Better Than Martians (cont.)
(Launch)
Hitchcock: Getting ugly here, Jonathan. We’ve got nine ships following us around. Everybody’s targeting everybody else.
Ford: (on radio) Just another half hour, Katie, keep up the good work. seaQuest out.
Crocker: You know, my father fought along side the Montagnards in Vietnam. Those are some tough people.
Hitchcock: Smart, too, looks like a few of them aren’t chasing us anymore.
Crocker: Well, why don’t we, uh, cross over their twelve mile limit and see if we can’t get ‘em interested again, huh, Commander?
Hitchcock: You got it, Chief.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ford: We’ve got their signal buoy locked in at thirty miles, Captain, but without WSKRS we can’t pinpoint the capsule itself until we’re closer.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Steam on in fellas, we got a nice little indoor swimmin’ hole here.
Bridger: Hang on, Scott, we’re almost there. Release the rescue launch.
(Launch)
Krieg: Roger, Commander, rescue launch on the move. Oh, can’t wait to talk to these guys. Damn! Forgot my camera. I mean they lived on Mars for a month.
Westphalen: We live down here for longer than that.
Krieg: Oh, not the same.
Westphalen: No, I entirely agree. I hardly compare hurtling through space in a closet with building a livable habitat underwater. It’s just that the whole of my professional life is at the end of a funding yo-yo and I sense the money I need to complete my work going elsewhere.
Krieg: Tell you what, when we get to the capsule, what do you say we mess with their snail sample?
Westphalen: In what way?
Krieg: I don’t know. Make escargot? (Westphalen laughs)
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: Unidentified sub approaching at eighteen degrees, sir.
Ford: Is it the one that laid the mines?
Ortiz: Hard to tell. They’re putting out a lot of extra noise; they don’t mind us knowing where they are just so long as we don’t know who they are.
Ford: (looks at Bridger, Bridger nods) Target solution on the intruder. Lock in and flood all tubes.
(Montagnard Confederation - Presidential Villa)
Tran: The seaQuest beat us there. Mr. President, they are aiming at our rescue sub.
President Chi: Well, we gave it a good try. Be supportive in any way we can.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: They’re turning, sir, showing tail.
Ford: Stand down from targeting sweeps.
Bridger: Nice job.
Ford: Thank you, sir.
Krieg: (on launch) Uh, seaQuest, we got trouble here.
Bridger: (on radio of launch) What is it, Lieutenant?
Krieg: We found Wayfarer’s signal buoy on the surface, sir, but it’s not attached to anything. There’s no capsule here.
Keller: (on Wayfarer, angrily) What’s he talkin’ about, Nathan? Where the hell are you?
Bridger: In the wrong place, Scott.
(Launch)Crocker: Commander.
Hitchcock: Something’s locked on to us.
Crocker: Torpedo dead ahead.
Hitchcock: Evasive maneuvers. Chief! (launch hit)
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Scott: (on radio) What do you mean it broke off?
Bridger: Well, currents in this area are westward and that’s the way the beacon went, and that’s what we followed.
Scott: (on radio) Then where the hell am I?
Ford: Commander Ford here. There’s a freak sub-surface current running in the opposite direction, you were swept up in that.
Scott: (on radio) Are you sure?
Ford: Well, we’re locked on to your radio signal now. You’re on our navigation screens and you’re a hundred and twenty miles away.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) You wanna tell me about negative buoyancy again.
Bridger: Now we’re not gonna let that happen.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Don’t make any more promises you can’t keep, Nathan. I got three of the bravest damn people here; they been to Mars and back. Now, don’t you let ‘em die in your dinky little salt water pond.
Bridger: Just keep broadcasting, Scott, forty minutes.
Krieg: (comes over) Captain, there’s been no signal from Commander Hitchcock or Chief Crocker since the launch went down, and they were inside Montagnard territory.
Bridger: Have the UEO send out search choppers right away.
Krieg: Yes, sir.
O’Neill: seaQuest calling UEO Command.
Bridger: (to Ford) I don’t care if you have to burn down the engine room and melt the drive train, get this boat to those astronauts.
(Captain’s Quarters)
President: (on screen) I know you have problems I don’t understand, but I was told those astronauts would be safe by now.
Noyce: (on screen) Mr. President, Captain Bridger has already explained about the sub-surface currents.
President: (on screen) I’m not interested in explanations. Captain, I assumed that you would take these things into consideration. And what the hell was that decoy stunt into Montagnard territory?
Bridger: I am in the middle of a tactical maneuver, there are lives at stake. That’s what dictates my actions.
President: (on screen) Don’t give me attitude, Captain
Noyce: (on screen) Question is, does your dislike of the space program play a part in this?
Lucas: (on screen) Oh, come on, you jerks.
Bridger: Lucas.
Lucas: (on screen) I’m sorry, Captain, I was just flipping through the communications band.
President: (on screen) I thought this was a secure channel.
Noyce: (on screen) It is, that’s the Wolenczak boy I was telling you about.Lucas: (on screen) How could they possibly think you screwed up on purpose?
Bridger: Lucas, thank you, that’s enough. (Lucas disappears from screen) Mr. President, I’ll pretend the question wasn’t asked.
President: (on screen) I’m sorry, Captain, we’ll let you get back to your work…
Bridger: Thank you. (screen goes blank) So, what do you think?
Ford: Sir?
Bridger: The beacon. Am I so petty that I’d refuse to anticipate something going wrong. Oh, come on, Jonathan, level with me.
Ford: You doubt yourself because others do, or because you do?
Bridger: I know I’m not perfect. And today it really worries me.
Ford: Than I think you all ready know the answer to that question. If you deliberately left your friend out there to die, you wouldn’t have the courage to ask yourself that.
Bridger: Thanks.
(Bridge)
Bridger: OK, let’s nail this puppy down.
Ortiz: Sir, there are three Montagnard anti-submarine ships at the surface. Our present course will take us directly beneath them.
Bridger: I know that. Tell me about the submarine.
Ortiz: There’s too much extra noise to make a positive ID, but I’m guessing she’s a German made Santa Rosa attack, or an Italian Torino class.
Bridger: How fast does she move?
Ortiz: Well within others’ range.
Bridger: Depth?
Ortiz: Both boats can go that deep.
Bridger: Retreat path?
Ortiz: Due east, toward the coast, dove into a trench.
Bridger: Just as if she knew her way around.
Ortiz: Like a Montagnard would, and they buy Santa Rosa’s.
(Ward Room)
O’Neill: Captain, Montagnard President, Hoi Chi.
Bridger: Thank you for taking our call, Mr. President.
President Chi: (on screen) Your Lieutenant intimated trouble if I didn’t.
Bridger: I think we already have that, sir.
President Chi: (on screen) Despite what your President intended, steaming around like a colonial power only inflames my enemies.
Bridger: I apologize for our behavior, we should never have been on military alert.
President Chi: (on screen) And how does your hindsight explain breaching our twelve mile limit with a sea launch?
Bridger: My responsibility as well, born of circumstance.
President Chi: (on screen) What could possibly motivate you to breach international law?
Bridger: Sir, are you aware of an unidentified submarine dogging our progress?
President Chi: (on screen) My military keeps me informed.
Bridger: It’s your vessel, sir. They’re planting mines in front of us; they’ve charged us aggressively more than once.
President Chi: (on screen) Should that prove true, Captain, then I would be the one to apologize. What does it matter now, you have your astronauts? Why not leave our waters?
Bridger: I don’t have them, sir, they’re drifting towards your shore. The time is running out and I, I need to know that you won’t interfere. I can’t allow it.
President Chi: (on screen) Are you threatening me?
Bridger: I’m informing you.
President Chi: (on screen) It’s been a painful day for all of us, but I can offer you a small reprieve.
(Hitchcock and Crocker led onto screen)
O’Neill: Chief.
Bridger: Commander.
President Chi: (on screen) They’re fortunate, only minor injuries, and they will be my guests until you send for them.
Bridger: Thank you, Mr. President. (screen goes blank)
(Montagnard Confederation - Presidential Villa)
Tran: Mr. President, it was the only way to slow them down.
President Chi: (angrily) You do not make policy.
Tran: Mr. President, you wanted a public relations coup, I tried to give it to you.
President Chi: All right, maybe there’s still a chance. Where is the submarine?
Tran: Heading east, ahead of the seaQuest. Mr. President, we should be very close to the capsule now.
President Chi: If we rescue them first, no one will remember what happened before. But General Tran, do not interfere with seaQuest. If she is there first, back off.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ford: ETA twenty minutes to Wayfarer. Commander Keller says they’re starting to sink, sir.
Bridger: We gotta push it.
Ford: I’m over specs now.
Westphalen: Unless you mix helium into your space suits, oxygen toxicity is inevitable.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) So we got air, but it’s gonna kill us if we drop below three hundred feet.
Westphalen: That’s about the size of it, Commander.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Poppin’ to the surface is out of the question now, right?
Westphalen: An uncontrolled ascent would cause an embolism to the brain, the bends.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) You got a lot of ways to die down here, Doc. Any more you’d like to tell me about?
Ortiz: (beeping) Unidentified torpedo targeting us head on from seven miles away.
Ford: We’re traveling towards it at three miles a minute. Evasive maneuvers?
Bridger: Negative. Maintain course and speed. Mr. Ortiz, home in on that torpedo’s frequency. Prepare countermeasures.
Ford: Countermeasures.
Krieg: This is Lieutenant Krieg, we are under attack, brace for collision, prepare to crash dive.
Ortiz: Incoming torpedo at four miles, Captain.
Krieg: Countermeasure loaded and ready in tube one.
Bridger: Break it down for me, Mr. Ortiz.
Ortiz: Three miles and still closing …two miles …one and a half, sir, twenty seconds to impact…one mile.
Bridger: Fire.
Ford: Fire.
Ortiz: Trailing torpedoes, sir, half mile.
Bridger: Crash dive.
Ford: Dive! Dive!
Ortiz: Second torpedo clear, one to go.
Ford: No airtights breached, but they got a piece of rudder and propulsion.
Krieg: Our speed’s plummeting.
Bridger: Continue on with whatever we’ve got. Commence repairs immediately. (exits bridge, sits down with headset) Scott, you still there?
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Listen, we’re dropping, the water’s rising. When I put on my helmet we’re not gonna be able to talk anymore. I, I’m sorry about before. I always get a little cranky after a long trip.
Bridger: I, I’m sorry too.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Look, I know you did the best you could. Don’t you carry this around with you when it’s over, OK? Did I tell you that Marcy had a baby?
Bridger: No, well, congratulations, Grandpa.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Claire Mars, born two days after we landed on the red planet. I’ve never seen her in person. I kinda hate the idea of her growin’ up without someone from our generation getting in her face.
Bridger: Don’t worry, I’ll find her.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) Thanks. There’s one other thing I have to ask you. This is gonna be a little harder for you.
Bridger: You don’t even have to ask. The core samples will get to space command, don’t worry.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) I ever tell you why I chose the space program?
Bridger: No, why?
Scott: (on Wayfarer) I knew it would be the only way I could get above you.
Bridger: (laughs) Steady as she goes, Scott.
Scott: (on Wayfarer) See you around, Nathan. (fuzz on radio)
(Time Lapse – Bridge)
Bridger: (operating H.R. Probe) Faster damn it. Mr. Ortiz?
Ortiz: Adjust two degrees starboard, descend at three three oh feet.
Krieg: (in launch) Adjusting two degrees starboard, descending at three three zero feet.
Westphalen: (on launch) What’s the point? They’re past the depth of oxygen toxicity.
Ford: He knows, Doctor.
Bridger: (operating H.R. Probe) Lieutenant Krieg?
Krieg: (on launch) I’m right behind the probe, Captain, I can see its tail lights.
Bridger: (operating H.R. Probe) There it is. Something’s different, check the schematics.
Ford: It’s gone. The compartment holding the Martian core samples is gone.
Westphalen: (on launch, incredulously) What? Where is it?
Krieg: (on launch) Maybe it broke loose during re-entry.
Ortiz: Or on impact.
Bridger: (operating H.R. Probe, angrily) I don’t care about that now, people. (takes off Probe headgear)
Ford: The hatch is blown from the inside, sir, they did the only thing they could, tried to swim to the surface.
Bridger: Their own air was choking them. (looks dejected, walks to door) I would have done the same thing.
(Ward Room)
Bridger: Our search crews are out, Montagnards are helping on the surface, so far, no bodies have been found.
President: (on screen) I am sorry about the astronauts, Captain, but the priority now is the core samples. They represent the efforts of ten thousand scientists.
Bridger: Yes, I’ll be finding them for one in particular.
Noyce: (on screen) Sir, the compartment could have broken loose at any point during re-entry.
Krieg: Captain, we can work backward from the point of splashdown but it’s still a needle in a haystack.
Westphalen: Fine tune our equipment down to the size of a container.
Ford: I don’t know if side scan sonar’ll pick up an object that small without WSKRS.
Lucas: Ultramafic rock. (all look at Lucas) Sorry I was just thinking out loud.
President: (on screen) Captain really, we are quite busy here.
Bridger: Sir, I’d like to hear what he has to say.
Lucas: Didn’t Wayfarer take a couple of core samples from the Tharsis Bulge?
Bridger: Yes.
Lucas: Yeah, one from Mars’s biggest volcano, Olympus Mons, and one from a huge meteor strike near the equator.
Bridger: Ultramafic rock.
Westphalen: It’s loaded with magnetic minerals.
Lucas: We calibrate a magnetometer for the dense material, the samples will show up on the ocean floor like a beacon.
President: (on screen) Good work, son. (screen goes blank)
Bridger: OK, we’ll put all the magnetometers we have on the launches and sea crabs. (to Krieg) Coordinate the search, tight grid pattern.
Krieg: Done. (leaves)
Westphalen: (standing up) Come on smarty pants. (leaves with Lucas)
Bridger: Let’s turn the boat around and we’ll retrace the capsule’s drift pattern.
Ford: Aye, sir. (gets up) Captain?
Bridger: I’m all right. (Ford leaves)
(Montagnard Confederation)
Scott: (gets out of jeep into wheelchair) Mr. President.
President Chi: Commander. I understand we rescued you just in time.
Scott: You’re in my will.
President Chi: Oh no, no, no, just include me in your book, favorably of course.
Scott: Only way, sir.
Tran: (walking over) Mr. President, can you hold off notifying the seaQuest and Space Command for a little while?
President Chi: Why? They should know their people are safe.
Tran: Let me take them to a hospital, cover our bases. Mr. President, I need one hour.
President Chi: Commander, I leave you in good hands. (walks off)
Tran: Commander, where are the core samples you took on Mars? When we reached you, they were gone.
Scott: You’re kidding.
Tran: Not in my repertoire. Where are they?
Scott: I don’t know. (looks at others, sees armed soldier) That container can’t be opened except under quarantine conditions.
Tran: I will not presume, I am a businessman, Commander.
Scott: Ransom?
Tran: Ultimately it will be called a finder’s fee.
Scott: (laughs) Seven figure finder’s fee, huh?
Tran: Maybe eight.
Scott: I knew your sub couldn’t beat seaQuest, they were too far away. So I blew the bolts and jettisoned the container.
Tran: So it sank at the point where we saved your lives?
Scott: Yeah.
Tran: Thank you, Commander, you are a hero. Keep them in the infirmary until I notify you. Incommunicado. (leaves)
(seaQuest DSV – Sea Deck, near moon pool)
Bridger: All right, here we go. (jumps in water) Krieg says that the core samples are in a case, wedged down in the ravine.
Ford: Well Schwartz and Vasco have passive flotation lifts for either end.
Westphalen: Well don’t attach them ‘till we’ve checked the case. If it’s leaking we’re going to have to quarantine the whole area before moving it.
Ford: Understood. Let’s go. (swims off)
Westphalen: I am sorry about Scott, Nathan. I’m sure he’d be very glad that you’re personally doing this.
Bridger: I owe him that. I owe him a lot more.
Westphalen: How so?
Bridger: Well, thirty years we challenged each other, goaded each other. The irony is that one of the reasons I built this tub was to stay ahead of him.
Westphalen: I wonder how much of you he took with him to Mars?
Darwin: Bridger ready?
Bridger: Yes. You know what you have to do?
Darwin: Darwin understand.
Bridger: All right.
(Ocean Floor, near seaQuest)
Westphalen: Keep it steady. What I wouldn’t give to examine this core sample.
Bridger: You want to open it here or wait ‘till we get to seaQuest?
Schwartz: Movement at nine o’clock.
Ford: Divers, arm your weapons.
Bridger: No, no, don’t provoke them, just wait, all right. (Darwin swims over, bumps divers) That a boy, pal.
Ford: All right, Darwin.
Bridger: Now, Commander, take them.
Ford: You men take either flank.
Bridger: (to Darwin) Thank you, my friend.
Ford: Let’s go.
(Montagnard Confederation)
Scott: You’re gonna kill us, aren’t you?
Tran: The mountain road that leads to the hospital is a very treacherous one. I wish you good luck.
President Chi: Perhaps you would feel better if I drove. Ah, but I’ll be too busy with the court martial. I’m deeply disappointed in you Tran. After all these years, you put your greed over a half billion people in our confederation. (soldiers lead Tran away) Those are UEO officers, they will escort you and your crew to the seaQuest. My contrition is feeble, but heartfelt, Commander.
(seaQuest DSV – Ward Room)
President Chi: (on screen) They’re safe, Captain, and I owe you an apology.
Bridger: Accepted, Mr. President.
President Chi: (on screen) Once the astronauts are on board, I’ll have my navy escort you to international waters.
Bridger: Since it was your efforts that resulted in the Wayfarer’s rescue, I wondered if you wouldn’t mind holding the press conference announcing their safe return.
President Chi: (on screen) My people would consider it an honor, sir.
Bridger: We’ll patch them up and send them on. Andon geeah.
President Chi: (on screen) Andon geeah, Captain. (screen goes blank)
(Sea Deck)
Scott: I promise you, Doc, you’ll have access to everything we brought back from Mars.
Westphalen: The Commander’s a saint, even though he is in the wrong profession.
Scott: I’ll have her up on my next mission, you watch. (Westphalen laughs and walks away)
Bridger: You’re looking much better.
Scott: Well, better than my crew, I’m told they’re gonna be fine.
Darwin: No more torpedoes?
Bridger: No, no more torpedoes, things are looking up.
Scott: I don’t believe it.
Bridger: You’ve been away two years. This is Darwin.
Scott: Hello, Darwin.
Darwin: Sky man.
Scott: This what you spent all your money on?
Bridger: Dollar for dollar, he’s better than a Martian.
Scott: Oh. Look at me, I’ve got the most important press conference of all time waiting, and I’m in a wheelchair in my bath robe, and you had to rescue me.
Bridger: Hey, I’ll let you do all the talking.
Scott: Thanks.
Bridger: My pleasure. Welcome home.
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