Conflicts of the last progenitors

Sven walks into the thirty-second row of the amphitheater toward a heavyset black man of twenty-four years. The man has sleepy eyes, a fixed grin on his face and a green star on his chest. His name is ABACUS.

SVEN

Are you Abacus?

Abacus nods.

ABACUS

You’re Neredth’s friend, right?

SVEN

Uh...yeah.

Sven sits on the turquoise foam bench beside Abacus.

ABACUS

What year do you think it is?

Sven SHRUGS. Abacus hitches his thumb toward the man next to him; a nervous fellow of twenty-eight with wide eyes and a hunched, protective disposition.

25.

ABACUS (CONT'D)

Heinrich thinks it’s 2250 or 2275.

I bet him my dessert paste for a

week it’s earlier than that--

around 2200. You want in on this--

closest guess take all?

SVEN

I don’t like dessert paste-- it

tastes too much like baby food.

And the chocolate is...visually...

very unappealing.

ABACUS

Then you’ve got nothing to lose.

What’s your-

ELYSABETH’S VOICE

Please be seated.

Silence like spilled fluid pours throughout the room. Sven, Abacus, Heinrich and the rest of the assemblage look at the panorama screen: upon the curved glass is a gray, hairless, female visage, Elysabeth’s Fleischwerk “face.”

FACE OF ELYSABETH

Good morning children. We have

come a long way from Earth, a

spatial distance of approximately

seven hundred light years. It is

the year 2979.

Hundreds of people GASP. Sven, Abacus and Heinrich pale upon hearing the information. MURMURS of shock and concern eddy throughout the crowd, nervous sparks.

FACE OF ELYSABETH (CONT'D)

Whether the humans left on Earth

have survived, I do not know. The

final transmissions I received were pessimistic but inconclusive.

Sven and Abacus (and many other onlookers) numbly stare at the gray face. Heinrich wipes tears from his eyes.

The three-star commanders are not surprised by the information being relayed-- they have already been briefed.

FACE OF ELYSABETH (CONT'D)

I was entrusted with finding

humanity a home, a replacement for

the ruined planet we left 838 years ago. Everyone please look up.

26.

The crowd looks up through the five-foot-thick glass ceiling...into the stars beyond. Two tongues of white thruster fire spark across the view. The stars begins to move as Elysabeth shifts her rotation.

The terrestrial planet comes into view, a blue marble with a few flecks of brown.

FACE OF ELYSABETH (CONT'D)

This is Option-1. The only

habitable planet divined thus far.

The atmosphere is oxygen- rich, the gravity is similar to Earth’s and

the climes- though given to

mercurial change- all fall within

parameters humans can endure.

White thruster-fire flashes across the ceiling; Option-1

swings out of view; a polarizing shield slides over the ceiling glass, dramatically darkening the interstellar vista; two suns glide into view at each edge of the window: one bright and white, the other twice its size but red and dim.

FACE OF ELYSABETH (CONT'D)

The day cycle on the primary land

mass of Option-1 is a three-period

unit. Morning faces only the white sun and averages 38 degrees;

afternoon faces both suns and

averages 115 degrees; night faces

away from the suns and drops to a

temperature of negative 25.

Sven’s stomach sinks; Heinrich puts his hands to his face.

ABACUS

(disbelief)

She woke us for this? What sadist

did they culture her from?

Hostile and bitter MURMURS ripple through the crowd. A couple of people CRY OUT in rage. Down below, Neredth leans over to Lo-Cheun.

NEREDTH

(whispered)

They took it better than you did.

27.

FACE OF ELYSABETH

I am aware that Option-1 is not

ideally suited for our purposes,

but it is the only habitable planet I have chanced upon in 838 years of travel. And I cannot search

indefinitely.

A fifty-three-year-old woman of mixed racial heritage (African and Asian) climbs the dais beside the panorama. The woman has short white hair, a Japanese character tattooed on either side of her neck and four blue stars on her chest.

Her name is THAKANI.

FACE OF ELYSABETH (CONT'D)

Of the eighteen-hundred humans

preserved in my cryogenic vaults, I awakened two-thirds. Of that

twelve-hundred, nine-hundred and

forty-two survived.

Thakani reaches the top of the dais and looks out at the disconcerted crowd.

THAKANI

(light German Accent; her

voice is amplified)

We had all hoped for better, but

Option-1 is what we have, the first choice in 838 years of searching.

Thakani shuts her eyes briefly and then returns her gaze to the camera.

Whether we should settle Option-1,

split our forces or move on

entirely, must be determined

immediately. Elysabeth was

designed to shuttle cryogenically

frozen humans, not provide housing

for extended periods of time.

Additionally, the damage she

sustained in transit makes caring

for us even more taxing. Every

day she provides for us, Elysabeth

grows weaker.

Thakani lets the words hang in the air. Sven looks at the walls of the ship, as if to divine a weakness.

28.

THAKANI (CONT'D)

Our paramount concerns are the

viability of this planet...and the

dispositions of the life forms that populate it.