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Cipher

Part Zero: Substitution

by Lendren Starfall
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Cast (in order of appearance)

Commissar Emma Fairquillion ..................... spymaster of Hallifax
Dr. Penn Taroch .................................... cryptographologist
Jex Berresen ...................................... infiltration expert
Undermarshal Lessla Iborchi ............................. Templar guard

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Prologue ........................................................... p2
Scene 1: Medium .................................................... p3
Interlude .......................................................... p4
Scene 2: Message ................................................... p5
Interlude .......................................................... p6
Scene 3: Meaning ................................................... p7
Epilogue ........................................................... p8

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Prologue
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SCENE ReverseStage: The circular stage is divided by a large, shimmering wall of crystal into two sections, one much larger than the other. The smaller area faces the audience now, completely concealing the bulk of the usable area of the stage. The wall of crystal forms a large screen, upon which images and patterns of light flicker.

EFFECT P1 (6): The stage is a large circular platform, divided into two unequal-sized sections by a large wall of crystal. Currently, the far smaller section is forward, concealing most of the stage behind the crystal screen, drawing all eyes to the patterns of light and colour which flicker across the screen's surface.

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenCipher (11): The twinkling lights on the crystal screen begin to resolve and brighten, forming a strange mix of multicoloured glyphs, symbols made of right angles and incomplete squares pointing in various directions and drawn in various colours, spaced across the screen as if spelling out words in an incomprehensible language.

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenMovement (5): The symbols on the screen shift and twinkle, dancing around one another forming different patterns that hint at unrevealed meanings, if only they could be deciphered.

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenResolve (13): One by one, in a seemingly random order, the glyphs transform into more familiar letters, gradually spelling out words, which then shift and change back to the unfamiliar glyphs, thence to other words, as follows:

EFFECT P2 (9): CIPHER

EFFECT P3 (1): PART ZERO: SUBSTITUTION

EFFECT P4 (9): By Lendren Starfall

PAUSE

EFFECT P5 (9): STARRING

EFFECT P6a (1): [actor] as [role] and [role] (repeat for each actor)

PAUSE

EFFECT P7 (12): The symbols fade, leaving the screen blank apart from a few latent sparks of light.

PAUSE

EFFECT P8 (5): A new set of symbols appear and begin to shift in the same transformative dance, gradually becoming familiar words:

EFFECT P9 (9): SCENE ONE

EFFECT P10 (1): MEDIUM

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenClear (11): One by one, in a seemingly random sequence, the letters fade, leaving the screen entirely dark.

PAUSE

EFFECT RotateMain (6): The entire circular stage slowly rotates through a half-turn, revealing the larger part of the stage, with the colourful crystal screen now forming the back of the visible area.

PAUSE

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Scene 1: Medium
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SCENE PennsLab: Arrayed around the stage are several pieces of stately furniture fashioned of glass, wood, and iron, a blend of geometric and artistic shapes in each piece, the whole conveying a slightly cluttered but well-organized office. The entire back wall of the office is taken up with a large crystalline screen, on which a strange message is displayed, formed of brightly-coloured glyphs made of right angles and incomplete squares, wholly unfamiliar yet suggesting written text from their spacing.

ROLE Emma (F): Commissar Emma Fairquillion

COSTUME EmmaCostume (Emma): She is a feathered trill and stands tall and sturdy, with piercing eyes of cobalt blue and feathers in a rust brown, mostly hidden inside a suit of platinum armour bedecked with insignia. She wears no helmet at the moment. Her expression is stern and demanding.

ROLE Penn (M): Dr. Penn Taroch

COSTUME PennCostume (Penn): He is a crystalline lucidian and seems slightly stretched and elongated, just slightly past the point one would simply call "tall and thin" and into the range where it seems almost a deformity. His eyes share this unusual deformation, appearing higher than they are wide, and perhaps this affects his vision, since he wears a pair of spectacles whose lenses are wider than they are high in the same proportion, and otherwise look like the same crystal of which his body is formed, as if they were simply an extension of his body mounted in gold frames. He wears a white lab coat over a pale green tunic and breeches, all immaculate yet slightly rumpled.

Emma: ENTER SILENT

Penn: ENTER SILENT

EFFECT S1Q1 (6): Arrayed around the stage is an organized clutter of stately furniture fashioned from glass, wood, and iron. The rear wall of the stage is a large crystal display screen, being studied by a lucidian man in a lab coat, oblivious to the imperious, armour-clad trill who stares expectantly at him.

Penn: points a small crystalline rod at the screen that makes up one wall of his laboratory, brushing his fingers along recessed buttons along its surface.

EFFECT S1Q2 (12): A strange message manifests on the screen out of the flickering glimmers, formed of brightly-coloured glyphs made of right angles and incomplete squares, wholly unfamiliar, yet suggesting written text from their spacing.

Emma, to Penn: (in an exasperated, brusque tone) You've been at it for three days without rest or food, and you mean to tell me you still haven't deciphered it?

Penn: glances around and briefly seems to notice Emma, then turns back to the glyphs on the wall, twitching his fingers over the rod, causing the glyphs to shift and rotate, then return to their starting configuration.

Penn: (distractedly) It's totally unlike any other cipher they've used before, or indeed, anyone's used before. Notice how the glyphs are simple geometrical symbols of eight possible types, but do not resemble, except superficially, our--

Emma: (growing more curt) Surely it must have some useful intelligence about the next planned raid on Continuum.

Penn: (apparently not noticing the interruption) Plus there's the use of colour to further differentiate the eight symbols into thirty-two, all of which appear in the ciphertext, so it's too many for just letters, and too few for both majuscule and miniscule. Unless it includes--

Emma, to Penn: (abruptly) Doctor Taroch, surely it is not beyond your skills; you are the expert in this field.

Penn, to Emma: (turning back to face her) You know, that's a fascinating conundrum. People assume that any code can be broken, and if one has a sample of plaintext and its corresponding ciphertext that is virtually always true, but without that, it's actually quite trivially easy to make a cipher that cannot be decoded.

Emma: blinks at Penn blankly.

Penn: For instance, consider a simple combination of a substitution cipher with a rotating dictionary, such that each enciphered symbol also changes the dictionary by shifting it a number of places proportional to the position of the enciphered symbol itself within that dictionary, making the code both self-referential and referential to its own self-referentiality.

Penn: taps at the crystal wand, causing the screen to clear and begin displaying an animation of familiar letters transforming in a complex pattern that quickly bewilders the eye.

Penn: Analysis of symbol frequencies and patterns is wholly ineffectual here since the meanings of symbols change throughout the ciphertext in a way that cannot be predicted without considering the actual plaintext, which is of course not--

Emma: clears her throat loudly.

Emma, to Penn: Yes, Doctor, but you have never had any trouble deciphering the messages we intercept from Gaudiguch before.

Penn, to Emma: (with a dismissive wave of his hand) Those barbarians have never advanced beyond a simple substitution cipher. They don't even vary the displacement of the alphabetic rotation. A novice could read their encrypted messages.

Penn: fingers the crystal wand, causing the original glyphs to reappear.

Emma, to Penn: (speaking slowly and carefully) And yet this message, which was very definitely intercepted from a Gaudiguchian emissary, uses an entirely different technique. Surely this fact is itself an important clue to its encoding?

Penn, to Emma: It can't be that simple. Gaudiguch never uses colour in this way, for instance. The only significance colour has for them beyond the universal meanings is when it itself, in transforming, becomes a cultural symbol of transformation or the shifting of what they call 'paradigms'.

Emma, to Penn: Are you suggesting this did not come from Gaudiguch?

Penn, to Emma: Not necessarily, but there must be some other influence at work here; perhaps a new ally, or some external factor. But just what, I cannot infer with only the information available. Do you have any other corroborative intelligence suggesting other influences or sources for the encryption?

Emma: grows suddenly angry and closed off, her wings twitching.

Emma, to Penn: (curtly) You do your job, Doctor, and leave me to do mine. I will be back tomorrow, and I expect you to have more than this to report.

Emma: EXIT storms off before Penn can respond.

Penn: opens his mouth to answer, then closes it, and turns back to the screen to stare at the glyphs once more.

Penn: EXIT SILENT

PAUSE

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Interlude
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SCENE ReverseStage

EFFECT RotateReverse (6): The entire stage slowly rotates through a half-turn, concealing the larger part of the stage behind the large crystalline wall, which is now all that is visible. Flickers and sparks of coloured light shimmer across its otherwise blank surface.

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenCipher

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenMovement

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenResolve

EFFECT S2I1 (9): SCENE TWO

EFFECT S2I2 (1): MESSAGE

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenClear

PAUSE

EFFECT RotateSW (6): The entire circular stage begins to rotate, but stops only about an eighth of the way around, offering only a tiny glimpse of the room behind, apparently some sort of office decorated in sumptuous red velvet.

PAUSE

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Scene 2: Message
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SCENE S2a: Most of the stage is still concealed behind the crystalline wall, which now displays imagery on its surface suggesting it is some sort of secured doorway. Beyond it, glimpses can be made out of a sumptuous office decorated in red velvet.

ROLE Jex (M): Jex Berresen

COSTUME JexCostume (Jex): Almost completely concealed in a black skin-tight suit of soft cotton, this man might be any of a number of races, being of a middling size and with no obvious racial features like wings or horns. His face and fingertips, the only parts that are exposed by the cover-all he wears, seem vaguely human, but could easily be elfen, trill, orc, or any of many other races. Even his boots are soft-soled and black, silent and easy to overlook.

Jex: ENTER creeps surreptitiously onto the smaller part of the stage and stops at the crystalline screen, whose imagery of a secured doorway apparently impedes his progress.

Jex: glances around to make sure he hasn't been spotted, then presses a bare palm onto the screen.

EFFECT S2Q1 (9): Shimmering into place on the crystalline screen is an outline of Jex's palm, which spreads with a flicker of flame-like images to form a large square image, a complex jumble of shapes that at first seems like nothing but unmitigated chaos.

Jex: stares intently at the image for a few moments, then begins to touch spots on the screen in quick succession.

EFFECT S2Q2 (12): The spots Jex touches light up in the blue of the heart of a flame, revealing them to be the outlines of shapes previously unnoticed, that bear some similarity to one another, though the relationship between them is unclear.

Jex: chews his lip in concentration as he stares at the image, finding more hidden shapes buried amongst the chaos and causing them to light up with his fingertip, until multilayered patterns start to emerge.

EFFECT S2Q3 (5): The shapes begin to shift and change, flickering in an aura of bewildering colours.

Jex: narrows his eyes, concentrating more intensely as his fingertips dart across the image, hesitating here, tapping colour into a shape there, sometimes swearing but never slowing.

EFFECT S2Q4 (11): The constant transformation of the images Jex reveals hints at impressions of places, creatures, actions, people, even feelings, all of which flicker by so fast that one can't separate them out, yet seem to suggest a story of some sort, conveying a subliminal impression of... something, arising out of something else.

Jex: hesitates at the last moment, fingertip wavering between several shapes, and finally takes a breath, closes his eye, jabs at one, stops himself at the last moment, and jabs a different one.

EFFECT S2Q5 (2): With an apparent shudder the image freezes, shivers slightly, then is consumed in flames and vanishes, leaving the screen blank. There is a faint, ominous creaking sound.

SCENE S2b: The stage is rotated almost, but not quite, fully around, so that the crystalline screen rests a bit left of center and at an angle. A sumptuous, even decadent office spreads languidly across the stage, lined everywhere with velvet and silk in a variety of rich colours, most commonly wine-red. Though the room is clearly an office, a number of luxurious furnishings not usually found in offices are scattered about, including an overstuffed divan, a small canopy bed, and a padded bench clearly intended for massages.

EFFECT RotateNW (6): The entire circular stage swiftly rotates another quarter-turn, revealing the office beyond. The rotation ends with the crystalline screen almost, but not quite, flush with the back of the stage, so that the room is still canted about an eighth of a turn.

Jex: stands in place as the crystalline screen rotates out of his way, giving the impression of a doorway opening before him allowing him passage into the office.

EFFECT S2Q6 (6): The office blends luxury and function, though it seems to lean a bit in favour of the former. Wine-red velvet is draped over walls, and a variety of furniture is scattered about, both conventional office pieces like desks and tables, and less common pieces, like a massage bench, bed, and divan.

Jex: crosses the room and immediately begins to rummage through the desks, anxiously looking back at the entrance now and then, apparently in a hurry and not familiar with the room.

EFFECT S2Q7 (1): A delicately balanced bit of seemingly innocuous desk decoration begins to sway as Jex rifles through the drawers, revealing a few extremely fine wires leading from it to corners of the ceiling as their motion makes them catch the light.

Jex: turns his back on the desk to examine the wall hangings for hidden compartments.

EFFECT S2Q8 (9): The swaying of the thin wires and the tiny, but sharp, metallic components of the abstract sculpture grows more pronounced as the pieces start to come apart, revealing small blades and bells that swing around in large arcs, some of them bound to strike Jex in the back.

PAUSE

Jex: cocks his head and then dives for the ground, coming up in a roll to land on his back with the knives and bells swinging just over his chest.

EFFECT S2Q9 (1): The metallic bits of the booby-trap seem to all hang in the air motionless for a moment at the tops of their arcs, then begin to swing back together for an inevitable, and noisy, meeting in mid-air.

Jex: flicks a pair of tiny knives into his hands from hidden wrist-sheaths and, with a blur of movement, cuts the lines and catches the various bits of the trap in the air before they can make any noise.

PAUSE

Jex: lets out the breath he's holding and slowly relaxes.

PAUSE

EFFECT S2Q10 (9): Unnoticed by Jex, one last tiny bell, still atop the desk, slowly tips over and drops to the floor with a small ting sound that nevertheless echoes in the total silence.

Jex: swears colourfully as he jumps to his feet and redoubles his efforts to rummage through the office, no longer being careful not to make noise.

EFFECT S2Q11 (6): The stage resumes rotating with maddening, inexorable slowness, as if counting down to some imminent doom.

Jex: pulls a slip of parchment out of a golden case near the desk, glances at it, and smiles with satisfaction, then turns to face the entrance, only to draw up short and tuck the paper behind his back.

ROLE Lessla (F): Undermarshal Lessla Iborchi

COSTUME LesslaCostume (Lessla): She is an ordinary human and stands tall for a woman, with the well-muscled body of a warrior almost completely covered in the armour of a Templar. Her insignia clearly denotes her as a member of the city guard, though of a somewhat middling rank. A shock of flame-red hair spills from the top of her open-faced helm, a design that is entirely impractical for combat but certainly highlights her attractive features. A pair of hefty swords ride high on her hips, swaying as she walks with an authoritative swagger.

Lessla: ENTER stands in the doorway, imposing in her Templar uniform and armour, glaring at the intruder menacingly.

SCENE S2c: A sumptuous, even decadent office spreads languidly across the stage, lined everywhere with velvet and silk in a variety of rich colours, most common wine-red. Though the room is clearly an office, a number of luxurious furnishings not usually found in offices are scattered about, including an overstuffed divan, an undersized canopy bed, and a padded bench clearly intended for massages.

EFFECT S2Q9 (6): The slow rotation of the stage ends suddenly as the crystalline screen comes to the precise rear of the circular platform.

Lessla, to Jex: (in a threatening, authoritative voice) Halt, intruder! You are in it now. It'll go better for you if you surrender peacefully and take what's coming to you.

Jex: holds himself stiffly for a moment, then shifts his posture, visibly putting on the charm.

Jex, to Lessla: Why, officer, I must have wandered into the wrong room just looking for a pretty little redhead I saw. Oh, my, she looked exactly like you!

Lessla, to Jex: (taking a few steps into the office, one hand on her sword) I'm hardly little, lad, and you won't weasel your way out of the trouble you're in that easily.

Jex, to Lessla: (swaying a little as he moves to meet her, holding the parchment hidden behind his back) Oh, I wouldn't hear of it. I've done wrong, I know, and I'll take my punishment. What's it for me, then? Three days in the stocks, perhaps?

Lessla, to Jex: (her voice still stern, but also a bit husky) Maybe I'd prefer a more personal punishment. You're certainly causing me some difficulty. No point in just arresting you and letting someone else have all the fun of sentencing you.

Jex, to Lessla: (now very obviously flirtatiously) Oh, I agree entirely, officer. Whatever remonstrance you think best, I am at your mercy.

Lessla: steps up to just before Jex and clamps an iron-shod hand on his shoulder, gripping firmly.

Lessla, to Jex: (her voice starting to shake as she tries to remain forceful) I suppose I can think of a few..

Lessla: loses her composure and breaks out into stifled laughter.

Jex: laughs along with her, a little uneasily, though not so much that she'd notice the difference.

Lessla, to Jex: Seriously, lover, whatever made you think to come in here? This office is actual, real, serious trouble if you got caught here. It's, like, really secret and all. Even I'm not supposed to come in here.

Jex, to Lessla: (at first unsteady, then gradually becoming slick and smooth) Well, I, I knew you were patrolling around this part of the building and I thought I'd surprise you.

Lessla, to Jex: You certainly did that! How did you even get in here? There's supposed to be all kinds of security.

Jex, to Lessla: (shrugging) The door was open when I got here.

Lessla, to Jex: I will have to dress down the duty officer. Lucky you. Also lucky for you it was me who found you. I mean really, they would have cut your hands off or killed you if they found you in here.

Jex: (feigning shock) Really? I thought it a fancy office and all, but... Maybe we should leave, then? I don't want to get you in trouble. Or myself!

Lessla, to Jex: (leaning in for a playful nip at his shoulder) Don't worry, I don't think anyone will notice us here for a little while, my little helpless captive.

Jex, to Lessla: (with a purr in his voice) And the sense of danger makes it all the more intense, doesn't it? Besides, this room has something our usual meeting places lack.

Lessla: (looking up curiously) What's that?

Jex: casts his glance towards the bed and then back to Lessla with a leer.

Lessla, to Jex: (putting her authoritative stance back on) Now, then, methinks the first order of business when arresting a criminal is to immobilize him.

Lessla: roughly grabs Jex and starts dragging him in the direction of the bed, then throws him down atop it and pins him against it, alternating between being stern and giggling as she fumbles with a length of rope she can't quite manage to get control over.

EFFECT S2Q10 (6): The stage begins to rotate once more, gradually moving the office out of view as the screen swings back into the front

Jex: begins to undress himself and Lessla, distracting her with a few kisses so he can slip the sheet of parchment into one of his boots when she can't see him do so.

EFFECT S2Q11 (6): The rotation of the stage fully eclipses the view of the two lovers, and soon the sound of their romancing is muted and fades into silence, as the flickering lights of the other side of the crystalline screen become the only thing that can be seen.

Jex: EXIT SILENT

Lessla: EXIT SILENT

PAUSE

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Interlude
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SCENE ReverseStage

EFFECT ScreenCipher

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenMovement

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenResolve

EFFECT S3I1 (9): SCENE THREE

EFFECT S3I2 (1): MEANING

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenClear

PAUSE

EFFECT RotateMain

PAUSE

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Scene 3: Meaning
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SCENE PennsLab

ROLE Penn

COSTUME PennCostume

Penn: ENTER SILENT

EFFECT S3Q1 (6): Once again, the stage displays the laboratory of Dr. Penn Taroch, with him still studying the colourful glyphs on the display screen that occupies the rear wall, as if no time had passed. However, the angle of light cast into the laboratory is different, suggesting it is now very late in the day.

Penn: pokes sourly at the crystalline wand, causing the glyphs to shift once more, but barely pays any attention to the screen.

ROLE Emma

COSTUME EmmaCostume

Emma: ENTER bursts purposefully into the laboratory carrying a sheet of parchment in her hand, which she promptly thrusts in front of Penn's face.

Penn: starts to lean around the parchment to return his gaze to the glyphs, then stops and focuses on the parchment instead, taking it gingerly from Emma's hand after a few moments.

Penn: (distractedly) This came from our usual source?

Emma, to Penn: More or less. Our agent found it today in one of the inner offices he rarely visits, as the security there is very tight.

Penn: Yes, yes, very interesting.

Emma: (gesturing towards the crystalline screen) Some of the letters look like those,

Penn: (chewing on the end of the crystal wand) Fascinating.

PAUSE

Emma: (straining her patience) So, can you decipher this one?

Penn: What? Oh, yes, of course. That's not important, though. They're using some of the techniques from the cipher, not many, but clearly, they're learning from it. Which means they're trying to decipher it too.

Emma: So they're getting better at encryption? That could be a problem?

Penn: (glancing up in surprise) Oh? Oh, no, I shouldn't think so. This is still child's play. Of course, they might get even better if they keep studying the cipher. Perhaps we can feed them ciphers that will shape their development to ensure we can continue to decipher their communications.

Emma: (in a clipped tone) So what does it say?

Penn: (glancing at the parchment again) Oh, the usual. Troop movements, supply orders, coordination--

Emma: (visibly relieved) Good, that's what we needed. With that, we should be able to defeat them in the next aetherflare.

Penn, to Emma: Yes, easily. They're holding back most of their forces, and sending only a skeleton deployment.

Emma: Even better, then.

Penn: frowns thoughtfully, grimacing at the parchment.

Emma: This is good news, isn't it?

Penn: slowly stands up and walks over to the back wall, focusing on the cipher.

Penn, to Emma: This cipher, they didn't create it. Neither did we. Neither did anyone in the Basin, anyone we know. And Gaudiguch is worried about it.

Emma: (a little shaken) Well, it's not that hard to worry them...

Penn, to Emma: Clearly they stumbled upon something from... a threat we don't know about, someone or something else. They haven't deciphered the message, but they must know enough about where it came from to be so worried about the threat, that they're ready to abandon... everything else they fight for.

Emma, to Penn: (blinking) Do you mean they're giving up?

Penn, to Emma: (shaking his head) Not exactly. They're trying to decipher it, but in the meanwhile, their plan is simply to hole up and hide, while whoever wrote this... destroys us, and everyone else in the Basin.

Emma: (taking a step back) You're saying that whoever wrote that doubly-damned cipher is capable of defeating everyone in the Basin at once?

Penn, to Emma: Well, Gaudiguch has reason to think so. Admittedly they're not the most trustworthy judges of such things, but they wouldn't abandon everything else unless they were quite, quite convinced. They have discovered the greatest threat to life in the Basin currently extant and they're, typically, trying to profit from keeping it a secret.

Emma: (recovering from her discomposure) So what can we do?

Penn, to Emma: (gesturing to the cipher) I suggest we set aside our plans for war with Gaudiguch. They are not our biggest concern right now. But other than that, there's not much we can do until we figure this out. Understanding this message may now be the key to survival for the entire Basin of Life.

Emma: steps over to Penn and places herself in front of him, putting one hand on his shoulder.

Emma, to Penn: (her voice softer now) Doctor Taroch, are you certain of this?

Penn: nods gravely.

Penn: The idea that this comes from someone outside the Basin changes everything about the analysis. It might not even be in a language we know. I must start from the beginning again.

Emma: (turning away) Very well. I will inform the Board of Directors to prepare for an unknown threat. Any resource that Hallifax can provide is yours, Doctor. Just decipher that damned message, whatever it takes.

Penn: EXIT SILENT

Emma: EXIT SILENT

PAUSE

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Epilogue
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SCENE ReverseStage

EFFECT RotateReverse

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenCipher

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenMovement

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenResolve

EFFECT TheEnd (9): TO BE CONTINUED

PAUSE

EFFECT ScreenClear

PAUSE

FINISH

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