The Dark Frontier (5)
LESLIE (continuing) Just thank your lucky stars that the Reps don't have any space jump technology or humanity would be done for. The Enforcer Three ignores the Retribution as it POUNDS away at the attacking "Reptoid" fleet. The Captain Thorn appears on the com link screen. THORN (near panic) Are you just going to sit there? There are hundreds of them! They will destroy us both! Leslie swings her ship around, facing the attacking swarm of alien craft. Doc swings the point-five turrets around and begins to FIRE, POW! POW! POW! He picks off the small unshielded REP ships one by one. The Enforcer CONTINUES TO FIRE all five of its weapons into the attackers. More REPs succumb, but more are still coming! Bill's one-point-five is less effective than the smaller, rotatable guns. His firing rate is slower. BAM! He gets one! BAM! Another! BILL Why don't we Jump out of here? LESLIE Not until the Jump Capacitors recharge! The Enforcer must be recharging too. ZEE (over com) Brace yourself Leslie. I've got three Reptoid battle cruisers approaching at three three six on eighty five degrees. Nine thousand kiloclicks downrange. LESLIE Hailing Enforcer Three! Captain! Check sensors at three three six on eighty five! THORN'S IMAGE appears on Leslie's com screen. THORN My GOD! We're done for! LESLIE I propose we concentrate fire on the lead Cruiser I will fire when they come into your point five range. THORN I concur, but see to it that you keep that cannon pointed away from me. LESLIE (to Bill) He knows nothing about the Quell, yet. If I aim for the center ship the explosion will take all three of the REPs out. (a beat) You know that bastard Thorn will turn on us as soon as we remove the REP threat. BILL So what are we going to do? We won't be able to use the Quell again for another hour. LESLIE I'm going to move in closer to him and tilt the Retribution slightly upwards. The explosion and shock wave will take him by surprise. Fire as soon as the impact blows us into position to hit his ship with the cannon. EXT. SPACE Leslie maneuvers the Retribution closer to the Enforcer. They align their orientation so that their weapons will be concentrated in the direction of the approaching battle cruisers. Leslie moves in still closer to the larger ship, but keeping the one point five pointed away, towards the alien threat. INT. RETRIBUTION The QUELL POWERS UP. The smaller REP ships continue to buzz around like predatory flies. Preparing the way for the larger craft. Leslie presses the Quell discharge icon! EXT. SPACE Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the small rep ships evaporate nearly instantly, looking like flashbulbs in the distance. One, Two, Three huge fireballs erupt in an overlapping explosion that lights up half the sky! WHOOSH! The shock wave quickly reaches the two Terran ships. The impact of wave swings the Retribution to a near relative vertical position. BAM! Bill fires the one-point-five directly into the belly of the Enforcer as the Retribution flips around. At that close range, the round cuts through their force shielding and punches through the hull. Leslie quickly recovers attitude and swings back towards the Enforcer. The large craft slowly rolls over, propelled by a bluish looking jet of gas escaping from the large hole in the hull's bottom. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE LESLIE Hailing Enforcer Three! Captain Thorn! (looks concerned) Something's wrong. ZEE The primary power systems were taken out. Most life support down. Still some life signs near bridge area. I detect launching of several escape pods. Shit! They are using the jump capacitors to maintain the antimatter containment fields. LESLIE How much time we got before it blows? ZEE Fifteen--less than twenty minutes tops. LESLIE Damn! Melissa! Deploy the spider. Bridge area. Bainbridge, Bill, come with me! EXT. SPACE The hollow, articulated ARM swings out from beneath the belly of the Retribution. CRUNCH! The 'X' shaped Hydraulic ram array at the end of the arm, digs its four metal claws into the side of the Enforcer's hull, locking the two ships together. A couple of small escape pods can be seen launching themselves. INT. SPIDER ARM Leslie, Bainbridge and Bill, guns in hand, wait for the beak to open. BILL There must be over a hundred crew on board what chance do we have against them? LESLIE Trust me Bill. Right now they are too busy trying to save their own asses than to worry about us. The beak opens, revealing a passageway. Several panicy crewmembers run by. INT. PASSAGEWAY Leslie leads the group to a door LESLIE Here it is. In here! INT. BRIDGE The area looks deserted. The screens are still on. LESLIE (points to slot in console) Bainbridge! There's the port, download the data and lets get out of here. We only have ten minutes. Bill! Guard the door. Bainbridge inserts a small silver card into the slot and begins the download. Leslie hears a door on the other side of the room slide open. She turns to see THORN. He holds his GUN at his side. THORN You are still Leslie Webber. I knew you would show up. Bainbridge turns towards them LESLIE I can handle this, Bainbridge, do your job. (to Thorn) I see you must be feeling brave today, Thorn. Didn't Konstantin order all his officers never to confront Captain Webber unless they had at least a two to one advantage? THORN You are not quite what you were then, Webber. LESLIE True, I am not a lot of the things I once was. Leslie appears to relax, Thorn drops his guard somewhat himself. Quick as lightning, Leslie DRAWS HER GUN and POW! POW! POW! Puts a bullet in Thorn's crotch, chest and between his eyes. He falls like a tree. LESLIE (continuing) But I'm still Leslie Webber. Bill rushes in to help, but his assistance is not needed. Leslie walks over to THORN'S BODY. She removes his black, leather wide-brimmed HAT. She looks down and sees something else, a GOLD NUGGET, suspended from a leather cord tied around his neck. She snatches it off and drops it into the hat. Upon leaving Thorns body, she delivers a powerful KICK to his groin. Bainbridge looks questioning at Leslie. LESLIE Don't ask! BAINBRIDGE I'm through here, Captain, lets go. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE Leslie rushes in. LESLIE Melissa, Detach! We have two minutes to get far away from here before their anti matter reactor blows. Melissa takes the helm, the ENGINES REV and the Enforcer's image falls off the com-screen as the Retribution banks. EXT. SPACE The Retribution moves out. BOOM! The Enforcer evaporates in a huge explosion. INT. RETRIBUTION - TELEMETRY ROOM Leslie tosses the GOLD NUGGET to Zee. LESLIE See what you can tell me about this. Leslie looks at the HAT, seeing that it appears to be about the right size, she puts it on. She looks at herself in a com screen and likes the way it looks. She walks out. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE Bainbridge plugs a CARD into a console and downloads the data into Retribution's own system. Data comes up on a COM SCREEN. BAINBRIDGE Bingo! Look here. These are the routes of the ore transport ships. Apparently, they refine the gold from the ore on planets in other star systems. That way they minimize industrial activity at the mine colony that might attract unwanted attention. MELISSA All of these flights originate in an unnamed star system, just beyond the Simeran limit. The Syndicate calls it Axel. Melissa examines a couple of more DATA SCREENS. MELISSA It's the moon on the second planet. It will take at least three jumps to get there. Shall I plot a course. LESLIE By all means, but make sure Zee scans the area before each jump WE don't know what the syndicate has out there waiting for intruders. She adjusts the HAT on her head. INT. RETRIBUTION - TELEMETRY ROOM Leslie wanders over to Zee's biotelemetry station. ZEE Its about an hour until the next jump, do you want to learn how to see cord numbers. LESLIE Sure, that's a skill I can use. Let's find Konstantin's ship. ZEE We can't do that unless we have an object that has been in contact with it. Let's try something easier. Look for the cords of your ranch. Leslie stares at the RANDOM FIELD SCREEN and fiddles with the variation controls. Suddenly, Leslie sees what looks like A COM SCREEN bearing the three spatial cords. Leslie looks closer. But when she tries to read them, The numbers begin to JUMP around. LESLIE Damn! I can see them but I can't read them. It's like I'm dyslexic or something. LESLIE Yes, the Q-link sensing organs reside in the right brain. Interpretation of numbers and letters are LEFT-brain functions. LESLIE Then how the hell do you read them then? ZEE You have to develop tricks. The right brain is attuned to art forms and beauty. Try to see each digit as a shape! Don't think of it as a number. Once the right brain sees it the left will interpret it Leslie tries again. One of the numbers "stabilizes". LESLIE Hey it's a five! ZEE Great! now only 44 more to go DISSOLVE TO: Only three more readable numbers appear on the screen. Leslie is tired. LESLIE Four digits in thirty minutes. This ain't easy. ZEE Yes, it takes practice and everyone needs to develop his or her own tricks to fool the brain. That will do for today. Zee signals that the session is over and takes her own place in the chair. INT. RETRIBUTION - CLINIC Leslie drops in on the Doctor, still busy in his small clinic, unpacking and sorting his instruments. LESLIE Sorry to keep you busy on the guns, are you nearly set up in here? DOC It won't take long, maybe a couple of hours. LESLIE Uh . . . Doc, . . . do you know anything about Sexual reassignment surgery? DOC Yes, but in your case, I don't recommend it. LESLIE Now you are sounding like those Space Command doctors. DOC I've gotten to know you, Captain.Your issue isn't what you are, man or woman, but who you are. You were the super man, The handsome hero and had a reputation to go along with it. The issue is not about your sex, Captain, it's pride. You have always been proud of your celebrety and your accomplishments. For good or bad, Pride is your life blood. You want all that back. Surgery can't give it to you. Perhaps if you found the machine that Konstantin used to . . . LESLIE There was a three in four chance that it would kill me the first time I was put through it. I was lucky to have survived. Even if we find the device I face the same odds all over again. I don't feel that lucky. DOC My God Captain! Wake up! You are letting your obsession with this sex thing blind you to the truth. (a beat) You just destroyed three syndicate ships and a Rep invasion force all in one day. Did the other Leslie ever top that? LESLIE Well no, not really. But I had nothing to prove --Then. Thorn didn't even take me seriously. DOC And you nailed him! Hell, you have nothing to prove. You still are the hero! You still are someone to be proud of. Leslie Webber still survives, but only in a different package. Leslie studies her reflexion in the wall MIRROR. LESLIE I've been fighting her! I've been afraid that she would take from me what still remained of my former self. (a beat) Perhaps you are right, Doc. Thorn said as much too. What really is Leslie Webber has survived. It is something beyond my sex. Leslie leans closer to her image LESLIE (to image) You can't do anything to the real me, after all, can you? Leslie Webber may not be a man but she isn't just a woman either. The woman is Leslie Webber. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE Leslie sits at the helm console in contemplation. MELISSA We have completed the last jump and are in reaction engine range of the colony. LESLIE Zee! Scan out seven parsecs for anything within jump range of the colony. ZEE(over com) I have four enforcers stationed two parsecs out. Any of which can be on our butts with in one jump should they get word of any trouble on the colony. BILL If we can see them, why can't they see us? LESLIE Like everyone else, they have to rely on conventional EM sensors, Bill. They could take years to reach out this far. We have a BT. (a beat) Melissa! Feed the Enforcer database through the J com in a continuous loop. That will tie up the local relays so they can't get J com messages to the Enforcers. ZEE We have other problems. All approaches to the moon are monitored by a network of automated scanning arrays. LESLIE Any way around them? ZEE I detect a two degree wide gap in the grid on the far side. If we are careful we might be able to fly in through it. It will put us three thousand clicks away from the colony. LESLIE That's a long walk. Its also a long trip in an ATV. ZEE We can still fly close to the colony if we stay beneath the surface beams. We must maintain an altitude of under seventy five meters. LESLIE Peice of cake! Plot me a course through the gap. We're going in. EXT. SPACE Retribution DESCENDS towards Axel two's moon. EXT. NEAR MOON'S SURFACE -- NIGHT The ship flies at low altitude across a dim desert landscape. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE -- NIGHT LESLIE It's mostly flat desert and sand dunes. No mountains or significant landforms to hide behind They will be able to see us coming a dozen clicks away! (a beat) Adjust altitude to ten meters EXT. MOON'S SURFACE -- NIGHT In the distance, is a long BARBED WIRE FENCE. Enclosed TOWERS with GUN TURRETS mounted on them can be seen at two click intervals. LIGHTS shine from only a few of the towers. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE -- NIGHT MELISSA It's the outer perimeter. LESLIE There is a disadvantage to too much secrecy. See the lights? Not all the towers are manned- They've gotten lazy. They never had any company and don't expect any now. We'll set down in the shadows, between those two towers. EXT. MOON SURFACE -- NIGHT An enclosed ATV LOWERS out of a hatch on the bottom of the vessel. The crew watches it descend and then climb in. MUSIC AND VOICES come from an open DOOR the base of a tower. Parked nearby, a BLACK ATV, with Syndicate markings. Retribution's ATV pulls up and parks about 50 meters away. Leslie emerges. Bill and Melissa follow her. MELISSA Are you sure that you are ready for this Leslie? LESLIE You said that my smile would get me into such places, lets try it out. BILL Are you just going to walk in there, Captain? LESLIE Sure, most men won't shoot a pretty girl. Not right away anyhow. Wait outside. You know what to do if there is trouble. Leslie Shakes her hair loose, takes a breath, and begins to walk up to the door. Bill, guns drawn, stations himself just outside the doorway, and presses himself against the wall. Melissa backs him up. Leslie walks in. The voices cease. Four bearded and leather clad MEN sit around a table. The men stare at Leslie in stunned silence. They each hold small COM SCREENS in their hands. Each screen plugs into a small black box in the center of the table. Leslie sees CARD FACES displayed on the viewing surfaces. LESLIE Deal me in Fellas? One points to an empty CHAIR. He plugs another com screen into the box and presses a button on top. Leslie takes the screen and watches as five card faces appear. Leslie notes that the men seem oddly apprehensive, nervous and overly polite. MAN#1 Uh. . . . It's YOUR bet, Ms. Horst. The remark shakes Leslie for an instant. She KNOWS that name, but she keeps cool and plays along. LESLIE What's the minimum? MAN#2 Five! Here, I'll spot you". The man, shaking like a leaf, hands Leslie a RED CHIP. The next man begins to throw in his chip, but hesitates. MAN#3 I fold! MAN#1 Konstantin isn't upset with us is he, Ms. Horst? You know there is very little to do here and we . . ANOTHER MAN, who comes down the steps from the upper portion of the tower, interrupts them. Leslie's hand, subtlety, but instinctively moves towards her gun. He looks like a Syndicate OFFICER. He sees Leslie and quickly removes his HAT. His face takes on the same expression of awe and fear that the other men wear upon their countenances. Leslie looks up and TOSSES HER HAIR. Something is not right. The expression on OFFICER'S face suddenly changes.
Copyright © 2001 Thomas M Ray |