Gravity Page #15

it to the-

HATCH that leads into the airlock.

With her bad arm she holds onto a handle.

With the other, she pulls on the latch and-

OPENS THE AIRLOCK.

A gust of AIR bursts out, pushing the hatch wide open.

Ryan holds on tightly to the handle.

ABOVE HER-

Clusters of DEBRIS pass by, flying at different distances and at

great speeds.

Pieces COLLIDE with each other, exploding into more debris.

A BIG PIECE OF DEBRIS is flying downward, missing the Station by

ten meters as it continues its descent. And-

250 meters below, it BURNS like a shooting star.

The Station is rapidly approaching Earth’s atmosphere.

And over the Eastern horizon-

A CLOUD OF DUST is quickly approaching.

THE TIDE OF DEBRIS.

TIANGONG. AIRLOCK. 150 KM ABOVE THE EARTH.

Ryan secures the hatch.

The airlock is smaller than the one in the International Space

Station but, like the ISS, there is a small control panel on one

side.

INSIDE THE HELMET-

The glass is almost fogged up. She makes her way to the-

CONTROL PANEL-

The red, yellow, and green graph is bright red. Under it, TWO

BUTTONS with Chinese ideograms on them.

....and

Her finger hesitates as she takes a wild guess.

She presses-

A FAINT HISSING SOUND is heard.

THE CABIN PRESSURIZES.

As oxygen fills the space-

SOUND BEGINS TO EMERGE.

Unrecognizable at first is a rhythmic pattern under a syncopated

murmur. But as air allows sound to conduct its waves, it becomes

clear.

AN ALARM IS GOING OFF.

Over it a recording plays in a LOOP. It is in Mandarin. The

VOICE in the recording is urgent. Clearly it is not good news.

LOOP:

..............

She’s in pain and more tired than ever now, and she’s punchy.

LOOP (CONT’D)

..............

She waits, floating.

INSIDE THE HELMET-

The glass is completely fogged up. Through the condensation, she

can only discern a RED LIGHT filtering through.

She waits.

RYAN:

Come on. Come on.

And when the RED GLOW turns to ORANGE-

Ryan UNLOCKS her helmet and, using only her left hand, struggles

to take it off.

As the helmet floats, bouncing off of the cabin walls, Ryan

massages her injured shoulder. She does this gently, as even the

smallest pressure inflicts pain.

The orange light is turning green when-

She feels the Station quake fiercely, reverberating through the

handle she’s holding onto.

THE STATION RUMBLES.

OUTER SPACE.

The Tiangong is plummeting.

The tip of a solar panel is already grazing over the outer

layers of the atmosphere, leaving a trail behind it as it parts

the gases.

DEBRIS passing under the Station burn up.

TIANGONG NODE 1.

EVERYTHING SHAKES.

Ryan rushes out of the airlock.

A new intensity sparkles in her eyes. Her fearlessness and

determination are bordering with madness.

She inspects her surroundings. Through a hatch she sees a long

corridor-like cabin that leads to another node. It is the LAB

MODULE.

The LOOP keeps on playing.

LOOP:

..............

..............

She enters the hatch into the

TIANGONG LAB MODULE.

The only light is coming from flickering emergency lights.

Objects float in chaos.

Ryan makes her way, dodging the disarray of lab objects-

Scientific instruments: A plant drifting by with its roots

exposed, clusters of liquid floating like wobbly spheres, two

eggs hovering, one of which is broken.

THE SHAKING INTENSIFIES as-

She reaches the end of the module and goes into the-

TIANGONG NODE 2.

She floats to the center of the node.

There are three open hatches- RIGHT, LEFT, and-

BELOWA:

Docking Module, very similar to the one in the ISS. At the far

end of it an open hatch leads into the SHENZHOU ESCAPE POD.

MORE RUMBLING SHAKES THE STATION.

OUTER SPACE.

A SOLAR PANEL, defeated by the friction with the atmosphere,

breaks off from the Station and is thrown farther down, where it

quickly burns, dissolving into sparks.

The TIDAL WAVE of debris is catching up with the Station, a

cloud of metal pieces that sparkle with the sunlight.

BRIGHT STREAKS can be seen as debris burns, scratching through

the atmosphere.

TIANGONG NODE 2.

Ryan springs into the-

DOCKING MODULE.

Floating through it and reaching the open hatch at the other

end, she tosses the helmet inside the Shenzhou.

A LOUD METALLIC ROAR. The Station is collapsing. She dives

through the hatch into the-

SHENZHOU ESCAPE POD. AIRLOCK.

It is almost identical to the Soyuz’s airlock.

She does a quick flip and-

CLOSES the outer hatch.

Then she pulls on another latch and-

CLOSES the inner hatch.

The Shenzhou is SEALED OFF from the rest of the Station.

She throws the helmet into the Control Cabin and follows

through, into the-

SHENZHOU ESCAPE POD. CONTROL CABIN.

She struggles to turn around in the confined space, and then-

She pulls the hatch CLOSED.

THE CONTROL CABIN IS SEALED.

The Shenzhou is smaller than the Soyuz and has only one seat. In

this confined space, the SHAKING of the station is felt even

stronger.

She sits, BUCKLES herself in, and looks at the-

CONTROL PANEL.

It has more monitors than the Soyuz’s panel, and the main board

is arranged differently. All of the buttons are labeled with

CHINESE IDEOGRAMS.

AND IT IS SHAKING FIERCELY.

RYAN:

Seriously?

Through-

THE PORTHOLEA:

thin bright yellow halo covers the whole window.

OUTER SPACE.

The yellow halo envelops the whole Station as it glides over the

outer atmosphere.

FRICTION.

The remaining SOLAR PANEL resists breaking off from the

structure, but still goes up in flames, leaving a trail of

SPARKS.

SHENZHOU ESCAPE POD.

EVERYTHING IS SHAKING.

RYAN:

In the Soyuz the power button is

erm....here!

She passes her finger over the board, trying to make sense of

the buttons.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Ah, ok ah undocking,

undocking....eenie, meenie,...

She presses ....

An ALARM RINGS, and under the ongoing LOOP, a RECORDING, clearly

warning.

RECORDING:

..............

RYAN:

Ok. That doesn't sound good....

She glances around frantically, turns it off.

It’s shaking very intensely but she’s wide-eyed now, clearly

close to being beside herself.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Miini... moh...

She tries a BIG BUTTON that says-

A NEW ALARM, followed by a NEW RECORDING, also a warning-

And with a horrible accent-

RYAN (CONT’D)

No hablo chino.

She keeps searching for the right button.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Mini... moh...

And she presses a new one.

The LIGHTS on the Control Panel GO ON. The cabin makes a humming

sound as SYSTEMS BEGIN TO ACTIVATE.

On the control panel lights go on in patterns reminiscent of the

switchboard in the Soyuz.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Okay....okay...

She begins going through the progressions she used on the Soyuz,

only quicker this time, jabbing button after button.

RYAN (CONT'D)

Good...good...There. And this should

be...

She presses one more button and systems turn to green.

RYAN (CONT'D)

Okay... Houston in the blind...

She raises her voice to be heard over the GROWING RUMBLE.

Rate this script:3.6 / 8 votes