16 characters: Misty, Admiral, Hardcase, Vatika, Announcer, Vang, Ives, Minnie, Trisha, Clay, Peterson, Klurgh, Jim, Felix, Host, Mick
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Hardcase (53 lines, 524 words, 14.2%) - [John Gaunce] Captain Mack Hardcase. Normally a confident, arrogant, Captain Kirk type… having trouble dealing with his role in this new reality.
Misty (49 lines, 364 words, 9.86%) - [Steff Knappe] Misty L'Quil, trying to come to terms with being human.
Trisha (21 lines, 202 words, 5.47%) - [Gwenith Knight] Trisha Blackburn has been through more false realities than anyone, and is cautious about accepting this one as real. [complete]
Mick (5 lines, 55 words, 1.49%) - [Adam Wade] Union for Humanity terrorist, infiltrating to plant a bomb. [complete]
Admiral (14 lines, 155 words, 4.2%) - [Roger Arnold] First a dream semi-deity, then someone using a voice clone of Admiral Graveman. [complete]
Jim (10 lines, 162 words, 4.39%) - [Sean Curran] Someone using a voice clone of Jim Hardcase. [complete]
Felix (4 lines, 50 words, 1.35%) - [Curt Caster] Nurse Felix [complete]
Clay (22 lines, 281 words, 7.61%) - [David Loftus] Clay Erhardt is ready to reinvent himself.
Minnie (19 lines, 254 words, 6.88%) - [Mel Crochemore] Doctor Minnie Moreau is a researcher at Monolith-Eigen Laboratories.
Vatika (34 lines, 399 words, 10.81%) - [Sweena Mangal] Doctor Maya Vatika, age 30, works at Monolith-Eigen Laboratories. Recent immigrant from India. Hindu.
Klurgh (4 lines, 36 words, 0.98%) - [Nick Ben Wong] Evil alien nemesis.
Peterson (12 lines, 198 words, 5.36%) - [Alex Foott] Psychologist. Peterson's role is to explore the feelings of his four unusual patients who are living in the bodies of dead people and have AI-generated false memories of living their lives in the 23rd century. They represent a unique challenge. [complete]
Host (8 lines, 115 words, 3.12%) - [Faye Holiday] TV news host. [complete]
Vang (12 lines, 150 words, 4.06%) - [Kate J White] Martha Vang, CEO of Monolith-Eigen Laboratories. Primarily concerned with profit and power, excited about her company's new innovation and the world-leading status it imparts. [complete]
Ives (35 lines, 584 words, 15.82%) - [Audrey J Williams] Senator Mary Ives, Republican representing Nevada. The early favorite for the party's 2040 presidential nomination. Sees our heroes as the ultimate threat of replacing mankind with machines, or at least sees an opportunity to win power by scapegoating them as such. [complete]
Announcer (2 lines, 162 words, 4.39%) - [Paul Knierim] Announcer. [complete]
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
1 SOUND: underworld with fire ring from ep 6
2 Misty: [in a sort of spiritual trance] Tukuy atiyniyoqpa sutinpi, ch'uya Diospa sutinpi. Ñuqa, humilde maqanakuqniyki, kaywanmi dioskunata rakini. Ay Yarbachpa hatun diosninkuna, ñuqa mana chaninniyuqqa kunankamapas mañakuniraqmi juzgasqa kanaypaq. Khuyapayay, valekuyki... khuyapayay. Lloqsimuspa juzgaway.
3 SOUND: apparition thunder from ep 6
4 Admiral: You're a persistent one, Misty L'Quil.
5 Misty: Lord, I beg admittance.
6 Admiral: So you've said. But why? Why are you so desperate to reach your final resting place?
7 Misty: What else is left for me?
8 Admiral: You could go back to your life.
9 Misty: My life is gone. What's left is someone else's life.
10 Admiral: You could make it yours.
11 Misty: How?
12 Admiral: Faith.
13 Misty: Faith? In what? Everything I've ever believed in has been wrong, what's left for me to have faith in?
14
Admiral:
Have faith in the people you've gone through this with.
Now GO! Petition rejected, leave me alone!
15 SOUND: waking chamber from ep 4 opens
16 Misty: [confused] Another waking chamber?
17 SOUND: dog barks at her
18
Misty:
Where did YOU come from?
You want me to follow you?
19 SOUND: dog barks a yes and scurries off
20 SOUND: they go through a door into another room
21 Hardcase: Misty! You're alive!
22 Misty: I'm happy to see you, sir.
23 Hardcase: Do you know where we are, what's going on?
24 Misty: Sorry sir, no idea. But this dog seems certain he knows...
25 SOUND: bark and flutter of feathers as dog transforms into a bird when hardcase says it does
26 Hardcase: Dog? Looks like a bird to me.
27 Misty: If only we could fly away with him...
28 SOUND: hospital fades in
29 Vatika: Wake up, Misty.
30 Misty: [groans awake]
31 Vatika: You've got a big day ahead of you, you'll be joining our CEO at a press conference.
32 Misty: [groggy] What's a press conference?
33 Vatika: We're giving you all a crash course on them in about an hour. Don't worry, you won't be saying much, just stick to the talking points we provide and refuse any other questions and it'll be fine.
34 SOUND: pause
35 Misty: Doctor Vatika?
36 Vatika: Yes, Misty?
37 Misty: Doctor, do you have faith? I mean religious faith.
38 Vatika: I do.
39 Misty: It's important to you?
40 Vatika: I don't know how I'd have coped with losing my father last year without it.
41 Misty: You believe there's a god?
42 Vatika: Yes.
43 Misty: One, or many?
44 Vatika: Both.
45 Misty: I don't understand.
46 Vatika: I believe in Brahman as the one underlying substrate of the universe, the foundation of everything in our experience and ourselves. And I believe Brahman takes form in different ways as Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva... and their many avatars.
47 Misty: Is that what most people here believe?
48 Vatika: No.
49 Misty: What do most people believe?
50 Vatika: [a little hesitant] There are so many religions on Earth, none has a majority.
51 Misty: So how do you know what to believe?
52 Vatika: [awkward] Well... I suppose most of us believe what we were raised with.
53 Misty: Is my Cthunian religion based on one of Earth's religions?
54 Vatika: No, it was synthesized from training data from a variety of religions.
55 Misty: So nobody here believes in it.
56 Vatika: But maybe there's a little bit of what everybody believes in your beliefs. Every religion helps people understand the divine and our place in the universe according to the different needs of each culture, and your religion is designed just for you.
57 Misty: I'd be a fool to keep my faith in a religion I know was invented by a computer.
58 Vatika: Hold onto the things that have meaning for you, the things that help you, no matter their source.
59 SOUND: theme music
60 Announcer: QuietPlease dot org presents Beyond Awakening. Starring John Gaunce as Mack Hardcase, David Loftus as Clay Erhardt, Gwenith Knight as Trisha Blackburn, and Steff Knappe as Misty L'Quil. Episode nine, Faith.
61 SOUND: press conference room, audience mumble
62 Vang: [inspired] I couldn't be any prouder of my team than I am for what we've accomplished. These four special people are nothing short of a miracle. They're life from death. They're the opening salvo of a new era in human history.
63 Ives: [stirring the pot] Opening salvo, yeah. But they're not human, and the era they're ushering in is the era of replacing human beings. It wasn't enough for AI to replace us in our jobs, now it's taking over our brains and literally rewriting and replacing our very identities!
64 Vang: Senator, that's not fair at all. And this is meant to be a press event.
65 Ives: [power play] If you don't want to answer me here, we can resume this in front of my Senate committee...
66 Vang: I didn't say that. I'm just a bit confused about what you're doing in Sacramento when you represent Nevada.
67 Ives: I represent the American people, I go where they need me most.
68 Vang: Did anyone have any more questions?
69 Ives: [mocking the notion that he's a captain] I have a question for 'Captain' Hardcase.
70 Vang: [sigh of resignation] Yes?
71 Ives: [mocking again] 'Captain', why do YOU think you were created?
72 Hardcase: [reluctantly] Ma'am, I really don't know. They say we're supposed to bring a utopian future's perspective to your Earth.
73 Ives: And pray tell, how do you feel your silly, badly written bucket of schlock AI-generated backstory allows you to sit in judgement of us here in the real world?
74 Hardcase: It doesn't, ma'am.
75 Ives: Has it helped you understand us at all, given you any insights you can relay to us?
76 Hardcase: No, ma'am. Frankly it just confused the hell out of us and our heads are still spinning.
77
Ives:
Do ANY of you actually believe you're here to save us, and not just to be cogs in Monolith-Eigen's plan to profit from replacing the human race?
Thought not.
78 Vang: They haven't been informed of all the different-
79 Ives: [talking over Vang] 'Captain' Hardcase, in the false life you remember living, did you ever kill anyone?
80 Hardcase: That's part of the duties of a Galactic Confederation officer in extreme situations.
81 Ives: Answer the question.
82 Hardcase: Yes.
83 Ives: HOW MANY people have you killed?
84 Hardcase: Well, if you mean face to face I suppose dozens, but they were all dangerous enemies and we had no choice--
85 Ives: [interrupting] And who are your enemies here on Earth?
86 Hardcase: I don't know.
87 Ives: Perhaps those of us who oppose killing machines running around free? Are we fair game to murder?
88 Hardcase: No, Senator.
89 Vang: [hurriedly] That's all the time we have today, we'll let you all know when we have our next media availability.
90 Ives: [threateningly] I'll be there.
91 SOUND: crowd breaks up, chairs folded up, walking out to back room
92 Vang: [angry] Guys, are you TRYING to get yourselves confiscated by the government? That was PATHETIC!
93 Minnie: They're not trained for this.
94 Vatika: We really should've put some media studies in their backstories.
95 Vang: [angry] Well, do it now! Edit it in!
96 SOUND: scene fades out
97 SOUND: lounge, or maybe dining room
98 Hardcase: If there's one thing that press conference proved, it's that we don't understand 21st century Earth well enough to navigate it.
99 Minnie: We can change that.
100 Vatika: You can know everything there is to know, before you go to bed tonight.
101 Trisha: Is that what the CEO was talking about?
102 Minnie: We can implant new memories that'll give you encyclopedic knowledge.
103 SOUND: tension music starts soft and grows behind scene
104 Clay: [uncomfortable] Implant?
105 Vatika: Same as we implanted your current knowledge.
106 Clay: [annoyed] I for one have had more than enough of that already.
107 Vatika: You'd rather muddle along making mistakes because you don't understand our society, when you could be an expert?
108 Clay: For it to mean anything, my knowledge has to be MINE. I have to EARN it, the hard way.
109 Hardcase: I reluctantly have to agree with Doctor Erhardt. I'm not sure how many times you've edited our memories already, but it has to stop, I need to know my memories won't change.
110 Vatika: Memories always change, doing it in a directed way just improves the result.
111 Minnie: We can let you choose exactly what you want to remember, get rid of anything traumatic while filling in whatever you want to be an expert on. Or we can do a pure knowledge implant without associating the knowledge with any events or changing your narrative at all.
112 Clay: The Captain and I would like to invite you to fuck off, dear.
113 Minnie: What about you, Trisha?
114 Trisha: I've been messed with too many times... I'm not even sure if this is real yet.
115 Minnie: Misty?
116 Misty: I'll have to think about it for a while.
117 Minnie: You should ALL think about it.
118 Vatika: You're all free to change your minds later.
119 Clay: Let's just hope YOU'RE not free to change our minds later.
120 Vatika: It'd protect you.
121 Minnie: And it'd let you move out of Monolith-Eigen and into the city a lot sooner.
122 Clay: [skeptical] As if you'd just let us go...
123 Minnie: We will. Just not until you have a better idea how to operate out there.
124 Hardcase: Don't you want us to stay for months of physical therapy?
125 Vatika: That can be done out-patient, we could release you in your wheelchairs if you were socially competent.
126 Clay: Don't listen to them, they're just dangling a treat to make us agree to be reprogrammed again.
127 Minnie: You're being paranoid, Clay.
128 Clay: You can't tell me I'm crazy when you admit you actually HAVE been manipulating my mind my whole life.
129 SOUND: end scene, end tension music
130 SOUND: psychologist's office
131 Peterson: I don't want any of you to think you're crazy.
132 Hardcase: [sarcastic] Right, because sane people get dragged in to see a psychiatrist all the time.
133 Peterson: I'm a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. And most of my clients just have issues they're willing to work on, they're as sane as the average person.
134 Clay: The average person isn't a high standard on this planet.
135 Peterson: True enough. But that's why I'm here, to help people deal with the crazy stuff life throws at them. You four have been through a severe trauma. I can help you process it and understand it.
136 Hardcase: Whether we like it or not?
137 Peterson: Only this group session is mandatory, but I hope I'll be able to convince you all to come back for individual sessions. You may only have been alive for a couple weeks, but what you've been through in that time is going to take months or even years to unpack.
138 Trisha: It's nice to meet someone who can recognize that instead of pretending everything's okay.
139 Peterson: It's okay to not be okay.
140 Clay: How trite.
141 SOUND: pause
142 Peterson: How are you all feeling about the idea that somebody else lived in your body before you? Give me one word to describe the feeling.
143 Hardcase: Empty.
144 Trisha: Terrified.
145 Misty: Misplaced.
146 Clay: Intrigued.
147 Peterson: Intrigued?
148 Clay: It's something meaty to think about, more interesting than the rest of these days cooped up inside doing physical therapy and killing time with no mission.
149 Peterson: You feel you NEED a mission, don't you?
150 Hardcase: Missions are all we've known.
151 Misty: We've had such well-defined roles where we always knew what was expected of us, but now that the roles are gone...
152 Peterson: Has your dynamic changed now that there's no command structure?
153 Trisha: Do we even HAVE a dynamic anymore? With no missions, do we have a reason to associate with each other?
154 Peterson: Perhaps your mission is your common struggle to regain your strength and independence.
155 Clay: Physical therapy is individualized, we each have separate tasks and goals and can't really help each other.
156 Peterson: You can support each other, cheer each other on.
157 Hardcase: Helluva mission THAT makes. And I don't feel like I'm making any progress worth cheering for.
158 SOUND: pause
159 Peterson: How've you been sleeping?
160 SOUND: transition
161 SOUND: alien planet
162 Klurgh: [sfx: loudspeaker] We have your Commander L'Quil! Surrender now or she dies!
163 Trisha: [alarmed] What can we do?
164 Hardcase: [cupping hands to shout to distant Klurgh from cover] I'll make you a counter-proposal. My life for hers.
165 Klurgh: Very well, Captain. If you will give yourself to us, we will let her go free.
166 Hardcase: [cupping hands] Send her across. You know I always act honorably, I give you my word I'll cross over to you once she reaches me.
167 Klurgh: She will be with you momentarily.
168 Misty: I'm here, sir.
169 Hardcase: Thank god you're okay!
170 Misty: Sir, why are you doing this? You're a more valuable hostage than me!
171 Hardcase: I love you, Misty. Always remember that. I know as a Cthunian you can't return my feelings, but I'll gladly die for you.
172 Klurgh: What is the delay?
173 Hardcase: I have to go. Live well.
174 Misty: Wait, sir!
175 SOUND: kiss
176 Misty: I love you too!
177 SOUND: hardcase's phone rings, he awakes and fumbles for it on nightstand
178 Hardcase: [irritated just awakened voice] Hardcase here.
179 Jim: [urgency] Mack, it's me! It's Jim!
180 Hardcase: [sharply] Who are you and how did you get this number?
181 Jim: You know who I am, Mack! I'm your brother!
182 Hardcase: You can't be. This is a joke, a trick... because I know I'm awake now.
183 Admiral: Captain Hardcase, this is Admiral Graveman speaking on the same channel. I can confirm that's your brother, he's found a way to piggyback us on a Klurgh transmission to reach you.
184 Hardcase: So you're saying...
185 Admiral: You're in a Klurgh interrogation center, yes.
186 Hardcase: [carefully] I've suspected as much at times. But can you prove it?
187 Jim: Mack, if you want to survive, you'll have to show a little bit of faith in me.
188 Hardcase: [reluctant] Okay, Jim. Let's say I believe you. What do you need from me, how can I help you break me out of here?
189 Admiral: First I need you to promise you won't share our existence or anything about our plan with anyone.
190 Hardcase: Of course, only my crew.
191 Admiral: Not even your crew.
192 Jim: ESPECIALLY not your crew.
193 Hardcase: But they're my crew...
194 Jim: We don't know if their capacity to resist Klurgh influence is as strong as yours, Mack.
195 Hardcase: [reluctantly] Okay, I understand, I promise.
196 Admiral: The facility you're in, that looks to you like Monolith-Eigen Laboratories... that's the interrogation center.
197 Hardcase: Explains why I feel like a prisoner here. It's going to be hard to break out when I can't walk, though.
198 Admiral: Stay put for now. We just need you to help us get Jim inside.
199 Hardcase: An infiltration op?
200 Jim: That's right, I'm coming to your rescue just like you'd do for me. I just need you to get something for me first.
201 Hardcase: What's that?
202 Jim: A security badge from one of the staff.
203 Hardcase: Shouldn't be hard, I've noticed Minnie often takes hers off and leaves it lying around. But how will I get that to you?
204 Jim: Your room is on the second floor. There's a balcony near you, and just below that balcony is a dumpster. The lid is open. I want you to toss that security badge down into the dumpster. Tomorrow's trash day and we have a plan in place to retrieve it.
205 Hardcase: Okay... though I'm a little confused about whether the alley and dumpster are real...
206 Jim: Everything you see is a stand-in for something real, but modified through the perceptual filter the Klurgh are using to make you think you're on Earth.
207 Hardcase: [uncertain] Uh... I guess that makes sense.
208 Admiral: Do you understand your instructions? Can you do this, Captain?
209 Hardcase: This is the sort of thing I'm made for, it'll be a piece of cake.
210 Admiral: Thank you, Captain Hardcase.
211 Jim: See you soon, Mack! Bye!
212 Hardcase: [uneasy] Goodbye, Jim.
213 SOUND: call end sound, putting down phone
214 SOUND: door opens, footsteps enter
215 Felix: I heard you talking...
216 Hardcase: McGuy!
217 Felix: What? Oh, yeah, the character they used my voice for was named McGuy.
218 Hardcase: You're not Engineer McGuy?
219 Felix: I'm Nurse Felix. Are you okay?
220 Hardcase: I'm fine. Do you know how the others are doing?
221 Felix: Blackburn is making herself some food, since she can't seem to sleep at night. L'Quil and Erhardt were asleep last I checked, but they'll be up shortly.
222 SOUND: transition
223 SOUND: conversation plays out on television, with sounds of pair eating cereal as they watch
224 Host: Senator Ives, what do you say to critics who accuse you of exploiting these four patients for political gain?
225 Ives: I make no apologies for focusing the attention of the American people on this existential crisis, or for being the people's champion. President Kruck has abdicated his responsibility, so somebody's gotta do it.
226 Host: Specifically, what do you propose doing?
227 Ives: I propose we shut down Monolith-Eigen, arrest those responsible for the atrocity, and deactivate the abominations.
228 Host: To be clear... you propose killing Hardcase, L'Quil, Blackburn and Erhardt? Isn't that a violation of their human rights?
229 Ives: They're not human, and they're the ones violating the rights of humans.
230 Host: President Kruck disagrees.
231 Ives: More proof of what a dangerous fool he is. I just hope we can survive until voters have their chance to give him what he's got coming to him.
232 Host: We've seen the press conference, and they look like confused, disoriented people. Can you tell our viewers why you're convinced they're so dangerous they have to be killed?
233 Ives: Deactivated. And yes, they can appear innocuous. But this is way bigger than them, it's about the coming wave they represent.
234 Host: Our country is struggling with the ravages of climate change and the social unrest of an ever-shinking job market being taken over by robots, and you really think these people are more dangerous?
235 Ives: It's about who controls them and their kind, that's what's so dangerous.
236 Host: Controls them?
237 Ives: These cyborgs can be made to believe ANYTHING with memory edits... so even if they're conscious, they clearly don't have free will. Who knows what their backstories have already predisposed them to? Could be the perfect assassins. They or their successors could easily be given false memories that make them assassinate the President.
238 Host: [sarcastically] I thought you'd welcome that.
239 Ives: That's a horrific remark, exactly the sort of overt left-wing bias that's rendered your network irrelevant to the American people.
240 SOUND: turning tv off
241 Minnie: Hey, I was watching that.
242 Clay: Tell me, Minnie... how do you justify us, ethically I mean?
243 Minnie: We're creating life where there was no hope before. What is there to justify?
244 Clay: You've replaced people's minds.
245 Minnie: Nothing YOU wouldn't have done.
246 Clay: Nothing my CHARACTER wouldn't have done, but I'm not him, I'm not the mad doctor. I'm not sure experimenting on people's brains without their permission like this is justified, even if they're dead.
247 Minnie: You don't understand how many lives this technology will save.
248 Clay: How is replacing dead people saving lives?
249 Minnie: Now that we know it works, we don't have to restrict ourselves to brain-dead patients. We can take a stroke victim and replace just the part of their brain that no longer works... or give an Alzheimer's patient their memory back, or at least a good approximation of it from source materials.
250 Clay: You really believe that's what this technology is for?
251 Minnie: Among other things.
252 Clay: You don't think you've bitten off way more than you can chew, just so your company can cash in with a big payday and then leave the world to sort out the mess?
253 Minnie: [animated] You can't stop progress. The USA is a third rate country now, we squandered our lead in just about every field, but here's something we can do first that China hasn't, this is practically a national security necessity...
254 Clay: You're almost as crazy as Senator Ives.
255 SOUND: transition
256 Minnie: Maya, I seem to have lost my security badge somewhere...
257 Vatika: You'd lose your head if you could remove it. Check the break room?
258 Minnie: Hmm I'll look there now.
259 Hardcase: Doctor Vatika?
260 Vatika: Yes, Mr. Hardcase?
261 Hardcase: Can you help me out to the balcony over the alley?
262 Vatika: Sure, I can take you out there for a few minutes.
263 SOUND: wheels him, opens sliding glass door, wheels onto balcony where it's a windy day with nature sounds above the city noises
264 Vatika: Exhilarating, isn't it!
265 Hardcase: What?
266 Vatika: To be alive, to feel the wind in your hair!
267 Hardcase: Feels like an awfully poor substitute for what I was doing before.
268 Vatika: Doesn't it feel deeper, more real?
269 Hardcase: No. I'd have to say this feels the LEAST real of anything.
270 Vatika: Huh. Well, I guess a lot of people get more invested in fantasy than in reality.
271 SOUND: turning around in wheelchair
272 Hardcase: Doctor, who's that back there in the hall?
273 Vatika: I don't see anyone...
274 SOUND: clothing movement, badge clatters into dumpster below
275 Vatika: What was that noise? Did something fall?
276 Hardcase: Just an animal in the alley, don't worry about it.
277 Vatika: What kind of animal?
278 Hardcase: I'm still learning Earth life forms, does it matter?
279 Vatika: If it's a cat or racoon, I want to look... if it's a rat or opossum I don't care.
280 SOUND: scene fade out
281 SOUND: front door opens
282 Vang: [practiced forced politeness] Senator Ives, welcome to Monolith-Eigen.
283 Ives: Cut the crap, we both know I'm not welcome but you're legally obliged to submit to my oversight visit.
284 Vang: I thought we could start by showing you the server room where we--
285 Ives: You can start by taking me to your cyborgs.
286 Vang: As you wish.
287 SOUND: they walk down hall, open door, go through
288 Misty: Senator?
289 Ives: You're the one with the silly accent, where's it from?
290 Misty: Cthunia, ma'am.
291 Ives: Ah that's right, you think you're an alien.
292 Misty: I did think that.
293 Ives: What are your intentions toward the human race? Will you serve us or will we serve you?
294 Misty: Neither, I hope.
295 Ives: I'm told your people don't have the same emotions as us.
296 Misty: Cthunians don't feel love or fear.
297 Ives: The two most important emotions -- love to motivate us and fear to keep us from going too far.
298 Hardcase: Misty is my most trusted confidant, most loyal first officer, most noble--
299 Ives: [interrupting] Your pet dog, who you can sic on your enemies.
300 Trisha: Senator, you seem determined to hate us.
301 Ives: I don't hate you, child. I'm just doing my duty, protecting the people who voted for me.
302 Trisha: This whole democratic process thing is confusing for us.
303 Ives: Your simulation raised you in a non-democratic political system?
304 Trisha: Well, it's complicated. But it's not like your system at all.
305 Ives: Your Galactic Confederation's President isn't chosen by a vote of the people?
306 Trisha: The council of worlds vets and nominates qualified candidates for the galactic senate to pick from.
307 Ives: [thoughtful] I wonder if you're part of a plot to subvert American democracy?
308 Clay: Aren't we here to show you different possible ways of doing things, possibilities for a better future?
309 Ives: You certainly sound like subversives to me. But you're going to find the American people won't listen to you.
310 Clay: [wryly] I'm getting that impression already, yes.
311 SOUND: scene fade out
312 SOUND: hallway, wheeling
313 Misty: Are you sure it's okay for us to go in?
314 Trisha: Minnie said we could check it out without her, as long as we don't touch anything.
315 Misty: Not sure a server room is my idea of a good time, but I'll take my independence where I can get it.
316 SOUND: door opens and two wheelchairs enter server room which has fan and ac noise
317 Trisha: So this is where we were born, sort of, if we can believe what they've told us.
318 Misty: It's hard to imagine myself as electrons on these servers.
319 SOUND: pause
320 Trisha: Maybe it'd be more accurate to say this is where our pasts were manufactured.
321 Misty: Which is sort of the same thing, depending how much our pasts define us.
322 Trisha: How are we ever going to get over being... faked?
323 Misty: Faith.
324 Trisha: Faith?
325 Misty: It's the only way to deal with a life that doesn't make any sense.
326 Trisha: But what can you have faith in after all we've been through?
327 Misty: The people I've been through it with.
328 SOUND: door opens
329 Misty: Who are you?
330 Mick: Name's Mick. Don't mind me, I'm just here to install a little server upgrade. It'll only take a minute.
331 Trisha: That thing you're holding is for a server?
332 SOUND: unplugs, takes cover off server, screwdriver sounds
333 Mick: A new type of heat sink.
334 Misty: Seems awfully big.
335 Mick: What would YOU know about heat sinks?
336 Misty: A lot about fictional ones, not much about real ones.
337 Mick: Let's just say this'll have an explosive impact on the performance of the AI systems running here.
338 Trisha: [confused] Explosive?
339
Mick:
Earth-shaking.
Okay, all done. Farewell, ladies.
340 SOUND: steps exit, door closes
341 Misty: That was odd.
342 SOUND: faint time bomb beep
343 Trisha: [suspicious] I'm going to take a closer look at that thing he called a heat sink.
344 SOUND: re-opening server
345 Trisha: It's beeping...
346 SOUND: bomb explosion, metal and glass flying, thud against wall
347 Trisha: [short scream/grunt from being hit by debris and knocked out]
348 Misty: [panic] TRISHA! TRISHA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!?
349 Announcer: Beyond Awakening episode 9, Faith, was written and produced by Paul Knierim. It starred Audrey J. Williams as Senator Mary Ives, John Gaunce as Mack Hardcase, Sweena Mangal as Doctor Maya Vatika, Steff Knappe as Misty L'Quil, David Loftus as Clay Erhardt, Mel Crochemore as Doctor Minnie Moreau, Gwenith Knight as Trisha Blackburn, Alex Foott as Doctor Peterson, Sean Curran as Jim Hardcase, Roger Arnold as Admiral Graveman, Kate J White as CEO Martha Vang, Faye Holiday as the TV news host, Adam Wade as Mick, Curt Caster as Nurse Felix, and Nick Ben Wong as the Klurgh. 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.