TEASER
OPEN TO BLANK SCREEN
CAPTION READS:

PRIVATE VESSEL MERRIWEATHER, MAYFLOWER-CLASS
EN ROUTE TO EZRA, ETA TWENTY MINUTES
THIRTY YEARS AGO

Girl’s voice: Read.

FADE UP TO: GIRL’S BUNK ABOARD THE MERRIWEATHER; the bunk is clearly similar to those aboard Serenity, but the Merriweather is a much larger and better-equipped vessel than an Aught-Three Firefly, custom-built to carry colonists. Considering this is a little girl’s bunk, there’s a surprising lack of pink - the predominant colours are red and green in various shades. She’s lying in bed, a soft toy by her side, listening to an Encyclopaedia reciting the history of Ezra. She’s blonde, very pretty, has a strongly-boned face and is about seven years old.

Encyclopaedia: Ezra - one of the first outer worlds to which the science of terraforming was applied. Access reference ‘Terraforming’?

Girl: No, I know what that is. Continue.

Encyclopaedia: It was envisaged that the planet would develop a liveable but hot environment, owing to its proximity to its primary, and that the cost of settlement would be recouped in short order by mining its mountains for the enormous mineral wealth detected there by the probes which first discovered it. However, the processes involved in terraforming were, at that time, not fully understood. It is still unclear as to precisely what errors were committed in the case of Ezra, but the result was that violent and unstable weather patterns were created in the newly engineered atmosphere; these manifested primarily as extremely destructive cyclone systems which formed spontaneously. Access reference ‘Cyclone’?

Girl (tiredly): No. Continue.

Encyclopaedia: One of these, which became known simply as ‘the Storm’, persists to this day, for reasons still not understood, and shows no signs of dissipating. It is speculated that the forces which drive the Storm are similar, though opposite, to those which are responsible for the Great Red Spot of Jupiter -

Girl (anticipating): Stop. Skip reference. (To herself) That’s in the Earth-That-Was system, even I know that. Who cares? (Louder) Continue.

Note: The Great Red Spot is in fact an anticyclone; we still have no idea why it’s persisted since Galileo first saw it through his telescope.

Encyclopaedia: The Storm and other cyclone systems were responsible for the rapid wearing of Ezra’s extensive mountain ranges, the highly abrasive sand thus created being carried at high velocities and causing further worldwide erosion. The end result was the deterioration of the terraformed environment into the desert conditions which currently obtain. Most of the cyclone systems are gradually dissipating their energy, but it is estimated this process will require at least two more centuries before any realistic attempt can be made to terraform Ezra again, for fear of repeating or even exacerbating the earlier errors. (Beat) Politically -

Girl (bored): Oh, stop. This isn’t what I wanted. Off. (Pause) I want to know: why are we going there? Why would anyone?

FADE TO: EXT. COUNCILLOR’S HOUSE, AT NIGHT. The large, opulent house is set in the middle of a garden spot; the plants are mainly bushes (in flower), cacti and other succulents, growing in sandy soil. The Councillor is staring into the sky at a particular bright star. CAPTION READS:

EZRA
COUNCILLOR’S RESIDENCE, PRIMUS CITY SUBURBS
PRESENT DAY

Councillor (softly): Why indeed? (From this it becomes clear that the little girl was in fact the Councillor)

CUT TO: FRONT DOOR OF HOUSE; her husband, a plain vanilla sort of fella, emerges. He walks to join his wife, embraces her from behind. It’s immediately clear there’s still love there, her peccadilloes with Inara notwithstanding (though there will be more about this in a later script); her face softens and she leans into him, pressing close. She reaches up to gently pull his head down for a soft kiss.

Husband: The vote’s in, sweetie.

Councillor (hopefully): And?

Husband: It’s a yes. Tonight. Now, in fact.

Councillor: At last...

CUT TO: NIGHT SKY, THE BRIGHT STAR CENTRAL TO PICTURE. Begin zooming in on it.

Councillor (O/S): This time, you [old bastard]

ZOOM CONTINUES, UPWARDS INTO SPACE. The ‘star’ resolves into a space station, an all too familiar one...with multiple police-type spacecraft converging on it.

FADE

END TEASER

TITLE SEQUENCE

NOTE: the sequence is altered slightly - Wash and Book’s appearances are changed to the first time we see each, followed immediately by the view of their respective memorials shown in the BDM. Even though they’re no longer with us, it seems churlish at best to simply ignore them, though Alan and Ron remain uncredited. In addition, the Alliance officer shown is now Lindayne, of course.