"Disaster"
ACT TWO
CUT TO INT. NELSON BRIDGE-SPACE
FROST is sitting in the XO chair as SARA walks on to the bridge.
SARA
Is the Captain of the Cherokee still waiting?
FROST
Unfortunately, as soon as his runabouts were back aboard he decided to take his leave of us.
SARA (sarcastic)
Oh darn. (settles into chair) Aside from the animal attacks and the angry Starfleet officers, I call this a fairly uneventful morning.
FROST
For the Tars Tavik, I’d say so.
FROST swings an ops console over his chair and examines a few of the readouts. SARA leans back in the command chair and just enjoys the relative silence.
SARA
How’s your wife?
FROST
Not happy. She was expecting a long vacation on Risa to celebrate her status as a retiree. Instead she’s still waiting for me to come home.
SARA
Take some leave and go see her, my ex-husband served me papers over subspace because I wouldn’t-
A young ensign at the communications console interrupts the conversation.
ENSIGN
Sir?
SARA
Yes?
ENSIGN
I’ve got a distress call from a small mining operation on Golia V.
SARA
Are they under attack?
ENSIGN
I don’t know, the message isn’t very- (console beeps, the ENSIGN looks confused) It’s gone.
SARA
The distress call?
The ENSIGN shakes his head and moves to the long range scanner.
SARA
Ensign?
ENSIGN (stunned)
The planet! The whole planet is gone!
FROST and SARA share a concerned look.
FROST
Do a long range scan on the Golia system. (To SARA) Any idea what can do that to a planet?
SARA
You’re the veteran, you tell me.
The view screen displays the scan telemetry. The Golia system looks like a distant dot in space but there’s some sort of tan-brown blob over laid on top of it.
SARA (points at screen)
What the hell is that?
FROST (to ENSIGN)
Try enhancing that section.
The screen zeros in on the brown blob on the screen, there’s a moment as the image renders…
…It’s a cloud, a massive swirling dust cloud in space and it looks like it’s sandblasting the surface of Golia V. It’s terrifying.
FROST
Oh god.
CUT TO-INT. ENGINE ROOM-SPACE
MUKET and the Bajoran engineers are gathered in the Engine room. MUKET looks really nervous. He’s holding some sort of food container.
MUKET
Yes…well…
Awkward silence.
MUKET
My wife made Cardassian short bread for everyone…
The Bajorans have this looks that says “We’re not eating anything Cardassian” on their faces.
MUKET
So..um…my name is Lieutenant Muket and I’m your- (he almost says superior then stops)
ZIRAL tilts her head.
ZIRAL
Any relation to Glinn Muket?
MUKET (cringes)
He was my father. (Rushes to change the subject) I actually spent most of my life on Earth after my Mom and I left Bajor-
MUKET has just confessed that he lived on Bajor during the occupation. Some of the Bajorans look really pissed about that. MUKET starts massaging his cranial ridge. This is not going well.
More awkward glares and stares. Suddenly the intercom booms out a message from SARA.
SARA (intercom)
All department heads report to Stellar Cartography immediately!
MUKET (quickly)
Oh thank the Great Bird!
MUKET makes a hasty retreat to the turbo lift.
FADE TO- INT. STELLAR CARTOGRAPHY-SPACE
Tight close up on a holographic display, a solar system map of the Golia System with the cloud right where the fifth planet used to be there’s a yellow line detailing the most likely path that the cloud is going to take.
FROST and SARA are discussing something while in the background, VERN moves from console to console. Stellar Cartography is very low tech compared to the big cartography rooms from Generations and Voyager. It’s just a little holo-emitter and a couple of console screens. NERI, WOLFE, DECKER, and MUKET arrive one by one through the doors. Nobody knows what’s going on.
SARA
Good, you’re all here. (points to hologram) Ladies and gentlemen, I present our latest problem.
WOLFE
What the heck is it?
DECKER takes a good look at the hologram and groans, he looks at FROST.
DECKER
How big?
FROST
Biggest I’ve ever seen, it swallowed Golia V in a matter of minutes.
DECKER looks ill. MUKET and NERI are starting to catch on but WOLFE is still clueless.
WOLFE
What is it?
NERI (ignores WOLFE)
Can we divert it?
MUKET
Not with the equipment we’ve got on hand.
FROST
It’s too big to divert, anyway, all that mass would just go somewhere else.
WOLFE puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles loudly, everybody turns. WOLFE suddenly realizes everyone’s looking at him and he gets embarrassed.
WOLFE
Sorry. You guys were doing that “Starfleet Options” thing and I still don’t know what the problem is.
SARA obliges him and enlarges the view on the brown cloud.
SARA
The problem, Major, is a class five dust storm and it just swallowed a planet. I’m having Mr. Vernral extrapolate a path prediction on its likely course through the nebula.
From the back of the room, VERN gives a curt roar.
FROST
Just give us your best guess, Vern; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Tight on WOLFE.
WOLFE
What’s so bad about “dust”?
SARA
“Dust” isn’t really the correct term; it’s more like a giant comet. A cloud made out floating debris, ice, and asteroid pieces all moving together along a fixed path through space.
FROST
They swallow up planets, break them apart, and drag the pieces along.
WOLFE looks over at the hologram, finally figuring it out.
WOLFE
A great big snowball rolling down the hill.
MUKET
They’re supposed to be very rare, the chances of a cloud this big…
NERI (to DECKER)
Is this the new guy?
DECKER nods.
NERI
Lieutenant, we’re in the Tars Tavik now…rare and deadly are par for the course out here
DECKER (sarcastic)
Think of it as a big gift of weird that keeps on giving.
VERN grunts to get everyone’s attention.
SARA (to VERN)
Put it on the big screen, Mr. Vernral.
The display changes and the yellow hypothetical path becomes a solid red path. The view widens out to show an over view of the entire nebula, the red path is like a scar across the face of the Tars Tavik.
FROST
Right now it looks like there’s only one other populated planet in its path.
SARA
M-3356, Federation Census says there’s an illegal settlement of 300. (Turns to her staff) Looks like we’re doing an evacuation, a big one. If Lieutenant Vernral’s calculations are correct, we have 26 hours to prep, evacuate, and resettle the population of that planet. Obviously, I need an away team to get down there first and scout the area.
WOLFE raises his hand, eager to get off the boat and into the game.
SARA
No need to volunteer, Major, you’re going anyway. Is Callahan on duty yet?
WOLFE
She is if you need her to be.
SARA
I do. Take her, Mr. Provix, the Doctor, and Mr. Muket and assess the situation on that planet. Doctor, do a scan for infectious diseases while you’re down there, I don’t want the crew to catch anything from these people.
MUKET
Wait, why am I going?
SARA
To get your legs, Mr. Muket. Also, so you can tell me if that colony has something space worthy, it might help us with the evacuation.
Everyone starts racing out the door except MUKET, who’s still a little shell shocked. He’s only been on the ship for a few hours and he’s already in the middle of a crisis.
FADE TO EXT. IN ORBIT AROUND REFUGE PLANET-
The Nelson arrives at a pathetic gray ball of mud, a sad little planet with a dreary atmosphere. It’s got an ocean but somehow even the ocean looks poverty stricken and polluted.
Far off on the other side of the planet, there’s an extra star. The Dust storm is getting closer. It’s traveling at an insane pace, rolling through space on a breakneck momentum. Nothing will stand in its way, only a large star or black hole can stop it now.
CUT TO INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM-SPACE
The Away team, without NERI, has assembled on the transporter pad. CALLAHAN is in the transporter room, flirting with WALSH as NERI and SOPRIN enter.
SOPRIN glares at WALSH, who’s doing his best to completely ignore her. NERI climbs on to the transporter pad with the others. CALLAHAN’S giggling at something WALSH is whispering in her ear.
NERI (scowling)
Lieutenant, I’d like to get going.
SOPRIN seems rather pleased with that but tries to stay emotionless. CALLAHAN exchanges a poisoned look with SOPRIN before stepping onto the pad. The pad energizes and the Away team disappears. SOPRIN turns to WALSH as she leaves.
SOPRIN
Perhaps you should restrain yourself while on duty; your infatuation with Lieutenant Callahan appears to be distracting you.
WALSH
Excuse me for living. Not everybody can be content with masturbating in the shower like you.
SOPRIN
I have never-
WALSH
It was a joke! Jesus Christ.
CUT TO EXT. REFUGEE PLANET-DAY
The Away Team walks through the ancient stone ruins of a long dead Orion city, there are signs it was once a bustling port with ancient stone frescos and statues blasted by the sand. Now everything on this world is nearly dead and covered with a fine layer of gray dirt. Only a few dozen houses near a small cave indicate any habitation by living people. They walk into the ruins, only MUKET shows caution or apprehension.
A few refugees of Romulan descent stop what they’re doing and stare up at the approaching away team with fear. The refugees are poverty stricken, sad, and pathetic. They hide their faces and back away.
NERI and WOLFE start trying to engage the refugees in conversation. NERI’S using her translator but WOLFE has turned off his translator and starts speaking fluent Klingonese and broken smatterings of Romulan. CALLAHAN goes off on her own, towards the cave, which leaves MUKET and PROVIX standing guard in front of the camp.
Tight on MUKET, he’s never seen this much utter poverty before, not even on Bajor. A little Romulan girl, so thin her bones stick out under her skin, stares at him from behind a rock. MUKET tries to smile at her and give her a field ration…
…but her mother, a bald woman with painful plasma scars all over her face, snatches the girl away. Nobody trusts anyone in the Tars Tavik.
MUKET (to PROVIX)
I thought this nebula was uninhabited?
PROVIX shrugs.
PROVIX
Everybody did. Turns out the Tars Tavik has a population of around 500 Million.
MUKET (stunned)
500-
PROVIX
-Million. Not all on one planet of course, they’re spread out across a dozen or so star systems so it’s not a big number compared to the major parts of the galaxy.
MUKET
But where did they come from?
PROVIX
Well these people are probably from Romulan space. They could be dissidents, expelled criminals or the descendents of expelled criminals. Hell, they could just have the wrong kind of parents.
MUKET
The wrong kind of parents?
PROVIX
Romulans and Klingons used to be allies, they traded technology and weapons, some of them even intermarried. When the Romulans attacked the Klingons, the Praetor expelled or killed anyone with Klingon blood. They couldn’t go to Klingon space and they didn’t trust the Federation. So they wound up in places like this.
HADAR BARAN (off camera)
…and the Orion Free Traders are happy to help them in their struggle to survive.
HADAR BARAN, local Don of the Orion Syndicate, is walking casually through the refugee camp with two of his best Nausicaan flunkies. WOLFE and NERI stop what their doing and walk over to BARAN. They look pissed.
WOLFE
Hadar Baran, didn’t I put you in jail?
BARAN
You tried, but I’ve recently become an official representative of the Orion government…a position with the perk of diplomatic immunity.
NERI
You bribed the Central Matriarchy and they made you a diplomat…unbelievable!
BARAN
Ah, Dr. Neri…it’s so good to see another Orion face.
NERI
{In Orion} Fuck you, filth-dog.
BARAN
{In Orion} Is that a serious offer, traitor?
WOLFE steps between the two Orions and glares at BARAN; PROVIX eyes the two flunkies with the desire to kick their teeth in.
WOLFE
How did you get here, Baran?
BARAN
My personal cruiser, I’ve equipped it with a cloaking device ever since my wrongful arrest-
NERI laughs coldly. She does not really find this asshole amusing.
BARAN
-but when my associates told me about a massive dust storm headed for this tiny planet of poor souls, I felt I had to provide assistance.
NERI (disgusted)
Let me guess, you offered to save their lives if they agreed to work for you and the Syndicate? You people! You’ll do anything for a quick buck!
BARAN
The Orion Free Traders give nothing for free, surely these grateful people will gladly grant us a favor in return.
WOLFE’S hand migrates to his side arm.
WOLFE
Leave.
PROVIX points his disruptor rifle with a look on his face that says “Please say no, please say no so I can rid the universe of you.”
The Nausicaans look ready to fight but BARAN waves a hand to stop them.
BARAN
If you wish.
He starts walking away, the flunkies follow.
WOLFE and PROVIX watch them leave, probably off to some unseen shuttle or transporter sight. NERI seems more bitter then usual; something about being called traitor does not sit well with her.
MUKET is just confused.
CALLAHAN approaches from the cave.
CALLAHAN
Guys? We got a problem.
The away team follows her into the cave where they find…
…another settlement, filled with hundreds of people. There are a lot more then 300.
Tight on CALLAHAN.
CALLAHAN
If that’s a 300 person settlement, I’m Christopher Pike.
Continue on to ACT THREE...