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

Episode 1: "Pandora's Cargo"

The Enterprise is exploring a planet last visited by biological survey ship USS BEAGLE (see script above). Suddenly, monsters attack!

BOONE and PELTIER shoot their blue-armored lion creature with stun beams, knocking it out in mid-leap. It does land on Peltier; he tries to flip it over his head, but it's heavy and unconscious. So Boone has to drag it off him. In the process, one of its claws lightly trails across Peltier's yellow shirt, tearing it open.

HANNAH, T'PON and RIVA shoot their enormous fungus monster, accomplishing nothing. RIVA shoots it in the mouth, which stuns part of its tissue but not all of it. While the monster pauses to spit, Riva sets her phaser on "disintegrate" and blows the monster away.

The moss-backed mushroom monster runs past RAMIREZ, who pegs it with his phaser before it can reach AZUNDERKAR, who has gone to the shuttle. The door's rigged shut; Azunderkar overrides it electronically. He finds the shuttle powered-down, but jury-rigs his phaser clip to power it. The shuttle has internal camera images of tentacles yanking a man out the door, then another man turning into crackle-surfaced silver before vanishing. Also on the tapes is the last log entry of the BEAGLE, whose captain blew her up to prevent alien invaders from taking the ship and escaping the system. The aliens cannot be allowed to spread into the galaxy, says Captain Daystrom earnestly. Computer projections show every planet converted to alien life 35,000 hours after first contact ... four years to the end of everything.

With the aliens down, the crew start collecting odd silver dodecahedra found on the surface. Hannah's scan reveals they are complex information storage systems, although we can't read the coding. T'pon confirms they contain 10 to the 43rd power facts, exactly the data volume of a transporter buffer. Instead of being beamed elsewhere, these people have been crystallized into small durable objects.

More fungus monsters are approaching at this time. Peltier has everyone crowd into the Beagle's shuttle and take off just in time!

Something rattles in the storage locker. It's a golden teddy bear with flipper-arms, like a cute platypus. It's hungry. Hannah gives it a snack, which it enjoys.

Unfortunately, that means an alien life form is in contact with Hannah. So the shuttle has to be quarantined. Tibbs takes the Enterprise out to the cometary fringe to find the Beagle's recording pod, leaving the shuttle to return to the planet.

The shuttle lands and tries to pick up all the dodecahedrons, believing them to be the Beagle's crew.

A wounded Star Fleet scientist staggers out of the foliage and collapses. Minx Mitchell, the doctor, is able to save him, although she privately tells Peltier that the guy seemed to sense pain with muscle and bone tissue, not just nerves. Then zap! She's hit by a silver spray and turned into a dodecahedron.

 Boone pursues the shooter who did it, and finds a human being in the process of turning into a lizard, or maybe vice versa. Boone kills it, but the beam only kills part of the tissue, which falls free. The rest is still alive, and re-forming into a battle shape! Boone eventually destroys the whole thing.

Then, someone tries to turn other crewmen into cubes. Intense return fire silences them. Boone goes wide and encounters a cone-shaped monster, which he zaps. The source of the incoming fire is destroyed without visual contact.

Azunderkar examines the alien device that makes people into cubes. He is able to stick two cubes together like magnets, then reconstitutes an Andorian pilot named Ahfuselek, who remembers a guy in a green jumpsuit pointing a ray at him, and then he was a cube. Ahfuselek was on the second landing party to find the first landing party, which disappeared.

Azunderkar then reconstitutes the two stuck-together cubes, recreating two Star Fleet crewmen with their spinal columns fused together. He stuns them, sparing them pain and terror and silencing their distracting cries. Win-win.

Finally Hannah suggests the device may have limited power, and asks for Minx to be restored. Zap! It's done. Minx does not want Azunderkar doing anything else to the fused people, and suggests they need surgery.

Everyone turns to the shuttle, which is now taking off by itself! Riva is yanked out of the way by Azunderkar, and therefore unable to shoot it down. The shuttle ascends to escape altitude and then explodes, booby-trapped by Azunderkar.

Riva saw the supposedly wounded Star Fleet guy run to the shuttle before it took off. Perhaps he wasn't wounded at all!

But the shuttle is also the only way off the planet. Which is no problem, the Enterprise can be back in an hour ... if communications don't break down.

Meet the Crew!

Our Shipmates

on the fourth voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise

(PC) denotes Player Character

APONE: Marine sergeant. Master of motivating men. Mortar gunner. Originator of the phrase, “Another glorious day in the Corps! Day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!”

AZUNDERKAR: Chief Engineer. Andorian. Likes to fiddle with gadgets. (PC)

BADER, DOUGLAS: Fighter pilot. Has no legs, but can shoot down anything. Has 9 kills. Correct but distant, or in other words, English.

BARROWS: Science lieutenant. Holds degrees in economics and exo-history; working on a political science doctorate. Student of parallel cultures on other worlds, such as the Roman planet, Nazi planet, American Indian planet, Chicago gangster planet, and three Wild West planets.

BOONE, MARCUS: Marine from a wilderness planet. Grew up “back of beyond” where he hunted and trapped for his dinner. Scout/sniper in the Federation Marine Corps.

CHAN, WINSTON S. Supply officer. Skeptical and impassive. Used to having his gear returned in burned, acid-scarred, bent, or atomically destabilized condition.

CHIEF TYROL: Flight deck chief; keeps the shuttles running. Supervises 40 people in Flight Ops. Natural leader of workmen, but has refused officer training.

CHURKIN: Eager Russian transporter operator with a thick accent. Has pulled off some mighty slick transporter saves.

CIDELLA, HELEN: Chemist who joined Starfleet after teaching and corporate research. Was executive officer on USS FARRAGUT, referred to there and here as “Number One.”

COLT, YEOMAN: Athletic redhead with ranching experience. Does office work but is striking for navigator under the direction of Mr. Murphy.

DESALLE, VINCENT: Primary navigator. Proud of his French heritage, inclined to meet menace with violence, but obedient.

DR. ROCKFORD: Coroner and pathologist. Sometimes talks to the dead, but always respectfully.

DRAKE: Marine Corporal, smartgunner. Has “born to kill” tattoo on biceps, always working out. A bit trigger-happy.

GAETA: Computer systems officer and sensor tech. Saturnine and cynical.

GREZELDA: Pakled engineering novice. Pakleds have a reputation for being stupid, so she tries extra hard. But she has no experience, so trying extra hard isn’t always enough.

HANNAH WESTON: Chief Science Officer. A Betazoid without empathic powers, she comes across as quite empathetic to humans but was crippled on Betazed. Commanded USS FEARLESS, an alleged science ship, and racked up four kills in the War of the Last Slaver. (PC)

HICKS, DWAYNE: Marine Corporal. Stays frosty, falls asleep during combat drops. Unit armorer, which in milspeak means “weapon repairman.”

HRUNDING: Torpedoman. Stubborn, outspoken. From Wunderland, which was occupied for fifty years by the Kzinti; therefore, little inclined to trust Kzinti.

HUDSON: Marine Tech. Excitable, boastful, prone to despair. “That’s it, game over, man! Game over! I was gettin’ short … four more weeks an’ out … now I’m gonna buy it on this rock … it ain’t half fair, man!”

JAEGER: Geologist and meteorologist. Middle-aged, pleasant, nonthreatening.

KENNEDY, JAMIE: Senior shuttle pilot and relief navigator. Young but experienced, zealous, serious.

KLANDRU tai-Barizhnik: Klingon Marine. His parents met and married in a Federation POW camp during the Four Years War. Decided to stay when war ended, for unspecified reasons. Klandru was born and raised in Southern California and speaks Klingonese with a surfer-dude accent. “Be excellent to each other, brah, and I won’t have to cut your liver out, ‘kay?”

LEAPER: Kzinti security/engineering recruit. Full name “Swift Leaper After Prey”. Former Kzinti telepath, now recovered from the telepathy drug but still has some telepathic ability.

M: Primary care physician with frighteningly huge eyes. Ultrasonic hearing, forceful bedside manner.

M’RESS: Feline communications officer. Has a purring voice. Leaper doesn’t quite know what to make of her, although their coloring is similar … has anyone actually seen a female Kzin?

MATTHEWS: Long-service repairman, rated expert with spacesuit. Also good at conning small ships. A steadying influence on the new men and a good advisor for bright young officers. Messmate of Oldroyd, Stiles and Hrunding.

MINX MITCHELL: Doctor and diplomat with experience in alien medicine. Often is the one to break through to weird aliens and find out what they want.

MIRA ROMAINE: Library science and information systems specialist. History hobbyist: in charge of ad hoc committee which designs and sews historical costumes for the many parallel worlds we encounter.

MOVES-WITH-BURNING-GRACE: Power Room engineer. Usually called “Mr. Grace.” A Masai from East Africa, his people have always been wanderers. Now he wanders to the stars. Intuitive inventor.

MURPHY, DECLAN: Relief navigator. A popular storyteller and musician, as proud of his Irish heritage as any man can well be. Never drunk, though often drinking.

NAHRAHT: Horta engineering recruit. Eager and studious. Made of silicon, so hard to kill. Can eat rock and metal. No hands.

NORZERD: Marine corporal from Uller, made of silicon instead of carbon. A walking rock monster shaped like a bipedal turtle with two extra arms. Clumsy but nearly indestructible.

OLDROYD: Aggressive rigger and repairman whose father is a high Admiral. Crack shot with phaser pistol.

PALAMAS, CAROLYN: Xenopologist, who applies cultural insight to new alien races. Expert on Earth history, mythology, and religion, which of course overlap. Did fall in love with Apollo that one time.

PELTIER, MARC: Executive Officer and leader of the Prime Team. Also relief pilot. Excellent record of winning fistfights and breaking out of jails. (PC)

R’TELLIA: Andorian female engineer. Environmental systems specialist. Cooperative but testy when challenged.

RAMIREZ, Carlos: Charming Mexican Marine with a sword. (PC)

RAMIREZ, Juanita: Aggressive Mexican Marine with a big gun. Carlos’ older sister.

RIVA TAVOR: Marine major, commander of Marine detachment. Romulan from an émigré family. Expert in Romulan karate, which is pretty devastating, combining intuitive understand of opponent's intentions with Vulcanoid strength. (PC)

SKAVRIN: Tellarite engineering ensign. Geologist and metallurgist, inclined to helpfully correct others’ misstatements of fact.

SOJAT: Vulcan physicist. Struggles to relate starship situations to lab results, which are more controllable. Does not understand human emotions, even for a Vulcan. Limited psychic ability.

STARBUCK: Ace fighter pilot. Popular, likes a cigar, a bit of a scrounger and con artist.

STILES: Burly rigger and repairman. Always up to something sneaky, if not actually criminal. Stiles also gets in his share of fights. Messmates with Oldroyd, Hrunding and Matthews.

SURDU: Shuttle and fighter pilot, kendo enthusiast. Also enthusiastic about antique firearms, botany, antique aircraft, and ninja stories.

T’PON: Vulcan scientist. Master of chemistry, physics and electronics. Serious psychic ability.

THARK: Rigellian Marine sergeant. Strong, tough, well-read in warfare. (PC)

THRACE, KARA: Fighter pilot. One of the boys, with the rowdiness and disciplinary complexity that entails. A maverick who plays by her own rules.

THREE OF MANY: Freed Borg, apparently originally from one of the Orion worlds. Has direct brain-to-computer interface. Understands energy fields extremely well. Socially awkward.

TIBBS, DWAYNE: Marine sniper, captain of the Enterprise. Functional mute.

TIGH: Lt. Commander and Damage Control chief. Starship structural engineer; commands over 100 people during combat. Gruff, likes a drink, former firefighter. Has survived two shipwrecks.

TOMASI, PETER: Lead pilot. Call sign “Crashdown” during flight training, but has never crashed anything bigger than a shuttle. Not often assigned to fly anything smaller than a starship.

Casting Continues for STAR TREK TRIANGLE!

I'm calling it TRIANGLE because you're exploring a region between the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Federation. Oh, and the Tholians, but no one considers them a major force.

Cast list so far:

Peltier: Mike Hichborn
Riva: Jay Thoman
Hannah: Virginia Johnson
Azunderkar: Nathan Woodhead
Thark: Dave Dalton
Ramirez: Isaac Kassock

Heather? Zeke? Any preference?

Heather, Isaac is playing Carlos Ramirez, so if you wanted to play Vasquez from ALIENS, she's still a possibility. Or T'Pon, Vulcan scientist, or Minx, doctor and diplomat.

Zeke, since the only choices left are female except for DeSalle, why don't I add two more guys to the list:

SKODAK, Vulcan engineer. Sees the psychic powers of Vulcans as a tool to be used efficiently, which Spock never really did.

DR. SIMON TAM, doctor. His sister River is in her fourth year in Starfleet Academy and doing just fine! So Simon's free to explore the universe and solve its medical mysteries.

For reasons I am, uh, reluctant to expound upon for now, I'd like to know as soon as you decide a preference. Or don't, and you can pick one the instant the dice hit the table!

Episode 1: Pandora's Cargo SNEAK PEEK!

Here is the actual SCRIPT for the first scene of the first episode! So if you're wondering what character to choose, this might help ...

PANDORA’s CARGO

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

AZUNDERKAR, engineer

MINX MITCHELL, a doctor

DE SALLE, a navigator

RIVA TAVOR, Marine officer

HANNAH WESTIN, Betazoid science officer

1 U.S.S. ENTERPRISE – SPACE

The Enterprise comes into orbit over a purple planet with jagged orange stripes.

PELTIER (voice-over)

First Officer’s log, Stardate 8185.9. We are replying to a distress signal from the U.S.S. BEAGLE, an explorer on a biological survey mission in the Tholian Triangle region of space. Radioactive debris in orbit around Beta Batmanis Two suggests the BEAGLE may have exploded above the planet. But the presence of Klingon and Romulan borders on either side makes the BEAGLE’s disappearance all that much more troubling. Beyond the loss of two hundred trained scientists, we may be looking at the beginnings of a war.

 2 U.S.S. ENTERPRISE BRIDGE – DAY

PELTIER is at Helm, DE SALLE at Navigation. HANNAH is at the Library Computer station, T’PON at Sensors, RIVA at Weapons Sub-Systems, THARK at Defense, AZUNDERKAR at Engineering. MINX and RAMIREZ are standing near the main viewscreen. CAPTAIN TIBBS is in the center chair.

HANNAH

Tibbs – I’ve got refined metal pingback from the planet’s surface. Kinda all over the place.

T’PON

I believe there are deposits of highly concentrated rare earth metals both in the surface and the subsoil. Neodymium, scandium, tantalum and tungsten. It would explain the unusually colored flora.

HANNAH

So this sensor return could just be --- metal. Regular ol’ metal. Not a starship.

AZUNDERKAR

But there are no straight lines in nature. Isn’t that right, Sgt. Major?

RAMIREZ

First rule of camouflage.

AZUNDERKAR

So see if you read any sharp-angle reflections. That’d say “manufactured” no matter what it’s made of.

T’PON

Scanning … significant radar return in one limited region. On the order of eight meters wide.

DE SALLE

A shuttlecraft! I’ll bet it’s survivors from the BEAGLE .. or a landing party, marooned when their parent ship exploded.

MINX

With exotic metals all through the plant life … Captain, there’s nothing they could eat down there. How long have they been stranded?

T’PON

Unknown, Doctor. But no longer than twenty days, which was the BEAGLE’S last contact with Starfleet Command.

MINX

Twenty days … it’s possible, if they watched their water consumption carefully.

HANNAH

I see it, T’Pon. Lots of life-form readings around the shuttle, though. Some definitely moving.

MINX

If any animal life bit them, even bugs – they could have heavy metal poisoning by now.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Will all that heavy metal interfere with the transporter?

AZUNDERKAR

Negative, Captain. We’ll want to get a very solid lock-on before beaming up, of course, but it’s nothing we haven’t done before.

CAPTAIN TIBBS

Peltier, get your Prime Team down to the surface. Find our people and bring ‘em back, alive or otherwise. We’ll have Medical standing by in the transporter room to receive casualties.

PELTIER

Aye aye, sir. (stands) Minx, Riva, Ramirez, Hannah and T’Pon, you’re with me on the first beam-down. Azunderkar, I’d like you and Thark to follow. Mr. DeSalle in command.

DESALLE

Right. Crashdown, you want to take the helm?

AZUNDERKAR

I was going to watchdog the transporter …

PELTIER

Mr. Churkin can do the job just as well. I want all angles covered if we see something strange … we’re not going to be able to just beam out as soon as there’s trouble, right?

AZUNDERKAR

Right. Two lock-in cycles, maybe more, before we beam out. Call it fifteen seconds.

TIBBS

A lot can happen in fifteen seconds. Go on. (grins) Keep us starry-eyed voyagers and jarheads out of trouble, okay, engineer?

AZUNDERKAR

Won’t argue with those orders, Captain.

THARK

Rules of engagement, Mr. Peltier?

RAMIREZ

Ayudame, Thark. Don’t tie our hands before we even get there …

THARK

It’s just that every time I set an alien city on fire, or blow up a starship, somebody’s gotta start an Article Four investigation. I just want to know the rules in advance, for once.

RAMIREZ

I didn’t wanna have this conversation. But since we’ve gone there, sir … what restrictions?

PELTIER

Well, if the animals are poisonous … we can’t let them touch us. Heavy stun at the first sign of attack. And if that doesn’t work, shoot to kill.

RIVA

Request two additional Marines on the second beam-down.

PELTIER

Sir?

TIBBS

Your show, Commander. If you need ‘em, you got ‘em.

PELTIER

Two’s good. You pick the men. Have them meet us in the transporter room. Mark and move, people.

3 PLANET SURFACE – EXTERIOR – NOON

A bright blue star burns in a violet sky. The soil is various shades of purple, the vegetation magenta and orange-yellow. Crystalline outcrops and rounded deposits of shiny metals cluster in streambeds, while an eerie whining note plays.

The Transporter Effect sparkles and the landing party materializes, tools in hand.

SFX

(Tricorder scanning sound)

T’PON

Readings are confused in low-lying areas. The metal deposits are scattering our sensor beams.

HANNAH

But that looks like a shuttlecraft in those orange ferns.

MINX

Let’s stay out of the woods if we can. That’s where the water is, so animals would gather there. And if they see us …

RAMIREZ

They come after us, I shoot them. They hide, I flush them from cover with a grenade, THEN I shoot them.

PELTIER

Let’s wait till the Marines are here …

SFX

(Transporter beam-down sound. Thark, Azunderkar, De Salle and two Marines materialize.)

DE SALLE

We’re here, Mr. Peltier. I brought some extra medical supplies and ammo, just in case.

PELTIER

What’s that?

DESALLE

A sword … in case we need one?

AZUNDERKAR

There it is. Doesn’t seem damaged from here.

RIVA

Move out. One Marine to each group.

(Small parties advance on the shuttlecraft.)

HANNAH

Oh, darn.

PELTIER

Trouble?

RIVA

What is it?

HANNAH

These crystals. (She picks up a silver dodecahedron with her black fingerless gloves). They’re absolutely flat, made of solid metal. That’s what could have made those readings.

AZUNDERKAR

But the shuttle’s over there. If these crystals are all over the planet, wouldn’t we read hundreds of shuttlecraft?

HANNAH

There aren’t crystals all over the planet. Just here … along this ridge. Looks like some kind of fungus ..

(The fungus ridge rises up, opening a gaping maw to swallow HANNAH)

HANNAH

A really angry fungus.

(AZUNDERKAR and HANNAH fire green phaser beams at the purple worm growth.)

RIVA

Phasers ineffective!

HANNAH

Guys! The fungus is angry!

A snarling, ten-eyed, ten-legged orange and tan beast breaks through the foliage. It gives a roar, then heads straight for PELTIER.

THARK

Got it! But there’s another one … and something snakelike, too!

PELTIER

Fall back! Circle formation!

AZUNDERKAR

We can’t! There’s a thing in the way!

The landing party falls back from either side of the screen. The ten-legged monster and two more, one bat-winged, one cone-shaped, close in from all sides …

MUSIC UP AND HOLD

FADE TO CREDITS