The Good Death
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: Torpedoes away. Two birds in the water.
Hitchcock: Countermeasures away.
Ortiz: Fifteen hundred meters.
Hitchcock: Countermeasures closing.
Ortiz: Five hundred meters. Contact. Ship’s down.
Bridger: Mr. Obatu, on their propeller.
Obatu: It’s already lock, sir.
Bridger: Fire.
Ortiz: Impact.
O’Neill: Propeller noise is gone.
Ortiz: She’s dead in the water.
O’Neill: Romeo has hull distress.
Bridger: We’re coupling to a sinking boat. Put your best pilot on the second launch.
Shan: Sir, request permission.
Ford: I was just about to call your name, Helmsman Shan.
Bridger: Mr. O’Neill.
(Launch)
Krieg: Positive seal on the docking collar.
Crocker: Detail, ready your weapons.
(Crocker and Ford blow hatch and open it.)
Ford: This is Commander Jonathan Ford of the UEO. Surrender and prepare to be boarded. (no response)
Bridger: Mr. O’Neill.
O’Neill: (in Portuguese) This is the UEO vessel seaQuest. Surrender immediately.
Cynthia: (from inside of Romeo) Prove you’re UEO.
Bridger: This is Captain Bridger, you’re taking on water. No time for a debate.
Cynthia: (from inside of Romeo) All right. We surrender.
Bridger: (enters Romeo, looks around and sees kids) Med team, on the double.
Cynthia: Are you really Nathan Bridger?
Bridger: Yes, I am. Who are you?
Westphalen: (climbs down the ladder) Cynthia!
Cynthia: Mom! (they hug)
(Romeo – Later)
(Crocker, Ford and O’Neill come down ladder, sparks hit O’Neill.)
O’Neill: Commander, get back.
Bridger: All right, let’s evacuate.
O’Neill: (in Portuguese) Everyone, follow me.
Bridger: Let’s go, we don’t wanna drown here.
Crocker: Come on, let’s go, move it, move it, on the double, let’s go.
Cynthia: (in Portuguese) Go. Go. Hurry or we’ll drown.
Bridger: (kids all rush ladder) One at a time. Take it easy.
Crocker: You heard him, one at a time.
Cynthia: (in Portuguese) Orderly.
Malique: (in Portuguese) Stop! One at a time.
Krieg: (on launch) All right, keep ‘em coming, there’s room up front.
O’Neill: (in Portuguese) Move up front. Hurry. Hurry! Hurry!
Krieg: (on launch) Stay out of the cockpit. (O’Neill repeats in Portuguese) Don’t touch that button.
(O’Neill thinks, repeats in Portuguese)
Cynthia: There are more up in the bow, but there’s no power.
Bridger: Get us a light.
Westphalen: What are you doing here?
Malique: She’s trying to save the children.
Cynthia: Death squads are the regional method of birth control.
Westphalen: Aren’t we supposed to be stopping smugglers?
Bridger: So I was told. (walks up to bow, others follow)
Westphalen: (looks at child) Nathan, I need a med unit.
Bridger: Here, take this. (hands light to Malique, goes back to ladder)
Crocker: All right, you’re next partner.
Bridger: Hold it. I gotta get a med unit. (climbs up ladder into sea launch) Med unit. Injury in the bow.
Ford: I’ll take it. Noyce is trying to reach you. We’ve got to rotate the launch.
Bridger: Fine. What’s the head count?
O’Neill: Thirty-five, sir.
Bridger: He ain’t heavy father. He’s my brother.
(Launch Bay)
Krieg: I got one more run, Chief.
Crocker: OK, Lieutenant. All right clear the way for the Cap, let’s clear the way here. (turns to kid) Uh, habla inglés? (kid shakes head) Anybody around here speak English?
(Lucas’s Room)
Bridger: (enters) I need your room, and you’re needed in the launch bay. Go on, move, and shut the door.
Lucas: Fine. (leaves)
Noyce: (on screen) Nathan.
Bridger: Bill, I was told to stop a submarine carrying emeralds. Not to attack children.
Noyce: (on screen) Look, I’m a shocked about all this as you are.
Bridger: I fired on them.
Noyce: (on screen) Amazonian Confederation asked for our help.
Bridger: Not to commit genocide.
Noyce: (on screen) Well, maybe there’s another sub.
Bridger: Oh, there’s not another submarine for a hundred miles.
Noyce: (on screen) We can’t assume that they knew there were children on board.
Bridger: Bill, this confederation had been killing children for decades. Bill. They’ve been hunting these kids down on the street like vermin. Now how are these people going to join a community of nations if this is the way they deal with poverty?
Noyce: (on screen) We responded to the plea of a member confederation. You mustn’t hold yourself responsible.
Bridger; Yes, but if we condone their actions than we encourage the killing.
Noyce: (on screen) You’re making assumptions.
Bridger: Oh, please.
Noyce: (on screen) Would you at least listen to what General Guzmano had to say. I have to listen to these guys all the time. Now all he wants to do is extend his thanks to you for stopping the sub.
Bridger: He knows?
Noyce: (on screen) Well, yes, we notified him of your hit on the Romeo. Apparently he thinks it was a clean kill.
Bridger: I’ll be more than happy to inform the General of his misconceptions.
Noyce: (on screen) Give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s the military leader of his confederation, and we still adhere to the democratic principles which demand the presumption of innocence. (Bridger smiles sarcastically)
(Romeo)
Ford: Boat’s clear. It’s just us.
Krieg: We’re full, Commander. Shan will dock as soon after we pull away.
Ford: OK, go. Go. We’ll be out of here in a minute.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: Captain, surface vessels arriving. Amazonian cutters, a mile out.
Bridger: Where are the launches?
Hitchcock: MR-4 is docked at the launch bay. MR-3’s still at the Romeo.
Bridger: Tell Ford to hurry. I’m sure the Amazonians don’t want us to keep these boys.
(Launch Bay)
Crocker: Hey, you boys put that box down. Put it down.
Bridger: (on speaker) Chief.
Crocker: (kid takes speaker) What the?
Bridger: (on speaker) Chief.
Crocker: Hey, no, no, no. Here. (fights kid for speaker)
Bridger: (on speaker) Crocker.
Crocker: (into speaker) Aye, Cap, aye, Cap.
Bridger: (on bridge) They’ve got cutters coming. Make sure the kids are tucked away safely.
Crocker: Aye, sir. Oh, Lucas, thank goodness. Listen, can you give me some help here? Let’s see if we can gather up all these kids and get ‘em over to sea deck.
Malique: They need to eat.
Lucas: How ‘bout the crew mess?
Crocker: That’s fine. That’s a great idea. Let’s get ‘em in a column of two’s, OK.
Lucas: I’m Lucas.
Malique: Malique. (shakes hands with Lucas)
(Bridge)
O’Neill: Captain, an urgent transmission from a General Guzmano, Amazonian Confederation.
Luis Guzmano: (on screen) Captain Bridger.
Bridger: General.
Guzmano: (on screen) Thank you for your swift action. I sent ships to take care of the salvage.
Bridger: You sent cutters. Those are for confrontation, not recovery.
Guzmano: (on screen) Our cutters can handle the salvage.
Bridger: We sunk it, we’ll mop up afterwards.
Guzmano: (on screen) Emeralds back our currency. I cannot allow you on the Romeo. It would be like America allowing me to wander around Fort Knox.
Bridger: I’m obligated to pick up survivors.
Guzmano: (on screen) I don’t want you on that boat. I have to protect my confederation’s interests. Sorry.
Miguel Ortiz: Captain, depth charges.
Hitchcock: Sound collision.
Guzmano: (on screen) We’re not attacking you, we’re only keeping you from the Romeo.
Bridger: That’s garbage General, and you know it. There are no emeralds, just scared little boys.
Guzmano: (on screen, angry) I didn’t say you could board the Romeo. You’re holding our citizens in our waters. International law requires you return them.
Bridger: I’m holding political refugees.
Guzmano: (on screen) You’re giving sanctuary to revolutionaries.
Bridger: Revolutionaries from what? The little league? Shut him off. Get me the launch.
O’Neill: Depth charges interfering with communication.
Ortiz: Sediment swirl, I’m losing sonar.
Hitchcock: Solutions on the cutters.
Obatu: Firing solutions prepared.
Bridger: The launch clear of the Romeo?
Ortiz: Yes, sir.
Bridger: Than don’t fire. I’m not gonna take part in their blood bath. What’s the ETA on the launch?
Ortiz: I’m totally blind, I just know it’s away. The WSKRS can’t see through the mud cloud.
Hitchcock: Captain, we have to back off or fire.
Bridger: Wait a minute, what mud cloud?
Ortiz: The charges are kicking up a huge cloud of it off the bottom. It’s sonar opaque.
Bridger: Commander, take us to the bottom.
Hitchcock: Yes, sir. (looks doubtful)
Bridger: (walks over to Hitchcock) We’re going down below the silt, the mud that covers the bottom, the nephaloid. We can stay hidden down there.
Hitchcock: Yeah, but what about the launch?
Bridger: Well, they’re not going to stop dropping the charges until they think we’ve run for it. If we stay hidden, we may be able to come back and save the launch. Got it?
Hitchcock: Yeah.
Bridger: Good.
(Launch)
Computer: Hull integrity compromised. Initiating emergency surfacing.
Ford: Drop everything and strap yourselves in.
Westphalen: Cynthia, strap yourself in. (ship rocks, Cynthia bumps into wall) Cynthia! Oh my God. (goes over to Cynthia)
Shan: Where’s seaQuest?
Westphalen: Jonathan!
Ford: Take it. (gets up)
Westphalen: Med unit, there.
Ford: (comes down stairs, grabs unit from kid) How is she?
Westphalen: We’ve gotta get her back to seaQuest.
Ford: Problem, Doctor, seaQuest is gone.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: The cutter’s gone. So’s the launch.
Bridger: Use all your assets. Commander, send out your probe.
Hitchcock: Yes, sir.
(Amazonian Confederation - Guzmano’s office)
Guzmano: They’ll parade those boys before the world, and the world will villify us. There’ll be embargoes, restrictions; this is an economic disaster.
Colonel Miguel: Foreign economies profit more from our businesses than we do; there won’t be any embargoes. Maybe a dip in tourism, but that money doesn’t stay here anyway. It goes to travel service conglomerates headquartered throughout New England.
Guzmano: Tourism is how the world perceives us. We’re an exotic tropical destination full of simple, colorful people. If the world sees past our beach —
Colonel Miguel: The world knows we’re poor. Let them keep these kids. We should invite them to back up their fleet and take as many of them as they can catch. We should thank them for it.
Guzmano: They’re not kids, they’re witnesses. Now you go out and find them before they testify.
Colonel Miguel: They’re gone. seaQuest is the fastest ship in the water, they vanish like a ghost.
Guzmano: (angrily) I’ll chisel that on your tombstone.
Colonel Miguel: Why are you threatening me.
Guzmano: Because you’re stupid not to see the ramifications of this. Can you say Mmm baa, Miguel? Because the world will want a scapegoat. Mmm baa.
Colonel Miguel: I’ll find them. (leaves)
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: I’ve got the launch, it’s dead in the water.
Bridger: Send your probe in for a look.
Hitchcock: (operating H.R. Probe) They got out.
Bridger: Surface check.
Ortiz: Nothing there.
Bridger: Damn.
(Amazonian Confederation - Curitiba Cove)
Ford: (dragging raft onto beach) We’ve gotta get out of these uniforms; we’re a target. What’s with those searchlights?
Shan: This is a police state, those lights are everywhere.
Westphalen: The saltwater’s turned the antibiotics to jelly.
Shan: Commander.
Cynthia: They’re hunting children, they’re not looking for us.
Ford: They’re still looking, they’ll find us.
Westphalen: She can’t take much more jostling.
Ford: We don’t have a choice, there’s a patrol right behind us.
Westphalen: Where are we going to go?
Cynthia: Chityana, the favela, the slums. (Ford and Shan pick up Cynthia)
Westphalen: Careful. (all leave, patrol comes over finds raft)
(seaQuest DSV – Sea Deck)
Lucas: How’d she get involved in this?
Malique: Cynthia was a tourist, my brother hustled her money. Man, she’s so tough, she left the beach district and ran right to the favela to find him. She found me, and she saw how they kill us. She tried to stop it. She made me want to help.
Lucas: How’d you get a submarine?
Malique: Well Cynthia raised the money and we bought it at an auction from what used to be the Cuban Navy.
Lucas: Is your brother here now?
Malique: The death squads killed him. He was ten.
Lucas: I’m sorry.
Darwin: Malique sad. Malique swim, Lucas swim.
Malique: Can we?
Lucas: Sure.
(Amazonian Confederation - The Favela)
Shan: (two boys enter with clothes and a bucket of water) I’ll take the clothes.
Ford: Here, give me the water.
Cynthia: Mom, what’s wrong with me?
Westphalen: You’re an idealist.
Cynthia: That’s why I’m cold?
Westphalen: You have a slight fever. Get some antibiotics into you.
Cynthia: And, what else?
Westphalen: You’ll be fine. You will be fine. This is what you need to make you all better.
Cynthia: They’re the children, mommy. I’m an adult. What’s wrong with me?
Westphalen: You’re badly bruised. You’ve probably broken a few ribs. A hospital will be able to tell us more.
Cynthia: No hospital, not here.
Westphalen: What on Earth possessed you to do this? (Cynthia looks at kids, Westphalen stands up, goes over to Ford)
Ford: Why are you boiling rags?
Westphalen: To kill bacteria; I have to clean her cuts. We have to get her to a hospital.
Shan: No, we’ll be arrested.
Westphalen: We’re just going to stay here?
Shan: Here is safe.
Westphalen: Can I speak to you outside? (exits room, Ford and Shan follow) Her wounds are infected. She’ll get gangrene if she’s not treated.
Ford: I’ll try to make it to the consulate.
Westphalen: She needs medicine, not diplomacy.
Ford: Well, if I can’t make it to the consulate, I’ll rob a drug store.
Westphalen: This is no time for joking, Jonathan.
Ford: I’m not joking. Write down what you need. (Westphalen goes inside) seaQuest won’t find us here.
Shan: They’ll figure out where we came ashore.
Ford: We’ve got to get back to the water.
Shan: Commander, it’s a risk.
Ford: Well this place isn’t safe.
Shan: It’s the favela, the military won’t come in here. To them, it’s already a prison. (ladies come around corner, in Portuguese) Not tonight, Sisters.
Westphalen: (comes out of room) Who are they?
Shan: Salumage de Buona Morte.
Westphalen: What?
Shan: Sisters of the Good Death. They ease the dying into the next world. They’re kept very busy here.
Ford: How can these people kill children?
Shan: Commerce, favela kids survive by begging on streets frequented by tourists.
Westphalen: They kill children for annoying tourists?
Shan: When they’re little. See, if they want to survive to be teenagers, they deal drugs, guns, and flesh. You noticed there are only little boys, no girls. (Westphalen nods)
Ford: Yeah.
Shan: They kill the boys before they reach puberty, don’t want ‘em to procreate.
Westphalen: Ohh.
Shan: (takes list from Westphalen) You wanna rob that drug store, Commander?
Ford: Yeah. We’ll be back.
(Guzmano’s Office)
Colonel Miguel: We found six lungs in a raft on the beach below Chityana.
Guzmano: SeaQuest is still here.
Colonel Miguel: Yes, but we haven’t found it yet.
Guzmano: Did you try calling.
Lady: (on speaker) Sí, General.
Guzmano: (into speaker) Call seaQuest.
(seaQuest DSV - Ward Room)
Guzmano: (on screen, waving aqua-lungs) Your assassins left these on the beach. Do you deny it? Has UEO sanctioned my execution? I am not afraid to fight, or die. Their blood is on your hands Captain. You return the boys and I will let you have your people back. (Bridger does not respond, angrily) Say something!
Bridger: I think you are.
Luis Guzmano: (on screen) I am what?
Bridger: Afraid to die. (screen goes blank)
(Amazonian Confederation - Guzmano’s office)
Guzmano: (nervous and angry) Move the desk, move the desk away from the window. Put tanks around the office, no one gets in. Find seaQuest. They sent assassins for me. Find his killers.
Colonel Miguel: You should be rational.
Guzmano: Find them. (Miguel leaves)
(seaQuest DSV - Ward Room)
Krieg: Sir, he’ll kill our people.
Bridger: He doesn’t have our people. If he did he would have shown them to us. What he’s got is their scuba gear. He’s let us know that they’ve come ashore, but he doesn’t know where they are. He thinks we’ve sent assassins, and that they’ll find him. (into speaker) Mr. Ortiz.
Ortiz: (on speaker) Sir.
Bridger: Pick a likely spot where Ford and his company would have come ashore.
Ortiz; (on speaker) Yes, sir.
Bridger: Mr. O’Neill, based on that I want all the maps and images you have of the area.
O’Neill: (on speaker) Right away, sir.
Bridger: Get me Malique.
Crocker: Yes, sir. (to seaman) Come with me.
Bridger: Commander Ford knows we’re tracking him to the point of entry, I just hope he’s able to stay there.
(Amazonian Confederation - The Favela)
Shan: Hey, relax Jonathan, you look like you belong here.
Ford: Yeah, well I’d feel a lot better if I could speak the language. How do you know so much about this place?
Shan: I was born here, in better circumstances. My grandfather was one of the Vietnamese boat people, and this is where he ended up. (stops) Over there. (points)
Ford: What?
Shan: That says drug store.
Ford: Let’s go. (both run over to store and around back to alley, Ford blows open lock, both enter, alarm silently goes off)
Continued