8FOLD: Red Hart # 1

[Tom Russell]

  EIGHTFOLD PROUDLY PRESENTS MR. TOM RUSSELL'S
               HISTORY OF THE

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 ##         [8F-121] ACT ONE [PW-02]

               ~-<>-~

ARGUMENT FOR ACT ONE.
Late 2013. Five years after Las Vegas was destroyed by the
Dyzen'thari, the cosmic dam has broke, and the god-sea threatens to
destroy the universe. The gods of algebra discuss the best solution;
Octonion wishes to awaken the beast moon Awides, while his son
Sedenion favors freeing Red Hart, Prince of All Forests (but in doing
so, freeing Red Hart's dread uncle, the Never-Lord). Octonion
imprisons Sedenion, then hires Earth-born space pilot Vanessa Morrison
to take him to Awides. Meanwhile, the Pulse Collective plans the
conquest of Earth, where the barriers between universes are weakest,
so that they might redirect the god-sea into another universe,
preserving this one, and from there proceed to conquer the multiverse.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

OCTONION, god of eighth-dimensional algebra
SEDENION, son of Octonion, himself the god
     of sixteenth-dimensional algebra

VANESSA MORRISON, captain of the ship Plus-One,
    ex-patriot of Earth, called Van

THE PULSE COLLECTIVE, a hive-mind empire in
     Deep Space, represented by a Chorus

               ~-<>-~


Scene I. Earth, the ruins of Las Vegas.
[OCTONION alone.]

OCTONION
O once on Earth was brightly-starred the night.
The dinosaurs and daughters watched them rapt,
And wondered at the heavens with delight!
Then came the hour of man (and "hour" is apt).
The Light inspired men to build and think;
And now, the cities' lights occlude the stars.
Once bright, now dimly doth they shine and blink.
So too does deadly Venus, wand'ring Mars,
Mercury boiling, secret Saturn, Jove.
Some say their sacred Light has been profaned.
But false they mirror the sun which round they rove.
Lamplight does not reflect but shines unfeigned.
And thus, mine ancient eyes do find men's lights
To be more pleasing than the cosmic night's!

[Enter SEDENION in a flash of light.]

SEDENION
I greet my father, great Octonion!

OCTONION
Octonion returns your greeting. Hail!
Well met, Sedenion, my son, my sun!

SEDENION
Though I am glad to give you company,
I do not know the why you summoned me.

OCTONION
Ill tidings, son Sedenion. Behold!
The cosmic dam has broke.

SEDENION
                          It can be felt.
The god-sea trickles out into the night.
The universal ocean vast and black
Will be consumed and lost. All lost! But why?

OCTONION
Five years ago, the Dyzen'thari broke
Through from their universe to Earth. A crack!
A crack in time and space that opened wide!
The cosmic dam like glass did crack but hold.
Relentless did the bleak god-sea batter
Until at last did endless glass shatter!

SEDENION
All lost! All lost!

OCTONION
                    Do not despair, my son!
For are we not the gods of algebra?
Do not we speak the tongue of creation?
Are not we enemies of entropy?
Are not we ageless as the integers?
Octonion and son Sedenion!

SEDENION
Sedenion and old Octonion!
O father, I am shamed and justly so.
For now I see the course of action plain!
Shall now we speed to edge of space and time
And there together break the seven seals?

OCTONION
My fool, my boy! The seven seals? No. No!
To break the seals shall heap fresh doom on doom!

SEDENION
Is not our only hope the Forest Prince?
The Red Hart! "He shall stem the god-sea's rage!
The last true hope!" The Red Hart must be freed!

OCTONION
Free him, free his uncle, the Never-Lord!
At omens do you clutch. I raised you not
In darkness, but in numbers, Light, and law.
"The last true hope!" Tis just a children's rhyme.

SEDENION
What hope is there, if not "the last true hope"?

OCTONION
I speak of Awides.

SEDENION
                   Of Awides?
My fool, my father! Awides is worse!

OCTONION [crackling with cosmic power]
Call not me fool, my sweet Sedenion!
I am an older god than thou, and wise!
I'm quick to rage and terrible in wrath!

SEDENION [crackling with cosmic power]
A younger god I am, yes, this is true.
But yet your match in both wisdom and wrath.
And swift, as youth is swift. Your match and more!
Sedenion is twice you, god of eight!
I am the sixteen-dimensional god!
Do not trifle with me, oh ageless one!
On Awides you pin all life's last hope?
You think you'll tame that beast?

OCTONION
                              He shall be tamed!
For eight-sided norm'd algebra does solve
The Equation Impossible! Now, quick!
Together to present my proof! Quick! Quick!

SEDENION
Sedenion says no! Your arrogance
Will doom all Life! And that I'll not permit!
You'll not unleash the sleeping moon of death!

OCTONION
And you, my son, shall not undo the seals!
Both Never-Lord and nephew must not wake!
And so for life of all, your life I take!

[A cosmic battle. SEDENION falls.]

OCTONION
These times are dark, to need dark deeds. What now?
My son alone could leapfrog boundless space.
I must now find another way. But soft!
The son is strong, and only sleeps. Aloft!

[SEDENION is caged in a cube, and the cube ascends.]

OCTONION
And so I bind him now in box of eight.
To Awides! I pray I'm not too late!

[Exeunt.]


SCENE II. Earth. The ruins of Las Vegas.
[A space-corvette (small warship), the Plus-One, lands. From the ship
enters VAN.]

VAN
Oh boy, Earth. This miserable pig-sty. I left it when I was a wee
girl, and I had a reason. It was too small for me. Got a
one-in-a-billion chance to dance in the stars, so I did. Who wouldn't?
Well, maybe you wouldn't, if your brain was made of rocks. Mine
wasn't, so I did. Swore I'd never come back to Earth, unless there was
a reason, and a good one. There is a reason, and a good one, and
that's money, so I'm here. A lot of money, and apparently this
Octonion is good for it. Oh, this must be my cargo now. Howdy!

[OCTONION enters.]

OCTONION
I do return thy howdy. Speak I to
Vanessa, of the House of Morrison?

VAN
Okay, sure, why not. Please, just call me Van. So, where is it you
want me to take you? I've never seen these coordinates before, and
can't quite grok them. Figure it's someplace spicy with the amount of
space-bucks you're shelling out.

OCTONION
It has a thousand names in countless tongues,
As does your Earth, called Terra, Three, and more.
Its truest name, if only one is true,
Are plotted points of x and y and z.
So too, our destination-destiny!

VAN
Okay, you really like maths, "language of the universe", I got it,
thanks. Can we just get out of here? I hate this lousy mudball.

[VAN exits into the ship.]

OCTONION [aside]
She hates the Earth? Methinks before we're done
To Earth she'll gladly speed in her Plus-One.

VAN [off]
I can totally still hear you.

[OCTONION exits into the ship, and it ascends.]


SCENE III. Deep Space. The Pulse Collective.
[Enter the chorus of the PULSE. Each couplet is spoken with a
different set of voices, and each member of the chorus is a member of
overlapping sets; a study in harmony and disharmony.]

PULSE
The dam has broke! How shall the Pulse survive?
The god-flood! Shall it wash o'er all alive?
But foolish Earth may prove to be the key.
Men thought it center of reality.
How close! For Earth sits small in boundless space,
Yet on the fault-line sits the human race.
The multiverse! It bleeds there most and weeps.
Into a counter-Earth, the god-sea seeps!
We'll take "our" Earth to save us all from death!
But stop we there? No, no, our plans have breadth!
We'll conquer Earth and crack the fault-line wide!
Then 'cross each universe the Pulse will stride!
An empire infinite! Of countless suns!
An empire infinite! Of countless suns!

[Exeunt.]


SCENE IV. Aboard the Plus-One.
[VAN and OCTONION. The dashboard beeps.]

VAN
We're nearly here, mystery-man. But I don't see any "here" here. Just
an aimless asteroid.

OCTONION
Tis not an aimless rock, but tis a moon.

VAN
Must be some orbit! My ship isn't detecting any planets.

OCTONION
It won't, sweet Van.

VAN
Seriously, don't call me that, it's creepy.

OCTONION
                      It circles 'round nothing,
And yet something. Tis Awides, Death-Moon,
Belonging to the Anti-Planet, Dis.

VAN
... That sounds pretty heavy.

OCTONION
Tis not; tis held by anti-gravity.

VAN
Not what I meant. So why are we here?

OCTONION
I shall awake this sleeping murder-moon,
And harness Awides to destroy death.

VAN
Yeah, that sounds totally reasonable and not at all insane. So I'm
incredibly glad I took this job.

OCTONION
This must be done with care, to end the end.
I shall transmit my proof, and tame this moon.
The Equation Impossible, if solved,
Shall make my will his will! And so, I will!
[He crackles with cosmic power.]
My concentration must be absolute!
For one mistake shall free the bloody brute!

VAN
Lovely!

[Exeunt.]

COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL