EXT. KMN-0 - TERRAFORMING STATION C31 - EVENING
A terraforming station rises up from the black night water of the near-empty water planet. Large and conical in shape -- with various red, orange, and white light fixtures aglow upon its surface -- the station looks like an immense, inhabited artificial island.
INT. TERRAFORMING STATION C31/GAME ROOM - EVENING
Inside the small, cramped, sparsely-stocked, dimly-lit game room, two individuals sit around a dejarik table. With one diminutive and the other a behemoth, they are clearly unrelated by blood. Regardless, their physical characteristics bear witness to the fact that they are both the results of hideous genetic experimentations; the tall one -- MAC 73239 -- is a human-wookiee hybrid, his entire body save for his fingers, chest, and upper face covered in thick black-brown fur, while the short one -- NOR 747 -- is a Chadra-fan-Lannik hybrid, with the body of the former but the long, down-turned ears of the latter. Both are currently engrossed with the holographic creatures which are playing across the illuminated game board.
As a holographic creature resembling three conjoined trees with six tentacles entangles a creature which resembles a legless spider with bat wings and pulls it down to its death, NOR begins hooting and hollering with joy, apparently the winner in this game. MAC, for his part, nonchalantly pours his mug of iridescent black-green ale on the dejarik board, causing the board to explode in a shower of sparks and smoke.
MAC: Cheating bastard.
NOR: Hey!
INT. TERRAFORMING STATION C31/SERVEILLANCE ROOM - EVENING
Inside the small, cramped, sparsely-stocked, dimly-lit surveillance room, four beings -- BLAI 7, GAR 79, CLA 75, and CHI 537 -- sit before large banks of computer monitors, all of which display readings for various equipment in operation aboard the station or monitor various locations in and outside of the station itself. Like MAC and NOR, these four creatures are the results of renegade scientists' attempts to create hybrids between genetically unrelated species through forbidden gene splicing experiments.
The four beings, consumed with boredom, almost miss the bright streak of light that flashes across one of the monitors, flying down from the black sky outside to hit the dark waters right outside the station.
GAR: Hey, what was that?!
CHI: What was what?
GAR: That thing that flashed across Screen #68!
CHI: I didn't see a blessed thing. Play it back.
Punching a command into his keyboard, GAR rewinds and replays the footage of the flaming trail hitting the black water.
BLAI: It's got a heavy metal content. It could be a large meteorite.
CLA: Readings are all wrong for it to be a natural meteorite. It's clearly of artificial origin.
GAR: (sighs with irritation) Great -- space junk. With our luck, it'll be some radioactive bleeder from a Type 0 planet. (to BLAI) Get MAC and NOR on it right away.
Without a word, BLAI acknowledges with a single nod of his misshapen secondary head.
INT. TERRAFORMING STATION C31/GAME ROOM - EVENING
Still caught up in their argument over the botched dejarik game, MAC and NOR fail to notice when BENN 4647 -- a bizarre looking Devaronian-twi'lek hybrid with mottled blue-and-bronze skin -- opens the door and enters the murky room.
BENN: (coughing into his hand) Ahem ...
Noticing BENN for the first time, NOR and MAC stop their riotous bickering and turn toward him.
BENN: (cont'd) You're needed outside. Space junk 45.8 degrees off the starboard side of the sixteenth pylon.
NOR: Can't this wait? We're in a very important discussion right now!
BENN: (shrugs) Do you want a repeat of what happened sixteen months ago with the ninth configurator?
Realizing that they have an important job to do and that it would be unwise to postpone doing it, the two companions sigh dejectedly and saunter off past the blue-bronze hybrid and out of the game room to attend to their duty.
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - OCEAN - EVENING
A small submersible cuts through the inky black depths of the unnamed world's ocean waters. Looking like a large, gray eye sporting a pair of oversized crab-like claws, it is a comical sight to behold.
INT. SUBMERSIBLE/COCKPIT - EVENING
MAC: (speaking into his headset) We're approaching the junk.
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - OCEAN - EVENING
As the submersible moves closer to its destination, a thick mechanical pole reaching up from the unseen ocean depths below and stretching to the unseen surface above fades into existence. There, wedged tightly in between the main body of the pole and a projected array of sensory filaments, is the large piece of space junk -- the only large fragment of the Radiant VII to survive its fall from the heavens to this planet of unending ocean.
INT. SUBMERSIBLE/COCKPIT - EVENING
NOR: (to MAC) What do you think it is?
MAC: Beats me. Whatever it was, it's hutt pizza now. (into his headset) I'm readying the arms. It's in there, but it should slide out easy enough with a little gentle lovin'.
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - PYLON 16 - EVENING
The arms of the submersible come to life. Moving forward, they clamp onto projections on the fragment's surface. Once the grip is secure, the arms begin retracting. As they do, though, the fragment refuses to come with them, stubbornly remaining glued in place between the main body of the pylon and the sensory filaments.
INT. SUBMERSIBLE/COCKPIT - EVENING
MAC: (licks his lips) Sonuvablaster doesn't want to come loose.
NOR: (enters a command into a control panel) Activating reserves.
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - PYLON 16 - EVENING
With the extra juice flowing through its engines, the submersible manages to work the ship fragment out of its prison of metal. Once it's freed, though, the weight of the thing begins to pulls the smaller form of the submersible down with it toward the ocean floor far below.
INT. SUBMERSIBLE/COCKPIT - EVENING
MAC: (panicking) More power, NOR! Hurry up! The backup arms, too! C'mon! C'mon!
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - PYLON 16 - EVENING
Concealed hatches on either side of the submersible slide open, and a pair of second arms -- smaller and with somewhat more delicate instrumentation than their larger cousins -- slide out. Clamping down on the fragment along with their larger twins, the backup arms provide enough leverage for the submersible to overpower the weight of the fragment and stop the descent to the dark depths below.
INT. SUBMERSIBLE/COCKPIT - EVENING
MAC: (sighs) I was getting worried there.
NOR: The damned thing's pretty heavy. Don't you think we should let the sucker sink and call it a day?
MAC: And take the chance that it'll just get tangled up in the pylon again, only deeper down? To hell with that! I'm bringing it topside where it can be disposed of properly!
EXT. SUBMERSIBLE - PYLON 16 - EVENING
With the ship's fragment balanced in its four arms like the known galaxy's strangest baby, the submersible begins making the slow ascent back to the surface.
EXT. TERRAFORMING STATION C31/SOUTH DOCK- EVENING
The submersible and fragment now topside and secure, MAC and NOR climb up out of the hatch, climbing the rails which take them up onto the dock where other members of their crew are waiting to greet them. FU 247 -- a large, burly hybrid between a human and some unidentifiable cetaceous being -- walks up to the two while six of her men run up to examine the fragment now docked with the submersible.
FU: What is that thing?
MAC: That's up to you to find out and us not to give a damn about.
FU 247's crew goes to work cutting a hole in the side of the fragment as MAC and NOR disinterestedly leave to find a dry dejarik board. NORWE 4426 -- an ugly, gaunt zabrak-Pau'an hybrid -- rubs his boney chin in hard thought as he examines the pitted surface of the fragment.
NORWE: It looks like a near-intact segment of a Consular-class space cruiser -- the salon pod itself, to be precise.
FU: Good - maybe there's something of value left intact inside.
After a few moments, the crew finishes cutting the hole through. WIN 3697 -- a strangely attractive hybrid between an Ithorian and an amani -- peers inside. Within the dark confines of the pod, Artoo's lights come to life, causing her to stumble backward with startlement. Rocking back and forth in the shadow, the short astromech unit begins blorting and warbling frantically.
WIN: (turns to FU) FU, I don't know if it's valuable or not, but there's something inside I think you should take a look at ...