THE BABEL PROTOCOL
SCENARIO DRAFT: SECTIONS 1-3
SCENE 1: THE CRADLE (THE MOON) – INTERIOR
VISUALS: A jagged, obsidian fissure. This is not NASA-spec; it’s ancient, organic, and indifferent. The walls pulse with a faint, rhythmic violet light.
ACTION: DR. ARIS THORNE (50s) crawls through the dust. His movements are heavy, desperate. His HUD (Heads-Up Display) is a frantic mess of flickering red warnings: OXYGEN: 2%.
He reaches a pedestal-like protrusion. Etched into the stone is a single glyph—the “Unity-O.” It looks like a circle that refuses to close.
Aris presses his gloved palm against it.
THE SHIFT: The red HUD warnings don’t just disappear; they dissolve into a deep, oceanic blue. The sound of his frantic breathing is replaced by a low, harmonic hum that vibrates through his marrow.
ARIS (A whisper, trying to say “Tarina”) “Ta… Ta…”
His voice box produces only a perfect, 440Hz tone. He stares at his hands. The fabric of his spacesuit is beginning to blend with the texture of the stone. He is no longer an intruder; he is becoming a part of the local code.
SCENE 2: THE HEDGE (EARTH) – EXTERIOR
VISUALS: A bright, over-saturated afternoon in a quiet cul-de-sac. The sound of a sprinkler provides a persistent, ticking rhythm.
ACTION: TARINA (19) stands at the edge of the property line. She is holding the BURNT WATCH. The metal is charred, yet the glass is cool to the touch. The digital display is cycling through numbers that don’t represent time, but coordinates.
MR. HENDERSON (The Constant) stands on the other side of the white picket fence. He is wearing a beige cardigan and holding a pair of heavy-duty shears.
HENDERSON You’re looking for the pulse, aren’t you?
Tarina jumps, hiding the watch behind her back.
TARINA I’m just… getting some air, Mr. Henderson.
HENDERSON (He snips a branch; the sound is identical to the watch’s tick) Air is just a medium for sound, Tarina. And sound is just an interface for intent. Your father is currently screaming in a language that has no word for ‘daughter.’
He looks at her. His eyes are perfectly symmetrical—unnervingly so.
HENDERSON He’s trying to find the ‘Delete’ key for the world’s confusion. But if he succeeds, he won’t remember why he started typing in the first place.
SCENE 3: THE KITCHEN – INTERIOR
VISUALS: The kitchen is sterile. ELENA (40s) is sitting at the table. She isn’t moving. She is staring at a spot on the wall where a family photo used to hang. The wallpaper there is slightly less faded than the rest.
ACTION: Tarina enters, the screen of the burnt watch glowing faintly through the fabric of her pocket. She slams it onto the table.
TARINA Look at it, Mom. Just once. It’s not a malfunction. It’s him.
Elena doesn’t look. She continues to stare at the blank space on the wall.
ELENA (Her voice is flat, rehearsed) The police said the impact was total, Tarina. There was no remains because there was nothing left to remain. We have to use the words they gave us. ‘Loss.’ ‘Closure.’ ‘Moving on.’
TARINA Those are just labels! Look at the water!
Tarina spills a glass of water onto the table. The liquid doesn’t spread; it begins to pull toward the watch, forming the exact same Unity-O glyph Aris is touching on the moon.
ELENA (A flash of raw terror in her eyes) If we acknowledge it… the safety is gone. The Constant is always in the garden, Tarina. He’s waiting for us to stop speaking the lie.
THE FRICTION POINT
In the Moon cave, Aris finds a second glyph. If he touches it, he might get a video feed to Earth. If he touches it, he might also lose the memory of what “Earth” is.
On Earth, Henderson stops clipping the hedge and waits. He is looking at his own watch. It matches Tarina’s exactly.
How should we proceed? Does Tarina realize the neighbor is “The Constant” in this moment, or do we let the paranoia simmer longer?