WRITING: "First Flight"

Again, written for CGTalk. Maybe someone will make something of this. Would be pretty cool.

"First Flight"

On a spaceship, a father stands watch at the side of the pilot's chair as his 17 year old son slowly maneuvers into a spacedock. The camera cuts back and forth between the docking clamps and the son as he slowly and cautiously goes forward.

Everything is going good and the father beams with pride. The clamps are just about to engage when the son looks back at his father. He sees the look of pride and he accidentally hits the gas. The ships jumps forward and is mere inches from slamming into the dock when the son flicks a switch. The reverse jets click on and stop their forward motion. The father sighs loudly and the boy looks back at him as he's moving his hand back to the wheel. The father's eyes go wide as the son grazes a switch. The son turns to look at what he'd he almost done and hits the switch.

New rockets fire shooting the ship away from the rock. The father is thrown forward into the "windshield". The son slams forward into the control panel and hits other switches. The ship stops long enough for the father to fall to the ground. Outside the ship panels open up and more rockets emerge from them. They quickly fire before anyone can stop them in the ship and the little ship jets toward the dock.

The father and son are both slammed to the back of the cockpit, screaming. They grab onto each other and scream mindlessly as they watch the dock getting closer and closer.

The docking clamps are the closest thing to the ship and as the ship gets closer and closer we zoom in and watch the clamps. Time slows as clamps make contact with the dock. From the point of a force shield materializes. The dock is fine but as we pull back and time speeds up. the ship slams full force into it.

The ship buckles as it impacts and an electrical pulse ripples around it before a full on explosion starts at it's core and spreads out in all directions.

Ships in the distance watch as the explosions rips thru space at them. They turn on their shields just in time but the imensity of the explosion makes the skies go solid white.

As the explosion fades from view we're left with gnarled pieces of debris floating thru space outside the spacedock. A small lifepod floats by, rotating free in space.

Inside the pod, the father and son sit in a tangled mass of confusion. The son gets up first and sees that they're floating free thru space. He jumps into the pilot's chair. The father slowly stands and walks towards the seat. He smacks his son on the back of the head. The son quickly jumps up and steps aside from the seat with his head bowed towards the ground. The father grabs him and gives him a hug then walks over to the pilot's seat.

Cheers,
Malcolm.