Conflicts of the last progenitors

Sven and Mlissa lie inside the sleeping envelope nestled within the foam nook of her tiny room. The windowless walls are covered with photographs of sweaty men and women running, hurdling, pole-vaulting, rock-climbing and biking. Sven is asleep; Mlissa is awake.

MLISSA

You don’t have to go. Whatever

you’re doing, they can send

somebody else, can’t they?

Sven awakens, rubs his bleary eyes and looks at Mlissa.

SVEN

Were we having a conversation?

MLISSA

Why do you need to go down? There

are lots of qualified pilots. And

we just started...this.

SVEN

There’s a reason I need to go--

you’ll understand when I’m allowed

to discuss it.

89.

MLISSA

You don’t have to prove anything.

SVEN

I know.

Mlissa shakes her head.

MLISSA

I don’t think that you do.

INT. LO-CHEUN AND NEREDTH’S COMPARTMENT - SAME

His head nestled in the cradle of his interlocked natural and Fleischwerk fingers, Lo-Cheun lies on the floor of his compartment, looking at the window. Option-1 hangs outside, silhouetted and sun-limned.

The Chinese man’s eyes flicker to the empty bed nook and then back to the planet outside.

INT. GRAYNOSE’S COMPARTMENT - SAME

The compartment is an immaculate living space decorated with hundreds of photos, each set within a small oak frame; the pictures are of children and dogs. Graynose and JULIUS (a tall thin man of thirty with a pockmarked face and a goatee) sit on a divan, looking at Option-1.

JULIUS

Do you think that the sculpture is

somehow related to that hunk of ice circling around us?

GRAYNOSE

I’ve no idea and- for the first

time in my life as a scientist- I’m trying not to hypothesize too much.

Julius smirks.

JULIUS

Why’s that? You don’t want to be

wrong?

GRAYNOSE

We’ve no idea how different the

things we encounter might be-- on a biological, an intellectual, an

atomic and maybe even sub-atomic

level.

(MORE)

90.

GRAYNOSE (CONT'D)

The fewer ideas and theories I fix

in my mind, the fewer ideas I will

have to abandon when we encounter

whatever is truly out there.

EXT. CRATER / MOUNTAIN RANGE - MORNING

The white sun hangs above the eastern horizon, pressing the shadows of three transport vehicles (ARMADILLO-1, ARMADILLO-3

& ARMADILLO-5) into the bowl of the crater hundreds of feet below.

From the open hatch of Armadillo-1 emerges Flypod Goblin-3, followed shortly after by FLYPOD TERRIER-1. Sven, Abacus and Kenneth people the first craft; Lo-Cheun, Zria and JESCA, a Bluebranch Senior with a ziggurat tattooed on her neck, sit in the second.

The flypods sink toward the crevasse.

INT. FLYPOD TERRIER-1 - SAME

Jesca, a convosphere before her mouth, addresses the crews of both flypods.

JESCA

If you need to speak to one

another, do so in even, quiet

tones. Avoid sudden movements.

Make eye contact only if the

encountered being attempts to make

it with you.

EXT. CREVASSE WITHIN THE CRATER - MOMENTS LATER

The two trios clamber from their tilted, parked vehicles to the uneven floor of the crevasse. They breathe steam into the cold morning air.

LO-CHEUN

(to Sven)

This is where you touched down

before?

SVEN

Yeah. Almost exactly.

KENNETH

Look.

91.

Kenneth points to the ground: a camouflaged serpent with six legs lies upon the brown rock.

Lo-Cheun and Zria withdraw their springblades. Kenneth nudges the serpent with the toe of his boot, TAP.

KENNETH (CONT'D)

Another sculpture.

The group, wary but curious, approaches the six-legged snake.

ABACUS

(whispered; to Kenneth)

You’re like a hawk.

KENNETH

(whispered)

I used to go hunting with my uncle--

you develop an eye for anomalies.

ABACUS

(whispered)

Hunting? Living things?

KENNETH

(whispered)

Yeah. And we’d eat them too.

ABACUS

(whispered)

Like a Neanderthal? The gore

running down your chins while you

bay at the moon?

LO-CHEUN

Be quiet.

Lo-Cheun points his gray index finger up ahead.

LO-CHEUN (CONT'D)

Another one.

The party looks at the indicated spot; a second six-legged serpent made of stone lies fifty feet ahead of them.

LO-CHEUN (CONT'D)

Leave the statues undisturbed;

we’ll follow them. Bjorlsson

takes the lead, since he’s their

pal.

SVEN

It’s Sven.

92.

Lo-Cheun prompts him with a pointed finger; Sven walks toward the next six-legged statue.

The group files in behind the young Swede; Lo-Cheun followed by Jesca, Abacus, Kenneth and finally Zria. They walk up the narrowing crevasse.

LO-CHEUN

(to Jesca)

Any thoughts?

JESCA

They are engaging with us visually, so possibly they are a deaf or

simply nonverbal species.

With her right index finger, the anthropologist TAPS the tip of her sharp chin.

JESCA (CONT'D)

Shaping stone with this degree of

artfulness implies some degree of

sophistication, and- likely- a

knowledge of basic tools.

LO-CHEUN

What is the possibility that this

is a trap? That these statues are

lures?

JESCA

It’s possible.

Not comforted by this last exchange, the rendezvous party continues up the crevasse, stepping around the largest stones as they stride toward the second six-legged serpent. (The far statue is perched upon an upthrust rock.) EXT. CREVASSE WITHIN THE CRATER - LATER