[Damocles]

Second Act (continued)

Act 2; Scene3


Setting; the Cylon Command Post on Murado;


[Note to set dresser]


Use the Phoenix bridge set and redress.


You can remove the plotter table and substitute a throne chair in the middle of the stage on a rotating dais. Remove the stage right consoles and screens and put in a wall with a doorway. Hang banners there and across the plexiglass plotting screen to hide that from view.The change from Act 1; Scene 2, is now the Cylons have installed their own version of a plexiglass plotting board(canted stage/cameraPOV right) with a Centurion assigned to plotting duties.


[Note to director]


Carried forward from Act 1, Scene 2


The Centurion event-plotting extra should be plainly visible, so that the audience can see him plot the Cylon side of the battle; as the actors act out the scene. Blocking should be such; so that the audience/camera POV should be un-obstructed.


Ravidge (enters [stage/camera] left and hurries toward his throne.) Why did you wait so late to call me? (He swings the throne around as he sits in it, to face and see the plexiglass plotting board. He is mostly in profile as he oversees the unfolding) battle.


Centurion 3; (At the nearest Cylon workstation to the throne) Outer satellites detected two wormhole inflation events, fifteen minutes ago. Two maneuvering objects inbound. IFF radio challenge rejected. Objects tracked at one tenth photonic measured interval.


Ravidge; One tenth the speed of light? Kinetics.... Do you have a mass on the objects? Well do you, you fool?


Centurion 3; Objects do not register on mass discriminators.


Ravidge; Space vessels and small rocks, then. For a moment I thought that might have been.......


Gold Cylon #1(enters [stage/camera right] followed by Cylon 2) Might have been what, traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge (stands); I dislike when you call me that!


Centurion 2; The question asked, has not been answered. You were about to say?


Ravidge; That it is Cain.


Gold Cylon #1; You see the information? (He points to the various Centurions working.[stage/camera left].). The signal returns show objects too small to be a battlestar.(He does not address Ravidge as he says this. His comments are aimed at Centurion 2)


Centurion 2; Traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge(reluctantly leaves his throne and goes along the Cylon work stations.He picks up a handheld device from a Cylon work station he approaches, that he uses, to help him to change the Cylon instrumentation readings to something that his human senses can interpret).


Ravidge; Why two wormholes? One of them is obviously inbound to pass us here in a close flyby. That one is a parabola. Conforms to that probe I destroyed three weeks ago.(He looks directly at Gold Cylon #1 as he says this) This other one is a hyperbola? No it can't be!


Cylon 3; Updating the inbounds. First object will close approach in two minutes.


(The Centurion, plotting the approach of the objects, should draw two plain bold tracks coming in parallel to the planet Murado. As the tracks come closer the first track should describe a hyperbola. The track that follows behind should be a parabola.)


Ravidge; This is why you need me, Goldie. I see the plan, now The plan is simple. The attackers send two ships.One carries kinetics, and the other is a recon bird. This is Cain. He's probing us. Apparently I killed his first probe, before it sent back anything useful! He's testing our defenses before he risks his precious Pegasus to my satellites' tender mercies.


Gold Cylon #1; You suggest that the hyperbolic ship is a bomber? That is not possible. Cain wants the tylium. Nuclear weapons would destabilize the fuel, rendering it worthless.


Centurion 2; Traitor Ravidge suggests kinetics, Leader One. Perhaps he believes that the bomber will release guided impactors intended to hit this command center?


Gold Cylon #1; Impossible. The Colonials are unable to hit anything at one tenth fraction of photonic velocity interval.


Ravidge; Neither can you, Cylons. Aha! Cain you are a clever devil.(Ravidge returns to his throne and sits with a flourish,) If you will just stand and watch, Goldie, I'll show you how a Human handles this little problem while you, Cylons, debate among yourselves, how impossible it is for us, Humans, to hit anything at a tenth of the speed of light.


Centurion 3; Updating.


(Now the Centurion, plotting the two tracks on the plexiglass, should draw a big bold arrow from the ^bomber^ to the planet Murado and print ^mines^.)


Ravidge; That is conventional enough, Cain. Rods from the gods. The Quorum outlawed that, but you wouldn't care, would you? DRADIS will discriminate those in about thirty seconds, and then you'll see what my satellites can do, Cain.(Ravidge is lost in himself as he renders this soliloquy. All the Cylons are silent, either working in obedience to Ravidge's orders or in the case of Gold Cylon #1, and Centurion 2 watching.)


Centurion 3; Updating.


(The Centurion, plotting the attack on the plexiglass plotting board, draws the bold arrow intersecting the planet Murado.)


Ravidge; Fire-plan six. Wait until the range is one thirtieth of a second, then cluster-fire at the strongest target echoes. Sustained tracking fire, as the targets pass through the outer and middle satellite belts.


COMMENCE!


Centurion 3; By your command!


Ravidge(grinning); Brace yourself, Goldie! There are going to be leakers at the fringes!.


([sound effects of explosions] Cylons, not seated, stumble and fall in response to a particularly loud explosion.[darken scene lighting to indicate power loss.]).








Gold Cylon #1; Restore power and communications at once!


Centurion 3; By your command!


([re-light the scene with subdued light] Various fallen Cylons should stand up.)


Ravidge;(looking at the ceiling) Hah! Nice try, Cain! I'm still here, you bastard!


Gold Cylon #1; What happened, traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge(Looking at his handheld) Well. you just lost your primary airfield, and most of your Raiders. Your alpha legion barracks, and presumably your alpha legion, is gone; and they got the powerplant. I told you to disperse your assets. But you are Cylons.


Gold Cylon #1; Disaster.


Ravidge; Nonsense. The tylium dumps and this command post remain. Your beta legion is intact. We have our own power supply. We have positive satellite communication and control. We've been scratched, but we aren't hurt.


Gold Cylon #1; Loss of a Centurion legion and a Raider cohort is not ^being hurt^?


Ravidge; No. Not if it proves my point.


Centurion 2; Which is traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge; If it had been up to you, you would have lost this command center, Goldie. That spread. those impactors, that were thrown at us, Cain carefully orchestrated to make you disperse my satellite fire. You would protect the installations to the east of us. CAIN aimed his kineticas, to hide what you would have considered artillery longs and shorts around those sites. You would miss completely that some of those longs were deliberately aimed at US. I didn't. I sacrificed, what was necessary, to keep the fuel and this base intact. As long as we have those two items,. Cain has to bring Pegasus here to get the fuel. He needs his Vipers to clear out the satellites. If he tries, he dies.


Gold Cylon #1; Traitor Ravidge. I know that you let the targets be destroyed to prove that you are essential. That was your deliberate choice. I continue to let you live, despite this, to serve the Cylon Empire. That is my choice. Remember that.


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