The Dark Frontier (4) ma'am. LESLIE And stop calling me ma'am, it's Captain. BILL Y . . . Yes, ma . . . Captain. Doc turns to Bainbridge DOC Ash! Are you going to show us your 'kick ass' star ship?" Bainbridge points to the Gantry two VIEWING SCREEN. The RETRIBUTION can be seen in all its glory. Its black smooth skin and the shining metal trim glints in the "sun" light. DOC It looks about the size of a raider. BAINBRIDGE But his has the same type reaction and Jump engines that are used in the Enforcer ships, three times as big. With it's lesser mass, It should be really able to haul ass in a straight run, and jump half again as far as an enforcer. As far as weapons go, We have a one point five meter photon cannon to deal with most of the Syndicate ships. Doc points to the large round opening that takes up half the front of the vessel. DOC Is that a Particle scoop? BAINBRIDGE No, it's a fifteen-meter Quell. DOC You're shitting me! You can't use that on a Starship. You shoot something and the explosion will take both of you out. BAINBRIDGE It will only be used at longer ranges, if at all. It's for intimidation, mostly. Trust me Doc, I have found a way to stabilize the Quell. We will be safe from it. Doc thinks about the situation for a moment. DOC Ok, I'm in, so when are we going to take her out? Leslie, being ignored, listens to the conversation and doesn't like how it sounds. LESLIE I want one thing understood, Havelock, I don't care if Bainbridge is your friend. I am the Captain of this ship. It is I who decides when this ship leaves port and it is I who decides who is on the crew. I give the orders, you obey. You got that, Doc? DOC Yes--uh, Yes, Captain Webber! That goes for all the rest of you too. LESLIE From this point on I am officially the captain and you are the crew". I am no longer be your friend, but your Leader. (a beat) When I captained the Proteus, I could be considered a real 'Son of a Bitch' at times. Now, I suppose, you will have to settle for a 'bitch' instead. Bill snickers, but a hard stare from Leslie stops him cold. LESLIE Computer! Record statement! (a beat) I hereby declare that Terran Confederation Starship Retribution is officially being taken into custody by Captain Leslie Webber, formerly of the Terran Confederation Space Command. The assembled crew is now subject to all applying laws rules and regulations as set forth in the Interstellar Space Council Proceedings of the fifth day of June, in the year Twenty Two fifteen of the Terran Common Era. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE -- DAY TITLE OVER: "ONE WEEK LATER" Leslie sits at the Helm station and reads through her CHECKLIST. LESLIE Bainbridge, everything checks out up here, how about you. BAINBRIDGE All systems are a go, Captain. LESLIE Connor, plot us a course around the Aphran system. Something suitable for a test run. MELISSA Done, Captain. LESLIE Zee, Telemetry sensors on! Adjust inertial dampers to one point five G! (a beat) I am engaging the AntiGrav System. The Retribution slowly lifts off of the ground for the first time. It clears the gantry and the highest structures in the area. LESLIE Engaging Reaction engines now! Leslie pushes the "ENGINE" LEVER forward. The engines began to WHINE. LESLIE Let's see what she's got. Computer! time us to point five "cee". Leslie shoves the "THRUST" LEVER to the full forward position. Retribution lurches ahead. The ship moves faster and faster. COMPUTER Point Five light speed achieved---Seven point three four five seconds. LESLIE Shit! That's better than the Proteus! You did good Bainbridge! Bill! Ready on the one-point-five? BILL AM I? . . . uh-Yes Captain! LESLIE On my order! Three rapid shots dead ahead. Fire!" BAM! BAM! BAM! The recoil visibly shakes the ship. Seen on the FORWARD VIEW SCREEN, the fireballs disappear into the distance. BILL Whoooooeee! LESLIE Belay that shouting! (smiles) Computer! rear cannon Three shots aft! Fire! BAM! BAM! BAM!, The point seven five rear cannon does not rock the ship nearly as hard as the larger gun. LESLIE Ha! That's gonna spoil some poor bastard's day. (a beat) Doc!-Random fire upper and lower turrets. Fire!" EXT. SPACE POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!, POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!. Fireballs radiate out in all directions, above and below the ship as the point-fives swing around. INT. RETRUBUTION BAINBRIDGE Looks like the weapon's systems check out ok. LESLIE Let's try the QUELL BAINBRIDGE Are you sure you want to do this? This has never been used this way before. LESLIE There always has to be a first time. Melissa, find us an asteroid of suitable size and far enough downrange for a suitable target. MELISSA I have one. AP-X one two seven. I am sending you the cords. It is of point zero one five Earth mass and is currently six hundred Kiloclicks downrange. LESLIE Computer! adjust ship attitude to cords. The Retribution's STEERING ENGINES FIRE and the bow swings into position. The forward view screen now displays a cross hair grid, which Leslie carefully superimposes upon the tiny dot on the image field. A DEEP VIBRATION RUMBLES through the ship as the Quell powers up. It rises in frequency and settles into a sustained WHINE. LESLIE Here goes! Firing the QUELL! Leslie presses the red, "Quell discharge" screen icon. THWUMP! A bright flash of blue shoots out of the tube. LESLIE Impact in two, one. . . NOTHING. Leslie gives Melissa a puzzled look. FLASH!, On the screen, for a second, a brilliant blue FIREBALL as large as a sun lights up the entire quadrant of the sky. Leslie barely recovers from the surprise when . . . ZEE (over com) Fields up! Fields up now! Leslie looks up in time to see THOUSANDS of irregular black shapes silhouetted against the light and rapidly growing bigger. LESLIE SHIT! Leslie engages the Deflector fields without a second to spare. EXT. SPACE WHOOOOM! The SHOCK WAVE along with tons of ROCK FRAGMENTS and PLANETARY DEBRIS smash into the ship, carrying and tumbling it along with the debris. Fortunately, the deflection field protects the hull. INT. RETRIBUTION LESLIE Thank God for inertial damping. What the hell happened? Melissa checks the televiewer screen. MELISSA Based on the timing of the impact, we missed the target. LESLIE We sure as hell hit something!--- Oh Lord! There are no inhabited planets out there, are there? MELISSA (looking into televiewer) Fortunately, save for the A&I moon, the Aphra system is uninhabited. (a beat) Hmmm The crosshairs are off by point zero two degrees on the X axis, I am making the correction. By the way, Aphra Twelve no longer exists. LESLIE Damn! I suppose the Confederation Science Union will be looking into this. Lets hope they blame it on a rogue asteroid or something. BAINBRIDGE We still have to test the Jump engines. The Jump capacitors are charged up and ready to go. BILL How does this jump stuff work? LESLIE Space, the separation of particles is an illusion, kid,--at least at this level of reality. It is only how we perceive certain wave attributes of matter. Energy from the jump capacitors directed along the three spatial vectors can change the wave attributes of local particles to match those of the space of another part of the universe-- And Zap! We are there. BILL Sounds almost like magic LESLIE Right. Melissa enter a set of cords one parsec away on the Y axis. MELISSA Done! LESLIE Here goes nothin! Jump in three, two, one. . . . . Leslie presses the Jump Icon. EXT. SPACE ZAP! The Retribution VANISHES in a flash of blue light and ZAP! Reappears in another flash an instant later. INT. RETRIBUTION Leslie checks the local co-ordinates on the com screen. LESLIE Yes! Exactly three point six light year displacement. One parsec. Very good, We've got a starship people, lets take her home! INT. SALVAGE YARD - RETRIBUTION'S HANGAR -- DAY A large enclosed room. Retribution parked inside on four retractable legs. TITLE OVER: "THREE WEEKS LATER" The crew gathers around Leslie. LESLIE Somewhere out there The Syndicate has a gold mining colony, where what remains of my former crew is being held prisoner. We are going to get them out. I owe them that. (a beat) Its location is a secret, but I am sure that if we can get our hands on the database from a syndicate ship, we can find it. DOC Begging the Captain's pardon, but we are only a small group with one ship. We could find ourselves up against an army. LESLIE Yes, we could, but I--we are a lot smarter than they are. We won't play their game. We will take them on our own terms. Yes, we might get killed, but we will die heroes! And take a lot of them out with us. (a beat) If anyone doesn't want to come with me I won't force them. As to the rest of you, It's ass kicking time. Let's go get 'em! EXT. SPACE The Retribution flies through space. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE Leslie sits at the helm LESLIE Zee, do you see anything? INT. RETRIBUTION - TELEMETRY STATION Zee sits at her console-A ranging grid is displayed on her screen. ZEE I have two raiders, near Epsilon Irindi, Cords to follow. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE LESLIE That's a three parsec jump. Bainbridge, can we do it? BAINBRIDGE I can give you three parsecs LESLIE Bill! Take out the closer of the two ships, Doc! Aim for the reaction engine coils. Ready to jump in three, two one . . . EXT. SPACE ZAP! Retribution VANISHES in a blue flash of light, and ZAP! Immediately RE-APPEARS in a similar flash, not five hundred meters from the nearer of the TWO RAIDERS. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!, five shots from the big one point five shatter the hull of the first raider. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! Doc's point fives simultaneously rake the port side of the other ship, setting off SEVERAL INTERNAL EXPLOSIONS. INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE LESLIE Raider ship! Respond! �The RAIDER CAPTAIN appears on her com screen. RAIDER CAPTAIN Are you insane? Do you know who we are? LESLIE Hell, yes I know who you are. You are Stinking Syndicate scum! You will open your com channel and download all of your computer records. . . now! RAIDER CAPTAIN What kind of a heist is this? EXT. SPACE Leslie doesn't answer. The STEERING THRUSTERS rotate the Retribution and its one-point-five meter photon cannon to a point blank firing position. INT. RETRIBUTION Leslie looks approvingly at the com screen. LESLIE Download commencing. You see,you just gotta know how to talk to these people. Melissa casually walks over to the firing console. Bill, glued to his com screen, monitoring the download, doesn't notice. LESLIE Download Complete. Bainbridge prepare us for . . . EXT. SPACE BLAMM! the one-point-five roars to life,WHAM! eviscerating the crippled raider. The recoil jolts the ship. INT. RETRIBUTION LESLIE Bill! I gave no order to fire. BILL It wasn't me Captain. The first officer stands by the console. MELISSA At this stage of the game, we cannot afford to leave any witnesses. There is a tense moment as Leslie, still stunned by Melissa's action, considers how to respond. LESLIE Commander Conner! I will overlook this incident, but in the future, as captain of this ship, I hereby order you to consult with me before taking any action on your own. Is that clear? MELISSA Understood Captain! But you know I'm right. Leslie gives Melissa a worried look The crew scans their COM SCREENS and searches through the download data. LESLIE I see lots of transport ship routes and schedules, but no references to any mining operations. Raider missions are too specialized to be of any use to us. MELISSA We are going to have to catch an enforcer. LESLIE Zee! Scan out. See if you can find us an enforcer. ZEE I have one, near the Antarian Limit. Cords to follow. LESLIE Cords entered! The Antarian Limit is close to Reptoid space, so keep your eyes, or whatever you use, open. (a beat) Bill! Aim for the fire control and reaction engine coils. We want to disable, not destroy the ship. She takes a quick sidelong glance at Melissa. They make eye contact. LESLIE Jump in Three, two, one . . . EXT. SPACE ZAP! The RETRIBUTION MATERIALIZES. INTERCUT- INT. RETRIBUTION - BRIDGE/INT. ENFORCER THREE - BRIDGE/EXT.SPACE LESLIE Where's it at Zee? I don't see it on the screens. ZEE (over com) Two hundred kiloclicks one twenty two on fifteen. Hey, This isn't an exact science Captain. Leslie looks at her screen. The ENFORCER SHIP moves into view. LESLIE There he is. It's the Enforcer Three. Damn! He's put his force shields up, so much for surprise. Deflectors up! The COM LINK SCREEN comes to life. Captain Thorn, wearing a black, wide brimmed hat appears on it. He is surprised for a second then he smiles. THORN Well, if it isn't Leslie Webber? I see you have finally found your way back among the stars. LESLIE Captain Thorn! THORN You are looking particularly lovely today Miss Webber. LESLIE So do you, you sonofabitch, now download your database, now! THORN You are hardly in a position to be making demands, Miss Webber. I have seven photon cannons trained on you this very moment. (a beat) I so disapprove of Konstantin's annoying habit of playing games with his enemies. He should have killed you when he had you to begin with. I suppose that it will be up to me to finish the job. BAM! Leslie fires the one-point-five from her own console, surprising Bill. WHAM! The shot hits Enforcer Three's shields about the same time the enforcer cannons FIRE. The ship is rocked, knocking off the aim of its cannons--the shots converge well to the port side of the Retribution. Leslie looks at her screens LESLIE (to Bill and Melissa) Damn! I wasn't close enough. He's backing off. The shaken, but angry visage of Thorn appears on the com screen LESLIE (continuing) You didn't expect the little lady to be packing a one-point-five did you? I'll open your ship open like a rusty ration can. WHAM! The Enforcer Three fires another volley. POW! They smash into the Retribution's deflectors, sending the ship tumbling. The ship recovers attitude and DIVES straight at the Enforcer Seven. LESLIE THORN! I'm gonna cut off your balls and feed them back to you one at a time! THORN A most amusing idea. I would love to have you try. . . WHAM! WHAM! Leslie's ship is rocked by two impacts, seemingly from behind. Two more impact Thorn's ship. LESLIE What the devil? Thorn, on the screen, looks as surprised as Leslie. Leslie's RANGING COM SCREEN shows HUNDREDS of small bat shaped SHIPS closing in. LESLIE Holy shit!. . . Reps! BILL Reps? W. . . Who are they? LESLIE Computer! Engage defense mode! Doc! Get on the turrets! (a beat) Reptoids, kid. Aliens! No one knows who they are. No human has ever seen a live one. All we know is that there's lots of them and they are hostile. POW! POW! POW! Several more shots shake the Retribution
Copyright © 2001 Thomas M Ray |