Fade in
INT – Bridge – Day
Helton stands at the command station, Stenson to one side in the main pilot station, Lag at the other (co-pilot) station. SGT Kaushik stands at one station, Allonia at the other, and Quinn stands wide-eyed in a corner to watch it all. The forward window shows the space-port, side “window” screens various readouts. Continue reading
EXT – Day – Ground near the stern of the ship.
The ramp is down, but the thick main cargo-bay doors are closed. Allonia and Helton are out for a walk around the ship together, to get some fresh air and stretch their legs. It’s sunny and bright, with the sun at a fairly low angle. Helton is wearing a pistol on a belt, and his cloths are somewhat simple steam-punkish in style. Allonia wears a conservative calf-length skirt and blouse, her hair is in a thick braid. They look like friends out for a stroll. The camera follows them from a distance as they head for the ramp, zooming in slowly. We can’t hear what they say, but it seem to be funny by the smiles and apparent laughter. They get to the foot of the ramp, and start walking up it. Continue reading
Fade in
EXT – Day – grounds next to the ship
The recruits, SGT Kaushik, Cpl Kaminski, and Harbin stand in the morning sun. The recruits in formation (two rows), with Kaushik and Kaminski as the squad leaders. They are all dressed in simple camo fatigue uniforms. Arrayed before the formation are a series of mannequins, each clad in a different style. In order from left to right there are: Continue reading
Classic spaghetti-western soundtrack stuff, here. You can smell the horse-sweat, the gun smoke, and the cattle, feel the mounting tension, hear the clink of spurs, see the MEN riding into the action.
Ennio Morricone – Guns Don’t Argue
Morricone thought of the soundtracks he wrote as being “working music,” what he did to pay the bills, not “real” music. But he did a LOT of that working music – he wrote the scores for more than 500 movies and TV series during his life. His name is listed as the music dude on a seemingly endless list of classic and/or infamous movies, from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and The Thing to Kill Bill.
Fade in
INT – night – back in Helton’s cabin on the Tajemnica
Allonia comes up to the open door. A couple of the many computer screens that double as lights are on “dim”, providing a low, diffused light to the room. The bed is made. She looks around and doesn’t see him. Continue reading
Fade in
EXT – Day – dry gulch road
Helton is walking up a road in a small, deep, dusty gulch, sparse bushes and bare rock around him. He is sweating, and it looks hot. The sun beats down. As he comes around a bend he sees a group of six men ahead, working together with hand tools building a gate and part of a stone wall across the wash, looking like they could be right out of the 10th century. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – DAY – Eridani Parts Depot Office
Helton is in a modest office at a space-port / bone-yard, which is cluttered with various machine parts, electronics, shelves, and ship-related oddments. There are two desk, only one is occupied by a young man in plain cloths eying the e-reader in his hands. Helton sits opposite. Continue reading
Fade in
INT- DAY – Starship liner dining room
Helton sits at a table with a half-dozen other passengers. Dinner is being served. A couple of tables over near the door, Bipasha is also being served, studiously ignoring him. At her table seem to be a collection of dignitaries, with fancy clothes and a couple in some sort of uniform. Light Bollywood-bluegrass music plays in the background, and there is chatter filling the air as well. A uniformed ships officer comes into the room, looks about, walks by Bipasha and goes up to Helton, and leans forward to whisper into his ear. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – Night- Helton’s cabin
Low angle camera shot with his desk in the foreground in dim light, and bunk in the background. On the desk is the medallion that the monk gave him. Helton lays in bed under a light blanket. He tosses and turns. Continue reading
Mark Twain said: It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” I’ve seen a lot of examples of this in my life, and heard of more. I’m sure you have too. In fact, in installment 002 of “The Stars Came Back” Helton points out that a lot of time the so-called experts have really BAD plans, and that you can’t tell what the outcome of a lot of projects will be based on the credentials of the people starting it.(He is specifically talking about climate science, in fact)
The Climate debate is no different. There is a LOT of garbage out there (and I say this a a teacher with a cert that includes “Earth Science;” I’m in the “CO2 is plant food” camp) Then, along comes something from out of the dry fields that takes on directly one of those “common knowledge, common sense” things directly, and says, “We were wrong. The solution we have been pushing for decades is CAUSING the problem!” It takes some good sized balls, and a dose of humility the size of a Hollywood celeb’s coke habit, to make an admission like that. More so to take that fact, and a much better DEMONSTRATED solution, on the road.
We all know over-grazing causes land to turn into deserts, right?
Maybe not. Maybe the solution to desertification is to put MORE beef in the fields, and on the grill. It’s a win-win-win-win, meaning the lefties will HATE it, and fight it tooth and nail. But the guy makes a good case.
INT – night – Adelaide bar
Normal space-port area mid-range night-life bar. Dim. Locals sitting or standing around drinking, talking, playing cards, shooting pool, socializing. No strippers, though there are a few couples dancing in a small corner clearing. At a 4-seat table off to the side near a corner sit SGT Kaushik and CPL Kaminski out of uniform, facing away from the wall, talking in low tones over drinks. An ancient blotto drunk wanders around a little, then staggers over to their table, looking at them a little too closely.
Old Drunk: You… you’re from the ship… Continue reading
Fade in
INT – night – the cramped quarters of Kat, the battalion Legal Officer.
Kat sits at her desk, leaning back in her chair, reading, door open.
Allonia steps up to the door.
Allonia: Knock-knock.
Kat: ‘Evening. Continue reading
He’s always had some odd songs, many of them are disturbing or off-beat. Again, another artist that doesn’t just write and sing popcorn-brained “oh, baby, do-it-to-me, baby!” songs I’ve always like singers with clear voices who are performing to sing, not scream or get autotuned into key. He doesn’t seem to have (at least to my ear) an amazing range or anything, but he uses what he’s got well.
Warren Zevon – Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
Interesting pics from the era and the place being sung about. A turbulent time – the effects of European colonialism ending meeting the ideology of communism in a place ruled by tribalism and the inheritor of a thousand years of depredation by Arab and Islamic slavers. It’s testament to human toughness and pig-headedness that anyone survived there, and it is only a bad as it is, and not worse.
Fade in
INT – day – engineering
The Engineering Command Center a cramped-feeling, long, machinery and control panel filled room on the top deck, over the cargo bay. Stenson is looking at several screens full of readouts. There are tool-boxes and a generally crowded-but-organized appearance to the room. Helton walks in.
Helton: So, how’s progress? Continue reading
Sounds of clanging, heavy working on machines, chains rattling.
Fade in
INT – Day – Cargo bay
View from inside the cargo deck, looking out the open main aft door. A half dozen soldiers in camo uniforms are working clearing stuff from the cargo bay. There are two chain hoists from the ceiling going down to the ramp, which is now partially raised, and each chain hoist has three soldiers hanging from the chains (basically climbing them) and they are just barely able to lift the ramp that slowly inches up. Chief Stenson is in charge, signaling to one of the teams to climb faster. Outside a single guard in light body armor with a rifle can be seen standing. Quinn sits on top of a pile of crates to one side, wide-eyed, taking it all in. Camera view pulls back and Lag is standing next to Harbin, watching progress. Continue reading
Fade in
EXT – DAY – cab of a light truck
Chief Stenson is driving, Lag is in the passenger seat.
Stenson: They said I HAD to check the thing out. And that you HAD to meet the owner. They were kind of mysterious about it, but…
Lag: It’s good to get out of the office anyway. It’s always useful to eyeball things in person when something unusual comes up. There it is. Big enough?
Stenson: Depends. Right now, we’re light on everything, so it should work. That ship- looks like an old Meridian transport, all right. Continue reading
EXT – Day – in the cab of a light truck
View in through the side window. Two soldiers in full combat armor (helmets off) drive down the dusty road leading to pad D9. CPL Kaminski, a huge, powerfully built Viking-looking guy drives while eating a brown food-ration bar. SGT Kaushik, a trim light-skinned East Indian, is in the passenger seat.
CPL Kaminski: (defensively) -She said “recon and secure the building.”
SGT Kaushik: When the major or Top tells you that, yeah, you need armor, air cover, and a hot line to the artillery battery. When the Lawfare Officer tells you, you gotta be smart enough to know she means look it over and get a three year lease with an option to buy. All this gear (indicates the armor) is useless to check out a building with. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – day – modest sized office with four desks, two doors, good lighting.
Lag sits at a desk reading an e-reader. He’s wearing a sharp-looking dark blue military uniform. There is a knock at the door.
Lag: ENTER!
The door opens, and in walks a middle-aged woman in a similar uniform, Lt KAT. She’s slender and fit, with long hair in a braid, and looks like she used to be gorgeous. She walks precisely to the front of Lag’s desk, comes to attention, salutes.
Kat: Reporting for duty. Continue reading
Dissolve to
Helton walks to the side of the big aft cargo doors, looks at them, and pushes a button on the wall.
Helton: Open.
Nothing.
Helton: (pushing button again) Open Sesame.
Nothing.
Helton: Open the cargo bay doors, please, Tajemnica.
Ship: (softly) I am afraid I can’t do that. Continue reading
I’ve always been a Tull fan – I mean, how many rock bands have a lead FLUTE? Their songs usually say a lot more than “hey, baby-baby” ad nauseum.
Jethro Tull – I am your gun for some Friday tunage.
For those not familiar with the group – The lead guy (singer / flutist) is Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull, for whom the group is named, was an agriculturalist from the early 1700s. The group was so bad early on they had to keep changing names in order to get a gig at the same place twice. Jethro Tull was they name they had when it finally all came together for them, so they were sort of stuck with it.