Episode Transcript
Rogue Tyger
“Cat and Mouse,” Part 3
INTRODUCTION
HOST
Welcome to Jabberwocky Audio Theater.
RATING ANNOUNCER
The following audio theater is rated AD-G for general audiences.
ANNOUNCERLAND
MUSIC: THEME MUSIC BEGINS
ANNOUNCER
In the distant reaches of space, a lone ship plunges deep into the unknown. Her crew?
REG MACORUM
Reg Macorum, ship’s captain.
GRAINNE
Grainne Kochowa, pilot.
ENLING
Shen Enling, ship’s doctor.
TORMAR
Tormar, engineer.
AIDAN
Aidan Vosky, mechanic.
ANNOUNCER
Trapped in a nebula surrounded by enemy ships, the crew of the Tyger search for a way to escape.
(BEAT)
Jabberwocky Audio Theater presents Rogue Tyger. Tonight’s episode: “Cat and Mouse,” part three.
MUSIC: THEME MUSIC ENDS
TYGER BRIDGE
(STANDARD BRIDGE AMBIENT)
AIDAN
Captain, isn’t that the same ship that we saw at the top of the nebula? Um… number eighteen?
REG MACORUM
Good eye, Aidan: same type of sloop, similar paint job, but look at the exhaust ports behind the aft fins: custom Batori fittings. No, that’s yet another ship.
GRAINNE
(SIGHS)
That would make it number twenty-three.
AIDAN
How many ships does the Zenocrate Cartel have?
GRAINNE
More than enough to keep an effective net around this nebula — unfortunately.
REG MACORUM
And more ships than I know captains. Business must be good. Despite my leaving.
GRAINNE
I doubt they’d say your leaving helped matters.
REG MACORUM
True Grainne, true. But if I was just dealing with Sylvia Malabar and a few of the usual suspects, I’d have a plan. As it is…
SOUND: AIRLOCK OPENS
ENLING
All right, her highness is getting fidgety down in the galley. We ready?
REG MACORUM
Just about, doctor, just about.
GRAINNE
That was fast, Enling.
ENLING
Well, you people said you’d be done by the last sweep, so here I am.
AIDAN
What? We’re all going to go down to the galley? Isn’t anyone going to stay on watch?
REG MACORUM
You will.
AIDAN
Me!?
ENLING
Don’t worry Aidan, we’ll let you know if Nalini calls for you.
(BEAT)
So, we gonna do this thing?
(PAUSE)
REG MACORUM
Grainne, how about you go down with Enling? I want to give Aidan a couple pointers.
GRAINNE
Okay.
ENLING
Don’t dawdle.
SOUND: AIRLOCK CLOSES
TYGER CORRIDOR
(STANDARD HALLWAY AMBIENT)
GRAINNE
Enling, are you all right?
ENLING
I believe that’s more a doctor type of question.
GRAINNE
Well, you seem in a mood.
ENLING
I seem in a mood?
GRAINNE
You do.
ENLING
Now why would I be in a “mood”? Could it be we’re in danger or being reduced to cinders by the captain’s old co-workers?
GRAINNE
We’ve been in this sort of danger before.
ENLING
No, not like this. This is insane. An armada of ships? A small fortune in illegal gravity generators!? Are you telling me you and the captain have faced this kind of danger before? — because I sure as sin don’t see either of you having any idea how to get out of it.
(BEAT)
And the reason we might all die? Some high-maintenance highness who, even in our current situation, insists on treating me like her personal physician and guide.
GRAINNE
And she broke your nose.
ENLING
And she broke my nose.
(BEAT)
GRAINNE
Well, you’re right, it is bad.
(BEAT)
Aidan would be a far better personal guide than you.
ENLING
(LAUGHS)
Well, he’s certainly been trying. And Nalini has been accepting. Hmph. Perhaps she wants an entourage.
(BEAT)
By the way, I didn’t mean to say that you — I know you and the captain are trying your best, it’s just…
GRAINNE
You feel trapped.
ENLING
I feel—? Don’t you feel trapped?
GRAINNE
A path will present itself.
ENLING
Of course. The Way reveals all things in time.
(BEAT)
I’m not like your People, Grainne. I’m not you.
GRAINNE
But you understand.
ENLING
Understand, maybe. Accept? Ask me when we’re not surrounded by an armada.
MUSIC: SILVER STAR THEME FADES IN
SILVER STAR BRIDGE
(STANDARD SILVER STAR AMBIENT)
MUSIC: SILVER STAR THEME FADES OUT
JOCHI BORTAY
After eighteen hours, you’d think the man would have tried something.
RIKKEN
You always said he was patient. Why don’t you take a break, Jochi?
JOCHI BORTAY
If Reg Macorum can be patient, I can be patient.
(COUGHS)
RIKKEN
Look, I’m no doctor, but I don’t think you’ve recovered from your time in the skiff. You were days in that thing.
JOCHI BORTAY
I tracked them to this nebula, didn’t we?
SOUND: AIRLOCK OPENS
RIKKEN
Captain Malabar.
SOUND: AIRLOCK CLOSES
SYLVIA MALABAR
Rikken. Any movement from the Tyger?
RIKKEN
None.
SYLVIA MALABAR
And Mister Bortay, what’s the latest on the Argosy?
JOCHI BORTAY
Captain Kramer’s still complaining about the missile hit, but we patched him up well enough to keep on station.
SYLVIA MALABAR
Good. Where?
SOUND: COMPUTER BEEP
JOCHI BORTAY
We have him here at the bottom of the nebula.
SYLVIA MALABAR
And the Xinwei signal?
RIKKEN
Captain Dubash has picked it up a couple of times, but it’s never been strong enough to triangulate.
JOCHI BORTAY
Huh, I didn’t believe that Xinwei-Moore tech would work out anyway.
SYLVIA MALABAR
Where did Dubash pick up the signal?
SOUND: COMPUTER BEEP
RIKKEN
Here, here, and here.
JOCHI BORTAY
The top, bottom, and middle of the nebula. That just tells us Macorum’s keeping the Tyger moving.
SYLVIA MALABAR
That tells us the Tyger has been probing our net of ships and gravity generators.
JOCHI BORTAY
Well, what good is that going to do? He must know he can’t outlast us.
(COUGHS)
SYLVIA MALABAR
He can if all of our bridge officers are in your shape, Mister Bortay. When was the last time you slept?
JOCHI BORTAY
I… don’t know. There was a lot to prepare.
SYLVIA MALABAR
“I don’t know” is too long. Rikken, escort him to his bunk, then come back here.
RIKKEN
Yes, ma’am.
JOCHI BORTAY
But Captain —
SYLVIA MALABAR
We’ll wake you when things get interesting.
SOUND: AIRLOCK OPENS
SOUND: AIRLOCK CLOSES
SYLVIA MALABAR
Where are you hiding, Reg? And where do you think you can go?
MUSIC: TRANSITION MUSIC FADES IN
TYGER GALLEY
(TYGER AMBIENT)
GRAINNE
In addition to their fleet deployed in this pattern here, the gravity generators are also placed all around the nebula. Tormar was able to do some scans and the results were not good.
TORMAR
The gravity generators are directional.
NALINI
Directional in what way?
TINKER
Are these generators currently pointed towards the nebula?
TORMAR
Yes.
TINKER
Then the enemy fleet can jump to any side of the nebula we emerge, your highness.
NALINI
I see. Thank you, Tinker.
TINKER
What of our armaments?
TORMAR
We have four missiles left.
REG MACORUM
Considering it took two salvos of four to even damage one of their ships, I don’t think we can shoot our way out.
GRAINNE
Besides, there are still the gravity generators.
NALINI
One thing I am unclear on, captain. How did these people know to find us here? The Vischulon Nebula is by no means an intuitive destination from the Russahn system where my ship was disabled.
REG MACORUM
No, it isn’t. It might help to explain that I used to captain the lead ship that was following us.
TINKER
The Silver Star. The same ship that came to collect you in the Russahn system, your highness.
REG MACORUM
Correct. Before I left, we were working on a one-man skiff to be used for smuggling and stealth operations.
TORMAR
I was not aware of this.
REG MACORUM
It was Jochi’s baby, Tormar. I don’t think he wanted you to know.
TORMAR
Hmph.
NALINI
I don’t understand. Such a craft should not be jump-capable.
GRAINNE
We don’t know for sure, but we think Jochi or someone was able to follow us close enough to be caught up in our jump field.
SOUND: HAND SLAPS TABLE
ENLING
I knew I saw something launch from the Star, Tormar. You didn’t believe me.
TORMAR
This is still a hypothesis, doctor.
REG MACORUM
Regardless, we’re still here. Still surrounded.
ENLING
Well, I’m content with the how, but what about the why? I mean, I know the Zenocrate Cartel hates you, captain. And I’m sure there’s money in kidnapping a princess. But twenty-three ships? And almost as many gravity well pulse generators? That’s a lot of monits.
NALINI
Not to House Xinwei-Moore.
ENLING
So what? They’re going to ransom you to pay for this little escapade?
NALINI
Possibly. My house, Clarke-Timurin has grown in influence at the Imperial Court, to the detriment of House Xinewei-Moore.
ENLING
Ransoming people can’t be an image boost though.
NALINI
No. But being ransomed is not desirable either. Were I to be captured by this Zenocrate Cartel, it would create a great scandal at Court.
REG MACORUM
Because the imperium doesn’t have such crime.
NALINI
It would also greatly embarass my House. My father might be willing to negotiate with Xinwei any number of assets for my safe return. They of course, would pose as the “neutral intermediaries” with Zenocrate.
TORMAR
Hardly honorable.
TINKER
But not without precedent.
NALINI
Also, I am a royal princess, unlike the heirs of some other Houses.
TORMAR
I do not understand these human relationships.
GRAINNE
She can potentially marry the imperial heir, Tormar.
NALINI
Xinwei-Moore may simply wish me dead, to remove that risk.
GRAINNE
Why would Zenocrate risk the attention of the Great Houses by murdering nobility? There are easier ways to make money.
REG MACORUM
Territory.
TORMAR
Hmph. Humans are obsessed with it.
ENLING
Care to enlighten those of us who aren’t criminal masterminds?
REG MACORUM
As much as the Zenocrate Cartel likes its profits, it likes to create new markets to eventually create even more profits.
ENLING
That’s what the many ships around us are usually doing, right?
REG MACORUM
Right. And they usually operate in Clarke-Timurin space. That means they have a unique ability to exchange intel with Xinwei-Moore.
NALINI
In exchange for what?
REG MACORUM
In exchange for access to all manner of possible new markets in Xinwei space.
NALINI
I can’t imagine a great house would willingly… invite organized crime into its borders.
REG MACORUM
Oh, Zenocrate needs no invitation. They just need the right people to look the other way.
NALINI
They would let that happen to their own people?
REG MACORUM
As long as the king is safe, what does it matter about the pawns?
TINKER
Based on what we know, this hypothesis is as probable as a pure profit motive, your highness.
ENLING
Neither ‘why’ helps us pawns get out of this mess.
SOUND: ALERT SOUND
AIDAN
(INTERCOM)
Captain. You and Grainne better get up here.
SOUND: SWITCH CLICK
REG MACORUM
What’s happened, Aidan?
AIDAN
(INTERCOM)
I don’t know. All of a sudden I’m seeing a bunch of ships heading this way, like they know right where we are.
MUSIC: CLIFFHANGER MUSIC CUE
ANNOUNCERLAND
MUSIC: CLOSING MUSIC BEGINS
ANNOUNCER
You’ve been listening to Rogue Tyger, episode twenty-three, “Cat and Mouse,” part three of five.
(BEAT)
Rogue Tyger is a production of Jabberwocky Audio Theater in association with Arlington Independent Media and was transcribed in Deepest Springfield.
(BEAT)
Tonight’s episode featured the vocal talents of Nick DePinto, Brooks Tegler, Erin Goldstein, Yasmin Tuazon, Bjorn Munson, Carol McCaffrey, Phil Amico, Sophia Medley, and William R. Coughlan.
(BEAT)
Music was composed by John Maestri and arranged by Jason Chmiola, with final sound mixing by William R. Coughlan.
(BEAT)
And the episode was written and directed by Bjorn Munson.
(BEAT)
Visit our website, jabber audio dot com, for full show notes about all our fabulous cast and crew and other fascinating details.
(BEAT)
This is William R. Coughlan, reminding you to join us next time for more Rogue Tyger.
MUSIC: CLOSING MUSIC ENDS
CONCLUSION
HOST
Hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Text © Bjorn Munson, under license to Jabberwocky Audio Theater. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.