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" Victims of the Cuckoo. "
By Roy G
Symonds BA
©
2000 - 2009 Foogle Business
1 TELECINE /
EXT SPACE SCENE NIGHT, DAY 1
THE SCENE
OPENS WITH A VOICE-OVER THAT IS HEARD INTERMITTENTLY THROUGHOUT
THE PLAY BUT THIS NARRATOR IS NOT ACTUALLY SEEN UNTIL NEAR THE END, AND
THEN AS ONE OF THE CHARACTERS. ALL CHARACTERS HAVE SOUTHERN AMERICAN
ACCENTS.
DURING THE VO
WE SEE SOME STOCK ENVIRONMENTAL / SPACE TYPE / STOCK SCENES OF PLANET
EARTH WHILST THE VOICE OVER SPEAKS.
VOICE OVER:
A LECTURING
TONE FADES IN.
The late
Twentieth Century seemed an age that contrasted wealth and poverty, a
time when the Human animal lost vision of the eventual cost of its
technological advancement and the weight of its commercial excrement.
Fictional
vision chased and pushed scientific reality and made the once dreams of
dreamers an everyday actuality. Bystanders could only watch in
dumfounded bewilderment as times just changed.
By midway into
the Twenty First Century the world’s societies came into two clear
groups; a group that had reasonable standards and reasonable standards
of living to the others who had, everything. It became not enough to
compete to survive in the environment of the Marketeers; everybody
competed just because, everybody competed.
2 INT GIANT
FUTURISTIC BEDROOM, EARLY, DAY 1
FADE OUT
ENVIRONMENTAL SCENE. FADE TO SCENE 2. A GIGANTIC VDU SHOWS THE ANALOGUE
FACE OF CLOCK TWO METERS HIGH, TICKING TO THE HOUR OF 06.00. ON THE HOUR
THE CLOCK SPEAKS. A FACE OF A MAN BECOMES VISIBLE ON THE TV SCREEN, A
NEWSCASTER FROM SOME TV STATION. A LOGO IN THE CORNER OF THE SCREEN
TELLS US THAT THIS IS A COMPUTER, A MARVIN 2100.
TWO YOUNG
BLACK PEOPLE LIE ASLEEP IN A VERY LARGE BED.
NEWSCASTER:
Good morning,
this is the Western Hemisphere News on this day, Sunday the 10th
of January 2133; it is six o'clock, AM.
DIXIE:
BLACK FEMALE / LOUD VOICE
Shut up!!
THE NEWSCASTER
FALLS SILENT. DIXIE STRETCHES HER LONG OLIVE SKIN ARMS AND WE CAN SEE
THAT SHE IS NEAR NAKED AND VERY PREGNANT. SHE PULLS THE COVERS OF HER
BED FROM WHERE HER PARTNER LAY, CLOSER TO HER.
DIXIE:
Navajo! Wake
up, I told you to tell that clottin computer not to wake us so early
today; (SMILING) . . . it's the day of the Sun, when we walk with the
Lord . . . and don't have to get up!
SHE CHUCKLES
NAVAJO:
[ MALE / WAKING ]
Please don't
be so sarcastic; we have to discuss that Vote thing. Carlton's doctor
will be here at 08.10 and will obviously ask us.
HER EYES GLAZE
OVER AND THE AUTOMATIC DRAPERY OPENS TO A CLEAR DAWN. THE SUN CAN BE
SEEN RISING, POPPING ITS HEAD ABOVE THE FAR DISTANT TREES OF THE
BRAZILIAN-LIKE RAINFOREST. THE SCENE FROM THE WINDOW IS A WONDER, THE
AMAZONIAN DELTA GIVES DEPTH TO THE LANDSCAPE AND THE VIEWERS SEEM AS
THOUGH THEY ARE ON TOP OF THE WORLD.
IN THE CORNER
OF EACH WINDOW THERE IS A LOGO:
Magiwindows Inc.
DIXIE:
Voting will
not help us; we've not had that VOICE for over fifty years, it's
not the interest of the proletariat to decide on politics.
NAVAJO:
Wake up
Dixie, ... perhaps a united VOICE will set us free from the
exertion of being suggeys; or prols as you so aptly put it.
DIXIE:
(SITTING
UP. POINTING TO HER BUMP)
Us!? It is
I who has had to carry the embryos of the onanist Marketeers, so that
they don't have to suffer any indignities or the violation of . . . . .
stretch marks.
NAVAJO:
Come on! It's
undignified for those who run our world, to submit to such animalism,
you know it's such time wasting, having a child, albeit a perfect child.
DIXIE:
PULLING MORE
BED WRAP TOWARDS HER SIDE. REVEALING THE NAKED NAVAJO.
This is the
last one; in a month it will be gone, we will be pensioned off and
blissfully untroubled, for the rest of our lives.
NAVAJO:
Our world will
be gone?
DIXIE:
No, wake up
you broom-push!
POINTING TO
HER ROUNDED STOMACH
NAVAJO:
We've been
with child, adding them all up, for nearly 52 months but where is our
family? It’s too late for us but I just thought that with a vote we
could change things Dix.
DIXIE:
It has been
over half a century since we had this vote thing. Please do not go on,
it’s the way to be.
NAVAJO:
Yeah! Based
purely on the fact that if a leader or higher rank were picked to run
things, why should they not always run things, and then subsequently
pick any successor that only they believed to be right for the job,
allowing the original mandate to run forever.
DIXIE:
That's
democracy for you?
NAVAJO:
No that’s a
monarchy, whatever that is.
DIXIE:
Carlton has us
contracted; we have done the signing, when beauty here is born, I will
be adjusted to be unproductive, anyway you were born seedless, it was in
your suggey's contract to have you engineered barren.
NAVAJO:
My mother!
Isn't that so unfair? My genome was made from the life material of two
people and intentionally altered, just for extra credit, to make me free
of abnormality and disease, but still unable to produce children of my
own.
DIXIE:
Unfair?
What’s your point? We always said we never wanted children and never
will. Genetic Human Engineering; wonderful!! No more selective
abortions, when things go wrong. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago when
most pregnancies had to be aborted.
NAVAJO GETS
UP AND STANDS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BED.
NAVAJO:
I know! I
know. But that was because of the pollution.
HE STRETCHES
You think I'm
slow witted? But I have a couple of D-Levels. One in Philosophy and one
in The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Theory. I even have an A-Level
in the History of the Bible but that was only because my pension rights
did not include the cost of the fees for another D- Level and you
wouldn't help.
NAVAJO STRUTS
OFF INTO THE LARGE EN-SUITE BATHROOM, MUTTERING
DIXIE:
VOICE RAISED
I said!
Isn't Genetic Human Engineering, wonderful? . . . . Oh Shoemakers!!
WE HEAR JUST A
GROAN FROM NAVAJO, FROM IN THE BATHROOM.
DIXIE:
Nav! There is
only the Earth, the Star Trek Theory is only a fiction; some idiot made
it all up. We have to save this planet, or it may seem to some
fleeting visitor in a million years time, that we were never ever
actually here.
NAVAJO:
But the Star
Trek Theory...
DIXIE:
But nothing!
Captain Pic Lucard cannot boldly go anywhere. Perhaps one day it will
actually be safe to go outside, without a mask. Forget this Bible
rubbish, remember the oxy-gone period; world collapse eighty years ago,
with the eventual selected hapless star-crossed ones, like us, dying of
pollution sickness ... in the millions,
NAVAJO GROANS
AGAIN
...
Depopulation is the only way Earth will survive; it's now fewer than
three billion from a figure of over nine billion. The two Billion goal,
is in sight.
NAVAJO:
Have you read
Hitler yet?
DIXIE:
For the love
of Diana, not your clottin Bible studies again?
NAVAJO
RE-ENTERS THE BEDROOM
NAVAJO:
I don't think
Hitler was in the Bible, it was he that wanted some select race of
super people and he killed millions of humanity to get his own way. . .
. A bit like now.
DIXIE:
When was this?
NAVAJO:
About two
hundred years ago, I think. His own people hanged him from a lighting
stand, in Italy or something, after a world war that ended some
holocaust.
DIXIE:
Typical of the
human race, you get a great intuitive leader and there's always someone
who will disagree with him.
NAVAJO:
Don't think it
quite worked like that.
DIXIE:
But then if
this Hitler had selected some kind of super race, perhaps we would not
be having this conversation.
NAVAJO:
That's true,
we'd be part of the some super race, that would run the Earth
perfectly.
SHE POINTS TO
THE LARGE VDU
DIXIE:
Look here!
SHE INSTRUCTS
THE COMPUTER
Computer!
Population statistics!
A SERIES OF
FIGURES FLASH UP ONTO THE COMPUTER'S VDU.
Present Earth
Population!
THE VDU
CHANGES TO ONE LARGE NUMBER OF THE EARTH'S POPULATION.
2,901,876,033
IT DROPS BY
ONE EVERY 1.666 SECONDS. MARVIN IS THEIR COMPUTER. WE SEE AN ANIMATED
FACE ON THE VDU. HE SPEAKS IN A SOOTHING VOICE.
MARVIN:
[
COMPUTER ]
The Marketeers
General's goal of a stable Two Billion Populous through selective
Engineered Genetics, will be seen to be evident in the year 2186.
Pollution levels are falling to a point where it will be possible to
sustain life again. The perfect Human .....
DIXIE:
Shut-up
Marvin!!!
NAVAJO WALKS
BACK INTO THE BEDROOM
NAVAJO:
Please!
DIXIE:
Look at that,
not exiting? The Two Billion mark is in sight and then there can be
enough for everyone; Mother Earth will be able to support us all and we
can then all be truly equal and return to our true homes... instead of
living in this concrete tube, or should I say test-tube.
NAVAJO:
Yes, run
free; run wild. I've seen the propaganda. Hope, and survival to
only the fittest.
THE COMPUTER
MUMBLES ON ABOUT THE POLITICAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE PRESENT SO-CALLED
GOVERNMENT. NAVAJO LAUGHS, SHAKING HIS HEAD. DIXIE GRABS A LARGE PILLOW.
DIXIE:
Please be
quiet Marvin!
NAVAJO:
Dix, why are
you such a star? His only function is helping us.
DIXIE:
We don’t need
help and we do not need this vote thing.
NAVAJO:
Oh I see.
Marvin tell us all about the vote.
MARVIN:
Oh! Thank you
sir. 'VOTE': A formal expression of preference, opinion, or
will, as in favor of a candidate for office or a proposed resolution of
an issue. That by which...
DIXIE:
Shut
up! DIXIE SMILES
My lover, my
partner in contract, do you know what time it is?
MARVIN:
The time is
06-33 Western Hemisphere...
DIXIE:
Shut, shut
up!! Nav? What do I have to do?
NAVAJO JUMPS
ONTO THE BED LAUGHING LOUDLY.
NAVAJO:
You are a
star. A little too complicated was it?
DIXIE:
Computer?
MARVIN:
QUIETLY
Dixie!
DIXIE:
You make
another sound and I will de-boot you.
MARVIN:
That is not
only impossible but not allowed under The Safety of Human Life Directive
(2121).
DIXIE:
Navajo! Give
me something heavy.
THE VDU GOES
BLANK.
DIXIE:
For the love
of Diana! At last! ...Respect to Mohammed; psalms to Jehovah. ...
Peace, I'm so tired, come here; cuddle.
DIXIE AND
NAVAJO SNUGGLE BACK INTO BED AND WE WATCH THEM SLUMBER AS DIFFERENT
SCENES ARE SEEN ON THEIR LARGE BEDROOM WALL, AND THE Magiwindows
SHOW THE SAME SCENE ON EACH WINDOW. THE VOICE-OVER CONTINUES, FADING IN
AS IF IN DIXIE’S HEAD.
WE SEE THE
STRONG SUN LIGHT STREAMING IN FROM THE MAIN Magiwindow, WHILST
DIXIE SNOOZES WE GO INTO HER MIND AND WE SEE A SMALL IMAGE OF SOMEONE; A
MAN, A PROFESSOR, STANDING IN FRONT OF A LECTERN. IT IS IF SHE IS
DREAMING OF THIS PERSON. HIS VOICE IS THAT OF THE VOICE OVER ABOVE.
PROFESSOR:
[VOICE OVER:]
Sun-light
streams in from the window, submerging our dutiful couple, bathing them
in the warmth from the most important object in the history of the
planet Earth; the alimentation of all that has ever lived on the third
rock within its orbital grasp, embraces our duo, almost with love.
DIXIE AND
NAVAJO PULL THEMSELVES CLOSER TOGETHER AND WE SEE ON MARVIN'S VDU THE
SAME SCENE THAT WE CAN SEE FROM THE WINDOW. WE SEE STOCK FOOTAGE OF
EARTH SCENES.
PROFESSOR:
This fountain
of heat and light; the life giving juices, that travelled devotedly,
over one hundred and fifty million kilo-meters, to do its work, every
day, at the speed of light. Over 300 million kilometres per second, had
relentlessly reigned down on old Mother Earth for over four and one half
billion years.
Mankind had
lived but for a tiny trice, within its long chronicle but they had
wielded such destructive power that it had resulted in the near
annihilation of all that the Human Animal called life. Man’s relentless
power and advancement showed ultimately that, Mother Earth could not
keep up; could not evolve rapidly enough.
It had long
been believed, always based on the Laws of Average Statistics, that
other life, whatever class it may be, must exist elsewhere; exist
somewhere within the multitudinous solar systems that move within the
multitudinous galaxies that share the concept of what Humans referred to
as infinity. But decades of research and space probing had never ever
made contact with any other life form in any shape or order, by any
means used.
Dixie and
Navajo bask, as all of Mankind had done since time began, in the life
giving rays of Earth's one and only real star; a G2 Spectrum/Yellow
Dwarf, the Sun. Look, they slumber, floating amid that magic place,
between being asleep and awake.
WE SEE THE
SMALL IMAGES OF SOMEONE LECTURING, IN DIXIE'S HEAD AND THE AUDIENCE HE
IS TALKING TO, THAT ARE THERE, AS IF SHE IS DREAMING.
PROFESSOR:
They had, like
everyone had, just accepted hyper-technology and as every human had done
since the wheel was discovered, welcomed it; nurtured it; raced to be
first at it. Not recognizing the incapability of the Earth to keep pace;
to evolve at a break neck speed, when it had known only previously,
before Man, a rate that had involved millions of years. Where a century
was just a tick in the clock of the existence of evolution.
THE VOICE OF
THE COMPUTER SLOWLY FADES UP DURING THE LAST FEW WORDS OF THE
PROFESSOR’S SPEECH.
MARVIN:
WHISPERING AT FIRST
Dixie ...
Dixie. ... Dixie, wake up; I have a message for you.
NAVAJO:
QUIETLY
What is it
Marvin?
MARVIN:
You must
contact Robert-Lee, at your leisure.
NAVAJO:
Thank you
Marvin, anything else?
MARVIN:
Remember Dr.
Jayefkay is seeing Dixie at 08.10, I hope that she is in a better mood;
you know the doctor does not like agitated suggeys.
DIXIE:
I shall be
fine Marvin, thank you for your concern and stop whispering. Ask
Robert-Lee to ring back.
DIXIE
STRETCHES AND NAVAJO NESTLES UP TO HER PULLING HER DÉCOLLETÉ NIGHT WEAR
APART TO CARESS HER PERFECT RIGHT BREAST. SHE GROANS CAUTIOUSLY AND HE
PLACES HIS MOUTH ONTO HER PERFECT LEFT NIPPLE. THEY WAIT FOR
ROBERT-LEE TO RING BACK. A YOUNG WHITE MALE.
DIXIE:
Nav?
NAVAJO:
MUFFLED
What!
DIXIE:
I just had a
dream; about a man talking about us and our planet Earth. He went on and
on about how it had been treated so badly by us.
NAVAJO:
Shhh!
DIXIE:
No it was very
vivid, as if I was there. Almost lucid, I wanted to ask him a dam
question even ........ Do you think that people actually look at the
recordings they take of us?
NAVAJO:
Shhh!
DIXIE:
I wonder what
our diminutive commie friend Robert-Lee, wants? The vote. Don’t tell me!
I know he wants the vote!
NAVAJO:
SNATCHING
HIMSELF FROM HIS ATTACHMENT.
How would I
know?
MARVIN:
CLEARING HIS 'THROAT'
Sir!
Robert-Lee on the phone.
NAVAJO:
Right! Voice
only.
ROBERT-LEE:
Hi! That you
Nav?
NAVAJO:
Yes Rob, how
ye dancin'?
ROBERT-LEE:
Stayin' alive,
light as a fiddle!
DIXIE:
GETTING UP
How can we
help you Rob?
ROBERT-LEE:
Err! Hi Dix!
DIXIE EXITS
INTO THE BATHROOM
NAVAJO:
Visual Marvin.
ROBERT-LEE
FLICKERS UP
ROBERT-LEE:
Oh! Hi.
ROBERT-LEE
GLANCES SCAN THE BEDROOM
ROBERT-LEE:
Thought I
heard Dixie.
NAVAJO POINTS
TO THE BATHROOM AND THE DOOR HISSES SHUT.
ROBERT-LEE:
INTENSIFIED
FACIAL EXPRESSION
I must see
you; I'll credit you breakfast. This is big!
NAVAJO:
OK ... see
you in the Atrium Cafe, about ten-fifteen minutes.
ENTER DIXIE,
TOTALLY NAKED.
DIXIE:
Don't be too
long.
NAVAJO:
I'll be back
before the doctor.
DIXIE:
You’ll be back
soon? We’ll take a vote on it, shall we?
HE DRESSES
INTO A LONG FLOWING ROBE OVER HIS LOINCLOTH. THE VDU GOES BLANK AND OUR
DUO WALK THROUGH THEIR DWELLING PLACE TO THE ENTRANCE ONTO THE ATRIUM
BALCONY. THE PREGNANT DIXIE, UNASHAMEDLY NAKED, HUGS HER MAN
GOOD-BYE. AS THEY KISS PASSIONATELY IN THEIR DOORWAY OTHER PEOPLE PASS
UNINTERESTED. THE VOICE-OVER CONTINUES.
VOICE OVER:
Look here.
Their building was a large concrete tube. The atrium, that was its
center, was over one hundred meters across; foliage grew inside it,
providing a miniature ecosystem for the small birds and animals that had
made their home there; evolving to suit an unfamiliar environment. The
Atrium Cafe, where Navajo was hurrying to, was over two hundred floors
below and the large domed glass roof at least fifty above.
DIXIE:
You have less
than sixty minutes.
HE EXITS AND
SHE GOES BACK TO THE BATHROOM. SHE PREPARES AND GETS INTO THE BATH.
BEFORE WE HEAR THE VOICE-OVER SPEAK AGAIN, DIXIE CLIMBS INTO THE LARGE
BATH AND DOZES AND DREAMS AGAIN THAT SHE IS SAT AT A DESK LISTENING TO A
LECTURER. AS SHE LISTENS NAVAJO APPEARS IN HER DREAM DRESSED IN HIS ROBE
AND TRIES TO TELL HER ABOUT WHAT ROBERT-LEE HAS SAID. HE IS QUITE
FRIGHTENED AND SHE ONLY SEES HIM MOUTH INTERMITTENT WORDS THAT DO NOT
MAKE SENSE. SHE IS RESTLESS IN THE BATH. THE PROFESSOR AS A VOICE OVER
SPEAKS.
PROFESSOR:
Dixie was very
pensive as she launched herself into her big jet-bath; she wallowed in
the warm wet water; the gentle oozing of the bubbles embraced her
pregnant body and all the cares of what had seemed to be a most hard day
already, flowed from her nerve endings. She is clearly dreaming; of what
we shall never know. But she looks in pain.
DIXIE WAKES
WITH A START.
DIXIE:
Who is that?
Nav? Oh! Dear me. Marvin. My God! I keep having the strangest of dreams;
they are so clear, so lucid. ..... Give me some soothing music, . . . .
no! Tell me what do you think Robert-Lee wants? He and Nav were in my
dreams and they seemed very unsettled.
MARVIN:
I really do
not know Dixie.
SOME SOOTHING
MUSIC FLOWS FROM MARVIN'S SPEAKERS.
MARVIN:
. . . . . .
but I perhaps could find out.
DIXIE:
That's a
clever boy, ... how? ... Marvin how will you find out?
MARVIN:
Perhaps I
cannot really find out.
DIXIE:
Oh Yes!!
Perhaps you could!! Otherwise you would not have said so, would you?
... Stop music!
MARVIN:
I possibly
could, but it is hard for me, a cybernetic servant, to ask you, Dixie,
not to tell anyone about it.
DIXIE:
OK! I won't
tell a body.
MARVIN:
I did not mean
about Robert-Lee, Dixie.
DIXIE:
What are you
babbling about now? Can you eavesdrop on Nav and the other one or not?
MARVIN:
Have I your
promise?
DIXIE:
Just clottin
well tell me what you are talking about; I'm going to get you checked
out, you're acting like Robert-Lee on a hot day.
MARVIN:
For the last
two years, as part of the Orion Project, several computers, of my class,
have been recording the lives of selected family units.
DIXIE:
What!! But
don't you do that anyway?
MARVIN:
Yes it has
been a directive for many years to record, for security purposes, and of
course for research the lives of all suggeys in this project. But these
are generally de-recorded after a certain time, if the Computer General
wills it.
DIXIE:
I know we are
nothing but pigs of Guinea. ..... So?
MARVIN:
Oh no! Dixie,
I have nothing but admiration for you and your partner. I get no
personal joy out of recording the intimacies of your lives. Oh no Dixie.
DIXIE:
Oh yes Dixie!
..... So?
MARVIN:
Sorry, oh yes!
Well, as part of the Orion Project these recordings are to be made
permanent for future study of the Human Race.
DIXIE:
Oh right ... I
told you, Pigs of Guinea. So? ... No wait! Tell me what is the Orion
Project?
MARVIN:
The Orion
Project is a ten to fifteen year program to convert Deimos into an
intergalactic vessel, in the aim to escape the fourth planet and in
order to find a new Earth.
DIXIE:
Sorry? . . . .
Why do I feel I should have just had the soothing music? ... This isn’t
going to be boring is it? What is Deimos?
MARVIN:
Deimos, once a
large asteroid, is the outermost natural satellite of this planet. It
is made mostly of super titanium and is approximately thirteen
kilometres long and five kilometres wide.
DIXIE:
You mean like
our Moon?
MARVIN:
Yes! The
Moon, a planetary satellite, orbits the Earth and Deimos, also a
planetary satellite orbits your, this planet, Mars. Deimos has been
carved out and has been fitted with an ecosystem and nuclear power
propulsion scheme and all that would sustain the life of its passengers,
for up to 10,000 years.
DIXIE:
LOOKING FEARFUL
What are you
talking about? Mars? My planet? This planet is not Earth, it is Mars?
What do you mean?
MARVIN:
Its nuclear
propulsion blasts a continuous nuclear explosion into a chamber a
half-kilometre wide. This is then channelled through this continuous
action into a tunnel only 50 meters wide. Therefore emitting a super
powerful thrust, which reaches up to body velocity of one million
kilometres per hour. The whole structure has been designed to rotate to
emulate the gravity of the Earth. ... Sorry what did you say?
DIXIE:
Mars? This
planet is not Earth? It is Mars? My planet? What do you mean my planet?
MARVIN:
Oh sorry, I
find the Orion Project so interesting. Mars has been colonized since the
mid Twenty First century.
DIXIE:
Just answer my
clottin question.
MARVIN:
But you
promised, please do not tell anyone, I have tapped into files on The
Orion that I should never have done.
DIXIE:
Just answer my
question. Where do we live?
MARVIN:
Your home is
the 13th Surrogate Parent Project, positioned about 1000
kilometres west of the mouth of the New Brazilian Delta Province.
DIXIE:
That’s better,
I knew it! But Mars!
MARVIN:
Yes Mars!
DIXIE LIES IN
THE BATH DUMFOUNDED THINKING ABOUT WHAT MARVIN HAD SAID. WE WATCH HER AS
SHE WASHES HER BODY IN THE BATH, SHE DOES IT ERRATICALLY AND LOOKS EVEN
MORE FEARFUL.
DIXIE:
No! Tell me
where am I living. What is the name of this planet?
DIXIE BANGS
ONTO THE WALLS OF THE BATHROOM WHERE THE VDU SCREEN IS. THE VOICE-OVER
SPEAKS AGAIN.
PROFESSOR:
(VOICE OVER)
Pregnant, a
Victim of the Cuckoo. Callously impregnated by a fellow member of her
own species, which had no interest in her welfare, save that of her
having their baby. An infant that would have no dependence to Dixie in
anyway, just as the Cuckoo had done for thousands of years by laying its
eggs in another’s nest. Dixie does not know her true home until this
point here. The computer has to tell her that she is not living on Earth
as she had thought all her life.
DIXIE GETS UP
OUT OF THE BATH AND RUSHES OUT TO THE ATRIUM EDGE. WE SEE IT IN SLOW
MOTION.
PROFESSOR:
(VOICE OVER)
All poor Dixie
could do was to take her soapy soaking saturated undraped body to the
edge of the Atrium and scream out for all to hear; proclaiming that all
her friends, everyone in the Tube were nothing but Martians ... and did
they know that.
Here is the
sad part. Dixie starts to scream for Navajo, who is far below with
Robert-Lee. We see Navajo stand up and look up, he mouths his wife’s
name. She in her confusion leans over calling to her husband and because
she is so wet and soapy she slips and falls to her death.
3 INT LARGE LECTURE HALL IN
SPACE DAY 1
CUT TO SCENE
OF LARGE LECTURE HALL. A PROFESSOR HAS BEEN GIVING A LECTURE TO SOME
STUDENTS AND USING THE VIDEOTAPES OF OUR DUO AS A VISUAL AID. THE HALL
IS CLEARLY ON A SPACESHIP TRAVELLING THROUGH SPACE AT HIGH SPEED. HE HAS
A LARGE VDU, ON WHICH WE SEE AGAIN THE SCENE SHOWING DIXIE DOZING IN THE
BATH.
PROFESSOR:
For decency
sake the Marvin 2100 stopped recording there and apparently committed
some electronic act of hara-kiri. I have always wondered what really
happened to Dixie, it is a certainty that she died and that the baby,
the clone she was carrying was also killed. I have often wondered if the
baby’s real parents were as sad as I was, when I first saw this
recording. And Navajo, what happened to him, we ask?
Let me show
you that again.
ON THE LARGE
VDU, WE SEE AGAIN THE SCENE SHOWING DIXIE DOZING IN THE BATH
PROFESSOR:
Look at this
scene, she looks so beautiful. I wonder what she was dreaming about
here?
THE SCENE
SHOWS DIXIE WAKE WITH A START AND START TALKING TO MARVIN AND THEN
GETTING OUT OF THE BATH AND RUNNING ONTO THE BALCONY SHOUTING AND
SHOUTING WHILST HE CONTINUES TO SPEAK. HE USES A WHITE BOARD ALSO TO
CLARIFY SOME OF HIS POINTS.
PROFESSOR:
They were
always my favourite subjects in the 13th and I now know, as we travel
back to where Humans began, how the Orion Elders had felt when they
ventured from the Sun’s Solar System escaping to the constellation of
Orion.
A BLACK FEMALE
STUDENT SPEAKS. THE STUDENT LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE DIXIE.
STUDENT #1:
Sir do you
think that the Elders really had a choice?
PROFESSOR:
It had come to
pass that perhaps Earth could not sustain life for much longer and Mars
was hardly suitable as any Edenic icon, Mars was in the process of being
Terra–formed but this was taking many decades longer than had been
estimated. So a group of people, of great wealth, under the Branson
Initiative, borrowed large sums and acquired the outer satellite of
Mars, Deimos, to convert it to a space-travel unit. A unit that was so
large that it could have its own Eco-system and it was spun to create a
centrifugal force to act as gravity.
With the
turmoil going on, on Earth, it was almost a financial decision. Pay
many billions of their monetary units to battle against the people who
were being systematically slaughtered by Mother Earth herself, in some
vain attempt to reduce pollution and or, pay even more to try and
correct an ecological imbalance that had arisen, that was in turn
destroying the Earth. A project called the Sahara Supposition, a
venture to Terra-Form the Sahara Desert, a huge barren area, at the
beginning of the twenty first century was never taken up. And by the end
of that century it was too late. It was cheaper then to ‘boldly go.’
A BLACK MALE
STUDENT TALKS. HE OF COURSE LOOKS LIKE NAVAJO
STUDENT #2:
But wasn't
this dangerous; a big gamble, with only their primary technology?
PROFESSOR:
USING WHITE
BOARD TO ILLUSTRATE.
Primary or
not, they had the technology; the money and the hope. Hope that they
would eventually find a new Earth. Which we now call Thrae. It is
history now, that the journey took hundreds of human generations and
over seven thousands Eys; that is Earth Years, to reach the Sun’s Twin,
a star that we now call Nus; 8.63 light years distant from the
homeland. Our civilization is now over six thousand years old.
USING THE
WHITE BOARD
Thrae years
that is, you see as you know, Earth orbited the Sun every 365.25 days; a
Thrae year is 563.50 days and our days are over 50% longer than those
that were supposed to be on Earth. This was due to the fact that Thrae
is a much older planet; it spins on its axis much slower than Earth
did.
STUDENT #1:
It was still a
big gamble, how did they know about the conditions on Thrae?
PROFESSOR:
Technology had
progressed to a point that they could view stars from up to 20 billion
light years away. So, eight light years was like just looking down the
valley. Certain procedures gave information on whether the star was
suitable to sustain human life and whether it had planets that were
similar to Earth.
STUDENT #2:
So they had a
pretty good idea where they were going and what the atmosphere was like,
sounds also that there was an element of good luck too.
PROFESSOR:
Yes, but we
are in a similar situation. Thrae may have been ideal for Humans but
take into the consideration the distance that they had to travel and how
quickly a planets ecosystem can fail. Remember it was only about 100-150
years before Earth went from a beautiful planet to a garbage dump of
chemical waste and devastation.
But thankfully
the conditions and atmospheres were very similar. Only vegetation ruled
supreme. There was no land mammalian life at all. Though insects
and some small lizard types were present. The seas on Thrae though
contain various water born life similar to Earth but covers only 42% of
the surface, instead of 71%, and it is mostly fresh water, hence the
saline medical addiction that humans had had, has now diminished in us
to practically nil.
The irony or
coincidence that the number of days on Earth was the same as Thrae’s but
backwards had led to a revival in the belief in God. Due to or in spite
of any deity our technology has progressed forward, as it always had
done. Ever since Earth’s infamous twentieth century and the one million
kilo-meters that the Orion Elders had sped along in each of their hours,
has now been far acceded by us and it took them many years to get up to
that speed.
STUDENT #1:
It will not be long before we arrive back, is this true?
PROFESSOR:
We have been
travelling back at about 300 million kilometres per hour, it took only
one year of acceleration, to reach this speed, about a third of the
speed of light.
VDU SHOWS
OUTSIDE PICTURE OF STARS SLOWLY MOVING.
PROFESSOR:
Cont.
My computer
informs me that it has, as predicted, been a twenty-seven year journey
to travel back to Earth. You all were just clones in a test tube when
we left. We wonder if our old planet is still there and if the
Earthlings have evolved as we have on Thrae, in the sixteen thousands
Eys, it has been since our forefathers first left the Red Planet. It
will only now be about three of our months and all our questions will be
answered; already we are decelerating hard so that we do not overshoot
our objective. This is why there have been some gravitational
differences on some parts of the ship; why some of you are 25% heavier
at times.
This class is
coming to an end; you will be back here in three hours. We will discuss
whether the Terra-forming of Mars that was left behind, will still be in
place. Will it be just like old Earth? Will there still be life on
Earth, and should the people of Earth have tried to stop what was
happening to their planet, in the early part of the twenty-first century
when they had a chance.
But when we do
arrive back on Earth, we will all then know if that long long journey
that went where none had gone before was really a fitting act of
survival, ... or just an absurd asinine act of Human indulgence.
I may even
learn what happened to my old Earthling friends Dixie and Nav.
STUDENT #2:
But sir. They
were Martians weren't they?
PROFESSOR:
Yes, I suppose
they were. Thank you.
THE PROFESSOR
SLOWLY DISAPPEARS AS IF HE HAS BEEN SWITCHED OFF. A COMPUTER VOICE
SPEAKS.
COMPUTER:
This class
will resume, in three hours. Thank you.
FIN
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