[THE PARTY, IN THE MESS ROOM]
[A BEAUTIFUL ACAPELLA RENDITION OF MORIOR INVICTUS]
[THE HUSHED VOICES OF WARREN AND GRACE AT THE BACK]
WARREN
I hope you’re paying Gordon residuals for all of this.
GRACE
I think he’d be very moved to learn how his music has affected people so many years later. Are you going to carry that tortoise everywhere?
WARREN
Yes, Grace, yes I am. So, no one requests ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or ‘My Way’?
GRACE
We don’t have a lot of music here that we don’t make ourselves.
WARREN
Why not?
GRACE
Rights reasons.
WARREN
Rights reasons?
GRACE
All copyright media went behind enormous paywalls years ago. And then the Bastion banned it all anyway.
WARREN
What’s the Bastion?
GRACE
They are in charge. A fanatical religious militia.
WARREN
Well, the Bastion sounds fun. Who let that happen?
GRACE
In desperate times, people turn to desperate measures.
WARREN
Like a euthanasia clinic in the Highlands.
GRACE
You think we are a crazy death cult, don’t you?
WARREN
I wouldn’t say that.
[THE RECITAL HAS ENDED. A VOICE IN THE CONGREGATION SHOUTS:]
VOICE
MORIOR INNVICTUS!
CONGREAGATION
DEATH BEFORE DEFEAT!
GRACE
I suppose I can understand where you might get that idea.
WARREN
You said it, not me.
[JADE TURNER HAS STOOD TO ADDRESS THE CROWD. A FEW WHISTLES, CALLS OF ‘SPEECH!’ AND ‘GO ON JADE!’ THE CROWD IS EBULLIENT]
JADE
Thank you, thank you. I won’t keep you all long. I just wanted to say… well, thank you. To all of you. I came here six weeks ago, so afraid, so angry. So alone. I didn’t believe I’d find anything. I’d have to haul myself to the top of Ballbag and jump off. I know for some visitors that has been suggested as a form of Completion and to those I say good luck, but do you really want to spend your last hours on Earth being shat on a hundred times by pink-footed geese?
[LAUGHTER]
JADE
Red Valley has been a fortress for me at the end of my life. On my good days, you’ve been a source of joy. On the bad days you’ve kept me in one piece. I’m afraid I… I don’t have much for you in the way of wisdom. Aubrey - where are you? - Aubrey.
COMMUNITY
She’s over there.
JADE
You try and hide on days like this, don’t you? You and I talked about legacy not long ago. You told me legacy is nothing more than asking others to worship at the altar of your own ego. No graves, no monuments. We return to dust and you put that dust to use. It’s a strange idea, legacy. Particularly in these times. I feel, uh…
JADE
I feel like… for the first thirty years of my life, everyone told me to stop worrying what other people thought of me. Could never quite do that of course. Then… I don’t know. Something must have sunk in, because for the next thirty years of my life, I really didn’t give two shits what anyone thought. I had too much to do, apparently. Then I got old. Then I got this disease. That makes me forget where I am. That makes me call one of you by the name of my son, then become furious when you kindly correct me. That makes me forget the suit my husband wore on our wedding day. This rotten illness takes the ground out from under your feet. And I said to people, I said, what’s the point of all this, if I end up losing it all, if I’m Jade Turner in nothing more than name? They would commiserate with me at first. Then they’d say: But you live on, Jade. You live on in all those you leave behind, in the changes you made to their lives. Oh shit, I thought. Maybe it really does matter what people think of you.
[A RIPPLE OF LAUGHTER]
JADE
No. No, I think I got it right. Aubrey, even if your ashes join mine gritting the path up to this station, with all that you’ve done, you might not be able to escape your legacy. This place will live on long after me and, I hope, long after you. Those who will follow will know your name. And the world is a smidgen brighter for it. But for me… fuck it. Fuck legacy!
[THE CROWD WHOOPS AND CALLS IT BACK TO HER, A SMATTERING OF APPLAUSE. JADE CARRIES ON WITH THANK YOUS FOR A LITTLE WHILE UNDERNEATH WARREN AND GRACE’S CONVERSATION]
JADE
I could write a thank you list that would touch the floor but I’ll find each and every one of you over the course of the evening. But I do just want to thank the beautiful musicians and singers here who make these Completion days feel so special. Right, I won’t take up the stage any longer.
GRACE
Ah, that Jade!
WARREN
What did she mean about her ashes gritting the path?
GRACE
Exactly that. Everyone who completes is cremated. Their ashes are used to grit the path. You know how slippery it can get.
WARREN
How practical.
GRACE
There’s a certain poetry to it as well, I think.
[JADE IS FINISHING UP]
Well then. I wish you all an extremely fond farewell. My husband is waiting for me, and I’m keen to get back to him. So, without further ado, Morior Invictus, which I’m fairly certain translates to… LET’S GET FUCKED UP!
[THE CROWD GOES WILD. MUSIC BLARES. STREAMERS ARE POPPED]
[THE PARTY CONTINUES. GENERAL HUBBUB. WARREN IS STOOD IN THE CORNER WITH GORD FLOATING NEARBY]
WARREN
I’m at bad at parties in the future as I was in the past.
GORD
What do you mean?
WARREN
No one’s really talking to me. Is it Waffles? Do people not like her?
GORD
Everyone likes Waffles.
WARREN
So, it’s me. Do I… do I smell, can you smell me?
GORD
I can’t smell you. Aubrey’s asked everyone to give you some space. She doesn’t want you overstimulated.
WARREN
Well maybe a death day party after telling me Earth is doomed wasn’t the best plan for day 1 out of quarantine.
GORD
It’s been very hard for Aubrey deciding what course of action would be best in regards to your reintegration. In the end, she felt you might have FOMO if you found out there’d been a party going on while you were stuck downstairs.
WARREN
People don’t still say FOMO in the future, do they?
GORD
No, but I’ve been trying to utilise parlance relative to your time period. Safe, fam. Holibobs.
WARREN
Oh my God, stop… stop that. Immediately.
GORD
Weird flex but okay. I cannot even.
WARREN
I’m immediately going to have a cringe stroke and die. Shut up.
GORD
Stay mad.
WARREN
You’re the reason no one’s talking to me.
GORD
Shagadelic.
WARREN
Grace! Grace!
[GRACE COMES OVER WITH A COUPLE OF DRINKS]
GRACE
Warren. Are you enjoying yourself?
WARREN
Is that future alcohol?
GRACE
Yes. It’s not very different from past alcohol -
WARREN
Hold the tortoise.
[WARREN DRINKS, AND COUGHS HIS GUTS UP]
GRACE
Past alcohol that was made in a shed. Malcolm’s been making this out of berries and bad intentions for years.
WARREN
Dad Jokes Robocop is embarrassing me. People are… People are looking.
GORD
Wassuuuuuuu-
WARREN
Cease. Cease. I’m begging you.
GRACE
Of course, people are looking. You are from the distant past and you’re carrying a tortoise around at a party. And you just choked on your first drink in 40 years. There’s a lot to look at.
WARREN
Did Aubrey really tell people to give me space?
GRACE
Of course. You need time after you Kontinue. We all do, no matter how long we’re in the box. What am I saying, who knows that better than you?
WARREN
We? Have you… have you been in hypersleep?
GRACE
Five year sentence. 2031 to 36.
WARREN
Damn… Like a prison sentence?
GRACE
Oh yes. My experience at Red Valley made me have a change of heart about what I had helped create, if I even did that much. I followed Aubrey in her attempts to get rid of the Kontinue technology - it had spread so fast, it was in every major prison in the world within years, and then coveted by every major government, every corporation. We tried to do it nicely and kind-of legally at first. That did not work. We got a lot done before they caught us. Some of us anyway. Aubrey led the other cells across the world for a few more years but they got her too in the end. The irony of punishing us with the very thing we were trying to destroy… was not lost.
WARREN
How long was Aubrey in hypersleep for?
GRACE
Nearly twenty years before we broke her out. You may have wondered why she looks so young when she should be nearly 90. A lot of us here have Kontinued at one point or another. The Bastion’s laws are as strict as they come and they’re committed to wiping out any cryotech they find, but that’s only in Britain. In other parts of the world, it’s still used as a punishment. That guy over there got 6 months in cryo for throwing a frozen pizza during a protest in Budapest a few years back. Are you alright? The moonshine was not that bad, was it?
WARREN
No, the future just feels like a Matrix sequel made by Monty Python. The more I hear, the more absurd all of this is. I feel like you’re daring me to laugh.
GRACE
There is no easy way to tell it. If you want a more straightforward version of events maybe, ask Gord.
GORD
YOLO!
WARREN
Uh… Jesus, I didn’t know he was still there.
[AN AWKWARD PAUSE]
GRACE
Warren… I owe you an apology. It has been many many years for me but it must still seem very recent for you. My behaviour…. It was young and ambitious back then, but that does not excuse the choices I made. I hope you can believe I’ve spent my life trying to make up for those choices.
WARREN
Honestly Grace, at the risk of sounding rude, I didn’t pay you or anyone else that much attention. I kind of saw all Overhead people as just extensions of Bryony.
GRACE
Bryony, of course.
WARREN
You know, that’s the first time I’ve said her name since I woke up.
GRACE
I don’t suppose Aubrey has -
[SOMEONE HAS COME TO JOIN THEM. IT’S JADE]
JADE
Degracious.
GRACE
Jade! Jade. How do you like your party?
JADE
It’s wonderful!
GRACE
What can I do for you, Jade?
JADE
It’s time, Grace.
GRACE
Are you sure? The party is still in full swing.
JADE
That’s exactly how I want it to be.
GRACE
Of course. Gord, can you call Aubrey? We’ll meet her in the house. You’ll excuse me, Warren?
WARREN
Uh, yeah… yeah, sure.
JADE
Thanks for coming, Warren.
WARREN
No problem. Morior… Invictus.
JADE
Attaboy.
GRACE
Here, take my hand.
MUSICIAN
Thank you. Thank you. We are the Daughters of the Tortoise. We are gonna be playing for you all night. So let’s keep the party going.
[GRACE AND JADE DEPART]
WARREN
Gord, I’d like to go and visit Gordon please.
GORD
Okay. Let’s go.
[SOMEONE ELSE HAS APPROACHED]
MALCOLM
If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay down there with your friend.
WARREN
Oh, hi. Err… Yeah, I will leave you to enjoy the party.
MALCOLM
With any luck the mountain will bury you both again.
WARREN
Wow… I’m… I’m sorry, look I do not know what I’ve done to -
MALCOLM
What you’ve done? You don’t know what you’ve done?
GORD
Malcolm, perhaps it’s best we called one of the oth -
MALCOLM
You’re the bloody start of it all! Without you it might never have come to this!
GORD
Malcolm, why don’t I call -
MALCOLM
Fuck off, with your voice changed! Change it back! Fuck off!
[MALCOLM BANGS THE FLOATING DRONE WITH HIS HAND. THE PROPELLERS BUZZ AS IT CORRECT ITSELF]
WARREN
Hey, I’m sorry. Please don’t get upset. I’m going. I’ll go.
[HESTER ARRIVES]
HESTER
Hey, hey, Malcolm, what’s wrong?
MALCOLM
Oh, leave me alone! I’m just speaking my mind, I thought we were all free to speak our minds.
HESTER
We are. But this is Jade’s night, and we all agreed there are no cross words on a Complete night.
MALCOLM
You fill everyone’s minds with your free love liberal decaf dogshit but you and her, you run this place like a goddamn gulag! Don’t forget where you came from, Hester!
HESTER
Malcolm -
MALCOLM
Oh, jog on, the lot of you. I’m going to get more moonshine.
HESTER
Are you sure that’s -
MALCOLM
I bloody made it, Hester! I’ll do what I like! Pass me a glass! You! Get me a glass. Oh, that’s dirty…
[HE LEAVES]
HESTER
And… he’s gone.
WARREN
Thank you for that.
HESTER
No worries. Bit less charming than the last time you met, isn’t he?
WARREN
Well, not really, he called me a fucko.
HESTER
Not this afternoon. Last time. 2020.
WARREN
What… What do you mean… Bloody hell… M… Malcolm…
HESTER
Landry. Former vice chairman of Overhead Industries. He bought you a steak dinner 44 years ago.
WARREN
The pub. Th… The Boat and Bridger, on Argyll Street…
HESTER
What’s really going to fry your mind is that you only pooed that steak dinner out a few days ago.
WARREN
Uh… Right.
GORD
It’s now been composted and will be used to grow potatoes.
WARREN
That’s… That’s actually a weirder and much worse thing to know.
HESTER
Yeah, Gord. You made it weird.
GORD
Just trying to be in the conversation.
WARREN
Holy crap. Hester
HESTER
Yes?
WARREN
You… you were there. In… in the pub. You were… you were… Malcolm’s… assistant!
HESTER
I was. A very long time ago.
WARREN
Except it wasn’t. It was… it was only the other day.
HESTER
Yes, it was also only the other day.
WARREN
Shit.
[HESTER’S COMM CRACKLES. IT’S AUBREY]
AUBREY
Hester. It’s time.
HESTER
Okay.
WARREN
I think I’m going to go and be somewhere quiet for a bit.
HESTER
Warren, are you sure you’re okay?
WARREN
I’m good, I’ve… I’ve got Waffles and I’ll take my Gord. I think I just need to be away for a bit.
HESTER
Of course. Of course. Just ask Gord for anything you need, he can take care of it.
WARREN
Right. Er… thanks… thanks again.
HESTER
Good night, Warren.
[HESTER DEPARTS]
GORD
Where would you like to go?
WARREN
Let’s go and see Gordon.
[A ROOM IN THE FARMHOUSE. THE MUSIC FROM THE PARTY CAN STILL BE HEARD IN THE DISTANCE THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW]
GRACE
Shall I close the window, Jade? Is the draught too much?
JADE
No, no, I like it. The air, the music. Everyone getting on. How are we doing?
[A COUPLE OF BEEPS FROM A MACHINE]
AUBREY
We’re all set. Just need to pop a drop in the back of your hand.
JADE
Oh yes. Hand squeezy, hand squeezy, get those veins up.
AUBREY
You have excellent veins, Jade, did anyone tell you that?
JADE
Oh yes, the boys often remarked on the size of my… veins.
[AUBREY CHUCKLES]
AUBREY
Sharp scratch.
[JADE DOESN’T FLINCH. AUBREY CONNECTS AN IV LINE TO JADES CANNULA]
AUBREY
That’s it. So, when you’re ready. You just press this button here. That’ll start the medicine.
[JADE TAKES A DEEP BREATH]
JADE
How long does it take? I know you’ve told me more than once, I just like to hear you say it.
GRACE
A minute or two.
JADE
Oh, I’m scared, Aubrey.
AUBREY
You know you don’t have to go through with it Jade. Not now, not ever if you decide.
JADE
No, not that scared.
[JADE LEANS FORWARD WITHOUT WARNING AND PRESSES THE BUTTON. THE CLUNK OF THE INFUSION STARTING. A SLOW EXHALE]
JADE
More… wedding day scared. It’s a big day.
AUBREY
It is.
JADE
What shall we do now?
GRACE
Tell us a happy memory, Jade.
JADE
A happy memory… You see this scar, on my chin?
AUBREY
I do.
JADE
My family and I, we were in the Isle of Wight. Went there a few times. I loved it. We would go crabbing each day, collect all these greedy little crabs in a bucket then pour them back into the sea. My parents took us once, just, just down the way from the cottage we’d rented, down to the jetty. There were these huge concrete steps that the boats would slide down into the sea. Oh, this must’ve been 19… 86, 87. The tide was halfway in, good chance for crabs. And before we could even get started, I slipped on the seaweed and tumbled down two or three of these great big steps, landing on my chin, and I opened up this scar, you see it?
AUBREY
I can see it.
[JADE LIES BACK ON HER BED]
JADE
So, there I was, chin covered in blood, but not crying, just a bit stunned. And my mother looked at me in surprise, not at the blood but at my reaction, I think. No histrionics, no drama. She took my hand, and we walked quietly back to the cottage…we went to the bathroom, she pulled out a chair for me to stand on. Ah we… we looked at each other in the bathroom mirror, now the same height, this little girl with a blood-stained shirt and seaweed in her hair, and her mother, waiting to clean her up. We looked at each other for a long time. That’s it, that’s the memory.
AUBREY
Thank you, Jade.
[JADE HAS LAID BACK. HER EYES ARE CLOSED, HER BREATHING SLOWING]
JADE
Thank you for this. Thank you.
[SHE CONTINUES TO BREATHE SLOWLY. THE INFUSION PUMP CONTINUES. THE CREASK OF A FLOORBOARD, THE FLUTTER OF BIRDS PASSING OVER, THE MUSIC IN THE DISTANCE]
[FOOTSTEPS CLUNK DOWN THE ECHOEY STAIRCASE OF AN OFFICE BUILDING, THEN CONTINUE DOWN A CORRIDOR. EVENTUALLY THEY COME TO A STOP AT A DOOR, WHERE A ROOM IS GUARDED. CLIVE SCHILL IS WEARY AND PERMANENTLY STRESSED. THIS IS NOT THE WORLD HE WANTED TO FIND HIMSELF IN. HE ADDRESSES THE GUARD WITH A MINIMUM OF COURTESY THAT BECOMES CONFRONTATIONAL IN AN INSTANT]
CLIVE
Alright.
GUARD
Hello.
[CLIVE EXPECTED INSTANT ACCESS TO THIS ROOM]
CLIVE
May I pass please?
GUARD
Do you have clearance to see the prisoner?
CLIVE
Excuse me?
GUARD
Clearance. It means permission. Can you show me your identification?
[CLIVE PULLS AN ID OUT OF A POCKET WHICH MAKES A BEEP TONE AS IT’S CHECKED BY THE GUARD]
CLIVE
Is that clearance enough for you?
GUARD
Oh… my apologies. Please proceed. Sir.
CLIVE
Why don’t you jog on down to the Greggs on Tottenham Court Road and get me a sausage roll?
GUARD
What is ‘The Greggs’?
CLIVE
Oh, don’t tell me I’ve outlived Greggs, is nothing sacred…
GUARD
I’m sorry?
CLIVE
You can go now, Lurch.
GUARD
No one is to be left alone with the prisoner, sir.
CLIVE
Do you want me to bring Rebecca Landry down here and try this conversation again?
[AT THE MENTION OF THIS NAME, THE GUARD BACKS OFF]
GUARD
Oh… I - I will have to note this change of protocol in the log - sir -
CLIVE
You do that.
[THE GUARD LEAVES THE ROOM. CLIVE IS AWKWARD. HE WEAKLY TRIES TO MAKE A JOKE]
CLIVE
I guess there’s got to be some advantages to having an increasingly psychotic boss.
[A RUSTLE AS ANOTHER OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM SITS UP FROM HER POSITION LYING DOWN ON SOME OFFICE CHAIRS. SHE IS GROGGY, JUST WOKEN UP]
PAMELA
For you, maybe.
[CLIVE IS MEEK. PAMELA IS BITTER AND SARCASTIC]
CLIVE
Umm… I’ll speak to the guards. I don’t want anyone calling you - you’re not a prisoner -
PAMELA
Oh! Oh. Good to know.
[AWKWARD PAUSE]
CLIVE
How are you, Pam? Are you - Are they -
PAMELA
I’m peachy. Thanks for making the time.
CLIVE
Yeah… of course. I… I want to make sure you’re okay. Is there anything I can do for you? Is there anything I can…
[HE TAILS OFF]
PAMELA
Is there anything you can do? Is there anything you can do for me?
CLIVE
Alright, alright.
PAMELA
How much longer am I gonna be kept in here, Clive?
CLIVE
I don’t - hopefully -
PAMELA
I am imprisoned in a stationery storeroom. I sleep on three office chairs lashed together with zip ties. Men I don’t know walk me to the bathroom. Hopefully isn’t goddamn good enough!
CLIVE
Pam, you know how dangerous it is out there for someone like you right now. For anyone with cryo tech history. You’re too valuable to be walking the streets -
PAMELA
Of course, you’re protecting me! That’s why I only have one change of clothes and live in solitary confinement!
[PAM HAS STOOD UP AND IS STALKING HER TINY LIVING SPACE]
CLIVE
Pam, you know what the Bastion is like -
PAMELA
Oh the Bastion, the Bastion! Actually, I don’t know what the Bastion is like ‘cause I live in a windowless box, for all I know you and Becky made them up!
CLIVE
Pam, I mean it. Right… these people, they will kill you in the street. For once I am not exaggerating -
PAMELA
Do I have cryo tech scientist tattooed on my goddamn face?
CLIVE
Pam…
PAMELA
We’re Overhead! For God’s sake! And we’re running scared of these little freaks!
CLIVE
They are in charge. They are the police, they are what passes for a government, they are the church, they are everywhere -
PAMELA
What’s that got to do with me? Why the fuck aren’t you locked in here?
CLIVE
They blame hypersleep for everything. Everything that’s wrong, it’s all because the boss of this or the king of that ran off and hid in a cryopod and abandoned them. The only reason we’re even back in this building is because we’ve managed to convince them, for now, that we want to help them destroy anything to do with Kontinue. Which wasn’t very fucking easy when we’re the actual people who created it! We don’t know how smart they are, is it so hard to think they might be able to work out who you are and what you’ve done?
PAMELA
This is bullshit. Becky Landry promised us her resources. Everything Overhead could provide. Well shit, what have I got here… whiteboard markers, I’ve got toner, they still need hole punchers in the year twenty sixty whatever the fuck!
[SHE THROWS THE HOLE PUNCH AND IT CLATTERS OFF A WALL]
CLIVE
Pam - do you think this is what I want?! The both of us marooned in this shitty time, in this shitty place? After everything we did, after all the work we did. This is not what I want - it’s not what any of us want, is it?
PAMELA
No. You just want to go back to sleep, don’t you?
CLIVE
Of course I do. And so do you. And so does Rebecca. Look, if she’s behaving a little more scary, it’s because we’re in a scary place. Right, we need her.
PAMELA
While you’re out there and I’m in here, there is no ‘we’.
CLIVE
Pam, I’ve heard there’s new intel, I haven’t been briefed yet, but it might be something real, something big, something we can work with -
PAMELA
Clive. You fucking infant. We did the best we could, everything we could think of, and it still fell apart. We managed to sleep for barely 20 years. Out of a thousand! If you think letting her lock me in a closet as punishment until you stumble on enough spare parts for me to magic you up another cryopod, that we’re just going to dig a hole in the ground and sleep for a millennium…if that’s how you think this is going to end, you are truly as crazy as Becky Landry is.
[CLIVE CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION. HE HAS NOTHING MORE TO OFFER]
CLIVE
Look I’m… I’m going to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.
[HE MOVES BACK TO THE DOOR]
PAMELA
Run back to the boss. Tell her I said hi. Did she let you keep the CEO penthouse? Or you gotta find your own digs these days? What’s the rent like in 2064? Huh? You little bitch.
CLIVE
She’ll come round. This won’t last forever. I’m sorry.
PAMELA
Everything you have is ‘cause of me! Kontinue. The Aloha. Connecticut. You only got this far because of me!
[CLIVE STOPS SHORT OF LEAVING]
CLIVE
This works both ways, Pam.
[PAM GIVES A JOYLESS LAUGH UNDER HER BREATH]
PAMELA
Clive and Pam.
CLIVE
Clive and Pam.