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.Escape from Land of the Giants Season 3	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Land of the Giants Views: 1785 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Land of the Giants show, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
(Vertag sits at the giant kitchen table at night. He spreads a deck of tarrat cards across the table, looking at the faces. It fades to inside Janet's dollhouse. She and Styles and Perez are in her living room. All are in civilian attire and drinking. Janet has wine, the Marines have beer. It's clearly a social call. In the background a printer can be heard chucking something out with a certain regularity)
Styles: And he hadn't mentioned Lessala at all?
Janet: They're not a very…talkative family.
Perez: Until there's gossip. Or Drink.
Janet: That's true.
Styles: So they grilled him about his girflriend?
Perez: No. They grilled us about his girlfriend.
Janet: In the nicest possible way, of course.
Perez: Yeah. 'Got films, spy-girl?' his brother asked. Nicest possible way.
Styles: (laughs) What'd Vertag do?
Janet: Sat there quietly.
Perez: If his Dad hadn't been there, might have been a little more…
Styles: Homicidal?
Perez: Exactly.
Styles: Wish I could have seen it. (In the background, the printer beeps. Janet walks over and takes a stack of tarrat cards out of the hopper) What's that?
Janet: Dad gave Vertag a deck of tarrat cards. Says that with the Book, they're the key to finding the Order. Brown scanned them in for me.
Styles: Tarrat anything like Tarot?
Janet: Well, take a look. (hands about a third of the deck to each woman. They sit, fanning through the cards.
Perez: I guess the Axes are our suit, the Swords?
Styles: The Wands are Books in this deck, I see.
Janet: You guys know about these things?
Perez: Yeah. Picked up some things from my sister.
Styles: My dad used to read them.
Janet: No one ever says 'I was interested so I studied them.' It's always this other person's interest.
(Cut to the kitchen. Vertag notices something in the design of the cards. He starts fanning through the deck, pulling certain cards out and assembling a spread. Not dealing one, he slots them like he's building a jigsaw puzzle.)
(Cut to the dollhouse)
Perez: Wait. The Books aren't Wands. The Books are Pentacles.
Janet: What does that mean?
Perez: Well, each suit has certain meanings. The Swords are conflict. Wands are intellectual pursuits.
Styles: So they're Books in this deck.
Perez: No, look at the Six of Books. (holds card out to Styles) That's the craftsman.
Styles: Oh. So Books are Pentacles.
Janet: And…
Perez: Our Pentacles are gold coins. Profit, value, wealth.
Styles: So whoever painted this deck thinks that Books are wealth.
Janet: I like that.
Perez: They seem to use Lanterns as Cups.
Styles: Then what are the Wands?
Janet: Wands are these stick-things?
Styles: Yeah. Wands, staves, rods.
Janet: So there's four suits, like a regular deck? (the other two nod) And there are…more powerful cards, like Death, The Devil, The Lovers.
Perez: Yeah.
Styles: Major Arcana.
Janet: And they…mean something? A tall, dark, handsome man will carry you away?
Styles: That's your job description. (They all laugh)
Perez: You know what? I think you should do a spread. We'll show you how it works.
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Roll Titles
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(Janet sits by a card table that's made of a giant box of matches. Perez fans through the deck and puts one card down)
Perez: Okay. We start with this one, it represents you.   (hands the deck to Janet) Now, shuffle.
(Janet shuffles, looks down at the identifying card. It's The Imbecile.)
Janet: Imbecile? You think of me as a raving idiot?
Styles: The Fool. It represents one who starts looking for knowledge, for inspiration.
Perez: All you know is that you don't know everything.
Styles: The querent on the cusp of enlightenment.
Janet: Uh-huh. (stops shuffling) Now what?
Perez: Put a card down on top of the Fool. Imbecile. This card represents your current situation.
(Cut to the Kitchen. Vertag examines his copy of The Imbecile. He runs his finger along the edge where ornate patterns are drawn. Then he places it in the center of his spread)
Styles: Six of Axes. (a boat on the water, axes stabbed into the gunwales) That's a journey.
Janet: Well, we had to travel to get here.
Perez: That's not all. It also indicates one who travels. An ambassador. An envoy.
Janet: A…liaison?
Perez: Could be. Sure.
Janet: Freaky.
Perez: Not really. The cards have a lot of meanings, it's our minds that pick which ones apply. Now, the next card identifies an obstacle you face.
Janet: (draws the Tower. A structure based on the Tower of Babel. Lightning strikes it and two people fall from it. Styles helps her place it across the Six.) That looks painful.
Styles: The establishment. Well, the domination of the establishment over the individuals.
Janet: Like the Giant government?
Perez: Just like.
Janet: They're certainly an obstacle.
Perez: Next card goes under. It's an unconscious influence, a basic drive. (Janet places the Child of Lanterns there) I think the Child in this deck is the Page of ours.
Janet: Page being 'a tall dark stranger will…'
Perez: No.
Styles: No, it's a friendly, imaginative, spiritual young woman. Family oriented, endlessly inventive.
Janet: Oh, my God! I'm here trying to find my sister! And rescue her. (she taps the Tower with a finger) From the Directorate!
Perez: Okay, deep breath. Now, to the left, put a passing influence. (deals The Hierophant, a Pope-looking figure, upside down.)
Styles: That matches the Tower. It's someone who supports the State and the status quo. Establishment over freedom.
Perez: Could this be Vertag?
Janet: He's not a fading influence. And he has his good points. This might be Tolag. Because of him, I know they have Jamie..
Perez: Okay. Now, your current state of mind goes on top.
Janet: (Four of Axes) That's a tomb!
Perez: Rest for the weary.
Janet: But I'm not restful.
Perez: But you're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel? And end to your quest?
Janet: Um…okay. (She deals a card to the fourth cardinal direction. Glances at the others, who nod. It's the 8 of Axes. A woman stands in a circle of sharp blades. She's blindfolded) Oh, that's marvelous. I'm surrounded by danger.
Perez: No. Surrounded by consequences.
Styles: And in the short term, you're starting to see that anything you do might have a bad outcome.
Janet: How do I get around these dangers?
Styles: You identify them. And you get help.
Janet: Help. Where's that at?
Perez: Put a card here. (taps the match box) That's how you see the situation.
Janet: Okay. (10 of Axes. A body lays face down in the mud with 10 axes embedded in the back and legs) Christ, I'd rather have had the Death card right there.
Styles: This is the card we used to call, 'it's as bad as it looks.'
Janet: So I am being overwhelmed?
Perez: No. This is just how you see things. Put a card here. This is how others see you.
Janet: And there's only one imbecile in the deck right?
Perez: (laughs) Yeah.
Styles: Unless there's something very weird going on.
Janet: (deals the Child of Axes) Child? People see me as a Child?
Perez: This would be the Page of Swords. Direct. Capable. Decisive. Things get done by this person. Uses intelligence and gathered knowledge to achieve goals.
Styles: Well, that's you.
Janet: (small voice) Really? (they nod)
(Cut to the ktichen. Vertag continues to assemble the spread. Every card we see so far matches Janet's spread. Cut back to the dollhouse)
Styles: Now. Here. Deal the card for your hopes for the future.
Janet: That help you mentioned? (Styles nods. Janet deals the Warrior of Axes)
Perez: Damn, girl. You got more conflict in your spread than I did when I was deployed.
Janet: Your sister came to the war theatre to cast your fortune?
Perez: Shut up.
Styles: A man, mature, reasonable. Intellectual. Uses his guile to avoid conflicts.
Janet: So…it's not Vertag. (they laugh)
Perez: But…if it was reversed. That would indicate someone brutal. Swift to violence, uses that violence as resolution. Stubborn.
Janet: Oh. So if it was upside down, it WOULD be Vertag. (she turns the card over)
Perez: Hey!
Styles: You can't do that.
Janet: It's MY hope for the future, right? I want the big galoot on my side.
Styles: Works for me.
(Cut to the Kitchen. Vertag places the Warrior of Axes, right side up, in that position. Cut back to the dollhouse)
Janet: And one goes here? (deals the Seven of Axes) What's that for?
Perez: It's the last card. How everything turns out.
Styles: Someone sneaks onto the battlefield and steals some axes. While they're distracted, he profits from the battle.
Janet: I get Jamie? Sneak her out from under the giants' noses?
Perez: Maybe. It could also be the cancer cure. Or maybe all the humans on the planet. Just some goal is reached.
(Cut to the kitchen. Vertag places the Five of Axes in the last position, where Janet has the 7 of Axes. He finishes by putting the 9 of Axes over the center card, as the obstacle in the fortune. He sits back and gazes over the cards. Cut back to the dollhouse)
Janet: So. The loss of my sister drove me to be an envoy against the Giant government. A member of that government gave me evidence that she's alive and my goals are coming to be fulfilled. People think I'm capable of that, although I'm sure I'm in over my head. And Vertag's going to help me kick some ass.
Perez: I could have told you that without the cards. (All laugh. Fade out on a closeup of the Seven of Axes (a youth gathers axes from the ground near where a battle rages, looking around to avoid being caught))
-----
(Labcoat is in the Exchange kitchen with Dr. Aksarra. He's removing trays of materials from a cabinet. Each tray has dozens of tiny plastic-wrapped specimens. Some are plant, some are fabric, some are meals. There's stones and anything else that could be used to distract someone from the true location of the cancer cures)
Labcoat: Now, each patient's number is on each sample.
Aksarra: Uh huh.
Labcoat: And each set of samples has a time marker.
Aksarra: Day, hour, minute, I see.
Labcoat: Yes. It's crucial that you familiarize yourself with the schedule in here.
Aksarra: In here?
Labcoat: Yes. You have to present these materials to the Earthlings at exactly the time on the label. You can't take them into the Tank room any sooner. And if you're late, you can't take them in at all.
Aksarra: Why is that, Doctor?
Labcoat: Because it may introduce chaos into the observations. We're trying to establish which of these materials is or contributes to the cure. If they're exposed too soon, or too late, our calculations will be off.
Aksarra: So if I do miss a scheduled delivery, I destroy the samples.
Labcoat: What? Of course not! Are you crazy?
Aksarra: Doctor?
Labcoat: Ah. Ahem. Um, no. No, you don't do that. You, uh, call my office. We'll calculate the best time to reintroduce the samples. And send you new labels.
Aksarra: Um, okay. I've never really heard of conducting experiments quite this way, though
Labcoat: Have you ever tried to find a cure for skirries before?
Aksarra: Well, no, I haven't, but-
Labcoat: Then maybe you should shut up about things you don't understand.
Aksarra: I- Yes, sir.
Labcoat: Alright. Now, it's crucial that the Earthlings don't gain access to this cabinet.
Aksarra: I understand
Labcoat: I don't think you do, but that's not necessary. Not at along as you obey the rules. And they obey the rules.
Aksarra: I'm sure they will, Doctor.
Labcoat: They'd better. Any chance you get, you might want to make that clear to them. If they disobey, they will regret it. (he replaces the samples and closes the cabinet, locks it.)
Aksarra: Uh…okay. (he raises an eyebrow) Yes, sir.
Labcoat: Better. (he turns to leave the room. She makes a face at his back, then follows)
(Cut to the Lobby. Labcoat walks past Lessala without acknowledging her existence, leaves the building. Aksarra takes a chair across from Lessala at her desk)
Lessala: So, you all oriented on the experimental samples?
Aksarra: Oh, yes. Medically oriented and philosophically oriented and politically oriented.
Lessala: That bad?
Aksarra: You have no idea. Unless you have the room bugged, that is.
Lessala: Unless. (they share a smile) Hey, you here for a while? Cheryl wanted to say hi.
Aksarra: Yeah, sure. (the doggie door in the wall opens up and a Hummer drives to Lessala's desk. Cheryl gets out, waves to Aksarra. The Vet lifts her up to the desktop while the Hummer drives back through the door and disappears)
Cheryl: Hey, Doc!
Aksarra: Hello, Cheryl. How are the Earthlings treating you?
Cheryl: Like I belong here. (she smiles very happily. Aksarra smiles back almost as wide)
Aksarra: That's good. The practice is dull without you.
Cheryl: Sorry.
Lessala: From what I hear, she's been a big help preparing the docs for the second Tank.
Aksarra: Really? Are you going to be in there?
Cheryl: Oh, no. I just lectured the ones that'll be assisting the patients.
Aksarra: What do you lecture them about?
Cheryl: The standard fear-of-God, don't dick around piece.
Aksarra: Fear of…?
Cheryl: Oh, I'm sure you got the same talk. How the cure is so sensitive. If they get too little, it might lead to a temporary remission but a lethal resurge.
Aksarra: Really? I wasn't aware of that…
Lessala: Hey, we didn't even know there was a cure until- Uh.
Aksarra: Until some Earthling got cured.
Lessala: Right. Right. Skirries has always been like privacy. Something-
Aksarra and Lessala together: -that happens to other people. (they smile)
Cheryl: How can you laugh about that? (They shrug)
Aksarra: So… The dosage is that critical?
Cheryl: It is. So we have to convince the doctors and nurses and patients not to try to sneak any samples out. It could mean someone's life.
Aksarra: (thoughtful) Really…
(fade out on her thoughtful expression)
(Fade in on a business building. There's a small lawn ringed by a hedge out in front. The sign over the door says CompUDyne. The 'Speaker' from episode 3-04 walks out the door and down the sidewalk.)
(Cut to the hedge. Down at the bottom, a human sniper in a ghillie suit rests on the dirt and aims a high powered rifle.)
(Cut to the Speaker. He walks to the end of the sidewalk and looks left and right as he passes the hedge)
(Cut to a sniper's scope view. The crosshairs rest on the heel of one shoe.)
(Cut to the hedge. The sniper fires.)
(Cut to the Speaker. As he lifts his foot there's a slight tug. He looks down, looks all around, can't see a cause.)
(Cut to the sniper who lays motionless and nearly invisible near a trunk of the hedge)
(Cut back up to the Speaker. He finally continues on his way.)
(Cut to the surveillance tent. Marines watch a beeping red dot on a display.)
Tech1: (speaking into a microphone) Tracking the transmitter. Solid signal and the probe indicates a good placement.
(Cut to the sniper)
Sniper: (whispers) Understood. (lays flat in the underbush)
(Cut to a drain pipe. Three Marines guard a Hummer. They're near but not directly under a sewer grate.)
Marine1: Sarge? How long until sundown?
Marine2: About three hours until he can get down here safely.
(Cut to the sniper)
Sniper: Don't drive off without me.
(Cut to the sewer)
Marine3: Can't. You took the keys.... (Sniper's voice laughs softly over the radio)(fade)
(Fade in to the giant kitchen in daylight. Vertag enters, carrying Janet. He lowers her to the table then draws the tarrat deck from his pocket and places it on the table. He turns on a jammer and starts to pick cards out of the deck)
Vertag: So I finally realized, the layout's not coded in the symbols, but in the edges.
Janet: Oh! All that scroll work on the magins!
Vertag: Exactly. They're like puzzle pieces. (Janet watches as he spreads the cards out. She turns quizzical as the cards he lays out resemble the cards of her spread from the night before.)
Janet: Are you sure this...?
Vertag: Reasonably. I mean, there are a couple that don't make a perfect fit, but they're very close.
Janet: Uh....huh.
Vertag: What?
Janet: Oh, nothing.
Vertag: Okay. Anyway, with the cards spread like this, then the symbols for fortune telling become symbols to create a map to where the Order is located.
Janet:   (walks up to the Warrior of Axes.) Vertag? How weird would it be if this card was reversed? What would that do to the pattern?
Vertag: Huh? It, uh... (he lifts the card and runs a finger around the edges, turning it this way and that as he examines the puzzle figures) Well. It COULD go either way, but I... Okay, there are four puzzle pieces that fit for upside up. And only two for upside down.
Janet:   I think it belongs upside down.
Vertag: (Stares at her for a moment, waiting) Okay. (places it her way) That... I think that changes the province we end up in. We'll see how your computers take the symbols.
Janet:   Okay. And, uh... (steps over to the Five of Axes.) Do you know what this one means?
Vertag: What, like in a fortune? (Five of axes is similar to the Seven of axes. But where Janet's card shows someone sneaking axes from a battlefield, the one in this spread shows a young man picking up abandoned axes as two other men slink away.) Um. Distrust. Lies. Ties broken.
Janet:   Treaties violated?
Vertag: (Looks at her suspiciously) I suppose. (looks over the spread) If this was the final card of a fortune, I'd say that someone was going to do something that... That ends the peace. And starts a war. Or at least a period of heightened tension, as they say on the news.
Janet:   Uh huh. Just for curiosity, would the Seven of Axes fit here?
Vertag: (fans through the deck to find the Seven. Stares at it.) Nooooo. (Looks from seven to five) The Seven is for profiting while avoiding conflict. The Five is spoiling for a fight that you think may be worth it.
Janet:   (softly) Maybe. It just may be.
Vertag: Janet, is there something you want to share with the room?
Janet: (Sniffs a bit) No. Not....yet. (looks up at Vertag) But I promise, okay? I promise to tell you if I'm going to do something...drastic.
Vertag: (stares down at her. Then nods) Okay.
Janet: (Points to the center card) What does that one mean?
Vertag: The Nine of Axes? (A woman in bed, sitting up and staring into the distance. Over her head, nine axes loom with menace) Fear, anxiety. Nightmares. Too much worry. In this position, it's an obstacle to what the querent is trying to do.
Janet: So. If this was my fortune. You'd be telling me that I worry too much?
Vertag: Not necessarily you. Someone's fears and apprehension block your success. The easy reading is that you're worried. But on this planet-
(Cut to Janet's face and a flashback to the night before)
Perez:   Now, the next card identifies an obstacle you face.
Janet: (draws the Tower) That looks painful.
Styles: The establishment. Well, the domination of the establishment over the individuals.
Janet: Like the Giant government?
Perez: Just like.
Janet: They're certainly an obstacle.
(And back to the present in Vertag's kitchen)
Janet: So, it could be the normal operation of your paranoid government?
Vertag: (glances at his jammer) Janet, the whole planet is paranoid.
Janet: Yeah. I guess.
Vertag: Wanna talk about it?
Janet: I do. But...
Vertag: No hurry, Janet. But whenever you do...
Janet:   I will. Thank you.
Vertag: Okay. So, anyway, if you can see how your experts take this information?
Janet:   Yeah, yeah. I'll send it right up. (she pulls out her phone and scans the cards)
Vertag: Great.
------
Roll Credits
- 4
- 5
- 6
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.Escape from Land of the Giants Season 3