A Steady Diet of Past Desserts

Teaser.

Open.

Cockpit of Serenity.

Wash and Mal and Jayne are there. Wash is flying the ship into orbit of their target destination..

They are chatting about something…

Wash (mock enthusiasm) “It’s so nice to be landing on another desert. I hate the moons that have too much green stuff and shade. We see too many of them, huh captain?”

Mal

Yep, we probably see too many. Always more alliance friendly eyes on the rich planets. the kind of attention we don’t need, wouldn’t you say?

Jayne (intelligently) I would.

Wash (abandoning the discussion) Well there you go. (reaching to hold his stomach) did you guys eat any of the leftovers from ……?(mal interrupts)

Mal

And we go where our business is. I got a good source, says we can find some work to be done here, and Inara’s got a meeting here herself…so everyone makes out.

Jayne (catching the double entendre…leering at his own joke) …Don’t think Inara will just be ‘making out’…not for the kind of cash she’s asking..

Mal (half smirk- is he bothered or amused) Is that right? I expect the price she told you Jayne, was no more than double her standard.

Jayne (trying to decipher Mal’s meaning) So what, I’m higher than her standards?

Wash (Pulling his hands from his stomach and putting them in the air…over the top sarcasm) That’s it exactly. All that wisdom, yet Simon’s the doctor you the thug. Life is ironic.

Jayne (feeling some loss of dignity) I knew she weren’t serious bout that price.. couldn’t be too serious bout her work neither, she don’t want to learn up from old Jayne.

Wash She’s a Companion, not an anthropologist you Cro-Magnon…what does she care if you comb your hair back with a spit shine or with your own feces to hold it just…

Mal

Wash, could you give me a big fancy word for what that beeping is all about, And why you aren’t looking to it?

Wash

Uh…because I’m talking captain… (looking down at the com.) The big fancy word is ‘call coming in’. How bout I get that?

Mal

How bout you do.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Inara (dinner table, in the middle of a story – Book, Simon, River, Zoe, Kaylee) One man was allowed to enter the monster’s keep each day, all others were kept out by a powerful spell of his own making. And every day the monster would come to her chamber, and every day he would offer up the flesh of one of the men who tried to rescue her, and every day she would refuse to eat.

Book

Well that’s gruesome.

Kaylee (pushing her food away-looking bothered)

Simon (really close to Kaylee. puts out his hand in front of her where her plate was and salts it.)

Kaylee (smiling at him, less disturbed now)

Inara (continuing)

She got thinner and thinner as the days passed. Weaker and weaker. She finally gave up hope of any rescue, and eventually she could only feel dullness in her chest, where she had once felt heartbreak for all the men who had tried to help her. But she would not eat.

Book

That’s a strong woman.

Zoe

Could be it’s a weak woman.

Inara (smiling briefly)

She had decided to die. She saw only horror in living. So she continued to fast until she was only skin and bones. Until one day, when the beast brought to her a man’s severed arm. She was far passed the revulsion of seeing these things, and so she just stared at it where it had been dropped…and then she saw something that she hadn’t seen before. The arm had tattoos on it. All over it in fact, and when she read the words she shuttered. They said “you have to eat.” Over and over she read them, until finally, she forced herself to do just that.

River

It’s poison.

Inara (looking at her, spooked? Or just interested)

River

She’ll get sick.

Simon (casual agreement) Cannibalism’s one of the surest ways to pass on disease.

Kaylee (looking at Simon in horror) Simon (uncomfortable all of a sudden) Uh…we read some stories in medical school...some of the cut off colonies during the war ..”

Zoe

She’ll die if she doesn’t eat…getting sick seems like less the issue. These men are sacrificing every day trying to save her. How long are they going to keep coming?

River (Smiling) She’ll die anyway…she just won’t know it yet. It’ll get inside her and kill what she was, and she’ll have memories, But everything will be different now..

Book

In some Christian Denominations, they drink the blood of Christ and eat his flesh, symbolically. They believe they are taking the soul of Christ into them. Perhaps in the same way, it is the love of this dead champion who will strengthen her?”

River

She’s seeing what she wants to see. She’s hungry, that’s all, and its making her susceptible, psycho, schitzoid, salivate, savage…

Book (putting a hand on her shoulder)

Child, let’s hear the rest of the story.

River (almost miffed at the interruption) I just told you but you weren’t listening.(sighing affectedly…looking back up at Inara.)

Inara (Looking at river, slowly going back to the story)

So she started regaining some strength…men still died for her, but now she ate of them. And yes, there were always tattoos. One day the beast came in with remains from another of his victims, and she stood to take it from him. The beast laughed at his creation, pleased with his bride to be. Her attack took him by surprise. When she opened her mouth to bite, he saw for the first time, to his horror, that she had grown jagged teeth, like his own, and it was those teeth that ripped through his gullet, and those teeth that tore the skin from his bones as she devoured him.

Zoe

The End.

Inara

For the beast…yes…(looking at river) and no. Another hopeful came to the castle that next day…one who had dreamt of Moon often. Maybe she had dreamt of him too, once, but now, looking upon him, she could see only the parts of the man, she could only read the writing on him from head to toe, she could only see him as the meat that all the others had become.

And he…well when he saw her he jumped back in fear, mistaking her for the beast he would have to battle. This was not the woman he’d come to save.

(catch Simon in the shot, Kaylee also, in the background, her eyes glancing to him. )

cut back to cockpit-

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Unknown man on the com. (he is older than Mal by at least 10 years.)

She did say she’d be coming in on a firefly. It certainly is a small verse Captain Reynolds.

Mal

Almost too small.

Unknown man

It’s good to see you back on this side of it. You’re clear for landing on my homestead. See you in twenty. (screen goes fuzzy) Jayne

So wait…that’s Inara’s client too?

Wash (coming off of a sick to his stomach look…lashing again) Which part gave it away quick draw? Was it when he said as much? or later down the line?

Jayne (looking at him, like he could kill him)

Wash Old army buddy, captain?

Mal

Not so much a buddy, as a general. Benson Pacer.

Jayne

He’s the one got work for us?

Mal

I wasn’t given any mention of him back on Redsands. Newtie threw out Taroe’s name but not his …not sure I’m gonna like the kind of work he’s offering.

Wash

Seems like a really, really good time to decide that, being that we’re low on fuel and out at the edge of nowhere, Mal. We don’t get fueled up here, we’re taking convoy routes to the next moon. And no way to run if we happen on pirates or alliance patrols. Hey, maybe we can trade the sibs for some propulsion…I’m sure the kids would understand…

Mal

Well aren’t you all manner of pleasantness today, Wash. What crawled up your tailpiece?

Wash

Probably a gorram cactus, from all this desert crawling we’re always doing….(suddenly his face changes, and he stands abruptly…in the background show the planet arching into view.

Mal

What is it?

Wash (urgent but confused as to direction) Someone take over…I’ve got to.. (he starts to head towards the exit.

Jayne

Huh?

Mal (grabbing him by the arm) Have you gone crazy ? You’ve got to land this thing. Now.

Wash (urgent) Mal, I’ve got a problem…

Jayne (looking scared) I’m about to have a problem too…get him back in that chair Mal.

(Firefly lurches, and Wash comes to his senses, rushing back over to the wheel, and sits down, his face a contortion of pain. There’s a temporary handling issue, which finally corrects…We go back to Wash’s face, which is in a kind of misery.) Jayne and Mal are slowly backing out of the cockpit.

Wash (without turning around, speaking loudly) You should be paying me more, Captain.

Mal (smiling) How bout this. When we touch ground you’re on leave till such time as we need a pilot. Oh…and good work today.(leaves)

Wash

Hah(ironic)

(pan out through the window to the desert planet as it comes in )

go to theme music.

________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

ACT I

The title flashes in the corner…. A Steady Diet of Past Desserts

Pick up immediately from where we left off.

(camera looks down on a desert far below…pan up until a space ship whizzes into view enveloping the shot, from which point the camera darts through the cockpit, down the hall, to right behind jayne and mal, as they enter the kitchen area.)

Zoe (looking alert – less than worried though. No-one is necessarily on pins and needles…Kaylee is interested because it could concern engineering issues) Problem up there captain?

Mal (a little distracted) What?

Zoe

Turbulence?

Jayne

Yeah, in your man’s lower intestine.

Mal

Everything’s fine. We’ll be landing shortly. Gonna be visiting an old war buddy of mine.(not really looking at Inara, but maybe seeing her in his view). A Mister Pacer. Old grizzly sort. Not a likeable man in general, but it’s not like we’re getting in bed with him. If he has business, well we could use it. (Jayne looking at Inara from wherever he is in the room at Mal’s comment) (Pan to Inara…surprised, bothered throughout Mal’s talking)

Book

General Pacer. You know the man?

Zoe

We fought under him at the Spilled Marbles. He was good.

Simon

The moon belt of the Tarnished Taw? Big battle…(shyly) I don’t really know that much about it…or him.

Book

Some might remember him more from after the war.

Inara

What do you mean?

Mal

General Pacer suffered a little deafness in the trenches. Didn’t ever hear them call the war off.

Book

He was a hold out. didn’t support the cease fire…kept fighting until Generals from the independents threatened to send their own men after him. Alliance exiled him from the core planets after it was over…

Mal

And I’m guessing he found that arrangement to be just fine. You all get to meet him soon enough. (Looking at Inara.) You can get your own impressions.

Inara

Are you sure you wouldn’t rather meet him on neutral ground? He seems…

Mal

No need. This’ll do just fine. Sweet of you to be so concerned though.(quick smile, there and then withdrawn). About when will you be disembarking?

Inara (suspicious…maybe a little angry) It appears that won’t be necessary. Mr. Pacer is my client.

Mal (genial, betraying nothing)

Well now, it is a small verse isn’t it. This is real shiny…I’m glad you kids will be getting to know each other. And here I thought old Pacer still had a taste for green boys under his command… …of course his wife probably wouldn’t have approved if she’d known… Inara

Tell me you’re kidding, right?

Mal

Only about all of it. (already turning. calls to Kaylee Inara looks relieved .then something dawns on her as to what Mal just said. She searches his face, but he’s already turned away, looking to some other issue)) Kaylee…

Kaylee (walking up to him.) Capt’n?

Mal

Let’s talk shop a second.

Kaylee

Okay.

Mal

How’s our fuel looking?

Kaylee

Pretty much like I said it would about now. (looking worried)We’ll be gettin some here won’t we?

Mal

Wouldn’t of made the trip if I thought that weren’t true. I just don’t want to pay more than I have to. I know how these satellite moons operate. They got the only resource anywhere near here, and they know people will pay what they have to. Comes down to it we may need to stretch what we have…

(Kaylee smiles… with not quite believable optimism)

cut to most of the crew in the cargo bay, ready to disembark

……………………………………………………………………..

Book

I think I’ll stay aboard with Wash captain.

Mal

Suit yourself, but we might be here for a while.

Book

All the same. I’ve read some things on Pacer…some things he’s said. Its quite possible your friend has the same notion of preachers that you do…

Mal

That they’re all preachy? Don’t be too hard on yourself though Shepherd. I’ve seen you go from all manner of sanctimonious to down right peachy, and that shows range.

Book

Thank you, I think. (dark expression- a little distanced) Range is something I… do have. (coming back) It would be more respectful of me to stay scarce, I think.

Mal

(Zoe enters the cargo bay with Simon, Mal turns to them)

How is he?

Zoe

A big baby about this stuff as usual

Jayne

maybe you should diaper him.

Simon

He’ll live. Just a little food poisoning. It was worth checking…some of the bacterial mutations on the border worlds can wreak havoc on a body.

Jayne (face all scrunched up)

Now how’d you go and check that?.

(Inara enters, dressed nicely as usual)

Mal

The queen arrives, and now we can make our visit presentable. Would you like me to announce you, my lady, or just introduce you?

Inara

(annoyed) We will do fine without your help.

Mal

So be it.

(Out on Mal hitting airlock) …………………………………………………………………….

(Pacer and four others, all look somewhat stoic except for pacer, greet them as they disembark.)

Pacer

Malcolm Reynolds. Welcome to my humble prison.

Mal

And how humble it is

Pacer

Laughs. It really is a prison though, and in that way is no more mine than all of us who live here, exiles from the alliance, the bunch.

Mal

Still living in alliance territory

Pacer

All territories are alliance territory. But in all candor, its more sanctuary than exile. They visit from time to time, the good wardens they are, make sure we’re not trying to dig out of our cell, but the rest of the time they leave us alone, We’re too far out for them to interfere with us on any regularity. And they know we’ve been spade. Us along with the rest of the galaxy. (looking to Inara) Inara Serra. You are much lovelier in all the dimensions the eye can appreciate. Your acceptance of my invitation makes me seem more respectable than I really am. (kisses her hand- he speaks with ease and little pretension)

Inara

Benson Pacer, I was glad of your invite. It spoke to me in a way that few do.

Mal

He used to woo the troops with the very same tongue. We swooned.

Pacer

(smiling) Heat exhaustion you mean. I was hard on you all.

Zoe

Kept some of us alive

Pacer

(Laughing darkly)The ones who fainted and stayed behind. (recognition dawns) Zoe. I’m sorry it took so long to remember your name. It’s been six years. You are looking wonderful.

Zoe

Thank you General

Pacer

And who is this lovely woman? A pupil of yours Inara? You have quite the beauties on your ship Captain Reynolds.

Kaylee

(blushing) I’m just Kaylee

Mal

She’s just Kaylee.

Pacer

Just nothing…Its my pleasure to meet you Kaylee.

Jayne

(Stepping in and taking the hand that was intended for Kaylee.)

I’m Jayne Cobb.

Pacer

(standing his ground…friendly)Did you fight for me son?

Jayne

I weren’t in no fool war. Though I’ve done some fight’n.

Mal

Okaay…(indicating river and Simon) And these two are Lilly and Sal, your long lost love children. (pacer smiles) Now that everyone’s family, maybe you and I could talk some business before your little date starts.

Pacer

Of course Mal. Inara, I apologize for the interruption so early in our ‘little date.’ Would you excuse my rudeness for just 5 minutes? I had no idea you were bringing these long lost acquaintances with you.

Inara

(gracious)I will be fine.

Pacer

(To Mal) I have something here I’d like to show you.

…………………………………………………………………………….

(a Hangar)

mal and Pacer walk up to a ship

Pacer

Surprised?

(It’s a firefly)

Mal

The kind of money you have, I would have expected a Leviathan.

Pacer

Firefly’s, Torch’s, and Flutes….those were the backbone of the Independents. It wasn’t the gunships that kept us going, but the supplies making it through alliance controlled space.

Mal

Well it’s a mighty fine ship, and a mighty gratuitous history lesson. How bout the business now?

Pacer

(actually sounding a little surprised)I don’t remember you hating me so much, Mal. Did I steal a woman out from under you back on Tarnished Taw? She brought me only heart ache, I assure you.

Mal

Here’s the thing. I need work, and truth be told, I need work from you. But I’m no terrorist.

Pacer

(sighing) Terrorism is a word used by the alliance to categorize freedom fighters, Mal.

Mal

The war’s over, and there aren’t any gorram freedom fighters left. When you held out for another year it wasn’t even about independence any more. Maybe it was about pride, maybe about bitterness, but you led people to die for a dead cause.

Pacer

That’s where you’re wrong Mal. It wasn’t dead then. It isn’t now. You know why?

Mal

Why don’t you enlighten me?

Pacer

Because freedom is the only cause…because when something is right you don’t let something that’s wrong kill it…just because our idealism is no longer popular doesn’t mean that can’t change again

Mal

Not your way…not with bombs and assassinations…you’ve killed innocents…

Pacer

We’re all guilty of that…those men you shot on the battlefield Mal…they were innocent. Someone gave them a helmet and handed them a gun, but they didn’t know what they were fighting for...(pause)

We know what we’re fighting for...

Mal

So the rumors hold water…you are behind that sad little resistance.

Pacer

Me? Its bigger than me Mal. You’re right. Innocents are dying…people with no cause and no reason, who are just walking through life like zombies. But not on my orders. I don’t agree with everything the resistance is doing, but I am part of the resistance, and I will resist, dammit.

Mal

And I will refuel…dammit. If you don’t have any respectable smuggling jobs need doing…or maybe a friendly little hijacking or heist, I guess we’ll be moving on to the next moon.

Pacer

Mal, I told a little white lie back there to Inara. I did know you were coming. I’ve known it for a week. You do take the wide routes, don’t you.

Mal

And no red carpet?

Pacer

Kruger is passing through here.

Mal

Kruger?(face dark)

Pacer

That’s what I said.(energized by Mal’s expression) On a gorram cruise ship, making its way back from watching a star swallow up a solar system…his kind of beauty.

Mal

Why are you telling me this?

Pacer

Because if there was ever a man who was not innocent in this verse, it is Admiral Kruger. If there was ever a man who deserved a third eye shot into his black soul so that he can see the horrors that he has caused, it is that man.

Mal, whatever fuel you want, it’s yours. I couldn’t begrudge an old war hero such a common courtesy. But I can’t board that ship. (pulls back a sleeve to reveal some sort of bar coding)…and its not fitting that some paid assassin should do him either.

(Off on Pacer’s intense face) _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

ACT II

(Shepherd Book is looking up something on the ship’s net. Comes up with a boy on the screen with a story… a Tyson Pacer…at some point there’s a year of birth and year of death…book…shaky, turns off the screen. zoom into the black of it and then cut to next scene)

…………………………………….

(Inara and Pacer have already left…and the others are eating from a cornucopia of fruit. Mal walks in and he is distant from the camera…all the others are closer in the shot.) Mal

We’ve got our fuel.

Kaylee

Well that’s shiny! Mr. Pacer seems awful nice…

Mal

Doesn’t he just…We still got to perform a little job for him. Just a delivery. Me and Zoe are taking a shuttle somewhere. The rest of you relax, eat your fruit…enjoy the exile.

Jayne

If you think that would be best.

Simon

Do you think its safe us just sitting here captain?

Mal

He wouldn’t turn you into the Alliance, that ain’t no concern…nor would any of the folk he surrounds himself with. But that don’t make you safe with him. You’re still Sam and she’s still Tilly.

Simon

Uh..I think it was Sal and Lilly.

Mal

(distracted) Well those are unfortunate names -we’ll be back by morning…Everybody stay on these grounds, we’ll be wanting to get in the sky as fast as possible. Kaylee…I want our boat fueled yesterday. As soon as they talk to you tell them you want it done now and not tomorrow.

Kaylee

Yes Capt’n

Mal

And if any of you see Inara tell her our plan isn’t to linger. Zoe, with me.

(the two leave)

Simon

Something wrong?

River

He’s starving just now…he should have eaten with us.

Jayne

(Shoving his hand in the cornucopia…smashing the fruit therein)

More for us. (pulls his hand out, all bloody looking.)

………………………………………………………………………..

Inara and Pacer

(They are walking a garden.)

Inara

You keep a beautiful garden.

Pacer

Not me…my men do it…my brothers...things in my care tend to die, and this planet isn’t exactly an Eden, I don’t know how they manage it…but I guess with the right resources…(trails off, and then something occurs to him) it isn’t the custom of many companions to venture far from the core planets Inara, am I right? Inara

Not unheard of, but not common, I suppose.

Pacer

So why are you way the hell out here then?

Inara

…Perhaps to meet and mingle with the fringe elements….

Pacer

Ah…well there is quite a cultural revolution happening on the rim. Here on our little moon, we’ve decided brown is the new pink, and the Reavers have a certain knack for sewing… you won’t learn it in companion School. (doesn’t draw a laugh, but maybe isn’t meant to. Inara smiles a little sourly, maybe out of a memory of the reaver incidents.)

But could it be Inara Serra, that the real reason you’re here is because you are a fringe element? Inara

(looking at him and then away) Hardly…maybe…not everything on the core worlds is as wonderful as they pretend. On the other hand, most of them don’t know true suffering either…some of them make decisions that effect millions, but they find their anguish in a hangnail.

Pacer

Were that they could send an army to deal with the maker of hangnails. (they laugh) But I confess, hearing they get them at all is almost enough for me to renew my faith.

Inara

Lost it in the war?(sounds almost like a statement rather than a question)

Pacer

Before it. The war didn’t change my mind though. (smiling) Your Captain was always kissing that cross he wore around his neck before sticking it out …but he always came back. You’d almost think there was something to it, if you didn’t know that every Christmas Kid in the trenches was praying to something. .

Inara

Christmas Kid?

Pacer

(remember who he’s talking to) I’m sorry Inara. I’m reverting…its old army slang. (she’s waiting for an explanation, so he gives it) The boy’s…there were girls too…would go into the trench’s green… inexperienced. They’d leave them green and red. Christmas kids… good little boys and girls, almost all of em, fighting for something they believed was right. Well Santa didn’t bring any sugar plums, and God didn’t serve up any justice for them, or my son…(changing his tone suddenly, smiling and trying to be amiable) and I am doing a fine job of running our date into the ground aren’t I?

Inara

It’s Okay

Pacer

(sitting down at a bench with Inara) I hardly ever talk about these things. Earlier with Mal…now with you…

Inara

Your brothers, as you call them…

Pacer

My soldiers…they still refer to me as sir here. Sometimes they still salute. All good men and women. But we’ve found it easier to maintain a ‘professional’ relationship even after the war.

Inara

(reaching out and taking his hand) You need people close to you. You need contact.

Pacer

(Smiling charmingly) I keep running into that. (off on his face)

…………………………………

Mal and Zoe inside a small space craft…a little bigger than Serenity’s shuttle’s. Someone is piloting.

Mal

You don’t have to be part of this, you know.

Zoe

Neither do you sir.

Mal

It seems I do.

Zoe

(after considering) Kruger was a bad man.

Mal

(laughing harshly at the understatement – somewhat in his own space)

Zoe

I wouldn’t mind being the one to pull the trigger.

In the end it’s too good for him.

Mal

Well, we don’t got time to starve his daughters to wasting while he watches… Zoe

How bout time to feed him a little gluttonin, sit back while eats himself alive.

Mal

(talking but clearly his mind is focused on something) Too poetical for a simple man like me. We don’t have any.

Zoe

(bile in her mouth) Maybe he has some in a vial somewhere…to remind him of the good old days.

That man is a vampire.

(Off on Mal’s face)

……………………………………………………….

A scene with Book….maybe flashback or dream

Some boy all mangled and screwed up(looks like the picture of Tyson Pacer)

Lifts his head and speaks

Tyson(in pain and horror)

God sees you…he sees what you do

Voice

(Laughter) Then why doesn’t he stop me son? (sudden mock sympathy in his voice)Look now…you’ve wet yourself. He saw that too child…

(off on the boy’s wretched face) ………………………………………………………

(Inara and Pacer in bed together. They finish. After a second…Inara’s arm on Pacer’s chest. Pacer gets up, letting it slide off, and leaves the room)

Off on Inara’s expression.

……………………………………………………….

In a bunk(shrouded in darkness…Sheppard book is talking in his sleep)

Book

No…NO…I’m sorry

(he’s shaken by a hand- and is startled, sitting up, wild eyed and sweaty)

(Wash backs off…being a mix of gentle and cautious…)

Wash

Hey Shepherd, its just me. You were talking in your sleep.

Book(guarded, but relieved)

I was?

Wash

You were so loud I couldn’t wallow in my own moaning.

Book

I’m sorry about that.

Wash

Me too…you’re steeling my thunder here.

Book

I’m fine now, thank you.

Wash

You sure? Cuz I’d like to go back to being sick now.

Book

(nods noncommittally) (off on him)

………………………………………………………. Back in the Shuttle

Pilot ( looking back)

We’re being hailed.

(some noise on the com)

Yes…This is Moon-Beam Transactions. We were contracted through you by one of your guests on your first pass through our ring…

(garbled talk on the other end)

A Mr., excuse me, General… Garrot Kruger. We were to deliver some war memorabilia to these coordinates on your return. We have peddlers with us… (more garbled) yes…checked out and verified. (noise)

Standard local background. we weren’t asked, or paid, to do a deeper probe(garbled question)Full liability? I’m not authorized to accept those terms.(noise) As per our contract. Standard liability, or we forget it. (noise) Shiny. You just make sure you explain to your honorable guest how you screwed things up on your end then.

(a pause…Zoe and Mal are uncharacteristically stoic – on edge)

(exasperated, in a voice like he has to go through this shit all the time) Thank you.

(to his passengers) We’re docking. Best they can do from here is a cursory check of the forgeries I just sent them. It’s no better or worse than Moonbeam could do themselves. The company won’t be held responsible for you. Make sure you do this right though, or we’re gonna get blown to the closest free star when we try to turn tail. They’ll sort out the legal issues later.

(looking back out the window) Here we go. Come up and see what I mean.

(Zoe and Mal do. show through the window, a massive cruise vessel appearing…two gun-ships at its flanks.)

Pilot

Folks, Feast your eyes on the ‘Goldwyn Grape Galley’

(off on a good shot of the magnificent ship)