INT. TERRACAT

[Clarke enters the rover, sitting down in the driver’s seat.]

Clarke activates the self-drive and buckles her seatbelt.

CLARKE: “Take me to Shield Node Two-Twelve.”

TERRACAT: “Destination acquired. Arrival in ninety-seven minutes.”

Cut to – Outside the TerraCat pulls away from the AeroFox.

Baxter suddenly stumbles in front of it, waving her arms.

TERRACAT: “Pedestrian detected.”

The vehicle swerves to avoid Baxter and drives off towards the mountains.

[Beneath the twin stars’ glow, the TerraCat tears up dirt as it changes course away from Baxter.]

Baxter watches Clarke cruise away.

She turns to head back to the Aerofox, clutching her abdomen in pain.

[Baxter walks out of frame, leaving the aurorae to dance in the sky behind her.]

INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT

[The doors cycle inside the empty AeroFox.]

Baxter opens the hatch and falls to the floor.

OMNI: “What happened?”

BAXTER: “She’s gone…”

OMNI: “She cannot install the patch!”

BAXTER: “There’s no way to stop her.”

The airlock door closes. Baxter props against it.

A schematic of the TerraCat appears on-screen above the science station.

OMNI: “I’m reading that our recon-drone is still connected to the TerraCat.”

BAXTER: “Can you access it?”

INT. TERRACAT

Clarke sits, head in hands. Her eyes closed, lost in thought.

JUMP CUT TO: INT. COLONY ONE, CONTROL

FLASHBACK: The Girl watches the screen as her space-suited parents float above a large tank.

They use tools to weld a seal over the breach. Of the three tanks that were damaged, all but one has been repaired.

Bova looks at her and smiles.

BOVA: “They’re almost done. They’ll be back in time for supper.”

The little Girl is about to breathe a sigh of relief when a bright flash on the monitor catches her eye. The third tank explodes, sending her parents careening away into space!

The altered movement catches Clarke’s attention, snapping her out of the terrible memory. She wipes tears from her eyes.

CLARKE: “TerraCat, what’s going on?!”

CLARKE: “TerraCat, what’s going on?!”

The vehicle quickly comes to a stop and then reverses course.

Omni’s male voice replaces the feminine TerraCat interface.

OMNI: “I’m bringing you back to the Aerofox. Once you’ve returned, I want you to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.”

Clarke is enraged. She looks around the cab.

[Clarke’s POV darts from side to side.]

Spying the drone dock on the roof, she pieces it all together.

CLARKE: “Son-of-a-bitch…”

She unbuckles her safety belt.

[Clarke reaches up to touch a button near the drone tray.]

[The drone tray descends from the ceiling. Clarke spies the drone.]

Reaching the ceiling of the TerraCat, she wraps her fingers around the edge of the drone. After a few seconds of additional fiddling, Clarke grabs hold of it — ripping it out of its slot.

She fumbles for the drone’s power button and hits it hard. The drone goes dead.

Clarke loses her grip and is thrown backwards.

[She flies towards camera.]

[Clarke lands on the floor, still clutching the drone.]

She rolls onto her feet and tosses the drone aside.

She then slides back into the driver’s seat.

CLARKE: “TerraCat, manual mode.”

Her chair rotates into the drive position.

[Clarke looks around to orient herself.]

[Clarke taps buttons on a side panel.]

There, she pulls up the map to Node 212 and activates the manual steering.

[Clarke smiles to herself as she starts to drive.]

INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT

Baxter stands at the science station. She sees the TerraCat heading away on one of the external monitors.

OMNI: “It would appear that Astronaut Clarke disabled the drone.”

BAXTER: “Yeah.”

OMNI: “I’m sorry, Engineer Baxter. I can think of no other way of stopping her. Do you have any ideas?”

Baxter pulls up the ship’s communication system. She tries to calm her voice and appear conciliatory.

BAXTER: “Darcy, this isn’t about the shield! You need to do the rad-therapy or you’re gonna die!”

INT. TERRACAT

BAXTER: (COMM VOICE) “Talk to me, goddamn it!”

Clarke sneers and switches off the radio.

INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT

With the dead signal, Baxter is at her wits end.

She looks her worst since the mission began. She spies the lavatory.

INT. AEROFOX, LAVATORY

Baxter opens the door to the claustrophobic bathroom. It closes behind her.

She kneels and vomits into the small toilet.

[Baxter heaves forward and vomits into the toilet.]

[Baxter lifts her head, breathing heavily.]

[After several deep breaths, Baxter wipes her mouth on her sleeve.]

She slowly stands, running water into the sink.

Baxter almost begins to cry, but thinks better of it. She splashes water on her face, staring into the mirror.

INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT

Baxter exits the lavatory.

She looks toward the science station and makes a hesitant request.

BAXTER: “Omni… Could you restart Kyle’s message from where we left off?”

OMNI: “Sure.”

Niven’s sickly image appears on the science station monitor.

NIVEN: “I did this to protect the geoglyph. We need to learn to live with it. We need to resettle on the dark side of Persephone until we can figure this out.”

BAXTER: (under her breath) “That’s exactly what I told her.”

NIVEN: (ON MONITOR) “I know my decision probably doesn’t make sense to you. But, I’m irrelevant in the face of this discovery.”

Niven smiles in the midst of tearing up.

NIVEN: “And honestly… I’ve lived an amazing life. I’m a human… Born between the stars.”

Tears stream down Baxter’s face, matching Niven’s.

NIVEN: “I made it here. Made it to Persephone.”

Weakened from her exposure to Proxima’s radiation, Baxter is increasingly pale. Her emotions mix with the sickness.

NIVEN: “I named this planet… after the goddess of the underworld because it’s the gateway to the unknown.”

NIVEN: (proudly) “The discovery of the geoglyph is just the beginning.”

He flashes a final weak and assuring smile.

NIVEN: “Darcy, try and work with Ms. Baxter. Together, you can find a way to protect the colony… and the geoglyph. Good luck.”

The video ends. Baxter wipes away tears.

She makes a decision [and turns].

BAXTER: “Take me up to the pilot’s station.”

[The camera pulls back to reveal Darcy’s pilot seat descending.]

She hops in and rises to Clarke’s station.

[Baxter lays back as her seat swings up.]

[Shot from above of Baxter as she adjusts to the pilot’s seat. The chair rises.]

[Shot from below the chair as it locks into position.]

Baxter glances with curiosity at a trading card affixed near some gauges.

Baxter glances with curiosity at a trading card affixed near some gauges.

It’s the image of a huge Easter Island statue.

She frowns and pulls up a 3-D model of the planet. It shows her present location.

She spins the globe until it shows the nodes facing the sun-facing side. She locks on Node 22.

BAXTER: “We’re basically trying to hit a bullseye sixty kilometers away.”

Baxter plots a parabola trajectory between the two points on the map. She talks out loud, working through the equations.

BAXTER: “So… How much thrust do we need?”

OMNI: “Excuse me? You can’t possibly be planning a launch. The main engine is inoperative.”

A rotating graphic of the AeroFox appears on-screen.

BAXTER: (resolute) “I’m going to fix it.”

The computer displays a level of dark sarcasm rarely seen.

OMNI: “Yeah, right.”

Baxter is taken aback by his tone, but continues.

BAXTER: “It’s a typical dual-mode propulsion unit. How hard can it be?”

Cut to outside, Baxter — wearing an O2 mask — surveys the insides of an open maintenance access panel near the engines.

[Shot from inside the hatch as Baxter pulls away its panel.]

[Cut back to the Baxter standing next to the now-open hatch.]

Once again, Baxter uses her mask’s Augmented Reality (AR).

OMNI: “You know, a repair of this type typically requires up to thirty –“

BAXTER: (interrupting) “We don’t have ‘thirty’ of whatever you were going to say. If we don’t make it there soon, Clarke is dead.” (scanning the repair) “I’m an engineer, dammit. Machines. Electronics. This is what I do.”

OMNI: (COMM VOICE) “Okay. But, regardless, what you don’t do is pilot AeroFoxes.”

BAXTER: “Hey, I fix the ship. You plot the course and fly the us over there.”

Baxter sees that it is damaged in many locations. She marks them with her finger on the AR display.

OMNI: (COMM VOICE) “Fine. I’ll try. But, can we please do it after the anti-rad procedure?” (emotional) “I couldn’t bear to lose

Baxter stops her analysis and sighs in frustration.