passengers-jon-spaihts

125.INT. STARSHIP EXCELSIOR - GRAND CONCOURSETransformed by the wear and tear of a century’s habitation.Paths worn into floors, furniture repaired or re-purposed.We move past vegetable gardens. Battered sweeper robots waterthe plantings. Window-washers till the soil.The OAK TREE towers a hundred feet tall over the Concourse.Its branches brush the skylight far above.We move past walls decorated with murals and carvings.At the Concourse Bar, Arthur is slicing vegetables. Histimeworn uniform mended by hand.At the aft end of the Concourse, a high wall. Here a longlist of dates is inscribed. The last date is the ship’slandfall on Homestead II; the first, Jim’s awakening. Inbetween: an accelerating tally of births, deaths, marriages,catastrophes and achievements...a century of shipboard life.At the base of the wall we find a table like an altar, wherea collection of artifacts is displayed:The meteor pried from the Excelsior’s heart.Gus’s worn shipcard, his picture still visible.A beautiful hand-bound book. In the Blink of an Eye: OurLives Between the Stars, by Aurora Dunn. Beneath theseprinted words, a handwritten dedication: For Jim.In the center of it all, in the place of honor: the photostrip of Jim and Aurora from their first date.They laugh. They clown. She kisses him.Aurora looks into the camera’s eye.Jim looks at Aurora.FADE OUT.THE END.