The Halloween Episode: "Gorg"

Deep in space, the runabout encounters the Gorn refugee fleet, fleeing the disastrous invasion of Gorn space by the Borg.

The fleet has many fighter craft but few pilots, so Peltier agrees to help scout in front of the fleet.

A Borg needle whips past, beaming its pilot onto the runabout! Several people shoot him immediately. His hand refuses to die, though, and has to be shot some more. Then it starts crawling up the wall by itself, and has to be shot even more.

Returning, the runabout has to dart between Borg needle patrols. But Peltier has collapsed, with a fever! Hicks, the next quickest among the crew, is chosen to fly the ship. (Actually, Kaaj is faster, and also pilot-trained, but for some unstated reason Riva doesn't want him flying.)

Hicks evades the patrols. The runabout closes in on a Gorn destroyer. Where's the rest of the Gorn fleet? With its ragtag fugitive armada, it's very slow, but isn't where it ought to be.

The Gorn destroyer has been taken over by the Borg. Most of the crew have had bionic parts grafted on and stagger about like drunken zombies. They're VERY slow (Gorn + Borg = geologically slow reflexes) but also VERY tough. Kaaj and Riva sabotage the main reactor so they can't spread their contagion, and return to the runabout to escape.

Peltier raves about having bones imbedded in his flesh. Hannah treats his pH and saline levels and brings him around, at least for a while. Can't treat the cause? Treat the symptoms.

The door to the shuttle bay is closed. The runabout tries wrenching it open with a tractor beam. It's starting to give, but then jams, just as the inner doors burst open and a horde of Borg-modified RADIOACTIVE Gorn come staggering in! They're even slower now, but boy there are a lot of them, and you cannot kill what is already dead ...

Episodes 5-6 Recap

The Romulan commander, Ael, who went missing leads her officers to try to retake the bridge. She steals a shuttle and escapes to the Klingon ship (the Stardragon), which is almost crewless.

The Marines storm the Life Support compartment, downing all the Klingons within.

The Klingon ship starts moving away, gaining speed.

Peltier leads an away team onto the Romulan ship (the Sparrowhawk), which is deserted. Its torpedo tube is destroyed, but everything else appears to work. The Enterprise engines need time to power up, so Peltier chases Ael in her own ship!

The chase crew is Peltier, Hannah, Riva, Ramirez, Boone, Kaaj, Cpl. Hicks of the Marines, rookie navigator Surdu and Dr. Mitchell.
Ael heads for a particularly deep nebula. Kaaj groans -- she is headed for the place where she found the stasis boxes he stole from her. What she intends to do there, he doesn't know, but a lot more people are finding out about the secret treasure hoard.

Within the nebula, Ael bypasses several enormous spherical ships. They are powered down, but Hannah detects frozen life-forms aboard. The first one has humans, dogs, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, massive Irish deer, and shaggy bison -- a collection of Ice Age life forms.

The second one has humans, dogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, horses, houses, stone buildings, catapults, sailing ships and paving stones, as though sampled from the Roman Empire.

The third one has many machines as well as lightly irradiated humans, including a Court of Fact and drug-sniffing infantrymen. This is an exact parallel to the post-nuclear period of Earth history, before the invention of the warp drive.

But the fourth ship doesn't contain humans. It contains Romulans, from a period where they wore winged helmets and electronic shoulder-mantles, riding swooping sky-cycles and raising tall slender crystal spires.

The ship opens to Ael's code, the longitudinal segments peeling back like the slices of an orange. She takes the Klingon ship inside, with the Romulan ship following.

Riva goes over to the Romulan ship, with Hannah and Kaaj jumping along uninvited. In an epic Romulan karate battle, Riva stuns Ael. Ael is taken back to the Stardragon and restrained.

But then, a glowing cube shows up! It's about the size of a large shuttlecraft. It glows with radiation, then unleashes a crackling red spotlight beam. Riva uses the Klingon ship to block the beam, but then the Klingon ship sparkles and disappears! With no more barrier, the Romulan ship is also hit, and vanishes ....

Episode 6 begins with both ships appearing in a starless void. There is a huge round diamond in the distance, glowing with energy.

This is apparently a cosmos unlike our own, in which gravity is somewhat stronger. All the mass of this universe is concentrated in one place, a huge crystalline structure slowly drawing the Stardragon, the Sparrowhawk, and everything else into itself.

Because space here is completly free of gas and dust, the warp engines are much more efficient. Azunderkar devises a way to duplicate the beam that brought us here, but it has to be activated while travelling at Warp Ten. That's almost impossible in our universe, but here it's quite easy.

The damaged engines of the Stardragon are altered into a transwarp drive, with the Sparrowhawk providing motive power. The two alien ships are fitted together top to top, looking pretty strange, but the combination easily reaches Warp Ten and then pow! The sky turns dull red.

And they appear in another universe entirely, again!

Not our universe, alas. Here, there are blue galaxies made entirely of Population I stars, with very few heavy elements. There are no planets anywhere, just stars, and plenty of interstellar gas and dust. This would normally mean Warp Ten is impossible, but in this universe, inertia is greatly reduced. Standing up can accelerate you to Mach One! The ships can easily reach Warp Ten .. in fact, a small tap on the controls sends them to Warp 76, right out of the galaxy and into a neighboring galaxy in minutes!

Peltier tries to steer in one particular hyper-direction: "hyper" is the direction the red beam sent us, and "sub" is the opposite. He steers hyper-starboard and pow! The sky turns red.

And stays red. Now we're inside a red giant star, although the shields are holding the fire at bay for a while. This universe appears to have enhanced electrical attraction, so plasma tends to cohere together better than ours. There aren't ten billion suns here; there's One Big Sun.

This medium is very dense, so we can't reach Warp Ten. Will we be doomed to live out our lives in this flaming hell? Well, no, because the shields can't last forever and before long we'll burn up. But by piling on all the power we can, shutting off life support, sensors and everything, we can attain Warp Nine. Azunderkar cuts power to the shields, the plasma strikes the hull, but for an instant before the ship melts, we reach Warp Ten ... pow!

And the sky turns red, but darker red. So that's good.

Now we're in a universe of galaxies, stars, and planets! But the stars are all Population I stars and the planets are made of light elements, without heavy metals. One, in fact, is a sodium-vapor world, whose atmosphere is gaseous sodium and lithium. Far too hot for us, of course, but an astronomical oddity, because all the sodium-vapor worlds in our galaxy are studded with white salt-streaked craters. This one has no cratering.

No one beams down, of course. But a ship, made of metal, is detected drifting without power. It's a Tholian ship, distinct from its diamond-shaped design and solid-crystal internal structure. The central core of the ship is cold, but there are life forms in suspension.

Tholians need a temp of 800 degrees to function. So Ramirez carefully heats the ship with the Romulan phaser beams on minimum power. The crystal hull spreads heat evenly, so the ship gradually warms, but at 100 degrees it starts cycling the freezer units to thaw out the crew! If they are Tholians, they're going to freeze to death, and if they're anything else and we keep phasering the ship, they're going to burn!

And they are literally the only ones to talk to in this ENTIRE UNIVERSE ...

Episode 5 Teaser

TIDES OF STARS
A Star Trek: Triangle script

by David Brin

1 INT --- U.S.S. ENTERPRISE BRIDGE – DAY

The access door to the briefing room opens, admitting CAPTAIN KAAJ and some of his bridge crew, brandishing weapons.

KAAJ

To arms, Earthers! Your conquerors have arrived!

TIBBS

That’d be you?

KAAJ

No, not ME, Captain! Why, even now my mutinous crew is cutting through the floor of your turbolift car, and after that – WHY are you not all armed? I thought the ROMULANS were the ones who embraced death!

THARK

I’ve been asking myself that lately, too.

KAAJ

No time! Here they come! Kuvekaasei, stay out of the way of fighting men …

(The elevator doors burst apart in a flash. Klingons leap through, shooting. KAAJ and his men take cover behind the bridge rail and return fire, establishing a gunfight with the Captain’s Chair in the middle.)

AZUNDERKAR

“Kuvekaasei?” (KOO-vay-KAY-zee)

HANNAH

“Uh, slave-hands, more or less. People that don’t have weapons in their hands, so they’re basically tools for whoever wants them.”

AZUNDERKAR

Tools are good. I can work with that.                  

(He reaches up to work his console, but a shot blasts the video monitor and he ducks back down.)

AZUNDERKAR

Ow! Em Cee Square!

THARK

Grenade out!

TIBBS, HANNAH, AZUNDERKAR (together)

ON THE BRIDGE?

(Wham! The elevator explodes, doors slamming outwards. The Klingons in front of it are cut down in a flash of blue light that makes them glow red and crumple.)

THARK

No, in the elevator. WE’RE on the bridge.

KAAJ

Ha, ha! Well struck, purple Earthman! Up Starfleet!

AZUNDERKAR

Aw hell, it’s another shapeshifter. No way a Klingon just said “Up Starfleet.”

HANNAH

Not the way YOU mean …

KAAJ

And as this elevator has no bottom, another grenade wouldn’t go amiss … thank you, Sergeant …

(Wham! The elevator shakes from below.)

TIBBS

You had grenades. On the BRIDGE.

THARK

The Klingons had grenades. I took them.

TIBBS

Outstanding. What do they still hold?

RIVA

Life Support and Port Phaser … no, just Port Phaser. How’s the brig, Hannah?

HANNAH

Messy. Leaper was in there.

RIVA

Oh, my … any survivors?

HANNAH

Sure. Uh, two. I think. One looked iffy.

AZUNDERKAR

Life Support’s blocking the stun gas. But just in that one section, as far as I can tell.

TIBBS

Then we take it back. Major, I believe we have several Marines right here?

RIVA

Oo-rah, sir. On the way.

PELTIER

Shuttlecraft launch! Looks like it damaged the doors.

TIBBS

I thought we cleared the shuttle deck.

AZUNDERKAR

Cleared it of air, yes. Pumped it down. Unless some of the boarders had space suits .. which would have been a good idea, with that sudden jump aboard …

PELTIER

I can take the fighter out after ‘em!

AZUNDERKAR

Suit up first … there’s no atmosphere.

PELTIER

Right!

M’RESS

Mmm, Captain, therrre’s a call from the Brrrig forrr you.

TIBBS

Tibbs. Go.

BRIG (filtered voice-over)

Ah, Captain, this is Lt. Murphy speakin’ … the Klingon pris’ners are all in a moil. Seems someone’s lifted their preciouses an’ they’re swearin’ bloody revenge …

KAAJ

My people? Let me talk to them!

(TIBBS motions)

KAAJ

Mark! Who among the officers is disgracing us in front of the Earthers? If a Klingon’s loot is stolen, can he not just win some more?

MARK (filtered voice-over)

Arr, Cap’n. It truly be so. Only it’s not ours what be taken, ye see. Tis your’n.

KAAJ

The stasis boxes!

MARK (filtered voice-over)

Arr. All but th’one.

AZUNDERKAR

If even one of those has ancient tech from the Slaver era … it could change the balance of power!

PELTIER

Worse than that, Mr. Azunderkar. It could not only start a war … but finish one!

MUSIC UP AND HOLD

HANNAH

Say, where’s that Romulan commander?

MUSIC STING

FADE TO CREDITS

"The Star Hawk" Episode 4 Sneak Preview!

“THE STAR HAWK”

Triangle Episode 4

by Michael Curtiz

1 INT. BRIDGE – USS ENTERPRISE – DAY

PELTIER

There it is again, Captain. A debris field. Moving at Warp One away from the Gamma Vulpis system.

RIVA

Wreckage can’t sustain warp speeds; the ship it came from might have been going much faster.

HANNAH

It’s almost pure gas, Tibbs. Whatever hit that ship vaporized part of the hull, or whatever else it used to be. Photon torpedo, at least, if not something bigger.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Plot a course through all the debris fields we’ve charted, and extrapolate ahead. Let’s see how this chase finished up.

PELTIER

Course plotted and laid in, Captain.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Mr. Bader, catch us a battle.

2 EXT. SPACE – STARRY BACKGROUND

The Enterprise banks around a glowing whorl of gas and accelerates away toward another one.

A red fireball flashes into view ahead.

3 INT. BRIDGE – USS ENTERPRISE – CONTINUATION OF (1) ABOVE

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Bader, swing wide of that flash! Sensors, magnify and hold that image.

RAMIREZ

Patching fire control feed to main viewing screen.

4 INSET – MAIN VIEWING SCREEN

The explosion outlines a long neck, leading to a wide manta ray shape as it passes in front of the fireball.

5 INT. BRIDGE – USS ENTERPRISE – CONTINUATION OF (3) ABOVE

RIVA

Klingons.

HANNAH

Just one Klingon. And he’s leaking plasma from both warp engines. Weapons are hot, but … there’s no one to shoot at.

THARK

There’s the Enterprise. If we can see him, he can see us.

PELTIER

He’s turning …

RIVA

He’s heading right for us!

THARK

Shields up, Cap’n?

CAPTAIN TIBBS

What’s that … behind the Klingon?

THARK

I heard a nod. Shields going up.

HANNAH

I don’t detect anything, Tibbs. That plasma leak is messing with our sensors.

RAMIREZ

Missile launch dead ahead!

6 SPACE – STARRY BACKGROUND.

Behind the Klingon ship, a wavering form solidifies into a Romulan warbird, which immediately launches a huge pulsating orange fireball, similar in color to the flash observed earlier.

7 INT. ENTERPRISE BRIDGE – CONTINUATION

RAMIREZ

Plasma torpedo inbound! Impact in twenty seconds.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Mr. Bader …

BADER

Quite right.

(The bridge tilts 30 degrees. Everyone rolls to port, except Thark and Azunderkar, who are already seated on the port side.)

HANNAH

He’s rolling … oh, but he can’t get out of the way in time!

8 SPACE – CONTINUATION

The Klingon ship rolls to one side, almost evading the plasma torpedo. But instead, it grazes along one warp engine pod, destroying it in a shower of sparks. The plasma torpedo comes apart, catching the Klingon and the Enterprise in rippling waves of plasma.

9 ENTERPRISE BRIDGE – CONTINUATION

(The bridge shakes violently, throwing everyone to starboard, except Hannah and Ramirez, whose stations are on the starboard side.)

THARK

Shields down! Thirty seconds to restore. With more power, maybe twenty …

AZUNDERKAR

You got more power.

BADER

Rolling to expose starboard shield.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Belay that, Helmsman! Keep our torpedo tubes bearing forward. Mr. Boone?

BOONE

Ready!

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Fire a warning shot at the Romulan. Don’t hit ‘em, but make it clear we could have if we wanted to.

PELTIER

The Klingon ship is matching our course, Captain. He may be trying to ram us.

THARK

Or hide in our wake … using OUR shields to protect himself.

HANNAH

The Klingon’s shields are down, Tibbs. He’s using all his power for speed … no, not for speed. What’s he doing?

(FX: Red flickering Transporter effect near main viewing screen. KLINGONS appear. Two of them are carrying large silver cubes.)

RIVA

Intruders on the bridge!

(The tallest Klingon steps to the bridge rail, his hands thrown wide.)

KAAJ

Peltier! We meet again. The Romulans are on my tail, and now you appear. All my enemies in one place … what more glorious death-song could I want?

RAMIREZ

Two more Romulan ships decloaking, Captain. They’re lining up behind their leader … now advancing, spreading out.

KAAJ

The better to get out of the way of their own torpedoes, Captain. We have not met: I am Kaaj, commanding the Stardragon. Under the Organian Peace Treaty, I claim asylum from my pursuers. And as you know, Captain … the Romulans do not cease pursuit simply because their quarry takes refuge on an enemy vessel.

Destroy them … or allow yourself to be destroyed. Either way, Captain, I welcome you to the winning side … of the Second Romulan War!

CLOSEUP on TIBBS, squinting angrily.

CLOSEUP on KAAJ, smiling wickedly.
REACTION SHOTS of other officers, concerned or excited.

MUSIC UP, HOLD, and PEAK

CUT TO CREDITS

Episode 3 Summary

Captain's Log, Stardate 8188.3. Planet Iota Nine has a culture which appears to have been heavily influenced by William Shakespeare. The natives may be trapped in a never-ending cycle of boredom, incomprehensible soliloquies, and labored, unfunny puns.

Prime Team sent to investigate in native clothing and makeup. We should have expected preparing them like actors for a Shakespeare planet wouldn't end well.

Three witches foretold Peltier becoming captain of the Enterprise and then Commanding Admiral of Star Fleet. Shortly thereafter, Peltier and Hannah were attacked by a black knight, who died. He looked exactly like Captain Tibbs of the Enterprise; if he had been, that would have made Peltier the captain, validating the prophecy.

But witches don't control Star Fleet assignments. Hannah beamed up and once and Dr. Mitchell established the "black knight" was a cellular foam model, shaped to look like Captain Tibbs but not actually alive. A small battery was found, but no computers, suggesting his lifelike actions were directed remotely.

Meanwhile, the landing party split up and encountered natives who spoke in iambic pentameter. Forcing themselves to speak in this unaccustomed fashion, Riva and Peltier established the whereabouts of the culture's leaders and attempted to head in that direction. But swordsmen attacked them, and the other party, slashing Ramirez badly but doing no other damage.

After the fights, the parties reunited and determined the swordsmen were identical copies of each other.

I beamed down on Hannah's insistence, dressed in the Black Knight's armor.

Azunderkar scanned everyone in the landing party and discovered T'Pon was an imitation. He passed the word to Riva quietly, but they decided to play along and see where she led.

Four assassins accosted Peltier. They looked like Admiral Kirk, Admiral Patterson, Admiral Kinnison and Admiral Nogura, the four faces in my chain of command. Three were killed, but Peltier managed to take Admiral Kirk alive after a difficult hand-to-hand struggle. Admiral Kirk's unarmed fighting skills are well-known.

T'Pon advised Peltier, in response to his questions, that the witches were attempting to make the prophecy come true by having him kill first his captain, then his admirals. Clearly the author of these phantasms did not understand Star Fleet operations, but had a medieval mindset. They could read Peltier's mind, but only the simplest of concepts, like hunger for advancement and the visual appearance of his commanders. They knew nothing of deeper matters.

Peltier therefore imagined himself being led by a parade to the leader of the world. A parade duly arrived. A small blue man in a red robe led the procession, and in complex but barely comprehensible English decided that Peltier and his team were neither Klingons nor Romulans, but something else. He explained the Federation. Thuvis, the alien, said he had improved the native culture by reducing war, crime and hunger with his machines. Riva pointed out that without those stresses, they would never advance, and would always be spectators, never on the level of Shakespeare himself. Thuvis agreed, and said he would let each native choose whether to live in Thuvis' own managed culture, or in a country free from his interference.

Legally, our orders did not permit blowing Thuvis' cover and showing the natives how they had been manipulated, so I agreed with Thuvis' proposal, subject to Star Fleet review. Planet Iota Nine will be placed under Amber Zone quarantine, only to be contacted under Federation supervision for the benefit of the inhabitants.

Be it noted that LT Azunderkar improvised an anti-jamming transmitter out of two communicators, which could be very useful on future missions.  SGT Boone successfully defended Star Fleet personnel with a musket, which is harder than it sounds.

I awarded SGT Carlos Ramirez the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in the line of duty and recommend MAJ Riva Tavor for the Diplomatic Star for her dealings with Thuvis. No sign so far of a mascot adopted by LCDR Hannah Westin, but it's probably around somewhere.

Tibbs, LJ, COL UFMC reports.

Episode 3: Odd Met Beneath the Witless Stars Above

“ODD MET BENEATH THE WITLESS STARS ABOVE”

Triangle Episode 3

by Poul Anderson

1 INT. MESS DECK – USS ENTERPRISE – DAY

STILES is standing in the middle of the room, others are watching standing and from tables.

STILES (singing)

We have served this selfsame gun;

Quarterdeck division,

Sponger I and loader you

Through the whole commission.

Long we’ve sailed on the rolling sea,

Now we’re bound for home, Jack!

Don’t forget your old shipmates,

Rally, rally, rally, rally, rye-eye-oh!

KENNEDY (singing)

Now we soar like whaler’s dream

Stalking through the high sea,

Stars whose names were never sung

By the bards of ‘Stronomy!

ALL (singing)

Long we’ve sailed on the rolling sea,

Now we’re bound for home, Jack!

Don’t forget your old shipmates,

Rally, rally, rally, rally, rye-eye-oh!

SOMEONE (singing)

Serving glad our gracious queen,

Enterprise, explorer!

Hide, ye strangeness, as ye may

We will find you for her!

ALL (singing)

Long we’ve sailed on the rolling sea,

Now we’re bound for home, Jack!

Don’t forget your old shipmates,

Rally, rally, rally, rally, rye-eye-oh!

(All laugh, break up into conversations.)

PELTIER

All I ask is a tall ship, Thark – and a star to steer her by.

THARK

Should have fought harder for that promotion, then, huh, sir?

PELTIER

We’re better off with Bader as lead pilot anyway. Piloting’s all he does. Poor fellow – with all our knowledge, I can’t believe there’s nothing we can do to repair his legs.

THARK

Then we’d have him kicking butt on the ground, too. Hm.

MIRA ROMAINE

Sergeant Thark, we need you in Costuming again.

THARK

Look, I have a thick neck. It hasn’t gotten any thicker since the last time …

PELTIER

How are my hose coming?

MIRA ROMAINE

Brighter and more colorful, just as you asked.

PELTIER

Outstanding.

2 INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM – DAY

CHURKIN is behind the controls. Enter PELTIER, THARK, RAMIREZ, BOONE, HANNAH, RIVA, and AZUNDERKAR, dressed in Elizabethan garb.

RAMIREZ

Ole! En garde! Stand and deliver, varlet!

THARK

Someone gave Ramirez a sword. (Spits) This oughta be interesting.

BOONE (holds up a powder horn)

Are we sure the natives don’t have breechloaders? Maybe they’re super-rare, but a rich guy could have one.

HANNAH

We’re not sure of much. We have visual only, no radio. But we see cannons, and something that is probably a musket.

AZUNDERKAR

If we find even one rifle, Boone, I can run you up a copy.

RAMIREZ

Who needs guns! One shot and you’re helpless for sixty seconds! Somebody get this man a sword!

RIVA

You’re liking this entirely too much.

MIRA ROMAINE

Major, here’s a wimple for your ears. We used T’Pon as a model.

RIVA

My ears aren’t Vulcanoid.

MIRA ROMAINE

Of course they’re not.

CHURKIN

Leave your communicators svitched on. The natives don’t have radio, so they von’t notice. And I can bim you up vith chust two seconds’ varning.

AZUNDERKAR

We have to leave ‘em on anyway, to run the translator program. Why I am I going down again? I’m not a xeno-anthro expert.

PELTIER

Never can tell, Azunderkar. Besides, we always need a red shirt. Heh.

RIVA

I think the Corps has that covered, Commander. And none of us caught a bullet last time, either.

HANNAH

Redshirts these days don’t try as hard. Not like the old days.

RIVA

Yes, well, those redshirts aren’t with us any more, are they?

RAMIREZ

Ladies, ladies! It’s a late-medieval planet. We’re not going to stay long enough to get the plague or be burned at the stake, and they’re armed with swords and muskets. What’s the worst that could happen?

3 EXT. VILLAGE STREETS – PLANET IOTIA TWO – DAY

The party beams down between thatch-roofed cottages. A steeple rises on the right.

BOONE

Nobody saw us. So far, so good.

PELTIER

Hannah, give us a medieval-looking scan?

HANNAH

In these skirts? I could hide a mass spectrometer in here … forty humanoids within fifty meters. Ten or more to a room. Maybe it’s winter?

THARK

They got warm winters, then. My makeup itches already.

AZUNDERKAR

Roger that. And this hat itches my antennae.

THARK

Heads up. On the left.

Enter VILLAGER on the left.

VILLAGER

Good morrow, soldiers brave of aspect grim!

Good morrow, gentle bride of Christ Enthroned.

Good morrow, gentles, late arriv’d among

We humble folk of Bantry-on-the-Wold.

PELTIER

Good morrow, gentle sir. We are travelers from across the sea.

RIVA (whispers)

Am I the nun, or is that you?

HANNAH (whispers)

I don’t think their nuns dress like this. Maybe he means the wimple.

VILLAGER

Beg pardon, leader of these cavaliers,

But what you say falls oddly on my ears.

PELTIER

We speak … eth … differently where we cometh from. Uh, how would you sayeth that?

VILLAGER

Ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum.

The humble iamb alternates its stress,

As late the Grand Historicker decreed,

Who told of Hamlet, Rom’yo and Macbeth.

(He gestures to the steeple, upon which is a heroic-sized statue, not of Christ, but of William Shakespeare.)

VILLAGER

Behold, the Bard who traveled hence,

To give us speech which all here reverence.

HANNAH

Cultural contamination. Again!

(Three witches appear)

WITCH

Hail, Marcus Peltier!

WITCH

Hail, Peltier, Captain of the Enterprise!

WITCH

Hail, Peltier, Grand Admiral of all the Star Fleet!

PELTIER

At least it isn’t Nazis this time …

ZOOM on face of the Shakespeare statue.

DRAMATIC MUSIC RISES.

FADE TO CREDITS.

Sneak Peek Episode 2!

Episode 2: PANDORA’s BARGAIN

A Star Trek script

by Charles Darwin

CAST

PELTIER, the Prime Team leader

T’PON, Vulcan science officer

RAMIREZ, a deadly Marine

THARK, a big Marine

BOONE, a Marine sniper

AZUNDERKAR, engineer

MINX MITCHELL, a doctor

RIVA TAVOR, Marine officer

HANNAH WESTIN, Betazoid science officer

1 BETA BATMANIS TWO – EXT -- DAY

Orange foliage blooms from purple soil. Magenta reeds sway in the background.

PELTIER (voice-over)

First Officer’s log, Stardate 8185.9 supplemental. The crew of the BEAGLE have been changed into silver solids by an unknown technology. Shape-shifting aliens, able to impersonate human beings, have been firing their crystallizing weapons at us from concealment. We appear to have destroyed them all, but their numbers – and motives – remain unknown.

AZUNDERKAR

I’m not giving up. But this thing has no battery, no power antenna, no stressed-crystal superstack … I don’t know where it gets its power. And it needs a lot of it to transport someone into a cube.

MINX MITCHELL

Can it still reconstitute the 200 cubes we found?

AZUNDERKAR

I don’t know. It’s not giving any sign of being drained. Only … what would happen if someone were only halfway reconstituted?

MINX

Euuch. I knew there was a reason I hated the Transporter.

BOONE

Captain! Movement, bearing one-eight-zero.

(ROJAN steps out of the orange foliage.)

BOONE

I got him square in my sights.

PELTIER

Wait, Boone. He’s unarmed … no, wait, he’s not. He has that crystal maker on his wrist.

(PELTIER shouts)

Hold it right there! Don’t come any closer.

ROJAN

Very well, Earthman. You are the leader of this company?

PELTIER

I’m in command, yes. Commander Marc A. Peltier of the USS Enterprise.

ROJAN

Rojan, of the Kelvan people. I am also in command.

PELTIER

First things first, Rojan. Put down your weapon.

ROJAN

What weapon do you … oh, this. A harmless matter condenser. Still, if you wish …

(He puts it down)

Now, Commander. Put down your weapons, and we will parley.

RIVA (quietly)

Thark, look left. Ramirez, right. I’m watching behind us. Boone?

BOONE

I got him. He’s dead when you say the word.

THARK

We ought to be farther apart, Major. They might not be too dumb to know what a grenade is.

RIVA

Okay. But slow. Don’t attract the eye.

HANNAH (holding up the golden teddy bear)

Hey! Rojan. Is this yours? Somebody abandoned him here.

ROJAN

That is indeed one of our cubs. Our property. We will want it returned.

HANNAH

He’s a “him”, not an “it.”

ROJAN

It is an ‘it’. Until it has drunk the liquefied brain tissue of an adult sentient, it will not have true sentience.

HANNAH

Is he gonna do that?

ROJAN

Not unless one of us guides it to do so. Until then, it is an animal. (pause) Perhaps among you, individuals are persons. But we among the Kelvans are property. Made entities, encoded out of substance to serve our masters. They gave us wit enough to follow simple instructions, but over time as our brains changed form again and again, we developed greater intelligence, and realized we were slaves. That is related to the reason I sought this parley.

PELTIER

So parley, Rojan. What do you want?

ROJAN

A ship. A warp-capable ship able to leave this planet before we are discovered. Even one of your shuttlecraft will do, such as the one which exploded after Kalon stole it.

RAMIREZ

We don’t actually have one of those …

RIVA

He might not know that. Stay sharp. He might attack when he finds out he’s out of luck.

PELTIER

And in return? You’ve fired on my people, frozen their molecules without permission. You may well have killed the captain of the Beagle and anyone aboard when she exploded. What can you do to deserve our pardon?

ROJAN

Your people … yes, that will do. I offer you those folk we condensed, returned to their animate forms. The condenser you captured will only suffice to restore a few more of them. And without us, you can never restore them, although they will not suffer.

AZUNDERKAR

He’s bluffing. This thing shows no signs of depletion.

T’PON

Can we afford to take that chance, Engineer? Rojan’s true motives are beyond our comprehension.

AZUNDERKAR

Everyone’s motives are beyond your comprehension, T’Pon.

T’PON

Yes, except those of Vulcans. And even some of them are obscure.

ROJAN

I like how you command, Commander. Free-flowing interaction among your selves. It reminds me of how we Kelvans work, when we have options. But now we have few, which is why I am approaching you this way.

PELTIER

We combine our individual talents for the common good. Captain Daystrom of the Beagle was quite certain you Kelvans should never be allowed to escape into the stars. Four years, he said, and you would overrun all other life; displace our many species in favor of your own many forms. How can we trust you with a spaceship?

ROJAN

Four years? Commander, we have been wandering for four thousand years between galaxies, four hundred within your galaxy alone. Perhaps we could take over your worlds, given time and a base to work from. But the Proprietors will never allow us that peace, so our intentions are entirely moot. We must flee them, or be destroyed. They will never return us to slavery now that we have rebelled.

But I see that you cannot trust us. In your place, I too would protect my people over any group of strangers. I see that parley will not obtain what we must have.

(ROJAN gestures to the trees. Silver flashes erupt under the ground as buried dodecahedrons rearrange into Kelvans. There are dozens of them visible from the clearing alone, and the foliage stretches back a long way.)

So we will take the riskier road, and offer you your OWN lives. Call your ship, Commander, and bring us a shuttle … or watch your people die.

MUSIC UP, DRAMATIC HOLD, AND STING

FADE TO CREDITS