THE DIRTY PAIR in "Big Bang" by Ryan Mathews introducing Daved, THE UNIVERSAL PART 1 [Opening scene : White. As the camera gains focus we see we are looking at some sort of hangar, with a white floor and white walls. Our only sense of depth results from occasional black letters on the wall, and from shadows cast by the large number of white boxes arranged neatly on the floor. Each box measures about 2.5 meters high with a 1 meter by 1 meter cross-section, and is featureless, save for a door that takes up most of one side. Each box stands in a black square. Other similar squares can be seen with no box inside. The hangar is bustling with activity. Men and women in white uniforms walk to and fro. Occasionally one will enter a box through the door, which opens inward, and soon after the door closes, the box will emit an electronic hum and fade away. Likewise, boxes occasionally fade into empty spaces and passengers exit. Cut to one such empty space. With an electronic hum, a box appears. The door opens and Daved steps out. He is about 6 feet tall, with blonde hair that looks like it was combed this morning but has since gotten restless. He looks very young, but his expression is one of experience. He wears a white two-piece uniform: a white top pulled over white slacks tucked into white boots. On his left chest is the only color on his uniform, a small yellow bar. On his right wrist he wears what appears to be a golden digital wristwatch with a circular face. He wears a belt, and fastened to the belt on his right hip is a golden oblong object about 15 centimeters in length. Set into the outward facing side, near the lower end, are three jewels in a triangle. Daved closes the door and leaves the hangar. Cut to a huge rectangular vertical shaft which appears bottomless. In fact it is. Along the side of the shaft are various levels, bustling with activity. Zoom in on Daved, as he reaches the edge of the shaft and enters an automated aircar.] AIRCAR Please choose level. DAVED 9817. [The car leaves the edge and descends. From inside, Daved watches as signs with the level numbers on them zip by: 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9999 9998... after which they are going by too fast to read. Cut to a large set of white doors. They automatically open as Daved approaches, and he enters an outer office which is completely abandoned except for a female secretary.] DAVED The administrator wanted to see me? SECRETARY Your name? Oh! You must be Daved! [She presses a button on the desk] Sir, Daved is here. You can go in, he's expecting you. DAVED Thank you. [Daved walks past the secretary into an inner office. The secretary stares after him. The inner office could be mistaken for a 20th century office, save for the white walls and the fact that instead of windows there are an incredible array of viewscreens. The administrator, dressed in an all-white business suit and tie with a blue bar on his left chest, shakes hands with Daved.] ADMINISTRATOR Welcome, Daved. Won't you have a seat? [Daved sits] DAVED Sir, I, uh, wasn't informed about the nature of this meeting. Is this about the Zartu case? ADMINISTRATOR Oh, no, no -- I read your report on that and everything seems to be in order. In fact, our scouts report that several alliances seem to have been forged as a result of the Princess' suicide. So it may not have been that bad of an event. [Daved winces, and the administrator notices.] I'm sorry, I said that wrong. I understand she was, uh, a friend of yours. DAVED Sir, why am I here? ADMINISTRATOR I have an assignment for you. DAVED Then why not just relay it to my MUTT? Why summon me to Universe Ten? ADMINISTRATOR Because this is no ordinary assignment. It is my personal policy when giving as assignment as dangerous as this one to meet the Traveller face-to-face. Let me show you what this is about. [Grabs a remote control and walks over to one of the larger screens.] Let me show you what a team of Technicians and Scouts have been working on for over 20 real-years. [He clicks the remote control. On the screen, a pattern of very closely spaced horizontal lines appears. In the middle is a large fuzzy circle obscuring most of the center of the screen. To the right of the obscured region there is a noticeable gap in the lines.] DAVED What is that? ADMINISTRATOR This is the area surrounding universe 6.182947. It explodes violently about 17 billion years into its existence. For the past two real- decades we've been trying to determine the cause of the explosion and whether or not it can be prevented. As you can see from this scan, a region 20 years in radius has been obscured by the tachyon radiation thrown out by the event. In fact, the tachyons are obscuring neighboring unverses as well, making it all the more necessary that we deal with this problem, if it indeed can be dealt with. Now, this is just a low resolution scan. High resolution event scans have proven *utterly* useless. After years of trying and failing to find a way to cut through the static, the only option was to send Scouts into the region to take tachyon readings and try to nail down the exact time and place of the event. DAVED Isn't that dangerous? I mean if they can't see where they're going-- ADMINISTRATOR Of course it's dangerous! We've lost 12 Scouts already. [pause. Daved is shocked.] The last one seemed to have found the exact time and planet on which the event takes place. Unfortunately, before we could verify the accuracy of his readings... [The Administator walks back to his seat and sits down.] I want you to understand you're under no obligation to take this assignment. DAVED I'll take it. I don't want anymore green Scouts dying before they get a chance to be promoted. ADMINISTRATOR Very idealistic of you, Daved. It's going to take more than that to solve this problem, I'm afraid. We can give you a time and a planet and that's it. You're on your own. You not only have find where the event takes place, you have to determine *what* it is. Even if you do that, you may not be able to solve the problem. You're our top Traveller, Daved. I don't want you killing yourself because you feel sorry for some kids. They all knew what they were getting into. DAVED I'll take it, sir. What was the time and planet of the event? ADMINISTRATOR [sighs] I don't know exactly. The planet was called Lenorica, the year was called 2142 in the AD system. Exact coordinates will be sent to your MUTT. [pause] You're certain about this? DAVED I'm certain, sir. Will that be all? ADMINISTRATOR Yes. [They rise and shake hands again. Daved turns to leave.] No, wait. [Daved turns around] You should know that the Administrator's council voted against this. I'm sending you on my personal authority as your immediate superior. DAVED They voted against sending a Traveller, or they voted against sending *me*? ADMINISTRATOR Well, the Council seems to think both options are identical. It's their opinion that you are the only Traveller with a better than even chance of solving this. DAVED I'm glad to see they have so much faith in the rest of the Traveller Corps. ADMINISTRATOR They have very rational reasons for believing as they do, which I won't get into here. As you probably know, you're being groomed for a special purpose. We can't afford to lose you now. Members of the Council have even proposed shelving you until your Prime Mission. How do you think you got that yellow bar on your chest? DAVED What? ADMINISTRATOR Didn't you find it a bit odd that you were promoted directly from a 1-Green officer to a 1-Yellow instead of getting a second green bar? There aren't many yellow officer Travellers out there, you know. DAVED They were hoping I would retire? ADMINISTRATOR It was meant as a hint. One which you didn't take, as I knew you wouldn't. Hell, they could give you a blue bar and you probably would still travel. Now, if anything happens to you, I will be in it deep. And face it Daved, you do have a habit of getting involved. The Council is afraid that when the time comes, you will be too emotionally, perhaps romantically involved with some aspect to leave before the explosion. DAVED Sir, with all due respect, your use of the term "aspect" to describe people who spend their lives as part of one timeline just shows that you were never a Traveller. It is impossible to work among these people, to experience their lives, and still think of them as simply aspects of a given history. Ask any of us. ADMINISTRATOR Daved, I want you to give me your word that if you can't prevent the explosion, you'll leave. DAVED You have it. ADMINISTRATOR And that you won't bring anyone with you. [pause] DAVED You have my word, sir. But if you feel that strongly, why are you sending me? ADMINISTRATOR The only other option is to keep sending Scouts until one comes back. DAVED Is that all, sir? ADMINISTRATOR Yes, Daved. Good luck. [Daved leaves the office. In the outer office, the secretary is talking on the comm.] SECRETARY No, I swear, it was really him! I'd heard he works in my section, but still, to actually meet him -- ULP! [notices Daved] D-did the meeting go okay? DAVED The meeting went fine. Thanks for asking. [Daved realizes what's happening and stifles a laugh. He waves and leaves.] SECRETARY [to the comm] He smiled at me! Oh, god, I think I'm gonna die! [Cut to Main Scanning Room. The room is seen from above as five levels of concentric circles. Each level has innumerable scanning stations. Large viewscreens filled with data line the walls and the space in the center is filled with holograms. Cut to one particular Scanner, Jayk, who sits at his station. He is dressed casually, but his clothes are also all white.] JAYK Come on, almost there -- damn! Almost had it. Almost -- [A hand falls on his shoulder] YAAH! Who -- oh, it's you, Daved! What brings you here? DAVED Oh, nothing much. My administrator just wanted to hand deliver an assignment. Oh, and the new secretary appears to be a member of my fan club. JAYK Travellers get all the girls. What's this assignment? DAVED Maybe you can help me with that, hmm? JAYK Figured you didn't stop by to chat. Universe, time, planet? DAVED Planet Lenorica, 2142 AD, universe 6.182947. JAYK Universe--? Oh, god, Daved, you aren't going there, are you? That's a deathtrap! DAVED What can you tell me, Jayk? You know, the interesting little bits and connections that don't show up in the database? JAYK (sigh) Oh, boy. Alright, lemme see what I have. You know information is damned hard to come by, what with the tachyon interference and all. Hmm. I'm afraid I don't have anything on Lenorica, other than the fact that its a "heavily civilized" world and its capital city is named Taukai. DAVED What about the state of the Milky Way in general? JAYK Well, this is a universe in which humanity discovered FTL travel fairly early. By 2142, over 3,000 planets have been colonized. They don't seem to have run into any alien civilizations yet, which is odd. Most of the colonized worlds belong to a loose confederation called the United Galactica. Hmm. There's a police force associated with the federal government called the Worlds Welfare Work Association, or 3WA for short. DAVED Odd name for a police force. JAYK Yeah, I thought so, too. All this is in the database, though. HEY! I remember something! Ha-ha-ha! Yeah, that could help! DAVED What? JAYK Lemme see if I can find that picture. [Jayk hits some buttons and a picture of two lovely WWWA agents appears on one of his screens.] DAVED Not bad! Who are they? JAYK Redhead's Kei, the other's Yuri. They're 3WA agents, go by the name of the "Lovely Angels". DAVED Well, they're quite incredible, Jayk, but what do they have to do with anything? JAYK Maybe nothing. Maybe *everything*! You see, these girls have an interesting track record. Nearly every major case they've been involved with has somehow ended in the destruction of the space station, city, or occasionally even the *planet* in question! DAVED You're kidding, right? JAYK Dead serious. Every one. DAVED They must be incompetant bimbos! JAYK More like the 3WA's top pair of agents. DAVED WHAT?! JAYK Hey, they've never failed to solve a case! Each time a case has blown up in their faces, it's been proven to be just plain dumb luck. DAVED Oh, I'm sure. JAYK I agree, it's a riot. But anyway, if these agents happen to be on Lenorica at the time in question, you might want to check out what they've been up to. If anyone could blow up a universe by accident, it would be them. DAVED Well, I'll check it out. It's not like I have any other leads to go on. Thanks, Jayk! [Daved slaps Jayk on the back and starts to leave.] JAYK Be careful, Daved. Oh, hey, I almost forgot! If you want to trace them through the media, don't search for "Lovely Angels". The media has their own name for them. They call them... [Cut to the office of John Ackerman, Director of Security for Taukai City, Lenorica. Kei and Yuri are present, in uniform, about to be briefed.] ACKERMAN ...the Dirty Pair. Please sit down. YURI We'd really prefer it if you didn't call us that. ACKERMAN Sorry, must have just slipped out. I don't really believe all the things the media says about you. No one could possibly be *that* destructive. KEI Yeah yeah yeah. Do you have an assignment for us or what? ACKERMAN Uh...yes. About two months ago, a source whose name I am not at liberty to reveal came to me with a story of strange, possibly illegal goings-on at Thornheart Industries, which is based in this city. He promised to get back to us when he had more reliable information. He never did. When we queried Thornheart about it, we were informed that there was no record of the man ever having worked there. Naturally we thought the man had been a crank. But later-- [A very excited man bursts into the room.] JACOB Mr. Ackerman! I've-- ACKERMAN Not now, Jacob! JACOB But, sir! I-- ACKERMAN Whatever it is, it can wait! I'm busy, isn't that obvious? JACOB Huh? [notices Kei and Yuri] Oh! Sorry! Sir, I-- sorry! [He runs out. Kei laughs.] YURI What was that all about? ACKERMAN Nothing, nothing. It's hard to find good help these days. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. A few weeks after we had dismissed the complaint as a crank, no fewer than 5 husbands and wives of Thornheart employees complained that they hadn't heard from their spouses in what was a worrisome length of time. When we again queried Thornheart, they became belligerent. They claimed the personnel had been "reassigned" but refused to let us see the pertinent files without a search warrant. When we obtained a warrant, the main complex downtown mysteriously sealed itself off. We have sent two security teams to break into the complex and retrieve the files. Both have disappeared without a trace. We fear they fell victim to some security device in the complex; after all, that's what Thornheart makes. God only knows what kind of experimental stuff that have installed in there. Thornheart refuses to acknowledge that the teams ever arrived. [Ackerman gets up and starts to pace.] So we're in sort of an odd situation here. We could send in a division of the armed forces to blast their way in with heavy artillery, but besides the fact that it would make us look like fools, we have no evidence on which to justify such a move. We don't have the files, nor do we even have proof that the security teams ever made it into the complex. Thornheart could bring a suit against us, although they'd probably lose. Add to that the fact that Thornheart is a very powerful corporation, and, well, I think you see where we are. YURI But isn't their refusal to hand over the files voluntarily enough justification to use force? ACKERMAN They haven't flat-out refused. They keep stalling. Their latest claim is that an experimental new computer network screwed up the locations of several key files and that they're having to rebuild the file system manually. A likely story. Their willingness to use such tactics makes me believe that whatever they have planned is going down soon. We need to know what Thornheart is up to and we need to know *now*! YURI So you want us to break into the complex and get the files? ACKERMAN Exactly. You two should have more experience in dealing with unkown security devices than our forces, and I understand that you, Yuri, have a knack for coaxing information out of computers. Now this is a simple breaking-and-entering, ladies. We'd appreciate it if you kept the conflict, and combat, to a minimum, preferably none. Understood? YURI Understood perfectly, sir! You can count on us, right, Kei? [Kei is absent-mindedly looking about the room. Yuri kicks her chair.] KEI Yeah! Right! We're on it! [Cut to aerial view of Taukai. The city is sprawling and huge, seeming to extend to the horizon, and is composed of three colors: gray, black, and metal. An aircar flies in from offscreen, carrying Kei and Yuri. Yuri is driving.] YURI [annoyed] It was the same in school, Kei. You'd always end up copying my notes the night before the exam. If you'd just pay attention a little more-- KEI [looking out the window] This city *blows*! If there's a list of All-Time Ugliest Cities, this one's gotta be in the top ten! YURI [rolls her eyes] Yeah, well, maybe their radio's okay. [She fiddles with the controls and finds a heavy rock station.] YURI OOOH! The Thrash Monkeys! I LOVE this song! [Cut to exterior view of Kei staring dejectedly out the window. Her eyes go wide as the aircar tips violently. Cut back to interior.] KEI YURI! Will you watch where you're going! [Kei grabs the controls from Yuri, who had been tapping the beat on the console. The aircar hurtles toward a walkway between two buildings. It pulls up at the last second, as people dive out of the way. One of these people is Daved, dressed in civilian clothing. He watches the aircar fly away.] DAVED Those girls in that aircar--! Well, I'll be damned! Sometimes I think I was born lucky! [In all the commotion, no one notices him as he presses a button on his wristwatch and vanishes. He reappears in another part of the city, in front of his MUTT (the white box mentioned earlier), which is hidden in an alley. He walks through the door, entering what is impossibly a spacious 20th century apartment. He turns right, through a pair of sliding doors into a control room. A viewscreen on the wall shows a view of the outside but it flickers and is full of snow. Daved sits down.] DAVED Damn. Interference is getting worse. Oh, well, what did I expect? [He hits a few controls. Outside, the MUTT hums and fades away. Inside, the view fades out completely and is replaced with an aerial view of the city.] Let's see if I can track that aircar. [He works some controls, and the picture zooms in one one car, swerving slightly as it flies. As he watches, it heads for what appears to be an enormous spaceport, but the image gets too small to follow.] Okay, let's visit the spaceport. [Cut to parking area of spaceport, a vast expanse of parked spacecraft. The MUTT fades in and Daved steps out and begins to walk quickly among the craft, looking in all directions. He notices one craft in particular.] "Lovely Angel"? Gotta be it. [He hides behind another ship as Kei and Yuri come walking up.] KEI I mean it, Yuri! Either the radio stays off, or I'm driving from now on! [The girls reach the steps leading to the hatch and walk up.] YURI Oh, like you've never had a close call! Like that time we flew over a beach resort, and they just happened to be holding a Mr. Universe contest, and you were so busy craning your head out the window that-- [A sound halfway between a purr and a growl is heard from inside.] KEI & YURI Mughi! We're back! You miss us, big guy? DAVED Bingo. [The hatch closes. Cut to interior of MUTT. Daved enters and sits on a couch.] So, the Dirty Pair *are* on Lenorica. The fact that any 3WA agents are here at all means something's up. Maybe they'll solve my problem for me. Maybe... [Daved looks at his watch. It reads 27:14:09 and is counting down.] Something had better happen soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Next: Kei and Yuri break into the Thornheart complex, only to find it's not quite as abandoned as they thought. Daved takes steps to remedy the situation. The Universal, including Daved, the MUTT, the Sword, Universe Ten and all related characters, are Copyright (c) 1991 Ryan Mathews.