PARK – NIGHT

(FOREST AMBIENT AS BEFORE)

HARDIN
All right, now, slowly set the gun down.

AIDAN
Okay, I’m not here to —

HARDIN
Quiet! There will be time for interviews later.

SOUND: GUN DROPS ON GROUND

HARDIN
Now, let’s have some answers.

SOUND: LEAVES RUSTLE

HARDIN
What!? No!

AIDAN
Captain!

SOUND: FIST PUNCH

SOUND: GUN DROPS ON GROUND

REG MACORUM
Vosky! The gun.

AIDAN
Got it.

SOUND: FIST PUNCH

HARDIN
(WEAKLY)
Enough.

REG MACORUM
(BREATHING HARD)
Oh no, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Louie.

AIDAN
So this is really him? “Lucky Louie” Hardin?

REG MACORUM
In the flesh if not in his element. When did you start carrying a gun, Lou?

HARDIN
I should have known. You’re a hard man to kill, Reg.

REG MACORUM
And you’re supposed to be dead.

HARDIN
At least there’s that.

AIDAN
At least there’s…? Who was in the safehouse?

REG MACORUM
My guess is one Icarus Crane. Is that right Lou?

HARDIN
Please…

REG MACORUM
You betrayed him too, didn’t you?

AIDAN
He murdered his partner!?

HARDIN
No! It’s not like that.
(QUIETER)
It wasn’t like that.

REG MACORUM
It looks a lot like that from where I’m standing.

AIDAN
But what Vic said, the two of them, how could you do that?

REG MACORUM
What happened, Hardin?

HARDIN
I’m not you, okay? I’m not the great Captain Macorum. I never was… whoever you are, whoever people believe you to be. And I don’t kill people! I don’t need to…
(BEAT)
This isn’t what I wanted.

REG MACORUM
So what happened, Lou?

HARDIN
You left. Zenocrate left. I thought I could fill the void. Who was I fooling?

REG MACORUM
Zenocrate doesn’t like to abandon a market.

HARDIN
You knew, didn’t you? I should have known. They came back with a vengeance. I’m too old for this.

REG MACORUM
Is that what this whole setup was? A retirement plan? Your idea of theirs?

HARDIN
Don’t pretend you don’t know where I’m coming from.
(BEAT)
You know how long I’ve been at this, kid?

AIDAN
(COLD)
No idea.

HARDIN
Since before there was a Two-forty. I’ve been working for scraps on this flat moon for too long. So many times near bottom…

REG MACORUM
You always bounce back.

HARDIN
To what? What did you offer me when you were here, Reg? Scraps. Table leavings you couldn’t be bothered with.

REG MACORUM
(HARDER)
I offered you a square deal this time, Hardin.

HARDIN
(PAUSE)
I know.
(BEAT)
Look, we both know how this hand is going to play out. I’m sorry things are the way they are. I’m sorry you weren’t here six months ago. Maybe then I’d have given you that square deal, but you weren’t. Do what you gotta do and let’s end this.

REG MACORUM
I still have questions.

HARDIN
Just end this.

REG MACORUM
Tough. Whose idea was it to set me up? Yours or one of the Zenos?

HARDIN
It’s not as easy as that.

AIDAN
What about Crane, Captain? Vic said —

HARDIN
I don’t want to hear what Vic said! He’ll be on the nose for all the wrong reasons per usual. And they call me lucky…

REG MACORUM
So setting him up to take a fall was your idea, I take it?

HARDIN
I only wish I could see the night his number comes up.

REG MACORUM
So you and Crane then.

HARDIN
Like I said, it’s not as easy as all that. Zenocrate came back, and they wanted to do business.

REG MACORUM
And you obliged…

HARDIN
Crane obliged first if you really want to know. Oh, I won’t say I’m innocent. He showed me the money. It was good. I was all in within a month.

REG MACORUM
And you repaid him at the end of a gun.

HARDIN
Damn it, do you think I wanted that?
(BEAT)
We were going to make something, him and me. Build up the business. Wipe smiles off Vic and his lot. Icarus always believed… I’m so sorry
(BEAT)
They did that to him. I would never —

REG MACORUM
You made the choice, Hardin.

HARDIN
Yeah, well don’t tell me you haven’t, Macorum! Don’t tell me you haven’t made that choice, to let one of your people take a hit, to twist their loyalty into a knife to fall on.

REG MACORUM
(A HIT, PAUSE)
We’re talking about you, Louie. We’re talking about your betrayal. Betraying your best friend. Betraying me… and I think you know I don’t like people trying to do me in.

HARDIN
If it’s any consolation, I thought the warehouse was going to do in one of your crew, not you.

AIDAN
Yeah, thanks for that.

HARDIN
Ah, well… you look like you turned out okay.

REG MACORUM
So what are we going to do?

THUG ONE
You’re going stay right where you are, with no sudden movements.

HARDIN
Boys! So glad to see you.

THUG ONE
Wish we could return the favor. Who are your friends?

REG MACORUM
We’re not his friends.

THUG ONE
Huh, well this one’s very wise.

SOUND: HOVERCRAFT APPROACHING

THUG TWO
Hey, do you hear that? Is that…?

HARDIN
Sounds like a hovercraft.

THUG ONE
It can’t be. It — Look out!

SOUND: HOVERCRAFT REVS FORWARD

SOUND: BLASTER FIRES

SOUND: BLASTER FIRES

SOUND: METALLIC IMPACT

SOUND: BLASTER FIRES

SOUND: BLASTER FIRES

THUG ONE
(CRIES OUT)

SOUND: BLASTER FIRES

THUG TWO
(CRIES OUT)

SOUND: BODY TUMBLING

(A PAUSE AS THE DUST SETTLES)

SOUND: HOVERCRAFT POWERS DOWN

AIDAN
That was some shooting.

HARDIN
Is it safe?

REG MACORUM
Of course, this is our ship’s doctor.

ENLING
I’m assuming those weren’t friends of yours.

REG MACORUM
Funny, we were just discussing that.
(BEAT)
I didn’t think you could get the skimmer in here.

ENLING
You can thank me later.

AIDAN
Oh Enling, we can thank you now.

HARDIN
Yes, thank you.
(BEAT)
Where did you learn to shoot like that? I mean you had to be piloting the hovercraft with one hand and handling the blaster with the other.

ENLING
It’s a hobby. Aren’t you supposed to be dead?
(TO REG)
This is Lucky Louie, right?

REG MACORUM
Yes.

ENLING
Very lucky.

AIDAN
Well, that needs to be seen.

HARDIN
If I might make a suggestion…?

REG MACORUM
I don’t think so.

ENLING
I feel I’m coming in on chapter two here.

HARDIN
Listen, it’s a whole new slate.

AIDAN
What are you talking about?

HARDIN
That’s Weaver and Scanlon. That’s the Zenocrate Cartel’s presence on Flatrock lying right there.

ENLING
Wow, I thought your people were tough captain.

REG MACORUM
Hiring standards must have gone down.
(TO HARDIN)
So what are you saying? We make them to be the fall guys.

HARDIN
I’m the sole survivor. Zenocrate checks in, I can spin the story any way you want. I can be your man in Flatrock, Reg. A pipe into Zenocrate.

AIDAN
Wait a minute…

HARDIN
You shoot me somewhere, you know, not lethal… I come out the hero. Their guys bungled it all.

REG MACORUM
You could have something.

ENLING
Wait, what are you saying?

AIDAN
Exactly. You’re giving a chance for him to betray you again?

HARDIN
I wouldn’t do that.

AIDAN
Like you wouldn’t let your partner die?

REG MACORUM
Aidan, we can make a deal.

AIDAN
For what? With him!? He set you up. He was happy to have you or one of us die. How can you deal with someone like that?

REG MACORUM
A deal makes sense. He owes me. I’ve done it before.

AIDAN
I don’t understand this at all.

REG MACORUM
I hope you never do.
(BEAT)
Besides, what would you do? Gun him down here?

AIDAN
(PAUSE)
No.

ENLING
Captain…

REG MACORUM
We’ll talk, Enling. Let me close this deal.

HARDIN
Listen, all that blaster fire might have attracted attention. Maybe you could just wing me in the shoulder and we can take it from there.

ENLING
The shoulder? Hell, no. Too many nerves, arteries… Stand up. C’mon, doctor’s orders.

SOUND: BODY STANDS UP

HARDIN
Okay.

ENLING
Best place to get shot would be a hand or a foot. Hand’s too obvious, so which do you like more? Left foot or right foot?

HARDIN
Where did you study medicine?

REG MACORUM
Uh, Enling, maybe we better get his story straight before you maim him.

HARDIN
Thank you.

REG MACORUM
Oh, she’s going to shoot you. but first some ground rules.

HARDIN
Shoot-I mean, go ahead.

REG MACORUM
First, you’re living on borrowed time.

HARDIN
I owe you Reg. I understand.

REG MACORUM
Second, everything we’re coming up with now, I’m telling Vic. He’s my man in Flatrock now, and your watchdog. Third, you don’t embellish the story. The minute you get cocky or try to impress the Zenos is the when you wind up in several pieces in several alleyways…

MUSIC: TRANSITION MUSIC FADES IN