The Portal
Episode Three: Canned Spam (transcript)
by Steve Sutton

(A space station is seen orbiting Earth. Aboard the station, on the command deck, crewman Jerry Riggs is sitting behind a control console, playing a video game. Behind him, Captain Paul Pfeiffer is discussing the location of a lost perimeter report with Corporal Andrew Clark.)
Jerry (quietly, into the game): Come on, boy! Come on!
Pfeiffer: Let's see if Jerry knows. Hey, Jerry?
(Jerry turns, distracted from the game, which he promptly dies in and loses.)
Pfeiffer: Have you seen the perimeter reports from last week?
Jerry: Uh, no sir, I sure haven't.
(Pfeiffer looks annoyed.)
Pfeiffer: Well, why don't you see if you could find them, huh?
Jerry: Yes, sir, I get on it, right away.
Pfeiffer (to Clark): He's playing that game, again.
(Jerry gets up and goes to look for the reports. Whistling, he enters a room, lined with computer banks. He half-heartedly begins the search, then looks behind himself, feeling like he's not alone in the room.)
Jerry: Somebody there?
(There's no answer, so he resumes the search, whistling, again. After several seconds, he stops, feeling something forming around him.)
Jerry: What the...?
(A green, fluctuating field soon surrounds him. Finding it difficult to breathe in the field, he struggles to intake air, but can't because of a crushing sensation the field generates. Soon, he vanishes into thin air and the field dissipates. Pfeiffer enters the room.)
Pfeiffer: Hey, Jerry, while you're at it, why don't you...
(He looks around, but doesn't see him.)
Pfeiffer: Jerry?

Title Sequence Rolls (short)

(At his home, Keen is typing up a report on his computer, when his cellphone rings. He answers it.)
Keen: Keen speaking.
Nelson (voice): Uh, Commander, this is Admiral Nelson.
Keen: Yes, Admiral?
Nelson (sitting behind his desk): We've got a problem at, uh, Defense Station three-one-four. There've been several disappearances during the last few days and I'd like you to investigate it.
Nelson (voice, as Keen listens): You'll meet with Captain Pfeiffer. He'll fill you in on the situation.
(Keen sighs deeply, feeling put upon.)
Nelson (voice): I apologize for any inconvenience.
Keen: Very well, sir.
Nelson (voice): Good day, sir.
Keen: Good day.
(He hangs up, finishes up his report and leaves. Later, at the Effingham County Clipperport, Keen and West are standing near a Delta Clipper orbital launch vehicle.)
Keen: All right, I shouldn't be gone more than a few days. Keep patrolling and keep and eye on Sutton while I'm gone.
West: Have a good trip, sir.
(Keen starts towards the clipper. Time passes. Inside, he gets settled and activates the controls. Leaving, West hears the clipper's lifters start up and turns to watch the vehicle rise into the air. After several seconds, he continues on his way. Later, the clipper is seen, docked with the defense station, in Earth orbit. On the command deck, Pfeiffer greets Keen. They shake hands.)
Pfeiffer: Welcome aboard, Commander. I appreciate your taking the time to help us out on this.
Keen (hesitantly): Don't mention it. When, exactly, did the disappearances start?
Pfeiffer: About four days ago. It happened to Crewman Jerry Riggs. He was a nice guy, but he wasn't that competent. I think he was more interested in playing video games than doing his job. Anyway, since then, three other members of my crew have vanished.
Keen: What was the location of the last one?
Pfeiffer: A corridor on Level-D. Come with me, I'll show you.
(Time passes. Pfeiffer and Keen arrive in the corridor and turn to look down it.)
Pfeiffer: Here we are. An ensign reported seeing one of our engineers become enveloped in what looked like an inversion flux while he was doing maintenance work on a security relay. We ran a reciprocal scan on the area and found evidence of Kren portal activity.
Keen: If a portal were opened gradually enough, the flux would be visible because the horizons wouldn't generate a photonic discharge as it opened around them. Your people might, also, still be alive because the horizons wouldn't be strong enough to disintegrate them.
Pfeiffer: Then, what we need to do is find a way to rescue them.
(A dark figure slowly enters from another corridor, behind them, and points something at Pfeiffer.)
Keen: If the Kren are responsible, the first thing we need to do is to find the one on this station that's been opening the portals.
Pfeiffer (pausing, beginning to feel strange): Right. I'll put the station on alert and, hopefully...
Keen: Captain?
Pfeiffer: Something's happening.
(A green inversion flux forms around him. Keen turns and sees the Kren behind them. He takes out his laser and shoots him with it. The Kren falls to the floor. Keen, then, turns back to Pfeiffer, who promptly disappears.)
Keen (sighing, annoyed): Peachy.
(He goes over to the Kren and picks his device up off the floor. After examing it for a few seconds, he activates it and places it back on the floor, aiming it at a wall. He, then, goes over to where the device is aimed. Soon, a more-intense inversion flux forms around him, causing to to gasp sharply. It, then, transports him into the Kren's dimension, aboard a parallel station, and dissipates. Close by, the sounds of grunting and chewing can be heard. Slowly, he turns and sees Pfeiffer in painful spasms on the floor, surrounded by three Kren, who are eating him. Noticing him, they look up and growl at him.)
Pfeiffer (whispering pitifully): Help me!
(Keen raises his laser and shoots the Kren eating Pfeiffer's head. The other two Kren get up and slowly approach Keen, making whispering growls. He shoots one of them, then turns the laser on the other one, but the remaining Kren knocks it out of his hand before he can fire. Keen slowly backs into a corner, then remembers that he has Sutton's inverter in his shirt pocket. He removes it and, after a few seconds, points it at the Kren.)
Keen: Unless you want to be molecularized, I suggest you back off!
Kren: You're bluffing.
Keen: And you're an idiot.
(He steps back and activates the inverter. The portal's frequency matchpoint appears against the Kren, who screams in pain. The matchpoint vanishes and the portal, itself, opens, completely disintegrating him. Keen goes over to Pfeiffer and helps him up, then they both go through the portal together and arrive back on the defense station. Keen looks back, then forward again. He exhales, relieved. Later, the station is seen orbiting Earth. Pfeiffer is in the medical bay, in bed. The doorbell sounds.)
Pfeiffer (weakened voice): Come in.
(Keen enters.)
Keen: I just thought you'd like to know, we're dismantling the Kren's inverter. Hopefully, we'll be able to determine their dimensional frequency from it.
Pfeiffer: That's good news. Any word on when they'll be finished?
Keen: The latest estimate is a few weeks.
Pfeiffer: Well, at least, now, we know what the Kren are. They're cannibals, they're using us as a food source. I, for one, do not like being eaten alive.
(Keen scratches his nose.)
Pfeiffer: Hopefully, once we have the frequency of their dimension, they'll think twice before attacking us, again.
Keen: Well, we can only hope. I would think it would make them take more drastic measures, though.
(The station is seen in orbit, slowly moving away in the distance.)