Conflicts of the last progenitors

Sven points to the left side of the ledge: a massive ramp cut into the wall curves down to the city below. Upon it, ever-diminishing, are the three lop-sided sculptors.

SVEN

Let’s keep up-- I’d rather not be

hurled across this distance.

Lo-Cheun takes his earplug out of his right ear and tucks it inside his hipcache.

ZRIA

Your signal’s dead?

LO-CHEUN

Yeah, for a while. Yours?

100.

ZRIA

Dead.

The sextet walks toward the ramp hewn into the wall: there is no railing.

INT. PERIMETER OUTSIDE THE SCULPTORS’ METROPOLIS - LATER

The human party steps from the ramp onto the smooth cavern floor; all of them are lathered in sweat and rubbing their legs; Abacus and Jesca are GASPING. The exhausted Bio glances wearily at the path he just descended.

ABACUS

I’m...I’m g-gonna need a mule for

the trip back.

(panting)

A...a genetically-engineered

supermule.

Zria passes her water to Abacus. Kenneth gives his to Sven; Lo-Cheun gives his to Jesca. The Blues and the Bio drink from the Bullet’s supply.

ZRIA

(to Abacus)

It’s got vitamins and water

retainers-- you need less than you

think.

ABACUS

No. I need more-

(he GASPS)

-than you can imagine.

Sven swallows his water and looks at the three hosts; the tall gray sculptors enter the city. Kenneth, wiping sweat from his face, looks at his watch; he is alarmed with what he sees.

KENNETH

We need to get back before the suns set-- we’re not at all equipped for twenty-five below.

ABACUS

I’d bet all of our lives- and two

months’ cereal paste- that it

doesn’t get anywhere near twenty-

five below down here. The

sculptors are warmblooded and I

think this space-

(MORE)

101.

ABACUS (CONT'D)

(he gestures to the

cavern)

-this space is enclosed and filled

with enough warm steam to be

climate-controlled. Relatively.

Lo-Cheun considers Abacus’ theory.

LO-CHEUN

What does the anthropologist think?

JESCA

I agree with him: this cavern is

exactly the kind of environment

Thakani hoped we’d find.

LO-CHEUN

Don’t say that woman’s name.

Jesca fidgets uneasily.

JESCA

Well, this is what we were all

hoping for: I think we should

continue. Also- if we turn back-

there’s a fair chance the sculptors will become hostile.

Lo-Cheun looks at the descending hosts and nods.

INT. THE SCULPTORS’ METROPOLIS / CENTRAL AVENUE - LATER

The sextet traverses a flat (albeit eccentrically curved) walkway in-between the lumpy stone buildings of the city.

Jesca eyes the water-illumined engravings of spirals, gigantic trees, squidfish, walking serpents, burning trees, sculptors hunting sixclaws, fur-covered sculptors and spiky fruit.

JESCA

(to Abacus)

Any guesses on this glowing water?

Abacus, weary and pained, is drawn out of his brooding. He looks at the running water.

ABACUS

Could be an element unique to

Option-1 or a photo-reactive

isotope. Maybe it’s a luminescent

life-form akin to dino-flagellets.

Abacus rubs a cramp in his side.

102.

ABACUS (CONT'D)

I’ll take a sample if they ever

stop the deathwalk.

INT. THE SCULPTORS’ METROPOLIS / BRIDGE - LATER

The group walks across a narrow bridge arched over a luminous river. Sven observes his warm exhalations turn to steam almost the moment they escape him; he shivers.

SVEN

Getting colder.

Ahead of the sextet, the three lopsided sculptors walk into a copse made of faux trees carved from stone; each replica is one-hundred-and-ninety feet tall and burgeoning with spiky fruit and corkscrewing tentacles.

INT. THE GROUNDS OUTSIDE THE HOUSE OF TOWERS - LATER

The three escorting sculptors stand in the doorway of a massive lumpy building wrought in rock. The enormous edifice is surmounted by seventeen tall towers, each of which has stone whorls, leaves and drippings protruding from its surface.

JESCA

Our escorts appear to be sentries.

ABACUS

Or attack dogs.

Sven, frowning at Abacus’ remark, leads his group toward the guarded ellipsoidal opening.

Without warning, the sculptor sentries rush the human party.

They shove Lo-Cheun, Zria, Jesca, Abacus and Kenneth; all five stumble and fall onto their backs or buttocks, FWUMP-FWUMP-THUD-THWACK-FWUMP.

Sven is the only one still standing. He looks into the inscrutable eye sockets of the sculptors, but can glean nothing.

JESCA

(to Sven)

They want you. Alone.

Two EERIE NOTES sound from within the cyclopean edifice.

103.

SVEN

(to Abacus)

If I don’t return, tell Mlissa...

tell her I should have listened to

her.

ABACUS

No. Make sure you get out of

there.

KENNETH

Be careful.

Sven nods, fills his lungs with cool air and walks toward the hemicircular entrance.

INT. “ANTEROOM” / HOUSE OF TOWERS - SAME

Sven walks inside the “anteroom,” a curvilinear enclosure shaped like a painter’s palette. In the center of the space sits a kidney-shaped well filled with viridescent water.

Two EERIE NOTES sound from the ellipsoidal portal on the opposite side of the room; the ugly pitches garner Sven’s attention. He walks past the well- itself filled with swimming squidfish- toward the egress.

INT. HIGH HALL / HOUSE OF TOWERS - SAME