The Belt of Orion

FADE IN

1	EXT. CONSTELLATION OF ORION - NIGHT

Stars glitter like diamonds on the black velvet backdrop of space.
The Belt of Orion is center screen, but much nearer and larger
than ever seen by an Earth-bound astronomer.

A speck of light appears in the lower left corner of the screen.
No spaceship can be seen, but only a glowworm, a solitary sperma-
tosoan gliding through the womb of the universe. Over this we HEAR
the voice of an astronaut. He is concluding a report.

		ASTRONAUT'S VOICE
		(o.s.)
	So ends my last signal until we reach
	our destination. We are now on automatic,
	a mere hundred and five light years from
	our base ... and at the mercy of com-
	puters. I've tucked in my crew for the
	long sleep. I'll join them presently.

2	INT. CABIN OF SPACESHIP - ESTABLISHING SHOT - NIGHT

The cabin is neither cramped nor spacious, but about the size of the
President's cabin in Air Force One. In the immediate f.g. is a console
of dials and switches flanked by four chairs. Only one of the chairs
is occupied. The astronaut's back is to CAMERA. There is a ladder
amidships which leads to an escape hatch. The after Dart of the cabin
is obscured in darkness. We hear the MUSIC of a Mozart sonata emanating
	from a phonograph of stereotape. The astronaut is speaking into a
	microphone.

		ASTRONAUT
	Within the hour we shall complete
	the sixth month of our flight from
	Cape Kennedy. By our time, that is ...

He pauses, looking up at:

3	TWO LARGE CLOCKS - ON CABIN WALL

One clock is marked SELF TIME, but instead of twelve numerals it has
twenty-four. One of the needles is moving very slowly.

The other clock is labeled EARTH TIME, and its units, like those of a
	tachometer, are given by hundreds and thousands.

The largest needle of this clock makes one revolution every second.
	Over this we hear:

		ASTRONAUT'S VOICE
		(o.s.)
	But according to Dr. Hasslein theory of
	time in a vehicle traveling at close to
	the speed of light, old Mother Earth has
	aged a few thousand years since our de-
	parture -- while we have scarcely aged
	at all.

4	CLOSE ON ASTRONAUT

This is TAYLOR. He wears simple dungarees (or Churchill suit) and
	comfortable boots. He seems calm and pensive. Extracting the butt of
a cigar from the breast pocket of his dungarees, he lights it, then
	continues:

		TAYLOR
	It may be so. This much is probable: the
	men who sent us on this journey have long
	since been moldering in forgotten graves;
	and those, if any, who read this message
	are a different breed. Hopefully, a
	better one.

He begins to roll up his left sleeve.

		TAYLOR
	I leave the twentieth century without
	regret. Who was it? Marshall? ... said
	'Modern man is the missin 'a link between
	the ape and the human being.'

He removes the cigar from his mouth, turns to look out through one
of the portholes into the astral night.

		TAYLOR
	One final thought -- nothing scientific,
	purely personal. Seen from up here,
	everything looks different ... Time bends
	and space is boundless. It squashes a
	man's ego. He begins to feel like no more
	than a mote in the eye of eternity. And
	he is nagged by a question: what if any-
	thing, will greet us on the end of man's
	first journey to a star? Are we to believe
	that throughout these thousands of galaxies,
	these millions of stars, only one, that
	speck of solar dust we call Earth, has
	been graced -- or cursed -- by human life?
		(pause)
	I have to doubt it.

He extracts a hypodermic needle from his breast pocket and injects
it into the vein of his forearm. He continues speaking.

		TAYLOR
		(sardonically)
	That's about all. I wonder if Man, that
	marvel of the universe, that glorious
	paradox who has sent me to the unknown...
	still makes war against his brother., and
	lets his neighbor's children starve.

Taylor withdraws the hypodermic needle from his vein and secures it in
a drawer of the console.

		TAYLOR
	Well then, Earthmen: A missing link
	salutes you. Bless you, my descendants.

Taylor snuffs out the cigar butt and places it in the drawer beside the
	hypodermic. Then, flicking a switch Au cut off the Mozart, he rises and
looks up again at:

5	THE CLOCK MARKED EARTH TIME

The longest needle of this clock now makes nearly two revolutions per
second. The shortest needle points to the numeral 2105.

6	INT. CABIN - TRACKING WITH TAYLOR

Space scientists have presumably solved the problem of weightlessness,
for Taylor walks the short distance from; the console to the after
section without particular effort. CAMERA FOLLOWS him, and we can now
see four glass capsules, or "caskets", in the rear of the cabin. Taylor
looks down at them.