Natural Born Grendlers

An Earth 2 Episode Summary
by Ariadne[May 30, 1995]

CONTENTS:

• Teaser
• Act I
• Act II
• Act III
• Act IV

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Teleplay by Jennifer Flackett & P.K. Simonds
Story by Carl Cramer & David Solmonson
Directed by Michael Grossman

The Teaser

Alonzo awakens from a bed shared with Julia and dresses. His leg is fine, and he walks out of the tent and onto a landing pad in an overly bright world. A Terrian appears behind him; he asks if it has seen a very large F-class cruiser. It's his ship; he's the pilot. The Terrian is silent. Alonzo asks if this is one of those dreams; he doesn't have dreams and hasn't dreamt in decades. Get him out of here! He's a pilot; he's gotta fly! He runs away across the desert. He leaps off a cliff; a Terrian hand grabs his leg.

He awakens alone in his tent. He looks at his injured leg and is dismayed to find he's still there.

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Act I

Yale, in narration, says sunrise on the space stations was manufactured by computers and artificial light. Here, the sun rises of its own volition, like most things on this planet, beyond human control.

Yale and Adair discuss the unsuccessful stop. They had come to this forest thinking it might yield edible vegetation, but to no avail. They had estimated the food supply would last 8 months, but it's been four weeks, and they're already one-third depleted. Danziger, listening in, says maybe they misjudged the effect hiking across a continent can have on a person's appetite. Yale assures Adair they'll find food, but she says not here, they won't.

Yale, in narration, says not only does this planet challenge them, but they challenge each other. When they crashed here, each of them barely knew the others existed. Now suddenly, they are body with 17 very different heads.

Morgan sits at an elaborate and laden table, greedily eating a leg of lamb and broccoli. He tells a butler he wants more of everything.

He is in VR, sitting on the edge of his bed in his tent and shoveling imaginary food into his mouth. Bess tells him enough fun, but he doesn't hear her.

Bess leaves the tent. Adair sees her and says she's trying to get the transrover packed; they cannot wait for her and Morgan anymore. Bess says they're doing their best. Adair, seeing Morgan in the tent, doesn't believe that. Bess says Morgan is just trying to cope; he's not cut out for this sort of travel. Adair says he is an adult; why doesn't she treat him as one?

Bess returns to the tent and pulls the VR gear off Morgan's head. He complains that that's dangerous - he could get brain damage. Bess is upset about the conversation with Adair. She just can't believe that woman, the way she talks to them like they're idiots, just because Bess is an Earth girl. Morgan speaks rapturously of the lamb he was eating in VR. She says if he would pull his weight a little bit, she wouldn't have to run interference all the time. He wouldn't know that she has to do that because he's always on his VR gear. He says so, he has a hobby. She tells him to pack up the tent himself and leaves. Morgan puts his gear back on, but Bess tells him Now!

Julia enters Alonzo's tent, carrying a leg brace. He's laying on his bed; he cannot take being trapped here anymore and wants to be hibernated until his leg heals. He used to be a pilot and could fly away whenever he wanted, but here -- Put him in cold sleep; they can thaw him out when they get to New Pacifica. She asks him how old he is; he says 109 or 110. Since he left flight school, the longest stretch of time he's been awake has been the last few weeks. He doesn't want to be here. She says he's depressed; he thanks her for the analysis and asks if she's going to put him under. She says even if she could engineer the metabolics, they don't have the power to maintain a chamber. No one's going to want to drag him sleeping across the planet. He wonders if he's afraid of the dreams; he doesn't want to see the Terrian or her. When did he dream about her? He says it was more of a nightmare. Outside, someone calls a perimeter alert; there's a Grendler in camp.

Adair wonders what the Grendler wants; Danziger doesn't know. Morgan has a bad feeling about these things. As the Grendler approaches, Danziger asks Walman if he has his weapon ready; Adair thinks they should ask questions first, then shoot. The Grendler hands her some kind of fruit; she announces it just wanted to give them some food. The Grendler becomes angry and rips a solar panel off the dune rail. Walman shoots, hitting the panel; the Grendler drops it and runs away.

Bess, carrying Morgan's gear, walks in the forest. She hears what sound like bird calls; she's uneasy and thinks it might be Morgan. She turns, and the Grendler is standing behind her.

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Act II

True and Danziger work on the dune rail. Adair asks him if he can fix it. True says he can fix most anything. Adair asks how long it will take. True thinks just a couple of hours, but Danziger says overnight. Adair says they can't afford to wait that long. Danziger answers under his breath; True tells Adair he said he's not the one who approached the creature. Adair wants to organize a search party to look for food.

Bess returns to camp carrying the fruit; she got it from the nicest Grendler. She bartered for it, just like they used to down on Earth. Adair tosses a piece of fruit to Julia, who thinks they should be careful with it. Morgan thinks Grendlers are dangerous, and anyway, what could she possibly have that a Grendler would even want? Bess thinks they should talk about that in private. Morgan realizes that she traded away his VR gear.

Julia is analyzing the fruit; she finds no toxins, but is unsure if it's edible or that it won't hurt anyone's stomach. Uly wants to try some; it looks better than that gross spirolina. Over the protests of Yale and Adair, Julia decides to taste a piece; she has a strong stomach lining, part of her genetic enhancement. She thinks it tastes good; everyone should try just a little bit. As she leaves for a session with Alonzo, Bess comes in. Bess knew the fruit was edible because she ate a whole one on the way home. Yale asks if she can lead them back to the Grendler so they can trade for more fruit.

Alonzo is on crutches, practicing walking with the brace. He falls; he pulls the brace off, throws it across the tent and says he doesn't want it. Julia says she's not the enemy; she's trying to help. He says she should get in his skull and get rid of those dreams and tell these monsters to get out of his head. She's sure there's a logical explanation for the preponderance of REM activity he's been experiencing; maybe all those cold-sleep missions impaired his subconscious. He says they forgot the bedside manner chromosome when they made her, didn't they? She says since he's dead set on being miserable, far be it from her to stand in his way; let her know when he decides to grow up. As she leaves, he says run out then; he doesn't need her!

In their tent, Morgan asks Bess where she's been. She says with Adair and Yale; she has a job to do. Morgan thought she didn't like Adair. Bess says she cares about the group, and they need more fruit. He asks if this time she's going to trade her husband away for a few magic beans. The VR gear was keeping him alive; he needs every escape he can get. Bess knows he valued his VR gear very much, but she had a chance to make contact with a whole nother life form.

Alonzo, on crutches drags himself to the ATV. He climbs in and drives off, unnoticed by everyone else.

Bess, Adair, and Yale walk in the forest; Bess makes the bird-call sound. Because they've been at it for over an hour, Adair thinks the Grendler moved on. Bess thinks it just needs to be wooed a little. Yale worries it might be leading them into some sort of ambush, but Bess is sure this one's not dangerous. They spot the Grendler; when it sees Adair and Yale, it runs into a cave. Bess wants to go into the cave alone; Adair reluctantly agrees and warns her to be sure to get the most for their stuff in the trade. Bess assures her she knows how to trade. Yale gives her gear; Adair worries Bess doesn't know how to use it. Bess says she'd be amazed at the things she knows.

Alonzo drives the ATV faster and faster towards the edge of a cliff. As he nears it, a Terrian appears in his path; he veers away to avoid hitting it. The ATV topples over, and he is thrown on the ground.

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Act III

In the cave, Bess approaches the Grendler. Over gear, Yale asks her to give them a pele scan; Adair asks him to explain that means you turn the eyepiece away from your eye. Bess tells Yale to tell Adair she knows what a pele scan is. She offers to trade the Grendler their lumalight for fruit. The Grendler has an assortment of supplies and equipment from their cargo pod; it has more lumalights than they do. Yale wants to take it all back, but Bess doesn't think they're in a position to do that. The Grendler is attached to their possessions, and she doesn't think they should upset it. Over gear, Adair spots a hoverscout; with that they could track down orchards of fruit. Bess is more interested in a geolock box. Yale tells her to offer the Grendler the spare service scanner, but Bess says it doesn't look like it needs anymore gadgets. She notices her bracelet and dangles it in front of the Grendler.

Night. Julia goes to Alonzo's tent to give him some pain blockers, although at this point she's rather see him suffer. He doesn't respond; he's not in the tent.

The hovercraft, a remote aerial scout plane with a 50 K range and homing function, doesn't appear to work. Adair assures Bess it wasn't her fault; she did a great job. Bess says she can go back - there was a box there she recognized. Julia enters the tent and asks to speak to Adair.

Julia tells Adair hasn't seen Alonzo since noon, almost 8 hours ago; she was giving him time to cool off after their argument. He's been depressed. she doesn't think he's --. Adair finishes: suicidal?

A resonance scan of the entire area has found no sign of Alonzo or his ATV. Magus suggest he's been taken by the Terrians, like Uly, but Julia says he left on his own. Danziger says there's nothing they can do 'til sunup; they'll search in the morning.

In the dream caverns, Alonzo sees Julia sleeping in a bed. As he reaches for her, an older woman says she's beautiful; he used to look at her that way. The woman changes to a young version of herself, and Alonzo recognizes her as Lydia. She asks if he remembers the Garconia starbase; they had such fun together those weeks. He smiles and hugs her; he says she feels good. She asks if he wants to cry; he says he wishes he could. Lydia backs away and says he doesn't cry - he's a pilot and he just flies away. He says he doesn't fly anymore; he's all alone on this stupid planet in the middle of nowhere, and he thinks he's going crazy. The older Lydia replaces the younger and says he'll live, just like the rest of them. He asks where the young Lydia went; the older says she became her. She got married, she had children, she had a life, and she grew old. Alonzo says he's not made for the growing old part of life. Lydia says that's all there is, the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the years. It's a beautiful ride, better than any flight he's ever taken; it's time for him to go home. He kisses her goodbye, and she disappears.

Bess enters their tent; Morgan's not doing so well. It's been 10 hours without a single hit of virtual; there's only so much reality a man can take. He that she traded away the bracelet he gave her for something that doesn't even work. He's really getting the shaft here; they took a vow to forsake all others - doesn't she think she should be looking out for him? She says he's right and she's going to make it up to him. She's going to visit that Grendler and get his VR gear back. This whole thing has brought nothing good to the group except a few measly pieces of fruit; now she needs to set things straight with him. They kiss.

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Act IV

Bess goes to the Grendler. She's brought it a necklace made of silverware; the Grendler is eager to have it. She casually looks through the supplies to chose something in trade and selects the geolock.

Bess brings the geolock and the VR gear to Morgan, who is waiting outside the cave. She tells him the geolock locks up the land so nothing can come through, no shovels, no pickaxes, no Terrians. If they can crack the access code, they can lock up a precious mineral find for safekeeping. She's sure Adair will listen to her now that she has something to help the group.

The next day, Alonzo awakens on the ground; the ATV has been righted and he crawls to it.

Julia stands on a cliff, scanning for Alonzo. She spots the ATV at camp. She goes to his tent; he's practicing with the crutches and says she's up early. She's annoyed; where's he been and what happened to the ATV and his forehead? He says he wiped out, then says he's sorry for everything. He had a dream; maybe he's going crazy, but he feels like he's healed, though he knows his leg's just a broken as it was yesterday. She apologizes as well and leaves.

In their tent, Morgan has cracked the access code for the geolock, and it opens. Cracking codes was all he ever did at work; if you waited for info to come down through the proper channels, you'd never know anything. Bess tells him how the geolock works; Morgan thinks her father would have wanted her to use it to stake a claim on a mine of her own. She says they have to share this with everyone because they're part of the Eden project now. He says if they share it, the one who'll get the credit is Devon Adair. Adair's been treating Bess like her father's bosses ordered him around. They decide to test the geolock; as they set it off, Adair calls them. Because Morgan hasn't cracked the abort code, they cover it to hide it.

Adair asks them about the sound; Morgan says it's the Terrians. Adair has made a list of things for Bess to ask the Grendler for on their next trade. The geolock is way down on their list, but there are other things. Bess asks Adair if she doesn't work for her, why does she treat her as if she did? She doesn't appreciate it; she and Morgan were in the middle of something, so she will find Adair when she's ready to trade again. Adair says fine and walks away.

In their tent, they see the small area locked by the geolock. Inside the canister is a core of rock; Morgan is impressed. Bess tells him that the maximum diameter it will freeze is about 1 km. He asks if he should get everyone and show them what they've got. Bess says they're keeping it for themselves; apparently, it's every woman for herself here. Morgan could not agree more. Bess says it's so hard, what this planet does to you.

Yale, in narration, says where they came from, they changed a world to suit their needs. On this planet, they will be the ones to change, for good or bad. Bess grew a little, but let go a piece of herself, an innocence she once cherished, while others, like Alonzo, rediscovered pieces they thought they had lost forever.

Alonzo in his dreams, sits on the edge of a cliff; a Terrian stands behind him. He says it's okay, pal; he's not going anywhere.

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