Pale Blue Dot Page #9

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LAURA (CONT’D)

Do you ever miss it?

Mark turns to Laura, brushing away a few strands of hair

covering her face. He looks into her eyes:

MARK:

Every God damn day.

Their lips are inches apart.

MARK (CONT’D)

See you at the office, space girl.

INT. PEPPER HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER

Laura enters the house, dropping her bag on the kitchen floor

and slowly, quietly making her way up the stairs.

As she moves down the hallway, she notices a light on:

Ruth’s.

INT. RUTH’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

Laura enters to find Ruth seated on the floor reading a copy

of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. She’s so caught up

in the book she hasn’t even noticed her mother.

Laura gives a quick knock on the door to get Ruth’s attention-

LAURA:

Bed time.

RUTH:

Okay.

Ruth dog-ears a page and crawls into bed. Laura doesn’t

leave. Instead, she gets into bed beside her daughter.

50.

Laura chokes up, suddenly overcome with emotion.

LAURA:

Baby, I’m sorry.

Ruth is surprised and a little scared-- she’s never seen her

mother like this.

RUTH:

For what?

LAURA:

I don’t know. For not being around.

For yelling at you guys.

Ruth gives her mother a hug.

RUTH:

It’s okay, Mom. Sometimes we

deserve to get yelled at.

Laura hugs Ruth back. The two of them lay there in bed. They

stare up at Ruth’s ceiling, which is covered in glow-in-thedark

plastic stars.

CUT TO:

INT. SHUTTLE SIMULATOR - JOHNSON SPACE CENTER - DAY

Laura, Mark, Pete and Jim-- each in full astronaut gear-- are

strapped into a shuttle simulator that’s nearly as old as

they are.

It’s a machine built in the 1970’s-- slow, and prone to

breaking down. But it’s all there is for training, all there

has ever been.

The astronauts busily check their instruments as-

-- A FLASHING RED LIGHT FILLS THE CABIN-

MARK:

Looks like we have a life-support

failure.

Loud sirens kick in.

Laura pulls out a large binder at her feet and begins

thumbing through the Mission Protocols.

51.

LAURA:

Copy that. Houston, reporting a

failure of life support system in

crew cable.

MISSION CONTROL:

Roger. Endeavour, can you confirm

O2 levels?

MARK:

Stable.

(to Laura)

Power reading?

Laura thumbs through her guide to the appropriate page.

LAURA:

Um, power levels confirmed stable.

Mark flips through his binder, double-checking Laura’s

assessment.

MARK:

Houston, do you read that? Power

and O2 remain constant.

MISSION CONTROL:

Copy Endeavour.

The shrieking sirens continue. Laura winces.

LAURA:

We’ve got a lot of noise up here.

Jim flips to the back of his binder.

JIM:

Any ideas, Houston?

MISSION CONTROL:

Endeavour, CAPCOM is suggesting a

hard restart.

MARK:

Laura, that’s you.

Laura’s thumbing through a second binder. A second, more

staccato siren begins SHRIEKING.

LAURA:

F***. One second-

More shrieking. Lights are starting to flicker in the cabin.

52.

MARK:

Gonna need some help here, Laura.

LAURA:

Almost there-PETE

O2 dropping.

Pete starts throwing switches on his console no luck.

Mark turns to Laura, alarm creeping in-MARK

Laura, where we at?

Finally, Laura has flipped to the page she was looking for-LAURA

Found it!

Laura flips a series of switches on her console---

the flashing lights and sirens suddenly STOP.

Everything is still.

MARK:

We’re all dead.

Mark unbuckles his harness.

He storms out of the simulator.

EXT. SIMULATOR - LATER

Laura sits alone in front of the simulator. She’s a wreck,

still wearing her flight suit, breathing heavily. After a

moment, she stands, walks over to the simulator and-

--punches it as hard as she can, ripping her knuckles open

against the metal exterior.

LAURA:

God damnit.

She turns and kicks a wooden bench, in full meltdown mode.

She pulls off a boot, grunting loudly, tearing the thing off

with little regard for whether or not she takes her foot with

it.

She hurls the boot across the room. Pulls at the suit itself.

53.

She’s moaning, too. This low, aching moan. Real pain. She’s

on the verge of tears but, somehow, this is even more intense

than if she was actually weeping.

Laura’s completely tangled in the suit as she tries to pull

it off. She’s flailing at the thing, tearing at it as if it’s

on fire.

And then, she stops.

Half out of the suit now, wearing only one boot, Laura slumps

down on the bench. Her hand is bleeding but she ignores it.

She just sits there. Breathing heavily. Completely unhinged.

And then-

MARK (O.S.)

This seat taken?

Laura looks up to find Mark-- the Mark she knows: all charm

and cowboy swagger and not an ounce of the anger she saw in

the simulator.

She melts. All the tension leaving her in that moment.

LAURA:

You sure you want to sit with a

dead girl?

Mark takes a seat. He’s buffing an apple against his sleeve,

completely unfazed by any of this.

MARK:

You did good in there.

LAURA:

Are you joking?

MARK:

You know how these simulators go.

You f*** up so you can learn how

not to f*** up.

Mark takes a bite of the apple. He offers a bite to Laura but

she waves it away-

LAURA:

I’m fine.

MARK:

You sure are. We’ll get ‘em next

time.

Laura rolls her eyes.

54.

LAURA:

You’re just saying that because you

like me.

Mark responds with an impish grin:

MARK:

That can’t be true. I don’t like

you one bit.

CUT TO:

EXT. ANGELINAS NATIONAL FOREST - DAY

A dense forest North of Houston. Laura and her family are

gathered around the beginnings of a camp site.

Laura is playing with the kids as Drew is struggling to set

up the tent.

He’s clearly not having much luck, dropping one pole every

time he tries to secure another-DREW

God dammit!

Laura overhears and heads over to Drew.

DREW (CONT’D)

This tent isn’t playing nice.

LAURA:

Let me do it.

Drew steps aside as Laura takes over.

It’s easy work for Laura. Time with the Navy and NASA has

left her with some solid survival skills.

DREW:

I feel like I’m in the way.

Laura is busy tying another elaborate knot around a post. She

calls out to Drew, withouth looking up-LAURA

You can unpack the gear if you

want.

DREW:

Right.

Drew grabs Laura’s pack and brings it over.

55.

DREW (CONT’D)

Where do you want it?

Laura hammers the fourth tentpole into place.

LAURA:

Not here. Just take it out and set

it aside.

Drew takes the bag over to a clearing and begins unpacking.

As he sets aside item after item-- three knives, four

canteens, two compasses varying lengths of rope, kerosene,

gauze, tinfoil-

And one very sharp-looking HATCHET.

DREW:

We expecting trouble?

LAURA:

Not unless you want some.

Laura smiles. Drew laughs-- nervously.

LAURA (CONT’D)

It’s really not that much. There’s

a purpose for everything I brought.

Drew holds up a length of rope.

He makes some suggestive eyebrow raises.

DREW:

I can think of a use for this

tonight.

Laura laughs, rolling her eyes.

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