Characters:-

-Alien-1: Physicist.

-Alien-2: Physicist.

-(Optional): Silent Alien laboratory assistants. Walk-ons engaged in routine office chores, randomly entering, exiting.

Plot: Two scientists at work in a laboratory on a world in a galaxy far, far away; long, long ago.

(Inside a science laboratory. There is a small ball of glass-like material emitting a pulse of dim light. The ball floats inside a transparent vertical cylinder, on a table downstage-centre. Both scientists are upstage of the cylinder, on either side of it. They have hand-held gauges with which they continually scan the object, tap on keys, read the displays.)

Alien-1: No doubt it's Nigorg?

Alien-2: Less than one percent doubt.

Alien-1: That's a huge number in an infinite universe.  And it wasn't heading this way?

Alien-2: That's correct. But we cannot afford the risk. We intercepted it about two light-years away. We have to assume it transmitted co-ordinates back to Nigorg. Perhaps even before we detected it.

Alien-1: (Leaning in closer to the ball.) Such sophisticated systems in so simple a design.

Alien-2: They've made phenomenal advances since the last time.

Alien-1: How long do we have before they arrive?

Alien-2: Less than two years. That's if they're still traveling as they did two thousand years ago. If this device is any indication of their technology, they could get here sooner.

Alien-1: Let's start packing up right away. Since we don't have much to pack, we should be able to leave in a few days.

Alien-2: Uh, some of us have a plan. (Alien-1 looks at Alien-2.) For millions and millions of years we have been just one step ahead of the Nigorg. We're tired of running.

Alien-1: You're tired of living. I understand. Sometimes, me, too.

Alien-2: Only some of us. Only if we have to keep on running. (Pause, as Alien-1 turns to scan a part of the object.)

Alien-1: You have a plan?

Alien-2: Yes. Only those of us who have not yet chosen their age of immortality. We will remain here for the Nigorg to find us.

Alien-1: Don't make it too easy to be found. They're super-intelligent. They will know it's a trap.

Alien-2: Of course.

Alien-1: What will you use for weapons?

Alien-2: The Singularity. (Alien-1 stops and looks at
Alien-2.)

Alien-1: It's not finished. It won't be finished if the Nigorg will be here in two years.

Alien-2: It's already finished enough to be used here.

Alien-1: Our original plan was to take it into the Nigorg's Andromeda Galaxy, and wipe them out once and for all. In their own backyard.

Alien-2: Yes, yes. I'm sorry. But you have everything to build another one while you run.

Alien-1: If we are lucky enough to find another star like this one with all the ingredients. The Andromeda has turned. It is coming this way. Within one more lifetime it will be only a hop-skip-and-a-jump away. With a finished Singularity we will be able to take out the Nigorg forever, one weekend.

Alien-2: I know. I know. But look at it this way. If some of us make a stand here, you will know just how effective or ineffective the Singularity is against the Nigorg. We have dared only limited laboratory tests so far.

Alien-1: And if some of the Nigorg escape, there goes our Singularity secret.

Alien-2: None will escape. We will surrender. They will think we are the last remaining. They will take us prisoners to set an example. We will time the Singularity to detonate while we're prisoners. They'll be well within range for total annihilation. (A long pause.)

Alien-1: Everyone knows it is a suicide mission?

Alien-2: Everyone knows it is a suicide mission up to when you re-make us with the changes we have requested.

Alien-1: Yes. (Pause. In silence, they look at each other, shake hands. They hug. They break. For a few seconds, they scan the object, separately.) How is your Ocean-Floor Project coming along?

Alien-2: It's still just a hobby.

Alien -1: Have you given thought to my suggestion? (Alien -2 looks at Alien -1, puzzled.) You forget?

Alien -2: Yes. I am so sorry. The Nigorg danger is consuming me.

Alien-1: Not a problem. It was just a suggestion.

Alien -2: Please, suggest it again. I’m really so sorry for forgetting.

Alien -1: Okay. The last time you let me see your process, you said you had assigned it a number. Just for the fun of it I suggested a name-----( Alien-2 remembers.)

Alien -2: “Homo Sapiens!”

Alien -1: Yes!

Alien -2: And now I remember why I forgot it. Because when I asked you what Homo Sapiens meant, you said it had no meaning because you had come up with it as a title for a science fiction story you were writing about the notion of Nothingness.

Alien -1: There you go. I was writing about the mystery of a meaning we had come up with despite never having any hard evidence of a reality associated with that meaning. Just like your Ocean Floor Project. And, moreover, just as you were having difficulty seeing where the process was going, I have not finished my story because I’m having difficulty creating a credible ending to having created Nothingness. So, have you given thought to changing from a number for your project, to a name, Homo Sapiens?

Alien -2: (After a few seconds of silent indecision.) Yes. Why not? It’s not as if I have any idea of where the algorithm is going. “Homo Sapiens” is as nowhere as any.
Alien-1: How far along is it?

Alien-2: I’m guessing that in a few more of their lifetimes, “Homo Sapiens” will acquire the sentience to invent writing.

Alien-1: Found a way to program them mechanically immortal, like us?

Alien-2: Nearly there. This chemical element we invented and labeled “Organic Life,” is giving us more trouble than we calculated it would.

Alien-1: Really? (In slow deliberation.) Could there be more to that joking remark you made about that fleeting appearance about “Organic Life’s” configuration you said you thought you saw in those first seconds you created “Life” in a test tube? (They look at each other. Alien-2 becomes wide-eyed as recollection grows.)

Alien-2: (In a near-whisper.) Our “Organic Life” is Nigorg? (Both grimly stare out into the auditorium as the onstage lights fade to blackout. 
 
                                                                                                                                               ~The End~