Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Theogony
----------Act Two
_____________
clothes.
SHERIFF
Are we getting close, Miguel?
MIGUEL (Apache Elder, long gray hair)
Yeah. You saw the lights too, Sheriff, you know where it is
as well as we do.
SHERIFF
It's your Mountain, though.
MIGUEL
Yeah, right. It's the town's territory and you know it.
Private property.
COP
Everybody in Arabela saw the goddamn lights. Dangest thing I
ever -SHERIFF
Hey, what's that?
They all come suddenly on the same spot where the Gods had
their campfire, in a clearing in the forest. It looks off
clearly to the East and the town of Roswell we saw before.
But it is a big circular, burned spot now; perfectly
circular, and the grass is burned bare to the ground.
COP
What the hell?
SHERIFF
Aw, it looks like kids were partying up here, that's all.
MIGUEL
No. We have always seen Spirits on this Sacred Mountain. My
CUT:
CUT:
ON THE HIGHWAY - HIGH REMOTE JEMEZ MOUNTAINS
CUT:
DAY - IN THE AIR - FLYING WITH A B-29
BOB
DUTCH
Secure.
BOB
Bombardier?
FEREBEE (in bomb-bay)
Check.
SCOTT
Pre-flight checks are ended Sir, estimated flying time to
the 'Initial Point' twenty minutes.
DUTCH
From the Ip to AP, the Aiming Point, will be a matter of a
few miles.
BOB
We climb to thirty thousand feet and south to the bombing
range, the man-made lake of the Salton Sea, California.
Bombardier Ferebee, aim and drop a single blockbuster filled
with ballast, into a 700-foot circle on the northern edge of
the lake. Colonel Tibbets has then instructed me, once the
bomb is dropped, to execute a 155-degree diving turn.
Scotty, you yank it hard port and dive the instant Tom
Ferebee calls out "bomb away".
SCOTT
155-degree port dive, yes Sir.
BOB
The rest of you back there, Sergeant Duzenbury, flight
engineer, Staff Sergeant Bob Caron, tail-gunner, 2nd
Lieutenant Morris Jeppson, electronic officer, hold on tight
because she's gonna fall like a rollercoaster when Scotty
yanks it. That'll take us back in the direction we came
from. Scotty, Paul emphasized that we keep our nose down and
get the hell out of the area as fast as you can.
DUTCH
Must be a helluvan explosive.
BOB
No chatter. We have to be at least seven miles away, Paul
said, if we're to survive the blast.
FERREBEE
Jesus.
BOB
This is the first practic drop, boys, and we're in the first
brand-new line of B-29s, so don't screw the pooch.
SCOTT
She's a beauty, Bob. Flies like a dream.
BOB
Yep. Biggest warplane on Earth. Wait'll the Japs get a load
of this baby.
SCOTT
First one delivered to Wendover. Still only two of the 29s
delivered to us so far.
DUTCH
Target approaching.
CUT: LONG SHOT the B-29 flying very high into the Sun.
IN THE PLANE
In the rest of the plane the CREW are holding on for dear
life, shouting comments but they can't be understood in the
gigantic roar.
SCOTT
Two miles! Five! Seven!
FERREBEE
Boom! There she goes!
DUTCH
God almighty.
ON THE GROUND
TECHNICIAN
Bull's eye. Those boys can fly.
IN THE PLANE
BOB
Straighten her out Scotty.
FEREBEE
They report on the ground, Captain, a "bull's eye".
CUT:
OPPENHEIMER
Seven miles, twenty miles, fifty miles, Colonel. There is no
way of telling what the safe distance is until we drop a
CUT:
CARON
I tell ya I was there, Dutch, over Germany in a B-17.
DUTCH
Yeah, so, we all were.
CARON
They're called "Foo Fighters", I don't know why. That's why
the boys called them.
BOB
"Foo Fighters"? You're full of foo, I think.
CARON
They could fly like nothing you ever saw. Like no one ever
saw. The Nazis didn't know what the hell they were either,
was the scuttlebutt. They weren't Luftwaffe. They were
flying all over hell, all over all of us. I saw 'em
goddamnit, I'm telling ya.
DUTCH
Bullshit.
BOB
All pilots see Bogies.
CARON
They could cut back and forth at right angles, go straight
up and down. They were like light-balls, or something.
BOB
Whatcha reading, Scotty, join the card game.
SCOTT
CUT:
SCOTT
Are you sure it's okay? I don't want to impose.
KAY
Oh be quiet, you're serving our Country, far from home on
Christmas. Daddy and Molly are looking forward to meeting
I fly over it all the time, but I've never really spent much
time here. Fascinating. Lots of Mexicans and Indians?
KAY
Oh yes, we're in the middle of Reservations all around Hopi, Navajo, Apache. Flagstaff is like an island oasis
surrounded by deserts, on this one big Mountain here - 7,000
feet above sea level - , the Indians all call sacred. It's
like, it's a burial cemetery for the Kachina spirits. Daddy
speaks all their languages and they come to Babbitt's,
where's he's the shipping manager for all the trading posts
on the Reservations, to trade blankets and turquoise. He
really knows their cultures, and we're Hurons from French
Canada too, so they trust us. I know Navajo too.
SCOTT
You are amazing.
KAY
Here we are. Just a word - Daddy has been sick with some
neuralgia they think, so sometimes he's a little ... I don't
know ... incoherent, or vague.
SCOTT
You're the only child, you said? That's a strange one for
me, one of thirteen kids.
DAVE
There's my girl.
KAY (hugs him)
Daddy, Molly, this is Jack Scott.
DAVE
Well hello young man, we've been hearing very good things
about you. Very good things.
SCOTT
Pleased to meet you.
MOLLY
Welcome, welcome to our home. Are you on leave for
Christmas?
SCOTT
Yes Ma'am, a three day weekend pass.
DAVE
Great. How about a highball?
SCOTT
Yes, thank you. Scotch?
DAVE
Irish Whisky is all we have here.
SCOTT
Irish is terrific. Thank you.
DAVE
Well sit down, sit down, make yourself at home. We don't
stand on ceremony in Flagstaff Arizona. Have you been here
before?
SCOTT
SCOTT
Perfect. I hope I'm not imposing too much on you?
DAVE
Oh my God, we're proud to have one of our Servicemen for
dinner. How's the damn war going, we about to win it?
SCOTT
Europe is going well, I gather, but the Pacific is really
going to be tough. One lousy island after another.
DAVE
Lousy Japs. Percy Lowell lived in Japan for years, too, did
you know that? He told me. He knew the language, can you
believe that? And French. We often spoke in French.
SCOTT
Is that right? I'm rotten with languages.
DAVE
MOLLY
MOLLY
He was obsessed with Mars. Rather a little crazy about it,
some people thought.
SCOTT
Were you here then too, Molly?
MOLLY
Oh yes, we were kids growing up together.
DAVE
He put everybody to work, it seemed like, along with the
Babbitts and their ranches and trading posts on the Indian
Reservations, and the Riordans' sawmills.
KAY
But Lowell brought us into the intellectual sphere, Jack.
Scientists came from all around. They started the college up
too. We were studying, and not just making money for its own
sake.
MOLLY
It was a very exciting time. But Dr. Lowell died in 1916,
and then the first Great War kind of brought us all back
down.
DAVE
I hated that war.
SCOTT
It was meaningless slaughter. My father always said.
KAY
He's a farmer in Kansas, Daddy.
DAVE
Is that right? Then you didn't go hungry in the Depression?
SCOTT
No, that's one thing we had in the Dust Bowl, was food. No
shoes or coffee or sugar, but pork and vegetables.
DAVE
Duct Bowl. Damn.
SCOTT
The Dirty Thirties.
DAVE
Lots of folks went down.
SCOTT
Yes, but we hung on, thirteen kids to do a lot of work.
DAVE
I have a great admiration for that, Jack. Lieutenant. A
toast, to you, and our brave Servicemen all over the world,
fighting the evil!
MOLLY
Well thank you, Sir.
SCOTT
Yes, really delicious. They were cooking a feast in the mess
hall, I heard, on the Base, but it couldn't possibly touch
this.
MOLLY
Oh it's just plain old turkey and mashed potatoes.
KAY
Oh no, Mom grows her own vegetables and -DAVE
I smell cherry pie too.
KAY
Daddy's favorite.
DAVE (crying, emotional)
I love my family so much. I'll bet you do too, Jack? I
always get a little emotional on Christmas Eve, please
excuse me.
MOLLY
His headaches are getting worse.
KAY
I'll go see ...
She goes out after him.
MOLLY
Kathleen has been the only one who can console him, since
her mother died, back in '32. She was only seven years old.
Dave had his first two wives die on him.
EXTERIOR - NIGHT
Driving up the little Mars Hill, in the car, Dave driving.
DAVE
Percival Lowell first studied Mars for a whole year, every
night, all night, that first year from May 24, 1894 to April
3, 1895. I memorized it.
KAY
Daddy's an expert on it.
SCOTT
This is Mars Hill?
DAVE
Yep. There's his Observatory, still working in perfect order
fifty years later. They really built 'em in those days.
KAY
Lowell's grave is right over there. And his house.
SCOTT
He lived up here?
DAVE
Yep. And the Rotunda and the other telescopes back in there.
KAY
Pluto was discovered here too, Jack.
SCOTT
I knew that.
KAY
In 1930, by a young astronomy student Clyde Tombaugh. I met
him once.
DAVE
Pluto. God the dead. Tombaugh used Percy's mathematics to
find it. And Hubble was studying here, all the big names.
Let's go and find Doc Slipher, he'll unlock it for us.
SCOTT
We can just go in and use the Telescope?
DAVE
Yep, there he is. Doc! You know, Jack, a lot of people say
Percy was crazy and didn't see any "Canals" on Mars, because
some of them didn't see them. But you have to look at it for
a long time first. You can't just focus in and expect to see
anything in ten minutes. Doc, this is Lieutenant Jack Scott,
Kathleen brought him up here to look at Mars, can you open
up the Clark for us?
DOC
For you Dave, anything. Good evening Kathleen, Lieutenant.
DAVE
There she is.
SCOTT
Magnificent. This is very exciting. This is the very
telescope Doctor Lowell used, and influenced H.G. Wells and
everybody else?
DOC
The very one. He sat right here for many hours at a time,
off and on for twenty years.
SCOTT
My God.
DAVE (picking up a book)
Here's one of his books. He wrote three of 'em, and hundreds
of scientific articles.
DOC
I'll line it up for you. See if we can get the Red Planet.
DAVE (reading)
... "there is no indication that we are sole denizens of all
we survey, and every inference that we are not ... " Isn't
that great? He was a first-class writer too.
KAY
I love that old style of writing.
SCOTT
Yes.
DAVE (reading)
" ... Before proceeding however, to an account of what in
consequence we have learned about our neighbor ... " He
always called Mars "our neighbor", Jack. " ... a couple of
misapprehensions upon the subject, - not confined, I am
sorry to say, wholly to the lay mind, - must first be
corrected."
DOC
Lowell was a professor of mathematics, you know, at M.I.T.,
and was a Phi Beta Kappa. Ph.D. Harvard graduate.
DAVE (reading)
" ... One of these is that extra-terrestrial life means
extra-terrestrial human life...Under changed conditions,
life itself must take on other forms...All deduction rests
ultimately upon the data derived from experience."
DOC
There. It's ready. Look right there Lieutenant.
SCOTT
Mars?
DOC
Yes, she's beautifully in focus. Percy said it all had to do
with the perfect atmosphere of Flagstaff.
SCOTT (voiceover)
My God. Oh my God.
DAVE (voiceover)
Yes indeed. The god of Mars.
SCOTT (voiceover)
That's it, isn't it. I can't believe it.
KAY (voiceover)
Believe it.
DAVE (voiceover)
Just look at it, Jack, and I'll read to you. Focus your
eyes. Let our Arizona atmospherics settle down, and keep
looking. We have plenty of time. It's our own private
telescope. Listen to this: " ... To determine whether a
planet be the abode of life in the least resembling that
with which we are acquainted, two questions about it must be
answered in turn: first, are its physical conditions such as
render it, in our general sense, habitable; and secondly,
are there any signs of its actual habitation?"
SCOTT (voiceover, still looking)
Yes, it's coming in to better and better focus. Oh Jesus.
Look at that - some sort of gigantic rifts, like ... like
the Grand Canyon, as I've seen it from the air.
DOC (v.o.)
Yes indeed, Mars has very similar Earthlike canyons and
features of river valleys.
DAVE (v.o.)
Kathleen, can you read a little of this here, the light in
here isn't too good for my eyes, and we don't want to blind
Jack's view finder. Keep looking Jack, we'll talk in your
ears, a regular Harvard seminar.
SCOTT
Green and blue?
DAVE
And reddish-ochre.
KAY
Like Arizona and New Mexico.
SCOTT
Phenomenal.
DOC
The colors are proof positive of the presence of an
atmosphere.
DAVE
And atmosphere, water, the presence of life.
DOC
She's back in the picture for you Lieutenant. The Earth is
rotating fast.
SCOTT (takes it again)
Thank you. I can't tell you how thrilling this is.
DAVE (v.o. reading)
" ... Canals inclosing ... the Galaxias region ... the
Boreas, and the Eunostos ..."
DOC (v.o.)
Names give to the canal regions by Dr. Lowell and his fellow
Harvard astronomers at the time in the 1890s, Professors
W.H. Pickering and Mr. A.E. Douglas.
SCOTT (v.o.)
And they saw the canals too?
DOC (v.o.)
Yes. On this very same telescope, after many many hours and
nights of viewing. Mr. Douglas found them perceptibly darker
KAY
And there is water on Mars, at the poles, and underground,
erosion of dried waterbeds and great rivers.
DAVE (reading the book)
"That the blue was water at the edge of the melting snow
seems unquestionable. That it was the color of water; that
it so persistently bordered the melting snow at the north
pole; and that it subsequently vanished, are three facts
mutually confirmatory to this deduction."
SCOTT (on the telescope)
I don't see any water.
DOC
You're not aimed at the poles. Wrong time of year anyway.
Mars has four seasons just like we do.
SCOTT
Definitely canals or roads or something between the large
darker patches.
DAVE (reading)
"Meanwhile an interesting phenomenon occurred in the cap on
June 7. On that morning -- "
DOC
He looked in the daytime too, sometimes.
DAVE (reading)
" --- at about a quarter of six (or, more precisely, on June
8, 1h. 17m., G.M.T.) as I was watching the planet, I saw
suddenly two points like stars flash out in the midst of the
polar cap. Dazzlingly bright upon the duller white
background of the snow, these stars shone for a few moments
and then slowly disappeared. The seeing at the time was very
good. It is at once evident what the other-world apparitions
were, - not the fabled signal-lights of Martian folk, but
the glint of ice-slopes flashing for a moment earthward as
the rotation of the planet turned the slope to the proper
angle."
DOC
He gets off and rubs his eyes. DOC gets on it again to move
it slightly.
KAY
How do you like it?
SCOTT
Are you kidding me? This is the greatest thing I've ever
seen.
DAVE
It really is.
SCOTT
I want to read his books. Where can I get them?
DAVE
They're all out of print, decades ago. Nobody cares about
Percival Lowell, especially scientists.
DOC
Everybody thought he was nuts.
KAY
Still do.
SCOTT
They're the crazy ones.
DAVE
You can borrow my copies, signed by Percy, if you're really
serious.
SCOTT
Oh, I couldn't do that.
DAVE
One copy at a time, if you swear to return them.
SCOTT
On my honor. And I'm dead serious, this is ... my god ...
the most important thing going on in our times.
DAVE
I agree. Here, take it. Christmas present.
Books are ... almost sacred to me. I can't tell you how much
... Thank you. Thank you Dave.
DOC
She's back in view, on the south pole, er, the north pole at
the bottom.
SCOTT (at it again)
I can't wait to read it. Oh God, look at that!
MARS
DOC (v.o.)
That's the received Greenwich of Martian longitudes, and was
named by Schiaparelli the 'Fastigium Aryn', such as having
been the name of a mythologic spot between the zenith and
the nadir - the middle of the star-planet.
DAVE (v.o.)
Close to the Mare Serenitatis, to the west of Sabaeus Sinus.
SCOTT (v.o.)
There's the lines again.
DOC (v.o.)
With regard to their surprising symmetry, it is only
necessary as Lowell said to say that the better they are
seen the more symmetrical they look.
DAVE (v.o.)
He said, it was evidence of a great planetary-wide
civilization, that was so unified it could construct
something in coordination, and, necessarily, in peace. They
are all over the world. He and his scientists drew detailed
maps and charts of the canals, and Oases at the great
junctions and crossroads. They took telescopic photographs
of them. They worked on it for twenty years, all over the
world, at other observatories in Peru and Europe. They had
to be a unified world, the whole planet, to get it done for the water on Mars was, apparently, running out. It was a
great crisis. They were not the evil, violent warmonger
DAVE
There she is, just one red dot among all the others.
SCOTT
Incredible.
KAY
I don't know how anyone can not believe there isn't some
infinite creation out there behind it all, whether it's
religion or science or anything else. How could we die and
then end it all, in some unreasonable oblivion? It doesn't
seem fair, if anything.
DAVE
There is justice in the sky. It is fair, Kathleen. My
darling girl. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas Jack Scott.
SCOTT
You too Sir, Merry Christmas.
KAY
Merry Christmas.
They all hold hands and walk happily back to their car, in
the quiet clear night.