595
Scene 39
39D-1 (VFX)
ID 5639
EXT. AEROFOX, LANDING SIGHT – NIGHT
[They have landed. The camera pans around the wild and primal world of Proxima B.]
EXT. AEROFOX, LANDING SIGHT – NIGHT
[They have landed. The camera pans around the wild and primal world of Proxima B.]
[Pan from Milky Way past volcano to twin stars.]
A large body of partially frozen water spans the horizon in the distance.
Small patches of ice can be seen near the landing gear of the AeroFox.
On the side of the vehicle, a door pops open and the ship’s AIRLOCK deploys like an accordion.
[Airlock fully deploys.]
[Light turns on beneath the airlock.]
[The ladder deploys.]
The hatch opens.
The two women wear O2 BACKPACKS and HEADGEAR with clear faceplates.
[Unsteadily, Clarke swings her feet onto the ladder.]
[She moves with apprehension.]
[She eyes the ground warily. Clarke, who was born in space, has never stepped on a planet before.]
[Clarke’s POV through the HUD of her face mask.]
Clarke climbs down first and gives a tentative look around the area.
Baxter watches from above inside the vestibule.
Clarke suddenly begins to hesitate, struck by another memory.
JUMP CUT TO:
FLASHBACK: On the screen at Captain Bova’s station, two space- suited figures exit an airlock.
Young Darcy sits on his lap watching her parents make their way outside. Bova realizes the level of danger and wants to divert the child’s attention. He points toward a Mobile Omni unit rolling by.
BOVA: “Hey, peanut… Now might be a good time to go play a game with Omni.”
The robot stops and greets Young Darcy.
MOBILE OMNI: “Yes. Hello, Ms. Clarke. I believe you enjoy flight simulations?”
YOUNG DARCY: “No! I wanna see this!”
Bova is amazed and a little taken aback by her strength.
BOVA: “Okay. You’re the boss.”
On screen, the couple board a small SKIFF — a mobile, two person rocket pod — and jet toward the site of the disaster.
Baxter watches impatiently. She prods the stalled astronaut.
BAXTER: “Hey, I thought we were in a hurry.”
[An overhead view from Baxter’s POV show’s Clarke clinging to the ladder.]
Irritated, Clarke continues down the ladder.
She jumps the final meter, landing hard on the surface.
She clicks on a flashlight.
[Baxter hauls herself over the bar and begins her climb down.]
[Baxter, still weary from a cryo-sleep of 50 years, moves with difficulty in the intense gravity.]
Climbing out behind her, Baxter slips and falls the final few rungs.
[She lands roughly on the planet’s surface.]
With sympathy, Clarke helps her up.
BAXTER: “One small step for woman, huh?”
CLARKE: “Yeah. Pretty much.”
Clarke checks the FLASHSCANNER mapping device on her wrist.
CLARKE: “Zero point sixty-seven degrees north latitude, twenty-three point forty-seven degrees east longitude.”
BAXTER: “Yeah. Our first planet-fall.”
Baxter leans on Clarke as they hike away from the AeroFox.
In the far distance, a volcano spews lava and smoke into the black sky. The wind blows snow flurries around them in the light of the double stars.
CLARKE: “What’s this stuff in the air?”
BAXTER: “I have no idea. Snow, maybe?”
Clarke kneels and takes a handful of ice and dust in her glove.
[Close shot of dust running through Clarke’s fingers.]
Baxter understands the magnitude of the moment.
BAXTER: “Is this how you envisioned it?”
CLARKE: “I… I didn’t know what to expect.”
Baxter observes with a motherly sense of empathy.
CLARKE: “I never stood on a planet before.”
Baxter reaches to touch Clarke’s shoulder, but pulls back.
BAXTER: “I get it. I never expected to stand on another one.”
Clarke regains composure, shakes off her emotions and stands.
Baxter looks up at the night sky with curiosity.
BAXTER: “Speaking of Earth, where’s the Sun?”
CLARKE: “What? You mean Sol?”
Clarke scans the sky for a moment. She spots the brightest star in the Milky Way and points toward it confidently.
CLARKE: “It’s right there.”
Baxter follows Clarke’s arm to see Earth’s Sun.
CLARKE: “Do you miss it?”
BAXTER: “That would require something worth missing, babe.”
The two women lock eyes. Clarke turns toward the AeroFox.
CLARKE: “Let’s check out the damage.”
He deploys it into its functioning position.
INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT
Niven limps around the cabin. After grabbing a sphere of water, he retrieves the medical scanner he used on Baxter from his belt.
NIVEN: “Omni, full recline please.”
OMNI: “Absolutely.”
[Niven’s chair comes down and converts to lounge mode.]
Niven’s chair extends to a flatter position. He slumps hard.
OMNI: “Are you alright?”
[Niven opens the med-kit and grabs the scanner.]
NIVEN: “We’re about to find out, buddy…”
[Niven puts the case on the floor and leans back.]
NIVEN: “Soon as I’m done, we fix you.”
He deploys the scanner and passes it over his abdomen.
After a beat, he reviews the findings via an image of his body. Red lights flash throughout his midsection.
OMNI: “Kyle, this isn’t good…”
[New frame of full monitor.]
OMNI: “…You need serious medical attention.”
Niven closes the scanner and leans back to ponder his fate.
EXT. AEROFOX, ENGINE SECTION – NIGHT
Baxter and Clarke move to survey the area of the ship that impacted the cliff. Baxter runs her hand over the hull.
BAXTER: “It’s barely even scratched.”
CLARKE: “It’s all internal.”
CLARKE: “According to this scanner, the fuel lines, the valves…”
Clarke: “…hell, the whole propulsion system — is jacked due to that scratch.”
Baxter tries to remove a dented maintenance access panel on the side of an aft attitude thruster block.
Unable to make it budge, she staggers backward and gestures to Clarke.
BAXTER: “Your turn, Wonder Woman.”
Clarke stalks forward.
She grabs the panel, opening it easily. Smoke and sparks fly from the aperture.
Baxter moves in and surveys the damage. Baxter enables her O2 mask’s augmented reality display. Maintenance and diagnostic information appears on top of the wreckage.
BAXTER: (pointing) “It looks like a busted L-R-U.”
CLARKE: “Yeah. I’m reading the same thing.”
Clarke reaches for the damaged unit. Baxter observes her.
BAXTER: “You must’ve kicked ass training for this place.”
CLARKE: “Yeah. I worked out every day in the centrifuge to prep for the high gravity.”
CLARKE: “The ship even simulated red dwarf’s sunlight.”
BAXTER: “What about here on the dark side?”
CLARKE: “Why? There was no reason to.”
Lightning catches her eye in the distance. She pulls the component and turns.
She pulls the component and turns. Baxter bristles.
BAXTER: “Maybe you should have. If we can’t get that shield working, we’re going to be stuck over here.”
INT. AEROFOX, COCKPIT
The women enter the cockpit and seal the hatch.
Niven waves weakly to the two women with his right hand. He holds the medical scanner in his left. They both remove their masks.
NIVEN: “How are the engines?”
CLARKE: (holding up the LRU) “We need to replace this unit.”
The 3D-animated Omni graphic has mostly returned to normal.
OMNI: “I’ll print you a new one.”
CLARKE: “Good. Let me know when it’s done.”
Clarke drops the LRU in a refuse bin and checks the science station. Baxter is concerned about Niven. She sulks to him.
NIVEN: “What was it like?”
BAXTER: “Intense. You’ll see.”
OMNI: “Engineer, you should rest. You are still recovering from hibernation.”
She shares a tired smile, pats Niven on the shoulder and plops down.
[Baxter leans back with her helmet in her lap.]
CLARKE: “After that impact, I’m going to recalibrate the guidance system.”
Clarke hops in her seat and rises up to the pilot’s position.
[Clarke heaves herself into the station, the chair’s hydraulics shifting to hold her weight.]
[Clarke’s seat clicks into a ninety degree cant, making her level with the pilot’s console.]
Clarke hops in her seat and rises up to the pilot’s position.
Niven calls for their attention.
NIVEN: “Cool. In the meantime, I have good news, bad news, and weird news.”
Clarke chimes in while activating her console.
CLARKE: “What’s the ‘good’?”
BAXTER: “Yeah, we could use some good news.”
NIVEN: “I fixed Omni. Rebooted his O-S from a back-up. I also created a patch that should block out further E-M-Ps.”
Baxter turns her head toward the reclined Niven.
BAXTER: “I wonder if we could do something similar with the shield nodes?”
“It would be nice to know what’s causing the problem first.”
OMNI: “The nearest node is Two-Twelve. Sixty-one kilometers away.”
Niven attempts to sit up. He’s in increasing pain.
NIVEN: “That brings me to the ‘weird news’.”
OMNI: “We’ve isolated the E-M remnant in my system and the shield nodes.”
NIVEN: “The odd part is that it seems to have come from outside the shield system.”
BAXTER: “Outside? How is that even possible?”
CLARKE: “Exactly. There’s no one else here.”
NIVEN: “That’s what we want to know.”
BAXTER: “Hold up… What’s the bad news?”
NIVEN: (pained) “I might not be around long enough to help you guys figure it all out.”
Niven leans back, offering the medical scanner to Baxter.
NIVEN: “My liver. It was ruptured when I was slammed into the bulkhead.”
Baxter grimaces as she reviews the digital diagnosis.
Clarke is horrified at the news.
CLARKE: “Come on… You couldn’t have bounced around that hard!”
Niven shrugs with muted defeat as Omni responds to Clarke.
OMNI: “I believe it’s a genetic defect caused by long-term exposure to cosmic rays.”
OMNI: “All children of the crew have the potential for this type of injury.”
BAXTER: “Jesus. How long until we can get you back to the ship?”
NIVEN: “Three days.”
Regardless of how she feels about Niven, Clarke has a history with him. She masks sadness and concern with anger.
CLARKE: “We have to do something.”
Niven glances between Baxter and the wrecked medical station.
NIVEN: “Maybe you could fix the auto-doc?”
Baxter makes her way past Niven to the damaged wall unit.
[Baxter crouches down to examine its state.]
BAXTER: “I’m good, but not that good.”
She pokes through the auto-doc’s remains, examining it as Clarke lowers her seat in the background.
Clarke stands and walks to the science station.
Clarke stands and walks to the science station. She pulls up a map of the planet’s surface. Then she zooms in on their location, correlating it with another dot.
CLARKE: “We need to find a TerraCat”
BAXTER: “A rover? You’re crazy. The closest Hab is nowhere near here.”
[Clarke continues typing.]
Clarke pulls up a map of the dayside of Persephone. She locates a hab module close to the terminator.
CLARKE: “Forty-Seven is just over the mountains to the west.”
Clarke goes to a wall dispenser and yanks out a CONTAINER.
BAXTER: “What are you doing?”
Clarke places the container on the floor.
CLARKE: “This drone could be there in twenty-five minutes.”
She opens it, revealing a futuristic DRONE.
[Close-up shot of the drone.]
EXT. PERSEPHONE, LANDING SITE
Clarke walks with determination to a spot where she plans to launch the drone. Baxter stumbles behind her.
Catching up, Baxter notices the distant terminator storm as Clarke kneels.
BAXTER: “That’s a big-ass mountain range. Are we sure the rover can make it here in time?”
CLARKE: “If we programmed it right, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
CLARKE: “It’ll drive the TerraCat back through the dry riverbed east of here.”
BAXTER: “Clarke, you’re dreaming. The drone can’t get through that.”
[Clarke hits a button on the drone. Lights blink and wings move on the side.]
“What?!”
BAXTER: (gesturing to the horizon) “That!”
Clarke looks up and notices the massive flashes of lightning.
CLARKE: “So, what do we do?”
BAXTER: “How far away are those mountains?”
Clarke stands and pulls her LASER RANGER — a pair of futuristic binoculars — from a utility belt. She activates it and scans the distance.
CLARKE: “About two klicks. The map says the range is about five clicks across.”
BAXTER: “Five clicks? Gimme that…”
Baxter snatches the ranger from an irritated Clarke.
BAXTER: (looking and pointing) “There’s a crevasse there.”
BAXTER: “We could use it to get to the day side.”
Clarke looks at the foreboding storm. She makes a decision.
[Sound of storm in the distance.]
CLARKE: “We..? Don’t you mean me?”
Clarke snatches the back the device and clips it on her utility belt.
[Wider of shot of Clarke and Baxter reveals the drone on the ground and the AeroFox standing in the background.]
She takes the drone and tosses it on her back.
It snaps into place with a magnetic groan.
She then takes the Flash-scanner from her belt and slaps it on her wrist. Activating it, Clarke projects a bright beam, panning across the desert.
CLARKE: “Work with Niven on the shield.”
Clarke turns to leave. Feeling guilty, Baxter grabs her arm.
BAXTER: “Hey! Hold up…” (sincere) “Thanks for getting us down here in one piece.”
CLARKE: (incredulous) “Just doing my job.”
Clarke jogs away.
[Camera pans with Clarke.]
[Camera pans with Clarke.]
[Clarke runs to camera.]
Baxter calls after her.
BAXTER: “Turn on your homing beacon!”
Clarke stops in her tracks without turning around and taps a button on her wrist. A strobe flashes on her O2 backpack.
With her flash-scanner guiding the way, she takes off again.
[Clarke runs into the darkness.]
In the background, a worried Baxter starts back toward the AeroFox as Clarke becomes a pulsating dot in the distance.
[Wearily, Baxter turns her back on Clarke and heads to the AeroFox.]