screenplay 1st draft

Sorensen

Daily

Hammersley

 Sorensen sits upright in his bunk blinking wide eyed at the darkness

Sciren screams through the outpost

Sorensen shakes his head and realised the alarm is sounding, he tumbles out of bed, staggers about as he searches for his gravity boots

Collides with a scared looking daily in the metal corrido, Sorensen growls at daily ‘go and wake the skipper up’

Sorensen races down corridor to control room

Sorensen blinks as the control room lights are dazzling, shakes his head and goes towards the screen where he sees a silver ship moving in

Sorensen is fearful and sinks into control chair, eyes wide; he growls ‘can you kindly get the skipper down here daily, if he can manage to take a minute’

Hammersley ‘im right here’ he is behind sorensens chair, staring at the screen with angry grey eyes

Hammersley ‘who told you to shut off the alarm?’

Sorensen ‘nobody told me,it was getting on my nerves’

Hammersley ‘what a shame. I give orders on this station, and youll remember it’ he scowls at the ship as it comes closer

Hammersley ‘whats its course’

sorensen ‘its going to land, look at that thing, its travelling’

Hammersley ‘contact it’ voice was horse

Sorensen spun a dial and cursed ‘no luck can’t get through’

A frown creases his forehead as he watches it land

Hammersley ‘still nothing?’

Sorensen ‘not a peep’

They both stare out at the ship

sorensen ‘so this is the mysterious ship’ he mutters

Hammersley looks curious and eager ‘oh my’

Sorensen ‘what’

Hammersley ‘oh my, this is something elese, something quite different’ a smile curves his lips and he rubs his hands together

Hammersley ‘this ship’s from space, deep space this ones from the stars’

Int skippers cabin

Daily and Sorensen are seated restlessly, uneasily facing eager eyes of  the skipper whilst he paced, his faced red with excitement, eyes unable to contain eagerness

Hammersley ‘still no contact?’

Sorensen shook his head anxiously ‘not a sign ive tired every signal I know at every wave frequency that could possibly reach them ive even tried a dozen frequencies that ciuodnt possibly reach them and I haven’t stirred them up a bit they just aren’t answering’

Hammersley swings on the 2 men

‘alright now, I want you to get this straight, this is our catch we don’t know what aboard it and we don’t know where it came from but its our prize that mean not a words goes home about it until weve learnt all there is to learn were gonna get the honors on this one not some eager admiral back home’

Daily looks worryingly at Sorensen

Sorensen growls ‘what about the law, the law says everything must be reported within 2 hours’

Hammersley snaps ‘Then well break the law, im skipper of this outpost and those are your orders, you don’t need to worry about the law, ill see that youre protected but his is too big to fumble, this ship is from the stars, that means it must have a speed module, you know what that means the government will fall all over itself to reward us’

Sorensen scowls and dailys worry deepens

Sorensen stubbornly ‘the law’

Hammersley ‘ damn the law, were stationed out here in this limbo to watch and report any activity we see coming there’s nothing in our orders about anything else, there have been ships they think but not this ship the government have spent billions trying to find a ship from the stars and never gotten to first base’ he pauses, eyes narrowing, ‘well go aboard this ship, well find out whats aboard it and where its from and well take it , theres been no resistance yet, but it could be dangerus we cant assume anything you will report anything they find to me’

Daily looks up eagerly ‘ I don’t know if I could tel anything’

Hammersley ‘you can tell more than anyone else here, ill count on you, if you bring back a good report perhaps we can cancel out any certain unfortunate items in your record’

He turns to Sorensen who is sullen

Sorensen ‘this is gross breach and you know it, they’ll have you in irons when we get back I don’t want anything to do with it’

‘You’re under orders Sorensen you keep forgetting’

‘They’re illegal orders sir’

‘ill take responsibility for that’

Sorensen looks Hammersley in the eyes ‘you mean you’ll sell us down a rat hole to save your skin that’s what you mean’

Hammersleys eyes widen and his face darkens, steps towards Sorensen

Hammersley ‘ you’ll watch your tongue I think be careful what you say to be sorrensen be very careful because if you don’t you’ll be in irons and well see just how long you last when we get home , now you’ve got your orders you’ll board this ship with daily’

Sorensen clenches fists and bursts out ‘you don’t know what’s over there , we could be slaughtered’

Hammersley has an unpleasant smile ‘That would be such a pity wouldn’t it, I’d really hate to see it happen’

Int loding bay

Daily and Sorensen get into their pressure suits, checking their equipment

The door opens and they move towards he ship on speeder bikes, Sorensen curses

They reach the ship and get off their speeders walking towards the entrance lock

Daily probes the lock and its opens slowly

They enter a dark space

Daily excited voice breathless ‘no touble getting it open it worked on the same principle as ours’

Sorensen ‘ better get to work on the inner lock’

Daily shoots him a sharp glance  ‘but what about inside I mean we can’t just walk in on them’

Sorensen ‘why not we’ve tried to contact them’

Daily reluctantly probes the inner lock with trembling fingers , moments later they were moving slowly down the dark corridor

They reached a great oval door and entered the control room

Their eyes widened as they stared a the centre

Daily hoarse whisper ‘my god look at it sorensen’

Sorensen moved slowly across the room to look at the frale crushed form lying againt a panel

Thin almost boneless arms pasted against the metal, an ovsl humanoid skull was crushed into the nobs and levers of the control panel

Horror shot through sorensen He peeled abit of jelly away from the metal, he turned away with a look of wonder and disgust

Sorensen ‘all dead’

Daily looks up a him hands tembling ‘no wonder there was no sign’ he looks about helplessly

‘it’s a derelict Sorensen, a wanderer, how could It have happened how long ago’

Sorensen shakes head bewildered ‘then it was just chance that it came to us, that we saw it, no pilot no chart, it might’ve wandered for centuaries’

Daily stares around the room frightened, easnn over control pannel, probing it

Sorensen nodes approvingly

Sorensen  ‘Well have to go over it with a comb, ill see what I can find in the rest of the ship, you go ahead on the controls and speed modual’

Sorensen moved swiftly into the corridor without waiting for an answer, feeling sick

Int chart room

Sorensen looks at charts of star systems unfamiliar to him

Sorensen sees Daily move about quickly with an eagerness, making detailed notes in the control room then scrambling down a ladder to the depths of the engine room

Suspicious, Sorensen follows, as he arpoaches the wide eyed daily he hides his notes quickly behind his back

Sorensen’ daily’

Daily ‘whast the trouble’

Sorensen trembles turns away ‘Nothing, just a thought’ mutters

Daily ‘I guess we better report to the skipper now’

Daily presses a button on his helmet that beams a holographic image of the skipper infron of them

Daily ‘the ship came from outside the system beyond doubt probably from a planet with lighter gravity than our own judging by the frailty of the creature oxygen breathers from the look of their gas storage if you ask me id say’

Hammersley breathing impatiently ‘ all right all right, you can write it up and hand It to me it isn’t really important where they came from or wether they breathe oxygen or fluorine the important thing is how they got here, the speed moduale daily, you went over the engines carefully what did you find?’

Daily twitches uneasily looking at the floor ‘oh yes I examined them carefully wasn’t too hard I examined every pice of speed modual on the ship from stem to stern’

Sorensen nodded slowly observing dialy with a neutral expression ‘thast right you gave it a good going over’

Daily ‘it’s a derelict like Sorenson told you he was dead probably had been dead for a long time I couldn’t tell f course probably nobody could tell they mustve been dead for centuaries’

Hammersley blinks ‘Wait a miunte what do you mean centuaries ‘

Daily stares at shoes apologetic whine‘the engines were almost dead the ship wasn’t going anywhere skipper maybe its been wandering for thousands of years ‘

Meets skippers eyes for a second taking a deep breath ‘ they don’t have a speed moduale sir, just plain simple slow engines nohnig different they’ve been traveling for centuaries and it would have taken them just as long to get back’

Hammersley chocked ‘are you trying to tell me that their engines are no different from our own that  a ship has actually wandered into our spystem without  a speed modual?’

Daily spreads his hands helplessly ‘something mustve gone wrong, I mustve started off for another planet in its own system and something went wrong it broke into space and I died and the ship just went on moving, they never intended an interstellar hope they couldn’t have they didn’t have the speed modual for it’

Hammersley sat back struck ‘ you you could be worong you couldn’t have missed anything?’

Daily eeys shifted and faintly ‘no sir’

Hammersley stared at them roaring ‘then get the hell back here, now’

Both move towards the lock, get on their speeders and come back to the loading bay, take off their suits and go back to their rooms, Sorensen follows daily into his room

He picks up daily and pins him against the wall

Sorensen whisper ‘all right talk, lets have it now’

Daily choked grey face eyes bulging ‘ Sorensen let me down what the matter youre choking me Sorensen’

Sorensen ‘you stinking little liar talk dammt yuore not messing with the skipper now youre messing with me adnn ill have the truth if I have to cave in your skull’

Daily ‘I told you the truth I don’t know what you mean’

Sorensen ‘thats the wrong answer I warn you don’t lie the skipper is a child but im not quite so dull, you fool youre story is so full of holes, it just died did it im supposed to belive that? Only one thing could crush it against the control pannel like that, they had a speed moduale didn’t they daily’

daily ‘don’t tell the skipper, Sorensen listen to me don’t tell him I led, I was going to tell you anyway Sorensen I really, ive got a plan, a good plan, they had it, their trip probably only took a few months, it has a speed modual ive never seen before, I think I could work it, don tgive me away Sorensen listen a minute’

Sorensen ‘youre out of your mind, you don’t know what youre doing, hes stupid but not that stupid’

Daily ‘he wont get a chance to see it, hes gotta take our word until he sees it and we can stall him’

Sorensen ‘ a day or so maybe but what then oh how could you be so stupid hes out of favour and fighting for his life that speed moduale is the big break that uld put him on top cant you see hes selfish he has to be in this world tp get anyting anything or anyoe who blocks hm hell destroy if he can cant you see that when he spots this your life wont be worth anything’

Daily ‘thats right my life isn’t worth anything, nither is yours or anybodies here or back home,somethings changed in the past 100 years  people don’t matter anymore it’s the government, what the government  that matters’

Sorensen ‘youre a dreamer’

Daily ‘no, we live in  world of iron a fear, there is no place for me or others like me, until this ship came’

Sorensen ‘so I was right I read it on your face when I was in the ship I knew what you weer thinking ypu couldn’t get away with it daily, whre would you go’

Daily’ the skipper has to take our word for it until he sees the ship, even then he couldn’t tell for sure, I could make it work, youre a misfit too who acres where if only we could go get away, it’s a chance’

Sorensen ‘ if only to get away from him, I hate him and I don’t think I go home without killing him to see fear cross his face one time, it would brek him for good hed be through washed up and wed be free, what about the acceleration it killed the pilot

Daily ‘it was so frail and weak, light brittle bones and jelly, we could handle it’

Sorensen ‘it would have to be fast, tonight like lightinng’

Daily ‘oh yes I know that, but we can do it’

Sorensen ‘ yes, maybe we can’

Night int Sorensens room

Sorensen called into skippers cabin

Hammersley ‘I want you to tell me what daily thinks hes doing’

Sorensen ‘I guess hes nervous he doesn’t belong on this outpost he belongs at hme the place gets on his nerves’

Hammersley ‘I didn’t like his report’

Sorensen ‘I know’

Hammersley ‘I find it hard to belive, ships don’t just wander aimlessly, I don’t want to accuse you or daily of lying but a patrol craft will be here in an hour I signalled as soon as I had your reports the patrol craft will have experts on board, speed moduale experts who will review your report’

Sorensen ‘an hour?’

Hammersley ‘that’s what I said, in that time you could tell me the truth it could saev you much unhappiness in the future’

Sorensen ‘you have your information, the patrol craft can confirm it’

Int dailys room

Daily ‘ an hour but how can we’

Sorensen ‘ weve got to we cnt quit now were dead if we do, weve got to run nothing else, cn you control the speed moduale’

Daily ‘I I think so , I can nly try

Sorensen ‘ you have to , meet me at the loadin bay and prepare the speeders’

Int loading bay dark

Sorensen gets to the bay and daily Is already there in his suit

Sorensen gets into his when the alarm sounds and the light comes on

Hammersley ‘too bad you almost made it too, shame Sorensen a smart man like you I might’ve expected something like this from daily’

Sorensen tackled hammersly screaming and knocking the stun gun from his hand

Sorensen ‘run daily, go’

Daily mounted a speeder and went out into darkness

He then took off

Hammersley ‘you let him get away it was your fault, yours, but you wont get away ive got you and youll pay do you hear that now well see who will laugh youll laugh in the death chamber’

Sorensen laughes loudly and Hammersley stuns him