seaWest
(seaQuest DSV - Sea Launch)
Krieg: Mining underwater … I don’t know. What do you do if there’s a cave in?
Ford: You die.
Krieg: Which would make it kinda tough to send a distress signal, wouldn’t it?
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility - Docking Bay)
Bridger: Stick together, find out who’s in charge, see if he needs any assistance.
Crocker: I got a detail prepped and ready back on board seaQuest just in case, Cap.
Computer: Welcome to Broken Ridge. All new arrivals sign in at the supervisor’s office.
(They all enter the facility.)
Crocker: Must be the place up there, huh?
Bridger: Not your typical signs of distress, are they? (points to sign ‘Making rounds be back in 15 minutes)
Gibby Sutter: Dad.
Lenny Sutter: I see them, Gibby. (hands hat to Gibby) Take these, go on home. Tell your mom I’ll be there as soon as I can. Go.
Bridger: (group enters Canteen) I don’t think they’ll bite. Let’s, uh, ask around. (walks over to bar) Hi.
Bartender: What’ll it be?
Bridger: I’m looking for a Mr. Cobb. I was told at the docking port that he was in charge here.
Bartender: Haven’t seen him, yet. Little early for lunch though. Never too early for a drink. (reveals tray of drinks) Here’s all you’re gonna get outta me. (Lenny enters, sits down)
Krieg: You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who might be trying to send out a distress signal?
Lady #1: Take a look around, pal, you see anyone who wouldn’t?
Krieg: Good point. So, uh, what are you doing here?
Lady #1: We’re the entertainment.
Lady #2: We’re singers.
Krieg: How do you end up getting booked into Broken Ridge?
Lady #1: We’re not very good.
Lady #2: Oh, but they don’t care. And it’s a good place to be bad, practice and polish your act.
Krieg: Good luck to you.
Crocker: Uh, excuse me, gents, we picked up a distress signal coming across the Solan Plane.
Buck: Yeah?
Ford: It’s pretty weak, disappeared before we could pinpoint it, but yeah, we think from here.
Buck: Can’t help you, only person in distress here is me. (looks at cards) Oh, I take that back. Got a full house. (Ford and Crocker turn to go)
Lenny Sutter: (gets up, goes over to Ford) I heard what you said about my wife. (punches Ford, they fight) Don’t leave, please help us. (someone pulls Lenny off Ford, Ford sits up to gun in his face)
Frank Cobb: Welcome to Broken Ridge. Frank Cobb’s the name. Something I can do for you?
(Canteen – Later)
Cobb: (handcuffs Lenny) Duke. We’re just a small town, more of a family really, with the good fortune to be sitting on a mountain of gold. I’m afraid that makes us a bit skittish around strangers.
Ford: (to Lenny) Don’t leave, what’d you mean? (Lenny elbows Ford)
Cobb: Especially when they wear uniforms. Right, Lenny? Oh, almost forgot, I sent a couple of my men over to your place. I thought we ought to let your wife know not to worry. At least until I decide what to do with you. Joan, lovely woman, and your boy Gibby, what’s he now, seven?
Lenny: Eight.
Cobb: Family’s important down here. Man who’s lucky enough to have one does what he has to to protect it. Well, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. Far as I’m concerned, the matter’s closed. You and your men are free to go back to your ship.
Bridger: But we still don’t know who sent the signal.
Cobb: I told you, if there’s been a signal, I’d have heard about it. You guys are unbelievable. For years we scratched away at this rock just tryin’ to get enough out of her to stay alive. And where were you? Nowhere. Now all that miserable hard work is paying off; we’re getting somewhere, getting ahead. All of a sudden the mighty UEO shows up wanting to help. Hah. Kinda makes a man wonder.
Bridger: You don’t understand.
Cobb: You really care that much about us, or is you outfit just looking for somebody new to tax?
Bridger: We heard a call for help, that’s all.
Cobb: Yeah, well your help’s not needed. Now I think it better if you and your men moved on.
Bridger: We’re sorry you feel that way. And we still have to find a distress signal. (leaves, others follow)
Cobb: Well good luck to you, Captain.
Krieg: Is it my imagination, or were we just told to get out of town by sundown?
Bridger: I think that’s a fair translation.
Ford: Captain, that man was asking for help. Hitting me was just a cover-up.
Bridger: Yes, but this isn’t the place to discuss it. (leaves)
(seaQuest Launch)
Ford: We have to go back, Captain.
Bridger: Maybe, maybe not. This is an open territory, it’s not UEO. I don’t think we can go back without an invitation. (hears barking)
Ford: Did you hear that?
Bridger: Yeah. (opens hatch, dog jumps out, Bridger laughs) A stowaway. (gives Ford paper from under collar)
Ford: (reading) Please come back. Help us. I don’t want them to hurt my daddy. I don’t know, Captain, but it sounds like an invitation to me.
(seaQuest DSV - Ward Room)
Lucas: Plaster deposits are like rivers of gold; pushed off the continental shelf by glaciers during the Great Ice Age. It wasn’t until a few years ago, however, that it made sense, cost wise, to mine underwater. Now Broken Ridge is just one of dozens of mining camps formed off the coast of Australia during the Great Oceanic Land Rush there.
Bridger: What do we know about it specifically?
Hitchcock: Oh, it’s definitely legit. The probe found gold in the mineral samples it collected.
Bridger: Anything else?
Lucas: Well, the prospectors are wildcatters. They don’t report to anybody, and if they do keep records, I haven’t found any, yet.
Bridger: Well, keep digging. Who’s next?
Ortiz: I’ve set up a perimeter with WSKRS. Haven’t picked up anything unusual, yet.
O’Neill: I’ll be running a constant communications sweep, Captain. Maybe we’ll get lucky and hear something.
Ford: Wait a minute, aren’t we ignoring the obvious here? We take a security detail down, we find this kid or his dad, and we ask him what’s going on.
Bridger: We’ve gotta be careful or we’ll be likely to hurt some people. But you’re right, it would be nice to have someone there to ask questions.
Crocker: I don’t think Mr. Cobb’s all that open to having strangers in his little town.
Bridger: Maybe not strangers. Lieutenant Krieg tells me there’s a constant flow of people on the shuttle from Australia.
Krieg: Yes, sir. Singers, musicians, comedians. They rotate through Broken Ridge on a weekly basis.
Bridger: You’re a comedian, Lieutenant, we could send you. (all laugh)
Krieg: Uh, yes, well, thank you, sir, but, uh, it’s more of a spontaneous type of thing. I don’t exactly have an act, not that you need an act. I spoke to my buddy, Murray, he books talent at your smaller venues, he told me that the miners at Broken Ridge are mostly single men who’ll pay top dollar for female entertainers, no matter how bad they are.
Hitchcock: I can be bad. (all look at Hitchcock) What? I can sing. I’m not a pro but I can carry a tune well enough for Broken Ridge.
Krieg: Katie, you sang in the shower.
Hitchcock: Yes, and you want me to shower for them, is that what you’re saying?
Krieg: No, I just don’t think you should go in there unprotected. Cobb’s a tough man. I mean, we don’t want her putting herself at risk.
Hitchcock: Somebody has to. Look, I can’t be a part of asking someone to do something I’m not willing to do.
Bridger: Commander, you feel confident about this?
Hitchcock: Yes, sir, I do.
Bridger: OK, let’s get some musical charts for our lounge act here and tell your friend Murray to book her into Broken Ridge immediately.
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility)
Cobb: Welcome to Broken Ridge, ma’am. Can I, uh, help you with your bag?
Hitchcock: Thank you Mr.…
Cobb: Frank Cobb.
Hitchcock: Mr. Cobb. Yes, that’d be nice.
(Canteen)
Cobb: (throws bag on table) Gold.
Hitchcock: Should I be impressed?
Cobb: Isn’t a man here who has the same, or more. And if I let you leave this table, more than one of them’s going to be trying to convince you to spend the rest of your life with him. The thing is, I want you here, with me.
Hitchcock: Do you think we can slow things down a little?
Cobb: When it comes to beautiful women, second chances are pretty rare around here.
Hitchcock: I’m not the only woman who just got off the boat. Why me?
Cobb: Your eyes. They’re stunning, but they’re hiding something. And that intrigues me.
Hitchcock: What do you think they’re hiding?
Cobb: I haven’t figured that out yet. Is it fear? You’re not afraid of me, are you?
Hitchcock: (laughs) Should I be?
Cobb: My mother had eyes like yours. Mom. She just kept doing what needed to be done. I see the same look in your eyes.
Hitchcock: I’m afraid I didn’t come here to get married.
Cobb: Entertainer, eh, hah. So, how about your entertaining me?
Hitchcock: You want a song, that’s a cover charge and a two drink minimum. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try and find out where I’m staying. (leaves)
(Sutters’ Home)
Hitchcock: (approaches kid drawing) Hi there. What are you drawing? (no response) Listen, maybe you can help me. I have some friends and they found this dog. I told them I’d try to find out who he belongs to. Seems like a great dog, I know if he were mine I’d sure hate to give him up.
Gibby: His name is Banjo.
(seaQuest DSV - Lucas’s Room)
Lucas: It wasn’t easy to find. They keep mapping and re-mapping the ocean floor. What used to be part of one confederation is now part of another.
Bridger: But you found it.
Lucas: Yeah, I found it. Department of Oceans, Fisheries, and Wildlife, New Ausland Confederation. (screen changes to show two pictures)
Bridger: That’s him.
Lucas: Who?
Bridger: Commander Ford’s sparring partner. His name is Sutter, Lenny Sutter.
Lucas: (points to bottom picture) Must be his dad.
Bridger: Uh huh.
Lucas: Harry. According to this they own all mineral rights to Broken Ridge. Grabbed them in the Oceanic Land Rush of twenty fifteen.
Westphalen: Doesn’t that mean that everyone at the mine works for the Sutters?
Lucas: I guess so, yeah. Records don’t show any change of ownership.
Bridger: This doesn’t make any sense … (with Westphalen) unless —
Westphalen: There was a mutiny.
Bridger: Yes.
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility - Sutters’ Home)
Lenny: Takeover was out of greed. Cobb was just a hired hand. Convinced the others that they’d get a bigger cut if he was running things.
Hitchcock: He convinced all the miners?
Joan: Half of them. He can be pretty persuasive. You have to remember that this was almost five years ago. It was a much smaller operation then. All the men brought in since have been Cobb’s.
Hitchcock: But there’s gotta be something you can do.
Lenny: Well, I can’t fight him. Cobb says if I try anything, Joan and Gibby’ll be the ones to pay for it. I know my son must think I’m a coward sometimes but … I’ve already lost my father to Cobb. I can’t lose anybody else.
Hitchcock: Why does Cobb keep you around? Just to torture you?
Lenny: No, we’re alive on a technicality. When the folks who started the land rush they weren’t interested in speculators. They wanted to settle the ocean. So in order to claim the land you had to agree to work it, for five years. The deed’s in the Sutter name, so no gold can be sold without our signature. Drives Cobb crazy.
Hitchcock: Five years, that’s …
Lenny: Yeah, time’s about up.
Joan: And Cobb won’t be needing us anymore.
Hitchcock: We gotta get your family out of here. (pulls out computer) Is there someplace where we can go where this will work?
Lenny: Yeah. (gets up)
(Mine Shaft)
Lenny: This shaft’s pretty much mined out. Doesn’t get much traffic. I come down here as often as is safe to send out a distress signal.
Hitchcock: I’m, uh, gonna call my Captain. Would you mind keeping a look out?
(Lenny walks off, turns corner, sees Cobb)
Cobb: There you are. I’ve been lookin’ for you.
Lenny: What do you want?
Cobb: I heard you had company today. One of the new ladies in town. That’s not like you, Lenny, family man and all.
Lenny: She likes kids. We started talkin’ to Gibby, so, she stopped by for a few minutes, had coffee, that’s all.
Cobb: What’d you talk about?
Lenny: Nothing, Gibby.
Cobb: I wanna know what she’s doing here.
Lenny: Oh, come on, Cobb, what do you think she’s doing here? She’s like most women that come here to Broken Ridge, she’s looking for a husband.
Cobb: I’ve met her Lenny, she’s not at all like most women. Believe you me, not by a long shot. (punches Lenny) Please, Lenny, I need to know who she is.
Lenny: She’s nobody.
Cobb: I’m not going away, Lenny. Now tell me, who is she?
Lenny: She’s nobody.
Cobb: (pounds Lenny into wall) One more time, Lenny, tell me who she is.
Lenny: I told you, she’s nobody.
Cobb: (pounds Lenny into wall) I’d hate to have this conversation with your wife. (hit in head by shovel, Lenny looks up to see Hitchcock)
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Darwin: No sea.
O’Neill: Tunnel?
Ford: Mine shaft.
Bridger: Hitchcock was right. Mr. Ortiz?
Ortiz: I’ve got a WSKR on Darwin’s mark right now, Captain.
Krieg: (all disperse, Krieg leans down to Darwin) Thanks buddy. We gotta take care of Katie, don’t we? I owe you one.
Ortiz: What do you think, should we try the back door?
Bridger: No wonder that a complex like Broken Ridge would have at least a dozen mine shafts. And I bet every one of them had a docking bay.
Ford: Makes sense. They can clean away the waste and slime without hauling it through the main facility.
Bridger: If that’s the case, than why can’t we bring out Hitchcock and the Sutters the same way and avoid the main docking bay entirely.
Ford: I’ll get a launch ready now.
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility - Sutters’ Home)
Hitchcock: (walks over) We gotta go now.
Joan: How? Where?
Hitchcock: seaQuest is sending a launch to pick us up. They’ll be here in half an hour.
Lenny: Do they plan on coming in firing? That’s the only way Cobb’s gonna let us anywhere near the docking bay.
Hitchcock: They’re not coming to the docking bay. They’re coming in through Mine Shaft 7. Can you get there?
Lenny: You better believe we can.
Joan: What about Cobb? What if he sees us?
Hitchcock: He can’t keep an eye on you if he’s got ‘em both on me.
(seaQuest DSV - Launch Bay)
Ford: (walking over to launch) Twenty minutes to rendezvous.
Crocker: Right behind you, Commander.
Bridger: (to Krieg) Whoa, I thought I told you if Commander Ford needed someone he’d take them from security.
Krieg: Captain, no one from security’s been down there. I have, I know my way around.
Bridger: No.
Krieg: Captain, look, please, had I not opened my big mouth, Katie wouldn’t be down there right now; and I know she can take care of herself, but … anything goes wrong and I’m not there…
Bridger: OK, but you be damned sure that she doesn’t have to take care of you as well.
Krieg: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility - by Cobb’s office)
Hitchcock: (walks up) Frank, what happened to your head?
Cobb: Oh, uh, oh, it was a little accident in the mine.
Hitchcock: Well, maybe some company would take away the pain.
Cobb: Nah, some other time. I got a lot of paperwork to take care of.
Hitchcock: That’s too bad. I was thinking I might forget that two drink minimum and cover charge tonight.
(Sea Launch)
Crocker: Locked and ready, Commander.
Ford: Simple in and out. Let’s be invisible. (exits)
Krieg: Hope she’s got them ready. (follows)
(Broken Ridge Mining Facility - Canteen)
Hitchcock: If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go use the ladies room. (gets up)
Cobb: (stops Hitchcock) You think I don’t know what you’re up to? You’re trying to sneak away without singing for me.
Hitchcock: Be patient, Frank. Some things are worth the wait.
Cobb: I’ve waited long enough. You sing, now, I mean, that is what you’re here for, isn’t it?Hitchcock: OK. (slowly walks over to band, talks to piano player, who starts playing, Hitchcock sings) I’ll never dance with my last flame. What can I pay them to do? I never know which old beaus that I should be pursuing. That is why it’s so plain to see …
(Mine Shaft 7)
Joan: They’re not here.
Lenny: Don’t worry, they’re coming.
(Canteen)
Hitchcock: (singing) And when I should close my eyes, I always end up takin’. That is why it’s so plain to see, oooh, that is why …
(Mine Shaft 7)
Crocker: (tying up miner) Easy.
Lenny: (group rounds corner) Thank God, you made it.
Krieg: Where’s Katie?
Joan: I think she’s with Cobb.
Krieg: Commander?
Ford: Chief, get the Sutters back to the launch.
Crocker: Aye, sir. You folks come with me please. (Sutters follow)
Ford: Ben, be careful. I’m gonna stay here in case she shows up, OK.
Krieg: Got it. (leaves)
(Canteen)
Hitchcock: (singing) I never, fool nobody but me. (Krieg enters) I came, I saw, … (Sutters enter launch) Well I don’t know why I should dig when I should be saggin’. Even when my head’s held high, my tail keeps right on swaggin’. That’s why it’s so plain (sees Krieg) to see, oooh wee, that is why, I never, never fool nobody but me. Mmm hmm, I never fool nobody but me. Ohh, I never fool nobody but me. (leaves with Krieg)
Cobb: Duke, they’re getting away.
(Mine Shaft 7)
Krieg; (rounding corner) Better get a move on, Commander, this wasn’t exactly a clean getaway.Ford: OK, I’m right behind you. I just wanna make sure they can’t get though here. (turns corner, sees Cobb)
Cobb: So many shafts, crisscrossing, connecting, kinda like a giant maze, eh, Commander?
(Sea Launch)
Hitchcock: (entering with Krieg) Let’s fire this thing up, Chief.
Crocker: Right away, Commander. Where’s Commander Ford?
Hitchcock: (beeping, into speaker) Hitchcock.
Cobb: (on speaker) You ran away before I could tell you how much I enjoyed your song. It was very nice. I don’t suppose I could persuade you to bring the Sutters back for an encore?
Hitchcock: (into speaker) Sorry, I’m retiring.
Cobb: (in mine shaft) Well then, we’ll just have to see if this fella can sing for us.
(Duke kicks Ford)
Hitchcock: (into speaker) Let him go, Cobb.
Cobb: (in mine shaft) Trade, your man for the Sutters.
Hitchcock: (into speaker) This isn’t a negotiation.
Ford: (in mine shaft, kicked again) Get out of here, Commander, that’s an order.
Cobb: (in mine shaft) Well, what’s it gonna be?
Hitchcock: You heard the Commander. Let’s get back to the seaQuest. (Krieg closes door)
Part Two