The Dark

	FADE IN
	
	EXT.  MAWSON ISLAND ANTARCTICA
	INT.  THE UNDERWORLD
	INT.  TRAIL TO THE INNER CITY   	

	Jenna, ARIK and David are inside of a cave in
	total darkness.  

				DAVID
			(Feeling in the dark)
		What the shit happened, Erik
		are we dead or what?

				JENNA
		The CRYSTAL GENERATOR  switches
		off every twenty-four hours. It 
		should come back on in a few 
		minutes.

	Arik places his open palm facing the wall of 
	the cave.

				ARIK
		It's coming back on now.

	David watches as Arik and Jenna come into 
	view when the lights come back on. David 
	grabs Jenna's arm.

				JENNA
		The crystal power system is very
		old and it's has to shut down 
		periodically to reset the 
		polarization. It was placed here
		thousands of years ago by 
		our forefathers and we still
		have not figured out how to 
		fix it.

	David watches as Jenna follows Arik into the 
	cave, he follows.

				DAVID
		How deep are we going?

	Arik stops and glances at a device on his 
	belt looking like a beeper and touches a
	button..

				ARIK
			(Alert)
		About another five minutes,
		at this speed. Remember we
		have a long wait before we 
		cross the Lake. 

	They finally arrive in a very large cavern
	and the sit down on stone benches...

				DAVID
		Do you have a lot of Lakes
		down here?

				JENNA
			(Looking at David)
		The largest of these underground
		lakes is what the RUSSIANS have 
		named LAKE VOSTOK.

				DAVID
		Shit, the Russians have
		been down here?

				JENNA
		No, of course not. They were
		drilling deep cores when they
		discovered it.

				ARIK
		Of course the Lake has been
		here for over five -hundred
		thousand years..
		
				JENNA
			(Somber)
		We call it CAELESTIS LACUS!
	
				DAVID
		Which means?

				JENNA
		CELESTIAL LAKE.
		
				DAVID
		I knew that!

				JENNA
		The lake is 140 by 30 miles.

				DAVID
		Are there any fish or monsters 
		in it?
				
				JENNA
			(stern)
		ARIK, what do you think,
		six to seven hours?.

	David senses they are communicating mentally so
	he searches for patience to wait out the
	communication between them.

				DAVID
		How we doing guys?

				JENNA
		ARIK, said six hours, minimum. 
		He said there's still about four to
		six miles of ice above the lake
		with the depth about 2,000 feet.
		So very few fish can live without
		some type of forage fish. We have
		seen killer whales and some shark
		in the lake. But mostly TARTIGRADES,
		a small animal that lives on 
		bacteria and of course a lot of Algae.
		
				ARIK
		Last week we found the frozen
		carcass of a TY-REX in an
		Ice flow, not to far from here.

				JENNA
		It was millions of years old
		but it looked fresh enough, 
		where it could be eaten by 
		wild beasts.

				DAVID
		No shit?

				JENNA
		Why don't we have lunch now and
		then we will be ready to cross
		the frozen quicksand.

				DAVID
		Lets do it, I'm starving!
		
	They have soup and bread and as they have
	lunch Arik starts a dissertation on LEMURIA..

				JENNA
		ARIK, tell him about GONDWANALAND 

				DAVID
		GONDWANA . . . . what?
		
				ARIK
		Antarctica represents about 
		nine percent of the earth's 
		continental crust and has 
		been in a near-polar position 
		for more than 100 million years.
		The geology of most ice-free 
		areas has provided an outline
		of the region's geology and 
		geophysics. 

				DAVID

		What does that have to do 
		with Gonwa .
	
				ARIK
		Major clues in support of the 
		theory of the continental drift
		and the GONDWANALAND SUPERCONTINENT. 
		Geologic maps have been made of 
		some areas. 

				DAVID
		And? 

				ARIK

		Objectives are to understand the 
		geology and the geological history
		of Antarctica and to determine the 
		relationship of Antarctica to global 
		GEODYNAMICS. A special objective is 
		to collect large numbers of meteorites
		that have concentrated on the surface
		in ice ablation areas. Significantly, 
		the plume head conduit beneath Brazil
		appears to have remained geographically
		fixed with respect to the overlying
		continent despite thousands of kilometers
		of South American plate motion. This
		observation runs contrary to a major 
		tenet of classical plate tectonic theory
		that the motion of LITHOSPHERIC plates is 
		essentially independent of flow in the upper
		mantle beneath the plates--and implies that 
		the upper mantle and the overlying South 
		American continent have remained coupled 
		since the breakup of the GONDWANALAND 
		SUPERCONTINENT and opening of the South 
		Atlantic Ocean some 120 million years ago. 
		This result subsequently implies that 
		large-scale convection in the mantle may 
		be responsible for the motion of the great 
		continental plates such as South America, 
		where the driving force for plate motion 
		has not been well understood


				DAVID
		Yeah, right? 

				JENNA
		Arik, how stable is the
		Antarctic ice mass? 

				DAVID
		Yes, how stable is it?

				ARIK
		West Antarctica's ice cover, drained
		in part by dynamic, fast-moving ice
		streams flowing into the Ross Sea, 
		is the largest ice sheet on earth
		resting well below sea level.

				DAVID
		Isn't this kind of dangerous place
		to live if the ice lets go?

				ARIK
		The history of the ice, and its 
		potential for future "collapse," 
		or rapid disintegration, continues
		as the focus of generations of 
		very exact research effort.

				JENNA
		David, this is our home, our 
		people have lived in LEMURIA
		for thousands of years! Let
		ARIK continue.

				ARIK
		The ice sheet shows rapid and
		dramatic changes that could
		cause a very rapid rise in sea
		level across the world. We're 
		extracting ice cores and now 
		examining them for clues to 
		climates in the past ultimately
		looking for the best site for
		a deep ice core.

				DAVID
		What do you think will be found?

				ARIK
		Antarctica's ice is a storehouse
		for meteorites, ranging from
		large to microscopic. Collecting
		millions of micrometeorites from
		the new well that provides water
		for MAWSON ISLAND STATION. 

				DAVID
		Why do you do that?

				ARIK
		As the ice melts in the well, 
		meteorites are postulated to 
		concentrate at the bottom of
		the hollow, promising what 
		may be the richest and dated 
		source of dust from space. 

				DAVID
		Far out.

				ARIK
		An Antarctic Lake at First 
		Light after the long Antarctic 
		winter gives way to the earliest
		rays of the sun, life in the 
		unique, permanently frozen lakes
		of Antarctica's Dry Valleys
		begins to unlimber. The initial 
		step in understanding the
		dynamics of microbe assemblages 
		CYANOBACTERIA and EUBACTERIA
		living in the ice of at least 
		seven Dry Valley lakes. The 
		study will help illuminate the 
		dynamics of carbon and nitrogen 
		in the valleys, and complement
		existing studies of microbial 
		communities in sea ice.

				DAVID
		Like Mars?

				ARIK
		Yes, such life in Antarctica 
		may be analogous to Mars, which 
		is thought to have had liquid 
		water in the past.

				DAVID
		Do you think there is life 
		on Mars?

				ARIK
		Microbial life may still 
		linger in the ice and rocks 
		on that planet.

				DAVID
		How did you feel about Jenna
		being abducted by Aliens from
		Venus?

	Arik looks at Jenna, obviously communicating
	by Mental telepathy then Arik smiles.

				ARIK
		My sister has a very vivid
		imagination.

				DAVID
			(Bewildered)
		I don't understand, did I say
		something funny?

				JENNA
		David, I'm sorry I told you
		that story about being abducted
		but when I'm out and about, 
		this is my cover, because I can 
		never tell anyone about our 
		home, or what's left of it.

				DAVID
			(In shock)
		What about the space ship?

				JENNA
		A present from some Grays that
		visited us a few years ago.

				DAVID
		Grays?

				JENNA
		Aliens from another planet.

				DAVID
		Wow, what else have you
		lied about, Jenna?

				JENNA
		I'm sorry, I'll make it up
		to you later.

				DAVID
		I'll hold you to that.

				ARIK
		Any other questions about our
		home?

				DAVID
		How many of you are there?

				ARIK
		All that is left of our 
		beautiful civilization
		is me and my brother.

				DAVID
		Then why are we going on
		this trek to see the person
		you call the master?

				ARIK
		The master is a computer where
		we have thousands of years of
		data stored.

				DAVID
		Where do you get your oxygen?

				ARIK
		Photosynthesis.

				DAVID
		Photosynthesis from what, I see
		no plants or trees of any kind?

				ARIK
		We have huge beds of ALGAE, that
		provides all the Oxygen we need.
			
				DAVID
		What is the Ice and age formula in
		this part of the world?

				ARIK
		In core sampling it's three feet
		of core ice equals ten years of
		time, Era or Epoch.
	
	Arik looks at Jenna, obviously quite bored over
	all the scientific dialog.

				ARIK
		You look tired Jenna, why
		don't you take a nap.

				DAVID
			(looking at Jenna)
		Yes, she does look tired.

				JENNA
		David, don't worry about me,
		I'll just go deeper in the
		cave and see if I can find
		some fresh water.

				DAVID
			(looking at Arik)
		Tell me about the Dinosaur's your
		people found.

				ARIK
		We once surveyed very remote 
		mountaintops protruding from
		the ice sheet for fossils of
		mammals and reptiles, including
		Dinosaur's. In much of this 
		continent, fossils and rocks 
		are concealed beneath ice that 
		can be miles thick. 

				DAVID
		Exposed rocks in the study area
		near the SHACKLETON GLACIER,
		yielded animal remains from 
		the MIDDLE TRIASSIC to the 
		LOWER JURASSIC, similar to the
		Dinosaurs and other fossils 
		recovered in the past near the
		BEARDMORE GLACIER. The vertebrate 
		fossils offer insight on how 
		these animals evolved at high
		latitudes and what climates 
		were like when they lived. 
		The SHACKLETON GLACIER region 
		harbors abundant plant fossils,
		including remains of ancient
		forests, mineralized peat deposits,
		and pollen. One of our people 
		once collected and described in 
		detail this ancient flora, 
		helping to reconstruct what 
		the Antarctic was like during 
		PERMIAN and TRIASSIC times about 
		200 to 280 million years ago. 
		Until the late MESOZOIC, about 
		100 million years ago, Antarctica 
		sat at the center of the 
		SUPERCONTINENT OF GONDWANALAND.

				DAVID
		Arik, what happened to all your
		people?

				ARIK
		At one time there were several
		hundred of us. Then a Russian government
		contractor dumped two-thousand barrels
		of Radioactive waste under the Ice in
		ANTARCTICA and the lethal poison found 
		it's mark and poisoned hundreds of our 
		people and the ones that remained left
		to stay with relatives in MT. SHASTA 
		California and SEDONA Arizona.

				DAVID
		Oh my god, they did this to your
		people.

				ARIK
		For years I wanted to blow all of 
		their satellites out of existence
		but I just couldn't do it.

				DAVID
		How were you going to do that?

				ARIK
		We have a very powerful Chemical
		Laser called MIRACLES that can
		destroy anything at any distance.

				DAVID
		You are a very strong person Arik.

				ARIK
		My sister and I are all that is 
		left of the Lemurian continent.
		I didn't want to be remembered
		as the man who destroyed the 
		world.

				DAVID
		Please tell me what Jenna was doing
		in French Guyana?

				ARIK
		She will have to tell you.

				DAVID
		I think we better go and check
		on your sister and see if she
		is all right?

				ARIK
		Yes, let's go find her.

	
	Arik and David have walked deeper in the cave and 
	stop after several hundred yards.

				DAVID
		Do we have to worry about
		illusions in here too?

				ARIK
		Even more so, hello what do
		we have here?

	An image forms on their immediate path and takes the
	form of a large elf or troll.

				ARIK (Cont.)
		Hold it David, this could spell
		trouble for us.

	Arik holds his hands out trying to pick up some kind
	of an impression from the image.

				DAVID
		Is this for real or what?

				ARIK
		This is a holographic image being 
		projected from somewhere deep in
		this cave.

				IMAGE
			(Clearly in view)
		The person you seek is no longer
		in this cave and has been taken
		to the inner city. She will 
		contact you shortly. There is 
		extreme danger for you if you
		enter deeper into this sacred cave.

	The image starts to modulate and the vibration is
	starting to bust up the image and consequently
	disappears in a burst of bubbles.

				DAVID
		What the hell was that and where
		is Jenna?

				ARIK
		The people of the underworld have her.
		We have to see the master, to see if
		we can get her back.

				CUT TO: