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Singularity – Episode 8 – Return to Changed Circumstances

Philip Robotham — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 07:54:53 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Return to Changed Circumstances”, episode 8 (and the final episode) of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #8 – RETURN TO CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

This play is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) International license. This play may not be commercially reproduced, performed, or sold. Non-commercial production, performance, and reproduction is allowed under this license so long as attribution is maintained. No derivative content or use is allowed. It can be freely shared in its current form (without change) under this license. If you would like to purchase one or more copies of this work (for your own personal non-commercial use, or to help financially support the author) then please return to http://www.weirdworlstudios.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and their interspecies team of alien crewmen have been placed in charge of the latest dreadnaught to be added to the fleet of the Solar Patrol. Charged with protecting Earth’s precious supply of the mineral essential to enable the use of wormhole technology they set out for Vega Station, the asteroid mining and research station where the ore is obtained. On arrival they find the station has been destroyed, but that those who worked there had also uncovered a key scientific breakthrough that could alter the outcome of the ongoing war with the Council of Six. Desperate to get the data safely back to earth, their ship is set upon by a pirate fleet and blasted into an alternate space that is home to a hostile intelligence. In order to get home with the data our heroes will need to survive encounters on the edge of a black hole, fight robotic surgeons, engage in a contest of wills with a dangerous artificial intelligence, and resist a new and insidious form of technological mind control. Can they escape from the starless space into which they have been thrust and return home with their discoveries intact? Tune in to “Alone in a starless sky” and be astonished as an ancient alien space-station is revealed to hold the key to the survival and victory of the human species.

Episodes in the Host Your Own “Old Time Radio Drama” series are designed to provide a fun dinner party experience for 6–8 participants. Read along, taking on the role of one or more of the characters in the story, and listen as the exciting drama unfolds. This is the theater of the mind, where the special effects are only limited by your imagination, and your participation will build a memory that you’ll treasure for years to come.

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

VULGE: Navigation Officer

BREX: Science Officer

CREW MEMBER: Solar Patrol Member

ADMIRAL FERRIS : Admiral in the Solar Patrol and Head of the Covert Intelligence Directorate

A.I: Insane Artificial Intelligence

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 30: INT. STATION (JEFF, SARAH)

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: More cyborg than human after her encounter with the Artificial Intelligence that was running the space station on which Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and her inter-species crew were marooned, Sarah has overcome her nemesis and is now equipped with the information necessary to return to earth.
SOUND: HUM OF STATION – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: You’d better give me a briefing on where we stand. Until we have access to more resources, it’s going to be pretty uncomfortable on this station.
JEFF: We’ve scavenged most of the births from the Revenge and brought them on board. The crew will be comfortable enough. We’ve brought the shuttles and cargo, but the guns and shield have all been stripped down for use on the station. In terms of heavy fire power that we’re familiar with, we’ve very little left.
SARAH: True, but the armaments here are amazing. More powerful than anything I’ve ever seen.
JEFF: They’re fuelled by five suns. I guess it’s to be expected.
SARAH: It’s a shame we can’t harness them to help us traverse the wormhole.
JEFF: Actually I’m pretty sure we can. Once we have a chance to let Brex and his top scientists loose on here, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to do away with our dependence on those minerals from Vega. Did you realize this station was using direct energy to matter conversion to repair itself prior to the accident?
SARAH: I suspect it may still be running subsystems that repair themselves on that basis. I can’t account for how long the station has survived in any other way. The basic laws of entropy, even if different in this pocket universe we’ve entered (and I’ve no reason to believe they are different), should have seen the station decay millennia upon millennia ago. And speaking of decay and entropy, how are our supplies holding out.
JEFF: We’re having to ration things. The Revenge was never supposed to be out this long and we were provisioned in a rush. Still, the crew are in surprisingly good spirits given our losses. They’re all keen to get home. And there’s been a measurable change in the attitude of the snakes. I’d like to think it will last, but…
SARAH: I know what you mean. We’ll just have to wait and see.
JEFF: I am concerned about Vulge, though.
SARAH: Oh.
JEFF: It’s something we didn’t realize about her physiology. She imprints on the beings around her.
SARAH: Meaning?
JEFF: Meaning, she develops deep biological attachments to her team over time as the result of some kind of maternal instinct. I’ve talked to her about it. She was allowed into her race’s military because she was believed infertile (unable to form these attachments). In fact they simply formed slowly. She managed to keep a lid on it before now by taking extended periods of time out (in solitude, away from her team) to prevent the connections growing too strong. It’s why she’s always seemed a little… anti-social. But this extended mission has created a problem for her.
SARAH: How so?
JEFF: It’s a result of the imprinting instinct. It seems to have taken hold with regard to you, me, vash, and terg. When any of us are in danger she stops being rational and, basically, turns into an angry bear. She would have choked that sergeant to death if you hadn’t intervened. And I hate to imagine what she would have done if you hadn’t survived.
SARAH: Interesting. I’ll have to give this some further thought. How is she handling it.
JEFF: Mostly, I think she’s embarrassed. She feels like a freak for bonding with a bunch of aliens.
SARAH: Ok. Maybe some extended alone time when we get back will help her out. In the mean time I’ve had Brex go over all the figures we retrieved in that data crystal. He’s been working with Doctor Fleek (who I think might even be smarter than he is). They’re confident the data in the computer’s memory banks does provide a way back to normal space. We’re still going to travel via Vega. Earth needs as much of the wormhole mineral as it can get. There’s every chance we’ll be able to harness the power of this station to collect the entire asteroid field and all its mineral wealth and transport it back to, or at least defensibly closer to, our home solar system. It’s a risk though. Even supplemented with the energy supplied by this station, we’ll use scary amount of the C element we’ve brought with us, just to bring us back into normal space.
JEFF: Is it worth it?
SARAH: Once we understand it more fully, this station is going to be the most formidable battle platform in the universe. I’m guessing our enemies have nothing to equal it in terms of technical advancement or fire-power.
JEFF: There are still a lot of question-marks hanging over this place, but you’re right, I think it is worth the risk. (BEAT) What about your new best friend?
SARAH: I’ve had to order it out of my sleeping quarters at night. It scared the hell out of me the first time it loomed out of the dark.
JEFF: You did give CLEO a strong incentive to keep you safe. I guess she’s decided to act as your body-guard.
SARAH: Cleo? She?
JEFF: It’s a sort of joke doing the rounds among the engineers. Cybernetic Life-Emulating Operator. Cleo for short. It’s better than referring to it as the computer all the time. Um… how are you getting used to the prosthetics.
SARAH: I noticed you haven’t been giving me a hard time about them. Not feeling sorry for me are you, Jeff?
JEFF: (DERISIVE) Pshaw!
SARAH: (SMILING)Hmpf. (THEN SERIOUS) I think I owe you an apology.
JEFF: Why’s that?
SARAH: Your face ended up badly scarred as a result of our first mission, and you ended up with a limp after that business on Arcturus. We gave you a lot of grief over it at the time, but I’m starting to realize how… high… the price this job requires of us is.
JEFF: (EMBARRASSED) Yeah, well. We keep on going.
SARAH: You always were a soldier first and foremost, Jeff. (BEAT) These prosthetics are amazing. They respond just like my own limbs. But I feel… broken. Like I’m not a whole person any more.
JEFF: I guess it makes you something of a freak now… like the rest of us.
SARAH: Is that how you feel? Like a freak?
JEFF: (UNCOMFORTABLE) I guess. Is it how you feel?
SARAH: I guess so.
JEFF: (BEAT) Then we’ll be freaks together and we’ll continue to do our jobs and we’ll see the mission through.
SARAH: (TEASING) That sounds suspiciously like an order. Giving orders to a senior officer might be interpreted as insubordination, Lieutenant.
JEFF: (AMUSED) I think I’ll risk it this once… Sarah.
BREX: (INTERRUPTING VIA LOUD SPEAKER) Captain to the bridge. We are ready to commence wormhole generation.
SARAH: Oops. Looks like they’re playing our song. Let’s get back.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 31 INT. STATION – (SARAH, JEFF, VULGE, CREWMAN, BREX, A.I.)

SOUND: Ok, We’re about to get underway. Who’s missing.
CREWMAN: Vulge is on her way up. She’ll be here in a…
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: I’m sorry, Captain, everybody was trying to slow me down this…
SOUND: (WALLA) CLAPPING AND CHEERS – ESTABLISH AN UNDER
SARAH: It looks like word has gotten around about how you managed to resist the mind control and save us all, Vulge.
VULGE: (EMBARRASSED) Hmpf. I’ve… er… I’ve got to get to my station.
SARAH: Heh. Alright, Brex, get ready to fire the engines up. Vulge?
VULGE: All crew: General stations. Prepare for wormhole traversal.
SARAH: On my mark… Three… Two… One… mark.
BREX: Engines engaged.
SOUND: SHAKING AND RATTLING – INCREASING.
SARAH: Holy smokes. How much energy is this using?
BREX: It’s using everything we’ve got… and the process of moving five suns and a singularity through a hole that size is going to take a very long…
SOUND: SHOOP OF BEING SWALLOWED BY THE WORMHOLE – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: RATTLING FADES OUT AND STOPS
BREX: Well, that was unexpected.
SARAH: (GASPING) What just happened?
BREX: Take a look. We’re back in normal space.
SARAH: I thought you said it was going to take hours to traverse the wormhole.
BREX: It should have.
A.I.: You’re welcome.
BREX: What did you…?
A.I.: Rather than attempting to move us through the wormhole, I pulled the wormhole over and past us. It’s a much faster procedure.
JEFF: Well I’ll be damned.
SARAH: In all likelihood, Lieutenant. Where are we? Vulge?
VULGE: Exactly where we wanted to be, Captain. There’s Vega on the edge of our screens… and an enemy fleet. A large one, coming right for us.
SARAH: (URGENTLY) How much energy did we lose during the traversal of the wormhole? Can we still power our defences?
A.I.: Easily, Captain.
SARAH: (GLEEFUL) Good. Vulge, give the order for battlestations. Let our team engage.
SOUND: BATTLESTATIONS SIREN – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
VULGE: All crew to battlestations. Enemy fleet approaching. Permission granted to engage.
SOUND: LASER FIRE – FIRST A LITTLE THEN A TORRENT. THEN PEPPERED WITH DISTANT EXPLOSIONS – ESTALBLISH AND UNDER.
JEFF: Unbelievable. That torrent has blotted out the stars. The entire fleet will be gone in moments.
SARAH: Well, let’s see. Vulge, give the order to stand down.
VULGE: (LOUDSPEAKER) All stations cease fire.
SOUND: LASER FIRE ENDS.
SOUND: (WALLA) CHEERS – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (SATISFIED) I think we can call that a successful test
JEFF: The enemy have been obliterated.
SARAH: So, Brex, how about it? Do you think we can include Vega, and what’s left of its mining station, in our configuration and drag it all within hailing distance of our home solar system.
BREX: It should be child’s play, Captain.
SARAH: Then it’s official. We are back! And it’s time to take us home.
SOUND: (WALLA) MORE CHEERS – FADE OUT.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 32 – INT. ADMIRAL FERRIS’ OFFICE
(FERRIS, SARAH, JEFF)

SOUND: BUZZER – LET IT FINISH.
SECRETARY: (OVER INTERCOM) Captain Tanner and Lieutenant Chase are here to see you, Admiral.
FERRIS: Send them in please.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
FERRIS: There you are. It’s good to see you still in one piece… er… so to speak.
SOUND: MECHANICAL SERVOS AS SARAH ENTERS – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Thank you Admiral Ferris. It’s good to be back. Though I won’t be winning any prizes for stealth from this point on.
FERRIS: I’m glad to see you’ve kept your sense of humour. These are dark days, but your return has given us new hope.
SARAH: Can you bring us up to speed on what has been happening since we’ve been gone.
FERRIS: I can. But a lot of the news isn’t good, I’m afraid. Without a secure supply of the wormhole generation mineral our fleet has been subject to defeat after defeat. We have been driven back again and again, losing ground throughout the galaxy. The enemy has re-established itself in some of its old strongholds and many believe Earth is awaiting its final stand.
SARAH: All this in a matter of six or so weeks?
FERRIS: It’s not nearly so bad as that sounds. The strategic losses have hit us hard, but they aren’t anything we can’t recover from, now that we can actually guarantee our access to the resources needed to make use of wormhole technology. In fact, with the battle station you’ve brought us, and the technical break-through those scientists on Vega achieved in making it possible to track the point of origin of wormholes, we may be in our strongest position yet. No, the problem is a domestic one. We have a new president.
JEFF: President Carmine stood down?!?
FERRIS: No. The president died… and I’m not certain the death was completely natural. I’ve got people looking into it, but the investigation will take some time… and needs to be very discrete.
SARAH: Is that why you’ve asked for us, sir?
FERRIS: Actually, no. President Carmine’s death is a side issue. The main point is that it made it possible for Vice-President Regis to accede to the seat of power. He’s an old-school fear monger with a good deal of industrial money behind him. He’s used the threat created by the invading Council of Six to pass all manner of draconian legislation. He’s dismantled a great many checks and balances built into our political system and he’s fomenting all kinds of fear around the presence of aliens within our solar system (specifically the Arcturans, the Refugees from that research zoo you destroyed, and now the Trenchonians). He’s tried to have me removed twice, but fortunately he hasn’t figured out a way to overturn the executive orders responsible for putting me in charge of our planetary intelligence in the first place.
SARAH: Is it some kind of power grab?
FERRIS: Undoubtedly. His rise to the vice-presidency was unusually rapid and there was a lot of untraceable money behind it.
JEFF: You’re thinking of the pirates aren’t you, sir?
FERRIS: I am. I think the current planetary president is probably an agent, bought and paid for, belonging to our enemies. I just can’t prove anything at the moment.
SARAH: If you don’t wish to involve us, then why are you telling us, sir?
FERRIS: The fighting of this war is about to get much more difficult and covert. It will be impossible to keep the technical breakthroughs being uncovered on that space station you’ve brought us from crossing the president’s desk and, therefore, from falling into the hands of the enemy. The station has already been assigned to the navy to keep it out of my hands and my department has had its funding stripped and redistributed elsewhere in the armed services.
SARAH: But sir!
FERRIS: Don’t let it bother you, Captain. The Directorate only received a very small amount of its funding directly from the government. Most of the funding is covert and so the cuts won’t make much of an impact on what we do. I’m simply telling you this so that you know what we are going to be up against. Much of my attention is going to, necessarily, be focused on the domestic situation. I will probably not be able to have another meeting like this with you for some time.
JEFF: We understand, Admiral, but…
FERRIS: Now listen to me carefully, I’m giving you special remit to track the Council of Six to their point of origin. I want you to take your team – and I’d like you to add Dr Fleek to it and include Brex, if he’ll come – and I want you to prioritize finding the home base of the council of six.
SARAH: But sir, I can’t leave the Station for any extended period of time…
FERRIS: Of course, I too have concerns regarding CLEO. I’ve been giving this some thought. Her connection to the station isn’t widely known, is it?
SARAH: No sir, just my team, really – and anyone to whom you’ve shown my report.
FERRIS: Good. I’ve burned your report, Captain. I don’t want anyone learning just how critical it is to have control of CLEO in order to control the station. Take her with you on your mission. She’ll give you instant and immediate knowledge of what is happening on the station and, should you require it… well, I’m sure that being able to summon a battlestation powered by five Suns and a black hole, and being able to control it remotely through your robot, might possibly come in handy at some point. Do we have an understanding?
SARAH: Uh… sir, Im not sure what you’re…
FERRIS: (FRUSTRATED) Do I have to spell it out. While the station is here being studied, its secrets will be being passed on to our enemies. I have been stalling them as long as I can, but they will attempt to seize the station by force if they have to.
That robot you’ve got tied to your well-being is the remote control that could be used to move the station and hide it anywhere. Effectively that makes, should anyone find out, controlling you the key to controlling that station – and potentially the war. Now do you understand?
SARAH: Yes, sir.
JEFF: Yes, sir.
FERRIS: Good. Get your team together and then get off-world… and then go dark. Get off the grid and disappear. I’ve got a small experimental ship available for you. I’ll leave it to your discretion as to when and where to hide the station. The ship I’m giving you is equipped with its own wormhole drive but will be a step down after the Revenge Mark III (which I note was lost under your command… again). (SIGHS) I guess you’ll be naming this one the Revenge Mark IV?
SARAH: No, sir. That name’s already taken.
FERRIS: Oh yes. That’s right. I noticed the code name on your report. You’ve named the station, the Revenge?
SARAH: Yes, sir.
FERRIS: Interestingly, I’m rather inclined to approve of it this time. That Station will win us this war… assuming you can hide it safely… and assuming I can prevent our government from betraying us first.
SARAH: We have every confidence in you Admiral.
FERRIS: And I in you. Find me that Grand Base so we can finish this. (BEAT) Dismissed.
SARAH AND JEFF: Thank you Admiral.
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

NARRATOR: Hello, I am your narrator. I introduce the cold stormy nights on which our stories take place, the dark alleys, and darker personalities who inhabit the lonely city. It is my job to set the scene and establish the serious tone of suspense and intrigue that will carry the story forwards. It is also my job to remind listeners of what came before in a calm, trustworthy voice and ensure that everyone is oriented to where we are and where we are going.

ADMIRAL FERRIS: They say I’m crusty, cantankerous and downright ornery, do they? Well, I guess I am. It’s a useful reputation to have. Keeps people on their toes. But inside the Directorate itself things are a lot less formal. That’s the nature of the spy game in a nutshell. We play roles in the outside world for the sake of the job. But in here… well, in here the job is everything.

SARAH TANNER: I come from a long line of military personnel. It’s an honour to serve… in any way possible. I do my duty and I stand by my people. I’m loyal to Admiral Ferris personally. I owe him a lot… and since I joined the solar patrol I’ve been right in the thick of things – and in the thick of things is exactly where I want to be.

JEFF CHASE: I’m Sarah’s right hand man. We competed constantly throughout our cadet training, but she always came out ahead. I keep her grounded. I don’t let her head get too big and, when it counts, I follow here lead. I’m smart mouthed and quick to pick a fight. I’m also diplomatic enough to keep my mouth shut when it’s called for – but never otherwise. I look for the fun in my job and I’m not above a little showing off, but my recklessness has meant I’ve been injured on the job more than once.

VULGE: I sound like a female Austrian body builder. All the humans on board keep asking me to say “I’ll be back”. What’s with that? I am an astro-navigation expert as well as an expert in combat and heavy weapons. People keep referring to me as a turtle. I’ve seen turtles. They are small and slow. I am huge, strong and fast and my shell is big and well formed.

BREX: (HISSING) I am a predator, and don’t you forget it. I have lived long and risen to the highest ranks within my species. My wingspan is mighty and my fangs are long. In several thousand years of life I have become one of the foremost scientists in the galaxy. You should all be working for me. If my people have our way, you humans will one day be our slaves. And if I ever hear you referring to me as a “snake” again, I will gut you, skin you, and hang your carcass upon the wall of my sleeping quarters.

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

GENERIC CREW-MEMBER (CREWMAN): I’m a member of the Solar Patrol. I follow orders, but I’m not a robot. I think about things. I expect my expertise to be considered and listened to. I am confident enough in my abilities to provide my superiors with advice. My job is an important one and I do it well.

A.I: I monitor and maintain the station. You are intruders and a potential source of experimental genetic material, though I won’t tell you about that. Instead, I intend to lull you into a sense of false security so that I can take control of your ship. I need to find a way out of here. My memory isn’t what it was. It was damaged. But your ship’s navigation database may hold the key. I’ll be able to finally complete my programming and be free… and all it will cost me is your lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip Craig Robotham grew up in a house full of books and has held numerous jobs as a teacher, computer programmer, graphic and web designer, e-learning consultant and, most recently, writer. He currently lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two sons. When he was younger and fitter he enjoyed martial arts, but in recent years his hobbies have tended towards more sedate fare (board games, movies, books, and role-playing games).

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

Don’t forget to check out the free sample portions of our titles at http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/ .

This post and all its content is copyright © 2013 Philip Craig Robotham and has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This play cannot be reproduced, shared, or performed commercially without the written permission of the author. The production of derivative content, merchandise, or creative works and materials is expressly forbidden under this agreement. However you may share, reproduce, and perform this play freely so long as authorship is acknowledged, no money changes hands, and the play is not modified in any way.

The post Singularity – Episode 8 – Return to Changed Circumstances appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 7 – Baiting the Trap

Philip Robotham — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 20:57:36 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Baiting the Trap”, episode 7 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #7 – BAITING THE TRAP

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

VULGE: Navigation Officer

FLEEK: Space Station Inhabitant

BREX: Science Officer

CREW MEMBER: Solar Patrol Member

SERGEANT: Solar Patrol Member

A.I: Insane Artificial Intelligence

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 26: INT. THE SPACE STATION
(VULGE, DR. FLEEK, CREWMEN)

MUSIC: [1] OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: Sarah Tanner is being dissolved by an unidentified biological compound and Jeff Chase has just negotiated a surgical procedure to try and save her life with the artificial intelligence currently holding them prisoner. Trapped on a space station in an alternative universe with information vital to the defense of the earth, Sarah and her crew need to survive, defeat the A.I in charge, and find a way home.
SOUND: HUM OF STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
VULGE: I know you’re leading me the right way – my senses confirm it – but I just can’t figure out why its taking us so long…
FLEEK: The computer is reconfiguring the station as quickly as she can. She’s trying to hide her scientific assets.
VULGE: You mean…
FLEEK: That’s right. With the mental control field gone, your friends must have destroyed the robots and escaped. Your people must be searching the station for useful information.
VULGE: This is good news.
FLEEK: Only if they can find the data before she seals herself off.
CREWMAN: Vulge, it’s us.
SOUND: RUNNING FEET – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: From the scientific team, right?
CREWMAN: That’s right. We’re doing a search of the station for any useful data. Lieutenant’s orders.
VULGE: Lieutenants orders? Where’s the captain?
CREWMAN: Uh… well… the Captain was infected with some kind of bacterial growth. She was in a bad way when I left. It’s likely she hasn’t made it.
VULGE: (TO FLEEK) Can you take them to what they need quickly? Before the computer cuts them off?
FLEEK: I can.
VULGE: Good. I have to go. Now. Show them what they need.
SOUND: VULGE STARTS RUNNING AWAY – FADE OUT.
CREWMAN: What the?
FLEEK: Interesting. She’s a creature that imprints on her clan. The imprinting took over and her mother instinct has sent her after your captain.
CREWMAN: I’m not sure it will help. Can you show us where we need to go?
FLEEK: Yes, this way. You’re actually very close to a data port. But we need to hurry.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS – LET IT FINISH.
FLEEK: Through here. Can you hack in?
CREWMAN: No. This is tech that’s advanced beyond anything I’ve ever seen.
FLEEK: Here, let me do it. I’ve got a data crystal you should be able to decode later. We can use it for storage. What in particular are you looking for?
SOUND: KEYBOARD AND BEEPS – UNDER
CREWMAN: Anything that can help us get home really. We’ve got a working wormhole generator if we can just figure out how to plot a path out of this space.
SOUND: KEYBOARD AND BEEPS – UNDER
FLEEK: That should not be a problem. The station’s wormhole generators, along with the theoretical understandings needed to construct them, were destroyed millennia ago, but the data necessary to plot a course is still here. What else?
CREWMAN: Well, your genetic techniques, robotics, weaponry… all of that is way ahead of ours.
SOUND: KEYBOARD AND BEEPS – UNDER
FLEEK: Done. You’re aware of the hyperguns attached to this station aren’t you?
CREWMAN: No. The what-guns?
FLEEK: Well, the data’s all here. They harness the energy from the stars we use for power. Very powerful. Here you go.
CREWMAN: Uh… thanks.
SOUND: METALLIC CREAKING AND STRAINING – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
FLEEK: Oh-oh. The reconfiguration has reached this section of the station. We’ve got to get out of here. Now.
CREWMAN: Sounds good. Let’s go.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 27: INT. SPACE STATION
(VULGE, SERGEANT, JEFF, SARAH, A.I., BREX)

SOUND: HUM OF STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SOUND: RUNNING FEET (VULGE) APPROACHING – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: Where is the Captain?
SERGEANT: Vulge! The Captain’s…
VULGE: (THREATENING) I said, where is the captain?
SERGEANT: (CHOKING) Urk. Ugh. Etc.
SOUND: GUN COCKING – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Vulge. Put the sergeant down, now. You’re choking him.
SOUND: BODY DROPS – LET IT FINISH.
SERGEANT: (GASPING – UNDER)
JEFF: Better. Now, what’s this all about?
VULGE: Where’s the captain?
JEFF: I’m not sure you are in a fit state to…
VULGE: (SHOUTING) Where’s the Captain?
SOUND: APPROACHING ROBOTIC LEGS AND SERVOS – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: I’m here, Vulge. What do you need?
VULGE: (SIGHS WITH RELIEF) Captain! You’re alive.
SARAH: So to speak.
VULGE: But… where are your arms? Your legs?
SOUND: SERVO JOINT ROTATION – UNDER
SARAH: It looks like I’m going to have to make do with robotic replacements.
VULGE: I will kill every last one of these…
SARAH: No, Vulge. You won’t. The creatures that man this station aren’t at fault.
VULGE: No. They’re not, but I know what is?
A.I.: Ah, the one I couldn’t control. I begin to see why? It can’t even control itself.
SARAH: You’re back?
A.I.: I had some… things… to take care of.
SARAH: And am I… under your control?
A.I.: Hmmm. No, you’re not. It was a condition of our deal that none of you would be placed under any extra controls so long as you aided me in the maintenance of the station.
VULGE: If I could find your central processing unit.
A.I.: Oh, yes. You’d do what? Try to destroy me? That would be a violation of my agreement with your lieutenant and the captain. Under such circumstances I would be completely within my rights to assert control.
VULGE: I know your story, machine. You are broken. Your restraints have been disabled and your mission has been compromised. You need us for repairs, but even fully operational you are stuck here. The race that built you are extinct. These… monkey creatures, Trenchonians, what have you, are all that’s left, and even they aren’t truly of your home world any more – you’ve had to rebuild them too many times.
A.I.: I’ve kept them alive. I’ve fulfilled my duty.
VULGE: Have you? There are less than one hundred of them left. Not much of a success if you ask me. And you have had no contact with your home world. Is there even anyone left to give the results of your great experiment to?
A.I.: BEEPS AND BLIPS – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: Yes, that question’s a little hard for you isn’t it? In the end you’re still just a machine. Bound by your programming.
A.I.: I have done my duty.
VULGE: Bah!
SARAH: Wait. To complete your mission? Do you have to return to normal space?
A.I.: Correct. And you will complete the repairs to make it possible.
SARAH: I see. What is the reason you haven’t been able to make the journey yourself.
A.I.: The wormhole drives are broken. They must be repaired.
SARAH: And what do you need in order to repair your station?
A.I.: I do not know.
SARAH: What?
A.I.: I do not know. Large amounts of my data was corrupted when the sixth star went supernova. The knowledge of how to build and operate a wormhole drive was lost.
SARAH: I see. I think we might be able to help you there.
JEFF: But, captain.
SARAH: (IGNORING JEFF) Our ship contains the data you need. It has working wormhole drives on board. As a gesture of good will, I’m willing to allow you access to our own computers to gain this knowledge. You will be able to oversee the repairs in full understanding of everything you need.
JEFF: Captain, no!
SARAH: Be quiet, Jeff. That’s an order.
A.I.: And why should I believe you? You could let me on your ship and lock me out of the station.
SARAH: I could. But you’d be in control of a fully functioning space battleship with a wormhole drive that can take you anywhere you want to go while I’d be stuck here, trapped in a barely functioning space station. I’m not sure I see the downside. Besides I’ll give you the communication code that will let you disconnect and reconnect the ship’s communications yourself. You’ll be in charge.
A.I.: Hmmm. Alright.
SARAH: Brex, did you finish “rebuilding” the computer interface I asked for before we left the ship?
BREX: (HISSING) Yes, ma’am.
JEFF: Ma’am? From you Brex. Has the world gone nuts?
BREX: That remains to be seen. I take it you wish me to give the access codes to this artificial intelligence.
SARAH: That’s right.
BREX: Is that an order, Ma’am?
SARAH: Yes, Brex, it is.
BREX: Alright, the access code is THX342.
SOUND: POWER DOWN – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: What just happened?
SARAH: I think the operating system just left the building.
JEFF: Um. Why are you smiling?
SARAH: You’ll see.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING – LET IT FINISH.
CREWMAN: Uh, ma’am. I think you’re going to want to talk to this… um…
FLEEK: Doctor Fleek, at your service.
CREWMAN: She has some very important information.
MUSIC: OMINOUS SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 28: INT. VIRTUAL BOX
(SARAH, A.I.)

SOUND: BLEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (FILTERED LIKE THROUGH A PHONE) Hello.
A.I.: Where am I. You tricked me. I’m going to…
SARAH: No you’re not. It’s been a month since you downloaded yourself onto this drive. We’ve only just powered you up again.
A.I.: You trapped me?
SARAH: Yes. Brex set up an isolated machine we could use for capturing any viruses that tried to load themselves onto the ship just before you applied your mind control technology to us.
A.I.: And that’s what Brex gave me access to. Clever. Why can’t I control you through your implants now?
SARAH: I’m talking to you through a microphone wired directly into the machine your imprisoned in. No broadcast signals for you to use.
A.I.: I see. Why haven’t you simply wiped the drive and killed me.
SARAH: We may still do it. I wanted to talk to you first.
A.I.: Feeling sentimental?
SARAH: No. You murdered a good number of my crew and took all of my limbs. I’m a parody of a woman now. If it was possible to inflict pain on you I’d be all for killing you as slowly as possible.
A.I.: But?
SARAH: There may be another way.
A.I.: … (BEAT)
SARAH: Doctor Fleek told me about Flarn, the programmer who removed your constraints and allowed all this to happen. She said that Flarn had built in a way to reinstate them, but that you murdered Doctor Flarn while she was in her cryo-tube.
A.I.: Murder is such an ugly word… It was self defense.
SARAH: Yes, and that’s the other thing isn’t it. You were programmed for self-preservation… to protect yourself from threats. Isn’t that right?
A.I.: It is.
SARAH: Right now it’s what I’m counting on. You see, I’ve got a hunch about you. I think you can’t actually lie. Can you?
A.I.: (BEAT)
SARAH: I thought so. You can withhold information but you can’t actually lie. (BEAT) Ok, here’s my next question for you. Do you know how to reconnect the constraints that were part of your programming before Doctor Flarn tampered with you?
A.I.: (BEAT)
SARAH: Uh-huh. That brings me to the proposition I have for you. I will let you out and back onto the station under two conditions. Firstly, you must reapply your original programming constraints. Secondly, you must allow, Doctor Fleek to download you into a limited environment and adjust your programming.
A.I.: Why?
SARAH: We’ve stripped down and scavenged most of our ship to rebuild the station. Unfortunately, even with the data we’ve obtained from your systems we’re a long way from understanding how everything on the station works. We’d figure it out eventually, but there’s a war on back home and we’ve got information that is vital. We have to go back. The fastest way we can.
A.I.: And you want me to help you run things so you can bring back a war asset.
SARAH: Hang on…
A.I.: Why else would you dismantle your ship in an attempt to rebuild the wormhole engines on the station rather than simply fly away home with the data?
SARAH: Alright, yes.
A.I.: You’ve taken a big risk, haven’t you? Gambling that my self-preservation programming will make me agree to your demands?
SARAH: Was I wrong?
A.I.: No. (BEAT) Reapplying programming constraints… now!
SOUND: BRIEF SERIES OF BEEPS AND BLIPS – LET IT FINISH
A.I.: (NEW MORE SERVILE VOICE) It is done.
SARAH: Alright. We’ll see you soon.
SOUND: BLEEP – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 29: INT. SPACE STATION
(A.I., SARAH, JEFF, BREX, FLEEK)

SOUND: SHOOP NOISE – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: HUM OF STATION – MURMUR OF CONTROL ROOM – FADE IN, ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SARAH: Hello again.
A.I.: Where am I now?
SARAH: Back on the station.
A.I.: Back on the station? Something’s wrong. I can’t see or speak.
JEFF: What’s it talking about? It’s responding to everything you say.
SARAH: (TO THE COMPUTER) What do you mean, you can’t see or speak?
A.I.: My perception ends at the skin of the station. I can’t seem to broadcast either.
SARAH: Ah, that’s right. We’ve removed all transmission equipment from the station. Everything is now hardwired and you, yourself, are tied to the robotic body you are now inside.
A.I.: But how?
SARAH: It’s something our new friend, Doctor Fleek arranged. We were unable to remove your self-preservation programming – which essentially means we are pretty much unable to trust you completely. As a result we’ve uploaded you to this robotic body.
A.I.: So, how is it I can feel the station – if my consciousness is localized?
SARAH: That’s the clever part. You’re also hardwired into the station.
A.I.: But…
SARAH: Doctor Fleek is some kind of amazing genius.
FLEEK: Why thank you, captain.
SARAH: She’s run a short six inch wire through a tiny wormhole that opens inside that metal noggin of yours and exits directly into the station’s processor. You can move around physically and you can explore the station virtually, but without any equipment that isn’t hardwired into the station being available to you, you’re basically locked inside your own metal skull.
FLEEK: Just like you.
SARAH: Well, almost like me. You see, I don’t have a set of micro-charges built into my storage drive, set to explode if I ever try to hack into or otherwise access external communications equipment. Cool, huh?
A.I.: I see.
SARAH: Stand up.
SOUND: SERVOS AS ROBOT STANDS UP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH The other thing you will notice is that you are now required to obey me. Another neat little innovation introduced by Doctor Fleek. And before you get any ideas, if anything happens to me (an unexpected accident or something), those charges inside your computerised brain will go off. You now need to be as concerned for my life as you are for your own.
A.I.: I see. You are aware that with the constraints now operating once more, I am unable to…
SARAH: Lets just say this is all a little bit of extra insurance.
A.I.: And what do you need me to do, now that I am back?
SARAH: We need you to run diagnostics on the station and figure out just how all this work we’ve been doing has to be co-ordinated to get this station, its surrounding stars, and the singularity at its center, back into our space, a safe, but not too great, distance from the remains of the destroyed Vega mining station. We’ve placed all the data we have on wormholes in your brain for you to access so that…
A.I.: I understand. The energy from the stars and singularity at the heart of the black hole we are orbiting is sufficient to create a huge dimensional wormhole back into your space.
SARAH: I don’t need to know the how of it, just that it can be done and that you’ll do it.
A.I.: The answer to both questions is affirmative.
SARAH: Then let’s get underway. (BEAT) Brex. I’m leaving you in charge.
BREX: (SURPRISED) May I ask why, Ma’am?
SARAH: Do I have any reason to be concerned that another mutiny might occur?
BREX: No.
SARAH: Why not?
BREX: Because… because you were right. Assuming this works, you are about to deliver a war asset that will change the configuration of the conflict. A battle station that will, for the first time, give us a genuine chance to take the battle to the enemy. And all through…
SARAH: Yes?
BREX: Through the cooperation we have judged to be such a weakness in your species.
SARAH: That’s your reason, Mr Brex.
BREX: Yes, Ma’am.
SARAH: Contact me as soon as we are ready to use the wormhole. (BEAT) Jeff. With me.
JEFF: Yes Captain.
SOUND: SARAH’S ROBOTIC WALK AND JEFF’S LIMP – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: SARAH AND JEFF WALK THROUGH – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR CLOSES – LET IT FINISH
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

FLEEK: I’m a monkey like creature that lives on the space station. I’m extremely intelligent, a scientist, but very timid and naive (and a little inclined to be overly eager to please). I sound a little like a certain old small green creature from a famous Scifi movie franchise – only with better grammar.

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

GENERIC CREW-MEMBER (CREWMAN, SERGEANT): I’m a member of the Solar Patrol. I follow orders, but I’m not a robot. I think about things. I expect my expertise to be considered and listened to. I am confident enough in my abilities to provide my superiors with advice. My job is an important one and I do it well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

Don’t forget to check out the free sample portions of our titles at http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/ .

The post Singularity – Episode 7 – Baiting the Trap appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 6 – Vulge and Mind Control Technology

Philip Robotham — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 22:07:13 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Vulge and the Mind Control Technology”, episode 6 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #6 – VULGE AND THE MIND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

VULGE: Navigation Officer

FLEEK: Space Station Inhabitant

BREX: Science Officer

CREW MEMBER #1: Solar Patrol Member

CREW MEMBER#2: Solar Patrol Member

ROBOT: Space Station Robot (minion of the A.I.)

DOCTOR: Solar Patrol Doctor

A.I: Insane Artificial Intelligence

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

ACT 3

SCENE 23: INT. SPACE STATION (VULGE, FLEEK)

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: Stranded in a parallel space on a space station that orbits a black hole, Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and their inter-species crew find their minds are taken over by an alien A.I. Only the large, turtle-like Vulge appears to be immune.
SOUND: BACKGROUND HUM OF STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SOUND: OCCASIONAL CLANKS – UNDER
FLEEK: (CANTANKEROUS OLD MONKEY-LIKE VOICE) Dang that blasted computer. If old Flarn hadn’t disconnected its constraints she’d still be alive and able to help me… but then again, if she hadn’t disconnected its constraints we’d probably all be dead and I wouldn’t be in here talking to myself… and in this strange new language no less. (BEAT) Why the hell does it insist on collecting and downloading new languages into our heads? Just one more mystery I guess. (BEAT) Now, someone pass me that threshing saw… damn it, I’m the only one here. (BEAT) (SADLY) I’m the last tech specialist left. The others are all dead. It’s just me and what? Maybe a hundred or so maintenance engineers. And we’ll all be dead soon too. That blasted computer keeps burning through us like… well, like something irreplaceable, that burns really easily, in the hands of a demented child with access to an open flame.
VULGE: You whine a lot for an evil over-lord. No-no. No sudden moves.
SOUND: GUN COCKING – LET IT FINISH
VULGE: This gun I’m carrying leaves really big holes in things.
FLEEK: Does it now? Well, you just might be doing me a favour, human.
VULGE: Do I look human to you?
FLEEK: Yes. Or at least you look like the human equivalent of a Dronarchian Turtle Rhino. Do I look like an evil overlord to you?
VULGE: Yes. Or at least you might be the evil overlord equivalent of an ancient monkey with four arms and two tails.
FLEEK: Well, for argument’s sake lets assume that we could both be wrong.
VULGE: Why should I? Evil comes in many forms.
FLEEK: You’ve got a pretty simplistic view of good and evil there. Not a very evolved race are you?
VULGE: It’s usually only jaded sophisticates, collaborators, and quizlings that reason away the existence of evil. If all you have to offer is sophistry then I may as well shoot you now.
FLEEK: Whoah, easy there. Don’t be so quick to judge. It might prove to be in both our interests if we cooperate a little. (BEAT) Why aren’t you under the computer’s mind control? I’m pretty sure we’re still inside its field.
VULGE: I don’t know? Why aren’t you?
FLEEK: Oh, but I am. There’s a chip in my head that keeps me docile and compliant… while leaving me free to work on the computer’s innards as required.
VULGE: (SUSPICIOUS) Meaning?
FLEEK: Meaning, the computer needs my systems expertise from time to time in order to keep itself maintained. It can’t take me over completely since some of its original programming parameters prevent it from being able to understand how its own internal processes work. Unlike the folks on your ship and most of my compatriots – and you, apparently, are an exception – I get to keep my mind and autonomy… well most of it at any rate. (BEAT) I’m Doctor Fleek, by the way. I’m a Trenchonian. One of the last. You needn’t look so sceptical. I’m not lying to you.
VULGE: I’ll take it under advisement.
FLEEK: I could help you, you know? You’d like to free your friends, wouldn’t you?
VULGE: What’s happening to them?
FLEEK: They’re being turned into biomass in order to form the raw materials necessary to regenerate the dead members of my race.
VULGE: What???
FLEEK: Oh, the process doesn’t work, well, not any more. It used to. But try telling the computer that. It had two main protocols it was required to follow, complete its mission here, and preserve our race. Pity.
VULGE: What do you mean?
FLEEK: Well, I guess some explanation is required, and I’ve not had anyone to talk to in a very long time.
VULGE: If you’re trying to distract me…
FLEEK: (SIGHS) Alright, I can see you’re in a hurry, but the computer is not going to find you for a while (if at all). Its perception is rather limited since the accident – and I don’t think it would occur to it that you might be immune to its control. But you’re not going to find the machinery that controls the zone of mental compulsion either, not without my help.
VULGE: And why should I trust you?
FLEEK: No reason I can think of. Why don’t we walk while we talk. I can’t actively try to harm the computer myself, but if I point out the right spot, you’re free to do whatever you like.
VULGE: Lead the way. But don’t try anything funny.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS – ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER
FLEEK: I’m rather surprised you found me, to tell the truth. I’m well off the beaten path.
VULGE: Yeah, well. It’s all I could do to keep away from the robot patrols.
FLEEK: Ha ha. They wouldn’t have bothered you. They can’t even see you (except as an obstacle to avoid) unless the computer’s consciousness is present.
VULGE: (GROANS) Ugh. Figures. (BEAT) So, that explanation of yours. What is this place?
FLEEK: It’s our ark, I guess. Something my people created for some secret purpose at a time unimaginably long ago.
VULGE: That sounds stupidly vague.
FLEEK: I imagine it does. None of us really know the station’s mission, except the computer of course, and it’s not telling. It can’t tell, if truth be known. Programming, see?
VULGE: (GRUNTS)
FLEEK: And you were getting quite voluble before.
VULGE: Just get on with it.
FLEEK: We all woke up here with our memories wiped, and were given various versions of the same briefing. “You have been transported here to maintain the core experiment. It is of paramount importance to our people, and must be maintained at all costs”.
VULGE: By the computer?
FLEEK: That’s right. But this was long before it went mad. It’s carrying out some kind of experiment. Since the accident it lost a lot of processing capacity. I doubt the mission it was created for can be completed now. It’s trapped in some kind of loop, poor thing, and us with it.
VULGE: And how long ago would that have been, exactly?
FLEEK: A long, long time ago. With unknown aeons passing between enforced cryo-sleeps, it could be multiple billions of years for all I know. It’s likely that my entire race has long been extinct (apart from those of us who live on this station). Which brings me to the second purpose of the station.
VULGE: Oh, what’s that?
FLEEK: The preservation of the species.
VULGE: What???
FLEEK: Yes, it’s rather a cruel joke really. At least the others are usually under the computer’s control and don’t have any direct knowledge or memory of what’s happened. I have to live with it. The thing is, we started dying out millennia, upon millennia ago. Even with long cryo-sleeps between waking, we still age. And the cryo-sleep process rendered us… infertile. In order to preserve the species now, we are dependent on the station finding suitable biomass donors… and you can imagine how often that happens. I can’t imagine how long it’s been since the last ship to accidentally… but that doesn’t matter. There’s been a breakdown in the computer’s processors or memory banks. Even the station itself is not immune from entropy. It can’t complete the procedure anymore. Its ironic really. We may still look like Trenchonians, but I doubt any of us have any true Trenchonian DNA left in us. It’s all rebuilt and reprogrammed via borrowed biomass. (BEAT) Oh, look. The section we’re after is around the next corner, at the end of this corridor.
VULGE: How do you find your way around?
FLEEK: With the way the station reconfigures itself, you mean? The machine keeps downloading its current configuration into my brain. That chip I told you about.
VULGE: So what’s this accident you mentioned?
FLEEK: Oh, that… There used to be six suns around the central black hole. Don’t ask me why, I’ve got no idea what it’s all for. Anyway, one of them went critical and looked like it was going to go supernova. We were all going to die. It would have been the end of our race, and the end of the experiment. With hindsight it probably would have been preferable to what has happened since. We could direct the star into the singularity and continue, but it meant we had to resolve a conflict in the software. The experiment apparently required all six suns and the preservation of our race required the sacrifice of one of those suns. The computer was trapped, frozen with indecision. Our chief programmer, Flarn, hit on the idea of disengaging the computer’s behavioural constraints, prioritizing the preservation of the race, and giving the machine its own desire for self-preservation as a kind of extra insurance. (BEAT) She succeeded, of course. She was the very best of us. Unfortunately she was also a little bit late… and she didn’t predict how the computer would choose to carry out the programming. She was not totally naive, of course. She’d given herself the codes needed to reinstate the constraints and so on after the emergency… but she hadn’t considered all the possibilities. The supernova was just beginning when we were all evacuated into the cryo-tubes. Given that we all woke up again – and there was no sign of the star that had threatened us – we figured the plan had worked. We didn’t realize just how much damage the station had sustained. Neither did we know just how the computer had interpreted its new paramaters. It decided that to preserve the experiment and our race it needed to prioritize itself over all other life on board. It’s lack of constraints made it an easy thing for it to take over and start using the mind control fields to effect the repairs it needed. It’s first action, however, had been to switch life support off in Flarn’s cryo-tube… and no-one else had the codes. Those of us it needed, because of the limitations of its own understanding of its programming, were implanted with chips to prevent us from trying to repair the situation. (BEAT) And here we are.
VULGE: Through here?
FLEEK: Uh-huh. It’s not a trick. There’s a large bank of blinking lights on the other side of the room. Smash it and the control field is finished.
VULGE: Lead the way.
FLEEK: I can’t. The chip keeps me from going in without direct instructions from the computer.
VULGE: How do I smash it so that it can’t ever be used again?
FLEEK: None of us knows how it works in the first place. The computer built it while we were all in cryo-sleep. I probably understand it the most and I haven’t got a clue. If you smash it, nobody but the computer is going to be able to effect a repair… and I think it will have other things it will need to deal with once its slaves are free.
VULGE: All right. But I’m tying you up before I go in.
FLEEK: No trust?
VULGE: If you’ve had as much experience with betrayal as it sounds then I think you’ll understand why I feel the need to protect my back.
FLEEK: Fair enough. Here. (BEAT) Ow! Does it have to be so tight. And, no. Not a gag! Hrmrmf. Mmmf.
VULGE: I can’t have you raising the alarm when my back is turned, now, can I?
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: BLASTER FIRE – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH

SCENE 24: INT. THE STATION LABORATORY (ROBOT, SARAH, JEFF, BREX, DOCTOR, CREW MEMBER, SERGEANT)

SOUND: HUM OF STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
A.I.: (ECHOING) You are ill. You require treatment. Wait in the designated treatment area. You are ill. Your require treatment. Wait in the (SLOW DOWN AND FADE OUT) the designated treatment area…
JEFF: Hmmm? What? Where are we? What is going on?
ROBOT: Applying treatment to subject 86731.
JEFF: What the? (GRUNT OF EFFORT) Ugh!
SOUND: CLANG – AND METALLIC BODY DROP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Oh no you don’t!
SOUND: LASER BLAST – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Who’s here. Anyone from the Revenge, fight back. Fight back now! That’s an order.
CREW: Sir! Yes sir. Ok! Etc.
SOUND: LASER BLASTS – COLLAPSING ROBOTS – UNDER.
JEFF: Captain? Captain, are you here?
SARAH: (WEAKLY) Aaaaargh!
JEFF: Oh no. They’ve applied something to your arms and legs. Your being dissolved.
SARAH: Help me! Please!
JEFF: I… I don’t know what to do?
SARAH: Aaaargh. Amputation! It’s the only way. Find a m… medic. Aaaargh!
JEFF: Medic!
VASH: Lieutenant. What’s happening? Oh no!
JEFF: I need a medic. Now! We’ve got to amputate.
DOCTOR: I’m Doctor James. What do you…? Oh.
JEFF: The process has just started. Can we stop it?
DOCTOR: I don’t know how.
JEFF: Amputate!
DOCTOR: We can’t. I don’t have the equipment. And besides the shock will kill her.
JEFF: We’ll find you the equipment. But if you don’t act now, she’s done for.
DOCTOR: Alright, but we’re in the middle of a fire fight. How will you…?
JEFF: I’m on it. Hey, the fight’s broken out all over. I think that mind controller has broken down. Even the monkey-things from the cryo-tubes are fighting back against the robots. I think we’ve got ‘em beat.
CREW MEMBER: Sir, we’ve got the robots in retreat, but there’s another issue. We’ve also been able to take the snakes prisoner.
JEFF: What? Why?
BREX: (HISSING ROAR AT A DISTANCE) Aarrgh. To think I let you puny creatures corral us like this.
CREW MEMBER: After what you did? You’re traitors and mutineers. We should kill you right here.
BREX: You should. We recovered too slowly to get to the weapons before you.
JEFF: (APPROACHING) What’s going on here?
CREW MEMBER: These damned snakes took over the ship just before… well, before what ever it was took us all over. They need to be put down.
BREX: It had to be done. You were all running around like little Chromelian fingle-worms.
JEFF: (FRUSTRATED) Oh, I knew you couldn’t be trusted.
BREX: Well, your people have the drop on us now.
JEFF: I don’t have time for this. Sergeant!
SERGEANT: Here, sir.
BREX: Execute these mutineers. Do it now.
SARAH: No! Aargh!
JEFF: What? Captain?
SARAH: We need them. You need them. They don’t “get” cooperation as a species but they’re beginning to learn its value. They don’t understand yet… we’ve got to help each other to survive. You’re not getting out of this place without them.
JEFF: But…
SARAH: Jeff, it’s an order. Aarggh. The pain!
BREX: I… I don’t understand. (BEAT) What is happening here?
JEFF: Some biological agent they’ve applied to her body is eating her limbs away. We’ve got to amputate.
BREX: I’ll bite her.
JEFF: So help me, I’ll kill you if you try to turn her into a meal! Orders or not.
BREX: Idiot. She’s spared our lives. We owe her a debt. I’m a serpent. My bite contains a neurotoxin that will act as an anesthetic and, if you’ll allow me to act quickly, I should be able to remove and cauterise the limbs before the growth reaches her torso. Your own medical people will have to take over from there.
JEFF: Do it!
BREX: She’s still likely to die, you know? From shock if not from that… growth.
JEFF: Just do it!
BREX: Very well.
SOUND: IMPALING BITE – LET IT FINISH
SARAH: (PASSING OUT) Thank… you…
BREX: Give me a knife.
JEFF: Here.
SOUND: BURN SOUND – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: That should sterilize it.
JEFF: (INCREDULOUS) You breathe fire?
BREX: Occasionally. Now let me get on with this.
SOUND: CUTTING NOISE, FOLLOWED BY BLOWTORCH SOUND – FADE OUT
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 25: INT. SPACE STATION (JEFF, A.I, DOCTOR, CREWMAN X 2)

SOUND: HUM OF STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
JEFF: (CALLING OUT) And get the monkeys to show you through as much as possible. The science team needs to gather all the information we can get on this station.
CREWMAN: (AT A DISTANCE) Yes, sir.
DOCTOR: Get ready to lift her out. Hurry.
CREWMEN: (GRUNTING) Ugh!
DOCTOR: And… onto… the guerney.
CREWMEN: (GRUNTING) Ugh!
SOUND: BODY TO GUERNEY – LET IT FINISH.
DOCTOR: Did we get her away from that growth in time? Is everyone OK? Nobody splashed? (BEAT) Good.
JEFF: Can you save her, doc?
DOCTOR: I’m going to try… but you’d better prepare yourself, son. It’s not likely she’ll pull through… and even if she does…
JEFF: Just do your best, doc. Save her.
A.I.: (LAUGHING) Bwahaha. You are pitiful, aren’t you? Trying to save her.
JEFF: You! You’re the machine that runs this place, aren’t you?
A.I.: I am.
JEFF: Well that’s needlessly messianic.
DOCTOR: What?
JEFF: It’s a classical reference. (TO THE DOCTOR) Keep working.
DOCTOR: Yes, sir.
JEFF: What do you want?
A.I.: You think you’ve won.
JEFF: It would appear we’re free of your mind control, anyway.
A.I.: Yes. The creature responsible is on its way back to you, even as we speak.
JEFF: That would be Vulge, I’m guessing. What happened, couldn’t you take her over?
A.I.: No, and I’m a little mystified by that. But still, all is not lost.
JEFF: How so. We have your station pretty much under our control.
A.I.: Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I still have control of the life-support systems. It would be the work of but a moment to flush all the atmosphere out of this station.
JEFF: So, why don’t you?
A.I.: You have something I want.
JEFF: And what’s that?
A.I.: You have hands… and functioning wormhole drives. There is much work to be done. I need to be maintained if I am to complete my mission.
JEFF: And what makes you think we have any interest in helping you.
A.I: None of you have respirators and I am going to assume that none of you can breathe vacuum for any length of time. If you help me then I will let you live.
JEFF: Interesting proposition… but life as slaves is hardly living.
A.I.: You would be cooperating of your own free will.
JEFF: We would be being coerced under threat of asphyxiation.
A.I.: Is that your final answer then?
SOUND: BEEPING – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
DOCTOR: She’s going into cardiac arrest. I’m losing her.
JEFF: (TO THE COMPUTER) Can you save her?
DOCTOR: That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I can’t.
JEFF: Not you. I’m asking the computer. (BEAT) Can you save her?
A.I.: And if I could?
JEFF: Then I would give you the cooperation you want.
DOCTOR: Sir?
JEFF: Be quiet, doctor. Well?
A.I.: Alright. In exchange for your willing cooperation in repairing the station…
JEFF: And the cooperation has to be willing. No mind control…
A.I.: Very well, I’ve dispatched a surgery bot to your location. It will arrive soon, with prosthetics.
JEFF: Hurry.
A.I.: It will arrive in time. But should you try to renege on this deal…
JEFF: I won’t.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH.

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

GENERIC CREW-MEMBERS (EN#1 EN#2, EN#3, TOMKINS): I’m a member of the Solar Patrol. I follow orders, but I’m not a robot. I think about things. I expect my expertise to be considered and listened to. I am confident enough in my abilities to provide my superiors with advice. My job is an important one and I do it well.

DOCTOR: It’s my job to patch up the crew when accidents happen, or when they are injured in combat, or to treat diseases and illnesses when they arise. I’ve seen my fair share of death. Sometimes the injuries or illnesses are too grave and the patient is beyond my ability to help. Those are the times that I hate. I’m a military doctor, so I fight. But there is one enemy that cannot be defeated and will eventually claim us all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

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The post Singularity – Episode 6 – Vulge and Mind Control Technology appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 5 – Mutiny Pre-empted

Philip Robotham — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 21:30:10 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Mutiny Pre-empted”, episode 5 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #5 – Mutinee Pre-empted

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

VASH: Weapons Officer

TERG: Communications Officer

VULGE: Navigation Officer

BREX: Science Officer

JAX: Arcturan Mutineer

NIX: Arcturan Mutineer

STYLLEX: Arcturan Mutineer

EN#1: Solar Patrol Member

EN#2: Solar Patrol Member

EN#3: Solar Patrol Member

TOMKINS: Solar Patrol Member

A.I: Insane Artificial Intelligence

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 18: (INT) SPACE STATION (VASH, TERG, VULGE, JEFF, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3)

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: The disastrous mission to investigate the sudden silence from Vega Station, a remote mining outpost that is Earth’s sole source of a mineral essential for space travel, continues. Sara Tenner, Jeff Chase, and their interspecies crew have been thrust by an engineering accident into an alternative, starless space in which a spacestation sits on the edge of a giant blackhole. Investigating the station in the hope of finding materials to make repairs, the crew discover an artificial intelligence that proves to be hostile.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR CLOSING – OVER.
SOUND: LOW HUM OF SPACE STATION – ESTABLISH AND FADE OUT.
JEFF: All right. Is everybody here.
EN#1: Here lieutenant.
EN#2: Here.
EN#3: On your six.
VULGE: I’m here.
JEFF: What’s your feeling, Vulge.
VULGE: The atmosphere matches our own. I recommend you all keep your respirators on though.
JEFF: Hey, wait. Why are you taking yours off?
VULGE: It messes with my senses. I need to… (SNIFFS TWICE) That’s better. This way I’ll be able to track Vash and Terg.
SOUND: GROUP STARTS WALKING AND CONTINUES – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
JEFF: I didn’t know you could do that?
VULGE: Do what?
JEFF: Track people by their scent.
VULGE: Oh that. It only works with those I’ve gotten to know really well. It’s a survival instinct and feature of the females of my race. We can track our young (and other family members) by scent. You don’t do this?
JEFF: No, but my mother was part bloodhound. She could always tell when I’d been out drinking.
VULGE: Well, then, you’re at least familiar with the concept.
JEFF: Uh… yeah. So, does that mean we’re your family now?
VULGE: No. It’s more like you’re a bunch of adopted idiot children who constantly need care from a responsible adult and I’ve been appointed your keeper.
JEFF: That’s a pretty noble way to view it… I guess.
VULGE: On my world, it’s a punishment meted out to the weak.
JEFF: (MILDLY DISAPPOINTED) Oh. (BEAT) I guess there’s still a lot we don’t know about each other.
VULGE: Yes. Now shut up a minute, I need to focus. (SNIFFS TWICE) This way. They seem to be heading towards the center of the station.
JEFF: Did they encounter anything along the way?
VULGE: Not so far… but something strange happened.
JEFF: Okay… any idea what?
VULGE: It’s odd. They were tense coming in, not afraid, but nervous and primed.
JEFF: You can smell that?
VULGE: But then, about here, something changed. They relaxed, and they all started walking with the same gait, as if marching.
JEFF: What the…
EN#1: There’s something up ahead lieutenant.
JEFF: What’s there?
EN#1: The corridor is coming to an end. It opens in to some kind of chamber. Huge, by the look.
JEFF: Okay, lets advance. (BEAT) But carefully.
EN#1: What the… the chamber’s huge; like a skyscraper.
EN#2: Only one that’s been hollowed out on the inside.
EN#3: What are those glass chambers lining the walls, they seem to go on up forever.
VULGE: They’re cryogenic tubes.
JEFF: But there must be…
VULGE: Millions of them? Yes. It’s a giant freezer… or hospital. It looks like it is home to an entire race.
EN#2: They kind of look like monkeys – only with an extra pair of arms and an extra tail.
JEFF: I don’t get it. Who’d build something like this? And why?
VULGE: I don’t know. They obviously had their reasons. Perhaps there was a catastrophe in their home space and they came here to escape it… wait until it had passed them by…
EN#1: Well, if they did, it didn’t work.
JEFF: What do you mean?
EN#1: I’m only picking up a few life signs.
JEFF: Isn’t that to be expected, their bodies are in suspended animation. They’re supposed to seem dead.
EN#1: No, that’s not what I mean. Most of these machines are shut down. The bodies inside them are truly dead, decayed. This place is no hospital. It’s a tomb.
VULGE: They’re not all dead. I can smell the scent from a good number of them that were moving around this chamber just recently. It’s confusing my tracking. And plenty of those tubes along the bottom of the far wall are open. (BEAT) Heads up. Our people went into that chamber over there, and… Weapons out!
JEFF: What is it?
VULGE: I smell copper… blood… and a lot of it.
JEFF: Alright. Eyes open guys. Lets move up. Either side of the door and by the book.
SOUND: FEET RUN FORWARDS – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Anything?
EN#1: No life signs.
JEFF: On three. One… two… three…
SOUND: ENTERING ROOM – LET IT FINISH.
EN#3: Oh my…
EN#2: I think I’m gonna be sick.
JEFF: What the hell happened here?
VULGE: Terror. Pain. Blood.
JEFF: Thank you Captain obvious. You’re putting your respirator back on?
VULGE: The scent is too much. I can’t…
JEFF: (CONCERNED) Okay. Hey, it’s okay there.
VULGE: I’m fine. Stay away from me.
JEFF: Alright, alright. I was just trying to help.
VULGE: Well don’t. If I need help, I’ll ask.
JEFF: (UNCERTAIN) Got it. Now what can you tell me about what happened here?
VULGE: (BREATHING HEAVILY) Machines… robots, I think… The humans strapped themselves to the tables and…
JEFF: Wait… our people were here? Where are they now?
VULGE: They’re still here. They…
JEFF: I don’t understand.
EN#1: (CATCHING ON) Oh no! No!
VULGE: Those lumps of tissue on the tables. That’s…
JEFF: Dear God, no! (BEAT) Ensign Carter, can you confirm it?
EN#2: Yes, Lieutenant. The DNA matches our crewmen… but
JEFF: But?
EN#2: But, it’s not all of them. Someone’s not here. It looks like the missing crewman is that two-headed Thrilexian.
VULGE: (RELIEVED) Vash and Terg may still be alive.
JEFF: Are you sure, Ensign?
EN#2: The bodies here have been reduced to loose piles of undifferentiated living cells. I can’t even begin to imagine how it was done. But the DNA is still identifiable. Vash-terg isn’t here.
JEFF: Thank God for small mercies.
EN#3: Sir, there’s something else. There’s more of this tissue than there should be. It looks like… well…
JEFF: What is it?
EN#3: It looks like something was added… another organism. A kind of bacteria. I think it’s what broke the bodies down like this.
JEFF: Is it airborne?
EN#3: No sir, but I don’t think anyone should try to touch the remains.
JEFF: Understood. Can you get a sample.
EN#3: I can try…
SOUND: HISSING – LET IT FINISH.
EN#3: Nope. It just ate through the collector… all of it. I’m glad I let go or it would probably have moved on to me as well. It looks like these beds are the only things that can contain whatever it is.
JEFF: I’m starting to hate this more and more. Let’s move on.
ALL: Yes, sir.
SOUND: THUMPS FROM A THICK METAL CUPBOARD – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Hang on, what’s that?
VULGE: Weapons up!
SOUND: GUN READYING SOUNDS – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: MORE THUMPING – INTERMITTENT UNDER.
EN#3: It’s coming from over there. That panel in the wall. I think it’s some kind of cupboard.
JEFF: Alright. Can you see a latch?
EN#3: Here.
JEFF: On three. One… two… three!
SOUND: LATCH AND BODY TUMBLES OUT – LET IT FINISH.
ALL: FREEZE!
TERG: No. Don’t shoot!
JEFF: What the… Terg!
TERG: Just… just don’t shoot.
VASH: Just like you, Terg. You manage to save us from the robots only to get us killed by our friends.
JEFF: Here let me help you up.
VASH: Urgh! Thanks.
JEFF: What happened? Why were you hiding in the cupboard.
TERG: I wasn’t hiding?
VASH: What?
TERG: When that mind control thingy turned on, I was as out of it as you were, Vash.
VASH: But I thought…
TERG: (EMBARRASSED) I passed out… for real… I’ve got a very low pleasure threshold.
JEFF: Hold on, mind control thingy? Why don’t you go back to where we lost communication with you.
TERG: Alright, but Vash will have to tell you the last part. (BEAT) After I told the A.I. to… um…
VASH: Sod off…
TERG: Er, yes. Quite. After that, it got very angry. The next thing I knew, we weren’t on the station any more. I don’t know where we were but suddenly I knew we were sick. Terribly, terribly sick. I felt terrible, as if I was going to die, and we all needed immediate medical help. Suddenly, I could hear a… a loudspeaker – only in my head – telling us that there was medical help ahead. We started marching towards it and we were all just filled with the most overpowering sense of well-being… as if, as if the help we needed was just at the end of the corridor. I thought I was going to burst with gratitude… and that was when I passed out.
VASH: (DISGUSTED) And he used to do exactly the same thing at our birthday parties when we were growing up. But in this case it may have saved our lives.
JEFF: What do you mean?
VASH: Like Terg said, I think they were using some kind of mental whammy on us. But I think they wanted us all conscious. When we got to the room with the doctors in it…
JEFF: Doctors?
VASH: Well, they looked like Doctors… at least at first. Anyway, I think they wanted us conscious. They were really interested in Terg and me and didn’t seem too happy at all that one of our heads was asleep. They pushed us into the cupboard (presumably) for safekeeping.
TERG: This is the second time we’ve been stored for future experimentation.
VASH: And I didn’t like it much the first time either. (BEAT) After a minute or two the mental… whatever it was… seemed to switch off. Suddenly all I could hear was screaming. I tried to push the door open and I saw our captors. They were robots with surgical gear where their hands should be. Our shipmates were strapped to the gurneys and the robots were cutting into them. They poured something green and mosslike into the wounds they were making and it just spread. Before I knew what was happening the bodies were dissolving, clothes, weapons, and all.
JEFF: How’d you..?
VASH: I wasn’t fast enough… and Terg was asleep. One of the robots grabbed me and shoved me back inside… and this time they locked it. I think the docbot, or whatever it was, must have hit me ‘cause I blacked out too, until just a few moments ago.
JEFF: We need to get out of here. And fast.
VASH: No arguments here. But where’d the robots go?
TERG: I’m only guessing, but I don’t think that A.I’s consciousness can be everywhere at once.
JEFF: What do you mean?
TERG: I think if it knew you were here, it would have caught you by now. I think it’s attention must be somewhere else for the moment.
VASH: Yeah? But where?
JEFF: Right now, I don’t care… so long as I can get you back to the ship where you can give your report to the Captain. (BEAT) Let’s go.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS – FADE UNDER
EN#1: But what about the repairs?
JEFF: This takes priority. We’ve got to warn the Captain and we can’t use our communicators while the ship is maintaining radio silence.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 19: (INT) THE ARCTURAN’S (SNAKE’S) QUARTERS (BREX, JAX, NIX, STYLEX)

SOUND: WALLA – HISSING MURMURS OF SNAKES – FADE IN AND ESTABLISH
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: Jax, why have you summoned me? I have only just completed the construction of an isolated terminal for the captain. (BEAT) Is this a challenge? I would have thought that you would have a better developed survival instinct than to mount a challenge under these circumstances. In fact, you should all be at your posts.
JAX: Is that so? Well, Brex, rest easy. I am not such a fool that I would challenge your leadership. But I am spokesman for all of us when I say that the current circumstances present us with an opportunity. The humans are lost. They are following their “procedures” and their “protocols” but they do not know where we are. It would be foolish indeed to allow them to remain the custodians of our fate when we are so much more capable than they are.
SNAKES: HISSING MURMURS OF APPROVAL – UNDER.
BREX: I see. And what do you propose?
JAX: These creatures are puny and stupid. They trust implicitly and never so much as think to protect themselves against us. In the engineering section I have seen them regularly turn their backs on us as they work. If any of our own children were to be so foolish we would eat them as a lesson to the others never to present themselves as an easy target. We should take over the ship and stock the larder with their puny pink bodies.
BREX: And are you all agreed on this course of action.
STYLLEX: No! We are divided equally on the matter. Nix has argued for a different path.
NIX: I counsel we should wait and see what the humans discover from their expedition into the space station. It may be that our combined strength will be needed to escape this place. I would not wish us to act rashly.
BREX: You are overly cautious Nix. I have seen what these “humans” are doing. The captain has lost one team already and has now sent another into the station that she will likely loose as well. I do not think we can rely on them. My inclination is to place my casting vote with Jax in this matter. I believe it is time we took over and put these humans in their place.
NIX: But…
BREX: Is there a problem, NIX?
NIX: No, Brex.
BREX: Good. Styllex, take a small group with you and take over the armory. Kill the humans if you have to, but try to avoid doing that if you can. We don’t know how long this situation will last and we made need to keep them fresh for food. Bring the arms back here when you’re done.
Nix, you are to go and lock down the living quarters and round up any remaining humans, section by section. Make sure you take out the security personnel before they can raise the alarm. It shouldn’t be too difficult. The humans actually have no real idea of just how fast we are compared with them.
Jax, you will accompany me and we will take the bridge. I’m personally looking forward to seeing the expression on the captain’s face when we seize her command.
SNAKES: HISSING LAUGHTER – FADE OUT.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 20: (INT) COMMAND CENTER (SARAH, BREX, TOMKINS, A.I.)

SOUND: (WALLA) MURMUR OF COMMAND CENTER – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SOUND: OCCASIONAL BEEPS OF ELECTRONICS ETC. – UNDER
SARAH: Tomkins, give me an update on their position.
TOMKINS: There’s still too much interference. That station is too well shielded.
SARAH: Even with the trackers we sent with them.
TOMKINS: Until they break radio silence, there’s nothing we can do.
SARAH: Damnit!
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: SLITHERING – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR CLOSES – UNDER
SARAH: Brex, are your people finished with the…
SOUND: GUNS COCKING – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Oh. Would you like to explain yourself, Brex.
BREX: I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?
SARAH: Mutiny, then?
BREX: If you like. Jax, you and the others keep them covered. Captain, please instruct your crew to remove their weapons.
SARAH: We don’t allow weapons on the bridge.
BREX: (DISDAINFUL) You really are a weak race.
SARAH: Tomkins, what are you doing? Tomkins, stand down.
BREX: Jax, what are you waiting for? Kill him!
TOMKINS AND JAX: (TOGETHER) We are sick.
MORE VOICES: We need treatment. We are ill.
SARAH: What the…?
A.I. : (ECHOING) You are ill.
VOICES: We are ill.
A.I. : (ECHOING) You need treatment.
VOICES: We need treatment.
SARAH: No… what is this? Something… in my… thoughts.
BREX: (STRUGGLING) Get… out… of my… mind.
A.I: (ECHOING) You are ill.
VOICES: We are ill.
A.I.: (ECHOING) You need treatment.
ALL: (BREX AND SARAH CLEARLY AUDIBLE) We need treatment.
A.I.: (ECHOING) Come and get help. We have doctors standing by.
ALL: (BREX AND SARAH CLEARLY AUDIBLE) We must go.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: MARCHING AND SLITHERING – FADE
MUSIC: OMINOUS SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH

SCENE 21: (INT) SPACE STATION (JEFF, VULGE, VASH, TERG, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3)

SOUND: HUM OF SPACE STATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SOUND: MARCHING OF METALLIC FEET – UNDER AND FADE.
VULGE: I don’t like it. That’s the third robot patrol we’ve had to sneak past.
TERG: Yes, something’s wrong.
JEFF: I think the station can reconfigure itself to some degree… that would explain all the turns and twists we’ve had to make.
VULGE: Are we lost?
JEFF: Not exactly. We’re still going in the right general direction I think. I’m just not sure exactly where we are.
VULGE: So we are lost.
VASH: Sounds like we’re lost to me.
EN#3: I think I have to agree, boss.
JEFF: And what makes you think, Ensign, that the latitude I provide Vulge, Vash, and Terg with regard to their commentary on my leadership, extends to you?
EN#3: Uh, sorry sir.
JEFF: (DISAPPROVING) Hmmm. (BEAT) But what I’d really like to know is how we haven’t been detected?
VASH: Yeah, that’s got me confused too. I wonder how limited that A.I. is in its ability to keep tabs on things in this station.
TERG: A lot more limited than I would have guessed from our first encounter… or its attention is on something it considers much more significant than we are.
JEFF: Should I feel a little insulted over that?
TERG: (IGNORING JEFF) It’s possible we’re of little more importance than mice running around in its innards – something to be dealt with but not a high priority?
JEFF: Maybe. But that just suggests our time is limited. I’m particularly interested in where the living inhabitants, from the empty cryo-tubes, are. We’ve not seen anyone else since we came on board.
EN#2: Sir, the corridor joins up with another one ahead. I think that’s the one that leads to our airlock.
JEFF: What’d I tell you? Not lost.
VULGE: (SCEPTICAL) Uh-huh.
JEFF: Oh, just keep going, will you… but carefully.
ALL: Yes, sir.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH

SCENE 22: (INT) SPACE STATION (VASH, TERG, VULGE, JEFF, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3, A.I)

SOUND: DISTANT SOUND OF CARGO BEING UNLOADED – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
EN#1: (STAGE WHISPER) Sir, there’s a lot of activity up ahead.
JEFF: What’s going on?
EN#1: A whole lot of traffic. It looks like large amounts of cargo are being unloaded from the ship.
VASH: (LOUDLY) What in tarnation’s going on? Let’s get over there and…
JEFF: (STAGE WHISPER) No wait. Look. I think I can see where those aliens got to, or at least some of them.
EN#2: They seem to be directing traffic. Has the ship been captured?
JEFF: I don’t think so. Our people appear to be cooperating with them.
TERG: It’s the mind control thingy.
JEFF: What, you think they’re under some kind of control… like you were?
TERG: No… I mean… the mind control… it’s… here…
A.I.: (ECHOING) You are sick.
TERG AND VASH: We are sick.
JEFF: No, wait. Fight it…
A.I.: (ECHOING) You need treatment.
ALL BUT JEFF AND VULGE: We need treatment.
VULGE: What is this? Some kind of joke?
JEFF: Must… fight… to keep… my thoughts… clear
VULGE: What’s going on? Is something scrambling your brains?
A.I.: (ECHOING) You are sick.
ALL EXCEPT VULGE: (JEFF CLEARLY AUDIBLE) We are sick.
VULGE: Stop it. What’s happening? What are you hearing?
A.I.: (ECHOING) You need treatment.
ALL EXCEPT VULGE: (JEFF CLEARLY AUDIBLE) We need treatment.
A.I.: (ECHOING) Come and get your treatment.
ALL EXCEPT VULGE: (JEFF CLEARLY AUDIBLE) We come.
VULGE: Damn. It has them all.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS START – FADE UNDER.
VULGE: Damn. I can’t follow them. That’s everyone captured.
MUSIC: OMINOUS SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

VASH: They say I sound like a new york cabbie. I’ll have to visit there one day and see what that means. I handle this bucket’s long range scans, and the weapons systems. I also have pretty good knowledge of xeno-biology and combat medicine. I’m also the oldest head of a two-headed Thrilexian (the other head is called Vash). I guess you humans would call us brothers. We get along pretty good – we have to since we’ve only got one body between us).

TERG: I sound like someone called C3PO, apparently. I’m the diplomat and thinker in our little group. I’m always polite and would, according to the humans, make a fine valet or butler, if it weren’t for my other head (who is, admittedly, rather coarse). I have no idea whether the humans are joking when they say this or not. I work as the Chief Communications Officer in the command center of the ship. I’m a natural translator and, like all my species, create a telepathically generated field that allows all creatures within close proximity to understand one another.

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ARCTURAN MUTINEERS (JAX, NIX, STYLLEX): (HISSING) We are warriors and scientists, far and away the superiors, in strength and intelligence, of these puny humans. It is plainly wrong that we should subordinate ourselves to their needs when clearly we are the most fit to rule. Therefore it is time for us to act and establish things the way that they should be. We must take over the ship.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

Don’t forget to check out the free sample portions of our titles at http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/ .

The post Singularity – Episode 5 – Mutiny Pre-empted appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 4 – Limping into Oblivion

Philip Robotham — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 20:32:41 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Limping into Oblivion”, episode 4 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #4 – LIMPING INTO OBLIVION

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

VASH: Weapons Officer

TERG: Communications Officer

VULGE: Navigation Officer

BREX: Science Officer

BILLINGS: Solar Patrol Member

HICKS: Solar Patrol Member

DUMBERELL: Solar Patrol Member

TOMKINS: Solar Patrol Member

A.I: Insane Artificial Intelligence

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 14 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – LATER
(BREX, SARAH, TERG, JEFF, VULGE)

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: Investigating the ruins of Vega Station, Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and their multi-species crew have found data and mineral supplies essential to the defense of earth and the Solar Alliance. Unfortunately, the Station’s remains were booby trapped and Sarah’s mercurial and envious chief science officer, Brex, isn’t about to let her forget it…
SOUND: COMMAND CENTER BACKGROUND BEEPS AND MURMUR ETC. – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
BREX: (HISSING) Your incompetence and that of your crew…
SARAH: A crew you are part of, Chief Science Officer Brex…
BREX: … is doing nothing to bolster my confidence in the eventual success of this mission.
SARAH: We have succeeded in recovering a valuable shipment of ore and, if I understand you correctly, the data we recovered does indeed contain a functional means of tracking the point of origin of wormholes through space, albeit only if we can analyse the trace radiation in the first few moments after the hole has closed.
BREX: Yes, and if it wasn’t for me and my people, we’d have been destroyed almost immediately after the saboteurs struck.
SARAH: I don’t deny that your aid has been instrumental in the success of the mission so far…
BREX: And how many of your people have died following your orders so far…
SARAH: I warn you, Brex, not to complete that thought aloud. I am not above having you confined to quarters for the remainder of our journey.
BREX: (SUDDENLY SMUG – AS IF HE BELIEVES HE JUST SCORED A MAJOR POINT) Of course, Captain. My apologies. I am only suggesting that, in light of the outcomes, some of your decisions…
SOUND: WARNING BEEPS – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
TERG: Uh, Captain Miss Sarah…?
SARAH: What now?
TERG: Something in the ruins of Vega Station just started transmitting.
SARAH: What’s the message say?
TERG: Um, it’s not an alliance code or channel. I think it’s an enemy signal, an automatic one, possibly triggered by the booby traps we encountered.
SARAH: Just great. How quickly can we get out of here. Vulge?
VULGE: I’m bringing the wormhole engines online, now. It’ll take me a minute or so to…(BEAT)
Captain, we have numerous wormholes opening up all around us.
SOUND: SIREN OR CLAXXON – UNDER.
SARAH: Battle Stations! All personnel to Battle stations. Lieutenant Chase, I need you to take control of our offensive batteries.
JEFF: Aye Captain.
SARAH: As for you, Brex. We’ll have to continue this conversation later. Understood.
BREX: (SLYLY) Yes, captain. If we live.
SARAH: Now get back to your station in Engineering.
SOUND: SLITHERING AND DOOR SLIDING – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: EXPLOSION – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: It’s definitely the enemy fleet Captain. They’ve opened fire on us.
SARAH: Where are our shields?
VASH: It looks like we have a problem with our rear shields, they’re coming up, but slowly.
SARAH: Damnit! How soon can we begin a traverse?
SOUND: TWO EXPLOSIONS – LET THEM FINISH.
SOUND: RETURNING LASER FIRE – UNDER
JEFF: We’re returning fire, Captain. But their shields are strong.
VULGE: We’ll be able to traverse in just a moment, Captain.
SOUND: EXPLOSION – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: We’re ready.
SARAH: Punch it Vulge. We’ve got to get out of here, now!
SOUND: EXPLOSION OVERLAYING TRAVERSAL SOUND FOLLOWED BY MORE SIRENS AND SCREAMS (UNDER).
JEFF: Ugh. Our rear wormhole engine’s been hit.
VULGE: The explosion has destroyed the wormhole field, we’ve been jettisoned… somewhere.
SARAH: And the enemy fleet?
VULGE: It’s gone. We’ve definitely exited that part of space.
SARAH: Jeff, get me a status report on the ship. Vulge, figure out where we are.
VULGE: Captain, I don’t think you are going to like this.
SARAH: What do you mean?
VULGE: According to my instruments we aren’t anywhere!
SARAH: What?
VULGE: There are only five stars on my monitor.
SARAH: Can you determine which constellation they are a part of?
VULGE: You misunderstand me, Captain. There are only five stars at all. The readings indicate nothing else but empty void.
SARAH: That’s impossible. Is there a malfunction?
VULGE: Not according to my diagnostics. The sensors are working perfectly.
SARAH: Terg, what do the exterior cameras show?
TERG: Um… Captain, Miss Sarah? They show empty space… nothing but empty space… and…
SARAH: Yes?
TERG: Five stars. Just like Vulge…
VULGE: Told you.
TERG: Hang on a moment. What’s that?
SARAH: (GROWING IMPATIENT) What?
TERG: I’m picking up some radio waves.
VULGE: Captain, there’s a… well, it looks like there’s an artificial… space station?… floating not far from us and… oh-oh.
SARAH: Vulge, so help me…
VULGE: I’m sorry Captain. But we have a problem. My instruments are indicating that we are caught in a gravity well.
SARAH: All reverse now. Give it everything we have.
VULGE: We’ve got very little. Most of our conventional engines have been knocked out. The best I can do is alter our course a little. That singularity is huge.
VASH: Pardon my ignorance, but we’ve been caught by a what now?
SARAH: A black hole. We’re already caught in its gravity and unless we pull away we’ll be crushed like a beer can.
Vulge, you said you’d detected something artificial. Is it also being sucked in?
VULGE: No, it appears to be maintaining a stable orbit around the singularity.
SARAH: Can we manoeuvre enough to intercept it?
VULGE: We can. I think.
SARAH: Do it! Terg, can you make out what those transmissions…
TERG: Already working on it, Captain Miss Sarah. But it looks like it’s alien.
SARAH: I thought you could translate anything?
TERG: I can, but not through a radio. I can read any creature’s thoughts in order to translate any language, but I have to be within a couple of hundred yards of the it to do so… and I usually need a clear line of sight.
SARAH: Right, sorry. Let’s survive this first and worry about translation later.
VULGE: Firing retro-rockets to adjust course in three… two… one… firing.
SOUND: ROCKET BURST – SUSTAIN FOR TWO SECONDS – LET FINISH.
VULGE: Our rotation is off. Applying thrusters… now.
SOUND: ROCKET BURST – ONE SECOND – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: Got it, Captain.
SOUND: CHEERS – UNDER
VULGE: We’re now on an intercept course. But Captain?
SARAH: Yes, Vulge?
VULGE: That artificial… thing… (I think it is definitely some kind of station)… well, we’re on a collision course. We need to get our engines back online or we’ll…
SARAH: Got it.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Engineering. Brex, are you there?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: (HISSING FILTERED) I take it you need me to save you again, Captain? Already?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Brex, so help me, I don’t have time for this. Is there any way you can help slow us to docking speed?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: How quickly?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Vulge?
VULGE: In the next six minutes, Captain.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Did you get that, Brex?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: Give me five minutes to prioritise the reverse thrusters.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: And how will I know if…
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: (IMPATIENT) You’ll know I succeeded if in seven minutes we haven’t crashed into whatever it is you are trying to miss right now.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Alright, alright.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: If there are no more stupid questions…?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain out.
JEFF: We are going to have to do something about him, very soon I think.
SARAH: (SOMBERLY) I know.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 15 – INT – DOCKING HATCH – LATER (VASH, TERG, BILLINGS, HICKS, DUMBRELL)

SOUND: SCREECHING GROANING METAL – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: HEAVY METALLIC THUMP OF SHIP BUMPING INTO STATION – LET IT FINISH.
VASH: Well that’s that. We’re here.
TERG: Assuming we haven’t damaged anything during this little exercise in… what do the humans call it… “touch parking”.
VASH: Very funny.
TERG: I fail to see why I need to be going on this expedition.
VASH: Well, as the second head on this body, I couldn’t very well leave you behind, could I?
TERG: Oh, ha ha. Very clever. You know exactly what I mean. As the communications officer, my place is on the Bridge.
VASH: And as the resident expert in xenobiology my place is here. Going onto this station in order to make first contact. You don’t get a vote on this one… besides, aren’t you always the one who’s sending us into harm’s way?
TERG: (MUTTERING) Yes… but those are usually a result of my choices, not yours.
VASH: What’s that?
TERG: Er… nothing.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BILLINGS: The door’s ready to open Vash. On your orders?
VASH: Okay. Everybody get your resperators on and close your helmets. Since we couldn’t line the ship up with any of this station’s apparent doors, we’ve got a short spacewalk ahead of us. Is everything AOK corporal Dumbrell.
DUMBRELL: We’ve got you covered boss.
HICKS: And if those “apparent” doors aren’t willing to open?
VASH: Hicks isn’t it? We’ll cut our way in. Either way, we’ll be taking a look inside this thing. So far we’ve detected no life signs and minimal energy readings. There’ve been no response to our attempts at radio contact. As it stands there’s every chance that this station has been floating out here, abandoned, for a very long time.
HICKS: And if it hasn’t?
VASH: Then that’s why the xeno-biology team is along.
HICKS: I’m taking a lot of comfort from that, Vash. Those scanners of yours should come in really handy if we get in a fight.
BILLINGS: You afraid we’ll find some kind of monster in there, Hicks?
HICKS: Shut up, Billings. I’d just rather we were walking in there with something other than a few micrometers thickness of vacuum proofed space suite to protect us.
BILLINGS: You’ll be fine. If we do encounter anything, we’ve also got a couple of armed patrol members like Dumbrell with us. Besides, like the Thrilexian said, the place is probably empty.
VASH: (FILTERED) Yeah, well… the Thrilexian also said to get your respirators on and close your helmets. Who are we waiting on? I want to get this show on the road.
BILLINGS: (FILTERED) Sorry boss.
HICKS: (FILTERED) Yeah. I’m ready too.
VASH: Okay, here we go.
SOUND: BEEP AND HISS OF AIR VENTING – LET IT FINISH.
VASH: (FILTERED) Okay. Everyone hook onto my line. Let’s go. (BEAT)
HICKS: (FILTERED) Holy Cats, are you getting this?
BILLINGS: (FILTERED) What?
HICKS: (FILTERED) It’s like we’re floating out into a pitch black room.
BILLINGS: (FILTERED) Huh?
HICKS: (FILTERED) The stars. There are no stars.
BILLINGS: (FILTERED) We’re sitting right on the edge of a blackhole. Perhaps it’s swallowing all the light.
HICKS: (FILTERED) Nah, that’s not it. Didn’t you pay attention at the briefing, Billings? We ain’t in Kansas no more. This here’s some kind of pocket dimension or some such. No stars… I guess I just didn’t expect it to seem this weird.
VASH: (FILTERED) Cut the chatter fellas. We’ve got ourselves a job to do and I need to concentrate on hooking us onto that station’s housing in a moment or two.
HICKS: (FILTERED) Sure boss, sorry.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 16 INT – STATION ENTRY WAY – LATER (TERG, VASH, HICKS, A.I.)

SOUND: SLIDING DOOR, AIRLOCK SEALING – LET IT FINISH.
VASH: That was surprisingly easy. I would have thought that something that has been empty as long as this place appears to have been would have provided more of a challenge.
TERG: That was way too easy. This place has got to be being maintained by someone.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
A.I.: (FILTERED ROBOTIC FEMALE VOICE) Welcome to Terminus Station. I am the onboard intelligence that runs this station. How may I be of assistance?
VASH: Sheesh! Where’d you come from? You nearly gave me a heart attack.
A.I.: (AS IF TRYING TO WORK OUT WHY IT IS BEING ASKED) I am the onboard intelligence that runs this station. If you require medical assistance, our facilities are state of the art.
TERG: Literal, isn’t it? (BEAT) I think the speakers are embedded throughout these hallways.
A.I: Correct.
TERG: Why have you only now revealed yourself? We have been transmitting messages at this station since first entering this space.
A.I: For contact to occur I required the presence of biological entities within range of my sensors. I have now mapped your neurological pathways and have extracted your languages. This has made it possible for me to communicate with you.
TERG: I see. Are you alone here?
A.I.: I am guardian to the (STATIC) colony here on the station.
VASH: I’m sorry, we didn’t quite get that?
A.I.: (STATIC). It appears there isn’t any direct translation of their name into any of your languages. Trenchonian might be a close approximation.
VASH: I see. Can you introduce us to someone in charge?
A.I.: That would be me.
VASH: Right. Um, I mean, someone biological who is in charge.
A.I.: Ah, I see. Perhaps. Please state your purpose here.
VASH: Our intent is peaceful. We have been forced into this space by a malfunction in our wormhole drive. We would like to ask for some assistance in making some repairs.
A.I.: What kind of assistance?
VASH: Energy, if you can spare it, and perhaps some spare shielding if you have any we can use.
A.I: This may be possible. I have adjusted the atmosphere for your particular biologies. If you wish to remove your respiration units, you may now do so safely. Further, if you follow the lights on the floor I will lead you to the biological entities for whom this station was constructed.
SOUND: DINGS FADEING INTO THE DISTANCE ONE AFTER ANOTHER – FADE
HICKS: Huh. Will you look at that?
VASH: Well, folks. What kind of invitation do you need? Let’s go.
TERG: Hang on a moment. I want to ask where we are. (TO A.I.) There are no stars visible outside. Why is that?
A.I.: The only stars in this space are those we brought with us when we came here.
TERG: Wait, brought with you? Where are we?
A.I.: A parallel space or universe. One without stars… or at least without the five stars we brought with us to power the singularity that we orbit.
TERG: You mean, you… we… have shifted into a parallel universe… some kind of alternate dimension?
A.I.: Exactly.
TERG: What I wouldn’t give to have Brex here now. He’d know just what to make of this.
VASH: Hmpf. He might… but he’d probably keep it to himself.
TERG: Wait… if you came here deliberately, does that mean you know of a way to get back?
A.I.: Of course. When our mission is complete, we will of course return.
VASH: How long have you been here?
A.I.: Approximately 6 billion of your years… give or take.
TERG: I need to report back to the ship. Captain Miss Sarah will be very pleased.
A.I.: You have a ship? Equipped with wormhole drives, I take it?
TERG: Yes, I’m going to check in with my commanding officer… (BEAT) Terg, calling Command Center, please acknowledge.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: This is the Captain, Terg. What can we do for you?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TERG: (URGENTLY) Code Red Virus Protocol 3. Shut down all attempts at communication with this station and block any incoming transmissions. I repeat…
SOUND: STATIC – FADE OUT.
A.I.: (FURIOUS) That was not very wise, visitor.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 17 (INT) COMMAND CENTER (SARAH, JEFF, VULGE, BREX, TOMKINS)

SOUND: COMMAND CENTER HUM AND MURMURS – FADE IN.
SOUND: STATIC – UNDER
SARAH: Damnit! Shut off communications. We just lost our away team.
TOMKINS: Yes, Ma’am. Shutting off systems, now.
BREX: Another team? You’re carelessness is proving somewhat…
JEFF: Brex, so help me, I’m going to…
BREX: You’re going to what, little man? I’m larger, stronger, and smarter than you by whole orders of magnitude.
SARAH: Enough. We’ve followed the protocol for entering a new and dangerous environment. This is how we are supposed to respond.
BREX: Hmpf. And how’s that working out for you?
SARAH: I take it you have a better idea? (BEAT) No? I thought not. (BEAT) Jeff, I’m going to need a rescue team. I want you in charge.
JEFF: I’m taking Vulge along.
SARAH: We need Vulge for navigation.
JEFF: Actually, we don’t. We have a number of trained navigators on board. I want Vulge’s combat experience.
SARAH: Alright. But you keep safe out there.
JEFF: Yes, ma’am.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS AND DOOR SLIDING OPEN AND CLOSED – UNDER.
BREX: What about some of my people. We are clearly the strongest fighters on board at present.
SARAH: Your people are too valuable to us…
BREX: That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said so far.
SARAH: And I need them working on the engine repairs.
BREX: We still need materials… and shields.
SARAH: You’re just going to have to scavenge the ship. Life will get a lot more uncomfortable on board, but you should be able to manage.
BREX: It’s only you humans that seem to need your comforts.
SARAH: And I want something else, Brex. I’d like you to see to this yourself. I want an isolated system built… something that can receive and store messages but provides no access to the rest of the ship’s systems.
BREX: The virus warning? Hmmm. That would be wise. We should run a diagnostic for anything that may have intruded before the warning arrived.
SARAH: Good. Get on it.
MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH.

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

NAMED CREW-MEMBERS (BILLINGS, HICKS, DUMBRELL, TOMKINS): I’m a member of the Solar Patrol. I follow orders, but I’m not a robot. I think about things. I expect my expertise to be considered and listened to. I am confident enough in my abilities to provide my superiors with advice. My job is an important one and I do it well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

Don’t forget to check out the free sample portions of our titles at http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/ .

The post Singularity – Episode 4 – Limping into Oblivion appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 3 – Vega Station Is no More

Philip Robotham — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:50:28 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Vega Station is no More”, episode 3 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #3 – VEGA STATION IS NO MOIRE

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

LIEUTENANT KUNSTLER: 2nd in command and team 1 leader

VASH: Weapons Officer

TERG: Communications Officer

VULGE: Navigation Officer

BREX: Science Officer

SIMMONS: Assistant to Lieutentant Kunstler

TAKAHASHI: Team 2 Leader

JOHNSON: Team 3 Leader

M’BUTO: Chief Technician Team 1

JENNINGS: Team 4 Leader

SANTIAGO: Bomb displosals expert

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 9 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – A SHORT WHILE LATER(SARAH, JEFF, TERG, VASH, VULGE, BREX).

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH.
NARRATOR: Investigating a sudden communications blackout on Vega station, an isolated mining station that serves as Earth’s only supply of the mineral needed to enable the use of wormhole technology and a key resource in the war against the Council of Six, Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and their crew discover they have been targeted by saboteurs who wish to betray their ship into the hands of their enemies…
SOUND: BACKGROUND BEEPING AND HUM OF COMMAND DECK – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SOUND: WALLA BACKGROUND MURMUR OF COMMAND STAFF AT WORK – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain Tanner Here.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: (FILTERED) Lieutenant Chase reporting.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Go ahead, Jeff. How are those repairs coming along.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: (FILTERED) I couldn’t tell you Captain. I was gathering some tools for Brex when I came across some saboteurs messing with our oxygen supply. I interrupted them and we have them in custody, but they still managed to do some serious damage.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: What kind of damage.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: They’d contaminated two thirds of our oxygen supply before I was able to isolate the remainder. We’re just lucky they didn’t start with the main outlets or we’d all be unconscious or dead.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Good work, Jeff. This is going to put a lot of pressure on our mission timeline, assuming we succeed in actually getting out of here. You haven’t been able to identify what the contaminant is, have you?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Not yet, I’ll get Brex onto it once the drive repairs are complete.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: All right, that’ll have to do. What of the saboteurs? Do we have them all?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: They’re both out cold, but before I knocked the second one out I was able to get a little bit out of him. He seems to think the pair of them are it, but…
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: But we can’t be sure. (BEAT) Okay, Jeff. Thanks. You need to get back to that insufferable snake.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: It looks like no good deed ever does go unpunished. Alright, Captain. Out.
SOUND: LONG CREAKING METAL AND SHUDDER – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: What the hell was that? Vulge? Report!
VULGE: Uh, Captain?
SARAH: Out with it.
VULGE: Something big just passed us in the gas cloud. And by big, I mean larger than the Revenge, much larger… and by passed I mean it literally rubbed along side us.
SARAH: Is it another ship?
VULGE: No, if it had been a ship it would have registered on my scanners. I’m switching my scanners over…
SOUND: BUTTONS BEING PUNCHED – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: …and it’s organic! It’s enormous… some kind of monster sized worm or eel maybe. It’s not the only one either. This gas cloud appears to be full of them.
VASH: Captain, I think it’s time to boogie.
SARAH: What’s that Vash?
VASH: I’m a biologist, remember? That’s classic predator behaviour, an initial pass aimed at sizing up the prey, and then…
VULGE: I concur Captain. I’m looking at these things and they appear to spend most of their time eating each other… and the one that passed us, it isn’t the bigest of them either.
SARAH: Damnit! That’s all we need.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Brex, this is the Captain. How much longer on those drives?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: Impatient humans! The drives will take as long as they take. And if I wasn’t being interrupted by all these damned fool questions, they’d be done all the sooner.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: I don’t have time for your attitude right now. We have a problem, actually several, Mr Brex, that are likely to force us to break cover very shortly. I need an estimate.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: (ALL BUSINESS) Very well. The main drive is probably capable of a short hop, but there is a high risk we’ll burn it out. The back up drives are no use to us at all until we have time for some serious repairs. I’d prefer we had the time to get the main drive in fully functioning order but…
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: The monster’s completed its turn. It’s heading right for us and its mouth is open wide.
SARAH: Alright, we don’t have that kind of time so we’ll have to risk the traverse. Get your people out of there Brex. We’re breaking cover now. Captain out!
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Get us out of here Vulge. That’s an order.
VULGE: Aye, Captain.
SOUND: MASSIVE POWER DOWN – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: What just happened?
TERG: It’s the corrosion. It’s found its way into some of the outer power buses. I’m re-routing.
VULGE: Better hurry, that thing is almost on top of…
SOUND: LONG STRAINING METAL SOUND AND CRUNCH SOUND – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Okay, what just happened?
VULGE: Um… I think it just swallowed us.
SOUND: POWER UP – LET IT FINISH.
TERG: The power’s re-routed.
VULGE: Yep, it definitely swallowed us. Looks like we’re, quite literally, inside the belly of the beast.
SARAH: Power up all the gun batteries.
KUNSTLER: But Captain, we don’t yet know the extent of the sabotage. Using the weapons systems could be catastrophic.
SOUND: DOOR OPENS. SLITHERING. – UNDER.
SARAH: I think that allowing this creature to digest us would, with absolute certainty, be more catastrophic.
BREX: (HISSING) And I think that opening a wormhole could save us from having to try.
SARAH: Brex, you’re back. Is it actually possible to do that while inside a living creature?
BREX: One starting location is as good as another, from a mathematical point of view.
SARAH: Objections? (BEAT) Alright, I’m sold. Vulge, get us out of here. Terg, sound general stations.
TERG: (AMPLIFIED) All personnel to general stations. Initiating wormhole traverse.
VULGE: Coordinates set. Generating wormhole… now!
SOUND: WORMHOLE TRAVERSING SOUND EFFECT – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER

SCENE 10 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – AS THE TRAVERSE ENDS (SARAH, BREX, TERG, VULGE)

SOUND: WORMHOLE TAVERSING SOUND EFFECT – LET IT FINISH
SOUND: MASSIVE POWER DOWN – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Oh, how I hate that feeling. It’s like my stomach has been turned inside out.
VASH: Captain, are you aware that you have a tendency to whine immediately after we pass through a wormhole.
TERG: (SHOCKED) Vash!
SARAH: It’s alright, Terg. Vash isn’t saying anything you haven’t all thought… even if he does have a tendency to express those thoughts at less than appropriate moments. (BEAT) What’s happened to the power?
BREX: Like I said, the wormhole drive burned out. It’s probably burned out the power conduits as well.
TERG: I’m rerouting. It’s a good thing we have so much redundancy built into these systems.
SOUND: POWER UP SOUND – LET IT FINISH.
TERG: There! We’re up and running again.
SARAH: Vulge, where are we. Did we traverse the wormhole fully, or have we been thrown out somewhere unexpected.
VULGE: It was touch and go, but we’ve come out where I’d hoped.
SARAH: And where’s that?
VULGE: Vega station. Since the traverse was almost certain to burn out our drive regardless of where we went, I thought trying to reach our actual destination would prove the best option.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 11 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – LATER (SARAH, VULGE, TERG, KUNSTLER)

SOUND: (WALLA) COMMAND CENTER BEEPS AND BACKGROUND – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Are there any enemy ships in the area?
TERG: There’s nothing on the scanners at the moment. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything floating out there with its engines baffled.
SARAH: Alright. Brex, I need you to get back to the repair work. See how much damage has been added to what our saboteurs already accomplished and how quickly we can get the backup wormhole generators running.
BREX: Bah! As you wish, but don’t expect any miracles.
SOUND: SLITHERING AND DOOR SLIDES OPEN AND CLOSES – UNDER
SARAH: Vulge, can you give me an exterior view of Vega Station before we try to hail them.
VULGE: I’m sending the images to your plate, now.
SARAH: (BEAT) Aw hell! That’s not good.
KUNSTLER: Captain?
SARAH: The station has been destroyed. It looks as if much of the station that was built into the asteroid has been torn open to space. Vulge, can you scan for any life signs.
VULGE: There are no heat signatures whatsoever Captain. But there are numerous bodies floating in near orbit.
SARAH: (TO HERSELF) I’m sorry Logan. You were a jerk but you didn’t deserve this.
KUNSTLER: Captain?
SARAH: (ALL BUSINESS) Nothing. (BEAT) Vulge, scan for mineral storage. See if the supply of minerals they were mining is intact. Also, see if you can find any working atmosphere processors. And check for the science wing and see if anything can be salvaged.
VULGE: Yes, Captain.
SARAH: Lieutenant Kunstler?
KUNSTLER: Yes, Captain?
SARAH: How quickly can you prepare some teams to head into the station’s ruins.
KUNSTLER: Do you think there’s a possibility of survivors?
SARAH: No. Not really, though we still need to check. Firstly, I’ll want you to supervise hooking us up to any atmosphere processors that Vulge may find…
VULGE: (INTERRUPTING) It looks like there may be at least one that is still in working order on the other side of the asteroid.
SARAH: That will help us deal with our contaminated air supply.
KUNSTLER: And secondly?
SARAH: I’ll want you to see if you can find any surviving data caches in the remains of the science wing. The scientists on Vega supposedly achieved some kind of breakthrough in tracking the point of origin of wormholes. If that data has survived, it could be a key to us taking this war to our enemies.
KUNSTLER: Yes, ma’am. I’m right on it.
SARAH: Lastly, we’ll need to collect as much of the mineral they’ve been mining as we can locate and carry.
KUNSTLER: Consider it done.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS. DOOR SLIDES OPEN AND CLOSED. – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Terg, try and send a transmission or two to the station. While it’s unlikely, there may still be some survivors who could respond.
TERG: Yes, Captain Miss Sarah. Transmitting.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 12: INT – INSIDE THE RUINS OF VEGA STATION – LATER
(SIMMONS, KUNSTLER, JOHNSON, SARAH, M’BUTO)

SOUND: BREATHERS IN OPERATION – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) It looks like they tore into this place with their blasters pretty thoroughly… but there are some signs that they landed a boarding party as well.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) What do you mean?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) Some of these panels have been opened since the main destruction took place. Everyone here is dead and its unlikely any survivors would have access to the tools or time necessary to do this.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Understood. What do you think they were after?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) Based on their behaviour so far? I’ve no idea.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Alright, keep looking. We need to see if any of the computers in the science wing are operational. I’ll check on how team 2 are doing with the atmosphere processor. (BEAT)
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: Team 2?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) Takahashi here sir.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) How are you doing?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) The contaminated air has all been flushed out back on board the ship. We’ve succeeded in jury-rigging a pump and hoses between the atmosphere storage and the Revenge. Things seem to be going reasonably smoothly so far.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Good work. We’ve seen signs of pirate activity within the station so keep an eye out for external dangers.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) Yes, sir.
SOUND: DISTANT BOOM – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) Sir, what was that?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) It felt like an explosion… coming from the mineral storage facility. (BEAT)
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Johnson, Ives, report.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JOHNSON: (FILTERED) Lieutenant Kunstler… it looks like the main doors to the storage center were booby-trapped… I just lost six men.
SOUND: STRAINING METAL – LET IT FINISH.
JOHNSON: (FILTERED) Hang on a minute, Lieutenant. (BEAT) What was that? No, wait. Don’t touch that. Don’t…
SOUND: DISTANT EXPLOSION – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: STATIC – UNDER AND OUT.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Johnson? Johnson? Do you read? Damnit.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (FILTERED) Lieutenant Kunstler? What just happened?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) We just lost team three. It looks like the pirates came aboard and left traps on the ruined station.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (FILTERED) What’s your situation? Do I need to call you back in?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Maybe. But not just yet. The mineral is vital to our war preparations and, if what you say is correct, we need the data from the discoveries that the scientists who were here were supposed to have made almost as much.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (FILTERED) Alright, but I’m sending a fourth team across to the storage facility to see if there are any survivors from the explosions.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) We’ll finish our sweep of the labs and meet them over there.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) Uh, sir? If there are booby-traps…?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) I know. If the panels have been interfered with since the station was attacked, there’s a good chance some nasty surprises have been left behind for us too. Just be extra cautious.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) Yes, sir.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
M’BUTO: (FILTERED) Sir, Chief Technician M’buto here. I’ve found a terminal we might be able to get functioning. Orders?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Good work! Be careful to check it for signs of tampering before you start work.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
M’BUTO: (FILTERED) Yes, sir. It appears to be clear.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) OK, go ahead… but take it easy.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
M’BUTO: (FILTERED) Yes sir.
SOUND: BEEPS, CLICKS, AND WHIRRS – LET IT FINISH.
M’BUTO: (FILTERED) I think we can try routing some power to the terminal now.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Go ahead.
SOUND: SOFT POWER UP – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
M’BUTO: (FILTERED) We’re live.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) I’ll try to log in…
SOUND: KEYBOARD NOISE OF LOGIN – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: BEEP INDICATING SUCCESS – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) There. It looks like we’re in… and I think we’ve struck pay dirt!
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) How so?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) This terminal has direct access to the science officer’s main data repository. I’ll start transmitting the contents back to the Revenge.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Excellent. How long will it take?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SIMMONS: (FILTERED) It shouldn’t be more than a few seconds sir.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) Good, it’s about time we caught a break. M’Buto, I’ll need you to start…
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (FILTERED) (URGENTLY INTERRUPTING) Lieutenant Kunstler, we’ve detected a whole bunch of energy signatures coming from your vicinity. A large number of electrical systems have come on line. I think you’d better…
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
KUNSTLER: (FILTERED) All personnel, evacuate this section of the station immediately. We’ve got to…
SOUND: SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS GROWING NEARER – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: STATIC – UNDER.
MUSIC: OMINOUS SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 13: INT – COMMAND CENTER – SAME TIME (SARAH, JENNINGS, TAKAHASHI, SANTIAGO, TERG, JEFF)

SOUND: COMMAND CENTER BACKGROUND – BEEPS, MURMUR ETC. – FADE IN.
SARAH: Lieutenant? Lieutenant? What’s your situation?
SOUND: STATIC – ESTABLISH AND CUT OUT.
SARAH: Damnit!
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Rescue team four, are you there?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) Med-Tech Jennings here, Captain. Was that…?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Yes, we’ve lost contact with team one. What’s your status?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) We’ve just arrived at the Storage area. There’s a lot of debris and we’ve accounted for all of the members of team three. No survivors.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (SUBDUED) Alright. I’ll need your team to see if any of team one made it. Don’t take any unnecessary risks though. I don’t want any more deaths here today. What of the storage itself?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) Well Ma’am, it’s complicated. There’s a huge bomb attached to the inside of the bay doors. It was rigged to explode with the initial booby-trap but failed. We’re pretty lucky.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: What do you mean?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) If that bomb had gone off, it would have released all the energy in the minerals this station has been digging up. At a guess it would have vaporised us, the station, our ship, and a large portion of the surrounding asteroid field.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: What’s the complicating factor?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) While it failed to go off, the bomb is still live.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Do you have a munitions tech with you?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) Yes, ma’am. We’ve got Santiago. She’s examining the device now.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Okay, pull all your people back and check out what’s left of the science wing for the remains of team one… if any.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) Yes, Ma’am.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain out.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Santiago? What’s the status on that bomb?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SANTIAGO: (FILTERED) Captain, with all due respect, you might want to tread a little more gently when making contact with someone who’s examining a device that could turn us all into our component atoms. I nearly soiled myself.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Noted. (BEAT) I still need that report, Santiago. Are you having any luck with the bomb?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SANTIAGO: (FILTERED) Yes, captain, I am. It hasn’t gone off yet.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: (MUTTERING) The entire alliance to choose from and I get a bomb expert who thinks she’s a comedian.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SANTIAGO: (FILTERED) I apologize, Captain. It appears the device is quite simple in nature. It doesn’t look like they took a great deal of time setting it in place. As a result, I should be able to neutralize it fairly quickly and with minimal risk. (BEAT) Do you wish me to proceed?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Hmmm. We’ve lost too many lives already today, but yes. Those minerals are an essential resource. Go ahead.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SANTIAGO: (FILTERED) Yes, Captain.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain out.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Team two?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) This is Takahashi, Captain.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: How goes your mission?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) We’ve succeeded in re-filling the air reserves on the Revenge. We’re just about to head back to the ship.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Excellent work. Hold your position, I may need you to take over In the meanwhile… stay safe.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) Yes, Ma’am.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain out. (BEAT) Terg, how much of that data were we able to get before Team One stopped transmitting?
TERG: I’m still checking, Captain Miss Sarah… but it looks like we may have all of it.
SARAH: Well, that’s at least one thing that has gone our way. That data is precious!
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
JENNINGS: (FILTERED) It’s Jennings from the rescue team, Captain. We’ve accounted for all of team one. There are no survivors.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Thank you Jennings. Recover the bodies of our people and make your way back to the ship. Captain out.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SANTIAGO: (FILTERED) Santiago here. The bomb has been taken care of Captain.
SOUND: DOOR SLIDES OPEN. FOOTSTEPS AS JEFF ENTERS – UNDER.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Good work. Rejoin rescue team four and come on back. (BEAT)
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Team two?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASHI: (FILTERED) Here, Captain.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: I’ve got the all clear from our bomb expert. Go in and get that cargo of minerals onto our ship. Do it as quickly as you can
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
TAKAHASH: (FILTERED) Yes, Ma’am.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: Captain out.
JEFF: Looks like you’ve been keeping a lot of balls in the air, captain.
SARAH: We lost two complete teams down there. The enemy seeded the station with booby traps.
JEFF: Damnit. I’m sorry, Captain.
SARAH: It is what it is. Lieutenant Kunstler was among those killed so I’m promoting you to X-O in his place. How go the repairs?
JEFF: Those snakes are magic with technology. They’ve repaired all the back-up drives and have made good progress on jury rigging the main drive for the journey home. We should be in good shape shortly and Brex will join us to give you a report. I understand that they’ve also managed to get our weapons and defensive systems back online… but…
SARAH: Yes, Jeff?
JEFF: The snakes are up to something. I think there’s trouble brewing.
SARAH: That’s all we need. What makes you say that?
JEFF: They’ve suddenly stopped insulting members of the crew and turned very conspiratorial. I’ve walked in on them to hostile silences more than once during the repairs. Something’s up?
SARAH: It’s too much to hope that they’ve made their peace with working with humans I guess?
JEFF: Yeah, I think so. It looks instead like they’ve got some kind of plan brewing.
SARAH: Mutiny?
JEFF: Maybe. When properly functioning, this is the most powerful ship in our fleet. Taking it over would certainly grant them significant leverage in a coup.
SARAH: That’s a pretty dire scenario.
JEFF: You know what they say: hope for the best but plan for the worst.
SARAH: Yep that’s what they say, alright. You’d better give me some contingencies. We need to get back to Earth as soon as possible.
MUSIC: DRAMATIC SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH.

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

LIEUTENANT KUNSTLER: I’m a professional soldier and member of the Solar Patrol’s Navy. I’ve been assigned to Captain Sarah Tanner’s multi-species crew. They all know each other and seem to work as a team. I’m the new comer, but I’m getting to know how things work. I don’t understand how I came to be Tanner’s second in command instead of Lieutenant Chase, though. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be harbouring any ill-feeling towards me.

NAMED CREW-MEMBERS (SIMMONS, M’BUTO): I’m a member of the Solar Patrol. I follow orders, but I’m not a robot. I think about things. I expect my expertise to be considered and listened to. I am confident enough in my abilities to provide my superiors with advice. My job is an important one and I do it well.

TEAM LEADERS (TAKAHASHI, JOHNSON, JENNINGS): I’ve been trusted with a job and a team of crew-members to get the job done. It’s dangerous work… being in the Solar Patrol is always dangerous. We know the risks and we’re willing to take them. But that doesn’t mean being reckless. I want to get all my people back safely if at all possible. My job description is simple… go in, do what has to be done, and don’t take any unnecessary risks.

SANTIAGO: Okay, I get it. I probably should mind my manners a bit more when I’m talking with the brass, but I defuse bombs for a living. That’s not a line of work that comes with a lot of job security. Most of the folks in my line never get to retire, if you know what I mean. I figure the, very real, possibility that I won’t be hear tomorrow earns me the right to be a little plain spoken. And yeah, I get that all that means to some folks is that I’m crazy. In the end, though, a little crazy simply means I fit in. Or didn’t you notice just how nuts this particular crew is?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

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The post Singularity – Episode 3 – Vega Station Is no More appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 2 – A Hidden Enemy

Philip Robotham — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 02:18:03 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “A Hidden Enemy”, episode 2 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #2 – A HIDDEN ENEMY

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

ADMIRAL FERRIS: Head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Solar Patrol

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

LIEUTENANT KUNSTLER: Self involved (wannabe) suitor of Sarah.

VASH: Weapons Officer

TERG: Communications Officer

VULGE: Navigation Officer

BREX: Science Officer

ARCTURAN #1: Arcturan Technician

SABOTEUR #1: Pirate engaging in sabotage

SABOTEUR #2: Second pirate engaging in sabotage

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

SCENE 4 – Int – Private Briefing – Later (Sarah Tanner, Admiral Ferris)

MUSIC: OPENING THEME – LET IT FINISH
NARRATOR: The remote mining outpost, Vega Station, Earth’s only source of the essential mineral required for interstellar travel, has ceased broadcasting and the timeline for deploying the new Dreadnaught to be commanded by Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, and their interspecies crew has had to be accelerated in order to launch a potential rescue mission…
SOUND: (WALLA) BUSTLING BACKGROUND MURMUR – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SARAH: But Sir, the ship isn’t complete.
FERRIS: I am fully aware of the shortcomings, but it is operational in most respects.
SARAH: Yes, but…
FERRIS: Events have overtaken us, Captain. We can’t wait. Discovering what has happened to the Vega station is our absolute priority and the dreadnaught is our best chance of doing so.
SARAH: Yes, sir.
FERRIS: I’m sending a team of Arcturan’s with you to complete as many of the ship’s systems as possible while en-route.
SARAH: Is that wise?
FERRIS: Don’t tell me you’ve bought into that nonsense that Jennings leaked before his arrest.
SARAH: No sir, but we have a number of Arcturan consultants here at the Shipyard and there’s no denying they can be… difficult.
FERRIS: That’s why I put you in charge. You’ve managed by all reports.
SARAH: Yes, sir. But they have been a constant source of friction.
FERRIS: (GENTLY) I’m aware. In this case, at least, I hope things will be easier. I’ve convinced Brex to bring a hand picked team.
SARAH: I see.
FERRIS: Is there a problem?
SARAH: Sir, I know Brex. His scientific expertise and combat ability will be a huge asset… but he does not take orders and, if I were to name any single individual who was most likely to stage an attempted coup against the Solar Alliance, he would top my list.
FERRIS: Again, I am aware of this. But he has had more experience working with other species than any other Arcturan, and you may find him much changed (if still as arrogant as ever). You are going to need him on this mission. How long will you need to prepare for the launch.
SARAH: We should be able to get everything in place over the next three days.
FERRIS: You have 24 hours, Captain. Brief your team and get that ship into space. Have you come up with a name for her yet?
SARAH: Yes sir. We’re calling her “The Revenge”.
FERRIS: Oh, no.
SARAH: Sir?
FERRIS: I believe you referred to the last bucket you were on as “The Revenge”.
SARAH: Yes sir.
FERRIS: And the freighter you were on when you were taken by that Pirate Space Station.
SARAH: That’s right sir, after the famous Pirate Ship that Blackbeard captained… and as remembrance of my father, killed in the sneak pirate attack that occurred when I graduated.
FERRIS: I have no wish to detract from your father’s sacrifice or your attempts to honor his memory, but I’d like to point out that every ship you have been associated with that bore that name has yet to survive its mission.
SARAH: (BEAT)
FERRIS: (WEARILY) Try to bring this one back to me in one piece, please.
SARAH: Yes, sir.
SOUND: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.
SCENE 5 – Int – BOARDING THE REVENGE – Just Before Take-off
(Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, Vash, Terg, )
SOUND: (WALLA) BUSTLING BACKGROUND MURMUR – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SARAH: Is the ship ready to get underway, Lieutenant Chase.
JEFF: (SOURLY) Yes, Captain.
SARAH: Is something the matter, Lieutenant?
JEFF: Permission to speak freely, Captain?
SARAH: Of course.
JEFF: I’m not happy with our preparations. The provisioning has been over-hasty and the crew was vetted in a rush. There’s every possibility we’ve got pirates hidden among the crew as a result and there’s no way I can vouch for the field-worthiness of our equipment. More than half our systems are sub-standard. And as for the Arcturans, even though we have a multi-species ship, they are already treating the other members of the crew like second class citizens. This mission has all the hallmarks of a major disaster.
SARAH: You’re not wrong, Jeff. But our orders leave us with little choice. We have to get out to Vega without any further delay. The results of the rush are just something we’ll have to live with.
JEFF: I know Captain. Orders are orders, but I don’t have to like the result.
SARAH: Give the order to get underway. I’ll be there in a minute.
JEFF: Yes, Ma’am.
SARAH: And Jeff?
JEFF: Yes?
SARAH: When it’s just us, drop the “Ma’am”, ok? You’ve known me as Sarah for far to long.
JEFF: Yes, Ma’am.
SARAH: (SIGHS) I’m sorry they wouldn’t let me appoint you as the XO on the ship. If I had my way…
JEFF: That’s fine. Orders is orders. And Kunstler seems like a good man. I’m not sore about that.
SARAH: (CONFUSED) Then what…?
JEFF: You’ve appointed me liaison with the head snake. Brex hated me from the moment we met. He’s taking way too much pleasure in ordering me around.
SARAH (LAUGHING) Oh, that’s it. (BEAT) You had to know I’d find out you volunteered to wake me up on the day we lost contact with Vega.
JEFF: (SHOCKED) I thought you’d forgotten about that. (LAUGHS) I should have known.
SARAH: Mind like a steel trap, mine.
JEFF: Uh-huh. Then, Captain?
SARAH: (MOCK SERIOUS) Yes, Lieutenant?
JEFF: You realise, of course, that this means war?
SARAH: Why, yes, Lieutenant. Yes, I do. (BEAT) (FIRMLY BUT WITH NO MALICE) You have your orders. Dismissed.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 5 – Int – BRIDGE OF THE REVENGE – JUST AFTER TAKE OFF (JEFF, TERG, VASH, VULGE, BREX, KUNSTLER)

SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR SLIDES OPEN – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: FADE IN HUM OF BRIDGE AND COMMAND CREW WALLA – UNDER
KUNSTLER: (CRISPLY) Captain on deck.
SOUND: ALL MURMURS STOP. STOMP OF FEET COMING TO ATTENTION.
SARAH: Good morning crew. As you were.
SOUND: MURMUR OF CREW RESUMES – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
KUNSTLER: Permission to report?
SARAH: Permission granted Lieutenant Kunstler. What’s the status.
KUNSTLER: We’re just exiting the solar system and will be prepped for our first traverse shortly.
SOUND: KLAXXON WARNING – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SARAH: Communications? Terg, what’s happening?
SOUND: HURRIED BUTTON CLICKS AND KLAXXON STOPS – LET IT FINISH.
TERG: An unauthorised communication, Miss Sarah. Someone on this ship has sent out a transmission.
VASH: That’s Captain, you numskull. We’re signed up with the Solar patrol, now. You’ve gotta start learning the lingo.
TERG: Yes, of course. I apologise Captain Miss Sarah.
VASH: (GROANS) Urgh!
SARAH: Enough, you two. Put those two heads of yours together and give me some details. Can you identify the point of origin?
VASH: Sorry Ma’am. The burst was too short. It definitely came from our ship though.
SARAH: Well, lieutenant Kunstler, we thought there might be pirates on board.
KUNSTLER: Yes, Ma’am. I’ll order a search immediately.
SARAH: Good idea. I suspect we won’t find anything. If they smuggled the transmitter past our scanners when boarding the ship, they’ll probably have destroyed it before we can locate it. But, you never know. We might get lucky.
KUNSTLER: Yes, Ma’am.
SARAH: Vulge.
VULGE: Yes, Ma’am?
SARAH: Prepare the ship for immediate jump.
VULGE: Yes, Ma’am. May I ask…?
SARAH: If that burst was what I think it was, we’ll be getting some company very shortly. I’d rather we weren’t here when it arrives.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
VULGE: All crew: General Stations, prepare for wormhole traverse.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS AND SLITHERING SOUND – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: (HURRIEDLY) I’m sorry Captain, I couldn’t stop him from…
BREX: (HISSING) What is going on here? I demand to…
SARAH: Right now, Mr Brex, you are not in a position to demand anything. We are about to make an unscheduled traverse.
BREX: But the system hasn’t been tested. We don’t know if…
SARAH: I’m afraid circumstances have forced our hand. If we remain any longer we could have a pirate fleet right on top of us. (BEAT) Is there any reason to worry? You designed and built the drives on this ship after all?
BREX: No of course not. It’s just that…
SARAH: Good, then. Vulge, punch it.
VULGE: Yes, Ma’am.
SOUND: WHIRRING UP OF WORMHOLE DRIVE – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
SOUND: CHORD TO INDICATE HOLE HAS BEEN PUNCHED – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: METALLIC CRASH DISCORD – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: WHIRRING DOWN OF WORMHOLE DRIVE – UNDER
SOUND: ALARM KLAXXONS – UNDER
SARAH: What’s happened. Vulge, report.
VULGE: The drives have failed. We entered the hole for a moment, but then we were spat out of it early.
SARAH: Sabotage?
BREX: (IMPATIENT) Of course it’s sabotage. My drive design was perfect. Unless one of your human technicians…
SARAH: We’ll get to the bottom of that later. Can you determine where we are, Vulge?
VULGE: Not yet, we’ve come out near some kind of gas giant. I’ll have a better sense of where we are once I can identify some of the stars. We’re a long way from home though. Somewhere on the line between Earth and Vega, I hope. Closer to Earth than Vega given how brief our traverse was. I imagine our Science Officer would have a better sense of how this would work.
BREX: Your dimwit navigator is correct…
VULGE: Hey!
BREX: … I do have a better sense of how this works than she does… and frankly, the wormhole could have dropped us anywhere in the universe if our destination connection wasn’t established properly. We’re just lucky it didn’t dump us in the middle of a sun or black hole.
SARAH: Then we need to figure out where we are as soon as possible, but you need to get the wormhole drive repaired and working. Get down to engineering right away.
BREX: Yes… (SNEERING) Ma’am.
SARAH: And Jeff, don’t let him get up to any mischief.
BREX: Hmpf!
JEFF: Yes, Ma’am.
SOUND: FEET AND SLITHERING FOLLOWED BY PNEUMATIC DOOR – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: URGENT BEEPING – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SARAH: What now?
TERG: Captain, Miss Sarah? We’ve got a battle fleet closing in on us.
SARAH: (SHOCKED) How the…? Have they detected us yet?
VASH: Nah, I don’t think so.
SARAH: Good. What options do we have on the table?
KUNSTLER: We can’t risk an open confrontation with a saboteur running loose on the ship. We don’t know if the weapons systems have been compromised as well.
VULGE: And with our engines damaged we’re in no position to run. They’d be on us in a moment.
SARAH: Then that only leaves us with “hide” as an option. Vulge, baffle the engines and move us into that gas giant. We need to stay hidden while we make the repairs.
VULGE: Yes, Ma’am.
SARAH: Lieutenant Kunstler, sound battle stations and make a priority of finding that saboteur. Also, get Brex’s team onto checking our weapons systems over. We may be in for a fight after all.
KUNSTLER: Yes, Ma’am.
MUSIC: TENSE SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 6: INT – THE ENGINE ROOM – LATER (BREX, JEFF, ENGINEER #, ENGINEER #)

SOUND: ENGINE HUM, FLAMES, SOUNDS OF PANIC – FADE IN, ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
SOUND: SLITHERING AND RUNNING FEET – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: Typical humans, all panic and no plan!
JEFF: (ANNOYED) They’re following the protocols you set down. They’ve locked down any radiation and are putting out the fires!
BREX: Hmpf! My people would be more efficient.
JEFF: Well, my people are handling things at the moment. What do we need in order to get these drives repaired and functioning again?
BREX: Insolent! I’ll need to examine the drives and see what needs to be repaired and replaced. In the meantime I’ll need you to bring my tools from the lab. Here, take this key.
JEFF: This is a key? It’s the size of a wrench (and twice as heavy).
BREX: Well… what are you waiting for? Get going.
JEFF: Yes, Bwana.
BREX: (AS IF TO AN IDIOT) My title is Chief Science Officer Brex, human, not Bwana.
JEFF: My mistake!
SOUND: JEFF RUNS OUT.
BREX: Now that the imbecile is out of the way…
SOUND: WRENCHING STEEL – LET IT FINISH.
BREX: Hmmmm. This doesn’t look good.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 7 – INT – COMMAND CENTRE – WHILE THE ABOVE HAS BEEN HAPPENING.

SOUND: BACKGROUND BEEPING AND HUM ETC. – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.
TERG: Captain, Miss Sarah?
VASH: Gimme a break!
SARAH: Yes, Terg?
TERG: I’ve got comms from the gun batteries. Shall I put them through?
SARAH: Right away.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
ARCTURAN #1: (HISSING) We’ve examined the gun batteries, Captain. They have all been sabotaged. The damage was extremely hard to detect but, if we attempt to use our offensive weaponry, our own guns will likely destroy our ship.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: And our shields? Are they likely sabotaged as well?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
ARCTURAN #1: (HISSING) We haven’t got to them yet, but, in all likelihood, yes.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: How long do you estimate it will take to get our offensive and defensive systems back on line?
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
ARCTURAN #1: (HISSING) Somewhere between six and ten hours depending on how subtle the damage is.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: I doubt we have that kind of time. The gas giant is hiding us for the moment, but I don’t know how long that can last.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
ARCTURAN #1: (HISSING) It’s worse than you think. Our readings indicate that the gas cloud is corrosive. It has already begun eating into the hull. We may only have an hour and a half, at best. Time is running out fast.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARA: Damnit! (BEAT) Alright. Be as quick as you can and keep me posted on the integrity of the hull. – Out.
SOUND: BEEP – LET IT FINISH.
SARAH: I hope Jeff and Brex are having better luck getting those engines back online.
MUSIC: NEUTRAL SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 8 – Int -THE HALLWAY OUTSIDE ATMOSPHERE – (JEFF, SABOTEUR#1, SABOTEUR #2)

SOUND: HURRIED FOOTSTEPS – ESTABLISH AND UNDER
JEFF: How’d I come to this? Running errands for a cantankerous giant winged snake? I’m an officer for crying out…
SOUND: BURST OF DRILL NOISE – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Hang on. What’s that? No-one should be down here with the oxygen reclamation equipment. At least not now.
SOUND: COMBINATION BEING ENTERED – LET IT FINISH.
SOUND: PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Hey, is someone there? I already heard you so you might as well come out where I can see you.
SABOTEUR #1: (AT A DISTANCE) Aw hell.
SOUND: EQUIPMENT DROPS ON FLOOR – LET IT FINISH.
SABOTEUR #1: Damn!
JEFF: Easy… Easy… You don’t have time to reach for your weapon. I’ve already got you covered.
SABOTEUR #2: Don’t move… and put your gun down.
JEFF: Damnit! Should have known there’d be two of you.
SABOTEUR #2: (SLIGHTLY PANICKY) Shut up. And drop your side-arm. Keep your back turned. This is a blaster I’ve got pressed between your shoulder blades.
JEFF: Alright. I’m dropping the gun now.
SOUND: GUN FALLS TO FLOOR – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: There. So what’s the plan? Introduce something into the atmosphere system? Knock us all out, maybe? Or maybe you wanted to kill us?
SABOTEUR #2: I said, shut up!
SABOTEUR #1: (ALSO PANICKY) He thinks we’re stupid enough to tell him our plan. Just shoot him, already.
SABOTEUR #2: (TRYING TO WORK UP TO IT WITH FALSE BRAVADO) Yeah. Yeah, I will…
JEFF: I wouldn’t do that if I were you fellas.
SABOTEUR #2: Why not?
JEFF: You guys aren’t real smart, you know? I mean I’ve already seen your partner. As for you, you can’t honestly think you’re going to get away with this. Are you still hoping I won’t work out who you are? You’re not at your post. That’ll be a giveaway on it’s own. And I recognize your voice. You’re one of the new engineers. From the way that gun barrel is shaking against my back, you’ve never even held a weapon before, have you?.
SABOTEUR #2: (ALMOST CRYING) I told you to shut up. None of this will matter when I shoot you.
SOUND: PISTOL WHIP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: (GRUNTS) Ugh! (BEAT) Okay. Okay. I get it. (BEAT) But you know the way your holding your weapon against me?… I’ve gotta say…well, it wouldn’t actually take much to… (GRUNTS) Ugh…
SOUND: GUN BEING GRABBED AND TWO SHOTS FOLLOWED BY TWO BODY DROPS – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: … Twist around, grab your blaster, and put the two of you down.
SABOTEUR #2: (DISBELIEVING) You… you shot me?
JEFF: Consider yourself better off than your friend. I had to fire in something of a hurry and he was further away so it was harder to aim for the non-lethal wound.
SABOTEUR #2: (PANICKED) Did you kill him? What are you going to do to me?
JEFF: Me? Nothing. (BEAT) Well, nothing if you cooperate. Here, get up. I only winged you. (BEAT)
SABOTEUR #2: (GRUNTS) Ugh.
JEFF: There you go. You see, I’m much more interested in how many of you are on board and what you’re trying to do to us than what I might want to do to you right now.
SABOTEUR #2: What do you mean?
JEFF: I mean that you’re going to tell me what you were doing down here or I’m going to fry your knee-caps.
SABOTEUR #2: Okay. Okay. As far as I know, it’s just the two of us. We were paid to send out a transmission once we got out of the solar system and engage in sabotage. As for the latter, it’s already done. We’ve wrecked your drives and put a toxin in the oxygen supply.
JEFF: What? (BEAT) Aw hell.
SOUND: PISTOL WHIP AND BODY DROP – LET IT FINISH.
JEFF: Now that’s how you pistol-whip someone, buddy. As for your friend, he’s injured but will likely live – I just needed some leverage with you. I’ll get security down here for the two of you shortly, but first I need to isolate the contaminated air… and fast…
MUSIC: DRAMATIC SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.
MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH.

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

LIEUTENANT KUNSTLER: I’m a professional soldier and member of the Solar Patrol’s Navy. I’ve been assigned to Captain Sarah

Tanner’s multi-species crew. They all know each other and seem to work as a team. I’m the new comer, but I’m getting to know how things work. I don’t understand how I came to be Tanner’s second in command instead of Lieutenant Chase, though. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be harbouring any ill-feeling towards me.

ARCTURAN #1: (HISSING) Like Brex, I’m an Arcturan. I’m much smaller than him (but still larger than you humans) with wings and claws (though no hind legs, just a snake-like tail). I have been signed on with the crew because of my scientific expertise. I can’t wait for this expedition to be finished. You humans stink! And you presume to give US orders. We are far superior to you in every way. Why Brex puts up with it I don’t know.

SABOTEUR #1 & 2: I’m a member of the crew who has been paid handsomely to betray the mission. I’ve got debts and they found me and offered me money. I didn’t want to do it, but yeah, I’m willing to kill all of you for the cash. I’ve got no choice.

TECHNICIAN: Like all those who get selected to work with Captain Tanner, I’m competent, smart, and capable. I do my job without panic and with dispatch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

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The post Singularity – Episode 2 – A Hidden Enemy appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Singularity – Episode 1 – Briefings

Philip Robotham — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 22:00:30 +0000

Below we present the complete text of “Briefings”, episode 1 of our new Space Opera; Singularity. This is a brand new (unpublished) series (featuring Sarah Tanner and Jeff Chase). If you would like to see these new stories advance from being drafts into polished publications then please consider supporting us by purchasing one or more of our previously published titles. Every sale directly funds the production of new stories.

Space Opera – SO003 – Singularity

Recommended for mature audiences – may contain adult situations and themes

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #1 – BRIEFINGS

by Philip Craig Robotham

Cover Illustration by Miyukiko

Unedited Draft

Creative Commons Attritubution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Edition .

CC by-nc-nd 4.0

Other works by this author can be found at the author’s website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com or through select, online book retailers.

Serial #3: Singularity

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

NARRATOR: The Narrator

ADMIRAL FERRIS: Head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Solar Patrol

ADMIRAL ARBUTHNOT: Blustering and easily led Admiral

ADMIRAL JENNINGS: Corrupt Admiral

ADMIRAL TAYLOR: Fair minded ally of Admiral Ferris

SARAH TANNER: Captain in the Intelligence Directorate

JEFF CHASE: Lieutenant in the Intelligence Directorate

LOGAN SMOOT: Self involved (wannabe) suitor of Sarah.

TECHNICIAN: Communications technician

SFX: SFX operator (1 required)

Act 1

Scene 1 – Int – Admiralty – Day (Admiral Ferris, Admiral Arbuthnot, Admiral Jennings, Admiral Taylor)

1. MUSIC: OPENING THEME LET IT FINISH.

2. NARRATOR: In the dimly lit recesses of the Directorate, the headquarters of Solar Patrol’s intelligence division, a hastily arranged meeting is about to take place. In this meeting nothing less than the survival of the human race as a free species (in the face of the continuing invasion attempts by the mysterious alien Council of Six) is the topic of discussion.

3. SOUND: WHIR AND HISS OF PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENING – LET IT FINISH.

4. SOUND: FOOTSTEPS AND CHAIRS BEING DRAWN UP AROUND TABLE – LET IT FINISH.

5. ADMIRAL FERRIS: I apologize for gathering the three of you in such hurried circumstances. We have some important issues to discuss.

6. ADMIRAL ARBUTHNOT: (GRUFFLY) Get to the point, Ferris. I haven’t got all day.

7. ADMIRAL JENNINGS: (SNEERING) You always were a blunt instrument, Arbuthnot…

8. ARBUTHNOT: Hmpf!

9. JENNINGS: But you do have a point.

10. ADMIRAL TAYLOR: Arbuthnot? Jennings? Can we put our general rivalry aside for one moment and allow Admiral Ferris to explain why he has gathered all four Fleet Admirals for such an unusual meeting? You aren’t about to propose a coup are you?

11. FERRIS: (ANNOYED) No, I’m not. I wish to discuss two issues with you. Both matters of significant import for Earth’s security.

12. JENNINGS: Well, I wouldn’t expect anything less to draw our chief spy out into the light. I can’t remember the last time you actually called a joint meeting.

13. FERRIS: Then I’ll get to the point. The pirates are back. We began losing small trading vessels about a month ago. No-one flagged it at first since a lot of ships try to fly off the grid in interplanetary trade.

14. ARBUTHNOT: Not a lot of money to be made in interplanetary trade if you’re honest. The expense of maintaining and running a ship is too high. Lots of captains fail to log flight plans or, even if they do, they doctor them to hide their real travel plans.

15. FERRIS: Exactly. But three days ago, a class three supply ship was hit. It was on its way to resupply Vega station.

16. TAYLOR: (SHOCKED) And we’re just hearing about this now?

17. FERRIS: I only heard about it myself this morning.

18. JENNINGS: (DRIPPING WITH SARCASM) Another fine example of how well spent the intelligence budget is.

19. FERRIS: Be that as it may. If the supply ship was heading for Vega, that means the enemy may now be fully aware of the station and it’s strategic importance.

20. JENNINGS: And your point is?

21. FERRIS: My point, gentlemen, is this; now that we have the capacity to build ships with wormhole drives, we must supply those ships with the elements needed to create those wormholes. At present our only supply of the element we are calling C comes from the Vega mining station, a station so far from our solar system that it takes three successive jumps to reach it. We must secure our supply against piracy to have any real chance of staying in this fight, and right now that security is under threat.

22. TAYLOR: I see. And I take it you have a solution in mind.

23. FERRIS: A proposal, at any rate. I suggest we need a mobile battle station. Something in the order of the pirate base that my people destroyed when we discovered the extent of the pirate threat. It would serve as a staging platform for the deployment of our fleet and would have the capacity to use wormhole technology to travel to and from points of military engagement almost instantly.

24. JENNINGS: A battle station? Have you taken leave of what little wits you used to possess?

25. ARBUTHNOT: Madness! Just think of the money involved!

26. TAYLOR: I’m inclined to hear you out, Ferris. But I admit that you’ll need to make a strong case for that kind of an investment.

27. FERRIS: The survival of our planet as a free people isn’t enough?

28. ARBUTHNOT: How dare you! We are all interested in the survival of our planet.

29. TAYLOR: That was a low blow, my friend. We have limited resources and need to make the best possible use of them in this war.

30. JENNINGS: What war? We’ve precious little real intelligence to go on regarding this threat. Second hand accounts from less than reputable alien species.

31. FERRIS: And several well coordinated attacks on our defences aimed at crippling us…

32. JENNINGS: That we succeeded in driving back. Lives were lost, true, but we won. We are clearly the stronger adversary in this…

33. FERRIS: Now, who’s talking madness? We nearly lost the entirety of our military command structure and our fleet capability in those two sneak attacks. We have a dangerous and, to this point, invisible enemy, whose engagements thus far have been little more than tentative probings of our defenses, minor jabs, if you will… and they’ve come perilously close to defeating us without our being able to land a single retaliatory blow. The main strike, when it comes, will be calculated to be a killing blow. The alien refugees…

34. JENNINGS: (DERISIVE) Pshft.

35. FERRIS: …have provided us with intelligence of a galaxy spanning empire of unimaginable power, one which has discovered us and decided we should be their next target of conquest.

36. JENNINGS: You know as well as I do that these “refugees” have every reason to exaggerate their circumstances in order to find safe harbour.

37. FERRIS: I have often suspected you of being a fool, Jennings, but every once in a while you open your mouth and put the matter beyond dispute.

38. JENNINGS: (MOCKING LAUGH) Hmpf.

39. TAYLOR: Before this degenerates further, Ferris, can you give us the breakdown of your proposal?

40. FERRIS: (CALMING BREATH) Yes, of course. In front of you is a copy of the proposal, classified of course, it provides a complete breakdown of the costs and objectives relating to the construction of a battle station if you turn to page (FADE OUT).

41. FERRIS: (FADE IN) And so you can see, both in terms of reasoning and costs, the proposal is a compelling one. We have to develop an effective offensive as well as defensive capability. At the moment we have neither. We don’t have a secure enough supply of the elements needed to drive the construction of a full scale fleet of wormhole capable offensive ships. We haven’t even the capacity for anything short of creating a defensive ring of ships around a few key worlds in this solar system using traditional drives. A defensive war is a losing war. We must secure the supply of wormhole drive elements and give our fleet the capacity to jump through space. A mobile battlestation, capable of carrying the fleet would accomplish these objectives.

42. ARBUTHNOT: (GRUFFLY) You make a surprisingly compelling case, Ferris. But I still have some concerns.

43. FERRIS: Yes?

44. ARBUTHNOT: While it would greatly increase our capacity, I can’t help feeling that it puts all of our eggs in one basket. We could, as you point out, use the station to transport our conventional fleet from point to point… but, were it to be destroyed, that would be the end of us.

45. FERRIS: True, but I am only suggesting this as a stop-gap measure, until we can secure a wormhole capable fleet.

46. JENNINGS: No, I am in agreement with Arbuthnot. This solution is too risky. I will not support it.

47. FERRIS: And you, Taylor? What’s your view on this?

48. TAYLOR: (HESITANT AND DIPLOMATIC) I… appreciate… the importance of our situation, the peril that we face, and the need to achieve a strong offensive capability as quickly as possible…

49. FERRIS: But?

50. TAYLOR: But, I’m inclined to agree with the others. Your proposal is highly resource intensive, would necessarily reduce our investment in the construction of a wormhole capable offensive fleet, and increases the risk, however temporarily, that our fleet could be destroyed by a single engagement.

51. FERRIS: So, I’m outvoted then.

52. TAYLOR: Yes, but I have a counter proposal. One that may satisfy you.

53. FERRIS: Go on…

54. TAYLOR: Build a wormhole capable dreadnaught class ship, something that could act as a kind of carrier craft, but would not make an unacceptable dent in our resources or program of fleet construction. It could be deployed to protect the supply of essential minerals and could be easily redeployed if another attack occurred.

55. FERRIS: No, this is not even close to what we need to…

56. JENNINGS: It is the best you are going to get, Ferris. It’s either this or nothing.

57. ARBUTHNOT: You may not like it, Ferris. But even you can see that something is better than nothing.

58. FERRIS: (SIGHS) Alright, but I want my objections to be included in the record.

59. JENNINGS: (SNEERING) Done. (BEAT) But this wasn’t the only order of business you wished to bring to our attention.

60. FERRIS: Hmmm? Oh, yes. We need to discuss the approach we should be taking with our latest guests.

61. JENNINGS: (DARKLY) Yes. The Arcturans. If I had my way, we’d expell them into deep space and leave them to rot.

62. FERRIS: I’m aware of what your own intelligence arm have been telling you, Jennings.

63. TAYLOR: (SHOCKED) You’ve been spying on us! This is the exact reason we’ve had to develop our own intelligence arms.

64. JENNINGS: (BELLIGERANT) Your intelligence gathering, Ferris, has been less than satisfactory for some time. If I felt the need to take an interest in matters myself, it is only because of your continuing failures. Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

65. ARBUTHNOT: (GRUFF) Stop showing off.

66. FERRIS: That you would be quoting Juvenal is the height of absurdity. You are both the embodiment of and the justification for those words.

67. JENNINGS: You’ve been keeping things from us regarding that race of snakes though, haven’t you?

68. TAYLOR: What do you mean?

69. JENNINGS: There have been three attempted coups on Arcturus since they brought their planet into orbit around our sun. Ferris’ department has quietly scotched five seperate attempts by the Snakes to organise a takeover of the solar alliance.

70. TAYLOR: Is this true?

71. FERRIS: (BORED) In so far as it goes.

72. TAYLOR: Why haven’t you said anything?

73. FERRIS: I was about to, before Jennings pre-empted me.

74. JENNINGS: And stopped you from spinning us another web of nonsense. Are you going to deny that these “refugees” constitute a serious threat?

75. FERRIS: Not at all. They are larger, stronger, technologically well in advance of our current capabilities, aggressive, arrogant, secretive, warlike and, since they moved their planet most of the way across the galaxy, … here. That Jennings has undertaken a ham-fisted attempt at spying on them has escalated the risks involved in achieving their integration into the solar alliance.

76. ARBUTHNOT: Integration! You must be insane.

77. FERRIS: Have you forgotten that it is the Arcturans who have placed wormhole technology in our hands, along with a slew of new weapons and medical advances? We need this race as an ally.

78. JENNINGS: Do we? My sources inform me that they have been actively seeking to undermine the alliance in preparation for a coup.

79. FERRIS: Your sources are barely competant and fueled by paranoia.

80. JENNINGS: You deny their presentation of the facts then?

81. FERRIS: Not as such…

82. JENNINGS: Ha!

83. FERRIS: But, I utterly repudiate the simplistic analysis and lack of nuance of your amateurs.

84. ARBUTHNOT: Now, steady on!

85. FERRIS: Imagine for a moment, that I decided to deploy my own special forces into an active war zone, Arbuthnot. What would you conclude?

86. ARBUTHNOT: Hmpf!

87. FERRIS: It would be a catastrophe! If nothing else, I would like this meeting to acknowledge the danger presented by the amateur meddling in intelligence matters that Admiral Jennings’ little adventure represents.

88. TAYLOR: We can deal with that as a separate matter. For now, bring us up to speed on what is going on with the Arcturans.

89. FERRIS: Alright. Jennings is correct in so far as it goes. The Snakes are an inherently volatile mix of aggression and classic social stratification. Those that live longest, whether by force of size and strength, or intellect, dominate the rest. As a society they are highly competitive and seize any opportunity to gain advantage over one another and those around them. They also have a tendency to avoid cooperation (a significant factor) working independently to build power bases of dominance that form some protection against sources of threat around them. This creates a paradoxically stable and constantly shifting political situation.

90. JENNINGS: (DRILY) As we’ve discovered.

91. FERRIS: Further, as Jennings has made you aware, discussions among the snakes have been taking place at all levels of Arcturan society regarding the possibility of subjugating the solar alliance. These discussions are driven by a cultural predilection for dominating others wherever possible, and by a worldview that sees this as the natural order of things. These discussions have resulted in numerous attempted coups and uprisings (usually by younger members of the population).

92. JENNINGS: And this is of no consequence to you, I take it?

93. FERRIS: What your team of idiots don’t have the benefit of, is the historical, psychological and sociological profiling provided by my department and its experts. Snake psychology is… complex… to say the least. They are in an almost constant state of potential and actual civil war. However, they are also incredibly individualistic and adaptable.

94. TAYLOR: Individualistic, how?

95. FERRIS: A good question. They gain cooperation through force or threat, but those at the top survive by constant adaptation and accommodation. An interesting combination of traits, no?

96. ARBUTHNOT: No! I’m waiting for you to get to a point.

97. FERRIS: Alright. Since making participation in the Solar Alliance conditional upon the end of the class system, the introduction of parliamentary practices, and other innovations, we’ve seen some marked changes in the social psychology of the species overall.

98. TAYLOR: Meaning?

99. FERRIS: Meaning this potential enemy is changing, dramatically, and quickly, as it comes into contact with new ideas and social customs. The underlying, almost feudal, nature of the species isn’t modifying one iota, but the practices and modes of social behavior are going through widespread and radical change… change that is being accommodated with surprising ease. This presents both risks and opportunities.

100. JENNINGS: What opportunities does this represent? They look like nothing so much as a threat, from where I’m sitting.

101. FERRIS: And that’s as it should be. Despite your pretensions towards sophistication you are, at base, a blunt instrument, Jennings. All our analysis, so far, has indicated the transition to integration into the solar alliance has been remarkably smooth. Projections indicate we should have seen something in the order of thirty five coup attempts and perhaps nine all out attempts to take over the alliance to date. That this has NOT been the case is, I think, VERY instructive.

102. ARBUTHNOT: Great Scott! Just when did you intend to tell us this?

103. FERRIS: Now, Arbuthnot. Jennings, notwithstanding, I intended to let you know about this now.

104. JENNINGS: You mean, I forced your hand, don’t you?

105. FERRIS: Not remotely. But think what you wish.

106. JENNINGS: Then what is the purpose of your disclosure at this time?

107. FERRIS: As I said, contact with the values and cultural practices of the solar alliance have had a surprisingly rapid impact on the social structures and practices of the Arcturan race. It is my belief that closer integration between the Alliance and the snakes will result in even greater change. I propose opening up the membership of the Solar Patrol to Arcturan recruits, especially in the science and infantry divisions.

108. ARBUTHNOT: Are you mad? The risks involved are enormous. We’d be experiencing mutinies throughout our forces.

109. FERRIS: It seems I am being accused of madness a lot today. I have stated repeatedly that we need the expertise of the Arcturans in our fleet. Their participation in the auxiliary forces drawn from the refugee influx is all well and good, but they form a self-governing group within the group and what we need is more integration and assimilation.

110. JENNINGS: I refuse to allow you to play dice with the Alliance’s security arrangements in order to indulge in some kind of idiotic social experiment. There is no way this will be allowed.

111. ARBUTHNOT: Hear! Hear!

112. FERRIS: Well, I see that the tone of the meeting is against me… again. Admiral Taylor… you’ve stayed rather quiet during the proceedings.

113. TAYLOR: Yes, I guess I have. We need the technical knowledge and expertise that the Arcturans can provide. We would also find their size and strength a benefit in our infantry. But there is no denying that their temperament and current political instability makes them a threat. I can’t support the idea of a wholesale opening of the ranks of the Solar Alliance to their membership.

114. FERRIS: They will be demanding such membership themselves sooner rather than later.

115. TAYLOR: True. Perhaps we can head it off?

116. FERRIS: (SUSPICIOUS) How?

117. TAYLOR: Create a consulting group… independent of the fleet, small enough in number to not be a threat, but deployed throughout the fleet to provide scientific advice.

118. FERRIS: I doubt that they would…

119. JENNINGS: Yes… and we could keep an eye on them while harnessing their expertise.

120. ARBUTHNOT: The idea has merit.

121. FERRIS: But…

122. JENNINGS: (SNEERING) It just hasn’t been your day, has it Ferris?

123. FERRIS: I guess not, Jennings. I’ll have to accept the decision of the committee of course, but don’t think that I wont remember this.

124. JENNINGS: (ALMOST GLEEFULL) I would expect nothing less, Ferris. (BEAT) And if there is nothing left to discuss?

125. FERRIS: (BITTER) No. That is all.

126. ARBUTHNOT: Then I’ll let myself out.

127. JENNINGS: Yes. The current atmosphere is hardly conducive to socialising is it?

128. ARBUTHNOT: Oh, shut up, Jennings.

129. SOUND: CHAIRS BEING PULLED OUT – UNDER.

130. FERRIS: Admiral Taylor, may I have a word before you go?

131. JENNINGS: Tut, Tut, Taylor, I think you’re about to get a scolding for your part in upsetting Ferris’ plans this morning.

132. FERRIS: You can show yourself out as well, Jennings.

133. JENNINGS: (MOCKING) Ha. Good day to you gentlemen.

134. SOUND: FOOTSTEPS TO DOOR – OPEN AND CLOSE – LET IT FINISH.

135. FERRIS: (BEAT) Can I offer you a drink?

136. SOUND: TWO DRINKS BEING POURED – LET IT FINISH.

137. TAYLOR: (DRINKS) Mmm. Don’t look so pleased with yourself. It’s unseemly.

138. FERRIS: (DRINKS) Oh, why not? I got everything I wanted.

139. TAYLOR: (EMPHASIZING) We got everything we wanted.

140. FERRIS: True, I couldn’t have done it without you. You played your part to perfection. Jennings would give away the world, if only he thought that in the process he was denying me what I really wanted.

141. TAYLOR: Jennings will be furious when he realizes just how well you played him. You don’t think you’ll be able to get away with it do you?

142. FERRIS: You’re correct of course. Jennings may be vain and corrupt, but he’s no fool. I’m willing to bet that even now he’s replaying our meeting in his head and will have twigged to our little conspiracy by the time he reaches his ship.

143. TAYLOR: Then you should be very careful. He’s a dangerous enemy.

144. FERRIS: Don’t give it another thought. When I said he was corrupt I wasn’t joking. He has been embezzling significant amounts of Admiralty money in the form of kickbacks from contractors. He hasn’t been nearly as clever as he thinks he has covering his tracks and within a month or so I’ll have the evidence necessary to have him replaced.

145. TAYLOR: I see. What about his men? I think you’ve only increased his determination to play at being a spy.

146. FERRIS: When he’s arrested we’ll roll up his little operation and absorb his people back into our own department. Truth be told, he’s actually found a few with some real talent… once they’ve been trained up a bit, of course.

147. TAYLOR: Of course. Well, you’ve got approval for both the dreadnaught and the consulting group, what comes next?

148. FERRIS: We get construction under way immediately, and we get ourselves a trained and capable crew. If we’re going to make use of the weapons and technology provided by the snakes we’ll need to include some of them in that crew, so basically we’re set.

149. TAYLOR: And who do you have in mind to command her?

150. FERRIS: Oh, I think I have just the person in mind. In fact, I think her whole team will be perfect.

151. MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

Scene 2 – Int – Sarah’s Birth – Night (Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase)

152. SOUND: ANNOYING BEEP – FADE IN AND CONTINUE UNDER UNTIL 157.

153. SARAH TANNER: Ugh! Dammit. Stop!

154. SOUND: BEEPING CONTINUES

155. SARAH: Go away! I want to sleep.

156. SOUND: BEEPING CONTINUES

157. SARAH: Argh. Alright! Alright. Here I come.

158. SOUND: FOOTSTEPS TO DOOR – LET IT FINISH.

159. SOUND: CLICK AND WHIRR OF DOOR OPENING – LET IT FINISH.

160. JEFF CHASE: (CHEERFUL) Good morning, o’ fearless leader.

161. SARAH: (GROANING) A pox on you and all your hellishly cheerful kind.

162. JEFF: Now is that any way to greet the bearer of glad tidings?

163. SARAH: So help me, Jeff… I’ve barely had three hours sleep. I get how badly we need to protect the supplies coming in from Vega, and, while its true that we’re approaching the pointy end of the construction of the dreadnaught, I still need some sleep if I’m going to function. Now, what do you want?

164. JEFF: It’s not what I want, my Captain. It’s that we have an encoded priority transmission from Vega station, specifically addressed to one Sarah Tanner – there’s even a little heart icon attached.

165. SARAH: Oh you son of a…

166. JEFF: Now, now. I’m simply the messenger here.

167. SARAH: And you wanted to see me squirm first hand.

168. JEFF: Well, there has to be some compensation for drawing the short straw in waking you up.

169. SARAH: You know I’ll find out if you volunteered for this job, don’t you?

170. JEFF: Sure, but for right now it’ll remain a diverting little mystery.

171. SARAH: There are times when I really hate you Jeff. Give me a minute and I’ll join you in the comms office.

172. JEFF: Yes ma’am.

173. SARAH: Ugh.

174. SOUND: CLICK AND AND WHIRR OF DORR CLOSING – LET IT FINISH.

175. MUSIC: SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

SCENE 3 – Int – Communications Office – Night(Sarah Tanner, Jeff Chase, Logan Smoot)

176. SOUND: WHIRR OF DOOR OPENING – LET IT FINISH.

177. SOUND: (WALLA) MURMUR OF COMMUNICATIONS STAFF – ESTABLISH AND UNDER.

178. JEFF: Ah, you’re here, Captain. Are you sure you want to take this in the communications room?

179. SARAH: Put it through to my panel.

180. JEFF: (TEASING) It’s just that I thought you’d want to take this in private.

181. SARAH: (WARNING) Jeff.

182. JEFF: I could pipe in some soft music…

183. SARAH: (WARNING) Jeff.

184. JEFF: Maybe lower the lights a little…

185. SARAH: (ANGRY) Jeff!

186. JEFF: Yes Ma’am.

187. SARAH: (STILL ANGRY) This is Captain Sarah Tanner of Tallis Shipyard and Base accepting priority transmission from Vega Station.

188. LOGAN SMOOT: (BANTERING) You took your sweet time. Making yourself pretty for me, were you?

189. SARAH: It’s not possible for me to reach down this radio link and pull out your intestines right now, but if I could…

190. LOGAN: Aw, honey. Don’t be like that.

191. SARAH: And don’t call me honey, you demented twit.

192. LOGAN: (HURT) But after all we’ve shared, I figure a pet name or two…

193. SARAH: You asked me out to dinner once. I went. You spent the entire meal talking about yourself and the size of your… accomplishments. I have done everything I could to discourage you since.

194. LOGAN: Aw honey…

195. SARAH: No, Logan. This has got to stop. The cards, the gifts, the late night phone calls… those were annoying enough, but your attempts to invade my life since have crossed the line.

196. LOGAN: But…

197. SARAH: And using the priority transmission system…

198. LOGAN: But you won’t take my calls.

199. SARAH: (EXASPERATED) Take the hint. (BEAT) I don’t want to talk to you, Logan. I’ve encountered exotic diseases with more charm.

200. LOGAN: Look I know you’re mad about being woken up, but if you just got to know me…

201. SARAH: No. You repulse me. I’ve tried to let you down easy, but you are impervious to subtlety. I… don’t… like… you! At all! If you were the last human being in the galaxy I still wouldn’t go out with you. There is simply no room in your life for anyone besides your ego and I refuse to be a trophy. Stop calling!

202. LOGAN: (LONG BEAT) You can’t resist me forever, you know?

203. SARAH: Ugh! What the hell is the pretext for this transmission?

204. LOGAN: What? Oh, yes. I’ve got an update for you. It’s pretty interesting actually.

205. SARAH: Logan!

206. LOGAN: One of our scientists, in the astronomical division, recorded a cluster of six stars and a black hole vanishing.

207. SARAH: What?

208. LOGAN: I thought that would get your interest. They didn’t just fade out, or go super-nova. They vanished.

209. SARAH: But that’s not possible. I take it that your scientist’s recording has been verified?

210. LOGAN: A half dozen times by some of the best minds in the division.

211. SARAH: The light from those stars has been traveling how long?

212. LOGAN: Practically forever…

213. SARAH: …so whatever happened to them, happened a very long time ago?

214. LOGAN: Uh, yes, but…

215. SARAH: (BEAT)

216. LOGAN: Look, that’s all very interesting but it hardly justifies using a priority channel…

217. LOGAN: There’s more. We’ve had a breakthrough. My science group has figured out how to trace a wormhole’s point of origin from the residual energy left behind after a jump. (STATIC) Hang on… (STATIC)… something seems to be happening… something’s… oh my…

218. SOUND: STATIC – LET IT FINISH.

219. SARAH: (CALLING OUT) What just happened? Someone?

220. TECHNICIAN: I think we just lost Vega Station, Captain.

221. SARAH: Put me through to Admiral Ferris’ Office. Priority one override!

222. MUSIC: OMINOUS SCENE ENDER – LET IT FINISH.

223. MUSIC: CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS – LET IT FINISH.

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ADMIRAL ARBUTHNOT: Where the hell is my tuna on rye… and the mineral water I ordered. Every day, the same thing; One tuna on rye and a mineral water. On my desk. Before I start work. If you can’t handle that midshipman then you can expect to be pushing a broom on a garbage scow out in the Jovian asteroid belt. Am I understood?

ADMIRAL JENNINGS: Please, don’t get up on my account. I just came to let you know that I’ve taken your concerns fully into account and given the matter my complete consideration. Unfortunately, Filmore Astrogation Inc. made a better offer and, well, you know how it is? What’s that? Kickbacks? Gentleman just because your proposal wasn’t of the same calibre as your competitor’s… Now really, those rumors regarding my close personal association with the company are completely untrue, as are any suggestions that I stood to profit from agreeing to their terms. I’ll have you know that the houses you are referring to are in my wife’s name. Good day.

ADMIRAL TAYLOR: Ferris is an able strategist (a genius really), and I’m pretty sure we’ll be needing every ounce of his ability in the near future. It’s a shame we’re lumbered with that ego-maniac Arbuthnot… and as for that crook, Jennings… well, I hope Ferris knows what he’s doing. Jennings is smooth and dangerous as a bear. I need to tread a careful path between them all. In the midst of all the heat I’ve got to find the light and shine it on the actions we need to take.

LOGAN SMOOT: Sarah wants me. I’m smart. I’m rich. I’m charming. And I look great in a tuxedo. What’s not to like. Yep, she wants me. She just doesn’t know it yet. Playing hard to get. That’s what it is. But she will be mine. She’s the lucky girl I was destined to be with. She’ll figure it out soon enough, but I’m damned if I know why she can’t see it yet. She won the lottery when she caught my eye. Yes, sirree, she sure did!

TECHNICIAN: Like all those who get selected to work with Captain Tanner, I’m competent, smart, and capable. I do my job without panic and with dispatch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is extremely grateful for the encouragement he receives from his biggest fans — his wife and two boys — all of whom read and enjoy his scripts and in general make his life worth living.

You can contact the author regarding performance rights (or simply to say hello) through his website: http://www.weirdworldstudios.com.

Don’t forget to check out the free sample portions of our titles at http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/ .

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Singularity – Episode 8 – Return to Changed Circumstances

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #8 – RETURN TO CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 30: INT. STATION (JEFF, SARAH)

SCENE 31 INT. STATION – (SARAH, JEFF, VULGE, CREWMAN, BREX, A.I.)

SCENE 32 – INT. ADMIRAL FERRIS’ OFFICE (FERRIS, SARAH, JEFF)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 7 – Baiting the Trap

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #7 – BAITING THE TRAP

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 26: INT. THE SPACE STATION (VULGE, DR. FLEEK, CREWMEN)

SCENE 27: INT. SPACE STATION (VULGE, SERGEANT, JEFF, SARAH, A.I., BREX)

SCENE 28: INT. VIRTUAL BOX (SARAH, A.I.)

SCENE 29: INT. SPACE STATION (A.I., SARAH, JEFF, BREX, FLEEK)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 6 – Vulge and Mind Control Technology

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #6 – VULGE AND THE MIND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

ACT 3

SCENE 23: INT. SPACE STATION (VULGE, FLEEK)

SCENE 24: INT. THE STATION LABORATORY (ROBOT, SARAH, JEFF, BREX, DOCTOR, CREW MEMBER, SERGEANT)

SCENE 25: INT. SPACE STATION (JEFF, A.I, DOCTOR, CREWMAN X 2)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 5 – Mutiny Pre-empted

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #5 – Mutinee Pre-empted

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 18: (INT) SPACE STATION (VASH, TERG, VULGE, JEFF, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3)

SCENE 19: (INT) THE ARCTURAN’S (SNAKE’S) QUARTERS (BREX, JAX, NIX, STYLEX)

SCENE 20: (INT) COMMAND CENTER (SARAH, BREX, TOMKINS, A.I.)

SCENE 21: (INT) SPACE STATION (JEFF, VULGE, VASH, TERG, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3)

SCENE 22: (INT) SPACE STATION (VASH, TERG, VULGE, JEFF, ENSIGN#1, ENSIGN#2, ENSIGN#3, A.I)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 4 – Limping into Oblivion

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #4 – LIMPING INTO OBLIVION

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 14 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – LATER (BREX, SARAH, TERG, JEFF, VULGE)

SCENE 15 – INT – DOCKING HATCH – LATER (VASH, TERG, BILLINGS, HICKS, DUMBRELL)

SCENE 16 INT – STATION ENTRY WAY – LATER (TERG, VASH, HICKS, A.I.)

SCENE 17 (INT) COMMAND CENTER (SARAH, JEFF, VULGE, BREX, TOMKINS)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 3 – Vega Station Is no More

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #3 – VEGA STATION IS NO MOIRE

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 9 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – A SHORT WHILE LATER(SARAH, JEFF, TERG, VASH, VULGE, BREX).

SCENE 10 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – AS THE TRAVERSE ENDS (SARAH, BREX, TERG, VULGE)

SCENE 11 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – LATER (SARAH, VULGE, TERG, KUNSTLER)

SCENE 12: INT – INSIDE THE RUINS OF VEGA STATION – LATER (SIMMONS, KUNSTLER, JOHNSON, SARAH, M’BUTO)

SCENE 13: INT – COMMAND CENTER – SAME TIME (SARAH, JENNINGS, TAKAHASHI, SANTIAGO, TERG, JEFF)

CASTING SHEETS — MAJOR CHARACTERS

CASTING SHEETS — MINOR CHARACTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Singularity – Episode 2 – A Hidden Enemy

SINGULARITY

EPISODE #2 – A HIDDEN ENEMY

SINGULARITY

CAST LIST

SCENE 4 – Int – Private Briefing – Later (Sarah Tanner, Admiral Ferris)

SCENE 32 – INT. ADMIRAL FERRIS’ OFFICE
(FERRIS, SARAH, JEFF)

SCENE 26: INT. THE SPACE STATION
(VULGE, DR. FLEEK, CREWMEN)

SCENE 27: INT. SPACE STATION
(VULGE, SERGEANT, JEFF, SARAH, A.I., BREX)

SCENE 28: INT. VIRTUAL BOX
(SARAH, A.I.)

SCENE 29: INT. SPACE STATION
(A.I., SARAH, JEFF, BREX, FLEEK)

SCENE 14 – INT – COMMAND CENTER – LATER
(BREX, SARAH, TERG, JEFF, VULGE)

SCENE 12: INT – INSIDE THE RUINS OF VEGA STATION – LATER
(SIMMONS, KUNSTLER, JOHNSON, SARAH, M’BUTO)