Scene 7.12 - True Confessions
EST: EXT. Oblivion
(HEINLEIN and SIMAK stand before two large, ominous doors. The pair watch a departing craft. The doors open with the sound of shifting sands. A long, arched open-air walkway leads to a large interior chamber. A man dressed in a hooded, black robe approaches, nearly hobbling on one foot, yet carrying a long walking stick with ease.)
HEINLEIN
Who are you?
VERNE
You two men say you are a friend of Julian Sickle?
HEINLEIN
Yes.
VERNE
Then perhaps you are a friend to me. (Measured: His ultimatum to every mirage:) How do you know Julian Sickle?
HEINLEIN
We both serve under his command aboard the U.S.S.S. Enrapture -- and perhaps other ships, I think...
VERNE
(Pause.) The Enrapture? I do not know of that craft...
SIMAK
Who are you, sir?
(The hooded man sits on a convenient bench and motions the others to sit on other sandstone patio adornments in the gargantuan gazebo. The Hanging Gardens has nothing on this set-up -- it is a literal mountain of latticed sandstone, filled with parrots, peacocks and butterflies and wondrous, colorful plants from both Earth and elsewhere. A hill within the mountain, in the shape of a massive Gothic mausoleum, obscures the vista of the vast, sunlit, interior of the structure.)
VERNE
I am a ghost of a man who fell into a star. Perhaps I am imagining this, but you both seem so... real...
(He reveals his hood. It is VERNE, with purple tattoos making Celtic marks across his ruddy, tanned face. Like a Druidic tiger of blood and mud.)
HEINLEIN
Captain!
VERNE
Your captain sickle is the half of me that escaped this place... the one who I am looking for. Where is this Captain Sickle now?
SIMAK
We don't know sir, this paradox has us all tither and hither and to and fro -- we're not sure of the reality of anything anymore.
VERNE
It is time to end this. I must go back. We must go back.
HEINLEIN
Back, sir?
VERNE
(Produces a sandstone-colored blunt. It sparks! He hits and passes! Is this the real VERNE?) A machine took me here; a machine brought you here. Everything is artificial -- even our dreams. Believe nothing, not even your own eyes, for false hope will surely get the best of you. This place holds no life -- but it has dangers nonetheless, and we must leave, the sooner the better.
SIMAK
Leave, sir? How?
VERNE
I know a way out -- it's a place of chicanery and deception. Fire and brimstone! It is filled with phantasms; all lost in the Devil's Dementia.
SIMAK
The devil's dementia! Sir!
VERNE
(Resolute:) It hasn't got me yet. When it does, we're gonna have to go to Mauvana whether we want to or not. Best get the drop on it-
HEINLEIN
Where, sir?
SIMAK
He's talking about the maroon room, Rio. Aye, we can access it from here; but we'll be going in naked.
VERNE
You may truly exist and serendipity has brought you to me. I may not be mad -- not yet, but I'm aware that there's a madman in me, here, inside -- the one abandoned here, a desperate man who was working toward a terrible purpose and I fear recent events that have transpired will only lead to further madness; closer to his horrific objective.
HEINLEIN
Captain, I understand we've been living a dream; a paradox. If we can leave, we should leave at all costs. No one can stay sane if constantly aware of their immortality. I sure the hell know who I am here. Perhaps- Perhaps we're all insane already.
VERNE
Perhaps I've done some dreaming, too. It's been only two weeks, or two years, or -- it's a much longer time than I can measure -- or would ever want to.
HEINLEIN
When were you brought here, sir?
VERNE
That question is irrelevant. (Long pause.) Before. Taken from the maroon room aboard a timeship, and yet, before you; before any of you. It seems like I've been here forever and that my time as the Baron was a mere flight of fancy. My brain swims between two spirits like a river flows between its two banks -- I never can fully climb ashore and know -- Yet you both seem familiar -- not from this Enrapture you speak of, but from another craft. (Loses it, shakes head.) I've been a man in conflict since-
SIMAK
When you were our captain on the ol' Enrapture, I remember there was an ion storm within a time rift and a singularity-
VERNE
Oh, no. I wasn't there. That's another captain.
(Pause. VERNE doesn't get it, he merely related a fact. They look at him with wonderment. Seeing confusion, explains:)
VERNE (Cont'd)
(Offers cigarettes, they indulge. HEINLEIN visually remarks how everyone is smoking their own brand from his black cigarette box. And yeah, HEINLEIN smokes menthols; what about it?) We're human as always, yet we need no sleep, no food, no shelter and though we all may feel god-like at times, even gods have limitations, for the only God who knows no limits holds no favorites here. The rule here is the same as in our world: The rule is that there are a million things in this universe that you can have and a million things you can't have. It's no fun facing that, but that's the way things are.
SIMAK
I don't want to appear confused now, but I think we need a bit of more explanation, sir.
VERNE
Dreams, they're all dreams. I had one such dream once. Care to hear about it?
HEINLEIN
(Politely interested:) We're here for you, sir. I suppose you don't have anything to drink?
(A flock of birds serve up the mightiest baskets of goodies.)
VERNE
How rude of me -- I rarely see real people here. Please, indulge yourselves.
(They do.)
VERNE
I'm perhaps the only remnant of the real world and perhaps it's fitting that this is my domain, but this dominion means nil without the light it once knew... (Pause.) It's kinda complicated, cuz I'm not sure where you all lie. This is a nexus. It's a train that never stops moving. It's the basis of our consciousness. We can choose at will to leave here and return to real life, yet fear and apprehension keeps us rationalizing our comfort within the confines of this limitless wasteland. There's only -- the alternative.
SIMAK
Aye, the devil's dementia.
VERNE
In my experience, I think I've had a moment or two when I was not perfectly sane, but luckily those incidents required the exact measure of insanity that I employed to have a favorable result. (Long pause.) Sure, I ripped a hole in the Universe -- but I gave us an out -- and even though I've patched most things up around here, there's still a few daydreams out there in the real world reminding me of my real nightmare. This nightmare.
HEINLEIN
What's that, Captain?
VERNE
(SIMAK passes megablunt back to VERNE. VERNE tokes and takes a moment to ponder and resigns himself to elaborate.) I wasn't alone here -- not always. For a time, there was... someone else.
(Pause. Toke.)
HEINLEIN
Sir, there's another one of me in my head, like two conversations going on... you're totally confusing me.
VERNE
Forgive me. It's been... a while since I was- [sane]...able to speak with others... You both have had your minds clouded with paradox. My mind has been clouded with -- other things... memories...
HEINLEIN
What about this paradox?
VERNE
It's your mind half-playing tricks on you. Through our inherent telepathy the illusion is communal and sometimes seems as real as life, but when you theoretically die in your dream, you always return here -- to pure thought; no shape save the dream of life.
HEINLEIN
Are we dead, Captain?
(The megablunt surely is -- all but paper now. Pause.)
VERNE
Not quite. I used to wonder that myself, but there is death here, and I don't believe it is a way out. It's more like living a long -- movie.
(Nemo gets to sport the Sandstone Tiger look.)
SIMAK
What is the way out?
VERNE
You hold it in your hands. That toy -- I know what that really is; where it really came from.
HEINLEIN
(Holds up rattle. It rattles!) This? What is it?
VERNE
A piece of the puzzle I've been looking for. It's a spanner.
HEINLEIN
A spanner? If this is a spanner -- it's ancient.
SIMAK
(Suddenly interested:) Aye.
VERNE
Everything is ancient here. It's from a hospital. It's tuned to me -- no one else can use it.
HEINLEIN
(Hands him the spanner. VERNE immediately activates it. It lights up!) Here, "Captain." If you really are like the captain I know.
VERNE
I am essentially. Why are you so uneasy, Lieutenant?
HEINLEIN
I am not sure. My mind isn't feeling right... How are we gonna cope with this? It's like I'm thinking twice as hard about everything.
VERNE
(Betting on a commonality from his adolescence:) You boys have enough resolve to smoke one of my famous bluntcakes?
SIMAK
Is a Saurian bear Catholic in the Andorean woods? (Suddenly feels a bluntcake [a Twinkie-sized blunt] in his stash pocket. Produces it. Lights it.) How do you do these wonderful things? (Pause.) Oy! This tastes better than Simolean Spice!
VERNE
It's called "The Real Deal" -- it's hydroponic. (Pause.) I'll let you two vote on it. Do you want the good news or the bad news?
SIMAK
The bad news, sir.
HEINLEIN
I want the good news.
VERNE
It figures. The bad news is we can't get back to reality without basically fighting our way back out. A Universe-sized gladiator match.
SIMAK
Tricky, but that doesn't sound too bad.
VERNE
Tricky nothing. It's hell, but I fear it is our only option. This place is a dead end -- I know.
SIMAK
Back where, sir?
VERNE
The place where I created the time rift and all of the paradox... the maroon room. I've got the ghost of my clone in me and your captain is still creeping around out there with my soul in his heart, and I want it back from him, once and for all...
HEINLEIN
Huh. What's the good news?
VERNE
We've got advantages: Access to something no one else has.
HEINLEIN
What's that?
VERNE
(Tokes, passes to HEINLEIN.) It's been my little secret. It's something I'm glad I brought down here with me.
(The ground shakes as the interior hill crumbles and leaves a large dust cloud, eventually revealing a half-submerged craft embedded in the ground. The men stand, VERNE catches the bluntcake as HEINLEIN drops it. VERNE tokes, calmly.)
SIMAK
Blimey! What is that???
VERNE
(Smiling, slowly puffing on the junior megablunt:) My first deep-space duty station. Gentlemen: The U-triple-S Roanoke.
FTB