The Hi-Lifter

For my video editing class I have now worked on two projects involving segments from a story I wrote with a friend when I was in 9th grade. I have to say, it has been really cool watching my story come to life. The first project was an audio project. I wrote a small 3 minute script that condensed the opening of the story. The project I'm working on now, which is my final project, is a video of a 5 minute script I wrote. The hardest part of these projects has been trying to adapt a story formatted as a novel into a script. Some of the translation is lost, because everything is visual. For example, if I want to explain something in the story all I would have to do is write about it. In the script I have to take that explanation and make it something visual, or something explained by a character.

So what exactly is the story about?

The story is called "The H-Lifter," and it was written by myself and a friend (Max Mianecki). Max started writing the story when we were in 8th grade, but abandoned it after a few chapters. I loved what he had written, and I begged him for about a year to keep working on it. He eventually started another story called Demon's Crux, which he still is working on to this day. I eventually asked him for permission to continue the story, because I had so many great ideas which I ran by him when he was first working on it. He gave me permission to continue the story, which was only 26 pages when he gave up on it.

The story takes place in a star system much like our own, but there are several inhabitable planets. It starts on the planet of Ganymede 4 where the main character, Gim Pyzack, is running down a dirt road in a thunderstorm. He is an archeologist who is supposed to be meeting a client, to help in his latest dig, at the Kor spaceport. He comes to find out that the client is a woman, and is the feared bounty hunter/mercenary Marean "Blue Star" MacBeth. She has been hired to act as Gim's bodyguard. He is very confused at this, but does not refuse. Gim and Marean are picked up by a geologist named Roget. They spend the entire night driving to a mountainous region of the planet. A few more characters are introduced along the way, but for the most part these three are the main characters. They meet at a camp located at the base of Mt. Schorman. This is Gim's new assignment which is being funded by the Ganymede Federation, the government of the Ganymede planets. After a few days of digging, they realize why Marean has been hired. A ruthless gang of space pirates, known as the Black Wolves, attack the camp. During a battle, Gim manages to find a secret passage into the mountain. His group follows him into it, with Marean being the last one to enter. Gim is astonished to find an ancient shrine. The Shrine is also a technological wonder. It is later revealed to be of Makellion origin. The Makellions were a religious group that once dominated the Ganymede planets. Although they are considered an "ancient civilization", they were technologically advanced. They faded into obscurity after centuries of civil war between two rival religious groups.

The Black Wolves find the passage, and Gim's group tries to set up a defense position inside the shrine. However, something incredible happens. The shrine comes to life, and lights up. They realize they are standing in a room with windows, and can see the innards of the mountain through them. Then, the mountain is engulfed with a blue light. The room they are standing in begins to violently shake. The peak of the mountain begins to fall apart. The room begins to ascend. They don't realize it at the time, but they are in an ancient Makellion spaceship. It takes off into the atmosphere, and completely destroys the mountain.

Well, that's basically how the story begins. The Ganymede Federation targets them as criminals, and the Black Wolves continue to chase them. It's revealed that they are after the spaceship, which Marean dubs "The Hi-Lifter." The rest of the story revolves around the Hi-Lifter, and its many secrets. Without revealing too much, it seems that the Hi-Lifter isn't just a space ship. It is something much more. Gim becomes aware of this when his parents are murdered by the hands of the Black Wolves.