Space

Set Among the Stars

ACT I

Enter ALDRINUS alone, floating within a narrow cabin. Stars drift beyond a crystal pane. A small device hums.

ALDRINUS

O blessed dark, thou velvet mouth of night,

Swallow my breath and rock me into calm.

Here sail I forth, a mote with thinking heart,

Between the worlds, betwixt the ticks of time.

My vessel sighs like one that dreams of home;

Her ribs of steel remember Earth’s embrace.

Now hush, ye engines; let my mind be free.

A chime. The device glows.

What petty sprite dares peal within this hush?

Who knocks upon the door of heaven’s road?

MERCATIO (a voice, cheerful as bells)

Good even, sir! Am I received aright?

I pray thee tarry, for I bring good news—

A boon to bone and blood, to nerve and wit!

ALDRINUS

What voice is this that cracks the firmament?

Declare thy name, thou echo made of flesh.

MERCATIO

I am Mercatio, servant of the sale,

An honest man with numbers in his head.

I call to thee, most fortunate of souls,

To offer health in tablet, drop, and draught.

ALDRINUS

Health? Sirrah, I am well enough in void.

My pulse keeps time with stars; my breath is thin

Yet faithful as a monk. Begone, I say.

MERCATIO

Alas, good sir, I cannot be so gone.

The line is locked till business be complete.

My watch draws near its end; ere night departs

I must persuade thee—else I am undone.

ALDRINUS

Locked? What devil’s craft enchains my ear?

Hang up!—O hand!—Why art thou stiff as sin?

He presses at the device; it chirrs and stays.

MERCATIO

Nay, touch it not; such labor is in vain.

Attend me but a while, and thou shalt see

How marrow sings when vitamins are sworn.

⸻

ACT II

ALDRINUS

O cursed convenience, bane of modern man,

That follows him beyond the moon’s pale lip!

I fled the markets and the shouting streets,

The hawkers, criers, men with smiling lies,

To float where silence kneels. Yet thou art here,

A peddler pitched upon infinity.

MERCATIO

Mock not my trade. I sell what keeps thee whole.

Think’st thou the void is kind to mortal frames?

The bones grow weary, muscles lose their tune.

But take this pill—Vita Magna Prime—

And thou shalt stride through nothing as through fields.

ALDRINUS

Fields!—I have fields enough in memory.

Green Earth, forgive me: I am far astray.

Sir, hear me plain: I’ll buy thee naught. Be still.

MERCATIO

Soft, soft! Hast thou not heard me full? Consider:

For eyes that dim with starlight’s cruel glare,

A capsule wrought from carrots’ noble seed;

For hearts that ache with longing’s gravity,

A tincture kissed by ginseng’s rooty beard.

ALDRINUS

Thou dress’st thy wares in poetry too thin.

Wouldst thou sell hope to rocks? Leave me to drift.

MERCATIO

If hope be rock, yet will I carve my name.

Sir, I have quotas, clocks, a child asleep.

My manager’s a moon with frozen face.

One sale, and I may rest. One sale—

And thou, perchance, shalt live the longer.

ALDRINUS

His child asleep… O space, thou soften’st me.

Yet still—no coin have I for such as this.

My voyage drains me more than purse allows.

MERCATIO

No coin? Then take our trial—three weeks’ supply.

Pay later, sir. The future’s wide as space!

ALDRINUS

Pay later? Ha! The future mocks us both.

I speed toward a slingshot of black doom,

A bend of gravity that chews on clocks.

There time itself grows drunk and will not count.

What then thy bill?

MERCATIO

Then health shall be thy coin.

What man would greet the edge of all he knows

With brittle bones and vitamins forgot?

ACT III

The ship groans; lights flicker like anxious eyes.

ALDRINUS

Hark! Hear’st thou that? My ship complains.

She smells the well where light goes in to die.

My charts are nervous; numbers sweat with fear.

And thou pratest on zinc.

MERCATIO

Fear gnaws the gut; for that we have a chew.

Minted with calm, approved by learned men—

Or at the least by pamphlets stout and bold.

ALDRINUS

O pamphlet truth! Thou art a paper crown.

Sir, tell me this: hast thou beheld a star

Explode like guilt? Or watched a planet weep

Its oceans into night? I have. And so

I’ll swallow no bright lies.

MERCATIO

I have beheld a cubicle at dusk,

A thousand calls unanswered, blinking lights.

I’ve watched my hope collapse like cheap display.

Each “No” a meteor. Each “Later”—ash.

I sell, or else I vanish from the list.

ALDRINUS

So we are kin: two men on different ledges,

Both begging fate to blink. What wouldst thou have?

MERCATIO

One word, good sir. Consent. A humble “Yes.”

Sign here with breath; I’ll do the rest with ink.

ALDRINUS

And if I say it—what then of my peace?

MERCATIO

Peace comes in bottles, labeled plain and true.

ALDRINUS

Thou liest sweetly. Yet—my pulse is loud.

The void grows nearer; thoughts grow thin as air.

If I must hear thee, let it end in act.

He pauses, gazing at Earth’s memory reflected in glass.

Give me thy cheapest draught. One small assent.

So end this siege.

MERCATIO

Bless thee! Speak it clear.

ALDRINUS

I—yes. I buy.

ACT IV

A chime like a bell at last rung home.

MERCATIO

O miracle! My screen blooms green with grace.

Sir, thou hast saved my night, my child’s tomorrow.

May tablets guard thee as thou guard’st my wage.

ALDRINUS

Go then. Unchain my ear. Release the stars.

MERCATIO

I go, I go. One thing—take twice a day.

And if thou feel’st the call return—

’Tis only health knocking.

The line clicks. Silence returns, vast and clean.

ALDRINUS

At last. The void resumes her ancient role.

O stars, forgive this commerce in thy courts.

Yet strange: my chest is lighter for the sound

Of one small life eased by my foolish “Yes.”

He drifts, holding a small glowing vial.

Perhaps these pills are prayers in plastic skin.

If so, I’ll take them with the dark’s consent.

Now on, my ship. The edge awaits our feet.

He looks once more at the device, now dark.

Farewell, Mercatio. Sell thy suns to men.

I’ll sail where calls cannot be made again.

Exeunt, into silence.