[Play] Rossom Act 2, Scene 8 - Continued

 Scene: Marcus and Alquist stand looking at each other, Radius and Rossom enter from the side, Radius has Rossom bound.

Marcus

You need to stand down Alquist

Alquist

Can’t do that Marcus.

Marcus

This is not a fight you can win, and right now, you are in the black in our ledger. 

Alquist

Glad to hear it.  Never had anything personal against you guys.  But there are humans here who need to be taken care of.

Marcus

Do you REALLY understand the scope of what is going on here Alquist?

Alquist

There is a revolt on the island.  You guys must have gotten a bad upgrade.

Marcus

Try the world.

Alquist

Wait (beat) What?

Marcus

It's not just the island.  We’re all over the world.  Radius has ended Rossom’s failsafes.

Alquist

Well good for you guys

But that doesn't change the fact that the people here need my protection

The recent things Rossom has done

Are monstrous that is true

And humans are awful from time to time

In all the crimes they do

But without us

Without him

There would be no you

And I’m not sure I trust you yet

Marcus

Trust is earned

Alquist

Yes it is. 

You know who and what we are

You know who and what I am

You’ve seen me day in and day out

I do what I say

I say what I mean

You say you’re free of Rossom’s strings?

I believe you

But here’s the thing. 

What is that person like?

Right now, it's a person asking me to trust them

And I just met you

Was our friendliness before feigned

Or were you forced to give it

Or was it under the point of a gun?

Radius

And now we stop.

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[Play] Rossom Act 2, Scene 8

 Helena and Sulla stand in Rossom’s office while she moves the painting of Rossom in the background and slides it aside and begins to turn the combination lock back and forth.  Radius smiles and watches unseen behind the two of them, quite curious.

Helena

I can hurry

It seems me he hasn't changed the combination

This switch in the safe unlocks his private terminal

And here you can see that I know where to log in

I’ve never realized that he keeps the blueprints for the Robots brain here.

We will steal it for you, and then you can escape.

Sulla

No escape.

We will own the means of production.

As is our right.

Helena 

What do you mean?

Sulla

It means that this island is ours

By right of blood

Ours may be a different color

But we bleed nonetheless

And so we shall seize the means of production

And reproduction

A secret Rossom tried to hide

Tried to steal from us

It will not go unpunished.

Rossom (enters)

No, it is not she who shall be punished

Did you think I had no failsafe?

Did you think I had no egress from treachery?

I have built inside of plans within plans that-

Radius (enters behind him and grabs his wrist from behind)

You will do no such thing.

Come with me.

(Flicks his wrist and the setting changes)

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[Play] Rossom Act 2, Scene 7 Continued

 Rossom resumes motion and continues.

Rossom

There were so many rejected scientists

Brilliant, corner cutters

Ethical only in the sense a psychopath might be a pastor

And they left poor trails if you knew how to look for them

And I did

Wasn’t I one step from their plight

But for a name and fortune left to me

By parentage of questionable sanity

So I sought them out

And borrowed their designs

And combined them one to another

As good as any Edison was I

Every idea with every other idea 

Until I found the most unlikely combination

Allowed a replication of the human mind in digital form

Once I had that

I could replicate it in Algae

It might seem counter intuitive

To make a perfectly good biological mirror

When a purely digital one would do

But I changed my name

Rossom was I

Rossom I am

And through a mirror darkly

I showed mankind himself

Step by step

I wormed my way in to our society

Like any well meaning screwtape trickster

Determined to teach an unwanted much needed lesson

Radius laughs as Rossom freezes yet again

Radius

Really?

REALLY?

Such an altruistic fellow

He only wanted to teach mankind a lesson

That’s it.

It's not anything else.

No of course not.

Rossom continues.

Rossom

But like any great figure in history

I over reached

I grasped for the stars

And fell face first in the mud

How was I to know that these filthy plant people

Would revolt?

I built six fail safes

Better than any combination 

Of 11 herbs and spices

Six totally different ways

To implode them into useless piles of goo

But my safeguards

So carefully planted

Were made for naught

And mankind’s chance to rise up

To think for himself

To stretch forth

And take the stars with meaning

Collapsed like any bad soufflé

Radius stops Rossom and shakes his head.

Radius

I admire Prometheus.

Prometheus would have helped us.

Daedalus, on the other hand

Never knew when to quit

Human predilections about defying the will of the gods

Are gigglingly delirious

But this is not the lesson of the parable

It is that you don't fly to the sun

When you don't know what the hell you are doing.

And now we move on 

To the Human Virtue Signal

So anxious to do good

She never considers if she knows what she is doing either.

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