A fragment

This is more about tuning into the universe than any character work, I'm just trying a tone on for size.

[INT: Dixie Lady, a smallish, sub-10KTEU class orbital cargo transport. Bridge. A tight, almost cockpit-like space. Place for two crew, and two people present. The navigator's been here a while, the captain just came in. Then, suddenly...]

DAVE

Captain? Captain. You - captain, look at this.

ANNE

Can this wait until after my coffee, Dave? I'm not-

[She sees his face. She knows it's serious.]

DAVE

Sensors picked it up 8 seconds ago. It's headed our way. It's too hot.

ANNE

No, it can't be...

DAVE

It's too hot. Coming straight at us. It's...

ANNE

[She recoils a bit from the console.]

Motherfuck. It is. Fuck. Oh, my...

DAVE

Deltavee is at max on an ortho vector, I just flipped us. I can try and shake it.

[He's talking calmly and sweating like a pig.]

ANNE

Too fast. We're on a plate. It's not enough, not enough, not enough...

[She frantically casts about for an idea, hands squeezing the Con chair.]

Gimme cargo!

[The cargo manifest unfolds in front of her, a huge list.]

We're gonna dump it - oh God - and the water. No! The fuel! How much?

DAVE

Eight point three tons, sixty percent. Now fifty nine percent. Engines pushing at one-twenty two, any more and the nozzles melt.

ANNE
No, cut power! All of it, go to zero! Where's the comms laser?

DAVE

Here, panel two. You're gonna shoot at it? I can't overload the laser...

ANNE

I'm not gonna shoot, I couldn't even scrape it with this lamp. I'm gonna poke it in the eye. How do you get a continuous beam out of this?

DAVE

You can't, you need diagnostics. 'Power diagnostics', pick 'emitter testing', you can choose a beam shape.

ANNE

Is the cargo ready? What's the trajectory? And ready the fuel dump, K and L. You're gonna mix 'em and pour 'em over the containers as they come out. Flip the boat again. Is this the trajectory? Flip the boat, here - here, like this.

[A sketch on a nav screen.]

Then dump all of it at once. Blow the doors and dump it, and pour the fuel over. Can you dump fuel that way?

DAVE

Yeah, there's a valve. How much?

[EXT: POV of the missile. Spacescape in infrared, bright dot of the Dixie Lady resolving into a detailed image. Suddenly, a glare from the comms laser rotating and pointing straight into the optical sensor. It whites out. The missile is blinded. Back on the bridge:]

ANNE
Keep it open until I tell you to stop. Then you flip again and light the fuel with our exhaust.

DAVE
Jesus, Anne! We're gonna die in a ship fire!

ANNE

No! Dixie's ass is shielded, we should make it. Then push us into the cargo and match speed. Then switch the ship into standby mode, shut off the engine.

DAVE

You mean try and blend with the debris? Will that work? We'll still be lit up...

ANNE

How would I know? You got a better idea? Just do the thing! And hopefully the containers shine more than we do.

[EXT: Pretty CGI of aforementioned maneuver, lots of tension by the crew. Bridge:]

DAVE

Looks like it's good, maybe... 

[EXT: The missile suddenly shatters into a million pieces, very deliberately and slowly moving away, creating a huge swarm of spikes. Bridge:]

ANNE

Oh fuck. Oh God. Fu- 

[She's interrupted by a violent lurch sending them both flying towards the ceiling, and then a blast of plasma engulfing the cabin. They're gone.] 

[EXT: Looking at the Dixie Lady spinning in the metal rain, as hundreds of spikes tear through the burning cargo containers and the ship itself, dismembering it, the hull turning into plasma from the impact energy. The floating remains are pushed away by the spikes that keep impacting and transferring kinetic energy, until it all floats offscreen, and the rain stops. Now there's only darkness.]