Morning Star Page #6

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surveillance footage of sabotage at

a Czech drone installation, two

years ago.

Webber stares at the “shadowy figure” in the photo. Himself.

EBERLIN (CONT’D)

If Dorna was correct, this mole

might even have been raised

unknowingly by the donors of his

human DNA. He’d have had decades to

polish his resume. He’d be the most

dangerous double agent in history.

WEBBER:

(concentrating on his tea)

If he exists. But is that all we

have? Speculation?

EBERLIN:

Well, we do know his name.

Webber stops stirring his tea.

EBERLIN (CONT’D)

His name is Morningstar. Lucifer

exiled from heaven... They do wax

poetic with their code names.

WEBBER:

Why am I here?

EBERLIN:

We want you to find him. The mole.

“Morningstar.” Smoke him out, drive

him into the light- whatever

metaphor you prefer, just so long

as you lay him at my feet. Alive,

if possible, but we won’t quibble.

Webber, composing himself, manages to just nod.

26.

INT. WEBBER’S BEDROOM -- LATER

Webber enters like a condemned man. He crosses to his

dresser, opens a drawer filled with seemingly random littleknick-knacks. He takes out of his jacket pocket that photo ofDorna and his wife eating ice cream- he swiped it off thewall. Webber stares at the photo, haunted, then adds it tothe things in the drawer... but before he shuts it, anotherof the drawer's oddly mismatched contents grab his attention:

An orange plastic dinosaur.

FLASHBACK TO -- EXT. STREET -- DAY

The Little Boy from the opening watching his mother beingswept away by that alien bio-mechanical tentacle. What wedidn’t see before: a second tentacle creeps up behind him,

curls around him and drags him away too...

FLASH TO -- INT. ALIEN LAB -- DAY

The Little Boy squirms as an AUTOMATED ARM draws blood.

FLASH TO -- ALIEN LAB -- LATER

The boy’s BLOOD SAMPLE is transported on an automated trollydown a weird, mirrored corridor.

FLASH TO -- A GLASS-LIKE SPHERE

Inside:
an EMBRYO suspended in red liquid... A series ofDISSOLVES takes us through the development of the embryo tothe point where it becomes recognizable as a CLONE of theLittle boy...

FLASH TO -- AN ALL-WHITE SPACE

The Boy sits before three oval screens. One projects rapidimages of news clips from Earth, one flashes depictions ofpeople and events from Earth history. The third unspoolsinscrutable symbols. The boy anxiously presses buttons,

trying to keep up with the dizzying flow of information. Somekind of test.

FLASH TO -- A BLACK ROOM

The Boy- about ten now - sits in lotus position, periodicallylit by a warm orange light from above, a slow strobe.

27.

The boy grins broadly, then frowns, then grimaces, smilesagain. Practicing facial expressions.

FLASH TO -- BLUE ROOM - LATER

The boy, 12 now, stands at a window looking out over theALIEN ZONE. A strip-mined wasteland. Terraformed earth, redveined with yellow. CYCLOPEAN PODS patrolling in packs; hereand there, ALIENS at work in MINING EXO-SUITS. The boy’s eyesare focused on one point on the horizon- that shining portalin the sky called “the Mother Zone.”

FLASHBACK TO - INT. REFUGEE HOSTEL -- NIGHT

The joyful reunion we saw before - the clone raised in thealien lab stands, wearing the name “Martin Webber” pinned tohis coat. “His” father, tears in his eyes, comes toward him,

holding the long lost child's beloved toy- that orangeplastic dinosaur...

BACK TO-

Webber shuts the dinosaur in the drawer like it was

incriminating evidence.

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING -- DAY

Webber broods on his balcony. He’s startled by the flare of alighter on the next balcony - Mia lighting a cigarette. Shelooks surprised by him too. She gives a half-smile.

MIA:

Don’t judge me.

Feeling trapped and intensely uncomfortable, Webber managesonly the thinnest smile. She senses his reticence.

MIA (CONT’D)

You were here first. If you wantprivacy, I’ll wait for this.

Webber shakes his head. It’s ok. She nods.

MIA (CONT’D)

You know, Alexei took a dive out

his window this afternoon.

(off his lack of reaction)

He lived in the apartment on the

other side of you.

28.

Now Webber looks troubled, trying to remember the guy.

WEBBER:

A heavy-set man? Always talking onhis phone on the stairs?

MIA:

Well, not anymore.

WEBBER:

No. I guess not.

MIA:

He waited to jump till the schoolacross the street was getting out.

Show off.

WEBBER:

You’re the sentimental type?

MIA:

I can be. I like old movies... You

do too, I guess - I hear ‘em a lotthrough the wall at 3 AM.

WEBBER:

I’m sorry.

MIA:

No worries. I’m an insomniac myself-

that’s a touchy thing to admit,

right? It’s one of the big signs?

Infiltrators don’t like to sleep?

WEBBER:

They don’t like to wake up.

(uncomfortably realizes

more’s required)

When they sleep, they telepathicallylink to their home world. Motherland’s

a metaphor for us but they areliterally spawned from the soil oftheir planet. It’s a bond they allshare... in their sleep.

Now he feels he said too much.

MIA:

Anyway, I assure you I am acertified human being.

WEBBER:

I believe you.

29.

MIA:

Thank you.

WEBBER:

I’m going in now.

MIA:

Thanks for keeping me company.

WEBBER:

(nods; heading in, pauses)

You might try Chamomile tea. Also,

I don’t think smoking helps.

She laughs. Webber smiles, goes back in, quickly.

INT. WEBBER’S BEDROOM -- LATER

Webber lays on the bed, like he was surrendering to death...

FLASH TO - THE DREAM

A wash of white. A suggestion of smooth white skin movingagainst smooth white skin...a sea of identical creatureslolling in a white sun like a herd of seals lounging on anarctic beach... moving over the gently writhing bodies, webegin to see that they are emerging blind from milk-whitesoil, being born... we plunge deeper into the white...

BACK TO - WEBBER’S APARTMENT

Webber wakes with the same anguished look the alien in thattank had worn. He desperately climbs out of bed.

BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER

Bent over the toilet, Webber flushes. He splashes water onhis face. Dripping, he looks into next room. At that whiteabstract on the wall.

INT. “BLACK SITE” HQ - CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY

Webber sits at the head of a conference table. He manages toremain composed even as he stares, with everyone else, at ablow-up of that shadowy, Czech-surveillance image of himself.

30.

BEWLEY:

Dorna believed Morningstar wasmoving from espionage to terrorism,

planning to attack a civilianpopulation center. That’s the leadhe was following in Salzburg...

Bewley puts up a slide: a surveillance shot of a plain-wrapPACKAGE in a metal cage with a few suitcases. Webber puts onhis glasses to look at this one- clearly no idea what it is.

BEWLEY (CONT’D)

This package of unknown origin wentunclaimed in the lost luggage ofFestenburg station for six days, thendisappeared. According to Dorna, itwound up in Morningstar’s hands.

Dorna feared the package contained aweapon. We now believe it containedthe device used in the Salzburgattack. We also believe that

Morningstar deliberately left thetrail of clues that led Dorna to be

at the opera house that night- the“two birds with one stone” concept.

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