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