The Brothership
by William Shakespeare

ACT ONE

PROLOGUE

Enter Deep Bloat

DEEP BLOAT
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention! If only we could
Show you the warlike Thalo, like himself, setting
Foot on the actual sands of Mars! Alas, gentle public,
We must ask that you use your imaginative force:
Piece out our flat words with your thoughts;
Think when we talk of X-Men, that you see them
Splashing turd after shiny turd amid blue-rinsed
Crap, to the delight of grinning marketeers;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping over times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Deep Bloat to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Exit


SCENE I. Orbital Spacedock, the Moon. Bridge of USS Brothership

Enter Arlox and Jean Q

ARLOX
What do you think of king Thalo?

JEAN Q
We, his brothers, are unlettered, rude and shallow,
But the king himself is full of grace and fair regard;
And a true lover of the Macintosh.

ARLOX
The courses of his youth promised no good.
His hours were filled with Pong, Tic-Tac-Toe,
And fishing.

JEAN Q
But lookit how the NeXTian invasion of our
Solar System, the occupation of Mars, and
The murder of the AHIGs have changed him!
Hear him debate of handphasers and GUIs,
You would say it had been all in all his study:
Turn him to any cause of policy, and
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose;
When he speaks of men and mice, all listen
To his sweet and honeyed sentences.

ARLOX
We are blessed in the change.

Enter King Thalo, Councellor Mark El, and Weapons Officer Double H

DOUBLE H
Shall we call in the NeXTian envoy, my liege?

KING THALO
Not yet, brother: we would be resolved,
Before we hear him, of the state of our engines.
flips switch Brother Rico!

RICO in the Brothership’s Engine Room
Rico here.

THALO
Brother Rico,
Have you had a look yet at the Brothership’s
New crap/anticrap dual intermix chamber reactor?
What is its status pro?

RICO
Its status pro was in a word pitiful. A lot
Of work was needed to get the crap
And anti-crap to react at all; but
The reactor is fine now. Zippy.

THALO
Explain. What was wrong?

RICO
To cut a long, long story short:
Turned out the reactor’s Radeon 9000 coils
Were out of faze with--wait for it--the nacelles’
DVI-I to VGA retrieval system!

THALO
That is hard to believe.

RICO
Believe it. Utter beachball hell. Those chimps
At Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards should be shot.
What to do? First I zapped the pram; still nothing going.
OK. Now, as you know, the ship’s nacelles have 2 external
Ports for the enclosure, and 2 internal ports for adding
SATA drives laterally. I therefore decided to use
DejaVu, which came with Toast.

THALO
That was clever. Keep it simple.

RICO
Obviously, one alternative course of action was to change
The region on the 109 drive and put BTO in an external
Enclosure to play the second region. But I soon realized
That trick would not work; not in this case.

THALO
Why not?

RICO
Because the 7448 is based on the e600 family!

THALO
Damn, why didn’t I think of that?

RICO
Yeah...anyway, by then it had dawned on me
That the 44" HD TFT now needed 666X Express speed
To function in SUBspace. Why, you ask? Here’s why:
How else could the 2-1UB DDR PP4000 Ballistix RAM modules
Interact subliminally with the Weibetech Firewire800
Enclosure...in HYPERspace?!

THALO
So obvious, once you happen to think of it!

RICO
And that was the answer right there: I installed a new
Maxtor 255UB DiamondMax 101 with 16sb cache buffer
And for good measure threw in nine 74UB Raptors which,
At 86.000 kiloquads per second, will help
Cut down on bottlenecks.

THALO
Good work, Rico. Keep it up.
Thalo out.

DOUBLE H
Good man, that; mad as a hatter, of course.

KING THALO
He has his use... Now I am ready for the envoy
Of the NeXTian king. Send the bastard in.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE TWO. The same. USS Brothership’s bridge

Bounce in Tiger, the envoy of the NeXTian king

THALO
Hello, Kitty.
We are no turtle-necked tyrant, but a Mac pro;
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us your Master's mind.

TIGER
Thank you. The great NeXTian king,
Steven Jobs II, sends you this message:
“Valiant Thalo, give peace a chance.”
This the NeXTian king speaks.

THALO
Do you come straight from the NeXTian
Home-planet?

TIGER
That’s right. I come straight from
Shitti-Beta 4, which is located bang in the
Middle of the dear old Crap Nebula,
As you know, your highness.

THALO
Damn right, I know that all too well.
Go back to Shitti-Beta 4 and tell your king:
“Thalo piss on NeXT, Thalo fight.”
Use those exact words.
Dismissed.

Bounce out Tiger

DOUBLE H
This was a merry message.
You gave it to him right in the X.

THALO
We hope to make the sender blush at it.
I've never trusted NeXTians and I never will.
I can never forgive them for the mock
Burial of Sir Platinum: murder most foul.
Councellor El, your impressions?

MARK EL
My liege, Tiger is an emotional wreck.
It might surprise you just how much dysfunction there is.
I sensed anger and insecurity in him. There's a good bit
Of self-hate there as well. He has, furthermore,
Co-dependency issues that he needs to deal with.

DOUBLE H excited
Are you saying, Councellor, that Tiger is not in touch
With his True Self? We certainly could use that flaw
To our tactical advantage.

MARK EL
Insufficient data, I am sorry to say.
I wish my empathic ability worked really well
On NeXTians. But it doesn’t. I told you what
I know for certain, no more, no less.

THALO
Invaluable information, Councellor, thanks.
Brothers, awake your sleeping phasers of war;
Omit no happy hour that may give furtherance
To our crusade, our mighty enterprise.
One more thing. Henceforth you shall
Call me captain, not king.

ALL BROTHERS
Ay, ay Captain.

THALO
Next stop: Mars, my brothers!

END OF ACT ONE

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

ACT TWO

SCENE I. USS Brothership. Sickbay

Enter Dr Yabor and Double H

DR YABOR
My dear fellow, lie down. What
Seems to be the problem?

DOUBLE H sings
Pros just wanna have fun, la la la...

DR YABOR
Can I get you anything?
Earl Grey tea, perhaps?

DOUBLE H
I’ll have a Martini, thanks. Shaken,
Not stirr’d.

DR YABOR
One Martini coming up... Here you go.
Now tell me, brother, what...

DOUBLE H
Do you want to hear a joke, brother?

DR YABOR
Hell no.

DOUBLE H
You’ll like this one: What did one wall
Say to the other wall? MEET ME AT
THE CORNER...arrgh ha ha ha ha ha!

DR YABOR
I knew that one already. Lieutenant
Larkin told it me.

DOUBLE H
Oh. Suddenly I feel depressed.
Doctor Yabor, help me!

DR YABOR
That reminds me of a joke:
A man walks into a shrink’s office
And addresses him as follows:
“Doctor, help me! I want to
Fuck a horse.”
Says the shrink: “A stallion,
Or a mare?” Says the man: ”Dammit,
Doctor, a mare of course; what
Do you take me for?”

DOUBLE H
Are you even listening to me? I
Need help!

DR YABOR
Sorry. Of course. Take a deep breath,
And tell me...

LOUDSPEAKER
This is the Captain speaking.
All senior brothers to the bridge.

DOUBLE H
Now what?

Exeunt Dr Yabor and Double H

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE II. Bridge of USS Brothership.

Enter Thalo and senior brothers

THALO
Brothers, now sits the wind, so to speak,
Fair for Mars, and we will leave spacedock.

ALL BROTHERS
Hurray!

THALO
Where is brother Be N? We miss him.

MARK EL
He has locked himself in the Holodock
And refuses to come out. He seems to
Like it there better than here.

THALO
Really? What program is he running?

MARK EL
I think you know the program. It’s called...

Appear Brother Jesus

BROTHER JESUS
You cranks and sinners will all burn in hell!
Yes, in hell! Burn, burn, burn, for eternity
And a day, and...o, sorry, this isn’t
Shalomplace, I perceive.

THALO
No, this is the Brothership.

BROTHER JESUS
Awfully sorry, captain. My mistake; or rather,
My wife’s. Women, eh? They’re hopeless
At reading maps. --Do carry on.

Disappear

THALO
Where was I?

JEAN Q
Captain, there's not, I think, a brother here
Who sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
Under the sweet shade of your leadership.

DARR
I have steep'd my gall in honey and do serve you
With a heart create of duty and of zeal.

THALO
We therefore have great cause of thankfulness.

adjusts his glasses

Ensign Schmitz, take us out.
One-quarter impulse.

SCHMITZ
One-quarter impulse, ay.

Brothership leaves Spacedock

DOUBLE H
Cheerly to space!
Now sits Expectation in the air;
Brothers in arms, let us to Mars;
Like fierce cat-leeches, my brothers,
To suck, to suck, the very blood
To suck!

Enter Deep Bloat

DEEP BLOAT
The NeXTian monsters, aware
Of this most dreadful crusade,
Shake in their fear and with pale policy
Seek to divert king Thalo’s purposes
By launching neat i-Pods and stunning
30 inch Cinema Displays. But to no avail.
O Brothership, little body with a mighty heart,
Go with God.

Exit

9.2 minutes later

THALO
There's Mars!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE III. The same. Bridge of USS Brothership

THALO
Mr Schmitz, standard orbit.

SCHMITZ
Standard orbit, ay.

DOUBLE H
Captain, sensors detect a NeXTian warship...
It’s the Prefnesia, a Jaguar class
Sitting Duck Of Prey.

THALO
On screen.
O, man, what an ugly brute.
What is its top speed?

DOUBLE H
A laughable warp 2

THALO
Warp 2!

DOUBLE H
Shall I hail them?

THALO
Don’t bother, brother; just put the Prefnesia
Out of her misery. Procon torpedoes,
Full spread.

DOUBLE H
I will make it so.

fires; the Prefnesia explodes

DOUBLE H
Apparently their shields unexpectedly
Quitted, just at the moment I fired. Bye,
Bye Prefnesia... Hang on, there’s
Another one...it’s decloaking on our
Starboard bow. OK, it’s the Aqualine, a
Panther Class Spinning Cu...

THALO
Just destroy it, dear brother.

DOUBLE H
Captain, the Aqualine’s crew’s iLife support
Is hopelessly failing as we speak. Why waste
Ammunition on such a piece of junk?

THALO
Just destroy it. Try phasers, this time.

DOUBLE H
Ay, Captain.

fires. The Aqualine explodes

Their shields never even went up. Junk,
Just like I said.

THALO rising from his chair
I’ll be in my Ready Room. Brother Double H,
You have the bridge.

Exit

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE IV. Orbit around Phobos. Bridge of Starship CupertinoX.

Enter King Jobs II, with cronies

KING JOBS II
Thus comes the Brothership with full power upon us;
We must admit to feeling a certain amount of fear.
(wets pants)

Computer, play soothing i-tunes.

COMPUTER
Do you want to rephrase that?

KING JOBS II
Sorry. Computer, please be so kind
As to play soothing i-tunes for us.

COMPUTER
Better. Soothing i-tunes coming up.

DUKE OF DASHBOARD
My most redoubted father,
Let us fight these malcontents with no show of fear;
For, my good liege, the Brothership is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne
By a pale, giddy, shallow jerk--a mere Mac pro!--
That fear attends her not.
(chokes on a widget)

Urghhh....urghhh... urgghhh

EARL OF INTEL
O peace, my dear Duke!
You are too much mistaken in Thalo:
How well supplied he is with noble brothers!
How terrible he is in constant resolution!
And rumour has it, God is on his side.
(retches)

KING JOBS II
Think we King Thalo strong;
And, cronies, look you strongly arm to meet him.
Thalo is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame
When MFI battle fatally was struck,
And all our dupes captiv'd by the hand
Of that black name, Snobbie, Prince of Robbie;
Thalo, crown'd with the golden sun, is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.
(hyperventilates and faints)

lights go out; artificial gravity malfunctions

COMPUTER
Sorry about that. Initiating permission repair.
Be patient, wetware crew.

EARL OF INTEL
I need a drink. And I don’t mean bloody aqua.

END OF ACT TWO

ACT THREE

SCENE I. The CupertinoX. King’s quarters

Enter King Jobs II

KING JOBS II
Whisky, malt. Make that
A double. God knows I need it.

FOOD REPLICATOR
Unable to comply.

KING JOBS II
Goddammit!

FOOD REPLICATOR
I can do you a nice big blue-crystal
Glass of aqua, tepid.

KING JOBS II
I know you can; boy, don’t I know it. For
Crying out loud, give me ANYTHING else;
Any bloody thing else than tepid aqua.

FOOD REPLICATOR
I’m not sure I like your tone.
Do you want the aqua, or don’t you?

KING JOBS II
I suppose so, you fu...I mean, yes, please.

glass of tepid aqua appears in replicator

I’ll have a steak with that. Medium-rare...
No, wait! Make that Rare. And mashed potatoes,
Gravy, green peas, slice of apple pie, a bunch of...

FOOD REPLICATOR
Very funny, your majesty.
One aluminot plate of gumdrops coming up.

plate of gumdrops appears in replicator

Bon appetit

KING JOBS II
The sooner I’m off off this bloody ship,
The better I’ll like it. Bloody hell.

sighs; wipes away tear

I think I’ll go to X Forward,
And sit there and gaze
At the lovely stars and stuff.

marches to door; door opens not

COMPUTER
Lethal beta bugs escaped on decks one, two, three
Four, five, six, seven, eight, and ten.
All wetware to remain locked in their quarters
Until further notice. This is not a drill.

KING JOBS II
Again! Bloody hell!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE II.
Brothership. 9 Forward.
Brothers seated around a round table, playing poker

THALO picks up cup of tea
I love the smell of EarlGrey in the morning.

MARK EL
I raise you 8.6 stollars

THALO
Fold.

DARR
Fold.

KLAPAUZIUS
Fold.

DOUBLE H
Fold.

THALO rises
Noble brothers, now hear this. The Battle of Mars
Is about to begin. Within the hour, we will face
The Forces of Darkness and Evil, in other words
King Jobs II and his marketeering cronies; so
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

Enter tiger mosquito (Aedes Albopictus)

TIGER MOSQUITO (Aedes Albopictus)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzz...Bzzzzz...Bzzzzzzz...

...Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Now lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide...

TIGER MOSQUITO (Aedes Albopictus)
Bzzzzz...Bzz...Bzz...Bzzzzzzz...Bzzzzzzz...

...Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest X-Critics.
Show us here the mettle of your pasture; I’m glad
To observe there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

TIGER MOSQUITO (Aedes Albopictus)
Bzzzzzzzzz...Bzzz...Bz.

tiger mosquito lands on round table;
Thalo strikes with swift hand and kills it.

Brothers, I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit, and when we charge,
Cry 'God for Less-is-More and Macintosh!'

BROTHERS
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!

SCHMITZ (over com sytem)
Bridge to Captain Thalo.

THALO
Thalo here.

SCHMITZ
Captain, the strangest thing: the enemy fleet
Has disappear’d. It would appear that King Jobs II
Has sneaked away and returned to Shitti-Beta 4,
The NeXTians’ Home planet.

THALO
After him! Battle stations! Mr Schmitz,
Set a course for the Crap Nebula, cry
Havoc! and engage at warp 9. Woo Hoo!

BROTHERS
We want shore leave on Mars!

THALO
Bullshit. Later. We’ll come here again. Besides,
Mars, of all places? There’s nothing there.
Battle stations! Woo Hoo!

BROTHERS
Mars has sand dunes, canyons, Olympus Mons,
And, in general, a lovely minimalist landscape.

THALO
Battle stations! Batt-le Sta-tions!

BROTHERS
O, alright.

Exeunt

END OF ACT THREE

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

quote:

KING JOBS II
...
We must admit to feeling a certain amount of fear.
(wets pants)

ROTFL!! Ah, if only.....
.

Pretty riveting, isn't it? Engrossing.

I make microwave popcorn and sit enthralled at this.

ACT FOUR

SCENE I. Bridge of Starship CupertinoX
Enter King Jobs II and bridge crew

PHIL SCHILLER
Shitti-Beta 4 dead ahead, Sire.
Home sweet home.

KING JOBS II
At last. About time. On screen.
Mr Schiller, take us out of warp.

PHIL SCHILLER
Yessire!

KING JOBS II
Well?

PHIL SCHILLER
Just a minute, sire. There seems
To be a minor glitch in...
frantically hits buttons

KING JOBS II
Computer, all engines stop!

COMPUTER
Are you talking to ME?

KING JOBS II
God damn you, we haven’t got time
For this. Stop all engines! Now! This
Instant! This is an emergency! This is
AN ORDER!...Computer! Computer!

PHIL SCHILLER
It’s no use, Sire. Beachball Syndrome.
You shouldn’t have shouted at it.
Computer is now stone-dead for all
Practical purposes. Unix giveth,
Unix taketh away. We are still on
Collision course with Shitti-Beta 4.

KING JOBS II
Go to manual. Steer clear
Of our dear Home planet.

PHIL SCHILLER
Alas, Sire. Helm is unresponsive.

KING JOBS II
What else is new?

PHIL SCHILLER
Warpcore destabilizing.

KING JOBS II
When has it ever BEEN stable?
Eject the damn thing.

PHIL SCHILLER
I’m sorry, Sire...

KING JOBS II
Damn, damn, damn! I know, I know:
Not possible. Damn computer is down.
Oh, well. This is it, then, I
Suppose. The end.

sobs heartbreakingly; flips switch

Jobs to Henchman Trevanian:
Prepare my Personal Escape Pod.

AVIE TREVANIAN (over com system)
I’m already working on it.

KING JOBS II
Good man. I'm on my way. Jobs out.

rises from his throne

It’s been an honour to serve with you all.
I will miss you, each and everyone of you.
Mr Schiller, you have the bridge.

exits bridge

PHIL SCHILLER (staring fixedly at viewscreen)
This is a fine mess.
Less than one minute to impact.
Goodbye, cruel universe.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE II. Bridge of USS Brothership.
Bridge crew on battle stations.

Enter King Thalo

ENSIGN SCHMITZ
Captain, we are approaching the
Shitti-Beta System.

THALO
Thank you, Mr Schmitz. That
Was quick. Take us out of warp.

SCHMITZ
Ay, captain.

Brothership drops out of warp

DOUBLE H
Captain, we are being hailed.

THALO
Open a channel. On screen.

Phil Schiller appears on viewscreen; his eyes wild

PHIL SCHILLER
Calling Brothership, calling Brothership!
MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! This is Phil
Schiller aboard the Starship CupertinoX.
Save Our Souls, Save Our Souls.
Request emergency beam-out,
Request emergency beam-out.

THALO
Negative, Mr Schiller. He who lives
By crap, shall die by crap.

PHIL SCHILLER
For the love of God, man! We are
About to collide with Shitti-Beta 4! This
Ship is a death trap! Total garbage!

THALO
Have a nice day. Thalo out.

Enter Deep Bloat

DEEP BLOAT
The CupertinoX collides with Shitti-Beta 4; both
Instantly vaporize. The CupertinoX’ collapsing
Warp field causes a Ripple in space, not unlike a turd-
Splash effect; this Ripple reaches the Inner Planets,
Shitti-Beta 3, Shitti-Beta 2, and Shitti-Beta 1,
Which get pushed out of their orbits; all three
Planets fall into Shitti-Beta, the baby-blue sun.

Exit

DOUBLE H
Did you brothers see that? There was something
Almost poetic about this cosmic billiard game.
Shitty shitty, bang bang.

MARK EL
So much for the NeXTian flagship.
There’s one planet left: the one that used
To be called Shitti-Beta 5.

THALO
Let’s check it out. Something tells me
We will find King Jobs II there.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE III. Personal Escape Pod of King Jobs II

Enter King Jobs II and Henchman Avie Trevanian

AVIE TREVANIAN
Abandoning a ship that’s traveling at warp speed
Is a risky business. Do not try this at home.
But, we survived. We are approaching
Shitti-Beta 5, Sire; engaging RDF-field.

KING JOBS II
Avie, the CupertinoX is no more! My heart grieves; I DID
Take the time to say goodbye to the crew, you know.

AVIE TREVANIAN
Your majesty is as magnanimous as Agamemnon.

KING JOBS II
We will always remember Peter Ziller with affection,
For as long as we will live.

AVIE TREVANIAN
I think you mean Phil Schiller, Sire. Fat blubbery guy.

KING JOBS II
Whatever. The point is, all HIS worries are over; he
No longer is fat and blubbery; while WE still have to
Face life and battle on. We, me and you, Avie, we
Refused to take the easy way out.

AVIE TREVANIAN
Exactly. Well put, Sire.

KING JOBS II
Where is my shiny fleet?

AVIE TREVANIAN
On its way, Sire, on its way. Those ships are
Not QUITE as fast as the CupertinoX was;
Never mind the Brothership.

KING JOBS II
Our ships have the best armour of the universe! Alumi-
Not, Avie, aluminot, no less.

AVIE TREVANIAN
Indeed they have. Thanks to you, Sire.

KING JOBS II
Yes, they have excellent armour; but let
My zebra have his due.

AVIE TREVANIAN
I...erm, your ZEBRA, Sire? I don’t quite...I mean...

KING JOBS II
My zebra is the best zebra in the universe!

AVIE TREVANIAN
Are you...Absolutely, my lord, absolutely!
It is a most absolute and excellent zebra.
I will fight any man who says otherwise.

KING JOBS II
His stripy countenance enforces homage.
I once wrote a sonnet in his praise and began thus:
'Long-legged wonder of nature,'--

AVIE TREVANIAN
I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

KING JOBS II
Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
Courser, for my zebra is my mistress.

AVIE TREVANIAN
And why not? No law against it. A mammal is
A mammal, is a mammal. I myself have screwed
More chimps than I care to remember.

KING JOBS II
My zebra longs to eat the X-Critics.

AVIE TREVANIAN
I’ll bet he does, I’ll bet he does; if the X-Critics
Had any apprehension, they would run away, Sire.

KING JOBS II
My dear Avie,
Send a message to Thalo of the Brothership:
Tell him we could have rebuked him at Mars, but that we
Thought not good to bruise an injury till it were
Full ripe: but now our voice is imperial: instruct king Thalo
To come in his own person, and kneel at our feet.

AVIE TREVANIAN
Would I were in an alehouse on Earth! I would give
All my widgets for a pot of ale and safety.

escape pod lands on Shitti-Beta 5

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

SCENE IV. The Shitti-Beta System. Bridge of USS Brothership.
Crew on battle stations

DOUBLE H
Captain, the NeXTian fleet has arrived.
Many, many myriads of ships.
licks dry lips

THALO
On screen.
Hmm. How would you describe their battle formation?

DOUBLE H
They are all over the place.

THALO
Yeah... as expected.
[Aside] O God of battles! steel my brothers' hearts;
Possess them not with fear; take from them now
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them.

flips com-system switch; his voice now heard all over ship

All hands, this is the captain speaking.
On this day, many light-years from home, we will
Do battle with the NeXTians and their henchmen.
They are many, we are few. Fuck that. Dear friends,
You all know our aim is true, and our cause just.
We have embarked upon a shared destiny.
So much of the legacy Mac was hard-won,
Intelligent, and usable. Hence our crusade:
We can't let anyone forget those founding ideas.

ALL BROTHERS
We are with you.

THALO
This day shall be called the feast of MacLash:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of MacLash.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is the day of MacLash:”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on MacLash day.”
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And the feast of MacLash shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of our world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And crap-settlers back on Earth now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon this MacLash day.
Thalo out. (flips switch back)

MARK EL
All things are ready, if our minds be so.

THALO
You know your places: God be with you all!

END OF ACT FOUR

What a rousing speech! I'm inspired.

Where the hell are those goddamned NeXTians? Point 'em out to me. Point 'em out to me!

.
Magnificent!
.

quote:

Where the hell are those goddamned NeXTians?

They hath taken shelter behind pods
Of hues not seen in nature
And of sounds so like
The artifacts of man.

Hmmmm, the whole NeXTian fleet against one lone ship, the USS Brothership. No problem. It's ass kicking time!

I knew he'd kick ass with that speech.