Escape I

Part One: Before the Gate
The stage is set as a speaker's dais. There are nine seats on the dais and a rostrum. The stage
is decked out in red. white, blue, and gold bunting with green garlands. As the stage lights come
on PROPIAN EXOR rises to speak. Applause is heard. Exor acknowledges the applause,
smiling, his hands are raised above his head. He wears a long white robe with an academic
cowl of gold. Exor is a portly venerable man. Affixed to the front of the rostrum is a circular disk
with the emblem of the committee for mankind's salvation emblazoned upon it, a golden
Phoenix rising from Red Flames against the star-flecked canopy of night. Directly behind the
rostrum is a large round steel door like the entrance to a bank vault. Applause dies down.
Sporadic shouts of “Hail Exor” and similar cries punctuate the following speech.
EXOR: My friends and fellow dwellers of the Earth,
I come before you today, last of all
The days which will be measured by the sun.
I look upon your faces, thousands strong,
And read the future history of humankind.
I grieve because we leave behind our homes,
Our cities, countries, and continents
To face ages of trouble, labor, and gloom
Before we see our cherished homes again.
I humble myself before your eyes today
Because I am not worthy of the charge
That implacable fate has handed me.
You, the people, have chosen me to lead
Through the fearful night that looms ahead.
Despite my age in body and in mind,
If chance permits, I won't deceive your trust.
[ Applause ]
Apart from slight humility and regret
I feel an unadulterated joy
Welling up from deep within my heart,
And ravishing my poor intelligence:
For humankind has today outwitted fate!
[ Applause ]
There were a few who despaired of our success,
Who feared that science would not deliver them
They said Technology was a mere sham,
Those neo-luddites called scientists frauds.
Preaching wildly that our demise was near,
Heathens, doubters, they scoffed at our knowledge.
When we predicted Earth’s death in deep space
They gladly welcomed science to the fold
And then preached repent your sins and be saved!:
We said, Trust in science, we will succeed!
They said All Is Lost! We said All is won!
Tthey reveled on the hillsides and passed away.
They feasted on the bounties of planet Earth;
They frolicked, capered, copulated, drank.
Their decadence became an abomination.
They hindered our work, seduced our workers
I look around and ask, “Where are they now?”
Voices: Dead! Gone! Buried and forgotten!!
[ A Chorus of shouts prevails and subsides ]
Exor: One hundred twenty years ago today
When we verified our worst suspicions
And knew for certain the sun would die,
We formed the Committee to Save Humankind,
We called together greatest Minds of Science,
Together we deliberated at length
Eleven years elapsed before we found
The solution to our predicament.
We turned the earth into a moving ship,
And plotted a course through the galaxy.
To replenish life forms when we arrived,
We froze the chromosomes of each species
Known to science and stored them underground.
We implemented strict control over
Population to reduce the numbers
Of children being born until today
Only we few are left of all humans
So look around you...We are humankind,
Those who still remain alive, but fear not!
Every single human trait is preserved,
Frozen in time and stored inside this gate
Ready to spring to life like Dragon's Teeth,
Sown once in the soil by our ancestors,
When at last we reach our ultimate goal,
Our new solar system, Our second Sun!
[ tumultuous applause ]
The great committee to save mankind
Provided space beneath the Earth for us,
A subterranean world where we can
Live and work until the time arrives
That our sons and daughters could rise again
Like the Great Phoenix from its ashes
The symbol of our hopes and journey’s end.
[ Exor indicates disc ]
The golden bird that represents our flight.
Finally everything has been prepared
Our new spaceship Earth lies in readiness
We must accept the challenge, lift the load,
The time has come to leave our former home
[Exor turns toward the gate, raising his arms above his head]
Open the gates Let The Retreat begin
Our slogan expresses our noble goal:
“Labor, Friendship, and the New Planet Earth!”
[Applause. As the gate opens slowly, people begin moving toward it]
[Song of the Pilgrims]
All: Gone is the sun from the skies
Banished the breeze from our face
Nature has failed to embrace
Humankind’s fatal demise.
Propian Exor remains
Infinite trust he retains
Intergalactic expanse
Countless milennia’s space
Hinder our hopes to replace
Homelands bereft us by chance
Propian Exor will lead
Us through the darkness ahead
Ancestral homelands are gone
So is ancestral belief
Centuries crowded with grief
We turn around and move on
Now the Committee will rule
With science as reliable tool
United under the sign
Earth and the Phoenix will rise
born-again under new skies
find a new Sun Let It Shine!
Let all our critics be amazed
Propian Exor be praised!
EXOR: Henceforth the sun is gone, the starry skies
Are memories now preserved in textbooks.
Although the path ahead leads through darkness,
We will guard celestial light in our hearts.
The Phoenix from this graveyard Earth will rise.
[ The crowd walks slowly through the central door ]
[Argus Wohl and Patra Slev are discovered in the rear of the audience. They are carrying
burdens and wearing humble clothing.]
Wohl: Hola, Slev! Thank goodness I found you again!
I thought I'd never find you in the crowd…
Slev: Perhaps it would be best to go on alone.
If they discover either you or me,
The other would be free to carry out
The great experiments begun by both,
Whereby, though one might die, our work would live.
Wohl: Your words are laudable, yet meaningless,
For what am I without my Patra Slev?
My life would lose its savor, my work its worth,
Since your friendship is the only joy I know
And my plans would fail without your assistance.
In our harsh Times these attributes, once rare,
Now seem, sadly, altogether extinct.
So let us two continue bravely on,
Knowing that anything we find together
Cannot be worse finding ourselves apart.
Slev: You flatter me much too highly, my friend,
And overestimate my worth by half.
You alone have made me all that I am
By teaching me scientific process
And letting me assist in your great work.
Rather than see you die...
Wohl: Enough of death!
These Mutual eulogies infect my mind.
Besides, there may be spies about this place
Look around you; there's not an honest face
Among the group.
Slev: I can’t see a person
In the crowd I’d trust to draw the numbers
In a lottery.
Wohl: If one were drawn by lot,
You'd find it hard to tell one from the next.
Exor: Guards! Detain those two immediately!
[guard stops Wohl and Slev and brings them before Exor]
I want to interview this fraud alone.
Take that one with you and see we’re undisturbed.
I don't know who you are or what you sheme
But if you plan to live beyond today
You'd better tell me all there is to tell
Wohl: My name is Argus Wohl...
Exor: What good are names?
Your visa claims that you are someone else.
Your friend may add still another as well.
I assure you your grave will be unmarked.
Wohl: I am a Scientist. My name is Wohl.
Exor: It could be true and would explain your ruse.
But tell me how you could earn a degree?
What university gave you your degree?
Our records show no missing physicist
Wohl: My degree’s in Microbiology.
Exor: Your clothes exposed you as a renegade.
Make no mistake, I've been watching you two
For a long time I thought you were married
Defying the law against having sex.
This is another, more heinous crime:
You're not a man of mere depravity
But a monster who pursued selfish goals
While all the world was struggling to survive.
Now the battle’s won, you want to enjoy
What others earned by their harsh sacrifice;
What were you concerned with while others strove
To discover a course through trackless space,
Avoiding neutron stars and poison gas,
And barren wastes that surround dying suns?
Their planets, asteroids, gravity holes?
Whatever it may have been you valued
Above the survival of human life,
You will pay for your research with your life.
Wohl: It was my life itself which I researched.
Exor: I have no time for riddles, Mr. Wohl...
Wohl: Doctor Wohl.
Exor: As you wish.
Wohl: As I insist.
Exor: The subject of your work…?
Wohl: Was life itself.
Exor: The result of your work...:?
Wohl: Unparalleled success.
I found what others only dreamed about
While you and thousands like you endeavored
To save the Earth from one catastrophe,
I found the secret of eternal life.
Don’t make a rash decision you’ll regret.
Though you can take one life away from me,
Yet I can give you thousands in return.
Exor: An everlasting life? You must be mad
Or think that I have lost my sanity.
If such a thing we're true...?
Wohl: It is.
Exor: If you could really make me live…?
Wohl: I can.
Exor: What proof could you provide me here and now?
Wohl: None. But my life will still be in your hands
Below the surface as it is above.
Exor: If you are neither a fool nor insane,
Then I may find a way to help us both.
But you must keep our compact to yourself
For such discoveries can be hazardous
When evil-minded men pervert their use.
Wohl: You’re right, of course, but my assistant knows
And she must also be set free to work
As I have further plans that require her.
Exor: As far as freedom goes, there will be none
For her or any under the surface.
The stakes are far too high to take a chance
And let one person wreck our precious plan
By permitting them to keep their free will--
Now go! I waste my time with idle talk.
For the moment you may follow the rest;
Your friend will follow later, if I wish.
[ Wohl appears ready to protest, but gives in with a shrug. He has made his best argument.]
[ Rozlit Amar, who has been listening unseen, steps out from behind a screen.]
Amar: No doubt you plan to kill him later on?
Exor: When he has given us his formula.
His arrogance amuses me, Amar.
A man like that may have some usefulness.
Amar: His kind could undo all our strategies
And undermine the power of the state.
Exor: You overestimate the man, Amar--
He’s clever, true, but only in his field.
He has no interest in other things.
The discipline of science makes him look
Nor left, nor right, but always straight ahead.
Amar: He’s sleeping now, but time may wake him up.
Experience may cure stupidity.
Exor: He won’t have time to change, for I intend
To distract him with toys and amuse him.
I’ll make a tiny kingdom for his home,
I’ll give him subjects for experiments
And let him play the subject for my own.
I’ll let him think he’s free and unobserved,
Although I’ll watch his moves and thwart his plans
By setting down a traitor by his side.
Whom he, the brilliant fool, will not suspect.
For now, we must attend to our affairs.
The world depends on me, and I on you.
[Exor leaves]
Amar: I think you rate your own intelligence
Too highly, Exor: Power you may have,
But not so great it might not slip away.
He may be stupid, he whom you despise,
But both of you possess a common flaw:
On distant elements you set your gaze--
On those you exercise your judgment well.
But close to home you cannot see at all
Thus bosom friends may become your downfall.
[Amar leaves]
Scene two: Deep within the Earth
Immeasurable time has passed. Here are rocky caverns, dimly lit, in contrast to the brilliant light
of the previous scene. Patra Slev opens a door and appears silhouetted against a slightly lighter
interior. She listens to something.
Voices (softly, as if far off): Over fields of stone
Heaps of dust appear
Dimly through the light
Gravity lanterns cast.
Forward, earthly thralls
Over fields of stone
Weary pilgrims leave
Footprints in the dust.
Slev (to Wohl, within): Another mob of people has arrived.
They appear just as useless as the last.
Voices (closer than before): Gravity lanterns cast
Shadows on the ground
Reaching up to touch
Others bending down.
Woman’s voice: Raise your eyes again.
Look there, up ahead
There’s a village near
Where we’re sure to find
Water, food, and rest.
Voices: Forward earthly thralls
Gravity lanterns cast
Visions in the air.
Shards of broken stone
Mirror shattered hopes
Dust piled in deep drifts
Clings to pilgrims’ feet.
Slev: Come quickly, Doctor Wohl, I hear a voice,
A woman’s voice, I think, a young one, too.
She may prove fit for your experiment.
Wohl: I’ve not yet finished with my work inside.
I can’t go running after every girl
That Exor tosses to his favorite fool.
[A small band of people now enter stage right. They break into a more martial air at the sight of
Slev, whom they take to be some sort of official.]
People: All hail, Propian Exor!
Long live the Mighty Ruler!
Deity incarnate
Visible divinity
Everlasting light
All hail, the Son of the Sun!
[All show obeisance to Slev] [74 on Tuesday]
Slev: Arise, good people, no one worships here.
We owe the Archons no allegiance.
Voice 1: She means to trap us with treasonous words.
The Archon Exor is everywhere supreme!
Slev: Not here, my friend, as you will soon agree,
What freedom’s to be had in this dark world
Is still had here: Our leader’s name is Wohl.
We have provided shelter, food, and drink;
You’ll find someone to help you up ahead.
We ask a single favor in return
For giving you our hospitality;
Your group must leave a person as a pledge
That you will not engage in violent acts
Nor will attempt to hinder our designs.
Go now, you must depart without the woman
Whose voice I heard approaching in the dark.
Voice 1: That single thing you ask we cannot do.
For when the men among us would have stopped
Our journey, overcome by fear and pain,
That girl alone could lift us from despair.
Thanks to her, we stand alive before you now
And will not yield her though it means our death.
Slev: There is no other choice or place to go.
We have the means to take the girl by force
If you decide you cannot give her up.
Voice 1: What sort of freedom do you offer us
That takes from us our only source of joy?
Semalia: You must not speak this way in my behalf.
You do not need my guidance any more
And we are better off among these rocks
Than any slave who chose to stay behind
Amidst the luxury of Exor’s house.
You have your freedom now. Protect it well.
Voice 1: You add another reason for the debt
That we must keep within our memory.
[They all leave. As they go, Argus Wohl appears in the doorway, unnoticed by Semalia, who
looks wistfully after the men departing.][111 on Tuesday]
Wohl: Hello, what’s this? A woman. What’s your name?
Sem(frightened): Semalia is the only name I know.
Wohl: How beautiful! You’re young enough, that’s clear.
Unless you’re one of the immortal class…
Sem: Immortals never age…
Wohl: That’s true enough,
Unless they’re really not what they appear.
But never mind about my ignorance.
Have you known men?
Sem (pauses before answering) There is a place I lived.
It’s called, I think, the Garden of Delights.
Though what a garden is, I do not know,
And if there were delights, they were not mine.
But if you know the place I speak about,
And what it is, you need not ask me more.
Wohl (distractedly): A strange one this, a mutant, too, I see.
A product of genetic selection--
I cannot even guess what you may mean
As I have never lived in Exor’s realm.
I’ve heard some strange accounts about the place
But not about a Garden of Delights.
Sem: If you knew it, I might be spared the pain
Of having to relate my shameful tale:
In this delightful place, immortals played
And took their pleasure from their mortal slaves.
I was one of those compelled to serve.
Therefore, of carnal lusts I had my share;
Of carnal pleasures, others had their fill.
Wohl: If this is so, you may have had a child.
I know immortal women can’t conceive.
You may have lain with a fertile partner.
Sem: I don’t understand what you’re implying…
Wohl: You’ve heard of children?
Sem: Yes. I was one, once.
But since the time I left the laboratory,
Where scientists create and synthesize
The offspring of mankind, I haven’t seen
A child or even heard the word spoken.
Wohl: The life they made you live was difficult.
They heartlessly deprived you of love
Or even the chance to love anything,
You had no education, no success,
You found no scientific road to take,
But became a live refuge from despair
For those whose only pleasure caused your pain.
Sem: If only I had brought some small pleasure
To those empty husks of humans who were
Compelled to live forever without life,
My sorrow would not be one-tenth so deep.
I had no love, no one to give love to,
And that one fact makes me regret my life.
Wohl: You should take heart. If our experiments
Meet with success, you’ll find what you have missed.
Sem: Surely some magic charm protects this place
And makes a refuge for the sick at heart.
Slev: We harbor secret sickness here as well
As you shall find ere you leave us behind.
Wohl: Enough of this, there’s still more work to do,
If time and science don’t upset our plans.
[They all leave. The lights go down.] [60 lines Wed.]
Scene three: Wohl’s Laboratory
[The laboratory fills half the stage while half remains in darkness. A doorway leads into the
darkness through the center partition just far enough from the backdrop to give the impression
of an intervening wall. Wohl’s bed can be seen in an alcove in the rear of the room. The walls
are covered by a maze of test tubes and cabinets. A library can be glimpsed through another
doorway at the rear. Everything is clinical and metallic like a doctor’s examination room.]
[Slev and Semalia are discovered as the lights come up]
Slev: By all our measurements, your health is good.
Your belly soon will swell and you will feel
A life begin to stir within your womb.
A short while after that you’ll bear a child.
Sem: You seem to know for sure, Professor Slev,
Events in times that have not come to pass.
You tell me I will have a child, and when,
But I do not know what a child is.
You speak of other things that I don’t know
As if they were mere commonplace to me.
Do you possess a secret magic sight
Whereby the past and future are revealed?
Slev: It must indeed seem magical to you,
The scientific knowledge I possess.
If there is something that confuses you,
Don’t hesitate to ask me to explain.
Sem: Your explanations are the worst of all.
I asked you how the child could be inside.
You said a seed was planted and it grew.
Then when I asked you what a seed might be,
You pointed to a carton filled with dust
And said, those seeds will grow a crop of wheat
If they are ever planted in sunlight. [Begin Thurs.]
Although I questioned you about a child,
You answered me with plants and suns and seeds,
You should have told me it was sorcery
Instead of confusing me with strange words.
Slev: You seem to doubt the truth of my replies.
Perhaps I should explain myself like this:
When I was young, we lived in another place.
We called it Earth. There were no rocky walls
To block the view of all that was nearby.
I recall the ceiling was high above,
So high that no one had to bow their head.
We called it sky. Beneath the sky were fields
Extending like green carpets out of sight.
But more than all that, I remember the sun,
A brilliant disc that sped across the sky
Shining more brightly than a thousand lamps.
Until it set, and darkness spread around,
Yet even then the darkness wasn’t like ours,
For there were other, weaker lights, called stars,
That formed fantastic patterns in the sky.
Before too long, the darkness would abate
And then the flowers and the growing things
Would life their heads to greet the rising sun.
Sem: I think I’ve seen these plants you speak about.
They’re small and grey and huddle in the dark
Along the tunnel’s flank and out of sight
Where nobody can crush them underfoot.
Slev: I too have seen the parasitic plants
That you describe. They thrive on rank decay.
From such detritus are such flowers grown
Though they are hardly worthy of that name.
Without the sunlight, no real flowers can grow.
Sem: Could not a thousand lamps together shine
As brightly as this sun you’ve told me of?
Slev: Not at all. The gravity lanterns glow
By drawing on the force of gravity,
But all the lamps together in one place
Would only shine as bright as a single lamp.
I tried to grow them once myself and failed.
Professor Wohl, I’m sure, could find a way
If he cared at all about growing things.
Sem: Nevertheless, I’d love to see you try.
I’ve nothing much to do until the birth.
I’d love to see some flowers blooming here.
[While Slev speaks, the lights go up on the other half of the stage, gradually revealing a
greenhouse filled with flowering plants.]
Slev: And so would I. There is a place near here
That seems to me well-suited to our purpose.
Nobody ever goes there, so it’s free
From this accursed, poisonous black dust.
Scene Four: Semalia’s Garden
[Wohl enters, alone, as light goes out in the laboratory.]
Wohl: So this is where she’s made the flowers grow.
She has a strange obsession with these plants.
It almost seems as though she’s made the lamps
Burn brighter than before, when Patra Slev
And I were planting all those useless seeds.
But that’s impossible: For that, she’d have
To change the laws of nature to her whim.
How oddly reminiscent are these plants
Of bygone time, before the sun’s demise
When Nature exercised her tyranny
Over mankind, before we realized
The might of Science in our own defense.
Above the surface, we were easy prey
To Nature’s forces: Hurricanes would blow
Whole cities from the map into the sea.
Tornadoes left destruction in their wake.
The sun supplied us with our light and food,
And death, the final trump in Nature’s hand,
Respected no one’s rank or right to live
But struck down all with equal savagery.
How different Science has made our lives today!
The forces of once-mighty Nature bow their heads
And grovel in the black dust at our feet.
The atom’s energy provides our food,
The force of gravity, our light and warmth.
While magnetism propels our flight through space.
An understanding of the triple theorum
Proved the means to conquer death itself.
It’s true, the secret of eternal life
Is not of benefit to everyone,
But when was there a time a time that many men
Were not required to suffer for a few?
There’s only one more link in Nature’s chain
That still eludes me: Birth alone requires
The intercession of the laws of chance.
Although we have no need of woman’s womb
And can regenerate an embryo
From chemicals, the choice of qualities
Is still not ours alone: The plants possess
The property of self-replication
And with this girl, I hope--
Slev: Doctor Wohl,
Come quickly! Her pains have started, the birth is near.
Wohl: About time, too. A tiresome process, this,
Like all the ways of nature, long and hard.
But soon I’ll put an end to all that waste.
[Wohl crosses to the laboratory. Semalia is invisible on the bed, concealed behind a curtain,
through which Slev glances from time to time.]
Sem: My God, the pain’s too great to bear!
Slev: Be quiet.
The pain will pass.
Wohl: And how to bear the pain
Of waiting? Can’t you speed the process up?
Sem: I feel it coming out--It does not move
Or squirm, though. Is it dead?
Slev: I cannot tell…
I see something inside.
Wohl: A thing, you say?
And not a child? What treachery is this?
The girl’s to blame the child’s premature.
She’s hurt herself somehow to thwart my plans.
Sem: It’s coming out! The pain is constant now…
Wohl: Infernal noise. Tell her to quiet down.
Slev: There’s no need now. It’s born.
Sem: Let me see it.
Wohl: Give it to me!
Sem: Why won’t you let me hold it?
Wohl: What the Hell is that?
Slev (to Semalia): It needs our help.
Rest now. We’ll give it to you later on.
Wohl: A glob of ectoplasm? I’ve wasted my time
Pursuing phantoms. What a foolish notion,
Using the hazards of Nature to do my work.
I’ll have to find a workaround for that.
Sem: I want to hold my baby!
Slev: You may look.
I fear the pain of birth will be but small
Compared to what this single look may cause.
Sem: (gasps)
[blackout]
Scene five: Semalia’s Garden
[Song of the Garden]
[Light comes up in the garden. Semalia is here.]
Sem: I planted a seed
A seed that grew
A wonderful plant
Appeared
They wanted to take
Away the plant
They misunderstood
Its worth [Fri 92]
The plant had a small
And tasteless fruit
The flower was small
And plain
They cast it away
To fade and rot
It clung to its life
And grew
The fruit dropped away
And in its stead
Five golden seeds
Had formed
The powder prepared
From stem and stalk
Restored both the spirit
And heart
I planted the seeds
The new seeds grew
And wonderful plants
Appeared [Mon 20]
Scene five: Laboratory
[Wohl is seated at a desk. He searches through the papers on it.]
Wohl: Where is that thermodynamic formula?
I programmed it last month and now it’s gone.
[Calls to Slev, who is standing near some apparatus.]
Slev, see if you can find it in those files
And while you’re scanning, correlate results
Of our nucleic acid synthesis
Experiments with tests we’ve just run.
[Semalia enters meekly]
Sem: If I could have a moment of your time…
Wohl: My girl, a moment’s more than I can spare.
You’ve played your part in our experiments,
Now leave us. Go and play with your new toy.
I think says you’ve named it Dyanolo.
Sem: But he’s the reason for my coming here.
He told me something that he wants to have,
Or rather borrow, from your laboratory.
Wohl [becoming angry]: Enough’s enough. Imaginary friends
Are charming and I’ve tried to humor you
Because you’ve had a hard experience
For which I’m at least partially to blame,
But now you must return to sanity.
Your child is dead, or never really lived.
My patience with your games is at an end.
Slev [sympathetically]: What was it Dyanolo wished to have?
Sem: What he described was empty, small, and round.
I could not tell exactly what he meant
Except he said I would find it right there,
Against the wall that stands beside the bed.
Wohl: Another game, a guessing game this time:
What’s small and round and lies beside the bed?
There’s nothing there, you see? Now go and play
And leave the grown-ups to their own affairs.[Mon 54]
Slev: There was something a few minutes ago,
The box that holds computer memory sticks.
I think you’ll find the box is almost empty
And contains small, round, interesting objects.
Wohl: Am I supposed to let her play with disks?
Perhaps erase them, and destroy my life’s work?
By all the powers of darkness, I shall not!
Sem: My son does not desire to hold the thing,
Only to have it moved against this wall
To let him examine it more closely.
He thinks he could decipher its meaning
If only he were close enough to it.
Wohl: Absurd!
Slev: And yet, it is conceivable.
Consider for a moment your intent:
You set out to create both plant and man,
United in the self-same organism.
You sought to make an ambulatory plant.
You made instead a stationary man.[Mon 73]
Wohl: Impossible. But even if I had
And, as you claim, this plant has human traits,
What use would that provide to anyone?
You’ve seen the thing as closely as myself.
It’s green and covered with some sort of spots.
It weighs about a kilogram, or less--
Sem: He’s grown, he weighs more, now.
Wohl: Then more,
But still he has no organs of perception,
No locomotive apparatuses,
He still has nothing to communicate
And nothing to communicate it with.
Sem: He’s talked with me, and told me what he wants.
Wohl: Oh, very well, I’ll give you what you ask,
If only to make you stop bothering me.
We’ll put him over there, beside the disks,
And now, permit me to pursue my work.[mon 90]
Scene 6: Wohl’s laboratory. Later.
[The lights have dimmed and a box containing Dyanolo in a saltwater bath has been placed
near the center of the stage. Wohl is discovered at work. He rises, flips a switch absently, then
lies on his bed, all the while absorbed in calculations with his hand-held device. A section of the
back wall slowly becomes bathed in flickering light. It is a television. A man’s head and torso
appear on the screen. He is the ANNOUNCER.]
Announcer: The subject for tonight’s Argus-talk is the humble gravity lantern. This device
was one of the first creations of the Supreme Archon, Propian Exor, may he live forever!
He created it just after he devised a system for telling time without using references to
the sun or moon, now vanished just as the skies have vanished. There were no more
hours, months, or years, only seconds, maxims, and megaseconds. The humble gravity
lantern is small, portable, easy to make, and nearly indestructible. The source of its
power is the earth’s gravitational field. While other forms of light--combustion, coal, and
atomic energy--are limited or emit too much pollution for use below the surface, gravity
lanterns may enjoy continuous, unlimited use. In former times, they glowed more
brightly, due to the gravitational of other celestial bodies, like the legendary moon and
other stars which we have passed on our journey. While they are now dimmer than they
used to be, still they are yet another reason to be grateful to our beloved Exor. That
concludes our broadcasting period. Have a good rest, and may Exor make you an
Immortal!
[During the speech, an aura grows with increasing intensity above Dyanolo’s tank. When the
Announcer concludes, Wohl notices the light and crosses to the tank. Faint music is also playing
at this point. Wohl examines the tank with interest.]
[Fade out]
Scene 7: Semalia’s Garden
[ Semalia is working when Dyanolo enters from behind the rear partition.]
Dyan: Hello.
Sem: I do not think we’ve met before,
But you are welcome here, in Wohl’s domain.
Dyan: You’re wrong, though you’ve not seen me in this form,
We’ve known each other for since I was born.
It’s difficult for me to say how long
Precisely, since there’s been no ebb and flow
To measure the time.
Sem: Your look is strange.
We could not know each other very well.
Dyan: No one may know another thoroughly
But if two people can be said to know
Each other well, that could be said of us.
Sem: You speak in riddles, taking that for odd
Which other people take for commonplace.
You look around yourself as if your eyes
Could pierce the rock itself. If, as you say,
I know you, could it be that I know your name?
Dyan: You gave it to me.
Sem: Dyanolo?
Dyan: Yes.
Sem: How did you come to take this shape and form?
Dyan: The same man, Wohl, whose name slipped from your lips
When first you spoke, gave me these arms and legs
Which bring me here before you, as you see me.
He gave me eyes to see and ears to hear,
But when he gave me legs, I came to you.
Sem: And are you pleased with your perceptions now?
Dyan: Before, when I was blind, I saw much more
than many do who have the gift of sight.
I saw the earth, an endless green expanse,
And in the sky, I saw a coin of fire. [Thu 57]
I vowed somehow to make that vision real
If ever I had the means to do so.
Those means were supplied me by Doctor Wohl.
My problem now is what to do with them.
I came to you to ask for your advice.
Sem: Then you must be patient. I don’t know what you
Or anyone else must do to change things
Or topple Propian Exor from his throne.
We trusted him to guide our destiny
Once, long ago, and now we cannot take
A breath of air without his permission.
Perhaps the man had good intentions once.
But greed has turned his head and stopped his ears.
To individual grief he pays no heed.
Dyan: Shall I awaken his morality
And open up his heavy-lidded eyes?
Or shall I close his eyes, once and for all?
Sem: You need a better guide than I can be
To respond to such difficult questions.
Let Argus Wohl provide you with replies.
But don’t inquire, straight out, what you wish
Him to tell you. He is a canny man,
Unlikely to divulge the truth to you
When he can weave a fantasy instead,
As he once did to me: You must inquire
Of him discreetly, feigning not to care,
As if your interest were casual
And only for the sake of argument.
He is accustomed to such inquiries.
His discipline has taught him to concern
Himself with questions and with processes
And not to ask the reasons behind them.[32]
Dyan: Then I will follow him, just as you say,
Until the proper moment comes around
When I may ask of him our best recourse.
I shall not fail to follow his advice.
Sem: I wish you well. I hope your plans succeed.
[Dyanolo leaves. Lights come up in the laboratory, where Wohl has been drinking, alone.
Scene 8: Wohl’s Laboratory
Wohl (sings drunkenly):A pretty little glass
Will make my sorrows pass
And when the glass is done
I’ll pour another one!
So drink to the bottom
There’s nothing to say
Troubles, who’s got ‘em?
They’re all washed away.
[Dyanolo enters and listens, unnoticed.]
Wohl: A little alcohol
Won’t let your spirits fall
You won’t want to cry
Till your glass is dry!
So drink to the bottom
There’s nothing to say
Troubles, who’s got ‘em?
They’re all washed away.
Dyan: This world is filled with wondrous things to see
No sooner do I think I’ve seen them all
Then there’s another to surpass the rest.
Wohl: You see in front of you a happy man!
Come, Dyanolo, have some happiness![61]
What’s this? He doesn’t want to drink with me?
What impudence! So you’ve forgotten me?
I’m Wohl. I made you everything you are.
[Wohl laughs drunkenly]
Dyan: Your aspect is the same as Argus Wohl’s,
But in your manners and your speech, you’ve changed.
Wohl: You’re right. But it’s the same with everyone.
Now takethe Archon, Exor, there’s a man--
Excuse me, god--who has another side,
An evil one.
Dyan: You’re obviously confused.
The Archon’s life has been a noble one,
Devoted to the welfare of Earthlings.
Wohl: Then tell me, oh all-knowing one, what good
His life, or lives, have done for us on Earth?
Dyan: He saved us from disaster once, and now
He’s guiding us toward another star.
Wohl: Another star from that which we set out
To reach, so many megaseconds past.
Dyan: I can’t believe he’s leading us astray.
Wohl: Believe it if you like or don’t believe,
It doesn’t really matter what you think.
(sings)
It’s easy to synthesize
Right before your eyes
And once you’ve had a drink
You won’t know how to think.
(laughs)
So drink to the bottom
There’s nothing to say
Troubles, who’s got ‘em?
They’re all washed away.
(speaking)
There’s only one thing Propian Exor could do
To provide some benefit to humans:
If he’d consent to have his head removed,
Then there’d be hope that we could reach our goal.
Dyan: A new sun?
Wohl: Is there something you don’t know?
You have a lot of knowledge but no sense.
You worship power, just like all the rest.
Dyan: You must be joking with me, Doctor Wohl.
Why, you yourself revere the Archon’s life
Or else you would have killed him long ago.
Wohl: I would have, yes, if I were not so weak.
I had my chance. I met him face to face.
I didn’t have to raise a violent hand
To slay him, then, for he was old and feeble.
I merely had to let him age and die.
But I was weak. He could have killed me, too,
In that last desperate struggle for our lives.
Instead, I let him live and he let me.
He got the better of the bargain, then,
One single death against a thousand lives,
And with them, absolute dictatorship.
But I was weak and so I drown my sins
By drinking the forgetfulness of fools
From beakers that prepare the Archon’s life.
Dyan: You mean to say that you yourself prepare
The Archon’s daily dose of medicine
And thus renew your vile complicity
As you rejuvenate the hateful beast
That feeds upon the sorrows of mankind?
Wohl: Oho! What’s this? A few seconds ago
You thought me wrong because I was untrue
To Exor, though my treachery was mild
And purely hypothetical, but now
You call me vile because I helped him once
Along the path you just had stopped applauding.[30]
It’s you, not I, whose brain is clogged with wine,
And yet you haven’t had a drop to drink.
Let’s stop this silly conversation now.
You’re just as much a fool as I, and more,
Since I have had the pleasure from my drink,
And all you’ve gotten is the sad result.
There’s still a chance to rectify your fault,
Just have a couple drinks along with me
And add enjoyment to your lack of wit.
(sings): Dyanolo’s rather slow
He’s got a ways to go
He’ll probably arrive
But not before I’ve!
(Wohl slumps to the ground in a drunken stupor just as Slev enters.)
Slev: I heard a noise, is everything all right?
Dyan: I wanted him to tell me something else
Before he’d gotten to his present state.
Slev: Let me assist you, If I know the way.
Dyan: You do know, if you know the way to take
To get to Exor’s palace.
Slev: Why should you
Be interested in that place? Or has
Argus been telling you tales of awful deeds
And instigating Exor’s death, again?[54]
Dyan: Again? He’s never talked of it before.
Slev: He has, to me at least, and more than once.
He told you, doubtlessly, about the pact
He made with Exor long ago?
Dyan: He did.
Slev: He lied. There was no secret pact with Exor.
The process was not his to trade or sell
But common knowledge to all scientists.
No doubt he told you of iniquities
Supposedly performed at Exor’s will?
Dyan: He mentioned one or two.
Slev: Hallucinations!
Wohl was a renegade, he placed himself,
His lonely life, and his discoveries
Above the common welfare of all Earth.
He’s always been a victim of this flaw.
Although his mind is brilliant past compare,
And works with ease where others strive and fail,
His passions sometimes overrule his head
And nullify his impulse towards the good.
When he made his discovery, in his youth,
It made of him an outcast from his folk.[75]
Because the Archon Exor symbolized
Perfection of those virtues which Wohl lacked,
Namely humility and self-sacrifice,
He hated Exor, and furthermore this:
He envied Exor’s power and renown.
So Argus Wohl began to design plots
To justify his own, lamentable
Shortcomings. This is what you’ve heard just now,
The drunken, conscience-stricken fantasies
That he concocted from the merest wind,[85]
Though even babbling breezes make more sense.
Dyan: Your words are fair, and drunks are famous liars,
But what he claims, Semalia, too, affirms.
What reason can there be that she should lie?
Slev: He’s made her an accomplice in his guilt.
See here, you think your birth came by design?
The aim of some experimental scheme?
You’re really but another mental lapse,
The product of his monumental pride.
He calls himself your father, not because
The mind of Argus Wohl engendered you.
You are truly his son. He forced himself
On Semalia, when she came to stay here.
He then continued the experiment.
Your mother helped him to conceal the act
And still persists, by suborning his tale,
His accusations, and his perjury.
If you desire to know the truth of this,
Do not rely on these confederates,
Don’t make their testimony your belief,
The basis for your actions or demise.
Dyan: You tell me first, just who my parents are,
And then you ask me to believe they lie
In order to conceal their sins from me.
The very madness of your hateful words
Confirms the truth that must reside within:
Only a lunatic could hope that a son
Would not believe his parents spoke the truth [28]
Unless their speeches could be proven false.
But I cannot put all my faith in you--
Therefore, tell me the way I must start off
To reach the gates of Exor’s rich domain,
The only place that now can hold the key
To whether Exor’s motives are as pure
As he would lead his subjects to believe
Or whether truth has made its residence
Within the words I’ve heard denouncing him.
I wish to hear the truth from his own lips.
Slev: It’s difficult to make a fool reflect
Until he sees the folly of his ways.
And yet I will not help you reach your goal.
Furthermore, I will make a prophecy.
If you should reach the place you hope to find,
And even if you find the man you seek
To satisfy your curiosity,
Your quest will lead you ever roundabout.
Go find another’s help, you won’t get mine.
Scene Nine: Semalia’s Garden
[Semalia is discovered, working in the garden. Semalia’s Song]
Sem: Strength through adversity growing
Seeds of enlightenment sowing
Impotence breeds on despairing
Hope holds the tools for repairing
Victory’s strength lies untested
Beauty leaves defects suggested
Mutual love is suspected
Friendship in peace is protected
[ Dyanolo enters, unseen]
Power’s the same, though defeated
Plainness is beauty repeated
Love without hope is undying
Friendship in war is relying
Never suspect, never rely
Never has lived, never will die
Dyan: It seems to me a song of desperation.
You criticize your hopes as well as fears.
Sem: Have you decided?
Dyan: Set your mind at rest,
I will find Propian Exor--
Sem: Then I fear
Perhaps far more than if you stayed with me.[43]
Dyan: I’ve come to say goodbye to all I’ve loved
To everything on Earth that’s worthy of love.
Whatever may remain outside this place,
Cannot be worth a single seed or bud.
I do not need your knowledge of the way.
The others, Slev and Wohl, refuse to tell.
Sem: For once I have a reason to be glad
I ever laid my eyes upon that place;
For now my knowledge can be of some use,
If it can help you closer to your goal.
The path that runs before the cavern’s mouth
Leads to a tunnel cut through solid rock.
The tunnel shrinks enough to make you crouch,
The shuffling of your feet will fill the air
With choking clouds of dust that will obscure
The tenuous light cast by the gravity lamps.
You must take with you food and drink enough
For six or seven intervals of sleep.
Numerous cavities will beckon you
To right and left; but keep on going straight
Until the tunnel opens up again.
Not long after that point, you’ll reach some tracks,
A little-used spur off the Archon’s line.
The train arrives very infrequently,
So you most probably will wait awhile,
But once the train comes, your journey’s over.
The silver train will bear the Archon’s crest,
A phoenix rising from a golden flame
Upon a dark-blue field with silver stars.
The train will take you where you wish to go.
Dyan: And what will I discover at that place?
How will I know the stop where I get off? [75]
Sem: Where you alight, the cars will all be filled,
Though at that place, the people will all leave.
A swarm of folk will push you to the gate
Where Exor’s life is cast in solid gold.
Beside the gate there are two smaller doors;
Each door lets people in, then out by turns.
Beware the guards that stand to either side,
For at their whim, the traffic is reversed
Quite suddenly, as when a rock or stick
Stops up the entrance to a hive of ants
And then the ants, while struggling to get in,
Run into one another, sometimes kill
Each other in their mad, frantic retreat.
Just so people, trying to reach the gate,
Prevent people in front from turning back.
The guards enforce their orders with their sticks
That sting their victims, making them jump back.
So people came to call them jumpers.
Sometimes they stun their prey, sometimes they kill.
If you survive the jumpers, you will be
Inside the Palace of the Archons’ walls.
Once there, you must go forward on your own--
No one can help you closer to your goal.
Dyan: Nevertheless, I know I shall succeed
To rid the Earth of its dreadful curse.
Sem: There never was a being better fit
Than you are, Dyanolo, for the task.
But certain things are not within human
Power to change. One of these is the love
I have for you.
Dyan: And I for you.
Sem: Farewell…
Dyan: Good-bye…
End of ACT ONE