The Portal
Episode Four: The Morpheus (transcript)
by Steve Sutton

Voice: The inversion field is destabilizing.
Voice (overlapping): They're coming around for another assault.
Voice: The temporal fold is collapsing, sir.
Voice (overlapping): We've gotta get out of here!
(Short, overlapping scream.)
Voice: Get to the escape pods. Abandon ship! ("ship" echoes)
(Flames, then a large Omega Defense battleship appears out of nowhere, inside an electrical field, losing power. Carried by its own inertia, it approaches the planet Mars.)

Title Sequence Rolls (long)

(The Firewing is seen on the ground, with its hatchway open, at the headquarters of Omega Defense. In the cockpit, West is showing Sutton the controls on his console.)
West: These are the navigational and directional controls. The directional controls are sensitive to body heat. All you have to do is move your hand across this panel to operate them.
Sutton (pointing at the console): Okay, what about these lights?
Keen (entering the cockpit from a stairway on the deck below): Those lights are none of your business.
West: Welcome back, sir. How was your trip?
(Keens walks around to his console and sits down.)
Keen (facetiously): Don't ask. Prepare to get underway, Lieutenant.
West: Yes, sir.
Sutton: What about me?
Keen (voice): What about you?
Sutton: Do you want me to stay or leave?
(The comm system suddenly comes on.)
Omega Defense (comm): Attention. This is Omega Defense to all available Vespuccian patrols. You are to report to the battleship Morpheus for active hazard duty. The coordinates are being transmitted on security alpha.
Keen: Oh, by all means, stay.
Omega Defense (comm): ...You will be briefed upon arrival. That is all.
West (checking the coordinates): Commander, these coordinates are centered over Mars. I thought the Morpheus was on patrol in the asteroid belt.
Keen (short pause): Apparently not. Set a course.
Sutton (surprised): Whoa. Whoa, wait a minute. Are we going to Mars?
(He looks out of the cockpit's window, hardly able to believe this. The Firewing's ramp retracts and the hatchway closes. The lifters come on and the ship rises into the air. After a few seconds, the engine is powered up and the ship flies forward. Later, the ship is seen exiting Earth's radiation belt, and leaving Earth behind.)
Sutton: I've always wanted to go into space. I never thought I'd have the chance.
Keen: Well, that's just ducky. Now, shut up and take your seat.
(The Firewing flies off into interplanetary space. Later, the Morpheus is seen orbiting Mars. Three Firewings are in the ship's scorched launchbay, with their hatchways open. There's a small crowd of people in the distance. A voice echoes, "I don't understand why it's so scorched." Admiral Nelson stops in front of the crowd.)
Nelson: Okay, everyone, listen up. This ship is going to explode in less than two hours. The reactor's isotope rods have been fused to the reactor core and there's no way to shut off the excess power being shunted to the storage capacitors.
(Lieutenant Kyle Corbitt, a punkish-looking person, wearing dark sunglasses, looks down at the floor and moves around a little, then looks back up, chewing gum. Behind him, Keen turns his head and looks at him, thinking he should be in a cage, somewhere.)
Nelson: Now, we don't know what happened or how the ship got in this condition, but if it explodes while in Mars orbit, the resulting rain of radiation could cause an outbreak of radiation sickness in every colony on the surface in a thousand-mile radius.
(Corbitt and his commander are seen, with a Firewing in the background.)
Nelson: Those of you with training in mechanics will attempt to repair the engines, so we can move this bucket.
(Keen, Sutton and West are seen, with a Firewing in the background.)
Nelson: The rest of you will search for anyone who might still be onboard. I know all of the escape pods have been launched, but it's still a possibility. Dismissed.
(He starts to leave, but is stopped by Ensign Derek Smith.)
Smith: Excuse me, Admiral, sir?
Nelson: Yes, Ensign?
Smith: Station nine-seven reports receiving a transmission from a ship emerging from the asteroid belt.
Nelson: We have ships sending transmissions from the asteroid belt all the time. Have they identified it?
Smith: Yes, sir. It's the Morpheus.
Nelson (confused): What? Ensign, we're aboard the Morpheus.
Smith: I realize that, sir, but Captain Harris, himself, sent the message. He reports they're on their way back.
Nelson: I don't have time for this, right now. If there are any major developments, let me know. If not, just log them and I'll look at them later.
Smith: Aye, sir.
(Sutton and Keen are now in a corridor, checking various rooms for survivors. Sutton exhales sharply as he fails at opening a sealed door.)
Sutton: Uh, this door won't open.
Keen: That's probably because it's melted and fused to the wall. The whole ship's like that. Keep checking here, I'm going to check the galley.
Sutton: Okay.
(Time passes. The door to the freezer in the ship's galley slides open, revealing Keen opening it from the outside. After briefly checking the area, he steps into the freezer and is shocked to find, what appears to be, himself, lying on the floor, dead and partially frozen. He kneels down next to his apparent duplicate and takes a closer look. He reaches over and touches him. He's ice-cold. The scene switches to a view of the Morpheus passing over a section of Mars. In one of the engine rooms, Corbitt and West are working on the control system.)
Corbitt (looking back at West): Yo, Billy?
West: Yeah?
Corbitt: Try it now.
(West finishes doing what he's doing, then pushes up a lever in the wall. The power comes back on. Corbitt lets out a little victorious laugh. On the bridge, Nelson is standing in front of the main control stand when he hears the hum of the main reactor. He activates his comlink.)
Nelson: This is Admiral Nelson. Power has been restored to the engines. Report to the launchbay and pre...
Nelson (voice, as Keen listens, still kneeling by his duplicate): ...pare to evacuate. I'm setting the engines to automatically engage in fifteen minutes.
(Keen gets up and exits the freezer, leaving his duplicate behind. Back at the control stand, Nelson is setting the controls when he notices another ship approaching them out of the viewing window. Ensign Smith comes up to him, from behind.)
Smith: Sir, the others are waiting.
(Nelson is too transfixed on the other ship to reply. Smith turns to the window to see what he's looking at.)
Smith (pausing): Is that...?
Nelson (realizing they're aboard a duplicate Morpheus): It's the Morpheus.
(Smith turns his attention back to the matter at hand.)
Smith: Sir, we have to go.
(After a moment's hesitation, they leave the bridge. Later, in the launchbay, a Firewing is seen repositioning itself as the bay door opens. Inside the Firewing, Keen sits, anxious, while West operates the controls. The ship is, then, seen exiting the duplicate Morpheus through the open bay door. In the cockpit of one of the other Firewings are Corbitt and his commander.)
Corbitt: Rock and roll.
(He reaches down and activates the Firewing's lifters, then lets out a little laugh. Time passes. The three Firewings are, now, seen escorting the duplicate Morpheus away from Mars. After a time, they break off and let the ship continue by itself. Eventually, the storage capacitors on the ship's underside begin to explode, detonating its main reactor and destroying it in a brief, nuclear inferno. Later, the real Morpheus is seen orbiting Mars. Nelson, Keen, West and Sutton are gathered on the bridge.)
Nelson: The good news is that we've had no reports from Mars of any form of radiation poisoning.
West: What about the other Morpheus?
Nelson: We still don't know anything about that. We're speculating that it came from another dimension.
Sutton: Uh... There's always the chance that it came from the future.
Keen (not surprised by the statement): Do you have to flaunt your stupidity like that? Time travel is impossible. It's more likely that it came from another dimension.
Nelson: Well, wherever it came from, we don't have to worry about it, now. I'm just glad we were able to prevent it from causing another Holocaust.
(The ship is seen making its way towards Station nine-seven, in Mars orbit.)