HABITAT

HABITAT

By Derek Mackay & Sarah Williams

-1-

A single breath fills a pitch black room with a slow - inhale - exhale.

Then… GASP - Selina’s bright bold eyes blast open.

Her eyes remain wide, her pupils fully stretched, but in vein - absolute darkness.

-Hello?

Selina repeatedly blinks to orient herself but It’s pointless. She methodically moves her open hands around her but all she can find is the smooth floor below her. Her hands follow the floor until she finds an intersecting wall.

Selina systematically follows the wall to a coroner, then another until she has mapped out that she is in a small square room. She then slides her hands up the wall as she stands, she stretches up but the ceiling is out of reach.

THUMP THUMP , Selina knocks on the wall.

Selina steps to her right and KNOCKS again - THUMP she steps again - THUMP - shuffle - THUMP - shuffle - THUMP - shuffle -TIMP...

Selina’s ears perk up and she taps again - TIMP TIMP

A small brightly lit room with smooth floor and walls except for a built in ladder on one of the walls. TIMP TIMP

A metallic CLICK echoes, a square portion of the wall opens up and from the darkness Selina crawls out. Now in the light we see that she is in her early twenties, her clothes are soiled and she shields her eyes from the bright light.

A moment passes before she can tolerate the nauseating fluorescent glow and starts up the ladder.

-2-

As Selina emerges from the lower lever via the ladder automated lights flicker on.

Computerized machines fire up and Selina scrambles to the cover of a doorway.

She’s in a mechanical room, water pumps, filtration, electrical generators and more. There are labels on most equipment but everything is written in alien symbols.

Selina gathers herself, spies an exit and cautiously steps towards a labeled doorway. She looks at the label, also in alien symbols, then focuses down the hallway. It’s more like a tunnel made from thin metallic material. Halfway down there is a window, Selina peeks through - zero visibility - wind and sand whip by - a sand storm.

Selina enters a large round room, a common/social area that is oddly decorated with a nineteen seventies vibe. There’s a funky curved sectional adorned in velvet and the walls are covered in a metallic paisley print wallpaper, it's groovy, out of this world.

The common area is a nucleus room and is framed with multiple smaller rooms, doorways and halls/tunnels. Selinas eyes light up when she spies the large kitchen and there is no stopping her. She rushes in and turns the tap at the sink, water flows out and Selina slurps away…

Something moves in her peripheral - she swallows and turns - nothing. Fully alert something moves and she spins - too slow.

Selina slowly crouches behind a counter, simultaneously opening and reaching into a drawer.

A small shadow races past a doorway behind Selina - she spins, now armed with a kitchen knife.

Selina slowly slides into the darkest corner of the kitchen, takes a deep breath and holds it for silence - but she’s left the tap on. Selina exhales, musters up some courage and dashes for the sink. In one movement she turns the water off, pins and returns to her dark corner.

SILENCE - Selina’s eyes closed tight - her ears at full attention.

A strange CLICK CLICK CLICK sound comes from right outside the kitchen - Selina scotches back as deep as she can with her knife pointed outwards. She cowers in fear - it’s deafeningly silent…

-AHHHHHH

Selina screams as a cat leaps on top of the counter in front of her - she is terrified still.

-Noooo , AHHH AAHHH!!

The cat seems oddly confused and offers a single retort.

-Meow.

Selina is only partly relieved but lets down her guard - and weapon.

The Cat jumps down and approaches Selina - she wipes her face and laughs.

-Just a cat - of course, just a cat.

The cat slides up against her leg and purrs.

Selina reaches out and puts the cat and discovers he has a collar and tag. Selina reads it.

-Bishop.

Bishop likes being pet and leans in for more.

-Well mister Bishop, you scared me pretty good. You alone here?

-3-

Selina eats an apple as she steps through a doorway into a modern lab. A few rows of electronic equipment, storage along the walls, lots of counter space, but who knows what anything does as everything is labeled with the same alien symbols as everything else. There’s a large window to the exterior that shows the storm on a larger scale, visibility is essentially non-existent from within the swirling wind and sand.

Selina works her way down another hallway to an office. Inside has an almost a home office from the 80s vibe, wood panel walls, neutral colored carpet and a couple large wood desks. One of the desks has an old Ham radio and a computer… Selina sits at the desk and moves the mouse, the screen lights up. But her face drops when she looks down at the keyboard… alien symbols. The screen shows a space to type - password would help. Selina shrugs and taps at a few keys. As the computer processes she opens a drawer in the desk. Selina is taken back and reaches into the drawer and pulls out a stack of American currency, $20k and a little black book.

Selina places the stack of cash on the desk and focuses on the book. There is a series of Alien symbols delicately carved into the cover. She flips through the entirety of the pages with her thumb, the pages flow like a silk river between the leather binding. The pages are blank, Selina finds a pencil in the drawer and tests it on the paper. She opens the book to the first page and writes inside, “Selina”, she pauses with the tip of the pencil on the paper - she looks up when Bishop “Meows'' from the doorway. Selina looks down and finishes her inscription… “and Bishop”

Selina peers out a section of a thick exterior door, the storm blasts on, she turns and reveals she is in an airlock, with the exterior door at one end of a small sturdy room and a similar door at the other end, ones open, the other obviously not. There are control panels at each door and multiple, “instructions?” written in the alien symbols.

Selina creeps down yet another hallway to a bedroom, it’s decorated in mid century modern decor. She opens a closet and discovers fresh clothes, simple but clean. Next she finds a large plush bathroom - she smiles.

-4-

Steam billows from the bathroom and Selina exits in a towel. She enters the bedroom where fresh clothes are layed out.

Freshly showered and in clean clothes Selina walks from the bedroom with her little black book in hand and Bishop in tow.

Selina eyes the doorway at the end of the hall that leads to the living quarters, she scribes something in the little black book and then turns to another hall.

Selina stands at the door in the air lock, she scrubs in her book. Bishop stands in the doorway at the far end and “MEOWS” Selina trunks to him.

-You know how to get this open?

-Meow

-Go ahead, don’t be shy, is there something you aren’t telling me?

-Meow

-Tipical, I get stuck with a guy with poor communication skills.

A light bulb flashes in Salina's head and she quickly exits the airlock.

In the office Salina inspects the ham radio, it looks more like a decoration than a working radio. Salina opens her little black book and copies symbols from the dials on the radio. She then finds the cord and plug, she plus in the radio and reaches for what appears to be the power switch - CLICK

Everything goes black, silent, we didn't realize how much white noise there was, it is pitch black and eerily silent.

-Meow…

An ALARM rings out from another part of the habitat and dim glowing orange lights fill the room - clearly temporary emergency lighting

-That’s not good

-5-

Salina arrives in the machine room, more than a few of the machines have alarms going off. However each has a button or switch lit up. Salina takes a chance and flips a switch on one of the machines and sure enough the alarm on that machine stops. Salina quickly goes through each machine resetting the alarms, but one by one the silence and darkness returns until the last alarm is reset, all the noise stops, and the lights stop blinking. It’s just mildly orange and that light begins to fade. Salina shows concern.

-hey, hey, hey, no no. Come on.

The orange light fades into dark - then, like when she first arrived in the machine room from the cell below, everything starts up. The lights come on and Selina relaxes onto her backside - Bishop arrives for some pets.

Then an alarm rings from one of the machines, Selina pushes the reset button and it fixes it for a second, then the alarm restarts. Some gauges signal something is in a red zone and indicate a problem with red flashing lights.

Selina knowingly pumps the reset button but it trips over and over and the alarm sounds. Selina takes out the little black book and copies some symbols from the gauges.

Selina is at the open fridge in the kitchen and she jots down symbols in the little black book. The alarm echos in the background.

Outside the wind and sand blast but there is a sign of light peeks through.

Selina holds up her little black book straight out infront of her, the carving in the cover matches the symbols above the outer door in the air lock room. The echoing alarm changes pitch, and becomes much louder. Selina senses imminent danger and races from the room.

Selina in the office writing in her book.

Selina running through a hall tube - the light peeks in the window but Selina doesn’t notice.

Bishop MEOWS

The gauges in the machine room read in the red zone.

Selina runs to the machine room, she's sweaty and coughs, she struggles.

Selina writes in her book.

The gauges are well into the red.

Bishop trots down a hall and past a sunbeam from the window.

Selina stands at the opening of the underground cell she started in. She peeks in the door with her little black book in hand.

The gauges…

Bishop…

The door of the underground cell…

-6-

Selina exits the cell, she weeps, but then laughs, crying for joy...she goes to the ladder.

At the airlock door, she does a sequence of button pushing and switch flipping, a green light comes on and a little door opens to reveal a handle, she grabs the handle but hesitates. Bishop is at the open doorway.

-Meow.

Selina releases her grip on the handle and turns to Bishop - she goes to him, but passes his…

Selina enters the office with very little breath, she snatches up the $20k and bolts out…

Selina returns to the outer door of the airlock, she is pale and struggles to breath, she grabs the handle and turns to Bishop who sits in the doorway… she turns the handel and the door opens, the sunlight blasts in, she smiles...

Alarms SCREAM, there is a decompression WHOOSH…

Bishop opens his mouth…

-Every oyster can produce a pearl but not all do.