1, 2, 3, and 4. PATTERNED OPENING–TITLES OVER

5. LONG SHOT–SPACE STATION–ESTABLISHING

Construction activities and supplies around it.

Note: Station should not at this time display the “U.S.S.F.” sign it displays in other shows. At least one sector of it should not yet have the skin on, so that its steel skeleton shows.

VOICE OVER: SCHOOLMASTER’S VOICE

Before space ships could reach the Moon and the other planets, a space station had to be built–an artificial satellite, circling the Earth, where ships could refuel and passengers could change from the winged rockets to the rocket ships of deep space.

CUT TO:

5 ½. MEDIUM 3-SHOT–THREE SPACE-SUITED FIGURES

This is a free-fall scene; at least one should be wired. One can be clinging by his legs to a girder, the third can be held with his legs braced by means of safety belts such as window washers and linemen use. They are welding or riveting in utter silence. Each has a safety line, kept taut or flouted by threads. Wire a large section of skin and let the camera see them float it easily into place. Turn the camera over so that the man using the belts is head down.

Backscreen stars beyond the construction work. Harsh lighting from one direction only. The piles of skin have a Code Number stenciled on, such as: N-8-611C-Outer.

VOICE OVER: (CONTINUED)

The men who built the first space station were a tough breed–the same sort of men who built the pyramids, carved the Panama Canal, built the Grand Coulee Dam. But out here in space they worked in endless free fall, weightless, with only a safety line or a magnetic boot to hold them in place.

CUT TO:

5 ¾. INT. MEDIUM SHOT OF DOOR INSIDE STATION

Door reads:

FIVE COMPANIES, INC.
Construction Superintendent
T. M. Larson

CUT TO:

6. INT. OFFICE OF TINY LARSO–INSIDE SPACE STATION

TINY LARSON is a big man, an “engineer with hairy ears.” He has a 3-day beard. He must look both intelligent and commanding–a leader of men.

DAD WITHERSPOON is a smaller, elderly master mechanic. He is wise and experienced. Both are strapped into chairs: Dad is in space suit without helmet (or helmet hinged back, depending on how they work); Tiny wears shorts, T-shirt, and magnetic boots. The office is as cluttered and untidy as a construction office usually is. A large progress chart is visible, and also an artistic drawing of the finished station. Blueprints, etc., must be clipped into place; this is free-fall.

Note: we do not use the Space Force skull caps. Hair should be crew cut, or greased into place.

LARSON
Too bad we have to get rid of PETERS, Dad. He’s a good radio operator. But a card sharp just causes too much trouble in the station. Send for him and give him the old heave ho. Who’s his relief?

DAD W.
Party named G. Brooks McNye.

In the view port, we see winged rocket ship HALF MOON
drifting slowly across the screen.

LARSON
That ship isn’t matched.

He presses button on desk.

HAMMOND (O.C. through Communicator)
Radio room. HAMMOND speaking.

LARSON
What is that ship’s motion relative to the station?

HAMMOND (O.C.)
About 50 Centimeters per second.

LARSON
Get the Half Moon for me.

Television screen builds up image of the Captain of the ship.

LARSON
Good morning, Captain. Why have you placed a line on us?

CAPTAIN
For Cargo, naturally. Get your hopheads over here. I want to blast off before we enter the Earth’s shadow.

LARSON
(shaking head)
Not until you have matched course and speed with us.

CAPTAIN
I am matched.

LARSON
(firmly)
Not to specifications–not by my instruments.

CAPTAIN
Have a heart, Tiny. I’m short on maneuvering fuel. If I juggle this entire ship to make a correction on a few lousy tons of cargo, I will be so late I’ll have to put down in a secondary field. I may even have to make a dead-stick landing.

LARSON
(patiently, as if explaining to a child)
Look, Captain, the only purpose of your lift was for those same few lousy tons. I don’t care if you land in Little America on a pogo stick. The first load here was placed with loving care in the proper orbit and I am making every other load match.

(change in tone and pace)
Get that confounded cargo into the groove!

CAPTAIN
(stiffly)
Very well, Superintendent.

LARSON
(changing to conciliatory tones)
Don’t be sore, John. By the way, you’ve got a passenger for me?

CAPTAIN
(grinning)
Oh yeah, so I have.

LARSON
Well, keep him aboard until we upload.

Maybe we can beat the shadow, yet.

CAPTAIN
(gleefully)
Fine, fine. Why should I add to your troubles?

Larson looks puzzled.

We see Dad Witherspoon putting on his helmet and unstrapping from his seat.

CUT TO:

7. OUTSIDE THE STATION, SHIP ADJACENT TO LOCK

Men in space suits moving boxes, barrels, into the lock. Dad Witherspoon and G. Brooks McNye, one after the other, dive along the ship’s line into the lock.

CUT TO:

8. INTERIOR OF LOCK AS TWO SPACE-SUITED FIGURES ENTER LOCK DOOR AND EXIT

CUT TO:

9. INT. LARSON’S OFFICE

Two space-suited figures enter. Dad Witherspoon removes helmet and straps himself down to chair.

LARSON
Well, McNye, glad to have you with us.

G. Brooks McNye removes helmet. We see that she is a woman.

Note: her hair-do must be tight throughout so that it does not give away the faking of “free fall.”

McNYE
Thank you.

Tiny Larson looks at her, amazement spreading over his face.

LARSON
(yelling)
Dad, get the radio shack! Stop that ship!

But we see through the view port that the Half Moon is already blasting away from the station.

Larson watches it, helplessly.

LARSON
(ignoring her)
Dad, who else knows about this?

DAD W.
Nobody, so far as I know.

LARSON
We’ve got to keep her out of sight! That’s it, we’ll keep her locked up and out of sight until the next ship matches in.

McNYE
(sharply)
What are you talking about?

LARSON
You, that’s what. What are you? A stowaway?

McNYE
Don’t be silly. I am G. Brooks McNye, electronics engineer. Don’t you have my papers?

Larson turns from her without bothering to answer.

LARSON
Dad, this is your fault. How in the name of Ned did you let them send you a woman? Didn’t you read the advance report on her?

DAD W.
Me? Now see here, you big squarehead, those forms don’t show sex. The Fair Employment Commission won’t allow it unless it is pertinent to the job.

LARSON
(sarcastically)
It is not pertinent here?

DAD W.
Not by job classification, it ain’t. There are lots of female radio men back earthside.

LARSON
This isn’t earthside.

DAD W.
There are even female rocket pilots.

LARSON
I don’t care if there are female archangels, I will have no women here.

McNYE
Just a minute. You are the construction superintendent, are you not?

LARSON
Yes.

McNYE
Very well, then, how do you know what sex I am?

LARSON
Are you trying to imply that you aren’t a woman?

McNYE
Hardly. I am proud of it. But, officially, you don’t know what sex G. Brooks McNye is. That’s why I use G. Brooks instead of Gloria. I don’t ask favors.

LARSON
You won’t get any. I don’t know how you sneaked in, but get this, McNye, or Gloria, or whatever, you’re fired. You go back on the next ship. Meanwhile, we will try to keep the men from knowing we’ve got a woman aboard.

McNYE
(barely holding her temper)
I speak, or does your Captain Bligh act extend to that, too?

LARSON
Say your say.

McNYE
I didn’t sneak in. I am on the permanent staff as the Station Chief Communications Engineer. I took this vacancy myself to get to know the equipment while it was being installed. I will live here eventually; I see no reason not to start now.

LARSON
(starts out slow and reasonable)
There will be men and women both here some day. Even kids.
(raises voice)
But, right now, this job is stag and it will stay that way!

McNYE
(nastily)
We’ll see about that. Anyhow, you can’t fire me. Radio personnel don’t work for you. You know that Communications and other specialists are lent to the building contractors by Harriman Enterprises.

LARSON
Maybe I can’t fire you. I can send you home. ‘Requisitioning personnel must be satisfactory to the contractor,’ meaning me, paragraph 7, clause M. I wrote that clause myself.

McNYE
Then you know that if requisitioned personnel are refused without cause, the contractor pays the replacement cost.

LARSON
I’ll risk paying your fare home, but I won’t have you here.

McNYE
You are most unreasonable!

LARSON
Perhaps. But I’ll decide what’s good for the job. I would rather have a bootlegger here than have a woman around my boys. Sorry, miss, but that’s it. You stay under cover until I can get rid of you.

DAD W.
(clears throat)
Tiny, look in the port behind you.

In the port we see a space-suited figure, his eyes bugging out. Two more float up and join him. In this shot through the viewport we can manage with only one man wired if we show just head and shoulders around the frame of the port with the other two. Done this way, one could come into view head down with someone to hold him from above.

Tiny Larson jumps up to the port and the space-suited figures move out of the scene.

LARSON
(pointing to the door)
Miss, wait in my room.

She exits.

Dad, what’ll we do?

DAD W.
(mildly)
Thought you had made up your mind, Tiny.

LARSON
I have. Ask the Chief Inspector to come in, will you?

Dad W. presses a button on his desk.

DAD W.
MR. DALRYMPLE, will you come to the Superintendent’s office, please?

DALRYMPLE (O.C. over the Communicator)
Be there in a second.

After a very short wait, door opens and DALRYMPLE enters.

Dalrymple is in marked contrast to Larson; the only thing they have in common is that each looks intelligent. Dalrymple is suave, very well groomed and veddy, veddy British. He is irritatingly urbane. While he is in shorts and a shirt, his clothes look neat and smart.

DALRYMPLE
(smiling)
Good morning, Superintendent, morning, Witherspoon. What can I do for you?

LARSON
(not smiling)
Your company sent me a girl as radio operator.

DALRYMPLE
(raises eyebrows)
So? How very interesting.

LARSON
Don’t you see? I can’t have a woman around here. I’m sending her back in the next ship.

DALRYMPLE
Really? It seems a pity.

LARSON
It’s necessary. You’ve got to back me up. She’s making loud talk about her contractual rights.

DALRYMPLE
(pauses to fit his fingertips together judicially.)
But she’s right, old man. You can send her back and you can even specify a male relief, but I can hardly endorse ‘for proper cause,’ can I?

LARSON
Confound it! We can’t have a woman around here.

DALRYMPLE
A matter of opinion. Not covered by contract, you know.

LARSON
(angrily)
If your office hadn’t sent us a crooked gambler as her predecessor, I wouldn’t be in this jam!

DALRYMPLE
There, there, remember the old blood pressure. Suppose we leave the reason for sending her back open and arbitrate the cost. That’s fair?

LARSON
I suppose so, thanks.

DALRYMPLE
Not at all. But consider this. When you rushed Peters off before interviewing the newcomer, you cut yourself down to one operator. Hammond can’t stand watch 24 hours a day.

LARSON
He can sleep in the radio shack. The alarm will wake him.

DALRYMPLE
Sorry, I can’t accept that. The home office and ship’s frequencies must be guarded at all times. Harriman Enterprises has supplied a qualified operator. I am afraid you must use her for the time being.

Larson thinks it over, then turns to Witherspoon.

LARSON
Dad, she’ll take the first shift. Better put the married men on that shift.

Larson presses button on desk.
Come in, Miss McNye.

Miss McNye enters.

LARSON
Go to the radio room and start make-learnee so that Hammond can go off watch soon. Mind what he tells you; he’s a good man.

McNYE
I know. I trained him myself.

DALRYMPLE
(catching her eye)
The superintendent doesn’t bother with trivia. I’m Robert Dalrymple, Chief Inspector. He probably didn’t introduce you to his assistant, either. This is Mr. Witherspoon.

DAD W.
Call me Dad.

McNYE
(smiling)
Howdy, Dad.
(to Dalrymple)
Odd that we haven’t met before.

LARSON
(butting in)
McNye, you will sleep in my room. I’ll get my stuff out–at once. And get this: keep the door locked when you are off shift.

McNYE
(looks him in the eye and freezes him)
You’re darn tootin’ I will!

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

10. SAME SCENE
Larson and Dad, neither in space suits. Larson is shaved and looks very much neater. He is bent over some papers clipped to his desk; Witherspoon is doing some other paperwork. Larson looks up.

LARSON
Dad–I’m changing the procedure for the evacuation tests.

DAD W.
So? How, Tiny?

LARSON
I don’t like the safety arrangements. I want you to take Compartment D-113, rig an airlock, and stock it with two weeks’ supplies, food and oxygen. Call Dalrymple. We’ll let him know we’re postponing the tests.

Dad W. calls Dalrymple on the desk communicator.

Dalrymple enters.

LARSON
I’m postponing the air evacuation tests on the station and I’m ordering two weeks’ supplies stocked in Compartment D-113.

DALRYMPLE
What’s the idea? Man, don’t you realize what such a delay will cost?

LARSON
The idea is to have a pup tent in case the house burns.

DALRYMPLE
What do you mean?

LARSON
Suppose we pump the air out of this thing and something happens. Do you want to sit around in a space suit until a ship happens by? Suppose something went wrong and we couldn’t pump the air back in here? Suppose it sprung a leak–a big one?

DALRYMPLE
That’s silly. The stresses have been calculated.

LARSON
That’s what the man said when the bridge fell. We’re doing this my way.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

11. EXTERIOR OF SPACE STATION NEAR AIR LOCK

Tiny Larson, Chief Inspector Dalrymple, Dad Witherspoon, as many others as we have space suits for are present. All have safety lines; at least one is wired. Camera is tilted so that those not wired but clinging by “magnetic boots” or by hand are not straight up and down to the audience. If anything but the body of the station can be seen, use starry sky backscreen. Fastened somewhere to the body of the station is a control board that has clearly been jury-rigged (“bread-boarded”) for this test; there is a man to operate it.

SFX: All voice is over radio; use usual radio-filter effect.

LARSON
All set, Dad? Ready to start Pumps?

DAD W.
All ready.

LARSON
First shift–report.

VOICE
First Shift, all present.

LARSON
Second shift–report.

2nd VOICE
Second shift–all present.

LARSON
How about your gang, Dalrymple?

DALRYMPLE
My inspectors are all outside the station, sir.

LARSON
Start pumps!

The figure at the control boards waves acknowledgement, touches solenoids, twists knobs.

OPERATOR
Pumps started.

LARSON
Emergency test, Compartment C-122–explosive decompression.

OPERATOR
C-122–explosive decompression.

He does things at his control board.
It’s blown.

LARSON
How about the adjacent compartments?

OPERATOR
The safety interlocks worked. Normal loss in air pressure and holding.

LARSON
Good.

A figure swims up to Larson.

HAMMOND
Uh, Superintendent–excuse me–

LARSON
Don’t bother me now, Hammond.

HAMMOND
But, Mr. Larson–

LARSON
Wait until the tests are over.

HAMMOND
(desperately)
I just wanted to know if anybody has seen Brooksie!

LARSON
You’ll just have to…Who?

DAD W.
He means McNye, Tiny.–The boys call her Brooksie.

LARSON
I know, I know. What about her?

HAMMOND
Well, she was off watch–but I don’t see her around anywhere outside. I just wondered–

LARSON
(turning to Witherspoon)
Dad, where is she? You told her what she was to do, didn’t you?

DAD W.
Why no, I thought–

DALRYMPLE
What’s this, Superintendent? You don’t mean that she could be inside?

LARSON
Stop the pumps! OUT OF MY WAY!

He dives for the airlock door. So does everyone else.
I SAID ‘OUT OF MY WAY!’

He shoves the others aside and enters the lock.

CUT TO:

12. LARSON IN SPACE SUIT OPENING DOOR TO QUARTERS

He is hurrying in extreme.

CUT TO:

13. INSIDE ROOM IN STATION

Larson enters, carrying an extra space suit. McNye is strapped down, writing at a shelf desk. She looks up, surprised. She is dressed in shorts and sweater.

McNYE
(icily)
You might at least knock!

LARSON
Get this on! Don’t ask questions. Do you know that the station’s air is being evacuated? In another two minutes, you would be unconscious from lack of air. Why don’t you pay attention to what’s going on?

McNYE
(putting on space suit)
Why, you big baboon! How would I know anything about it? You have kept me penned up like a prisoner. We’ll see about this!

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

14. INT. TINY LARSON’S OFFICE–LARSON AND WITHERSPOON

Larson is sitting in chair. Rubs the chair arms and grins.

LARSON
Test went pretty good, didn’t it?

DAD W.
Yes–all except that slip about McNye. I’m sorry about that, Tiny. She could have been killed.

LARSON
(face suddenly sobers)
Yes. But it was my fault, not yours. I guess I should–

McNye enters.

McNYE
May I have a word with you, Mr. Larson?

LARSON
(unstrapping and standing)
Why certainly. Matter of fact, I wanted to see you. I owe you an apology. I was–

McNYE
Forget it. You were on edge. But I want to know this. How long are you going to keep up this nonsense of trying to chaperone me?

LARSON
Not long. Just ’til your relief arrives.

McNYE
So? Who is the job steward around here?

LARSON
A ship fitter named McANDREWS. But you can’t use him. You’re a staff member.

McNYE
Not in the job I’m filling. I am going to talk to him. You are discriminating against me, and in my off time, at that.

LARSON
Perhaps. But you will find that I have the authority. Legally, I am a ship’s Captain. While on this job, a Captain in space has wide discriminatory powers.

McNYE
Then you should use them with discrimination!

LARSON
(grins)
Isn’t that what you just said I was doing?

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

15. INT. CORRIDOR–SPACE STATION

Larson sees Miss McNye walking down the corridor. Dad Witherspoon is with Larson. Magnetic boots, no space suits.

LARSON
Mmmm–Miss McNye.

McNYE
Yes?

LARSON
I saw you at the movies last night–with Mr. Dalrymple.

McNYE
Don’t tell me you are going to try to keep me penned up again? I thought that nonsense was settled.

LARSON
Oh, no! It was just–well, I think you should know.–Well–Chief Inspector Dalrymple is a married man.

McNYE
(coldly)
Are you suggesting that my conduct has been improper?

LARSON
No, but–

McNYE
Then mind your own business. It might interest you to know that he told me about your four children.

Larson sputters.

LARSON
Why, I’m not even married.

McNYE
So? That makes it all the worse, doesn’t it?

McNye exits.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

16. INT. LARSON’S OFFICE, 2-SHOT, LARSON AND WITHERSPOON

LARSON
Dad, is the paperwork ready on McNye?

DAD W.
What paperwork?

LARSON
Discharging her, of course. The Pole Star is due here in four hours–I want her to go down in it.

DAD W.
Hmmm–
(pause)
What’s the charge?

LARSON
Insubordination.
Witherspoon doesn’t answer. Larson goes on.
Well, she won’t take orders.

DAD W.
She does her work O.K. You give her orders you don’t give to any of the men and that a man wouldn’t take.

LARSON
You disagree with my orders?

DAD W.
That’s not the point. You can’t prove the charge, Tiny.

LARSON
Well, charge her with being female! I can prove that!
(wheedlingly)
Dad, you know how to write it, ‘no personal animus against Miss McNye but it is felt that as a matter of policy,’ and so forth.

CUT TO:

17. INT. RADIO ROOM

Dad Witherspoon hands flimsy to Hammond.

DAD W.
Get this out right away, Hammond. It’s the letter dismissing McNye. Don’t talk about it.

As Dad starts to exit, another man, O’CONNOR, enters.

O’CONNOR
Look, Dad, is it true that the old man is getting rid of Brooksie?

DAD W.
(stalling)
Brooksie?

O’CONNOR
Brooksie McNye. She says to call her Brooksie. Is it true?

DAD W.
Well, that’s not a proper question.

Witherspoon exits.

CUT TO:

18. INT. TINY LARSON’S OFFICE

Dad W. is there alone.

Communicator rings.

TIMEKEEPER (O.C. on the Communicator)
Mr. Witherspoon? This is the Timekeeper. Can you come over here right away?

DAD W.
Not right now. I’m awfully busy.

TIMEKEEPER (O.C.)
Please, Mr. Witherspoon–you must. I need you bad.

DAD W.
O.K., I’ll be there in a minute.

CUT TO:

19. INT. CORRIDOR–SPACE STATION

Door marked “Timekeeper’s Office.” About 12 men lined up outside door.

Dad Witherspoon enters.

CUT TO:

20. INT. TIMEKEEPER’S OFFICE

Timekeeper and Mr. Witherspoon are talking.

TIMEKEEPER
Mr. Witherspoon, these are all separation slips; looks like everybody in the station wants to quit.

DAD W.
What in the great depths of night is this?

TIMEKEEPER
There are dozens more I haven’t had time to write up yet and you musta seen that lineup outside the door.

DAD W.
Look, Jimmy, what goes on here?

TIMEKEEPER
Can’t you dope it out, Dad? Shucks, I’m turning in one, too.

DAD W.
You mean to say they’re quitting because McNye was fired?

TIMEKEEPER
That’s right! That’s the reason.

DAD W.
Have the Superintendent located and ask him to come to his office right away. Tell him I said it was urgent.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

21. INT. LARSON’S OFFICE

Larson pacing up and down the floor.

Dad W. sitting at desk.

LARSON
But, Dad, they can’t strike. There’s a non-strike contract, with penalty bond for every union concerned.

DAD W.
This is no strike. You can’t stop a man from quitting.

LARSON
They’ll pay their own fares back, so help me!

DAD W.
Guess again. Most of them have worked long enough for the free ride.

LARSON
We’ll have to hire others in a hurry or we’ll miss our completion date.

DAD W.
(slowly)
Worse than that. Tiny–we won’t finish. By next dark period you won’t even have a maintenance crew.

LARSON
I have never had a gang of men quit me. I’ll talk to them.

DAD W.
(shakes his head)
No good, Tiny, you’re up against something too strong.

LARSON
You’re against me, Dad?

DAD W.
I’m never against you, Tiny.

LARSON
Dad, you think I am pigheaded–but I am right. You can’t have one woman among several hundred men. It drives them nutty.

DAD W.
Is that bad?

LARSON
Of course! I can’t let the job be ruined to humor one woman.

DAD W.
Tiny–have you looked at the progress charts lately?

LARSON
Huh? I’ve hardly had time to. What about them?

DAD W.
You have been so busy watching Miss Gloria that you haven’t had the time. But you will have trouble proving that she interfered with the job. We’re ahead of schedule.

LARSON
We are?

Close in to 2-shot while Tiny looks at charts.

DAD W.
Yes, here are the charts. Look at them.
(Dad puts his arm across Tiny’s shoulders)
Now, look, son, sex has been around our planet for a long time. Earthside, they never get away from it, and some pretty big jobs get built anyway. Maybe we’ll just have to learn to live with it here, too. Matter of fact, you had the answer a minute ago.

LARSON
I did? I sure didn’t know it.

DAD W.
You said you can’t have one woman among several hundred men. Get me?

LARSON
Huh? No, I don’t. Wait, maybe I do.

DAD W.
Ever tried Jujutsu? Sometimes you win by relaxing.

LARSON
Yes! Yes!

DAD W.
When you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Larson goes to desk, presses button.

LARSON
Give me the radio room

VOICE (O. C.)
Yes, sir.

McNYE (O. C.)
This is McNye, radio room.

LARSON
Get Hammond to relieve you, Gloria, and come to my office.

He walks up and down several times.

McNye enters. She is coldly formal.

McNYE
Yes, sir?

LARSON
(facing her, standing straight and taking his medicine)
Uh, Miss McNye–uh, Gloria–I’m canceling the order for your dismissal.

McNYE
(still cold)
Really? Thank you.

LARSON
I have been awfully wrong about all this. It has taken me a long time to get it through my thick head. But I’m in the wrong and I want to make amends. I am instructing the home office to see how many jobs can be filled at once with female help.

DAD W.
Don’t forget married couples–and better ask for some older women, too.

LARSON
I’ll do that. Have we missed anything else, Dad?

DAD W.
Guess not. We’ll have to rig quarters for them but there’s time.

LARSON
O.K. I’m telling them to hold the Pole Star, Gloria, so they can send us a few this trip.

McNYE
(smiles)
That’s fine.
(she sticks out her hand)
So let’s forget it.
(he takes her hand)

LARSON
(still holding her hand)
I’ve got a feeling I’ve forgotten something. Mmmm–I’ve got it, Dad. Tell them to send up a chaplain. Under the new policy, we may need one any time.

DAD W.
(Looks at Tiny, then at Gloria)
I think so, too.

THE END