INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
Armed guards enter the observation room and take position between the cage vault door and Van Clive. On the monitor, a weary Daga mumbles to himself.
DAGA (V.O.)
Death... to the Doctor. Death to... the Doctor.
VAN CLIVE
Open the door.
Simmons keys in the code to open the door and the Doctor races in. The guards restrain him from getting right in Van Clive's face.
DOCTOR
Van Clive, you sadistic animal! What have you done to him?
VAN CLIVE
What have I done? I'll have you know that thing wasn't much better off by the time I got a hold of it. And last I checked, it's not my name it keeps chanting over and over. It's not "death to Van Clive" it's saying. It's "death to the Doctor".
DOCTOR
I demand that you release HIM into my custody immediately.
VAN CLIVE
Yeah, that's a nice thought, champ, but I don't really see that happening. Will you people get him out of here?
Van Clive's guards drag the Doctor away.
DOCTOR
You'll pay for what you've done, Van Clive. I promise you. You will pay.
VAN CLIVE
Lucky for me I'm so rich. I can afford it!
Van Clive saunters into the cage.
INT. CAGE
Spittle drools from the side of Daga's mouth. The fury that once burned inside of him to curse the Doctor has faded. Van Clive walks up to him, unafraid, and stares into Daga's one remaining eye.
VAN CLIVE
So, you can talk. Now, you're gonna talk to me.
DAGA
Death... to the... Doctor.
Van Clive sniffs Daga.
INT. ADAM'S WORKSHOP
Rose eats from a tray piled high with food; a hamburger, french fries, tuna salad, chicken fingers, pancakes, sausages, chili, even a pretzel. She takes the occasional break to breathe, which she sometimes skips in favor of chugging her milk, soda, or water.
Adam stares at her from a cluttered workbench a few feet away. He's frozen in the middle of toying with the antique ray gun he purchased at auction, dumbfounded by her all out assault on the tray of food. She notices his stare.
ROSE
What?
ADAM
Nothing.
ROSE
Do I have ketchup on my face or something?
ADAM
No, you haven't missed yet.
ROSE
I haven't eaten in, like, two days. Okay? Unless you count this weird buffet I went to, but I didn't eat much there. Too much of the stuff was moving, and then the room got hijacked by space terrorists. So, back off, Jillian Michaels.
ADAM
Who?
ROSE
Seriously?
ADAM
You live an eventful life.
ROSE
It's more of a new thing, actually.
ADAM
I don't get out much, unless it's to work on something for Mr. Van Clive.
She notices Adam's computer on a desk opposite the workbench. The screen asks for a password to login. She keeps eating.
ADAM
So, are you and the Doctor, you know...
She pretends not to know where he's going with his question regarding the nature of their relationship. She waits for him to finish. He wants to ask the whole question, but...
ADAM
(chickens out)
Time travellers?
She shoves a whole pancake in her mouth to avoid the question.
ADAM
If I could travel anywhere in time, I'd go back and meet all the giants. Imagine standing behind the tree when the apple fell on Newton's head, or being a student of Kepler in Graz, or being at the Solvay Conference in 1927 with Einstein, Curie, and Bohr.
ROSE
(spitting food)
1928.
She wipes her mouth and takes a sip of milk to help swallow.
ADAM
I'm ninety-nine percent it was 1927.
ROSE
You want to fight about it? The fifth Solvay Conference on Electrons and Photons was held in Brussels in 1928. There were seventeen Nobel Prize winners in attendance to discuss quantum theory. Go on your computer. Look it up.
Skeptical, Adam puts the gun down and wheels over to his computer. He enters his password to login and performs a search.
ADAM
Look, I've been idolizing these people since I was three. I think I know what year they held the Solvay Conference.
He sees the screen.
ADAM
1927, told you so. I'm impressed you knew all that, though.
ROSE
So glad I impress you. You geniuses are all alike. You think, because you're smarter than everyone else, nobody else knows anything at all.
ADAM
I didn't say that. You just don't strike me as the... physics type.
ROSE
And what 'type' is that? A woman?
ADAM
I didn't say that.
ROSE
A pretty woman?
ADAM
I didn't say you were pretty.
She raises an eyebrow.
ADAM
I mean, you are, pretty, I mean, very. Um. Okay. I've clearly insulted you somehow, and I'd really like to apologize for whenever that happened.
ROSE
You know what I find really insulting? Van Clive and the Doctor are off somewhere in this super top-secret facility talking over matters of state and the universe, life and death, and whatever else, and I get pawned off on the flirting intern babysitter.
ADAM
I wasn't flirting...
ROSE
And another thing, there's a big huge guy with a big huge gun on the other side of that door, isn't there?
She points to the closed door to his workshop.
ADAM
There are pretty much big huge guys with big huge guns all over this place.
ROSE
So, am I a prisoner, or what?
ADAM
No. I mean, in the sense that you can't leave, I guess. But...
ROSE
I want to see the Doctor. I want to see him right now.
ADAM
I'm not sure I'm allowed to-
ROSE
You're not sure? Why don't you go find out? Come on, boy, get a clue.
ADAM
Okay.
He gets up from his workbench and hurries over to the door.
ROSE
Adam.
He stops, turns around.
ROSE
You know the second you leave I'm gonna be all over your computer, right?
He notices the computer. It's still unlocked from when he entered his password to look up the date of the conference. He hangs his head.
ADAM
You knew the conference was in 1927.
ROSE
Little bit.
ADAM
You were tricking me. And I fell for it.
She nods. He walks back over to his workbench, locks his computer, and sits back down to tinker with the ray gun.
ROSE
Well, you don't have to pout about it.
ADAM
So, why didn't you let me walk out the door?
ROSE
Because you seem like a nice guy, just caught up with the wrong kind of people. And I'm sitting here, stuffing my face, trying to figure out why I'm the only person in this room who knows that. Chicken wing?
He accepts the chicken wing.
ADAM
You don't even know Mr. Van Clive and you just assume he's a bad guy.
ROSE
Tell me I'm wrong.
Adam picks the skin off the chicken wing and throws it in the trash. He nibbles on the meat to bide his time.
ADAM
When I was seven, my parents enrolled me in a school for the gifted called the Revolution Institute. It was based out of Washington DC, and my family was from Colorado. My parents didn't have a lot of money, but I was recruited, so they offered me free room, board, the whole thing. It was kind of like a private school, but a lot more specialized. Mr. Van Clive graduated from the program years before me.
Rose wipes her mouth and hands and moves the tray of food to the side. She steps up to the workbench and sits on the side.
ADAM
One day, a counselor pulls me away from the research I was working on regarding sub-atomic singularities as alternative fuel sources, and she tells me there was a fire back home. My entire family was killed.
Rose gasps.
ADAM
They didn't really know what to do with me at that point. I was in the program on scholarship. I had nowhere to go, and I was still a minor. It didn't make much sense to place me with a foster family. So, they just kept me in the program. That's when Mr. Van Clive took an interest in my work. When I was old enough, he offered me a job. He told me he would set me up so I could continue all the work I was already doing, but with a much bigger bank roll behind it. I didn't know what else to do, so I accepted. Mr. Van Clive is the closest thing I have to a father.
ROSE
That doesn't make him a good one.
ADAM
Spoken like someone who has one.
ROSE
Actually, it was just me and my mother growing up. I never knew my Dad.
ADAM
Oh. Sorry.
ROSE
No, it's all right.
Awkward moment.
ADAM
Hey, you know, maybe there's a way I can show you the Doctor without actually leaving the room.
Adam enters his password into his computer for a second time. He enters several more keystrokes to bring up a series of surveillance camera images from inside the facility.
ROSE
How?
ADAM
This place has state of the art surveillance every step of the way. I just need to find him. I think they were headed for the cage.
Rose leans in. The image on the screen changes to surveillance of the cage, the same image that was previously seen on Simmons' screen. Van Clive is in the room, standing in between the camera and Daga, who we can't see.
ROSE
I don't see the Doctor.
ADAM
He was with Mr. Van Clive.
ROSE
Well, he's not with him now.
On the screen, Van Clive moves and Rose sees Daga, his metal arachnid body restrained to the bed.
ROSE
Oh my god. That's Daga.
ADAM
Daga? You know what that is?
ROSE
You have to get me down there, right now. Right now!
She drags him out of his chair and pushes him to the door.
INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
We hear Daga's screaming over the loudspeaker as Simmons keeps his hand pressed to the electrocution button. Paula enters, carrying a thick file on Rose's background. She briefly catches a glimpse of the monitor, covers her mouth, and looks away. Simmons releases the button.
VAN CLIVE (V.O.)
Talk to me, you alien mutant!
PAULA
I need to see Henry.
SIMMONS
He's indisposed.
VAN CLIVE (V.O.)
Hit him again, Simmons!
Simmons hits the button again. Daga screams.
PAULA
I have some information on the girl he might find... interesting. There's more to her story than we knew.
Simmons sighs and releases the button. He presses another button for the intercom and leans over to speak into a microphone.
SIMMONS
Sir, Paula's here. She says she has some information for you about the girl.
INT. CAGE
An incensed Van Clive turns back toward the camera, seething with rage.
VAN CLIVE
Tell her to wait one damn minute!
Van Clive approaches Daga, whose one eye is rolled back in his head. He grabs Daga's mauled face with both hands and screams.
VAN CLIVE
I know you can talk. I know you can hear me and understand everything I'm saying to you. Let me tell you something, this is only going to get worse unless you cooperate. Now, tell me what you know!
Daga smiles and stares back at Van Clive, going from catatonic to fully aware in an instant.
DAGA
I know you should never have come so close.
One of Daga's eight metal legs wriggles free of his restraints and he uses it to impale Van Clive in the temple.
INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
Rose and Adam run inside, too late.
ROSE
You have to get him out of there!
Confusion erupts in the room as Simmons and Paula see Van Clive impaled on the monitor. Horrified, Paula turns to the guards.
PAULA
Get in there, now!
Simmons and the guards run inside the cage.
INT. CAGE
Still very much alive, Van Clive is powerless to stop Daga from using his body to open up the rest of the restraints. Once free, Daga climbs up Van Clive's body and installs himself on top of the man's head by using his other seven spider legs to impale Van Clive's skull.
The guards rush in and target their weapons on Van Clive, but Simmons warns them off.
SIMMONS
Don't shoot. You'll hit Mr. Van Clive!
Rejuvenated and mad as hell, Daga springs into action, wielding Van Clive's body as a puppet. He attacks the closest guard, pulling the rifle from the man's hands and using the butt of it to smack the man in the face. He then aims the rifle and shoots the other three guards before turning it on Simmons.
Simmons throws his hands in the air.
SIMMONS
Please don't kill me. I was only following orders!
DAGA / VAN CLIVE
That's why I'm going to let you live.
Daga shoots Simmons in both legs and both arms. He stands over his torturer with satisfaction.
DAGA / VAN CLIVE
Death is too good for you. Suffer a life without mobility. Without freedom. That's all you deserve.
Daga looks up at the video camera.
INT. CAGE
Paula, Rose, and Adam look on in horror as Daga stares at them through the video camera from atop his Van Clive puppet.
DAGA / VAN CLIVE
Oooooooh. Rose is here, too. Hi, Rose.
ROSE
Shut the door. Close the door!
PAULA
I don't know how.
ADAM
I can do it.
Adam pushes forward to the console and keys in the code to lock the door. It swings shut just in time. They let loose a collective exhale.
INT. CAGE
Daga approaches a console on the wall next to the door. He slowly enters in a command code.
INT. CAGE OBSERVATION ROOM
Rose sees this on the monitor.
ROSE
What's he doing?
PAULA
Oh my god, he's got my brother's override codes.
They hear the door open.
ADAM
Run!
They run out.
INT. VARIOUS CORRIDORS
Paula, Rose, and Adam run for their lives. They make it to an intercom station and Paula stops, quickly pressing a few buttons which initiates a red alert. An intermittent siren blares. She speaks over the intercom.
PAULA
Condition red! Condition red! All security to the lower level.
INT. BRIG
Behind bars, guarded by two men, the Doctor listens to the siren and Paula's announcement.
PAULA (V.O.)
This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. The creature has taken control of Mr. Van Clive.
The scared and confused guards look at each other, then the Doctor.
DOCTOR
Release me if you want to live.
They consider their options.
-To be Continued...-