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INT. COMPUTER ROOM – DAY

Richards, Harry, and Arthur enter the computer room. This is a giant, largely dark circular space in the center of which there is a huge black monolith of a computer.

Stereotyped science guys, men in white coats with heavy-framed glasses, move around, make notes, manipulate keypads, etc.

About twenty feet from door, between the monolith and the door, stands a cylindrical glass tube about two meters and sixty centimeters across.

Inside the tube, as the three men approach, a holographic projection appears.

It is the MEDIATRIX, in appearance the same woman as the Sacrifice, but in this instance wearing a flowing white gown. She glows like an image on television. She looks at Harry and speaks in a purring contralto.

MEDIATRIX

Good morning, Dr. Lal.

HARRY

Who…who are you?

MEDIATRIX

I am the Mediatrix. I was created by the Gynophage as a gift to humanity.

HARRY

The Gynophage?

MEDIATRIX

The creature in your laboratory which you have adopted and care for, yes.

ARTHUR

(aside to Richard)

Makes sense, Greek roots, gune woman, phagein to eat.

HARRY

And what kind of “gift” are you to humanity?

MEDIATRIX

I am an artificial intelligence created to broker peace in the Stradanya conflict. Are you familiar with the Stradanya conflict, Dr. Lal?

HARRY

I see it on the news sometime, but I cannot claim to know much about it.

The Mediatrix closes her eyes, opens them again and begins a lecture.

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INT. A HIGH-TECH CORRIDOR – DAY

Richards strides rapidly down the corridor, followed by Arthur and Harry, who are struggling a bit to keep up. They are doing a “walk-and-talk.”

RICHARDS

The main file that was uploaded was object code, instructions that only a computer could understand. When we ran it through a decompiler to try to make it readable to a human being, what we got were two hundred and fifty million lines of obfuscated source code, the most unreadable mess any of our experts had ever seen: routines that called routines that looped around endlessly, complete spaghetti.

ARTHUR

So, what did you do?

RICHARDS

There was a second file, and this one was very clear. It was instructions for creating a new kind of holographic computer interface. Ingenious stuff, but the instructions were clear enough that our engineers were able to put one together in about a week.

HARRY

And then?

RICHARDS

Well, we figured the code probably wasn’t for nothing, even if we didn’t understand it, so we decided to run it and just see what happened. We of course took a lot of precautions, isolating the supercomputer on which it ran. We put in the code, hooked up the interface, and turned it on. The result, gentlemen, is what you are about to see.

Richards stops at a door. He waves a key card in front of a pad that causes the door to unlock and slide open.

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INT. DEPUTY DIRECTOR RICHARDS’S OFFICE – DAY

Harry and Arthur and ushered into Richards’s large, well-appointed office by Hernandez. Richards comes out from behind his desk to shake each of their hands.

RICHARDS

Gentlemen! Thank you for coming to see us.

HARRY

(shaking Richards’s hand)

Deputy Director.

Richards gestures toward a small conference table in his office. Harry and Arthur sit down opposite him.

RICHARDS

We want you to understand that no one in the this agency blames you for what happened, Dr. Lal. We know you lost some of your people in the incident.

HARRY

Does anyone know who those terrorists were, Mr. Richards?

RICHARDS

Honestly, we have no idea. They don’t match any descriptions we have on file, and slipped right through our net. Who they were and what they wanted exactly we still have no idea…except that they clearly wanted to try to get something out of that…organism you are maintaining.

HARRY

Yes. After eating another woman, it appears to have paid us back with another upload.

RICHARDS

Which you, as a good patriot, turned over to us.

HARRY

And have your people had any success figuring out what on earth it is?

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INT. THE GARAGE – DAY

The car pulls up to a curb inside the garage. The car’s uniformed driver gets out and opens the door for Harry, who then gets out. Arthur gets himself out.

They are greeted by LT. HERNANDEZ, who is wearing full Naval dress uniform.

HERNANDEZ

Dr. Lal? Mr Bergman? I’m Lieutenant Hernandez. I’ll be taking you up to see Deputy Director Richards. If you’ll just follow me to the elevator.

HARRY

Don’t you want to check our identification? Run us through security?

HERNANDEZ

Oh, no, Dr. Lal. None of that will be necessary.

ARTHUR

But we could be anyone.

HERNANDEZ

Oh no you couldn’t, sir. This way, please.

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EXT. A WASHINGTON DC STREET – DAY

A very high-end car drives along.

INT. CAR WITH DRIVER – DAY

Inside the car. The car has a uniformed driver. In the back seat, wearing business suits, are Harry and Arthur.

ARTHUR

I wouldn’t worry about this too much, Harry. They don’t want to crucify you.

HARRY

So why are they asking me out here? I’m just a doctor, not some sort of national security man.

ARTHUR

My guess is they want your cooperation with something.

EXT. OUTSIDE A GRAY-LOOKING FEDERAL BUILDING – DAY

The car signals left and pulls into a parking garage.

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