He lifts his head from the printout.
STEWART
The source corresponds to the Moon's coordinates.
The General instinctively glances upward at the ceiling.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
The sun is at right angles to the half-illuminated Earth and Moon. The sharp-edged light cuts across the center of the airless lunar far side, casting rugged shadows.
Floating above, the Ringship emerges from the darkness. A small silvery disk separates from the central hull and moves outward in an arc toward the Moon's Earth facing side.
INT. FLYING SAUCER - CONTROL ROOM
The lunar landscape turns smoothly on a control room monitor. A radiant point of blue-green light explodes between the crater-rim mountain tops. Earthrise.
On a panel in front of Voam, ten indicators that resemble a graphic equalizer suddenly shoot up. The control room is filled with the jumbled SOUNDS of a dozen radio broadcasts.
VOAM
The volume of radio traffic is orders of magnitude greater than it was in nineteen eighty-five.
Voam manipulates a control and the main viewscreen shows a halo of countless points of light surrounding an outline of the Earth.
PATRICIA
(melancholy)
It's been thirty-five years.
VOAM
I'm reading five thousand, seven hundred and twenty satellites.
PATRICIA
five thousand... What are they all for?
VOAM
Communication, global positioning, intelligence gathering.
PATRICIA
They are probably tracking us on radar.
VOAM
The anti-gravity field should distort any radar echoes. Optical sightings are another matter.
Voam presses a prominent button.
INT. RINGSHIP - CONTROL ROOM
Weung paces in front of several wall-mounted displays.
Eamax
Message from Voam sir, confirm Earth technology more advanced than expected.
EAMAX
Recommend Ringship reposition to remain in Moon's shadow.
WEUNG
Now, we have to waste more energy. Proceed.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
The Ringship glides from sunlight to shadow.
EXT. SPACE - JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE
A million miles from Earth, the segmented primary mirror of a large space telescope floats through space. Three booms extend outward to focus light on an electronic assembly. Across the blackness of space hangs the white half-full moon.
INT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - COMMAND AND CONTROL
General Stewart glares at a black and white photograph.
MADDOX
NASA was able to get that shot with the James Webb telescope.
INSERT: An image of the far side of the moon. An unbroken edge of light extends across the center of the globe, except for one small reflection in the center.
Stewart taps on the center of the photograph.
STEWART
Can we get this area enlarged?
MADDOX
They went in for a closer shot. The reflection was gone.
STEWART
(quietly)
They're hiding.
WILCOX
Begging the General's pardon, any object in orbit around the moon would circle around to Earthside every hour.
STEWART
If it was in orbit.
WILCOX
It has to be in orbit. It can't just hover over the Moon. Sir?
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - NIGHT
The silver flying saucer glides silently past green treetops and a rocky beach. A couple lights glow from the opposite shore as the craft moves out over the water.
Slowly, it descends and is swallowed by the lake. A three foot wake spreads outward. The wave hits a small dock and flips a rowboat upside down.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER
The energy beams in the ceiling are now firing into a mound of orange glowing ore. Voam and Patricia enter and walk out on to the catwalk.
VOAM
I need forty-eight hours to complete the transfer. I must ask that you stay here, out-of-sight.
PATRICIA
Don't want a dinosaur from the eighties stumbling around?
VOAM
There is a remote possibility someone might recognize you. It only takes one person to realize you haven't aged in past thirty-five years.
Voam walks toward an instrument panel.
PATRICIA
(sadly, to herself)
Like my husband and daughter.
She follows him along the catwalk.
PATRICIA
How are you going to move all this ore to the far side of the moon?
Voam adjusts the front panel controls on some of his instruments and the energy beams cut out.
VOAM
I have a small amount of condensed matter on board the scout craft.
He motions toward the glowing hafnium.
VOAM
I'll combine it with a sample of hafnium and create a small wormhole straight to the Ringship.
PATRICIA
You're going to create a wormhole in this cavern and...
She waves at the glowing hafnium.
PATRICIA
Suck all this up? Isn't that dangerous?
VOAM
I've opened up similar wormholes in the past. I've only had one accident several Earth years ago. Unfortunately, two humans were killed.
Patricia's jaw hits the floor. She manages to speak one word.
PATRICIA
When?
VOAM
The Earth year was nineteen sixty-five. I was scanning a hilltop for traces of hafnium radiation. There were no roads. There should not have been anyone around for miles.
(beat)
What's wrong?
Patricia's knuckles turn white as she grips the railing overlooking the hafnium.
PATRICIA
I don't feel well. I'm going to lay down for a while.
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - MORNING
A teenage boy, KEVIN, watches as an SUV backs a trailer with two waverunners into the water. The driver, SCOTT, another teenage male, puts it in park and hops out.
Kevin notices branches and driftwood piled up on shore.
KEVIN
Must have been some bitch'n waves last night. Maybe we had one of those micro downburst things?
SCOTT
Micro downburst? What are you, some kind of weather channel freak?
KEVIN
I'm just saying it's kind'a weird.
Scott starts unhooking his waverunner.
SCOTT
Who care's. Let's ride.
INT. FLYING SAUCER - CONTROL ROOM
Patricia sits on her robotic seat, wide-eyed staring into the past. Her emotions swell and she breaks into tears.
After a few moments, the sound of approaching FOOTSTEPS. She wipes her face just before Voam enters. The alien manipulates a control console and a small metallic cylinder rises from the floor.
Voam slowly positions a floating piece of equipment the size of a filing cabinet over the cylinder. He adjusts some controls and the cylinder pops up into the interior of the containment vessel.
PATRICIA
How much condensed matter do you need?
VOAM
About a teaspoonful. Around one hundred million tons.
PATRICIA
Jesus...
Voam taps on the containment vessel.
VOAM
Outside this anti-gravity containment vessel it would sink to the Earth's core of its own weight.
Voam slowly pushes the floating device out of the control room. Patricia waits a few moments. She hops off her seat and walks toward the control room entrance.
At the base of her robot re-configured seat, is the mechanical head. It rotates toward Patricia. The radio astronomer stops and turns around.
&nb
sp; PATRICIA
Bathroom break.
The head rotates back around.
INT. FLYING SAUCER - ACCESS HATCH
Patricia keys in the same access code she saw Voam use when the saucer docked with the space station at Mopelia.
INSERT: Human fingers press 2,3,5,7,11.
The hatch to the saucer begins to close. At the last second she jumps through to the connecting tube.
She keys in the same code on a panel in the tube. An ALARM goes off, followed by a voice warning.
VOICE WARNING
Warning, outer environment breach in ten seconds. Closing inner hatch.
The inner door of the connecting tube slams down. Now, Patricia is isolated in the small space between the connecting tube door and the closed saucer hatch.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER
The ALARM echoes in the vast chamber. Voam takes off running for the connecting tunnel to the saucer.
Back in the access tube, Patricia takes a huge breath of air and closes her eyes. The connecting tunnel seal around the saucer pulls back and water THUNDERS in.
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - UNDERWATER
Patricia is propelled outward with a gush of air. She rises above the underwater saucer toward the surface, thirty feet above.
INT. UNDERGROUND TUNNEL
Voam reaches the closed tunnel door and quickly keys in another code.
On the other side of the door, the tube extends back to the underwater saucer. Pumps quickly push the water out and the hatchway lifts. A shocked Voam enters the soaked airlock.
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - SURFACE
Patricia bursts through the surface, gasping for air. The two waveriders power through the water nearby. She starts waving frantically.
INT. FLYING SAUCER - CONTROL ROOM
Voam activates a monitor that displays the lake surface. The two waveriders close in on Patricia. The alien turns to see his robot standing behind him.
He plants a right cross on the creature's head, sending him flying.
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - SURFACE
The two teenagers throttle back their engines and coast up to Patricia. Kevin reaches down and pulls her up onto his ride.
KEVIN
Where'd you come from? Did you swim out here?
PATRICIA
Can you take me to shore?
SCOTT
Must be a Mermaid.
EXT. KOTZEBUE - POLICE STATION - DAY
A two-story building with a few squad cars parked out front.
INT. POLICE STATION - INTERVIEW ROOM
Psychologist, Doctor BAKER, mid-forties, balding, over-weight, enters the room. Patricia sits at a small table.
BAKER
Sorry about the interruption. I have a large patient load.
PATRICIA
I'm not one of your patients.
Baker sits down across the table from Patricia.
BAKER
Let me see if I got this straight. You're from the year nineteen eighty-five, there's a UFO at the bottom of lake Timberwolf and aliens are going to invade the solar system.
PATRICIA
This is a waste of time.
INT. POLICE STATION - OBSERVATION ROOM
Police chief, NATE ANDERSON, Caucasian, mid-fifties looks on from behind one-way glass. Standing next to him is Air Force Colonel THOMAS DOTSON, mid-forties, African-American. Doctor Baker's voice can be heard over an intercom.
BAKER
I'm here to help you.
Anderson clicks the intercom off. In his hand is a printout.
INSERT: A SETI conference announcement with a picture of Patricia Cromwell. The date has been blacked out.
ANDERSON
It's your girl alright. Why does the Air Force send a full-bird Colonel to pick up a crazy dame?
DOTSON
Miss Cromwell is the daughter of a high-ranking officer. She's been under treatment for some time. We didn't know she was missing until we picked up your computer incident report.
ANDERSON
Land of a thousand eyes, huh? You guys don't miss a thing.
DOTSON
The base commander would consider it a personal favor if you would release her into my custody.
On the other side of the glass, Patricia throws her arms up in obvious frustration. Her muted words lead Doctor Baker to make calming gestures.
ANDERSON
She hasn't broken any laws. We were going to keep her overnight for observation.
DOTSON
I can assure you, she will get the best of care from physicians already familiar with her case.
ANDERSON
Okay, she's your headache.
He leans a little closer to the officer.
ANDERSON
You can coordinate the counter-attack against the aliens.
The snickering Police Chief leaves the observation room.
DOTSON
No doubt.
INT. RINGSHIP - CONTROL ROOM
Weung stares intensely at a display animation of a wormhole connecting the Alaska facility with the Ringship.
EAMAX
Sir, we should sync up with the mining facility before wormhole initiation.
WEUNG
Contact Voam.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER
BLEEP. BLEEP. A red light flashes from a control panel. Voam presses a softkey on a display.
VOAM
Receiving.
INTERCUT AS NEEDED.
WEUNG
Report status and synchronize operations.
VOAM
Wormhole initiation on schedule.
Back on the Ringship, Aella looks up from an instrument panel.
AELLA
The landing craft log shows an emergency hatch release.
WEUNG
Voam-
VOAM
I heard. Our guest decided to leave early.
WEUNG
The human?! The whole operation has been compromised!
VOAM
No, she knows what's at stake.
WEUNG
Then, why did she run?
I don't know. Maybe she was afraid.
WEUNG
In forty hours Mopelia will enter this spacetime. Secrecy will then be irrelevant. The human must know we would no longer need to keep her confined. Her only motive must be to stop you.
VOAM
Even if she did go to the authorities, who would believe her?
INT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE - INTERVIEW ROOM
Patricia looks up from a chair as General Stewart enters, thirty-five years older than the last time she saw him. She studies his face, recognition kicks in.
PATRICIA
Stewart?
STEWART
Hello, Doctor.
PATRICIA
Now, does the Air Force believe me?
STEWART
I believed you thirty-five years ago. Then, you disappeared.
PATRICIA
Two days ago, for me.
He paces in front of her shaking his head, hardly believing his eyes.
STEWART
It's amazing. I've read the physics. I know the reasons. But, to see it in the flesh. I'm jealous.
PATRICIA
I just lost over three decades of my life.
STEWART
You jumped to the future without aging. You get to take advantage of progress without paying the timekeeper.
PATRICIA
Tell that to my family.
STEWART
You can tell them yourself. At least, your daughter.
PATRICIA
Sandy?
STEWART
I'm having her flown in. It seems the joint chiefs wanted more than my eyewitness testimony. We'll be running her DNA against yours.
PATRICIA
Sandy must be...
STEWART
Forty-three. Eight years older than you. Is that why you did it?
PATRICIA
Did what?
STEWART
Betrayed the aliens. Because, they wrecked your family life?
She turns away, looking past him into a distant vision.
PATRICIA
You were right about the Cowboys and Indians.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
The Ringship floats above the darkened surface of the moon.
INT. RINGSHIP - LOADING DOCK
A hatchway opens with a HISS and Weung enters. The door closes behind him and he moves to a wall-mounted panel. He enters a code and a circular opening materializes.
Weung reaches inside and pulls. The object is heavy, even for him. He slowly extracts a three-foot cylinder on a set of rails. His alien mouth twists into a smile.
EXT. TIMBERWOLF LAKE - DAY
A hundred yards back from the pebble-strewn lakeshore, Colonel Dotson watches Airman First Class JOHNNY PERKINS lower a tightly bundled object into a hole in the ground.
Inside the hole, several plastic wrapped bricks labeled, C4, reach ground level. A pair of wires trail back along with the lowering cable toward the surface.
At ground level, Perkins stands up. Behind him is a detonator and a platoon of heavily armed Marines.
PERKINS
That's it.
Perkins looks out over the empty water. A few birds arc gracefully above. He points at the shore.
PERKINS
So there used to be a shed out there, below the water?
DOTSON
That's what the lady said, and a tunnel running right under your feet.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER
Oscillating blue light emerges from the laser-like guns in the ceiling of the underground cavern. They converge above the glowing ore. A black sphere materializes.
Voam makes a couple instrument adjustments and the sphere expands until it is ten feet across. His black hair swirls as the air is pulled toward the void.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
Identical beams of energy shoot out from the base of the giant Ringship. They converge downward toward a point below the ship. A wormhole opens directly beneath the extended central shaft.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER
The surface ore twists into a funnel and rises into the wormhole opening.
Voam speaks into a nearby microphone.
VOAM
Transfer initiated.
EXT. SPACE - FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
In the vicinity of the Ringship, orange particles stream out of the black vortex and cling to the central shaft of the vessel.
INT. MINERAL PROCESSING CHAMBER