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"ISS"

BY

David B. Mendelsohn

FIRST DRAFT 5/17/09

FADE IN:

ACT ONE

EXT. DEEP SPACE ORBIT 1000 MILES ABOVE PLANET EARTH -- NIGHT

THE CAMERA SLOWLY SCANS OVER MILES OF JET BLACK ATMOSPHERE.


ONLY THE TWINKLING OF A FEW DISTANT STARS LETS US KNOW WE
ARE IN OUTER SPACE. SLOWLY WE GET CLOSER AND CLOSER TO A
MOON AND ITS PLANET THAT WE FINALLY RECOGNIZE AS EARTH. A
GLINT OF LIGHT IN THE DISTANCE FLASHES OFF OF AN ORBITING
SPACE SHIP AS IT SLOWLY ROUNDS THE EARTH. WE GET CLOSER AND
CLOSER UNTIL WE CAN CLEARLY SEE THE UNIQUE SHAPE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. WITH ITS TWIN GROUP OF FOUR
GIANT SOLAR CELL ANTENNAS HOVERING OVER THE MAIN BODY OF THE
SHIP IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MISTAKE IT FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

CUT TO

INT. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- CONTINUOUS

WE SEE THE DIMLY LIT INTERIOR OF THE ISS. THE EMERGENCY


POWER IS ON AS WE SCAN AROUND. SEVERAL RED EMERGENCY LIGHTS
SPIN AND FLASH GIVING THE PLACE AN EERIE GLOW. NOTHING SEEMS
OUT OF PLACE. NOTHING IS BROKEN OR MISPLACED. BUT THERE IS
A SENSE OF DREAD IN THE CALMNESS. A MAN IN A BLACK SPACE
SUIT WITH A RED HELMET ENTERS THE PICTURE. HE HAS SOME KIND
OF PATCH WITH A MILITARY INSIGNIA ON THE SHOULDER OF HIS
SUIT. HIS FACE IS UNRECOGNIZABLE THROUGH HIS OXYGEN MASK.
WE SEE HIM REACH OUT HIS HAND AND TOUCH A BUTTON ON A CONTROL
PANEL THAT IMMEDIATELY LIGHTS UP. THEN A MONITOR COMES TO
LIFE AND DISPLAYS:

PERSONAL JOURNAL

CAPTAIN JONATHAN MCDOWELL

MCDOWELL (V.O.)

It came aboard. It came aboard our space station and took


over. An alien life form like none we had ever seen. Massive
and scary like some reptilian creature with a large head.
It had a huge tail and a terrifying mouth full of razor sharp
teeth. All of it attached to a hideously large black body.
A dinosaur. That's what it was. Or a shark from somewhere
deep in space.
2.

CUT TO

INSERT: A LARGE OUT OF FOCUS THRASHING BLACK BODY. MOVING


AROUND LIKE A LARGE SNAKE TRYING TO KILL AND EAT ITS PREY.

CUT TO

INT. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- CONTINUOUS

WE HEAR A NOISE FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE SHIP. THE SOUND OF


METAL SCRAPPING AGAINST METAL. THIS CAUSES THE MAN IN THE
SPACE SUIT TO NERVOUSLY LOOK AROUND THE SHIP. WE SEE A LARGE
SHADOW APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR ON THE FLOOR BEFORE THE MAN CAN
NOTICE IT.

CUT TO

EXT. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- EVENING

TUESDAY PREVIOUS WEEK

A COMMERCIAL SPACE SATELLITE SLOWLY HEADS THROUGH SPACE TOWARD


THE ISS. IT IS HIDDEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT LOOKS LIKE A
SMALL ASTEROID STORM.

MCDOWELL (V.O.)

It seemed like months or even years ago that this happened.


Like it happened in another lifetime. But it was only last
Monday. No Tuesday that it came aboard. Floating in on
what we thought was a large piece of decaying empty space
junk. Harmless looking even. But nothing is really harmless
out here. It looked like it was just another crippled space
satellite left out there to die. Until we learned the truth.
By then it was too late.

CUT TO

INT. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- EVENING

OUTER SPACE MONITOR STATION THREE


SUNDAY PREVIOUS WEEK

PRESENT:
RUSSIAN COSMONAUT GAGARIN "GARY" SAVITSKAVA

ITALIAN ASTRONAUT MOLTO BRASIENNE


EUROPEAN UNION ASTRONAUT/DIPLOMAT THOMAS WESLEY

BRAZILIAN ASTRONAUT MACROS GUADENZI

THE FOUR OF THEM ARE SITTING IN THE FORWARD MONITOR ROOM.


THEY ARE CHECKING THE CURRENT ORBIT AND SPACE CONDITIONS ON
3.

THEIR DISPLAY PANELS. THEY MOVE AROUND THE ROOM TO CHECK


OTHER CONTROL PANELS AS MCDOWELL'S VOICE OVER CONTINUES.

MCDOWELL (V.O.)

The Russian from their federal space agency RSA spotted it


first. Gagarin Savitskaya. Gary to us Americans. He first
noted the approach on his monitor a few days earlier. Just
a large mass of unidentified objects in space a million miles
away. Probably meteors. None of the others were particularly
concerned at the time. They all thought it was going to
miss us. But not Gary. He was extremely worried about a
interspace collision. His father Yuri Savitskaya was one of
the original cosmonauts. He died in space when a small meteor
hit his craft. Yuri never thought it would hit him either.
Maybe it was one of those creatures looking for prey. Maybe
the other one came back to finish off his son. Gary was
only eight at the time his father died. So Gagarin took
these incidents very seriously. Serious and personal. He
once told me that he dreamed about his father being pulled
out in to the cold space air. His arms and body flailing
away in quiet desperation. He said he had a the dream for
years about it. Until one night his father came to him in
his dream. He told him it was too late. Too late for the
father. But not for the son. The next day his uncle Balkanur
came back from his army tour of the Chinese border. He had
a little gift for his favorite nephew. A small bag of fortune
cookies. Gagarin was delighted with the gift. He was
surprised by the little piece of paper he found inside of
the first cookie. It had a Chinese inscription on it. He
had never seen or heard of a fortune cookie before that
fateful day. But for some reason he needed to know what the
little piece of paper said. So Gary being the studious boy
that he was went to the local library. He worked for two
days translating the mysterious piece of paper. Finally he
had it done. The fortune inside stated "A danger foreseen
is half avoided".

The Italian Molto Brasienne first spotted the outline of a


satellite during a routine day watch. He thought it looked
like the Angel star he first saw as a young boy in his home
town of Napoli. All shiny and bright looking. Until it got
close to you. Then it got ugly and dark according to the
legend. Like it was trying to entice you in. Entice you in
so later it could destroy you. The legend stated that it
fell to earth over five thousand years ago. That several
people who touched it became frozen in place and turned to
pillars of salt. Just like what happened in Sodom and
Gomorrah. The Italian said he didn't really believe the
stories his grandmother told him about it. But the way he
said it told me a part of him did. Molto loved to talk about
wine, women and food. Just what all Americans thought your
typical Italians liked to talk about. Me. I thought it was
all just a put on. This was one serious dude. I knew it
from the first time I met him. Just by the underlying vibes
he sent out.
4.

When I saw him with the alien I knew it for sure. This guy
loved to attract attention was all. Feed his ego and calm
his fear was how he put it later on. So if he was the center
of the universe for even a short moment in time so much the
better for him.

The Brazilian Macros Guadenzi from their AEB space agency.


He liked to call himself the hope of the Latin American space
programs. We told him he needed to speak Spanish. Not
Portuguese and English to qualify for that honor. He was
also on watch when Molto first saw the satellite. Macros
sounded extremely alarmed at this possible collision. A
massive rocket explosion in 2003 at the Alcantara launching
center in the northern Brazilian state of Maranhoa killed 21
people. Macros knew all of them to some extent or another.
Some of them very intimately. He wore a golden chain on his
wrist with the name Melita on it. But he never talked about
the specifics.

The Japanese delegate was Toki Sakigate. I called him samurai


cause he looked and acted like one. Always so calm in every
situation. He never seemed to blink an eye. Or raise a
bead of sweat. Even in the toughest situations. Even when
the extraterrestrial became known. He never lost his cool.
Toki just did what needed to be done.

CUT TO

INSERT (V.O.)CONTINUES OVER INSERT

TOKI SAKIGATE DRESSED AS A SAMURAI WARRIOR. MOVING WITH


COOL GRACE. WIELDING HIS SWORD LIKE AN INSTRUMENT OF DEATH.
USING IT TO CUT OFF THE BLACK SQUID LIKE LIMBS OF SEVERAL
DARK COLORED CREATURES.

Me. I was trying to act like the calm cool pilot I'd been
trained to be. But deep down inside I was shitting my pants
when it all got started. And the shit only got that much
deeper as things got progressively worse.

My Irish American buddy Patrick O'Neill called him Bruce


because he reminded him of Bruce Lee. I pointed out a million
times that Bruce Lee was born in the good old USA. Plus his
ancestors were Chinese. Not Japanese. But that didn't seem
to register with Paddy. Maybe that thick Irish skull had
something to do with it. The Irish soul was the problem he
said. Not their minds or manners. He said our Irish souls
were constantly at war with our minds. We wanted to be poets
and lovers. Writers and Saints. But we came out Celtic
warriors looking for something or someone to fight.

SMASH CUT
5.

FROM TOKI AS SAMURAI WARRIOR TO A QUICK SHOT OF O'NEILL


SETTING AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE ON THE ISS. THEN A SCENE OF
O'NEILL IN NORTHERN IRELAND AS A YOUNG MAN. WE SEE HIM RUN
OUT OF A BUILDING THEN AN EXPLOSION IN BELFAST. SOMEONE IN
AN ANGRY CROWD HOLDS UP A LARGE SIGN THAT SAYS SLAY THE BEAST.
THEN OTHER SCENES OF THE TROUBLES BETWEEN BRITAIN AND IRELAND
FLASH ON THE SCREEN. LEADING TO SCENES OF PATRICK O'NEILL
DRINKING IN AN IRISH PUB AS MCDOWELL (V.O.) CONTINUES.

But we couldn't really go to war anymore. So we fought the


British and each other. All this led to being hard drinkers.
Which led to being ill mannered ill tempered drunks. I never
saw him be ill mannered. Or an ill tempered drunk. But I
did get to see a true Celtic warrior when the beast came
aboard for us.

CUT TO

OFFICIAL PHOTOS OF CANADIANS STEVEN PRENTICE AND GUY LACOMBE


ALONG WITH SHOTS OF THE ON GOING CONFLICT BETWEEN FRENCH AND
BRITISH CANADIANS. THEN PICTURES OF VARIOUS EUROPEANS.
MCDOWELL (V.O.) CONTINUES.

The surprisingly excitable British Canadian Steve Prentice


didn't get along very well with his equally excitable French
Canadian counterpart Guy Lacombe. The two of them always
bitching and moaning in two different languages. That's
what probably got them both killed so soon. Too busy
screaming at each other instead on trying to stay alive.
Instead of fighting for their lives and ours. They sacrificed
themselves to this alien creature over some stupid point.
Man is an animal. And a dumb one to boot. What a waste.

The other ones from the European Space Agency were mainly
good guys. But there were a few bad ones too. Several were
incompetent political appointees. Seems like bureaucrats
can be the same the world over. But I found out that
international means something completely different in space.
It doesn't just mean earthlings. It also means the other
terrifying creatures lurking out there. Extraterrestrial
life. Demons. Or even the devil himself. Lurking out there
in some form or another.

But the fire was the worst of it all. A true demon or devil
that we know is all too real. Fire is one of the most
dangerous things to happen in space. The Russian space
station Mir caught on fire. That fire was caused by a standby
oxygen container. This one was caused by the creature. It
tried to cook us alive. Guess it didn't like to eat its
meals raw. Just dead. And a lot of people died. Died
horribly. So horribly. The screams still fill my head at
night. If only that damned satellite hadn't crashed in to
us. The creature never would have gotten aboard. If only
the watch officer had been paying more attention when it
did. None of this would have happened. None of the blood
would have flowed.

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