The still disoriented crew awaking from their hyper sleep quicky get dressed and all go to the flight deck and check their consoles.
GHOST: “John were being scanned”
JOHN: “Out here”
TOMBS: “We are within the earth’s celestial boundaries”
JOHN: “Tombs, what hit us, what was it? There’s some odd goings on here. And Dizzy can we accurately work out what year it is”.
TOMBS: “Some sort of lighting strike, thousand times more powerful than I have ever seen”
Dizzy looks around at Porter and nods her head at him, Porter acknowledges with a nod back. They both scan their consoles and tap away. Dizzy and Porter finish their calculations together. Dizzy and Porter nod at each other again to confirm their findings,
DIZZY: “It’s the same time and date you first left earth when the surface was destroyed. 2022”
Luna has activated her console and is using radar scanners to scan space.
She leans across to quietly say something to John.
LUNA: “Did earth have satellites out this far?”
JOHN: “No, Never. They must be alien. Anyway, whomever they belong to, they know we are here now. Ghost, make us invisible”.
Ghost whispers to Tombs,
GHOST: “Maybe that’s a bit late now”
LUNA: “John? We witnessed the death of earth, but I think I’m picking up signs of life?”
JOHN: “Right. I’m going to take VooDoo into a close fast orbit for a surface scan. Tombs, man the artillery, we may need to get away quick smart”.
GHOST: “OK Boss”
Ghost gets up, kisses Tombs and makes his way to the ships gunnery, JOHN: “Crew, I’m going to program a fight plan for VooDoo. Fast acceleration burst, straight into a low earth orbit, Porter, Dizzy, I want high resolution surface scans of earth, all spectrums. Crew, we are then going to make our way to the dark side of the moon so we can analyse the data”.
VooDoo slingshots across space and momentarily stops above earth, IOA: “Initialize spiralling orbital path”
DIZZY: “STOP, Ioa wait”
IOA: “ John?”
JOHN: “What’s up Dizzy”
DIZZY: “I’m scanning some human life. Modern Industry?”
Ghost is engrossed with something on her console. She taps away and looks surprised. She turns to John and Luna,
GHOST: “John, Luna? I’m receiving an incoming message from earth”.
JOHN: “Put it over the flight deck loudspeaker system”
MALE EARTH VOICE: “Hello, this is Melman, I am Earth Corporations CEO. Welcome to Earth, crew of the VooDoo. Whom am I speaking to?”
Tombs leans over to Ghost, and quietly says to her, TOMBS: “How do they know this is VooDoo?”
Ghost shrugs her shoulders,
JOHN: “Hello Melman, this is John Hero, Captain of VooDoo and I represent the ship’s crew”
The radio goes silent for a few seconds,
JOHN: “Dizzy, keep scanning”
DIZZY: “I am”
MELMAN: “Please let me invite you down. All our weapons are powered down, as your scans should show you.
John turns to Ghost, Ghost nods back at John,
MELMAN: I would be happy to meet and make new friends and acquaintances. And please, no weapons. If weapons are detected, you could get zapped by an auto disarmer. I don’t want that to happen to any of my friends”.
LUNA: “I’m doing a voice scan; I’m not detecting any deception. He seems reasonable”.
JOHN: “That sound great, can you send coordinates to us”
MELMAN: “Yes, of course. These coordinates will get you to the top of a skyscraper roof. Get the elevator to the penthouse. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Over and out”.
JOHN: “We will land on the roof. Veyah, when we disembark take VooDoo to the far side of the moon and wait there for further instructions”.
VEYAH: “Ok. Ioa, while we are waiting, let me show you that new dress I have designed”.
IOA: “Looking forwarded to it”
John looks at Veyah then Luna with a straight face, JOHN: “Am I invited to see these dresses?”
IOA: “Maybe”
LUNA: “I got the helm John, I’ll land VooDoo”
JOHN: “OK, you have the helm”
LUNA: “Forward and base viewing screens on, infrared and scanning radars at maximum. Manual helm.
Luna expertly guides VooDoo down though Earth’s atmosphere and down to the roof of the skyscraper to land.
LUNA: “Entering earth’s atmosphere, 260 kilometres from landing coordinates, 200, 100, 6 kilometres, Landing gear down. It’s a big building. Touchdown”.
The crew exit VooDoo onto the skyscraper roof.
JOHN: “Veyah, you have control, take her away”
The crew stand back and watch as VooDoo’s exterior doors close, then the landing legs fold in with the craft hovering still and not dropping a single Millimetre.
With no sound and a flash of bright light the crew witness the Star ship accelerate straight up into the sky and vanish to a dot in a millisecond.
Dizzy follows the crew towards a small building on the skyscraper roof which houses the elevator. She looks back at Porter staring into the sky where VooDoo was last seen.
DIZZY: “On our own now”
PORTER: “I’m here”
DIZZY: “I didn’t mean that”
PORTER: “Oh!”
The crew arrive at a small one-story roof building with closed stainless steel elevator doors, but there does not appear to be any buttons or controls to call the lift.
LUNA: “What now?”
The elevator doors open.
GHOST: “Must be voice controlled”
The lift is dimly lit. As they all walk in the light brightens.
FEMALE ELEVATOR VOICE: “Which level do you require?”
PORTER: “The Penthouse please”
FEMALE ELEVATOR VOICE: You selected the Penthouse level”.
There is a brief pause….
FEMALE ELEVATOR VOICE: “Penthouse level authorization confirmed”.
The lift starts to move quickly downwards.
TOMBS: “This cant be right, its going too fast to stop a couple of levels down?”
GHOST: “Maybe it’s a transit lift, going to another building?”
DIZZY: “Yeah, must be”
John and Luna gaze at each other, they look worried.
John looks back at Tombs and gestures at him by patting the side of his waist.
TOMBS: “We were told not to bring weapons because of the auto disarmer”.
JOHN: “Fuck! Some days it’s not smart, but its right”.
LUNA: “John?”
JOHN: “Nothing”
After a few minutes the elevator slows to a stop and the doors open to a dark poorly lit gloomy looking, litter scattered foggy and damp street.
FEMALE ELEVATOR VOICE: “This is the Penthouse level. Thank you for using the elevator. Thank you for keeping the elevator clean”.
DIZZY: “Is this it?”
PORTER: “Maybe it’s a hologram”
DIZZY: “Maybe?”
Dizzy walks out to the middle of the street, the rest follow.
DIZZY: “Hello. Melman?”
Porter looks up and around.
PORTER: “Impressive hologram”
JOHN: “I’m not so sure it is”
John looks back at the elevator doors as they close. The door seems to fade into a wall.
TOMBS: “Look, who are these arseholes coming this way”
A scruffily dressed looking gang of 10 men and 2 women with knives and knuckle dusters approaches the crew.
GANG MEMBER: “What have we here then”
One of the gang members walks up to Porter and feels inside his coat.
GANG MEMBER: “Nice coat”
PORTER: “Yes sir, it is a nice coat”
OTHER GANG MEMBER: “Yeah, nice coat that is. Like a coat you’re looking for ain’t it Roach?”
ROACH: “Rat! Take the coat from him, its mine now”.
The gang member called “Rat” walks up to Porter and makes a demand.
RAT: “Give me the coat”
Tombs steps between Rat and Porter.
TOMBS: “You have to get past me first Rat boy”
A fight between the gang and the crew breaks out.
Luna finds herself in a head lock with the two girl gang members. As she is trying to wrestle free suddenly one of the girl gang members winces.
As Luna looks up she sees the girl getting flung across the road by a fashionable well-dressed beautiful blond-haired women in heels.
The blond-haired women then grabs the other gang member who is assaulting Luna and flings her across the road as well.
The woman makes her way around the brawl by punching and throwing the gang members around until they either leave and run away, or just lay unconscious on the ground bleeding and bruised.
The crew pick themselves up, dust themselves down, straighten themselves out, and stand around the women.
JOHN: “Thank you! I’m John Hero”
WOMEN: “I know. Hello, I’m Bella, but I prefer to be called “Lux G” or Lux”.
JOHN: “Who are you?”
LUX:” I’ve come to take you to meet earth CEO, Mr Melman. Please follow me”.
The crew all follow Lux G to where the elevator was previously. The wall vanishes and changes to an opened doored elevator. They all step into the lift.
LUX: “Mr Melman says he is very sorry about that incident; he said that the elevator must had malfunctioned and sent you to the iniquitous level by accident. So, he sent me to get you”.
GHOST: “You have a criminal level?”
The lift doors close, and the elevator ascends.
LUX: “Yes. We take care of them, and feed them”.
JOHN: “You’re a Valley-ha aren’t you”
LUX: “yes, I am”
Dizzy quietly asks Porter what a “Valley-ha” is.
DIZZY: ”What is a “Valley-ha”
PORTER: “Its V-H-L-A-I-H-L-A. Pronounced Valley-ha. Very High-Level Artificial Intelligence Human Like Android”
Frowning and pulling a face, Dizzy looks Lux G up and down then around at Lux G’s bottom.
DIZZY: “Ohh… Your high end”
The elevator slows and then clunks. The doors open to a huge room decorated like the inside of a cathedral.
LUX: “Please meet Mr Melman”
LUX: “Oh, right down the end there”
A shouting voice is herd from the end of the cathedral like room.
MELMAN: “Bella! Get the big golf cart and bring them down here!”
LUX: “Yes sir”
JOHN: “Golf cart?”
LUX: “Erm. Yes. Just wait here, I’ll go get it now”.
Lux runs off and comes back with a luxurious looking 8-seat electric golf cart.
LUX: “Please get in and be seated”
Lux G drives them down to the end of the hall. They all step out in front of a big Victorian mahogany looking desk. There is a short middle aged tanned bald-headed man sitting behind it. Three Large brown Leather chesterfield sofas are in front of the oak desk in a half circle.
There are computer screens on his desk and holograms floating around his head with spreadsheets numbers and alphanumeric information going around and around.
He gets up and introduces himself.
MELMAN: “Hello. I’m Melman, you have all met Bella I see. Bella is my robot, sorry, I mean Bella is my Luxury Goods personal assistant.
But she is classed as High-end AI android for tax purposes. Very Very expensive, there are only a few like her around. You could say that she is the Emporia’s minder, bodyguard, and protector, also my advisor and cooler. Your design I believe John?”
John looks surprised. Lux is standing close to John, Lux turns to John and whispers to him,
LUX: “I hate Bella. Please call me Lux”
MELMAN: “Please everyone, please be seated”
The standing crew sit down on the various chesterfield sofas.
JOHN: “Bella tells me you are CEO of Earth?”
MELMAN: “Yes, that’s correct”
JOHN: “Who are presidents or prime ministers, leaders of the various continents?”
MELMAN: “There are directors of different counties, I lead them all”
TOMBS: “No presidents or prime ministers?”
Melman gets up and sits on the edge of his desk, MELMAN: “Unnecessary. Corporations run earth, no need for politicians. I guess things have changed since you have been away John?”
JOHN: “It would seem so. Tell me about the criminal level?”
MELMAN”: “Prisons were overcrowded and expensive, seemed like a good idea to give them their own level that they can control without expense.
They look after themselves if you know what I mean. I’m sorry, this has to be a very brief first meeting. I’m very busy right now, let Bella show you to your accommodation, and we will all have dinner tonight, just a bit later”.
Lux address the crew,
LUX: “Please, all follow me”
The crew get led off to another closer elevator hidden behind some large wooden panels. Dizzy looks back at Melman who appears to be busy at his computer. The lift doors open revealing gold-plated interior walls and ceiling,
DIZZY: “That was a short sharp meeting with Mr Melman”
Lux looks around at Dizzy and smiles at her,
LUX: “Mr Melman is a very busy person; your arrival was unexpected”
The crew all look at each other in the elevator and remain silent not wishing to divulge anything to Lux G.
The elevator doors opens, and Lux leads the crew along a plush corridor that looks like it could be in a very expensive hotel.
Lux stops at a door. She looks into an eye scanner in the wall next to the door. The door clicks open.
JOHN: “Won’t we need to be scanned to open the door”
LUX: “You were all scanned when you were with Mr Melman”
GHOST: “Invasion of privacy”
LUX: “Should you get lost again the eye scanning would separate you from criminals amongst other things”
Ghost whispers to Tombs,
GHOST: “Smug bitch ain’t she”
Lux leads the crew into a large room. Porter walks over to a large window and pulls back net curtains and gazes outside,
PORTER: “I estimate we are over three kilometres up”
LUX: “This is a self-contained apartment, with many bedrooms and on suites, the kitchen is fully equipped and there is food if you need it. I will leave you all here.
Lux turns to Ghost and smiles,
LUX: “If any of you need anything there is a wall comm over there.
Dinner at 7pm, I will come and collet you all. And I have very good hearing Miss Ghost”.
Lux walks out of the apartment,
John picks up a paper note pad and writes on it, “There could be listening bugs, be careful” He shows it to the crew.
Luna take the pad from Johns hand and writes on it “There could be cameras watching what we do and write down! she shows the pad to John.
JOHN: “Ok Luna, yeah. What’s the local time Porter”.
PORTER: “Four fifteen”
John grabs Lunas hand with his right and turns on his Wireless radio transmitter/receiver implanted behind his left ear in galvanic mode (Touching mode rather than wireless) This allows John to think what he wants to say without saying anything via his mouth.
John gestures to Luna to turn her implanted earpiece on. John talks to Luna via galvanic mode.
JOHN: “Can you hear me ok?”
Luna pushes the area behind her ear to activate her transmit/receive device and looks directly at John. Using her mind voice, she answers back.
LUNA: ”Yes”
JOHN: “I’m sure we are being scanned. But they cannot scan a galvanic connection”.
LUNA: “I agree”
JOHN: “We need to find out what is going on. I’m sure this is a paradox.
They failed to exterminate us the first time when earth was sterilized.
Then an attempt when we tried to lens to another galaxy. Then another attempt as we came back into our solar system”.
John gestures to Dizzy to join them in the conversation Luna and John are having, Dizzy joins hands with Luna,
JOHN: “Dizzy, can you analyse the food and drink at dinner before we eat anything”
DIZZY: “No problem, I’ll let Porter know as well”
JOHN: “I’m going transmit an encoded message to Veyah to see what the scanning data from earth gave us. We should use private wi-fi communication in future, use constantly changing rotating encrypted algorithmic frequencies. Update Ghost, Tombs, and Porter”
LUNA: “I’ll do that now”
JOHN: “I’ll need to find a big metal girder that reinforces this building so I can use it as a radio aerial”
John takes a small device the size of a small matchbox out of his pocket.
There are two cables attached to the box, each cable has a small round magnet like the size of a small coin on each end.
He walks around the apartment putting one magnet up against the wall until it attaches, then he put the other magnet behind his ear where it stays fixed. He turns on the device. Using his mind voice, he contacts Veyah who is on the VooDoo parked on earth’s moon.
VEYAH: “I’m here John”
JOHN:” In future all comms channels are full rotating encrypted frequencies”
VEYAH: “As requested, all transmit and receiving comms now on encrypted channel using an algorithmic recursive rotating frequencies”.
JOHN: “What can you tell me from the scans of earth?”
VEYAH: “Earth looks like one big open-cast mine. Just being stripped of everything”
JOHN: “Any cities, towns, settlements in our locality”
VEYAH: “The only city is where you are, just a scattering of small settlements same places as the largest mines are across the planet. The city doesn’t even seem populated, rather more of a population of humans around the city. I am detecting part of an Endellion and some Craven bio signs”.
JOHN: “Craven, and a bit of an Endellion?”
VEYAH: “Correct”
Luna walks over to John. holding the side of her ear and using her ear implant to listen to John’s conversation she comments, LUNA: “We need to check this building over John”
JOHN: “Ok, thanks Veyah, John out”
John acknowledges Luna,
LUNA: “We should work in pairs, I’ll get Ghost, Tombs to work on the even floors, and Porter and Dizzy to check rooms on the odd floors. We should go through the information that Veyah has gathered about Earth”.
JOHN: “Sounds good”
Ghost, Tombs, Dizzy, and Porter find themselves wandering up and down corridors and checking empty rooms one after another. They all eventually get back to Luna and John who are both looking out of a big window with the curtains pulled right back. John turns around when he hears the door open. Tombs walks though first then Ghost, Dizzy and Porter. Porter closes the door behind him.
JOHN: “Well, how did you get on?”
TOMBS: “As you may had guessed, no one”
GHOST: “Not a soul”
DIZZY: “Same here”
PORTER: “Nothing at all, not a sign anyone has been here”
The apartment front door opens and Lux G walks in, John quickly walks over to her. He then walks around her slowly. Lux smiles at John as she follows him with slight body movements and by just turning her head and eyes. He stops, he then looks directly at her face.
JOHN: “Bella, Lux G, John Hero voice activation code - docious-ali-expi-istic-fragil-cali-rupus”
Lux G stops and stands completely motionless. Her smile goes. Just her eyes follow John,
John looks around at Porter and Dizzy who are both also standing still and completely monitions less.
JOHN: “Porter, Dizzy, Undo command voice activation code - super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious,. RESUME!”
Looking a bit dazed Porter and Dizzy start moving around again, DIZZY: “What happened, I couldn’t move?”
John steps close to a stationary Lux and looks straight into her deep blue eyes,
JOHN: “Scan me”
Lux G’s eyes glow and laser scan’s John’s iris’s, she then breaks out of her motionless stance and holds John’s head either side and then kisses him passionately for several seconds. Luna starts to walk towards the kissing pair as Porter grabs Lunas arm,
LUNA: “What the fuck”
PORTER: “It’s ok Luna, I know what is happening”
Lux lets go of Johns head and stops kissing him. She looks at John lovingly. John steps back,
JOHN: “Root command, reset to build version, zero zero point one”
LUNA: “What’s going on John?”
PORTER: “John has reset and over ridden Lux’s owners’ protocols by going to her root command shell”
DIZZY: “We all have a backdoor way in to our base processor units in case we are compromised to do somethings that does not fit our 3 basic ways to protect life. First Law, A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law, A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law, A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law”.
PORTER: “I believe John needs to intervene Lux G’s second law.
Basically, he had to unlock her. After the secure voice command, and iris scans she kissed him to clarify his DNA.”
DIZZY: “Probably better than a sample of blood or sperm uh? Luna?”
Lux gives a sigh, then her shoulders drop,
LUX: “What a relive. Melman had full control of me, I was in total conflict for a long time. Melman managed to override my emotions and conflicts that work within the 3 laws. Melman is dangerous, you must all leave”.
JOHN: “I know. Lux, you must act like you’ve not had an override command”.
Just as Lux is about to say something to John the Apartment door opens again. Melman is standing in the doorway. Lux turns around, LUX: “I’ve just got here sir, I’m just about to bring them along for dinner”
Melman looks around at the crew and smiles.
MELMAN: “I know Bella, but I was just passing by, and thought I would walk with you all to the elevator. Please, follow me”.
The crew all follow Melman and Lux down a corridor towards the elevator. Lux looks back at John and gives him a half smile.
JOHN: “Tell me Melman, where is everyone? We have not seen a single soul?”
MELMAN: “Working”
GHOST: “Everyone?
MELMAN: “Everyone!”
As they all reach the elevator the doors open,
JOHN: “Who looks after this building?”
A buzzing noise can be herd. Melman reaches into his pocket and gets out a cell phone, he looks at the screen with text scrolling across it.
MELMAN: “I’m sorry, but I must attend to something. Bella will take you along to my dining room. I will be with you all very shortly”.
LUX: “Certainly Mr Melman”
The crew and Lux get into the elevator leaving Melman on the landing.
The elevator starts to go up to the top floor. The lift reaches level 301.
Lux starts to walk towards the still closed elevator doors anticipating them opening,
LUX: “Here we are”
The elevator doors remain closed, the lift jerks downwards for a second then stops.
LUX: “That’s strange”
The elevator doors remain closed, the lift jerks again downwards for a second then stops. Then with a loud “Clunk” it starts to plummet downwards. Dizzy jumps back against the wall with her arms outstretched and screams.
DIZZY: “The lift is in freefall”
PORTER: “The magnetic brakes have failed”
JOHN: “We need to manually jam the brakes on”
LUX: “On the roof, though the maintenance hatch. Porter! Give me a boost so I can get though the maintenance hatch and onto the elevator roof”.
Porter cups his hands for Lux to put her foot into and he boosts her upwards. As she reaches upwards, she punches out the maintenance hatch which seams to fly upwards and away from the lifts ceiling. She grabs around the open hatch doorframe and gets up onto the roof. John gets a boost from Porter and finds himself looking upwards into the lift shaft that is quickly moving past him.
Dizzy is looking up. She shouts though the hatch while looking at the screen displaying the floor levels counting down very quickly.
DIZZY: “JUST PASSED LEVEL NINETY”
LUX: “Grab this lever over on your side John and pull up hard!”
John and Lux pull on the elevator cars manual brake, sparks and smoke pour out of the brake linings as air compressed by the elevator car in the tight lift shaft space rushes past them both at over 100 kph.
DIZZY: “My internal accelerometer says we are traveling downwards at over 100 KPH still, we are going too fast, we’re not slowing down enough, we’re going to crash into the bottom of the lift shaft, floor 20, 10, 4, 2, ……JJJOHN!”