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Conflicts of the last progenitors

Graynose, ruminating, finds a seat in the first row of the council room. Deep-green ivy grows upon the wooden latticework fastened to a large picture window: stars and a portion of the orange-red sun are visible through the slats and leaves. Seated within the wood-panelled enclosure are twenty-seven three-star Seniors: four with red stars, four with green stars and nineteen with blue stars. The atmosphere is grim. Two seats in the second row remain empty.

On Fleischwerk hinges, the door swings wide; Lo-Cheun enters, his cool face utterly inscrutable. The laceration in his Fleischwerk arm and his amputated fingers have been replaced with new gray tissue of a noticeably darker tint. He walks toward one of the two empty seats and sits. The door shuts.

Graynose looks sympathetically at Lo-Cheun.

GRAYNOSE

I’m sorry about Neredth. If

there’s anything I can do...just

let me know.

LO-CHEUN

There isn’t.

Graynose nods and sits back in his seat.

ELYSABETH’S VOICE

Speaker Thakani has arrived.

The door swings open. The polyracial fifty-three-year-old woman enters and walks before the Seniors.

54.

THAKANI

I’ve reviewed the memorandums.

Would anyone care to speak on the

proposal before we vote?

GEOFFRIES, a Bluebranch Senior of forty-nine years with a skin-colored latex patch over his right eye, flicks his index finger and CLEARS his throat. Thakani recognizes him; he stands.

GEOFFRIES

(English Accent)

At this point, the significant

issue is not life forms: the significant issue is that we

haven’t found a place to even

attempt to build a home. Exposure to the elements- as well as the

known hostile life forms- has

clarified one thing: for now, life

on the open plain is not a viable

option. To build a settlement in a world with a daily 140-degree

temperature swing, we need to first find shelter: shelter that is above the water level and shielded from the winds.

Geoffries points to Thakani and nods.

GEOFFRIES (CONT'D)

I am in one-hundred-percent

agreement with Thakani’s proposal:

we need to explore the mountains

and we need to do these

explorations within the safety of

enclosed flyers.

Geoffries sits; two of the Bios shake their heads. Thakani observes the gathering.

THAKANI

Those in favor of vehicular

mountain expeditions, raise your

hands.

Twenty-six hands go up; two of the Bios abstain.

THAKANI (CONT'D)

Designate a pilot, a Bio and a

Bullet to each outfit. We start in two days.

55.

Titlecard: One Option-1-Standard Day Later EXT. ORBIT OF OPTION-1 - HOUR TWENTY-SEVEN (OPTION-1-STANDARD)

Five HANDYMAN units (manned spheres from which jut manifold tools) magnetically adhere to the rim of a collapsed dome on Elysabeth’s lower torso. Two apply welding torches to twisted metal; the others pull at a damaged plate with three-pronged pincers.

INT. CLEAR-DOMED FORREST PRESERVE - SAME

The dome is filled with myriad trees, bushes and plants from Earth. Above the three-thousand coniferous and deciduous pillars is a hemispherical dome admitting a view of the stars and Option-1.

One hundred-and-fifty feet in the air, suspended on ninety metal wires at the equator of the room, runs a circular catwalk. Fifty-three COUPLES and a few lone strollers walk the brown, foam-covered walkway; Sven and Mlissa are among them.

The tall, athletic twenty-two-year-old woman stops and leans against the outer balustrade, her blue-highlighted black hair catching the starlight. She looks up at the (slowly moving) planet outside.

Sven stops, a foot ahead of her.

MLISSA

What time do you descend? Are you

scared? Who’s in your crew?

SVEN

7:00 ES; a little bit scared; me

and Abacus and the brilliant guy

who stepped on that bladder.

Kenneth, I think.

Mlissa walks beside Sven, leans to the front rail and looks down at the Earth trees planted below.

MLISSA

Did you watch your transmissions