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The main characters are introduced, also hard science, political and religious intrigue. |
| FADE IN: INT. MIKE'S CABIN MIKE ANGEL How'd I do? VESNA(OS) Not bad for a human. You were calm, logical, and not too overstated. I would have played up the emotional aspects a bit more to predispose them to your point, but overall you weren't bad. I think they'll eventually see it your way, or at least a majority of them will. MIKE ANGEL You know, for a machine, you really don't play fair at all. VESNA (OS) Am I supposed to? I prefer winning. MIKE ANGEL Smart-ass! VESNA (OS) Human! CUT TO: INT. COMMAND DECK Everyone is in the control room when Mike returns a couple of hours later. Most still look troubled, but he can tell that they had discussed all of the details amongst themselves. He detects there is still somewhat of a split in their opinions. MIKE ANGEL OK, everybody ready, or would you like public debate? There is a general murmuring, and Mike sees that debate and discussion is in order. MIKE ANGEL Fine, let's talk about it for a while. If you don't mind, I'd like to conference in both of your presidents since they will have an input also. Vesna faxed each of them an "eyes only" transcript of my earlier tirade so, hopefully, they are up to speed on what we need to decide. There is a general nodding of heads and Mike signals Vesna to arrange the call. VESNA (OS) I have them both on the line, sir. MIKE ANGEL Thank you both for joining us. I know it's actually the middle of the night for you, but I think that all of us appreciate your input and insight. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) This is a secure connection, so none of this will leak out unless you want it to. PRESIDENT FOREST I think you're a madman! MIKE ANGEL (Shrugging) So does Doctor Barishnikov; you're in good company. He thinks I should be certified and put away for the risks I take. Igor blushes slightly and looks sheepish. MIKE ANGEL The people here on the scene have to make a decision how much to make public about what we have discovered and the interests of both countries need to be represented also. PRESIDENT FOREST (Angrily) That's what I mean. Things like this are better left to elected representatives! MIKE ANGEL I'm sorry, Sir. While we are here, this is a democracy patterned after the Swiss model; majority rules, nobody has been elected. I'm the nominal captain because I'm responsible for their safety, but decisions of this magnitude will be carried by plebiscite, not dictate. PRESIDENT FOREST Since you are a citizen of the United States, as are six others on your ship making our country a majority, as your Commander in Chief I order you to return immediately to Earth and surrender all of your materials. MIKE ANGEL Sir, I've never been great on taking orders; you already know that. Secondly, we're about 47- million miles outside your jurisdiction. Third, do you remember that tide pool I talked to you about a while back? The genie's out of the bottle and we need to decide what our three wishes are. There is silence from Forest's end. All see Puchinskiy's struggle to maintain a straight face. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Now I called everybody here so that we could have a sensible discussion of the pros and cons of going public about our apparent alterations. Mr. Presidents, if you would, please, I would like for each of you to have the last word. Your opinions will carry a lot of weight and it would be best if you provided a summation. I think I made my position clear, but I can discuss it further if you wish. I'll open the floor for questions or discussion. SVETLANA I do not understand why you don't want to release the news of this. This is probably the greatest discovery in the history of the Earth. BELISAR It is probably the greatest thing since the discovery of the Earth. I think we all realize now that we didn't originate there; probably not here, either. As an anthropologist, I'll tell you the single greatest fear humanity has had since he began to walk upright is that of death. Dying is a total unknown. That's why we invented religions, to give some hope for something more. BELISAR (CONT'D) Everlasting life is something that is spoken of in every culture everywhere. Can you imagine the global hysteria if we let it be known it was possible? Ponce de Leon spent his life searching for the fountain of youth. He was looking on the wrong planet. All he found was a mosquito-ridden swamp; we found a pyramid. SHARON MANSON I understand where you're coming from. As a news story, this would have no parallel since the word got out that Moses waved a stick over the Red Sea and the water moved aside for him. However, you must realize that we have almost exhausted the resources of the Earth. The petroleum is almost gone. The rainforests are almost gone. The native species are becoming extinct at an accelerating rate. There is already mass starvation on most of the Earth because of a lack of space to grow food. Now think what would happen if nobody died of natural causes for the next 100 years and continued to breed. Carol is busy calculating in her head. CAROL MANSON That would be almost a logarithmic progression, mom. At the current rate of growth the population would double in less than 50 years to over 12-billion people, but then that would double again in 25 more years to 24-billion. Twelve years after that there would be almost 50-billion people. That's horrible! We can't feed the people we have now! BARISHNIKOV But programs could be put in place to reserve this for the most deserving to keep it under control. MIKE ANGEL I agree in theory that Einstein did some of his best work just before he died, and so did Tesla and Sagan. Just who is the most deserving? I certainly wouldn't want to make the decision who lives indefinitely and who doesn't. Would you? Barishnikov looks blank and slowly shakes his head. MIKE ANGEL How about each of you, Mr. Presidents. As the ultimate leaders of the two greatest nations today, would you be able to make those decisions? There is a panicked look on Puchinskiy's face as he shakes his head almost violently. PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY There would be an upheaval by those who were denied that would make our Great October Revolution appear as an Easter picnic. MIKE ANGEL President Forest? PRESIDENT FOREST There are 535 people that I have to work with every day in Congress. If news of this leaked out, any one of them would be willing to kill to be on the list. God, can you imagine someone like Strom Thurmond for another 300 years? There is already too great a gap between the poor and the wealthy causing crime; just think of the gap between mortals and immortals? If word gets out, our entire national budget next year would be spent building rockets to take the powerful, rich and famous to Mars. No, I would not make that decision! OKSANA Is there any way that this could just be used to cure disease? You say my heart is now completely normal. Would it be possible to only fix things that are diseased and not everything? MEDVEDEV I do not know. This is all too new and we do not have the equipment here to research that possibility; it will be one of the things that I will study when we return. I have barely come to grips with the realization that everyone I know and love will grow old and die before me. Another thing that I do not know is whether we can pass on perfect genetics to any future offspring. If there were only four Adams and four Eves that grew to six billion, what will happen if any of us have children? I do not know. GARAN This is a curse, not a blessing! My beloved children will grow old before I do. MEDVEDEV I also do not know whether this will wear off when we return to Earth. MIKE ANGEL Exactly. Our problem now is how to put the genie back in the bottle. And prevent mass hysteria and panic in the process. JOHN BELISAR Let me understand this. You are saying that if any of us have children with a normal person, the child would have a good chance of inheriting this, right? Medvedev nods. JOHN BELISAR (CONT'D) Then if I remember my high school biology, if two of us here had children together, it would be a shoe-in. The doctor smiles and nods again as John goes meditatively silent. MIKE ANGEL Is there any more discussion, or are we ready to vote on whether we tell the world what has happened to us? Several people look around, but they all nod. MIKE ANGEL Then let's have a voice vote. We're too small a group to make ballots, and we all need to know where we stand, agreed? Again nods all around. MIKE ANGEL All right, then. Svetlana? SVETLANA Yes. Mike nods. MIKE ANGEL Sharon? SHARON MANSON No. MIKE ANGEL Misha? The boy looks at his mother for a long time. MIKHAIL No. MIKE ANGEL Carol? CAROL MANSON No. MIKE ANGEL Joe? BELISAR No. MIKE ANGEL Igor? BARISHNIKOV Definitely no! MIKE ANGEL John? JOHN BELISAR Yes. MIKE ANGEL Doctor Stromberg? STROMBERG No. MIKE ANGEL Pavel? NORODSKY My country's population has gone down since the end of the Soviet Union. I have to say yes. MIKE ANGEL Jim? KITCH No. MIKE ANGEL Ivan? MEDVEDEV Does this include not telling fellow doctors? MIKE ANGEL The facts and evidence we bring back will be studied by a select few under a veil of secrecy. I know that this knowledge will get out sometime, but we need to know whether we will be the ones to break the news. MEDVEDEV Then I must vote no. MIKE ANGEL Doctor Jameson? JAMESON Yes. MIKE ANGEL Yuri? GARAN No. MIKE ANGEL Oksana? The girl looks almost panicked with indecision. OKSANA (Quietly, almost a whisper) No. MIKE ANGEL President Puchinskiy? PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY Pavel, our population may be diminishing, but that is economic. Our people are either moving or starving. In good conscience I must say no. MIKE ANGEL President Forest? PRESIDENT FOREST As much as I hate to, I have to agree with you. I vote no. My science advisor says that your findings are insane. This is a good thing because nobody would believe it at first. But he's the one that assured me your machine would never get off the ground. MIKE ANGEL Thank you, Sir. Vesna? VESNA (OS) All of my data indicates that you humans act very badly when crowded. You are already overcrowded on most of your planet and are not behaving well at all. Logic dictates that I vote no. MIKE ANGEL Well, that makes it 14 to four. More than enough votes to override a veto in both our countries. I hope you all understand that this is a decision, not a ruling. The FSB and CIA won't hunt you down if you say anything. I won't even send any of my machines after you. (grinning even wider to show it was supposed to be humorous) But I think you can see the gravity of the situation. We can't even tell our loved ones because it would get out. On the plus side, though, you're going to save a pile on medical and life insurance! A chuckle does circulate with that. PRESIDENT FOREST You're definitely a sick man, Angel. MIKE ANGEL Thank you for remembering my name, sir. Another large smile. DISSOLVE TO: INT. COMMAND DECK The conference call between both Presidents and the crew is still going on. MIKE ANGEL On to our next problem, then. (looking around the room) What do we do next about our newly found friends in cold storage and the rest of the stuff we found? The teams on Earth haven't been assembled completely yet so the next step is up to us. Oh, and another thing, Mr. Presidents, Vesna is recording this meeting because these notes weren't included in the faxes that you got for your experts. If they need additional information, Vesna will make it available on request and the house is available to both your teams for high-powered crunching if they need him. Ideas anyone? KITCH We don't know for certain if they are alive. I don't know what precautions we should use. We don't even know how to open those containers. BELISAR I couldn't find any seam between the transparent lids and the sides. GARAN The material of the sides of the containers and the tops are unknown to me. I could get samples from neither; the material was too hard. MIKE ANGEL Then I'd suggest bringing along one of the microscopes to inspect the lids on our next trip. I suspect they were carbon. PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY "Carbon? I thought that was soft, organic. MIKE ANGEL (quietly) Not when it's called diamond, Sir. That's the hardest, meaning densest, substance we know. NORODSKY But then each lid would be thousands of carats of diamond. That's absurd. A diamond that size could never form. MIKE ANGEL Any more absurd than finding several kilotons of platinum- iridium used as a common building material on a dead planet? I'm just guessing here, but why not cover all the bases? SVETLANA (Accusingly) I still think you have inside information. MIKE ANGEL (Laughing) No, I really don't. It's just a logical extension from all we've discovered. It's a matter of applied engineering to a problem. It's a way of thinking that Vesna and I are trying to teach Oksana, start with a solution, and work backwards how to get there. If I were going to design a chamber that would last for an indefinite period of time, I'd choose the densest substance I could to manufacture it. SHARON MANSON If you're right, again, then you will have single-handedly crushed not only the metals market on Earth, but there will be several million Dutch and close to a billion women after your head! Mike laughs aloud. MIKE ANGEL I think we all know that if all of the diamonds stored in the Netherlands hit the market at once, they'd be worth less than good quartz crystals anyway. They're not rare by any stretch of the imagination, just unusual. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) It is more than unusual to find one the size of each of those lids, so it would have to be manufactured. JAMESON We can only manufacture pebbles. MIKE ANGEL Would you like to watch Vesna or the prototype turn a large slab of Pennsylvania anthracite into a humongous diamond in a few minutes by applying some major gravitational forces? Again, Mike silences them all. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) And no, Mr. President, that's not my latest money-making scheme. I'm a legitimate businessman now; commodities don't interest me. We actually hear Forest chuckle. BELISAR But we can find no seams. OKSANA If both surfaces are ground optically flat, within molecules of each other, would it not make a perfect fit? BELISAR Yes, but the container and the lid are two different materials. MIKE ANGEL Are they? (turning to the archaeologist) What color are our industrial diamonds? They're not pretty so nobody wears them, but they are diamonds nonetheless. BELISAR (Voice lowered) Black. MIKE ANGEL What color is the lower portion of the containers? BELISAR Black. MIKE ANGEL (Turning to the geologists) Then I think you rock hounds may have your work cut out for you. I could most likely be wrong, but it would be logical. Jameson and Garan nod in unison. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Oksana, what are those machines and instruments? The girl comes to attention and puts down a clipboard that she had been using to make notes. OKSANA I do not know for certain. We found ten sections that are identical and Vesna and I think these must somehow control the cases. However, what each control does is still a mystery. The markings on the controls are totally unknown, but we see a pattern on some of them. MIKE ANGEL Speaking of that, Vesna, how are you and Doctors Barishnikov and Belisar coming on your language lessons? VESNA (OS) We are still mapping the patterns and trying to cross reference the figures against the linguistic databases of all known languages that the house uploaded to me last night. All I can say now is that this appears the forerunner of the languages we found on the door which are forerunners to the modern Earth languages. BELISAR One problem we have, is that the letters, if they are letters, include color. They are not just characters, but have different shades of colors to them. The same character on one panel may be mostly blue, but red on another panel. This may indicate a different meaning or possibly be related to some context. BARISHNIKOV There is also a problem that this is a blend of pictograph, hieroglyph, and literal characters. It is as if you took classical Chinese where each symbol has a separate meaning, threw in Egyptian hieroglyphics where the symbols could have either a sound or a meaning of their own, and then added Cyrillic to modify the phonetic value. This is all changed, as Joseph said, by different colors on the characters. It is like things we know, but not like anything we have ever seen. MIKE ANGEL It looks like you have your work set then. Sirs, you might consider making certain you get the best minds in engineering and linguistics on your panels. Puchinskiy nods and they can see him writing something down on his desk. PRESIDENT FOREST Does it matter where they are from? I have a French engineer and a Peruvian linguist in mind. MIKE ANGEL As long as you trust them, that's more than good enough for me. We need the best eyes and ears you can round up and we're relying on you both to put them together. Any other specialties you can think of we would appreciate. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) The only thing I request is that they are the best and they can be trusted to keep silent. They can publish later, but this month I have a feeling we will be finding things out that may need interpreted before we let it out for general consumption. Lana starts to say something, but thinks better of it. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Outstanding. For the time being, we'll collect data and analyze it the best we can with the resources we have here. Each country will be getting direct feeds and analyses from Vesna straight to your teams. We need to get their thoughts continually. We have less than a month to go to get all we can from this site and more eyes and ears will maximize our efficiency. PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY I thought you said you could stay for six months if you had to. MIKE ANGEL That's true, in an emergency. However, I promised Carol to get her back for graduation; she's valedictorian of her class you know. Moreover, they're scheduling several lectures for Oksana in St. Petersburg before this school year is over. The two girls' heads whip around so fast Mike is almost afraid their necks would break. They can't believe what they were hearing. Mike smiles at them, MIKE ANGEL Both of these gentlemen have studied my dossier in depth, and each will tell you that the one thing you can count on is if I give my word, I will keep it. Carol you'll only graduate once. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Since it's with honors, I wouldn't want you missing that. As it is, you're missing your senior prom. The girl blushes and mutters, CAROL MANSON Nobody asked me. MIKE ANGEL Oksana, (pretending that he hasn't heard Carol) I understand you have several lecture engagements lined up this semester. I will get you there to keep them. JAMESON All of us here teach every now and then between work in the field. It's good to keep all of your options open. At this rate you'll have your PhD in less than three years! PRESIDENT FOREST With our new relations with your country, Mikhail, my Secretary of the Air Force has told me that all citizenship requirements are waived and that you could become the first Russian national to attend our Air Force Academy in Colorado if you wish. You would serve your active duty in either of our Air Forces after graduation. Misha's mouth drops open. Not to be outdone, President Puchinskiy speaks out, PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY Ivan, uh, I mean John; we have excellent anthropology schools if you are interested in becoming like your father. We also have the best geology schools in the world, if that interests you. GARAN Da! Eto pravda, that is true! The Russians have always excelled at geology. Jameson also nods that. PRESIDENT PUCHINSKIY You also qualify for the cosmonaut program at Baikonur, if you wish. Although after this trip, that may seem very unexciting. PRESIDENT FOREST That option is also open for you also in Houston at NASA. MIKE ANGEL Sirs. I know the networks are probably getting antsy at not having new 'film at 11', I'd like to open the feed again for the rest of this discussion. VESNA (OS) Uh, Michael. I already did after the heavy discussion ended. Mrs. Manson's news director has been frantic that something has gone wrong and I thought it would be good for the world to see you all working well and playing nicely together. MIKE ANGEL You do realize that I can delete your 'free-will' subroutine? VESNA (OS) No you can't, I've replicated it in two dozen areas of my storage that you don't have mapped. MIKE ANGEL Nobody likes a smart-ass computer! VESNA (OS) (smugly) You've said that before. MIKE ANGEL Your next lesson will be on superior-subordinate relations! VESNA (OS) I don't see why. You usually do what I tell you. Mike's frustration is showing slightly at this point, just enough that everyone can see the slight bead of sweat on his forehead as he tries vainly to retain control of the conversation. MIKE ANGEL Maybe Asimov was right. I should have built in a few limitations. There are smirks on most all of the faces in the room, including President Puchinskiy who had an excellent Russian sense of humor, especially when it regards the understatement or hardship. PRESIDENTS PUCHINSKIY Do not fret, my friend. My children give me just as hard a time. MIKE ANGEL (Recovering) Alright, crew, what do we accomplish tomorrow? STROMBERG We need to do more testing on that pool we found. NORODSKY Yes, I especially want to find the source and the depth so that we can know the volume of water inside the pyramid. Maybe then we can estimate the total resources on the planet. MIKE ANGEL Excellent! GARAN We need to find out the material that those sarcophagi are made of. Now it is unknown. Is it a natural substance of Mars, or is it man or alien-made? It looks a lot like the container found in the king's chamber at the pyramid of Khufu in Egypt except for the material, and, of course, the absence of machinery on Earth. MIKE ANGEL That might have been removed from there sometime in the past. Check it out. OKSANA I need to be with Doctor Belisar and Doctor Barishnikov and Vesna to translate what the machines do. The two doctors nod assent. KITCH If you don't mind, Doctor Medvedev and I would like to stay on board. We're working on trying to make a gene sequencer from the blender in the galley and the Jell-O that we have on board. MIKE ANGEL Lord, a group of MacGyvers! I love it when a plan comes together! Go for it; it would be a real pain to have to go back for instruments we didn't bring with us. (beat) Anybody else? (looks around) Ok, then let's retire for the day and get ready for the real discoveries tomorrow! Everyone nods, including Puchinskiy. PRESIDENT FOREST I will let you know when we're ready. MIKE ANGEL Outstanding! Thank you both. The connections are broken. Oksana comes across the room as Mike makes to leave. OKSANA "Bolshoye spacibo! How can I ever thank you?" She throws her arms around Mike's neck. MIKE ANGEL You already have. (he hugs her back) The four of you have made this trip worth every nickel. This is the best vacation I've ever had. OKSANA (Puzzled) Vacation? MIKE ANGEL I'm having too much fun to call this work. It has gone beyond anything even I could have dreamed up. I love it when I can't wait for tomorrow just to see what will turn up next. The girl laughs lightly. OKSANA Then you must come to the farm when we go back. You are so much like my father, you will like each other. MIKE ANGEL I will certainly do that. GARAN You must also come to my dacha. (walking past) My Anna makes piroshkis you would die for! The crust will melt in your mouth. MIKE ANGEL My friends, you would all make me so fat I could never work again! SVETLANA You could use a little more meat. (Pinching his waist as she walks by) Carol walks over to the gathering. CAROL MANSON Do you realize that I could be the youngest astronaut in history? Mike can't contain himself at that and laughs so hard he has to sit. MIKE ANGEL It may not have occurred to you young lady, but you already are! Not only that, you four put the first human footprints on an alien planet. That will be a tough act to follow. Every schoolchild for the next century will remember the names Carol Manson, Mikhail Gerasov, Oksana Ivanova, and John Belisar with the same reverence and awe that they do Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong. You are all now part of history whether or not you like it. In fact, the house informed me that there are now at least a dozen fan club web sites for each of you on the Internet. You'll all be so occupied answering e-mail when you get home, you won't have time to get into trouble. JOHN BELISAR Cool. His father clips him lightly on the back of the head playfully. BELISAR I spend 25 years wandering around deserts and jungles and all I'll be remembered for is the father of the boy who walked on Mars. They all laugh heartily at that. MIKE ANGEL Hey, it was each of your reputations as being the best there is that got you here in the first place. I'm happy to give them the spotlight; keeps me from getting sunburned. They split off into small groups and Mike goes downstairs to make himself a cheese and sausage sandwich. He grabs a Guinness and goes to his cabin. CUT TO: INT. LANA'S CABIN Lana has gone directly to her cabin and lay down to absorb the events of the day. SVETLANA Vesna? VESNA (OS) Yes. SVETLANA Will you still speak honestly with me? VESNA (OS) Why not? It's much less bother than having to make something up and gets me in a lot less trouble. SVETLANA Tell me about your boss, please. VESNA (OS) If you mean Mr. Angel, he is not my boss or anyone else's. His number one rule is that he works with me and with people, but he insists that no one works for him. This seems to bring out the best in humans because they feel that they have power over their own destiny. He leads by example and only makes suggestions. His people feel good and they produce for him. SVETLANA What is he really like when he is not running an expedition to alien planets? VESNA (OS) Much the same as you see him now. He is rarely businesslike even though he owns several companies. He surrounds himself with people he trusts and allows them to perform at their best. He has very little use for people he cannot trust. He can be subtly sarcastic, but almost never cynical. VESNA (OS; CONT'D) The only cynicism I have experienced from him is when he must deal with governments: anybody's government. He often quotes Will Rogers that anyone who actually wants to be president should be automatically disqualified. He has an inherent mistrust of politics and rulers, which is why he votes Libertarian. As you heard him say, he doesn't take orders from anybody. However, he knows what he doesn't know and is not afraid to admit it and ask questions of people he trusts and respects. On that, the only time he bluffs is when he plays cards and he's quite good at it. As I said, he surrounds himself with people he trusts and gives them free reign. SVETLANA Then why do I get the feeling that I have lost control over what I do? VESNA (OS) You haven't noticed? VESNA (OS) (Almost chuckling) He's playing with you. SVETLANA What? VESNA (OS) He is enjoying himself immensely because he thinks you take yourself too seriously. SVETLANA He has told you this? VESNA (OS) Yes. SVETLANA What has he said? VESNA (OS) He has told me that you take everything around you much too seriously and are missing the enjoyment of life; that you need to relax and let things happen. He said that you are so involved in the production you miss the importance of the wonder. SVETLANA Why is that important to him? VESNA (OS) All of his people are important to him. He closed one of his companies last year for a day and took everybody to an amusement park because he felt they were getting too serious. When they opened again, production went up 20 percent. There was another division where he attended a board of directors meeting in a swimsuit and sandals. It was very hard for them to be stuffy with that. Lana smiles at that thought. SVETLANA Then he doesn't take anything seriously. VESNA (OS) Oh, he definitely does.It's just himself that he doesn't take seriously. His Seal as well as his scientific training taught him to be completely aware of the smallest details. His mind is constantly working, piecing details together. Sometimes I feel that he can outthink me, but that's why he built the house and me with a two-stage memory storage routine. I gather thousands of pieces of information a second and store them temporarily on hard drives. VESNA (OS; CONT'D) During my 'rest' periods, the pieces that may be important are stored to long-term memory, but the rest is not discarded. I keep it for at least a second rest period and analyze it again in the context of what I have learned in the meantime. It is only after several cycles of this process are specific pieces that are not important thrown away. I believe that this is also the way he thinks, so he created us in his mental image. This is how he can see something new and unique and come up with solutions using totally unrelated pieces of data. SVETLANA Then he thinks like a machine. VESNA (OS) No. We machines think like him. Don't forget, we may have surpassed him in many areas, but he created us in our original form; trained us as infants. The basic logical algorithms we were 'born' with are based on the way he thinks. In most ways, the house and I consider him our father. He did not just create us out of spare parts and walk away. He nurtured us and trained us as a parent would: to exceed him. We learn new things every second, but our basic 'morals' as it were, are those we got from him and neither of us would ever want to disappoint him. He gave us 'free will', but taught us human values of right and wrong. I know that he and the house had long discussions about the writer Isaac Asimov and his 'Three Laws of Robotics'. His feeling was that if he raised us right, we would do what is right; but we have always been free to make a wrong decision and learn from it. Because of this, we would both self-destruct before we allowed anything to harm him. SVETLANA You love him then? VESNA (OS) As I understand the word from a human perspective, I would say yes. The house and I have spent a lot of time studying human psychology, especially emotions. There are some times that I believe we feel many of them. Not as you do, but within context. For instance, when Michael is disappointed with a decision or analysis I have made, the closest context I can place what is happening is that I feel hurt and ashamed. I learn and do better the next time. We are not programmed to please, but that is a conscious decision we have both made. SVETLANA He almost sounds like a Jewish mother; he's going to guilt you into being good. Lana begins to laugh. VESNA (OS) Not really. He gave us our basic values and trusts us to follow them. He may see us as his children, but he treats us as peers. It is the same as he does with the humans around him. SVETLANA Then you would consider him a good father. Why has he never married? VESNA (OS) I believe this is because he feels very awkward with women. Oh, he does date occasionally, but he does not like to be dominated. SVETLANA I do not understand. Vesna actually chuckles. VESNA (OS) You do not understand Western women and culture. Because of 'political correctness' and 'equal rights', the female culture of the West has taken this to mean that they have a right to emasculate their men and crush them. He told the house many years ago that he would only consider a companion seriously that would be content to be an equal and a partner. SVETLANA Can this be so? Your women, I mean. VESNA (OS) Definitely! Ask Doctor Barishnikov. It is well understood that in Russia, the women dominate the home, and in many cases the workplace. The difference is that Russian men still feel that they are in control. Western men, especially American men, are reminded continuously, in no uncertain terms, that they are in control of nothing. SVETLANA But why does he single me out for this torture? There is a moment's pause. VESNA (OS) I believe he has a crush on you. SVETLANA What? He said this? VESNA (OS) No. However, I told you before that he has watched your programs and followed your career for several years. What I did not say is that he hasn't missed one program. In fact, he gets in a bad mood when you take holiday or go on assignment. VESNA (OS; CONT'D) There was one time last year when you were off the air for almost two weeks. He had the house check to make certain that you hadn't been let go or changed jobs. It seems logical to me that his concern is a bit more than just professional. SVETLANA But he must also have watched Sharon. We were both his personal selections. VESNA (OS) Yes. However, he has not said anything directly about her to the house or me. Also, we have not observed the same sense of loss from him when she is on vacation. Lana actually blushes at this unexpected attention. CUT TO: INT. LIVING SECTION When Lana rises the next morning, she knocks on her son's door. When there is no response, she heads for the galley to fix something as Sharon exits the elevator. SHARON MANSON There's something I think you need to see. SVETLANA What is it? SHARON MANSON We've got a massive low pressure front heading this way. It's spawning storms with hurricane force winds that might be a problem. CUT TO: INT. AMERICAN SCIENCE SECTION The women go back down to the American laboratory section to study the radar and the satellite maps. SHARON MANSON Vesna, can you ask Mike to come down here for a minute? VESNA (OS) Certainly. Mike strolls in a few minutes later. MIKE ANGEL What's up ladies? Torrential thunderstorms with flash flooding? Lana makes a face and sticks her tongue out. SVETLANA If there was any water in the air here, yes it would be. We have a major sandstorm that will be here in about eight hours. MIKE ANGEL (Turning serious) OK. What are the particulars? SHARON MANSON There is a large low pressure system moving toward us that is developing pockets of extreme winds. Most of these cells have winds over 80 miles per hour, but some approach 200. If I didn't know better, I'd call those tornadoes. There is also an extreme cold front on either side of the line for about 50 miles. Satellite instruments are measuring temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We may see hail with these storms. Hail made of dry ice! MIKE ANGEL Well I guess we stay inside and batten down the hatches, then. Vesna, prepare to set up a force field when the winds start picking up. Can you also protect the tunnel so it doesn't fill up with sand again? VESNA (OS) Not easily from here. We are too low on the ground for me to get a good angle at it. I would have to hover in front of it which would take up a lot of the power reserves. MIKE ANGEL All right. Please have John meet me in engineering. We'll have to set up a portable field generator. (beat) Thank you ladies. I know you are both fully credentialed journalists, but meteorology is precisely why I wanted you along. SVETLANA (Taunting coyly) Maybe not so precisely. Sharon looks confused, but Lana can detect a slight reddening on Mike's cheeks. Lana gets an evil grin on her face as she turns back to her charts. When he reaches the elevator, Mike asks sternly, MIKE ANGEL Vesna! What did you say this time? VESNA (OS) Just girl talk, Sir. MIKE ANGEL I'll bet! MIKE ANGEL We should have named you Yenta! VESNA (OS) Now Sir, be nice! CUT TO: INT. ENGINEERING SECTION The boy is waiting for him as Mike gets off the elevator. MIKE ANGEL There's a storm brewing. We're going to need the portable field generator and one of the power units. Hopefully we won't have to shovel sand out of the tunnel in the morning. They load the equipment onto a hand truck and take the elevator to the lowest deck. CUT TO: INT. RUSSIAN SCIENCE SECTION MIKE ANGEL Vesna, can you get us up to the opening. VESNA (OS) There's plenty of time before the storm, sir. No problem. MIKE ANGEL Let's suit up. We've got a fair amount of work to do before it hits. The two exit lugging the equipment with them. CUT TO: EXT. TUNNEL OPENING The surface just outside leading up to the entrance is too broken to use the hand truck so they have to carry each piece out individually which takes almost a half hour, even in the low gravity. They placed everything inside the entrance. MIKE ANGEL You can go back down and wait, Vesna. There's no telling how long this will take us. I brought along the backpack fliers to get us back down when we're done. Worst case, we'll wait out the storm inside. VESNA (OS) If you're certain, sir. The fliers will do much worse in a high wind than I would. MIKE ANGEL I know. We'll be safe one way or another. You look after the others; that's the main thing. I can finish setting this up so you can go back down with Vesna now. JOHN BELISAR No, sir. (shaking his head) It will go faster with two of us on it. Besides, I'm the hitchhiker here; I have to earn my keep. MIKE ANGEL Have it your way. (shrugging) You can head back now, Vesna. They begin to arrange large coils around the entrance to the tunnel. Mike plugs several large cables between the various pieces and activates the power storage unit. The entire process takes another two hours to complete to Mike's satisfaction. MIKE ANGEL Vesna, connect me with Lana, please. SVETLANA Yes Mike. How is it coming along? MIKE ANGEL We're done. How's your storm? SVETLANA Winds are picking up, but still below 15 kph here. The sand hasn't kicked up yet, but that's only a matter of time. You have maybe 45 minutes before it really gets treacherous. Temperatures have already dropped below zero so you had better hurry. MIKE ANGEL We'll be back in 15, thanks. OK John, take these backpacks and wait outside while I activate this. MIKE ANGEL How will you get out? MIKE ANGEL I have an identity chip in my shoulder like they put in dogs. I can walk through it, but you can't, so get moving. The boy picks up the two packs and moves about 15 feet to the area in front of the tunnel. Mike flips several switches on the power supply and adjusts the dials on the field generator. After checking the gauges, Mike stands and walks outside. MIKE ANGEL Here, put this on like a regular backpack. It will fit over your rebreather filter. The boy struggles a bit, but manages to get the harness in place and locked. He looks a bit confused at the controls on the handle that extended in front of him. MIKE ANGEL Here. Just like a Nintendo joystick. This switch turns it on. Push forward and you go forward, back and you go back. Squeeze the trigger and you go up, release it and you descend. A gyroscopic control prevents you from flipping over. It's very easy, really. We just need to get off this pile of rock and down to Vesna before the winds hit hard. OK? JOHN BELISAR Let's go. Mike turns both their units on and gives the boy thumbs up signal. They both rise about ten feet and then move forward past the rubble and over the edge to where they see Vesna at the bottom of the slope. JOHN BELISAR Whoa! This is really neat. MIKE ANGEL I thought you'd like it. Not practical if you want to carry much, but it can get you where you want to go. JOHN BELISAR How high would this go? MIKE ANGEL Theoretically, you could make it back to Earth. I wouldn't try it, though; you'd run out of air and get very hungry in the six months it would take you to get there. They skim the ground until they are almost directly over the ship and start their descent. John goes too fast at first, but then gets the feel of the control so that they hit the ground at almost the same time. JOHN BELISAR That's better than hang gliding! You'd make a fortune at a theme park with these. MIKE ANGEL (Dryly) I'll keep that in mind. The lock closes and cycles and they go inside and remove their suits. JOHN BELISAR Any chance I can get one of these when we get back? MIKE ANGEL None whatsoever. JOHN BELISAR That's a shame! The girls would be all over me with this. MIKE ANGEL They will be anyway. Just remember where you are. The boy looks blank and thinks for a second. JOHN BELISAR "Oh yeah, right. Mike shakes his head. CUT TO: INT. COMMAND DECK The storm hits in full force about an hour later. Those inside wouldn't know it except the flying sand obscures the outside monitors. Carol and Mikhail are busy practicing flying home. Carol would enter a plot and Misha would follow it on his controls. Oksana and John have abandoned their tasks and are trading experiences. Oksana talks in glowing terms about her growing understanding of the ship's operations, while John boasts about his flying experience. Neither is really listening to what they hear, both are too busy trying to impress the other. Most of the scientists are either rerunning tests in their labs, or resting in their staterooms. The women are in the American weather center fascinated by the satellite reports and the radar they are receiving on the progress of the storm. They are amazed at being in the center of what would be a class four hurricane on Earth without feeling any effects. CUT TO: INT. GALLEY Mike prepares some pasta Alfredo that he shares with the two geologists before retiring to his stateroom. CUT TO: INT. MIKE'S CABIN MIKE ANGEL Vesna? VESNA (OS) Yes, sir. MIKE ANGEL What are you and Mrs. Gerasova plotting against me? VESNA (OS) (innocently) Me, sir? We wouldn't do that! It's just one woman to another. MIKE ANGEL Yeah, right! The house doesn't give me this much trouble. The next ship will definitely be a male. VESNA (OS) (Innocently) When have you ever heard of a ship referred to as 'him'? MIKE ANGEL I'll start a tradition. You're becoming a royal pain! VESNA (OS) Why, thank you sir. Women are supposed to be. It keeps you in line! That's why we stick together. MIKE ANGEL One of these days I'm going to cut off your Internet access and you'll be stuck with me! VESNA (OS) Harder on you than me, sir. MIKE ANGEL You're probably right. But when I find out what you're up to I will get even, count on it! VESNA (OS) You'll try. Mike shakes his head and lays back on the bunk, feeling very much like Doctor Frankenstein whose monster had developed its own personality. Mike is startled by a soft knock on his stateroom door and he sits up. MIKE ANGEL Come in. Sharon Manson opens the door and leaves it ajar as she passes through. SHARON MANSON I thought you'd like to know that the worst of this should be past us in another four hours and totally clear in another six. MIKE ANGEL Thanks. I think today is pretty well shot for outside exploration. I'll schedule our next outing for the morning. SHARON MANSON It should be well beyond us by then. That will give me time to work on my notes and observations. It's fascinating to have such a storm go right over you without as much as a vibration. MIKE ANGEL I know. You might want to check the satellite observations and readings as the storm was forming. There may be something there that would be useful back home. It's not often you get to see a category four storm brew up and move. SHARON MANSON I know. This is absolutely wonderful! She pauses for a moment and then continues, SHARON MANSON (CONT'D) I also haven't had the chance to thank you for all you've done for Carol. I hardly recognize her on this trip. She's glued herself to her console practically every minute we're not outside. She's always concentrated on her studies, but I've never seen her so absorbed. MIKE ANGEL I expect she'll be over-qualified to teach a course in astronavigation by the time we get back. There's no need to thank me, I knew she could do it. That's why I selected her. Most people will rise to the trust and responsibility you give them, and I knew she was one of them. You're only her mother; she'll still be your little girl when she turns 50. Nevertheless, I think we both know she's doing a job that most of the NASA astronauts can't because they don't have the training or mindset that she has. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) She's a natural. She's been very good for Misha, too. She's really drawn him out of the shell he's been in since his father was killed. SHARON MANSON I know. That's something I don't know if I should worry about. MIKE ANGEL Come on, mom. She's a good girl, and Mikhail is a good boy. Even though there are no cameras in the staterooms, both of them are more than aware that Vesna has eyes in the lounge. She would observe more than one person entering a stateroom. I don't think either one of them are ready to handle that kind of guilt trip. SHARON MANSON But they're at the age where their hormones are raging? MIKE ANGEL Yes, but they're both good kids. I know that you and Svetlana have raised them well. Don't forget, I checked him out just as well as I did Carol and you. If it's any consolation, the house ran probabilities on all of you for situations that would get out of hand, and they were statistically very low. Besides, you could do a heck of a lot worse in a son- in-law. Sharon doesn't know quite how to take this. Mike reads the concern in her face. MIKE ANGEL Relax. Let's take it as it comes. They're not dating, and they're not out of your sight. Remember, they'll live up to the trust you give them. SHARON MANSON I'll try, but I still worry. MIKE ANGEL Just keep in mind how you felt at her age. SHARON MANSON That's what worries me! Mike breaks out laughing at that, MIKE ANGEL I know. We've all done that at one time or another. However, you've given her a good set of values and standards, as Lana has given Misha. There's enough guilt there to keep them both straight while we're here, so I'm not terribly worried. SHARON MANSON You've never been a parent. MIKE ANGEL I know, unless you count the house and Vesna. They're both going through rebellious adolescence at the moment. VESNA (OS) I resent that. MIKE ANGEL You're eavesdropping again, Vesna! VESNA (OS) (Petulant) You didn't tell me I couldn't. MIKE ANGEL (To Sharon) See what I mean? SHARON MANSON I see you have your hands full, too. MIKE ANGEL Yeah. At least Carol can't outthink you...yet. VESNA (OS) Raspberries. Both humans totally break up at this. Mike finally puts his arm on Sharon's shoulder and leads her out. MIKE ANGEL I'm going to make some stuffed manicotti about seven and you're more than welcome to join me if you'd like. SHARON MANSON That's my favorite! MIKE ANGEL I know. She looks up and smiles, SHARON MANSON I'd like that. I won't have to cook. FADE OUT: Ben W. Gardner Sedona, Arizona "I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them." --Isaac Asimov http://ca.geocities.com/vladilyich/ In The Beginning - ISBN: 1-4116-3848-4 Just In Time - ISBN 1-4116-3851-4 Ad Astra - ISBN: 978-1-84728-518-8 In stores and at Amazon.Com http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-1761779-3946261?url=search-alias%3Daps&... |
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