Better Than Martians
Scott Keller: Have you ever dreamed about flying to another planet, sitting on top of a thundering rocket as the Earth fell away beneath you? But if there were no other reasons for going to space, the awesome challenge would have been enough. That’s part of why we went to Mars. Some say the enormous cost of our mission would have been better spent at home; thousands of causes are more worthy than mapping the red planet’s ice caps. I understand their concern, but I also see advances from our mission benefiting everyone back home on Earth. One thing’s for certain though, just the thrill of what we did could galvanize an entire generation of explorers and scientists. Think what they might be able to accomplish.
(seaQuest DSV - Bridge)
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) After decades of research, four hundred billion dollars, and two years since lifting off from Earth, the first manned mission to Mars is about to come home. Now, all activity here on Earth has come to a virtual halt, much as it did when the Wayfarer’s Commander, Scott Keller, took his first historic steps on the red planet nearly one year ago. Twenty-four months ago the two man, two woman…
Crocker: (comes over) Mr. Ortiz, Mr. O’Neill, we’re about ready for, for the, uh,… (notices screen)
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) In less than one hour the descent, held up by three giant parachutes, the Wayfarer will glide comfortably into the Atlantic Ocean, it’s eighty million mile round trip complete…
(Sea Deck)
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) Represented by the world’s four preeminent space programs, the Mars mission symbolizes the global cooperative commitment, (Lucas walks over, looks at a female scientist) learning more about our planet as well as the rest of the solar system. (Krieg walks over, sees Lucas) Led by American Commander Scott Keller, (Krieg turns Lucas’s head back to screen) the Wayfarer team has now spent three straight years together. (Lucas looks back at scientist)
(Ward Room)
(Hitchcock and Ford are working. Hitchcock looks at the screen.)
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) After being selected from hundreds of qualified astronauts and scientists, the crew endured one year of rigorous training in Houston and Florida before taking off on their historical voyage. Now, the world excitedly awaits for the Wayfarer crew to emerge from their capsule with answers…
Hitchcock: Jonathan, hey look at, Jonathan. (points at screen, Ford stops typing and looks)
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) …about the red planet that have intrigued scientists, as well as laymen for hundreds of years. Now, if you look up into the sky you’ll see…
(Under water - coral reef, near seaQuest)
Westphalen: This regrowth is spectacular, Nathan, but, shouldn’t we be getting back?
Bridger: There’s one more slope of the reef I want to see.
Westphalen: I think it’s what you don’t want to see that’s keeping you out here.
Bridger: Your professional opinion is I can’t stop history just by avoiding it?
Westphalen: I think that’s the way it works, yes.
Bridger: All right, all right, let’s go back.
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Deck, by the moon pool)
Westphalen: (taking off air tank) That reef has grown all the way back. There is life everywhere.
Bridger: People have done a terrific job.
Darwin: Many fish, good food.
Bridger: Oh, yeah, everybody’s got their own agenda. (Bridger climbs out of water)
Westphalen: (laughs) Oh, I suppose we better go and see how your friend is getting along.
Bridger: I suppose. (grabs towel)
Westphalen: (drying off) The world’s in love with space travel again, there goes our funding. They’ll trade living reefs for a few alien rocks.
Bridger: The pendulum swings both ways, it’ll come back again. (into comlink) Mr. O’Neill.
O’Neill: (on comlink) Here, Captain.
Bridger: What do you say we listen in, on my old friend Scott?
O’Neill: (on bridge, into headset) Aye, sir, tapping into secure transmission.
Scott Keller: (on loudspeaker) Roger mission control, beginning de-orbit burn flight routes. Coming back at you one six eight zero four four two nine…
NASA Dispatcher: (on loudspeaker) Rebank, L one eight three.
(Wayfarer Capsule)
(Entering Earth’s atmosphere)
Scott Keller: I’ve reloaded new coordinates, we match perfectly. You copy, Houston?
NASA Dispatcher: Roger, you guys look sweet on a cross range re-entry at nine three eight miles. We’re showing A/V bay fan alpha hot.
Scott: Roger mission control, A/V bay fan alpha switched off, speed seventeen thousand miles per hour.
Sakata: We’re captured by atmosphere, point oh five gravity and building.
Scott: Deorbit angle of attack, minus point three five degrees. We’re beginning ionized burn.
NASA Dispatcher: Nice flying, Scott. We’ve got a circuit breaker in R-7 we’d like you to push back in.
Scott: I see it, Houston. Freon loop pump bravo, engaged.
Sakata: Engaging bravo, that’s a roger. Got a problem here, Scott. Stuck thruster on four.
Scott: Re-engage.
Sakata: No response.
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Deck)
(Bridger is still listening to the transmission.)
Scott: (on loudspeaker) Stabilize.
Sakata: (on loudspeaker) Too late.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Houston, we’re tumbling.
Sakata: (on Wayfarer) No response at stick.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Shutting down thermal hydraulics.
Sakata: (on Wayfarer) Switching to rate gyros.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Inertial platform engaged.
NASA Dispatcher: (on loudspeaker) Talk to me, Wayfarer.
Scott: (on loudspeaker) Guys, we’re heating up.
Bridger: Come on Scott-man, pull her out.
Sakata: (on Wayfarer) Eight ball’s gone crazy.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) We’re losing control authority.
NASA Dispatcher: (on loudspeaker) We’ve lost you on our screens, Wayfarer. You copy? Come in, Wayfarer, Scott, are you there?
Scott Shevlet: (on screen) …matter of fact, we’re told everything is going A-OK.
(Indian Ocean, off Christmas Island)
(seaQuest DSV - Ward Room)
Allison Castle: We’re not getting any information from space command yet, but I’ve got to speculate Wayfarer’s crew is dead. I, I don’t know how to put into words what I’m feeling at this moment to have such a triumph turn so quickly into tragedy. We’re standing by for further?
Bridger: (entering) Ready, Mr. O’Neill.
O’Neill: (on loudspeaker) Aye, sir, on screen.
Bridger: How bad is it, Bill?
William Noyce: (on screen) Commander Keller got some semblance of control thirty miles up. We estimate they hit at six times the safe velocity.
Bridger: Where?
Noyce: (on screen) They crashed in the Andaman Sea off Burma. That’s why I’m calling you.
Bridger: That’ll take us ten hours to get there. Why don’t you send some jet copters?
Noyce: (on screen) Well, the capsule sank on impact. We don’t know exactly where or how deep, but we have reason to believe that some of them are still alive. A signal buoy popped to the surface ten minutes ago. It’s attached to the capsule by wire, it can only be activated manually. Nathan, we have no recovery assets in the area.
Bridger: We’ll plot a course immediately. (to Hitchcock) Prepare to get underway.
Hitchcock: Aye, sir. (leaves with Ford)
Noyce: (on screen) Nathan, you’ll be entering Montagnard Confederation waters, you’ll have to go on military alert.
Bridger: Why? We’ll radio ahead, it’s a rescue mission. (screen turns to President)
President: (on screen) Ah, Captain Bridger.
Bridger: Mr. President.
President: (on screen) Captain, I’m sure you’re aware of Southeast Asia’s bitter war about ocean floor mineral rights. Every vessel passing through the area gets fired on by one side or the other.
Bridger: We’re prepared for that.
President: (on screen) I’ve received assurances by all sides that no one will stand in your way, but this is now a military recovery.
Bridger: Sir, with all due respect, our mission -
President: (on screen) Your vessel’s been loaned to me for the next ten hours. Hell, it was our tax dollars that built you.
Bridger: There were some private grants.
President: (on screen) Just do it my way. Any questions?
Bridger: No, sir.
(Southeast Asian Peninsula)
(Presidential Villa, Montagnard Confederation)
Hoi Chi: I’ve given the United States my assurance. Thank you for your kind advice, gentlemen. (two men leave room) Why must you always be so hard line, Tran?
Tho Tran: Mr. President, I do not trust the United States.
President Chi: It’s a new world, Tran, you must wake up to that.
Tran: As young boys, even living in different countries, we shared the same experience: the Americans tell us they will leave in two years, they mean twenty; they say two hours, they mean two years.
President Chi: Promise not to impede their search, hardly an invitation to colonialism. Without overtly interfering, I’d like to find the capsule first.
Tran: But why, Mr. President?
President Chi: It’s time the Montagnards made headlines without death and destruction as the banner. Go and rescue the astronauts.
Tran: Yes, sir.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Bridger: OK people, what do we have?
Hitchcock: Well, we got a rough idea where the capsule went down. GPS satellite has it in the mid-Andaman Sea, right in the middle of the war zone.
Ford: They’re drifting due west in the Indian counter-current at five knots. Intercept course already plotted.
Bridger: Make way, full speed.
Westphalen: We do still have teams out studying the reef.
Bridger: We’ll send a launch out ‘till we return. Prepare the hyperbaric chamber, we’ll have to put those core samples into quarantine. Lieutenant Krieg.
Krieg: (comes over) Yes, sir.
Bridger: You’re gonna be in charge of the rescue effort. Check with medical on supplies.
Krieg: Right away. (leaves with Westphalen)
Bridger: Lieutenant O’Neill?
O’Neill: The Wayfarer’s back-up radio has a sub-surface capability, Captain; high frequency, narrow band, short range.
Ortiz: I could deploy the WISKRS in a curved hydrophone array, if we stacked the signal.
Bridger: Give it a shot once we get further up the Sumatra coastline. (Ortiz leaves) Oh, and bone up on your Montagnard dialects.
O’Neill: Aye, sir. (Bridger walks over to moon pool)
Darwin: Darwin help.
Bridger: Yes, we have a long way to travel but I have no doubt you will. Chief, (Crocker comes over) as of this moment, we are on military alert.
Crocker: Aye, Cap. (walks away)
(Bridge – Later)
O’Neill: Captain, I’ve got the Wayfarer.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) I know somebody’s listenin’, pick up the phone. This is command capsule Wayfarer calling anybody who’s out there.
Bridger: (on radio of Wayfarer) Wayfarer, we read you. Signal sounds like you’re under water.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) (looks down at the water seeping into the capsule) Well, it’s funny you should mention that. You have a very familiar voice.
Bridger: Nathan Bridger, Scott.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Oh, God, don’t tell me we crashed near your island hideaway.
Bridger: I’m on the seaQuest now.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) What happened? It break down, they have to bring you back to fix it?
Bridger: Well, under the circumstances I don’t think you have much to crow about.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) What are you talking about? Eighty million miles and this is our first little fender bender. Bet you run into things with that submarine of yours all the time.
Bridger: Nice to hear your voice, Scott.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Likewise, Nathan. Tell me you’re close by.
Bridger: I can’t, we’re about eight hours away.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Oh boy. Where’s everybody else?
Bridger: We’re it. What’s your status?
Scott: (on Wayfarer) (looks at his crewmen) Well, Vladimir’s got a bunch of broken bones, the rest of us are banged up pretty good too. We got a slow leak and this water’s getting awful cold too.
Bridger: Great, just give us the details.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Well, we’re about forty feet deep. Floatation column only partially deployed, it’s the only thing keeping us from going to the bottom. I’m in your world, Nathan, got any ideas?
Bridger: Well, you could bleed some of your pressurized air into the cabin. That’ll keep the water from seeping in.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) And when we run out?
Bridger: I’ll rescue you.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Yeah, you’d never let me live it down.
Bridger: Not a chance. Now listen carefully, I want to put some of my people on.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Wait a minute, before you go, Nathan, what’s the security clearance on your crew?
Bridger: You can speak freely.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Well, you know we took a lot of geologic core samples all over the Martian surface.
Bridger: Of course. Any signs of life?
Scott: (on Wayfarer) In a big way: Yullenia Bentleyi.
(Sea Deck)
Darwin: Lucas, what is Mars?
Lucas: It’s another planet. It’s, uh, it’s kinda like a new island.
Darwin: How far is island Mars?
Bridger: (walking in) Too far for you to swim, that’s for sure. About a hundred trillion dollars away.
Westphalen: (laughs as Bridger walks over) We’re a fine pair of scientists, aren’t we? Life is discovered on another planet and we’re both miserable.
Bridger: What’s your excuse?
Westphalen: I remember seeing you on TV years ago.
Bridger: You saw me on TV?
Westphalen: Lobbying the Appropriations Committee to try and finish building seaQuest. And you nearly lost to Space Command.
Bridger: There was one senator that wanted to build an orbiting brewery.
Westphalen: (disgusted) Futurists.
Bridger: Oh, it was a bad day all around. I remember, after the testimony Carol and I went out to dinner, just to be alone, get away from the group. And that was the night we got the call, that our son Robert had been killed in action. I never went back to that shipyard.
Westphalen: Let me show you what your friend Scott found. Meet Yullenia Bentleyi.
Bridger: Sounds like a ballerina.
Westphalen: Yeah, but she’s a snail. Primeval earth mollusk, I assume that your friend found fossils of Bentleyi.
Bridger: I assumed he’d find algae or other microorganisms.
Westphalen: This kind of evolution proves that there was water on ancient Mars for a considerable period of time.
Bridger: You gotta hand it to him, Scott. (ship rocks) Bridge, what the hell is going on here?
(Bridge)
Ford: Reverse engines. Still determining, Captain.
Ortiz: Contact lost with lead WSKR, sir.
Ford: Freeze WSKRS, Mr. Ortiz.
Ortiz: Frozen, sir, all stop on EVA.
Crocker: All stop on main drive.
Hitchcock: It’s a mine field, Captain, we’re in the middle of a mine field.
(Bridge – Later)
Ford: (as Bridger and Westphalen enter) Sub surface mines, Captain, the bottom’s freshly disturbed, somebody just buried them.
Bridger: Who?
Ortiz: I’ve got an unidentified submersible leaving the other side of the mine field, no acoustical match to our library.
Bridger: Well, keep track of him as best you can.
Crocker: Cap, those are TSL-8 anti submarine detonators. They’re pressure wake activated.
Bridger: Who uses those in this area?
Crocker: Everybody.
Hitchcock: Captain, should I put divers out to disarm the mines?
Bridger: No, we’ll just lose time that way.
Ford: We can back away, re--route north.
Bridger: No, shortest distance between two points. We’ll have to make sacrifices to clear the mine field, starting with the WSKRS. (Ortiz grimaces) Now, now, we’ll buy you new toys once we get to Pearl.
Ortiz: Yes, sir.
Bridger: Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna send a WSKR out, blow up the mine field, and then move forward behind it.
O’Neill: Captain, Commander Keller. Go ahead, Commander Keller, you’re patched in.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) How you doing, Nathan?
Bridger: (on radio of Wayfarer) Great, how are you, pal?
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Well this pressurized air business is slowing the water down, but it’s a losing battle.
Bridger: Well, if it looks like you’re going to sink, abandon the capsule, we’ll find you top side.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Can’t move Petrovich and I’m not gonna leave him. Besides, we haven’t felt Earth’s gravity for two years.
Westphalen: Muscle atrophy would leave them too weak to free swim to the surface. I’ll go and speak to him.
Bridger: I’ll drive faster, Scott.
Westphalen: Commander, Doctor Westphalen, tell me a little about your condition. Any signs of nitrogen narcosis?
Scott: (on loudspeaker) None.
Westphalen: Good. Hypothermia?
Scott: (on loudspeaker) Water temperature’s dropping rapidly.
Westphalen: All right, here’s what I want you to do…
(Time Lapse)
Ford: We’re through the mine field, sir.
Bridger: Any WSKRS left?
Ford: No, sir.
Bridger: How are you holding up?
Ortiz: Oh, I’m all right. They died a good death. We’re in open water.
Bridger: Let’s dive into the nearest trench, take us off the map. (to Hitchcock and Crocker) Then, you two are going to come out of that trench in a launch, carrying about two hundred feet of reflective streamers. We’re going to make a really big signature.
Hitchcock: So anybody tracking us will think we’re the seaQuest?
Bridger: Yes, exactly.
Crocker: Got you, Cap.
Bridger: Now, you can play havoc with their twelve mile limit if you want to, but just buy me time so we can slip out.
Hitchcock: Yes, sir. (leaves with Crocker)
Bridger: (approaches O’Neill speaking in Vietnamese) Any luck?
O’Neill: Well I made it all the way through to the Montagnard President’s summer home. The nearest I can figure it, why should they talk to you, when they can scream at our president.
Bridger: Tell them if they want to skip the middle man we can clear up this disagreement.
O’Neill: Aye, sir, um, this isn’t my best language.
Bridger: Just don’t insult their Grandmothers.
O’Neill: Aye, Captain. (returns to speaking in Vietnamese)
(Wayfarer)
Bridger: (on radio) Please, I don’t agree with you at all.
Scott: What are you talking about Nathan, we command the two most sophisticated ships ever built.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I measure my accomplishments by how much they cost.
Scott: Yeah, well you’re talking families and normal lives. Ambition eats those for breakfast.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) No, I’m talking cold hard cash.
Scott: Well, here we go again.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Look, I applaud your finding life on Mars, but you always knew it was there.
Scott: Yeah, well, the building blocks are universal and atoms do tend to combine.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Trophy to prove a thesis.
Scott: Well what are you doin’ down here on the bottom of the ocean? I mean, you go out, find little critters, put ‘em in a jar, hold them up to the light and you go ‘Whoopee, neat.’
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Them little critters have great implications for mankind.
Scott: Yeah, well so do little critters on Mars. Only you have to go out there to find ‘em.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) I know what kind of life you’re really dreaming about finding, but until we learn to travel at the speed of light -
Scott: Yeah, I know, it’s all one spectacular waste of money.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Four hundred billion dollars for a snail.
Scott: (on loudspeaker in Bridger’s room) Nathan, if the world is captivated by it, they’ll allocate the funds for more research.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room, incredulously) He wants more.
Scott: Hey, Nathan, if you don’t rescue me, you’re gonna lose your major competition for tax-payer dollars.
Bridger: (on seaQuest, in his room) Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind, Scott-man. (Keller laughs)
Continued