Updated: January 12, 2005

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS...

The Portal
Episode Ten: Fold (script / transcript)
by Steve Sutton

(The camera flies towards a pugship in the distance, which is traveling through space. The camera reaches the ship and, after moving around it in a random fashion, moves below it, then up from behind to show the back of the ship and, ahead of it, the Morpheus. The pugship continues onward as the camera breaks off and approaches the Morpheus. In the rec room of the battleship, Professor Simon Fitzgerald, Captain Harris and Keen are seen gathered together.)
Harris (low audio): Well, the gravitational harmonics will have to be monitored, as well... but I think it's only prudent that we...
(The scene cuts to Sutton, who is staring out of a large window, at the Terra Nebula. West shortly joins him.)
West: That's the Terra Nebula. Some sight, isn't it?
Sutton: Yeah, it is. We don't have that in my dimension.
West: It was formed millions of years ago, when the Sun's companion star exploded. I could spend hours just looking at it.
Sutton: I'd rather have a less-colorful sky, myself. (pause) I guess I'm just homesick.
West (voice): Have you tried talking to anyone about finding your frequency?
Sutton: They can do that?
West: Well, I mean, there's gotta be a way.
Harris (calling West): Lieutenant West?
(West turns and joins the group. Sutton looks out the window, anticipating the possibility of returning home. Harris, Keen, Simon and West are now seen exiting the rec room and entering a corridor.)
Keen: Captain... you realize that this isn't going to work.
Simon: Oh, ye of little faith, Ethan.
Harris: I happen to agree with the Commander, Professor. This whole business about going back in time and warning ourselves is sheer nonsense. The only reason I'm going along with it is because I was ordered to.
Simon (put off): We shall see, Captain. I will need a few minutes to make some final adjustments to the generator.
Harris: You've got ten minutes. Do what you need to do. Lieutenant Paterson, you're with me.
Paterson (nearby, looking up from a clipboard): Yes, sir.
(They begin to walk off (unseen)). After waiting a few seconds, Paterson removes a small comm unit from his pocket and switches it on.)
Paterson (into comm unit): It's time.
Kren Voice (from comm unit): Activate the tracking beacon.
(He switches the unit off and follows Harris.)

Title Sequence Rolls (long)

(The Morpheus is seen moving toward the Sun in the distance. Aboard, Crewman Peter Ward is working hard near the newly-constructed temporal fold generator. Simon comes around, behind him, stops and observes what he's doing.)
Simon: Are you enjoying yourself?
Ward (busy): Sorry?
Simon: Well, you're cross-connecting circuitry that still has electricity running through it. I thought you might be exuberantly fulfilling a death wish.
Ward (surprised, stopping): Oh.. I didn't notice.
(Ward shuts the power to the circuitry off. Simon walks away as Ward realizes the scope of his mistake, then continues his work. Simon, then, enters a small control room and stops next to Keen, who is working at a control panel, in front of a window to a chamber in which the temporal fold generator is housed.)
Simon (pushing a few buttons, then joining Keen): The idiocy of people amazes me.

Simon: There are more things in heavens and Earths, Ethan, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Keen: No, there aren't.

Simon (checking readings): Power levels are holding, the drain on the reactors is...nominal. It's working. I'm quite magnificent, if I do say so, myself.
Keen: You're something, all right. (activates intercom) Captain, the generator is online and it seems to be functioning.
(On the bridge, Harris is at the comm station, next to Paterson.)
Keen (comm): We're ready to try this, whenever you are.
Harris: Understood. Professor, how close to the Sun do we need to be, again?
Simon: We need to be, at least, point-four AU for the gamma radiation count to be high enough to initiate the inversion field.
(He goes over to the main control stand, where Ensign George Skylar is. Paterson takes the opportunity to slip away.)
Harris: What's our position, Ensign?
Skylar: Point-six AU, Sir.
Harris: Stand by, Professor. We're not quite there, yet.
Simon. Very well, Captain.

Harris: Where will that put us, Ensign?
Skylar: Taking into account stellar drift and planetary orbits... we should emerge near Mars, Captain.

(An electrical field forms around the ship, which is soon replaced by the inversion field, a sphere of rotating electrical energy.

(Not far away, a portal suddenly opens and a Kren battleship, with two Black Widows in close proximity, emerge from it and head for the Morpheus. On the bridge of the Morpheus, an alert sounds.)
Skylar: Sir, dimensional penetration, three miles aft.

Ward: The inversion field is destabilizing.

Paterson: They're coming around for another assault.

West: Captain Harris?
(Harris walks over to him.)
West: The temporal fold is collapsing, sir.
Harris (checking readings): Its viscosity is dropping. It can't be maintained without the inversion field.

Keen: If we don't get out of here, we're going to freeze to death.
Sutton: Well, maybe, we can bribe the guard, or something.
Keen (pausing): Call him.
(Keen backs up against the wall. Sutton goes over to the door and bangs on it a few times.)
Sutton: Guard?
(Keen motions for him to come back and Sutton backs up to where he was. The freezer's door opens and the guard enters and closes it behind him. He goes over to Sutton and stops in front of him.)
Sutton (nervously): Uh, ...hi.
(Keen comes up from behind the guard and taps him on the shoulder. The guard turns to look at him.)
Keen: Hi.
(He punches the guard across the face, knocking him out cold. The guard falls to the floor.)
Keen: Bribe accepted. Come on, help me get his clothes off.
(He kneels down next to the Kren guard.)
Sutton (hesitating, confused by the request): Is this really a good time for that?
Keen (annoyed, looking up at him): If we're going to make it pass the other guard, we're going to need a disguise.
Sutton (relieved): Oh.

Keen: These battleships are built to withstand extreme temperatures, but this ship won't survive entering the solar atmosphere.
Simon: I would be terrified, if it did.

Kren Alpha: You have such delicious people.
Harris: You obliterated any chances of restoring all of our delicious people when you interfered with our mission.
Kren Alpha:

Kren Alpha (angry): Ian Paterson, why didn't you inform us of this?
Paterson (confused): I thought you knew.

Harris (activates intercom): Attention, all personnel. The siege is over, the Kren have left the ship... However, the engines have been disabled and the Morpheus is falling into the Sun. The mission to prevent the destruction of Earth will have to wait for another day. Evacuation protocol is now in effect. Get to the escape pods. Abandon ship!