SCRIPT

SCIENCE FICTION BLAST-OFF THEATER "Puppets" by Richard Nathan   Before the lights come up, a voice announces the title of the story: VOICE "The Puppets" There is a boulder downstage right.  We are on an alien planet.  Enter visitors from Earth:  CAPTAIN JACOBS and LIEUTENANT MASTERSON, carrying scientific equipment.  They look around. JACOBS Nothing!  You'd think after all these years of searching, we'd have found some sign of intelligent life. MASTERSON We've found abundant planet life throughout the universe.  All kinds of plant life, insects.... JACOBS But no intelligent life!  Doesn't that seem odd to you? MASTERSON I guess that's just the way it is. JACOBS There are unlimited worlds.  That means unlimited possibilities. MASTERSON Maybe all the possibilities went wrong. JACOBS Take this planet.  It seems a perfect candidate. The atmosphere, gravitation, chemical composition, all nearly identical to Earth! Unnoticed by the Earth people, two hand puppets enter from behind the boulder.  The hand puppets are aliens named KRONKLE and FLOOB. JACOBS Where is the awareness?  Where is the ability to perceive and process information?  Is it too much to ask why there is no intelligence? KRONKLE Maybe someone dropped you on your head as a baby? FLOOB Yeah!   And that would explain the nose. Jacobs and Masterson stare at the puppets. JACOBS Who are you? KRONKLE I'm Kronkle. FLOOB I'm Floob. JACOBS You look like hand puppets. FLOOB You say that like it's a bad thing! KRONKLE Praised be the Hand. MASTERSON They speak English! KRONKLE We don't speak. FLOOB You may have noticed our lips don't move. KRONKLE You are hearing telepathy.  How did you think I was speaking when my lips don't move? FLOOB Maybe he thinks you're a ventriloquist. KRONKLE And maybe he thinks you're the dummy. Floob attacks Kronkle.  They fight. JACOBS Who is operating you? Floob and Kronkle cease fighting. KRONKLE The Hand of course. FLOOB Praised be the Hand. JACOBS Show yourself.  Show yourself!! Kronkle and Floob look at each other, then they look at Jacobs.  Then they hold out their little puppet arms and exclaim: KRONKLE & FLOOB Ta-daaa! Jacobs strides over to Kronkle.  He struggles with the hand puppet, pulls off the puppet, and reveals the hand underneath. JACOBS Who are you? He grips the hand and pulls on it.  At this point, unseen by the audience, the performer operating the puppets substitutes an artificial hand for the real hand that was operating Kronkle.  Jacobs pulls up the artificial hand and stares at it in amazement.  Floob looks away from the hand. FLOOB The Hand will not communicate directly with lesser beings.  The Hand will only communicate through us.  Praised be the Hand. JACOBS I don't understand. FLOOB Please put  Kronkle back together. We consider it obscene to reveal the Hand. Jacobs puts the artificial hand back at the top of the rock and puts Kronkle back on it.  While he is doing this, the performer behind the rock substitutes his real hand for the artificial hand. JACOBS Has this atmosphere been tested for hallucinogens? MASTERSON Yes sir. JACOBS This can't be real. KRONKLE Reality is what we perceive it to be. JACOBS But the hand...  it's not possible! FLOOB Are you some kind of atheist? JACOBS How could life evolve like this? FLOOB We used to be like you, with legs, and nasty parts below the waist KRONKLE But we noticed no matter what we did, it never turned out exactly as we planned. FLOOB We could never achieved everything we set out to achieve. KRONKLE It was as though some outside force was controlling us.  As if some unseen hand was guiding us.  We decided we might as well submit to our fate... FLOOB And then when we looked down... No more legs and nasty parts! KRONKLE We were hand puppets! FLOOB It explained everything!  And the truth set us free! KRONKLE No it didn't.  The truth made us hand puppets. FLOOB Well, that's a sort of freedom. KRONKLE No it isn't.  We're hand puppets!  We're only free to do what the Hand lets us do. FLOOB The truth set us free to do whatever the Hand lets us do. KRONKLE It lets you be an idiot. Kronkle and Floob starting fighting.  Kronkle chases Floob off stage. JACOBS This is insane. MASTERSON And yet, it makes a strange sort of sense. Haven't you always felt as though there was something else controlling your destiny? JACOBS No. MASTERSON I have.  I've always felt that way.  All my life. JACOBS Go bring them back.  We need to scan them, get some bio-readings. MASTERSON Yes, captain. Masterson exits.   Jacobs prepares the equipment to take readings.  He waits a moment, then calls out impatiently: JACOBS Masterson!  What's taking you so long! A HAND PUPPET MASTERSON comes up from behind the rock. MASTERSON Sorry, captain.  I looked everywhere.  I couldn't find them. JACOBS Good Lord! MASTERSON It's as though something wouldn't let me find them.  I'll keep trying, captain, but I can't promise anything.  You win a few, you lose a few.  It may be out of my hands.. The Masterson puppet exits.    Jacobs makes a choking sound of disbelief. BLACKOUT!   THE END       © 2002 by Richard Nathan.  All rights reserved