1: The Way Back

P.A.

Attention. Level thirty-eight walkways will be closed for one hour. Level thirty-eight cardholders must report to Central immediately.

RAVELLA

Roj.

BLAKE

Ah, Ravella.

RAVELLA

Did you have any trouble?

BLAKE

No.

RAVELLA

You followed the route I gave you?

BLAKE

Yes. Can we get on with it please.

RAVELLA

Come on.

P.A.

[In the background, mostly unintelligible] *? engineering of the new *? of the new discovery *?

RAVELLA

And eating and drinking -- you've managed to do without?

BLAKE

Well, since you were so insistent I've done without food or drink for thirty-six hours.

RAVELLA

How do you feel?

BLAKE

Hungry and thirsty, of course.

RAVELLA

Nothing else?

BLAKE

Ravella, is this some kind of practical joke?

RAVELLA

It's no joke.

P.A.

The President will be answering questions about new population control *?measures

RAVELLA

All our food and drink is treated with suppressants. Going without for a day and a half, they should be wearing off.

BLAKE

[Laughs] Not that again.

[Richie kisses Ravella on the cheek.]

RAVELLA

Dal Richie, Roj Blake.

RICHIE

Been looking forward to meeting you. I hear your family settled on the Outer Planets?

BLAKE

Brother and a sister on Ziegler Five.

RICHIE

You hear from them much?

BLAKE

I get vistapes a couple of times a year. Look, what is this? I was told you had some news about them.

RICHIE

No, not me. The man we're going to meet. He especially asked us to contact you so he could tell you in person. He was on Ziegler Five a few months ago.

BLAKE

Where is he now?

RAVELLA

Waiting for us. Outside.

BLAKE

Outside?

RICHIE

Don't worry. It's not all that bad. The air's fresh though it smells different.

BLAKE

You realize going outside is a Category Four crime?

RICHIE

We do know the law.

RAVELLA

Yes, so whatever you see tonight you keep silent about.

RICHIE

Well? Are you coming?

BLAKE

Let's get on with it. [Richie fiddles around.] What are you doing?

RICHIE

Picking the lock. [Ravella looks behind.]

BLAKE

What is it?

RAVELLA

It's nothing.

RICHIE

Now, *? If you open the door, it registers on the computer. These are circuit integrators. Now you could steal this entire section of wall and the machine would cheerfully ignore you. Ready?

RAVELLA

[To Blake] Now look: you report anything to the authorities, you'll find yourself implicated more deeply than you imagine.

[They stop at the stream.]

RAVELLA

[To Blake] Try some.

BLAKE

Hm?

RAVELLA

It's natural water. [Blake tries some.] The stuff we get's been recycled a thousand times [Blake spits it out] -- and it's dosed with suppressants.

RICHIE

I'll check ahead. Watch my signal.

RAVELLA

Okay.

BLAKE

Improves the flavor if nothing else.

RAVELLA

Doesn't it bother you that you spend your life in a state of drug-induced tranquility?

BLAKE

We gonna go across that?

RAVELLA

Yeah.

BLAKE

Why should the Administration try to drug us?

RAVELLA

To keep control. They've been stepping up the suppressants because the number of dissidents is growing.

BLAKE

Should I take this? [Picks up a flashlight]

RAVELLA

They've seen what's happening and they want to stop it.

BLAKE

Stop what?

RAVELLA

Don't you know? Don't you remember anything about the treatments they gave you?

BLAKE

I've had no treatments.

RAVELLA

I thought there'd be something left, some trace of memory.

BLAKE

What about my memory?

RAVELLA

There's the signal.

BLAKE

They're Outsiders!

RICHIE

Quite a few of them are working for our cause now.

BLAKE

It's illegal to have contact with anyone who lives outside the city.

RICHIE

Right, but then this whole meeting is illegal.

BLAKE

I'm leaving. I want nothing to do with this. You told me I was going to meet a man who could tell some news about my family.

RICHIE

Hold on, Blake. You've got to hear Foster.

BLAKE

I don't want to hear Foster. I should report everything I've seen to the Administration.

RAVELLA

You can't do that.

BLAKE

Why not?

RICHIE

We've left documents in the city with your signature on them. Forged, of course, but convincing enough to implicate you in everything we've been doing.

RAVELLA

Don't have any doubts. One word in the wrong place can make you look as guilty as any of us.

RICHIE

And looking guilty is all it takes.

FOSTER

Roj! Good to see you. It's been a long time. [Persists] Bran Foster. Oh! Stupid of me. You don't remember. You had the treatment.

BLAKE

Look, what is this? I've had no treatments, my memory is fine. Now what is going on?

FOSTER

Now, now, now. I know, I know, it's difficult for you. Then, too, it's difficult for those of us who knew you before. But the important thing is, you're here.

TARRANT

[In background] I had trouble getting out of the city, the route was crowded. For a while there I thought we'd been infiltrated.

FOSTER

Dev Tarrant's here. Dev! You remember Roj Blake.

TARRANT

Oh, yes. We met before.

FOSTER

[To Blake] Dev Tarrant. [To Tarrant] Ah, I'm trying to persuade Roj to rejoin us.

TARRANT

Yes. [Takes his leave]

FOSTER

Now, I want you to listen to what I have to tell you. After that you can do whatever you like.

BLAKE

All right. Now what do you know about my family?

FOSTER

Well, I'll come to that. There are other things you should know first.

BLAKE

Forget the other things. Just what do you know?

FOSTER

They're dead. Your brother and sister are both dead. I'm sorry, I didn't intend you to hear it like that. They were executed four years ago just after your trial.

BLAKE

Executed? No, that's not true. I hear from them regularly. I had a vistape only a month ago.

FOSTER

Those tapes are fakes. Part of the treatment to keep your memory suppressed. Now, this isn't going to be easy for you, but I'm going to have to tell you things about yourself of which you have no memory. Will you hear me out?

BLAKE

Go on.

FOSTER

Four years ago, there was a good deal of discontent with the Administration. There were many activist groups. But the only one that really meant anything was led by Roj Blake. You and I worked together. We were outlawed and hunted. But we had supporters and we were making progress. Then someone betrayed us, I still don't know who. You were captured. So were most of our followers. They could have killed you. But that would have given the Cause a martyr. So instead they put you into intensive therapy. They erased areas of your mind, they implanted new ideas. They literally took your mind to pieces and rebuilt it. And when they'd finished, they put you up and you confessed. You said you'd been "misguided." You appealed to everyone to support the Administration, hound up the traitors. Oh, they, they did a good job on you. You were very convincing. And then they took you back and erased even that.

BLAKE

What happened to the others?

FOSTER

In their benevolence, the Federation allowed them to emigrate to the Outer Worlds. Like your family, they were executed on arrival.

BLAKE

Why are you telling me this now?

FOSTER

Because we're preparing to move again. And if it were known that you were with us, we'd get more support. How do you feel? Will you help us again?

BLAKE

I don't know. I'm not even sure that I believe you.

FOSTER

It's all true.

BLAKE

I have to think.

FOSTER

Of course. We'll talk after the meeting.

BLAKE

Hmm.

TARRANT

What do you think?

FOSTER

I don't know. There's not much left of the man I knew. We'll see. All right, let's get started, shall we?

TARRANT

[Announcing] All right, everybody, come on. Let's start the meeting now. You come over here and make a group.

FOSTER

Thank you for turning up. Now we all know the risks that we're running in being here, so I'll be as brief as possible. You've probably heard that the settlers in the Outer Worlds are rightly demanding greater autonomy. If we can help to unify their voices, the Administration will have to listen.

[Foster then says something in the background that's only partly intelligible*? but I think it's a straight repetition of the last two lines.]

FOSTER

The security forces are already overstretched. If we can step up our campaign of civil disobedience here on Earth, they will have to concentrate their forces here, and that will give the Outer Worlds much more freedom of action. Now we must aim to have at least one world declare its independence within the next two years.

REBELS

Hear hear.

[Again, Foster says something that's mostly unintelligible*? in the background, but I think it's just a repetition of his last two lines.]

TROOPER

[V.O. on comm link] Unit Three, move in.

FOSTER

Now, I think most of you know my old friend Dev Tarrant. Dev will give you details of how we can all help.

TARRANT

We've got to cause as much disruption as possible in the food manufacturing division. There's nothing more effective than ration cuts to cause unrest. I've worked out methods by which this disruption can be implemented. [Enter troopers.]

FOSTER

Now, do not attempt to resist arrest. No matter what the provocation, we must not resort to violence. We claim our rights as citizens, and demand to be treated as civil prisoners.

HAVANT

You're obviously suffering from a severe emotional disturbance. We must try to unravel this fantasy.

BLAKE

It is NOT a fantasy.

HAVANT

Of course it isn't.

BLAKE

[Looks up] Do you believe me?

HAVANT

To you it isn't a fantasy.

BLAKE

[Several beats] Get out! Leave me alone.

HAVANT

Reality is a dangerous concept. Each one of us interprets it in a slightly different way. Every sense impression is filtered by the brain and altered, sometimes just a little, sometimes completely, to fit our individual model of what the world is about. If that model should be challenged ...

BLAKE

[Has started chanting over and over to himself] I am NOT insane. I am NOT insane ...

HAVANT

No. You must put that thought completely out of your mind. You've had a shock.

BLAKE

[Stops chanting] Yes.

HAVANT

We must work together to uncover what that shock was. I'm going to prescribe a mild sedative --

BLAKE

No drugs!

HAVANT

-- a mild sedative to help you to sleep. You must rest.

BLAKE

No! No drugs.

HAVANT

All right, no drugs. Now try not to think anymore. Don't worry, we'll get it sorted out.

BLAKE

I can't remember. I can't remember!

GLYND

Can he break through the memory blocks, Dr. Havant?

HAVANT

It's unlikely. We don't eradicate memory, of course, merely make it inaccessible. But in the normal healthy mind the barriers are impenetrable. Should he suffer anything like a nervous breakdown, where all the mental circuitry malfunctions, as it were, then he might just possibly find a route into his past.

GLYND

Mm. That might just possibly prove something of a problem.

HAVANT

Can't he be eliminated?

MORAG

No, he's a symbol of opposition to the Administration.

HAVANT

So?

GLYND

We've done cross-sectional psych readings, which show that a high percentage of people, particularly the younger ones, believe that Blake's trial was a showpiece, that his statements were rigged.

MORAG

His death could be used by the dissidents. They need a hero. Alive or dead, Blake could be it.

HAVANT

Difficult. I suppose my department could infect him, some rapidly terminal disease. Would his natural death help?

GLYND

I don't think so.

MORAG

What we need is something to discredit him. If he could be deported to Cygnus Alpha .... Doctor, am I right in thinking you can create experiences, implant them into a subject, who will then believe that they really happened?

HAVANT

Of course. In fact, creating an illusion of reality is quite simple.

MORAG

Good. Then I think we can totally destroy Blake's credibility and get him sentenced. But I'd like to do a feasibility check. Doctor, would you come with me please.

HAVANT

As you wish.

GLYND

I want to bring charges soon, Morag.

MORAG

Oh, I shall report back.

GLYND

You heard?

TARRANT

I heard.

GLYND

Satisfied?

TARRANT

Not yet. He can identify me. My whole operation is at risk. I'll be satisfied when the risk is eliminated.

GLYND

Varon. Come in. [Varon does so.] Do sit down.

VARON

Thank you.

GLYND

You know Morag, don't you?

VARON

Yes. Morag.

MORAG

Varon.

GLYND

I've got a defense assignment for you. Not a very pleasant one, I'm afraid.

VARON

[Takes a plastic flimsy from him] Eh.

GLYND

Morag is prosecuting.

MORAG

The evidence is indisputable. If I were you, I should concentrate on the mitigation.

VARON

Mm.

GLYND

Varon, I'm aware that I needn't say this to you of all people, but I will say it because I feel so very strongly about this case. I want you to do everything in your power to help the man. Our first concern must be to see that he has justice.

P.A.

[V.O.] Security clear on cell unit M-three for Justice Department access.

VARON

I'm Tel Varon, Justice Department. I've been assigned to defend you.

BLAKE

I don't need a defense. I'm going to plead guilty.

VARON

Come now. Certainly the evidence against you is strong --

BLAKE

I just want to make a statement in open court. I want those responsible for the massacre brought to trial.

VARON

I'm sorry?

BLAKE

There can be no justification for deliberate murder.

VARON

There's nothing in the charges about murder. There are a number of other counts. Assault on a minor, attempting to corrupt minors, moral deviation ...

BLAKE

Let me see that! [He gets up. Varon presses the sheet against the glass. He reads it.] All involving children! None of this is true!

VARON

Of course not. That's why you surprised me when you said you'd plead guilty.

BLAKE

[Splutters] Not to this, not to these charges.

VARON

They are the only ones that have been brought against you. And I must tell you frankly the evidence against you is very damaging.

BLAKE

Well, if there is any evidence, it's been faked!

VARON

I've had the opportunity of talking to the children -- that is, the prosecution witnesses -- and they do seem very certain of their facts.

BLAKE

Oh, yes, yes. Yes, their briefing would have been perfect.

VARON

If I may, I'd like to outline how I think we should conduct your case.

BLAKE

[In the background behind Varon's lines] They set me up beautifully.

VARON

There is a possible approach if we could cite your record: your breakdown after your involvement with those illegal political groups, the remorse that you felt, the guilt you carried has placed you under an enormous strain. And we can submit that these assaults, these aberrations were carried out whilst you were mentally unbalanced.

BLAKE

I will offer no defense, but I will plead not guilty.

VARON

These are grave charges. Without extenuating circumstances, you might face deportation. A mental institution would be better than spending the rest of your life on Cygnus Alpha.

BLAKE

[With deliberation] I will offer no defense. Right?

VARON

Won't you reconsider?

BLAKE

Even if you could prove me innocent, the charges have been made. I've got to hand it to them. [At the security camera] You've done a brilliant job!!

VARON

Good morning.

BLAKE

I've had a chance to think things through. It's vital that I have the opportunity to make that statement to the open court.

VARON

Well, that's up to the Arbiter. It's not usual.

BLAKE

There's no way you can prove my innocence, is there?

VARON

You've given me no chance to try.

BLAKE