The Portal
Episode One: Into The Unknown (transcript)
by Steve Sutton

(Sutton is in his bedroom, next to his computer. He pulls back from it and looks into his webcam, recording a video.)
Sutton: You're not going to believe what I've found. With this device, I can open some kind of portal, or something. I...I don't know where it leads. Uh, just watch this.
(He turns and readies the handheld device.)
Sutton: Okay, here we go.
(He points the device towards a wall and activates it. Streams of electricity shoot out of it, forming a small sphere of light halfway between him and the wall. The streams of electricity cut off and the sphere of light disappears. A flash occurs where it was, causing the air around it to whoosh away, then a larger sphere of light appears where the flash occured. He instinctively raises his arm to shield his eyes from the light, but the sphere doesn't actually illuminate anything other than itself. There's a second of static, then Sutton appears in front of the camera, again, wearing a different shirt, with his bed behind him.)
Sutton: Okay, in order to see where the portal goes, I'm going to open it with the camera inside it. Okay? Here we go.
(He walks around to the other side of his bed, then points the device at the camera.)
Sutton (lowering the device): I just hope I don't blow it up.
(He raises it, again, and activates it. Another portal opens, encompassing the camera with a tunneling effect and loud wind. Another room is superimposed over Sutton's. Everything is identical, except for a few changes. The scene is darker and Sutton can faintly still be seen, but now there's someone sleeping in the bed. The person wakes up, sees the portal and bolts up, staring at it. As the person starts to make his way out of the bed, the portal begins to destabilize and collapses, taking the superimposed scene with it. Static, then Sutton is seen, sitting in front of the camera.)
Sutton: Wow, I'm not sure about this, but, uh, it looks like there's some kind of other dimension on the other side, I...I'm not sure. Um. I'm going to try to open it again and, this time, I'm going to go through it.
(He's now seen on the opposite end of the room. He opens another portal with the device.)
Sutton (over the sound of the portal's wind): Okay, here I go.
(He steps through the portal, which collapses as he emerges on the other side. The alternate version of his bedroom is brighter now. The person that was in the bed is now standing on the other side of the room, close to where Sutton was before he went through the portal.)
Keen (pointing a weapon at him): Okay, hold it right there.
(Hours later, a cricket can be heard outside of Keen's house. Inside, Sutton is tied to a chair in the bedroom, exhausted. He drifts off to sleep. Keen comes up to him and hits him hard in the face, forcing him awake.)
Keen: Wake up! Now, for the last time, where did you get the R.D.I.?!
Sutton: I've told you. I don't know what you're talking about.
Keen (walking behind him): Stop playing games, I'm talking about this (holds up Sutton's device)! We've been at this all night, now talk!
Sutton (tired): I just wanna go home.
Keen: I'll let you go anywhere you want, you just have to tell me what I wanna know!
(Sutton lowers his head, hopelessly.)
Keen: Fine, you don't wanna talk to me? Maybe, you'll talk to someone else. Lieutenant?
( Someone else enters the room and stops next to them.)
West: Yes, sir?
Keen: Take our guest here and get him cleaned up, and get a Firewing ready. We'll be taking a li...little trip.
West: Aye, sir. Come with me, please.
(As they leave, Keen uses his cellphone.)
Keen (into cellphone): Yes, this is Commander Ethan Keen. Get me Doctor Lovoski at the Pentagon. I've got a little present for him.
(Later, a red-orange craft rises upward from the tarmac of an airport, hovering above the ground, then flies off into the night. Inside the craft, Keen sits down behind the weapons console. West is next to him, at the flight console.)
West: About ten minutes before we reach Washington, sir.
Keen: Very well.
West: You know, sir, in my opinion, the prisoner doesn't really pose that much of a threat.
Keen (pausing): I don't remember giving you permission to HAVE an opinion, Lieutenant.
West: Sorry, sir, I'll try to keep my mouth shut in the future.
Keen: See that you do.
(Time passes. The Firewing is seen flying among clouds that are being lit by the coming dawn. An alarm sounds from the flight console.)
West: Sir, I've got a proximity alarm.
(They both look up from the console and see a menacing-looking ship soar upward, passing right in front of them, through the cockpit's window.)
Keen: Black Widows. Arm weapons.
(The Black Widow ship turns back and approaches the Firewing from behind. Keen and West are busy at their stations.)
West: Here they come, sir.
(The Black Widow draws closer and attempts to disable the Firewing's ion engine with a close-range laser, but misses.)
Keen (impatient): Anytime, Lieutenant.
West: I'm trying, sir. We're stuck in its gravity field.
(As the Firewing struggles to free itself from the gravity field, the Black Widow slowly lowers two metal grappling arms from underneath its wings, from directly above it. The Firewing manages to break free and fall away from it just before the grappling arms close in an attempt to grab it in mid-air. The ship turns back upward from its descent and approaches the Black Widow.)
Keen: Say goodnight, Gracie.
(He fires the Firewing's weapons and launches two anti-matter pods at the Black Widow. The ampods impact the ship, breaking up into several pieces what they don't instantly obliterate.)
Keen (losing composure): Yes!
(He glances at West and tries to regain his composure.)
Keen: I mean...good.
West: Uh. Yeah. Yes, sir, I.. yes, sir.
Keen: Okay, resume course.
(The Firewing continues into the dawning sky. Later, at the Pentagon, Lovoski greets Keen and Sutton. Sutton is wearing a different shirt.)
Lovoski (smiling, British accent): My dear Mister Keen, what a pleasure it is to see you, again.
Keen (shaking his hand): Doctor.
Lovoski: I take it this individual is the one you mentioned.
Keen: Yes, and I want to hear from you the minute you learn anything.
Lovoski: I see no problem with that. That should be relatively easy. Guards, escort this individual to my lab. I'll be with him shortly.
(Time passes. In Lovoski's lab, Sutton is restrained to a bed by a thick restraint over his arms and chest. Lovoski sets something on the table next to the bed, then reaches up and activates a machine over the bed. Sutton screams as electricity from it streams down and shocks him. After a few seconds, Lovoski turns the machine off and looks down at him.)
Lovoski: Does it hurt? I'm sure it must. I can stop the pain, you know.
(Sutton turns his head away. Lovoski reaches back up, activates the machine and briefly shocks him again.)
Sutton (whimpering, in pain): No! No, no, no, no, no...
(Lovoski kneels down beside him, holding the R.D.I..)
Sutton: I don't know anything.
Lovoski: Now, tell me. This inverter of yours, where did you get it?
Sutton: I just...found it. Please, stop.
Lovoski: Do you actually expect me to believe that you just happened to find a device which is only issued to certain members of the military?
(Silence.)
Lovoski: Do you know what happens if you open a portal up inside a person? That person dies.
(He readies the inverter.)
Sutton: I don't KNOW anything.
Lovoski (looking up): Of course, that would be a waste. Perhaps, another means of persuasion will be more effective.
(He picks up the instrument that he placed on the table and clicks it open.)
Lovoski: Hold still, this will be relatively painful...but brief, I assure you.
(He sticks the instrument into Sutton's ear and twists the skin inside his inner ear with it. Sutton yells in pain. Later, Keen is waiting elsewhere in the building, when Lovoski comes up to him.)
Lovoski: Mister Keen?
Keen (turning to meet him): Yes, Doctor, what have you found?
Lovoski: As far as I've been able to determine, he knows nothing of the R.D.I.. He seems to be telling the truth.
Keen: Could he be lying?
Lovoski (stunned): My methods are flawless, as you know. Um... There's no way he could've lied. Uh. He is what he says.
(Time passes. The Firewing is seen making its way across the Pentagon's parking area, as it leaves. In the ship's storage compartment, Sutton is sitting on a protrusion of an interior wall. Keen enters, sits down next to him and exhales.)
Keen: I understand you've been telling me the truth.
(Sutton says nothing, then looks at him sternly.)
Sutton: Yeah. I have.
Keen: I'd prefer it if you didn't judge me for doing my job.
(Sutton looks away.)
Keen (removing the inverter from his shirt's pocket): By the way... Where did you get this?
Sutton (pausing): It came with the T.V..
(A confused look appears on Keen's face, then he dismisses it and leaves. The Firewing is, then, seen flying away from the Pentagon.)