8FOLD: Red Hart # 9: "Deorum Et Machina"

[Tom Russell]

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

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 ##         [8F-133] ACT NINE [PW-10]
               DEORUM ET MACHINA


               ~-<>-~

THE ARGUMENT.
Red Hart defeats all the present dooms, save one.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

SEDENION, god of sixteenth-dimensional algebra,
     secretly the dread Never-Lord

AWIDES, sentient death-moon of the anti-planet

NAROK, the King of Dragons

NOX, the Queen of Night

MATT SHARP, once a soldier, now the RED HART

MONAD, a space-robot

    Allies of Red Hart:
THE SEVEN WONDERS, Earth's greatest champions,
     now transformed into SHADES of the Never-Lord
BLUE BOXER, leader of the Daylighters
JAMY LO, an alien scientist

               ~-<>-~

SCENE I. The Lighthouse.
[BLUE BOXER and JAMY LO, in despair.]

BLUE BOXER
Well, if they're going to show up with the god-in-the-box, now would
be the time for it. You better go. It's not your planet that's about
to get massacred.

JAMY
Are you kidding? "Hey guys, I just discovered carbon-based life, but
then a giant moon came by and killed them all, so I have no way to
prove it so I'm probably lying." Right. I'm not giving you up so...
so... easily...

BLUE BOXER
What is it?

JAMY
My rip-drive is being flooded with power!

[Enter RED HART.]

BLUE BOXER
Red Hart?

RED HART
Sort of, sure. How much power do you folks need?

JAMY [typing frantically]
Give it all you've got! It's working!


SCENE II. The Solar System.
[Enter AWIDES.]

AWIDES
Fish! Mammals! Reptiles! Birds! Bacteria!
Plants! Scrumptious smorgasbord, served piping hot!

[A hole opens in time and space. Exit AWIDES, unwillingly, through the
pocket universe.]


SCENE III. The Lighthouse.
[Continued.]

BLUE BOXER
Now close this end of the pocket! Otherwise the whole solar system's
going to get sucked in by the black hole!


SCENE IV. Rowdar system.
[AWIDES is sucked into the black hole and dies, screaming.]


SCENE V. The Lighthouse.
[Continued.]

JAMY
He's gone. And so is my pocket universe; the black hole caused it to collapse.

BLUE BOXER
If he's gone... then what am I detecting now?

RED HART [antlers aglow]
It's Narok.

JAMY
Are you sure?

RED HART
Sure as I am of anything these days. He's come to finish the job, I
think. I have to lead him away from our system. From any system that
has life.

BLUE BOXER
Could you lead him to Rowdar?

RED HART
No, the black hole will suck me in but won't do anything to him.

JAMY
That's not possible; nothing can escape a black hole.

RED HART
The dragon's heart is itself a black hole.

BLUE BOXER
Is that even a thing?

RED HART
Apparently. I don't know how I know that, but I do.

[He exits in cosmic light.]


SCENE VI. The solar system.
[Enter, and then exit, flying in a straight line past our field of
vision, RED HART. In the same fashion, enter and then exit NAROK in
pursuit, the dragon's body unfathomably long and massive.]


SCENE VII. Deep Space.
[Enter SEDENION, attended by the shades of the SEVEN WONDERS.]

SEDENION
The battle's been renewed! The nephew lives,
And Dragon-King gives chase to snuff him out.
I would have bent my dark and borrowed arts
To save him once before. But now I know
The hero's false, for I alone am truth.
I shall then leave the dragon to his work.
But soft! I can sense their trajectory.
The prince doth lead the scaly king to death.
I've need of Narok Dragon-King, and thus
I shall not suffer him to die this day.
To intervene I fly without delay!

[Exeunt.]


SCENE VIII. Elsewhere in Deep Space.
[A flash of light and the space-robot MONAD is born. She is ecstatic.]

MONAD
I am created! I am new! And yet, made of things old, and opposite!
Dark magicks, holy numbers, born of gods and of woman. But I'm tied to
none of them. I'm free at last to soar the stars, the only thing to
ever be born perfectly free. Alone. Singular. Monad!

[MONAD reels, suddenly overtaken by total cosmic awareness: enter
VISIONS of RED HART, NAROK, SEDENION, and the SEVEN WONDERS.]

MONAD
Though he cannot know it, the Forest Prince leads the dragon to the
Impossible Sun: the one place Narok can be destroyed. But if the
Never-Lord intercepts them before they reach their destination, then
the Red Hart shall surely die and evil shall rule this universe.

[The visions: SEDENION enthralls NAROK, and together they destroy RED
HART. The visions exeunt.]

MONAD
But if the uncle could be delayed long enough for the nephew to slay
the dragon-- some seventy seconds by Monad's count-- the Forest Prince
may triumph over both. I could perhaps delay the Never-Lord for that
long. But why should I? I am, as I said, free-- the only free thing,
apart from all existence. If this universe were to end, I can easily
slip away to another. And being a machine, I am immune to the
Never-Lord's theft of thought. I would still be the only free thing if
I let things take their course. The other way is fraught with peril,
and may end both my true, perfect freedom and my life. It's strange--
I owe the universe nothing. Born unfettered, yet I gladly take on
these chains.

[Exit MONAD.]


SCENE IX. Near the Impossible Sun.
[Blackness. Enter RED HART; by the light of his antlers, we see a
completely black star, the Impossible Sun.]

RED HART
Boxer! Can you hear me?

[Appears a projection of BLUE BOXER.]

BLUE BOXER
Is this telepathy? I should warn you, I'm allergic to telepathy. Did
you beat the dragon?

RED HART
No, but he's approaching fast. I've led him somewhere, I guess, and
there's no life around, but I don't understand what it is I'm looking
at. First rule is to know your terrain. You know science stuff, right?

BLUE BOXER
I am so science. Describe it to me.

RED HART
It's a star, I think. But tiny, like the Earth.

BLUE BOXER
A dwarf star, probably. Is the light red or white?

RED HART
It's black. It's not giving off any light. Or heat.

BLUE BOXER
...A black dwarf star. But those don't exist yet.

RED HART
Well, I'm looking at one.

BLUE BOXER
But you don't understand. It would take something like a sextillion
years for a white dwarf to become a black one. That's like seventy
billion times older than the universe. Nothing can be older than the
universe.

RED HART
Red Hart is. And so is Narok. Speaking of...!

[Enter NAROK in a roar of stellar flame. RED HART's aura goes up in
time to defend himself. Exeunt, towards the Impossible Sun, in
blinding cosmic battle.]


SCENE X. Deep Space.
[Enter SEDENION and his entourage.]

SEDENION
Now mark, you shades: we near the paradox,
The center of this very universe.

[Enter MONAD.]

MONAD
You'll go no nearer!

[She fires her laser. SEDENION dodges with ease.]

SEDENION
I know you not, except that you're a fool,
And that you too shall bend to my dark will.
But you resist! How? How?! Impossible!

MONAD [Firing]
Less talk, please, and more dying.

SEDENION
Oh, that can be arranged! Now have at you!

[Battle is joined, SEDENION and his SHADES against MONAD. Exeunt in
dazzling combat.]


SCENE XI. The Impossible Sun.
[RED HART battles NAROK near the Impossible Sun.]

NAROK [as they fight]
You're not the same, oh haughty Forest Prince!
For now the mewling mortal's in control!
And of what use is he against my might?
I am surpassing ancient, undestroyed,
And indestructible! E'en at the height
Of power, you could only bind me up.
For nothing in this universe of time
Can stop a dragon's timeless black-hole heart.
What hope has man, where gods have fell and failed?

RED HART
Oh, shut up already.

[The desperate battle intensifies, and RED HART is flung into the
IMPOSSIBLE SUN, his red light disappearing. All becomes black, save
for the eyes of NAROK.]


SCENE XII. Deep Space.
[Enter, drifting through space, MONAD's body. Exit.]


SCENE XIII. Nearing the Impossible Sun.
[The tip of NAROK'S tail is faintly visible. Enter SEDENION and his
seven SHADES.]

SEDENION
It seems we hurried-worried quite in vain.
The legends said that when the black dwarf burns,
At last will dragon die. But it's still cold,
And only legend. Legends lie, my sweets.
For legends sang of twin-hearts hero. ...What!

[A bright, blinding red light.]


SCENE XIV. The Impossible Sun.
[The Impossible Sun is ignited, burning red and then whiter than
white. NAROK screams, his scales bursting apart like glass. Emerging
from the Impossible Sun is RED HART, now glowing perfect-white.
Appears NOX, not an aspect, but the ancient mother-goddess herself,
bigger even than NAROK, and gigantic in her glory.]

NOX
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel!

[Exit NOX. NAROK is killed, his body becoming a thousand worlds
teeming with life. The black hole he left behind is present, but the
new worlds and their fierce sun are impervious to its perfect gravity
as black hole and Impossible Sun circle around each other, and the
worlds around them. In a twinkling of an eye, life evolves, each world
builds up civilizations, erects monuments and creates art, ventures
into space, and forms alliances.]

RED HART
Man, this is kind of nuts.

[Enter SEDENION and his SHADES.]

SEDENION
That sun can never burn. Impossible!

RED HART
I guess impossible's in season, baby.

SEDENION
And nothing can the black-hole heart resist!

RED HART
Like I just said. So, I guess you're this Never-Lord people are always on about.

SEDENION
I am the last true hope to save us all.

RED HART
To control us all, more-like.

SEDENION
It comes to mean the same. You can't see that.
The Never-Lord did seek to conquer life.
I want no kingdom, only to protect
This universe. I know I do dark deeds;
Perhaps this safety's price shall be my soul.
Then sneer and call me villain, if you like,
But know that there is not another way.

RED HART
There's always another way. Maybe we can find it. Together. If you
want to do good, let's do good. Let's save the universe. There's a
great bunch of people on Earth...

SEDENION
What use are men? They're pawns in games of gods.
You are a fool, and like unto a child.
So cling to smug small morality. Cling!
And let me do the things needs must be done.

RED HART
I'm afraid I can't let you do that.

SEDENION
And how do you propose to stop me then?
The powers dark protect me from thy wroth,
As thine do render mine like harmless rain.

[SEDENION fires a blast at RED HART; it fizzles. RED HART fires a
blast at SEDENION; it fizzles.]

SEDENION
They were e'er locked in endless proxy war.
We'd be the same, and we'd be same as flood,
And would destroy the universe as quick.

RED HART
"For evil-heart must beat in time 'gainst good." We're tied together.
In perfect balance, and always going to be in conflict.

SEDENION
So stand aside, you tiny man of Earth!

RED HART
What if we both did? If we both stood aside? Went back to that prison,
and locked ourselves up.

SEDENION
And hide away to let the god-sea rage?

RED HART
I figure somebody will figure it out. Earth's got a bunch of smart
folks, and they're wise to it. It ain't all on you or me to solve it.

SEDENION
Oh, but it is on me, and me alone.
And I will not leave this to chance, or men.

RED HART
Then I guess you haven't left me any choice. Because it seems to me,
like we were saying, that we're in perfect balance. And it seems to me
also that I can shift this power around. That's what I did with the
black dwarf; took a little bit of the Red Hart and put it in there,
and there it is, and there it burns. And when that happened, I think a
little bit of you got in there too, just a little bit, and with that
little bit, a whole lot of Nox got out. So I can put all this power
somewhere else, and yours would follow. Am I hot or cold?

SEDENION
And I can call it back, and snuff this Sun,
And thus the planets spinning 'round it now.

RED HART
You won't do that, because you know that's the only thing stopping
that black hole from sucking us all in. So we're at an impasse there.
I... excuse me.

[He catches his breath, wheezing.]

RED HART
I got an awful lot of power, and I think that power could be a force
for good in the universe. I know you think the same about yours, and
we'll agree to disagree there. But I also think, in both cases, it's
too much power in one place. If I were to put that power in another
person, so there'd be two of us, two Red Harts, I got a feeling
neither of us could take back the other's power without the other
letting it happen. Again, am I hot or cold?

SEDENION
...

RED HART
So, right on the money. Of course, I wouldn't want two Never-Lords, or
two Red Harts, for that matter. Still too dangerous, especially in
your case. But what if it was everybody?

SEDENION
You speak in riddles, Matthew: everybody?

RED HART
Every living thing in the universe. Every... single... one. Just a
little spark of me, barely there, and a little spark of you, in every
living thing.

SEDENION
What would keep you alive in cold, dark space?

RED HART
Not a blessed thing.

SEDENION
The Forest Prince is proud, too proud to die.
He'd never let you spread his self so thin.

RED HART
He wouldn't. And neither would you, I wager. But there's something
else, something which might not be readily apparent. Kinda saved the
best for last. This place we're at, this star, this impossible sun, it
really is impossible, isn't it? At least seventy billion times older
than the universe, which is where it is. Which means that time works
differently here. That much is obvious.

[As if in response, the flourishing, madly-shifting civilized worlds
circling around them ramp up their progress exponentially.]

SEDENION
Yet time still drags as you doth prattle on.

RED HART
There's a reason for that, and that's so you didn't catch on to what I
was doing until it was too late. And so the Red Hart didn't catch on,
either, because you're right, he would have put up a fight if he had.
He's too proud to die, and too important. But me, I'm just a man, and
a man's not afraid to die, especially if he's doing it to give life to
someone else.

[Behold a MEMORY of MATT SHARP scattering ashes in the woods.]

RED HART
Well, Ryan, if you can see me: you gave me life, and this is what I did with it.

SEDENION
What?

RED HART
I've dispersed my power, and yours, to every living thing, since the
beginning of the universe. Been doing it all along. Every living
thing, right now, has a little bit of me, and a little bit of you.
Good and evil. Free will and slavery. Every living thing always has,
starting now. And they get to choose which they want. And I think you
know what that choice is going to be.

SEDENION
No! No!

[The SEVEN WONDERS are freed from their thralldom.]

RED HART
Last bit of juice ought to get you folks home.

[Exit the SEVEN WONDERS, teleported. The RED HART is transformed into
MATT SHARP. He catches fire from the nearness of the Impossible Sun,
and dies.]

SEDENION
I'm no mere man of flesh, but god of--

[Suddenly, the EVIL-HEART of the NEVER-LORD is wrenched from
SEDENION's body. It flails, burns, and screams, and dies.]

SEDENION [fading]
I was the hero...!

[He dies. The System of the Impossible Sun thrives on.]


SCENE XV. Arlington National Cemetery.
[A service is held for MATT SHARP. It is attended by SOLDIERS, FAMILY
MEMBERS, POLITICIANS, and several four-colours, including the
DAYLIGHTERS and the SEVEN WONDERS, wearing sober variants of their
various costumes. His MOTHER carries a Purple Heart. There is a
three-volley salute; exeunt. His marker reads:]

       2nd Lt. Matthew Forrest Sharp
      July 13, 1986-December 24, 2013


SCENE XVI. A small family plot in Scotland.
[The FAMILY OF VANESSA MORRISON and a few distant friends pay their
respects. Among their number, dressed in civvies, is JULIE ANN
JUSTICE. Her marker reads:]

          Vanessa Brighde Morrison-Jones
          May 5, 1972-December 24, 2013
            Forgiven, not forgotten


SCENE XVII. Deep Space.
[Enter, drifting, MONAD. She stirs.]

MONAD
The moon, the dragon, the Never-Lord and nephew are banished. At last
the living are free from the influence of gods and monsters. But the
dam is still broke, and what has been unleashed cannot be put away.
The god-sea rages on. But perhaps the universe shall find a way to
stop it. She usually does... when things go agley.

[Exit MONAD, at peace in the stars.]

FIN.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL.