2027
BLUE SKY
September 4th. 2027.
[STEPS, CLICKING, BACKGROUND CHATTER]
CLIVE
Hey. You’re here. You’re nearly late.
PAMELA
Hey. Clive, this is not a location for lunch. I’ve never even been to this floor of the building before.
CLIVE
I told you to dress smart.
PAMELA
Excuse me?
CLIVE
It’s fine. It’s fine. We can do a She’s All That. Right, take the glasses off at the right moment, shake your hair out. But don’t make it look like you’re shaking your hair out, we don’t want to be too obvious.
PAMELA
Clive. I just came up a lot of stairs to get up here, keep talking like that and I will take that ostentatious cane you walk with and break it over your goddamn skull -
CLIVE
Okay, okay, okay.
PAMELA
What is that on the top?
CLIVE
Top of what?
PAMELA
The cane. Is that meant to be an ice cube?
CLIVE
Yeah.
PAMELA
Clive tell me what is going on.
CLIVE
Legal have finally cleared the patent for Overhead’s hypersleep technology. Kontinue will officially be in development.
PAMELA
I heard. That… must be hard for you. Kontinue was your baby. It must be hard watching them take it forward without you.
CLIVE
Sure. They wanted to punish me. But who cares, right? All they’ve got is a rip off of the Amos Tech model. And we know that’s crap tech. Fucks with people’s brains, even using it in their penal system is a human rights outrage. So, no point making a song and dance about us having it.
PAMELA
Right
CLIVE
Unless, of course, Overhead had a fringe pharma department developing a wonder drug, like some incredibly potent half-opioid half-tricyclic antidepressant, perfectly balanced to specifically target the areas of the brain affected by the hypersleep infusion.
PAMELA
[a little sheepish] Clive, I don’t know how you know about that, but I couldn’t tell you, I wasn’t at liberty to discuss an ongoing proj -
CLIVE
Pam, it’s fine. I’m not mad. I’m delighted.
PAMELA
Okay. Great. I mean, I’m still not able to talk about it -
CLIVE
I know, I know. I don’t need you to, okay. That’s not why I asked you to be here. I asked you here to back me up in a meeting.
PAMELA
A meeting with who?
CLIVE
With the board.
PAMELA
The board of what?
CLIVE
Directors.
PAMELA
What?
CLIVE
The board of directors.
PAMELA
When?
CLIVE
About four minutes.
PAMELA
What?!
CLIVE
I did say be on time.
PAMELA
Hah! I thought we had a reservation for another liquid lunch, not a meeting with the directors of Overhead Industries!
CLIVE
It’ll be fine. Like I said you’re just back up. Look pretty and agree with me.
PAMELA
What is this meeting about? Oh, tell me it’s not the Aloha Eternity.
CLIVE
It’s the Aloha Eternity.
PAMELA
Clive, oh my God, you have to let this shit go -
CLIVE
Why would I let it go, now is the time to -
PAMELA
[in disbelief] Now is the time?! You’re asking Overhead to build a luxury cruise liner at a time of unparalleled social, economical, and environmental uncertainty and inequality. Once you’ve done that, your gimmick -
CLIVE
It’s not a gimmick.
PAMELA
Your gimmick will be dependent on that rip-off cryo tech you just disparaged. Our work is barely off formula, we have years to go -
CLIVE
Pam. Don’t you see, once they’re sold on Aloha, then Kontinue, and your wonder drug - do you have a trade name for it yet?
PAMELA
What part of barely off formula do you not understand -
CLIVE
I like ‘Eterniteze’. With an E-Z-E at the end. Fits right in. We give them out when you get your ticket for the cruise, I’ll be like Willy fucking Wonka.
PAMELA
We’ll take it under consideration.
CLIVE
You will?
PAMELA
No!
CLIVE
Well, anyway. What I’m saying is, Aloha Eternity brings the whole thing under one roof. Kontinue. Eterniteze with an E- Z-E. Those beautiful nuclear diamond batteries you helped develop before you got stonewalled again. All under the same umbrella. An umbrella held by me. All I’m asking is that you come in out of the rain and stand with me, Pam. Let me keep you dry.
PAMELA
Clive, I know you’ve been hanging on to this patent like it’s a bag of magic beans but you’re crazy.
CLIVE
You’re beaten down, Pam, I get it. You were happy working at Red Valley, and it fell apart. You were happy with the little nuclear diamond battery project, and it fell apart. Okay, you had to move out of your nice flat. Your fella broke up with you. You couldn’t go home cos America is politically and in the case of your home state literally on fire. And yes, your wonder drug is years away from being ready and you’ve only got 6 months of funding left.
PAMELA
How… do you know all that? -
CLIVE
It’s my job to know that.
PAMELA
[deadpan] It literally isn’t!
CLIVE
Pam I know you’re skeptical. You’re a scientist, right, it’s only natural. But this is real. Right here, right now. A real shot at something amazing!
PAMELA
This is not a ‘real shot’ at anything. You’re going to get your ass handed to you in there. And a cruise ship with a stack of cryopods stuffed in the trunk is not amazing. Even if they built the ship, even if Kontinue comes together, even if our drug does what we need it to do, even if we managed to get the diamond batteries to work and build more cryopods - For all this to succeed, you’re still relying on a lot of rich people wanting to tick, ‘abandon my life to go on holiday until l literally drop dead, and then please throw my body in a metal tube of liquid nitrogen’ off their bucket list. And let’s not forget you want all of this to happen while groups of cryo-terrorists are in the news right now going into China trying to destroy all hypersleep tech!
CLIVE
Cryo-terrori - Oh give it a rest. Aubrey Wood is just a crazy person who wants attention. She’ll be locked up in no time. They’ll probably put her in one of their dodgy hypersleep cells and then she’ll catch some horrible stasis virus, and it will be ironic and funny and you’ll never hear from that little group again. We’ve got two minutes.
PAMELA
Clive I’m out of here.
CLIVE
Listen to me. You need this. Sun, sea, sky, /
PAMELA
[talking over him] You’re living in a dream world.
CLIVE
/ money, purpose, influence, /
PAMELA
[continued] Your pupils look weird.
CLIVE
/ progress, science, money again!
PAMELA
Clive, this isn’t how you’re going to talk to them, is it?
CLIVE
Also, casinos! Cocktail bars! Water slides, come on!
PAMELA
[quieter, exasperated] Clive are you high right now? For real?
CLIVE
Despite your valiant attempts to drag me back to the desert of the real, yes of course I am. Well, I was, I should top up before we start actually.
[A BOTTLE LID CLICKS OFF]
PAMELA
Clive, what the hell? What even is that?
CLIVE
Poppers.
PAMELA
Poppers! Jesus, the 90s called, they want their soft drugs back.
CLIVE
Just a sec.
[CLIVE TAKES A LOUD SNIFF FROM THE BOTTLE]
[THE LID IS POPPED BACK ON]
PAMELA
Clive! This isn’t the goddamn Hacienda! This is the board of directors!
CLIVE
Look who’s on their high horse now. You ran up the stairs when you thought we were having a boozy lunch. Before we start throwing stones, your glass house smells suspiciously of vodka by the way. And by glass house, I mean your breath.
[A PAUSE]
[PAM SNATCHES UP HER BAG AND JACKET TO LEAVE]
PAMELA
You know what. Fuck this. Fuck you. Fuck your party boat. Aloha.
CLIVE
Pam Pam Pam. Hang on. Wait! Wait wait wait wait wait. Sit down, sit down, sit down. Okay, now you’re the one making the scene, come on. Please, for me.
[PAM TAKES A SEAT]
CLIVE
Okay, we probably shouldn’t be throwing our dependency issues at each other before the biggest pitch meeting of our careers.
PAMELA
Of your career maybe. I’m just your glamorous assistant.
CLIVE
I’m sorry, right. I’m sorry I’m like this. I’m insufferable, okay. My therapist says so. I’m lonely. I miss my little girl. I even miss my wife. Things are a mess.
PAMELA
Do you want me to feel sorry for you?
CLIVE
[disgustingly soft] No. Well, yes. But… what I’m saying is, we’ve both hit the skids recently and, I don’t know. That night at Red Valley. I thought… I thought I was going to die that night, Pam. Alone in the dark. And then you were there. And, you held my hand.
PAMELA
[decidedly not] Are you gonna cry? Cos, I don’t know how to deal with that.
CLIVE
Look. Becky Landry, Fran Jones and the rest of them, they think we’re both done for. Exhausted resources. But we’re not. Overhead aren’t in the position they used to be. Losing the race to create hypersleep was just the tip of the iceberg. Things are going far worse than most people know. Becky’s losing the board. They need something big, something bold. We’re not about to walk in there and say ‘oh, we’ve got this fairly workable hypersleep rip off, I don’t know, let’s put it in prisons or something yah?’ Fuck that. Let’s go in there and ask for half a billion dollars to build the definitive luxury travel slash end of life care slash hypersleep experience for rich old white people who expect to rule the world forever. Because you know what that room behind us is full of?
PAMELA
Rich old white people who expect to rule the world forever.
CLIVE
Bingo.
PAMELA
Screw it. Let’s do it.
CLIVE
Clive and Pam.
PAMELA
Clive and Pam.
[A DOOR OPENS]
FRANCESCA
Clive.
CLIVE
Fran.
FRANCESCA
Oh, is Dr Jennings going to be joining us?
CLIVE
Is she?
PAMELA
She is.
FRANCESCA
This way then, please.
[FRAN STEPS BACK IN]
CLIVE
You ready?
PAMELA
Let me shake my hair out.
CLIVE
Ah no, do it inside. They’ll be putty in your hands.
PAMELA
Dinosaurs. Okay, let’s go.
[PAMELA TAKES A MOMENT TO ADJUST HERSELF]
CLIVE
[whispering] Tits and teeth, Dr Jennings.
PAMELA
Same to you, asshole.
[CUT]
[CHATTER OF A PUB]
[PAM SETS DOWN A DRINK]
[A PHONE BUZZES WITH A CALL]
CLIVE
Nah.
[HE REJECTS THE CALL]
CLIVE
Huh! Jesus Pam, no! No!
PAMELA
Come on!
CLIVE
Pam, there’s only two of us!
PAMELA
It’s a drink for every ship they’re gonna build for us!
CLIVE
Oh, it’s a fleet now, is it?
PAMELA
Why the hell not?
[PAM SITS AND HANDS HIM A SHOT]
CLIVE
Why the hell not! To the Aloha Eternity!
PAMELA
And all who perish in her!
[THEY TOAST - IT IS GROSS]
PAMELA
We’re gonna build ships together! Great big ships!
CLIVE
That’s… that’s… Pretty Woman!
PAMELA
Pretty fucking Woman!
CLIVE
Oh Pam. Why picklebacks again? They repeat on me.
PAMELA
I ordered fries. They’ll take the edge off. Picklebacks are like the ultimate shot for this occasion!
CLIVE
Right, come on. Tell me your pickleback story.
PAMELA
What makes a pickleback. Brine and bourbon. What do you think of when you hear the word brine?
CLIVE
Tins of tuna.
PAMELA
Right. Tuna fish. Pickles! It’s a preservative. It’s gonna protect what you throw inside it. Not sexy. Not showy. Not a million miles from a certain cryo-infusion I could tell you about, yes?
CLIVE
Aha!
PAMELA
But come on, it’s salty fish water. Gross. But wait, what’s this? It’s Mr Bourbon! Uhm! It’s vital, it’s alive, it’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s -
CLIVE
It’s a goddamn cruise ship!
PAMELA
It’s a goddamn cruise ship. You poured the bourbon on top of the brine. You son of a bitch, you made cryonic preservation fun.
CLIVE
You should’ve brought some of these along to the presentation.
PAMELA
I didn’t have a lot of prep time, asshole.
CLIVE
Look at you.
PAMELA
What?
CLIVE
You’ve come to life. You’re a natural at this stuff.
PAMELA
You forget, before my spirit was crushed under the wheels of misfortune and the inherent misogyny of the tech industry, I was pretty hot shit.
[PAUSE]
CLIVE
You’re welcome, by the way.
PAMELA
[derisive] What?
CLIVE
Come on, I dragged you in there sure, but I was right to, I’ve been telling everyone, no one’s been listening, you are t-
PAMELA
Yeah yeah, thank you sir. I bought the drinks, God!
CLIVE
And here we are. On the outside no more. We’re doing it. We’re gonna take this idea and run it to the fucking moon. You and me.
PAMELA
I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe they said yes. I have to hand it to you, you really are the golden boy.
CLIVE
Damn right.
[CLIVE’S PHONE VIBRATES AGAIN]
PAMELA
You ever gonna answer that?
CLIVE
[dismissive] I can argue with my wife any time I like. Today is a good day.
PAMELA
Sure.
CLIVE
I can picture it all, you know. The Aloha Eternity. Beyond a brochure, beyond a fluffy pitch speech. I can see it. The roar of the waves. The sunset over the ocean. Gaudy cocktails, too much fake tan, bingo nights maybe. I dunno, dancing girls?
PAMELA
God, it sounds awful.
CLIVE
I love all that stuff. But underneath all that… something deeper, something more.
[A PAUSE]
PAMELA
Why are you here, Clive? Overhead I mean. People like you and me never should’ve met. Why aren’t you in… Vegas. Or, like, Blackpool Pier.
CLIVE
Everyone thinks my eye is only on the money. You think I don’t ruminate on the human condition? You think cryonics doesn’t speak to me like it speaks to you?
PAMELA
Cryonic preservation… speaks to you?
CLIVE
I didn’t buy the Aloha Eternity patent cos I wanted to make money off someone else’s idea. I bought it because I believed I had the power to make it real.
PAMELA
You want to take death on holiday.
CLIVE
It’s not so crazy, right? All our lives we turn away from it, we run from it, we pretend it isn’t coming for us and the people we care about. But, it is. Death is with us all the time. You, me, everyone in that board room today. [his voice turns soft] My little girl. So, stop dragging it round like a bowling ball in a sock, yeh. Take it to a show. Take it to the beach. Put death on your bucket list. And then, maybe you can genuinely rest in peace. For real. True, earned rest. And wait for better minds than ours to bring you back.
PAMELA
And then party all over again.
CLIVE
Amen to that.
PAMELA
Spoken like a true believer. Next!
[SHE LINES UP THE NEXT DRINKS]
CLIVE
Right, last picklebacks. Then something less salty, yeah?
PAMELA
You’re the boss.
CLIVE
So, right. the brine is cryotech, the whiskey is the cruise ship. What does that make this baby gherkin here?
PAMELA
This tiny baby gherkin can be…
[PAM TAKES THE GHERKIN AND TOSSES IT IN THE NEXT SHOT WITH A SPLASH]
PAMELA
Any old bastard stupid enough to give us their money!
CLIVE
Woohoo!
[THEY CLINK AND DOWN THE DRINKS - STILL GROSS]
PAMELA
Right. I’m getting beers.
CLIVE
And chase up the fries.
PAMELA
Gotcha.
[PAM LEAVES THE TABLE, CLIVE SITS ALONE FOR A MOMENT BEFORE HIS PHONE VIBRATES]
[HE TAKES THE CALL]
CLIVE
[annoyed] Oh Christ… Babe, I told you, I am working. Can we please discuss this la -
[IT’S NOT CLIVE’S WIFE]
FRANCESCA
Alright babe. You’re never off the clock are you, Clive.
CLIVE
Oh Fran. Hey.
FRANCESCA
Rebecca wanted me to congratulate you on your pitch today. Looks like we really are betting the farm on this.
CLIVE
It’s a good bet, Fran. I know this isn’t the future you might’ve had in mind for R&D -
FRANCESCA
[audible contempt] Nothing that’s ever come out of your mouth is what I have in mind for this company. But it’s not my company, is it? I just want you to know. This time, no matter how wild your penmanship, your name is written all over this in permanent marker. You’re going to live or die on the Aloha Eternity, Clive.
CLIVE
In many ways that is kind of the point. You know I might borrow that actually, Fran.
FRANCESCA
I hope for your sake you’re right about all this, Clive. If not, I’ll be taking a front row seat to watch the golden boy take a golden shower.
[SHE HANGS UP]
[PAM RETURNS]
PAMELA
I thought you weren’t going to speak to her.
CLIVE
That… that was Francesca.
PAMELA
The hell does she want?
CLIVE
She wants to sit very close to me while I get showered in piss.
PAMELA
Say that again?
CLIVE
Don’t worry about it.
PAMELA
Hey.
CLIVE
Hey what?
PAMELA
I am grateful you know.
CLIVE
I know.
PAMELA
Why are you smiling like that?
CLIVE
Just thinking about the future.
PAMELA
I’ll drink to that.