Callisto

By John Carney

Centuries after the fall of Earth, humanity stubbornly clings to life across dozens of civilizations spread throughout the solar system. Under the leadership of the Galileo Charter, one of these civilizations has colonized the moons of Jupiter, making Callisto their primary satellite both for habitation and governance in subterranean hives. When Izia, an eighteen-year-old orphan, stumbles upon her supervisor's bootlegging operation, she is exposed to a world of interconnected politics that drives her to discover what mysteries underlie her life, her hive, and her entire society. And she's beginning to understand that, on Callisto, life beneath the surface hides all manner of secrets.

*This story is formatted as a screenplay*

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Carney
• Release date: Jun 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781953666123

Book preview

Callisto

John Carney

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Key and Candle, Inc.

Copyright © 2021 by John Carney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

Published by Key & Candle, Inc.

Jupiter, Florida

keyandcandle.com

ISBN: 978-1-953666-12-3

Book design by John Carney

Contents

1. Act I

2. Act II

3. Act III

About Author

Also By

Act I

FADE IN:

Space, vast and black, fills the screen.

MUSIC CUE: Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst

MAIN TITLE:

CALLISTO

EXT. SOLAR SYSTEM

The sun glows brightly at the center of the Solar System as the planets rush past. They slow as they pass, following long, ovoid paths. FOV tightens on Jupiter.

VOICE OVER

The year is three hundred forty-four. Five thousand one hundred seventeen by the old Chinese calendar, or twenty-four twenty by the Gregorian. Interplanetary colonization began almost four hundred years ago, two hundred years before life on Earth was destroyed.

EXT. JUPITER

Jupiter dominates the screen. His moons enter and exit the FOV as they travel along their ellipses.

VOICE OVER

The Galileo Charter rules the Jupiter System. The Charter turned the gaseous giant into a refueling center for travel between the various planetary civilizations, and they have reaped the benefits for centuries.

EXT. CALLISTO

FOV tightens on the moon Callisto, emerging from Jupiter’s enormous shadow. Her surface is dark and scarred by innumerable craters.

VOICE OVER

The majority of the Charter’s citizens are located on Jupiter’s fourth moon, Callisto. The icy rock is home to several underground hives, each containing its own self-sustaining community.

INT. VALHALLA HIVE - IZIA’S BEDROOM - DAY

IZIA, an attractive 18-year-old girl with dark, curly hair, steps through a retractable door into a small, Spartan bedroom. She wears a towel that she pulls off to dry her damp hair before quickly donning her grey, one-piece uniform and exiting through another retractable door.

INT. HALLWAY

Izia emerges into a cylindrical, dull metal hallway that curves out of view in either direction. She walks down a familiar path, waits briefly at an elevator’s retractable doorway, then enters as the doors open.

INT. ELEVATOR

Several people — all in the same grey, one-piece uniform — stand inside the circular elevator carriage. A CHIME SOUNDS (440 Hz) as the elevator doors close, then continues marking each floor as the carriage ascends [7 -- 6 -- 5 -- 4].

INT. HALLWAY

Izia steps into another cylindrical hallway and begins following its curved path. JANE, an attractive 18-year-old girl identical to Izia, emerges from a conjoining hallway. Jane’s cheeks and eyes GLOW with a warm light, and her dark hair is streaked with silver that actively SHIMMERS.

IZIA

Hey, Jane.

Jane looks apathetically over her shoulder at Izia. She SIGHS, irritated.

JANE

Hi, Itzy-Bitzy.

IZIA

Please don’t call me that.

JANE

Whatever.

IZIA

You look different today.

JANE

(brightening)

Targeted bioluminescence. Daddy had a team of cosmetic geneticists brought to the Hive to do it for me special. It’s a brand new treatment, just invented, very expensive.

Izia and Jane arrive at a closed door and queue up behind three waiting girls, whose identical faces are each framed by a different style of blonde hair. The door slides open.

INT. CLASSROOM

The students file into the empty classroom as the floor’s rigid geometric pattern begins to shift. The patterned plates of metal separate and fold into desks before the girls each take a seat. Two boys with matching faces and blonde crew cuts enter and sit in the rear of the room.

JANE

(to Izia)

Hey, did you do the—

MRS. NOLE

Good morning, class.

MRS. NOLE enters and stands beside a large desk at the front of the room. She is in her early-100s, with a stern voice that can bend steel with a word. The few creases in her face show the indigo tinge of age regression treatments, but her eyes are sharp and clear within similarly affected indigo sockets.

STUDENTS

(unenthusiastic)

Good morning, Mrs. Nole.

The door slides open and SAMIR enters the classroom. He is a swarthy 18-year-old boy with chiseled features and dark hair.

MRS. NOLE

Impeccable timing, young man. Front and center. Now class, as I mentioned last week, this being our last week of instruction before the Pacem holiday, we’re going to keep our sessions nice and short — we’re only going to hear from one of you each day.

Mrs. Nole pulls a small tablet from the breast pocket of her uniform. She dims the lights and activates the holographic projector.

MRS. NOLE (cont’d)

Samir, you have our first topic.

SAMIR

Thanks Mrs. N. My topic is the early history of Jupiter. In the year sixteen-ten Gregorian, Galileo Galilei observed the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Although further moons were later discovered, the exploration of Jupiter was given little attention until the end of the twentieth century.

JANE

Pssst... Izia... Izia.

IZIA

(whispering)

What?

SAMIR

Beginning with the Galileo in nineteen-ninety-five, interplanetary probes were sent to Jupiter to collect data. The Cassini followed in two-thousand, and the Juno in two-thousand-sixteen. These probes sent vital information about the Jupiter System back to Earth, enticing and intriguing the entire planet.

JANE

Did you do the Gravity and Magnetism Quiz?

IZIA

What?

JANE

The grav and mag quiz, did you do it, retard?

Mrs. Nole clears her throat loudly and stares pointedly at Jane and Izia.

SAMIR

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, space exploration was open to anyone who could afford the expense. The first private individual to construct her own interplanetary fleet was considered tragically eccentric and derided for her temerity. The second to do so was widely criticized for his dithering. Historians call this period ‘Humanity’s