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ACT TWO
FADE IN:
INT. ATLANTIS - LATER THAT SAME DAY
Now dressed in their regular clothes, sans armor and weapons Xena and Gabrielle are following Soteres and Vera. They walk through an arch way where the two elders stop on a balcony and just watch as their guests take in everything they are about to see.
Xena stops at the railing and stares down into what appears to be a large underwater city. Gabrielle is looking above and around her at the glass dome that protects the city. It looks like any other city, with people bustling about, dealing with every day tasks, except all around them is the protection of the dome.
The city goes on for as far as the eye can see and they both would have never believed such a thing existed if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes.
GABRIELLE By the Gods.
XENA We’re underwater?
VERA Several leagues as a matter of fact.
SOTERES So you see Xena, escape is quite impossible. If the water pressure didn’t kill you, then you would surely drown before you reached the surface.
GABRIELLE Then how did we get here?
SOTERES We have vehicles capable of traveling back and forth between our world and the surface.
GABRIELLE If you don’t intend to let us go, why even bother to bring us here?
VERA Our laws forbid us to allow someone to die if we can prevent it. As I said, we could save your lives.
SOTERES But now that puts us in this predicament. This is our world. We came here when we could no longer live among your people topside. They had become too aggressive, too warlike. We are a peaceful people. We can defend ourselves, but that is always a last resort. We would just prefer not to have conflict at all.
XENA But what about Gedeon? He’s obviously a military man.
SOTERES He is, and he commands our forces. Like I said, we can protect ourselves.
GABRIELLE How did you even come to be down here?
SOTERES Many generations ago, our ancestors tried to settle topside with your ancestors. Our ancestors had capabilities that yours did not. It wasn’t long before our ancestors were forced to leave the land and take sanctuary under the water because of the wars between our people.
GABRIELLE Why didn’t you just share what you had?
VERA It’s difficult to explain, but we couldn’t. It would have been interfering with the natural progression of your ancestors. They had to make their own legacies.
XENA So you came here and you’ve survived in this place for multiple generations?
SOTERES Yes, and over the years your people have tried to find this place. If that were to happen we would have no choice but to destroy our world and the people from yours that would invade.
GABRIELLE You don’t have to worry about Xena and me. We respect your right to remain hidden away here. We wouldn’t tell anyone.
VERA If it were your world and your people, would you take that chance?
FADE TO:
INT. CITY - AFTERNOON
Vera is showing Xena and Gabrielle around the city. Xena is looking at everything. Gabrielle seems fascinated by a particular light affixed to one of the buildings.
GABRIELLE Xena look at this.
She reaches out to touch the glass that is emanating the light, but pulls back when she feels the heat.
GABRIELLE (cont’d) There’s no flame.
Vera smiles as she watches them inspect the lamp.
VERA It’s called electricity. We use the natural power of the water around us to generate energy. We harness that energy and use it to power our city. Every home, every business has electricity.
XENA How do you put it out?
VERA With a switch.
GABRIELLE You can just turn it on and off?
VERA Yes.
XENA It’s amazing.
VERA Yes. But one of those things that your people are not ready for.
GABRIELLE But why? This seems like a very good thing. The possibilities are limitless.
VERA Exactly. Tell me, do you know people who could use this as a weapon?
XENA I could use it as a weapon.
VERA Would you?
XENA If I had to.
VERA And there are others like you?
Xena nods the admission, obviously not feeling good about it. Gabrielle reaches out and takes Xena’s hand to offer silent support.
GABRIELLE If you have this, then there must be other things. Is there anything else you’re willing to show us?
VERA Child, I will show you everything if it will help convince you that it is best for you to stay here.
GABRIELLE Convince me.
FADE TO:
INT. HOSPITAL - AFTERNOON
While not up the standards of a 21st century medical facility, this hospital is far more advanced than anything Xena or Gabrielle have ever seen. Everything is clean and sterile. The staff is dressed in uniforms that easily distinguish doctors from nurses. There are only two patients per room and as they enter the central monitoring area, Xena stops to stare at a bank of screens that display every room.
XENA How do you do this?
VERA Crystal optics. We mine crystal from the ocean floor, which allows us to process it into many different things.
As a doctor walks by, Gabrielle takes his arm.
GABRIELLE Excuse me?
DOCTOR Yes?
Gabrielle points to her bandage.
GABRIELLE What is this?
The doctor looks at Vera, confused, then back to Gabrielle.
DOCTOR A bandage?
GABRIELLE I know that. The stuff holding it on?
DOCTOR Oh, yes. Adhesive.
He can see that she’s not quite understanding.
DOCTOR Umm, glue?
GABRIELLE Glue? Wouldn’t it be easier just to tie the bandage on?
Amused, the doctor just shakes his head.
DOCTOR No.
VERA Come. Let me show you some other things.
CUT TO:
INT. DOME - SHORT TIME LATER
Standing on a walkway, looking over a railing, Xena and Gabrielle watch as divers swim back and forth between a platform and what appears to be a mine entrance under the water.
Xena seems particularly interested in the equipment they are using to breathe underwater. Each diver is wearing a mask and a singular small tank on their backs with a smaller mask over their mouth and nose.
VERA There’s not enough air in one of those to get you to the top, Xena. And even if there were, the water pressure outside the dome would kill you. The workers use the tanks to swim from the mining shaft to the foreman’s platform. Underground, there are air filled shafts where the miners are extracting various ores from the ground. Atlantis sits in what is basically a valley at the base of a dormant volcano.
XENA What make you so sure it’s dormant?
VERA Our scientists assure us there’s no danger.
XENA That’s what they thought in Pompeii too.
GABRIELLE Vera, how can you ask us to remain here? We’re not of your people. We don’t belong here. We have nothing to offer you.
VERA Your presence here offers us security.
XENA But was it right to save our lives only to make us prisoners?
VERA You wouldn’t be prisoners.
XENA Would we ever be allowed to go back up?
VERA I’m afraid not.
XENA Then we’re prisoners. It would have been better to let us die than to try and keep us caged up like animals.
VERA (confused) But you wouldn’t be ‘caged’ up. You would be free to live among us.
Xena gestures around the series of domes.
XENA In... this glass cage.
VERA I’m sorry.
FADE TO:
INT. LIVINGROOM - EARLY EVENING
Xena is pacing like a caged tiger as Gabrielle sits at a table watching her.
GABRIELLE Is that helping?
XENA It isn’t hurting.
GABRIELLE Okay.... Xena, is a life here really worse than death?
XENA Yes.
GABRIELLE But think about how comfortable it is here. The buildings are heated without fireplaces. The have water that runs hot and cold at the same time….
XENA Good for them.
GABRIELLE They have plumbing….
XENA The Romans have plumbing. Look where it’s gotten them.
GABRIELLE Did you ever stop to think that after all the things we’ve been through lately this is someone’s way of telling us to slow down?
Xena sighs and takes a seat next to Gabrielle.
XENA Maybe. I’m willing to slow down. Just not here.
GABRIELLE Okay, but getting out is going to be tough.
XENA I know, but they keep saying they trust us to live among them. We can use that to our advantage.
GABRIELLE That’s a plan I see forming isn’t it?
XENA I think so.
FADE TO:
INT. CITY - EVENING
Xena and Gabrielle are walking, unescorted through the streets of the city. People are still moving around, but with a more leisurely pace than before.
XENA I think this must be their evening.
GABRIELLE How can you tell?
XENA They don’t seem to be in as much of a hurry.
GABRIELLE Good point.
XENA And with evening, most people want to relax.
She stops and looks over the crowd until she sees three young men coming toward her. Stepping in front of them, she forces them to stop, but before she can say one word they look at her and then to Gabrielle and lascivious grins spread across their faces.
YOUNG MAN 1 You’re not from around here, are you?
XENA No, we’re not and we’re wondering what you do for fun in this bubble.
YOUNG MAN 2 Well, we could tell you….
YOUNG MAN 3 But it would be more fun to show you.
Xena looks to Gabrielle and smiles.
XENA What do you know... we found a comedy act.
GABRIELLE (shrugging) Who knew?
YOUNG MAN 1 Now, now ladies….
This remark gets twin raised brows; one dark, one blonde as in perfect unison Xena and Gabrielle cross their arms.
GABRIELLE Free piece of advice. This is a really bad idea.
YOUNG MAN 2 Really? Three of us, two of you and women to boot….
The men begin to move toward them, their intentions clear.
GABRIELLE (to Xena) I think I prefer our reputations preceding us.
XENA Yeah.
Before any of the men can move, Xena strikes out. Gabrielle does the same less than one second behind her. Two of the men drop to their knees, choking and gasping for air. The third man stares wide eyed at his two companions, and then turns and runs back the way they had come.
XENA You have thirty…
GABRIELLE ... seconds to live.
XENA We don’t want trouble.
GABRIELLE We just want to know where to get a drink.
YOUNG MAN 1 Pub….
YOUNG MAN 2 Mermaid Inn….
YOUNG MAN 1 That way….
He jerks his thumb over his shoulder. Together, Xena and Gabrielle remove the pinch, stepping back as the men both drop face down to the ground.
Without a word Xena and Gabrielle step around them and continue into the city.
FADE TO:
INT. MERMAID INN - NIGHT
Sitting at a table in the center of the room, Gabrielle is drinking a yellowish drink from a tall clear glass. Xena’s glass is the same but her drink is a dark brown color.
GABRIELLE This is good.
XENA Not bad.
GABRIELLE That was pretty rotten of us.
XENA They asked for it. A bully is a bully; I don’t care where they live.
Gedeon along with four of his officers enters the pub and sighs as he walks over to the table where Xena and Gabrielle are sitting.
GEDEON I’m sure there is a good reason why you attacked two of our citizens.
XENA They were looking for trouble.
GEDEON They’re young men, Xena. They work hard in the mines all day. They were trying to blow off some steam.
XENA They shouldn’t have blown in my direction.
GABRIELLE We actually didn’t hurt them.
XENA But we can protect ourselves.
GEDEON I can see that.
He gestures to his men, who bring up weapons that Xena has never seen before, but she knows anything with a trigger can’t be good.
GEDEON
(cont’d)
FADE OUT. |
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END OF ACT TWO |
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