SCIENCE FICTION BLAST-OFF THEATE

SCIENCE FICTION BLAST-OFF THEATER

"Taking Off"

by Richard Nathan

Before the lights come up, a voice announces the title of the story:

VOICE
"Taking Off"

This piece takes place in a cafeteria. Two co-workers enter, carrying their lunches. The workers can be any gender, with any names, but for purposes of typing this up, I am calling them PHIL and JAMES.

JAMES
Hey, Phil! I hear you’re leaving!

PHIL
Yeah. I can’t take this place any more.

They both sit down to eat.

JAMES
Where you going?

PHIL
I don’t know yet. I’ll find some place.

                                                            JAMES
                                    I wish I had your guts. But I guess any
                                    place will be better than here, right?

PHIL
I’ll find out.

JAMES
You have any particular prospects?

PHIL
No. I’m just taking off.

                                                            JAMES
                                    God, I hate my job. It’s like being in this
                                    huge, empty void of absolute, dark,
                                    nothing! Like that giant void they found
                                    in space.

PHIL
They found that?

                                                            JAMES
                                    Yeah. There’s this huge expanse where
                                    there isn’t anything. No stars or planets
                                    or asteroids or anything! And it’s huge!
                                    No one knows how it came to be.

PHIL
Actually, that was me.

JAMES
Huh?

                                                            PHIL
                                    Yeah. I did it. It was unintentional, but
                                    I did it.

JAMES
You feeling okay?

                                                            PHIL
                                    I tired of inhabiting this body - but aside
                                    from that, I’m fine. And quite sane.

JAMES
Look, …

                                                            PHIL
                                    No, you look. Look in my eyes. You’ll
                                    see something you’ve never seen before.

James looks into Phil’s eyes, and sees something that tells him Phil is not remotely human.

JAMES
Oh my…

                                                            PHIL
                                    The thing about interstellar travel is that
                                    it takes too long. Even at nearly the speed
                                    of light - it just takes too long! The only
                                    way to speed it up is to create some kind of
                                    wormhole, but that takes energy on a scale
                                    that no one ever could achieve - until me.
                                    I calculated that if I converted one of the
                                    outer moons of my home world into pure
                                    energy, it could be used to create a
                                    wormhole large enough to take my ship
                                    across the universe. It was a small moon.
                                    I didn’t think it would be missed. But I
                                    didn’t foresee the chain reaction. My attempt
                                    to convert one small moon to energy
                                    demolished nearly fifty star systems. Gone!
                                    Several of them inhabited. I am responsible
                                    for the deaths of more sentient beings than
                                    anyone else who ever lived.

JAMES
You must feel…

                                                            PHIL
                                    Fortunately, my culture has never known
                                    empathy. We believe the best system is
                                    for everyone to act in his or her own best
                                    self interest. You know, not that different from
                                    you people.

JAMES
But all those beings who died…

                                                            PHIL
                                    Yeah. But I’m still alive. So it worked
                                    out okay.

JAMES
But why would you tell me?

PHIL
Why not?

                                                            JAMES
                                    You kept it a secret so long! Why tell me
                                    now?

PHIL
What difference does it make?

JAMES
But it’s earth-shattering news.

PHIL
Yeah. Earth shattering.

JAMES
It changes everything.

PHIL
Yeah.

James thinks for a moment. Then he realizes what Phil means.

JAMES
Because….

                                                            PHIL
                                    It’s like I told you. I’m taking off.
                                    Again.

Blackout.

THE END

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The author grants all internet uses permission to print these scripts for their own, personal, non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the author's permission. Without limiting the foregoing, the plays may not be staged without the author's express permission.

Send e-mail to the author at Richard-Nathan@att.net.