Wing Commander in Real Time - Day 3 - 0500 Zulu
The Terran Knowledge Bank
Script
112 INT. TIGER CLAW - DEVERAUX'S QUARTERS
- ANGEL, in her flight suit, is alone, spending a quiet
- moment before the upcoming battle. She's looking at an
- OLD HOLO-VID - dated by the worn frame and static on the
- video. A SMALL GIRL is playing with her PARENTS.
- The door buzzer sounds. She hits the pause button. The
- hologram freezes in place. Deveraux groans and gets off
- the bunk, assuming it's Forbes.
- Then her door slides open. Blair stands there in his
- flight suit, looking grim. For once, she is caught
- completely off guard.
- BLAIR
- I need to talk to you.
- He pushes past her, not waiting to be invited in.
- DEVERAUX
- You just don't barge into my--
- BLAIR
- Here.
- He tosses his Pilgrim's cross at her. She catches it.
- BLAIR (CONT'D)
- I wear it for luck. It was my mother's.
- DEVERAUX
- Is your luck at odds with our mission?
- BLAIR
- You think he's right? Gerald -- in his
- mind I started selling out the Tiger
- Claw the moment I stepped on board.
- DEVERAUX
- I don't see how can you be a Pilgrim
- and fight on our side.
- BLAIR
- I'm not a Pilgrim -- I don't even know
- what a Pilgrim is.
- Deveraux looks at him.
- BLAIR (Cont'd)
- My mother was. She was an off-worlder
- who grew up hating Earth, humanity. My
- father fought for the Confederation.
- Somehow, despite all the hate they
- found each other. They died before I
- was five. He was killed trying to save
- her in the Peron massacre. The cross is
- all I have. I don't know where I
- belong, Commander -- except here
- fighting and flying.
- Deveraux is maybe starting to understand him. She turns
- the cross over in her hands.
- DEVERAUX
- Sit down, Lieutenant.
- Blair sits.
- DEVERAUX
- Why do you think they call me Angel?
- BLAIR gives a shake of his head.
- DEVERAUX (CONT'D)
- It's a real weeper -- headlines: My
- parents died in the same war. I grew up
- in an orphanage.
- BLAIR meets her gaze. A connection.
- DEVERAUX (Cont'd)
- At night, I'd cry for them. The
- sisters told me they were angels. I
- kept crying for them to come and take me to heaven.
- They weren't angels they were dead --
- gone. It was like they never existed.
- BLAIR
- Like Bossman?
- Deveraux's look is Blair's answer.
- DEVERAUX
- Emotion gets in the way of our mission.
- BLAIR
- Commander -- emotion is what separates
- us from the Pilgrims and the Kilrathi.
- Deveraux has spent a lifetime denying the pain. Blair
- has struck a nerve.
- DEVERAUX
- (Angry/denying tears)
- Lt. Cmdr Chen was -- Bossman and I got
- close. Too close. And then he got
- himself killed.
- Neither says anything for a minute. Blair starts to
- reach out to touch her, but Deveraux recovers and puts
- on a game face.
- DEVERAUX (Cont'd)
- We are square. You saved my ass today.
- Id' better suit up.
- DEVERAUX hands Blair back the cross. BLAIR nods, gets up,
- starts to exist.
DEVERAUX (Cont'd)
And Blair. Gerald’s a clown.112A INT. TIGER CLAW - MANIAC QUARTERS
- Maniac and Forbes have just had sex. Maniac is exhausted
- while Forbes is still excited. Forbes obviously needs some
- more attention.
- FORBES
- Come on, fire it up one more time.
- MANIAC
- I think the big Maniac needs time to
- refuel.
- FORBES
- Come on, baby. Don't I take care of
- you?
- MANIAC
- That's a big yes, sir!
- FORBES
- Well don't you care about my needs?
- MANIAC
- I'm all about your needs.
- FORBES
- Really?
- MANIAC
- Yeah. And right now you need to shut up
- and go to sleep.
- (gets serious)
- You make it all worthwhile.
- FORBES
- Make what worthwhile?
- MANIAC
- Coming out here to fight. Saying
- goodbye to everyone back home.
- FORBES
- Yeah, I remember the briefing -- by
- the time you return, everyone you
- know will be dead and buried.
- MANIAC
- I don't care about any of that.
- Maniac reaches over and starts to kiss Forbes deeply.
- Suddenly, an alarm rings out. FORBES rolls over.
- FORBES
- Shit. This war's really starting to
- piss me off.
Novelization
CHAPTER 16
UNITED
CONFEDERATIONCARRIER TIGER CLAWULYSSES CORRIDOR MARCH 17, 2654
0500 HOURS
ZULU TIME8 HOURS FROM
CHARYBOIS QUASAR
JUMP POINT
- "Before every battle, all pilots should spend a quiet moment of
- meditation. Within each of you lies the ability to transcend what you
- believe you can do. Within each of you lies a tiger's heart. To find it, you
- must begin at peace, comfortable with the world around you, with the
- future as you see it, with the thought of killing. There is no emotion. Only
- the job. You sight the target, terminate it with impunity, and move
- through it without looking back."
- Deveraux's academy instructor had said those words to her graduating
- class, words that lived in Deveraux with the same vitality as the day she
- had first heard them. She could repeat every sentence, every cadence of his
- speech, having turned a heartfelt reminder into a personal pledge and
- prayer that she repeated before every mission.
- When she had left the bridge with orders to lead a strike force to take
- out the Kilrathi ConCom ship, she had headed directly to her quarters to
- shower, change into a clean flight suit, and sit at her desk to meditate.
- No one had ever taught Deveraux how to meditate; in fact, she wasn't
- sure if she did it correctly. She had read that proper meditation can lessen
- levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. She also knew
- that meditation enhanced the body's recuperative functions.
- But what she really searched for, what remained at the fringe of her
- thoughts, was a sense of true identity. A sense that she wasn't just the
- product of an orphanage, that her parents' lives meant something to hers,
- that the feeling of emptiness would not lie locked in her heart forever, that
- somewhere inside lay a key.
- Deveraux had yet to find that key. Perhaps she did need lessons in
- meditation. And she didn't ask for much. She had no aspirations to attain
- conscious union with the divine or experience divine grace; she simply
- wanted to feel good about herself. She opened her eyes, reached across her
- desk, and switched on the holovid player.
- A small girl seated on the edge of a picnic blanket glimmered at the
- foot of her bunk. A young man rolled a pink ball toward the girl, while a
- young woman looked on with a proud grin. Intermittent buzzing
- resounded over their voices, and the picture flickered with static.
- Deveraux swore over the disc's age. She would have to mail it off to a
- company for restoration, but she would hate parting with the vid, even for
- a second. That family, sometimes looking so distant, so unfamiliar,
- sometimes looking like her exposed soul, remained the only visual record
- she had of a life that had suddenly ceased. Sure, she could make copies of
- the vid, but knowing that her parents had touched the same disc rendered
- it irreplaceable.
- A ring from her hatch bell startled her. She stood, paused the holovid,
- then moved to greet her visitor. Not many people came to see Deveraux,
- owing to her admonishments about the value of privacy during
- stand-down. She touched the open key.
- And lost a heartbeat.
- "I need to talk to you." Blair leaned on the doorjamb, his face long, his
- eyes reflective pools.
- She forgot to breathe. She glanced to the holovid, the figures frozen—
- Blair pushed his way past her.
- "Hey. You can't barge into my—"
- He spun and tossed something to her. "I wear it for luck."
- She caught, then examined the cross.
- "It was my mother's," he explained.
- "Is your luck at odds with our mission?"
- That drew a long sigh from him. He shifted away, surveying the rest of
- her quarters, his gaze falling on the paused holovid. "What's this?"
- "Nothing," she said, then practically dove toward the holovid and shut
- it off. "You should leave."
- "You worried about gossip? I'm not. I already know what they're saying
- about me."
- "You give them reason to talk."
- He searched the ceiling for a reply, then finally said, "You think he's
- right about me?"
- "Who? Gerald?"
- "Yeah. I mean, in his mind I started selling out the Tiger Claw the
- moment I stepped on board."
- Her gaze flicked to the cross. "I don't see how you can be a Pilgrim and
- fight on our side."
- "I'm not a Pilgrim. I don't even know what a Pilgrim is."
- "You're not that naive—otherwise you'd keep this thing in a box."
- "I guess you're right. My mother was an off-worlder who grew up
- hating Earth, hating humanity. My father fought for the Confederation.
- Somehow, despite all the hate, they found each other."
- "How?"
- "I don't know. They died before I was five. He was killed trying to save
- her in the Peron Massacre. That cross is all I have. I'm not sure where I
- belong, Commander, except here, fighting and flying."
- As she turned the cross over in her hands, Deveraux felt a chill
- spidering across her neck. "Sit down, Lieutenant."
- He moved toward her bunk, but she directed him to the chair at her
- desk.
- "Why do you think they call me Angel?" she asked.
- His shoulders lifted in a half-shrug.
- "It's a real weeper. Headlines: My parents died in the same war. I grew
- up in an orphanage on Earth, in Brussels."
- Their gazes met, and Deveraux sensed an even stronger connection.
- "At night, I'd cry for them," she continued. "The sisters told me they
- were angels. I kept crying for them to come and take me to heaven. But
- they weren't angels. They were dead. Gone. It was like they had never
- existed."
- "Like Bossman?"
- Deveraux held herself for a moment, forcing her breath to steady, her
- hands to stop trembling. "Emotion gets in the way of our mission. There is
- no emotion. Only the job. You sight the target, terminate it with impunity,
- and move through it without looking back."
- "Commander, emotion is what separates us from the Pilgrims. And the
- Kilrathi."
- She leaned back on the bulkhead and shut her eyes, seeing Chen's smile,
- listening to him joke about being "Ripper" in his younger days and how he
- had changed his ways to become a model pilot revered by the younger
- jocks who sought him for advice. They began to call him Bossman. And
- Bossman had left his wife and baby daughter behind. That little girl would
- never know her father, and the thought enraged Deveraux. She opened her
- eyes, felt the sting of tears, and said, "Lieutenant Commander Chen was…
- Bossman and I got close. Too close. And then he got himself killed." A tear
- slid down her cheek, damn it.
- Blair rose, reaching out to comfort her.
- She motioned him off, then backhanded the tears away. "Consider what
- you just saw classified."
- He lowered his hand and smiled just enough to make her feel better.
- "Yes, ma'am. And can I ask you something?"
- "That depends."
- "You said that your parents were killed in the same war. Were they
- killed by Pilgrims?"
- Her gaze searched his. "You want to know what side my family was on,
- is that it, Lieutenant?"
- "Actually, I was wondering more about you." He looked at the cross.
- "I don't know how they were killed. So the point is moot."
- "Wouldn't you like to know?"
- "I've already tried to find out. Those records were lost."
- He looked to the holovid player. "Is that your cross?"
- "Lieutenant, we're square. You saved my ass today. And I have a few
- things to finish here." She handed him the cross.
- With a curt nod, he headed for the hatch.
- "And Blair," she called after him. "Gerald's a clown."
- His eyes thanked her.
* * *
- Maniac lived to eat, to fly, and to have sex. Nothing profound about it.
- The food aboard the Tiger Claw wasn't half bad, the fighters, though
- patched up even more than some of his father's ships, weren't half bad,
- and the women, well, that was where the Claw really excelled.
- "Are you sure he's not coming back?" Forbes asked, laying naked and
- sweaty beside him.
- "Even if he does," Maniac said, still catching his breath, "I changed the
- hatch code. Besides, Blair's a bright boy. He'll find a place to sleep and
- leave us alone."
- "But will he talk?"
- "Blair?"
- "I guess you're right." She rolled over and began sucking on his earlobe.
- "Come on, fire it up one more time."
- He placed a palm on his bare chest, feeling his heart pumping
- overtime. "I think the Big Maniac needs time to refuel."
- Forbes tsked. "C'mon, baby. Don't I take care of you?"
- "That is a big yes, ma'am."
- "Well, don't you care about my needs?" She climbed on top of him and
- finger-combed his hair.
- "I'm all about your needs."
- "Really?"
- "Yeah. And right now you need to shut up and go to sleep."
- She looked wounded, rolled off of him, then draped an arm over her
- eyes.
- "You make it all worthwhile," he said earnestly.
- "Make what worthwhile?"
- "Busting my ass at the academy. Coming out here to fight. Saying
- good-bye to everyone back home."
- "Yeah, I remember the briefing," she began, then dropped her voice to
- quote some Confed noncom. "By the time you return, everyone you know
- will be dead and buried."
- He frowned. "I don't care about any of that."
- "You lie. What about your family?"
- "What about yours? In fact, you haven't told me anything."
- "You haven't asked."
- "Touche. So what's your story, uh, what did you say your name was?"
- She slammed him with her pillow. "Like you want to know."
- "Really. I do. Tell me about your parents. You got any brothers or
- sisters?"
- "I'm an only child. When I left for the academy, my parents stopped
- talking to me. It was like I was dying, and they couldn't take a long illness.
- So they cut me off from the start. I haven't spoken to them in six years."
- "Sorry. I was better off not asking."
- "No, it's all right. I've come to terms with it. I understand why they did
- what they did. I think they're cowards, but I understand. Some day I am
- going to die out there. I've had premonitions for years. So I don't blame
- them anymore. I'm their baby, and there's nothing more painful than
- losing a child. Sometimes I wonder how they're doing. I wonder if my
- mother's still yelling at him for drinking too much beer and if he's still
- yelling at her for complaining."
- "I don't think that'll change." Maniac rubbed the corners of his eyes.
- "Man, this conversation has gone all weepy on us. But thank God there's
- good news."
- Her brow lifted.
- He cupped his mouth and leaned into his shoulder. "Roger, Whiskey
- Halo Three. Refueling complete. The Big Maniac is back in business." He
- grabbed her shoulder and zeroed in for the kiss.
- A rapid beeping sounded from the intercom, a tone Maniac recognized
- as the alert call.
- "Shit," Forbes groaned. "This war's really starting to piss me off."