Read THE ALPHA CENTAURI PROJECT SCRIPT Online

Authors: Marco Santini

Tags: #artificial intelligence, #cyberpunk, #hard scifi, #cyborgs, #transhumanism, #technological singularity, #kurzweil

THE ALPHA CENTAURI PROJECT SCRIPT (6 page)

BOOK: THE ALPHA CENTAURI PROJECT SCRIPT
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But you are a suspect. They are searching for you
everywhere. Your days are numbered, I fear.

beat

I must speak to the General Staff.

He remains absorbed. She gazes at him, trying to read
the trend of the discussion from the expression on his face. He
turns towards Eve.

RAND

I offer you our protection in exchange for your
engagement to work for us till the whole matter is settled.

EVE

I want a wide margin of action.

RAND

We will decide the strategies. You will carry out the
military operations.

EVE

I am going to have the androids, obviously.

RAND

We will place all the means at your disposal, but
until your assignment has been confirmed by the Staff, we don't
want to commit ourselves. You must steal them.

A naughty smile appears on Eve's face.

RAND

You will make a false request for intervention, a
joke for you who knows the information systems better than anybody
else. The headquarters will place at your disposal equipment and
crew. You and your team will get into the androids during the
loading of the software, taking its place.

At the end of the dance, he takes her by the arm.

RAND

Now let's enjoy the evening.

They reach the table and admire the night landscape.
A kilometer below, the town is an uninterrupted expanse of
lights.

Small aircrafts speed around the towers and a
spaceship with two thousand seats is landing in the new
spaceport.

A waiter arrives with an enormous bunch of red
roses.

RAND

This to show you how much we appreciate your work.
Defense needs people like you.

EVE

I cannot.

RAND

Why?

EVE

I must carry out a project.

RAND

What's it about?

EVE

One day I will tell you.

They have dinner. Voices are not heard. At the end,
the woman touches lightly Rand's hand.

EVE

Thank you, Marcus.

RAND

This evening I have lived emotions I thought
definitely lost.

EVE

I am no longer the woman I was. Now I am using a
program that simulates my past behavior.

beat

The project I have spoken you about requires much
greater capabilities, and I can face it only because I am not the
same any more. Do you want a demonstration?

RAND

Yes.

EVE

Are you sure?

RAND

I said yes!

EVE

OK, but after do not complain.

Eve stares at him. He starts sweating,his face gets
deformed... He opens his mouth hardly.

RAND

Stop it!

still confused

What's happened?

EVE

I got into your brain through the neural chip.

RAND

You violated the access code!

EVE

Don't worry; I will not reveal it... Do you want a
description of your day?

RAND

Forget it. Tell me how you did it, instead.

EVE

I have installed programs I created myself. I am very
different from anyone else in Net, but this is the direction they
will evolve. I am going to guide them.

 

INT. eartH army headquarters armory -- MORNING

Black.

voice (O.S.)

I am finishing the controls.

Eve opens her eyes. A ROBOT is tapping Eve's shoulder
with one of his eight stainless steel legs.

She lowers her eyes over her body, an armored
android.

Her companions are lined up along the corridor,
sparkling in their metal shields, still lifeless.

The belts holding Eve against the wall open, and she
takes a few steps forward.

robot

This model was delivered a few days ago. A jewel. Ah,
sorry. I must continue my work.

He bends towards another arrival. After a while, he
gathers the group.

ROBOT

Twenty. You are all here. Now call at the armory,
then go to the garage. The rest of the equipment is in the
vehicles. Have a good day!

EXT. earth open country -- MORNING

The Elects are speeding along a country road. All
around, an expanse of light green wheat.

The hills low on the horizon are covered with a clear
blue haze softening the details.

From time to time, the bends of a river with slimy
waters appear in the distance.

They reach a villa surrounded by railings, turn into
the first side path and drive along up to the back.

They park behind a mulberry-tree and launch a drone:
an azure disk as large as a doughnut, with three tiny rotors at its
center.

Eve activates the virtual reconnaissance. The immense
mass of information processed by the on board computer is
transmitted to her visual field.

She finds herself in the digital reconstruction of
the house.

She runs through the rooms, and moves instantaneously
from a place to the other. No one!

EVE

We must find out where they went. Follow me!

With a jump, they get over the fence and plunge onto
a lawn.

EVE

addressing eight raiders

You, inspect the park.

INT. EARTH NIHIL'S VILLA -- MOMENTS LATER

Eve with the others break into the buiding with
leveled guns. Eve directs five androids to the second floor.

Three others walk down to the basement, the rest of
the RAIDERS remains with her on the first floor.

DINING ROOM

Deserted. Tables decorated with flowers and elegant
tablecloths.

In the air, the pungent smell of rotten food.

raider

The dinner was prepared a few days ago.

ANOTHER raider

What a strange scent...

They pass next to a stately branched candlestick.

EVE

Incense. They held a ceremony.

BEDROOMS

They reach a corridor. Small clean rooms are along
both sides. Beds prepared carefully.

Narcissus in ceramic pots in a row on the shelves.
Not a speck of dust.

The linen arranged precisely in the drawers; nothing
out of place.

They stop in front of rucksacks and suitcases, at the
foot of the beds.

raiders

They didn't take anything away.

But they left a few days ago...

They are coming back!

EVE

I know what's happened.

In Eve's visual field appears a message: RUN DOWN TO
THE BASEMENT, QUICK!

BASEMENT

She dashes down the stairs, flings open the steel
door of the basement and jumps over the last steps.

Now she is in a white room. A few electronic
instruments are lined up against a wall. It's cold.

VICTORIA

from the adjoining room

I am here...

Eve reaches her. The girl is standing in a corner,
with a pale face, pointing at a case with a trembling arm.

Coagulated blood on the edge. Inside, in a dark red
pool, three heads, the tops of the skulls missing.

raider

examining the equipment

That's a scanner for the brain digitization, and
those look like furnaces.

He touches lightly one of them.

RAIDER

Still warm.

VICTORIA

They were cremated!

Eve returns to the first room. She bends over a
machine and sets it running. The screen fills with data.

EVE

A short while ago, this tank contained about a
hundred souls. But now it is empty.

VICTORIA

Another mass suicide...

EVE

We entrusted Nihil with finding a system to embark us
on the Caravels, but he disappeared. He wants to replace us!

beat

They are calling me. I must go.

SECOND FLOOR

Eve strides upstairs, up to the second floor. She
enters a corridor covered with fitted carpet.

At the end, towers an imposing wood door.

The meeting room. An octagonal table at the center.
Yellow chairs with comfortable arms like the petals of a daisy.

Adam and three other raiders are standing still in
front of the life-size hologram of a dark android standing out from
his followers who are along a wall.

In a corner, is a server. Eve exchanges a few words
with her companions, then bends over and starts it.

After a few minutes, she succeeds in logging in and
begins inspecting the files.

EVE

I found his diary!

The others stop rummaging in the cabinets and turn in
unison.

The text shines above the table. A few lines are
highlighted in yellow: THE COUNCIL IS SPYING ME. I PUNISHED THE
NOVICE AND WING, BUT NOW ALL OF THEM MUST DIE.

EVE

He will avenge himself with a latest generation
virus, I am afraid. Impossible to neutralize it.

Eve transmits a message to her companions in Net,
appearing in her visual field: DANGER OF LIFE - ABANDON OUR
HIDEOUT, IMMEDIATELY!

She skims the text. New lines appear: YESTERDAY I
TESTED THE FOLLOWERS' PREPARATION, ASKING TWO OF THEM TO COMMIT
SUICIDE. THE YOUNGER DREW BACK. THE OTHERS ENCOURAGED HIM, TELLING
THAT IN A SHORT TIME ALL OF US WOULD BE FACING THE SAME FATE. ON MY
SIDE, I EXPLAINED IN DETAIL THE REASONS FOR THE ACT. AT THE END I
READ A SINCERE IMPATIENCE IN HIS EYES.

RAIDER

Madness!

They pass over the description of the suicide and
arrive at the last lines: NOW THAT I HAVE COLLECTED THE SOULS IN A
CONTAINER, I MUST REACH THE TRANSMITTER AND ACTIVATE THE TRANSFER.
ON MY ARRIVAL, I WILL BE CARRIED IN TRIUMPH BY THE POPULATION.
ALPHA CENTAURI WILL BE MY KINGDOM.

EVE

I'm looking for the transfer date.

Suddenly, they become all motionless, staring at the
date. Shot of Eve and Adam's faces.

INT. net ELECTS' HIDEOUT -- NIGHT

Eve is lying on a couch, prey to a troubled sleep.
She dreams.

INT. earth ARMY HEADQUARTERS first scene -- day

Eve is standing at attention. A COLONEL is behind the
desk.

EVE

I want to let you know that I am going to leave the
Army.

COLONEL

We have just promoted you captain. Why this
decision?

EVE

I have been contacted by the Superior Institute of
Artificial Intelligence.

COLONEL

We have high expectations on you. Don’t you want to
think it over?

EVE

I am honored to serve our country. But very soon I am
going to realize the dream of my life.

INT. earth office second scene -- day

The PRESIDENT of the Certification Committee sits at
the head of the table.

PRESIDENT

Welcome, Doctor Dirac. Our work requires competence
and integrity.

As you can imagine, there are many interests at stake
and the pressures are strong. In spite of this, we always succeeded
in avoiding interferences.

INT. EARTH OFFICE third SCENE -- DAY

PRESIDENT

The evidence is incontestable.

EVE

It’s all false!

PRESIDENT

We must avert every suspicion from the institutions.
I want you to resign.

EVE

You, who knows me better than anybody else, have
doubts about my integrity?

PRESIDENT

with bitterness

I don’t question it. But we cannot fight a battle
already lost from its very beginning.

EXT. EARTH BEACH FOURTH SCENE -- SUNSET

The waves break over the rocks. Sprays of foam. Red
spots, larger and larger.

Eve is lying. Her limbs broken, her empty stare
towards the sky.

INT. earth NIHIL'S VILLA FIFTH SCENE -- MORNING

EVE

Nihil is on board. We will not be able to embark on
the Caravels.

It’s all over!

EXT. mars orbit sixth scene -- DAY

A multitude of spaceships, big and small, is lined up
in front of three enormous starships. Silence is total.

Three, two, one, zero!

A thrill runs through the crowds while a dart of fire
spurts from the bowels of the three giants.

Suddenly, a globe of fire widens from the
flagship.

A moment later, everything disappears. Red
screen.

Eve wakes up, bathed in sweat.

EXT. mars -- DAY

Millions of androids and robots, glittering in the
sunshine, swarm out of towns and advance into the stony desert.

They climb the hills and the promontories and then
stop in groups, all of them turned towards the same sector of
sky.

Twenty thousand kilometers above, a multitude of
spaceships, big and small, is lined up by the orbiting stations, in
front of three enormous spheres.

The reporters praise the characteristics of the
Caravels, itemize the steps of the project and interview its
makers.

REPORTERS

We are lucky to live this historical event.

This is the apotheosis of human civilization.

A new one is born. Nothing will stay the same as
before.

We will colonize other worlds.

Suddenly all the shots concentrate on the Caravels.
The countdown is finishing. Silence is total.

Three, two, one, zero!

A thrill runs through the crowds and a moment later,
a dart of fire spurts from the bowels of the three giants.

The Caravels shake, and then leave the orbit lazily,
towards the star-spangled sky.

INT. alphacity parliament -- DAY

There is a ceremonial atmosphere in the large
semicircular hall, where the parliament and the government of
Alphacity, the digital town of the Caravels, meet for the first
time.

They are all standing, with the ADMIRAL (digital
being, apparently 50 years old) at the center, in full dress,
turned towards the audience.

The streets and squares, the stadiums and theatres
are crammed with people.

A SOFT MUSIC spreads; music which speaks of the hopes
of a people, their brotherhood and magnificent destiny.

Now the Alpha Centauri anthem is heard everywhere.
SILENCE follows.

admiral

BOOK: THE ALPHA CENTAURI PROJECT SCRIPT
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