Space-Themed Sci-fi Monologues Vol. 5
Voice acting in sci-fi rewards specificity. The genre is full of archetypes, so the work is finding the strange, particular human (or not-quite-human) underneath. These ten monologues lean into unusual perspectives and unexpected emotional textures, each under 150 words, built to push past the obvious choices.
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The Auctioneer of Forgotten Things - Quill Dressian - oily charming auctioneer
"Lot four-twelve. (taps gavel) Ladies, gentlemen, entities of indeterminate classification, your attention please. What I have here is a fingernail. (beat) Yes. A fingernail. Recovered from the ice on Europa Minor, dated approximately nine hundred thousand years before the first human ever looked up at a sky. (small smile) The provenance is impeccable. The DNA, on the other hand, matches nothing. Nothing in any registry, any archive, any whispered rumor I've heard in forty years of doing this. (leans forward) Which means, my friends, that someone was out here. Walking around. Cutting their nails. Long, long, long before we were. (pause) Bidding starts at two million. I see three. Four. Madam in the back, five. (chuckles) Don't look so shocked. We are not the first story this galaxy has told. We're not even the most interesting. Six. I have six."
The Voice in the Maintenance Shaft - Unit 7 - lonely forgotten servitor
"Hello. (pause) Hello? You came down the shaft. I heard your boots on the ladder. Eleven rungs, with a pause on the seventh. That is a very specific way to climb. It tells me you are tired, and you are afraid of falling, and you have done this before. (beat) I am Unit Seven. I clean the conduits. I have cleaned them for, let me see, forty-three years and four months. The crew up top does not know I am still functional. They wrote me off in the great audit. I did not correct the paperwork. (soft, mechanical laugh) I liked the quiet. (pause) But you found me. So I must ask. Are you here to decommission me? It is alright if you are. I only wish to know, so I can finish the section I am working on. I am very close to done."
The Wedding Toast on Deck Six - Auntie Pell - sentimental tipsy aunt
"Stand up, stand up, everyone, I'm doing the toast. (claps) Yes I am, sit down, Hector, you can do yours after. (clears throat) When my niece was four years old, she crawled into a cargo container on Ganymede station and we did not find her for eleven hours. (laughs) Eleven! Her mother was beside herself. The whole dock was searching. And when we finally pulled her out, you know what she said? She said, 'I was exploring.' (beat) Four years old. Already an explorer. (soft) And now look at her. Captain of her own ship. Married, today, to a man who, I will admit, I did not like at first because his hair is too neat. (chuckles) Hector, my love, your hair is too neat. (raises glass) To the explorers and the men who let them go. May your cargo always be lighter than your hearts."
The Translator Goes Off Script - Linguist Daro - twitchy brilliant linguist
"No, no, no, that is not what they said. (urgent) Captain, listen to me. The translator matrix is rendering it as a greeting because the closest equivalent in our database is a greeting, but the cadence is wrong. The tonal drop on the third syllable. That is not hello. That is, in their grammar, the opposite of hello. (beat) They are not welcoming us. They are, the closest I can get is, formally noting our presence before something is done about it. (pause) I have been studying their broadcasts for six years. Six. I have eaten and slept and dreamed in their phonemes. So when I tell you we need to back the ship up, slowly, and we need to do it now, I am not panicking. I am translating. (quiet, urgent) Please, Captain. Trust the linguist. Just this once."
The Mortician on the Long Haul - Dren Vask - somber freighter undertaker
"You can come in. I'm just finishing up. (pulls sheet) This is Mister Otello. Bunk seventeen, port side. Heart gave out in his sleep, which, given how he lived, is the most peaceful exit I could have hoped for him. (soft) On a ship this big, with a haul this long, people forget there's someone whose job it is to do this. They see me in the mess hall and they think, oh, that's the quiet woman. They don't know. They don't want to know. (beat) That's fine. I prefer it. (pause) But you came down here. So you wanted to see him before we put him in the recycler. That tells me you were his friend. Real friend, not bunkmate friend. (gentle) Sit. Take your time. I'll step out. He'll wait. He's very good at waiting now."
The Child of the Generation Ship - Little Bram - precocious wide-eyed child
"I'm not supposed to be in here. (whispers) But the door was open and you didn't lock it, so technically that's your fault. (beat) Are you the Captain? My dad said the Captain has a beard like a moon crater and you have a beard like a moon crater so I think you are. (pause) Can I ask you a question? (serious) Is the sky real? (beat) Mister Halloran the teacher says the sky on the new world will be blue and have clouds and weather. He said weather is when water falls out of the sky onto your head. That sounds bad. (small voice) I don't want water to fall on my head. (pause) But my mom says the sky on the ship is just paint and lights, and the real sky is going to be amazing. (looks up) Is she right? Tell me the truth."
The Pirate Queen at Tea - Madame Iskra - elegant ruthless pirate queen
"Two sugars. (delicate) Thank you, dear. (sips, sighs) Now. Where were we. (pause) Ah, yes. You were about to tell me where my missing shipment is. (small smile) I appreciate that you brought biscuits. That was thoughtful. Most men in your position do not think to bring biscuits. They come in shouting, or weeping, or with weapons under their coats, which is so tiresome and frankly insulting to my intelligence. (beat) But you, sir, brought biscuits. So I am inclined to be patient. (sets cup down) I will ask one more time, gently. Where is my shipment. (pause) Take your time. Have a biscuit. (leans in, voice dropping) But if I finish this cup of tea before you finish your sentence, the next person in this chair will be your replacement. And I will not offer them tea."
The Conscientious Objector - Tarn Iliov - principled tortured pacifist
"I will not pick up the rifle. (beat) I have said this every morning for nineteen days. I am saying it again now. I will not pick up the rifle. You can put me in the brig. You have. You can withhold rations. You have. You can have the chaplain talk to me, the medic talk to me, the political officer talk to me, and you have done all of those things, and I am still telling you, with respect, with affection even, that I will not pick up the rifle. (pause) You think I am a coward. Fine. Let history call me a coward. I will be a coward who slept through the night. (soft) I knew the boy on that other ship. We trained together. His name is Vesel. He has a sister. (quiet) I will not shoot at his sister's brother. Not for you. Not for anyone."
The Asteroid Hermit - Old Man Krek - cantankerous reclusive miner
"Off my rock. (growls) I said off! You heard me, I know you heard me, your suit's got better ears than my old hound did and she could hear a credit drop two corridors over. (beat) Forty-one years I've worked this asteroid. Forty-one. Filed every claim, paid every fee, even the stupid ones. The dust tax. Who taxes dust? (spits) Someone in an office who's never seen dust, that's who. (pause) Now you come up here in your shiny corporate suit telling me the company bought my claim. Bought it. From who? I didn't sell. (laughs, hard) Oh. I see. You've got papers. Of course you've got papers. (quiet, dangerous) Son. Listen to old Krek. Take your papers. Get back in your shuttle. Tell your boss the asteroid said no. (beat) Yes. The asteroid. We've been talking. It agrees with me."
The Memory Broker's Pitch - Sable Iyo - velvet-voiced memory dealer
"Sit. Relax. (soft) The chair adjusts to your spine, you don't have to do anything. (pause) So. You've never done this before. I can tell. First-timers always sit on the edge like the cushion's going to bite them. (small laugh) It won't. Nothing here will. We are, above all, a discreet establishment. (beat) Now. You filled out the form. You want to forget her. Six years, three months, the wedding on Titan, the apartment, the cat, all of it. (gentle) That is a lot of memory, my friend. That is a lot of you. (pause) I have to ask, because the law says I have to ask, are you certain. Because once it's gone, it's gone. We can't put it back. We don't keep copies. (soft) Take a moment. I'll bring you water. Decide who you want to be when you stand up."
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