10 characters: Amina, Clay, Child, Announcer, Interviewer, Peterson, Rosita, Kruck, Boris, Car
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Clay (61 lines, 1655 words, 63.8%) - [David Loftus] Clay Erhardt is ready to reinvent himself and the world.
Rosita (10 lines, 285 words, 10.99%) - [Roo Ryder] Widow of Ray Lotus.
Peterson (7 lines, 75 words, 2.89%) - [Alex Foott] Psychologist.
Interviewer (10 lines, 124 words, 4.78%) - [XiRhoVo] Employee of Interplantech interviewing a unique candidate. [complete]
Boris (9 lines, 76 words, 2.93%) - [Richard N] Employee of Interplantech. Under orders to keep Clay Erhardt happy and make him think he's important, but resents Erhardt. [complete]
Kruck (7 lines, 192 words, 7.4%) - [Richard N] President of the United States, Joe Kruck. Democrat, elected 2036 and staring at a likely defeat in 2040 and the hands of his most powerful political rival Senator Mary Ives (R-NV). [complete]
Car (3 lines, 8 words, 0.31%) - [bot] Car navigation voice.
Amina (9 lines, 56 words, 2.16%) - [Kat Leroy] Widow of the person in whose body Clay now resides. Her parents emigrated from Turkiye to Czechia when she was a small child. She met her late husband Omar in Czechia and they emigrated to the USA.
Child (3 lines, 21 words, 0.81%) - [AL3X2006] Son of the former occupant of Clay Erhardt's body. 9 years old in this episode's dream sequence.
Announcer (2 lines, 102 words, 3.93%) - [Paul Knierim] Announcer. [complete]
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
1 SOUND: nature, walking
2 Amina: It's such a beautiful day!
3 Clay: It certainly is.
4 Child: [excited] Can we have our picnic here, daddy?
5 Clay: Sure son, looks like a good little clearing.
6 SOUND: unfurling blanket
7 Amina: Can you straighten out the other end of the blanket, dear?
8 Clay: Got it.
9 SOUND: setting down and opening up picnic basket
10 SOUND: sound of ship passing overhead
11 Amina: [alarmed] What just flew over, what was it?
12 Clay: [not alarmed] Oh, just a shuttle from the Chimera, probably looking for me.
13 Amina: You won't let them take you?
14 Clay: Of course not. Pass me the bag of chips.
15 SOUND: grabbing and opening chips, crunching a few
16 Child: Daddy, is the Confederation evil?
17 Clay: No son, of course not, they're the good guys.
18 Child: But they want to take you away from us?
19 Clay: It's not that simple.
20 SOUND: another ship overhead, quickly followed by laser fire and explosions
21 Amina: [while fleeing] Run, run! Your good guys are trying to kill us!
22 Clay: [while fleeing] Can't be them, it must be the Klurgh!
23 SOUND: dream music crests and fades
24
Clay:
[narration] I keep having these dreams of another life. A normal life, or at least it's normal until MY life starts intruding into it.
I'm Clay Erhardt. I won't say Doctor, because my credentials aren't real and that can get me into trouble. Besides, Doctor Erhardt was a bit of a weirdo -- he was a character who wanted to cut people's heads open and experiment on them. I'm not that character, not at all, that mad doctor is nothing but a generated false memory. Those memories are a part of me, but they don't control me.
So who am I? Whoever I want to be. I'm doing my best to become an agent of change from the future, here to fix this planet with the aid of my unique perspective.
25 SOUND: music for title sequence
26 Announcer: QuietPlease dot org presents Beyond Awakening. Starring David Loftus as Clay Erhardt. Episode 14, Second Life.
27 Clay: [narration] How does one transform a primitive civilization like 21st century Earth? How does one unlock the potential and unleash the future ahead of schedule? It's a tall task, even if you're as smart as I am. Ever since Minnie brought up the idea that as people from an idealized future we could help remake this society, I'd been giving it a lot of thought. It wasn't something I'd be able to do alone, it was going to require commanding vast resources and currency. With this country being dominated by immense corporations that seem to be able to do whatever they want, I decided the sensible thing would be find a corporation I could ally myself with. As soon as I moved out of Monolith-Eigen, I started reaching out to large corporate entities in technology fields that appeared capable of using my skills to accelerate progress.
28 SOUND: interview room
29 Interviewer: So you see yourself as an inventor?
30 Clay: There are so many technologies that were part of my daily life, that helped make life in the future easy, that you don't have yet. I can't invent them alone, but if we work together we can.
31 Interviewer: You understand how these technologies work?
32 Clay: Yes, I was always something of a polymath so I think I have a pretty good understanding of how everything works.
33 Interviewer: Can you give me a quick example of a particular technology we could build?
34 Clay: Well, I'll start you with something really simple -- a DNA recombinator.
35 Interviewer: What's that?
36 Clay: It edits an individual's genetic structure to remove harmful alleles, or add helpful ones. Very simple stuff you're close to achieving already.
37 Interviewer: And what is it that our current technologies are missing that you can fill in?
38 Clay: You don't yet know how to get every cell in an adult body to copy the introduced changes. I can engineer nanobots for that purpose.
39 Interviewer: Interesting, but Interplantech isn't a medical company and there's a lot of regulations in that field we might prefer to avoid. What are some other things you'd like to work on?
40 Clay: There's portable fusion power units, holo projectors, food replicators, bio-adaptive clothing, gravitational field generators... I've got two centuries of ideas.
41 Interviewer: And what are you looking for from us? How do you see your role in our company?
42 Clay: I'd like to head a department dedicated to pursuing ideas I've brought back from the future. I'll mostly stick to the high level stuff, sketch out the plans, assign teams to do the implementation, and consult with them and review their work as needed.
43 Interviewer: I'm sure you'll be an asset, Mr. Erhardt. Let's call you our chief architect of future technologies?
44 Clay: [surprised it's so easy] You're offering me the job?
45 Interviewer: How does two hundred thousand dollars a year sound?
46 Clay: That sounds fine, as long as I have creative control over my department and whatever funding I need for my projects.
47 Interviewer: No problem. Can you start tomorrow?
48
Clay:
[narration] And that's how I started with Interplantech. Perhaps I should've shopped around more, interviewed other companies, negotiated a higher salary... but I really couldn't have cared less about the salary, all I wanted was a chance to design the future. And any corporation was the same as any other to me, as long as they had resources they were willing to put under my command.
I suppose you could say I was trying to make my fantasy backstory real, trying to take whatever steps I could to build a real Galactic Confederation utopia. But that's noble enough, isn't it?
It was fulfilling work. Every time I submitted a design for implementation, everyone was happy with it. Nobody ever pressed me to meet a deadline, nobody ordered me to pick one project over another, I had total creative control. I suppose I should've realized it was too good to be true, but I was new to 21st century Earth and not that cynical yet. At that time, the only thing nagging at my mind was the dreams.
49 SOUND: therapy room
50 Peterson: It's always the same family?
51 Clay: Yes, a wife and a son.
52 Peterson: Do you know the name of your wife in your dreams?
53 Clay: I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue.
54 Peterson: That's a common feeling even when the name isn't really there.
55 Clay: I thought maybe you could tell me, don't you have the background on our former identities, wouldn't you want to have that to inform your work?
56 Peterson: The identities of the families of the former inhabitants of your bodies are kept secret at their request.
57 Clay: But Captain Hardcase's widow, Rosita... she came to see him.
58 Peterson: That was her choice.
59 Clay: I could probably uncover my wife's name with some research...
60 Peterson: Please don't do that, you're on your way to a stalking charge. If they want to see you, they'll reach out.
61 Clay: But I feel like they're reaching out through my dreams...
62 Peterson: Dreams are not consent, Clay.
63
Clay:
[narration] I wanted to take Dr. Peterson's advice and not intrude on people who didn't want me. But my OWN former identity... that was MY business, right? I felt I had a right to learn who I used to be. A few internet searches, putting two and two together with records of accident victims in Sacramento on long term life support and looking up their photos... and I had it. I had me. Omar Barak. Died November 1st 2036. Born June 19th 1997 in Istanbul, emigrated to Czechia in 2019 where he met and married his wife Amina, they emigrated to the USA in 2022. Worked for a biotech company. One child, son Yusuf, born 2023.
What did I do with this information? Well, I arranged a meeting with the one person who could help me understand how Omar's loved ones might feel.
64 SOUND: cafe
65 Rosita: It's terribly unfair.
66 Clay: Hmm?
67 Rosita: You having dreams of your family when they don't want you, and Mack having no recollection of me when I'd give anything for just a flicker of recognition.
68 Clay: I guess his brain just took more damage than mine. Not all brain deaths are created equal.
69 Rosita: Still, you've renewed my hope. You've proved it's possible, proved the doctors wrong. Maybe somewhere deep down there's a spark of Ray in Mack and it'll just take longer to come out for him.
70
Clay:
I've been having these sorts of dreams, glimpses of this world, since before they even took me out of the simulation. It was pretty immediate. Although the subject has shifted, they weren't about family at first.
Anyway. Do you think I should do as Dr. Peterson says and stay away from Omar's wife and son?
71 Rosita: You have to.
72 Clay: Why?
73 Rosita: It's their choice.
74 Clay: Wasn't it also their choice, the choice of all the families, to pay to keep these bodies alive? Why would they pay for us and then refuse to see us?
75 Rosita: That's the worst part of the betrayal. Irrational hope drove us to pay to keep our loved ones on life support, and then our money was used to put strangers into our loved ones' bodies instead.
76 Clay: But if they knew I dream about them, would they still choose not to see me?
77 Rosita: You don't understand grieving, Clay.
78 Clay: [lighthearted] Well I'm three months old, give me a break and explain it to me.
79 Rosita: When someone we love very much dies, it's like an open wound. In time, we learn to get on with our lives and focus on other things. But sometimes we encounter little reminders of the departed -- maybe I pass by Ray's favorite restaurant, or I hear one of his favorite songs -- and it reopens the wound, suddenly the pain is as fresh as if he died yesterday. Imagine how much worse it is to meet a new person inhabiting your loved one's body, walking around in it like they own it, just flagrantly not being the person they should be.
80 Clay: But you wanted to see Hardcase, insisted even.
81 Rosita: If I'm honest, I never actually managed to move on. They have, they're healthier for it, please don't re-open their wounds. And I have to warn you, the families are some of the fiercest, most radical Union for Humanity backers -- they see you as an abomination, a desecration, a personal betrayal. Most of Ray's family is like that.
82 Clay: You think I'd be in danger from Omar's wife?
83 Rosita: Widow -- don't forget it's widow not wife. And yes, I do.
84
Clay:
[narration] I grudgingly dropped that matter for the moment.
It was a real jolt when I heard Misty had been kidnapped by Union for Humanity. Shattered the illusion of safety and security I'd been developing. Interplantech encouraged me to move into a suite in their building where they could protect me, and I decided to do so. And a few days later, I got the phone call I'd been waiting for since the day I was awakened.
85 SOUND: phone ring, pickup
86 Clay: Clay Erhardt speaking.
87 Kruck: Hello Mr. Erhardt, this is Joe Kruck, the President of the United States. I'm calling to reassure you that my government is committed to doing whatever it takes to bring your friend home safely.
88 Clay: Thank you, Mr. President. About time, I'd been wondering if you actually cared about us.
89 Kruck: You have to understand there's a lot of big issues that need my attention.
90 Clay: Aren't WE a pretty big deal?
91 Kruck: Not compared to the latest climate-driven crop failures, or the ten thousand Floridians who lost their homes in flooding last week, or next Tuesday's G9 summit. But rest assured my administration sees you four as American citizens with equal rights despite your unique background. We embrace the full diversity of the American experience, and you're the newest part of our mosaic, a vulnerable minority we need to protect from Senator Ives and her ilk.
92 Clay: Mr. President, do you have any SPECIFIC plans to address our security?
93 Kruck: We have good intelligence on where they're keeping Misty L'Quil, and we'll be launching a raid to free her shortly.
94 Clay: Good to hear. While I have you Mr. President, I've calculated that single-payer healthcare would not only save lives but also save your country enough money to help start a universal basic income from the sovereign wealth fund, and these policies would dramatically reduce poverty by--
95 Kruck: [interrupting] I don't mean to be impolite, Mr. Erhardt, but...
96 Clay: But you won't let that stop you.
97 Kruck: You're clueless about our society and government. I'm not a dictator, I have to work within the political realities of today, and these are matters for congress anyway, you clearly don't understand how things work.
98 Clay: [forcefully] I understand that they AREN'T working, and I come from a future where they DO work, and I want to help you fix our timeline. I'd think you'd be interested in that help.
99 Kruck: [sighs] I've got things to do, goodbye.
100 SOUND: end call
101 Clay: [narration] It's exasperating -- I know how to fix this planet, this country, but nobody will let me do it. My job with Interplantech was the only place where anyone listened to me... but even there, I was beginning to notice that things were a bit off.
102 SOUND: office
103 Boris: Chief, you wanted to see me?
104 Clay: Sit down, Boris.
105 SOUND: Boris sits
106 Boris: What can I help you with, chief?
107 Clay: Every time I ask about the status of projects I've submitted for implementation, I feel like I'm getting the run-around.
108 Boris: What would you like to know, chief?
109 Clay: Tell me about the nanobots project. A lot of our other stuff depends on that, so I made it your top priority. Have you got a prototype?
110 Boris: These things take time.
111 Clay: But what stage are we at?
112 Boris: Jenkins and I have been studying your specs.
113 Clay: And?
114 Boris: [choosing words carefully] We... uh, we broke it down into component tasks and prioritized the sub-items.
115 Clay: Have you actually DONE anything?
116 Boris: Chief, for one thing, we don't have the kind of chips you specify.
117 Clay: I understood you have quantum computing?
118 Boris: Yes, but not with the speed or reliability or sub-nanometer scale you're assuming.
119 Clay: I'll look into it for you. In the future, I want you to bring these issues to me right away.
120 Boris: [eye roll] Okay Chief, you're the boss.
121
Clay:
[narration] I looked up the leading microchip manufacturers, and soon enough I'd made an appointment to visit the Intel campus in Folsom to discuss our difficulties. I'd never been to Folsom before, but it felt familiar somehow. Not Intel specifically, but the city in general.
It was a strange sort of meeting. The CEO wouldn't see me, the site manager wouldn't see me, it was just a couple of random engineers. And I got the sense they weren't really listening to me and were just waiting for me to shut up and go. They nodded and agreed with my ideas, their mouths told me that what I had in mind was possible, but their eyes told me it wasn't. But in the end we shook hands and signed a contract, so that was that and I emerged back into the sun. And I decided to drive around town more to see if I could pin down that feeling of familiarity, see if particular areas might be more familiar than others.
122 SOUND: car interior
123 Clay: Stafford Street... I know that name is familiar. [louder] Car, take a left on Stafford.
124 Car: Acknowledged, altering route.
125 SOUND: turn signal
126 Clay: [to self] I know there's a library there, and a zoo... [louder] Car, left on Mormon Street.
127 Car: Acknowledged, altering route.
128 SOUND: turn signal
129 Clay: [to self] I know I've been here... in another life. Hmm. [eureka] THERE! That's the house! Car, park here and switch off!
130 SOUND: parking and turning off
131 Car: Acknowledged, parking.
132 Clay: It's almost the same. That tree is bigger, and I'm pretty sure the house used to be beige.
133 SOUND: car door opening, walking up driveway to door, ringing doorbell, door opens
134 Amina: [hostile] What the fuck are YOU doing here?
135 Clay: [stammering] It's... it's you!
136 Amina: [hostile] How did you find us?
137 Clay: Memory.
138 Amina: Memory?
139 Clay: I remember this house. And you, Amina... I see you in my dreams.
140 Amina: [reluctant] You'd better come in.
141 SOUND: end theme
142 Announcer: Beyond Awakening episode 14, Second Life, was written and produced by Paul Knierim. It starred David Loftus as Clay Erhardt. Also featured were Roo Ryder as Rosita Lotus, Richard N as President Kruck and Boris, XiRhoVo as the interviewer, Alex Foott as Doctor Peterson, Kat Leroy as Amina, and AL3X2006 as the child. This is Paul Knierim. Music licensed from Joel Steudler and creative commons zero and public domain sources. To learn more about Beyond Awakening or support the show, go to quietplease dot org slash awakening.