APHELION
By BEN BRUCE
INT. NIGHT. THE BRIDGE OF THE APHELION.
The bridge of the Aphelion is quiet still. There is no life. Most of
the computer screens lie dormant, only two show any signs of life,
data constantly passing through them both at a tremendous rate.
Then it stops.
SIGNAL LOST appears in bright red on the screen.
An alarm sounds.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. THE OFFICER’S CRYO CHAMBER.
A row
their
light
LOWE.
air.
of ten cryo pods, standing in a slight arc against a wall,
glass screens frosted over are illuminated by the flash of red
from the alarm. We focus on one. There is a name on it. CAPTAIN
The pod lifts forward an inch. There is the sound of hissing
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. THE SECOND OFFICER’S CRYO CHAMBER.
SASHA COLE falls from the floor with a thud, gasping for air. She
splutters and struggles to her knees, dressed only in a vest and
shorts. She looks around. Six others are doing the same. Her
colleagues. EDWARD LAUTNER is the first to his feet, hauling himself
unsteadily up with the aid of a wall.
The others, TANEKA WARNER, a tall, athletic black woman; RUTHIE
GRAINGER, shorter in stature, short blonde hair, leaning against her
pod; MORGAN OLSEN, looks like he’s just come in from a big night out,
sits holding his head, shaking away the cobwebs; ALISTAIR BUCHAN, the
oldest of this group, grey hair, broad shouldered and barrelled
chested; ABDUL MAJEED, Middle-Eastern, bright eyed, strong; finally,
VINCENT HOBAN, studious looking, scrabbling for his glasses that he
placed next to the pod before they went into cryo sleep.
LAUTNER drags himself to a small panel near the door, presses a
button it, and flops against the wall, energy spent.
LAUTNER
LAUTNER to bridge.
There’s no response. LAUTNER presses it again.
LAUTNER
Captain Lowe. Come in.
Nothing. SASHA looks to him. He shrugs.
LAUTNER
Maybe the system only woke us?
TANEKA WARNER, a tall, athletic black woman, the first to stand
unaided.
TANEKA
Procedure is us second, them first.
SASHA
We need to check them out.
LAUTNER nods, turns and with a heave, pulls himself up and heads out
the door.
MORGAN
Oh my god, no lie in?
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. THE OFFICER’S CRYO CHAMBER.
LAUTNER is the first in, TANEKA just behind him. The pods in this
chamber all just partially open, a crack between the seals on each,
and the screens are now all misted over.
LAUTNER
What the hell.
TANEKA and LAUTNER head straight to CAPTAIN LOWE’s pod, hands
reaching under the seal and struggling to pull it open.
Behind them, MORGAN, RUTHIE, ABDUL, VINCENT and ALISTAIR arrive.
ALISTAIR
Holy shit, what the hell has happened here?
TANEKA
We need these people out. Come on.
ABDUL
We can’t get them all.
RUTHIE
We need to get President Greene, someone help
me.
RUTHIE quickly moves to another of the pods, and starts pulling.
MORGAN
Fucking Greene.
MORGAN is barely a step behind her, the disdain in his voice put
aside by his actions.
LAUTNER
The rest. Rank order.
VINCENT
XO?
LAUTNER
XO. VP.
ALISTAIR
That’s all there is of us, we go on from there.
LAUTNER looks around as he continues to pull open the pod. It dawns
on him. They can’t save them all.
LAUTNER
Shit.
LAUTNER and TANEKA give one more huge pull on the pod, as ABDUL and
VINCENT go to the VP’s pod, and ALISTAIR and SASHA set about the
XO’s.
With a sudden woosh, the pod for CAPTAIN LOWE swings open. LOWE
slumps forward, his skin grey, he droops over the lip of the pod.
TANEKA
Get him out, get him out.
TANEKA and LAUTNER drag him to the floor. TANEKA puts her hand to his
neck.
TANEKA
No pulse.
MORGAN
Swap.
MORGAN darts from the pod he was working on, over to LOWE’s prone
body, as TANEKA switches with him, taking on the opening of the next
pod. MORGAN kneels over LOWE and feels his skin.
MORGAN
He’s bloody colder than space. I need him in
medbay now, we need to get him on
cardiopulmonary bypass.
LAUTNER
Let’s go.
LAUTNER and MORGAN in unison sweep under LOWE and lift him from the
floor.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. MEDBAY.
LAUTNER and MORGAN drag the limp body of LOWE in and unceremoniously
dump him onto the nearest stretcher.
MORGAN
Okay, this is going to get gross pretty quick. I
need the heparin. Should be a syringe set up
with it in that cabinet.
MORGAN nods to a cabinet on the back wall.
LAUTNER
Got it.
LAUTNER turns and heads for the cabinet, he searches quickly and
finds the syringe in question. He turns to see MORGAN slamming a bone
saw into LOWE’s chest with a wet CRACK.
LAUTNER
Jesus.
MORGAN
Sorry, warned you.
LAUTNER
Aren’t you going to anaesthetise him?
MORGAN
He’s dead. If I stop to do that, he stays dead.
LAUTNER passes him the syringe, MORGAN takes it, and fires it into a
vein in LOWE’s neck. He speaks as he does so, never taking his eyes
of the work he’s doing.
MORGAN
You see that cart over in the corner there, all
pumps and shit. I need it here.
LAUTNER races over to the cart, before wheeling it back.
LAUTNER
Will this work?
MORGAN
It should, but, it can only work twice.
LAUTNER
What do you mean?
MORGAN
I only have enough equipment to do two CPBs. We
have more patients.
LAUTNER
Are you saying the others are dead already?
MORGAN
I don’t know. I’ll try, but it won’t be easy.
You need to make a choice though. Who else gets
this.
LAUTNER
Me?
MORGAN
One.
MORGAN points at LOWE.
MORGAN
Two.
MORGAN points back out of the door.
MORGAN
Three.
MORGAN points at LAUTNER.
MORGAN
You’re the only one standing. It’s your ship.
LAUTNER swallows.
LAUTNER
I’m not… I…
The doors burst open again as TANEKA and RUTHIE bring in the limp
body of PRESIDENT GREEN.
MORGAN
Yeah?
LAUTNER
Yeah.
RUTHIE
Where do you want him?
MORGAN
Get him on a gurney and roll him opposite.
Anyone else comes in, we do our best, get them
wrapped up in thermal blankets, feed them
oxygen, do what we can, and pray.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. WASHROOMS.
LAUTNER stands, covered in blood, looking at himself in the mirror.
He sighs, heavily, sadness. He places his palms on the sides of the
metallic basin front of him, and leans forward, head down.
Behind him the door to the washroom opens, and RUTHIE walks in,
shutting it quietly and softly behind her.
RUTHIE
You okay?
LAUTNER turns, shaking his head.
LAUTNER
Just lost seven of our nine highest ranking crew
members on the ship. The captain and the
President of the colony are in comas. No, I’m
not okay.
RUTHIE
You did all you could.
LAUTNER
It’s not about me. These people were my friends.
RUTHIE
I know, but I know you too, I know you’re
blaming yourself, just as much as you’re
hurting.
LAUTNER turns back to the basin, and RUTHIE places a hand on his
shoulder, leaning her head on his back.
RUTHIE
I’m here. You don’t need to do this alone.
LAUTNER closes his eyes for a moment in quiet contemplation.
LAUTNER
I know.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. EXTERIOR OF THE APHELION.
The APHELION glides silently through space, it is sleek, and yet
vast.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. THE BRIDGE.
ABDUL MAJEED sits at a terminal on the bridge, typing rapidly,
confused look on his face. He turns to TANEKA WARNER, who is stood at
another terminal.
ABDUL
TANEKA, you got to take another look at this for
me, this just, I mean, it doesn’t make any
sense.
TANEKA walks over to ABDUL.
TANEKA
What’s up?
ABDUL
We got woke up because the ship lost the cord
back to earth.
TANEKA
The data stream that monitors the ship while
we’re in stasis?
ABDUL
Exactly. It’s like flying by wire, and it’s also
used to keep us up to date with goings on back
home. We’ve been in cryo for three years
according to the on board data, so there should
be three years worth of data beamed up to us,
but…
He presses a few buttons on the screen in front of him and the
display changes to read; DATA NOT FOUND.
TANEKA
It was never sent?
ABDUL
No, it must have been. There’s a fail safe in
the system that if the data isn’t received we’re
woken up to investigate. I mean, I figured that
was what was going on here, an issue with the
array or something.
TANEKA
Something we could fix?
ABDUL
Right, and then get back down and hit the hay
for a couple more years, but this… I mean, it
must have been there.
TANEKA
Are you saying it’s been deleted?
ABDUL
I think it must have been.
The door to the bridge behind opens, and LAUTNER and RUTHIE walk in.
LAUTNER
Abdul, what’s the latest.
ABDUL
Sir, I was just saying to Commander WATSON, the
data from the stream is missing. Something or
someone has removed it from our system.
RUTHIE
This was no accident?
ABDUL
I don’t think so. I’ve checked all the back ups.
There’s some fragments of corrupted data. I
mean, I can try and make something of it, and
dig deeper, but… I… this might be beyond me.
LAUTNER
Do what you can. Looks like we might be staying
awake for a little while longer.
CUT TO
INT. NIGHT. MEDBAY.
SASHA stands over GREENE who lies on a bed in medbay. She looks over
at MORGAN who is slowly rolling the body of the XO into a freezer at
the back of the room. He shuts the door softly, his hand staying on
the door.
MORGAN
That’s no way for people like this to go. They
deserved better. To die a death with purpose.
SASHA
We don’t know why they died yet.
MORGAN
Asleep in a pod though. Fuck, these people were
heroes, not bloody old.
SASHA
No. They didn’t deserve this. Neither do Greene
or the Captain.
MORGAN
I know, I know. I just need… a real damn good
drink to blow this out of my system, you know
what I mean?
SASHA
No. Sorry.
MORGAN
Ha, that’s why you’re a scientist, and not a
medic. Although, you know, you did well. It’d be
eight dead, at least, if you hadn’t been here.
So Greene thanks you. I thank you. There you go,
you’re thanked.
SASHA
I’m honoured. Listen, I’m going to request from
Lautner that we wake up a few more crew members
so that we’ve got people on shift here in
medbay. Means we can get some sleep. Real sleep.
MORGAN
Amen to that. I’m not going back in one of them
damn pods again. I’m thawed out till the day I
die now.
SASHA
I don’t blame you. Is there anyone you think we
should request to be woken?
MORGAN
Soldheim is good. Get Soldheim.
SASHA
Okay.
MORGAN
Man can drink too.
CUT TO