Agiss III

 		 
	FADE IN
	EXT.	MARS  - VALLES MARINERIS    DAY
	INT.	UNITED ALLIANCE SHUTTLE CRAFT

	The shuttle craft is seen slowly coming down 
	on a large sandbar sticking out of the quagmire
	in the abyss. The craft finally settles in the
	soft sand. All of the exterior light come on
	an a bright aura of light is seen around the 
	craft as the power unit winds down. Rolf exits
	the Captains seat and heads for the rear cabin
	where the power plant is located.

				FRANK
		You Myra a Geologist would give his 
		right arm to be down in this place.

				MYRA
		Look at the stress lines in the stone
		walls it's like Mars axis tilted
		or the crust suddenly, violently, 
		moved over the mantle, then the 
		oceans would move en masse, as 
		immense tidal waves, away from
		the equator and toward the poles.
		On the rotating Mars, due to
		the CORIOLIS force, these tide 
		waves would move not only north
		and south but also counterclockwise
		in the northern hemisphere and 
		clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

				FRANK
		In the ancient Mars Ocean, the tidewater
		would flow more easily near the poles,
		covering a larger area, this would create
		smaller continental floods. Any icecaps 
		in these regions would be swept away from 
		their landlocked moorings out into the
		northern Mars Ocean and would break up, 
		depositing large amounts of detritus on
		the sea bed. Since neither eastern Mars
		nor western Mars were covered by such a 
		continental ice sheet, minute amounts of
		glacial detritus should have been 
		deposited in the Mars Ocean deep chasms
		compared to that laid down in the 
		shallower ancient Ocean. 

				MYRA
		Yes Frank and the tidal waves flowing 
		over the northern ice sheets would 
		flow south and, in a return flood,
		where they swept back onto the
		continental surfaces, would produce
		visual evidence of their rampage as
		seen here and over the land, signs
		of violent flood erosion. Wherever 
		mountains formed basins, these 
		regions would fill up, forming 
		immense lakes that would discharge
		their water, through passes, into 
		rivers which would carve deep 
		channels and leave ghost shorelines
		as we see here.

				FRANK
		Myra, this place was at one time
		the deepest part of a huge ancient
		ocean larger than the pacific and
		Atlantic Ocean put together.

				MYRA
		I agree, look at this strata on the
		left wall.
			(Pointing to a flowing etching
	 		in the stone wall)
		This evidence indicates that nearly 
		all the lakes, drainage basins and
		rivers had greater reservoirs of
		water which flowed back to the
		ocean recently, leaving a worldwide
		system of relic beaches as evidence 
		of this flood.

				FRANK
		If these flood beaches were ancient, 
		they would have been eroded away. Most 
		of the ocean would have flowed over the 
		icecaps and back to the sea. The icecap 
		would have been swept southward to lower
		latitudes and would have melted within 
		a few years. The remaining ocean water 
		would drain away, while the melting 
		glaciers would produce immense runoff 
		to replace it. Sea water would only be 
		kept in extremely large collecting 
		regions without outlets Small lakes would 
		then be diluted by the freshwater
		that melted from the residual icecaps. 

				MYRA
		Most of the detritus carried by the
		water would have been left as a ring 
		in, near and around the polar regions
		as a heavy silt or mulch, containing 
		material such as trees or animals that
		were swept off the continents. 

				FRANK
		The flow-back material would have 
		contained mostly the lightest silts, 
		which would form a second ring-like 
		or annulus-like deposit containing 
		additional animals and trees. 

				MYRA
		Forests would be swept away and buried.
		The water would then flow into and down 
		river valleys, leaving masses of this 
		secondary silt in its wake. 


				FRANK
		Yes and in regions where mountain 
		ranges obstructed the return flow 
		of water, the secondary silt would 
		build up as the water slowed and 
		dropped its load. 

				MYRA
		Right and any long-lived, large, 
		deep body of water in a glacier 
		would melt a channel either under 
		or through the ice and would flow 
		away as a river. Ice has no effective
		tinsel strength and would break under
		the stresses created by the pressure 
		on an ice wall over seven miles in 
		length. 

	Rolf is seen coming back from the engine room and climbs
	back into the Captains seat.

				ROLF
		Hate to interrupt the geology seminar
		but I think I found the problem and
		I'm ready to give it another try.

				FRANK
		I hear you Rolf, were ready.
			(Lowering his voice)
		Right and in plain regions like here
		where there are no mountains to 
		impound water, glacial-lake outburst
		floods were probably common in the
		northern Great Plains of Mars during 
		their PLEISTOCENE EPOCH. 

				MYRA
		Exactly and the obvious SEDIMENTOLOGIC
		and PALEOHYDRAULIC interpretations
		support GEOMORPHIC evidence of large
		magnitude, highly competent discharges
		from glacial lake outbursts. Large-scale 
		bars consisting of matrix-supported,
		poorly sorted, pebbly cobble gravel
		were deposited by HYPERCONCENTRATED 
		flows, probably between 20% and 40% 
		sediment by weight. According to simple
		PALEOHYDRAULIC calculations, between 
		60,000,000 and 900,000,000 cubic yards
		of water were discharged per second.

				FRANK
		I say that drumlin fields, regions
		covered by many long hills with 
		their long slopes facing the ice
		sheet and their short slopes facing
		away from the ice sheets, were created
		by immense SUBGLACIAL floods, and that
		entire sections of the ice sheet were 
		literally lifted and moved southward, 
		carving innumerable drumlin fields
		across the Mars landscape. 

				ROLF
		Ok guys here we go!

	The shuttle craft is seen slowly coming off the 
	large sandbar un-sticking itself out of the
	quagmire in the abyss. The craft finally 
	settles into a steady hover and starts to rise
	up along the side of the stone wall. All of
	the exterior lights continue to create a 
	bright aura of light seen around the 
	craft as the power unit winds up. Rolf is seen
	smiling in the Captains seat and continues
	the ascent to the top.

				ROLF (Cont.)
		Shit that was too close for 
		comfort!

				MYRA
		Rolf why don't we try the Beta
		dig where Jon, Andrea and Skip
		died, maybe the virus reservoir
		is in the cave where they found
		the time capsule.

				FRANK
		I think it's worth a try Rolf,
		at least we don't have to go
		down into hell to look for
		the fucking Virus.

						CUT TO:

	EXT.	MARS BETA DIG CAVE    DAY
	EXT.	UNITED ALLIANCE SHUTTLE CRAFT

	The shuttle craft is seen slowly hovering over
	the site of the Beta Dig. The bodies of Jon,
	Andrea and Skip are seen where they died.

					MYRA  (V.O.)
				(Very upset)
			Shit we can't even bury them
			because of that fucking virus!

	INT.	UNITED ALLIANCE SHUTTLE CRAFT (INSIDE)	

	Myra and Frank are peering down at the dead
	bodies of their friends. Rolf is controlling 
	the craft and making wide circles.

				ROLF
		Myra, check and see what the 
		censors are saying.

	Myra and Frank push a few buttons on the censor
	control board and lights are flashing and
	indicators are making sweeps.

				MYRA/FRANK
			(Yelling)
		Rolf, this place is hot!

				FRANK
		Every instrument is going off
		the maximum reading mark.
		Make concentric circles and we
		can plot the infected area.

	Rolf continues to make sweeps in a large widening
	arc.

				MYRA
		Ok Rolf we have the infected
		area plotted. It's two miles
		by three miles, and that's it.
		There is something down there
		they like and they wont leave.

				FRANK
		Rolf, why don't you let me drop
		one of the ten kilo-ton Nukes
		that we brought for a large
		mining operation.  

				ROLF
		Are they clean.

				FRANK
		Yes, they are baby COBOLT bombs.
		No radiation, just a lot of heat!
		We'll fry the virus like SHRIMPS
		ON THE BARBIE!

				MYRA
		Let's nuke em Rolf, I say fuck em!

				ROLF
		Frank set up the sequence and give 
		us enough time to get out of here.

				FRANK
		You got it Rolf, I say Fuck' em too!

	Frank is seen releasing his seat belt and quickly moving
	into the rear storage compartment where all the 
	destructive weapons are stored. He pops open a
	cabinet and removes a storage case the size of
	a large jock bag. He opens the cover and turns
	on the sequence computer. He presses a series of 
	keys and turns a key. He places the weapon in one 
	of the ejection tubes and closes the cover. He 
	rushes back into the main cabin.

				FRANK (Cont.)
			(Excited)
		Ok frank you have a live fish in 
		tube one. It's ready to rock and
		roll!

	Rolf steady's the craft and strategically places
	it in the middle of the target grid. He then 
	hovers about fifty feet above the target area.

				ROLF
		How much time do we have after I
		launch this turkey?

				FRANK
		One hour exactly!

				ROLF
		Ok guys, here we go, fire in
		the hole!

	Rolf flips up the cover on the arming button and
	turns the key and presses a button.

				MYRA/FRANK
		Fuck em!

					CUT TO: 

					
	EXT.	MARS COLONY AGISS III                DAY
	EXT.	AGISS III BIO-CENTER - COLONY TARMAC
	
	Frank, Myra and Rolf are in their Bio-Center 
	control room. They have a long range video
	pointing at the target area twenty-five miles
	away.

				ROLF
		Ten seconds to go guys.
		five . . .four . .  three
		two and bang!

	A nuclear mushroom cloud is seen at a distance and
	the blast is heard a few seconds later. The Bio-
	center vibrates, but holds together.

				ROLF
		Myra, tomorrow morning, Frank and I
		will shuttle over to the target area
		and see what the readings look like.

						CUT TO:

	                                                                   
	EXT.	MARS COLONY AGISS III                DAY
	EXT.	AGISS III BIO-CENTER - COLONY TARMAC
	
	Frank and Myra are having a discussion over the
	Mars topology and geological makeup.

				FRANK
		I believe that parts of the sea floor
		fell to an even greater depth while
		inland sections of continents rose.
		Evidence for oceanic, sea-floor 
		subsidence is found for undersea
		mountains or sea-mounts, which contain 
		surface materials, such as corals,
		that are several a kilometers below the
		surface of the Mars Ancient Ocean.

				MYRA
		Yes you're right, the Exploration
		of the New England Sea-mount chain
		by the research submarine Alvin
		confirms that some of these peaks,
		now all kilometer or more below
		the surface, were once at or 
		above the surface of the ocean.
		This undersea mountain chain 
		contains more than 30 major
		peak sand stretches 1,600 miles 
		southeast from the New England
		coast. 

				FRANK
		Yes Myra I remember reading about the
		Deep-sea dredging bringing up Eocene 
		limestone of shallow-water origin
		from the submerged mountain tops
		attributed to iceberg detritus carried
		off the continents but the Alvin
		exploration resulted in the first 
		eye witness accounts of dead coral algae
		that grows only within 100 meters of
		the surface.

				MYRA
		Yes, and the New England Sea-mounts
		have, therefore, either subsided on
		the order of a kilometer since Eocene
		times or the sea level has altered
		drastically. 

				FRANK
		And Coral reefs and platforms grow so
		rapidly that their growth outstrips
		sea floor spreading, geological 
		subsidence of the seafloor or gradual
		rises in sea levels. This, then, is
		the problem.

				FRANK
		All over the oceans, the record 
		indicated deep coral platforms, 
		suggesting that the sea floor
		sank or that extraordinary amounts of
		water were added catastrophically.
		The gradualistic processes are inadequate
		and had suggested that violent methods
		must have been employed so as to
		create these drowned coral reefs.

				MYRA
		The growth rate of corals is 
		1,000 micrometers per year, which
		exceeds any relative  rise in sea 
		level caused by long-term processes
		in the geological record. Newly formed 
		ocean crust subsidence is at a 
		maximum rate of 250 yr., basic 
		subsidence averages 10 to 100 m/ yr.
		and sea level rises, due to 
		increased sea floor spreading, 
		to less than 10 m/ yr. In essence,
		singly or all together, these 
		processes will not drown coral
		reefs or carbonate platforms.

				FRANK
		These formations are found all
		over the Earth. Thus, in ocean
		regions, we have evidence that
		the sea floor sank to great depths. 
		This evidence suggests that 
		the ocean basins dropped by a
		phenomenon not related to
		gradualistic processes. 

				MYRA
		It makes sense to me.

				FRANK
		It indicates that these coral reefs
		and carbonate platforms sank
		rapidly or catastrophically to 
		great depths. Submarine canyons,
		have immense canyons running
		off the continental shelf and deep
		into the oceans from all continents
		were carved by sub-aerial water.

				MYRA
		So what your saying is that the
		Pleistocenegeologists are wrong to
		deny that many of these canyons were
		above the ocean surface, were cut 
		by rivers and then sank below the
		present sea level. The most obvious
		explanation of submarine canyons, 
		offered more than 75 years ago and
		still regarded by many as the one 
		most probably correct, is that they
		are normal, young river valleys or 
		gorges carved during higher stands
		of the continents or a lower stand 
		of sea level and deeply submerged 
		in comparatively recent geologic
		time. 

				FRANK
		The only reason for rejecting
		this hypothesis is the catastrophic
		requirement inherent in lowering these
		canyons deep below the oceans. Using
		straight forward geophysical evidence,
		we then show how neither turbidity
		currents, nor land slides nor 
		submarine spring sapping can account
		for the creation of these remarkable
		sea canyons.

				MYRA
		What extremely skeptical views 
		regarding the accuracy of the
		ice cores. They did this, as I
		will show, by ignoring fundamental
		evidence that invalidated their
		beliefs and assertions. For example,
		theory for ice ages is definitively
		supported by Greenland ice cores
		and disproves 3,500-year-old date
		timetable for the last glaciation 
		is decisively disproved by the
		oxygen isotope  profiles in the
		Greenland icecap, which indicate
		that the temperatures reached their
		present general level about 10,000 
		years ago. 

				FRANK
		If this is so, then other accurate
		cores which measure the same climate 
		periods should corroborate the ice cores.
				MYRA
		This is very important with respect
		to oxygen-16 and oxygen-18 content
		in other cores. There is another
		crucial and superior core of material
		which also contains layers of oxygen-16 
		and oxygen 18. This does not agree
		with the theory as applied to the ice caps
		or deep sea cores and makes the ice core 
		data unreliable. Most climate 
		researchers have looked to space for 
		an explanation of the ice ages that have
		repeatedly gripped our planet in recent
		geologic times. The hypothesis, holds 
		that wiggles and wobbles in Earth's
		orbit serve as a pacemaker that determines 
		when the planet plunges into a glacial
		period and when it thaws out of one.

				MYRA
		But new evidence from a deep crack in  
		the Nevada Desert threatens to overturn
		the theory and replace it with a more
		down to Earth solution.

				FRANK
		I feel that this theory is incapable 
		of explaining the climate shift.
		The climate information collected
		by one group comes from Devil's Hole.
		The fissure is filled with mineral-rich
		water that has coated the rock 
		walls with layer upon layer of
		calcite over the last 500,000 
		years. 

				MYRA
		By analyzing the ratio
		of two isotopes--oxygen-18
		and oxygen-16--at hundreds
		of spots along the calcite
		core, identified changes in
		the temperature of the atmosphere
		when rain fell in the Devil's
		Hole region. 

				FRANK
		Yes Myra, but the Devil's
		Hole record, with its superior
		chronology, shows that the
		timing of specific events in
		the last 500,000 years
		does not match the 
		predictions. In spite of this
		clear denial of attempted to
		interpret the Devil's Hole
		findings but was shown to
		be wrong by the scientists
		who had carried out the
		research. 

				MYRA
		Yes but Glacial, inter-glacial
		transitions as time markers
		and focuses  on bathythermals 
		the coldest portions of glacial
		cycles, which he deems to 
		be sharper and, therefore, 
		more precise time markers.

				FRANK 
		Bathythermals in the Devil's 
		Hole 18O chronology occur at
		times when the orbital parameters
		of the Earth obliquity axial tilt
		and eccentricity to the Sun are
		both low, thereby supporting
		the seven astronomical "low" events.

				MYRA
		You know  Frank, what really puzzles 
		me is two well-defined "low" events
		and note that they do not
		correspond to bathythermals
		in either the Devil's Hole or
		the marine, deep ocean core 
		18O chronologies.  

				FRANK
		Indeed, the "low", or coldest 
		event occurs during a peak 
		interglacial time when it was
		warmest. We also note that
		designation of a "low" event
		for two periods does  not even
		fit the earlier stated definition.

				MYRA
		He did not mention the two Devil's
		Hole isotope minima at the time
		periods which do not correspond
		to any astronomical "low" event.
		In comparing the astronomical
		"low" events predicted by the 
		specific definition with the 
		minimal isotope events found in
		the Devil's Hole chronology,
		one sees that, although there
		are four "matches," there are
		six "non-matches," twice when
		a bathythermal would be predicted
		but did not happen and four times
		when one did occur but not during
		an astronomical "low" event.

				FRANK
		Ok, Ok, what we have encountered 
		are three dating methods, measuring
		oxygen-16 and oxygen-18, which
		contradict each other, one in ice 
		layers in Greenland, one in an 
		oceanic deep sea core and one in
		calcite layers in Nevada.

				MYRA
		If the measurements at Devil's Hole
		are correct and are called superior 
		to the deep sea cores, then there
		is something seriously wrong with
		the data.

				FRANK
		What we're saying here is that the
		GEOLOGY HISTORY of Earth is identical
		to Mars, so if we dig in the right
		places we will probably find ancient
		skeletons of some dinosaur or something!

				MYRA
		Exactly!

	Rolf walks into the room and makes his presence known.

				ROLF
		I just got off the secure line with
		Captain Fleming on the Alpha Space
		Station and have convinced him we're 
		now clean. He's made arrangements
		to pick us up in ten days.
				
				MYRA
		Way to go Rolf, we can always depend 
		on you to get us out of a jam.

				FRANK
		Good work Rolf, you never let us down.
		
				ROLF
		Yes, I guess I'll have to pat myself
		on the back for that one.

				MYRA
		Did you mention using the NUKE?

				ROLF
		Yes I did, and I told him we double
		checked the target area and there
		is no trace of the virus. He said 
		under the same circumstances he 
		would of done the same thing.

				MYRA
		Can I say something Rolf, without
		taking away your thunder or injuring
		your ego and pride, . . . but really
		what's the rush to leave now, the
		virus is gone and Frank and I have
		a lot of research to do here on Mars.
		And really Rolf, we will never have
		another opportunity like this to 
		find out if life really existed on
		Mars.

				ROLF
			(Really pissed)
		You know Myra, now it really makes
		sense why you have never married,
		you are never fucking happy! Just
		yesterday you were crying because
		we couldn't get rescued for two
		months and now you don't want to 
		leave! Well fuck both of you, I'm
		leaving in ten days and as far as
		I'm concerned you can both stay.

	Rolf storms out of the room and Frank and Myra
	look at each other and exchange sad faces.

				MYRA
		Me and my big mouth.

			
					CUT TO:


			TO BE CONTINUED