Morning Star Page #24

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Light returns. We’re now with the frightened Ambassador as hediscovers that he and Kemp are standing directly oppositeeach other, on either side of one of the silo bridges.

Kemp FIRES, shatters the blast shield in front of him... onlyto have his shot stopped by the blast shield beyond it.

The Ambassador looks terrified as Webber, dropping down fromthe ladder above, joins him on his end of the bridge.

WEBBER:

Keep going! Don’t look back.

The Ambassador asks no questions. He keeps going, down theladder. Webber faces Kemp. They study each other a momentthrough the layers of glass then start SHOOTING THEIR WAYTOWARDS EACH OTHER, demolishing glass barrier after glassbarrier. Until there’s only one left between them.

Kemp demonstrates he’s out of ammo. Webber shoots the glasswall between them. It falls away. Kemp waits for it.

Webber pulls the trigger- click. He’s empty too.

Kemp smiles. The darkness drops again.

In the black, we HEAR fumbling, the CRUNCH of glass. Whenlight returns, Kemp’s no longer in front of him.

He sees the Ambassador boarding a sphere below.

CLOSE ON:
Kemp’s hand closes around a shard of broken glassjust before everything once more goes dark...

We hear a TUSSLE, a CRY of pain... the light of the risingsphere reveals Webber with a SLASHED arm and Kemp holding hisglass shard like a dagger. Webber takes up a shard of hisown, gripping so tightly blood oozes between his fingers. TheAmbassador’s sphere rises slowly toward them as they slowlyclose on each other. They feint and parry.

Then, grinning, Kemp leaps off the bridge, onto the exteriorof the rising sphere, grabbing hold of a porthole latch tokeep from sliding off. Webber jumps aboard too. Now Webberand Kemp knife fight like bar brawlers, while precariouslyhanging onto the sphere. They start making contact. There’sblood. They lose their grips, one right after another.

114.

They both wind up on their backs on the bridge below, windknocked out of them, weaponless, watching the sphere rise.

KEMP:

So, you won- this world will go on,

groaning under the weight of itsown tedium. I leave it all to you.

Enjoy.

Webber crawls under shelter. Kemp stays put.

WEBBER:

Come on.

Webber holds out his hand. Kemp finds himself smiling, a sad,

wise smile.

KEMP:

I lived this moment a thousand

times. I never imagined I wouldn’tbe alone.

Still smiling, he looks up. Webber looks up too. The sphereis almost at the top of the dome. Kemp’s eyes go wide,

watching in wonder, in awe, as the dome begins to open...

KEMP (CONT’D)

Look at that.

The white-hot plasma of the Mother Zone FLOODS in, blowingKemp’s body apart. Webber grabs a rail as zero gravity liftshim. Kemp’s beaded blood dances in the speckled air.

INT. A WINDOWLESS ROOM -- DAY

Yellow light. A bare bulb in a water-marked ceiling.

Webber’s eyes focus on it. He becomes aware of hissurroundings, slowly. He’s crudely bandaged. An IV stand isabout the only furniture. Then he becomes aware of a TVthat’s showing surveillance video of himself and Mia enteringthe country house.

WEBBER:

Mia?

GAST:

Is she really your first thought?

Webber sits up, discovers Gast sitting in a chair.

115.

GAST (CONT’D)

We were evenly split in our

interpretation of that

relationship. Half of us thought it

was purely tactical opportunism on

your part. Others thought it was

biology asserting itself. I

withheld judgement.

WEBBER:

Why am I alive?

GAST:

Peace accords have been signed. All

nonsense, of course, but doomsday

has been forestalled, for a while

anyway. The agreed-upon fiction is

that you were acting as the leader

of a special task force, operated

jointly by the UN and the Xeno High

Command. So you’re untouchable. For

now.

(places a PASSPORT on the

bedside table)

Eberlin will not forget, though. So

it would be wise for you to pass

into legend as quickly as possible.

And, if you do have any capacity

for pity, don’t try to see the girl

again. You could only drag her back

into this sh*t again.

WEBBER:

Where is she?

GAST:

We found her on a train in Breton.

I interviewed her again. I

determined that she is exactly what

she seems to be. Imagine my

amazement. I let her go. She went

wherever she went.

WEBBER:

(looking at passport)

There a chance any of this is true?

GAST:

Welcome to the human condition. We

live in doubt.

Gast smiles and leaves Webber alone.

116.

A HALLWAY:

Webber, wearing new clothes, limps down an ominous grey-steelcorridor. At the end, a door. He hesitates. He tries the

knob. It is unlocked...

EXT. PARIS STREET -- DAY

Webber emerges onto a busy street. He looks around. Normallife going on in every direction, in all its strangeness. Hestands there a moment, very still, still not quite buying it.

EXT. TRAIN STATION -- DAY

ON A MONITOR:
the signing of the peace accords. TheAmbassador is there. Smiles, handshakes... Webber pays noattention as he boards a train.

INT. TRAIN -- DAY

Webber shows his ticket to the CONDUCTOR. Settling back inhis seat, he feels a bulge in his jacket pocket. He findssomething unexpected there. A DATA DISK. Unlabeled. He putsit in the Ipad-like device embedded in the train’s arm-rest.

It’s a video of Mia, addressing the camera, him.

MIA (ON VIDEO)

Monsieur Gast allowed me to make

this recording for you. I got theimpression it was a big concessionfor him but now I don’t even know

what to say... They told me you’reincapable of certain humanfeelings... Love. Love is whatwe’re talking about. They showed mesurveillance footage of ustogether. I think it was supposedto rattle me, get me to confess...

something, God knows what. Butthere was something I saw. It wasin the footage of the night we hadcoffee together. We were walkingback... there was a moment youslipped- do you remember that? Inoted the frame. 17:21:08:02. Gast

told me he’d put it in with yourvisa...

Webber quickly pulls out his documents, starts urgentlyrifling through them.

117.

MIA (ON VIDEO) (CONT’D)

There are two people in the photo.

They’re captured in a moment...

He finds the photo she’s talking about. His whole body goescompletely slack.

MIA (ON VIDEO) (CONT’D)

I’ve looked at that frame a

thousand times... I know what I see

there. And nobody’ll convince meI’m wrong.

EXT. A PARK, SOMEWHERE IN THE U.S. -- DAY

A kid’s party is in progress. Streamers, balloons. Mia runsthe show, costumed as a princess. Mia shamelessly mugs forthe kids as she serves cake. She is transparently happy.

INT. TRAIN -- DAWN

A warm, sad, very human smile spreads across Webber’s face.

He’s still looking at the photo in his hand. It’s a close-upof Webber and Mia on that street corner. Her hand is on his

arm. They’re looking into each other’s eyes. They look, forall the world, like two people in love.

MIA (O.S.)

Am I wrong?

EXT. TRAIN -- DAY

The train winds up a snowy pass, disappearing into white.

END:

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