The Abyss Page #16

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INT. CORRIDOR 143

Hippy trudges along the dark corridor. He reaches the men's head and goes in.

As the door closes, the tip of the liquid pseudopod extends into the corridor

B.G. It 'looks' left and right. Then extends the length of the corridor,

holding itself a couple feet off the floor like a weightless snake.

INT. TRIMODULE B/LADDERWELL/BUNKROOM/MESS HALL 144

LOOKING DOWN three levels through the central ladderwell between the

cylinders. The pseudopod enters and undulates upward.

FROM INSIDE THE MAKESHIFT BUNKROOM, we see its tip extend inside.

Sonny and One Night are snoring, oblivious. Jammer is still unconscious. The

pseudopod, taking its time, checks them out and then moves on.

IN THE MESS HALL, it's dark and quiet. Lindsey has even fallen asleep in her

chair, her head buried in her arms on the table. The shimmering tentacle

enters the room in total silence. It sways gracefully in to air, searching.

It undulates across the room, hanging about five feet in the air, surveying

everything. It moves past Lindsey. Sensing something, she lifts her head,

turning... sees the apparition next to her.

Her eyes go wide. Amazement, but not fear. The tentacle is moving on, still

searching. Lindsey shakes Bud awake, clapping her hand over his mouth.

Bud blinks twice, then freezes. When she lowers her hand his mouth is hanging

open like a total goon.

Bud chucks his pillow are Catfish, on the next table.

Catfish cracks one eye open. Turns away. Turns right back... both eyes open

now. Sensing movement, the thing turn back toward them. It seems to

recognize Lindsey. It doubles back on itself in a loop and comes right up to

her. She holds her ground, fascinated.

The bulbous tip forms suddenly into a human face... her face. It is water,

still clear and undulating... but definitely Lindsey. She gasps in surprise.

The liquid-Lindsey gasps soundlessly... a perfect mimic of her expression.

Lindsey laughs involuntarily. It laughs... without sound. Lindsey makes a

face, sticking out her tongue... testing it.

The liquid-Lindsey does the same. Bud has just had the rug jerked out from

under his sense of what is possible and what isn't, but he's taking it pretty

will, considering.

BUD:

(whispering)

I think it likes you.

LINDSEY:

It's trying to communicate.

Her liquid face suddenly transforms into a likeness of Bud's.

She reaches out her hand slowly. Gingerly, her fingers touch the surface.

Ripples extend outward from the contact, across Bud's features.

Her fingertips break effortlessly through the surface, just like she's

dipping her hand into a bowl of water, except sideways. She draws her wet

fingers out and studies them, amazed. Touches one fingertip to her tongue.

LINDSEY:

Seawater.

The pseudopod pulls back from her. It loops in the air dramatically, full

circle... and ties itself into a knot. As the knot tightens down, it melts

back into the body. The 'disappearing knot' trick.

Lindsey laughs, grinning with the open wonder and delight of a child at a

magic show. She is transported.

LINDSEY:

Show off.

She looks at Bud. He grins broadly. He's with her now.

The stunned group watches as the thing moves on across the room. Out to the

corridor

INT. SUB-BAY145

Coffey and Schoenick enter the back way, through the dive-prep area. They see

the pseudopod arching from the moonpool big as a treetrunk. Coffey's mind is

blown. We can smell the insulation burning. He just stares.

INT. CORRIDOR/MAINTENANCE ROOM B146

The water tentacle enters and moves toward the hot-wired warhead. It studies

the device for a few seconds. Bud and Lindsey enter through a side door, in

time to see the tentacle divide into four tendrils which wrap around the

warhead. They begin to lift it off its cart.

INT. SUB BAY147

Coffey finally jump-starts his brain. In a flash of insight, he runs to the

big sliding door through which the pseudopod stretches into the corridor. He

and Schoenick heave on the door. Like a guillotine blade it slices

effortlessly through it.

VARIOUS ANGLES -- CORRIDORS, MESS HALL, LADDERWELL, MAINTENANCE... as the

body of the pseudopod collapses, splashing on the floor. It reverts to

nothing more than a long puddle of simple seawater. As the tendrils dissolve,

the warhead slams back down onto the cart, unharmed. ON COFFEY'S SIDE ON THE

DOOR, however, the "stump" rears back like a cobra. It withdraws rapidly into

the moonpool. The glow fades away.

INT. SONAR SHACK 148

Sonny wakes up with a start as the HUM revs up into a LOUD WHINE and then

fades away. He scrambles to track it. Too late.

INT. CORRIDOR 149

Hippy emerges from the can and looks down, puzzled, at the puddle running the

length of the corridor. He missed the whole thing.

INT. MESS HALL 150

Light on. Everybody there. Lindsey is really strutting, high on life, now

that she's been proven right.

LINDSEY:

Okay, raise your hand if you think that was a

Russian water-tentacle. Lieutenant? No? Well,

a breakthrough.

Coffey is looking out from under his eyebrows like Nicholson in "The Shining".

Bud give her a warning look. Don't poke at the rattler.

BUD:

You done impressing yourself, ace?

ONE NIGHT:

No way that could just be seawater.

LINDSEY:

They must've learned how to control water... I

mean at a molecular level. They can plasticize

it, polymerize it... whatever. Put it under

intelligent control.

BUD:

Maybe their whole technology is based on that.

Controlling water.

Coffey is hunched over, elbows on his knees. His hands are out of sight. His

arm is moving in a slow rhythm. We can't see what he's doing.

HIPPY:

That thing was probably their version of Big

Geek... like an ROV.

CATFISH:

Just checking is out, huh? How come?

ANGLE UNDER THE TABLE, showing what Coffey is doing. He has his K-BAR KNIFE

gripped white-knuckle in one hand. He is drawing it slowly and repeatedly

across the skin of the other forearm. Neat chevrons of blood from wrist to

elbow.

C.U. COFFEY -- He doesn't flinch. His eyes are hard and bright as diamond

drills. No one notices. He's keeping the edge.

LINDSEY:

They're curious, maybe. We could be the first

people they've seen up close.

SONNY:

Hope they don't judge the whole race offa us.

CATFISH:

Maybe I oughta shave.

Coffey stands abruptly, snags Schoenick with his eyes, and leaves, walking

through the group as if they were smoke. This cold behavior brings the mood

down a notch.

INT. CORRIDOR/MAINTENANCE ROOM B151

Outside the mess hall, Coffey pauses, listening to the conversation resume.

Bright speculation, a few jokes. Coffey is visible shaking. Breathing hard.

Pupils dilated. Schoenick looks at him with concern.

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