him, Brennan is floating in front of the tear in the net, among a number of floating roots. His expression is blank, his belly is Huge, and in one hand is clutching a half eaten root. Phssthpok blinks, then carefully reaches for the handhold as he keeps his eyes on Brennan. Finally he pushes himself down to Brennan and gives him a light spin. Brennan's eyes are half closed, with only white showing. After a couple of rotations, Phssthpok jumps back up to the top of the chamber and through the wall. EXT. PHSSTHOPK'S CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok climbs out and then around to the small end of the egg, and then climbs back through the surface again. INT. PHHSTHPOK'S CARGO POD CONTROL ROOM --- NIGHT The control room is just large enough for him, and assorted controls. he starts carefully working with them. EXT. CARGO POD --- NIGHT The cable attaching the cargo pod to the rest of the ship pops loose in a puff of flame. The surface becomes clear revealing Phssthpok in his new control couch. In a screen in the control panel, the rest of the ship can be seen. INT. CARGO POD CONTROLS --- NIGHT Phssthpok twists two knobs simultaneously. The rest of the ship disappears. Phssthpok starts peering out at space around him. Off in one direction is a planet with a very visible set of rings. Off in another is a reddish planet with some barely visible moons. He looks in another direction, then carefully taps at some controls. In the viewscreen, a reddish dot appears. Phssthpok stares at it momentarily, then pushes a button. INT STRUDLEBRUG'S LIBRARY --- NIGHT A reading screen is displaying a text headlined "The Aging Process in Man." Lucas GARNER is sitting in a travel chair, staring at a reading screen. His massive shoulders, arms, and hands are offset by his thin, unused legs, giving him a rather apelike appearance. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he reaches for a glass that is on the screen's table, finds it by fingertips, then tries to drink out of it. When it turns out to be empty, he keeps staring at the screen as he holds it aloft and waggles it slightly. GARNER Irish coffee. A two tone brown, four foot high, cylindrical robot floats up to Garner and chimes at him. Garner looks up from the screen, scowling. A line of print is running across the robot's chest. "Terribly sorry, Mr. Garner. You have exceeded your maximum daily alcohol content." GARNER (Cont.) Cancel, then. Go on, beat it. The robot floats off into a corner. Garner sighs, then goes back to his reading. After a moment, there is a distant murmur, a growing series of whispers. Finally Garner looks up to see what is causing it. Sohl is walking towards Garner. He stops at Garner's chair. SOHL (very formal) Lucas Garner? GARNER Right. Sohl lowers his voice. SOHL I'm Nicholas Sohl, First Speaker for the Belt Political Section. Is there someplace we can talk? GARNER Follow me. Garner touches controls in the arm of the chair, and it rises and moves across the room. INT. STRUDLEBRUG'S ALCOVE --- NIGHT Garner settles his chair near a masseur chair as Sohl sprawls in the chair, eyes closed. The chair stars to hum as it works on his muscles. GARNER (Cont.) You really caused an uproar in there. SOHL Oh? Why? GARNER Why? For one thing, this is the Strudlebrug's club. By club law, no member is less than one hundred fifty four years of age. You're nowhere near admission age. SOHL The guard didn't say anything. He just sort of stared. GARNER I can imagine. SOHL Do you know what brought me to Earth? GARNER I heard. There's an alien in the system. SOHL It was supposed to be a secret. GARNER I used to be an ARM, a member of the United Nations Police. They didn't retire me until two years ago. I've still got contacts. SOHL That's what Lit Sheaffer told me. Sohl opens his eyes. SOHL (Cont.) Excuse me if I'm being rude. I can stand your silly gravity lying in a ship's couch, but I don't like walking through it. GARNER Relax then. SOHL Thanks. Garner, nobody at the UN seems to realize how urgent this is. There's an alien in the system. He's performed a hostile act, kidnapped a Belter. He's abandoned his interstellar drive, and we can both guess what That means. GARNER He's planning to stay. Tell me about that, will you? SOHL Simple enough. You know the Outsider ship came in three easy-to-assemble parts? GARNER I found out that much. SOHL The trailing section must have been a reentry capsule. We might have guessed there might be one. Two and a half hours after Brennan and the Outsider made contact, that section disappeared. GARNER Teleport? SOHL No, thank Finagle. We've got one film panel that shows a blurred streak. The acceleration was huge. GARNER I see. Why come to us? SOHL Huh? Garner, this is humanity's business! GARNER I don't like that game, Nick. The Outsider was humanity's business the second you spotted him. You didn't come to us until he pulled his disappearing act. Why not? Because you thought the aliens would think better of humanity if they met Belters first? SOHL No comment. GARNER Why tell us now? If the Belt scopes can't find him, nobody can. Sohl turns off the massage chair and sits up to look at Garner. SOHL Lit said you were bright. That's the trouble, Garner. We've found him. GARNER I still don't see the problem. SOHL He went through a smuggler trap near the end of his flight. We were looking for a bird who has the habit of coasting through populated regions with his drive off. A heat sensor found the Outsider and a camera caught a section of his course and stayed on him long enough to give us velocity, position, acceleration. Acceleration was huge, tens of gees. It's near certain he was on his way to Mars. GARNER Mars? SOHL Mars, or a Mars orbit, or the moons. If it was an orbit we'd have found him by now. Ditto for the moons; they both have observation stations. Except that they belong to the UN--- Garner starts to laugh. Sohl sits with a pained expression. After a moment, he turns the chair back on. SOHL (Cont.) You see the problem. Garner nods GARNER Considering the way the Belt is constantly telling us to stay off their property, you can't blame the UN for trying to get a little of its own back. We must have a couple of hundred complaints on file. SOHL You exaggerate. Since the Free Belt Charter was signed we've registered some sixty violations, most of which were allowed and paid by the UN. GARNER What is it you want the UN to do that they aren't doing? SOHL We want access to Earth's records on the study of Mars. Hell, Garner, the Phobos cameras might already show where the Outsider came down! We want permission to search Mars from close orbit. We want permission to land. GARNER What have you got so far? Nick snorts SOHL There's only two things they can agree on. We can search all we want to---from space. For letting us examine their silly records they want to charge us a flat million marks! GARNER Pay it. SOHL It's robbery. GARNER A Belter says that? Why don't You have records on Mars? SOHL We were never interested. What for? GARNER What about abstract knowledge? SOHL Another word for useless. GARNER Then what makes you want useless knowledge enough to pay a million marks for it? Slowly Sohl matches Garner's grin. SOHL It's still robbery. How in Finagle's name did Earth know they'd need to know about Mars? GARNER That's the secret of abstract knowledge. You get in the habit of finding out everything you can about everything. Most of it gets used sooner or later. We've spent Billions exploring Mars. SOHL I'll authorize payment of a million marls to the UN Universal Library. Now how how do we land? Sohl turns off the chair. GARNER I . . . have an idea on that. Garner peers around him. GARNER (Cont.) Can you fly a two-man ship, Starfire make? SOHL Sure. There's no difference in the control panels. Belt ships use drives bought from Rolls Royce, England. GARNER You're hired as my pilot at a dollar a year. I can get a ship ready in six hours. SOHL You've flipped. GARNER Not I. Look, Nick. Every so-called diplomat in the UN knows how important it is to find the Outsider. but they can't get moving. Its not because they're getting their own back with the Belt. That's only part of it. Its inertia. The UN is a world government. It's unwieldy by its very nature, having to rule the lives of eighteen billion people. Worse than that, the UN is made up of individual nations. The nations aren't very powerful nowadays. Someday not too soon, even their names will be forgotten; and I'm not sure that's a good idea . . . but today prestige can get in the way. You'd be weeks getting them to agree on anything. Whereas there's no law against a UN citizen going anywhere he wants to in terrestrial space, or hiring anyone he wants to. A number of our round-the-moon pilots are Belters. Sohl shakes his head as if to clear it. SOHL Garner, I don't get you. You can't think we can find the Outsider in a two man ship. Even I know about the Martian dust. He's hidden in one of the dust seas, dissecting Jack Brennan, and there's no way to get at him without searching the deserts inch-by- inch with deep radar. GARNER Right. But when the politicians realize that you've started searching Mars, what do you think they'll do. You being hired as a pilot is a technicality, obvious to anyone. Suppose we did find the Outsider? The Belt would get the credit. Sohl closes his eyes. SOHL So I need a flatlander to hire me as a pilot. Why you? GARNER I can get a ship Now. I've got contacts. SOHL Okay. get me the ship, then get a tough explorer-type flatlander. Sell him the ship. Then he hires me as his pilot, right? GARNER Right. But I won't do it. SOHL Why? Sohl looks at him. SOHL (Cont.) You aren't seriously thinking of coming along? Garner nods. Sohl laughs. SOHL (Cont.) How old are you? GARNER Too old to waste my remaining years sitting in the Strudlebrugs' Club waiting to die. Garner reaches out a hand. GARNER (Cont.) Shake hands, Nick. SOHL Mph? Sohl extends a hand, takes Garner's, and Garner squeezes. SOHL (Cont.) Sure, but---Yipe! Sohl yanks his hand back. SOHL (Cont.) All right, dammit, so you've got strong hands. All you flatlanders are overmuscled anyway. GARNER Hey, now, I didn't mean to push any buttons. I'm sorry, I wanted to demonstrate that I haven't gone feeble. SOHL Stipulated. Not in the hands anyway. GARNER And we won't be using our legs. We'd be riding everywhere we went. SOHL You're crazy. Suppose your heart gave out on me? GARNER It's likely to survive Me for a good long time." It's prosthetic. SOHL You're crazy. All of you. It comes from living at the bottom of a gravity well. The gravity pulls the blood from your brains. Garner jabs a button on his chair and it lifts off the ground. GARNER I'll show you to a telephone. You'll have to pay in your million marks before the UN catches on where we're going. EXT. MARS ORBIT --- NIGHT Mars floats in space, a fringe of an atmosphere blurring its reddish curve. INT. CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok is resting on a pile of roots. Beyond the now transparent wall behind him, everything is solid red. He stares across the room, looking back and forth. Finally, he shifts, settles, and simply stares. Growing from a whisper, a WIND echoes through the room. The sound of something BURNING gets intermittently eclipsed by the CRY of a baby. PROTECTOR (V.O.) Phssthpok dreamed. EXT. PITCHOK VALLEY BASE --- DAY The mangled remains of some sort of weapons platform burn in the center of a circle of burnt debris. The corpses of a couple of the ape-like humanoids lie among the devastation, an infant tugs at one of them and screams. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) He had been a protector for twenty six years. His remaining children in the radiation blasted valley were twenty-six to thirty-five years of age; EXT. PITCHOK VALLEY ORCHARD --- DAY There is another corpse lying on a pathway covered with burns. Huddled under a tree, a trio of still living humanoids stare at the corpse. One of them looks reddish, as if sunburnt. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) their own children were of all ages up to twenty-four or so. Now his lifespan would depend on those who had survived the bomb. He had returned immediately to the valley to find out. Not many breeders were left in the valley, but such as were still alive had to be protected. INT. TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT On the projection map, Pitchok valley is now marked a shade of grey. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok and the rest of the Pitchok families made peace, the terms being that they and their sterile breeders should have the valley until their deaths, The valley image fades over to the same color as the reclaimed desert and Eastersea alliance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) at which time the valley would revert to Eastersea alliance. EXT. PITCHOK VALLEY FIELD --- DAY A cluster of trees is near a grassy field. After a moment, a rain of white powder drops over the area. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There were ways to partially neutralize radioactive fallout. The Pitchok families used them. EXT. PITCHOK VALLEY BASE --- DAY. A protector is leaning against the remains of the weapons platform. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Then, leaving their valley and its survivors in the hands of one of their number, they had scattered. A humanoid walks out of the trees and towards the protector. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Of the several surviving breeders, all had been tested and all had been found essentially sterile. "Essentially" being taken to mean that if they did have children, the children would be mutants. They would smell wrong. With no protector to look after their interests, they would quickly die. Under a nearby tree, an infant humanoid is playing with some leaves. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) To Phssthpok, the most important of his surviving descendants was the youngest, Ttuss, a female of two years. In thirty-two years Ttuss would reach the age of change. The valley protector is watching the infant. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) She would become an intelligent being, and ideally designed for the purpose of fighting, but she would have nothing to fight for. She would stop eating. She would die, and Phssthpok would stop eating. The infant looks around PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Ttuss's lifespan was his own. EXT. ENTIRE PITCHOK VALLEY --- DAY As the valley protector stands by the weapons platform remains, the valley stretches out for miles, a collection of trees and fields. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) But sometimes a protector could adopt the entire Pak race as his descendants. At least he would have every opportunity to find a purpose in life. There was always truce for a childless protector, for such had no reason to fight. EXT. LIBRARY DESERT--- DAY The library area is a desert, empty, barren. The library complex spreads out over a couple of miles, a collection of low, interconnected buildings. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) And there was a place he could go. EXT. LIBRARY --- DAY The library building complex is huge, rambling. There is nothing around it except the empty desert. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The Library was as old as the radioactive desert which surrounded it. That desert would never be recultivated; it was reseeded every thousand years with radio cobalt so that no protector would covet it. A number of protectors are wandering across the desert towards the library. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Protectors could cross that desert; they had no gonadal genes to be smashed by subatomic particles. Breeders could not. Phssthpok never knew how old the library was, and never wondered. But the section on space travel was three million years old. EXT. LIBRARY ENTRANCE --- DAY Phssthpok and a group of other protectors walk towards and into the entrance to the huge library complex. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) He came to the Library with a number of childless former members of the Pitchok families. The Library was huge and rambling, a composite of at least three million years of Pak Knowledge. INT. LIBRARY ENTRANCE --- NIGHT Phssthpok watches his associates wander off in different directions, then wanders off himself. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The associates divided at the entrance, and Phssthpok didn't see any of them again for thirty two years. INT. SPACE LIBRARY --- DAY The space room is a huge labyrinth of floor to ceiling bookshelves. At scattered corners there are bins of roots. A protector is dumping a basket of roots into a bin as Phssthpok turns a corner. On a tray next to the bin the protector puts some assorted fruit. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) He spent that time in one vast room, a floor- to-ceiling labyrinth of bookshelves. At scattered corners there were bins of tree-of- life root kept constantly filled by attendants. There were other foodstuffs brought at seeming random: meats, vegetables, fruits, whatever was available to childless protectors who had chosen to serve the Library rather than die. Three-of-life root was the perfect food for a protector, but he could eat anything. INT. SPACE LIBRARY ENTRNCE --- NIGHT Phssthpok rounds a corner, munching on a root. He approaches the entrance, then turns to the first of the shelves and pulls out the first book. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) And there were books. He started at the left and began working his way around. He chose the section on space travel more or less at random; it had looked less crowded than the others. He kept with it rather than start over elsewhere. He might need every minute of his thirty four years of grace no matter where he chose to work. INT. SPACE LIBRARY --- NIGHT Phssthpok sits on the floor reading. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There were treatises on the philosophy of space travel. They all seemed to make a fundamental assumption: someday the Pak race must find a new home; hence any contribution to the techniques of spaceflight contributed to the immortality of the species. Phssthpok could discount that assumption, knowing that a protector who did not believe it would never write a book on the subject. He lies on the floor reading. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There were records of interstellar and interplanetary flight, tens of thousands of them, starting with a fantastic trip some group had made almost three million years ago, riding a hollowed-out asteroidal rock into the galactic arms in search of yellow dwarf suns. He pulls a book from the middle of a stack of shelves in the middle of a wall. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There were technical texts on anything that could possibly bear on space: spacecraft, astrogation, ecology, miniaturization, nuclear and subnuclear physics, plastics, gravity and how to use it, Phssthpok sits on the floor, reading, a book in one hand, and chewing, a root in the other. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) astronomy, astrophysics, records of the mining of worlds in this and nearby systems, diagrams for a hypothetical Bussard Ramjet (in an unfinished work by a protector who had lost his appetite halfway through), ion drive diagrams, plasma theory, light sails . . . Phssthpok sits, a book in his lap, looking about the room. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) In twenty-eight years he read every book in the Astronautics section, and still he had found nothing that drastically needed doing. Start a migration project? It simply wasn't that urgent, and the first expedition to try that had met a horrible fate. Join the Library staff? He'd thought of it many times, but the answer was always the same. Let there be a dry spell in new discoveries, let his faith flag, and he would find himself no longer hungry. Phssthpok pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, looks at it . . . looks at it again. He finally picks up a root from beside him and starts chewing on it. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) During the last few decades it had happened several times. Each time he would force himself to reread the communications from the Valley of Pitchok. The latest communication always told him that Ttuss had been alive when it was sent. Gradually his appetite would come back. Without Ttuss he would be dead. Find a way to keep Ttuss alive? IF he could do that he would have used the method on himself. A line of protectors is sitting in a line, staring into space. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) One day Phssthpok's appetite was gone. The letters from the Valley of Pitchok did not help; he didn't believe them. He thought of returning to the valley, but he knew he would starve to death on the way. Phssthpok sits down at the end of the line. A couple of protectors come up to the first protector in the line, look at him, then start checking for life. The second gets the same treatment as the third turns his head slightly to watch. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) When he was sure, he sat down against a wall, the last in a line of protectors who also did not eat, who were waiting to die. A week passed. The librarians found that two at the head of the line were dead. The two live protectors each pick up one of the two dead protectors and carry them off. The other protectors shift up two spaces. Phssthpok sits, in the middle of the line. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok remembered a book. Slowly, he starts levering himself off the floor. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) He still had the strength to reach it. Phssthpok is standing in front of a shelf, a book in one hand, a root in the other. He turns a page. He starts nibbling on the root. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT An asteroid floats in space against masses upon masses of stars filling the distance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Almost three million years ago, the ship had been a roughly cylindrical asteroid, reasonably pure nickel-iron with stony strata running through it, about six miles long and four through. A group of childless protectors had carved it out with solar mirrors and built into it Images of sections of the ship appear overlaid on the asteroid. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) a small life support and controls system, a larger frozen sleep chamber, a breeder atomic pile and generator, a dirigible ion drive, and an enormous cesium tank. INT. COLONY SHIP --- NIGHT A long corridor is lined with alcoves of sleep tanks, the first few of which have sleeping protectors in them, the rest the ape- like humanoids. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had found it necessary to exterminate the protectors of a large family in order to get control of a thousand breeders. With two protectors as pilots and seventy more in frozen sleep with the thousand breeders, INT. COLONY SHIP BRIDGE --- NIGHT Two protectors are sitting in control chairs, tapping at controls. On a screen, a projection of the galaxy appears, with a red line projecting outwards. Finally, one pushes one last button, and a number of control lights start flickering. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) with a careful selection of the beneficial lifeforms of the Pak world, they set out into one arm of the galaxy. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The Pak colony ship floats in space, the yellow Pak sun behind it. A red projection line starts from the front end and aims out into space as a second image of the galaxy appears, with a red line starting near the center of the galaxy and heading out towards the edge. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Though their knowledge was three million years scantier than Phssthpok's, they had good reason for choosing the galaxy's outer reaches. They'd have a better chance of finding yellow suns out there, and a better chance to find a double planet at the right distance. There was reason to think that only an oversized moon could give any world an atmosphere capable of supporting Pak-like life. INT SPACE LIBRARY --- NIGHT Phssthpok is sitting on the floor with a new book, and an intact root in one hand. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Their final message was nearly a half a million years later. It was a laser message that had come plowing through the Pak system, torn and attenuated and garbled by dust clouds and distance, in a language no longer spoken. The librarians had translated and filed and retranslated it hundreds of times since then. INT. COLONY SHIP BRIDGE --- NIGHT The control chairs are worn, there are worn patches on some of the controls. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had traveled deep into the galactic arms. INT. COLONY SHIP --- NIGHT A long corridor is lined with alcoves of sleep tanks, the first few of which are mostly empty except for one with a sleeping protector, the rest the ape-like humanoids. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Half the protectors had been gone at the journey's end, dying not of starvation or violence, but of age. This was so unusual that a detailed medical description had been included as part of the message. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The colony ship floats in space the surrounding stars much fewer than when the ship was launched. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had passed yellow suns with no planets, others whose worlds were all gas giants. Yellow suns had gone by carrying worlds that might have been habitable; but all were too far off course to be reached on the maneuvering reserve of cesium. The sky had darkened around them as suns became rare. EXT. COLONY --- NIGHT The colony ship floats over the curve of a planet. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had found a planet. They had braked the ship. Landing craft start splitting off from the colony ship and moving towards the planet. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had transferred what was left of the plutonium to the motors of the landing craft, and gone down. The decision was not final; but if the planet failed to measure up they could have to work for decades to make their rocket ship spaceworthy again. EXT. COLONY PLANET --- DAY As fewer and fewer clouds pass by, more and more land can be seen, far below and getting closer. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) It had life. some was inimical, but none that could not be handled. There was soil. As the land moves closer and closer, a cluster of the humanoids can also be seen peering out the main hatch of a grounded landing craft. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The remaining protectors woke the breeders and turned them loose in the forests to be fruitful and multiply. As the humanoids peer out the main hatch of the landing craft, A protector can also be sen walking among rows and rows of calf high plants. Off in the distance, there is a collection of machinery around a scar in a hillside. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They planted crops, dug mines, made machines to dig more mines, made machines to tend crops . . . EXT. COLONY PLANET --- NIGHT A sliver of a large moon floats over the lights of the mine entrance, as some stars scatter across the rest of the sky. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The black, nearly starless night sky bothered some, but they got used to it. EXT. COLONY PLANET --- DAY Rain pours down on the plantings, now much larger. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The frequent rains bothered others, but did not hurt the breeders, so that was all right. There was room for all; the protectors did not even fight. The plantings are even larger as sun shines down on them. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) None stopped eating. There were predators and bacteria to exterminate, there was a civilization to build, there was much to do. With spring and summer came crops---and disaster. A cluster of protectors are looking over a tree of life plant, poking at it, poking at a root, looking at instruments. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There was something wrong with the tree-of- life. The colonists themselves did not understand what had gone wrong with the crop. Something had come up. It looked and tasted like tree-of-life, though the smell was wrong, somehow. But for all its effects on breeders and protectors alike, they might have been eating weeds. They could not return to space. Their resources were too small. EXT. COLONY PLANET --- DAY A large plain contains a huge wheel of a metal framework with a hole at it's center. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They had spent their last years building a laser beam powerful enough to pierce the dust clouds that hid them from the galactic core. They did not know that they had succeeded. EXT. COLONY PLANET ORBIT --- NIGHT The colony planet forms a dark mass with a rim of glowing daylight. From the darkness of the night side a glowing beam spears straight up to a glowing dot far above the planet. When the beam hits the dot, it changes direction and heads off in a new direction. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They did not know what was wrong with the crop; they suspected the sparsity of a particular wavelength of starlight in general, though their experiments along those lines had produced nothing. Far above the curve of the colony planet, the beam lances off towards a thick band of hazy stars that extends across the night sky. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They gave detailed information on the blood lines of their breeder passengers, in the hope that some of the lines might survive. And they asked for help. Far above the planet the beam fades out. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Two and a half million years ago. INT. SPACE LIBRARY --- NIGHT Phssthpok sits by the root bin, eating and reading. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok would have smiled if his face had been build that way. Already he could see that his mission would involve every childless protector in the world. Phssthpok looks up, around, and fishes in the bin for a new root. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) For two and a half million years those breeders had been living without tree-of- life. Without any way to make the change to the protector stage. Dumb animals. And Phssthpok alone knew how to find them. He starts eating the new root. EXT. EARTH ORBIT --- NIGHT With the moon in the background, a spacegoing plane rises up from Earth. A traffic CONTROLLER provides departure directions. CONTROLLER (V.O.) Death Valley traffic Control to independent single ship U Thant, you are at optimum ignition altitude and clear for Earth orbital departure. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl is at the controls, Garner riding in the second seat beside him. SOHL This is U Thant, confirming departure. EXT. EARTH ORBIT --- NIGHT Catches attaching the wings and and engine to the main bulk of the plane disengage. A long tail trailing the main bulk glows and starts firing out a bright flame. The singleship main bulk separates from the wings and engine and angles up and away from Earth as the wing and engine continue on. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl taps on a control. A control screen lights up. COMPUTER Autopilot is engaged. GARNER Okay to smoke? SOHL Why not? You Can't be worried about dying young. GARNER Does the UN have its money yet? SOHL Sure. They must have got it transferred hours ago. GARNER Fine. Call them, identify yourself, and ask for everything they've got on Mars. Tell them to put it on the screen, and you'll pay for the laser. That'll kill two birds with one stone. SOHL How? GARNER It'll tell them where we're going. SOHL Right . . . Luke, do you really think this will get them moving? I know how unwieldy the UN is. There was the Muller case. GARNER Look at it from another direction, Nick. How did you come to represent the Belt? SOHL Aptitude tests said I had a high IQ and liked ordering people around. From there I worked my way up. GARNER We go by the vote. SOHL Popularity contests. GARNER It works. But it does have drawbacks. What government doesn't? Garner shrugs. GARNER (Cont.) Every speaker in the UN represents one nation---one section of the world. He thinks its the best section, filled with the best people. Otherwise he wouldn't have been elected. So maybe twenty representatives each think they know just what to do about the Outsider, and no one of them will knuckle down to the others. Prestige. Eventually they'd work out a compromise. But if they got the idea that a civilian and a Pelter could beat them to the outsider, they'll get off their thumbs faster. See? SOHL No. GARNER Oh, make your call. Mars is very obvious on a screen, as Sohl and Garner are reading through text as footage plays on another screen. SOHL I'm ready for summer vacation. Why do we have to watch all this? According to you we're just running a bluff. EXT. MARS ORBIT --- NIGHT Mars floats in space, a pair of moons accompanying. GARNER (V.O.) According to me we're running a search, unless you have something better to do. The best time to bluff is with four aces. A goldskin COP in orbit files a report with VESTA base. COP (V.O.) Vesta control, we've got a problem. The smuggler we were chasing tried to do a high speed run through the Martian atmosphere, and now he's at the bottom of the well. I repeat. A Belt Citizen has just landed on Mars, we've got a UN treaty violation. We're not going after him, radar has tracked him to the old Lacis Solis base that the UN abandoned years ago, and if he takes off again, we'll pick him up. But right now, he's on UN territory. Please advise. The two moons of Mars float in their orbits as the sun crawls into view around Mars. VESTA (V.O.) This is Vesta Control. Martin Shaeffer, First Speaker for the Belt Political Section, has been informed and will initiate communication with Earth. We have an ID on your smuggler, his name is Muller, A larger Belt retrieval ship materializes near the goldskin ship, on it's way into the Martian atmosphere. VESTA (Cont., V.O.) information on him follows. For now, we are to continue to stay off of UN territory, we are to continue monitoring the situation, until something changes. Ext. LACIS SOLIS BASE --- DAY Lacis Solis base is a cluster of buildings at the bottom of a crater. The buildings are covered with a loose layer of a deflated atmospheric tent. The Belt retrieval ship is in the crater, near the base. A Belt RETRIEVER reports back. RETRIEVER (V.O.) Finagle's Law!!!!! VESTA (V.O.) Have you found Muller, is he ok? RETRIEVER (V.O.) Hang on. Muller didn't have an accident, that's not why the base bubble dome collapsed down here. INT. LACIS SOLIS BASE --- DAY A camera attached to a suit shows a burnt, shriveled humanoid, wrapped around a very sharp looking spear. RETRIEVER (CONT. V.O.) There's about six of these down here, they're all over the base, Finagle's Law, Mars has real Martians!! The view jerks up and forward, showing a drape of plastic across a couple of low buildings, and a dead human lying next to a tank with a hose attached. RETRIEVER (CONT., V.O.) Here's Muller . . . It looks like they cut the bubble open getting in, and I guess water kills them, 'cause it looks like Muller was spraying water in all directions before he asphyxiated. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Nick switches off the screen. SOHL Come, let us reason together. I paid a million marks in Belt funds for this stuff, plus additional charges for the message beam. Thrifty Sohl that I am, I feel almost compelled to use it. But we've been studying the Muller case for the past hour and it all came out of Belt files! GARNER Not all of it. We were the ones who studies the Martian corpses you recovered. We may need that information. I'm still wondering why the Outsider picked Mars. Maybe he knows about Martians. Maybe he wants to contact them. SOHL Much good it may do him. GARNER They use spears. By me that makes them intelligent. We don't know how intelligent, because nobody's ever tried to talk to a Martian. They could have any kind of civilization you can imagine, down there under the dust. SOHL (Savage) A civilized people are they? They slashed Muller's tent! They let his air out! GARNER I didn't say they were friendly. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The Blue Ox floats in space, with what's left of Phssthpok's ship visible behind her. In the hold, the three Belters in their suits are scattered about the singleship, getting it free of it's clamps. Tina braces herself, punches flat some foam, then opens up a clamp holding the singleship in place. TINA (V.O.) Clamps free back here. NATE (V.O.) Good, Tina. EINAR (V.O.) We could have carried a fourth crewman in the singleship's lifesystem. Damn! I wish I'd though of it. There'd be two of us to meet the Outsider. NATE (V.O.) It probably won't matter. The Outsider's gone. That's a dead ship. EINAR (V.O.) And how many crew got left behind? I never much believed the Outsider would come riding between the stars alone in a singleship. Too poetic. Never mind. Tina, give us five seconds of thrust under the fusion tube. Tina sets her shoulders under the fusion tube and fires her backpac jets as Einar does the same at the front of the singleship. The old singleship drifts slowly up and between the great doors. EINAR (Cont., V.O.) Ok, Nate, get aboard fast. Make sure you keep the Ox between you and the Outsider at all times. We'll have to assume he doesn't have deep-radar. As she floats between the Ox and the singleship, Tina frowns, puzzled. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Tina and Einar are climbing out of their suits, Tina helping Einar with his, then he with hers. TINA I though Nate would be the one to board the Outsider. Einar looks surprised. EINAR What? No. You. TINA But--- EINAR (Forced patience) Think it through. The ship might not be empty. Boarding it could be dangerous. TINA Right. EINAR So we give whoever boards it all the protection we've got. The Ox is part of that protection. I'll keep the drive warm; it should vaporize the bastard if he tries anything, and the com laser should punch holes in him at this range. But there's a chance the Ox will get blasted too. TINA So the singleship stands guard. Tina makes a dismissing gesture. TINA (CONT.) I'd worked it out that far. I though *I'd*-- - EINAR No, don't be silly. You've never flown a singleship in your life. I don't have much free choice here. I thought of leaving Nate to fly the Ox, but hell, she's my ship and he knows singleships. I couldn't put you in either job. TINA I suppose not. EINAR You'd be the best choice anyway. You're the one who will make contact with the Outsider, try to learn his language. Aside from that, you're a flatlander. You're physically the strongest of us. Tina nods jerkily. EINAR (CONT.) You could have stayed behind, you know. TINA Oh, it's not That. I hope you don't think I was trying to chicken out. I just---hadn't-- - EINAR (Kindly) No, you just hadn't bothered to think it through. You'll get used to doing that, living in the Belt. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT On a screen, a hand is holding a sealed tube of reddish dust. As the hand turns the tube back and forth, the dust flows back and forth, but more like a thick oil than water. The owner of the HAND is lecturing. HAND (Speaker, Very documentary) The dust of Mars is unique. Etc. . . . Sohl and Garner are staring at the screen. GARNER That dust is going to be our biggest problem. The Outsider didn't even have to dig a hole for himself. He could have sunk anywhere on Mars. Sohl turns off the laser transmitter. COMPUTER (Speaker) Laser transmitter, disengaged. SOHL He could have hidden anywhere in the system, but he picked Mars. He must have had a reason. Maybe it's something he couldn't do under the dust. That puts him in a crater or on a hill. GARNER He'd have been spotted. Luke keys a photograph from the autopilot memory. It is one of a group from the smuggle trap. It shows a dimly shining metal egg with the small end pointed. The egg moves big end first, and it moves as if rocket propelled. But there is no exhaust. GARNER It's big enough to see from space, and easy to recognize, with the silver hull. SOHL Yah. All right, he's under the dust. It'll take a lot of ships with deep-radar to find him, and even there's no guarantee. Nick runs his hands back along his depilated scalp. SOHL (CONT., noncommittal) We could quit now. Your flatlander government has finally picked up its feet and sent us some ships. I got the impression they aren't too happy about us joining the search. GARNER I'd like to go on. How do you feel? SOHL I'm game. Hunting strange things is what I do on my vacation. GARNER Where would you start looking? SOHL I don't know. The deepest dust on the planet is in Tractus Albus. GARNER He'd have been stupid to pick the deepest. he'd have picked his place at random. SOHL You've got other ideas? GARNER Lacis Solis. SOHL ---Oh. The old flatlander base. That's good thinking. He might even need a life support system for Brennan. GARNER I wasn't thinking that. If he needs anything there---about human technology, water, Anything---there's only one place on the planet he can go. If he's not there we can at least pick up some dustboats--- EINAR (V.O.) Blue Ox calling U Thant. Blue Ox Calling U Thant out of Death Valley Port. Nick sets the autopilot to aiming his own com laser. COMPUTER (Speaker) Engaging communications laser. Locking in on transmission signal origin. SOHL It'll take a few minutes. I wonder what's happening to Brennan. GARNER Can we take the deep radar out of this heap? SOHL Let's hope. I don't know what else we can use for a finder. GARNER A metal detector. There must be one on board. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Einar is strapped into the control couch. A screen lights up with Sohl's face on it. SOHL (Speaker) This is Nicholas Brewster Sohl aboard U Thant calling any or all aboard Blue Ox. What's new? Repeating. This is Nicholas- Einar flicks to transmit. COMPUTER (Speaker) Transmitting message. EINAR Einar Nilsson commanding Blue Ox. We have matched with the Outsider ship. Tina Jordan is preparing to board. I will switch you to Tina. Einar switches the signal over. COMPUTER (Speaker) Changing transmission feed to channel one. The screen with Sohl's face switches to a view of Phssthpok's control cabin. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT The control cabin is slightly skewed, and the cables at both ends are slack and beginning to loop. Tina is floating in towards the control porthole. The backpac jets flare as she brings herself to a stop several yards from the porthole. The porthole looks empty. TINA Tina speaking. I am outside what seems to be a control module. I can see an acceleration couch through the glass---if its glass---and controls around it. The Outsider must be roughly hominid. The drive module is too hot to get near. The control module is a smooth sphere with a big porthole and cables trailing off in both directions. You should be able to see all this U Thant. Tina is approaching the porthole again, but from around the side. The backpac jets flare as she stops. TINA (CONT.) I can find no sign of an airlock. I'll have to burn my way through. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Einar is watching the screen. EINAR Through the porthole. You don't want to burn through anything explosive. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Tina is holding a glowing point to the porthole as she traces a three foot circle over and over. Fog puffs through the line. TINA I'm getting fog through the cracks. Ah, I'm through. She pulls her hand away, and a transparent disc puffs away on the last of the air, with a breath of white mist playing around it. Tina catches it and sends it gliding toward the Ox. EINAR (V.O.) Don't try to enter yet! INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Einar is watching the screen, his hands on the controls. TINA (Speaker) I wasn't. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Tina climbs in through the hole, then plants herself on the floor. TINA (CONT., V.O.) I'm in a small control cabin. She turns at the waist to point the camera around as tendrils of fog drift towards the porthole. TINA (CONT., V.O.) Very small. The control bank is almost primitively complex, so complex that I'm inclined to think the Outsider had no autopilot. One man could handle all these controls and adjustments. I see no more than One couch, and no aliens present but me. There's a bin full of sweet potatoes, it looks like, right beside the control couch. It's the only sign of kitchen facilities in this section. I think I'll move on. She moves to the back of the cabin, tries the door. It won't open, so she pulls out the hot point again and starts cutting a hole. As the point cuts through, easily, it is trailed by a spray of fog coming through the cut. She pushes her way through the opening. INT. CONTROL CABIN BACK ROOM--- NIGHT The room is filled with fog as she enters. Assorted machinery is attached to the walls. TINA (CONT., V.O.) This room is about as big as the control room. Sorry about the view. The place seems to be a free fall gymnasium. She sweeps her camera around the room, then crosses to one of the machines and tries to work it. It looks as if you are supposed to stand up inside it against the force of springs. Tina can't budge it. She dismounts the camera and fixes it to a wall, aimed at the exercise machine. She tries it again. TINA (CONT., V.O.) Either I'm doing this wrong, or the outsider could pick his teeth with me. Let's see what else there is. She looks around. TINA (CONT., V.O.) That's funny. INT. CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Tina is peering at the controls. Nate comes through the door of the back room. NATE Nothing. Tina turns around. NATE Once again, all I am finding is; One control room the size of a singleship control room, one free-fall gymnasium, same size, A bin of roots, and an enormous air tank. INT. BLUE 0X --- NIGHT Einar is sitting at the controls. EINAR That's it. Come on back, you two, you've been at it for two hours. We'll take a break, and I'll ask U Thant for instructions. INT. CONTROL CABIN --- NIGHT Tina and Nate are looking around in the control cabin. EINAR (Cont., V.O.) Nate, put some of those roots in a pressure bag. We can analyze them. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl and Garner are watching Einar making his report on a viewscreen. Different shots from the search are shown as items get mentioned. EINAR (Cont., Speaker) The air tank has no safeties to stop the flow in case of puncture, and is empty. It must have been nearly empty when the ship reached the solar system. They also found vastly complex air cleaning machinery, apparently designed to remove even the faintest, rarest trace of biochemical waste, and it's all been many times repaired. And there's equally complex equipment for conversion of fluid and solid waste. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Einar continues his report. EINAR (Cont.) It's incredible. It looks like a single Outsider has apparently spent his time in two small rooms, eating just one kind of food, with no ship's library to keep him entertained, and no autopilot to keep him pointed right, guard his fuel supply, steer him clear of meteors. And the trip has taken decades, at least. In view of the complexity of the cleaning and renewal plant, that huge air tank must have been included solely to replace air lost by osmosis through the walls! INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl taps on a communications control. SOHL Search the ship again. You may find a simplified autopilot: not a computer, just a widget for keeping the ship on course. Could you have overlooked a bolthole of some kind, anyplace where an Outsider could have hidden? in particular try to get into the air tank. It might make a very nice emergency bolthole. He turns the volume down and faces Garner. SOHL (Cont.) They won't find anything, of course. Can you think of anything else? GARNER I'd like to see them analyze the air. Have they got the facilities? SOHL Yah. GARNER And the porthole glass, and the chemistry of that root. SOHL They'll finish with the root by the time this reaches them. He turns up the volume. SOHL (Cont.) After you finish analyzing what you've got, you might start thinking about how to tow that ship home. Stay with the ship and keep your drive warm. If an emergency comes up, use the fusion flame immediately. Sohl Out. Sohl taps on a button and the screen goes dark. COMPUTER (Speaker) Communications system, disengaged. He stares at the screen for awhile. SOHL A super singleship. Finagle's Eyes! I wouldn't have believed it. GARNER Flown by a kind of super-Belter. Solitary. Doesn't need entertainment. Doesn't care what he eats. Strong as King Kong. Roughly humanoid. Sohl smiles. INT. PAK LIBRARY --- NIGHT Phssthpok is sitting on the floor of the library. He's nibbling on a piece of root as he balances a book on one knee and stares at a map spread out on the floor. SOHL (V.O.) Wouldn't that make him a superior species? GARNER (V.O. I wouldn't deny it. And I'm deadly serious on that. We'll have to wait and see. PROTECTOR (V.O.) Phssthpok sat on the floor of the library with a piece of root in his jaws, an ancient book balanced on one cantaloupe knee and a map spread before him on the floor. It was a map of the galaxy, but it was graded for time. The Core stars showed in positions three million years old, but the outer arms were half a million years younger. The Library staff had spent most of a year preparing it for him. Phssthpok starts very carefully poking at the map. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Assume they went a distance X. Their average velocity must have been .06748 lightspeed, considering dust friction and the galaxy's gravitational and electromagnetic fields. Their laser returned at lightspeed; figure for space curvature. Give them a century to build the laser; they'd use all the time they had for that. Then X = 33,210 light years. Phssthpok sets a compass on a point out a bit from the galactic center, and draws an arc around it. PROTECTOR (Cont.,V.O.) Phssthpok set his compass and drew an arc, using the Pak sun as a center. Margin of error: .001, thirty light years. The colonists were somewhere on that arc! INT. COLONY SHIP --- NIGHT Two protectors are sitting in control chairs, tapping at controls. On a screen, a projection of the galaxy appears, with a red line projecting outwards. Finally, one pushes one last button, and a number of control lights start flickering. PROTECTOR (Cont.,V.O.) Now assume they went straight outward from the galactic hub. It was a good assumption: there were stars in that direction, and the Pak sun was well off-center from the hub. As their voyage begins, in the library, Phssthpok puts a straight edge down on the map, shifts it about slightly. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) There was a greater margin of error here. Original error, course alterations . . . And the straight line would have curved by now, while the galaxy turned like curdled milk. Phssthpok starts drawing a straight line. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) They would have stayed flat in the galactic plane. The line crosses the arc. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) And they're near this point. Phssthpok had found the missing colony. INT. LIBRARY --- NIGHT A trio of protectors is flipping through a couple of books. Another couple of protectors are getting instructions from Phssthpok. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Phssthpok's minions poured like army ants through the Library. Every protector in reach had joined his quest. It's in the astronautics's section. Phwee. Find it! We need those ramscoop diagrams. A book has a picture of a Very old protector. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Ttuss, I need to know what happens when a protector gets old, and when it happens, and any contributing factors. There's probably a copy of that report in the medical section. It may have been added to. Hratcp, we have to learn what could stop a a tree-of-life from growing right in the galactic arms. You need agronomists, medical researchers, chemists, astrophysicists. EXT. PITCHOK VALLEY --- DAY A couple of protectors are peering at roots in separate bins on a table. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Use the Valley of Pitchok for your experiments, and remember the environment was habitable. Try experimenting with the soil, reduced starlight, reduced radiation. INT. LIBRARY --- NIGHT A small group of protectors are reading over a detailed diagram spread out on the floor. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) You of the Physics and Engineering sections: I need a fusion drive for in system maneuvers. I need launching vehicles for everything we build. Design them! EXT. LIBRARY --- DAY Out from the library, three areas of the desert are now the construction sites, surrounded by small buildings. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Every childless protector On the planet was looking for a purpose in living, a Cause. And Phssthpok gave it to them . . . Out from the library, the construction areas are gone, and the three parts of Phssthpok's ship lie out on the desert. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) . . . The ship, finally completed, stood in three parts on the sand not far from the library. Phssthpok's army assembled. EXT. LIBRARY --- DAY The ship is nearby as Phssthpok and several protectors gather around a table with a map. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) We need monopoles, we need tree-of-life roots and seeds, we need enormous quantities of hydrogen fuel. The scoop won't work below a certain speed. Meteor bay has everything we need, We can take them! EXT. LIBRARY ENTRANCE --- DAY A mass of protectors are sitting near the entrance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) For the first time in twenty thousand years, the childless protectors assembled for war . . . EXT. PLAIN --- DAY The edge of a water hole is decorated with bodies of the humanoids. One is bloodied, and a protector is standing among them with an ax. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) . . . his own Virus QQ used on breeders, with mop-up squads to hunt the survivors. EXT. LIBRARY --- DAY Out beyond the library entrance, the desert is spotted with protectors walking towards the complex. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Newly childless protectors switching sides, joining his army. INT. LIBRARY --- DAY A protector is holding a root as he stands by a table with some roots on it, in front of a group of protectors. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Hratchp reporting in with the strange, complex secret of the Tree-of-life root . . . There are three measured, loud THUMPS. The lecturing protector and all around him freeze in mid gesture. INT. CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok's eyes snap open and he jumps to his feet, spinning to look high up the wall. There are three measured THUMPs almost beneath his feet. He leaps across the hold in one leap, lands softly, grabs the softener key, and waits. After a moment, he leaps straight up to the control cubby. INT. CARGO CONTROL CUBBY --- NIGHT Phssthpok closes the door behind him, makes certain it's locked, then quickly climbs into his pressure suit. There are three measured THUMPs from somewhere below him. After a moment, there is a thump from beside Phssthpok. He touches the key to the twing. There is a THUMP, and a foot of crude glass pops through the hull. Phssthpok yanks on it, and reaches through the wall. After a pause he pulls through the wall a four to five foot tall gremlin like humanoid that is clutching the spear. Phssthpok smashes it in the back of the neck, and with a loud crunch the humanoid goes limp. Phssthpok taps the key on the wall, then probes the body, finally pushes far into it's midsection. The body begins to smoke. After a moment, Phssthpok opens his helmet a bit, sniffs, then closes the helmet really quickly. From a side cabinet, Phssthpok gets a squeeze bottle full of clear liquid. He carefully squeezes some onto one of the humanoid's legs, and the leg explodes in a ball of fire. Phssthpok leaps back across the room and watches as the rest of the humanoid burns. From another cabinet he pulls out a length of hose, attaches it to an outlet, then very quickly touches the key to the wall, runs a length of the hose through the wall, then throws a switch next to the outlet. There is the sound of LIQUID blasting through pipes as the hose suddenly grows rigid. Frantic THUMPs come from all over the hull, then stop suddenly. After awhile, Phssthpok stops the flow, and sits. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl and Garner sit in the silence. Mars is a three quarter's full red ball in a viewscreen. The comm screen flashes on, showing Tina's face. TINA (Speaker, panicked) U Thant, this is Tina Jordan aboard Blue Ox. We're in trouble. We were testing that alien root in the lab and Einar took a bite out of it! The damn thing was like asbestos from the vacuum exposure, but he chewed off a piece and swallowed it before we could stop him. I can't understand why he did it. It smelled awful! Einar's sick, very sick. He tried to kill me when I took the root away from him. Now he's gone into coma. We've hooked him into the ship's 'doc. The 'doc says Insufficient Data. She finally stops for a breath. TINA (Cont., speaker, panicked) We'd like permission to get him to a human doctor. SOHL Dammit! Sohl stabs at the communications controls and his face appears on the screen. SOHL (Cont.) Nick Sohl speaking. Pick a route and get on it. Then finish analyzing that root. Did the smell remind you of anything? Sohl over. He taps a button and the screen goes blank. SOHL (Cont.) What in blazes got into him? Garner shrugs. GARNER He was hungry? SOHL Einar Nilsson, for Finagle's sake! He was my boss for a year before he quit politics. Why would he try a suicidal trick like that? He's not stupid. Sohl taps his fingertips on the arm of the chair for a bit, then taps on the communications controls again. SOHL (Cont.) I want some more information. Who Is on the Ox? On a screen are a trio of pictures, of Einar, Tina, and Nate, with EINAR NILSSON, TINA JORDAN, and NATHAN LA PEN under the pictures and text beside them. SOHL (Cont.) Tina Jordan's a flatlander. That explains why they waited for orders. GARNER Does that need an explanation? SOHL Most Belters would have turned around the moment Einar came down sick. The Outsider's ship is empty, and there's no problem tracking it. No real point in staying. But Jordan's still a flatlander, still being used to began told when to breathe, and La Pan probably didn't trust his own judgment enough to override her. GARNER Age. Einar was the oldest. SOHL What would that have to do with it? GARNER I don't know. He was also the biggest. Maybe he Was after a new taste thrill . . . no dammit, I don't believe it either--- The screen lights up with Tina's face. TINA (Cont.) Blue Ox calling U Thant. We're on our way home. Course plotted for Vesta. The root analyzes almost normal. High in carbohydrates, including right-hand sugars. The proteins look ordinary. No vitamins at all. We found two compounds Nate says are brand new. One resembles a hormone, testosterone, but it definitely isn't testosterone. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Tina is making the report. Nathan is behind her, looking back at at the rear of the ship. TINA (Cont.) The root doesn't smell like anything I can name, except possibly sour milk or sour cream. The air in the outsider ship was thin, with adequate partial pressure of oxygen, no poisonous compounds, at least two percent helium. We spectroanalized the porthole material, and it's made of ---" INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl and Garner are watching Tina's report. TINA (Cont., speaker) And silicone, lots of silicone. The 'doc still reports Einar's illness as Insufficient Data, but now there's an emergency light. Whatever it is, it's not good. Any further questions? Sohl taps on the controls, and his face replaces hers. SOHL Not at the moment. Don't call back, because we're going to be too busy landing. He taps a button and the screen goes dark. He goes back to tapping his fingers. SOHL (Cont.) Helium. That ought to tell us something. GARNER A small world with no moon. Big moon's tend to skim away a planet's atmosphere. The Earth would look like Venus without her oversized moon. The helium would be the first to go, wouldn't it? SOHL Maybe. It would also be the first to leave a small planet. Think about the Outsider's strength. It was no small planet he came from. The two stare into space for a bit. GARNER What then? SOHL From somewhere in a gas cloud, with lots of helium. The galactic core is in the direction he came from. Plenty of gas clouds and dust clouds in that direction. GARNER But that's an unholy distance away. Will you stop that drumming? SOHL It helps me to think. Like your smoking. GARNER Drum then. SOHL There's no limit to how far he could have come. The faster a Bussard Ramjet ship moves, the more fuel it would pick up. GARNER There has to be a limit at which the exhaust velocity equals the velocity at which the gas hits the ramscoop field. SOHL Possible. But it must be way the Finagle up there. That air tank was Huge. The Outsider is a long way from home. INT. BLUE OX --- NIGHT Einar is strapped into one of a trio of crash couches, most of one arm buried in machinery. He looks as if his age has doubled. Tina is watching him, looking at the autodoc controls. Einar's chest rises with a long breath, then fades out. Tina looks at the autodoc controls again. The readouts are all red. TINA (Surprised) He's dead. Her eyes start to bug out. Nate squirms out of the control; couch and dives aft to look at Einar. NATE And you just noticed! He must have been dead for an hour! TINA (Gulps) No, I swear . . NATE Look at his face and tell me that! Tina drags herself to her feet, leans over Einar, who is looking centuries old. She reaches out to touch a cheek. TINA He's still warm. NATE Warm? Nate touches the corpse. NATE He's on fire. Fever. Must have been alive seconds ago. Sorry Tina, I jumped at conclusions. Hey! Are you all right? INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Mars on the view screen is huge. Garner is peering at the controls as Sohl taps on them. GARNER How dangerous are these approaches? SOHL Get that brave little quiver out of your voice. I've made a couple of hundred of these in my life. For sheer thrills I've never found anything to beat letting you fly me to Death Valley Port. GARNER You Said you were in a hurry. SOHL So I did. Luke, I'd like to request an admiring silence for the next few minutes. Garner looks gleeful GARNER Aha! Ah HA! On the screen the planet gets larger. Sohl starts to look grim. One of the moons goes by on the screen as the curve of Mars flattens out while sliding by. Garner points at a feature on the screen. GARNER The base should be there. At the north edge of that arc. Ah, that must be it, that little crater. SOHL Use the scope. Garner quickly taps on some controls, a second screen lights up as an outline marker appears on the main screen. GARNER Mmmmmm . . . dammit. Ah. There it is. Deflated, of course. See it, Nick? A small blue circle is on the smaller screen. SOHL Yah. EXT. LACIS SOLIS --- DAY Dust near the crater boils up out of the way for the drive flame as U Thant drops down, then stops, hovering. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl shoves a lever over and taps on buttons. The screens show U Thant dropping into the dust. EXT. LACIS SOLIS --- DAY U Thant's nose sticks out of the dust, and then the dust moves out and away in a circular sandstorm, revealing the rocked underneath. The drive flame shines glaring white, causing black shadows everywhere. As the flame hits the rock, the rock melts. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl taps on a few controls. SOHL I'll have to land in the crater. That dust will flow back in as soon as I turn off the motor. EXT. LACIS SOLIS --- DAY U Thant tilts slightly and moves over to just inside the wall of the crater. The drive flame dies and U Thant drops, altitude jets hissing, and touches down. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT The view screen looks across the crater to the deflated base bubble. GARNER Beautiful. SOHL I do that all the time. I'm going to search the base. You monitor me on helmet camera. EXT. LACIS SOLIS --- DAY The crater is about a half mile in diameter, with walls reaching up past U Thant and the dust puddling about the base of U Thant's shock legs. One spot in the wall has been blasted away, giving access beyond the crater. The deflated dome is at the approximate center of the dome, with a path of fused rock extending out over the dust to the edge of the crater. Moored to the pathway is a trio of boats with four seats each, floating in the dust. Sohl pushes his way out from under a fold of material and steps onto the pathway. SOHL Dead end. Next step? GARNER (V.O.) You'll have to carry me piggyback until we can find a sand boat. SOHL We'll need fuel from the dome for the boats. GARNER (V.O.) It'll be hydrazine, with compressed Martian air as oxidizer. SOHL I'll just look for something labeled Fuel. EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY Sohl and Garner are seated in a sand boat with an inflated bubble. As Garner steers it through the opening in the crater wall, Sohl is seated in one chair with his legs propped up in another as he stares the screen of a chunk of machinery sitting in the bottom of the boat that looks more like the U Thant than the boat. A three dimensional contoured grid flows across the screen as the boat flows out into the open desert. SOHL Deep radar shows the dust seems deep enough now. GARNER Then I'll open her up. The stern dips far down, then rights. They skim across the dust at ten knots, leaving two straight, shallow, regular swells as a wake. The radar screen shows a smooth contoured bottom passing by as the boat moves along. On the surface, the desert is flat, with an occasional rock poking above the surface, an occasional crater splattered across the dust. Nick turns his head to look back towards the base crater. After a moment his eyes widen, then squint. SOHL (Shouts) Damn't. Hold it!. Turn around! Turn hard left! GARNER Back toward the crater? SOHL Yes! Luke plays with the controls. The boat turns its prow to the left but continues to skid sideways across the dust, then curves around. GARNER I see it. Off in the distance a dot is shifting, crawling across the different colored sea of dust. The boat approaches a translucent caterpillar shape. Garner slows the boat as Sohl picks up a signal gun. They pull alongside, Sohl ready to shoot. SOHL (Awed) It's him. The shape is a transparent, inflated sack. Inside is an angular, knobby MONSTER, all edges and bulges, of a torso and legs and arms and a head. The monster stops moving as it gets the sack over by the boat. SOHL (Dubious) It looks helpless enough. GARNER Well, here goes our air. Garner deflates the boat's bubble. Sohl and Garner reach over the side, pick up the pressurized sack and dropped it in the bottom of the boat. With thumb and forefinger of a hand like a score of black walnuts strung together, the Monster makes a circle. SOHL It must have learned that from Brennan. GARNER Look at the bones, Nick. The bones correspond to a human skeleton. SOHL It's arms are too long for human. And it's back slopes more. GARNER Yah. Well, we can't take him back to the ship, and we can't talk to him the way he is now. We'll have to wait out here while the bubble inflates. The boat machinery chugs away as the bubble finishes reinflating. The Monster is watching Sohl and Garner as Sohl and Garner watch the Monster, as Sohl taps his fingers on the back of a seat, still holding the signal pistol with the other hand. GARNER We seem to spend most of our time waiting. Sohl nods. SOHL At least we have it at a disadvantage. It won't be kidnapping us. GARNER I think he must be insane. SOHL Insane? Its motives may be a little strange- GARNER Look at the evidence. He came plowing into the system in a ship just adequate to get here. His air tank was on it's last gasp. There was no evidence of failsafe devices anywhere aboard. He made no attempt to contact anyone, as far as we can tell. He killed or kidnapped Brennan. He then proceeds to abandon his interstellar drive and run for Mars, presumably to hide. Now he's abandoned his reentry vehicle, and whatever's left of Brennan too; he's rolled across a Martian desert in a sandwich bag to reach the first place any exploring ship would land! He's a nut. He's escaped from some interstellar mental institution. SOHL You keep saying Him. It's an It. Think of it as an It and you'll be ready for it to act peculiar. GARNER That's a cop-out. The universe is rational. In order to survive, this thing has to be rational too, he, she or it. SOHL Another couple of minutes and we can--- The Monster's hand slashes down the length of the sack. It reaches out and casually grasps the signal gun out of Sohl's and drops the gun behind it. It sits up. Its speech is full of clickings and rustlings and poppings. MONSTER Take me to your leader. Sohl recovers, straightens his shoulders, and clears his throat. SOHL That will involve a trip of several days. Meanwhile, we welcome you to human space. MONSTER I'm afraid not. I hate to ruin your day. My name's Jack Brennan, and I'm a Belter. Aren't you Nick Sohl? Sohl and Garner stare at the Monster in total shock. Finally, Garner roars with laughter. GARNER You think of it as an alien and you'll be ready for s-strange---h-hahahahah . . . SOHL (getting panicked) You. You're Brennan? MONSTER Yah. And you're Nick Sohl. I saw you once in Confinement. But I don't recognize your friend. GARNER Lucas Garner. Your photographs don't do you justice, Brennan. MONSTER I did something stupid. I went to meet the Outsider. You were trying to do the same, weren't you? Garner is enjoying the situation. GARNER Yes. Was there really and Outsider, Brennan? MONSTER Unless you want to quibble about definitions. SOHL For God's sake, Brennan! What Happened to you? MONSTER That's a long story. Are we pressed for time? Of course not, you'd have started the motor. All right, I'd like to tell this my own way, so please maintain a respectful silence, remembering that if I hadn't gotten in the way you'd look like this, and serve you right, too. The Monster stares at Sohl and Garner. MONSTER (Cont.) I'm wrong. You wouldn't. You're both past the age. Well, bear with me. EXT. PAK ORBIT --- NIGHT Pak is Very obviously not Earth, just from it's arrangement of continents and seas alone. Also, space around Pak is jammed with stars, almost more stars then there is dark to separate them. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) There exists a race of bipeds that live near the edge of the globe of close-packed suns at the core of the galaxy . . . The most important thing about them is that they live in three stages of maturity. EXT. PAK LANDSCAPE --- DAY Much more sedately, an apelike humanoid infant plays by a small pool-like lake, near a couple of adults. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) There is childhood, which is self- explanatory. There is the breeder stage, a biped just short of intelligence, whose purpose is to create more children. INT. TACTICAL ROOM --- NIGHT Phssthpok is sprawled in a chair, staring. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) And there is the protector. At around age forty-two, our time, the breeder stage gets the urge to eat the root of a certain bush. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl and Garner sit in the silence. Mars is a three quarter's full red ball in a viewscreen. The comm screen flashes on, showing Tina's face. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) Up to then he stayed away from it because it's smell was repugnant to him. Suddenly it smells delicious. The bush grows all over the planet; there's no chance that the root won't be available to any breeder who lives long enough to want it. EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY In the boat, Garner and Sohl sit, watching the Monster speak. MONSTER (Cont.) The root initiates certain changes, both physiological and emotional. Before I go into detail, I'll let you in on the big secret. The race I speak of calls itself Pak. But we call it Homo Habilis. SOHL What? Garner is grinning from ear to ear. MONSTER There was an expedition that landed on Earth some two and a half million years ago. The bush they brought wouldn't grow right, so there haven't been any protector stage Pak on Earth. I'll get to that. EXT. PAK LANDSCAPE --- DAY A Pak breeder is curled up on the ground near a bush, a half eaten root clutched in one hand. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) When a breeder eats the root, these changes take place. The breeder is on his back, and his hair is noticeably thinner. MONSTER His or her gonads and obvious sexual characteristics disappear. As time speeds by, the breeder's head starts to visibly grow. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) His skull softens and his brain begins to grow, until it is comfortably larger and more complex than yours, gentlemen. The head grows a hard crest. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) The skull then hardens and develops a bony crest. The mouth shifts slightly, and then hardens from a mouth to a beak. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) The teeth fall out, whatever teeth are left; the gums and lips grow together and form a hard, almost flat beak. My face is Too flat, it works better with Homo Habilis. All the hair is now gone. The hips and shoulders start swelling. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) All hair disappears. Some joints swell enormously, to support greater leverage to the muscle. The movement arm increases, you follow? The skin starts looking like leather. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) The skin hardens and wrinkles to form a kind of armor. On the breeder's hands, the fingernails pull back into slots in the fingers. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) Fingernails become claws, retractile, so that a protector's fingertips are actually more sensitive than before, and better tool makers. Where a breeders was stretched out on the grass, a protector is now sprawled. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) A simple two-chamber heart forms where the two veins from the legs, whatever the hell they're called, join the approach the heart. notice that my skin is thicker there? EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY In the boat, Garner and Sohl sit, watching the Monster speak. Garner has stopped smiling and is now scowling slightly. MONSTER (Cont.) Well, there are less dramatic changes, but they all contribute to make the protector a powerful intelligent fighting machine. Garner, you no longer seem amused." GARNER It all sounds awfully familiar. MONSTER I wondered if you'd spot that . . . The emotional changes are drastic. A protector who has bred true feels no urge except the urge to protect those of his blood line. He recognizes them by smell. His increased intelligence does him no good here, because his hormones rule his motives. Nick, has it occurred to you that all these changes are a kind of exaggeration of what happens to men and women when they get older? Garner saw it right away. SOHL Yes, but--- GARNER The extra heart. What about that? MONSTER Like the expanded brain, it doesn't form without tree-of-life. After fifty, without modern medical care, a normal human heart becomes inadequate. Eventually it stops. GARNER Ah. MONSTER Do you two find this convincing? GARNER Why do you ask? MONSTER I'm really more interested in convincing Nick. My Belt citizenship depends on my convincing you I'm Brennan. Not to mention my bank account and my ship and my cargo. Nick, I've got an abandoned fuel tank from the Mariner XX attached to my ship, which I last left falling across the solar system at high speed. SOHL It's still doing that. Likewise the Outsider's ship. We ought to be doing something about recovery. MONSTER Finagle's eye, Yes! It's not that good a design, I could improve it blindfold, but you could buy Ceres with the monopoles! GARNER (Mildly) First things first. MONSTER That ship is receding, Garner. Oh, I see what you mean; you're afraid to put an alien monster near a working space-craft. The Monster glances back at the flare gun, flickeringly. MONSTER We'll stay out here until you're convinced. Is that a deal? Could you get a better deal anywhere? SOHL Not from a Belter. Brennan, there is considerable evidence that man is related to the other primates of Earth. MONSTER I don't doubt it. I've got some theories. SOHL Say on. MONSTER About that lost colony. EXT. COLONY --- NIGHT The colony ship floats over the curve of a planet. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) A big ship arrived here, and four landing craft went down with some thirty protectors and a lot of breeders. A cluster of protectors are looking over a tree of life plant, poking at it, poking at a root, looking at instruments. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) A year later the protectors knew they'd picked the wrong planet. The bush they needed grew wrong. EXT. COLONY PLANET ORBIT --- NIGHT The colony planet forms a dark mass with a rim of glowing daylight. From the darkness of the night side a glowing beam spears straight up to a glowing dot far above the planet. When the beam hits the dot, it changes direction and heads off in a new direction. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) They sent a message for help, by laser, and then they died. Starvation is a normal death for a protector, but it's usually voluntary. These starved against their will. EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY The sun is a bit lower as Sohl and Garner watch the Monster. MONSTER (Cont., emotionless) They died. The breeders were breeding without check. There was endless room, and the protectors must have wiped out any dangerous life forms. What happened next has to be speculation. The protectors were dead, but the breeders were used to their helping out, and they stayed around the ships. SOHL And? MONSTER And the piles got hot without the protectors to keep them balanced. They had to be fission piles, given the state of the art. Maybe they exploded. Maybe not. The radiation caused mutations resulting in everything from lemurs to apes and chimpanzees to ancient and modern man. That's one theory. Another is that the protectors deliberately started breeding mutations, so that breeders would have a chance to survive in some form until help came. The results would be the same. SOHL I don't believe it. MONSTER You will. You should now. There's enough evidence, particularly in religions and folk tales. What percentage of humanity genuinely expects to live forever? Why do so many religions include a race of immortal beings who are constantly battling one another? What's the justification for ancestor worship? You know what happens to a man without the aid of modern geriatrics: as he ages his brain cells start to die. Yet people tend to respect him, listen to him. Where do guardian angels come from? SOHL Race memory? MONSTER Probably. It's hard to believe a tradition could survive that long. GARNER South Africa. They must have landed in South Africa, somewhere near Olduvai Gorge National Park. All the primates are there. MONSTER Not quite. Maybe one ship landed in Australia, for the metals. You know, the protectors may have just scattered radioactive dust around and left it at that. The breeders would breed like rabbits without natural enemies, and the radiation would help them change. With all the protectors dead, they'd have to develop new shticks. Some got strength, some got agility, some got intelligence. Most got dead, of course, Mutations do. GARNER I seem to remember that the aging process in man can be compared to the program running out in a space probe. Once the probe has done it's work it doesn't matter what happens to it. Similarly, once we pass the age at which we can have children--- MONSTER ---Evolution is through with you. You're moving on inertia only, following your course with no course correction mechanisms. Of course the root supplies the program for the third stage. Good comparison GARNER Any idea what went wrong with the root? MONSTER Oh, that's no mystery. Though it had the protectors of Pak going crazy for awhile. No wonder a small colony couldn't solve it. There's a virus that lives in the root. It carries the genes for the change from breeder to protector. It can't live outside the root, so a protector has to eat more root every so often. if there's no thallium in the soil, the root still grows, but it won't support the virus. GARNER That sounds pretty complicated. MONSTER Ever work with a hydroponics garden? The relationships in a stable ecology can be complicated. There was no problem of the Pak world, Thallium is a rare earth, but it must have been common enough among all those Population II stars. And the root grows everywhere. SOHL Where does the Outsider come in? MONSTER Phssthpok found old records, including the all for help. He was the first protector in two and a half million years to realize that there was a way to find Sol, or at least to narrow the search. And he had no children, so he had to find a Cause quick, before the urge to eat left him. More lack of programming. Incidentally, you might notice the heavy protection against mutation in the Pak species. A mutation doesn't smell right. That could be important in the galactic core, where radiation is heavy. SOHL So he came barreling out here with a hold full of seeds? MONSTER And bags of thallium oxide. The oxide was easiest to carry. I wondered about the construction of his ship, but you can see why he trailed his cargo section behind his lifesystem. Radiation doesn't bother him, in small amounts. He can't have children. SOHL Where is he now? MONSTER I had to kill him. GARNER (shocked) What? Did he attack you? MONSTER No. GARNER Then---I don't understand. The monster hesitates. MONSTER Garner, Sohl, listen to me. Twelve miles from here, some fifty feet under the sand, is part of an alien spacecraft filled with roots and bags of thallium,oxide. The roots I can grow from those seeds can make a man nearly immortal. Now what? What are we going to do with them? Garner and Sohl look at each other. Garner seems about to speak, closes his mouth. MONSTER That's a tough one, right? INT. CARGO POD --- NIGHT Phssthpok is sitting on the floor of the pod, watching. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) But you can guess what Phssthpok expected, can't you? On the other side of the pod, the Monster is lying by a collection of roots, curled up, asleep. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) He knew to just within a day how long it would take for me to wake up. He could have been wrong, of course. But if he were, then our kind would have mutated too far from the Pak form. The Monster stirs. He unfolded his curled body, stretched wide and opened his eyes. He stares unwinkingly at Phssthpok. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) And then it would begin. I wonder if I can make you understand how fast it all was. Phssthpok and the Monster are sitting opposite each other, talking. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) In two days we learned each other's language. His is much faster than mine and fits my mouth better, so we used it. He told me his life story. We discussed the Martians, working out the most efficient way to exterminate them--- EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY The sun is even lower as Garner and Sohl sit with the Monster. GARNER (yelps) What? MONSTER To exterminate them, Garner. Hell, they've killed thirteen men already! INT. CARGO POD --- NIGHT The Monster is standing on his hands, doing pushups as Phssthpok works with a collection of dismantled equipment. Sitting by Phssthpok is his pressure suit, with fins attached. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) We talked practically nonstop, with Phssthpok doing most of the talking, and all the time we were hard at work; calisthenics to build me up, fins for Phssthpok's suit so he could swim the dust, widgeons to get every atom of air and water out of the life support system and take it to the base. I've never seen the base; we had to extrapolate the design so we'd know how to re-inflate it and protect it. Phssthpok and the Monster are digging through the assorted boxes, Phssthpok doing the talking as they hand roots and such back and forth. MONSTER (Cont., V.O.) The third day he told me how to get a tree- of-life crop growing. He had the box open and was telling me how to unfreeze the seeds safely. He was giving me orders just as if I were a voice-box computer. I was about to ask, 'don't I get any choices at all?' And I Didn't. EXT. LACIS SOLIS CRATER WALL --- DAY The sun is even lower as Garner and Sohl sit with the Monster. GARNER I don't follow. MONSTER I didn't get any choices. I was too intelligent. It's been that way ever since I woke up. I get answers before I can finish formulating the question. If I always see the best answer, then where's my choice? You can't believe how fast this all was. I saw the whole chain of logic in one flash. I slammed Phssthpok's head hard against the edge of the freezer. It stunned him long enough so that I could break his throat against the edge. Then I jumped back in case he attacked. I figured I could hold him off until he strangled. But he didn't attack. He hadn't figured it out, not yet." SOHL It sounds like murder, Brennan. He didn't want to kill you? MONSTER Not yet. I was his shining hope. He couldn't even defend himself for fear of bruising me. He was older than me, and knew how to fight. He could have killed me if he'd wanted to, but he couldn't want to. It took him thirty-two thousand years of real time to bring us those roots. I was supposed to finish the job. I think he died believing he'd succeeded. He half expected me to kill him. GARNER Brennan. Why? The Monster shrugs cantaloupe shoulders. MONSTER He was wrong. I killed him because he would have tried to wipe out humanity when he learned the truth. The Monster reaches into the slit balloon and pulls out a jury rigged something that HUMS softly and drops it in the boat. Next he pulls out half of a yellow root like a raw sweet potato. He holds it under Garner's nose. MONSTER (Cont.) Smell. Luke sniffs. GARNER Pleasant enough. Like a liqueur. The Monster holds it out to Sohl, who sniffs. MONSTER Sohl? SOHL Nice. How's it taste? MONSTER If you knew it would turn you into something like me, would you take a bit of it? Garner? GARNER This instant. I'd like to live forever, and I'm half afraid of going senile. MONSTER Sohl? SOHL (emphatic) NO. I'm not ready to give up sex yet. MONSTER How old are you? SOHL Seventy-four. Birthday two months from now. MONSTER You're already too old. You were too old at fifty; it would have killed you. Would you have volunteered at forty five? Sohl laughs. SOHL Not likely. MONSTER Well, that's half the answer. From Phssthpok's point of view we're a failure. The other half is that no sane man would turn the root loose in Earth or Belt or anywhere else. GARNER I should hope not. But let's hear Your reasons. MONSTER War. The Pak world has never been free from war at any time in it's history. Naturally not, with every protector acting to expand and protect his bloodline at the expanse of all the others. Knowledge keeps getting lost. The race can't cooperate beyond where one protector sees and advantage in betraying the others. They can't make any kind of progress because of the continual state of war. And I'm to turn this loose on Earth? Can you imagine a thousand protectors deciding their grandchildren need more room? Your eighteen billion flatlanders live too close to the edge already; you can't afford the resources. Beside which, we don't rally need tree-of- life. Garner, when were you born? Nineteen forty or thereabouts? GARNER 'Thirty-nine. MONSTER Geriatrics is getting good so fast that my kids could live a thousand years. We'll get longevity without tree-of-life, without sacrificing anything at all. Now look at it from Phssthpok's viewpoint We're a mutation. We've settled the solar system and started some interstellar colonies. We will and must refuse the root, and even when its forced upon us, the resulting mutated protectors are atypical. Phssthpok thought in terms of the long view. We're not Pak, we're of no use to the Pak, and it's conceivable that someday we'll reach the core suns. The Pak will attack us the moment they see us, and we'll fight back. The Monster shrugs. MONSTER (Cont.) And we'll win. The Pak don't unite effectively. We do. We'll have a better technology than theirs. SOHL We will? MONSTER I told you, they can't keep their technology. Whatever can't be used immediately, gets lost until someone files it in the Library. Military knowledge never gets filed; the families keep it a deep, dark, secret. And the only ones to use the Library are childless protectors. There aren't many of them and they aren't highly motivated. GARNER Couldn't you have tried to talk to him? MONSTER Garner, I'm not getting through to you. He'd have killed me the moment he figured it out! He was trained to fight protectors. I wouldn't have had a chance. Then he'd have tried to wipe out the human species. We'd have been much worse to him than hostile aliens. We're a corruption of the Pak form itself. But he couldn't do it. He was all alone. I've though of half a dozen things he could have tried. None of them sure things, but I couldn't risk it. GARNER Name one. MONSTER Plant tree-of-life all throughout Congo National Park. Organize the monkey and chimpanzee protectors. SOHL He was marooned here. MONSTER He could have commandeered your ship. He'd have had your silly flare gun as fast as I did. Gentleman, May I point out that it's near sunset? I don't think we want to navigate the ring wall in darkness. Garner starts the motor. EXT. LACIS SOLIS --- TWILIGHT Garner steers the boat back to the pathway. GARNER You'll have to wait in the boat, Brennan. Nick can't carry us both. MONSTER I'll roll. Sohl has Garner on his shoulders as he trots down the path, the two of them eying the Monster, who is half way across the dust to U Thant. GARNER (V.O.) Take it easy. You can't trot in this light. You'll fall and crack both our helmets. Sohl keeps hurrying, the Monster keeps rolling. SOHL (V.O.) He's going to beat us to the ship. GARNER (V.O.) Slow down. You can't beat him, and he can't get up the ladder. SOHL Maybe he's thought of a way. If he does . . The Monster reaches the bottom of the ladder, but then just sits there. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) Oh, hell. Sohl slows down. GARNER Nick, do you trust him? Sohl thinks about this for a bit. SOHL I think his story's straight. He's a Belter. Or an ex-Belter. GARNER He swore by damn instead of by Finagle. SOHL So do I. And he recognized me. No, I'll tell you what really convinced me. He didn't ask about his wife, because she can take care of herself. He asked about his cargo. He's a Belter. GARNER We accept his story, then. Anthropology and all. Wow. SOHL His story, yes. Luke, I'll take you up then come back for Brennan. But I won't come down until you're talking to Ceres. I want all of this on record before I let him in the ship. I'm still wondering about his motives. GARNER Ah. SOHL He said it himself. Motive's change for a protector. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Garner is tapping on the comm controls as Sohl squeezes in from the airlock. On the floor, the Monster is climbing out of his balloon. COMPUTER (speaker) Communications laser, disengaged. MONSTER If you're worried about accommodations, I can get along without an acceleration couch. In fact I can ride outside in a cargo net if you'll give me a radio link. If my patchwork airplant breaks down I'd want to get in fast. SOHL That won't be necessary. It'll be cramped, but not that cramped. Sohl squeezes Very carefully past the Monster, and lowers himself into the control chair. A light is blinking. SOHL We seem to have a message. He taps a button. Shaeffer appears on the screen. SHAEFFER (speaker) This is Martin Shaeffer at Ceres calling Nick Sohl aboard U Thant. Nick, I don't know how your hunting goes, but Phobos reports that you've landed safely at Olympus base, and they're tracking you're dustboat wake. Presumably you'll find this on tape when you get back. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The Blue Ox is plowing through space at full thrust. SHAEFFER (Cont., V.O.) We've sent the Blue Ox to meet you, on the theory that you might need the computer package as a translating device. Eisaku Ikeda commanding. Far off ahead of the Ox is Mars, and leading the Ox is a set of bright flares against the relatively dim stars. SHAEFFER (Cont., V.O.) The Ox should reach Olympus base a day behind the UN fleet. INT. CERES CHAMBER --- NIGHT Einar is lying on a bed, a sheet pulled up to his neck. He looks absolutely ancient. SHAEFFER (Cont., V.O.) Einar Nillson is dead. We'll have an autopsy report shortly. EXT. SPACE ---NIGHT Phssthpok's and Brennan's ship's have two more floating alongside them. A Belter is in the process of jetting from one of the ships over to Phssthpok's ship. SHAEFFER (Cont., V.O.) We've sent fuel ships and construction facilities to rendezvous with the Outsider ship. There are two singleships falling alongside already, and the Outsider ship has a tested tow line of it's own. We may be able to rig the singleships for towing. Still, it's all going to the very sticky and time consuming. We may not be able to get it home to the Belt in a couple of years. INT. U THANT --- NIGHT Garner, Sohl, and the Monster are watching Shaeffer on the screen. SHAEFFER (Cont., speaker) Nick, when the Ox gets there, be careful of Tina Jordan. Don't shake her up. She's had a bad shock. I think she blames herself for what happened to Einar. Repeating . . . The screen flickers and the message begins again. Nick taps a button and the screen blanks. MONSTER Too bad about Nillson. There wasn't much chance they'd let him eat enough of the root, even if he wasn't past the age. Nobody answers. MONSTER (Cont.) Shaeffers right, you know. Doing it that way, it'll take you a couple of years to drag Phssthpok's ship home. SOHL Have you a better idea? MONSTER Of course I've got a better idea, Nick, you idiot. I can fly that ship home myself. Sohl stares at him. SOHL You? When did the Outsider ever let you operate the controls? MONSTER He never did. But I saw them, and they didn't look cryptic. Just complicated. I'm sure I can figure out how to fly it. All you've got to do is fuel the ship and fly me to it. SOHL Uh huh. What do we do about the cargo pod? Leave it where it is? MONSTER No. There's a gravity polarizer in that pod. SOHL Oh? MONSTER Not to mention the supply of roots, which I need, even if you don't. The seeds count too. Gentlemen, when you have finally grasped the extent of my magnificent intelligence, you'll see what those seeds represent. They're a fail-safe for the human race. If we ever need a leader, we can make one. Just pick a forty-two year old childless volunteer and turn him or her loose in the tree-of-life patch. GARNER I'm not sure how well I like that. MONSTER Well, the gravity polarizer is important enough. You and the UN fleet can retrieve it while Nick and I go after Phssthpok's ship--- GARNER Just a--- MONSTER ---You won't have to worry about the Martians for awhile. I dumped Phssthpok's share of the water into the dust, just before I left. (Emphatic) Don't let anyone into the pod without a pressure suit. Need I elaborate? GARNER No. SOHL (Cont.) Hold it. What makes you think we'd trust you to fly the Outsider ship? MONSTER Take your time. Think it through. You'll have my supply of root for hostage. And where would I go with a Bussard ramjet? Where would I sell it? Where would I hide, with my face? Sohl looks trapped. MONSTER (Cont.) It's probably the most valuable artifact in Human Space. It's falling outward at several hundred miles per second. Each minute you take to make up your mind now is going to cost us a couple of hours hauling it back from interstellar space. You'll pay for that in extra fuel and provisions and man hours and delays. But take your time. Think it through. EXT. MARS ORBIT --- NIGHT U Thant is at full thrust away from Mars, curving up to Phobos. Sohl and Garner are in their chairs, and the Monster is curled up on his back, against the back wall. GARNER Children. You've got children. MONSTER I'm aware of that. But fear not. I don't intend to hover over them. They'll have a better chance for happiness without that. GARNER The hormone changes didn't work? MONSTER I'm neuter as a bumblebee. They must have worked to some extent. I think most of a protector's urge to die after his blood line is dead must be cultural. Training. I don't have that training, that conviction that a breeder can't be happy or safe without his ancestors telling him what to do. Nick, can you give it out that the Outsider killed me? SOHL What? What for? MONSTER Best for the children. I couldn't keep seeing them without affecting their lives. Best for Charlotte too. I don't intend to rejoin society as such. There's nothing there for me. SOHL The Belt doesn't look down on cripples, Brennan. MONSTER (Final) No. Give me an asteroid I can bubble form and I'll raise tree-of-life. Set me up a monthly liaison with Ceres so I can keep abreast of current developments. I think I can pay for all of this with new inventions. I think I can design a manned ramrobot. Better than Phssthpok's. GARNER You called it tree of life? MONSTER It's a good name. You remember that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. According to Genesis, the reason they were kicked out was they might also have eaten from the Tree Of Life, to live forever. 'And be one of us'---it would have made them equivalent to angels. Now it looks like both trees were the same. Garner fishes a cigarette out of a pocket. GARNER I don't know that I like the idea of you producing tree-of-life crops. SOHL I don't much like the idea of a State Secret. The Belt has never had State Secrets. MONSTER I hope I can convince you. I can't protect my children, but I can try to protect the human race. If I was needed, I'd be there. If more were needed, there would be the root. GARNER The cure would be worse than the disease, most likely. Garner lights the cigarette. A knotted hand blurs around his couch, grabs the cigarette, and smashes it into the bulkhead. Garner gapes in shock. INT. FARMER'S ASTEROID AIRLOCK --- NIGHT Garner is floating in the middle of the entryway tube, looking at a cigarette in his hand. GARNER (Cont., V.O.) Wha--- He scowls at it, and puts it away. A CUSTOMS tape plays a greeting. He continues making his way down the tube. CUSTOMS (Speaker) Welcome to Farmer's Asteroid Entry Control. If you are not a Belt citizen, please report to Entry personnel. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID AXIS --- NIGHT Lighting tubes protrude from the ground around the airlock. Sohl is waiting as Garner floats through the airlock door. GARNER It's been seven months. Sohl helps him down the slope to and into a waiting travel chair. More tubes light the way along a path down the slope. SOHL I can guess why you're here. GARNER Officially, I'm here at the request of the joint interstellar Colony Authority. They got your request to send a warning message to Wunderland. They weren't at all clear on what the situation was, and I couldn't give them much help. SOHL (Stiffly) You had my report. GARNER It wasn't much of a report, Nick. After a bit Sohl nods. SOHL My fault. I just didn't want to talk about it---and don't know, for the matter of that-- -and it was too bloody late. We didn't just give up, you know. We've been tracking him. GARNER What happened, Nick? EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT The two remaining parts of Phssthpok's ship are accompanied by a pair of singleships off beyond the control pod, and by a cluster of ships floating around them. SOHL They'd done considerable work when I got there with Brennan. the idea was to rig two singleships together with their drive tubes aimed about ten degrees apart, then moor the framework to the cable from the Pak ship. There was eight miles of it behind the lifesystem section. We could have hauled them home at low thrust. But Brennan said that the Pak section would produce ten times the thrust. INT. PHSSTHPOK'S CONTROL POD --- NIGHT Sohl and the Monster are in the control pod. The Monster is sitting in the control chair, fiddling with the controls, with Sohl peering over his shoulder. The Monster peers at a screen, taps on a button, and the whole control pod disappears around them as Sohl starts. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) So we boarded the Pak lifesystem sphere and Brennan played around with the controls. I spent a couple of days in there watching him. It turns out you can make the whole hull transparent, or just part of it, the way it was when we found it. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT The control pod is back to being opaque again. The hole Tina cut into the porthole is larger and has a large cylindrical airlock attached to it. Sohl floats out of the space end and closes the hatch behind him. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) We widened the hole Tina Jordan left and fitted an airlock into it. The control pod floats in space in the midst of the Belt armada, with the ramjet floating off in the distance. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) Two days of fiddling and then Brennan said he had figured it out and all we had to do was refuel the drive section. He said that if we tried to tow it backwards we'd set off all kinds of fail-safe systems. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID AXIS --- NIGHT Garner and Sohl are making their way down the path from the airlock to the rest of the asteroid core. SOHL Garner, how was I to know--- GARNER You couldn't. It still doesn't make sense. Sohl runs a hand backward through his white wools crest. EXT. PHSSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT A couple of the singleships with fully packed cargo rings are floating near the ramjet. One has a hose extending out with a widget at its end. SOHL (V.O.) They'd already rigged up a mating plug to match the fuel plug on the Pak ship. EXT. RAMJET --- NIGHT A tiny figure in a massive space suit is floating next to the immense mass of the ramjet. The Monster can be seen inside the suit as he guides the widget on the end of the hose into an open port on the ramjet. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) Brennan insisted on doing all of the work himself, and even he had to use a radiation suit and shield. EXT. PHHSTHPOK'S CONTROL POD --- NIGHT Beyond the curve of the control pod, Brennan's singleship is getting attached to the cargo pod cable. SOHL (Cont., V.O.) We moored his own singleship to the tow line just in case something failed on the way home. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID AXIS --- NIGHT Garner and Sohl have entered an open area with neither path nor lighting tubes. The light level is brighter. SOHL (Cont.) That was My idea, Garner. GARNER Uh, huh. EXT. PHHSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT The ship floats in space, the Belt armada scattered about it. The exhaust cones of the ramjet sparkle, then blast searing lines of flame. As the ramjet moves forward, the control pod begins to move, and the accompanying singleships start their engines. SOHL (V.O.) He took off headed back towards Sol. We tried to fly formation with him, but he was putting the ship through maneuvers. We kept our distance. The ramjet curves slightly, then more as it drags the control pod into an arc. SOHL (V.O.) Then---he just turned around and headed out into interstellar space. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID AXIS --- DAY Garner and Sohl have stopped in an open area in broad daylight. Grass can be seen in the foreground, and behind and above them is a great curve. GARNER You tried to catch him? SOHL (Yelps) What tried? We flew alongside him! I didn't want to make any threatening moves, but he wouldn't communicate, and we were going to run out of fuel. I ordered Dubchek and Gorton to use their drives as weapons if he didn't sheer off. EXT. PHHSTHPOK'S SHIP --- NIGHT Phssthpok's ship continues speeding up as the drives on the accompanying singleships suddenly flare and die. SOHL (CONT., V.O.) I think he must have turned on his Bussard ramjet field. The electromagnetic effects burned out enough of our equipment to leave us dead in space. We're lucky the drives didn't blow up. INT U THANT --- NIGHT Sohl is pounding on the mostly red lighted control panel as Phssthpok's ship can be seen pulling away. SOHL (CONT., V.O.) A fuel ship finally got to us, and we managed to make some repairs. By that time Brennan was up to ramscoop speed. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID --- DAY Garner and Sohl are at the edge of a lawn. GARNER All right. SOHL How was I to know? We've got his food supply! That bin of roots was almost empty. Was it just a fancy way to commit suicide? Was he afraid of what we'd do with a manned Bussard Ramjet? GARNER I hadn't thought of that. You know, that could be it. Nick, do you remember him mashing out my cigarette? Sohl chortles. SOHL Sure. He apologized all over the place, but he wouldn't let you smoke. I though you were going to hit him. GARNER He's a protector. Whatever he does, it's for our own good. Garner scowls. GARNER (Cont.) He didn't want us to have the Pak ship, or something we could learn from it, or from him. SOHL Then why spend two months out there beyond Pluto? You don't stop halfway with a Bussard ramjet! It costs reserve fuel! And there'd nothing out there--- Garner stares up towards the sky. GARNER The cometary belt, they call it. Most comets spend most of their time out there beyond Pluto. It's thin, but there's matter out there. There's a tenth planet too. SOHL He never went near Persephone. GARNER But he may have gone near any number of comets. SOHL . . . Right. Okay, he spent two months out there, at rest as far as our monopole detectors could determine. Last month he started moving again. We followed him that long before we were sure. He's accelerating toward Alpha Centauri. Wunderland. GARNER How long before he gets there? SOHL Oh, twenty years, anyway. It's a low thrust drive. But we can warn them, and set things up so that our successors can warn them again in fifteen years. Just in case. GARNER Okay. We can do that. What else? You knew that we dug up the cargo pod. SOHL That's all we know. The UN can keep secrets too. GARNER We destroyed the roots and seeds. Nobody really liked the idea, but we did it. There is a long pause. Sohl looks out over the lawn to a cluster of low trees. SOHL Good. GARNER Good or bad, we did it. We haven't had any luck at all understanding the gravity polarizer. If that's what it was. Brennan could have been lying. SOHL It was a gravity polarizer. GARNER Just how do you know that? SOHL We analyzed the record of the Outsider's course to Mars. His acceleration varies according to local gravitational gradients: not just by thrust but by direction too. GARNER All right, that'll help. What else can we do? SOHL About Brennan, nothing. Eventually he'll starve. Meanwhile we'll always know exactly where he is. GARNER Or where his monopole source is. SOHL (Loosing patience) He doesn't have a ship without his monopole package. He doesn't have a food supply, period. He's Dead, Garner. As Sohl and Garner stand near the lawn, way off beyond the trees are some farmed fields. GARNER I keep remembering that he's smarter than we are. If he can find a way to hibernate, it would get him top Wunderland. A thriving colony . . . and so what? What does he want with Wunderland? SOHL Something we haven't thought of. GARNER I'll never know what it is. I'll be dead before Brennan reaches Wunderland. Garner sighs. He stares out into the cylindrical depths of Farmer's Asteroid, from the curving fields ahead of him, to the fusion tube providing light five miles overhead, to the checkerboard of more farm lands on the far side of the asteroid, ten miles overhead. GARNER (Cont.) Poor Outsider. All this way to bring us the roots that would let us lead a normal life. SOHL His intentions were good. Life is hard on us heroes. INT FARMER'S ASTEROID --- DAY Garner and Sohl are looking out into the cylindrical depths of Farmer's Asteroid, from the curving fields ahead of him, to the fusion tube providing light five miles overhead, to the checkerboard of more farm lands on the far side of the asteroid, ten miles overhead. PROTECTOR (V.O.) How to explain a gap of two centuries? Events are the measure of time. A great many things happened in two hundred and twenty years. Lucas Garner was dead . . . Garner fades away, leaving Sohl alone. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) . . . when the Pak ship passed course midpoint. It did not make turnover. Nick Sohl was watching when its magnetic trace passed Wunderland, two years early and still accelerating toward nowhere. And he wondered. Sohl fades away. INT. SMITHSONIAN --- NIGHT Phssthpok's corpse is standing in a darkened hall, his head at an odd angle, his throat crushed, his arms at his side. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The dry corpse of Phssthpok ended up in the Smithsonian Institution. There was some discussion as to whether to class it among the hominids. His story was third hand by now, with Brennan unavailable, but his skeleton matched hominid bone structure, bone for bone. EXT. OLYMPUS BASE, MARS --- NIGHT Olympus base is a large crater of fused dust in the red dust of mars. At it's center is Phssthpok's cargo pod, surrounded by an assortment of bubble domes. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Olympus base on Mars was rebuilt to study Phssthpok's cargo pod in situ, that being easier than trying to lift it against gravity with the gravity polarizer still running. The study group was reluctant to shut it down until they knew how to restart it. They used a hovering singleship to fuse the dust beneath the base, as protection against Martians. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT An asteroid floats in space. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The Belt population increased considerably. On the asteroid, bubbles fade into view. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Bubble worlds proliferated, some equipped with drives to move them around. A tracework of lines appears across the asteroid surface, leading to a collection of structures extending out from the surface. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Mining was becoming more difficult; the best lodes had been exhausted. A series of lights scattered across the asteroid's surface start pulsing in unison as the structures erupt in incandescent flame. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Cities spread throughout the larger rocks. The asteroid ship starts moving off into the distance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) A decreasing percentage of Belters flew singleships. EXT. MARS --- NIGHT A massive asteroid of dirty white tumbles through space. Beyond appears Mars. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) A large ice asteroid impacted on Mars, causing dust storms and minor quakes to trouble Olympus base. EXT. SPACE --- NIGHT Stars shine in the distance. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The interstellar colonies prospered and changed. Jinx appears against the stars, followed by the other colonies. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Jinx developed extensive vacuum industries, where the planet's landscape rises out of the atmosphere at the East End. Society became repressive on Plateau. Wunderland's population expanded and spread thinly across the major continent, so that cities were long in developing. Civilization developed underground on We Made It, to avoid the hurricane winds of summer and winter. Home was settled, and prospered, benefiting from new techniques and from mistakes made on the earlier colony worlds. EXT. JUNO --- NIGHT On Juno's surface, a ramrobot hurtles down a track, passes the end, and keeps going off away from the asteroid. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Laser beams passed between Earth and the colonies, and occasional ramrobots left the linear accelerator on Juno, carrying cargoes of new knowledge. Of late most of the ramrobot "gifts" were advances in biological engineering, seeds and frozen fertilized eggs, News from the colonies was sparse, though Jinx and Home had excellent communications lasers. INT ROOM --- NIGHT A man with an ear to ear grin is sitting in a chair. He has a wire extending out of a socket on the back of his head and plugged into the wall. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The drug problem had become a dead issue by Lucas Garner's time. Potential addicts tended to become wireheads; the experience was more complete, and current was cheap after the initial expense of the operation. Wireheads bother nobody; the wirehead problem was never serious. By 2340 it had almost solved itself. People had learned to handle it. EXT. EARTH CITY --- DAY Whatever it is, it ain't New York, and given the number of flying cars, it's Very clearly from the 24th century . . . PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Earth's population kept itself stable, by force when necessary. The gravity polarizer seemed beyond human understanding. Same city, later, the sun's going down. A bunch of people are jogging, strolling, whatnot along the grass covered surface of an elevated freeway. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) Improved alloplasty---gadgets instead of organ transplants---went a long way toward solving the problem of organ bank shortages. The UN citizenry even voted to remove the death penalty for certain crimes; income tax evasion, illegal advertising. It's definitely twilight. A bunch of backpackers are climbing out of a subway station and walking over to a multistory parking garage that clearly has seen no cars in ages. PROTECTOR (Cont., V.O.) The heavy authority given the ARM, the United Nations Police, was relaxed somewhat. War on a major scale had not happened in some time. Life within the solar system had become somewhat idyllic . . . EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL--- NIGHT It is almost pitch black, far out in the middle of nowhere, with a faint city glow from over a horizon. Assorted CRICKETS or whatnot are generating NOISE in the general area. ELROY TRUESDALE sits upright in his mummy bag. After a moment, he lays back down again, near a large backpacking pack. He stares into space, looking Very puzzled. EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL --- DAY. Truesdale is hiking up a narrow trail. He has a fanny pack strapped on, and no backpack. There is No sound. After a moment, without noticing, he passes himself, sitting by the side of the trail in a mummy bag, watching himself walk by. EXT. PINNACLES, SUMMIT --- DAY. Truesdale is on top, sitting in absolute silence, eating a lunch out of the fanny pack, being watched with puzzlement by himself, also up top, thoroughly tucked into a mummy bag. EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL --- DAY. Truesdale strides down the narrow trail, in absolute silence, through the manzanita, past himself sitting by the trail, wrapped in a mummy bag. In mid step he and everything else stops absolutely, with the exception of himself in the mummy bag, who shifts around slightly as he stares at everything while looking totally puzzled. EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL--- NIGHT It is almost pitch black, far out in the middle of nowhere, with a faint city glow from over a horizon. Assorted CRICKETS or whatnot are generating NOISE in the general area. Truesdale lies by the trail, very tucked into his mummy bag, looking Very puzzled. He snakes an arm out of the bag and carefully feels around the bag. After a moment he pulls the arm in again and goes back to staring into space. EXT. PINNACLES PARKING LOT --- DAY. Truesdale walks off the end of the trail and into the parking lot. Going to a car, he tries the door, it is locked. Pulling out keys, he opens the door, then the trunk, peering inside at the empty trunk as he gets it open. INT. CAR --- DAY Truesdale sits in the driver's seat. A spool is sitting on the entertainment console. There is a message spool sitting on his car entertainment set. He puts it into a slot and pushes a button. TRUESDALE (speaker) Truesdale, this is Vandervecken. by now you may or may not realize that four months have vanished from your young life. For this I apologize. It was necessary, and you can afford to loose four months, and I intend to pay a fair price for them. Briefly; you will receive five hundred UN marks per quarter for the rest of your life, provided that you make no attempt to find out who I am. On your return home you will find a confirming spool from Barrett, Hubbard and Wu, who will supply you with details. Believe me, you did nothing criminal during the four months you can't remember, but that's what the money's for. You would find it difficult to learn my identity in any case. A voice pattern would tell you nothing. Barrett, Hubbard and Wu know nothing about me. The effort would be expensive and fruitless, and I hope you won't make it. A wisp of smoke spirals up from the spool as Truesdale sits, watching it. TRUESDALE (Cont.) You wouldn't lie to yourself, would you, Roy? He taps a button and the screen lights up displaying Clock Coordination Transmission ; January 9, 2341 Truesdale stares at the screen for a moment, then picks up the phone. After a moment, he puts it down. After another moment, he picks the phone up again and and he starts tapping at the console keys. The COMPUTER agrees that it's him. COMPUTER (Speaker) Identity confirmed, Elroy Truesdale. Accessing phone messages now. The screen lights up with rows and rows of text, and he taps some more buttons. The COMPUTER requests some more information through the headset. COMPUTER (Speaker) Please enter search terms. Truesdale taps in; Barrett, Hubbard and Wu The screen blinks and one message is left, headlined Barrett, Hubbard and Wu. He taps a button and as the one line message is underlined, a BH&W STAFF member starts speaking. STAFF (Speaker) Good morning, I'm calling from the offices of Barrett, Hubbard and Wu, and I have a message for Elroy Truesdale. Mr. Truesdale, . . . BARRET, a smartly dressed woman in middle age, peers out of the screen. BARRET (speaker) There really isn't much that I or anyone else at Barret, Hubbard and Wu can tell you Mr. Truesdale. TRUESDALE All I want to know is whether your firm is sure of your funds. This Vandervecken has promised me five hundred marks quarterly. If he cut off your funds, that would cut Me off, wouldn't it? Regardless if whether I've abided by the terms of the agreement. BARRET That's not True, Mr. Truesdale. Mr. Vandervecken has bought you an Annuity. If you violate the terms of your agreement with him, the annuity passes to, . . . She goes fishing on her desk. BARRET (Cont., Speaker) . . . let me see now, to Criminal Rehabilitation Studies for the remainder of your life. TRUESDALE Oh. And the terms are that I shouldn't find out who Mr. Vandervecken is. BARRET (Cont.) Roughly, yes. It's all spelled out quite fully in a message which--- TRUESDALE I have it. Truesdale hangs up. The screen blinks back to the time check. He stares out the window, looks up towards the pinnacles, then notices the time again. He picks up the phone. TRUESDALE (Cont., V.O.) Well, the big problem was the amount of the money. He taps at the console, and the rows of messages pop back up again. TRUESDALE (Cont., V.O.) When I was born, I had a trust fund. It wouldn't have made me rich, but it would have kept me comfortable for life. Only I thought I could invest it, and I had found an idea that would make me a lot of money, or I thought it would, from the way it sounded . . . Truesdale stares out the window as he listens to messages. TRUESDALE (Cont., V.O.) Somewhere on Earth, or in the Belt, , a man who might or might not be named Lawrence St. John McGee has all the money. He couldn't possible have spent it all, not even on his scale of living. I don't have any real talents; I work as a salesman in a shoestore. I've worked in a service station, trading batteries on passing cars and checking the motors and fans. I keep myself in shape because everyone does. Truesdale does a double take at the screen, taps at the console, makes the scan he's been doing go back up a message. TRUESDALE (Cont., V.O.) And two thousand a year for life could make that better, but, that's all. And of course I told the exact amount to Vandervecken, so that's how he'd know Just how much, so I couldn't turn down the money, so I couldn't tell anyone . . . INT. ARM OFFICE --- NIGHT In his small office, An ARM LIEUTENANT stares at Truesdale from his seat behind a boomerang shaped desk with built in spigots and a computer terminal. LIEUTENANT But you did. You're here. Truesdale shrugs. LIEUTENANT What changed your mind? TRUESDALE Money again. I started going through the messages in my phone. there was another message from a different legal firm. Do you know the name Mrs. Jacob Randall? LIEUTENANT No. Wait a minute. Estelle Randall? President of the Strudelbrug's club until--- um. TRUESDALE She was my great-to-the-fourth grandmother. LIEUTENANT And she died last month. my condolences. TRUESDALE Thanks. I, I---see, I didn't see Greatly 'Stelle that often. Maybe twice a year, once at her birthday party, once at a christening or whatever. I remember we had lunch a few days after I found out I'd lost all my money. She was mad. Oh, boy. She offered to refinance me, but i turned her down. LIEUTENANT Pride? It could happen to anyone. Lawrence St. John McGee practices an old and polished profession. TRUESDALE I know. LIEUTENANT She was the oldest woman in the world. TRUESDALE I know. She was a hundred and seventy three when I was born. The thing is, none of us ever expected her to Die. I suppose that sounds silly? LIEUTENANT No. How many people die at two hundred and ten? TRUESDALE Then I played that tape from Becket and Hollingsbrooke and she was dead! And I've inherited about half a million marks, out of a fortune that must be unbelievable. She's got enough Great-to-the-nth grandchildren to take over any nation in the world. You should have seen the birthday parties. LIEUTENANT I see. The Lieutenant stares at Truesdale. LIEUTENANT (Cont.) So you don't need Vandervecken's money now. Two thousands a year is peanuts now. TRUESDALE And the son of a bitch made me miss her birthday. The ARM leans back. LIEUTENANT You tell a strange story. I never heard of any kind of amnesia that left no memory at all. TRUESDALE I haven't either. It was as if I went to sleep and woke up four months later. LIEUTENANT But you don't even remember going to sleep. TRUESDALE That's right. LIEUTENANT A stun gun could do that . . . Well, we'll put you under hypnosis and see what we come up with. I don't suppose you have any objections? You'll have to file some permission forms. TRUESDALE Fine. LIEUTENANT You, ah, may not like what we find out. TRUESDALE I know. LIEUTENANT If you committed any crime during that period you can't remember, you may have to pay the penalty. It's not that useful an alibi. TRUESDALE I'll risk it. LIEUTENANT Okay. TRUESDALE You think I'm faking this? LIEUTENANT The thought crossed my mind. We'll find out. Dr. Michaela SHORTER gives a command. SHORTER (V.O.) Okay, snap out of it INT. SHORTER'S OFFICE --- NIGHT Truesdale starts awake, blinks. He is seated in a different chair than before. Shorter is a broad-shouldered black woman in a loose business jumper. SHORTER (Cont.) How do you feel? TRUESDALE Fine. What luck? SHORTER It's very peculiar. You not only don't remember anything during those four months; you didn't even sense time passing. You didn't dream. The ARM Lieutenant is seated off to the side, out of Truesdale's field of view. Truesdale turns to look at him. LIEUTENANT Do you know of any drugs that would do that? Shorter shakes her head. the ARM Lieutenant comments to Truesdale. LIEUTENANT Doctor Shorter is an expert at forensic medicine. It sounds like somebody's thought of something new. He turns to Shorter. LIEUTENANT It could be something really new. Would you do some computer work? SHORTER (snaps) I did. Anyway, no drug could be that selective. It's as if he'd been stunned asleep, then put in frozen storage for four months. Except that he'd show medical signs of thawing: cell ruptures from ice crystallization and like that. Shorter looks sharply at Truesdale. SHORTER (Cont.) Don't let my voice put you under again. TRUESDALE I wasn't. Truesdale stands up. TRUESDALE (Cont.) Whatever was done to me, it would take a laboratory, wouldn't it? If it was That new. That'll narrow the search a bit, won't it? SHORTER It should. I'd look for a byproduct of genetic research. Something that decomposes RNA. LIEUTENANT (growls) You'd think snatching you off a mountain would leave some traces too, but it didn't. A car would have been spotted by radar. Vandervecken must have had you carried down tho the parking lot on a stretcher, around oh four hundred, when there wouldn't be anyone around. TRUESDALE That'd be goddamn dangerous, on those paths. LIEUTENANT I know. Have you got a better answer? TRUESDALE Haven't you learned Anything? LIEUTENANT The money. Your car stayed in the parking lot because the parking fee was paid in advance. So was your annuity. All from an account registered to the name of Vandervecken. A new account, and it's been closed. TRUESDALE Figures. LIEUTENANT Does the name mean anything to you? TRUESDALE No. Probably Dutch. The ARM nods to himself. INT. RANDALL PARTY --- NIGHT The room is filled with a lot of people, of a variety of ages, with a number of general similarities. ONE cousin turns around and spots Truesdale, calls out to him from beside a dark haired woman. ONE Hey Roy! Where the hell have You been? Roy turns, joins them. TRUESDALE Damndest thing . . . Roy is talking to a pair of blond woman and a SECOND cousin. SECOND So you were robbed again. You seem to be robbery-prone Roy. TRUESDALE Not any more. This time I'm going to get the son of a bitch. SECOND What are you going to do? TRUESDALE I"ll think of something. For now, I've given my boss a month's notice, and I'm planning a sight seeing vacation . . . INT ARM OFFICE --- NIGHT The Lieutenant nods. LIEUTENANT Come on in. You enjoying life? TRUESDALE Somewhat. How are you making out? Truesdale sits. The Lieutenant leans back from the desk LIEUTENANT Mostly negatives. We still don't know who kidnapped you. We couldn't trace the money anywhere, but we're sure it didn't come from you. You don't seem surprised. TRUESDALE I was sure you'd check on me. LIEUTENANT Right. Assume for the moment that someone we'll call Vandervecken has a specific amnesia treatment. He might go around selling it to people who wasn't to commit crimes . . . like murdering a relative for her inheritance. TRUESDALE I wouldn't do that to Greatly 'Stelle. LIEUTENANT Regardless, you didn't. Vandervecken would have had to pay You, and a hefty sum too. The idea's ridiculous. Other than that, we found two other cases of your type of selective amnesia. The Lieutenant starts tapping on computer keys. Hew looks at the screen. LIEUTENANT (Cont.) First one was a Mary Boethals, who disappeared for four months in 2220. She didn't report it. the ARMs got interested because she'd stopped getting treatments for a kidney ailment. It seemed likely she'd got a transplant from an organlegger. but she told a different story, very much like yours, including the annuity. Then there was a Charles Mow, disappeared in 2241, came back four months later. He had an annuity too, but it got cut off because of some embezzling in Norm Insurance. It made Mow mad enough to come to us. Naturally the ARM started looking for other cases, but they didn't find any,. And that was it for a hundred years. Until you showed up. TRUESDALE And my annuity's been cut off. LIEUTENANT Tough. Now, in those two previous cases the money was to go to prosthetics research. There wasn't any criminal rehabilitation a hundred years ago. They all went into the organ banks. TRUESDALE Yah. LIEUTENANT Otherwise the cases were all similar. So it looks like we're looking for a strudlebrug. The time fits the earliest case was a hundred and twenty years ago. The name Vandervecken fits. the interest in prosthetics fits. Truesdale stares into space. TRUESDALE Any specific suspects? LIEUTENANT If there were, I couldn't tell you. But, no. Mrs. Randall definitely died of natural causes, and she definitely wasn't Vandervecken. If she had some connection with him we haven't been able to find it. TRUESDALE Have you tried the Belt? The Lieutenant looks at him narrowly LIEUTENANT No. Why? TRUESDALE Just a thought. LIEUTENANT Well, we can ask. They might have had similar cases. Personally, I don't know where to go from here. We don't know why it was done, and we don't know how. EXT. LONDON --- DAY Big Ben still stands along the Thames, although London looks a bit different in the 24th Century. Truesdale walks along the NOISY Thames bank street, his backpack on his back. Among the many people all around him, several others also have backpacks. He pauses at an intersection, looks about, then turns the corner. EXT PARIS --- DAY Truesdale rounds a corner, walks along another street crowded with mixed locals and backpackers, all CHATTERING among and to each other. Far behind him, stretching up above him, is the Eiffel Tower. EXT. GIZA --- DAY Truesdale climbs up the last of a flight of steps, walks onto a stone platform. A bazaar can be heard JABBERING nearby. Off in the distance, across a lot of sand, are the Egyptian pyramids. EXT. FREEWAY -- NIGHT People are SINGING. A cluster of small stoves is providing light for an impromptu campfire on the pavement, and is surrounded by backpackers. Off in the background Truesdale has his stove going as he cooks something. EXT. VENICE --- DAY The grand plaza is covered with people YELLING at each other. At a table by a small cafe, Truesdale watches them wandering by. EXT. AYERS ROCK --- DAY Truesdale stares out over the empty Australian Outback. It is quiet. EXT. SYDNEY HARBOR --- NIGHT The Sydney Opera House gleams in the moonlight. Near a bank, a ten story parking garage flickers with random lights and distant SINGING. INT. PARKING GARAGE --- NIGHT On the eight level, a bunch of backpackers are barely SINGING far behind ALICE Jordan as she stares out over the harbor. She is tall and fairly muscular, with a two inch wide belt haircut of black hair that goes from the top of her head to drop most of the way to her waist. The rest of her scalp is a tanned as she is. The singers echo through the level. SINGERS I was born about ten thousand years from now . . . When we land upon the moon I'll show them how . . . Truesdale is closer to the campfire as he spots Alice. He starts stepping his way through a maze of mummy bags to get to her. In a bit he reaches her. TRUESDALE Excuse me. Are you a Belter? Alice turns to look at him. ALICE Yes. What of it? TRUESDALE I want to tell a story to a Belter. Alice shrugs her eyebrows: an irritated gesture. ALICE Why not go to the Belt? TRUESDALE I'd never get there tonight. ALICE All right, go ahead. EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL --- DAY. A bunch of backpackers are SINGING far behind Truesdale as he hikes up a narrow trail. He has a fanny pack strapped on, and no backpack. After a moment, without noticing, he passes Alice and himself, sitting by the side of the trail watching himself walk by. EXT. PINNACLES TRAIL--- NIGHT It is almost pitch black, far out in the middle of nowhere, with a faint city glow from over a horizon. A bunch of backpackers are SINGING in the general distance as Truesdale and Alice are looking out towards the horizon. Truesdale gestures towards the ground and he and Alice watch as Truesdale upright in his mummy bag. INT. PARKING GARAGE --- NIGHT Truesdale and Alice are standing and talking to each other. ALICE Why tell me? TRUESDALE Well, there were two other cases of this kind of kidnapping, both a long time ago. I wondered if anything like it has happened in the Belt. ALICE I don't know. There may be records in the goldskin files. TRUESDALE Thanks. Truesdale goes away as Alice stands, watching him. The SINGERS are continuing in the middle distance as Truesdale lies in his sleeping bag , eyes closed, arms crossed on his breast. SINGERS Why, I once signed on with Amra, and I damn near lost my skin. For the blood it flowed like water when the fighting did begin. I'm the only tar who's e'er jumped ship from Vandervecken's crew--- Truesdale's eyes snap open. SINGERS (Cont.) And that's about the strangest thing a man will ever do.