Lost in Space Page #16

JOHN:

No, Major, when the hell are we?

Suddenly Don is hit in the chest with a plasma charge, goes flying.

John ducks and rolls, FIRING his laser from behind the cover of a rocky

mound. John goes up to take another SHOT, is bit with a powerful

electrical blast, falling hard. Still.

REVERSE ANGLE:

Rolling out from behind him, claws extended in attack Position and

apparently many years old, is a rebuilt Robot.

EXT.-PLANET'S SURFACE-EVENING-FUTURE

Will and Smith are crossing the alien terrain. The plants have given

way to desert. The suns hang low in the crimson sky.

WILL:

I feel like we got turned around.

SMITH:

Just follow your father's signal,

young William.

WILL:

Oh sh*t.

SMITH:

A boy of your intelligence shouldn't

swear.

WILL:

(pointing)

Look.

SMITH:

Oh. Sh*t, indeed.

REVERSE ANGLE. At the edge of the crater wall sits the wrecked hull of

the Jupiter Two. The lower sections are gone, the hull scarred, open to

the sun.

CUT TO:

JOHN-CLOSE. Stirring to consciousness.

WIDER:

INT.-JUPITER TWO BRIDGE-FUTURE

Or what is left of it. Dark. The occasional COMPUTER panel flickers

Shattered monitors. An awful history-told in torn metal. John is

slumped in a corner, Don still on the floor beside him.

VOICE (OVER)

Well, well. All things really do

come to he who waits.

A FIGURE sits in the command chair, visage obscured by shadow.

JOHN:

What is this place?

FIGURE:

Why Professor, the shock must have

scrambled your brain. Look around

you. Don't you recognize the spot?

You've come home.

JOHN:

This can't be...

But even as the words cross his lips, he knows it is.

JOHN:

What have you done to the ship.

...Where's my family?

FIGURE:

Your family is dead. Dead and in the

ground.

JOHN:

No!

FIGURE:

What fickle consort in memory. Time

dims certain images while others

shine clear and bright as yesterday.

The figure stands, light hitting his face. Late thirties. Long blond

hair, a shaggy beard and moustache. Eerily familiar.

FIGURE:

I'll never forget that morning.

Twenty years ago. What was it you

said? I'll be back. I promise. But I

knew better. You never came home.

The figure walks to one of the burned out panels.

FIGURE:

Without you, your family never had a

chance. A few spidersv survived the

destruction of the probe ship. They

reached the planet and attacked. I

can still hear the women scream.

JOHN:

Who are you?

The figure walks forward, into the light. Stands there a moment. Then

he lifts something hanging around his neck. Tarnished metal, old but

familiar. John's father's dog tags.

FIGURE:

Don't you recognize me, Dad? It's

me. I'm your son. Will.

EXT.-CRATER CAVES-DAY

Maureen and Judy, lasers drawn, are pushing through the brush.

JUDY:

Penny? Penny?

The four lizard monkeys are kneeling in a circle around Penny.

MAUREEN:

Penny? Baby, are you alright?

Penny rises, steps forward, carrying Blip. The other beasts hang back,

their faces genuflecting, almost reverential.

PENNY:

It's okay, Mom. They're not going to

hurt us. it's like they think I'm

their princess or something.

CUT TO:

EXT.-CRATER CAVES -EVENING-FLITURE

Judy is examining the palm of the largest beast as Maureen scrutinizes

the images graven into the giant stone.

JUDY:

Best as I can tell this whole clan

was spawned by this single creature.

(to the beast)

We've been a busy girl haven't we?

But...

MAUREEN:

Speak, doctor.

JUDY:

Each creature seems to have unique

corpuscular patterns on their palms.

As individual an fingerprints, no

two alike. Except...

MAUREEN:

Except the prints on this giant

creature and our little Blip

match exactly. Don't they?

JUDY:

How did you know?

MAUREEN:

Because, I think Blip and our friend

here are actually one and the same.

Penny and Judy stare at her in wonder.

INT.-JUPITER TWO-ENGINE ROOM-FUTURE

The Robot, shoving John with one claw, carrying Don in the other,

follows Older Will into the giant room.

OLDER WILL:

Father, I give you ... eternity.

WIDER:

War torn and pirated. A pit of molten lava bursts through the floor

above which floats a giant ball of silvery liquid held suspended by the

pulsing field of the hyper-drive. Tendrils of fire strain towards the

bubble. As they EXPLODE into the silver liquid, images form within the

sphere, nearly coherent, then gone.

A tracked gantry stretches from the floor, leading out over the bubble.

At the end of the track a crow's-nest of COMPUTERS SHOOTS a single

laser down into the center of the bubble.

WEST:

(coming to)

. . .ouch. Who ordered me that last

drink? What the hell is going on?

JOHN:

I think we crossed into our own

future. We've come back to the

Jupiter Two decades after we left.

OLDER WILL:

Look father, what my flights of

fancy have wrought. I used your

hypergate to build my time machine.

Will moves to a control console at the base of the giant gantry.

OLDER WILL:

Over the years I have struggled in

vain to harness the awesome power of

time. All my experiments at creating

a stable doorway have been futile.

Until now. Today you will witness my

ultimate triumph.

Will hits a button. A generator opens, revealing a glowing cylinder of

core material incrementally descending into the console.

WEST:

The core material. if we could get

that back to our Jupiter Two...

JOHN:

The doorways in time that led us

here must be a side effect of his

machine coming on line. Like streams

running into the ocean....

OLDER WILL:

Once this core material in fully

introduced into the control console,

I will open a doorway stable enough

for one person to take one trip

through time and space as well.

Today, I will change history.

Will turns a switch on the control console. (OVER) More TREMORS. The

laser beam's intensity grown, and in the corridor cut by the beam into

the bubble images begins to stabilize. Images of Earth.

OLDER WILL:

I will return home, to the very day

you took us on this cursed mission.

I'll stop us from taking off. I'll

do what you never could. I'll save

the family. I'll save us all.

JOHN:

Look around. Your machine is ripping this

planet apart. What if the force

wave you ride home has the same

effect on Earth? What if, in getting

home, you destroy Earth in the

process?

A beat. Then Will turns away, goes back to work.

OLDER WILL:

I'm going home. I'm going to save

the family.

JOHN:

Will, I'm your father. You've got to

listen to me-.

OLDER WILL:

Let me tell you about my father. My

father was a walking ghost. Never

there when I needed him. He dragged

his family into deep dark space and

lost them there. My father is not

coming to the rescue.

CHAPTER 20:
Spiders Sting

-------------------------

EXT.-ALIEN PLAnet-EVENING-FUTURE

Will and Smith are closing on the battered ship. Smith puts his hand on

the boy's arm, holding him back.

WILL:

We've got to go inside.

SMITH:

Slow down, now. We can't know what

waits inside that ravaged craft. But

we can be confidant it is nothing

good. And I for one am frightened.

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