The Portal
Episode Two: Survival (transcript)
by Steve Sutton

(The Firewing is seen flying over a sparsely forested area. Inside, Keen and West are at their stations. The door to the storage compartment is closed behind them. Keen looks over at the ship's radar and notices that their heading is slightly off.)
Keen: Check our heading, Lieutenant.
West (checking it): Steady on two-oh-four, sir.
Keen: Adjust point two-seven.
West: Aye, sir.
(He makes the correction.)
West: Uh, sir, I'm confused. Why do we still have the prisoner back there? I thought he was...uh, released.
Keen: He's still a security risk, Lieutenant.
West (still confused): I don't see that, sir. I mean, he's been proven innocent.
Keen (pausing): This is the first chance we've had to examine this technology thoroughly. I'm not about to throw it away.
West: Aye, sir.
(Elsewhere, a portal opens from another dimension and two small ships come through, collapsing it. Another portal, then, opens and a Black Widow emerges from it. An alarm sounds from the flight console of the Firewing.)
West: Commander, we've got dimensional penetration, heading four-four-seven, distance point seven miles.
Keen (voice): Change course to intercept.
(The Firewing heads off to intercept the intruders.)

Title Sequence Rolls (short)

(Later, one of the small ships fires a laser at the Firewing as it passes it while pursuing the Black Widow. As the Firewing gains on the Black Widow, the other smaller ship comes up from behind and hits it with a laser, causing an explosion and a gas leak in the area behind the storage compartment. Locked in the compartment, Sutton looks in the direction of the gas leak, then starts coughing as the noxious fumes fill the room. He gets up and goes to the door. Keen and West are on the other side of it, in the cockpit.)
Keen: Go to manual control, Lieutenant.
West: Aye, sir.
Sutton (voice, coughing, banging on the door): Let me out!
(Keen looks back at the door, then forward again, annoyed.)
Sutton (whining) Let me out!
(West glances at Keen, wondering why he hasn't opened the door. He reaches down to operate the door's control. The door opens and Sutton comes out, coughing. The door, then, closes again. West glances at Keen, disapprovingly.)
Sutton: Would someone mind telling me what the heck is going on?
Keen: Take a good guess.
(A laser from one of the small ships knocks out the Firewing's engine, which goes instantly silent. The Firewing tilts abruptly as it loses speed and begins to fall from the air, causing Sutton to fall into a wall, knocking him unconscious. Keen launches ampods at the Black Window before the ship is out of range. The ampods impact and destroy it. As the ship continues to fall and loses power, Keen activates the comm system.)
Keen: FAF one-thirteen to Omega, Firewing Assault Fighter one-thirteen to Omega. We're under attack and going down. Repeat, we're under attack and going down.
(The Firewing leaves the two small ships behind. Keen scans the land below for a suitable place to set down.)
Keen: There. Set down in that river, Lieutenant.
West (voice): I'll try, sir.
(The ship turns and passes low over a river. It overshoots the water and hits the ground adjacent to it, rumbling across it until it hits a tree and comes to a stop. Keen and West take a few seconds to recover from the impact.)
Keen (sarcastically): Nice flying.
West: Nothing to it.
(Keen exhales, amused, then straightens up and looks around.)
Keen: All right. I'm going to go out and look around, make sure we're alone. Keep an eye on him.
West. Yes, sir.
(He gets up and leaves. Later, Sutton is lying on the floor. His head is on a pillow and there's a blanket covering him. He wakes up and touches the bandage on his forehead. He, then, looks around and gets up. Outside the ship, Sutton drops down from the escape hatch. Looking around, he sees West working on the engine. He goes over and sits on the ground next to him.)
West: I could use your help, if you're up to it.
(Sutton gets comfortable, then moves some of the tools on the ground closer to West.)
Sutton: I was wondering, um.. uh, could you tell me a little bit about what's going on here? I mean, I.. I don't know anything.
West: Well, we're at war.
Sutton: War?
West: They're called the Kren.
Sutton: I never heard of them.
West: They invaded us back in ninety-seven. They just started attacking for no reason. That's why patrols were set up.
Sutton (quietly): Oh.
West: Our job is to monitor Kren incurment into our dimension. Several patrols were set up throughout Vespuccia and the world.
Sutton: Hold on a minute. Vespuccia?
(West puts down his tool, finding it hard to do two things at once.)
West: Vespuccia was named for Amerigo Vespucci...
Sutton: Yeah, yeah, I know that. Uh...
West: ...Back when he discovered it.
Sutton: But, uh, where I come from, it's called America.
West: That's weird.
Sutton (pondering): Huh.
(Time passes. Elsewhere, Keen is making his way through the forest. West contacts him through the comlink in the collar of his jacket.)
West (voice): Commander?
Keen (grabbing the collar): Yes, Lieutenant?
West (voice): Repairs are complete, sir. We're ready to go.
Keen (pausing, looking around): Very well. I haven't found anything here, but I'm going to take another...
(A red laser suddenly shoots by him. He turns around and fires his laser at the hovering machine that fired at him, destroying it.)
West (leaning over the weapons console): Commander?
Keen (distorted comm voice): I just ran into a scouter, Lieutenant. Alert the North Carolina authorities, there might be more of them.
West: Yes, sir.
(West switches the comm system off. Later, the area is slightly darker due to the late hour of the day. Keen and West sit down at their consoles.)
Keen: The lifters are working, right, Lieutenant?
West: Yes, sir. Everything is. The radio needs recalibrating, though.
Keen: We'll worry about that, later. Take us up.
West: Aye, sir.
(He activates the Firewing's lifters and the ship rises into the air.)
Keen: Any sign of the spikes, Lieutenant?
(West checks for the other two ships.)
West: No, sir. They must've left.
Keen: Then, take us home.
(The Firewing soars over the river and off into the sky.)