The Eastern Star War A 10-Minute Radio Play Based on the blurb by Rick Mackham CAST NARRATOR DR. ELIAS VALE — Astrophysicist, calm but increasingly disturbed PRESIDENT HALBROOK — American leader, forceful MADAME DELACROIX — French U.N. delegate, sharp and intellectual MARA KENT — Radio journalist TOM BENNETT — Ordinary factory worker THE VOICE — Something emerging from the Eastern Star SOUND DESIGN NOTES This play should feel vast, tense, cosmic, and intimate all at once. Use: Low ambient space hums Radio static Distant sirens Deep bass pulses Crackling transmissions News broadcasts Strange distorted vocal effects for “The Voice” SCENE ONE “THE STAR” SFX: Deep space ambience. Slow pulsing hum. Radio telescope chatter. NARRATOR: Everyone had heard about wars on the Eastern Front. Germany. Napoleon. Russia. History seemed to demand conflict somewhere eastward. But no one expected the next Eastern War to begin in the stars. SFX: Telescope beeping. Rising electrical distortion. DR. VALE: Increase magnification twenty percent. TECHNICIAN (filtered): Already at maximum, Doctor. DR. VALE: Then why is it getting brighter? SFX: Alarm tone. TECHNICIAN: Radiation spike detected. DR. VALE: Impossible… NARRATOR: At first, astronomers called it an anomaly. Then a curiosity. Then a threat. A star that should not exist. A wound in space. The Eastern Star. SCENE TWO “THE BROADCAST” SFX: Newsroom chatter. Keyboards. Television monitors. MARA KENT: This is Mara Kent reporting live from Geneva Mehr sehen