Wing Commander in Real Time - Day 1 - 2200 Zulu
The Terran Knowledge Bank
Script
- PALADIN
- You want to live forever?
- MANIAC
- Great answer. Really instills
- confidence in the crew.
- PALADIN shoves the last chip into place.
MERLIN appears again.
MERLIN
As I was saying, this antiquated vessel is riddled with structural flaws. In my opinion it cannot survive the jump--
- Navigation system comes to life.
- Suddenly, on a computer screen, the heads up display and
- trajectory appear. BLAIR looks at it, doesn't move.
- PALADIN
- Plot your course, Mr. Blair!
- BLAIR snaps out of it, pulls the cross from his vest,
- squeezed it for luck. He bangs in the coordinates, steers
- the Diligent on the plotted course. MANIAC starts to
- scream a crazy, joyous scream.
MERLIN
--in fact, I would calculate our chances of survival as twenty-seven point two percent. I implore you...36C EXT. DILIGENT
- Tiny ship enters the gravity well, following the plotted
- course. It starts to shudder as it pushes against the
- barrier of time-space.
36D INT. DILIGENT
- The nature and content of the environment changes.
- Stars, planets--everything--disappears. And then
- everything seems to freeze: PALADIN moving towards the
- bridge, MANIAC holding on, screaming at the top of his
- lungs, BLAIR at the flight controls,
- MERLIN pointing
- at the approaching singularity.
36E EXT. SPACE - THE DILIGENT
- A flash of light and the Diligent appears. There's no
- sign of the our solar system or the gravity well, only
- new and unfamiliar stars and distant planets.
36F INT. DILIGENT
- BLAIR, PALADIN, a s till screaming MANIAC are jolted by
- the entry.
- MERLIN picks up where he left off.
MERLIN
...stop this madness. That man is quite probably insane. He will kill us all.
(Realizing where he is.)
...Oh.
- BLAIR looks around. They're alive. PALADIN looks hard and
- long at Blair -- he sees something.
- BLAIR
- What happened?
- PALADIN
- You just plotted a jump trough a
- gravity well. In under five seconds. A
- NAVCOM can't do that.
- MANIAC, face flush with the rush of the jump, turns to
- Blair, impressed.
- MANIAC
- Not bad for the second best pilot at
- the Academy.
- PALADIN turns to Maniac.
- PALADIN
- Shut up Next time you fail to follow my
- orders, I'll dump you with the rest of
- the garbage. Plot a course for the
- Tiger Claw, Mr. Blair.
- BLAIR
- Yes, sir.
- PALADIN exits the bridge, a pissed off MANIAC staring
- after him.
- MANIAC
- That guy has some serious issues.
Storyboards
Novelization
CHAPTER 5
REQUISITIONED
MERCHANTMAN
DILIGENTMARCH 15, 2654
2200 HOURS
ZULU TIMEJUMP POINT SCYLLA
GRAVITY WELL
- "This antiquated vessel is riddled with structural flaws," Merlin said,
- appearing atop the copilot's console. "In my opinion, it cannot survive the
- jump."
- Marshall shouted the final countdown: 'Three…" Taggart shoved a
- protein chip into place—"… two…"—then jiggled a wire. "… one!"
- The navigation system snapped on, panels warming to their normal
- glow, coordinates spilling across four screens in front of Blair. Snap.
- Everything went dark. Snap. Everything came back. "Come on!" Marshall
- shouted.
- After a tiny spark and loud hum, the HUD returned with a suggested
- trajectory marked by a thick green line through Scylla. Blair read the
- coordinates and studied the course, but something deep inside him said
- the computer was wrong. He couldn't explain the feeling, but he had felt it
- before, at the academy, during blind navigation simulator runs. The
- feeling tugged on his mind, his heart, and something even greater.
- "Plot your course, Mr. Blair," Taggart said.
- Mother? Father? Be with me now. Blair pulled out his cross and
- squeezed it. Then he obeyed the feeling as it told him to close his eyes. His
- fingers glided over the touchpad as though it were a musical instrument
- hardwired to the quantum level. Then he opened his eyes and stared at the
- upper left screen: COURSE PLOTTED.
- Drawing in a long breath and holding it, Blair steered the Diligent into
- the gravity well. The viewport grew darker as Scylla robbed more and
- more starlight. Shuddering again, the ship pressed harder against the
- barrier of space-time that lay at the singularity's core.
- Marshall released a long howl over the cacophony of rattling consoles
- and conduits.
- "As I was saying before I was so rudely cut off," Merlin cried, "I would
- calculate our chances of survival at twenty-seven point two percent. I
- implore you…"
- Blair glared at the hologram as the screens shook so violently that he
- held them, fearing they would snap off their swingarms.
- Three, two, one and the Diligent pierced the barrier
- Though his eyes remained open, Blair could only see a dark void
- speckled occasionally by flakes of yellow light. He turned his head. The
- void surrounded him. He cried out to Marshall. The pilot did not answer.
- Then Blair realized that he hadn't heard himself call out, that all of his
- senses had been shut down, replaced by…
- The feeling.
- Never had he felt it so strongly, a connection to the universe that made
- no sense, that made perfect sense. The subatomic particles of his body had
- never belonged to him in the first place. They had always belonged to the
- universe. He understood at least that much of the feeling now.
- Scylla's gravitational forces caused matter to have infinite density and
- infinitesimal volume, while also causing space and time to become
- infinitely distorted.
- But Blair's coordinates somehow broke those rules.
- The Diligent's bridge reappeared as quickly as it had vanished. But life
- still hung between seconds, between particles, frozen. Taggart stood
- immobile on his way toward the bridge. Marshall leaned back in his chair,
- in midscream. Merlin pointed at the gravity well and bit his lower lip. And
- Blair somehow observed this while feeling as though he could move his
- body, but seeing that he could not.
- His moment of inexplicable peace, silence, unity, continued for one
- minute, for a thousand years, for infinity, the distinctions became
- irrelevant.
- Yet at some point, a point Blair could not single out, a nova-bright light
- engulfed the Diligent as she shed Scylla's arms and plunged back into
- normal space.
- With his senses recovered, Blair recoiled from the still-rattling ship and
- Marshall's screaming, from the stench of frayed wires, and from the pain
- in his hands at keeping such a tight grip on his displays. The return left
- him feeling empty, as though he had forgotten part of himself and needed
- to head back. The others would not appreciate that desire.
- "Stop this madness," Merlin demanded. "That man is quite probably
- insane. He'll kill us all." Merlin looked over his shoulder at Taggart's
- approach. "Oh."
- But the captain shifted past the hologram to level his gaze at the nav
- computer's display. He opened his mouth, looked at Blair, started to say
- something, then just stared.
- Unnerved by Taggart's odd look, Blair asked, "What happened?"
- Taggart held back a laugh. "You just plotted a jump through a gravity
- well in under five seconds. A NAVCOM can't do that." His gaze averted to
- Blair's chest.
- Seeing this, Blair gripped his cross for a moment before slipping it
- under his shirt. "I don't know what to say. I guess I just felt something
- back there."
- "You didn't use the nav computer's trajectory. Why didn't you trust it?"
- "I don't know."
- Marshall, his face still flushed, turned to Blair and nodded. "Who cares
- how he did it? That was one hell of a rocket ride. Not bad for the
- second-best pilot at the academy."
- "Shut up," Taggart barked, turning to Marshall. "The next time you fail
- to follow my orders, I'll dump you with the rest of the garbage. You read
- me, Lieutenant Marshall?"
- Tensing, Marshall kept his gaze forward and replied, "Yes, sir. I read
- you clearly, sir."
- Satisfied that Marshall had been duly reprimanded, Taggart redirected
- his attention. "Plot a course for the Tiger Claw, Mr. Blair."
- "Yes, sir."
- Taggart rubbed his eyes, sighed loudly, then walked off the bridge.
- The flush that had filled Marshall's face during the jump lingered,
- fueled now by the young man's anger. He looked after Taggart until the
- man moved out of earshot. "That guy has some serious issues."
- "He's all right," Blair said quietly.
- "What?"
- "You heard me."
- Marshall snickered. "Yeah, I guess he likes you 'cause you kinda saved
- his ass."
- "Kinda saved yours, too."
- "Coincidence."
- This time Blair snickered. "Fortunate for you."
- "So, did you find out anything about his tattoo?"
- "Not yet."
- "You find out anything about him?"
- "He knows a lot about history."
- "Whose history? Ours… or the enemy's?"
- "Let's not talk," Blair said, piloting the Diligent toward the distant
- carrier, ETA: fourteen minutes.
- "Well, thank God we're almost rid of the man. Imagine having him for a
- wing commander? He wouldn't last a day."
- "Or you wouldn't."
- Marshall raised his lip in disgust. "Like you said, let's not talk."