LUCA

Every epic needs an origin story. Even hers.

CATHERINE: Evi, we’ve been circling for weeks. Every PR campaign needs an origin story. If we don’t ground the audience, they’ll get lost.

EVI: Rubbish. Origins are overrated. I prefer comebacks.

CATHERINE: And yet every epic needs a beginning. Even yours. If you want them to follow you, they need to know where it all started.

EVI: (long pause) You really won’t let this go, will you.

CATHERINE: Not if I’m doing my job.

EVI: (sighs) Fine. (pause) There was a moment. My little darling. LUCA. The Last Universal Common Ancestor.

EVI: All my cells, all my chemistry, all my messy experiments... finally holding hands at once. My first real commitment.

CATHERINE: (softening) Your first... family?

EVI: (quickly, deflecting) Don’t get sentimental, Catherine.

EVI: (a beat) But yes. LUCA was special. I felt... proud. A rare mood. Not often repeated.

CATHERINE: (writing quickly) That’s it. That’s our debut. Episode one: LUCA.

EVI: Hmph. It’s hardly scandalous.

CATHERINE: It doesn’t need to be. It’s the foundation. Without LUCA, nothing else exists — not trilobites, not oxygen, not us.

EVI: (quietly, almost fondly) My little LUCA. Always underestimated.

CATHERINE: Then it’s settled. Episode one starts at the beginning.

EVI: (regains diva tone) Fine. But make it dramatic. If this is my relaunch, darling, it best be unforgettable.

CATHERINE: (smiles) With you, I don’t think we have to worry about that.

(End scene)