LOST SOULS
THE PRELUDE
V3
Written by Asa
10 November 2026
Compiled from Act 1 R02, Act 2 R03.1 and Act 3 R01.1.
ACT 1
EXT. ARCTIC OCEAN — LOMONOSOV RIDGE — MARCH 2043 — AFTERNOON
A red hood breaks the white. Another follows. Then a whole line of people, small beneath an Arctic sky that seems to have swallowed the rest of the world. They work their boots into the deep prints they left on the way out. The wind is already trying to erase them.
Beside them, the U.S. icebreaker LEVIATHAN rises and settles in a channel of black water. A behemoth of steel and chrome, red bow shouldering broken floes, gray bridge crusted with salt. The warming world has opened another road through the Arctic. Nations are already deciding what they would kill to carry home along it.
Ship and walkers are close enough to see each other breathe. At the rear, CHIEF PETTY OFFICER MATEO BELL carries a battered survey recorder against his hip. A young deckhand turns back and offers his hands. Bell gives him the weight. It nearly puts the kid on one knee.
BELL
Been waiting all morning for somebody to volunteer.
The kid laughs. Bell takes the heavy end, and together they begin gaining on the others. A gust strips the hood from the kid’s head. For a second, a woman at the bridge window can see his face. Young. Laughing still. Then the snow passes between them.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
LT. GRACE KIM keeps one ear to the radio. CAPTAIN JOHNATHAN “HAWK” HAWKINS presses his palm against the cold glass, clearing just enough frost to keep the last two men in sight.
COMMANDER LEONA PRICE offers a slate.
PRICE
Hold’s locked, Captain.
Hawk keeps his eyes outside.
HAWK
Give me a second.
BELL (RADIO)
Coming to the ladder. Somebody get this thing off us.
Kim switches on the work light. The deckhand, halfway past the ladder in the blowing snow, sees it and doubles back.
KIM
There you go.
EXT. LEVIATHAN — BOARDING LADDER — CONTINUOUS
Gloved hands reach down for the recorder.
BELL
You got it?
CREWMAN ABOVE
Got it.
BELL
Then take some of the weight. Make me believe you.
Bell holds on until the casing clears the rail, then puts a hand against the younger man’s shoulder and turns him toward the ladder.
BELL
Up you go.
The deckhand climbs. Bell follows, boots finding the rungs by feel. Above him, a hand reaches back over the rail.
The same young man.
Bell takes it.
Inside the rail, Bell checks the recorder’s catches. Both secure.
Snow blows off the battered casing. Beneath it, the great ship carries the weight.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
Through the patch he cleared, Hawk has watched the last man come aboard. He takes his hand off the glass.
HAWK
Get my people out of that goddamn wind.
He signs Price’s slate, leaving a wet handprint beside his name.
PRICE
They finally get your signature and they get all five fingers with it.
HAWK
Charge them for the other four.
Price goes. Hawk settles into the chair at Kim’s console. Kim takes her hand off the radio.
KIM
Permission to pull yesterday’s track against the original?
HAWK
You just put the last of my people back on the ship. Grace, take a minute and enjoy yourself.
KIM
That’s what I’m asking to do.
Hawk gets out of her chair.
INT. LEVIATHAN — SURVEY CONSOLE — MOMENTS LATER
Green ridges fill the sloped display. An entire mountain range beneath an ocean, reduced to lines Kim can move with two fingers.
She opens an old survey file. Rubs a grease mark on the glass, then remembers: the mark is in the recording.
The archive header reads: U.S.–RUSSIA JOINT SURVEY.
A battered field module fills the screen. The thin rattle of a heater comes through the speaker.
DR. IRINA ZUEVA, late forties, curls flattened by her hat, holds up a paper trace. Two peaks, circled in red.
She has the tired eyes of someone who has stayed awake long enough to become stubborn about it.
IRINA (RECORDING)
For the record, Lieutenant Kim believes these are two separate returns.
KIM (ON RECORDING)
For the record, Dr. Zueva has been wearing her sweater inside out since Tuesday.
Irina looks down at the tag beneath her chin. Kim smiles a beat before her own recorded laugh shakes the image.
Irina leaves the sweater alone.
IRINA (RECORDING)
Second pass. Same line, other direction. If the peaks travel with us, I’ll buy a new sensor.
She puts a finger beneath the first circle, then the second. Her exhaustion seems to recede as she studies them.
KIM (ON RECORDING)
And if they stay put?
IRINA (RECORDING)
I’ll buy you breakfast. Hold this straight.
Kim pauses her on the raised eyebrow. The heater falls silent.
She brings yesterday’s trace alongside the paper and sets them to the same scale. The first peak meets its counterpart. She follows the line through the trough.
The second peak meets the other.
Kim sits forward. Two surveys made years apart mark the same two places beneath the ice.
KIM
Stayed put.
A smile spreads across her face. She goes straight to EXPORT.
SHIP ARCHIVE is white. JOINT SURVEY OFFICE is gray.
Her finger stops over the second destination.
She saves to the ship, leaving both their names in the filename.
HAWK
She owe you money?
KIM
Breakfast. At this point I might take the money.
Hawk leans over. She makes room for him to see the matching traces.
KIM
We used to send each other these off the night watch. Just pictures off the screen. When the joint office closed, I thought she’d find a way to get in touch.
HAWK
Did you?
Kim’s hand stops over the controls. She takes a second before meeting his eyes.
KIM
No.
He lets the answer stand.
On the screen, Irina is still waiting for the camera to straighten.
She closes the recording. The two peaks remain on the live terrain map.
HAWK
Show me what we brought up.
INT. LEVIATHAN — LOWER PASSAGE — AFTERNOON
Bell carries the recorder beneath orange pipes and round windows fringed with ice. Meltwater falls from his coat. Each blow against the hull travels through the steel, deep enough to feel in his teeth.
He turns sideways for a steaming laundry cart. Warm towels brush his sleeve as it squeezes past. The crewman lifts two fingers from the handle in thanks; Bell nods. The passage smells of wet wool and lunch.
At the final steel door, a yellow stripe crosses the deck. Bell stops behind it.
Price opens the door and helps him lower the recorder onto a shelf inside. His boots stay on his side of the line.
BELL
Yesterday’s bottom survey is on there. Battery’s fine. Clock lost eleven seconds in the cold. There’s a pencil correction inside the lid.
PRICE
I’ll line it up with the ship’s survey log.
BELL
I know how rare the stuff is. Did it come up whole?
Price glances into the hold. Beyond her: thick glass, an inspection lamp, something green. Hawk and Kim stand close together beside the cradle, their reflections caught in the cover. Neither looks toward the open door.
PRICE
They both came down to look. How often does he leave that chair?
Bell studies the captain a moment, then nods and turns away. After three steps, he comes back.
BELL
Eleven slow. Tell Grace I said slow.
PRICE
I will.
He leaves. Price opens the lid.
SLOW, underlined twice.
She smiles.
INT. LEVIATHAN — MINERAL HOLD — CONTINUOUS
The door closes.
Inspection light runs along the glass cradle. Heavy steel hoops secure a rough green core, its fresh fracture almost delicate against the hardware holding it down.
Beside the cradle, three more recovered lots sit in sealed containers, each carrying a separate inventory number.
Kim moves the lamp. Green deepens beneath the broken surface, then falls away behind the beam.
Hawk follows the light.
Beside the cradle, Kim’s inventory lists four newly discovered materials: CHRONITE, NEUROTANIUM, RESONATIUM, BIOMORPHUM. The recovered lots have names, weights and locations. Their properties are still being studied.
Hawk looks past his reflection in the glass. The steel hoops seem almost crude beside what they restrain.
HAWK
Which piece made you call me out of bed?
Kim brings the lamp back to the fracture and holds it steady.
Tiny round inclusions crowd the broken seam. The lamp finds one, then a dozen. Little worlds packed shoulder to shoulder inside the rock.
KIM
This is what the survey couldn’t show us.
HAWK
What are they?
KIM
I can tell you which lot this came from. I can’t tell you why it formed like that.
HAWK
Who can?
KIM
Nobody who’s ever put a picture in a book.
Hawk draws his reading glasses from behind his collar. One arm is repaired with red thread.
He bends closer. The spheres separate into focus, each holding the light a little differently.
Without looking away, he offers Kim the glasses.
KIM
You keep those, sir.
Hawk smiles and puts them back on.
HAWK
How big a thing are we carrying?
KIM
Two surveys found the same deposits. Now we have intact cores. Ask me about powering a city after the lab’s had a turn.
He looks from the core to the steel hoops securing it.
HAWK
Hell of a thing to spend the ride home under a blanket.
Price draws the recovery tray toward them. A short section of the same core lies inside, cut as a witness sample.
The seal is printed on yellowed joint-survey stock. Beneath today’s recovery date, one of two witness boxes holds a penciled G.K.
The other is empty.
A fresh U.S. inventory sticker overlaps the joint-survey label. One corner has lifted, leaving its lot number visible beneath it.
PRICE
We’re still using the joint-survey kits. Receiving wants one U.S. lot number.
The familiar arrangements by which extraordinary things become somebody’s property.
HAWK
Enter both numbers. If we’re claiming it, somebody ought to be able to find out what we claimed.
Kim photographs both labels in one frame. Price attaches the image to the inventory report.
All three are looking down when a shadow crosses the round window.
EXT. ARCTIC SKY ABOVE LEVIATHAN — SAME
For a moment, the clouds have an edge.
A swept wing banks above the ship. Dark water and broken ice slide across its underside, borrowed from the sea below.
A PREDATOR XQ-5.
No cockpit. Weapon bays sealed flush beneath a skin that is already changing again.
For three seconds, the machine holds its shape against the sky.
Below, a swell lifts the Leviathan.
The aircraft rolls a fraction ahead of it.
Gray washes across the wing. Its edges disappear into the cloud.
The escort stays.
END OF ACT 1
ACT 2
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — LATER
A spoon chatters against Hawk’s coffee cup. He catches it.
The low double knock beneath the deck goes on.
Kim lays yesterday’s survey beside her live sonar. Price sets down Bell’s recorder log, SLOW underlined twice.
PRICE
Eleven seconds added. Lined up with the ship’s log.
A shelf settles into its proper place on the old bottom profile.
The live contact keeps moving.
KIM
That’s the bottom accounted for.
HAWK
And that?
KIM
That’s keeping up with us.
Another sweep. A second return appears farther astern, to starboard.
Kim waits for it to come around again.
It is closer.
Hawk puts his coffee down.
HAWK
Russian?
KIM
I can give you bearings.
HAWK
I’ll take what you’ve got.
He marks the paper chart. One off the port quarter. One farther back to starboard. Ahead, the broken channel winds through the ice. Behind, their cleared wake is the only room they have to back into.
Hawk lifts the secure handset.
HAWK
Space Force Overwatch, Icebreaker Alpha. Two moving contacts. Bearings coming through. Request identification.
The answer stays in his earpiece.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Alpha, two Akula-class boats. We hold both. You’ve also got an angel watching over you. Escort callsign Angel. Details on your secure terminal.
The small screen beside Hawk lights:
ESCORT: ANGEL PLATFORM: PREDATOR XQ-5 RESTRICTED
Price reads over his shoulder.
Her hand stops above the log.
HAWK
They put one of those over a survey ship?
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Escort assignment confirmed.
Hawk looks up. Ceiling paint. A dead fly in a light fitting.
Beyond them, God’s own expensive secret.
A corner of his mouth lifts.
HAWK
An angel watching over us. Well, I’m glad it packs a punch. How long has it been there?
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Since before your people went on the ice.
Hawk’s smile fades a little.
HAWK
Who’s flying it?
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
It adjusts its own escort position. Weapons remain under command authority.
HAWK
Keep this channel open.
He releases the key.
Kim brings up the satellite relay picture. Activity gathers over the disputed island chain.
KIM
Relay traffic’s climbing.
The navigation chart goes black.
A RUSSIAN FLAG fills the wall.
Kim’s separate sonar scope keeps sweeping.
Price writes down the bridge-clock time.
PRICE
Window. Look out the damn window.
A slab of ice noses across their port bow. The helmsman eases them clear. Hawk braces against the chart table as the hull shoulders past.
The marine radio calls.
Price puts it on the bridge speaker. Its handset is separate from Hawk’s secure set; Overwatch remains in his ear.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
American icebreaker. Commanding officer of the Russian vessel off your port quarter. Reduce speed. We need to establish the custody of your recovered material.
Hawk keys the marine handset.
HAWK
Captain Hawkins. We’re keeping way through the ice channel. Restore my navigation display and we can talk.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
I requested a channel to your bridge.
HAWK
You got the whole fucking wall. Ask them to give it back.
A pause. Machinery at the other end. The commander speaks briefly in Russian to somebody beside him.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
The survey carried two flags, Captain. You have recovered its samples under one. Is there still an empty witness box on your seal?
Hawk looks at Kim.
She holds his gaze.
HAWK
Stand by.
He releases marine transmit. Both handset lights are dark.
HAWK
How would he know that?
KIM
Same kits. Both countries. Everybody at the joint office knew those seals.
HAWK
Did Dr. Zueva see yesterday’s track?
KIM
You watched me save it to the ship.
The matching files are still open beside her.
Hawk looks at them.
HAWK
I did.
The flag vanishes.
Their chart returns with a clean line joining the last position they trusted to the one the system now claims. A journey without interruption.
Price checks her handwritten time.
PRICE
Eighty-six seconds.
HAWK
Mark the gap. Check that position before we use it.
Price saves the returned display, then brackets the suspect section on the working chart:
00:01:26 — UNVERIFIED
The connecting line disappears.
Two ends with a hole between them.
Hawk keys the marine radio again.
HAWK
Your flag on an American bridge. After what your government did to our cables and satellites in thirty-three. You understand how that reads.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
I understand why you brought an armed escort. It does not settle the claim.
HAWK
Neither do your submarines.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Then let us settle it before the material disappears into a facility we will never be allowed to enter.
Kim’s eyes flick toward the inventory photograph.
Her initials. The untouched square beside them.
HAWK
Both lot numbers are on our record. The witness sample is sealed.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
And the second witness?
HAWK
Wasn’t here.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
We are here now.
On Kim’s scope, the starboard contact gains.
KIM
Second boat’s coming up.
Hawk keeps his eyes on the channel ahead.
HAWK
Commander, hold your boats off. I can give you a signed inventory and a photograph of the intact seal. I cannot give you joint custody from this bridge.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
You can stop the material being opened, divided or renamed before we see it.
Hawk takes his thumb off transmit.
KIM
The witness can stay sealed.
HAWK
And the rest?
KIM
We haven’t agreed anything about the rest.
He nods and keys the marine set.
HAWK
The witness sample stays sealed. Both numbers on the receipt.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
A receipt is not access, Captain. You do not get to carry off our future and send us the paperwork.
HAWK
I’m giving you something I can stand behind.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Then hold your position while our commands arrange an inspection.
HAWK
I stop in this channel, I lose room to steer. You hold back. We keep moving.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Every mile you travel makes their answer easier.
The port contact matches the Leviathan.
The starboard contact keeps gaining.
No agreement comes.
Hawk releases the handset.
HAWK
Price. Tell Bell everybody stays below. Clear the stern.
Price reaches for the internal circuit.
Kim brings the inventory photograph closer. Under the fresh U.S. sticker, the old joint-survey number shows through.
KIM
Irina asked me what they’d call it when it came home.
Hawk glances at her.
KIM
I thought she meant the mineral.
Before he can answer, the next sweep comes around.
The starboard contact bends left.
Toward the cleared wake.
KIM
Second boat’s turning across our stern. Depth unconfirmed.
Hawk is back on the marine set.
HAWK
Abort that turn, Commander. Keep your second boat to starboard.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
We will maintain contact until an inspection is agreed.
HAWK
That wake is my way back if the ice closes. You keep him out of it.
A voice speaks sharply behind the commander. He answers without raising his own.
The second boat keeps turning.
HAWK
Abort that fucking crossing. I am not backing an icebreaker over a submarine because your government wants a look in the hold.
He releases transmit.
The helmsman looks back.
Hawk points ahead.
HAWK
Stay with me. Keep her straight.
The helmsman faces the channel again. Both hands firm on the wheel.
Price listens to the internal receiver.
PRICE
Bell has everybody inside. Stern’s clear.
INT. LEVIATHAN — LOWER PASSAGE OUTSIDE MINERAL HOLD — CONTINUOUS
Bell gives an equipment rack’s securing strap one hard pull.
Beside him, the younger deckhand plants his boots wider as the hull leans. Both remain outside the yellow security line. The mineral-hold door stays closed.
The men brace against the passage wall.
INT. LEVIATHAN — MINERAL HOLD — CONTINUOUS
The inspection light catches tiny orbs inside the fractured core.
A buried constellation, strapped down with steel.
EXT. ARCTIC SKY ABOVE LEVIATHAN — CONTINUOUS
Angel banks.
The sea-color drains from its underside. A black wing turns against the white.
It descends toward the port boat’s reported position.
Weapon bays sealed. No hesitation in the turn.
Below, the Leviathan’s red hull looks suddenly very small.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Captain. Your aircraft is descending.
Hawk has the secure handset up.
HAWK
Overwatch. Confirm.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Angel is repositioning against the closing boats. We can engage both. Weapons held.
Hawk looks from the two returns to the restricted aircraft symbol.
One machine. Two boats.
Price hears his next question.
HAWK
You have both of them?
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Affirmative.
On the marine speaker, the Russian machinery seems louder in the silence.
Then the commander again, each word distinct.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Lift your aircraft away from my position.
Hawk releases secure transmit and keys the marine handset.
HAWK
Get your second boat clear of my stern.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
We will defend ourselves if attacked.
HAWK
So will we.
Nobody fills the space after it.
Kim watches the next sweep.
KIM
Still turning.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Captain, I cannot let an attack on my vessel develop while we discuss labels.
HAWK
Then stop using another vessel to close my way out.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Order the aircraft away.
HAWK
Give me the water to move my ship.
Neither offers the first movement.
Hawk releases the marine key.
A long sheet of ice grinds down the hull. The bridge windows tremble in their frames.
He keys Overwatch.
HAWK
I’m keeping my course. I need room behind me and your aircraft under control.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Weapons remain held. Your recovery protection order is unchanged.
Hawk looks once at the inventory photograph.
Then at Kim. Price. The helmsman.
HAWK
The crew comes home with it.
He sets down the secure handset and keys the ship’s internal circuit.
HAWK
Comms. DIA, Denver. General Sterling. Priority.
Price is already sending the incident record.
PRICE
Original display and the marked copy.
HAWK
Both.
On the small terminal:
DIA — PRIORITY CONNECTION
Through the window, a dark shape moves beneath the clouds. The helmsman sees it and brings his eyes straight back to the ice.
The marine speaker cracks.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Hawkins. Your aircraft.
The ship’s internal receiver answers.
COMMS (INTERCOM)
Denver secure circuit is open, Captain.
Hawk takes the secure handset, now joined to Denver with Overwatch still on the circuit controlling Angel. The marine transmitter stays dark.
HAWK (SECURE)
Denver, Captain Hawkins, Leviathan. Two Russian submarines maneuvering to stop my ship. Navigation display compromised. Our escort is in position to engage.
He looks at Kim’s scope.
The starboard boat is still coming toward the wake.
HAWK (SECURE)
I’m holding my course. I am not surrendering the cargo. Get Sterling on this line. We need a decision before somebody makes it for us.
EXT. ARCTIC OCEAN — CONTINUOUS
The Leviathan drives into the broken white.
Angel descends beyond its port quarter.
Under black water, two submarines maneuver around the ship.
A war’s worth of machinery.
Every part of it still moving.
CUT TO DENVER.
END OF ACT 2
ACT 3
EXT. DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — DAY
White peaks rise out of the high plains.
Beyond them, the real mountains wear what is left of the snow.
An airliner rolls toward the terminal on a low autonomous cradle. Engines quiet. Hundreds of tons of metal moving with the patience of a shopping cart.
Beyond the familiar peaks, a new roof spans the terminal in translucent scales. A train slides through its sunlight, carrying travelers past windows filled by the tails of waiting aircraft.
Below, electric shuttles peel away from a crowded curb, their doors opening toward the people who need them.
Denver. Bigger. Faster.
Still somebody running late.
HAWK (SECURE, PRE-LAP)
Denver. We need that decision.
INT. DIA — PUBLIC CONCOURSE — CONTINUOUS
A little boy kneels backward in a mobility pod, watching the terminal recede. His grandmother sits beside him. The pod steers around a woman arguing with her suitcase.
Ribbons of light travel beneath the floor’s glass skin, dividing the crowd into streams. Ahead of the pod, they bend around a child’s dropped mitten. The boy watches the whole airport make room for something so small.
A Black airport attendant walks alongside, carrying the grandmother’s coat. Gray at his temples. An old soul song escapes one earbud.
BOY
Can it go faster?
ATTENDANT
She paid for the flight. This part’s free.
The grandmother laughs.
Ahead, a gate opens for a stream of passengers. At the pod, it turns amber.
ASSISTED ROUTE — STAFF VERIFICATION.
The attendant taps his badge. A soft tone. The gate opens.
On his wrist, the unscheduled stop adds itself to his service time.
He lowers his sleeve and keeps talking to the boy.
DR. CASSANDRA VINCENT passes them, MARA ELLISON at her shoulder. Vincent has already put an earpiece in.
MARA
Sterling has the ship. Overwatch is still with them.
Vincent’s credentials clear a door before she reaches it.
Behind her, the boy asks another question.
The door closes on the answer.
INT. DIA — SECURE DESCENT — CONTINUOUS
Sunlight narrows above the descending lift.
Hawk’s bridge comes through Vincent’s earpiece: ice against steel, a clipped bearing, somebody breathing too close to a microphone.
STERLING (SECURE)
Hawkins, Sterling. I have you.
HAWK (SECURE)
Then tell me you can get him out of my wake.
The last of the sunlight leaves Vincent’s face.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — CONTINUOUS
An aircraft passes overhead. Water trembles in six glasses.
Down here, nobody hears it land.
GENERAL DIANA STERLING stands at the situation table. AIR FORCE GENERAL THORNTON is beside the air picture; ADMIRAL GRANT BENNETT has drawn the Leviathan’s stern on the margin of a paper chart.
GENERAL ADRIAN VALE watches the bridge feed with the other two service chiefs.
The Arctic fills the wall.
A red ship. Two submerged contacts. One aircraft.
Enough machinery to change the history of the world. Small enough to fit between Sterling’s hands.
Hawk’s secure circuit fills the room. The council’s return microphone is keyed only when someone speaks to the ship.
BENNETT
Johnathan. Can you steer her?
HAWK (SECURE)
While they leave me water.
BENNETT
Then you’re driving.
Sterling looks to Thornton.
STERLING
Check Angel’s approach. No further descent. Keep the weapons held.
THORNTON
The second boat is still coming.
STERLING
I can control one aircraft. Start there.
Thornton keys his controller’s circuit.
THORNTON
Overwatch, execute. Hold Angel clear of the port contact. Confirm the maneuver.
EXT. ARCTIC SKY — CONTINUOUS
Angel’s black wing levels beneath the cloud.
Its descent ends.
It remains low enough to be seen. Close enough to be understood.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
Price watches it through the window.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Angel is level. Holding clear. Weapons held.
Hawk releases secure transmit, keys the separate marine handset.
HAWK
Commander. Our aircraft has checked its approach. Arrest your second boat’s crossing while our commands speak.
A pause.
Kim follows the return.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
I will hold him clear of your wake for an answer. He is not withdrawing.
The return begins to straighten.
KIM
He’s checking the turn.
Hawk keeps watching.
The next sweep confirms it.
KIM
Holding outside the wake.
HAWK
Keep watching him.
The marine key goes dark. Hawk returns to Denver.
HAWK (SECURE)
You bought us a conversation. Make it a good one.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — CONTINUOUS
Vincent enters. Mara sets a folder beside her.
Nobody stands.
VINCENT
Anybody hurt?
BENNETT
No injuries reported. Everybody below except the bridge watch.
Vincent looks at the ship.
Then at the four recovered lots in Mara’s folder.
VINCENT
What does he want?
HAWK (SECURE)
Inspection. He won’t take a receipt and my word. He thinks the samples disappear the minute we make port.
Vincent turns the inventory photograph toward herself.
Kim’s initials. The empty witness square.
VINCENT
Which samples?
KIM (SECURE)
He asked about the witness seal. We have not offered the rest of the cargo.
VINCENT
Lieutenant Kim?
KIM (SECURE)
Yes, ma’am.
VINCENT
Keep that distinction.
Sterling releases the council talkback key.
On a second screen, the ship’s returned navigation record runs in an immaculate line.
Beside it sits Price’s working copy.
A hole where eighty-six seconds should be.
ANALYST
Navigation gap. Still unverified. Their independent sonar continued throughout.
STERLING
Attribution?
ANALYST
Not established. We have the flag, the interruption and the commander’s call. We can’t establish who did what.
THORNTON
We can establish two Russian submarines trying to stop an American ship.
He looks at the hole.
THORNTON
After the cables. After the satellites. They’re still counting on us to spend too long being reasonable.
BENNETT
And one of those boats is sitting where Hawkins has to go if the ice closes.
THORNTON
I know where it is.
BENNETT
I’m talking about the ship.
That lands.
Thornton draws the air picture closer.
THORNTON
We hold both boats. Neither gets to make an attack and then hide under the ice. But if we keep giving ground every time he moves, he’ll keep moving.
VALE
Then give him a way to stop that doesn’t require Hawkins to surrender.
THORNTON
He has one. Turn around.
VALE
He hasn’t taken it.
Vincent lays a finger beside the empty square.
VINCENT
Authorize joint inspection of the sealed witness at first safe port.
Thornton turns from the display.
THORNTON
Russian access.
VINCENT
To that piece. Under guard. Away from the program facility.
STERLING
No boarding at sea. No change in physical custody. No decision on ownership.
VINCENT
Agreed.
THORNTON
You can’t invite them in for a look and decide afterward they saw too much.
Vincent studies the photograph.
Small worlds inside a broken stone.
For the first time, she takes a moment.
VINCENT
No. We can’t.
INT. LEVIATHAN — LOWER PASSAGE — CONTINUOUS
Bell and the younger deckhand brace beneath the orange pipes.
Beyond the yellow line, the mineral-hold door stays shut.
DECKHAND
We staying down here?
BELL
Till they say.
The kid shifts his grip on the securing strap.
Bell notices his fingers have gone white.
BELL
Rack’s not going anywhere. You can let it carry itself.
The kid lets go.
Bell stays beside him.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — CONTINUOUS
The marine exchange comes faintly through Hawk’s open bridge feed.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO, FILTERED)
Captain. I have not agreed to let you leave the area.
Hawk’s answer is closer.
HAWK (FILTERED)
And I haven’t agreed to park here.
Bennett looks toward Sterling.
No one needs the clock put on the wall.
STERLING
Cassandra. Can you bind your receiving people to that hold?
VINCENT
Yes. The witness isn’t opened, divided or consumed before joint inspection. If their people can’t get there, it stays sealed.
THORNTON
They can keep that piece out of your hands indefinitely.
VINCENT
Out of the instruments. It remains in our custody.
She closes the folder over the other three lot entries.
VINCENT
He believes we’re going to make the evidence disappear. If we want him to believe otherwise, we have to give up the right to do it.
Sterling holds her gaze.
STERLING
You sign for the sample. I sign for the movement. Neither signature settles the claim.
VINCENT
Put mine on it.
Mara begins entering the undertaking.
Thornton looks back to the two boats.
THORNTON
And when the next captain tries this?
VINCENT
He sees an American ship go home with its cargo. He sees the force we brought to protect it. And he sees we honored an agreement we could have bullied our way out of.
THORNTON
Provided this captain takes it.
VINCENT
We can destroy his boats. We cannot shoot the next ten years into being what we want.
She pushes the photograph toward Sterling.
VINCENT
Let him choose while he still has a choice.
Sterling keys the secure circuit.
STERLING
Hawkins. We can offer what you couldn’t. A signed hold and supervised joint inspection of the witness at first safe port. No boarding now. No transfer of custody.
Hawk listens.
HAWK (SECURE)
And the aircraft?
STERLING
Goes high and opens the distance as his second boat turns clear. Both movements observed. He keeps his port boat off your quarter.
Thornton already has the controller’s circuit ready.
STERLING
Angel remains your escort. Existing self-defense orders remain in force. You are not being left out there.
HAWK (SECURE)
Send me the signature.
Vincent signs.
Mara sends it.
STERLING
Bennett, bring the response force to readiness. Keep it outside this encounter. I want help coming, not another shape for him to panic at.
Bennett reaches for his own circuit.
STERLING
Thornton, keep their command channel open alongside ours. No one gets a different version of the offer.
The room moves.
Not everybody likes the decision.
Everybody knows their part in it.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
Vincent’s signed undertaking appears beside the inventory photograph.
Hawk reads, then keys the marine radio.
HAWK
Commander. Signed authority is coming to you now. Joint inspection of the witness at first safe port. It stays sealed until both survey parties can document it.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
At a facility you choose to admit us to.
HAWK
They’ve committed to admit your representatives. Not aboard this ship at sea.
The commander reads.
We hear him turn from the radio to somebody in his control room.
Hawk waits.
The helmsman eases past another floe. It drags along the hull like a chair being pulled across the floor of a church.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Both survey numbers remain on the record.
HAWK
Both.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
And you do not record our acceptance as recognition of your ownership.
Hawk looks at the signed terms.
HAWK
It says exactly that.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
This is the witness. Our position on the remaining material has not changed.
HAWK
Neither has ours.
A little of the performance leaves both voices.
Now the difficult part.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Your aircraft moves first.
HAWK
Your second boat turns back to starboard. Our aircraft climbs away from your position. You can watch yours. I’ll watch mine.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
And the other forces?
Hawk releases marine transmit.
HAWK (SECURE)
Denver. He’s asking about additional forces.
Sterling keys the council microphone.
STERLING (SECURE)
No additional force will close this encounter while he complies. We retain the ability to defend you. You may tell him that.
Hawk returns to marine.
HAWK
Nothing else comes in while you hold clear. We retain the right to defend the ship.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
As do we.
HAWK
Then let’s give everybody less to defend against.
Silence.
Kim watches the turn that has not happened.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
I can agree to the separation. Our commands will continue the dispute.
Hawk exhales through his nose.
HAWK
That sounds like work for people with warmer offices.
The commander does not laugh.
But his next words have less iron in them.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
On your confirmation.
Hawk releases marine transmit.
HAWK (SECURE)
Denver. Ready.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — CONTINUOUS
Sterling looks at Thornton.
He gives one deliberate nod.
STERLING
Execute the separation.
THORNTON
Overwatch. Angel climbs and opens away from the port contact. Maintain escort of Leviathan.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Executing.
EXT. ARCTIC OCEAN / SKY — CONTINUOUS
For a moment, nothing visible changes.
The Leviathan keeps breaking the white.
Then Angel’s nose rises.
The black wing rolls away from the port boat’s reported position, climbing toward the light. Its weapon bays remain closed.
Far below, beneath the torn roof of ice, the starboard submarine leans into a turn away from the ship’s wake.
Black steel moves through black water.
On the surface, nothing announces it.
INT. LEVIATHAN — BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS
Kim follows the return.
KIM
Turning out.
One sweep.
Hawk watches the ice ahead.
Another.
KIM
Opening to starboard. Wake is clear.
Price has the aircraft in the window.
PRICE
Angel’s climbing away.
OVERWATCH (SECURE)
Approach ended. Escort station reestablished.
Hawk keys the marine set.
HAWK
Your second boat is clear. Hold him there.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER (RADIO)
Confirmed. My vessel will remain in contact at the agreed separation.
Hawk sets down the marine handset.
HAWK
Helm. Bring us through.
The helmsman gives the ship the room it has just been handed back.
The bow turns with the channel.
Behind it, the wake stays empty.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — CONTINUOUS
The red ship moves.
The two contacts no longer close around it.
Thornton keeps watching the air picture.
Bennett sets down his handset.
A long breath leaves somebody at the far end of the table. Nobody claims it.
HAWK (SECURE)
Denver. Making way. No injuries. Cargo secure.
BENNETT
Keep going, Johnathan.
INT. LEVIATHAN — SURVEY CONSOLE — MOMENTS LATER
Price has the bridge and both live circuits.
Kim frames the seal photograph for transmission. Both lot numbers remain visible. The coordinates do not.
Hawk signs the ship’s inventory receipt beneath Vincent’s undertaking.
His pen strays toward the empty witness square.
KIM
That one stays empty.
He moves the pen.
Kim includes the joint survey attribution. Two names.
GRACE KIM. IRINA ZUEVA.
She sends the packet through the old joint-office receipt route, enabled for this exchange.
The screen waits.
Hawk looks at her.
HAWK
I shouldn’t have asked you like that. About Dr. Zueva.
Kim checks the outgoing file.
KIM
You can ask me what I sent.
She faces him now.
KIM
Just remember there was a person there before there was a flag.
Hawk takes it.
HAWK
I will.
A tone.
DELIVERY ACKNOWLEDGED.
No reader identified.
Kim looks at it longer than the message requires.
HAWK
Does that mean she’s seen it?
KIM
No.
On the receipt, the second witness square remains empty.
KIM
Today was supposed to be the good part.
Hawk looks toward the window.
The channel opening ahead. Price giving the helm a quiet correction.
HAWK
We’re still bringing it home.
He leaves her the screen.
INT. LEVIATHAN — LOWER PASSAGE — SAME
The internal speaker clicks.
PRICE (INTERCOM)
Immediate maneuvering restriction lifted. Watch assignments stand. Keep clear of the stern until the next deck check.
Bell steps away from the wall.
The young deckhand takes a breath, embarrassed by how much of one he needed.
Bell gives him the equipment strap to coil.
DECKHAND
What happened?
BELL
Captain got us some room.
They head toward the smell of lunch.
Behind them, the mineral-hold door stays locked.
INT. DIA — SITUATION ROOM — MOMENTS LATER
The ship’s circuit moves to an operator’s station. It stays live there.
At the table, the silence arrives all at once.
Mara places the signed undertaking beside Vincent’s folder.
MARA
Receiving has acknowledged the hold.
Vincent checks the acknowledgment, then sets it beside her signature.
Bennett leaves to speak to the response force. Vale goes with the crew-status report.
Thornton remains beside the air picture.
THORNTON
He’s still following.
STERLING
And Hawkins is still moving. Keep Angel with him.
Thornton nods. He has not changed his mind about the Russians.
He has carried out the decision.
Vincent opens the photograph once more.
The room’s pale light catches in the fractured green core. Tiny spheres crowded inside it.
Mara places two of the four specimen entries beside a closed technical folder. Vincent studies them, then turns the folder facedown.
She draws Sterling a few steps from the working stations. Mara goes with them.
VINCENT
Send the images to the island lab. Existing work only.
Sterling looks at her.
VINCENT
I know. Anything beyond that goes back to the four principals.
STERLING
All four.
Vincent closes the folder.
VINCENT
All four.
They return to the table. The analyst brings up the incident record for release to their offices.
Both versions of the navigation display are attached.
STERLING
The unverified gap stays in the record.
VINCENT
Mine too.
On the wall, the disputed section remains open.
A small white absence in a room built to know everything.
Vincent gathers the signed undertaking.
VINCENT
We got the ship moving. Now we keep our word.
Sterling turns back to the Arctic.
STERLING
And stay ready.
EXT. ARCTIC OCEAN — CONTINUOUS
The Leviathan shoulders through a widening channel.
High above it, Angel catches a blade of sunlight before the clouds take its shape away.
Below, the two submarines keep their distance.
Still there.
In the locked hold, the little worlds remain bound in steel.
The ship carries them south.
INT. DIA — PUBLIC CONCOURSE — DAY
The mobility pod reaches its gate.
The attendant gives the grandmother her coat. The boy has fallen asleep against her arm.
Beyond the glass, an aircraft lifts into the Colorado sky.
The attendant’s wrist chimes. Another assignment.
He turns the old soul song up one notch.
A bass line follows him into the crowd.
SOUND BRIDGE TO:
A needle finding a groove.
TITLE: LOST SOULS — ECHOES OF SKYFALL
EXT. GRAND AVENUE — COCONUT GROVE, MIAMI — WEEKS LATER
Sun on concrete. A cafecito window bangs shut.
The bass has somewhere to live now.
SOPHIA VEGAS RENARD, twenty-three, waits at the crossing with a red bomber over one shoulder, coffee in one hand and a guava pastry in the other.
A pigeon approaches with the confidence of somebody who owns the block.
Sophia moves the pastry behind her.
The pigeon goes around.
She looks down at it.
Then breaks off a corner.
The light changes.
Sophia steps into the street, carrying her morning.
END OF ACT 3