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81. Voiceless - Leslie
- FADE IN:
- The massive ballroom is filled with extravagantly-dressed couples.
- Several large chandeliers float above the room, motors barely audible as they hover mid-air.
- A band plays relaxing jazz tunes as laughter and the tinkling of silverware fill the room. A gen-mod singer, her face a slight blue with faint silver tattoos that shimmer in the spotlight, sings softly, and the tiny mics positioned carefully around the stage carry her voice.
- Attendants move smoothly across the room, every motion an intricate piece in a ballet of footsteps as they carefully serve their patrons.
- SENATOR PETER HAMER, a dignified-looking man, steps onto the small stage around which the many tables are grouped and clears his throat.
- The room quiets and attention focuses on his gentle baritone.
- HAMER
- I'm not one for long introductions, so I'm going to cut straight to the chase. We're here to celebrate the completion of Project Hope. A century in the making, ladies and gentlemen, a grand idea designed by our forefathers in the mid twenty-first century.
- Long rows of people dressed in gray clothing hang, suspended in neat metal racks that rise high above the floor.
- The massive room is dark, with several floating security lights illuminating the walkways between the 60 ft hight metal frames.
- The people suspended from the racks are connected to glowing wires and tubes.
- They seem frozen, only jerking occasionally.
- HAMER (VO)
- We've solved our crime problems, placing those dangerous to our society in rehabilitation camps, specially crafted to reeducate and re-integrate them into normal society.
- FIONA hangs from a rack close to the edge of the room.
- She jerks, eyes opening for an instant in unseeing terror, mouth opening to scream without sound.
- HAMER (VO)
- We've place less dangerous, but subversive elements in special halfway neighborhoods for re-integration training, and the TruID system is now fully operational, providing for immediate reaction to crime, and let me state Ladies and Gentlemen, it's an amazing deterrent.
- Fiona's eyes open again, and this time she's awake.
- She is still for a moment as she gets her bearings, then begins pulling away the wires, eyes rolling back in pain as she frees herself, her arms still restricted by metal cuffs.
- The restraints around her arms are jagged at the seams where they have been carefully filed loose - she pushes at them, and they swing open.
- HAMER (VO)
- Those genetically unfit have been provided their own living zones, where they can live in peace, unmolested and where they cannot abuse our gentle society.
- Fiona pulls herself away from a large umbilical cord and begins climbing down the frame.
- As she nears the ground, a hand reaches out and grabs her wrist.
- She flinches, then recovers her balance.
- EYES open, and a face pulls forward out of darkness.
- MELISSA
- Don't do it. Please.
- FIONA
- And do what, go back, pretend nothing is wrong? Pretend this hasn't happened to us?
- MELISSA
- They'll re-integrate us, they will. It won't be long, we'll have our lives back, and it'll be better than before.
- FIONA
- You know that's not true. Every day on the work lines, and then wired to the feeding machines. How do you make an unwanted population disappear, and cheaply? Look around.
- MELISSA
- Please.
- FIONA
- Don't ever forget I love you.
- She touches Melissa's hand, then continues climbing down.
- HAMER (VO)
- But we will give those who are now unfit a chance at a new life. I've seen their living zones. Beautiful neighborhoods, manicured parks...
- Fiona pulls herself through the pipework system that traces a network under the city.
- She runs through a cavern filled with abandoned machinery, before finding another tunnel and squeezing through.
- HAMER
- Ladies and Gentlemen, we are finally on the path our ancestors struggled to find. We have built a perfect society. What is left, but the stars?
- The room erupts into cheers, dignified men and women yelling and cheering, lost in the moment.
- A side door opens, but no one notices Fiona slip past until it is too late, and she is standing on the stage.
- The cheering falters, and Hamer blinks.
- She stands silent for a moment, her cropped hair glistening with sweat, her filthy body and clothing causing those near her to pull back.
- FIONA
- There are no living zones. Not the ones you picture. There is only darkness. They took us away from our homes, we, who are unfit for society. The subversives, the genetically unfit, the criminals. There is no re-integration. We are your caged secrets. Look! No manicured lawns, just endless days of slavery and nights of hanging by feed tubes eating the slop of your perfect society. Look at me. Am I not one of you, am I not a human?
- Hamer recovers.
- He searches his pockets in a panic.
- FIONA
- Please, save us. Is the luxury and comfort worth this? Is the safety worth this?
- She pulls back her sleeve, revealing a bar code that runs down her arm.
- People gasp.
- She raises a fist above her head.
- FIONA
- Serve justice. Speak for the voiceless, do not forget us.
- Hamer finds what he is looking for, a small wand, and presses it.
- Fiona screams in pain.
- She jerks, falling onto the floor.
- Guards swarm the stage, pulling her away, her fist still raised, and then she is gone, through the same door through which she slipped.
- There is a stillness in the room, a long painful silence.
- Hamer slips back to the front of the room.
- HAMER
- Well, now...you've just seen how effective the TruID system is. Marvelous isn't it? It's just part of why we've reached perfection. We'll take good care of her, don't you worry. And who knows? You might see her walking the streets of this city in a few years, ready to be a functioning member of our society.
- He wipes at his brow, playfully.
- HAMER
- Whew! Who needs a drink?
- The audience chuckles appreciatively, relief beginning to show on faces.
- HAMER
- A toast! To the perfect society.
- THE ATTENDEES
- A perfect society!
- FADE TO BLACK.
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