Morning Star Page #22

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He reaches a bare hillside. Stops, turns. He braces theshotgun listening to the WHIRRING get louder.

He gets off one shot before the Cyclops is on him. One of itsspidery legs pierces Webber’s wrist. Poised over a pinnedWebber, the mechanical creature goes dormant, emitting aBEACON SIGNAL.

INT. BLACK CAR -- DAY

Webber is thrown in the back seat beside Abraxas.

ABRAXAS:

There are years of secrets we haveto account for. This could take

days.

Webber rubs his wrist, crudely swathed with torn cloth. Asthe car pulls away, he subtly glances back. He catches sightof Mia making it into the trees. He looks almost peaceful.

EXT. STREET NEAR DMZ -- DAY

Abraxas’ men take Webber out of the car on a block of ruined

brick buildings dominated by an imposing UN Sentry Tower.

106.

INT. RUINED BUILDING -- DAY

PIGEONS take wing as a door opens. Webber is led in, Abraxastrailing, a coat covering her arm. They ascend a ricketystaircase through dusty bands of light. At the top of thestairs, a debris-filled room where the wall facing the DMZhas collapsed. One of Abraxas’ men removes a drop-cloth froma mostly-glass contraption like something out of Jules Verne,

a blimp-shaped TRANSPORT the size of a bus.

ABRAXAS:

The cloaking on this isn’t designedfor daylight. We’ll hope for thebest.

EXT. DMZ -- CONTINUOUS

The UN sentry tower stands in the foreground as the alientransport flies low, away from the brick building. Itscloaking makes it mostly invisible.

INT. ALIEN TRANSPORT

Webber, standing at the front, has a vertiginous view of theruins of the DMZ. Webber raises his eyes to the Mother Zonein the distance. FINGERS OF LIGHT descend from it to touch

the top of the tower located directly beneath it.

WEBBER:

Is that Ambassador Thtk arriving?

Abraxas corrects Webber’s pronunciation of the Ambassador’sname. Webber grins darkly.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

He’s the real target, isn’t he? NotSecretary Voss. He’ll be killed byKemp- a human, and the Hex will beforced to declare war.

ABRAXAS:

No, they’ll balk and dither, and anew regime will have to declare aState of Emergency. Then there’llbe war.

WEBBER:

I have to admit I envy you. Youknow what you want.

Webber smiles. Abraxas smiles back.

107.

Very fast:
Webber kidney-jabs the thuggish underling next tohim then, simultaneously, rips the glasses of the nerdyunderling’s face and breaks his leg with a stomp. He snapsthe glasses in two and uses the sharp edge to slash thethug’s throat. Snagging the guy’s gun as he falls, he FIRESpoint blank into the “nerd” who’s reaching for his weapon...

EXT. UN SENTRY POST -- DAY

A UN GUARD spots the FLARES inside the cloaked transport,

giving its position away. He starts barking indecipherablecommands into a mouthpiece.

INT. ALIEN TRANSPORT

Webber faces Abraxas. He raises his gun. Just as aphosphorescent projectile streaks toward them.

EXT. DMZ/ALIEN ZONE

The transport becomes visible as, engulfed in phosphorousflames, it begins a rapid trajectory toward earth... andCRASHES in a remote mining area of the alien zone.

For a moment, silence as the flames sputter out. An ALIENROVER arrives on the scene. TWO ALIEN BORDER GUARDS in exosuits

get out to look. One approaches the crash site.

A BLAST from inside the wreck practically decapitates him.

Webber rolls out of the wreck and trades fire with the 2nd

alien guard, bringing him down.

Webber gets to his feet, a little shaky, and recovers a phonefrom the wreck. No service. At the same time, Abraxas is

crawling out of the wreck. Her lower half is missing andshe’s dragging along a couple of exposed alien appendages.

She says something to him in the alien tongue.

WEBBER:

I’m sorry. I don’t understand.

He shoots her. He then sees a fleet of ROVERS coming his way.

He looks toward the alien city in the distance and the MotherZone tower that looms above it. That’s where he has to go. Heconfiscates the rover the dead border guards left behind.

108.

ALIEN CITY - OUTER BOROUGH

Webber abandons the Rover at the edge of a deserted, narrowlane lined by red sandstone-looking structures that flow intoeach other like natural formations.

He follows the MUFFLED NOISE of the city’s center. Nichescarved irregularly into the walls provide glimpses of alienstrangeness going on inside the structures he passes. In one,

a lone alien makes stylized gestures to the air- a prayer orcalisthenics?

Around a corner, Webber almost runs into a group of ALIENSwearing hooded robes. He heads the other way... and discoversa patrolling ALIEN in a military exo-suit in his path.

Webber blindly ducks through the nearest door.

INT. ALIEN HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS

Webber draws his gun and moves through the dark space,

cluttered with incomprehensible bric-a-brac... A SOUND makeshim turn... AN ALIEN CHILD looks up at him, regarding himlike a slightly interesting novelty. Webber lowers the gunand backs away.

EXT. ANOTHER ALIEN STREET -- MOMENTS LATER

This one’s busier, there are HUMANS in evidence- serfs in

soiled rags. Webber fits right in. He flows with the otherhumans into a crowded, Casbah-like warren. Soon he’s awash in

cacophonous sights and sounds. He passes aliens aggressivelyexchanging colored discs - some kind of commerce? A game?

Webber notices one of the alien “vendors” looking at him.

He’s not sure whether to make anything of it or not.

A WHIR behind him. He looks back. The crowd is parting forone of those CYCLOPEAN TRIPODS. No way to tell if it’s comingafter him. Just in case, he cuts down another lane.

There are two more CYCLOPI coming toward him from that

direction. Now there’s no doubt.

Webber climbs a flight of steps and winds up on a flatrooftop that flakes under every footfall like a sand dune. Hejumps from roof to roof- until one of the Cyclops leaps ontothe roof in front of him with its springy spider legs.

He follows another flight of steps around a Gaudi-like

turret. The Cyclops takes the steps with surprising alacrity.

109.

With nowhere to go, Webber makes a leap of faith, droppingthrough an opening at the top of the turret...

INT. ALIEN SHRINE -- CONTINUOUS

...and lands in a darkened space where dozens of naked aliensfloat in glass chambers filled with a viscous blue gel. A fewdry on mats where ALIENS IN PRIESTLY ROBES talk them throughthe experience of waking on Earth. Webber only gets a quickimpression of all this because his mere presence here causesinstant bedlam. The aliens in the tanks wake all at once in

an agony of desperate flailing. Webber pushes through themadness, running for daylight...

EXT. ALIEN STREETS -- CONTINUOUS

Emerging onto a quiet street. Webber looks back at the shrineand sees its surrounded by Cyclopi. They stand frozen-

programmed not to enter the shrine, apparently. Webber slipsaway. He follows a street paved with white tiles.

Aliens stare at him from under their hoods like he was an

escaped animal from the zoo, but no one stops him.

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