The children of Paris,
The children, suddenly, of London, look up. The star burns away across the Atlantic, following the sun, keeping up with the rim of night, as Christmas Eve shadows across the seas and lands:

CUT TO:

The CAMERA moves out into sunset dune territory, scans the various gantries which are deserted. The wind blows dust over the lone machineries. The CAMERA finds and reads, quickly, a sign which says: ABANDON IN PLACE, No Further Activity Authorized. Perhaps we can hear an echo of the old sounds, voices counting down, the merest murmur of machineries, radios, computers.

THE VOICES

Oxygen check.....hydrogen check.....ten minutes to launch.....etc., etc.....

The sounds rise and fall in the sound of surf from the nearby sea. The CAMERA moves up, up, up along an Apollo gantry.

A VOICE

...seven...six...five...four... three...two...one...we have ignition!

There might be a mighty blast, but instead an explosion of -- wings'

Birds fly up from the dunes in a great bang of flying!

A car goes along the road a hundred yards off, a Christmas tree tied to its top. Voices sing, raggedly: "Me wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas...."

The MAN snaps a picture of the sign: ABANDON IN PLACE. He reads the sign, quietly, shakes his head. Surf pounds the shore!

He backs into view, near a road, closer to the Vehicle Assembly Building, snapping his camera, when:

Whoom! a car almost gets him.

The car stops. A MAN calls to him.

THE MAN

Hey, Atkins, what you tryin'
to do, get killed for Christmas?

ATKINS
Carl! Hey--great!

THE MAN

I thought you were with NASA in Washington?

ATKINS
(nods)

They sent me down to photograph:
Christmas at Canaveral!

THE MAN

The car drives off, the children laughing, singing.
Leaving ATKINS to murmur to himself, waving at them:

ATKINS
Merry....

Then, something jerks his gaze. He glances at the sky. A star is there, very bright, on the horizon.

ATKINS
Venus? No. Wrong place -- it ---

The star moves. It rushes down, becomes a saucer shape.
And as ATKINS watches:

The saucer hurtles toward the Vehicle Assembly Building.

ATKINS gasps, because:

The craft flies down! And --

Flies right through the vast gates of the Vehicle Assembly Building to vanish inside!!!

Stunned, ATKINS watches as:

In the cathedral interior, the spacecraft hovers, sinks, sets down.

Even as the great gates thunder to shut in the craft!

ATKINS leaps through as: the gates slam.

The craft glows in the dark.

ATKINS circles, staring at it. He whispers to himself:

He moves around the vast craft, memory shadowing his face.

ATKINS
Thirty years ago. Yes!

A sound startles him. A nearby elevator hums and drifts up in the strutworks, a shadow inside it.

He runs, stops, stares up: as the elevator slides into the shadowly heights.

ATKINS stares from the elevator to the spacecraft, then jumps, runs, punches a second elevator button. The second elevator slams its door wide, he leaps in, goes up.

On the way into the dark mountainslopes of machinery, he stares up at -- That other elevator, carrying its alien cargo up and on up into yet darker cathedral heights.

It reaches the top of the Vehicle Assembly Building a good ten seconds ahead of him. Distantly, we see and hear its door clang wide, and a shadow move.

Reaching the top, ATKINS runs by the other elevator, checking it. He glances up and around at further staircases.

He emerges on the roof of the VAB as the last light of day fades.

He looks around at emptiness. The wind mourns up here, as lonely as the wind out in the dunes among the abandoned rocket pads.

A sound jerks him about.

400 feet below. Both elevators, in fact! He has been tricked. Obviously, someone has pushed the button on the second one and leaped out to let it go down by itself. Cursing, ATKINS races to a third bank of elevators, and has to wait, while, far below, the other two elevators reach their destination.

Sliding down out of the darkness, he emerges and looks around at silence and shadows. Whoever led him up to trap him on the roof, was gaining time. They have had a full minute or more to vanish. They are indeed gone.

A VOICE
Hey!

A building ATTENDANT stares down from a catwalk above. The spacecraft glows and hums, with the small Christmas tree nearby.

The ATTENDANT, stunned, says:

THE ATTENDANT
Who put that gift under my tree?

CUT TO DARKNESS.

A slam of brakes. A car arrives outside.

ATKINS is waiting for this arrival outside in the blowing night.

The arrival is the VAB DIRECTOR, who glares at ATKINS.

He looks into ATKINS' face, sniffs, shakes his head.

DIRECTOR

No. Damn. Now, who shut those doors?

He is glaring at the vast doors now.

ATKINS
I wish I knew.

The DIRECTOR.opens the small door in the great gate, steps through. And stops, shocked as:

We see what he sees: the spacecraft, a light unto itself, filling the great church-like interior.

DIRECTOR
(to ATKINS)
You just got your job back.

ATKINS
I didn't know I was fired.

More officials arrive to confer. For now, only a few people know of the alien spaceship's landing...ATKINS, plus the ATTENDANT, plus the handful of Canaveral people gathered here.

The question is asked: why did the craft land here, this place, at this hour?

CHRIS ATKINS almost responds. A shadow crosses his face. He has half-remembered something about the visiting ship. But he remains silent.

Someone aboard the craft came out, vanished -- where? ATKINS at last speaks up:

ATKINS

Maybe we won't search. Maybe we wait for it to find us?

DIRECTOR
And why should it do that?

ATKINS
It knows one of us.

DIRECTOR
Who?

ATKINS

Me. I think. My family. Years ago. Maybe they didn't know I was here. Missed me. Come looking for me now. I've got to follow.

DIRECTOR.

Sorry. I've heard stuff like that from photographers for years. You'll do anything for a story.

ATKINS
You must let me go!

He looks about, frustrated, then moves toward the ship.

DIRECTOR
Now, hold on --

ATKINS, confronting the ship, whispers.

DIRECTOR
--what?

ATKINS whispers again. We cannot hear what he says. We hear only a murmur, but --

The ship hums, whines, pulses, glows!

As the elevators, a11 of them, hum, racing up their separate shafts, empty!

The spacecraft pulses louder.

And the great doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building thunder wide.

The officials stare from the doors, to the spacecraft, to ATKINS.

ATKINS
It wants me to go.

The DIRECTOR, stunned, can only agree.

DIRECTOR
It most certainly does.

ATKINS hurries outside.

ATKINS
You'll hear in one hour!

The doors slam shut on the shocked Canaveral staff.

As the doors BANG, a Jeep drives up, ATKINS' friend and co-photographer assistant, BARNEY, at the wheel.

BARNEY
Hey, did I miss something?

ATKINS

Not much. Tell you on the way.

(gets in Jeep)

Barney? If you were a visitor from a strange world --

BARNEY
I am! Los Angeles!

ATKINS

BARNEY
(joking)
Check in the nearest hotel?

ATKINS

Barney! I love you. Of course, the nearest! Our hotel!

The Jeep roars away.

CUT TO:

At the hotel, busy, People coming, going, Christmas.

CUT TO:

The REGISTRAR,

REGISTRAR
Yes, Mr. Atkins?

A long pause. The REGISTRAR scowls, ATKINS prompts him;

ATKINS
Official business...?

The REGISTRAR hands it over. BARNEY arrives.

BARNEY
Hey, have the marines landed?

ATKINS

No, but...Williams, Harkins, Field, Webster, Shane, Robinson, Weiner, Nagidson... no...wait...

BARNEY
What?

BARNEY leans over ATKINS' shoulder, peering at the names.

BARNEY
How do you pronounce that?

ATKINS
(softly)
Klaatu barada nikto.

BARNEY can only blink at him, waiting.

ATKINS
(almost to himself,
murmuring)

Oh, my God....yes...a long time ago.

BARNEY
Man? Woman?

ATKINS
I don't know.

BARNEY
(snorts)
Don't know!?

ATKINS
Barada nikto!
(slams registration shut)
0 Lord! Room 212!

Upstairs, he taps at 212. No answer. Under the door he sees a strange light, hears stranger electronic sounds. He goes back to BARNEY, who has gathered their equipment for the return to the Cape.

A party is in full flood, trimming a Christmas tree to one side of the lobby.

A FRIEND
Hey, Atkins, old bean. Join!

ANOTHER
Have a drink!

ANOTHER
Have a bauble.

ATKINS takes the champagne, the bauble. C1imbs one step up a small step-ladder, hangs it.

BARNEY
Here's another, chum!

ATKINS
No, thanks --

ATKINS turns, ready to leave, when he looks down at:

The most incredibly beautiful crystal Christmas bauble ever seen. It glows and shines with an inner light, an inner sound, an inner music.

The light shines over his eyes, his cheeks, his face, warning and enchanting him to wonder. He looks from it:

To the delicate hand holding it, and the CAMERA moves down the long delicate arm to the person, the woman, who has handed him this incredible gift.

Faint music breathes from the crystal orb he holds in his hand.

stares up at him across light years of time.

VOICES
(in b.g.)

ATKINS, transfixed by the beauty of the woman, cannot move.
At last he does, turns, reaches up,
Places the star, the crystal, the light, the music, high.
Turns, looks down, The crowd had closed around her like a tide.

She is gone!

Riven, he leaps down,

ATKINS
Barney, did you see?!

BARNEY points to the lobby door, Which has just swung shut!

CUT TO:

Their car on the road, pulling into the Cape, In the car, BARNEY protests,

BARNEY

How you know she's coming back here?

ATKINS

We're in touch now. It has to be near the ship!

Outside the Vehicle Assembly Building, the first reporters have arrived. Word has leaked out. The newsmen are incensed at not being filled in; for that matter, being locked out. ATKINS is permitted in, but BARNEY is kept out with the other reporters.

ATKINS
(to himself)
I wonder, is she there?

AN OFFICER
What?

ATKINS
(corrects himself)
Has--anyone tried to open -- that?

ANOTHER

You're kidding. There's no way in!

ATKINS
Let me try.

FIRST OFFICER
See here --

SECOND OFFICER
Let him.

ATKINS moves up to 'the ship, watches it carefully, and then says the words, quietly:

ATKINS
Klaatu… barada… nikto.

Nothing happens.

The men behind snort and shake their heads.

VOICES
All right, Atkins... you...

Impulsively, he repeats the words.

ATKINS
Klaatu... barada...nikto!

The ship hums, vibrates. A seam appears where the door might manifest itself in the skin of the ship.

The men gasp. ATKINS waits.

ATKINS' face lights with a thought which has just struck him.

ATKINS

Of course. Fool. It's not Christmas Morning!

AN OFFICIAL
What?

ATKINS nods at the ship.

ATKINS
We open our Gift, then.

He turns to exit.

ATKINS

I'll check it out now. Let you know.

He exits. The night is blowing with a wind that dies as he moves across from the VAB toward the dunes, where he thinks he has seen something.

Out on the dunes, waiting for him, looking at the gantries, and the huge building where her spacecraft lies quietly waiting, is the YOUNG WOMAN from the hotel, the YOUNG WOMAN who handed him the incredibly bright crystal that he placed upon the tree.

He stands looking at her in profile. She is dressed in slacks and a trim jacket with a scarf. Her hair blows

She is not startled when he arrives, nor, for a long while does she look at him. Then, very quietly, listening to far radio voices and musics that drift by in the night, Christmas carols coming and going, she says:

YOUNG WOMAN

In a few minutes, it's your Christmas.

He catches the way she has phrased it. And instead of saying hello, introducing himself, he continues as if they were picking up a conversation dropped only a moment ago:

ATKINS
Not yours?

The YOUNG WOMAN looks around at the sea and the land.

YOUNG WOMAN
Not mine.

This quickens him. She is admitting throngs, half sensed, She is looking around at the dunes now, and the ruins of the old space pads.

ATKINS
Do you like our world?

The YOUNG WOMAN looks, thinks, responds.

YOUNG WOMAN
Some of it.

Her eyes are fixed to the rusting machines now. He looks with her.

She nods and muses on this truth.

YOUNG WOMAN

I know. What a shame. What a waste.

ATKINS defends the land, the ruins.

ATKINS

It'll be great again some day. We'll rebuild.

YOUNG WOMAN
Will you...?

She looks at him for the first time. It is an incredible face. The eyes take him down to the bone.

He almost backs off, she is examining him so clearly, so easily, so completely.

YOUNG WOMAN

Will I even be here? For that matter -- will you?

Again the clear gaze.

Again, he almost pulls back. There is no threat in her voice, but he is vaguely uneasy.

ATKINS
Unless something – happens.

YOUNG WOMAN

Ah! Things do happen, don't they?

ATKINS

I'm not leaving, till I change all this.

They look at Canaveral, the night, the sea.

He gazes into her face.

ATKINS
You know I'm not.

YOUNG WOMAN
(after a beat)
That could change.

He senses that she might very well be the one to change it.

ATKINS

I lie in bed nights, wishing I ran the world!

YOUNG WOMAN

What would you do if someone gave it to you?

ATKINS
I'd clean it all up!

YOUNG WOMAN
Or destroy it...

ATKINS
Yes. If I wasn't careful.

Far away there are sounds of celebration. A clock strikes midnight.

She turns to look and listen.

The wind blows over the dunes.

YOUNG WOMAN
There. It's midnight.

ATKINS
Time for a Second Annunciation?

She knows what he is speaking about. The knowledge of the Biblical Annunciation is in her glowing face as she turns back to him.

YOUNG WOMAN

ATKINS looks from her to the world far across the land, past the silent gantries.

ATKINS

That this Christmas morn, we get the grandest gift that man ever got. That something incredible and wonderful is about to happen, that will change us forever and be only for the good!

She is taken and pleased with her possible friend and pupil.

YOUNG WOMAN

Miracles do happen, you know.
Repentance is possible.
The response can be mercy.
The result can be salvation.

ATKINS
For me? For all of us?

YOUNG WOMAN

You first. You wi11 be visited by three Ghosts.

ATKINS

My God. You know Dickens! "The Christmas Carol."

She nods.

ATKINS
Am I Scrooge, then?

YOUNG WOMAN

No, but perhaps there are millions like him, nearby.

ATKINS
(looks around)
When do I meet the First Ghost?

YOUNG WOMAN
(a beat, then)

I will tell you, during the
night.

The wind rises, bringing with it far voices, bells, exclamations, laughter, the tolling of clocks,

Both turn to look around at the Cape, the sky, the far town, the Christmas lights,

ATKINS
It's --

YOUNG WOMAN
Yes. It's midnight. Time for --

She touches her wrist which is encircled with a silver band with miniaturized computer tabs engraved on it, And the lights on the far gantries spring on. They are like immense Christmas trees in the night.

ATKINS stares, stunned and incredulous.

The gantries blaze. The music of the world rises fitfully on the wind.

She steps and takes his face in her hands and kisses him very quietly on the brow. He is immensely moved by all of this.

ATKINS
Merry Christmas...

YOUNG WOMAN
(nods)
I wish you well.

She touches his eyelids with two fingers.

His eyes are shut. He cannot open them. He hears her moving away.

ATKINS
Wait!

From the darkness we see her shape pause, we hear her voice.

YOUNG WOMAN
Yes?

ATKINS
Your name!?

She responds, further off, turning to send her voice back in the night wind.

YOUNG WOMAN
Klaata.

He quickens, startled, feverish, eyes shut.

ATKINS
Klaatu!?

YOUNG WOMAN'S VOICE
No!

We see her silhouette, further off.

YOUNG WOMAN
Klaata. Klaatu's daughter.

She is gone. The dunes are empty. He opens his eyes.

He looks down at:

Her footprints in the sand, which, in a sudden gust of wind, blow away, are erased, gone!

The Christmas-lit gantries, all along the Cape, go out, one by one!

He stands in the darkness, riven, as we

FADE TO BLACK.

Inside the VAB, the officials are sitting or standing in a half circle around the spacecraft.

ATKINS looms up behind them suddenly, stares at the ship for a long moment, then says, quietly:

ATKINS

Get some sleep. Christmas
morning - I go in the ship.

He turns and moves off into the shadows. A door shuts.

At the hotel, there is quietness, shadows.

On the top of the tree which is still lit, is the incredible crystal bauble placed there hours before by ATKINS.

An ATTENDANT is shutting the tree lights off as ATKINS arrives.

The lights blink into darkness.

The ATTENDANT and ATKINS stand looking up at:

That amazing crystalline illumination brought as beauty from a far place.

ATKINS softly responds.

He reaches up, removes the bauble, to which the ATTENDANT objects.

ATKINS

It goes back on the tree...
at dawn.

ATKINS goes up to bed.

In the middle of the night, the bauble, which he has placed on the second pillow on the empty side of the bed, pulses with dim light, half-musical sounds.

ATKINS opens his eyes, and looks at:

The crystal, which burns and lowers its serene light.

ATKINS speaks to the light.

ATKINS
Are you here?

KLAATA's voice whispers back:

KLAATA'S VOICE
...yes....

ATKINS reponds.

ATKINS

And somewhere else, at the  same time.

ATKINS watches the growing, fading light,

ATKINS
When do I see you again?

The crystal responds,

KLAATA'S VOICE

ATKINS remembers the old Dickens tale.

ATKINS
Christmas Past?

The crystal murmurs and illuminates itself with response:

KLAATA'S VOICE
When the sun rises.

He nods, knowing what to do.

ATKINS

And the crystal replies, quietly:

KLAATA'S VOICE
Perhaps. If you deserve me,

ATKINS
And the Ghost of Christmas Future?

The crystal almost darkens, then burns with a firefly light,

KLAATA'S VOICE
(far away)

Perhaps there will be none.
Maybe... there is no future.

ATKINS
(quietly, impulsively)
Klaata!

ATKINS
I --

KLAATA'S VOICE
Sleep...!

His eyes stare and close. Her voice fades as he goes into slumber.

KLAATA'S VOICE
.....sss.....ssleeeep.......

The light dulls and he is asleep and we

FADE OUT TO:

Morning. Just before sunrise. The Cape. The Vehicle Assembly Building washed with the first cold colors of approaching dawn.

ATKINS is out on the dunes, his camera busy.

He finds something, looks down.

At the remnants of KLAATA's footprints, going off on their own path in the sand, from the last night.

He takes a picture of them, then turns to scan:

The empty gantries.

As the sun rises.

He turns to walk toward the VAB.

ATKINS stands by the ship. His lips move. We cannot hear what he says. But we know the words from the way his mouth forms them, in pantomime.

The seam of the ship's portal splits, opens, with a soft humming and a grand illumination.

The NASA OFFICIAL opens his eyes, quickly, blinks, starts.

ATKINS
Shh!

His finger to his lips, warning silence, ATKINS walks up, into the ship, which seals itself shut!

Circling in through the geometrically illuminated corridors, ATKINS arrives at the heart of the ship, where:

A crystalline oblong shape, a seven foot long object, glows in the center of a room. Inside the receptacle, or bright 'coffin' if you wish to use the word, suspended in light and shadow, lies a body on display.

At ATKINS' approach, the long oblong crystal pulses with somewhat brighter color.

ATKINS, above it, looks down, and is incredulous.

ATKINS

My God...! You are the Ghost of Christmas Past!

A voice from within the oblong responds, quietly.

THE VOICE

ATKINS whispers.

ATKINS
I know you.

THE VOICE
…..yes…..

ATKINS
We met when I was a boy!

THE VOICE
We did.....

ATKINS speaks the name at last.

ATKINS
Klaatu!

Now, close up, we see the serene and sleeping face of the man within the crystal.

THE VOICE
The same....

ATKINS cannot resist questioning.

ATKINS
Are you.....?

KLAATU anticipates the full question and replies, quietly, from his half-sleep.

KLAATU’S VOICE

Alive and dead?
A bit of both..

ATKINS is bewildered. The light and shadows motion over his face.

KLAATU’S VOICE

ATKINS
They didn't---

KLAATU'S VOICE

--understand? Yes. So now, by this means, I am sustained, I do return. How much longer will I live? Now knowing, let us speak quickly. What have you all been up to, the past 30 years?

ATKINS
The usual --

The light flickers. We watch the serene face under the crystal barrier.

KLAATU'S VOICE
Ah, that's bad.

ATKINS
Some of it's good.

KLAATU'S VOICE

I know. Yes. But I want a complete recitation. The Universe is the Great School. You are the new students.

ATKINS remembers something from the Past.

ATKINS
Our executioners...?

The light plays over KLAATU's face. We move in close on his silent mouth. His voice speaks from within his mind.

ATKINS
Now you've changed your mind?

KLAATU’S VOICE

Perhaps we come only to punish. And leave you to lick your wounds. We have watched you, and wondered at you. So much that is good. So much that is right. Yet, so much that falters and fails.

ATKINS
You've come to test us, then?

KLAATU'S VOICE
The Great Graduation Examination, yes!

ATKINS
And if we succeed?

KLAATU'S VOICE
You move up in the Universe.

ATKINS
And...failing...

KLAATU'S VOICE

ATKINS
Are we that young, then?

KLAATU'S VOICE

ATKINS
They won't come!

KLAATU'S VOICE

They will. When we have frightened them somewhat.

ATKINS
Nothing can frighten them!

KLAATU'S VOICE
You think not?

The crystal oblong glows.

KLAATU's face, asleep, almost seems to smile. He murmurs.

KLAATU'S VOICE
We have ways....

A soft chime rings. The humming stops. The crystal oblong swarms with shadows and goes dark.

As does the face of KLAATU.

ATKINS would say more, but, seeing this, stops, turns, pulls back, goes...

Out through the circling light and shadow of the corridors.

Outside the OFFICIAL is waiting. ATKINS says:

ATKINS

Call a press conference for five this afternoon.

OFFICIAL
We don’t want any press!

ATKINS
(looks at the ship)
They do.

On top of the gantry, KLAATA does indeed wait for him.

They stand looking at the spread of the world, and beyond to the Vehicle Assemb1y Building where, on one vast 300-foot side, the NASA officials have caused to be strung, in outline, a Christmas tree made entirely of wire and lit bulbs; a tree same 200 feet high, softly glowing in the overcast day.

ATKINS
Will they come, do you think?

KLAATA
(lightly)

ATKINS

Or you'll teach them reverse sums in 'take-away'?

She nods, the wind blowing her hair.

ATKINS
What will you take away, first?

KLAATA
(thinking)
Everyone must be surprised.

He stares at her as any man would stare at any woman who is a special windvane to a special weather that blows across the Cape this Christmas Day.

ATKINS
My good sense is gone already.

She gazes at him quietly, reading his temperature.

He looks at the World, at her, and back to the Wor1d, laughing quietly at some small thought.

ATKINS

On your world, do women have headaches?

KLAATA
(laughs)
Never!

ATKINS
(stunned)
What a world that must be.

KLAATA
And here?

ATKINS
(goes serious)
Men have headaches, all the time,

KLAATA
War does that...

She touches his elbow, pulls gently,

KLAATA
Shall we go find a cure?

ATKINS
You're the teacher.

She turns at the top of the stair in the blowing wind, and gazes at him, nodding quietly.

KLAATA
Yes. I am.

They go down into the world of Christmas,

They are gathering outside the great doors of the Vehic1e Assembly Building.

Announcements are being made over TV, cross-country, around the world.

Coming downstairs in his hotel, ATKINS glances over at the Christmas tree, which a moment before was filled with ornaments.

The tree is empty of baubles, of light.

Only the crystal fire hangs at the top, a promising Star. ATKINS turns to a BELLHOP nearby.

ATKINS

Hey, Chuck, is Christmas over already?

He nods to the tree. The BELLHOP stares, is astounded.

BELLHOP

Hey, who took off a11 the ornaments!?

ATKINS turns to find KLAATA there. He glances back at the tree, and at her again. He suspects her of this.

ATKINS
Well?

KLAATA

What are a few baubles? It’s the spirit that counts, right?

Disquieted, ATKINS leaves.