Leaving Planet Earth

by Lewis Hetherington

  JOHN: A voice in my head said I was a hypocrite, only looking out for myself. And then another said no you're one of the good ones, you should go. You deserve it. And then with the endless streaming of bad news I just thought I'm old and I'm tired and I can't be bothered to make sense of it anymore. I just want peace.

  VELA: An intergalactic retirement home.

  JOHN: A hospice for the old guard. And there is a better generation coming isn't there? A generation who will do it better than us. Isn't there?

  VELA: …

  JOHN: And they need people like you to rely on.

  VELA: They need to rely on themselves.

  JOHN: You just said, people can't be trusted to look through a glass darkly.

  VELA: Yes, but that's –

  JOHN: ‘Some of us can stride out in front. Some of us are slower as we carry the burden.’

  VELA: You're quoting The Gatekeeper?

  JOHN: You're carrying the burden aren't you?

  VELA: Me?

  JOHN: I can see you are carrying it.

  VELA: I think we should probably –

  JOHN: I carry it too.

  VELA: I really think –

  JOHN: Vela the Memory Bank isn't just glitching. Sometimes every surface in this room comes to life with flickering images. Full of people on their last day on Old Earth. Voices crackling out. Cries and shouts.

  VELA: The Memory Bank is calling up memories on its own?

  JOHN: And sometimes at night. The whole Centre. Out of every space Old Earth is bleeding out of every crack of this whole place and I don't think they are the memories people chose. I think they're coming from somewhere else. I think Old Earth is trying to get in touch. I feel it inside me and my head, it's overwhelming, a blinding light behind my eyes and a pulsing. That's why you come here. You carry the burden.

  VELA: I come here because I miss my sister.

  JOHN: It's okay for me to be left behind. I'm a slow old man now. But it's your job to stride out in front. People need leaders.

  VELA: I am not their leader.

  JOHN: Whatever happens they will look to you. You need to be ready.

  VELA: We should stop this conversation now.

  JOHN: I just think. If you stopped coming here so often.

  VELA: I think I'm going to book you in for some chats and put in a request for you to be moved elsewhere in the building.

  JOHN: No. I…

  VELA: This environment is clearly having a negative impact upon your wellness and –

  JOHN: Please I wasn't speaking to you officially. I like this job.

  VELA: It isn't easy being in here all the time, surrounded by the past.

  JOHN: They've asked me to watch you.

  Beat.

  VELA: Excuse me.

  JOHN: To watch your behaviour.

  Pause.

  JOHN: So if you just came less often, maybe they'd…

  VELA: Right. I see.

  Pause.

  Perhaps for now then we can just carry on these informal chats when I come in. You obviously feel most comfortable here. But we do need to address some of what you're feeling.

  JOHN: I'm sorry Vela, I didn't mean to…

  VELA: Can you load the clip up now?

  He does so. They walk through a doorway which leads to the Memory Bank. We see JOHN help VELA prepare for experiencing her memory. As he exits VELA’s memory comes to life.

  MEMORY BANK VELA VISITS SINEAD

  VELA stands alone in the memory. She has something in her hand.

  SINEAD enters with an old photo.

  SINEAD: Here, this is it. Look at us.

  VELA: Where did you find this?

  SINEAD: Just in an old box. I'm trying to sort the place out a bit.

  VELA: You've done something to the walls.

  SINEAD: Saved up for months. And I knew someone who knew someone who could get paint.

  VELA: It's nice.

  SINEAD: You don't like it.

  VELA: Not really.

  SINEAD: Well nice of you to come round. Why did you come round again?

  VELA: Just to say hello.

  SINEAD: It's a good colour I think.

  VELA: I just think it's a –

  SINEAD: You think it's a waste of time, of resources

  VELA: I thought you were looking for somewhere bigger. Last time we spoke –

  SINEAD: I was letting myself get carried away. Let's face it.

  VELA: What do you mean?

  SINEAD: I'm beyond any notions of motherhood and babies now.

  VELA: Because of living here?

  SINEAD: Maybe. I wouldn't want to keep a kid in the house all day. They can't even run about in the street anymore, let alone go down to the beach, or the woods.

  VELA: You don't feel safe living here?

  SINEAD: No, it's fine. Actually things feel more stable than they have for a while. People seem a bit more positive. There was even a banana in the shop the other day!

  VELA: It's not a joke Sinead.

  SINEAD: Yes I know.

  VELA: It's quiet now but it's only a matter of time til –

  SINEAD: I'm not an idiot Vela. I know. But I am fine.

  VELA: There are other options.

  SINEAD: Well if you move out the city it's worse. In the Country there are gangs that roam about and no one is even attempting to do anything. And no I still don't want to come and live in your gated community –

  VELA: No I mean the Trials on the new planet are –

  SINEAD: Oh of course we can go to space and we'll float serenely in the stars, eating protein capsules and –

  VELA: That's not how it will work.

  SINEAD: How will it work? Will it work like the moon colonies where they all went crazy? Or the Mars Station where they all suffocated?

  VELA: You don't have to understand it you just. You just need to understand it is happening.

  SINEAD: But the other ones, they were all happening.

  VELA: They were failures. And their failures have taught us how not to. People are flourishing.

  SINEAD: Does flourishing just mean not dying?

  VELA: No I mean it. I know you don't… If things get bad here. Worse than they are. There is the possibility of a bigger programme. If there was a mass migration. Would you come?

  SINEAD: I just can't imagine it.

  VELA: You can't imagine it until you see it.

  SINEAD: Are we talking hypothetically?

  VELA: I'm talking about things being much worse. Desolate. It's beautiful up there. If we get it right, it will be a better place.

  SINEAD: Everyone laughing and skipping hand in hand through the stars

  VELA: I'm being serious. You've got to think about the future.

  SINEAD: I've painted. I'm sorting through the hall cupboard and –

  VELA: Bigger than that. Things are changing, at the GFO there is a real shift in the way –

  SINEAD: You and your pals at the GFO think you're at the edge of everything just because you've got loads of cash and a nice logo you get to make the rules for –

  VELA: I just need to know. If the colony is successfully established on New Earth

  SINEAD: New Earth is that what you're calling it?

  VELA: And things became, dangerous, completely untenable here, would you come?

  SINEAD: Well. I guess.

  VELA: I need to know this.

  SINEAD: OK Vela. Sorry. Yes I might be sceptical, I might be a luddite but, if things got impossible here and you had some free pass up to a better place then yes of course I would come.

  VELA: There's something I want to give you.

  VELA gives SINEAD a ring.

  SINEAD: No, she gave that to you.

  VELA: I'm giving it to you.

  SINEAD: She liked you better.

  VELA: She was our mum.

  SINEAD: And she was great, but she liked you better.

  VELA: I'm leaving it here. No arguments.

  SINEAD: Well you take the pi
cture then.

  SINEAD puts the photo in VELA’s hand.

  VELA: I have to go. I love you.

  SINEAD: I love you too you big weirdo. You still coming over on Saturday?

  VELA: I don't know. Probably not. Work.

  SINEAD: OK.

  VELA exits.

  The lights flicker and the scene disappears. The lights in the Old Earth Museum return to how they were and an automated voice reminds the audience to look around the Museum.

  VELA IN THE OLD EARTH MUSEUM

  VELA enters with urgency.

  VELA: Hello. Could I have everyone's attention? This isn't a scheduled visit but I always like to try and catch all the groups upon arrival. You have all seen me and now I finally get to see all of you, in the flesh. It's a privilege. We're on the brink of something great. And in here, amongst this History. Because that's what Old Earth is now; History. Out of reach. That might be a strange thought for you now, but it soon won't be, I promise you.

  What you see in here, is our parent planet. All of it. The good, the useful, the complicated; sealed in cases for us to consider.

  The efforts made by all of us in the preparatory team to get you here, have been monumental. And now I see you, good people, and I think… It's going to work.

  Thank you.

  I must get on, I've a lot to get through. I'll leave you here to look around.

  MENTOR enters.

  MENTOR: Vela?

  VELA: I was just introducing myself to the group ahead of tonight.

  MENTOR: Right. Okay.

  VELA: I'll leave you all to get on.

  VELA exits.

  Gatekeeper's Bell sounds

  MENTOR: That's our sign to move on. I hope you've got something positive from your first experience here at the Old Earth Museum. I'd recommend you start thinking about which memories you'd like to be entered into the Memory Bank. They'll prove vital. Follow me into the Atrium.

  THE ATRIUM: TWO

  All three audience groups are led through the Atrium towards their third and final floor. As they go HARPER speaks to them.

  HARPER: I hope you're all having a fantastic induction experience and aren't feeling too overwhelmed. You are now about to visit your final floor, good work everyone –

  MAPPING STATION

  PILOT EXPERIENCE

  As they enter MEEKA is in the space. She gives a minimal acknowledgement to the audience as they come in.

  MEEKA: Hello. I'm Squadron Leader Larson. My job is to talk to you about the discovery and the exploration of New Earth. We're going to listen to two Datalogs. Starting with the most recent reconnaissance flight I made over Old Earth.

  Interference.

  Oh six hundred hours. Grey Fields.

  Oh seven hundred hours. Grey Fields.

  Oh eight hundred hours. Grey Fields.

  Oh eight thirty-six. Massive Fire in sight, computer estimates it spans area of sixteen square kilometres. Computer estimates burning material is composed of approximately sixty per cent organic human matter. Estimated remaining burn time is fifty-nine hours.

  Oh nine hundred hours. Grey Fields. Nothing more to report.

  The recording ends.

  MEEKA: Next, is a record of the first flight over New Earth.

  Interference.

  … The oceans are like crystal, but they are moving and making this kaleidoscope of turquoise blues and purples and greens and there is light scattering everywhere on the surface of the water from two pink suns over the curve of the horizon…

  … I can see trees as tall as Skyscrapers, these crazy deep greens and flowers as big as Cars, hanging in the air like explosions surrounded by tiny red humming birds…

  And the mountains sort of erupt, black marble, falling into canyons of white. This place, it's beautiful and it's here. For us. It's here for us to take and I don't know. Be at peace.

  MEEKA: Every time I listen to that second one. It sounds. I can't imagine saying those things. I'd been flying for I can't remember how long. Jumping from one solar system to the next. Sleeping, flying and Jumping in that plane. And then I arrived in the skies above us, and those words just came out.

  Every time I'm up there, it's the same feeling. This place is alive. A place fitting for a new generation. A place for us to try and live up to.

  You may feel quite far away from that right now, but the Acclimatisation Centre is your first step towards these wonders. It has to be like this because the possibilities of this planet can be too overwhelming. I've seen it first-hand. There were sixty of us on the first mission, and fifteen of us came home. Forty-five lost to The Pull.

  Like The Gatekeeper on the mountain, each step must be steady before you leap out into this new world among the stars. Which is Vela's way of saying you have to do all this stuff before you're allowed to settle Beyond The Wall.

  So my team and I know this planet better than anyone else – we examine each plain and each forest with the minutia it demands. We can see the planet in some detail on the Cartosphere. If you'd like to make your way round here.

  MEEKA guides the audience to the Puffersphere Projector.

  So here we are. Currently we occupy just a fragment of the land we have available to us.

  The Planet is eighty per cent Oceans, though we've yet to fully detail the waters of the southern hemisphere for any sizeable land masses. The climate is a steady one. There are two seasons. One is hot and dry. One is hot with storms. Both are too hot for us to spend any kind of time in. But the dermatologists are on that one. Your little Quantifier is monitoring your breathing. The air here is certainly not poisonous, but it may cause problems for some. This thing helps the team keep an eye on that.

  When Vela says this world is ours, she means it.

  MEEKA produces handfuls of turquoise/purple gravel. Each one is marked with coordinates or some map reference, which details exactly where there piece of land is.

  Congratulations. You own a piece of land. But you can't go there, yet… So this is to remind you. Each of you have a plot from the Kennedy State, the 63rd Sector. It's about 960km from the Centre. A long way from where we are at the moment.

  This sector is highlighted on the Puffersphere Projector.

  But. It's yours. And in time, you can go there, plant your flag, do whatever you want with it. Within the boundaries of the oath of course.

  Look after it. That little token. It will be important I promise. If you're struggling with any of the acclimatisation. If you have the odd moment of feeling trapped inside this Biodome which stretches way over our heads. Hold onto it. Think on what is to come. Give it a name. Geoffland. Chucklesville. Whatever you want. Something which means something to you.

  Take a moment to think of what that name might be. I'll give you some space. Emilia will join you shortly.

  MEEKA leaves them.

  The Puffersphere Projector begins to crackle and a distorted image of Sinead appears…

  SINEAD: Okay. So, I pledge myself to New Earth because I am committed to… Because I believe in…you don't ask much do you? It's not easy knowing what I know…

  The footage crackles out.

  The flickering of lights and the sound of a memory breaking through.

  PILOT AND PEACEBUILDING COMMISSIONER

  SAAD and MEEKA are coming in from outside. SAAD is finishing off a cigarette. They are talking as they enter.

  SAAD: … It really is good to see you.

  MEEKA: You're rubbish at pretending to be sincere.

  SAAD: I'm not pretending to… I have been wanting to talk to you but. I'm not sure how to go about this.

  MEEKA: I don't believe that. Your little brain is –

  SAAD: I've been having these nightmares.

  MEEKA: Oh. OK.

  SAAD: Night terrors actually. Apparently it always starts the same – I'm muttering away quietly about cold, dead eyes and then all of a sudden it's like I'm back there screaming at them. Screaming that it's for their own good.

  MEEKA: Since
when?

  SAAD: I was seeing this girl. One night she was staying over. And I went into full crazy mode. Got my gun. Pointed it at her saying I'm sorry I'm sorry.

  MEEKA: ’Keeper's Saad.

  SAAD: Yeah that was the end of that relationship.

  MEEKA: And so, then what?

  SAAD: I went to the Wellness team. They observed me for a while. It happens most nights. Bolt upright. Shouting. Crying. And then I collapse back on the bed.

  MEEKA: Are you feeling guilty?

  SAAD: No. No. I'm really not. I'm not even aware of them, I sleep through them.

  MEEKA: Have you been for a chat about it?

  SAAD: Lots of chats. but they don't seem too worried. Supposedly it's the final part of my transitioning process.

  MEEKA: Right. Why did you want to talk to me about it?

  Beat.

  SAAD: Has anything like that happened to you?

  MEEKA: No. Never.

  SAAD: You've never questioned whether it was the right thing to do?

  MEEKA: What?

  SAAD: On those early missions.

  MEEKA: Is that supposed to be a joke?

  SAAD: No.

  MEEKA: Saad. Not many people here have ever seen anyone actually succumb to The Pull.

  SAAD: I know.

  MEEKA: To them, the idea of an Empty is like some mythical creature. Like the bogeyman or something.

  SAAD: And that's a good thing?

  MEEKA: Yes. They should be scared. Because it's fucking horrible. They have to be scared so they know they need to protect themselves. These people if they had to see their friends hollowing out from the inside – they wouldn't cope.

  SAAD: We coped.

  MEEKA: We had to. We had to watch our friends become Empties, have their souls drain out and then, then we had to put them out of their misery. And all of that happened so we could learn from it and do everything we can to stop it from happening again.

  SAAD: You're right.

  MEEKA: Their time was over.

  SAAD: We did what we had to do.

  MEEKA: And I'd do it again if I had to.

  Pause.

  SAAD: The peace of this world. It's…

  Last night the sky was this dazzling purple and I felt. I felt more at home here than I ever have anywhere. Nightmares or no nightmares. We've earned this.