Regarding Noble Pursuits

The camera slowly zooms in on s forbidding scene. 

Tall mountains, covered with snow cover the view  as far as the eye can see. Standing at possibly 32 thousand feet, they tower over the landscape. As we get closer, the peeks look imposing. Jagged edges and ravines pierce through rocky surfaces with odd angles that cause a constant hallow ring through the air. Getting closer still, small specs disturb what looks like a sheer white wall of ice. The specs move slowly, like ants, uninvited, disturbing the nature of this place.

Slowly the specs make out the outlines of 10 climbers, suffering the icy vertical as cold wind buffets a group.

Dr. Nathan Perdu, 

“You still with me honey?”

A'aret Perdu,

“No dad, I decided flying was a better idea and so I’m definitely not here.”

The man smiles,

“That’s my girl. Not much further. You’re doing great!”

A woman comes into view to the right of the pair.

“Remind me why we didn’t fly. It really does sound like a much better idea.”

Dr. Nathan Perdu, 

“Well Jacquiline, the gravitational anomalies make this whole area impossible to navigate safely. We’d crash real quick.”

A man comes into view below the woman.

“I dare say that the though of that is beginning to sound appealing. Anything to end this unbearable torture.”

Jacquline,

“Ow pipe down Kundu. Look at A'aret Perdu. My god she’s 12 and somehow not complaining. And you’re a grown ass man.”

Kundu

“I’m an archeologist, not a mountain climber.”

Dr. Nathan Perdu: 

“Don’t fret Dr. Kundu. I promise you the little hike will be worth it.”

Kundu,

“And so you said. And I believed you, because you are so god damn persuasive, but I feat this mountain is starting to make a better argument.”

A'aret Perdu

“Hey look above! We’re almost there!"

A glint of a merciful end glistens above giving the group renewed vigor. The wind dies down just as the father crests over the edge. Immediately, he anchors the rope securely, jimmy’s a pulley system and start pulling on the rope attached to the climber below.

Dr. Nathan Perdu

“Have I told you how amazing you are kid?”

A'aret Perdu answer huffing with tired breath: 

“Yeah dad, you did.”

Her father insists,

“But I mean it. Do you know any other 12 year old who could have climbed this cliff?”

“Well, maybe Jack?”

“Nonsense, that boy is all talk and pretense. This what you did here. You can’t fake that. This will stay with you forever.”

The woman to the right crawls over the ledge and copies the man’s pulley setup,

“Honey, your dad is right. The man is a genius. And you, you are pretty amazing. I could not have done this at your age.”

More climbers make their way to the top and a voice yells from below Jacquline.

Kundu,

“What’s amazing is that we are alive. Jackie some help here please. I can’t, I just can’t."

The woman rolls her eyes and pull on the rope through the pulley system,

“Maybe if you unearthed more fossils than donuts you wouldn’t be having this problem.” She heaves and pulls, but the rope doesn’t budge. “What are you doing doctor? I can’t do this if you don’t try.”

The man suddenly yells out,

“Wait! Something’s wrong.”

Jacquline

“What’s wrong is your fat ass. I’m really loosing patience here.”

“The rope! It’s freeing! Stop pulling!”

Dr. Nathan Perdu jumps towards the edge and looks towards D. Kundu,

“That’s impossible. These ropes are highly durable steel-polymer blend. They can hold an elephant.”

Exasperated, Kundu yells pointing his finger, 

“Look! Stop pulling please!”

Dr. Nathan Perdu,

“How on earth?… Jackie pull faster!”

Kundu,

“Wait no, don’t.”

“If we don’t get you up here in a few second you will be in trouble. Are your axes anchored? Make sure they are and hold tight."

“What? no, wait.”

“Get them anchored and grab my hand as soon as you can! Now!”

“I don’t have the strength in me!”

Jacquline,

“God damn it Kundu, just do it.”

"But…”

He didn’t even finish his sentence when the rope popped loose sending Jackie to her back. Dr. Nathan Perdu’s desperate hand reaching for the man over the edge with nothing but air between the fingers.

There was no scream, no sound, just quiet somber disbelief. Few seconds ago a man was there. Now he’s not. Not even a speck on a sheer white wall.

The group stares into space in disbelief. Then A'aret Perdu breaks the stillness.

“Dad look!”

Dr. Nathan Perdu look to his daughter. She is pointing away from the cliff and into a clearing that is slowly coming into view through dissipating clouds.

Jacquline,

“Ow my god. Nathan. You did it.”

The mist opens to structures, barely discernible through still billowing fog with a rainbow slick through the air, like and oiled glass pane.

“Dad you are going to be famous.”

Dr. Nathan Perdu, 

“I knew it.”

Jacquline,

“Look at the light. It’s just like you predicted. The resonant frequencies are different. Like a different world.”

“No dear Jackie. A different plane. The frequency response of the particles in this area are refracting passing energy through the space-time itself.”

A'aret Perdu,

“Cool.”

Dr. Nathan Perdu, 

"Yeah. Cool."

Cockpit

Dr. Nathan Perdu, a dark haired man, no more than 30, flips switches eagerly on the kaleidoscope of colors in front of him, The dashboard on this shuttle, simple under normal times, proves confusing. He fumbles with his fingers for the auto-docking procedure. His large brown eyes, set in a head too wrinkled and troubled for his age, skip from side to side. His head darts back as if the emptiness of the ship behind him held more than the thin cold air.

Radio,

"Go ahead and dock at anchor B please."

His winces as a slender hand gently rests on top of the his shoulder. The fingers slowly run down the arm and rest on top of the mans hand, easing a tremble that has been there for days.

A gentle female voice coos melodically into his ear,

"Right there, on the top, where it's always been. hm hm Don't you worry. Don't you fret. The end is not here yet."

His right index finger finds the target as he sighs with relief.

Computer,

"Autodock on"

The man responds to the radio,

"Roger that. Coming about."

His voice is deep and horse, tired. Very tired. The kind of tired that makes one confused as to when eyes are open and when they are not.

Man,

"Thank you"

That last bit, barely audible. A whisper, more to himself or perhaps something else. 

Command Deck

A rather large and tall man in a captain's uniform looks over the shoulder of the docking controller, then places eyes onto his new security.

"The man is in a hurry! Alright, let's welcome our guest then. Draven, let the man in, will ya."

The docking doors open from the inside, through an airlock. This particular entrance requires a short EVA (extravehicular activity).

The man reaches out his hand as he walks out of the airlock, looking to grasp Draven's forearm in a welcoming manner.

His hand seems weak and unsure, like his body isn't able to fully follow through with what is likely an earnest attempt. He looks hurried and frazzled.

"Can you please take me to the captain?"

I am expecting a shuttle to come by very soon to pick him up and he doesn't want to miss it.

You show him to the captain and he asks for a word in private, which the captain obliges. The two of them step to the side. Their voices are inaudible.

Draven, you feel a slight delicate caress. Perhaps a finger quickly moving from one side of your back to another. Time slows.

You notice a difference in the room. As you look around you notice that something feels off about the atmosphere. The various staff, typically focused and busy seem to be just sitting there staring into spaces in front of them. The various alerts and prompts on their screens, seemingly unattended. Some of the staff make very low groans, coughs, and gasps, just a bit more than usual.

A few minutes pass. Long minutes. The captains face shows concern and incredulity. The man seems intense. The uneasy feeling about the room grows. One of the staff seems to go faint and has to rest himself on a console. A number of the staff seem to have barely noticeable nosebleeds and are beginning to murmur to each other. You feel your own nose is a little wet. A few audible gasps spread around the room.

Dr. Nathan Perdu quickly makes his way down, towards the reception area on lower levels.

A sharp pain spreads through your head and makes you drop to your knees. The captain catches a hold of you, concerned. A loud scream startles both you back into the moment. Both of you look around the deck as one of the crew looks to you in terror as another crew member bites off a big chunk of meat from his shoulder.

A door downstairs hisses closed. 

Then another scream, cut short. A young woman whimpers and, who you knew to be a flight analyst, stands behind her and slices her neck open, then licks it slurping down the blood. You knew this man. You've eaten lunch together. Now it seems, his tastes have changed. Before you know it, the whole deck is in chaos as the crew viciously attack each other. You stand there frozen in disbelief as everything seems to stop. What was a cacophony of agony turns still and silent as  everyone, with bloody mouths and hands looks at you and the captain.

The captain pushes you back putting himself between you and the crew and yells. 

"Get downstairs NOW! Warn the others." 

You know very well that you will not be able to fight off the whole crew. You run to the lower deck where three doors welcome you. One to the reception area, the other to the abattoir, and the third wide open, which leads to the farm.

Suddenly an alarm blares and all doors get illuminated red, except for the one that is still open. You hear the crew start making their way to you. 

Corridor

You run to the corridor and lock the door behind you, jamming the lock, right as the cannibal crew seem inches away. You hear them pounding on the door. 

The door to the farm is jammed.

The pounding on the command deck door gets louder as you hear screams, groans, and howls. You realize that what was just a little nosebleed has turned into a gusher as your head throbs and pounds with pain. The blood get into your mouth and you gag as the surprisingly lumpy texture chokes you.

The corridor gets darker, your vision narrows, as you gasp on the floor until just a speck of light remains in front of you. All is black and quiet now, but this spec of light dances an ebbs, until that too goes away and you are all alone with no sensations, no desires, no worries. Just you in this nothingness.

Reception

Dr. Nathan Perdu is running through reception on the lower decks. He is gasping for air.

Somewhere in the distance the sound of a chainsaw echoes and mingles with scream and pleading for mercy. The lights flicker on and off as the man finally reaches a corridor to the shuttle docks.

He reaches to open the door, but it won't budge. As the malevolent yells and hoots echo throughout, the man whimpers and collapses, sliding down the corridor wall with his back.

He takes out a Photo of a woman and a young girl from his pocket and what looks like a small figurine (Mind Cage). He looks at the photo, tears wetting his cheeks. Through blurry eyes, he turns his gaze upon the figurine and studies it for a minute with hesitation. He takes a few quick breaths as if psyching him self up. The scene cuts to black.

Newcomers

The scene turns to a docking bay where a new shuttle clamps tight around a big thick door. The door opens and six startled and confused people slowly, cautiously make their way inside...

Farm

Read with She Want Revenge - Tear You Apart in the background, let music play out. 

A woman walks carelessly across a metal sky bridge overseeing the top level of the Roya crop used to feed the Thunks slaughtered at the abattoir. Click clack, her heels echo on the metal as she leisurely walks to a little overseers' room, situated in the middle of the walkway. There, she is met by a young woman with a purple bob haircut, green mechanic's overalls and black work boots. The young woman, busy in the middle of repairing a harvester drone is a bit startled. She looks up, the purple of her hair sweeping across her face as she says.

Hemva,

"Hey, who are you?"

A smile comes across the older woman's face as she tongues her lips and answers,

"Isn't that just the most interesting question?"

Read to the How The West Was Really Won 

Like a groggy being just coming to consciousness, the scene slowly grows from blurry darkness into focus on black work boots and legs in green overalls slowly making their way down a corridor. 

Clap… clap… the leisurely pace makes its way through corridors, moving right past a long smear of a bloody trail ending in pool of blood. Screams and primal shouts echo somewhere not too far away. 

The walk continues past doors and airlocks, then more hallways, then passes a dead body laying lifeless, large pits of its flesh torn out, bitten out.  Desperate pleas for mercy sound out only to be met by gleeful, ravenous, yet all to human voices, then gurgled screams. 

Clap… clap… Not even a semblance of reaction from the walker. Not until they reach one dark corridor, stop, turn towards it and walk a few more steps until a slumped body of a man with black short hair, Dr. Nathan Perdu comes in to view. The camera continues to get closer.

A deep alien voice, seemingly attached to the walker sounds, 

“The coward is dead. He won’t be a problem anymore. Go ahead with phase three. This whole place will go down soon. The sacrifice is progressing gloriously. I’ll hitch a ride down soon. Meet me back on the surface as we agreed ...and make sure not to lose his daughter.”

The boots turn around and walk off. And the camera slowly turns to the man’s hands, which are holding a figurine, a data pad with dim, barely readable text saying 

“message sent. encrypting” 

and a Photo of a woman and a young girl of a smiling woman and a young girl, A'aret Perdu.

Seer Gaael

A'aret Perdu

Scene plays out to Lapis Occultus

Whispers, punctuated by screams of agony echo throughout monoliths and odd-shaped metal buildings that surrounding a city square. The buildings seem ancient and mechanical, with fractal and uneven patterns. In stark contrast to these technological motifs, the square is set alight with makeshift primitive fires that punctuate five flowing lines, drawn in black ichor, that emanate from a circle, which itself surrounds a group of hooded individuals.

The group recites words in utterly alien tongue that is hard on the ears. The chanting never stops, but fades into the background as the camera moves through the cloaked mass of bodies and into the very center of the group, where a woman, Seer Gaael holds up the head of tied up and splayed girl,  A'aret Perdu by her hair. The girl's hands and legs are looped with rope that stretches her over a stone altar. The woman's voice is cruel, cold, and demanding,

Child, tell me how you and your father survived That, Which It's Not. Give me the key!

The girl looks exhausted, but her eyes betray anger and stubbornness,

To hell with you and your stupid cult. You are utterly insane.

A smile creeps onto the woman's lips,

Ow, but we are the most clear-minded of all. You are naive and empty of vision. It is you who are blind. But, no matter. I don't need you to believe. I just need you to obey!

The woman proceeds to put the clawed fingers of her left hand onto the girls chest and recites words out of a book she holds open in the other. Purple light glows from underneath the woman's palm and the girl ungulates and screams in pain.

Aaaaagh. I hate you. Aaaah

I will get what I need from you one way or another.

The girl's body twists and her muscles involuntarily pull against the ropes, causing her skin to bleed. After minutes of pain the purple energy wanes, A'aret Perdu slumps down, and says in a quieter voice,

My father will find you. He will stop you. Some things are meant to be left alone. You will fail!

The woman laughs hysterically,

Hahahaha, darling, your father is dead!

Shock comes over A'aret Perdu,

You're just saying that to mess with my head.

Not at all. He was weak. He killed himself on that space station. Amarelyh saw his body before the whole thing plummeted back onto Unknown. There is nothing left of your parents. You are alone.

No, I don't believe you!

No one is left to save you child. You are mine to do with as I wish.

No!

Yes! Now give me what I want or I will pull your organs from you one by one until there is nothing left of you either.

Music Stops

The woman grabs the girls hair again and reads out of the book. Her hand glows and the girl screams into the night as the camera moves up and and focuses onto Seer Gaael's head. The woman looks up, right into the camera, and says furiously as spittle drips down her chin,

We see you! And we will deal with with you before long!

Exit with Sugarbread