Alien

PARKER

Brett and I think we deserve a full share.

DALLAS

You two will get what you contracted for. Just like everybody else.

BRETT

Everybody else gets more than us.

DALLAS

Everybody else deserves more than you two.

ASH

Mother wants to talk to you.

DALLAS

I saw it. Yellow light for my eyes only... Now, everybody hit their stations.

INT. COMPUTER ROOM ANNEX

Floor to ceiling data banks.

Another flashing yellow light.

A legend underneath:

"COMMAND PRIORITY ACCESS ONLY"
 

Dallas enters. Sits at his console. Removes insignia master computer key attached to his shirt. Plug it into the board under the light. All banks burst into life.

Dallas punches up a computer code on the keyboard.

Legend on the screen...

"WHAT'S MY GODDAMN KEY"
 

Print-out from computer answers...

"01335 ON THE BINARY SIDE"

DALLAS

Thank you Mother.

Dallas punches up the combination on the keyboard.

Immediately start getting a readout.

CUT TO:

INT. BRIDGE

Above eye level the room is ringed by viewscreens. All of them blank.

Kane, Ripley, and Lambert enter.

Dallas' seat remains empty.

All of them now dressed; they find their way to individual consoles.

Ripley puts down the cat, straps herself into the high-backed chair.

KANE

Plug us in.

All three crew members begin throwing switches.

The control room starts to come to life. Colored lights flicker. Chase each other across glowing screens.

KANE

Give us something to look at.

Lambert presses a bank of switches.

Viewscreens glimmer into life.

LAMBERT

Take a look at this.

On each screen, blackness speckled with stars.

LAMBERT

Where's Earth.

KANE

You're the navigator.

RIPLEY

That's not our system.

KANE

Scan.

Lambert hits several toggles.

On the screens the images begin to drift.

ONE OF THE SCREENS

A moving image of a starfield.

EXT. NOSTROMO

The Factory Starship lumbering with the depths of inter-stellar space.

Function:                  Petroleum tanker and Refinery

Capacity:                   2000,000,000 tons

Length:                      One and one half kilometers

Battered exterior encrusted with dark sludge.

INT. BRIDGE

Lambert pores over charts. Consults her console. Puzzled.

KANE

Contact traffic control.

Ripley switches on her transmission unit.

RIPLEY

This is commercial vessel Nostromo. Registration number 180246. Do you read me. Over.

Nothing but the hiss of static.

RIPLEY

Nothing.

KANE

Keep trying.

Turns to Lambert.

Ripley attempting transmission in background.

KANE

You got a reading yet.

LAMBERT

We're way out in the boondocks here...

KANE

Keep trying...

LAMBERT

Working on it.

Eureka.

LAMBERT

Found it.

KANE

Hard to believe.

LAMBERT

What the hell are we doing out here.

KANE

What are you talking about.

RIPLEY

It's not our system.

INT. ENGINE ROOM

Giant reactor system purring smoothly.

INT. ENGINE ROOM

PARKER and BRETT in a glass cubicle. Each having a beer.

Huge powerplant stretching before them.

All units on automatic hyper-drive.

Parker hits a switch above his desk. A green light goes on.

PARKER

How's your light?

BRETT

Green.

PARKER

Mine too.

They both take a swig.

Suddenly a beeper signal begins.

PARKER

Christ. What is it now.

BRETT

Right.

RIPLEY (V.O.)

Report to the mess.

INT. OILY CORRIDOR – "C" LEVEL

PARKER

I want to know why they never come down here. This is where the work is.

BRETT

Same reason we have half a share to their one, our time is their time, that's the way they see it.

PARKER

Well, I'll tell you something... it stinks.

They move towards the companionway.

INT. MESS

Entire crew present.

DALLAS

Some of you may have figured out that we're not home.

BRETT

What the hell.

DALLAS

Mother's interrupted the course of the voyage.

DALLAS

Mother is programmed to interrupt the course of out voyage if certain conditions arise. They have...

(pause)

We've received intermittent transmission from quadrant points QBR 157, 052. Somebody's gone down.

BRETT

So what.

KANE

We're obligated under Section B2...

PARKER

Christ. We're a commercial ship not some rescue team. This kind of duty's not in our contract.

ASH

You better read your contract. Transmissions received in non-commercial lanes...

Dallas gives Parker and Brett a look.

DALLAS

We're going in, that's it. Brett knows when to ease up.

BRETT

Right, we're going in.

(smiles)

Sir.

Dallas turns to Ash.

DALLAS

Can we land on it.

He takes a print-out from Mother out of his hand.