Babylon 5 SS - Crusade
Crusade: End of the Line
By J. Michael Straczynski
TEASER
FADE IN:
BLANK SCREEN
Over which we HEAR:
GIDEON (V.O.) Previously, on Crusade…
FLASHBACK/MONTAGE
Most of it from “To the Ends of the Earth” and “Path of Sorrows.” The material dealing with the loss of Gideon’s first ship, the Cerberus.
We SEE the attack on the Cerberus … Gideon leaving in an EVA suit as it’s destroyed by a Shadow hybrid vessel … being picked up by Galen .. his questioning and interrogation … his determination to find the ship that killed the Cerberus and her crew …
We SEE his encounter with the killer ship again in the present .. the battle with and destruction of the hybrid … and Gideon’s determination to find the others like it by locating and following the hybrid’s signal.
We END the montage with Gideon in bed listening to a recording of the signal, over and over and over … as we ever so slowly FADE TO BLACK and FADE BACK IN ON:
EXT. EXCALIBUR – HYPERSPACE
The ship is coming at us from the distance. As it passes CAMERA and continues away, we slowly begin to HEAR that signal again.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
As Gideon enters on the quick, Matheson looking up from his station, the atmosphere tense.
GIDEON You’re sure you’ve got it? I don’t want any –
MATHESON (overlapping) I’ve got it. It’s weak .. but it’s definitely the same signal we’ve been looking for. It’s wavering –
GIDEON Just hold onto it a few more seconds. Is Galen –
MATHESON I told him as soon as it came in.
GIDEON Put him through.
INT. FLIGHT DECK
Where we SEE Galen’s flyer.
INT. GALEN’S FLYER (COMP)
We see a little more of it than before, though only just one wall: a black wall, looking almost vacuum-formed with patterns, one solid piece, no recognizable controls. The eye just sort of slides off it, except for the very center, which appears to be a two-foot wide vertical pool of silver water or molten silver or some similar fluid.
We can’t tell it’s fluid yet, it could be just a silver panel. Galen is standing in front of it, rolling a small silver or steel ball bearing between his fingers.
GIDEON (ON PA) Galen .. do you have a lock on it?
GALEN I’m transferring the data now. Just another moment …
GIDEON (ON PA) We may not have a moment. The signal’s wavering all ver the place. We don’t know how long we can hold it.
GALEN Matthew…
GIDEON (ON PA) What?
GALEN Shhhhhhh….
He raises the small ball bearing up to eye level, and studies it. There’s a small FLICKER of energy over the ball (ROTO), then it’s gone. Satisfied, he holds it out, as though to drop it down.
ANOTHER ANGLE
As Galen releases the small ball, but instead of falling to the floor, it falls sideways, into the vertical silver pool on the wall. As it hits, it sends out ripples that bounce out to the edge of the pool and return. Unlike conventional ripples in a pond, though, the ripples continue to come, back and forth, creating a locus in one area, a focus. A directional homing beacon.
ON GALEN
As he smiles for a BEAT, then:
GIDEON (ON PA) Galen … we just lost the signal up here … it faded out … did you get a fix on the location? (beat) Galen? Did you get it?
GALEN I have it, Matthew. The signal lock is now part of my ship. No matter how far away, no matter how small the signal becomes, my ship can now follow it. Once locked, there is no power on Earth or anywhere else that can break the lock. We have it.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
Gideon nods, ready to proceed. His voice is almost quiet: he knows what he’s going to get us into again.
GIDEON Navigation … transfer navigational data from Galen’s ship. Stand by to change course.
NAVIGATION (O.S.) Aye, sir.
He looks to the monitor, where a course projection appears, a directional arrow designating new course in 3 dimensions. Matheson comes up alongside him.
GIDEON There it is, John. The long road, as Galen says. At the other end could be another one of the ships that killed the Cerberus … or the base that built them .. or a whole fleet of them. Last time we went after one of those things, we damn near got destroyed. You still up for this?
MATHESON Just give the word.
GIDEON Then let’s do it. And let the devil take the hindmost.
MATHESON Aye, sir.
And he moves off to comply.
EXT. EXCALIBUR – HYPERSPACE
As the engines FLARE, and the ship angles AWAY from CAMERA, we
FADE OUT:
END OF TEASER
ACT ONE
FADE IN:
EXT. EXCALIBUR – HYPERSPACE
As it zooms past CAMERA.
INT. EXCALIBUR – HALLWAY
Crew are being scrambled, hustling past a Crew member, JENSEN. He buttonholes another passing crew member.
JENSEN What’s going on?
CREW MEMBER Captain Gideon’s in Ahab mode again. Word is he’s got another lead on that ship he’s been chasing. He’s got the XO pushing max on the engines.
JENSEN What’s he got?
CREW MEMBER I dunno … the bridge is buttoned up tight as a kettle drum. All I know is we’re hauling major ass toward sector 420. (shakes head) I hope this time goes better than before. Last time this vendetta of his damn near got us all killed.
With that he continues OS. Jensen watches him go, then moves against the tide of oncoming people, clearly on a mission of his own.
EXT. EXCALIBUR – HYPERSPACE
We can HEAR the signal as we PAN off Hyperspace CLOSE to the bridge in profile, where we can SEE Gideon standing at the window, looking out.
GIDEON Galen.
GALEN (V.O.) Yes, Matthew?
GIDEON Still with it?
GALEN (V.O.) Closing in on target.
Gideon nods and moves back into the bridge.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
As Gideon continues toward the command chair.
GIDEON What’s in this sector, Lieutenant?
MATHESON According to the charts, this is supposed to be an empty sector. No known colonies, planets or stations. Nearest jump gate should be about two point five light years from here.
GIDEON Should be?
MATHESON If something’s in this sector, it has to get here somehow. Unless all their ships are jump capable, which is unlikely, there has to be a jump gate around here somewhere.
GIDEON But it’s not on the Hyperspace beacon map. So whoever’s out here, they managed to build a jump gate without anyone knowing about it. That means power and money. And power and money means trouble. (beat) You getting this, Galen?
GALEN (ON P.A.) Of course.
We INTERCUT this with
INT. GALEN’S FLYER (COMP)
As he studies the display.
GALEN How close do you want to be to the target before we jump to normal space?
GIDEON Not close, just inside the system. I want to scope out the area, see what’s waiting for us before we go charging in. How much longer until we’re in position?
Galen regards the silver pool … as the ripples become faster.
GALEN I’d say … right about now.
GIDEON Stand by to jump. Jump.
EXT. NORMAL SPACE
As the Excalibur jumps in from Hyperspace.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
As Galen enters and approaches the main window.
GIDEON (to Matheson) Still tracking that s
ignal?
MATHESON Aye, sir. It appears to be coming from the fourth planet in this system. At our current speed in normal space, estimate … four hours until we’re within scanner range.
GIDEON Good. Take us in slowly. Scanners at maximum. If anybody launches a ship at us, I want to know about it ten seconds before it happens.
ANGLE – CLOSE ON GALEN (COMP)
He blinks and the contacts we’ve seen before slide down over the front of his eyes.
ANGLE – ON WINDOW – HIS POV
We seem to see a cluster of somethings illuminated in the distance, almost like snowflakes, glittering in something that looks like the infrared spectrum.
GALEN (V.O.) Ah…. Matthew….
BACK TO SCENE
As they look to Galen.
GIDEON Yes?
GALEN Perhaps you should be looking for something small, rather than something large, like a ship. (beat) There’s something out there. A cloud of small objects, several thousand of them, each no larger than a marble.
GIDEON How can you tell?
Galen gives him a look of “I’m a technomage, remember?”
GIDEON (CONT’D) Right .. never mind, forget I asked. (to Matheson) Lieutenant … ?
MATHESON We’re recalibrating the scanners … data confirms Galen’s reports. Objects are dead ahead.
GIDEON Marbles?
GALEN If you’ve been wondering where they’d gotten to, this may be the answer.
GIDEON Thanks. (beat) Not everything dangerous comes in a big package. With the scanners looking for ships large enough to pose a threat, objects that small would have gone undetected until we were right on top of them.
MATHESON Which may have been the intent.
GIDEON Lieutenant. … fire a long range probe into the middle of them. Let’s see what happens.
MATHESON Aye, sir. (calling out) Stand by on probe.
NAVIGATION Probe ready to launch.
MATHESON Launch.
EXT. EXCALIBUR
As the probe is launched.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
They wait, watching.
EXT. SMALL MINES
Shooting PAST and through the cloud of marble-shaped and sized objects toward the approaching probe.
EXT. SMALL MINES – REVERSE
As the probe enters their midst .. and gently bumps into one of them. Suddenly the one explodes … others around it begin to explode … and now as we PULL BACK it’s a chain reaction, a cloud of fire and death.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
As the light of the nearby explosion briefly LIGHTS their faces, then fades.
GALEN Nasty. But effective. Not enough to destroy the ship, but it would have left us disabled and helpless.
GIDEON Lieutenant … where did those mines come from?
MATHESON Backtracking their trajectory …
They go to the monitor, which shows a display of the mines’ trajectory. It leads back to a nearby planetoid .
MATHESON (CONT’D) It looks like they were launched from this planetoid. No life signs, may have been an automatic defense system.
GIDEON Except it took time for them to get that far. When were they launched?
MATHESON Given distance traveled, I estimate two hours ago. No sign of any others … they were deliberately put right in our path.
GALEN It would appear they knew we were coming.
GIDEON Lieutenant .. we have a leak. I want it found a plugged. You have exactly ten minutes.
Matheson nods and hurries off to comply as Galen comes up alongside Gideon.
MATHESON (to com officer) Communications, I want a full readout on all transmissions in the last twelve hours.
COM OFFICER (O.S.) Aye, sir.
GALEN (sotto) Why exactly ten minutes?
GIDEON Last time we did this as a drill, he ran the whole com system in twelve minutes, which I believe was a record. What good’s a record if you can’t break it?
GALEN I’m sure the first man to run the Greek marathon felt the same way.
GIDEON Why? What happened?
GALEN He died.
Galen moves off. Gideon looks to a display.
GIDEON Eight minutes twenty-five seconds, Lieutenant.
INT. EXCALIBUR – CREW QUARTERS
The same crew member we saw before, Jensen, is on his bunk, looking tense. He gets up, paces … his paces bringing him to the door just as it beeps at him.
JENSEN Yes?
The door opens. Nobody’s there. He edges closer to the open doorway …just as four or five really big marines come charging in the door, swarming him and pinning him against the opposite wall as Gideon and Matheson ENTER behind.
GIDEON Nine minutes, twenty seconds. Outstanding, Lieutenant.
MATHESON Thank you, sir.
Gideon approaches Jensen as the marines step back, allowing him room to stand.
GIDEON Jensen. Eric B. According to our records, you were assigned to the Excalibur two months ago on standard rotation. How much did they pay you to sabotage my ship? And just out of my own curiosity … who are “they?”
JENSEN You don’t get it, do you? What you’re up against is bigger than you. Bigger than me and a hell of a lot bigger than this ship. Right now, you and me, we’ve got one thing in common.
GIDEON What’s that?
JENSEN We’re both dead. You just don’t know it yet.
Suddenly he reaches for the back of one of his hands and before anyone can stop him he snaps it back sharply (PROSTHETIC). A mechanism inside is activated with the SNAP, and with a pulsation it begins POWERING UP.
GIDEON Bomb! Evac, right now! Move it, move it, move it!
He gets the others clear and looks to Jensen.
GIDEON (CONT’D) Why? You didn’t have to …
JENSEN Yes, I did. You don’t know what the alternative is to failure. But you will.
The bomb powering up almost all the way, Gideon charges out the door into
INT. EXCALIBUR – HALLWAY
He dives for the ground just as the bomb EXPLODES behind him, the fireball erupting out of the crew quarters doors. On their reactions to this, we
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
FADE IN:
EXT. EXCALIBUR
Still continuing on its way.
INT. EXCALIBUR – MEDBAY
Gideon watches as Chambers goes over what’s left of Jensen’s body (which ain’t much, and we thus keep it fairly covered). She doesn’t bother glancing back at him as she speaks.
CHAMBERS I can save you some time, Captain. There wasn’t enough of the body left intact to put in a show box. There’s no way I can tell you who made that bomb or where it came from.
GIDEON All I need to know is was it made by humans or aliens?
CHAMBERS
Captain … I couldn’t tell you if it was made by leprechauns. I’ve never seen anything self-destruct so thoroughly. (to med-tech) All right, that’s about all we’re going to get. Send the rest off to the lab, maybe something’ll show up on the electron microscope. But I’m not holding out any hope.
She emerges from the isobay, pulling off the autopsy gloves.
CHAMBERS (CONT’D) I’ve been going over his personnel jacket.
GIDEON Then I can save you some time. There’s nothing there. It’s a perfect record.
CHAMBERS And that doesn’t strike you as odd? Five years in Earthforce and not a single infraction in add that time?
GIDEON Some people can do it. I did. (off her look) Well… for about a week.
CHAMBERS Ok, so maybe an anal-retentive career officer could pull it off … (beat) Or someone like you –
GIDEON Thank you.
CHAMBERS -- but the kind of person who’d blow himself up isn’t the sort to have a perfect record.
GIDEON So you think the record is a fake.
CHAMBERS I wouldn’t put money on it, but my gut says yes.
GIDEON If that’s true, then whoever’s behind
all this has contacts deep enough in Earthforce to plant a fake personnel jacket. Probably making sure nobody in Earthforce gets too close to the truth about these ships, whatever that is. This is getting more interesting by the minute.
Just then his wrist link goes off.
GIDEON (CONT’D) Gideon here, go.
MATHESON (ON LINK) Captain, we’re closing on the target, nearly within scanner range.
GIDEON I’m on my way. (toggles off) Thanks for the information, doctor.
CHAMBERS I’m not sure I gave you any.
GIDEON You gave me some interesting questions, and sometimes that’s even better than an answer.
And he exits.
EXT. EXCALIBUR
As it heads PAST CAMERA toward a brown, hazy planet in BG.
MATHESON (V.O.) Approaching the target.
INT. EXCALIBUR – CHART ROOM
As Gideon and Matheson approach the 3D display table, Matheson touches a control. A display of the planet appears with some denotations as he describes them.
MATHESON We’re picking up a series of small domes on the planet’s surface. No markings of any kind.
GIDEON Any transmissions? Anything that can tell us who or what’s down there?
MATHESON Negative. And the carrier wave we’ve been tracking just went off.
GIDEON It got us here, that’s what matters.
Just then the display begins to blink, tracing a series of blips across the planet’s surface.
MATHESON Sir, I’m picking up fighters being launched. On intercept course.
GIDEON All right, scramble offensive wing. All hands, battle stations.
MATHESON (as they go) Aye, sir. Battle stations!
They head OS fast.
EXT. EXCALIBUR
As a batch of Thunderbolts are launched.
INT. EXCALIBUR – BRIDGE
As everyone hurries to their respective places.
GIDEON Have we got an ID on those fighters?
MATHESON Coming in now.
Matheson goes to a console and looks at the readings. We don’t see what he does, only his reaction: he goes cold, and is stunned by what he’s seeing.
GIDEON What is it? What’s wrong?
MATHESON The enemy fighters … silhouettes match starfury and thunderbolt readouts. Those are Earthforce ships out there.
GIDEON What?!!
EXT. SPACE – ANGLE ON ENEMY FIGHTERS
Black thunderbolts and starfuries race PAST CAMERA, heading for the oncoming force from Excalibur.
EXT. SPACE – ANGLE ON EXCALIBUR FIGHTERS