"Departure II"
ACT SEVEN
CUT TO PIRATE COMPOUND YARD-DAY
WEI is outside now with a helmet and goggles to protect his identity. Pirates are everywhere, sharpening their knives, cleaning their disruptors and preparing for battle. WEI straightens himself up, adjusts his collar a little, and then messes up his hair. He ducks behind a nearby building and pulls out the hand held comm. He stole from the pirate guard. Suddenly he starts practicing, adjusting his posture to look as distressed as possible.
WEI
“They’ve taken me hostage!”-No. (More feeling) “They’ve taken me hostage!” (thinks a moment) “Commander…
CUT TO NELSON BRIDGE-SPACE
SARA’S senior staff and bridge crew look at her with shock and horror.
FROST
Mother of god.
SARA
That was my reaction too. This mission has just become a lot more then a simple fugitive pick up. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are officially in the thick of it.
A light goes off on the communications console and WALSH reaches over to check the place of origin.
WALSH
Commander, you’ll never guess who just hailed from long range.
SARA
On screen.
WEI’S smiling face fills the screen.
WEI
Uh…hey. How’s it going.
The entire bridge glares at him.
WEI
I’m somewhere near the Romulan border on some kind of desert moon or planet. There’s a whole army here.
SARA
Whose army?
WEI (irritated)
How in the hell am I supposed to know? IT’S AN ARMY! You have to get me out of here… (practiced fear) they’ve taken me hostage.
FROST (sarcastic)
Yeah, I feel a sudden urge to save you coming on now.
SARA
That’s enough, Lieutenant.
FROST
Please tell me you don’t actually believe him.
Through the view screen, WEI gets that manipulative look on his face.
WEI
Koloth is here. (looks at Frost) He was the one who killed that guy in the brig.
FROST reacts with quiet anger. He wants to say something but just can’t do it.
WOLFE (off screen)
How many men?
Everyone turns to see WOLFE stepping off the turbo lift. He looks like crap and NERI’S behind him, trying to pull him back onto the lift.
NERI
Damnit, I told you to stay in bed.
WOLFE
In a minute. (to Wei) How many?
WEI
Hundreds. Every pirate in the sector’s here.
CU on SARA, something about this has peaked her interest. A plan is forming.
NERI is trying drag WOLFE away but he keeps trying to shake her off.
NERI
You’ve got a concussion and two broken ribs; you couldn’t even fight me right now, let alone an entire army.
WOLFE
Who said anything about fighting?…(lowers himself into a nearby chair) … I’m just pointing out that an army of hundreds of pirates is still just an army of pirates.
CU on SARA, catching on.
SARA
And we’ve got a cargo bay full of contraband. (to WEI) Tell me everything.
FROST smiles. He gets it too.
Two shot on NERI and DECKER, confused.
DECKER
What?
MONTAGE
The crew prepares for battle. Marines start pulling guns from the armory; Engineers are rushing to get the computer back to full working order. FROST leads a group of crewman into the torpedo launch bay, he’s barking orders. Guard plates are removed and black torpedoes are placed on a small launch pad.
DECKER, WOLFE, and SARA are staring at the view screen with a cross section of a Romulan Warbird just like the Shadow.
DECKER
That Warbird Mr. Wei described is at least two generations more advanced then our ship; it’s bigger and better armored.
He points to the sensor array.
DECKER
But we’re faster and their sensors are crap.
SARA
So you’re thinking we could do a Dead Drift?
WOLFE
What’s a Dead Drift?
DECKER
A ship speeds to warp then cuts all internal and external power all at once. The law of physics says we’d stay in motion on the basically flight plan before we left warp.
SARA
The timing has to be perfect but by the time we get to the planet, the Warbird’s long range sensors would see nothing more then an unpowered hunk of metal in space and write us off as space garbage.
DECKER
At the same time, a small combat team in a shuttle would approach from the dark side of the planet, just out of sensor range. Combat team lands, we power up: surprise, surprise.
NERI and her nurses are turning the Sickbay into a triage unit.
CALLHAN pulls the Proton Accelerator Cannon out of the Armory.
CALLAHAN
Hello, sexy.
FADE TO SHUTTLE BAY-SPACE
A strike team of fully armored Marines including JIMENEZ, PROVIX, and CALLAHAN are standing next to a sleek type nine shuttle, they’re ready to go. FROST is right next to them, wearing a phaser. Everybody is impatiently waiting for something.
NERI (off camera)
No!
WOLFE and NERI are off to the side, her arms are cross and she’s angrily yelling at WOLFE as he pulls his own combat gear on.
NERI
You are not cleared for duty!
WOLFE
Yeah, but I’m going anyway.
NERI
Damn it, this is ridiculous, you could be killed!
WOLFE
That’s true of most missions I go on.
NERI
You’ve got a concussion!
WOLFE
Provix was a combat medic; he’ll make sure I’m okay.
NERI
Who the Bolian? I’m surprised he can tie his shoes.
PROVIX crosses his arms but everybody else finds it funny.
NERI
You’re not going anywhere without medical supervision.
WOLFE
Well I’m going and unless you feel like becoming a UFP Marine in the next five minutes…
NERI glares at him, nostrils flaring. Then she reaches over and removes WOLFE’S helmet, puts it on her own head. It’s way to big and she looks ridiculous.
WOLFE stifles a laugh.
WOLFE
Callahan, could you get the Doc a helmet?
CUT TO EXT. DEEP SPACE-SPACE
The Shuttle bay opens and a type 9 shuttlecraft, the Everest, exits the shuttle bay and flies off in a wide elliptical flight plan.
The Nelson fires up its warp engines and speeds to warp.
CUT TO INT. NELSON BRIDGE-SPACE
SARA sits in the Captain’s chair, finally looking comfortable, finally in the moment.
SARA
Alright Mr. Decker, I’d say that’s far enough. Cut power in 3, 2, 1…Now!
DECKER presses a button on the helm. The engine winds down and they slowly drop out of warp. Then the bridge goes dark again, not as dark as before…a few low energy lights beam blue light into the room.
DECKER checks a read out.
DECKER
Dead drift successful, we’ll be on target in one hour.
SARA
Now we wait.
CUT TO EXT. INNER SYSTEM-SPACE
The Everest flies around the curve of a massive green gas giant, trying to use its magnetic field as a mask.
Far in the distance, the Pirate base world is a distant shadow against the sky.
CUT TO INT. EVEREST COCKPIT-SPACE
FROST deftly pilots the Everest through the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, letting the clouds wash over the windshield. WOLFE settles down into the co-pilot seat, gaping in wonder at the sheer beauty of deep space.
WOLFE
Wow.
FROST
Pretty, isn’t it? Those clouds are highly poisonous, one whiff and your lungs would actually melt from the toxins.
WOLFE
Geez, what is it with this nebula? It’s like everything’s trying to kill you out here.
FROST (chuckle)
Welcome to the Long Night.
NERI (off camera)
You mean Cursed Night.
NERI’S sitting at the back of the shuttle, squeezed in with the rest of the Marines (shuttles just weren’t made for ten guys at once and it’s cramped back there).
Everybody looks at her.
NERI
We’re in the Cursed Night, not the Long Night.
FROST
Tars Tavik, that’s Nausicann for Long Night…I looked it up.
NERI shrugs and takes off her helmet. The helmet has smooshed her black hair against her head and she starts straightening it into a ponytail.
NERI (shakes head)
Everybody thinks that but they’re wrong. My people named this place first because Twelve hundred years ago this was all Orion space. Feron Prime, Bouli, Nag Toth, we owned all of it and we called this whole nebula (perfect Orion accent) “Baitzznatusha” [By-tss-na-tooshaw], which literally means “Space that is cursed by the souls of the damned”.
She finishes with her hair and replaces the helmet.
NERI
The Nausicanns, being Nausicanns, renamed the place after they conquered the territory from us and called it Long Night but ask any Orion and they’ll tell you…this place is cursed. The whole nebula has a lot of bad magic according to the Orion Witch Mothers. When I was a little girl, my father told me stories about it, told me that monsters live here.
NERI yawns, preparing to take a quick nap.
NERI
Lotta silly superstitions like that.
FROST and WOLFE look at each other, something about the Tars Tavik really does seem cursed to them.
CUT TO EXT. PIRATE WORLD ORBIT-SPACE
The Everest climbs around the dark side of the pirate world, they try to just barely stay out of sight from the Shadow’s orbit.
In the dim light of space, the Shadow appears to be a living thing. A hideous, terrifying monster that’s skulking around for prey.
On the other end of the system, the Nelson appears, still dark and still moving on it’s own momentum.
CUT TO INT. NELSON BRIDGE-SPACE
Dead silence, the entire bridge crew waits for the other shoe to drop.
The Shadow is right in front of them and only getting closer.
Continue on to ACT EIGHT...