towards landing leg.

INT. PASSAGEWAY NEAR AIR LOCK
Amaroq comes down the steps.
Hurries to the inner door lock.
Presses the wall voice-amp.

AMAROQ: Jenna, I'm by the inner lock hatch.
JENNA: (Voice over) Okay.

EXT. LANDING LEG - NIGHT
Autumn and Aaka drag Granite onto lift platform.

INT. PASSAGEWAY NEAR AIR LOCK
Much comes running up.

MUCH: What's going on?
AMAROQ: Granite got hurt somehow.
MUCH: How bad.

Amaroq shrugs.
Ebony appears at the top of the companionway.
Puzzled look on his face.

INT. BRIDGE
Jenna seated alone in the room.
Autumn appears as a huge image on all screens.
Aaka behind him.
Granite pinioned to Autumn.

AUTUMN: (Voice over) Jenna, are you there.
JENNA: Right here.
AUTUMN: (Voice over) We're coming up. Open the lock.
JENNA: What happened to Granite? I need a clear definition.
AUTUMN: (Voice over) Some kind of organism. It's attached itself to him. Let us in. (Long moment) You hear me. Open the lock.
JENNA: If we let it in, the ship could be infected.
AUTUMN: (Voice over) Goddamn it. Open the hatch.
JENNA: We've already broken every rule or quarantine. If we bring an organism on board, we won't have a single layer of defense left.
AAKA: (Voice over) Open the Goddamn hatch. We have to get him inside.
JENNA: I can't. If you were in my position you'd do the same.

INT. PASSAGEWAY NEAR AIR LOCK
AUTUMN: (Voice over) Jenna, do you hear me.
JENNA: (Voice over) I read you. The answer is negative.

Amaroq hits the emergency switch.
A red light goes on.
Servo whine.
Followed by a solid metallic chunk.

AMAROQ: Inner hatch open.

INT. BRIDGE - NIGHT
Jenna staring at the console.
She can't believe what she sees.
Turns to the view screens.
Watches Autumn, Granite and Aaka enter.

INT. PASSAGEWAY NEAR AIR LOCK
The servo again turns over.
Another clunk.
The outer door has closed.
Red light off.
The inner door slides open.
Autumn and Aaka stagger into passageway.
Carry Granite's body between them.
Autumn pulls off his helmet.

AUTUMN: Stay clear.

Amaroq and Much move back.

AMAROQ: God.
MUCH: Is it alive?
AAKA: I don't know, but don't touch it.
AUTUMN: Take him to the infirmary.
EBONY: Right.

Amaroq and Ebony move in carefully to help with the limp burden.

INT. INFIRMARY
Granite's helmet.
Hands begin to open it with a laser cutter.
The helmet separates easily.
The two halves part...
...The life form slowly pulsing on Granite's face.
Autumn hesitates, then puts his hand on the small Creature.
Tries to pull it free.
Unsuccessful.
The Alien remains anchored to Granite's tissue.

AMAROQ: Let me try.

Amaroq takes a pair of pliers from a rack.
Carefully grasps the tip of the Creature.
Squeezes tightly.
Leans back.

AUTUMN: You're tearing his face.

A trickle of blood appears on Granite's cheek.

EBONY: It's not going to come off without pulling his whole face off at the same time.
AUTUMN: Let the machine work on him.

The Amaroq presses a switch.
The machine lights up.
Granite is sucked into a slot on the wall.
Visible inside through the glass layer.
A blinding colored light performs antisepsis.
Two video monitors pop on.

ANGLE ON THE DOORWAY
Jenna appears.
Autumn turns and looks at her.
A long moment.

AUTUMN: When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed.
JENNA: Even if it's against the law.
AUTUMN: That's right.

Aaka steps forward and slaps Jenna across the face.
Jenna slowly puts her hand to her cheek.

AAKA: You were going to leave us out there.
MUCH: Maybe she should have. Who the hell knows what that is.
EBONY: Right.

Jenna looks at Aaka.
A moment.

JENNA: Let's call it settled.

Aaka gives her a curt nod.
Amaroq turns attention to the instrumentation.

JENNA: Somebody fill me in.
AUTUMN: He went into the structure alone, we lost radio contact. When we pulled him out, it was on his face...
AMAROQ: Where did it come from..?
AUTUMN: Somewhere inside that ship.
MUCH: How the hell is he breathing?

They study the monitors.

AMAROQ: Blood's thoroughly oxygenated.
AUTUMN: How. His nose and mouth seem to be blocked.
AMAROQ: We better look inside his head.

Amaroq punches three buttons.
An X-ray image appears.
A color depiction of Granite's head and upper torso.
The Alien is clearly visible.
A maze of complicated biology.
Granite's jaws are forced open.
The creature has extruded a long tube down his mouth and throat.
The appendage ending at the base of the esophagus.

EBONY: It's got something down his goddamn throat.
AMAROQ: That must be how it's getting oxygen to him.
JENNA: It doesn't make sense. It paralyzes him, puts him into a coma, then keeps him alive.
MUCH: Let's kill it. We can't leave the damn thing on him.
AMAROQ: I don't know. At the moment the Creature is keeping him alive. If we remove it we might terminate Granite...
AUTUMN: I don't think so. Let's take the chance and cut it off him.
AMAROQ: You'll take the responsibility.
AUTUMN: That's right.

Slips into surgical gloves.
Presses a switch, Granite slides back out of the booth.

AUTUMN: Give me the knife.

Jenna takes a surgical laser blade from the case.
Carefully passes it to Autumn.
He manipulates the knife until he has a comfortable grip.
Flicks a small button with his thumb.
The blade begins to hum.
Autumn advances on Granite's prostrate form.
Touches the scalpel to the Creature.
The electronic blade slices effortlessly downward.
Suddenly a urine-like fluid begins to drip from the wound.

AUTUMN: Starting to bleed.

The liquid flows onto the bedding next to Granite's head.
Starts to hiss.
Smoke curls up from the stain.
Next the yellow fluid eats a hole through the bunk bed.
Then drips onto the deck below.
Metal bubbling and sizzling.
More smoke rising, sending the crew into a coughing jag.
The crew jostle their way out of the cabin.
Huddle in the passageway outside, still coughing.
Autumn frantically applies pressure to the wound.
In the process, smoke of the fluid gets on Autumn's gloves.
They begin to smoke.
Autumn leaps back, pulls them off.
Then runs out into the corridor.

INT. PASSAGEWAY OUTSIDE INFIRMARY
EBONY: Shit. It's going to eat through the decks and go out the hull...

He starts to run for the companionway.

INT. PASSAGEWAY - "B" DECK
Autumn wrenches an emergency lamp from a socket.
Hurls himself down a companionway.
The others follow.

AUTUMN: There.

A droplet of fluid is sizzling on the ceiling bulkhead.
It oozes down.
Drips to the deck.
Continues to bubble.
Then goes through the bulkhead.

AMAROQ: What can we put under it.

Jenna and Much charge down the companionway below.

INT. SECOND LEVEL - "C" DECK
Jenna and Much move cautiously down the passageway.
Look up to the ceiling bulkhead.

MUCH: Don't get under it.

INT. PASSAGEWAY - "B" DECK
Autumn, Ebony and Amaroq crouch by the spot where the acid sizzles.
Amaroq fishes a pen out of his pocket.
Probes the hole in the deck.

AMAROQ: It's stopped penetrating.

Jenna comes charging back up.

JENNA: What's happening?
AMAROQ: I think it's lost steam. No longer active.
Jenna checks the opening.
Amaroq straightens up.
Starts to put the pen back in his pocket.
Changes his mind and stands holding it by the end.

AMAROQ: I've never seen anything like that, except molecular acid...
EBONY: This thing uses it for blood.
AMAROQ: It's the asbestos that stopped it, otherwise it would have gone straight through.
AUTUMN: Wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it.

Much comes up the companionway.

MUCH: It's stopped bleeding.
AUTUMN: Yeah. After it penetrated two levels.
JENNA: What about Granite?

Starts up companionway.

INT. INFIRMARY

They return.
Granite still motionless on the bunk.
The Alien remains secured to his face.
Wound completely healed over.

MUCH: Any of the acid gets on him.

Autumn approaches, peers at Granite's head.

AUTUMN: Doesn't look like it.
EBONY: Is it still dripping that crap?
AMAROQ: Healed over.
AAKA: There must be some way we can get it off.

And look at Autumn.

AMAROQ: I don't think you ought to try again. It didn't work out too well last time.

Autumn gives him a look in return.
Jenna presses a button.
Granite slides back into the diagnostic coffin.
More buttons pressed.
Display lights up again, showing the different parts of Granite's body.

AMAROQ: I better get some intravenous feeding started. So far I can't tell what the Alien has absorbed from his system.

The machine begins to process Granite's body.

JENNA: What's the stain on his lungs?

The X-ray reveals a spreading dark blot in the chest cavity.
At the center, the stain is completely opaque.

AMAROQ: Whatever it is, it's blocking the X-ray.

A long moment.
The stain spreads.

EBONY: What happens now?

Amaroq sets aside his partially melted pen.
Looks at Autumn.

AUTUMN: You go back to work.

INT. ENGINE ROOM CUBICLE
Ebony at work in the cubicle.
Much supervising him.

EBONY: I think I've got it. Give it a try.

Much pushes a button.
Negative reaction on his monitor.

MUCH: Nothing.
EBONY: Damn. I was sure that was it.
MUCH: Well, it wasn't. Try the next one.
EBONY: Right.

Adjusts several toggles.

JENNA: (Voice over) What's happening?
MUCH: This goddamn woman. I'll tell her what's happening. My Johnson is happening. (Punches the communicator) A lot of hard work. Real work.

INT. BRIDGE - NIGHT
MUCH: (Voice over) You ought to try it sometime.
JENNA: I've got the toughest job on this ship...

Derisive laugh from Much through the speaker.

JENNA: I have to listen to your bullshit.

INT. ENGINE ROOM CUBICLE
MUCH: Get off my back.
JENNA: (Voice over) I'll get off your back when 12 module is fixed.

She clicks off.
Much turns away.

MUCH: Smart mouth broad.

INT. INFIRMARY
Amaroq running test on the equipment.
Granite respiration on the view screens above.
Still deep within a coma.
All instruments recording his life processes.
The Alien's position

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