Professors' Spring Break [act 3] 'outside in the outer cosmos'

INT. RING CITY, INFINITE CORRIDOR - DYNAMIC OMNI-LIT

Just outside their gantry-way; Windowed; Wide, no apparent curvature, lit without lights. They enter in space-admiral suits with additional arrival-party overwear, boots, caps, commendation bars/stripes/circles, logos, insignias: [stars-over-sun-over-moon-crescent-rising]

(approaching with Peter)
Then the kid asks: Why don't black-holes swallow their own gravity and momentum, and disappear wholly from the universe?-- Do we give a kid like that, an A, or an F?! …: (inside, sees)
Pete: Notice the apparently endless corridor: It doesn't arch down in the distance.

(back with Gwen, answers)
That's because the light bends, too: We're on the outside of the event horizon.

I guess electromagnetic layer sweep repulsion doesn't repel photons …

(hinting a grin)
It'd just cause multipolarization …

(breaking to a grin)
But dynamic multipolarization-- and the photons would keep rolling …

(unto a grin)
It's just too far away …-millions of miles-… But with a telescope we should see ourselves from behind …

They pass doors and side-corridors; and Harry lags behind:

(looks about)
There really isn't going to be anything of interest to us here.

Why not? This is all interesting.

But without a purpose for us.

Aw-come-on, Harry: Science is great fun;- and expansive for the intellect: It may not seem to have a goal line, but it's got plenty of scrimmages.

(lagging; buoys)
Okay, You're right: We've made good progress, -a couple hundred quadrillion yards,- And we haven't dropped the ball.: (giggles)

(thoughtfully)
Maybe the goal line is beyond the edge of the galaxy.

Then we're going the wrong way. … Gwen, Is there any way to turn this operation around, altogether: to leave the galaxy?

An interesting thought, Daniel: I'll begin researching it at once.

Meanwhile, we've got another … You know, These corridors remind me of a university: a huge, university.

Yeah? And where's the Cosmo-Psycho-Genetics 1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-A Theory Colloquium being held, today!?

(looking back)
And where's Harry?

(looks both lengths)
Worried, already-- in a corridor, 25-million miles long?

(2 rooms back, excited)
Hhheyyy!

They WALK-TROT back to his sound location;--

(leads round the corner)
Find something,- Harry?

A TRANSPARENT OBSERVATORY BULB - DIM RED (CONTINUOUS)

Stark red and shadows streak-up Harry's face;-

They halt, wondering:- All, with red and shadow streaks …

(discomfited)
Don't look down, unless you can stand your knees shaking your shoulders loose.

They, reluctantly look down,- hand-blocking the red light in their eyes … their faces turning to awe--

BELOW the windowlike floor, space is empty-black except for ONE STAR intensely bright deep-red directly far beneath;

(points without looking)
What, is, that!?

The center of the black-hole, apparently … but I thought black-holes were entirely, black.

Yes … but that's, not.

Could it be a lower level structure maybe, a power-nodule hanging from this ring city?

It's too intensely bright, Peter: There'd be no point to its shining.

Is zero-point energy catalyzed by infalling atoms? Maybe light can, come from a black-hole, anyway!

Theory says, it can't: Photons fall-back faster than they can escape-- and lose all their energy on the way up: They become longer-than-ultra-low radiowaves.

But that's to the observer entirely away from the black-hole;- We're as close as the event-horizon: Gravity at this-distance is only-8 thousand miles per-second-squared: It'd take 23-seconds and 2-million miles half the distance to the center to reach the speed of light from standstill.

(adjusts)
Things can, escape a black hole, if they're non-ballistic: like a rocket that sheds booster-stages.

(theory-disappointed)
But photons are ballistic-- albeit waves rather than wavicles.

Musing, they step slowly back toward the corridor;

(discovers)
Not exactly, Dan: Photons can interact at very high energies: usually in the teravolt range.

And over billions of years, cumulative millions of hole-ing events converted star-masses to wave-flux energy, ten-to-the-88th power electron-volts, supplying your few dainty teravolts … We could be seeing the tail-end distribution of quantities of photons still cascading enough for a few to escape.

(exiting)
But then, this is a dim-black-hole: because it's so deep:: (continuous)

CORRIDOR - (CONTINUOUS)

(continuous)
A sun-size black-hole should be 4-million times brighter at its event-horizon 4-million times closer-but-4-million times less mass-energetic.

(enters corridor last)
And bluer, too;- at least earlier.

Doors, doorways, side-halls; They stroll-on …

AN INNER CORRIDOR

(diverts to a door)
This may be an exit.

(admires, follows)
Complimenting you, Gwen,-- You're very good at going "out", and it's always more "in" than before.

Gwen tries the door's hand-plate:-- the sliding DOOR YIELDS

THE COSMIC ELEVATOR

(disgruntles)
You're making me feel lonely.

No offense, Dan: You're dressed pretty-well, yourself;-- I just wanted to say something before the next really big play: I've got the feeling this can only be grand,-- another galaxy, the depths of the cosmos …

Gwen enters;- but they, STACK-AND-HOLD at the threshold:

(shoulder to shoulder)
… Another dimension!-- Do you hold your breath, before you jump?

(mocks serious)
Not me: I recite my Bar Mitzvah pledge.

(doubts)
Every time!?

(nonchalant)
Whenever time remains the last of the dimensions …

(muses)
First and, last-- I suppose.

(to Peter)
Split?- Two-timing half-dimensions?

(explains)
Depends on whether you're a pure-time, hypercomplex, mathematician, realizing time, first and imagining 3-space therein; Or a space-time physicist spacing-out, first, and timing-out, at last.

(returns a Strange look)
Always the last to know. … At least we know the end from the beginning.

(quieting)
You know, Dan: Not that I'm a whole lot Jewish, -But,- Do you see three Hebrew boys about to step into a fiery hot furnace? … with a fourth, kind-of-like, showing the way...?

… They nod yes … and step, three, feet together, inside …

INT. COSMIC ELEVATOR, THE GALAXY CORE STARS - (CONTINUOUS)

A small spacious circular room with cushioned bench seating around the sides; surround-windows to the outside billion bright stars; control-PANEL LIGHTS TWINKLE on the wall;

The DOOR SLIDES CLOSED,--

Gwen touches the control-panel;--

GEARS WIND inside the door …

LOCKS CLACK;-- then silent.

(realizes)
This isn't, Miss Francis' Ding-Dong School room.

It's not exactly a spaceship.

(cheers)
Have a seat, all.

(glum)
Lecture time.

They sit comfortably;

Gwen touches the control-panel;-- the ROOM LIGHT DIMS …

Show time.

AIR-LIKE INFLATION … filling-up the pitch spectrum …

Do we have a choice of channels this time?

Just up, and down.

They wait moments … no new operation presents itself: The inflation-sound pitch rises forever (formant sliding) …

Gwen looks outside momentarily …

Gwen, Are we moving?

Not exactly.

Did we forget the anchor?

(looks at himself)
Not my jacket …

We are not where we were.

(quietly more to Gwen)
Gwen: That's a non sequitur.

Look outside.

(00:00 instrumental - Ascent/Don Dorsey)

Outside, stars rain-down, bluish above, reddening below …

(peering way-down)
Whoa. What's left of the ring-city?

(peers way-down)
It's receding at the speed of light … Why don't we have ship-controls?

We're not in a space, ship: We're going straight up.

Stray clusters of stars rain-down;

A cosmic elevator? What's up, Doc?

(sits back)
We wait.

What floor do we stop-at?

(confides)
The top-floor.

(glares politely)
Which is …?

(undertones)
Twenty-seventh …

Gwen smiles;-- Daniel turns back to the window, and gawks: Whole nova-SPARKLING GALAXIES rain-down, shrinking rapidly;

These aren't stars.

Dan … Don't go off the deep end.

But they aren't:- They're galaxies.

All look out again: Galaxies, distant clusters of galaxies rain-down, bluing above and westward, and reddening below and eastward;- distant galaxies turn proportionally upto a half turn; all shrinking; They speak in their reflections:

(reality-checks)
Guys,-- Just occurred to me:-- At this speed, the galaxies should be squat, Lorentz-contracted.

Only if you measure it within a laboratory, frame: not an optical point: You need include aberration effects in optics.… Besides, we're looking at all types of galaxies: long and short.

Actually, if we're moving faster than the speed of light, we're looking at … no, we're not, looking at galaxies in any usual optical, sense … unless … nawh … but maybe …

Never known you to stammer, Pete: What're you thinking?

If light has two speeds, -a normal, and an aether-slip speed for a part per vigintillion; --maybe aether-alignment is a naturally occurring phenomenon, normally entropized around massive objects --kind of a dual- or quasi-crystalline state, like supersaturated ice-water, but simultaneously coexisting like naturally-aligning crystal-threads in a matrix, -hyperconduction along superstring gravitational lensing,- a cosmic-aether-hair ball in the vacuum of space,- … Then we may be seeing the galaxies live from their backsides: perhaps the windows trip and catch the faster hyper-photons, and amplify their aether-slipped light, like night-laser glasses.…

Galaxies sparser; the sky dims rapidly, top first;

(includes)
… Interesting, Peter: That'd cause photons traversing such speed-mixed vacuum to slowly spread in length: and maybe explain the redshift of distant galaxies --maybe the cosmos isn't, expanding-- … It might also explain pilot-waves, on naturally occurring aether-picks.

(begs forgiveness)
Okay,-- okay,- guys: I was thinking how spectral, the evidence of our …: (slows to notice)
elevator … travel …: (slows)
seemed …: (new tack)
We must be approaching the edge of the cosmos; But, Why is the sky so blue on one side?- Doppler? Is this elevator running horizontally, too? Gwen,- Are we heading for some destination in retrograde orbit, at the edge of the cosmos?

Galaxies gone, outside darkens to blue-black;

There was no specific destination indicated.

Interesting, Dan: I noticed that too: If our cosmos had systematic angular momentum, it was early shed gravitationally outward toward the equator; --standard calculus on a dense hot plasma-gas rotating in a gravitational field: forward baryon motion buoys momentum away from the center; rearward or slower motion, sinks: --same as in solar rotation stratification: The surface rotates faster:- the Coriolis depth-effect.

Outside is pale and whitening;

(notices)
What's happening out there?- The whole sky is white!

All watch speechless moments …

Oh!- If we've gone far-out of the main cosmos, we could have caught-up to the leading edge of the big bang,- where the early dense photon burst is still mixing, --even like the source of the star we saw in the black-hole!

(surprised)
You mean our whole universe, could be at the bottom of the black-hole of some ancient super-cosmic nova!?

(admits)
Sure-- yes, in fact: A large star collapsing to an electron radius, reaches 10-to-the-20th star-mass-energy equivalents at the center:-- about the number of stars in our observable universe.

Above and around gradually reddens;

(renotices)
Now, what?- Is the sky Doppler-red-shifting? Gwen: Is something wrong; Are we falling back?!

(mock-horrified)
Did we come up this far, up, to pile-driver back, down, into …: (ridiculous-grins)
the, bllaaackk-hhoolle …!?

Daniel, How can you be silly at a time like this?

(--:-- -fade-)

(nonchalant)
Precisely, When I'm silly, I forget about time: It works in my lectures … For example … Have you heard the story behind the colored stripes on the ceiling in the Math Department? One of my grad students says this is -unflourished,- truth.

Above deep-reddens very dark; below turns bluish,- shrinks-down,- then begins casting-up blue-shadows;

I don't know that we're ready for a joke right now, Daniel.

(snubs)
Let him tell it, Gwen: We've nothing to do,-- and this may be our last chance to hear him tell his probabilistically famous joke.

(eye-checks each)
A professor, who used to wander the hallways, gazing absent-mindedly at the ceiling … invariably forgot the time and stopped in any doorway and confronted the secretary: "Where am I…?!" The regular Staff was used to it and took it as nothing; But when a new secretary started work in his office, and this happened a second, time, She retorted, You, are in the same place you were four days ago.… Bemused, He gazed at her a moment … Then smiled and said, "Excellent!"- And he strode away, proclaiming, "I still have two weeks to prepare for teaching the undergraduate course!"

They all giggle politely; Around is very dark red; below (OS) is a brilliant blue shrunken smudge casting BLUISH SHADOWS UP faces and noses; Above begins to turn blue;

(resumes)
This secretary had an extraordinary I-Q, And, recognizing the obvious,- reported the second incident to the department chairs, who conferred to agree that painting a stripe on the ceiling might guide the professor, that he should not get lost, nor confuse time and day.: (a beat)
They gave the task to two graduate students who, borrowed a stopwatch from Physics, and took statistics: How fast he walked, How quick he'd turn a corner, How long he'd pause, How soon he'd move in a busy hall … And, painted a yellow stripe on the ceiling for a twenty-minute course homed at his office, plus-or-minus thirty seconds.… The professor came back a week later and said, This is good but could he have a path, ten, minutes long, for short breaks? And they painted him a blue stripe, ten minute route; And, as you'd expect, the two paths crossed, somewhere,-- because they reducted it precisely.

They smile, foreseeing; and giggle hence at leisure:

(continues; a new tack)
One day his wife and seven-year-old daughter return from visiting grand folks, And come for lunch but he is not there. So leaving daughter with secretary and reminder to not speak to strangers, wife exits on yellow, right. But he had taken blue, to be back in time, and is paused, at the yellow crossing unsure which he has taken, and how long each remainder, takes, from his office: which he is resolving by comparing, the numbers of turns in each subpath and number of corners remaining to his office.: (a beat)
Also at that moment, two undergrads were discussing, a joke, around the side, unaware of his presence … and when they get to a certain part the professor says, I did not do that!-: (a beat)
Realizing they are cornered on the outside, they stand silent.… Half a minute passes.… Then one, says, Do you think he's forgotten us by now?: (a beat)
But the professor says, Excuse me, please: I have stood here several minutes listening to you, trying to recall your names and I must now go back to my office immediately: I'll allow you extra credit if either of you knows which colored line on the ceiling leads most directly to my office.… The two students look four ways, then at the ceiling, and say, Blue, Right. And exit nonchalantly.: (a beat)
Meanwhile, his secretary needs two signatures on a grant, -and waiting no longer, gets up,- -And as she is now well-adept at speaking to very, intelligent, childlike minds,- she turns to the little girl, and says, Wait here: I am going next door to get the Grant Proposal cosigned for Adjointed Eigenfunctors; I will be back in two minutes. And she exits.: (a beat)
The little girl obediently moves to the secretary's chair and sits. But at count-to-ten, little girls begin looking-about, reading or listening to something,… and she looks at the secretary's laptop, -left open with tasks closed,- and she clicks a new task … but no sooner she clicks and the professor returns, bringing her search to an abrupt halt.…: (2 beats)
Gazing, squarely, at her -in the chair,- He says: I remember you now: But you were twenty years older, last time!

They giggle politely. Around and above gradually turns purplish blue; the very dark red recedes below …

Very good, Daniel: We've forgotten what time it is.: (looks out)

(interjects)
Got it.… We're not only going, up;- We're getting bigger!-- It figures: If the cosmos is a gravitationally closed singularity, -a black-hole,- then anything falling in-to the cosmos, will be crushed, outside.

Conjecture? Peter.

No! This is why the sky was so red: We were getting bigger,- but before we get biggest, the photons falling into our cosmos from outside, are still bigger photons, to us:: (relieves)
Red, photons!

(retorts)
And we're being mass-energized directly by the black-hole.

The whole SKY BLACKS-OUT; leaving the room panel-lighted;--

(continues)
Ooops … spoke too soon.: (listens-about 3 beats)
Are we still moving?

The elevator TING-TINGS; arrives; stops.--

(chuckles)
Figures: Some things never change.

Eyes adjusting, They gather slowly to the door …

The control-PANEL TWINKLES;

It's only been a few minutes on the elevator, Dan;-- hardly a Pop-quiz.

Pop-quizzes leave me hungry-- and I'm famished!- They'd best have a well-stocked refrigerator stuffed with matzo balls and kosher beef wieners …

The DOOR SLIDES OPEN to daylight …

(low voice)
Forget the refrigerator, Dan …!

EXT. LUSH GARDEN - ELEVATOR HUT - DAYGLOW (CONTINUOUS)

(00:00 instrumental - Summer Of 300 Years/2002)

Flowers, trees; -A BREEZE RUSTLES, BIRDS CHIRP;- the ground is golden-brown; the sky is clear warm violet mottled with many extra-bright stars, but no sun;

(deep-breathes rapture)
Well,-- at last, a real place:-- Alien technology does have an end!: (huge-BELCHES, grins)

(surprised)
Daniel!?

(grin-off serious)
Well, it's not like we remembered to bring an American flag to plant here;-- and you wouldn't think I'd come this far across the cosmos and not, make a statement, … Would you?

(quiets)
Dan: There may be people, up here.

Who?- This place has been empty for a long time:-- It's all grown over!

Maybe not, Dan: It's too much garden and not enough jungle, to be merely abandoned.

Doesn't appear to be a tended, garden:- No tending,- No Adam!

But what would a cosmic elevator be doing out here in the midst of a garden?- On an isolated planet!?

(shifts)
Maybe we should be finding-out.

(leads stroll)
Agreed.

They walk away from the elevator … to

THE TREES, EDGE OF THE CLEARING

Harry LOOKS BACK:-- the elevator is closed;

(hushes relief)
At least the elevator is still there.

They all look back … relieved;-

And peruse the trees of golden fruits, mango, bosc-pear, and bushes of golden berries, sweet-quince:

(advances, examines one)
Looks like good fruit-- and the air is sweet and fragrant.

But, un-tended; And that golden hue … Oh-boy, does this feel un-Jewish!

But that was millennia ago, Dan, in another universe,-- and it was a lesson for Adam and Eve in Eden,- not us,-- not here.

Lessons learned are something you take with you:-- the only thing, perhaps.

Gwen strolls to the next tree; plucks a ripe-looking fruit; takes a bite;-- and picks a second and more;

And you always have newer and better lessons, too.

(eyes the fruits)
You guys are tempting me, fiercely.

(encourages)
Adam must have eaten something, before he began tending the garden: The lesson must have been an early follow-up, to learn to grow more, to continue and survive on Earth.: (cajoles)
Maybe if you vow to tend this garden, you'll find forgiveness to eat something now.

Gwen returns; Small colorful ANIMALS APPEAR quietly in the near bushes behind her: rabbits, birds, cats, dogs, deer;

(mocks drool-licks)
You guys don't know everything about Jews … but you sure know how to tempt one.

(offers Daniel a fruit)
Delicious, Daniel-- and you have no other choice.

Didn't Jewish farmers leave a tenth of their fields for travelers, and the poorer people, to glean?

That was to not-burden the land.

Gwen seems less patient: Daniel tentatively takes a fruit;

And considers it;-- A QUICK LIGHT BREEZE RUSTLES leaves;--

(mock-taunts)
Was that a snake,- I hear rattling?

(mock-taunts)
Naw: The wind wandering through the garden,- whispering: Dan-Dan: Where are you?

(knowing-chuckles)
That's, French, for: Turkey, Where are you? …

(a beat, firm)
All right I'm taking responsibility for this one; But, if you guys turn me in to Rebbe, I'll report you, to your pastors:- There must be a good Christian law against treachery.…: (a bite, nods vigorously)
Maybe this wasn't the forbidden fruit.

(notices animals; stoops)
Look at these cute bunny-rabbits: They're curious about us.: (cradles-up a rabbit)

(notices)
Very friendly too; … perhaps Dan-Dan would like to name them …!?

Come-on, guys: Fun is fun: Cut it with the Dan-Dan: These are wild animals.: (more to Gwen)
Gwen: Don't lick your fingers after handling a wild animal;- And wash your hands before you eat.

(strolls-on)
Daniel: You don't think the wild microbes would be less polite about us, than this bunny-rabbit …!?

(recovers axiom tenderly)
I think, it's more that men can ask better, than animals.…

They follow Gwen through the garden, picking, eating …

Harry picks a golden-hued quince, in passing--

Here's your forbidden fruit, Dan: The quince;--: (proffers)
Ever had one?- In the renaissance era they let them rot till sweet,--: (repugns)
and stank like arsenic manure.: (boldly)
I'll, test it, for you!: (bites, brightens; eats)

Quince jelly is puckery tart: needs a lot of sugar in the recipe.

(mouthful, smiles)
De-lici-ous: This kind is as sweet and fresh as pear!

(curious-shrugs)
Maybe the soil and air, here, is different:-- seasons, temperature, day-light rates, color-spectrum-- genetics, catalysts, … symbiotic species, … could be optimal for growing a variety of sweet-quinces.

NEAR THE RIVER - (MINUTES LATER)

Nearing, they find all the animals getting sleepy:

(cuddles sleepy rabbit)
Such a lovely blue-sky haven for a bunny-rabbit,-- though it must be tiring too.

There's ample food, and fresh running water, here:-- Think there are any primitive people here too?

(sees animals sleeping)
Dan, Your fear of the wild must be a turn-off to these dear little creatures:- Look: They're all going to sleep, in the middle of the day!: (looks up at the sky)
Whoa,… Take that back;: (points up eastward)
Look at that edge of night!

Sky-east is a sharp black disk half risen, center unseen;

(comments)
A two-tone black-and-blue sky:- Strange places sure are marvelous …: (clipped)

East SHADOW BREAKS A WHITE-FLASH on Harry's face--

(stricken: looks down)
Aaghh!: (covers eyes IN TEARS)
I can't see: It hurts the eyes.

(peers into his face)
What is it, Harry? Volcanic dust? Insects?

(blinks tears, anguished)
No: It's convulsive: excruciating.

(searches the sky)
Just empty sky up there …

East SHADOW BREAKS A WHITE-FLASH on Daniel's face--

(stricken: looks down)
Aaghh … Ow-- That hurts!: (covers eyes IN TEARS)

(helps Daniel)
What did you guys see!?

(wipes his eyes)
Nothing: I was looking around, and suddenly a blinding flash: It hurt: My vision is all blurry.

(scans the garden)
We didn't see any flash in the trees. Is someone shining a laser-beam at us?- Have we been spotted?!

(more to Peter)
We should return to the elevator-room,-- without looking up.

All head down, Gwen and Peter quickly blind-guide Harry and Daniel handkerchiefing their tears …

Maybe that's what happens to the animals-- and they go to sleep …

The animals seem to see all right: I hope this isn't permanent.

These animals know when the bright is coming: They must have learned.

I wonder what kind of weather they have here: We haven't seen any clouds.

Don't, look now.

ELEVATOR HUT - (MINUTES LATER)

They arrive back; Shadows fall faintly long on the golden ground and high up the side walls …

Peter tries the control-panel;- but the door refuses.--

Uh-oh:- We're locked out.

Missed curfew.

The elevator has gone back down: It should return in a few hours.

What did it go down for?- Are more, cosmic travelers coming up?

We'll have to stay out here for the bright cycle;-- Find a cave …!

Look, Peter: We have distinct shadows, now.

Gwen stoops and pushes a stick in the ground and another at its shadow-tip; Peter holds his fingers together to make a point of light in his purplish-bluish shadow on the wall;--

(examines the shadow)
Well, look, at this: There's no sun up there,- but a piercingly bright star-point:-- as bright, as a sun.

Gwen examines his handshadow;-

Ever look at a solar eclipse this way? It makes a little crescent inside the shadow.

Maybe it's like that lone star in the black-hole back at the ring-city,- only, a lot brighter, here.

But a local black-hole that bright … gravitational tide would disrupt this planet.… It's a galactically, massive, black-hole, hundreds, of, billions, of solar masses; equally many miles away …!

(surprised)
But that would be a blacker, hole;- unless it recently refreshed itself by swallowing a supergiant star!

Maybe it's something else: a nearby supernova … and, maybe the slope of land rises high in the western sky, casting sharp evening shadows ….

(tracks stick-tip shadow)
The star is moving on this side …: (on to the hut shadow)
Let's rest on the far side.

From a pocket survival-pouch they spread a silvern mylar blanket in the shade against the hut …

Undignified,-- but I'm glad there are no mosquitoes.

Means there's no stagnant water.

And rest lying close; Gwen, Peter, outside; hands folded …

(mock-sleepy-sings)
Home, home on, de-range … Where the pear, and the cantaloupe, play ….: (a beat, explains)
Helps me dream on midsummer nights.

(nod sleepy yes)
Mmmm…
/Gwen/ Fruit salad.
/Harry/ Shakespeare.
/Peter/ Shakes-cantaloupe.

FADE TO:

EXT. ELEVATOR HUT - (MORNING-LIKE BUT WITHOUT SHADOW)

(00:00 instrumental - Realms Of Splendor/2002)

They're still sleeping splayed on their silvern blanket …

FLOCKS OF BIRDS BURST-SING, ANIMALS STIR;--

Gwen sits-up … wipes dew from her face …

Rises,- and tiptoes away, quickly through the garden …

TREES

PARALLELING THE RIVER

ON THE RIVER BANK, TREES AND BUSHES

Gwen edges along the golden-hue bank slow waters … stops;-

Strips to her DEXPORT bikini swimsuit-bottom (black-trim-gold stripe front-right from side ring through the crotch to left ring, chartreuse insignia italic "DEX" to contra "port" on white) … wades, dives and swims about, 10 sec. …

Then returns to the shore …

BEHIND BUSHES

Rinses and wrings her clothes, 10 sec. …

Peter arrives SWIMMING SPLASHY upstream … slows and stays …

(notices; covers upper)
Peter!?

(affects Frenchly)
Par-don-ney mwah, mah-dem-wahz-ell.

(clips)
Peter: What are you doing here?!

Voolay vou dee-rectay mwah oh cwahn d'Hiddekel ey Euphrates: S'eel vou play!?

(arm upstream, curt)
A wet kilometer up-dream: Hang a hard-left on your right, and watch your step out of real estate!

(a beat, smiles-nods)
Medr-cee beau-cou …!

Restart jumps, and resumes splashy swimming upstream …

She sees him till out of range …

(recomposuring)
Snakes,-- gardening variety!

And resumes wringing …

(--:-- -fade-)

EXT. ELEVATOR, OPEN - (HOUR LATER)

Regathered, fully dressed but more openly, breakfasting;

I put a time-lock on the elevator: It'll stay here for three hours this time, if no-one calls it down.

(blinking-about extra)
Automation, is funny: It has so many programmable options you end-up studying it like a science.

(blinking-about extra)
Like a rock under a jeweler's loupe-and-findings: fine and expensive.

(checks them)
Your vision restored, guys?

(blinks for him)
Yes: clear as normal: But I think there's a wear-spot high on top,-- or that would be down on bottom, …

(finishes)
Where the star-spot focused on the retina briefly,-- should heal eventually.

(calms)
Yeah, … Amazing how fast the eye adapts and focuses if you're not staring all day at your office.

(blinks a few)
Mine's okay,-- but once burned, twice shy:- Teaches you to never stare at any sun,-- nor nova sun.

(blinks a few)
So we're ready to explore: Which way do we go, Doc's?

Let's try the river upstream:- I checked this morning, and it runs to the edge of the garden.

All … nod yes … and stroll out through the garden …

And let's remember to be back within three hours.

They check their wrist-watches:

(humors Daniel)
What time-zone have you, Dan?

(plays right in)
Super-cosmic Standard Time.…: (2 beats, defends)
Well, I don't know better:- Super-cosmic Daylight Salvation Time!?- Or is this Super-cosmic Night-light Time: when the sun-star is down?!

Interesting question, Dan:- What, lights the sky, when the sun-star is on the other side of the planet?

Mutually dumbfounded,- and peering-up at the sky:

(tries)
Back-scatter from the black-hole's accretion-disk:- space clouds?

There'd be lots of meteors and fireballs visible right now, -or especially in that edge of night,- that we'd have noticed yesterday!

We'd have seen the bright line of an accretion-disk,-- if there were.

Is ours the only black-hole or star in the local interstellar space?- May-be we're in dense space:- Maybe there are millions, of stars near our black-hole,- our cosmos, hole.…

Your star-millions would have to be dimmer than zero-magnitude, else we'd see many in the daylight, … unless this sky is thickly hazed …: (checking the sky)
No … That'd mean, To equal a sun's day-brightness with a galaxy, three hundred billion, suns would have to be packed within thirty light-years radius and the nearest at a hundred A.U. … 30 million times denser than our galaxy core; And very variable!: (to Harry)

(appends)
May-be there are infinitely, many, dimmer, stars, further away.

He takes-out his pocket binoculars,- and twists it about to make a monocular telescope, to view the sky magnified;

You mean Olbers' paradox:-- They'd have to be extremely cold dark blue stars, or we'd have a reddish-brown sky and it'd be just as hot here as the average star-face temperature,- thousands of degrees,-- and we'd be re-fried beings, many times over. …: (ponders a beat, rambles)
Unless they were heavy-metal stars, extraordinarily old, burned-out and cold scintillating under in-falling dust … maybe surrounded by hundreds of giant, gas-planets absorbing the redder part of sunlight, reflecting blue … Olbers' selective-absorption paradox:- infinitely many warm blue planets storing-away the red energy in green plants …

(clips; to himself)
I have …: (telescopes the sky)
This is supposed to work like a telescope: one lens to the other.

(continues to himself)
But hundreds times as many planets, each a thousandth, of a star-mass, produces other gravitational fluxes … yet … infinitely many stars too …

(clips; announces)
Stranger still-- there are little dots up there: The sky looks like shiny bubbly purplish blue foam …

(still to himself)
Maybe blue is just a local cosmic phenomenon of interstellar ions …

(clips; ponders)
Well, This is, consistent:--: (launches)
If this super-cosmos is, infinite, it must contain infinitely many stars,- and infinitely many giant-stars that have become black-holes since it's been here and infinitely many more to come … each black-hole having a bright blue dot inside its black-hole-bubble …

(clips; interjects)
Flash!- … But it doesn't make much sense:- What came before? How does an infinite cosmos begin?

It doesn't have to have a beginning per se:- It always has existed, and developed-- because it exists now … with infinite progress to go, and have gone before.

(joins)
Then this super-cosmos must be steady-state:- With no center, it can neither contract nor expand, without infinite speed everywhere!

Doesn't mean anything: There'd be finite pockets of space, cosmic-clusters, expanding, -and others contracting,- And with dimensions infinite, there'd be infinitely many such pockets, so arbitrarily large you'd never tell.

But infinity can't come-from, nor collapse into, the finite-- so it must be over-all steady-state.

If it's important to you.

(rescues)
It does seem fairly quiescent in our local space,-- and there must be zillions of different kinds of spaces to explore far away;- Some could even be much like our own universe.

You think our own universe is a kindergarten, a preparatory-school for intelligent-living out here!?

(mulls to precise slang)
Could be-- a kind-a, garden: Yes.

RIVER BANK - (MIDDAY-LIKE)

They walk upstream the golden-hue bank …

The opposite bank opens eastward to golden-hue barren low-cut grass fields to a green horizon hint of city-top-line;

(more to Peter)
You know, Peter:- If there are infinitely many stars around us, there can be no polar ice caps: This whole planet may be as temperate as it is right here.

And simpler weather patterns.

Could be this garden is a small oasis surrounded by semi-arid steppe, farm fields,-- like the original Eden.

It's the same for a kilometer upstream and more …: (more to Gwen)
--my morning swim.

They stand and look across:-- A golden yellow brick walkway leads from the opposite bank, across the fields and beyond.

(visualizes its path)
Figures … should have known … This, is the land of Oz …: (points to path and city)
There's the yellow brick road … and emerald city.… Do any of you recall running into a tornado on the way?!

Do you suppose it's gold: flecks in the ground-soil?- Could this planet be Eldorado …?!

No: Gold dust would be excessively abundant to change the soil color.

(startles)
Uranium Cake!-: (panics)
Oh, Lord! What are we doing in hell's penthouse?!

Daniel?

(00:00 instrumental - Falling Through Time/2002)

(reemphasizes sky-west)
The black-hole, Gwen! -Our cosmos:- We're roasting at the center of a supercosmic firepit,- and we don't feel a thing …!- This place is as radioactive-hot as the ten-billion-degree core of its supernova that exploded billions of years ago …!- That yellow color in the ground is the superabundance of uranium-oxide yellow-cake left when its iron core condensed its innards to a neutron-quark star before it collapsed into its final black-hole: our universe! … Here right-outside the center, it created a preponderance of uranium, thorium, enough to form this planet with silicon, oxygen, carbon, iron, hydrogen, … a little running water.

(prophecy)
And there were no more seas.

(agitated)
The animals don't mind it, Dan:- There's no evidence of mutancy.…

(stirring excited)
Maybe they've adapted;- Maybe small animals adapt better, over millions of years! …

(pleas)
Dan: Don't panic:- This local star-space may be trillions of years old and the uranium and thorium may be all gone: Without a Geiger-counter, we don't know enough.

Pete: Our inner-universe should age more quickly than this outer world, despite time-dilation, because it's relatively sub-micro-miniature:-- A trillion years inside, could be ten thousand, out here. It could be …

(clips; forces calm)
Dan:- The neutrino-flux background, in an infinite cosmos, could be ten zillions times stronger:- And would we know it?- The uranium may be all gone in catalysis by neutrinos … Lead-cake, can be yellow too.

(points to Peter's badge)
Peter: One of the patches on your jacket should be a roentgen-dosage indicator:- Yours are all clear.

(heaves calm)
Okay, … I don't believe a word of what you're saying, Pete: But I do appreciate your honest theorizing.… I, just think we, should be heading back immediately … Very soon!

That's an oxy-more-Dan? …: (innocent grin)
As opposed to an oxy-more-Ron ….

(looks-up a beat)
May-be so:- The sky has cleared: The day-cycle is but a few hours for this planet.

They retreat …

Sure would be nice to hike across to that city,-- tomorrow.

We'll need dark sunglasses for a daylong hike: It could be a mirage.

GARDEN - (LATE-AFTERNOON-LIKE)

They walk heads-down toward the elevator; The east sky is the huge black-hole;- Faint long shadows streak through the trees; The animals are inactive, asleep again …

(looking at animals)
But, Pete: Maybe the neutrinos are swallowed-up by the cosmic black-holes, --unlike neutron stars which bounce or re-emit neutrinos,-- and maybe uranium and thorium don't radiodecay at all, out here.

I think this outer cosmos is at equilibrium, locally:- The light falling into black-holes and onto neutron stars,- equals the light climbing-out; Likewise the neutrino flux is at equilibrium.

But is that a lot, or little?!

Figuring that sources of neutrinos are predominantly exotic processes, supernova neutron stars putting-out a percent of their energy visible,- a hundred times more efficient at producing neutrino energy; thousand times more efficient than our sun …

ELEVATOR HUT

Well, Harry: I think we made it, this time.

Gwen activates the panel:-- the DOOR OPENS.

(--:-- hollow)

INT. ELEVATOR - LIGHT FROM THE DOOR (CONTINUOUS)

They enter and spread to the walls …

I'll program the elevator to return a week after we leave tomorrow morning.: (works control-panel)

(reviews the room)
I'm ready for this:-- Cushions to sleep-on, again.

The DOOR CLOSES … INTERIOR LIT, windows black; They array to rest on the wall-bench, folding jackets as pillows …

(reflects)
It was pleasant to sleep outside: I haven't been summer-hiking in a year.

(mock-fluffing his couch)
Just not safe for the eyes out there:- We can get some real shuteye in here.

No irksome bugs, no mosquitoes:- a great vacation site … I'll have to return some year … with arc-welder goggles.

THE ROOM DARKENS slowly … they deboot and lie down;

(dithers)
Who's leaving? If there are people across the fields, I could move-in and stay forever.

That great, Dan?

Almost:- Might have to go back and arrange for my folks to visit from Earth. … And their neighbors will want to come … and their friends at the synagogue, will never let them leave without corresponding …: (checking Gwen)

DARK-- YET FACES, HANDS, GLOW by scintillating blue points.

(looks at each … at Gwen)
Gwen: Is there an ultraviolet lamp in this room?-- some… cosmic, undergraduate black-light prank …?

No.

(rouses)
Then, Why is your face glowing so pretty in the dark?

They lounge-prop-sit-up,-- looking mutually …

(examines hands, clothes)
It's the hands,-- the skin: The clothes are dark.

Oh, no!-- Radioactive glow!: (plops back)
Oh, Lord!

But it's on all of us: You and I didn't go in the water: just Gwen and Peter swam in the river.

Then it's rich in the air: the dust on the breeze.

It'd be on the clothes equally …

Unless skin is stickier …

(examines the floor)
It should settle on the floor,- but it's not there.

It must settle all day long to accumulate;-- and it's never dark outside: We didn't see it.

But radioactivity lasts for months and years on the floor,-- unless no-one's been here in thousands of years,-- except the cleaning-crew …: (flash grins)
Try wiping it off.

They wipe hard-- but it doesn't remove …

Must be absorbed more deeply.

Most radioactivity is invisible, either particles or gamma-rays, unless you have a scintillator fluorescing in a visible spectrum.

Then, What, is it? It's something nuclear-powered, I'm sure:-- Gwen was right: We've slipped the latch and climbed-out of our, gravity, playpen: The front door was open, and we've run out into the street!: (emphatic)
There are processes going on here, that we just don't understand enough to guess: This place isn't safe for our mortal selves: whether Jewish, or Christian;-- I think we should go home.

Home isn't going to be immortal,- just less nuclear-powered.

We shouldn't have to think so much about leaving! …

(discovers, smiles)
It's anti-helium!

What?

Or, anti-helion, -the antimatter equivalent of helium nuclei.-- The one big difference between this world and our own, is, We don't have naturally occurring antimatter isotopes,-- just a few anti-protons generated in some neutron-star or pulsar process, or in laboratories: and it doesn't last long on Earth.: (elates)
This is the planet, astrophysicists dream of owning.

How does it get generated here?

Simply enough: It already exists in equal proportions in the infinite, super-cosmos: And some floats down.

But it'd be annihilated in the upper atmosphere.

Not, anti-helium … a lab experiment back in the mid 90's showed it may be fairly stable in hydrogen,-- and that, I figure, is what we're seeing: hydrogen fusion-- catalyzed by anti-helium: It's neat theory really: cold-fusion by nuclear "Planck-ton,"-- scientists tried muons, but those radiodecay in microseconds.…

(clips)
You mean we're being nuclear-fusioned alive, by anti-helium!?

Only minute quantities, -as slow as the loss of sweat by evaporation; no danger at all,- and we're seeing the occasional deuterium fusion ….

But if it's in abundance about this planet, we can't be safe here: This whole planet could explode if an antimatter asteroid came along.

Not likely,-- for that very reason: Antimatter exists in equal quantity only over some large cosmic range,- maybe around the next super-cosmic cluster: We're in less danger than of ordinary, stars, colliding.

A little more danger than that: Asteroids are more numerous, and often flung-out from solar systems.

But not much beyond a star's Oort cloud;- and if one did arrive, it'd be blasted back into space before landfall … a trivial phenomenon … And this place doesn't look very destroyed.

What happens when an antimatter asteroid falls into our cosmos down below?

Nothing … It'd be finely ripped apart into anti-neutrons, anti-protons, quarks, anti-quarks;-- a few tons might become a Saturn-mass, dispersed and dissipated, one-in-sextillion, throughout our cosmic background.

(imposes)
I just don't think we can stay, guys: We're not adapted to this kind of thinking: It's too speculative.

We can go now, or tomorrow after we visit the city.

Now. I've seen yellow-brick roads and cities on Earth, that are safe.

I'm equivocal: If we can't continue, we may go back any suitable time.…

(dejected)
I did so want to visit the city,-- and meet a real cosmic space alien.

I'm for going back-- and finishing my research project this Spring: The follow-on needs new grant-funding.

Then … we go … now.

They mutually shrug okay-yes;

(rises to the panel)
I'll have this reprogrammed momentarily.: (keys the controls)

Set it for extra-slow, Gwen-- I still want my nap … four hours.: (leans back: naps)

Pete: Why would we not have antimatter equally abundant in our own cosmos, if it's abundant up here?

The WINDOWS LIGHT-UP as the elevator glides down;

They lounge-back again …

Our cosmos, is the singularity, black-hole, of a former matter-supernova:- Matter predominates inside …

The same nuclear shredding occurred when the matter-supernova's neutron-star collapsed.

Yes: And that became the mass of our cosmos.

(cute to ceiling)
Matter-dogs, have matter-fleas: What do antimatter, dogs have?: (grins: resumes nap)

But we won't shred:-- this elevator didn't shred.

It re-energizes us gradually;-- alien technology at its finest.

How far down could we get without this elevator?

Almost all the way, from your outer perspective, 'til the gravitational tidal forces break-up your vehicle.

FADE IN:

INT. ELEVATOR - COSMOS RISING - DIM LIT (HOURS LATER)

Outside is dark with distant sparkling galaxies flashing-by upward; bluish below, reddening above, enlarging, (sequence reverse of going); Gwen and Harry in a standing hug while Peter, Daniel, sleep; Faces, hands, scintillating …

(softly)
Harry, It's been a long while since you gave me a hug.

(chagrins)
And, it's going to be a lot longer to the next,- Gwen: Don't let the guys panic, but, I can't go back with you.

(eyes to eyes)
Harry: We're not dragging you back: It's the scheduled time to go back.

Yes,- You're right;-- and I'm going back, without a care; … but then, … the ball is in my hands: I'm behind the line, pumping my soles, hunting for a hole in the defense formation strategy … It's a priority, Gwen;-- It works out in the understanding …: (to future)
It's like I'm being called-upon to know more than I ever learned;- but I've already got my doctorate. … What more could I have studied?!

(conciliatory)
I understand, Harry.

(admits)
It's increasingly imperative.… I'll go back as far as I can, but one of these times, I can't.

(reaffirms)
I do understand, Harry:: (foreshadows)
Call my name, Harry, and I'll be there for you.: (closed-eyes prays, done)

FADE TO:

Petry System Family Wision USA

in conjunction with

project NEMO

presents

Professors' Spring Break

an advanced space sciences romantic adventure comedy, PG-13 Sci⁴fi feature

Mr. Raymond Kenneth Petry, Strategic Director
a Wision--SesQuaTercet USA production

Four research professors take the ultimate Spring Break
from classes, the Earth, the galaxy and the university.

[index][script][music][sets&settings][budget][prospectus][roles]

[Music specified in this screenplay is the Strategic Director's selection]

Act 3

'outside in the outer cosmos'

[Act 4]

digital music [var] © [tbd; Screenwriter's selections and annotations]
swimsuit pattern and "DEXport" design © [tbd; Screenwriter's depiction]

The theory of measurement propounded in this work is not to be cited (as) considering contraband or corpses; Nor are the intellectual appurtenances hereïn to be used for or in the commission of crimes against persons, peoples, properties, or powers (States).

© 1997-2009 Mr. Raymond Kenneth Petry