ACT FOUR
FADE IN:
22 INT. EMPOK NOR – RUNABOUT BAY
Where we left it - the three officers are fighting against the pull of the air as it rushes out of the room.
23 INT. RUNABOUT – COCKPIT
In the runabout, Bowers reacts as alarms begin to go off all over in response to the explosion.
24 INT. EMPOK NOR – RUNABOUT BAY
BOWERS (comm)
Nile to Nog. What the hell is
going on? I’m reading weapons!
NOG
Not the time, Lieutenant! I’ll
report later! Nog out!
(taps combadge)
John, turn the damn thing off!
CANDLEWOOD
(on tricorder)
I don’t understand, it shouldn’t
have had the power...
The weapon stops firing, spluttering back to nothing.
Nog grabs a sheet of plasteel and a sci-fi nail gun out of a box, rushes to the damaged wall, almost pulled off his feet on the way. He SLAMS into the wall with the force of the wind. Once there, he struggles to place the sheet over the hole, then shoots bolts through it to hold it on.
The sheet in place, the scream of air stops. The machines drop back to the deck with a clang. All three GASP and pant with the adrenaline and the now-thinner air.
Beside them, the ship THROBS and THRUMS, struggling to maintain power. Like a car turning over, or an animal trying to rouse itself from sleep.
A few more taps on his tricorder, and then Candlewood looks up at the others, out of breath and looking appalled.
CANDLEWOOD
It was the force field.
NOG
The force field was working fine.
CANDLEWOOD
Yeah, it was... and giving the
ship all the energy it wanted.
PRYNN
It feeds from the outside too?
CANDLEWOOD
Yep... the same receptors are all
over the outer hull. For absorbing
interstellar hydrogen, maybe? It’s
taking energy from everything. The
moment we got here and turned
on the lights... we started giving
it everything it needed to come
back to life.
NOG
(into action)
Turn it off! All of it! Prynn, pull
the power pack. John, turn off
the generators. Move!
Prynn runs back to the door, towards the portable power generator. Candlewood and Nog move quickly around all their other equipment, powering it all down.
All around, the lights are going down. The room sinks into darkness, the hum of machines dying out. Soon the only light in the room is the glow of the Ascendant ship itself. And even that is now dying out as the power bleeds away.
CANDLEWOOD
Now what?
From the increasing gloom of the runabout bay...
25 INT. JANIR MONASTERY
...to the bright flames of Raiq’s makeshift brazier. She is silently praying. Kira approaches tentatively.
KIRA
I’m sorry for what I said earlier.
I only meant that you could rely
on me... but I can see how it
wouldn’t sound that way to you.
(no response)
Seems like we’re always talking
at cross purposes. I just want to
get to know you, Raiq. Can’t you
just... talk to me?
RAIQ
Why? What do you care?
KIRA
Iliana asked me to look after you.
RAIQ
So it is obligation.
KIRA
Partly. But like I said before, I
like to listen to other perspectives.
Gives me a wider picture. Let’s
start from the beginning. Do
you have any family?
RAIQ
What do you mean?
KIRA
Well, I heard you call Axno your
“sister.” But I took that to be
more metaphorical than literal.
RAIQ
Axno was not my blood. All the
Knights call each other brother
and sister. It speaks of our bond
in purpose to the True.
KIRA
So, do you have an actual sister,
in blood as well as purpose?
RAIQ
How would I know?
KIRA
Why wouldn’t you know? Didn’t
you grow up with your parents?
RAIQ
Grow up...?
(translates)
Ah – no, we do not mature in the
company of our sires. The Knights
gather at the Hearth, once every
century, to make arrangements
for the next generation of Knights.
KIRA
So you don’t have families. You
don’t get married, fall in love.
RAIQ
How would that serve the True?
KIRA
How would it...?
(sigh, regroup)
So how did you grow up, if not
with your ‘sires’?
RAIQ
When young are born, they are
placed into an available vessel
and left to bond with it. Nurses
oversee them as the armour grows.
But the vessel is our only guide.
Our cradle. Our partner. Our home.
KIRA
So each vessel bonds uniquely to
its owner. It teaches them about
your doctrine?
RAIQ
Correct. Each vessel is centuries
old. As one Knight joins the True,
her vessel passes to the next
generation, and the Quest resumes.
KIRA
Alright, this is making sense now.
This is how the Wa always adapted
to any changes to the Even Odds –
it’s used to taking on new owners
every couple of hundred years.
Raiq looks curiously at Kira, then looks away disappointed.
RAIQ
Ah, now I see. You sought tactical
information. That was your true
purpose, not “getting to know me.”
KIRA
No! I’m sorry. I guess it’s just
the soldier in me. Hard habit to
break. But I’m not pumping you
for information, I promise. I’m
just curious. Please, carry on.
Raiq is not convinced, but doesn’t argue any further.
RAIQ
What of you, Kira? Where is your blood?
KIRA
All killed by the Cardassians. Mother,
father, both brothers... all gone.
RAIQ
And you have no young?
KIRA
I carried somebody else’s baby for
a while once, but not my own, no.
You said you’re over a hundred –
have you had any children?
RAIQ
When we gathered at the Hearth a
cycle ago, it was my time to mate.
But then the Fire came to us.
KIRA
You mean Iliana.
RAIQ
(nods)
In doctrine, the coming of the
Fire heralds the final days. If
the Ascension was at hand...
KIRA
...then there was no need to
have a baby. And now...
RAIQ
...there are none left with whom
to mate. I am truly the last of us.
When I finally enter the Fortress...
the Ascendant race will be gone.
Raiq gazes into the flames sadly. Kira sympathises...
26 EXT. EMPOK NOR
Re-establishing the deserted, powerless twin of DS9. With no lower power core, it is completely dead, an empty hulk of metal in orbit of the gas giant.
27 INT. EMPOK NOR – RUNABOUT BAY
In the darkness of the powerless shuttle bay, Nog helps Prynn to fasten her environment suit helmet into place. As the air supply flows, she breathes deeply, relieved.
PRYNN
That’s better.
CANDLEWOOD
Is it? Everything we try, that
thing feeds off it.
Nog looks up at the ship, looming dark and ominous across the room. He’s frustrated, stuck for an answer.
Then he notices something. He reaches up to press a switch – the lights inside his helmet go off.
PRYNN
What are you doing?
NOG
Turn your lights off.
Not knowing why, they do as they’re told. The room sinks into even more total darkness than it already was.
CANDLEWOOD
I say again... now what?
NOG
Don’t you see that?
In the darkness, they now see a gentle glow coming from the silhouetted shape of the ship. It’s lit from inside.
PRYNN
(w/ horror)
It’s still alive.
NOG
Something’s working in there,
that’s for sure. But what?
PRYNN
Only one way to find out.
Determined, Prynn marches back to the ship. Candlewood and Nog watch her go, surprised. But they follow her.
At the foot of the ship, Prynn reactivates the replicator, which recreates the ladder. She begins to climb.
CANDLEWOOD
But what about the power?
PRYNN
I don’t think it matters anymore.
It’s repairing itself already, healing
itself. The horse has already bolted.
She struggles her heavy boots up the ladder. Eventually, she disappears through the opening and into the ship. Hearing no screams, Nog and Candlewood follow.
28 INT. ASCENDANT SHIP
They enter to find Prynn standing in the cramped vessel, looking at the panel she touched earlier. On the otherwise featureless console, a coloured patch is just managing to coalesce and hold its half-hearted shape.
The others join her, staring forlornly at the panel.
CANDLEWOOD
Orange. Orange means...
PRYNN
Communications.
NOG
There’s a message?
PRYNN
I guess so. John, bring up Shar’s
translation program. I’m going
to need it.
As Candlewood works the tricorder built into the arm of his suit, Prynn reaches to her right wrist with her left hand, presses controls, and disconnects the right glove.
Placing the glove aside, Prynn reaches towards the coloured patch with her bare hand. They watch her, worried for her, all on edge, awaiting disaster.
Finally, the fingers swim into the colour patch. An orange hue spreads dimly across the panel, not reaching the rest of the ship because it’s not strong enough yet.
Then the VOICE comes. Not the swirling mass of voices heard on the Even Odds, but just one single, gently whispering voice. A male, tired and lonely, speaking across millions of light years, not knowing if anyone can hear him.
VOICE
Hear me, brothers and sisters.
If you are there, hear my words.
I am here, I received your call.
29 INT. JANIR MONASTERY
Kneeling by her flaming brazier, Raiq presses a hand to her chest, as if feeling something deep inside. Indigestion? She frowns, confused. Sat opposite her, Kira is worried.
KIRA
Are you alright?
Raiq doesn’t answer. She just feels... something.
30 INT. RUNABOUT – COCKPIT
In the runabout, Bowers sees one curious little tell-tale light flashing on his console. He wonders what it means.
31 INT. ASCENDANT SHIP
The three junior officers listen to the disembodied voice.
VOICE
I came as swift as I was able.
But I was far from the Hearth,
and my vessel is wounded. Have
you yet to arrive? Or have you
arrived already, and continued
the Quest without me?
Nog, Candlewood and Prynn look between themselves. This poor man – he doesn’t know what happened.
VOICE
Is it true that the Fire came to
us at last? And that the Final
Ascension approaches?
(beat)
Hear my words, I beg. I am Vexh,
Archquester of the Ascendancy.
Without guidance, I await you,
here at the Hearth. Answer me,
my brothers and sisters, if you
are able. Is there no-one?
Ending on the three officers, standing in the darkness with only that weak orange glow, as they feel sorry for this man, and wonder what to do about it...
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT FOUR
