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The main characters are introduced, also hard science, political and religious intrigue. |
| FADE IN: INT. MAIN CHAMBER The entire crew is standing before the odd panel. MIKE ANGEL As John would say, cool! Oksana, do you want to do the honors? The girl stiffens and looks around the room in a panic. Mike nods at her. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) You're the chief engineer, and you should have the honor, my lady. She tries to hide the panic in her eyes as she steps forward stiffly to the panel. The girl hesitantly extends her right hand until her fingertips touched the raised portion of the panel. The metal does not give when she presses harder. Oksana places her entire palm over the knob and presses; still nothing. She tried grasping the protuberance with her fingers and twisting: first clockwise and then counter-clockwise, nothing. She looks rather desperately at Mike, who just shrugs and tilts his head, telling her to keep trying. She places her palm on the knob and twists her hand to the left with no result. Then Oksana placed her palm on the control with her fingers extending upwards and twists it 90- degrees clockwise and all can hear a low humming coming from nowhere in particular. Suddenly a cylinder of light appears behind the group in the center of the room. If everyone had swiveled around any faster, there would have been broken bones. Mike had been facing the group and is the first to see the column of light descend from the ceiling. All can hear a sound that was almost musical as Vesna pans the camera to the sight. The journalist's shoulder cameras show the audience on Earth a hologram of the woman in the second sarcophagus that would make Walt Disney envious. The mouth is moving synchronously with the sound, which is more of a song than speech. She is not naked, as in the sarcophagus, but clothed in a robe resembling a Greek toga. The fabric appears to be metallic fibers instead of cloth. The vision is suspended on a pedestal about a meter from the floor. Across the bottom of the pedestal are five rows of graphic symbols in time with the "speech", appearing to be not only in the current symbol set, but also in the four languages that were shown on the outer door. MIKE ANGEL Are you getting this, Vesna? VESNA (OS) (Annoyed) Shhhh! The show lasts over a half-hour. The woman in a singsong voice is narrating it. Even though nobody has any clue what is being said, it is obvious that it is a narrative introduction to whatever race they were from. The scenes shift from the woman standing there to a background that is obviously this room to some unrecognizable planet with a red gas giant for a sun. Scenes there show a panorama of unknown flora and many animals that also defy recognition. In several scenes, the woman is together with the man from the other sarcophagus walking on this planet through what are obviously meadows and beaches. They also see cities and crowds of people much like you would find on any major city on Earth, except the architecture is obviously different. The five lines of "script" continue to flow underneath the images and Mike knows that Vesna is absorbing all of this. The view gradually changes to a much redder hue on the countryside. Mike wonders whether there was some glitch in the recording until he realizes that the sun on whatever planet they are seeing looks to be more intense and larger. The city scenes show people in obvious distress, appearing to have to labor at walking and moving. The scene shifts again to the man and woman inside a building that contains many controls similar to the panels they had found here, but not the same in configuration. Studying some of the surfaces on the control panels, he realizes that those are flat-screen video monitors like those that a laptop computer would have and that the couple is not in a normal room, but on a spaceship. The view shifts once again to reveal the outside of the ship; a view full of unfamiliar constellations and stars. Mike is trying to observe anything familiar when all of a sudden a pinpoint of light near the center becomes intensely white and fills the entire hologram. Mike knows then that their sun had gone nova. He turns white at the realization, as had most of the people in the room who were also fascinated with this sight. Even though no one understood the words, the visual impact was unmistakable. The civilization that had wrought such wonders and technology was no more. The final scenes depict the woman back in this very room. She is walking before each of the panels, pointing to the lines of script and the various controls while keeping up the narration. The final scene shows her in front of the 12th panel that had activated this image. She points to her ears, then her eyes and finally her mouth. Then she puts her hand on the second control and twists it imitating Oksana's movements that had brought forth the hologram. The woman appears to have almost a pleading look in her eyes as she places her hands on her chest and bows her head. The image dissolves into the nothingness from which it had appeared. No one says a word for many minutes. MIKE ANGEL Carol, don't you dare ever let anybody question your judgment or intuition. I think everyone here can agree that you were dead-on on your call of the emphasis. It is Carol's turn to blush. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Vesna, did you understand any of that? I wasn't expecting closed captioning! VESNA (OS) Some, sir. I'm correlating the existing characters to the sounds and the unknown characters now. I also have the house and the other ship working on this. We may have a partial translation within the hour. But I think that the second control will give me what I need to totally understand and translate the language. MIKE ANGEL Well, let's do it then! VESNA (OS) Just a moment, sir. How many of you understood the words we just heard? Mike looks around to find blank stares or head shaking from the assemblage. MIKE ANGEL Joe? Igor? The anthropologists shake their heads. VESNA (OS) Then I'd suggest that Oksana activate the second control and the rest of you come back aboard while I translate this. I should have some preliminary printouts for you by the time you get back, and hopefully, a full translation ready for you and the linguists at home in a few hours. VESNA (OS - CONT'D) If it's all right with you, sir. Would you allow Oksana to remain here to help me with any technical issues and also as hands to manipulate that control? Mike looks at the girl. MIKE ANGEL OK with you? She nods vigorously in reply, her eyes eager with excitement. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) It's fine with me then, Vesna. He motions the others to trek back down the hallway to the airlock. He can hear the murmuring of the two journalists commenting on what they had just witnessed as the group proceeds back toward the airlock. CUT TO: INT. COMMAND DECK Most of the crew has assembled on the control deck to watch the proceedings on the large monitors as Vesna's hour stretched into three. As promised, a preliminary translation was waiting for Mike and the archaeologists by the time they returned. Vesna had also included a cross reference with the hundred or so words on the printout to the spoken translation, using Cyrillic characters, which lent themselves more easily to a phonetic translation than did the Latin alphabet. Vesna had forwarded the same translations to the two teams of linguists on Earth with further comments as to the probability of modern permutations and etymological changes through the ages. What they observe is another hologram similar to the first with the woman patiently saying something and then a series of symbols appearing on the pedestal below her. The symbols would alternately be in each of the five languages, as she would say something with either a different inflection or a different pronunciation, followed by a picture. MIKE ANGEL My God! Dr. Seuss's big ABC book! Several times during the presentation, Vesna has Oksana do an "instant replay" by pressing her hand on the control in a counter-clockwise motion. The playback ends with the hologram of the woman saying something, but then pointing outward, as if to indicate "you". Then she points at her mouth and then her chest; obviously meaning "you speak to me". The image then points to a picture in the lower quadrant of the panel they had activated. Evidently, there was some type of pickup device embedded, which can receive sound and sight. VESNA (OS) Oksana. Would you please set your laptop up in front of that section? OKSANA Of course. At first, it looks like any other symbol on that wall, but on closer inspection, she can see that it is made of a different material and doesn't have a shape like anything else in the room. VESNA (OS) Now I need you to remove your communicator and plug it into the network port on the laptop. VESNA (OS) Thank you for your help and for keeping me company. You may join the others now. I don't think I'll need you here for a while. OKSANA What are you doing? VESNA (OS) I'm going to teach her English and Russian and catch her up on human history. This may take a while, so I suggest you join the others. Thank you for helping me. OKSANA Pazhalusta. How are you going to do this? VESNA (OS) If I am interpreting the instructions at the end of that last sequence that is a voice activated audio and video port on the wall. I intend to feed back exactly what we received and add my audio along with two more rows of words; one in English, the other Russian. It will also take me several hours to assemble grammar and syntax lessons, so I will not finish today, I don't think. While I'm doing that the house is preparing a more comprehensive cross-reference dictionary for the linguists on Earth as well as working on a direct translation program for a project I may need you for when you get back aboard. OKSANA (Disappointed) Is there nothing else you need me for now? VESNA (OS) I don't believe so. This will take quite a while and I know you must be hungry. The girl turned and starts down the hallway to retrieve her suit and return to the ship. CUT TO: INT. NEW SECTION As she reenters the ship, she can see that the big laser printer installed in the new section has already processed several hundred pages and the light was on requesting more paper. She retrieves another five reams of paper from the storage compartment and refills the main tray. She also gathers up the two copies of printouts from the collator and starts upstairs. CUT TO: INT. RUSSIAN SCIENCE SECTION MIKE ANGEL You realize that if I didn't know better, I'd swear that Vesna had thrown me over in favor of you! OKSANA That's because we're both women and I'm better looking than you are. Besides, somebody has to change the paper in the printer! Mike's grin widens as he takes the paper from her. He throws political correctness to the wind, hugs her with his free arm, and whispers. MIKE ANGEL Now you're starting to relax! The girl looks up at him and smiles back. The archaeologists eagerly accept the stacks of printouts from Mike and almost sprint for the elevator so that they could study them. Identical files have already been transmitted to the linguistic teams on Earth. CUT TO: INT. GALLEY MIKE ANGEL OK, guys...and ladies, Vesna's said she's done all she can at this point. Anyone up for some experimentation? He looks over a sea of startled faces; some excited, several quite wary. MIKE ANGEL It's about time we get some hands-on experience with what we've shaken the Earth up with. I hear there are several dozen new religions based on those two in the chamber. Thank God the Puritans aren't around any more or we'd all be burned at the stake! MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) (beat) Members of my Congress are in their usual disarray, trying to grab portions of this new knowledge and turn it into dollars for their private interests. The scientific community, those not included on the newly created government panels, are also disrupted. Physics, Astrophysics, Biotechnology, all turned upside down in the past three weeks. Social sciences, Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology, also had taken 180-degree turns in some of their basic premises. Regardless of what else we do on Mars, life on Earth is never going return to what it had been. SVETLANA What does the government recommend? Lana puts her hand on Mike's shoulder as she sits beside him. MIKE ANGEL "I haven't spoken with either president in a while. Like I said before, we're the ones here, so we have the final say. From what I gather from the scientific teams, they're of mixed opinion. Some are still trying to protect their own turf, but others are a go for getting as much as we can. Vesna feels that she's learned enough to be able to translate accurately the writing and function of the rest of the controls. There may be more information regarding the power source, the pool, and the tanks. What say? This time there is a hesitant turning of heads and a few low conversations amongst the members. Slowly, there is a nodding of heads; first from the young people in the room, and then the reporters. Finally, the scientists come around, letting their curiosity get the better of them. MIKE ANGEL (Exuberantly) Great! (lifting his skillet) Now who wants seconds? CUT TO: INT. GALLEY Mike is cleaning the table and loading the dishwasher as Lana walks up. SVETLANA May I speak with you? MIKE ANGEL Of course. (brightening) You know I'm a big ham. SVETLANA I mean alone, off the record. MIKE Certainly. He finishes what he is doing and sits at the table. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Vesna, a little privacy,please. VESNA (OS) Already done, I'm cutting the microphones also." MIKE ANGEL Thank you. Now you go away too. Now what's on your mind, Mrs. Gerasova? It is Lana's turn to blush at the formality. SVETLANA I need to know...no, I want to know more about you. Who you are and what we are doing. Mike hesitates for a few seconds. MIKE ANGEL I thought Vesna already filled you in on all the dirt on me. I'm just like most people. As you said, I'm a big kid. My toys are just a bit more complicated than most is the only difference. I really expect very little and enjoy the wonder of the universe unfolding. She looks at him questioningly. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu once challenged 'can you remain as a child'. I try to see the world anew each day, to renew my wonder of it all. I try my best to see things as Misha and Oksana and Carol do. Some days are harder than others are, but I still try. From what I've read, your husband was much the same. Maybe this was because we both used to kill people for a living. Lana's eyes flashed for a second,and then dropped. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) That takes its toll on a person. You turn out one of two ways, either immune to the consequences of your actions, or very sensitive to the world around you. If I read him correctly, we both accepted our responsibility, even if we did not like it. We did what we had to, but not because we wanted to. It gave us a better appreciation of life around us. SVETLANA But you were both decorated war heroes? MIKE ANGEL There is nothing heroic about war. War is between governments; unfortunately, it is the good people like Illya who die in them. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) A hero is only someone who is desperately trying to stay alive in a situation without choices. There is no glory, no honor, just a desire to walk away in one piece. If the people who pinned the medals on my blouse thought it was so great, why weren't they there? When you look into the eyes of someone Misha's age as his life drains out of him, you have to realize the stupidity of it all. If you don't, you're not human. Your husband was luckier than I was; he didn't have to witness that. Nevertheless, he knew. That made him a stronger person. The tears become apparent in Lana's eyes as she struggled with old demons. SVETLANA You obtained several degrees while you were in the military, why did you not become an officer? Maybe you could have changed things. MIKE (Smiling) Because I wanted to work for a living. If I were an officer, I'd get a desk and have to send kids out to their deaths. I didn't want to do that. As a Master Chief, my job was to keep my team alive and I did that. It's what I did best. That's what I'm doing now. Your husband was lucky because, as an active pilot, he didn't have to issue orders to put others in harm's way. I would have had to and, frankly, I couldn't handle that. I got my degrees because I was curious; stuff I wanted to learn more about, just for me. No way was I going to let that pervert what I truly believed in. MIKE (CONT'D) Pretty much the same reasons I won't let the military or government get their hands on my creations. I won't take that kind of responsibility. I'm just hoping that what we find here will help people get along better in the next 17 years when my patents expire so that they don't escalate bull into global catastrophe. SVETLANA You were correct. (standing) You would have been best friends, except that not so long ago you would have had to be on opposite sides of the fence. Mike walks over, puts his hands on her shoulders, and says gently. MIKE ANGEL Now you truly understand what we both tried to say about futility. That is the last straw for Lana. A single tear forms at the corner of her eye, lingers for a second, and then begins its slow path down her cheek. She turns slowly and buries her face in his shoulder. He can feel her trembling as the wave of grief and emotion sweeps through her. Mike looks up and sees Mikhail standing in the doorway. Mike uses his free hand to motion the boy over and Mikhail joins his mother on Mike's shoulder. The three stand motionless like that for several minutes. Mikhail finally breaks from the embrace and put his arms around his mother; something they had not done since his father died. Mother and son leave the compartment, each with an arm around the other, and head for their staterooms. CUT TO: INT. NEW SECTION Oksana hands Mike a contraption she had put together under the house and Vesna's supervision, cannibalized from one of the spare communicators with some spare computer boards and one of Vesna's memory crystals. MIKE ANGEL What's this? OKSANA The house thought you might need it. It's a voice translator. CUT TO: INT. MAIN EQUIPMENT ROOM It takes less than twenty minutes to reach the chamber. None of them has taken much equipment with them; just a few simple tools and Mike has the translator. The trek was easier than usual. When they reach the great chamber, Mike feels something out of place. Y'VA Welcome home. A woman's voice in perfect American English comes from the corner of the room. Everyone including Mike jumps at the sound and Carol lets out a small cry. The woman they had seen in the coffin steps from the shadow of one of the side panels that has opened. She is dressed in the same garment they had seen in the presentation and has a gentle smile. MIKE ANGEL You didn't warn me about this, Vesna! VESNA (OS) You're not the only one that likes surprises. At that statement, almost all of the tension drains from the room and Lana breaks out in a rich laugh at the turn-about. The woman gives the group a puzzled look. MIKE ANGEL (Embarrassed) Inside joke. Someone can explain it later. Y'VA Michael! And you must be Svetlana. I've been so looking forward to finally meeting the two of you. Also, I am grateful to meet the rest of you. Mike gives Lana a quizzical look. Y'VA (CONT'D) Which of you is Vesna? I am anxious to meet you after all you have taught me and we have spoken of. VESNA (OS) I am outside, ma'am. I did not come with them. Y'VA "Why not? (looking directly at Mike almost accusingly) VESNA (OS) I'm a little too large to fit through the doorway, ma'am. The woman moves over to another panel and brushes her hands across the surface in a complex pattern as Oksana watches, fascinated. The panel suddenly clears and shows a view from the mouth of the tunnel. Directly in the center of the picture hangs Vesna in all her glory. The woman steps back a pace and then breaks out in "laughter". At least they assumed it laughter; the look on her face was one of amusement, but it sounds more like a musical aria. Y'VA You did not say that you were a machine! VESNA (OS) (Innocently) You didn't ask. Again, the musical laughter. The entendre is obviously not lost on the alien. Y'VA You must teach me later how you think. I did not know the difference. Our machines do not think for themselves or act on their own. They just perform a function and that is all. We never felt the need to create life in a machine and I find this amazing that you would think to do this. MIKE ANGEL Our minds are a bit limited. Vesna is millions of times faster than we are and she can do several hundred things at the same time. It seemed only right and a great help to develop her as an assistant. Y'VA This is marvelous! Who speaks for the rest of you? Would that be you, Mike? Mike rather hesitantly half-raises his hand. MIKE ANGEL That's me. I just have the tie- breaking vote. We all speak for ourselves here. Before the woman can say anything, Mikhail steps forward and points at Mike. MIKHAIL Do not be modest! Madam, this is Michael Angelskov of Earth. He is the man who made Vesna. This man brought us together and invited us to come here with him. This man knew this was not just a mountain. This man understood that it would take four of us to open the outside door. We would follow this man over a cliff if he asked. It is he that you must speak with because we all trust in him to do what is right. There are nods around the room and Mike turns crimson. Lana notices this out of the corner of her eye and shifts her balance so that the shoulder camera captures this moment forever. The alien smiles and holds out both hands as she advances towards the still blushing Mike, Y'VA I am called Y'va. I cannot express how very happy I am that you have advanced to the point that you could come back and understand how to enter. That you would also understand how to respond to my beacon and teach me about yourselves was not expected and I am overjoyed. MIKE ANGEL Uh, that was Vesna's idea and her doing. Y'VA But that means you are as are we. Mike looks very puzzled as he takes the woman's hands. Y'VA You created her in your own image and gave her the capability of being greater than yourself. Come now, all of you, where we may be more comfortable. MIKE ANGEL (Mumbling) Seemed logical at the time. The woman leads them back through the open panel from which she had made her dramatic entrance. Lana shuffles to one side to get again a good shot of Mike's embarrassment. She is grinning from ear to ear; she may have softened, but a prudent woman always collects ammunition for use later. Y'va leads them into a room not quite the size of the one they had left. This one is furnished with lounges, artwork, technical equipment and other control panels. It has obviously been used as a living quarters. Y'VA Please, become comfortable. She waves them to the seats in the room. MIKE ANGEL Uh, when will your...companion join us? Y'VA He is aware of what is happening, as was I when you entered the hall of ages. It is better we rest as much as possible, but he is anxious to see all of you. We take turns becoming awake every few hundred cycles of your planet to understand what is happening. It was my turn anyway and I would have awoken soon even had you not arrived. Your progressing to this point is a pleasant surprise for me. For how long have your people been to this planet before finding me? Mikhail again stepped forward and put an arm around Carol and Oksana's waists. MIKHAIL This is our first time! We were the first to set foot here. Y'va looked slightly confused and looked at Mike. Y'VA These are your young, am I correct? MIKE ANGEL Yes, ma'am. They are all under 20 cycles of our planet. The confusion is replaced with a glimmer of excitement. Y'VA You are the leader of this group, but you allowed them to be first? MIKE ANGEL Yes, ma'am. I may have put this trip together to satisfy my own curiosity, but the journey is for them and their children. I thought it was only right to allow them to be first to show the rest of the people on the Earth that this exploration is for their future which is their children. An odd expression crosses her face at that moment, a look of pride, almost. At first, Mike couldn't recognize it until he realizes it was identical to that which a Little League mother would have when her son had hit a home run. Y'VA I must summon D'am. He will want to speak directly with all of you. You have come back to the point we have always wished for and he must share in this success. We have known for some time that you would be here, but we did not know exactly when. Again, Mike furrows his brow and looks over at Lana. It is obvious that she is picking up the familiarity, too, and doesn't understand. MIKE ANGEL Ma'am. I think you need to understand that not everybody thinks as we do yet. There is still fighting, prejudice, and inequality among the people on the Earth. We have many more people there who would rather destroy the planet for profit in their lifetime, than would preserve it and prepare for the future. There is a tinge of sadness for a moment, but Y'va moves to a table and makes a motion over it. Mike sees that it was a panel much the same as the ones in the hall and assumes that she has begun the awakening process of the man still out there. Y'VA I understand that all is not perfect. But in you is proof that we were not wrong doing what we did. SHARON MANSON And what was it that you did, exactly? Y'VA When we had to leave our world, there were only a few thousand of us that had the means to do so. We were mainly medical...uh, biology people. Y'VA (CONT'D) They sent us so that our race would not die. It would have been perfect if we could find an exact world to our own, but we did not. Our people only become fertile every few hundred cycles?years in your word. Unfortunately for us, your atmosphere has too many poisons for us to live there as we are. We would have died ourselves and so would our children. SVETLANA How do you mean? D'AM (From behind) What my mate is trying to say, is that we would not have survived long enough on your planet to procreate enough to maintain our race. Y'va's mate that they had observed in the coffin strides in, stark naked, and moves to a panel at the side of this room. He removes a garment of what appears the same material as hers and dons it as they all watch. D'AM (CONT'D) "When we arrived, your planet was still very young. The center was still making land and exploding through the surface. Your planet puts out a chemical that we cannot tolerate...sulfur I believe you call it. We would have died within a few thousand of your years, not long enough to establish a colony." He walks over to the Y'va and gave her a long kiss. D'AM (CONT'D) You will have to excuse me. It has been a very long time since we have awakened together. We are aware of each other while we sleep, but it is not the same. MEDVEDEV If we are not your direct descendants, then what are we? D'AM Oh, but you are! D'am unbuttons his toga at the waist to reveal a slight silvery scar on his side. D'AM (CONT'D) You are all descended from us as if you were one hundred percent our children. You have the pieces...genes from each of us. We had to make some changes, however, so that you could survive on that hostile planet. There are a few chuckles around the room at the phrase "hostile planet". MIKE ANGEL Even though the Earth is hostile, we don't think of it that way. This planet is much more hostile, because it cannot support life, as we know it. Why did you choose to set up here instead of on Earth? It would seem to me that since you can't go outside here or there, it would be more logical to be closer to your experiment. D'AM Yes, but it would have been much too tempting to interfere if we were that close. That would damage both you and us. You would also have discovered us before you were ready. This ship is not invulnerable and someone would certainly have broken in, not understanding. SVETLANA/SHARON MANSON Ship? Y'VA Oh, yes. You are inside the craft we left our home in. GARAN How can that be? Granted, these chambers are made of metal, but the outside is stone. Y'VA When we arrived at this place it was already dying and harsh. We decided it better to cover ourselves with the native stone for protection from the terrible storms here and from meteors while we were sleeping. There were enough resources still for us to extract what we needed to sustain us. There were enough of the gasses that we needed to create our own atmosphere and to make water. We have used less than half of what we stored in the beginning. KITCH What about food? Y'VA In a chamber below us there grows a...mushroom, a fungus that provides all of the nutrition we require. Especially if we are asleep. A machine will process what grows there and feeds us continuously. When we are awake, we can eat the product directly. In fact, I am quite hungry right now. She crosses the room to another panel that recedes on her approach revealing a container of what appears to be yogurt. Y'va extracts the container and produced several platters from another panel on the wall. She pours the contents onto two of the platters and hands one to D'am and turns to the group. Y'VA Please, help yourselves. We call this m'na; there is more than enough because neither of us has been awake in over twelve hundred of your years. Nobody seems in a rush to accept her offer. Y'VA It will not hurt you because you do have the genes to use it. In fact, we fed a large group of your people for many cycles of your planet when they were trying to find a new home. Y'VA (CONT'D) We had to drop it almost daily for them because it does not last long after we harvest it and, like us, will not grow, or survive on your planet. It is really quite nutritious. Unfortunately, we cannot eat all of the things that you can because you have genes that we do not. In fact, I can tell from what I can smell of you that you have all recently consumed what would be a poison to us. The explorers look at each other, not understanding, until Mike sheepishly admits, MIKE ANGEL I made eggs for breakfast before we came here. I didn't know. These are high in sulfur, which our bodies can use and we must pass some off in our breath. I apologize; I didn't know. D'am looked thoughtful for a moment, and then there was a fleeting expression of horror that disappears as fast as it appeared. D'AM You still consume the young of other animals? MEDVEDEV (Defensively) Yes, Sir! Our makeup requires certain chemicals that cannot be found in anything else. Certainly you must have understood this. D'am turns to Y'va and they speak briefly together in their own language. After a moment, D'am seems to relax once again and shakes his head. D'AM Yes, I always knew that there was that danger when we began. Anything adapted to your world might require things that we don't. I tried to warn about causing the death of other beings many years ago when I was awake, but I believe your biology gives you stronger urges. MEDVEDEV Yes, it does. You mentioned that you had to make some adjustments in our genetics in order to survive on Earth and establish a colony. Can you say just what those were? Again, D'am and Y'va consult briefly in their native tongue before Y'va turns. Y'VA In order for our race to survive, we had to adapt our genes to something that already lived on your planet. We were fortunate that there were several species already there that matched our genetic structure very closely. We used those as the building blocks to create you so that our race would still exist and multiply, even though it was changed. You needed the extra genes to survive on your planet, but you carry ours, also, so that you would stand out. It was our hope that you would be more than the pieces from which we made you. You are; but I can see that you still carry some instincts from your other half. There are confused looks around the room until Doctor Kitch mumbles, KITCH Darwin was right. We are descended from the apes, but the missing link is here, not on Earth. They added their DNA and here we are. Everyone falls into a stunned silence as the realization sinks in. MEDVEDEV We have noticed, that our bodies have changed since we came here. D'AM How do you mean. MEDVEDEV All humans are born with genes that do not work. Some of these cause defects or disease. Since we have come into this place, I can find no such genes or defects in any of our bodies. The two confer with each other once again. D'AM It must be that the genetic material we gave you has degraded with each generation. The atmosphere, light, and magnetic fields inside this ship are designed to duplicate our home world and to protect against invasion of our bodies by foreign organisms. It was also to aid us in...what is the word? Sterile procedure while we were combining cells. It must be that you still respond to that treatment after so long and it has purified your systems back to our original design. When we placed you there on that world, it was my estimation that your life span would be at least one thousand cycles before the cells in your bodies began to break down. How long do you live now? MEDVEDEV Between 70 and 120 years, uh, cycles. But we have ancient stories of people living almost a thousand years. D'AM And you are still polyestrous? MIKE ANGEL Oh yes! Our females are fertile at least 12 times a year. There are now over six-billion of us on that planet. There is another short conference and Y'va said with horror, Y'VA But your planet cannot sustain such a population! MIKE ANGEL (defensively) You told my ancestors to 'be fruitful and multiply'. They took that seriously and many still do. We are currently breeding ourselves into extinction. We have managed to foul our planet to the point that many of the other species have disappeared and we are in danger of dying off ourselves. A great many of our people live now in areas which cannot support them because that is the only space left, but they still breed, which makes matters worse. D'am looks saddened and sits back, D'AM It was good advice at the time when there were so very few of you. I had assumed that as your numbers grew you would understand that this was necessary for only a short time and you would slow down. You still produce many offspring? SHARON MANSON (disdainfully) Oh, yes. Sometimes 10 or more to a single family. Many of the religions on our world still feel that it is a badge of honor and a duty to breed as much as possible. Y'va looks somewhat incredulous and shook her head. Y'VA Six Billion? MIKE ANGEL And doubling every 40 years. Y'VA We were only a few million for millennia! We could live in harmony with each other and all creatures on the planet because there was more than enough for all to share. SVETLANA But what about your long lives? What is your life expectancy and wouldn't that contribute to growth in population? D'AM That would be hard to say. We would normally live somewhere between twenty and fifty-thousand of your years unless someone had an accident or had accomplished all they wanted to. Since we are fertile only once or twice a millennia our people remained very stable. Y'va and I are older than that in actual time, I know. That is because we have slept most of the time since we arrived. It slows our bodies down enough so that we do not age as we normally would. We are both only the equivalent of maybe five-thousand of your years even though more time has passed. CAROL MANSON You're both quite young, then, compared to the rest of your people! If you were human, you'd only be in your mid-twenties! Again, the musical laughter from Y'va. Y'VA (Nodding) Yes. D'am and I were both very young when our people discovered that our sun was dying. We were both interested in biology and it was natural for us to become a pair. We were fortunate that, when the time came to leave, it was decided that people with our interests would be chosen as the first so that our race would not die. SVETLANA What about your government, your leaders? D'am looks genuinely puzzled. D'AM I do not understand. Each of us knew what we had to do and we all followed our own interests. When we had something to do that required many people, those with similar interests and skills would come together to accomplish it. We did not feel the need for someone to tell us what to do. There were, of course, many older people who might have skills that we had not mastered and we would consult them, but we had no individual in charge. When something needed to be done, we would do it. MIKE ANGEL Almost anarchy! I knew I liked you guys! D'AM (smiling) Yes. From what little Vesna has taught us about you in particular, you think much as we do. MIKE ANGEL I'm not unique. In my country we are called Libertarians; in Lana's country, Marxists or Communists. Unfortunately, that system broke down because somebody always wanted to lead and have power. D'AM I understand. It is unfortunate that the only suitable species we could find on your planet was one that was both aggressive and territorial. You have that ancestry as well as ours. Nevertheless, because you carry both, you have the ability to make choices. This was another reason why Y'va and I remained here, so that you could have free will to make your choices. You have done very well so far to have developed so much. SHARON MANSON But what did you do about laws and crime? How did you prevent people from taking advantage of those who were working? Both D'am and Y'va look perplexed for a moment and confer between themselves. D'AM I do understand your question, but I do not understand the concept because it is very alien to us. Everyone did what needed to be done. We did not have 'laws' as I understand what you are asking. It was just understood that everyone had the same value and we did not interfere with what they wanted to do. I tried to explain that to your people a very long time ago when I advised them how to advance and get along. MIKE ANGEL Yeah. Your ten guidelines exploded into ten million laws. Lana is close enough to Mike to hear what he said. She turns toward him slowly with a look of utter shock as his meaning sinks in. SHARON MANSON But if some other person wanted something that you had worked for...? D'AM Then it would be theirs. If we created something in the first place, it was because we wanted to and took joy in it. There would be the same joy to do it again. As I had said, we had enough resources for everyone and each pursued their own interests. There were enough of us to produce whatever anyone else needed. We lived and learned in harmony with each other and with our planet. There was never any need to impose limits. D'AM (CONT'D) There were enough of us to have plenty of whatever was desired by others, whether it was art, poetry, food, or machines. Someone we knew always had an interest in what we needed at the time. Actually, Y'va and I have interests and skills in something that was in almost no demand. (beat - almost an embarrassed look) We were interested in understanding how our bodies worked. There is very little call for pure knowledge of that kind when there was no application for it. It was a matter of what you would call 'luck' for us that had those skills at the time our home was destroyed. The priority was set when we left to help those that could carry on our race elsewhere. There were less than one hundred thousand of these vehicles made when it was time to leave. MIKE ANGEL Then there could be almost a hundred thousand planets with our relatives out there somewhere? D'AM I can only hope that the others were as fortunate as we. We had each decided to search different sections of different galaxies so that the mathematical probability would be greatest. If the others had the success that we did, you will find 'relatives' across the universe. The one constant thing that we do know is that our form, and yours, is optimum for the mental and physical development you have achieved. Your world had several aquatic life forms that would actually have been more suitable mentally for development, but they lacked the ability to make and use tools. D'AM (CONT'D) Now that you are able to leave your planet, I think it safe to assume that the majority of intelligent life you meet will resemble you closely in one form or another. Depending on what life forms were discovered on planets that were colonized, I believe that you will meet more of your relatives in the future than you can now understand. MIKE ANGEL Is there anything we can do for you at the moment? D'AM I do not believe so. Would it be possible for Vesna, or at least her communications device, to remain behind? There are many things we would like to know about since we last visited you. MIKE ANGEL I was hoping you'd ask that. We are more than thankful to leave the communications gear with you, but is there any way she can interface directly with your machines? D'AM I do not know. We are not engineers, we are biologists. Others constructed the machines we use here and neither of us understands them fully. OKSANA Does your ship contain manuals, diagrams, or instructions on how it works? Y'VA I believe it does. (indicating a wall to their right) I have been able to find information on the machines on the panel over there. MIKE ANGEL That's excellent! If you would, position Vesna's camera, her eyes, on that panel after we leave and then turn the panel on. She should be able to understand what is needed to communicate directly with your machines and with you. D'AM That would be good. There is a great deal we need to catch up on regarding your history and development. Neither of us has checked on you in over a thousand of your years. Vesna has proven very forthright and open and I believe we can learn much from her. Possibly that is because she thinks as you do. MIKE ANGEL That can be a good and a bad thing. Lana actually giggles and coughs at the same time. MIKE ANGEL Vesna, they have full access and clearance. This will be a private feed for you. VESNA (OS) I already decided that they should, sir. MIKE ANGEL Have I told you lately that you're a royal pain? VESNA (OS) About an hour and a half ago, sir. D'am looks a bit puzzled at this exchange. The group bids their individual farewells for the time being and troops out of the living quarters and back down the great hallway to the airlock. Lana is walking beside Mike and he notes that her camera and microphone to Earth are off. SVETLANA I don't know quite how to take this. MIKE ANGEL How so? SVETLANA This is a lot to understand in so short a time. I do not think anyone, except maybe you (gives him a sharp look) expected any of this. MIKE ANGEL Come on. It's been obvious since the time of Ezekiel that something has been both responsible for, and interfering with, human development. If you're implying that I knew in advance of their existence here, forget it. I'm as blown away as you are. However, it doesn't go against anything that I had thought of before. Look at the overall picture; there has never been a "missing link". There were apes and then there was us. Our DNA is 98% simian. Where did we come from? Duh! Somebody dropped their DNA onto that of several species of primates and here we are. I'm amazed, but not really surprised. SVETLANA But why is there no other evidence; no other record? Mike laughs loudly enough for others to turn to him as they file out the corridor. MIKE ANGEL But there is! Have you ever attended a church? SVETLANA When I was a little girl, my parents were Christian Jews. We did not go to the Orthodox Church, but had our own service, even though the Soviets persecuted us. I have not attended any church since I came of age. MIKE ANGEL But, that means that you at least have read your Hebrew Pentateuch and Christian Old Testament. She nods. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Then you already know who they are. Lana's brows furrow questioningly, indicating that she didn't have a clue about what he was saying. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Think hard about who we have been talking to. Think about how they introduced themselves and their names. Consider the Greek and English phonetic translations of D'am and Y'va. What do you have? SVETLANA Da-am, Ye-va? MIKE ANGEL Think like a linguist. Expand the pronunciation, into something that makes sense. SVETLANA Da-am, Dam, Adam? Mike catches her by the waist as she trips on nothing in particular. He supports her for the rest of the way to the airlock, not so much that she needs it, but because he wanted to. Misha, who is following directly behind the two, breaks out into another spontaneous smile. CUT TO: INT. GALLEY Most of the crew heads for the lounge when they return and break into small groups to discuss what they had just learned and to try to make sense of it. Mike heads straight for the galley and a cold Guinness. SVETLANA Please tell me you did not know this before. Lana had followed behind and startled him enough that he jumps. Mike turns slowly and offers her a stout. SVETLANA (Shaking head) I need a Gimlet; a double if you don't mind. Mike nods and retrieves a bottle of Stolichnaya Crystal from the freezer and some Martini & Rossi from the cupboard. After seeing her face, he mixes a five to one Gimlet and adds several onions from the refrigerator. He guides her back to a sofa in the lounge and hands her the drink. MIKE ANGEL Believe me, I didn't have a clue. (raises his right hand as an oath) I am as stunned as you about this. I will admit that I had a hunch that this would be an archaeological find, but I never expected, or even dreamed, of finding anything still alive here: much less, finding my ten thousand-great grandparents! Lana takes a slow sip from her glass. SVETLANA I believe you...this time. It's just all so much at once. MIKE ANGEL I know. I was expecting a month's vacation where we could all have some fun; I could irritate the politicians and maybe find something that would have the scientists arguing for a decade or so. But this? No way! Lana takes another slow sip of her drink. SVETLANA You understand that you may be the most hated person on Earth right now? We may all be! In two weeks, we have not just proven that we may go wherever we want, but that we are not the center of the Universe. SVETLANA (CONT'D) Add to that finding out that we are the result of a laboratory experiment something like Frankenstein's monster coupled with the fact that Herr Doktor is still alive and kicking, I'd say that admissions to mental hospitals are way up right now. MIKE ANGEL Now there I disagree with you. People are resilient. Organizations aren't, but people take things in stride. I'd agree that the hierarchies of the major churches are in an uproar now, but the congregations will adapt. Let's face it, some of the specifics of these groups may be called into question, but overall the basics are still intact. It's just that now we have pinpointed our exact origins conclusively and unequivocally, although I'm sure there will still be arguments for decades. I admit there will be some that don't believe evidence when it hits them in the face, like the flat-Earth society. There are even some groups now, Vesna has told me, which insist that this whole thing is being broadcast from a sound stage in Hollywood or Vancouver. This brings a smile to Lana's face. SVETLANA My producer has told me this yesterday by way of a joke. Of course, he also had four reporters check it out anyway to make certain they weren't being fooled. (beat) Do you really think that these are the Adam and Eve of folklore? MIKE ANGEL Personally, that's not a problem for me. Almost all cultures have similar stories with names linguistically similar. Where did the stories come from? One major body of thought is that we have a genetic and racial memory burned into our brains at birth. Jung was a big believer in that. Any race that is capable of producing a transgenic hybrid such as Homo sapiens would more than certainly be capable of imprinting a blueprint for success. I know that Kitch and Medvedev are dying to pick their brains overall on the genome thing. If they can come back with an accurate map they'll both get the Nobel for the next ten years! Again, Lana smiles. It is obvious that she is relaxing. SVETLANA Nothing seems to have an effect on you. You take everything in your stride and keep moving. How is that? It is Mike's turn to laugh. MIKE ANGEL We Americans have a couple of sayings that I live by because they're true. First, 'stuff happens'. The point is, get used to it. No matter what you think now or plan for, something will turn up to absolutely screw it up. If you let it throw you for a loop, you'll never get anywhere. Therefore, I just expect the unexpected. For instance, I knew that if I perfected my space drive, every black-ops group in my government would be on my back before I could turn around. I developed my shields first and gathered enough influence to defeat them before I even began working on the drive. MIKE ANGEL (CONT'D) Some people would think I was paranoid, but I was just preparing for the unexpected. It turned out I was right. (beat) Second, 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!' when something turns out the way you don't want it to or you didn't expect, make the best of a bad situation. This is far from a bad situation, but I didn't anticipate any of it. I knew last year when the prototype made close passes to Cydonia that this was an artificial structure. That's why I insisted that the archaeologists coming along. Since we discovered what it really was, I've been frantically coming up with a game plan minute by minute. What am I going to do next? I haven't any idea! I have a bad habit of ad- libbing my way through life. That's how I keep my balance. If I pretend I'm a child and everything is new, then I don't have to deal with it as an 'adult' would. That's why I don't find this so much a threat as a challenge to my understanding. (beat) I'll let you in on a secret. (conspiritorily) There was a show on television when I was growing up where the main character once said 'I seek not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions'. That is probably my number one rule in life. I don't have to know the answers. That's why I built the house and Vesna - let them know the answers. My goal has always been to understand the questions. Lana finishes her drink and places the glass on the table in front of them. She folds her legs under her and nuzzles closer into Mike's shoulder. Mikhail half-smiles and winks at Mike as he and Carol pass which only deepens Mike's feeling of being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He is at a total loss as to how to appear innocent. He finally decides "the devil with it", puts his arm over Lana's shoulder, and kisses her lightly on the forehead. CUT TO: INT. PYRAMID Series of shots Vesna Oksana make modifications to Vesna's communication circuitry so that she can directly interface with the machines and computers buried deep within the pyramid. She makes several trips back to the chamber at Vesna's request; first to replace the speakers attached to the modified communicator with Mike's personal Altec-Lansings that could better reproduce the range of speech D'am and Y'va used. The second was to install a transceiver module that Vesna had instructed her how to make directly into one of the panels that D'am showed her in yet another room off the main chamber. Interfacing with the machines was an entirely different matter. She found out that their programming was symbolic, not linguistic. It has taken the better part of three days to get the hang of "speaking" with the main computer and database in order to send and receive correct data. She is quite busy translating technical specifications, diagrams, and printing them out in English and Russian for Oksana. In the meantime Mike has several loud and protracted "discussions" with security types from both governments who are appalled that he has opened Vesna's database and access to the Internet to the alien computer. Mike's argument is that the pair had "made us and could have destroyed us anytime during the past half-million years". Both governments are also leery of the possibility that Mike is censoring the information that is passed back to Earth and is keeping the good stuff for himself. It takes many long hours to convince them that in all probability, yes, Vesna was censoring some things out. But the fact was that he trusted her judgment completely to know what humans were morally capable of using at this stage of development and that she wasn't about to tell him either. The information feeds from the alien computer to Earth were on encrypted private channels specifically for the scientific teams and not the public. Vesna has taken the initiative to encrypt a special algorithm she developed specifically for this purpose and forward it to the teams to install in their receiving computers. It is frustrating to Vesna that the mainframes they are using to receive and decrypt the data are so slow, but it seemed to calm the security people down a bit and satisfy the politicos. They are already well into the third week when Vesna calls for a general meeting on the control deck. CUT TO: INT. COMMAND DECK Oksana enters the room looking haggard with dark circles under both eyes. MIKE ANGEL Oksana! If you don't slow down and get some rest, your parents will skin me alive for bringing you back in a state of total exhaustion! CUT TO: INT. IVANOV LIVINGROOM Oksana's mother and father are on a couch in front of a television. Olga nods her head vigorously. 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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