FASTER THAN LIGHT by Marcus van Bavel Titles appear, green computer letters on a black background, as 3D illustrations accompany them in a side box. A narrator reads the text. TITLE AND NARRATION: Krak'taa (space rats) - human beings, marginally intelligent creatures which inhabit the Fourth Spiral Arm. TITLE AND NARRATION: Despite extensive EXTERMINATION EFFORTS, these hardy pests continue to breed and thrive. TITLE AND NARRATION: Their origin is unknown, but they were not considered dangerous-- TITLE AND NARRATION: Until recently. EXT. IN ORBIT A huge space station turns slowly in low orbit over an orange-red gas giant. INT. PRISON SHIP A room full of naked men and women labor at a giant turning column, rowing with oar-like sticks that engage an enormous, vertical gear. Two mechanical insectoids, also known as CROCS, watch the humans labor. INSECTOID #1 Krak'taa-- they disgust me. Their bodies-- so mushy and ill-formed. Their faces are repulsive. INSECTOID #2 But they can be trained. Observe! My foreman employs a nerve gun. The blue setting creates excruciating pain. The yellow, instant death... The FOREMAN, a well-muscled man, uses the blue setting on a lazy, underweight prisoner, SETH. He screams. INSECTOID #1 (pointing to SETH) That one is especially ugly. Kill it immediately! The FOREMAN bows. The FOREMAN changes to the yellow setting. He is about to use it on SETH's head, when another prisoner, KERR, rises from his bench. KERR No! Kerr strikes the Foreman on the head with a broken fragment of an oar. A fight between the FOREMAN and KERR insues. The other prisoners rise to protect KERR. They gang up on the FOREMAN. INSECTOID #2 Riot in block three! Seal the door! INSECTOID #2 suddenly shrinks to a dot and disappears, temporarily distorting the walls nearby. INSECTOID #1 shimmers but does not blink out. INSECTOID #1 Malfunction! Malfunction! Assist me! Get me out of here! But the rioting prisoners strike INSECTOID #1, pull its arms and legs off and bash its abdomen. Finally they feed it into the giant, still-rotating gear, where it is instantly crushed. PRISONER Open the door! Seth pulls an electrical panel out and fiddles with the wires. PRISONER Open it, open it!! SETH Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it... PRISONER The Crocs'll pump in gas any minute! KERR He's workin' on it, he's workin' on it! The door opens. SETH Okay, go! The rioting prisoners spill out into the corridoor. Only Kerr and Seth remain behind and let the door close. Seth destroys the controls, sealing themselves inside. Kerr quickly steps over to the toilet. He yanks it off the floor, exposing a 2-ft wide tube that leads down into the prison sewer. SETH You sure we gotta do it this way? KERR C'mon, it's only human excrement. What's the worse thing that be down there? SETH That's not funny-- I don't want to touch anyone's turd. KERR Well, in fifteen seconds, we'll be _dead_. SETH Okay, Kerr... just this time... but I'll get you back for this... He climbs into the opening and sniffs. SETH Oh, Jesus-- hey, I think your mother's down here! He drops into the sewer. KERR What did you say?! Kerr yells down the hole. KERR Come back here, you little shit!! He dives in after Seth. They roar down the pipe which flushes them down through an open sewer. EXT. DEEP SPACE An asteroid tumbles in orbit toward the prison station. INT. STATION CONTROL ROOM INSECTOID #3 Object approaching in orbit. Identify! INSECTOID #4 Asteroid, carbonaceous-- mass, nine million tons. INSECTOID #5 Why is it not catalogued?! Is the radar malfunctioning?!! INSECTOID #3 Unknown... tracking now... the object is... on collision course! INSECTOID #4 Change orbit! Evade collision! INSECTOID #3 It's too late... we must prepare for impact!! INSECTOID #4 Sound the alarm!! EXT. PRISON STATION The asteroid hits the space station, entering the space dock. INT PRISON STATION BOAT DOCK The asteroid knocks aside the space ships, which careen like billard balls inside the enclosed space. We see several shots of window views into the dock, as ships collide with each other and then hit the windows. Instectoids and humans flee as the destruction spreads throughout the station. INT. PRISON SEWER Kerr and Seth ride through the sewage system. They zip themselves in plastic escape bags. When the sewage line is broken, they are expelled into space. The bags pop out into perfect spheres. EXT SEWAGE DUMP They float with the sewage into open space.