Middle Passage

FEATURE: JEROME TURNER is an LA detective looking for an out; out of Los Angeles, out of the fast life. He will find that out; far far out. An accidental shooting triggers his banishment to the high desert. In this age of police scrutiny Turner shot a State Senator’s son in an alley during a gunfight with a drug cartel. Politics demanded responsibility, so Turner is sent to the Hopi reservation on an ‘exchange’ program. Turner is warned to adjust to life in the desert but reverts to the LA type and chases BILLY BEGAY into the desert. Billy wants no part of the world outside the Rez. His fight is to keep the last home of his people safe from outsiders. Out on the Mesa, Turner and Billy are picked off the earth like fly balls in the outfield. Turner and Billy wake in a dark cargo hold. Mystery number one: The controls respond when Turner swipes his arm over the consoles. Mystery number two; are they alone? Mystery number three; where are they? Mystery number two is quickly solved. They are not alone; there are tens of abductees in stasis from different planets. Mystery number three is a shock; they get a glimpse outside, it is empty space. In-space slavery is not an option for Turner nor Billy; they decide to make allies of some of the strange beings in the cargo hold. Introductions are risky; communication is difficult. Turner sets free are a pair of Blues. BLUE ONE and BLUE TWO are librarian types, super intelligent but no good in a fight. Turner and Billy search for others. They find a Japanese man Shinobu. Turner thinks he has found the perfect ally when he releases a large Predator type alien. This alien EASY will determine Turner’s future; he just does not know it yet. Easy is not a team player and leaves. Turner is simply trying to stay alive. Billy knows success depends on the group working together. Slave revolts suffer reprisals; stasis alarms wake the Transporters. A running battle between the rag-tag band of rebels and the better equipped Transporters ends in recapture. Easy returns, stomps the Transporters into unconsciousness and rescues the group. Turner finds one last human, a marine Dawson, who was abducted straight off the battlefield in Afghanistan. She is a ‘takes names and kick asses’ type. The group must go big; no more messing around in a cargo hold, they head for the bridge, and take control of the ship. It is over quickly. Billy thinks this was too easy. Billy is right. The Transporters are low tech former abductees in service to a group of hybrid super aliens; the Kitchatsu. The Kitchatsu move across the galaxy at will – they call it traveling. The Transporters know they cannot outrun an Interstellar K-ship so they can only wait. This period of respite will ease the tension and serve to form a mutual bond between captors and rebels. The Transporters have grown weary of being cheap overseers and some want the freedoms snatched from them. The giant K-ship slides through a rift of space-time leaving the rebels awestruck and fearful about their survival. The Transport ship docks inside the K-ship. The Kitchatsu are arrogant and no longer see the Transporters as a security risk. They are not aware of the growing rebellion, so Turner’s band of rebels go from docking bay to bridge quickly and surprise the Kitchatsu. The Kitchatsu are in their low gravity environment; they have tai-chi like precise movements. Turner’s rebels are new to this and struggle. It is a battle of precision vs power where survival hangs in the balance. Easy goes straight for the K-Captain and forces an end to the fight. Turner is injured fighting and while he is unconscious Easy tries to heal Turner’s injuries. This interspecies intercellular healing has consequences. Mystery number one is solved. Turner has a titanium implant in his forearm from injuries sustained in military service; its resonance frequency matches the element on the spaceship control. The rebels take control of the ship and maroon the K-CAPTAIN on the Transport ship. Turner has created an adversary who is bigger, stronger and smarter than himself. The K-VICEROY is impressed with this diverse crew of lesser beings fighting so intently for survival so he virtual visits and shows Turner the secret of their civilization. The Kitchatsu have been sampling other species DNA for eons to CRISPR themselves into super beings. The K-Viceroy knows Turner has taken the first step along the DNA evolution. The Viceroy leaves Turner with a paradox for survival. This is an ‘are you worthy’ test. Billy is Turner’s mirror; he has noted the changes in Turner from lost detective to rebel leader. Billy pushes Turner to finally understand that he is not one of the group; he is the one force keeping this motley group together. Responsibility is heavy. Turner will understand what he becoming when Easy peels off the Predator suit to finally heal him. Under that Predator suit is a surprise, Easy is not a he. No captain across countries, cultures, time, or galaxies, loses his ship without a fight. The K-Captain returns on another ship. He is not as generous as the Viceroy; he is on a mission to reclaim his ship and end Turners’ bothersome existence. As Turner predicted the K-Captain makes it personal; he wants to defeat Turner space mano-a-mano. Shinobu by this time has mastered how the Kitchatsu mind-control their space ships. It comes with a price; Shinobu has become addicted to the power. An epic battle begins with the two ships in a gas Nebula before the K-Captain and his K-Troops board Turner’s ship. The battle onboard is violent and desperate. Billy is below preventing the K-Troops access from the docking deck. Dawson protects Turner on the Bridge. The fight with Turner and the K-Captain is a clash of two proud beings, very much alike, strength vs precision, both seeking finality. Turner recognizes the paradox; that to win he must lose. Like Spartacus the group is defeated, they expect to die, but the Viceroy extends an offer to join the Kichatsku. The new offer has a price, they can never go home again. Billy Begay wants nothing of spaceships. He is offered a chance to settle a new planet. Billy becomes what he always wanted; to live simply and protect his people from the outside. Dawson joins an elite K-Troop Unit sent to keep order in the far reaches of K-planets. Shinobu accepts the loss of the physical. He becomes the living AI of a K-Mothership. Turner returns, but there is little of the Los Angeles Turner remaining, he is almost all Easy; the consequences of interspecies co-mingling. He is now a hybrid like the Kitchatsu. The Viceroy present Turner and Easy a dangerous option; they will be given a ship to travel to an unexplored galaxy, knowing it might be a one way trip. The Blues are tired of study, they want experience, they opt to join Turner. Turner unexpectedly asks some of the Kichatsku to explore with him and they accept with the K-Viceroy’s consent. After all, this is what they were bred to do. Turner, a man who did not belong in LA or on Hopi Reservation, finds a home among the stars.