Terra Novus, Ep. 11 - The End?

DJ: And now for our feature presentation of TERRA NOVUS: and original radio drama Created and presented by SCAD Radio Dramas (Scattered).

SFX: Intro theme.
dj: last week on terra novus...

Sfx: Lighting cracks, transition music.

Morris: Are you out of your mind?

Graham: You said “do something.”

Morris: Yeah, something, I didn’t mean this.

Dylan: (coming through the communicator full of static.) ... ifff– youuu -ca— hea... this. Send the.. Ignal. Do – –u cop–Y. We’re ready Morris, send the signal.

Morris: Alright Isaac, don’t worry I’m going to go press the button now.

Sfx: Morris walks over to the control panel as he talks. Start eerie double-crossing theme.

Morris: There’s no way any of us are going to get out of this now Graham. You’ve doomed us all to a life behind bars. You’ve murdered policemen in cold blood. It won’t matter what we tell them now, were all going to be locked up.

Graham: (sinisterly) I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

Morris: Yeah, (scoffs) like I’m not going to press the button now that they’re ready for it, and throw away everything this mission has been building up to. (Chuckels) You kill me, you know that Graham.

Sfx: music cuts off.

Graham: well, since you asked me so nicely.

Sfx: gun charges up.

Morris: (Gasps)

sfx: a laser gun fires, hitting Morris in the chest.

Morris: Gkk-ah!

Sfx: Thunder cracks and transition music. Music is intense, full of immediacy.

Isaac: Come on, come on. What’s taking them so long?

DYLAN: Maybe they didn’t get the signal, like in the other room. Better try again.

Isaac: Sighs impatiently.

Sfx: He presses the button on the communicator.

Isaac: It’s now or never! Send the signal Morris! Send it –-

sfx: She’s cut off by a sharp noise like a microphone giving feedback. Dylan and Isaac wince at the noise. Then a channel comes into tune from static.

Graham: (over the communicator) I will never send your signal.

Isaac: Graham? Graham is that you?

Graham (over the communicator): I don’t know why you keep calling me Graham. When you should be calling me.. (voice changes and he morphs back into his true form) Pat-mok!

Dylan and Isaac: (Gasp!)

SFX: Cliffhanger ending theme.

Dj: And now what you’ve all been waiting for, the exciting conclusion, the final chapter of terra novus. Episode 11.

PAT-MOK: In a few moments I will fire on the jump gate with the ship’s turrets and destroy it.

Dylan: But then there wouldn’t be another jumpgate to create the worm hole to. You would be leaving all those helpless terra formers up there to die.

PAT-MOK: Helpless? Helpless?!! They didn’t’ look so helpless when they were murdering my brothers and sisters, my wife and my children. They didn’t look so helpless then! They didn’t look so helpless when they tried to exterminate my entire species and take over our planet, an indigenous species, and then turn around and call it your own, call it your home, call it Terra Novus. Where’s your sense of manners. Do you all just take what you want, everything’s yours if you can kill to have it? But wait, it’s just in your “human’s nature” isn’t it. Your history holds countless examples of how you’ve done it time and time again. If we hadn’t thought that your species would destroy itself before it ever made it to space travel, we probably wouldn’t have been so surprised. I’ll bet your surprised. I was. (Start fading out, making him in the background) Everything was going according to plan, you were all so oblivious to it all. You humans always try to see the best in people, make them out to be heroes even when they’re obviously not.

Morris: (grunts as he tries to pull himself up to his feet) Got.. To .. Get to.. Liam. Let.. Him .. Out. He’s our.. Only , hope... ngh.

sfx: Transition music, a door opens.

Morris: Liam..

Sfx: Falls to the floor.

Morris: Ngh! (Sighs)

liam: Morris, are you alright? What happened?

Morris: (Winces as he pulls himself up and struggles to press the button.)

Sfx: Pushes button, the electricity stops on his cell and the door opens. Start compassionate mourning music. Almost like redemption music.

Liam: You’re..? you’re letting me out? I thought....

Morris: (Panting and exhausted, wheezing and coughing up blood) You were right. It was Graham, he’s not who he says he is, he’s some sort of alien. The bastard shot me in the back as I was trying to press the button.

Liam: What button? What are you talking about?

Morris: For the signal, it’s on the main console. You have.. To press the button send .. end the signal for Isaac.

Liam: Alright I’ll press it, right after I get you some help.

Morris: No! The button first, then you can come back for me.

Liam: But I–

Morris: Go!

Liam: (Sighs) I’ll be back for you!

Morris: Go get’em kid. (Coughs painfully)

SFX: Transition music

PAT-MOK: And then Dylan had to go and fix that damn transceiver right as the real Graham tried to contact her. After that I was sure it was over, I was just going to have to come out and kill you all right then and there. And then I remembered the doctor, Liam. He couldn’t read - and he suddenly became the perfect scapegoat for all my doings.

LIAM: Read my lips you backstabbing Judas, the buck stops here!

SFX: start action music. Punches him, he falls to the floor.

PAT-MOK: Ungh! You? How’d you - Eh, no matter.

SFX: Charges his gun

PAT-MOK: at least I’m not stupid enough to bring a knife to a-

SFX: Liam runs over and punches him again. The two wrestle, both struggling. Liam starts slamming his gun into the wall repeatedly.

LIAM: You’re slacking off on the job old boy, you were supposed to be watching ME!

PAT-MOK: What are you doing?

SFX: Drops gun which slides across the floor.

PAT-MOK: My gun? (Sighs) Do you really think you could beat me, a doctor against a Kodukai Warrior?

Sfx: music cuts out.

MORRIS: No, (coughs) but I can.

SFX: Picks up the fallen gun and charges it.

PAT-MOK: (his voice goes from Pat-mok’s to Liam’s) Ah, but can beat...

Sfx: Morphs into Liam.

PAT-MOK: Your friend?

Sfx: start confusing chaotic action music.

MORRIS: (in his head) What? He changed himself to look like Liam, I can’t tell which one’s which.

SFX: Struggle.

Morris: Stop rolling around I’m losing track of the real you.

PAT-MOK (as voiced by Liam): It’s him.

LIAM: No, he’s the imposter, it’s really him.

PAT-MOK (as voiced by Liam): I am not, you are.

Liam: No you ar– (starts choking)

PAT-MOK (as voiced by Liam): Oh shut up will you. Quick here’s your chance shoot him, shoot him now.

Morris: But how do I know it’s you? How do I know you’re not really him?

PAT-MOK (as voiced by Liam): Look at me, I am him?

Morris: I thought so.

Sfx: music cuts out. Laser gun blasts one of them.

PAT-MOK (as voiced by Liam): (Grunts in pain as his voice returns to that of Pat-mok.)

Sfx: He stumbles back and trips into a chriochamber, which closes on him.

Pat-mok: Ugh.. What, no!

Morris: If you were the real Graham, you’d be yourself not “him.”

Pat-mok: (Muffled from inside the chamber) No! Nooooooooo - (fades off)

sfx: The chamber beeps and the process starts just like with Dylan until he is chriosleep.

Liam: Jolly good timing, Morris. Morris?

Sfx: Start sad emotional hero death music. Morris drops the gun and falls to the floor. Liam runs over. Also start a slowly heartbeat noise that is slowing down in the background.

Liam: Morris?

Sfx: He picks his head up and holds it in his arms. His heart beats loudly.

Liam: You’re going to be alright, let me just run to the medlab and get some things-

MORRIS: No.

LIAM: But,, why. I need to act quick so I can—

Sfx: Music changes to different variation of theme. More accepting of death.

MORRIS: (Breathing heavy and coughing, he talks softly) No. I don’t deserve someone to save me. I wanted the same thing they did, to sell the location off to the highest bidder. Always wanted to make an extra buck, as dishonestly as I could. Speaking of saving - when that android 808, Bob, gets back tell him “thank you” for me. For all of us, he really saved our ass after that explosion back with the other ship, even now. I want him to know. I want them all to know - those of them that are left, that I appreciate them,... never got to tell them... too stubborn.

Liam: Shh, shh shh, it’s okay I’ll tell him just let me go, I can’t stop this bleeding. I can still get to the --

MORRIS: Wait, I’m not finished. I want you to have it, I want you to have my space station. Hell if this thing is still together when this is all over sell it too. I know you took this job to pay off your gambling debts, and I told you I would pay you. So take it, it was my only love. Sell my love so that you can save yours. Save your family. (pause, coughs) I wish I had had a family.

Sfx: music gets tender.

LIAM: You still can, just-

MORRIS: no, take the hanger, I won’t need it where I’m going.

LIAM: No. (Starts to sob) you’re not going anywhere. Don’t-

MORRIS: (sighs his last breath-).

Sfx: the heartbeat gets louder for the last few seconds. The heart beats one final time then stops.

LIAM: don’t go. Don’t go!!! no! (Starts crying)

SFX: fade out to transition music. Cops are banging on the door. Dylan pushes the button on the communicator.

DYLAN: Send the signal, push the button - somebody! Anybody! Can anyone hear me?!

Isaac: (Struggles to keep the door shut as they over power him) Rrrrr–

sfx: the cops blow the door down.

Isaac: ahhh.

SFX: Isaac goes stumbling across the floor and falls near Dylan.

COPS: Freeze!

Sfx: their guns charge up as if ready to fire on them and then we hear a cell phone go off.

COP 1: What’s that?

COP 2: It’s my cellphone sir.

SFX: Then all the cops walkies talkies turn on. The tv’s turn on, the intercom turns on, all the computer screens go to the signal.

THE SIGNAL: this is an emergency broadcast across all stations, all forms of media, everything. Everyone must know what is going on behind your eyes, with your money.

COP 1: What’s going on?

COP 2: Who’s doing this?

DYLAN: It worked, someone heard us up there and sent the signal.

ISAAC: It worked. (Dylan kisses him) Whoa.

SFX: Now cut between different major cities ambient background noises, with people talking in those languages quietly. Time square, Beijing, South America, Germany, India, Africa - as many different locations as we can find foreign speaking students who can translate this message and then cut between them.

THE SIGNAL: IGSTA, the Inter-galactic Space Travel Association has for some 10 years now found and been in the process of terraforming another planet while deceiving the rest of the population into thinking they were still looking for a planet at all, in an effort to drive up the price of dwindling goods back here on earth. Were they going to tell us when they were finished? If you had the money they were. This is a map showing the location of what is commonly referred to as a jump gate, a technology stolen from the indigenous population of Terra Novus, known as the Kodukai, and then reverse engineered in an effort to cut travel charges and better hide their activities. IGSTA ordered and carried out their mission of killing almost every man woman and child that lived on this planet to make it seem as though we had landed on an uncharted planet, but we didn’t. The Jump gate here on earth creates a worm hole between it and its counterpart on Terra Novus and has now been locked open, so that all who wish to travel freely to this new planet may do so immediately. A copy of Edward Burgos’ space logs has been sent to every major company in the world, describing every event that took place from the planet’s discovery to its cover up - leading up to his death. As well as this video recorded by IGSTA android 808, who was on Terra Novus when he accidentally caught this scene on his data recorders while on Terra Novus.

Cop 1: Look, the tv.

BRIGGS (IGSTA VICE PRESIDENT): Hey that’s me. How did they - you told me you’d erase it.

QUINN: The 808 android was stolen before we could do it.

VIDEO (over the tv):
SFX: Man walks into a room and shuts the door behind him.

BRIGGS: What’s that thing doing here.

QUINN (CHIEF ROBITICS ENGINEER: Don’t worry it’s off, what did you need to talk to me about.

BRIGGS: Do you have any idea what could happen if this got out? There’s no telling what they would do to us, the company. It could bring down everything. .

QUINN: There also no limit to how rich we could be either. And besides it’s not getting out. And if things do happen to get too hot, we can always just hitch a ride through the worm hole and destroy the gate behind us from our side. Just live out the rest of our lives there, just like a desert island. The only ones that would know would be the terraformers. We’ve already got enough supplies to sustain us for years and the terraformers have everything they or we could need.

BRIGGS: So if we can play our card right we can have our cake and eat it too. Live like kings on our own planet.

QUINN: Filthy stinking rich.

BRIGGS: Especially after we send up that next search mission and make things seem more desperate, two search missions - and I don’t think this one is coming back either.

SFX: (Both laugh.)

BRIGGS: yeah, it took a chunk of change though to pay those guys off, retirement, and keep their families quiet. That kind of silence doesn’t come cheap.

QUINN: You’re not thinking of the big picture here. That was pennies compared to what were going to be making.

BOB: I do not understand. Father Quinn, Chief robotics engineer, (pause) IGSTA Vice President Briggs. Please explain.

BRIGGS: Oh shit, I thought you told me he was off.

QUINN: I thought he was! (Sighs) Ah it’s alright. I’ll have one of my technicians erase his memory banks later, and for now we can bug him with a tracking beacon that will block his neural-inhibitors, so he’ll think he can’t remember. Nobody will ever know what we’ve done. And no one will be able to get him to court to use for evidence without us knowing, and trust me if they do take him they wont be making it to court.

BRIGGS: Well, turn him off anyway... he’s giving me the creeps.

Sfx: Reaches over and switches him off.

Sfx: end video.

BRIGGS: Just what the hell is going on?!

Sfx: Start dark heroic music, like a revolution, uprising, revolt. Etc, the truth is out.

ISAAC: It’s on your cell phones, your radios, tvs, computers and emails. It is everywhere and there is no one with even the most basic of technology at this point that didn’t just hear that message, that didn’t just hear the truth. There’s no more hiding, no more lying. You’ve been trying to keep the people of the world desperate and dumb to your actions. Keep them so caught up in fighting each other over the last loaf of bread, that they wouldn’t have time stand together and revolt against the real threat - you. Well now they know, and it’s only a matter of time before they revolt.

BRIGGS: You stupid kid. You think they’ll believe you. Believe this, this video. An illegal broadcast with no credible sources, where’s the proof. Where did you get that video and where is the original. Who will testify against me?

Bob: I will.

QUINN: 808?

COP 1: Sir?

QUINN: It doesn’t matter, the world is run by money. No one is stupid enough to go through with persecuting me, with believing this. You’d undermine the global economy. Without which we’ll never have the money to finish the terraforming project, or keep fighting the Kodukai.

COP 2: Sir.

QUINN: Not now.

COP 1: Sir

QUINN: What! What is it!

COP 1: I think you should have a look at this.

SFX: He pushes back the shades. We can hear a crowd outside against a chain link fence. Start truly heroic theme.

Quinn: (Gasps) Oh my god, look at all those people, thousands of them, trying to push they’re way in.

Isaac: Tell it to them, tell it to the people you lied to. Oh yeah and one more thing, did you say “finish.”

QUINN: What? No, I didn’t say that?

ISAAC: I believe you did.

SFX: Presses button and starts rewinding tape

ISAAC: You know, you were right I didn’t have all the evidence I needed. But you just handed me the last nail for your own coffin.

QUINN: What do you mean?

BRIGGS: I didn’t say that, I’m leaving.

COP 1: Not so fast. Let the kid finish.

SFX: The cop laser binds him to a table. Isaac hits play.

ISAAC: The whole world’s been watching you ever since you set foot in this room.

AUDIO RECORD: “No one is stupid enough to go through with persecuting me, with believing this. You’d undermine the global economy. Without which we’ll never have the money to finish the terraforming project.”

ISAAC: I believe you have to start something before you can finish it isn’t that right?

QUINN: (nervous) Well, I uh.

BOB: I believe so.

Isaac: So am I to understand when you said finish you meant that you had already stated the terraforming project on Terra Novus?

QUINN: No, I uh..

BRIGGS: Ah shut up Quinn, (under his breath, angrily) Now you listen to me you little brat. If you let them through, they’ll die, we don’t have the resources on the Terra Novus yet to support that many people - you’ll be sending them to their graves. The planet is still at war with the Kodukai and the jump gate (which you so nobly made a publicly known location) will be a major target for terrorist groups, you’ve bottle necked the words entire population for them. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Not to mention there’s no way to regulate this sort of thing, we’ve never even dealt with inter-stellar immigration on a global scale like this before. You’ve wrecked everything. Their blood will be on your hands.

Sfx: start final closing heroic theme.

Isaac: No I’ve wrecked your money making scheme, I’ve exposed you. And you want to talk about blood, how about the blood of all the Kodukai you gave the orders to murder when you went to Terra Novus. What about them? And how many people have you lied to, how many have you deceived. Have you told these policemen you’re with what you are doing. Were they going to be allowed to go too? Is there anybody who wouldn’t leave you alone to rot and be beaten to death by that mob outside to save their homes, lives and families, to leave now that they know of Terra Novus? (pause) I don’t think so.

Sfx: Undoes his gun and helmet and sets them on the floor.

COP 1: He’s right. I don’t want to die on this planet. I don’t want to fight those people. (Scoffs) You’re scum, you might have paid my bills for a while but I can’t do this anymore. Not for any price, not now that I know what’s really going on. I’m with this guy.

Cop 2: Me too.

Sfx: The rest of the police all lay down their arms and join in with Isaac, saying “Me too.”

QUINN: Hey wait, don’t leave. Aren’t you going to protect me? Aren’t my guards going to guard me.

BRIGGS: Where are you going?

COP 1: (pause) To pack.

QUINN: Don’t leave me.

COP 1: Don’t worry, you see all those people out side, they won’t let you get lonely. And no, I’m not going to protect you, no one could. Congratulations, you’ve just become the most wanted man in America, nay, the world.

SFX: Lazer cuffs him to the table.

COP 1: Com’on Mr. Mr, what did you say your name was again.

ISAAC: Burgos, Isaac Burgos.

COP 1: Alright Mr. Burgos, lets get you and this robot out of here before it gets ugly, so that you can testify against him. I’m sure there’s quite a few people that were on the take from him and they’re not going to be too happy right about now, since that you’ve let the cat out of the bag.

ISAAC: Alright.

BRIGGS: No, You can’t. Don’t leave me.

QUINN: Please, I’ll do anything. Pay you anything.

COP 2: Your money’s worthless now. All the money in the world couldn’t save you from them.

Sfx: yelling, the crowd gets louder and louder until they come breaking in through the windows.

Quinn and Briggs: No, No, Nooooooo!!!!!

SFX: Cliffhanger ending theme closing with a final theme.

This episode featured the talents of
Writer: _________
And featuring the voices of (actors say their name): ________
Music and Sound FX by: __________
Mixed by:_______
This has been a presentation of SCAD Radio Dramas, tune in for news about the all new Terra Novus: Season 2: The only thing harder than finding Terra Novus, will be keeping the path to it open and safe. Coming soon, here on SCAD RADIO. For more information on this and other upcoming shows join the Scattered facebook group – that’s SCAD-RD, s-c-a-d-r-d, savannah college of art and design radio dramas, on facebook.