Voam removes a slender collar from a rack and clicks it into place around Patricia's neck.
VOAM
Computer... English translation for the human.
The collar starts flashing. Now, the conversations are in English. GOHOTH, one of the larger aliens with long white hair, stands up.
GOHOTH
Enough!
A single pair of opposing disks on the floor and ceiling flash and a holographic image of Gohoth stands before the crowd. The image turns to face Voam.
GOHOTH
Your reports show that we are on schedule?
Voam gives the image a slight bow.
VOAM
Correct. We should proceed with the final phase. There are no significant problems to report.
WEUNG, an alien with swept-back gray hair and a hawk-like nose, stands up. A different disk combination flashes into life.
WEUNG
What do you call the human animal next to you?
VOAM
It was necessary. She discovered the installation and I didn't have time to process her.
WEUNG
You should just eliminate any humans that get in the way.
PATRICIA
All intelligent species deserve respect. Especially, the one's you steal minerals from.
Voam is surprised by Patricia's audacity. Weung scowls back at her. The gray-haired creature turns to face Gohoth.
WEUNG
You've placed our entire future in the hands of imbeciles.
GOHOTH
Nonsense. Besides, we have no other choice.
WEUNG
If you had followed my plan, a hundred million would have escaped to nearby systems by now.
GOHOTH
And a hundred billion would be facing annihilation. There is no turning back.
(to Voam)
We will enter the evacuation vortex on schedule.
VOAM
By your leave.
Voam exits with Patricia in tow. As soon as the door closes behind them, their spoken language returns to CHIRPS and CLICKS.
WEUNG
(subtitles)
We still should eliminate the humans. They have primitive nuclear weapons.
GOHOTH
(subtitles)
We will continue as planned.
WEUNG
(subtitles)
Why are we taking unnecessary risks?
GOHOTH
(subtitles)
Because the human female is right. They deserve our respect.
INT. ALIEN SPACE STATION - CORRIDOR
Voam and Patricia approach another bulkhead hatch.
PATRICIA
You didn't travel a hundred light years to give that little report?
VOAM
One hundred twenty eight, and yes, you are correct.
INT. SHUTTLE CRAFT
A hatchway slides open. Voam and Patricia enter and the door closes behind them. A SHUTTLE PILOT sits at a bank of controls.
VOAM
Can you take us over?
SHUTTLE PILOT
(sarcastic)
I live to serve.
EXT. ALIEN SPACE STATION
A tiny craft separates itself from a docking platform. Jets fire and it moves out into space.
Back inside the shuttle.
VOAM
(to Patricia)
I came back for our extraction vessel.
(smirking)
A somewhat larger craft than the suborbital disk you traveled in.
(to pilot)
Is the ship ready?
SHUTTLE PILOT
(nodding)
Eighteen months construction was a pain in the ass.
PATRICIA
Eighteen months? You said it takes twenty-four thousand years to refine the hafnium.
VOAM
The wormholes we use to reach Earth travel through time, as well as space.
Patricia stares out into the black void through the viewport in front of her, weighing what she knows.
PATRICIA
You start a process and then jump forward to the next step. How many times have you been to Earth?
VOAM
This next trip will make seven.
PATRICIA
So you're escaping to the future?
VOAM
It was the only way we could gather enough isomer in time.
PATRICIA
That's why the star map was out of date.
If you were trying to keep this a secret, why send out the radio signals in the first place?
SHUTTLE PILOT
(to Voam)
You left the auto responder on, didn't you?
VOAM
(to Patricia)
We placed a small relay satellite in orbit above your Earth. It has an echo system installed for our own SETI program. We have seen evidence of another advanced race of creatures.
PATRICIA
Another race? Besides yourselves?
VOAM
Yes.
PATRICIA
What sort of evidence?
VOAM
Dark matter concentrations... Radiation signatures where they have no business being.
SHUTTLE PILOT
Whispers in the dark. You are chasing ghosts.
PATRICIA
(to pilot)
I can relate.
(to Voam)
You must be pretty disappointed.
VOAM
Because I haven't found them?
PATRICIA
Because all you've found was us.
Something outside the viewport grabs Patricia's attention. In the center of the window is a round central object surrounded by a ring.
EXT. SHUTTLE CRAFT
The tiny craft approaches what looks like a top view of the miniature planet Saturn, but the central disk and outer ring are obviously mechanical.
Back inside, the pilot manipulates the controls.
Outside, the craft alters course. What had been a disk and ring, tilts to reveal an extended structure behind the disk. The ring surrounds a central complex that extends downward in a tapering column.
Back inside the shuttle.
PATRICIA
It's enormous!
VOAM
The ring is just under a mile in diameter. The central body extends five miles long.
SHUTTLE PILOT
She's a beauty.
EXT. HD38529 - NEAR STAR SURFACE
In a close orbit above the yellow star, a large satellite turns CRIMSON in the radiant heat. A flare rises from the solar surface, its fiery arc wraps around the helpless probe.
Waves ripple through the metal skin. The structure twists and EXPLODES into a thousand pieces.
INT. RINGSHIP - CONTROL ROOM
Voam sits at a central control station. A wide display shows a complex graphic of the ringship in orbit above Mopelia.
A half-dozen alien crewmen work at stations to either side. Behind Voam sits Patricia. Next to her, a scowling Weung is strapped in a chair.
One of the alien crew, EAMAX, young, male, short black hair, sporting a forehead tattoo of a jagged alien symbol, checks his instrument panel.
EAMAX
(alarmed)
We lost another satellite. Solar instabilities increasing.
VOAM
Our time is running out.
WEUNG
You mean the time you've squandered.
PATRICIA
(to Voam)
Now, we go home..? I mean, Earth.
VOAM
Life's a voyage that's homeward bound.
PATRICIA
Herman Melville.
Voam glances over his shoulder and smiles at her.
VOAM
Living with humans leads to a certain... cultural contamination.
Another of the alien crew, AELLA, this one female, with waist-length blonde hair pulled into a thick pony tail with several golden bands, reports.
AELLA
Traffic control signals clear, Captain. All indicators are green.
VOAM
Fire it up.
EXT. RINGSHIP
The exterior ring begins rotating, gaining speed. It maintains its position around the central ship despite the lack of any physical connection.
Back inside the craft, Voam glances at Weung.
VOAM
Last chance to change your mind.
WEUNG
I'm not leaving the fate of Mopelia with you and this... human creature.
VOAM
So be it.
PATRICIA
(quietly)
Dickhead.
Voam slides a control with his left hand while simultaneously punching numbers into a keyboard with his right.
Outside the ringship, a sheet of orange particles streams out of the base of the craft, forming a cone that intersects the rotating ring.
Blue-White light emerges from the top of the ring in a reverse cone. At the focus point, several miles distant, a swirling vortex appears.
Back inside the control room, Voam watches his central monitor as the wormhole opening grows.
EAMAX
Wormhole initiated. Signal trajectory shows targeting correct.
Outside the ship, the Ringship moves closer to the opening. The orange flow increases. The BRIGHTNESS INTENSITY emerging from the ring top jumps and the vortex opening expands.
Inside.
EAMAX
Three seconds to entry... two... one.
Outside in space, the Ringship enters the black abyss. The opening collapses back into nothing.
EXT. RINGSHIP WORMHOLE
The Ringship bores headfirst through a tunnel of swirling colors.
INT. RINGSHIP - CONTROL ROOM
The central control room display shows the tunnel as partly transparent. The light of hundreds of stars shine through, streaking past like a shower of meteors, all radiating from directly ahead.
AELLA
All system parameters are in the green.
VOAM
Very, well.
PATRICIA
Once you get the ore, then what? Where are your people going?
Voam looks at her without answering. He glances at Weung.
WEUNG
You haven't kept your creature informed.
PATRICIA
What..?
A realization suddenly hits home.
PATRICIA
You're coming to Earth?!
VOAM
Not exactly.
WEUNG
The terminus of the evacuation wormhole will be ten million miles closer to your sun than the planet Earth.
PATRICIA
You're going to corral a fleet of spaceships?
Weung just shakes his head.
PATRICIA
Oh, you'll use all those satellites I saw?
WEUNG
So tiresome.
VOAM
A ship similar to this will open up a large wormhole in the orbital path of Mopelia.
The realization suddenly hits.
PATRICIA
You're going to move the planet?! The whole planet?!
VOAM
It would be impossible to transport one hundred billion Mopelians along with their life supporting environment by any other means.
WEUNG
You don't expect us to abandon the material wealth of centuries just to visit your little star system?
PATRICIA
But... that's impossible!
WEUNG
(to Voam)
You still think these creatures are worth our time?
PATRICIA
Wait a minute. A new planet in orbit between the Earth and Venus would be unstable.
VOAM
It will take several million years for gravitational forces to shift the orbits of the other inner planets.
WEUNG
More than enough time for us to adapt.
VOAM
And for mankind, with our help.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
The rugged lunar landscape lays in deep shadow. A halo of reflected light from the Earth softly illuminates the circular horizon.
An explosion of energy transforms the surface with reflected light, casting bizarre shadows. The Ringship bursts into view.
INT. RINGSHIP - CONTROL ROOM
A graphic of the Earth-Moon system, with the Ringship neatly hidden behind the Moon is displayed. A bright spot starts blinking on the globe of Earth, in the center of Alaska.
EAMAX
The mining complex is responding on the neutrino band.
VOAM
Determine status.
PATRICIA
You communicate with neutrinos?
VOAM
It allows us to beam right through the rock of your Moon while blocking us from radar.
AELLA
I'm picking up a lot of radio chatter.
WEUNG
(to Voam)
You said this Moon's far side would be radio quiet?
VOAM
It should be.
AELLA
Triangulating. It seems the humans have placed a couple of satellites in lunar orbit.
(beat)
I'm also picking up several planetary probes and observatories in independent orbits around the central star.
WEUNG
The humans have made more progress in the last thirty-five years than you anticipated.
PATRICIA
Thirty-five years?
VOAM
The last stage of the refining process takes thirty-five years to complete.
PATRICIA
We're thirty-five years in the future?!
WEUNG
No, idiot. We're twenty-four thousand years in the future.
PATRICIA
I'm not talking about Mopelia! What year is it on Earth?
VOAM
Twenty twenty.
PATRICIA
Oh my God! Brian... Sandy.
VOAM
I'm sorry.
PATRICIA
Sorry? You threw my life away! I want to go back... Back to nineteen eighty-five.
VOAM
That's not possible.
PATRICIA
Don't tell me that. You have the technology. Just take me back. I won't tell anyone about your plans.
WEUNG
Earth creature, the energy we expended getting here is equivalent to the entire output from your sun for ten years.
VOAM
Weung is right. We have used all of our resources on this evacuation plan. There is no going back. For any of us.
EXT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - mORNING
The base has greatly expanded since nineteen eighty-five. Three runways stretch past a sprawling complex of aircraft hangers and buildings.
A Boeing 767 fitted with an AWACS radar dome takes off from one of the runways.
INT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - COMMAND AND CONTROL
Multiple large-screen monitors hang from the vast interior of the complex. Images of various air base operations - a jet hanger, a helicopter refueling - mix with several world-wide radar displays.
Captain STEPHANIE WILCOX, Caucasian, early thirties, looks up as Brigadier General Ethan Stewart, now in his early-sixties, enters. The General's silver star glistens in the florescent light.
STEWART
Where are we at, Captain?
Wilcox jumps up from her seat and salutes. She hands the general a printout.
WILCOX
Eagle eye has reached altitude, sir. All systems are in the green.
STEWART
Very well. Proceed with the test.
EXT. EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - 40,000 FEET
The modified 767 flies through a crystal clear blue sky. A panel in the nose of the aircraft slides open to reveal a round, highly reflective lens.
Back at the Elmendorf Air Force Base command and control center, Genera
l Stewart turns to Lieutenant DOUGLAS MADDOX, African-American, thirty.
STEWART
Initiate missile launch.
MADDOX
Yes, sir.
Maddox lifts a protective cover on his embedded control panel and flips three switches in sequence.
EXT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - PATRIOT MISSILE LAUNCHER
A mobile missile launcher has its bulky canister elevated toward the sky. A single missile erupts from the four-pack container.
EXT. EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - ABOVE EAGLE EYE AIRCRAFT
The radar dome mounted on top of the Eagle Eye 767 spins as it scans the sky.
INT. EAGLE EYE 767 - ELECTRONICS CABIN
Technicians man complex embedded electronic stations. An intense looking OPERATOR checks a reading.
OPERATOR
Tracking confirmed. Eagle Eye energizing.
The Operator turns to look down the tube of the aircraft.
INT. EAGLE EYE 767 - MAIN CABIN
A long crystal cylinder glows with reflected light and energy. The intensity increases. It emits a HIGH-PITCHED WHINE.
Outside, in front of the jet's nose, the reflective lens turns cherry red and a beam of intense light flashes outward.
EXT. EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - APPROACHING PATRIOT MISSILE
Flaming exhaust thrusts the missile forward. A red spot appears on the nose cone. The missile explodes, spewing out shards of flaming metal.
INT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - COMMAND AND CONTROL
Wilcox jumps out of her seat.
WILCOX
A hit!
She quickly regains her composure and sits back down.
WILCOX
Target destroyed, sir.
The General permits himself a little grin.
STEWART
Very, well.
Stewart announces to the room.
STEWART
I want data collection and preliminary analysis on my desk by thirteen hundred.
The General turns to leave. Something on Maddox's monitor rivets the Lieutenant's attention.
MADDOX
Sir, NASA lunar orbiter seven picked up an energy burst at fourteen thirty-seven Zulu.
STEWART
A meteor hit?
MADDOX
No, sir. NASA confirms the source was centered fifty-two miles above the Krosovsky creator complex. Dead center on the far side.
STEWART
Above it? What's the spectral analysis?
MADDOX
That's just it, sir.
(reading his display)
There's x-rays, gamma-rays, even long wave energy. It's across the whole spectrum.
Wilcox grabs a sheet of paper from her printer.
WILCOX
Sir, this may be related.
She hands it to the general. He studies it for a couple moments.
STEWART
(reading)
The Tibet solar neutron telescope reports a ten-fold increase in neutron count at fourteen thirty-eight hours.