Gravity Page #9

The beeping sound has become clearer and recognizable - it is an

alarm ringing out across the Station.

Orange is turning to green. Her lungs begin to absorb the oxygen

and her breath becomes more even. Her body floats, relaxed in

the confined space of the airlock.

SHE FLOATS.

Ryan brings her hands together and removes one glove.

And then the other.

Desperately, she begins to unscrew the lock near her waist. She

squirms under the suit and pushes off the upper half.

Then she throws off the lower half, squirming out of it as if

shedding her old skin, desperate to free herself from the

claustrophobia of the suit.

Wearing only underwear and a t-shirt, she floats in mid-air,

relieved and exhausted. The hum of the Space Station surrounds

her.

Then, slowly, she pulls her knees to her chest and enfolds them

in her arms, floating in a fetal position.

For a moment, Ryan simply hangs in suspension, a fly in amber,

surrendering to the poetry of the planets, rotating slowly in

the cabin’s womb.

OUTER SPACE. 500 KM ABOVE THE EARTH.

SILENCE.

The International Space Station, with its modules, its torn

solar panels, and the Soyuz with its parachute billowing out

from its center, is dwarfed against Earth’s orb and the infinite

universe stretching out beyond.

The Station looks frail and secluded, lost somewhere between the

grandness of the Heavens and the Earth below.

Everything is still.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. ZVEZDA MODULE.

The module is like a wide corridor filled with cabinets, a small

eating area and a small gym. A HUM reverberates across the

station.

At the end of the module there is an open circular hatch leading

into the-

UNITY NODE 1.

A spherical space with three hatches, each leading into

different modules.

A HATCH OPENS and-

Ryan floats in. She stops at the center and holds onto a handle.

She looks in all directions and launches to her right, towards

the-

ZARYA MODULE.

There are sleeping bags fastened to the walls. Clothes, shoes, a

strip of three condoms -- all kinds of personal objects float in

chaos around the module.

It’s clear that someone left in a hurry.

Ryan passes a stationary bicycle and reaches for a metal cabinet

on the wall.

She OPENS drawers, looking for something.

RYAN:

Come on, come on.

She finds what she’s looking for: a BAG OF WATER with a straw at

one end. She unscrews the top and begins to drink from it.

She DRINKS in long gulps, squeezing the bottle, trying to quench

her thirst. DROPS FLOAT out of her mouth as the water overflows.

They float around her face like perfect pearls of different

sizes.

She takes a pause from drinking to catch her breath. The water

is cooling her down, but she still takes another long, thirsty

gulp and empties the bag.

She checks the count on the STOPWATCH- 14 minutes and counting

down.

She takes a new bag of water from the drawer, and pushing

herself off of a wall, she dives into the-

UNITY NODE 2

RYAN (CONT’D)

OK. Where are you? Where are you?

Comms. Comms… There you are!

Without stopping, she goes through one of the open hatches into

the-

ZVEZDA MODULE.

The walls are filled with electrical equipment and wires.

Without slowing down her momentum, she floats to the-

MAIN CONSOLE- A large deck which houses all of the communication

and navigational systems.

On the opposite wall there is a LARGE PORTHOLE through which

Earth is clearly seen.

She begins to PUSH BUTTONS.

COMPUTERS COME TO LIFE and Ryan puts on a communications

headset.

STATIC CRACKLES.

RYAN:

Matt. This is Ryan. Copy?

She waits.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Matt. This is Ryan. Copy?

Nothing... only static.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Matt, I made it. I’m here. I’m inside

the Station... Do you copy?

She drifts along the module, listening intently through the

headset.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Come on Matt. Talk to me.

(nothing)

Tell me where you are.

(nothing)

Give me your position...

No voices. Just static.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Where are you? Give me a visual...

tell me what you see.

Nothing.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Oh, come on. You’ve been yammering

nonstop since we left Cape Canaveral,

and now you decide to shut up?

She waits ONE SECOND, TWO SECONDS

RYAN (CONT’D)

Come on Matt, talk to me!

The signal cuts in and out, but remains indecipherable. There is

something unnerving about it.

She drops her head and continues drifting toward the porthole,

listening as the STATIC SPUTTERS.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Say something... Anything.

RYAN (CONT’D)

Tell me about Mardi Gras. Tell me

about the hairy guy. What happened?

Waiting for him to respond, and in a softer voice, completely

resigned-

RYAN (CONT’D)

Oh Matt. I'm not ready for this.

She bumps against the PORTHOLE, and glances out-

The Earth glimmers brightly. A third of the hemisphere is in

complete darkness. Her FACE REFLECTED in the glass is

SUPERIMPOSED over the EARTH.

Her eyes glisten briefly, but she fights it back. Then she pulls

herself together, and begins reporting-

RYAN (CONT’D)

Houston in the blind.

The way Matt would have done it-

RYAN (CONT'D)

This is Mission Specialist Ryan Stone

reporting from the ISS... All

communication with Mission Commander

Matthew Kowalsky has been lost. Radio

transmission is absent. Visual is

nonexistent.

(a beat)

To confirm, I--Ryan Stone--am the sole

survivor of STS-157.

Ryan hovers by the porthole, looking hopeless.

All is silent save for the RADIO static and the hum of the Space

Station.

Outside the Aurora Borealis performs its ghostly dance over the

Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.

SILENCE. Only the hum and the static, when-

An ALARM CHIRPS, RED LIGHTS FLICKERING across the module.

Ryan twists, swimming back to the control panel, studying a

FLASHING grid of LEDS:

GRAPH OF THE STATION

...where a blinking light indicates the Japanese Module IS ON

FIRE.

RYAN (CONT’D)

What now?

And then-

The Destiny Lab begins blinking.

THE FIRE IS EXPANDING

She pushes herself toward the hatch, swimming through the few

pieces of paper still hovering as she exits into the-

UNITY NODE 1.

The ALARM’S STACCATO is blasting in synchrony with the emergency

lights blinking across the station.

SMOOTH BLUE FLAMES ribbon eerily across the skin of the Destiny

Lab. They are spreading, expanding with a dense cloud of SMOKE.

Ryan enters and snatches a FIRE EXTINGUISHER on the wall of the

module, and-

She points the nozzle at the fire and SPRAYS.

With no gravity to hold her down, the force of the spray SENDS

HER FLYING BACK and-

SHE CRASHES AGAINST A WALL. The fire extinguisher bangs against

her face and CUTS HER LIP.

The impact is so strong that it almost knocks her out. Her eyes

fill with tears but she reacts.

There’s no time to lose. She fastens her feet to a strap on the

floor, and-

SPRAYS the extinguisher at the fire. But the extinguisher is no

match for the fire, which has gathered in a gigantic smooth blue

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