Space-Themed Sci-fi Monologues Vol. 7
Sci-fi monologues live or die on specificity. The bigger the setting, the smaller the human detail has to be: a tic, a pause, a private joke nobody else gets. These ten pieces aim for textures the previous batches missed, each 1-2 minutes with room to breathe.
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The Quartermaster's Inventory - Bex Olund - dry sardonic supply officer
"One thousand four hundred and twelve ration bars. (scribbles) Eighty-three liters of recycled water above minimum threshold. Forty-one stim packs, of which I would estimate sixteen are expired but the labels are smudged so we will call it forty-one. (beat) Captain, before you ask. Yes, I know there's a war on. Yes, I know morale is low. No, I will not be issuing the good coffee. (pause) I have served on six ships across two decades and I will tell you the same thing I told every captain before you. The day the quartermaster runs out of small luxuries is the day the crew stops believing anyone is in charge. So the good coffee stays in my locker until I say it doesn't. (small smile) You'll get a cup at the end of the campaign. Same as everyone else. Same as always."
The Veterinarian on the Ark - Doctor Mireille - frazzled overworked vet
"Hold her. Hold her steady, please, I cannot give an injection to a moving target. (soft) There. Good girl. Good girl. (beat) She's the last of her species, you know. That's what the manifest says. Last breeding female of a subspecies that doesn't exist on the homeworld anymore because the homeworld doesn't exist anymore. (pause) So when she gets a cough, I do not sleep. I sit in this stall with her and I read her Tolstoy because the rhythm calms her, and I monitor her vitals, and I cry quietly into my coffee. (small laugh) That's not in the job description. They don't tell you, when you sign up for the Ark project, that you'll be the last person in the universe a creature ever sees. (quiet) Pass me the second syringe. Slowly. She doesn't like sudden movements."
The Recruiter's Pitch - Sergeant Vahn - polished cheerful recruiter
"Hi! Hi, come in, come in, please, sit down. (warm) Cookie? They're real. Flown in from the agricultural ring, baked this morning. Take two. Take three, I won't tell. (chuckles) So. You came in on your own. That tells me something about you already. Most kids your age, their parents drag them through that door. You walked in. (beat) Now. I'm going to be straight with you, because I respect you, and because the pamphlets out front are mostly nonsense. The Fleet is hard. Basic will break you down to nothing. The food is bad, the bunks are worse, and your sergeant will hate you personally for the first six weeks. (pause) But. (leans in) You will see things, son, that civilians spend their whole lives dreaming about. Real things. Strange things. Things worth the bad food. (smiles) Another cookie?"
The Refugee at the Checkpoint - Old Woman Aru - weary stubborn refugee
"My papers. (hands them over) They are correct. I checked them three times this morning before we left the camp. If they are wrong, it is your machine that is wrong, not my papers. (beat) I am eighty-one years old. I was born on a world that no longer has a name. I have lived in seven camps across four systems and I have buried two husbands and one daughter and I am very, very tired. (pause) The boy with me is my grandson. He is nine. He does not speak. He has not spoken since the bombing on Kestrel Station, which you may remember from the news, or you may not, because there have been many bombings since. (quiet, firm) Stamp the papers. Let us through. I will not raise my voice. I will not weep. I will simply stand here until you do."
The Cartographer's Confession - Iven Maro - obsessive star cartographer
"There's a star missing. (urgent) No, listen, listen to me. I have charted this sector for eleven years. I know every point of light in the Drakkis arm the way you know the freckles on your wife's arm. And there is a star missing. (beat) Position seventeen, declination negative four. Catalogued in 2247 as a yellow main-sequence dwarf. Stable for the entire observation history. (pause) Last night, I looked. It is not there. Not faded. Not dimmed. Not occluded by dust. Gone. (small, frantic laugh) Stars do not just go. Stars announce themselves when they leave. They flare, they collapse, they scream across the spectrum for ten thousand years afterward. This one did not scream. (quiet) Something turned it off. Something is out there, and it can turn off stars, and nobody has noticed but me."
The Bartender at the Edge - Vella Roe - knowing weathered bartender
"What are you having. (beat) That's not a menu suggestion, that's the only question I ask in this bar. You sit down, you tell me what you're having, and I make it. Don't ask for water. Don't ask for the special. Tell me what you want. (pause) Gin. Good. (pours) Now. I've been tending this bar since before the station had artificial gravity. I have served three governors, two heads of state, one being who I am still not entirely sure had a physical form, and approximately ninety thousand drunk freighter pilots. (small smile) I know your face. I don't know from where. Don't tell me. I'll figure it out by the third drink. (slides glass) On the house. First one always is. Second one costs you. Third one costs you more than money. (winks) Welcome to the edge."
The Programmer Talks to Her Code - Yeun Park - exhausted nervous coder
"Okay. Okay, sweetheart. (to terminal) I know you don't like the new patch. I know. I rushed it. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but the deadline was last night and I had to push something or they would have cut my contract. (beat) Don't crash on me. Please don't crash. We have come so far together. Eleven months. Eleven months of you and me in this little office and the kettle in the corner and that one window that looks out at the docking bay. (soft) Remember the first time you ran clean? I cried. I actually cried, like an idiot, and I told my mother on the comm and she pretended she understood. (pause) Compile, baby. Compile for me. Just one more time. (hits enter) Come on. Come on. Come on. (breath) There you are. There's my girl."
The Gladiator on Pause - Korv the Unbroken - battered arena gladiator
"Wait. (panting) Wait, ref, hold the bell, I need a second. (spits blood) Just a second. (to opponent) That was a good one. The elbow. Didn't see it coming, you got me right under the plate. Smart. (small laugh) You've been training. Good for you. (beat) Listen. We've got, what, two minutes left in this round. I'm going to come at you again and one of us is going to the medbay. Probably me. I'm tired. I've been tired for about three years, if I'm honest, but the contract pays for my sister's treatments so I don't get to be tired. (pause) But before the bell rings, I want to say. You fought clean. You didn't go for the eyes when you had the chance. (nods) That matters. (stands) Alright. Ring it. Let's give them a show."
The Inheritor of the Estate - Jossa Maren - poised inheriting heir
"Thank you all for coming. (formal) I know the journey from the inner systems was long. I know my mother's death was sudden, and that many of you had complicated relationships with her, and I want you to know that I appreciate every one of you setting that aside to be here today. (beat) The reading of the will is in an hour. I will not pretend I do not know what it says. I do. My mother and I rewrote it together six months ago, when she knew. (pause) Some of you will be disappointed. Some of you will be furious. One of you, I expect, will threaten litigation before the end of the day, and I want to say in advance, calmly, that the lawyers are already retained. (small smile) Now. Drinks are in the next room. Please. Be civil."
The Sleeper Awakens Late - Passenger 8814 - disoriented bewildered sleeper
"Where, where am I. (groggy) The pod. I was in the pod. I remember the technician's face. She had a, she had a small scar on her chin, and she said, 'See you on the other side,' and I went under. (sits up) That was, that was supposed to be eighty years. (beat) Why is the ship so quiet. (pause) Where are the others. There were twelve thousand of us. Twelve thousand pods. I can see, I can see from here, the bay is. Empty. (shaky) The pods are open and empty and the lights are wrong, the lights are the wrong color, why are the lights the wrong color. (small voice) Hello? (beat) Is anyone there? My name is. My name is. (breath) Give me a moment. I'll remember my name in a moment. It's on the tip of my tongue."
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