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newnumber6Over on Serenity: The Official Movie Website they have a 'point' system - you earn points through various tasks, which you can eventually use to get free merchandise and stuff. One of the most recent 'challenges' was to write the synopsis for the pilot to a spinoff TV series from Firefly, using one character from the series.
So, I did so. It's a bit different than most WIDWs, because I only had a couple weeks to do it (and even that only in my spare time between XET work and other stuff and had a limit of 10000 characters (which I hit and had to reduce), rather than taking all the time and space I need to think, so pretty much I just went with my first idea and ran with it.
The 'one character from the series' I chose was Saffron/Yolanda/Bridgett from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash". So, here we go... after the cut is my synopsis for a pilot:
Working Series Title: Fallen Angels
Working Pilot Episode Title: Pardoner's Tale
In the dead of space, a transport ship loses navigational control and sensors and has to stop for repairs.
Another ship, Peregrine-class 'Fallen Angel', dives in and makes a feather light connection. Aboard, we see Captain Samuel Boyd looking over the screens. He asks his Cortex specialist, Belle Wu how long it'll be. She tells him the transport ship's sensors won't detect them for at least 15 minutes, but they might have felt a connection. The pilot, Taylor, argues that he came in as softly as he could. Over the coms, Captain Boyd is told that they're about to cut their way through. He asks if the others want to join him this time. "My job ended when we docked. I don't do fighting."
We see Boyd and Callahan (the resident muscle) drop through a hatch and start roaming the halls. They encounter someone and subdue him without killing. Boyd is directed by earpiece, and we see him passing by locked doors, until he finds one labeled Jane Doe. They bust the lock and open it, to find a woman inside. It's YoSaffBridge. They leave her cuffed but pull her out.
They reach the ship and Captain Boyd tells the pilot to get them away before they realize what happened, and Callahan to lock the prisoner in a crew room.
Later, Boyd talks to her in her quarters. She's still handcuffed. He reads from a file that lists many of her aliases, but notes there's no real name known, asks what he should call her. She tells him to call her anything he wants. "You ran some scams off the Triumph colony under the name Saffron. I like that name."
She makes a face, one of her few big failures were under that name. "Anything but that."
Boyd smiles, says. "Saffron it is, then." He tells her he works for a secret black ops division of Alliance intelligence. He's willing to offer her a full pardon for every crime she's committed in the past, under any name, whether they know about it yet or not. The catch? She has to sign onto his team for a five year term. If she refuses, they'll take her right back to the authorities. She doesn't see much choice, but figuring she can probably get away at some point, agrees.
He introduces her to the rest of the crew. Belle Wu, expert hacker and security expert, nabbed for theft from Blue Sun. Taylor, pilot and field medic. He isn't working off crimes, but rather a huge debt assigned to him when he crash-landed a ship he didn't own and wrecked the cargo, even though it was faulty parts that caused him to crash. Mackie, the engineer, an alcoholic- good at his job, but has trouble getting work, so Boyd hired him. Callahan, the muscle, a mercenary wanted for the murder of a planetary governor.
He tells Saffron that the crew of the Fallen Angel are, except to a few people in Alliance intelligence, a group of mercenaries for hire working together, which is why they're recruiting people who'd never work for the government. Their job is twofold. They're working their way up to being trusted by organized crime groups and gathering evidence. They're also using the cover of criminals-for-hire to break into legitimate facilities and gather evidence, as there are factions within the Alliance government trying to hijack it for their own interests. As such they can only have limited contact with superiors and run on their own, but if they're caught, the Alliance disavows any knowledge of them and they go to prison.
Right now, they're on their way to Sihnon to steal an experimental engine's schematics as a cover for hacking into the Blue Sun mainframe to look for evidence that Blue Sun is blackmailing government officials. Saffron asks what she's needed for. "We think you have 'special talents' that'll come in handy."
During the journey Saffron has some one on one time with some of the crew. She tries halfheartedly to seduce Taylor, but he sees through her and insults her. Belle Wu tells her not to worry, it's not her, he doesn't like anyone. She talks a little about some of the hacks she used to pull, how she's excited about getting another crack at Blue Sun. Other assorted character revealing conversations here.
Once they land, we see Saffron come into her own. Almost like a spy show, she goes undercover, in a bar or similar recreational area, trying to seduce someone with security access. She's directed from afar by Boyd over a radio earpiece. He points her towards the target. There are snags, though... the first one is, Saffron recognizes someone she knows, or more importantly someone who knows her, and panics. Boyd gets Callahan in to distract this person and guides Saffron through it... in all other respects, Saffron performs excellently, improvising smoothly with the Blue Sun employee and managing to get him out for some alone time. She gives him the 'good night kiss', and Boyd comes in, ready to switch his security card with a fake, so he won't notice it... that's when they reach the second snag... the only thing they can find is his key-swipe for home. They figure maybe he left his clearance at home. Boyd announces 'plan b'. They leave him in Callahan's hands, while they go to his house (Belle pulls his address off the Cortex). There, after searching they find the Blue Sun keycard, replace it with the fake, and he instructs Saffron to rob the place, make it look real.
With the keycard in hand, Belle, Callahan, Boyd, and Saffron meet up in they make it into the facility. They've changed into more business-like clothes, under the theory that Blue Sun has so many employees that if they look like they belong, they won't be questioned. Everything doesn't go entirely smoothly, but once they get into the secured area, Belle's able to hack in, steal the schematics. Boyd then tells her to leave him access and everyone to wait in the outer room while he looks for evidence. They do, but Belle gets Callahan to watch down the halls for anyone coming, and to take Saffron. Once she's alone she goes to a nearby terminal and starts going through Blue Sun files, for her own curiosity. She sees something that surprises her.
At some point in the action we cut to Taylor and Mackie in a much seedier bar, just enjoying themselves and getting drunk.
Once everything's done, they manage to just barely get away, only having to fight some on the way out, but disappear into the streets. Later, they're all back on the ship and just about ready to go.
Once in the air, Belle asks to speak to the Captain privately in his quarters. There, she tells him that while he was in the mainframe, she couldn't resist snooping around, and found a file on him. She downloaded it before he deleted it from their system. He's not a federal agent at all, he's a mercenary with a record as a con man, and he's worked for them.
Boyd tries to tell her it's part of his cover. Belle doesn't buy it - if it was, she reasons, he'd want the file out there for others to find. Instead, he's systematically removing his records whereever he can, once she's gotten him into the system. If he was really a black ops agent he wouldn't have to do that sort of thing himself, it would be done for him. He's been lying to them.
Very casually, he turns away and fixes himself a drink. In the process, he smoothly tucks a gun into his belt hides it under his shirt, and then he admits it. "You're right, I don't work for Alliance intelligence. I'm in this for myself."
"So, what happens at the end of our five years? Do you kill us? Or make up some (Mandarin expletive) excuse why we have to work for you longer?"
"Belle, I don't expect to be alive in five years. If I am, I've probably gotten what I want and won't much care what you do to me. In truth, I'm not terribly worried about most of you. Taylor's in love with this ship. He can have it, and he'll complain to his last breath about what I did to him, but he'll take it and secretly be happy for it. Mackie's just in it for a steady job anyway. Callahan's actually innocent, and I know where there's evidence that can prove it. I'm a bit worried about Saffron, but she eats, sleeps, and breathes deception. She'll probably try to escape when she sees an advantage anyway. You, well, you're not the killer type. None of you are. Oh, maybe when the chips are down, and there's no other option but not for something as petty as revenge. That's part of why I picked you."
"And what is it that you want? What's the point of it all?"
"It's personal. That's my secret, and I'm going to carry it a while longer. What I'm more concerned about is what you're going to do about yours."
Belle considers. "I never actually joined for the promise of a pardon, you know. It was a nice bonus, but I can make myself a new identity on a dozen worlds and never be found again. You've got a personal agenda, well, me too. We're partners now. We'll go on your missions, and now and then, we'll go on mine."
"We'll see."
"One more thing. I deal with information. Incomplete information I'm used to. Faulty information is where problems begin. Your goals go up in smoke the next time you lie to me, one on one. Dong ma?"
"Fair enough."
Belle starts towards the hatch. Boyd asks a question as she's leaving. "Why did you join, then? If not for the pardon."
She smiles at him. "Believe it or not, I actually liked what you said about redemption. I wanted us to be heroes, even if we had to pretend to be crooks to do it. So you might be in it for something personal, but I'm going to make us heroes along the way, like you promised. Robbing from the rich, helping them as needs it most... why, that's the kind of thing they write legends about." Boyd takes it in, stone-faced.
She leaves. When she's gone, and Boyd is all by himself, he puts away the gun he had hidden just in case, breathes out a sigh of relief, and says, "Shiny."
End
This and all my WIDWs archived here.
So, I did so. It's a bit different than most WIDWs, because I only had a couple weeks to do it (and even that only in my spare time between XET work and other stuff and had a limit of 10000 characters (which I hit and had to reduce), rather than taking all the time and space I need to think, so pretty much I just went with my first idea and ran with it.
The 'one character from the series' I chose was Saffron/Yolanda/Bridgett from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash". So, here we go... after the cut is my synopsis for a pilot:
Working Series Title: Fallen Angels
Working Pilot Episode Title: Pardoner's Tale
In the dead of space, a transport ship loses navigational control and sensors and has to stop for repairs.
Another ship, Peregrine-class 'Fallen Angel', dives in and makes a feather light connection. Aboard, we see Captain Samuel Boyd looking over the screens. He asks his Cortex specialist, Belle Wu how long it'll be. She tells him the transport ship's sensors won't detect them for at least 15 minutes, but they might have felt a connection. The pilot, Taylor, argues that he came in as softly as he could. Over the coms, Captain Boyd is told that they're about to cut their way through. He asks if the others want to join him this time. "My job ended when we docked. I don't do fighting."
We see Boyd and Callahan (the resident muscle) drop through a hatch and start roaming the halls. They encounter someone and subdue him without killing. Boyd is directed by earpiece, and we see him passing by locked doors, until he finds one labeled Jane Doe. They bust the lock and open it, to find a woman inside. It's YoSaffBridge. They leave her cuffed but pull her out.
They reach the ship and Captain Boyd tells the pilot to get them away before they realize what happened, and Callahan to lock the prisoner in a crew room.
Later, Boyd talks to her in her quarters. She's still handcuffed. He reads from a file that lists many of her aliases, but notes there's no real name known, asks what he should call her. She tells him to call her anything he wants. "You ran some scams off the Triumph colony under the name Saffron. I like that name."
She makes a face, one of her few big failures were under that name. "Anything but that."
Boyd smiles, says. "Saffron it is, then." He tells her he works for a secret black ops division of Alliance intelligence. He's willing to offer her a full pardon for every crime she's committed in the past, under any name, whether they know about it yet or not. The catch? She has to sign onto his team for a five year term. If she refuses, they'll take her right back to the authorities. She doesn't see much choice, but figuring she can probably get away at some point, agrees.
He introduces her to the rest of the crew. Belle Wu, expert hacker and security expert, nabbed for theft from Blue Sun. Taylor, pilot and field medic. He isn't working off crimes, but rather a huge debt assigned to him when he crash-landed a ship he didn't own and wrecked the cargo, even though it was faulty parts that caused him to crash. Mackie, the engineer, an alcoholic- good at his job, but has trouble getting work, so Boyd hired him. Callahan, the muscle, a mercenary wanted for the murder of a planetary governor.
He tells Saffron that the crew of the Fallen Angel are, except to a few people in Alliance intelligence, a group of mercenaries for hire working together, which is why they're recruiting people who'd never work for the government. Their job is twofold. They're working their way up to being trusted by organized crime groups and gathering evidence. They're also using the cover of criminals-for-hire to break into legitimate facilities and gather evidence, as there are factions within the Alliance government trying to hijack it for their own interests. As such they can only have limited contact with superiors and run on their own, but if they're caught, the Alliance disavows any knowledge of them and they go to prison.
Right now, they're on their way to Sihnon to steal an experimental engine's schematics as a cover for hacking into the Blue Sun mainframe to look for evidence that Blue Sun is blackmailing government officials. Saffron asks what she's needed for. "We think you have 'special talents' that'll come in handy."
During the journey Saffron has some one on one time with some of the crew. She tries halfheartedly to seduce Taylor, but he sees through her and insults her. Belle Wu tells her not to worry, it's not her, he doesn't like anyone. She talks a little about some of the hacks she used to pull, how she's excited about getting another crack at Blue Sun. Other assorted character revealing conversations here.
Once they land, we see Saffron come into her own. Almost like a spy show, she goes undercover, in a bar or similar recreational area, trying to seduce someone with security access. She's directed from afar by Boyd over a radio earpiece. He points her towards the target. There are snags, though... the first one is, Saffron recognizes someone she knows, or more importantly someone who knows her, and panics. Boyd gets Callahan in to distract this person and guides Saffron through it... in all other respects, Saffron performs excellently, improvising smoothly with the Blue Sun employee and managing to get him out for some alone time. She gives him the 'good night kiss', and Boyd comes in, ready to switch his security card with a fake, so he won't notice it... that's when they reach the second snag... the only thing they can find is his key-swipe for home. They figure maybe he left his clearance at home. Boyd announces 'plan b'. They leave him in Callahan's hands, while they go to his house (Belle pulls his address off the Cortex). There, after searching they find the Blue Sun keycard, replace it with the fake, and he instructs Saffron to rob the place, make it look real.
With the keycard in hand, Belle, Callahan, Boyd, and Saffron meet up in they make it into the facility. They've changed into more business-like clothes, under the theory that Blue Sun has so many employees that if they look like they belong, they won't be questioned. Everything doesn't go entirely smoothly, but once they get into the secured area, Belle's able to hack in, steal the schematics. Boyd then tells her to leave him access and everyone to wait in the outer room while he looks for evidence. They do, but Belle gets Callahan to watch down the halls for anyone coming, and to take Saffron. Once she's alone she goes to a nearby terminal and starts going through Blue Sun files, for her own curiosity. She sees something that surprises her.
At some point in the action we cut to Taylor and Mackie in a much seedier bar, just enjoying themselves and getting drunk.
Once everything's done, they manage to just barely get away, only having to fight some on the way out, but disappear into the streets. Later, they're all back on the ship and just about ready to go.
Once in the air, Belle asks to speak to the Captain privately in his quarters. There, she tells him that while he was in the mainframe, she couldn't resist snooping around, and found a file on him. She downloaded it before he deleted it from their system. He's not a federal agent at all, he's a mercenary with a record as a con man, and he's worked for them.
Boyd tries to tell her it's part of his cover. Belle doesn't buy it - if it was, she reasons, he'd want the file out there for others to find. Instead, he's systematically removing his records whereever he can, once she's gotten him into the system. If he was really a black ops agent he wouldn't have to do that sort of thing himself, it would be done for him. He's been lying to them.
Very casually, he turns away and fixes himself a drink. In the process, he smoothly tucks a gun into his belt hides it under his shirt, and then he admits it. "You're right, I don't work for Alliance intelligence. I'm in this for myself."
"So, what happens at the end of our five years? Do you kill us? Or make up some (Mandarin expletive) excuse why we have to work for you longer?"
"Belle, I don't expect to be alive in five years. If I am, I've probably gotten what I want and won't much care what you do to me. In truth, I'm not terribly worried about most of you. Taylor's in love with this ship. He can have it, and he'll complain to his last breath about what I did to him, but he'll take it and secretly be happy for it. Mackie's just in it for a steady job anyway. Callahan's actually innocent, and I know where there's evidence that can prove it. I'm a bit worried about Saffron, but she eats, sleeps, and breathes deception. She'll probably try to escape when she sees an advantage anyway. You, well, you're not the killer type. None of you are. Oh, maybe when the chips are down, and there's no other option but not for something as petty as revenge. That's part of why I picked you."
"And what is it that you want? What's the point of it all?"
"It's personal. That's my secret, and I'm going to carry it a while longer. What I'm more concerned about is what you're going to do about yours."
Belle considers. "I never actually joined for the promise of a pardon, you know. It was a nice bonus, but I can make myself a new identity on a dozen worlds and never be found again. You've got a personal agenda, well, me too. We're partners now. We'll go on your missions, and now and then, we'll go on mine."
"We'll see."
"One more thing. I deal with information. Incomplete information I'm used to. Faulty information is where problems begin. Your goals go up in smoke the next time you lie to me, one on one. Dong ma?"
"Fair enough."
Belle starts towards the hatch. Boyd asks a question as she's leaving. "Why did you join, then? If not for the pardon."
She smiles at him. "Believe it or not, I actually liked what you said about redemption. I wanted us to be heroes, even if we had to pretend to be crooks to do it. So you might be in it for something personal, but I'm going to make us heroes along the way, like you promised. Robbing from the rich, helping them as needs it most... why, that's the kind of thing they write legends about." Boyd takes it in, stone-faced.
She leaves. When she's gone, and Boyd is all by himself, he puts away the gun he had hidden just in case, breathes out a sigh of relief, and says, "Shiny."
End
This and all my WIDWs archived here.
