the shock wave. Julie breaks out ahead and it's all Jenna and Breeze can do to keep up.

JULIE: This way. Come on, we're almost there!
JENNA: Julie, wait!

The kid moves like lightning, diving and dodging around obstacles. If it wasn't clear before it's clear now that we are on her turf, and she's the ace. Running on and on, their breathing loud and echoing...the walls a directionless blur. Julie never hesitates.

They reach a junction with a narrow ANGLED CHUTE which runs upward at a steep 45 degrees.

JULIE: Here! Go up.

INT. CHUTE
Jenna looks up the angles shaft, seeing light at the top...an exterior vent hood. The sound of wind booms down from above. Like blowing across a bottle top vastly amplified.

Jenna enters, bracing her feet on perilously narrow side ribs in the shaft. She looks down. The chute descends far into the depths, lost in shadow. She starts to climb with Next behind/below her, and Breeze, just emerging from the side duct.

JULIE: Just up there --

Julie slips, a rusted rib collapsing under her foot. She slides...catches herself with one hand. Jenna reaches for her, dropping her light. The hand-light goes skittering and bumping down the chute, around a bend, and disappears.

Jenna strains, reaching, her hand groping for Julie's. They miss, inches apart.

JULIE: Jeeeeennnaaaa --

She slips. Breeze lunges, grabbing her oversized jacket. AND SHE SLIPS OUT OF IT. With an echoing scream Julie plummets, sliding down the chute into darkness.

MOVING WITH HER, the walls racing by in a dizzy blur like a bobsled ride. THe shaft pitches left. Julie bounces, sliding halfway up the wall. The chute forks ahead. Julie tumbles into the right shaft, which drops at a steeper angle into the depths. Just disappearing down the LEFT SHAFT we SEE Jenna's light.

Jenna looks Breeze in the eye. And kicks free...sliding down the chute after Julie. Jenna slams her feet into the side-ribs, bracing herself in a controlled descent. Jenna reaches the "V." Sees the glow of the light in the left fork. She goes left.

JENNA: Julie!

She hears a plaintive reply, so echoey and distorted it has no direction.

JULIE: (v.s.) Mommy...where are you?

Jenna reaches the bottom of the chute where it intersects with a HORIZONTAL SERVICE TUNNEL. The light is lying there, but no Julie. The echoing wail comes again.

JULIE: (v.s.) Moooommeeee...

Jenna starts down the tunnel, answering. Julie's call comes again. Fainter? She can't tell. She spins in a growing panic, starts the other way.

JENNA: (To her headset) Breeze, get down here. I need that locator.

INT. SUBBASEMENT 163
Julie is in a low grotto like chamber, filled with pipes and machines. It is flooded, almost up to Julie's waist. She looks up, seeing light streaming through a grating.  Jenna's voice seems to come from there.

JENNA: (v.s.) Julie! Star wherever you are!

Julie climbs some pipes, straining to reach the grating.

INT. SERVICE TUNNEL 164
Breeze joins Jenna, unsnapping the emergency-locator from his belt. They follow the signal into a lighted area where the power apparently was not cut.

BREEZE: This way. We're close...

Following the signal they come to a grating set in the floor.

JULIE: Here! I'm here. I'm here.

Jenna runs to the grating. Looking down she sees Julie's tear streaked face. Julie reaches up. Her tiny fingers wriggle up through the bars of the grate. Jenna squeezes the child's precious fingertips.

JENNA: Climb down, honey. We have to cut through this grate.

Julie backs away, climbing down the pipe as Breeze cuts into the bars with his hand-torch.

INT. SUBBASEMENT 165
Julie, standing waist deep in the water, watches sparks shower blindingly as Breeze cuts. She bites her lip, trembling. Cold and terrified. Silently a glistening shape rises in one graceful motion from the water behind her. It stands, dripping, dwarfing her tiny form. Julie turns, sensing the movement...She SCREAMS as the shadow engulfs her.

INT. SERVICE TUNNEL 166
Jenna panics, hearing screaming below, then splashing.  She and Breeze kick desperately at the grating, smashing it down. Heedless of the cherry-hot edges Jenna lunges into the hole with her light.

JENNA: Julie! Julie!

The surface of the water reflects the beam placidly. Julie is gone. Bobbing in the water, eyes staring, is "Casey" the doll head. In sinks slowly, distorting, vanishing in darkness.

Breeze pulls Jenna away from the hole. She struggles furiously, trying to tear out of his grip.

JENNA: No! Noooo!

He drags her back. It takes all of his strength.

BREEZE: (Intense) She's gone! Let's go!

He sees something moving toward them through a lattice of pipes. Jenna is irrational. Hysterical.

JENNA: No! No! She's alive! We have to --
BREEZE: All right! She's alive. I believe it. But we gotta get moving! Now!

He drags her toward an ELEVATOR not far away at the end of the tunnel. Gets her inside, slamming her against the back wall. Hits the button to go to surface level.  An alien warrior leaps into the tunnel, starts toward them. The doors are closing. Not fast enough. The creature gets one arm through, the doors closing on it. THEY OPEN AGAIN, an automatic safety feature. THE WARRIOR HISSES, LUNGING. Breeze FIRES, POINT-BLANK. It spins away, SCREECHING. Acid sluices between the closing doors, across Breeze' armored chest plate, as he shields Jenna with his body. The lift starts upward. Breeze' fingers race with the clasps as the stuff eats its way toward his skin. Galvanized out of her hysteria, Jenna claws at his armor, helping him as much as she can. He screams as the acid contacts his chest and arm. He shucks out of the combat armor like a madman, dropping the smoking pieces to the floor. Acrid fumes fill the air, searing eyes and lungs. The elevator stops. The doors part and they stumble out, Jenna supporting Breeze who is doubled over in agony.

JENNA: Come on, you can make it. Almost there.

EXT. LANDING FIELD 167
Drop-ship two descends toward the landing grid, side-slipping in hurricane gusts. Kapu stands, guiding it with the portable terminal. The ship sets down hard. Slides sideways. Stops. Kapu turns as Jenna and Breeze stumble out of a doorway in the colony building behind him. He goes to them, helping to support Breeze and they run toward the ship, buffeted by the gale.  Jenna shouts, her words barely audible over the wind.

JENNA: HOW MUCH TIME?
KAPU: PLENTY! TWENTY-SIX MINUTES!
JENNA: WE'RE NOT LEAVING!

The loading ramp deploys and they run into the ship.

EXT. PROCESSING STATION 168
An infernal engine, roaring out of control. Steam blasts and swirls, lightning zaps around the superstructure and columns of incandescent gas thunder hundreds of feet into the air.

We APPROACH, hypnotically. The drop-ship ENTERS FRAME, moving toward the station. It pivots, hovering in the blasting turbulence, and settles onto a NARROW LANDING PLATFORM ten levels above the ground, or about a third of the way up the enormous structure.

INT. DROP-SHIP 169
Jenna finishes winding tape around a bulky object and drops the roll. She has crudely fastened a M-41A assault rifle together, side by side, with a flamethrower. A massive, unwieldy package of absolute firepower. Her movements are curt, precise...determined. She works rapidly, snatching magazines, grenades, belts and other gear from the fully stocked ordnance racks of the drop-ship.

Kapu comes aft from the pilot's compartment to help Breeze dress his injuries. Breeze is sprawled in a flight seat, the contents of a FIELD MEDICAL KEY strewn around him. He's out of the game...contorted with pain.

KAPU: Jenna...
JENNA: She's alive. They brought her here and you know it.
KAPU: In seventeen minutes this place will be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska.

Jenna is stuffing gear rapidly into a satchel, her hands flying.

JENNA: Breeze, don't let him leave.
BREEZE: (Grimacing with Pain) We ain't going anywhere.

She hefts the hybrid weapon, grabs the satchel and spins to the door controls. The door opens. Wind and machine-thunder blast in.

JENNA: See you, Breeze.

Breeze is holding a wad of gauze plastered over his face.

BREEZE: Dwayne. It's Dwayne.

Jenna grabs his hand. They share a moment, albeit brief. Mutual respect in the valley of death.

JENNA: Ellen.
BREEZE: (Nods with satisfaction) Don't be long, Ellen.

Jenna runs down the ramp, crossing the platform to thr open doors of a LARGE FREIGHT ELEVATOR. The doors close.

INT. FREIGHT ELEVATOR 170
The elevator descends. Bars of light move rhythmically across her as Jenna stands facing the doors, watching the landings go by. The heat grows more intense. Pipes glowing cherry-red pass by. Steam hisses and billows. The lift clatters in a steady beat. Hypnotic.

Jenna removes her jacket and dons a battle harness directly over her T-shirt. Her hair is matted, and she glistens with sweat. Her eyes burn with a determination that holds the gut-panic in check.

The elevator descends. She checks her weapon. Attaches a BANDOLIER OF GRENADES to her harness. Primes the flamethrower. Checks the rifle's magazine. Racks the bolt, chambering the first round. She checks the MARKING FLARES jammed in the thigh pockets of her jump pants. She drops an unprimed grenade, trembling, forcing herself to be strong. We SEE she doesn't know doodley about grenades.

This is the most terrifying thing she has ever done. She begins to hyperventilate, soaking with sweat. Her fingers slick and slippery on the rifle. The elevator descends.

The lift motors whine, slowing. It hits bottom with a bump. The safety cage retracts. Slowly, expectantly, the doors open.

HER P.O.V. THROUGH the parting doors...an empty corridor. Dark, swirling with steam, a ruddy glow VISIBLE here and there. It seems to have been a descent into Dante’s Hell. The air itself vibrates with heat distortion. Couplings groan. Machinery whines and throbs.