- FADE IN:
- INT. COMMAND - MOON SPACE - LOW SOFT LIT (HOURS GONE-BY)
- (00:00 - Mare Crisium Introitus/Karl Jenkins)
- Lit by myriad displays, controls, wall-glows; the full moon 100x large and bright above, approaches rapidly … till the WEST SIDE close-up fills the entire side view,--
- Then slowing to a fast orbit-like path …
- Harry's e-mail PAGER TWINKLES, surprising them;-- He looks;
JEFF
- Harry: That's your e-mail pager!- They've identified you;- not that it makes a difference.
GARY
- Might be over-the-horizon beam-lobe defraction.
JEFF
- Not at the moon's distance, unless there's ionospheric curvature-focus.
JAIME
- Maybe it's the Galaxy-6 satellite that went askew.
- (surprised-excited)
- Harry! Maybe the Police have found Gwen or Diana!
JOHN
- Do we have a way to read your e-mail out here?
JEFF
- (a beat, offers)
- We can dub key messages into the transponder.
GARY
- (completes aloud)
- … Downlink … Tap into the uplink control-sequence: I'll check that later: see what we can rig-up; Should be interesting, what Astrophysics thinks of our tracking-telemetry.
MIKE
- (2 beats, concerned)
- We still haven't met their design … This worries me, Harry!
HARRY
- This vessel should be capable to handle anything:- It came back to Earth, under military barrage with only Gwen's crew of three:- fairly self-sufficient.
MIKE
- We haven't seen what Earth's going to throw at us:
- (a beat)
- Harry: Do we, have anything on the lunar farside?- I keep-up on these military things … but wonder….
HARRY
- Nothing I know-of, Mike: State professors don't rank top-secret clearance.
MIKE
- (retries)
- Just thinking of your Nuclear Chemistry Research.
HARRY
- Ah-yuh…. Still, nothing I know-of, Mike: Need-to-know, cancels a lot of information passing.
MIKE
- (postulates)
- Then again, it could be conventional:
- (thinks a beat)
- No! Harry: It's got to be nuclear: warmed-and-ready nuclear rocketry.
HARRY
- Sorry, Mike:-- that's just not my information.
MIKE
- (retries)
- Then tell me, Harry: Is there anything I should do?!-- Make it a whim, -a fun something:- ten exercises: maneuver preparedness training…. Harry: Just don't leave us wide-open to nuclear assault!-- We're no longer under direct Presidential command!
- The hilly mottled lunar terminator approaches far ahead …
- Newly attired YEOMAN-CADET Barkel in avant-garde black-white-gold-motif space-formal suit with jacket, enters …
HARRY
- (confides)
- I won't leave you open to expectable nuclear assault: If I think of something pertinent… I'll train you on it: Rendezvous with the moon is no easy task.
CADET
- (inserts-tenders)
- Hello?-- Professor?
HARRY
- (turns to new voice)
- Yes!- What can I do for you?
CADET
- We didn't find any rib-eye steaks, anywhere, But we did find a galley, and quarters:-- yours, too; And outfits like these …
- (models-spins)
- And the dinner-party's at 1-P-M, if we may have it.
HARRY
- Thank you: You may stay and watch.
CADET
- Thank you, sir.
- (sits with Gary; scans)
- They also voted me First-Student-Crew, and gave me the title of, First Crudent….
- Gary lips-pursed laugh-grins at that….
- Lunar terminator passes-- INTERIOR LIGHTS RAISE …
JAIME
- (announces to controls)
- E-T-A 2-hecta-hesits … Appears we have a backside rendezvous …
- (looks ahead)
- I wonder what's out-back….
- Mike sits.
JOHN
- (quips)
- Lunar curvature, mostly.
- Overtake an abandoned Apollo 'LM' LUNAR MODULE ASCENT STAGE GLISTENING in orbit sunlight …
- BLACK MOON, a blotch of floodlight racing parallel below …
- A RED BLAZE on the horizon;--
JAIME
- Lunar terminator, folks! And, Looks like someone's been waiting for us!
JOHN
- (watching the module)
- That's a Lunar Module Ascent Stage; And our exterior floods, footprint.
JAIME
- (urges, points ahead)
- No:-- On the horizon!
JOHN
- (to Jaime's Display)
- Oh-oh!
- (keys-up; military tenor)
- Mike: We've got incoming missiles: forward horizon!
MIKE
- (orders)
- Go to Red Alert!
JEFF
- (keys)
- Undiscovered, Mike: Use your command P-A audio.
- LUNAR DARKSIDE SHADOW.
MIKE (+PA)
- Red Alert! Go to Red Alert! We have incoming missiles on the horizon!
- Shipwide KLAXON runs up scale twice: surprising them;--
[FEMALE-COMPUTER]
- (alerts over klaxon)
- AHT-TAHN-TZION-- ROTE ALERT: DEY-FAHNSE: ROTE ALERT --AHT-TAHN-TZION
JEFF
- (satisfied smile)
- Discovered-- undergraduates!
MIKE
- Seatbelts!
- 4 GYRATING RED BLAZES APPROACH ahead …
- Jaime controlling, SHIP VEERS UP from the moon;--
MIKE
- Jaime: Take us down to the lunar surface: Try hiding in the craters.
JAIME
- (controls)
- Down we go.
- SHIP VEERS DOWN … LOW … for her live-video-game:
MIKE
- Harry: What are these?!
HARRY
- I don't know, Mike: If you want my suggestion, Presume nuclear: Volley and shield yourself behind mountain peaks: But you're the military commander, Mike.
MIKE
- (authorizes)
- Jaime!
JAIME
- (controls)
- Yes, sir:-- Understood…!
- Looses a TRACER VOLLEY at 2 nearest red blazes, and drops behind a ridge mount,-- hover-gliding sideways across …
JOHN
- (busy reviewing weaponry)
- Can we reverse thrust at them?- Push-cannons? De-tractor beams?
- Pops up-out the other side,-- loosing another volley;--
- Dropping back behind just as THE RIDGE MOUNT EXPLODES in WHITE FLASH ENGULFING all sides, the obliterated VIEW AUTO-DARKENING to diagrammatic simulation … and the DUST-BLAST WHELMS against the windows just RETURNING TO NORMAL VIEW;
MIKE
- (loud over the blast)
- Nuclear!- Stay with it, Jaime!
- Traversing quickly farther, low across the crater ridge face, hiding from the next 2 oncoming missiles …
- INT. MISSILE - DIGITAL-ELECTRONIC HUNT PROCESSOR (SIMLATED)
- TARGET-MASS pops up-out from behind a terrain mountain-- looses A VOLLEY-- and drops behind: TRACKING COMPUTED--
- Pops out the other side-- ANOTHER VOLLEY-- and drops back behind: TRACKING RECOMPUTED as the missile VEERS CENTER …
- INT. STARSHIP COMMAND
- The missiles combine explosion in DOUBLE WHITE FLASH behind the ridge mountain, canopying above, illumining below: the VIEW ABOVE AUTO-DARKENING to SIMULATION … and DUST-BLAST WHELMS against windows just RETURNING TO NORMAL VIEW …
- And all quiet again …
JOHN
- (to Jaime)
- You didn't learn that, soloing in your daddy's business two-holer…!
JAIME
- (pumped grin)
- Every kilohesit-logged helps!
- (controls)
- Starship rises above the dust-venting ridge …
JEFF
- Those missiles did-not aim smart …
HARRY
- Mass-movers, Jeff: Not military …
- Horizon is clearing … Starship hovers in solemn vigil …
MIKE
- (side-eyeing Harry)
- Harry, We need talk in your office.
- (points, leads)
HARRY
- (look follows pointer)
- My office…?
MIKE
- The glass room at the back.
HARRY
- (along)
- All right.
MIKE
- (ushers in: FOLLOWS)
- What did you not,-tell me? And why…
- (00:00 - Lacus Doloris/Karl Jenkins)
- LAST WORDS TRAILING INTO THE SILENCE--
- INT. GLASS-WALLED COMMAND OFFICE - (AS CONTINUOUS)
- Those outside (MOS) monitor the office and space-ahead as the ship glides onward across the lunar face.
HARRY
- I told you all I know.
MIKE
- "Mass-movers … Not military …?"-- Whose nukes, Harry?- The Russians, you think? The Germans? California?
HARRY
- No: Those were verifiedly not made by the Russians.
MIKE
- Whose, then?!-- The Indians have nukes, but not lunar rockets…. The Chinese have rockets --and nukes:-- but forswear themselves to uranium: Plutonium is facile, and necessary, for lunar nukes! … California is as nuclear earthquake trigger-happy as former Governor 'Nuke'm-again', but hasn't fallen into the ocean yet! … Whose nukes, Harry?!- The Aliens!?
HARRY
- I don't know of any.
MIKE
- Harry, Don't toy with my request for information: We have a thousand people aboard:- your students, in fact: We can't risk them like this!
HARRY
- Who brought them on board?
MIKE
- 51-percent irrelevant, Harry!- War-commanders do-not ask, who created 3-hundred million Americans: They are here; We love them!… We agreed this command structure should give us the best advantage against all possible scenarios save mutiny, And greatest flexibility! You entrusted Jaime:-- You alone knew she's good!
HARRY
- I didn't bring Jaime:- She came by herself.
- Mike hesitates in reconsideration …
- Moon-port guide-lights are in view: leading …
- INT. COMMAND - LUNAR HANGAR AHEAD - (CONTINUOUS)
- (0-:-- -resume from 1st stop-)
- Mike, Harry, (MOS) continue discussion ad lib;
GARY
- (turns to Cadet)
- You're a mathematician;-- Do you know about anti-gravity, rings?
CADET
- (unassuming)
- Like a gyroscope, ring?- We all do.
GARY
- How's that?
CADET
- A ring spinning at escape-velocity tries to fly, to space, everywhere along the ring;-- Antigravity…!
GARY
- (astonished ahead)
- So, That's, how U-F-O's work…!?
CADET
- (nonchalant ahead)
- A loadup of matter-and-anti-matter co-spinning at subatomic sub-light speed, will lift you right-off the Earth; Another use for anti-helon!
GARY
- Did, you, invent this…?
CADET
- (shakes Innocent-no)
- My high school Chemistry, teacher.
GARY
- (mock nonchalant)
- The dark-mass of galaxies … I think we're heading into a physics-storm!
- A rectangular surface opening, lit to receive ships.
- Apparent moon motion slowing …
JOHN
- It may be permanent and automated: Everything else has been computer-controlled. Better inform the crew.
CADET
- (apprehensive)
- Are we invited?!
JAIME
- We're not exactly moon-party crashers…. Broadcast a landing-advisory, Crewman!
CADET
- Me?!
- (rises, approaches)
- Yes, ma'am!
- (sits in Command chair)
JAIME
- (winces, mouthes quiet)
- Mam…!
CADET (+PA)
- All starship personnel: This is Yeoman Barkel:-- Prepare for automated landing on the moon!
JOHN
- Yeoman?
CADET
- Should I have said, Yeo-woman?
- EXT. MOON PORT SPACE - STARSHIP DESCENDS
- LIGHT FROM BELOW SPLATTERS the moonscape rising …
- Via the open hangar doors …
- The column-zone of the portal glows sparkly-pink 360-around for 100 meters -an atmosphere plasma-trap-field;- They feel permeated, weighed-down; and steady themselves upright …
- Ship settles below the trap-field …
- Hangar-doors close above: port light intensity increases …
- FADE TO:
- INT. PORT-STATION CAVERN - PAVIS-LIGHTED - (HOUR LATER)
- (00:00 - Mare Imbrium/Karl Jenkins)
- Aluminum construction; Miles extent beyond the rail.
- The last-100 spread-in, admiring, mill-about, ad lib after-dinner-party amicably, all wearing avant-garde black-white-gold-motif space-formal suits with additional arrival-party overwear, boots, caps, commendation bars/stripes/circles, logos, insignias, of various rank: [stars-over-sun-over-moon-crescent-rising]
- Subgroupish-30's stroll variously to and along the rail … meandering toward the Elevator crowding …
10th/25
- (admires ceiling)
- I wonder who pays their moon-gas-and-electric bill!?
11th/25
- (also ceiling)
- And, what lunar custodian replaces all the bulbs?!
10th/25
- (directly)
- Probably moonlights for a living.
12th/25
- (a beat, wits)
- Must be on a universal union scale: All the bulbs work!
13th/25
- Who would foot the bill for that?!
12th/25
- (wits)
- Impracticable to foot anything up here: Low gravity: All loans float!
10th/25
- Who'd balance their bank accounts?!
14th/25
- (wise-cracks)
- Zero-Sum Bankers superconglomerate!
12th/25
- (wit rhymes "eights")
- Exchanged in currency denominations of Iterates and giga-Iterates!
- (grins)
11th/25
- (still admiring)
- How many engineers do you suppose it took, to install all the lights?
13th/25
- (sincere)
- Twen-ty-…
- (grins)
- How many?
14th/25
- One.
13th/25
- Just one!?
14th/25
- (wise-cracks to ceiling)
- Yes; but He, waited three days for the planets to screw into place, before turning them all on.
- They build a giggle …
- AT THE RAILED LEDGE:
- A group stands awed at the depths--
- Miles deep, stealth-black spaceships, starships, decks. 500 crew swarm below (cf Spring Break, Spring Returns):
3rd/15
- (awed hush)
- Jingle Bells! Santa Claus was here!
4th/15
- (awed equal)
- A spaceships-R-us, shopping spree!
5th/15
- (awed)
- Kilo-meteors deep!
- (ponders)
- Do you suppose these were made here?- Or imported!
6th/15
- (awed)
- When do they open for spacer-public shopping?!
5th/15
- (squealy grin)
- Every new moonth: I can't waitth!
4th/15
- (scans excited)
- Where's the self-scan check-out counter?!- Find me an M-L-M Rep!
7th/15
- (points big-happy)
- I want, That one: It'll do Mars on a dime!-- Or fifteen cents!
5th/15
- What if this station is abandoned?
- (projects a plan)
- We should move-in and take-over: There must be a hundred spaceships, here;-- and probably dozens-more caverns…. We can sell them to Earthers on buy-back policies … But how do we amortize irreplaceable spaceships?-- We'll have to corner the market with Options, Time-shares, Raffle rides …
- (smiles broadly)
3rd/15
- Where would we go?! There are only eight planets,- give or take a few million asteroids….
4th/15
- (erudite)
- Retirement communities over Venus; Glass-blowing schools on Mercury; Rocket-ball courts on Mars; Horse-shoes on Pluto-Charon; Live Pac-man olympics in Saturn's rings; Pinball among Jupiter's moons-- and, Shoot-the-red-spot … Or, We can go to the Oort clouds,- maybe the near stars!
5th/15
- (under breath)
- What if they don't work any more?- How do we pick a used spaceship?-- Kick the anti-rubber tires!?
- (mock-awes)
- Might blow your moon-bootee off!
- All grin.
8th/15
- (a beat, cowboy-wags)
- Never, look, a gift-hoss, in the mooth!
9th/15
- (wags back)
- Never look gift-hose in the moth!
7th/15
- Never look a gift-house in the math!
6th/15
- Never look gift-halos in the myth!
5th/15
- Never look a gift-hearse in the mirth!
- All wince, giggling …
4th/15
- (recovering)
- This cavern is well-lighted, and clean; The other caverns could be broken, empty, smashed … This is probably maintained:- maybe robots. Let's explore the merchandise!
3rd/15
- (points near a big ship)
- There's an elevator, down the side.
- (leads-on to the landing)
- GLASS-ELEVATOR LANDING, same level:
- A last-10-of-30 are entering, centerward:
FRONT LEFT
- How can you tell which floor ours is on? The spaceships are all different sizes!
FRONT RIGHT
- Maybe they're built with regularly spaced entrances: You could have a 4-floor planet-going spaceship, or a 10-floor galaxy-cruiser, or a 2-floor solar-dingy!
25th
- (entering)
- Are we all going to the same floor?
26th
- This is the elevator for: Meteor-shower curtains, Solar wind-ows, Asteroid em-bedding, Spatial vacuum cleaners, Martian gardener supplies and Ion im-plantations, Cosmic-ray guns, Fire-ball bearings, Paper-e-clips, Orbiting stationery, Space-shuttlecocks, Universary reminders, Big-aste-risk insurance policies … Moonshine … Sun-dries …
- Last few in, as the door begins closing--
8th
- (mothers)
- Now,-- I want to remind you-all: When we get to the bottom floor: There is to be no, leap-giraffing around:- Just moon-walk normally.
9th
- (presidential bass)
- I suppose you are all wondering, why, I called this meeting …
- SILENCED ad lib: the door is closed,-- LOCKS.
- Elevator descends before the yet-remaining-30 crowd.
- Distant elevators ascend and descend.
- Spaceships below move slowly, some elevating …
- Hangar doors open to starry black sky: Ships continue up and out the sparkly-pink-glowing column-zone …
- MAIN ENTRANCE ON THIS FLOOR:
- The space-admirals arrive: Harry, Jaime, Mike, Gary, Jeff, Penny, top Seniors, Juniors; (Other grads at the landing);
- Yeoman-Cadet Barkel in ear-gear approaches from a distance;
GARY
- It must store all its maintenance information,- then give it to the robot-tech's: whatever those are.
JEFF
- Where do you suppose they keep its spare parts?
GARY
- There wasn't that much loss: a few cracked, damaged, exterior panels: The Area-51 Army must have tried entering the hard-way.
JEFF
- (quips distracted)
- A veritable, bounty, of pickles!
MIKE
- We're still following Gwen:-- Best have it fixed to perfect operation.
JAIME
- It didn't give me any troubles, Mike: Once it sealed its bulkheads, it just smiled contently.
JEFF
- (looking at the crowds)
- Looks like the party moved into space-drive out here.
CADET
- (yet-distant, hails)
- Grand-Admiral,-- Sir!
HARRY
- (tries)
- Grand, Admiral?
JEFF
- Sure, Harry: It suits you:- Rank of space nuclear theater Commander-in-Chief:- You've got the universe for oceans, whole planets for shores,-- and your attire: It's grander than Solomon's naval fleet on Earth…!
- (winks at Jaime)
JAIME
- Don't say it, Jeff.
JEFF
- (mock superior)
- Some day you'll make Grand Rear Admiral, Jaime.
JAIME
- Thanks: That's better than what I had in mind.
CADET
- (nearing, excited)
- Grand-Admiral! -Professor:- Sir:-- This cavern is stacked with ninety, spaceships, And we've located three dozens more caverns! We can replace our starship,- divide-up the crews: They're already spreading … We can Christen an entire star-fleet!- And there's one thing more to show you: No one is touching it: We think it's yours!-- Come!
- Leads to gather at the rail, lecturing (MUSEUM-LIKE ECHO):
CADET
- (museum-guide gestures)
- Most of these vessels you see here are prepared for local solar system transport and transportation:-- perhaps a conquering fleet never used by victors; perhaps a fleet that never had a conquest at Earth. There are approximately thirty-six caverns that can be explored: all apparently like this one…. Cavern mare-breccia is 2-point-6-billion years old;-- the moon-port complex and the installed ships we estimate approximately 4-million, years old: a determination based on structural deformity of in-situ boro-carbon-composites before-replacement…. At this depth despite their incredible age these specimens are clean, warm and ready: There is little dust in this space port,- and, there are electronic mechanisms built into the walls to keep dust off and out.
- Leading along the rail, toward the elevator …
JEFF
- How do you know the age of the cavern walls?
CADET
- We measure the age of accessible cavern substrata by alpha-spectra ratiocinating pocket-geiger device: The estimate is cumulative of three long-lived radioisotopic daughter-lines:-- It uses a semiconductor, solidstate transducer head, and an integral arithmetic digital-process unit…. The instrument itself is on loan, accessioned from Geo-Physical Sciences, at the University…. This breccia appears to be an epochal remelt,- probably an early luna-historic cometary strike,-- which may have caused an age-metric readjustment.
GARY
- How will you return your loaner?
CADET
- We will address the issue of the loaner at a later meeting of the Lunar Physical Sciences Society.
- (arm over the rail)
- The excavation you see proceeding below, presently, consists of the removal of six top-layers comprised chiefly of class-M spaceships, and class Q-starships: forty and fifty each.
- Starships of 6 layers remove,-- uncovering A GOLDEN SHIP;
CADET
- If you look deeply into the bottom of the hive, you will see a golden ship which has lain hidden, until the entire fleet be activated!- We discovered it in the seventh layer dating to the quarante millième siècle, B-C. We are tentatively designating it, the Flagship: It is similar in size and structure to the large starship class of vessels of no known nomenclature, but has an additional floor of equipments: We do not yet know the nature of this extra equipment: we suppose a technological advance: There is no other known flagship in this fleet.
- (a beat)
- If you have further questions, one of our on-site tertiologists can help you.
- AT THE LANDING:
- They meet-up with John, Susan, Brad, Tommi, Dave, and enter except Penny mingles with friends remaining to take Bounty.
- The door closes …
- VANTAGE - SPANNING THE CAVERN - (MINUTE LATER)
- And far below, their elevator arrives at Golden …
- Door opens,-- they EXEUNT, filing into the Flagship….
- INT. GOLDEN STARSHIP - FLAGSHIP COMMAND - CAVERN LIT
- A Command upgrade, 360-surround-window view of the cavern:
- They enter and take their stations: Jaime, John, sit center Helm, Nav; Mike, Command chair center-back, Harry standing behind; Tommi, Jeff, room-back-right; Susan, Gary, back-left; Cadet lean-sits by Gary:
JEFF
- (strolling, looks out)
- This begins to feel like home…!
GARY
- (sits)
- If, you were brought-up on spacer-movie-games.
- They activate their primary controls and displays:--
- SPACESHIPS REMOVE AROUND, clearing a path afore and above,- as their Flagship extricates … and elevates …
JAIME
- (chides)
- Inasmuch as Earth is no longer so inviting, for us, I'd say this is, our home-- permanently!
CADET
- (counters)
- We could take this ship back to Earth at nighttime, sneak into bed for a quick nap, and leave before dawn …! We could even buy, Grand Admiral, a rib-eye steak!
- All sympathetic smiles.
JEFF
- (to cadet)
- Daydreaming, on the emptiness of outer-space! That's probably why Jehovah came to Earth:
- (feels)
- A child, a garden, a river, a fruit tree!-- Ahhh!
GARY
- And a rib-eye steak!
- Passing the sparkly pink column-zone collar they feel permeated and heavy-weighted-- and steady themselves:
HARRY
- (uprights)
- Atmospheric damping field is heavy!
CADET
- (upright)
- Yes, professor: All hangars have a plasma-trap-field for moon-station atmosphere! There's abundant energy resource here: Your anti-helion, we may presume, has its uses.
- EXT. LUNAR SURFACE SPACE - BLACK - BELOW A MYRIAD STARS
- Hangars open and disgorge starships splattering light on the moonscape features, lifting up-away without exhaust …
- Flagship surfaces … flush … exceeds … and COMES UP TO--
- EXT. FLAGSHIP COMMAND - VISIBLE INSIDE LIT
- Light expanding from below, splashes distant crater walls:
HARRY (VO)
- Let's join the fleet for training exercises, Mike.
MIKE (VO)
- (commands)
- Jaime! John!
JAIME (VO)
- (controls)
- Aye, sir:- We're joining the fleet.
[ADMIN] (VO PA)
- Welcome to the space-war games, Grand Admiral!
MIKE (VO)
- (orders)
- Communications: Acknowledge that!
JEFF (VO)
- (keys)
- Acknowledging…!
- FADE TO:
- EXT. STARSHIP FLEET - FAR MOON SPACE - (A DAY LATER)
- (00:00 - Lacus Lenitatis/Karl Jenkins)
- 20 starships, 20 spaceships, exercise before Harry's golden Flagship Fleet-command, maneuver pass-encounters in fours:- Pairs of pairs practice firing laser-locator-tags and mild Q-blasts (streak-splash):
- INT. FLAGSHIP COMMAND - RED-RUNNING LOW SOFT LIT
- Numerous displays, myriad panel-controls, wall-glows.
- Grand-Admiral Harry stands amid his newly efficient command crew, all wearing Flagship insignias, color-bars/trims, communications halo-gear,-- directing Fleet exercizes:
- CU: Mike listens to the grading report:
[ADMIN] (MIKE-HALO)
- … Sequest, 83; PlenRa, 90; Farside, 67-upgrade-85; Perquisitor, 95; SpinShock, 49-and-93-averaging-71; CosMost, 99; CosRock, 84; Glax, 79; StarGrazer, 91-regrade-82; VecThor, 75; Pickel, 61; RoGator, 97…. Overall-84, Sigma-9; One bordering root-2-pi-sigma. Confidence B-plus. That'll do it, Mike: Good job!
MIKE
- (into mouthpiece)
- Is Bounty now officially, Pickel?
[ADMIN] (MIKE-HALO)
- Admin-okays unanimous crew request.
MIKE
- (into mouthpiece)
- What's the regrade on StarGrazer?
[ADMIN] (MIKE-HALO)
- Renormalization of laser-peen count methodology…. Admin, out!
MIKE
- (into mouthpiece)
- Thanks, Jean;-- Mike, out!
- (loud)
- We've got a class of graduates!
HARRY
- Proceed to eights, Mike.
MIKE
- (orders)
- Communications: Put me on fleetwide broadcast!
JEFF
- (keys)
- Fleetwide -okay- trying open hail….
MIKE
- Harry: We should be trying 5-on-3's and tri-quads, too.
HARRY
- As you see fit, Mike.
- PA MULTI-CHIRPS.
JEFF
- You're fleetwide, Mike.
MIKE (+PA)
- Attention,-- all fleet crews: This is Flagship Commander Michael with the Grand-Admiral:-- You have made passing grade--!
- (smiles)
- O.S. VOICES below the escalator CHEER congratulations;
- SHIPS FLASH THEIR FLOODLIGHTS, SPORADIC, like a holiday;
JOHN
- (grins to Jaime)
- Undergraduates are luminaries in the making.
MIKE (+PA)
- Okay,-- teams: Quad-up with your counter pairs; Select one or two neighbor quads to counter next, And exercise in eights or twelves this round. You'll have tentative solar system assignments as soon as your perquisites are sorted, approved, and scheduled by the Grand-Admiral.
MIKE (CONT'D)
- (orders)
- Helm: Bring us around to far field:
- (confides)
- We need monitor Pickel performance, closely: Its maneuvers haven't been effectual: Either repairs on Bounty are incomplete, Or we may have to dissolve crew if it fails again.
JAIME
- (controls)
- Aye.
- (worries to John)
- Their Captain is straight-A-athlete and their Command is no less…!
- Flagship glides to cross-view starship Pickel (former UFO Bounty) as fleet ships maneuver encounters by 4's in groups of 8's and 12's, practice firing; Displays monitor close-in successive starships, and several Displays fix on Pickel …
JEFF
- (pauses intently)
- Mike: I think: Allow me the crew is doing all right: It's the telemetry stream that seems indecipherable:-- Pickel repeatedly asks-for but then rejects-- assistance. Maybe it's … Mike: Maybe Pickel is not ours…!
MIKE
- (considers)
- Bounty's original station not ours?
JEFF
- That's what I'm worrying,- But its telemetry protocols, are, signal-compatible:-- I'm wondering whether we're just not convincing-society.
JOHN
- (offers)
- Mike,- Jeff: Let me have a crack at decrypting its codes: This Flagship has a lot of computational thrust, and Navigation has full access to Communications: I can run a variety of analyses on their data stream: Maybe there's a transparent over-code I can crack.
MIKE
- (orders)
- Get onto it!-- Jeff: Assist John, what time you can--!
- John applies himself;
MIKE (CONT'D)
- Let's figure-out what Pickel is doing out-here.
CADET
- (to Gary)
- What's an overcode?
GARY
- A pattern in the data stream event-processing order: It must latch-in some unsuspected data-priority else it locks-up action on the decrypted responses.
CADET
- (mildly blurts)
- Like talking about sex before marriage!?
GARY
- Yyyeah… like talking oranges before apples: The data stream must be temporally noncrucial, so it's over-coded elsewhere already!
CADET
- Can it be overridden?
GARY
- Now, There's a thought.
JEFF
- (reports)
- Equipment-requests are piling-in … acknowledging … plenty from Pickel…
JOHN
- Got it!-- It's not transmission trouble:-- we have full-duplex…! It's not Astrophysics' transponder, interference; Not a decoding error: E-B-over-N-0 is 10-D-B;- Tag-fields correspond: We're fully compatible! Furthermore, Outloaded telemetry is on their deck-- They are, using it, in their navigation calculations--!
- (thinks aloud)
- It must be some kind of sub-object data-trusting: a co-operative … passive verification …
- (keys)
- Maybe the path-history has cipher-injection: I can reroute internal…
MIKE
- Can we re-prioritize data-trusting from this side?
JOHN
- It's a thought:
- (keys)
- I can skip-route some, calculation;
- (keys)
- Verify and substitute telemetry …
- (keys)
- I can inform it that its requests are data-trusted --without telling it that we access better-trusted data,-- and watch the adjustments in its path-history …
- (keys)
MIKE
- Keep trying!
- They busy themselves-- watching the games outside:
GARY
- (to Jeff)
- What are the telemetry protocols?
JEFF
- (to Gary)
- Basic L-D-R stealth-bit-rate is a kilobit-per-hesit convolved; System clocks are multi-prioritized and it discards occasional bits … M-D-R is a megabit; H-D-R, giga; V-H-D-R is…
GARY
- (clips)
- Regular? dropouts on the low data-rate?-- Maybe it's hopping during a whole bit-time:-- That'd require a sub-unit coding-rate, of course.
JEFF
- A reasonable conjecture; And A-G-C-sampling the frequency domain … But dropouts are irregularly placed-- probably super-coded against intra-fleet decryption … It's probably using semi-coherent differential coding. Or, maybe it's hunting for other nodes in those bits …
GARY
- (ponders)
- Not much better than MILSTAR …
- (reconsiders, smiles)
- Woops,- sorry, guys: I shouldn't have said that:-- You are hereby debriefed.
CADET
- (cute to Gary)
- Amazingly, They still use radix-2 bits for arithmetic: They probably look like us stick-figures, too.
- (grins)
GARY
- (misses jest)
- I suppose…
- (to Jeff)
- Jeff, If they came from a different part of our galaxy, lightyears from us, maybe their trouble is spatial-to-linear coordinational mapping: A paradox … Radix-grafted arithmetic is 25-percent efficient in four-space:- Even several co-iterations will leave sporadic gaps … Maybe their space-zero fails; Maybe they haven't re-sorted their database….
JEFF
- Citified metrics are absurd imposed on absolute frame coordinates in a remote space: And they wouldn't use sequential access storage without massive parallelity. But you have a point: Relative coordinates differ by indices, offsets, orientations, taking volumes of remapping … They perform well independently but they must be adapting our telemetry at a processing overhead, and ignoring our results until they finish.
- (keys)
- We might accelerate the adaptation: We have the advantage of our extra computational level;-- We can open our processor-base to free query in exchange for agreeable deductions, until it surfeits and supplants….
GARY
- (gloats)
- The advantage of having superior intellectual and computational-power resources.
JEFF
- Mike, I'll out-load three copies of our space-ephemerides-base: This'll be more reference-frames for them to trust,-- with your permission….
MIKE
- Go ahead, Jeff.
JOHN
- (busy beats)
- It's switching modes:-- It's sent a data-object reprogramming request …
JEFF
- (to Gary)
- And it is significantly better than MILSTAR, Gary:--
- (grins)
- It's using line-of-sight U-H-F neutrino radio: right through its adversary…!
JOHN
- That's it:-- We're in-sync!-- Go ahead, Jeff:-- Out-load to Pickel at this spectral header synergy.
JEFF
- (keys)
- Outloading reenabled to Pickel;-- transmitting, now.
- Starship Pickel passing behind its quad, fires multi-angled sliding-sequenced interstitial practice shots: like a pro …
GARY
- (watching)
- Hot shot! Score one for yeo-woman!
- (smiles to Cadet)
CADET
- (to Gary)
- Does U-H-F neutrino radio transmit through planets?
GARY
- Yes of course: microvolt neutrinos…
JEFF
- (inserts, at controls)
- Pickel is now accepting telemetry from its quad!
GARY
- (resumes)
- …disperse more than solar neutrinos through the Earth: U-H-F neutrinos, go through light-moments of rubber!
- (grins)
JOHN
- (watches)
- That's it:-- A-plus for Pickel…!
MIKE
- (officially satisfied)
- Okay! Upgrade accomplished! Move-on: Let's watch the rest, of this simulation-game!
- They watch busy as the Fleet exercise proceeds;
CADET
- (to Gary)
- What propellant do these starships use?- It's invisible!
GARY
- Mass-momentum-coupling, we suppose: directly pushing-off the moon-- and pulling.
CADET
- But that only propels in line with the moon!
GARY
- You get cross-thrust by push-pull, twisting: when you're near enough.
CADET
- But at great distance, how does it couple efficiently?
GARY
- The impulsor engine emits self-siphoning field-solitons: At proper wavelength, these momentum-solitons refract into the moon sphere, and retroflect perfectly like the glass microspheres in a road sign retro-reflector! And these can be reused, until absorbed or missed.
CADET
- But the wavelength must adjust as we move away!
GARY
- Not by much: It could be pulsed. And we've discussed alternate theories.
CADET
- What would they be? There's nothing out here!
GARY
- Similar: coupling momentum directly into the aether.
CADET
- But aether is so tenuous and mass-less and uniform!
GARY
- Mass is not needed to transfer momentum.
CADET
- But, energy expenditure is a square of potential: Ideal momentum-drive must use picovoltage, and extremely high tera-frequency! But isn't that contradictory or fractional charge?
GARY
- We conjecture there is a frequency, or frequencies, at which the aether resonates: Electrons and protons, are our basically stable wavicles:- Other particles in the same general mass-range are unstable and quickly degenerate into these. Photons are quantized in energy-by-wavelength, because electrons-- are uniform.
CADET
- But the mean diameter of an electron wavicle is 6-femtometers, while the half-wavelength of a one-volt infrared photon is 6-hundred nanons: If the electron were a photon-half-wave, it'd have 50-mega electron-volts mass-energy,-- but electrons are only half a meg!
GARY
- And a lot of empty space!-- Also, multiply by six for three space-quadratured dimensions…. But to answer you: An electron is, the quasi-equivalent of a gamma ray: being half the pair in positron-electron annihilation,-- with that hundred-times longer photon-wavelength! Meaning theoretically, there must be an intrinsic ontical winding process within the photon, that is a tiny fraction of its length: about the width of an electron: And that process is essentially an aether-resonance.
CADET
- (catches)
- Could that be the quark?!
GARY
- More likely the gluons: The classic quark model shows quark mass, but the proton spin model has not much quark spin, which appears likelier in the gluons which spin like half-photons or neutrinos: Now, if there is, some way of generating gluon-waves, at that length, there may be a momentum-wavicle.
CADET
- (as to all, sincere)
- That makes physics so bizarre and paranormal-- and, I thought only U-F-O's were bizarre and paranormal!
- Gary bites air.
- CUT TO:
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