Dooku
Page 12
YODA:
Hm. As am I. Yes. As am I.
DOOKU:
She was just so angry about what happened in the Chamber…
YODA:
Angry, was she? Hmm? Ask you to speak to me, did she? To explain?
DOOKU:
No. But I thought…
YODA:
Yes? Speak your mind, you should.
DOOKU:
(HESITATING, AND THEN…) If I was on the Council, I would listen to what the Force had to say. I would heed its warning…
YODA:
Hm. Is that right? Is that right? If on the Council the Padawan was…
DOOKU:
I…I meant no disrespect.
YODA:
No? Hmm. Always knows best, Dooku does. Never listens. Maybe on the Council one day you will be. Maybe, in my chair you will sit. Although, a little on the small side you may find it…
DOOKU:
(EMBARRASSED) Master…
YODA:
Always rushing ahead, you are. Always eager to prove your worth. Too eager. Too keen. A Jedi, you are. Worth enough for anyone that should be.
A comm chimes.
SIFO-DYAS: (OVER COMM)
We’re coming in to land, Master Yoda.
YODA:
Thank you, Padawan. On our way, we are.
The comm line shuts off. Yoda starts toward the door.
YODA:
What’s done is done. Act now we must.
DOOKU:
I understand.
YODA:
Make sure you do, young Dooku. Make sure you do.
SCENE 43. EXT. TABOR PLAINS. DAY.
The shuttle lands. It is a pastoral scene, albeit one marred by the hum of gigantic city-sized repulsor disks in the air.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
Our shuttle touched down on Protobranch on a bright, balmy day, a gentle breeze rippling through crops that stretched on forever. I’d never seen anything like it, Jenza. The sky was dotted with cities built on top of sprawling antigrav platforms. They cast huge shadows over the swaying cereal, the thrum of repulsors a constant drone in the air…much like the voice of the planet’s prime minister.
The prime minister’s voice comes up on the mic as he walks his guests through the crops.
PRIME MINISTER:
I fear your journey has been wasted, Master Yoda. We have conducted extensive tests, but our weather is strictly regulated.
LENE:
My Padawan witnessed a storm.
PRIME MINISTER:
And yet none are scheduled.
DOOKU:
Could it be a malfunction in the control matrix?
PRIME MINISTER:
Certainly not. We pride ourselves on total environmental control.
YODA:
Second only to Coruscant itself. Hm.
SIFO-DYAS:
But this is where it was.
PRIME MINISTER:
In your vision.
SIFO-DYAS:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Then I can only suggest that you were mistaken, thank the stars.
LENE:
Protobranch is certainly impressive, Prime Minister. I’ve never seen agriculture on such a scale. Entire continents turned over to cultivation.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Master Kostana. The decision to transfer the population to sky-disks was controversial but has paid off in the end.
DOOKU:
An ingenious solution.
PRIME MINISTER:
We needed more land, it was as simple as that. Production has tripled in the last decade, and with it, the need for more crops. Think of the lives our bacta has saved across the galaxy.
YODA:
And the buildings above us?
PRIME MINISTER:
One of our smaller production plants, and Tabor Hospital, of course.
LENE:
Where you test new strains of bacta.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. Exactly.
SIFO-DYAS:
(GASPS) Master.
LENE:
Sifo?
PRIME MINISTER:
Is anything wrong?
DOOKU:
I feel it, too.
PRIME MINISTER:
Feel what?
YODA:
A disturbance in the Force.
An alarm sounds on the prime minister’s datapad.
LENE:
What’s that?
PRIME MINISTER:
A solar storm has been detected, headed straight for Protobranch.
SIFO-DYAS:
A storm?
YODA:
How big?
More warning beeps.
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s…it’s off the scale.
SIFO-DYAS:
But, Master Kostana. If that’s what I saw, the magnetic pulse…
LENE:
Will knock out every circuit on the planet.
The prime minister’s datapad crackles and dies.
PRIME MINISTER:
My datapad!
YODA:
Begun, it has…
Above them the repulsors flicker and cut out.
DOOKU:
The cities!
LENE:
The repulsor platforms have failed!
The platforms creak and then fall.
PRIME MINISTER:
They’re coming down!
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
All around the planet, cities that had been suspended in the air for decades dropped as one. Where once there had been the perpetual buzz of repulsorlift engines, now there were crashes and explosions and terrible screams…screams that Sifo-Dyas had already endured.
The disks plowed into the endless fields, plumes of dirt rising up to greet the bodies falling to their deaths.
DOOKU:
Look out!
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
I threw myself at Sifo-Dyas, knocking him clear as a crumbling tower block flattened the grass behind us. The falling hospital had crashed into the Tabor Plains, columns of fire igniting a blaze that swept hungrily through the dry crops. The cries of a million souls cut through me, a tremor in the Force that threatened to send us all into a spiral of grief and dispair.
LENE:
Is everyone all right?
SIFO-DYAS:
(ANGUISHED) We were too late.
The prime minister tries to open a comm channel.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello? Can anyone hear me?
YODA:
Down, the comm network will be.
The fires intensify.
DOOKU:
The fire is spreading.
SIFO-DYAS:
Just like I saw.
PRIME MINISTER:
We’re going to be burned alive.
YODA:
Hold back the flames we will.
PRIME MINISTER:
How?
YODA:
The Force is strong.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
Yoda and Lene stood back-to-back, their eyes closed and arms outstretched. I felt the Force swell around us, providing an invisible barrier to the flames. The heat was intense, but at least the fire was stopped in its tracks…for now.
PRIME MINISTER:
But that’s…that’s impossible.
YODA:
Dook
u. Sifo-Dyas. Check for survivors you must.
DOOKU:
In the hospital?
LENE:
Send them to us.
DOOKU:
But what then? We have no way to get them offplanet.
PRIME MINISTER:
The early warning system would have sent a distress call before it shut down.
YODA:
On its way, help will be.
SIFO-DYAS:
But the flames. Surely you won’t be able to hold them back for long.
LENE:
Let us worry about that. Go now. And may the Force be with us all.
SCENE 44. EXT. OUTSIDE HOSPITAL.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
Most species have their own Armageddon myths. We learned many of them as Initiates. Understand someone’s fears, we were told, and you will know how to help them. Zang used to hate it, all that fire and damnation, but me…I reveled in it. I never took them seriously, you see. They were stories. Fables. I knew the universe would endure, and if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be because of gods or powers beyond our understanding.
And yet…the scene that greeted us as we raced toward the entrance of the hospital was worse than any apocalypse. It was real. It was raw. Droids lay in crumpled heaps, the sick and infirm trying to help those who had been injured in the crash.
DOOKU:
(SHOUTING) Everyone. Keep moving. Head toward the plantation.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
The pain and terror were overwhelming…
SIFO-DYAS:
(CRYING OUT, CLUTCHING HIS HEAD)
DOOKU:
Sifo?
SIFO-DYAS:
(PAINED) Everyone is going to die.
DOOKU:
No, they’re not. We can do this. The Force is with us.
SIFO-DYAS:
What if that’s not enough?
DOOKU:
It will be. It has to be.
SIFO-DYAS:
I’m sorry. It just…it just hurts.
DOOKU:
You can do this, I know you can. People are relying on us.
SCENE 45. INT. HOSPITAL RECEPTION.
Atmosphere: The hospital is largely deserted, everyone having either fled or been killed. Fires burn. Cables spark.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
It’s fair to say that I’ve always been…overconfident, but even I was daunted as we ran inside what remained of the building. Cables hung exposed, sparks cascading like falling stars while fires burned in the debris, consuming those who hadn’t survived the crash.
Dooku and Sifo run in.
SIFO-DYAS:
(COUGHING ON SMOKE) Hello? Is there anyone in here?
DOOKU:
It’s so dark.
SIFO-DYAS:
Reckon our lightsabers still work?
DOOKU:
Only one way to find out.
Both lightsabers burst on.
SIFO-DYAS:
Thank the Force for kyber insulators.
DOOKU:
Shame they didn’t install them here.
There’s a banging nearby. Fists against metal.
PIRA: (CALLING OFF-MIC)
Hello? Is someone there?
DOOKU:
Yes. Yes, we’re here. We’re coming.
They run deeper into the complex.
SCENE 46. INT. CORRIDOR.
Dooku and Sifo-Dyas run up to a door, their lightsabers humming. There’s knocking on the other side.
PIRA: (MUFFLED)
Hello? Is anyone there?
DOOKU:
(CALLING THROUGH THE DOORS) Yes. Can you open the doors?
PIRA: (MUFFLED)
No. They’re jammed.
DOOKU:
Stand back.
He thrusts his lightsaber into the door, cutting a hole.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
My lightsaber flared as I pierced the duraplast.
PIRA: (MUFFLED)
Hurry!
DOOKU:
I am.
He finishes burning his way through the door.
DOOKU:
Are you clear?
PIRA: (MUFFLED)
Yes.
DOOKU:
I’m going to knock it through.
He kicks the door, a perfect circle clattering to the floor on the other side.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
We leapt through the hole, finding a Bivall doctor, her once crisp uniform blackened with soot and blood.
PIRA:
Thank the stars.
DOOKU:
Are you hurt?
PIRA:
No, but there are younglings in the emergency ward. I can’t move them.
SIFO-DYAS:
You’re gonna have to.
There’s an explosion nearby. More flames roar.
DOOKU:
This place isn’t safe.
PIRA:
Will you help?
DOOKU:
Show us.
SCENE 47. INT. CORRIDOR.
Footsteps run toward us.
PIRA:
They’re down here. Past the bacta reserves.
More sparks. More small explosions.
PIRA:
(CRIES OUT IN ALARM)
The tanks start to crack.
SIFO-DYAS:
The tanks. They’re cracking.
DOOKU:
That’s a lot of bacta.
PIRA:
We need to hurry.
They continue to run.
SCENE 48. INT. OUTSIDE WARD.
They reach the door, lightsabers still burning.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
We came to the doctor’s ward, the door wedged tight against the smoke and dust.
Pira bangs on the door.
PIRA:
It’s Dr. Pira. I’ve brought help.
Behind them, the tanks rupture, bacta rushing down the corridor.
DOOKU:
The bacta tanks. They’ve ruptured.
The doctor bangs on the door again, even more frantically.
PIRA:
Open up!
The door opens, the bacta rushing toward them.
RRALLA:
(SHYRIIWOOK)
PIRA:
Rralla? Where’s Nurse Volkan?
RRALLA:
(SHYRIIWOOK)
PIRA:
She went to get help? I told her to stay with you.
SIFO-DYAS:
Why don’t we worry about that when we’re inside, eh?
RRALLA:
(SHYRIIWOOK)
DOOKU:
Move!
SIFO-DYAS:
Get that door shut.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
Sifo’s warning came a moment too late. Bacta surged through the open door, drenching us all.
The bacta hits, rushing into the room. The patients cry out in alarm, especially Rralla.
DOOKU:
(CHOKING ON THE BACTA) Pira. Get the children as high as you can. Sifo, help me with the door.
SIFO-DYAS:
It won’t budge.
DOOKU:
Trust the Force.
Both Jedi make sounds of effort as they use the Force, the door scraping as it slowly begins to shut.
SIFO-DYAS:
It’s moving!
DOOKU:
Keep
focused.
The door continues its painfully slow progress.
PIRA:
The bacta’s rising.
DOOKU & SIFO TOGETHER:
We noticed!
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
The door finally slid shut, but there was no time for celebration. Bacta was already seeping through the seal.
SIFO-DYAS:
We did it.
PIRA:
The bacta’s still getting in.
DOOKU:
There can’t be much left in the tanks.
SIFO-DYAS:
You sure about that?
PIRA:
How are we going to get out?
DOOKU:
We’ll have to go up.
PIRA:
Up?
DOOKU:
What’s above us? On the next level.
PIRA:
I don’t know. The delivery suite, I think.
DOOKU:
It’ll have to do. Sifo, help me with that med table.
They drag a table through the bacta.
PIRA:
That’s delicate equipment.
SIFO-DYAS:
Not anymore it’s not.
DOOKU:
That’s it. Get it into the middle of the room.
RRALLA:
(SHYRIIWOOK)
PIRA:
I know, Rralla. I’m scared, too. But we have to be brave for the other children.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
I jumped onto the table, ready to thrust my lightsaber into the ceiling.
DOOKU:
Right. Watch out for the sparks.
He starts cutting a hole in the ceiling.
DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)
Sifo-Dyas positioned himself between the doctor and the molten metal that splashed steaming into the bacta from my blade.
SIFO-DYAS:
Now, about these kids.
PIRA:
We can’t move them.
SIFO-DYAS:
So you said, but we can’t leave them here, either.
Dooku continues cutting his circle.
DOOKU:
Nearly done. Stand back.
He finishes cutting, the circle of metal splashing down.
DOOKU:
I’ll see what it’s like up there.
He jumps up through the hole, his robes rustling as he leaps.
PIRA:
How can he jump like that?
SIFO-DYAS:
Regular exercise. (CALLING UP) Dooku?
DOOKU:
(CALLING DOWN) It’s clear. Doctor, we need to keep moving. We’ve no idea if the building is sound. It could come crashing down at any moment.