8FOLD: Red Hart # 4, "The Constant Moon"

[Tom Russell]

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

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#
 ##         [8F-126] ACT FOUR [PW-05]
               The Constant Moon


               ~-<>-~

THE ARGUMENT.
Three members of the Seven Wonders-- Julie Ann Justice, Fahrenheit
Man, and the gadgeteer Talos-- and Red Hart rescue Vanessa Morrison
from her crashing ship. Red Hart compresses the ship into a cube to
contain the essence of the murdered god Octonion and his Eight-Power.
In the Lighthouse, Van regains consciousness and tells Red Hart and
the Wonders of Octonion, and of the coming of the death-moon Awides.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

RED HART, the Prince of All Forests
MATT SHARP, a soldier, human host to Red Hart

JULIE ANN JUSTICE \
   FAHRENHEIT MAN  } Members of the Seven Wonders
            TALOS /

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

               ~-<>-~


SCENE I. The Lighthouse.
[Enter MATT SHARP from one door.]

MATT
... Hello?

[Enter JULIE ANN JUSTICE from another.]

JULIE ANN
You're up. Mister... Sharp?

MATT
... Yes. You're Julie Ann Justice. I seen your picture on the news.

JULIE ANN
Yes. You're in the Lighthouse, Mr. Sharp.

MATT
How do you know my name?

JULIE ANN
Someone saw your picture on the news. You saved New York from those
things. Do you remember that?

MATT
Sort of. It's kind of fuzzy. Like trying to remember something I read.
The plot of a movie I saw a long time ago.

JULIE ANN
You called them Shades. Those things. Said they served the Never-Lord?

MATT
It rings a bell, but I really don't know more than what he said-- what
I said. And I don't really know how much of that I really understood.
His vocab's a little more highfalutin than mine. Is he, it, whatever,
is he still inside of me?

JULIE ANN
We've been running scans since Fahrenheit Man brought you in. There's
definitely some kind of ancient cosmic radiation permeating your
cells. It's what triggered your transformation into this Red Hart.

MATT
"Ancient cosmic radiation." Well, that don't sound healthy.

JULIE ANN
We're still trying to figure that out. Touching on that. Now that
you're up. We can't keep you here against your will, but...

MATT
No, I'll stick around if you folks will have me. Something heavy must
be going down if some cosmic space-god is living inside of me, ready
to burst out at random intervals I can't control, and I figure you lot
have more experience with that than I do.

JULIE ANN
We've done this kind of thing before, sure.

MATT
You folks have a commissary around here?

JULIE ANN
Yeah, I'll show you around...

[Alarums buzzing. Enter, via jetpack, TALOS.]

TALOS
Jules! I see our guest is awake.

JULIE ANN
Just getting acquainted, Talos. What's with the bells and whistles?

TALOS
There's a spaceship on fire heading straight for New York. We've got
two minutes to redirect it before the governor fires the ion missiles.

MATT [transforming into RED HART]
Then time is precious, and the need is now!
This mortal form's transformed by cosmic Light!

JULIE ANN
Okay, sure.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE II. Earth's troposphere.
[Enter JULIE ANN JUSTICE, and TALOS, in flight, the latter carrying RED HART.]

RED HART
Behold! The mystery ship doth now approach!

[Enter the Plus-One, aflame. RED HART'S Battle Antlers crackle with energy.]

RED HART
Tis but a simple trick to steady her,
To hold aloft the vessel like a cloud,
For I alone can wield the stuff of stars!

TALOS
Julie, can you crack open the ship and see if anybody's still inside?

JULIE ANN [Trying]
It's too hot. It'll melt my skin right off.

[Enter FAHRENHEIT MAN.]

FAHRENHEIT MAN
Am I too late to help?

TALOS
Just in time, I think. Can you draw off the flames so Julie can get in there?

[The flames are drawn into FAHRENHEIT MAN'S body. JULIE ANN rips open the hull.]

JULIE ANN
Cool as cucumbers.

[She enters the Plus-One and emerges with the unconscious VAN.]

JULIE ANN
She's alive. Barely.

TALOS
Now what do we do with the ship?

RED HART
Within that shell mine antlers do detect
Such peerless particles of power pure
And ancient that they must can only be
The scattered echoes of a murdered god!

JULIE ANN
That's... that's not good. Right?

TALOS [sarcastically]
Thanks, Wazowie.

FAHRENHEIT MAN
Hey!

RED HART
E'en should we shove this ship to distant voids
Away from precious life, it still may prove
A wild and dang'rous thing in evil hands.
Yet like all matter, never can it be
Destroyed nor made, but only be contained.

[His antlers bristle with cosmic power, and the ship collapses into a
cube the size of a basketball. The cube flies to RED HART'S hands.]

RED HART
Both god and girl we'll speed to thine safe keep,
And answers find when she awakes from sleep!

[Exeunt.]


SCENE III. The Lighthouse.
[Enter RED HART, JULIE ANN JUSTICE, and FAHRENHEIT MAN.]

RED HART
Where be your lady, man who burns white-hot?

FAHRENHEIT MAN
Though my sweet Tina is bold of heart, and skilled in battle, she does
not live for adventure, but to entertain as a musician.

JULIE ANN
So-- Red Hart. Before we left, you wanted something to eat...?

RED HART
'Twas mortal flesh that did request thy meal.
This form doth sup upon the sacred stars.
No food do I require, fair battle-wench.

JULIE ANN
... I'm going to stop you right there while you're so very, very not ahead.

[Enter TALOS in his jetpack.]

TALOS
The lady's awake.

JULIE ANN
You know, you can just walk like a normal person.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE IV. The Lighthouse, infirmary.
[VAN in bed. Enter TALOS, JULIE ANN JUSTICE, FAHRENHEIT MAN, and RED HART.]

JULIE ANN
Talos said your name is Vanessa Morrison?

VAN
Van.

JULIE ANN
You're from Earth?

VAN
Not by choice. Can we skip the pleasantries? I have some super-heavy
end-of-the-world stuff to lay on you guys.

TALOS [quietly to FAHRENHEIT MAN]
Thank you, Wazowie.

FAHRENHEIT MAN [quietly]
I'm going to ignore that.

JULIE ANN
Super-heavy end-of-the-world seems to be in season.

VAN
I was acting as transport for this cosmic maths-god dude, Octonion. He
was trying to mind-control a, hang on... a death-moon. Long story
short, it didn't work. Maths-god is dead, death-moon is on the loose,
and I think it's headed this way. It, like, kills people. Eats them?
Also kinda pervy.

JULIE ANN
Red Hart, does this ring any bells?

RED HART
Yes, once there was a beastly moon of death,
Mine equal both in age and cosmic might.
'Twas Awides, that sleeping circled Dis.

VAN
That's the one.

RED HART
This god Octonion, he must be mad
To think once free it'd be his to command.

VAN
He was doing pretty good until something distracted him. Some other
god, I forget the name now, he freed some Never-Lord and the Red Hart.
Which is you, right? Antlers kind of give it away.

RED HART
That much is known, but not the reason why.
For only mad and evil gods would loose
Upon sweet creation such eldritch ills.
For moon and uncle both will end the end.

JULIE ANN
Van, this Octonion-- did he say what he was trying to do?

VAN
He was going to use the moon as a weapon against something. It was
hard for me to follow exactly. He talked kinda like, well, like this
guy. No offense. The thing he was trying to stop, it had him real
scared. It was... It was a flood...

JULIE ANN
A flood? Does that mean anything to you?

RED HART
That broke at last must be the cosmic dam,
Which did hold back the god-sea. Just a touch
And matter is destroyed, and time undone.

JULIE ANN
Great. So this is worse than a sentient death-moon?

RED HART
The moon, the flood, my uncle: all are doom.
But flood is slow; the bad moon's on the rise.

JULIE ANN
Thanks, we'll give that... credence. You guys see what I did there? Credence?

TALOS [to FAHRENHEIT MAN]
Hubby's the funny one.

JULIE ANN
So we'll concentrate on the moon first, worry about this flood later.
So, death-moon. How do we stop it? Can we punch it? Is it something we
can punch? I'm partial to problems I can solve by punching them.

RED HART
When first this demon moon did terrorize
The cosmos, all its brilliant, peerless minds
Did swiftly gather and, together, work
To solve the problem. But, though they had toiled
For life-spans infinite, they found no cure,
No shield that could defend the universe,
No weaponry that could the beast destroy,
No chains that could restrain its fearsome might,
No love that could its heart to pity move.
No hope, except to trick the moon to sleep,
And pray its slumber could outlast all time,
That none would dare disturb his restless rest.

JULIE ANN
So they just kicked the can down the road. Nice to know some things
stay the same after fifteen billion years.

TALOS
And I take it that, short of giving him eight trillion milligrams of
Ambien, we're not going to get him to go back to sleep.

RED HART
The moon is mad, but not bereft of wits.

JULIE ANN
Yeah, well, neither are we. We'll figure this out. Talos, you better
call the Daylighters. We need Derek Mason.

VAN [after a beat]
...Who?


[Curtain.]

COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL.