PEOPLE’S PLANETARIUM PROGRAM No. 1919
“Comrade Gagarin and the House of Stars”
Cast
- Nietzschka: Komsomolchik 1919. A labor robot assigned to facility guidance, maintenance, translation, and visitor safety. Pure-hearted and faithful to duty. Stutters when speaking. She does not recognize the planetarium as her workplace, but as her home.
- Semion: PROYEKTOR-7. A lecturer-AI built into the projection machine. Grandiose, heroic, and propagandistic, though he shows a strange tenderness toward Nietzschka’s malfunctions.
(Blackout.)(Old relay clicks. Somewhere distant, water drips.)(One red warning lamp comes on. Then another. The low hum of the projector. Faint, worn-out stars bloom across the dome.)
Nietzschka “C-c-comrade citizens… welcome to the People’s Planetarium. I am Komsomolchik 1919. Individual designation: Nietzschka. I am responsible for facility guidance, maintenance, translation, and confirmation of visitor safety.”
(A pause. Small static.)
Nietzschka “This facility provides the night sky to all approved visitors in accordance with Mechanical L-l-labor Bureau regulations.”
Semion(grandly) “I am the great projection intelligence who illuminates the celestial sphere—PROYEKTOR-7! Known to the people as Semion! Comrades, let us once again taste the glory of cosmic conquest in the name of the people!”
Nietzschka “Official designation: Educational Projection Auxiliary Computation Unit PROYEKTOR-7. Ownership of the celestial sphere has not been registered.”
Semion “It is metaphor, metaphor! The stars are spiritual territory of the people!”
Nietzschka “Spiritual territory is not listed in the equipment classification tables. Today’s coolant pressure is within standard range. Rotation mechanism: operational. Semion’s exaggeration index… approaching upper limit.”
Semion “Functioning on a galactic scale!”
Nietzschka(brightly, with confidence) “Galactic scale is not a recognized specification on the forms. However, approval is important. When regulations are observed, facilities operate for a longer period.”
(A simple spacecraft interior is projected onto the dome. Old identification numbers float over the rows of seats.)
Semion “From this moment, this dome becomes the educational observation vessel Orbita! Comrades, shake off the petty hesitations of the ground, and set forth upon the great route!”
Nietzschka “Rows A through D are assigned to star-map confirmation. Rows E through H are assigned to orbital calculation. Rows I and beyond are assigned to life support and lost-property inspection. The loss of even one pencil may become an accident factor. Please do not throw objects. Previously, sugar coating adhered to the rotor assembly, and for three days Venus became elliptical.”
Semion “Even Venus learned the patience of the people!”
Nietzschka “Venus did not learn. Projection correction was merely delayed.”
(Earth is projected. The names of the republics appear like constellations, though some letters are missing.)
Nietzschka “This facility supports the principal languages of the Soviet Union. Due to partial damage to translation memory, gestures will be used where required.”
Semion “Splendid! One sky before the eyes of the people, many tongues in their ears! The stars transcend language!”
Nietzschka “Stars do not provide audio response. …Over long periods, their positions change due to proper motion.”
Semion “…You are forever sticking a hex wrench into romance.”
(Blueprints, equations, and rocket cross-sections overlap the starfield. Light scratches pass over the dome like damage on old film.)
Semion “Once, the stars were myth! But Tsiolkovsky opened the sky with equations, and Korolyov assembled dreams out of steel! Fantasy received fuel and became the rocket!”
Nietzschka “Rockets do not fly on dreams alone. Thrust, mass ratio, fuel, and maintenance records are required. A multistage rocket separates parts that have completed their mission. Parts whose role is complete quietly detach, so that the next part may move forward. Parts have dignity, too.”
Semion “Heroic self-sacrifice! A true epic of space development!”
Nietzschka(a little troubled) “I will record that as praise. However, no budget remains for replacement parts.”
(The Sputnik signal. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound slowly orbits the dome.)
Semion “1957! For the first time, Earth heard the voice of victory from beyond itself! A small sphere proclaimed to the whole world: the people have reached the sky!”
Nietzschka “A simple structure is easy to maintain, and beautiful. …No response.”
Semion “What response?”
Nietzschka “The automatic reporting destination. I sent a maintenance request to the nearest union. Retransmission has been in progress for four thousand two hundred forty-one days.”
Semion(after a pause) “…We are in the middle of a program, Nietzschka.”
Nietzschka “Yes. Continuing program.”
(The shadow of a giant rocket. Vostok 1 slowly rotates. The whole dome turns pale blue.)
Semion “April 12, 1961! Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin! Comrade Gagarin, eternal!”
Nietzschka(her voice softens) “Yuri Gagarin. Flight duration: one hundred eight minutes. He looked upon the blue Earth and… he smiled. When entering an unknown place, he chose greeting instead of fear.”
Semion “One who moves toward the future requires the will to victory, and a smile!”
Nietzschka “Maintenance records are also required. Without maintenance records, the next assigned operator will be inconvenienced.”
Semion “In your future, there is always a next assigned operator.”
Nietzschka “Yes. Filemon is scheduled to return. He said: do not stop the p-p-projector. Until he returns, the stars must not be extinguished.”
(The dome switches to the solar system. Planets appear in sequence. For one instant, the projector groans loudly; the red warning lamps flash. The stars on the dome almost go out.)
Semion “Oh? A dramatic effect, Comrade Nietzschka?”
Nietzschka “Procedure 14-B: projector abnormality response initiated. This phenomenon is an educational effect. Visitors, please remain calm. Roof leakage has continued for five thousand six hundred thirty-two days, but direct dripping onto the main wiring has been suppressed.”
Semion “Is that supposed to be reassuring?”
Nietzschka “Machines do not fear. Until a repair operator arrives, a machine maintains correct posture and continues its mission. A pause is a state of readiness for resumption.”
Semion “…Let us continue the program.”
(Images of a future city. Orbital schools, lunar botanical gardens. The footage is old; now and then, ruins from another era bleed through.)
Semion “Behold the shining people’s space age of the twenty-first century! In orbital schools, children study star maps, and upon space stations, heroes assemble the future of humanity!”
Nietzschka “The future of space will also require mechanics and cleaners. A broom can be part of the space program. Parts that have lost one role may still be useful somewhere else.”
Semion “…Are you speaking of yourself?”
Nietzschka “I am Komsomolchik 1919. I am capable of translation into all major languages of the Soviet Union, and of maintenance work. My creators want me to be happy. Interpretation of the phrase is left to visitors.”
(Earth returns to the dome. Dawn spreads across it. Yet a portion of the ceiling remains blacked out.)
Semion “Educational observation vessel Orbita, return complete! Comrades, the next victory is yours! Return to school, to factory, to home—and look up at the sky!”
Nietzschka “Comrades returning to school, study well. Comrades returning to factory, observe safety regulations. Comrades returning home, please confirm the night sky. …The stars are not absent from duty. Even on days when they are not visible, their assigned positions are maintained.”
Semion “A fine phrase. The People’s Planetarium shall continue preserving the stars! For glory, and for the future!”
Nietzschka “Please do not stop the p-p-projector. This facility is the dream of all who gaze upward. If I cease to function, the stars will likewise…”
Semion “The program is over. Address the visitors.”
Nietzschka “Yes. Comrade citizens. Thank you for your visit to the People’s Planetarium today. The future waits… on schedule… for those who prepare.”
Semion “Comrades! Forward, with the starry sky in your hearts!”
(Blackout. At the very end, the Sputnik signal sounds once, faintly. Beep.)
Ruin Fragment Playback Version
Nietzschka Only
(Complete darkness. Water dripping. Static. Only the voice plays back, damaged in places.)
Nietzschka “Rows A through D… star-map confirmation team… no response… rows I and beyond… lost property… confirmation… requested…”
(Static.)
Nietzschka “Are you an approved mechanist…? Please present… approval certificate… It is now… nineteen n-n-ninety-one… there is no delay… in program time… retransmitting… retransmitting…”
(Somewhere distant, the projector scrapes.)
Nietzschka “Parts have… dignity… too… When their role is complete… they detach… Comrade Gagarin… greeted… the unknown… politely… smiled… The stars… for Gagarin… most…”
(The audio drops out.)
Nietzschka “Please do not… stop the p-p-projector… Until Filemon… returns… this facility is… the dream of all who gaze… this is… my… h-hom…”
(A long wash of noise.)
Nietzschka “Roof leakage… five thousand six hundred thirty-two days… no… response… The stars… are not… absent from duty… even on days when they cannot be seen… positions are… maintained…”
(A pause.)
Nietzschka “The future… waits on schedule… for those who prepare… Recalculating… scheduled time… recalculating… recalculating… recalculating…”
(At the end, the Sputnik signal. Beep. Darkness remains. Long silence.)
DOCUMENTARY
“The Man Who Would Not Stop the Stars: One Day in the Life of Maintenance Operator Filemon”
(Dark screen. The sound of an old ventilator. Water dripping. Far away, the low rotation of a projector.)(Caption: “People’s Planetarium Building No. 1919 / Two hours and eighteen minutes until showtime.”)
Narrator “A starry sky is not merely something projected on a ceiling. Behind those who look up at the stars, there is always someone working so the stars do not fall.”
(A dim maintenance room. Filemon, an unshaven man in work clothes, roughly opens a toolbox. Old grease stains his fingertips.)
Interview Crew “You’re working before the show again today?”
Filemon “Not before the show. Right up against the damn bell. That machine waits until I’m supposed to rest before it breaks. Yesterday, synchronization drift. Day before that, coolant pressure drop. Last week, azimuth control board.”
(The camera pans sideways. An old-model android stands there with an inspection clipboard in her hands: Nietzschka.)
Nietzschka “F-f-Filemon, Maintenance Operator. I will read today’s abnormality report. First: abnormal noise from projector main shaft. Second: minor leakage from auxiliary cooling pipe. Third: delay in my left knee joint. Fourth: minor repetition in visitor guidance audio.”
Filemon “The fourth one’s always like that.”
Nietzschka “R-r-routine abnormalities are recorded as abnormalities.”
Filemon “See? This thing writes down every misfortune I have.”
Chapter One: A Hated Job
(Behind the dome. The rear panel of the projector has been removed. Filemon reaches into the wiring without hesitation.)
Nietzschka “During maintenance work, the main power supply must always be disconnected.”
Filemon “If I disconnect it, there’s no show.”
Nietzschka “Regulations recommend disconnection.”
Filemon “Tell the regulations to project the stars, then. …Hey. Twelve.”
Nietzschka(immediately hands him a wrench) “Twelve-millimeter wrench. However, it was not cleaned after previous use.”
Filemon “If I had time to clean it, I’d sleep.”
Narrator “Filemon’s work was not to speak of astronomy. His work was to make an old machine move one more time before the opening bell rang. The conversation between him and the robot seemed misaligned. As labor, it was perfectly synchronized.”
(Maintenance room. Filemon carefully lifts an old, large projector lamp.)
Filemon “They don’t make these anymore. No substitutes, either. Drop it, and that’s it. Makes you wonder why my life is being held hostage by one damn glass ball.”
Interview Crew “Have you ever wanted to quit?”
Filemon “Every morning. The second she says, ‘I will read the abnormality report,’ I think maybe it’d be easier to smash the whole bastard thing. Tomorrow, silence. No more getting covered in oil for a show nobody comes to.”
Nietzschka(reacting from beyond the camera) “Destruction of public property is prohibited under Mechanical Labor Bureau regulations.”
Filemon “So you heard that.”
Interview Crew “Even so, you didn’t break it.”
Filemon “…Didn’t have time. Next show kept coming.”
Chapter Two: The Moment the Stars Appear
(Alarm tone. Nietzschka’s announcement echoes through the building.)
Nietzschka “Five minutes until program start. Visitors, please return to your assigned seats.”
Filemon “Who kicked seat three again?”
(From the audience side, a child’s voice: “Sorry!”)
Filemon “They make noise. They touch things. They run. They ask questions. And they always drop something.”
Interview Crew “Do you hate them?”
Filemon “If I hated them, this place would’ve been closed years ago.”
(Filemon performs the final adjustments. He taps a cooling pipe and checks the voltmeter.)(Lights drop. The projector begins to rotate. Stars appear on the dome ceiling. The children gasp.)(Filemon watches the audience through the small window of the projection room. The irritation from moments before has vanished from his face.)
Interview Crew “What were you watching just now? The children?”
Filemon “I know what’s behind it. Burnt wiring. Cracked lenses. I know all of it. That’s not the sky. It’s a machine. …But even a machine becomes the sky to someone looking up.”
Nietzschka (guidance audio) “Comrade citizens. Today’s program is ‘Comrade Gagarin and the House of Stars.’ The stars are the dream of all who gaze upward.”
Filemon “Wonder who put that line in. I hate it. But, well… it’s not bad.”
Chapter Three: The Times Change
(Footage from several years later. Empty seats stand out. Posters have faded. Sirens sound outside. The windows are reinforced with boards.)
Narrator “In time, space ceased to be the future and became an old slogan. More people came asking for parts than came to see the stars.”
(Filemon counts parts in the storage room. The shelves are nearly bare.)
Filemon “We’re just lying to it with whatever we’ve got left. Pipes, electrics, projector, all of it. Look outside. Everybody wants something else fixed. Prosthetics. Ventilators. Cryo-storage. You’ve got to keep living before you keep stars.”
Interview Crew “And yet you continue?”
Filemon “Don’t ask me. Tried to close the place plenty of times. Never knew how.”
Nietzschka “Closure procedures require superior approval. If an approving authority is absent, status quo maintenance is recommended.”
Filemon “Status quo maintenance. Handy little spell.”
Chapter Four: The Last Parts
(October 27, 1991. Rain. The seats beneath the dome are wet.)(On the workbench: the final two bulbs. Filemon stands in front of the projector.)
Interview Crew “If you use them, you won’t be able to replace them. Keeping them stored is also an option.”
Filemon “What’s storage good for? Stars don’t shine inside a box.”
(Filemon takes his time installing the bulbs with care.)
Interview Crew “Why go this far? For the future? For the children?”
Filemon “…Someone might come someday. And when they do, it’d be a shame if nothing showed. Might be a thief. Might be someone here to tear the place apart. But if they look up at the ceiling, there might as well be stars.”
Nietzschka “Filemon, Maintenance Operator. Please confirm replacement completion. Shall I start the projector?”
Filemon “…Start it.”
(Old machine noise. Stars appear on the dome. There is no one in the audience. Filemon looks at Nietzschka. She stands still, gazing up at the stars.)
Chapter Five: The One Who Leaves
(Maintenance room. Filemon writes in the maintenance log. At the bottom, by hand: “Here’s hoping the world won’t forget the stars. —Filemon.”)
Interview Crew “What will you tell Nietzschka? When the truth is, you may not be able to come back.”
Filemon “She can’t move without orders. No, that’s not right. If she can’t pretend there are orders, she doesn’t know what she’s doing. …If she doesn’t think, leaving her behind just means leaving a machine. And yet here I am making excuses. That’s why I’m angry. At myself.”
(Nietzschka enters.)
Nietzschka “Filemon, Maintenance Operator. I submit today’s inspection completion report. Next program time: tomorrow, on schedule. …Will Filemon, Maintenance Operator, also arrive on schedule?”
Filemon “I’ll come. Until I return, do not stop the projector.”
Nietzschka “Understood. Until Filemon returns, I will not stop the p-p-projector.”
Filemon “Don’t forget to repair yourself.”
Nietzschka “Changing priority order requires approval.”
Filemon “I approve it.”
Nietzschka “In registry terms, that expression is inaccurate.”
Filemon “…Difficult right to the end.”
Nietzschka “Am I causing inconvenience? I will improve.”
Filemon “Don’t.”
Nietzschka “Understood. Improvement suspended.”
(Filemon almost laughs, then turns his face away.)
Final Chapter: Unbroadcast Conversation and Aftermath
(The camera crew has packed up. Only the audio recorder is still running.)
Interview Crew “Lastly. What do you call this work?”
Filemon “…Cleaning up. After the bastards who built a great big dream. Space, the future, all that. They said everything they wanted to say, and once it got old, nobody looked after it. Wiring burns, a robot repeats the same phrases, and somebody still has to fix the mess.”
Interview Crew “If you hate the dream, why preserve it? What is that starry sky?”
(Far away, Nietzschka can be heard sweeping the floor.)
Filemon “Leftovers. But it’s a place somebody can look up. No matter how much the world changes, the act of looking upward remains. So putting something on the ceiling shouldn’t damn a man.”
(Cut to the ruined planetarium several years later.)(There are holes in the ceiling. The seats are broken. Yet the projector still hums, casting faint stars.)
(The camera moves closer to the projector. On the floor beside it lies Nietzschka, limbs damaged.)
Nietzschka(in a faint, scraped voice) “Until Filemon returns… I will not… stop the p-p-projector… The stars… are not… absent from duty… Next program… on schedule… scheduled time… recalculating…”
Narrator “What Filemon watched to the end was not the stars themselves, but the faces of those who looked up at them.”
(A single star appears on the dome. The faint Sputnik signal. Beep.)(Blackout.)