BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

RIGHTEOUS9

A Steady Diet of Past Desserts (conclusion) (script format)
Saturday, August 27, 2005

continuation of the first half of this screenplay. Complete but not as polished as it could be, I'm sure. I'll probably change it over time.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 1847    RATING: 10    SERIES: FIREFLY

ACT III

(The shuttle is docked…Mal and Zoe, exit, surrounded by security. The pilot does as well)

Galley Officer(like a glorified security guard)

Does anyone have anything to declare? Gun’s, contraband? Produce? any contagious conditions? (beyond in the shot you can see metal detectors.)

Pilot

You asked me that over the com.

Officer

If you happened to suddenly remember anything this would be the time to tell us.

Mal(friendly)

In the briefcase we have two ten irons. In the boat we have one room-sweeper, incase of boardings, and we ate all our cheese on the flight, am I right?(motioning to his companions) (they all get frisked as the conversation continues)

Zoe

You mean you ate all the cheese.

Officer

Fill out the paperwork. The shot-gun will be taken into our possession, and you can reclaim it at the time of your departure…do you have ammunition with the revolvers?

Mal

What am I a two bit operation? Its part of the appeal of the sale. It’s a full set. You don’t find a quality frontier gun…well, ever.…and you sure as hell don’t find them in perfect condition. Do you know what kind of value you’re looking at? Take a guess…full set

Zoe

They’re registered as antiques because of their rarity…more like priceless,(sighing) but we put a price on them anyway.

Mal

(eyes registering excitement)Do you know who these guns belonged to? Sgt. Casey Strap…The Casey Strap of 3-browncoats-with-1-bullet fame. That’s before he went down with fifty pieces of led through his own coat. There’s even an indentation in one of the handles where it took a round. (off screen one of the other guards whistles)

Officer(understanding that this is supposed to be a big deal, but knowing little about it and not wanting the fact highlighted…)

Well, sign the paperwork, and we’ll give you a direction card. Mal(to Zoe loud enough for everyone to here, as he bends down to sign something)

He knows who I’m talking about right?

Zoe(exaggerated disdain)

Could of fooled me from the enthusiasm.

(off on Zoe’s comment, the officer’s embarrassed face in the shot) ……………………………………………………………………………….

Shepherd Book at a table. A glass of wine in front of him and his bible. He takes a drink of the wine, almost ritualistically. Then goes back to reading.

………………………………………………………………………………

(The 4 others walking through the garden.)

(Summer grabs an apple off a tree and begins eating it…Jayne gets caught on a thorn-bush and whirls violently on it, breaking a branch)

Kaylee(admonishing)

Ohhh Jayne, their nice garden.

Jayne

Damned plant attacked me(trying to look over his shoulder at the scratch down the back of his arm.)

Simon

Snuck right up on you. (comes over and pulls a thorn from Jayne’s arm- river climbs the tree with ease in the background)

Kaylee

Hey guys, what I don’t understand is…if they didn’t need our ship, and they didn’t need our pilot, then what did they need the Capt’n and Zoe for? Does that make sense, just for some ordinary delivery?

(Register perplexity on Simon and Jayne’s face. above and a little behind them, River’s face drops down upside down – hanging from a branch)

River

I’m a snake.(startling both of them – at their jump, cut)

…………………………………………………………………………………..

(Mal and Zoe are walking through the beautiful decks of the ship. Looking down at a card)

Mal

Damn thing’s broken. It points right, but says turn left. (you can here the card speaking- )

Card (hardly audible)

Turn left. It appears we are leading further from your destination. If there is a misunderstanding, you can request a deckhand to escort you. (message repeats)

Zoe

Well you’ve got the card upside down for one.

Mal

How do you know?

Zoe

The border has arrows pointing up.

Mal

Those are arrows?(looks at the card…turning it around – the card is like badger’s newspaper clipping…it has an animated arrow telling them to turn left.) Huh… I’ve been steering us in the wrong direction this whole time. Who’d a thought.

Zoe

technology sir.

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

(Inara by herself walking through a door into what is the hangar. )

Cut to her walking through the ship. The whole feel is different from serenity. Its like a holocaust museum inside, and whereas the outside is shiny and well kept, the inside is rusted, and dark. There are pictures and clippings and dog-tags, and all sorts of effects, all focusing on browncoats who died in the war. lights are used to illuminate them. The effect is ghostly. - show a wall of independents flags, all of which are shredded or faded or burned or eaten away. This is the cargo bay still. There’s also a huge lcd screen with war footage playing and news announcements inter-cut. Inara ascends through it all, as the camera pans.

In what would be Serenity’s dining area, it’s more of the same, except these are all pictures of Tyson Pacer – some of them are pictures of him as a youth…some are pictures of him in uniform or with family or with his girlfriend…etc. One thing is clear though…there is no separation…the pictures intermingle with the army photos and the news clippings of Pacer’s son’s death…there is no sanctuary of good past memories. This is a place to remember what was lost, and who took it away.

Inara starts into the hall towards the cockpit…pass her out of the shot, and zoom into one of Tyson’s pictures.

Off on that ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mal and Zoe turn a corner

(And run smack dab into two men in black…clearly security for someone important.)

1st man

Dining hall is the other direction folks.

This Wing is temporarily out of order.

Mal

The wing is out of order?

1st man

What did I say?

Mal

Actually, we have an appointment with a General Kruger. We’re supposed to deliver him a Package.

(2nd man nods to the first, who opens the door. They follow Zoe and Mal in.)

(The room is nice( a wall/window of stars)…they pass through it into a den…there’s a mahogany desk off center where Kruger is sitting. The man is in a wheelchair, and there’s one more agent off to his side.)

Kruger(man is maybe 65 or more.)

(cheerful) You’re the artifact peddlers. come on in. What have you brought for me to look at? (both advance to him.)

Mal

Its in the box.

Kruger

Well lets have a peek inside shall we? (one of the security guards takes the box and puts it on the table. Then opens it. Camera in close.. the box is empty…

…and 2 security agents go down from blows of pistol butts, leaving the third man behind the desk and Kruger. Kruger immediately goes for some security measure on his desk, but Mal stretches across the table and shoves the wheel-chaired man to the ground, at the same time the security guard is slammed in the head with the empty metal box by Zoe. On the ground Kruger looks old, frail and weak. He is wheezing. Mal takes the pistol butt and smashes all electronics on the desk. Then goes around and lifts Kruger back up to it, harshly.

(Zoe starts dragging the others out to the main room…piles them into a closet…taking their radio gear from their heads, and their weapons from their holsters. Off on the closet door slamming.

………………………………………………………………………..

(camera from Inara’s perspective. A man sits in the cockpit of the firefly… the camera gets in closer to him through the passageway…

Inara’s voice

You paid for the whole night.

(Pacer, a picture in his hand…swivels one of the cockpit chairs)

Inara

But if you’d prefer it I can prorate you. (keeping her dignity at some difficulty)

Pacer

No, that won’t be necessary. I’m sorry I walked out so rudely Inara. It isn’t you.

Inara

No…its you.

Pacer (laughs)

I know……… Well what do you think of my firefly?

Inara

It’s cold.

Pacer

Is it? I spend most of my days in here. I always sweat..

Inara

You’re a coward.

Pacer

(graciously taking the attack) I’m sorry for walking out on you. I’m so set in my ways is all, and I’m not good with women.

Inara

You’re not good with people. Near forty and you’re still alone and hiring prostitutes.

Pacer (looking down at his picture)

I was married once.

Inara

And you use that like an excuse. You don’t have friends…you have ‘soldiers.’ You hide yourself in all of this to remind you of why you can’t take chances. You’re spineless.

Pacer

(anger in his voice) I didn’t know a head shrinking was included in the price. Do they hand out degrees for that sort of thing in whoring school?

Inara

You needn’t try to offend me more than you already have. You won’t be hearing from me again. That’s what you’re afraid of isn’t it? The future? Well let me lay your mind at rest. You are a man without a future. Go ahead and wallow in your past. (turns and leaves)

(close up of pacer – expression inward, not angry - …picture clenched so tightly in his grip that the glass breaks and he looks down at his hand – cut)

…..…………………………………………………………………….

Back in the den…Mal brings a chair up on the other side, sits down and stares at him.

Kruger (defiant)

If you’re here to kill me, then do it.

Mal

How bold of you…Brave even. Not the kind of man who would starve out colonies…not the kind of man who would poison intercepted shipments with something as ugly as gluttonin, and then send them on their way to get gobbled up by women and children. If you’d been wearing brown, you woulda hung from a high tree years ago.

Kruger

How refreshing. A self-righteous browncoat. You act as if there were none in your colors who actually did hang for such things. If you’re side had won, those same men would be wearing the metals now. (laughs) You know what’s funny about this? Two things actually. (Mal just looks at him – face cold)

The first is how we got that gluttonin…

Everyone has their assumptions about which company produced the . What no one knows is that we got it off of Bigstones. Truckloads of it in fact…

Mal

You’re lying, but you get points for effort. You wouldn’t have buried a story like that one…not one that makes the independents into the monsters. Propaganda like that, you woulda had men’s blood boiling.

Kruger

But then we couldn’t have used it. Officially it doesn’t exist, you know. The world is never so black and white as we’d like it to be, is it? I’m sorry to be the one to tell you.

Mal (absorbing the information…and then going on)

Well doesn’t that make you some kind of a saint. You still used it.

Kruger

Yes. I still used it.(eyes glaze) Not a day goes by where I don’t think about it…but I would do it all again if it were tomorrow. (looks back at Mal) What about the lives I’ve Saved? How much longer might this war have dragged on. What other terrors might we have unearthed? What other technology might have been employed had our side gotten desperate?

Mal

Sounds like a whole candy store of ideas you’ve got there

Kruger

No. I had to ask myself those questions before I chose. Have you ever truly answered to yourself what you would have done? (waves it off) It doesn’t matter. Do you know what the other funny thing is?

Mal

Still waiting for the first funny thing.

Kruger

It has to do with why you’re even here right now.

Mal

I’m glad you find your own death amusing.

Kruger

You might to. You know why I wanted those guns delivered? You know why I was in such a blasted hurry to get them? (laughs again)

Because I fancied taking one and resting it on my temple…right here…fancied pulling the trigger and adding my ghost to all the others hanging about that gun, and that war.

Life is cruel browncoat So very cruel. You believe what you fought for was right. I believe what I did was…I believe our cause was good. I believe that I killed so that less people would die…so that more people would be safe against anarchies and future wars. I believe that I should be able to sleep at night, that I shouldn’t have to shake so much in the morning, my coffee splashes on my chin. I believe I’ve seen enough faces of corpses already…and I wonder, why do they infest the rare moments of my sleep…I ask myself…why did God do this to me?

Mal

I’d tell you to ask him yourself, if I thought that was where you were going

Kruger

But he granted me this one mercy didn’t he…he granted me a man who would deliver me up to him. He knew I’d need a hand in this last endeavor, and now here you are. Good. I am ready to go… (the man’s face is in something like either misery or ecstasy…his eyes are closed.)

Mal (looks at him, gun in hand still pointed. Finally he sets it on the table next to Kruger. Stands up and starts to leave)

Remember, right at the temple.

Kruger (opens his eyes, looks aghast)

What are you doing?

Mal

What’s one more sin on your head? Deliver yourself up.

(Pan in close to Mal as he starts to leave. A gun discharges…a single shot. Register recognition on Mal’s face.)

then he hears the trickle of liquid from a wine gorge to his left…he looks over and it’s dripping wine…which is when his face dawns a new kind of recognition, and he ducks down as he scurries out the door, another shot blasting the wall.

(Other side of the door. Mal slams it, and another shot can be heard from inside)

Mal

Zoe!

Zoe (next to him)

overpower you sir?

Mal

Just help me move this couch (they both pick it up and throw it against the wall. Mal pulls out the card then.)

Okay…so this is up right?

Zoe

Yes sir.

(Off on his face, a healthier look to it – he seems to like this new danger more than what he was about to do.)

……………………………………..

(back through the metal detectors come Zoe and Mal – there’s only one security guard here at the moment. The pilot stands up when he sees them)

Mal

Remember that ‘closest free star’ thing?

Pilot

I’ll get us going.

(they all head for the shuttle) guard’s voice

HEY!

(Mal and Zoe turn slowly)

Guard

You want this back, don’t you? (tosses Mal the shotgun) (Mal nods to the man…smiling…almost refusing to believe that’s all the man called him back for) Mal

Thanks.

cut ……………………

(Mal up with the pilot in the cockpit, talking to Wash on the com)

Mal

I want them in the ship when we land, got it?

Wash

Making friends everywhere we go, huh, captain?

Mal

We’re friendly people…see you in a few.

Pilot

Pacer is hailing. (hits a button)

Pacer

That was fast Mal. I trust it went well?

Mal

Hire yourself an assassin ‘General’. (clicks him off. Pilot looks at him and shakes his head, then turns back to his flying)

(Cut to Benson Pacer. Stands up, then sits back down…hits a button on a screen…it’s a video…a woman, presumably his wife on it…then his son with her, younger at the time…they are laughing and smiling at the camera. Fade to black) ……………………

ACT IV

(Inara boards the ship and runs into Mal on the catwalk, clearly by her reaction, she didn’t want to. He’s above.)

Mal

You’re late. Inara

You cut the time short

Mal

Something’s come up. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Inara

It’s alright

Mal

So how’d you make out(winces at his own words…she’s misses it)

Inara

And how is that any of your business. You’re not my pimp.

Mal

(defensive)Hey…I’m Just making conversation, business person to business person.

Inara

That’s what you’d like to think right? That it’s all just business to me?

Mal

I’d like not to think about it at all.

Inara

Then do us both that courtesy.

Mal

I have. (Inara is climbing the stairs with her bag.) (after a second, mal continues talking) Pacer’s got a lot of demons. Inara

And all yours have been safely exorcised into the black I guess. We all have demons, Mal…I have them too. (continues climbing till she looks like she means to walk on past him)

Mal

What are yours?

Inara (taken aback)

What?

Mal

What eats away at you, Inara?

Inara (quieter, because she’s closer to him now, almost a whisper- intimate but not)

Oh Mal, you ask a question like that of someone, you’d better be prepared to get it asked right back. (there’s a pause while they look at each other. His look indicates that he’s not. Finally she turns and walks past him. ) Mal(over his shoulder)

Breakfast in an hour. The shepherd’s done some cooking.

Inara

That should keep our mouths safely occupied. See you then.

……………………………………….

(Zoe and wash in the cockpit)

Zoe

You feeling better?

Wash

I’ll live…hey, I want to show you something…saw it on the way in… …just…down….there.

(comes over a mountain range…there’s a huge colorful canyon, and he flies in close)

Zoe

Its beautiful

Wash

Yeah, it is…you find the best scenery in the craziest places…

Zoe

(looking at Wash)…Yes you do, don’t you. (kisses him on the cheek)

……………………………………………………………….

Dining room

Everybody(laughing and yucking it up – they are sharing in a huge meal) )(Inara and Kaylee are laughing about something...Inara uses her pinky and shows it like a wilted appendage)

Simon

Here’s to General Pacer’s Garden.

Kaylee (lifting her glass)

Here, here.

Wash (to Mal)

Uh…Sorry about being so disagreeable earlier captain…sickness and all…

Mal (dismissive)

No need to dwell on who you were yesterday Wash. Just kiss my ass today. Ain’t that how it works preacher? I’m quoting scripture right?

Book (putting down his wine)

I’ll have to look that one up Mal, but I hope your right, I truly do.

And cut

The End

COMMENTS

Saturday, November 19, 2005 12:17 PM

AGENTROUKA


It's like something straight off the show, simply excellent.

I loved the parallel of Pacer and Kruger, and of Mal and Inara both dealing with them. Most of all, their conversation at the end.

But that's not even half of it. You just have the characters' voices down, each of them. And plot! Meaningful Plot!!

You did an amazing job with this one!


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