Chapter One

*Light comes up on Miles, DR. Everything is silver and resembles the inside of a ship. There is a balcony. Everyone is snapping, whether or not you can see them.*

Miles: How does an alien

Ninja

Son of a miner

of uranium

Dropped in the middle of a

Forsaken plain

In Jessalium by providence impoverished in squalor

Grow up to be a fighter and a scholar?

*Spotlight moves to Aggro, DL*

Aggro: My hard fighting

Leader without a father

Got a lot father

By working a lot harder

By being a self-starter

By fourteen

People looked and said he’s smarter

*Spotlight moves to Malison, DC*

Malison: And every day while aliens were being judged and riding away

To a new place

He struggled and kept his guard up

Inside, he was longing to be able to join them

The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow or barter.

*Spotlight moves to Zeeb as he walks forward and stands next to Malison. The stage is split in equal fourths.*

Zeeb: Then the explosion came

And devastation reigned

Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain

Put a pencil to his temple

Connected it to his brain

And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain

*Spotlight back to Miles.*

M: Well the word got around, they said this kid is insane, man

Took a ebook pamphlet just to send him to the Earth land

Get your education don’t forget from whence you came

And the world’s gonna know you name, what’s your name man?

*Spotlight to Silas, in the center of it all.*

Silas: Silas the commander.

My name is Silas the commander

And there’s a million things I haven’t done

But just you wait, just you wait...

*Silas turns around and walks far backstage.*

*Spotlight to Charlotte on the balcony. As she sings, she slowly moves down the staircase and eventually stands in the row with everyone else.*

Charlotte: When he was ten his father went

In the mines

It's not fine yeah

Two years then it blew up just at dinnertime

Some dead

Silas in his room sad

Watin’ for his dad

All, whispering: And some got better but his father bit bad.

*The lights go up on the whole stage. The ensemble and all main characters are moving around. You see Silas and his mom before she turns away and walks offstage, noticeably depressed. He reaches after her but is pushed back by The Bullet. Commander Copernicus takes DC.*

Commander Copernicus: Stayed there with his mom, his mom caught grief and then she died

Left him with nothing but ruined pride

Something new inside

A voice saying

All: Silas, you gotta fend for yourself *(everyone freezes and looks at the stage while they sing this line)*

Commander Copernicus: He started retreating and reading every treatise on the shelf…

Miles: There would’ve been nothing left to do for someone less astute

He would’ve been dead or destitute without a cent of restitution

Started working

Clerking for his late father’s company board

Trading uranium and minerals and all the things he can’t afford

All: Scamming *(They freeze and face the stage again, this time putting a hand up as they do so)*

Miles: For every ebook he can get his hands on

All: Plannin’ *(They repeat the above motion)*

M: For the future

See him now as he stands

On the bow of a ship

Headin’ for the new land

With the TTA you can be a new man

All: With our group you can be a new man Silas: Just you wait *(sings to random ensemble member \*cough\* The Bullet \*cough)*

With our group you can be a new man                Just you wait *(sings to Charlotte, grabbing her hands and they share a painful look)*

With our group

Our group

Silas: Just you wait! *(He has reached the front by now and is standing facing the audience)*

*Everyone comes to a stop. The chorus is scattered while the main characters stand in a row.*

All: Silas the commander! (Silas the commander)

We are waiting in the wings for you (Waiting in the wings for you)

You could never back down

You never learned to take your

Time!

Oh, Silas the commander (Silas the commander)

When we fight against you

Will they know what you overcame?

Will they know you rewrote the game?

The world

Will never be the same, oh

Miles: The ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spot him  All: Just you wait!

Another immigrant comin’ up from the bottom                          Just you wait!

His enemies destroyed his work and then we all forgot him!

*Spotlight focuses on the indivdual people as they sing their line.*

Aggro, Zeeb: We, fought with him

Malison: Me, I worked for him

Commander Copernicus: Me, I doubted him

Loretta, Charlotte: Me, I loved him

Miles: And me? I’m the huge fool that left him. (left him, left him)

All: There’s a million things I haven’t done

But just you wait!

Miles: What’s your name, man?

All: Silas the commander! *(With one hand in the air)*