You are on page 1of 52

FORETHOUGHT

a science fiction play


modernized from Prometheus Bound

By
Tom Slattery

Derived from the earlier-draft one-act play by Tom Slattery, Farenheit; a Future Prometheus,
based on Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus

to the memory of Manfred Pyka, Ph.D.

Education-affiliated and/or non-profit theater groups may perform this play as a stage play
without needing permission from the author.
FORETHOUGHT

CAST:

VLADIMIR WATERS (male)

ANN (female)

ROBERT FARENHEIT (male)

SHIRLEY (female)

COMMISSIONER GONZALES (male or female)

GENERAL HAUPTMAN (male)

DOCTOR SMITH (male or female)

CHING-SU (female)

HAYAKAWA (male or female)

Minor Parts:
Security Officer One
Security Officer Two
Three Armed Men
Newspersons
Technician
Nurse
Robot
Revolutionary 1
Revolutionary 2
Revolutionary Three

2
FORETHOUGHT

To prepare the audience, WORLD GOVERNMENT FLAGS and LOGOS could be placed in the
lobbies. On doors into theater logos: UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT. Ushers and other
theater help could be costumed in official-looking WORLD GOVERNMENT UNIFORMS, gruffly
escort patrons to their seats.

SETTING: Unit set stage remains divided for all three scenes taking place in World Government
properties. Stage Right (Scene One) is an office. Stage Center (Scene Two) is a small medical
operating theater, with dentist-type chair for brain surgery. Above the operating chair is a bright
surgical light and a monitor screen, essentially a large TV screen (for use with a videotape).
Stage Left (Scene Three), the largest stage portion, is a modestly furnished hospital room,
including couch, chair, and bed.

TIME: The near future, any time of the year.

SCENE: begins as TWO SECURITY PEOPLE and VLADIMIR WATERS, Minister of Health and
Welfare, bureaucratic stuffed-shirt in a suit and tie, carrying BRIEFCASE, enter stage right.
Stage center and stage left are darkened.

SCENE ONE

Enter Stage Right: Minister of Health and Welfare Vladimir Waters and Two Bodyguards. They
look furtively around. Waters stops, looks at his bodyguards.

WATERS. (shaking head at security people) Is all this really necessary?

SECURITY OFFICER ONE. Can't be too careful, sir.

SECURITY OFFICER TWO. Climate Underground kidnaped the Governor of California


yesterday.

WATERS. (sighs, contemptuously) And released him unharmed this morning. They had a
message for Our Dear Leader. (motions) This is Farenheit's office.

They go into office.

Two Bodyguards slip out of view or out of spotlight.

UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT flag is on indoor flagstaff beside desk. On the modernistic
desk behind which ANN sits we see a logo: UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT. MINISTRY OF
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.

Ann, the secretary, hangs up the CORDLESS TELEPHONE. DIGITAL CLOCK is on wall.

3
Telephone RINGS. Ann picks it up as Waters stands patiently waiting.

ANN. (into telephone) Ministry of Research and Development, World Government. (listens to
phone) No, I'm sorry. (listens) He's presently holding a press conference at City University.
Should I give him a message? (listens) All right, then. I'll tell him you called. (hangs up, smiles
greeting to Waters) Doctor Waters. We're expecting him any minute.

WATERS. (dabs brow with handkerchief) Press conference. (sighs, shakes head) I wish he
hadn't done that. They were just waiting for him to . . .

ANN. He felt he had to. (glances at digital wall clock) He'll be here soon.

WATERS. (dourly, terse) Maybe.

SPOTLIGHT STAGE LEFT

ROBERT FARENHEIT, in sports coat, no tie, deals with a small horde of NEWS PEOPLE and
TV CAMERAS.

NEWS PERSON. (thrusting microphone) Can you tell us anything more about it, Dr. Farenheit?

FARENHEIT. No, I've said everything I can. Details are in the handouts.

ENTER STAGE LEFT: THREE ARMED MEN in business suits leap out from behind curtains,
point AUTOMATIC WEAPONS at Farenheit.

FARENHEIT. What the . . .

Armed Man sprays something at Farenheit. He slumps as other Armed Men grab and drag him
off.

NEWSPERSON. Where are you taking him?

ARMED MAN. To the hospital.

Farenheit is dragged off stage.

SPOTLIGHT STAGE RIGHT

SHIRLEY, secretarial-appearing woman, bursts into the Office Area, frantic.

SHIRLEY. (frenzied outrage) They arrested Robert! (stunned, looks at others) Just after he left

4
the university.

Waters puts hand over his eyes, shakes head.

SCENE TWO

SCENE: STAGE CENTER. (OPERATING ROOM) POLICE COMMISSIONER GONZALES, in


ranking police uniform, and GENERAL HAUPTMANN, in military uniform, march without
speaking, carrying briefcases, toward stage center.

They pause in front of sign: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, TOP SECRET CLEARANCE
ONLY.

Gonzales puts hands on a HAND-PRINT READING GIZMO. It beeps acceptance. Hauptmann


does same. It beeps acceptance.

They enter operating room and stride up to DOCTOR SMITH, in surgical greens, green surgical
cap, sterile gloves, wearing surgical face mask.

The Police Commissioner and the General give Smith curt acknowledging nods.

Farenheit sits in "dental chair," head shaved and marked for surgery, arms in restraints,
unconscious. A blinking headphone-like gizmo (electro-pulse anaesthetic) covers both ears.
TECHNICIAN in surgical greens sits at microsurgery monitoring screen.

GONZALES. Patient prepared, Doctor Smith?

SMITH. (grimaces angrily, nods directively) Pulse anaesthetized.

GONZALES. You have your orders. Brain implant chips.

Smith glares.

GONZALES. He's been tried and convicted. It's out of your hands. (snort, sneer, and nod at
Smith) Medical scholarship, Smith. Nice job. Wouldn't want to lose it, would we?.
(contemptuous wave to Farenheit) Him? Ph.D. on government grants. What's he do? Stirs up
trouble. Leaks government secrets.

Technician adjusts controls in front of X-ray or ultrasound (or NMR, etc) monitor screen. On a
SCREEN visible to audience, we see a SKULL, AS IF BY X-RAY.

SMITH. Cut the crap.

5
GONZALES. (cynically) You don't want to do this?

Smith, Gonzales, Hauptmann move toward Farenheit, in chair.

SMITH. Microchip implants had been reserved for incorrigible criminals. Murderers.
(glares at Gonzales, Hauptmann)

A NURSE, in surgical greens, brings in a sterile tray, sets it beside Farenheit.

GONZALES. Punishment, Smith. Satellite prisoner control. Talk when you let them. Pain
when we want it. Can't recognize anyone, unless . . . (snaps a motion) Get with it. We don't
have all day.

SMITH. What's with you?

GONZALES. (touch of exasperation) Surely you can understand the terrible social
consequences of his criminal acts.

SMITH. So you say!

GONZALES.
So the court said.

SMITH. (bitterly) Australian marsupials!

GONZALES. (warningly) I'd watch your mouth.

SMITH. Robert and I are fellows in the Academy of Sciences. I met him once. We talked
briefly.

GONZALES. (full of sarcasm) Oh, I didn't know! (nods at Hauptmann) General Hauptmann
has performed these procedures if you're not up to it. His "patients" have sometimes had the
good fortune not to survive.

SMITH. So I've heard.

GONZALES. He still has appeals. If he's alive.

SMITH. (looks over sterile tray muttering) Medical science. It comes down to this.

GONZALES. Don't blame science.

SMITH. (glares at Gonzales, Hauptmann) Right. It's what we do with it, Commissioner

6
Gonzales.

GONZALES. We can discuss metaphysics some other time. Let's get on with it.

SMITH (sighs cynically) Sure.

By spotlight or stage dimming, attention is drawn to microsurgery monitor screen over


Farenheit's head.

Smith reaches to sterile tray. Hauptmann and Gonzales put on surgical masks.

We hear DRILL SOUND. On the monitor screen we see a surgical drill-bit entering a skull.

Doctor Smith concentrates on threading a microchip implant into a small hole in Farenheit's
shaved and marked head.

Hauptmann and Gonzales. Wearing surgical masks, they exchange cynical sneering glances.

Monitor screen shows chip and micro-wires pass through dura into brain.

SMITH. (tensely concentrating on operation) That's the easy part.

GONZALES. Just keep up the good work, Doctor.

On the monitor screen, wires attached to chip begin to extend into various brain areas.

SMITH. Just shut up, Commissioner.

Smith concentrates on the gizmo controlling micro-wire movement. He studies the monitor
screen showing wire movement. Wires cease movement.
GONZALES. That it?

SMITH. Done.

Smith sutures drill hole. Applies bandage. Removes pulse-anaesthetic gizmo from Farenheit's
head. He almost instantly begins to regain consciousness.

GONZALES. We will require some tests.

SMITH. (disgusted, turns away) I'm sure you're familiar with the apparatus.

Gonzales looks at Hauptmann, who goes to Technician at control apparatus. Technician gets up.

7
Hauptmann sits down, familiarizes himself.

GONZALES. Make him move his right arm.

Hauptmann studies keyboard, taps in a code.

We see Farenheit involuntarily move his arm.

GONZALES. Pain?

Hauptmann taps in a code. Presses button.

FARENHEIT. (showing agony, SCREAMS) EEeeyahhhh!!! (struggles against restraints)

GONZALES. (coolly) Very good.

HAUPTMANN. (savoring it) Again?

GONZALES. No. You knocked him unconscious. That will be adequate.

Smith pulls off surgical mask and gloves.

SMITH. Don't you have any decency?

GONZALES. What's the matter, Doctor? You regret your skilled surgery?

SMITH. You leave him alone. An appeal is being pursued.

GONZALES. (laughs) Who decides appeals, Doctor?


SMITH. Sadist!

GONZALES. Just doing my duty.

SMITH. I'm outa here!

Smith walks angrily off stage.

GONZALES. Well, General, that's it. Let's go.

HAUPTMANN. They have it down to a fine art now. The first one. . . Messy!

They start off stage. Gonzales turns, looks at Farenheit.

8
GONZALES. Okay, smartass genius. Get out of this one.

HAUPTMANN. Come on. Let's go before he comes to. Pulse anaesthetic makes 'em babble.

They exit stage.

Farenheit sits alone under bright surgical light.

FARENHEIT. (coming to, moans) Oohh! The light!

Farenheit looks slowly around at equipment.

FARENHEIT. (woozy, babbling) Lights. Computers. Screens. Mnnnn! Trillions of electrons


scurrying around, making these work.

He struggles against restraints.

FARENHEIT. (shouting angrily) I'm a scientist! Dammit, Not a crook! (looks around, shouts)
Lots our eyes can't see without science, inventions: (more normal voice) Bacteria. Viruses.
Molecules of DNA, the mother of all life! (shouts again) Or, in space: The moon. Planets.
Galaxies. Quasars. Creative scientists, inventive minds made us . . .

SPOTLIGHT ON: A NURSE. She stands observing where Farenheit can't see. Aware of
something, he attempts to look, but can't see back.

FARENHEIT: I'm a scientist. And . . . (cynical laugh) . . . victim of science. Now I have to
struggle to survive. (pause, sighs) So this is the new "World Government": total arbitrary
power. (pause, looks around) Should've known. I'll have to figure a way out. (pause,
remembers) I blew the whistle. People had to know these things! (struggles against restraints)
So they made me a high-tech zombie.

Nurse beckons backstage, steps out of light.

FARENHEIT. Once I was Director of Research. I made it happen. Now the world has cheap
safe power. So what do I get? (pulls against restraints) Now I'm a criminal.

HEFTY ORDERLIES wheel gurney from backstage -- behind Farenheit -- joined by onlooking
Nurse.

FARENHEIT. (aware of something, looks sideways) Someone's coming! (eyes dart) What do

9
they want?

Nurse walks in front of Farenheit.

NURSE. (commandingly) To take you to your room. Command Central has the Court's
permission to make you unconscious for the move.

Nurse nods. Orderlies move gurney beside operating chair.

STAGE GOES BLACK

SCENE THREE

SCENE: STAGE RIGHT (HOSPITAL ROOM) Farenheit, head shaved, patch-bandaged, in


hospital pajamas, robe, hospital slippers, sits in a chair by a BED, eyes closed. He opens eyes.
They dart nervously around. He tries to move his arms, can't. We see he is "cuffed" with
LEATHER RESTRAINTS ATTACHED TO A BELLY STRAP AROUND HIS WAIST. He realizes
where he is, sighs.

Nurse, with two figures farther back in dark, looks in.

Farenheit tries to look sideways, but cannot see who it is. Nurse nods "okay" to figures standing
in corridor behind her. Figures hand Nurse something as if payment for a bribe. She takes it
and lets them in. They go toward Farenheit.

FARENHEIT. (anxiously) Who's there? (strains to look) Someone to gawk at me? (pause)
You see a scientist wired to work like a puppet. That's what. (sniffs to detect a scent) I know
that perfume.

SHIRLEY. It's just us, Doctor Farenheit: Ann and Shirley.

ANN. Don't be afraid. We know what they did to you.

Ann and Shirley walk into Farenheit's view.

FARENHEIT. (putting up a good front) Hello, Ann, Shirley.

Ann and Shirley break out in tears, sob.

ANN. Oh, Robert . . .

SHIRLEY. (sniffling) What can we do, Robert?

10
FARENHEIT. I wish I knew.

ANN. That was sure a quick trial.

SHIRLEY. (cynically) Wasted few words!

ANN. They wouldn't let us in. Claimed "security interests."

SHIRLEY. We found out you were convicted on the morning news.

FARENHEIT. How did you get in here?

ANN. (proudly) Pulled a few strings.

SHIRLEY. (adding hastily) Government doesn't know we're here.

FARENHEIT. (sighs, smiles) Years of working for Vladimir Waters?

ANN. And years of working for you.

SHIRLEY. You want to get something done in the World Government, you find a way.

FARENHEIT. (snorts) With all their surveillance, computers.

ANN. Paper tiger.

FARENHEIT. That's a Climate Underground term.

SHIRLEY. Chips fall where they may.

FARENHEIT. Be careful! Look what they did to me.

SHIRLEY. I see, Robert. And it's frightening. (tearfully points at Farenheit) Can I call that
"you"?

ANN. What happens if we all make a break for it?

SHIRLEY. I didn't see any guards. Car's in the parking lot.

FARENHEIT. (shaking head) There's a device in the door. If I attempt to go through it, a
signal from Central Control paralyses me. Calls guards downstairs.

ANN. Scratch that!

SHIRLEY. Nurse said we had about an hour. (shakes head) So this is what our World
Government has come to.

11
ANN. They're despicable. It's worse than before.

SHIRLEY. Is this the price of world peace?

FARENHEIT. Peace. Oh yes. And no death penalty. Hah! Now they have puppets to dance to
their tunes.

SHIRLEY. Was the Director at the trial?

FARENHEIT. Giving hand signals and nods to the prosecutor and judges.

ANN. The Great Manipulator!

SHIRLEY. Ironic. They brought an end to threats of nuclear war. Could’ve ended all life.

ANN. And: prevented environmental catastrophe: uncontrolled genetic engineering. . .

FARENHEIT. So he saved the world for this.

SHIRLEY. Do you think he can be overthrown?

FARENHEIT. (firmly) Can and will! (pause) Might seek to use me to save his skin. And I
won't.

ANN. No macho tough talk now.


SHIRLEY. We're really afraid for you, Robert. Is there anything you can do?

FARENHEIT. I don't know. They're power-hungry nuts. The thing is, they've created massive
social instability, economic chaos. (pause) Want-a-bet some of them start slipping over here?

ANN. You're dreaming.

FARENHEIT. Just watch.

SHIRLEY. They think you know something they don't?

FARENHEIT. Exactly!

ANN. Do you?

FARENHEIT. Maybe.

SHIRLEY. What?

ANN. Yeah, what?

12
FARENHEIT. Every time I think about it I get furious. (pause) Let me backtrack. (considers
it) The crisis hit. Governments, political parties, multi-national corporations, world financial
leaders met frantically. It broke down into posturing, gain-seeking. Then chaos.

SHIRLEY. I vaguely remember. After the Cold War.

FARENHEIT. War had been part of the human condition. Even after the Cold War, small wars
threatened to escalate into total catastrophe. (pause) I lectured. I wrote articles. I went on talk
shows. I met with corporate leaders, with my fellow scientists. (sinks back) I failed. I could not
drum-up interest in a Charter for World Peace.

SHIRLEY. You didn't fail, Robert.

ANN. You had a huge following. All over the world.

FARENHEIT. Sure.

SHIRLEY. Environmental groups. Socially concerned people. Thinking people of all kinds.

ANN. And just plain good people.

FARENHEIT. Yeah, you're right. Anyone with any sense knew that if things were left to
themselves, we might as well give up on our little blue planet. But the ones who held power . . .
Well, they were afraid of losing it.

SHIRLEY. Lost when the market crashed, anyway.

ANN. Brought it on themselves.

FARENHEIT. That aside, things were deteriorating. People were starving. Guerrilla wars, with
clever leaders. But solutions required coordinated efforts on a global scale.

SHIRLEY. Especially the environment.

FARENHEIT. Especially. Things got worse. Ozone depletion began to threaten crops.
Greenhouse effect melting the Polar Ice Cap. Topsoil loss cut food production. We began to
meet for a change in world politics.

ANN. It got pretty frightening.

FARENHEIT. We knew at some point there would be one crisis too many. Then political-
economic implosion. Then chaos. We had to be ready.

SHIRLEY. That's when you met the Director.

FARENHEIT. Yes. We joined forces. They were glad to get us. Glad to get anyone credible.
And I was not unhappy with the political- military muscle.

13
ANN. So that's how the coalition came about.

SHIRLEY. Didn't it bother you to join with a militant when you knew that millennia of war had
brought us to that point?

FARENHEIT. (indignantly) Look what brought us to that point! Progress and human nature.
Procreation beyond resources. When a crisis strikes, you don't have time to interview for
leadership positions.

ANN. Yeah. Well, it happened. And here we are.

SHIRLEY. Anyway, all the bad old political and financial leaders are exiled to an island in the
Pacific.

ANN. (sarcastically) And the "Good Director" is looking out for all of us.

FARENHEIT. (sighs) And we thought we had overthrown history itself and made the world
safe for ideas and progress. (frowns) Instead we have a world tyrant. Making zombies like me.

SHIRLEY. The more powerful one becomes, the less free he or she is to trust others.

ANN. This punishment is for the worst criminals. Why did he do this to you?

FARENHEIT. Rage!

SHIRLEY. Goddamn them!

ANN. Rage from what?

FARENHEIT. When the World Government was established. Right away they divided up
power among themselves. The same old show.

ANN. People got disgusted right then.

FARENHEIT. Bad as it may have seemed, it was calculated cover.

SHIRLEY. So we gathered after your press conference.

ANN. For which there remains a lot of disbelief.

FARENHEIT. It must seem very unreal . . . Maybe horrifying. I know they find it hard to
believe.

SHIRLEY. They really intend to wipe out the human race?

FARENHEIT. They say they're creating a genetically engineered "superior" human race because

14
we were a natural selection accident. Inherently destructive. A monumental mistake.

ANN. We heard that before. The late unlamented "master race."

FARENHEIT. (shakes head) Not that. They aren't breeding "Herrenvolk" and
"Untermenschen." They intend — to put it quite bluntly — to bring the human gene pool to
extinction. The new genetically engineered New Species will be placed in designed nurturing,
educational, and social settings.

SHIRLEY. More frightening than the other.

ANN. (assertively) People will still have babies.

FARENHEIT. Some — for a while. But the only authorized pregnancies will be engineered ova
implants. Permanent contraceptive drugs were to be secretly added to the world's drinking water.

SHIRLEY. Third World, Inner City first?

FARENHEIT. You guessed it.

ANN. (cynically) Science marches on.

FARENHEIT. I was the only member of the Central Committee to oppose this. I used whatever
delaying tactic I could. But they were bound and determined to make dinosaurs out of us . . .

SHIRLEY. So you held the press conference.

FARENHEIT. That's why I'm a wired up high-tech zombie.

ANN. Maybe they're right. Look at you. Human beings do these things to human beings. All
too regularly.

FARENHEIT. Pretty unpleasant species, aren't we?

SHIRLEY. We aren't all bad. And we can change.

FARENHEIT. Of course. Human extinction is utterly uncalled for. (pause) There's a precious
relationship between our natural evolution and the universe.

SHIRLEY. That isn't going to get you out of this, Robert. I mean . . .

FARENHEIT. I know.

ANN. One thing it’s doing: creating worldwide unrest.

SHIRLEY. I can see why the World Government's furious. You shot them down.

15
ANN. Now they'll have to use strong-arm methods.

SHIRLEY. And that other thing?

ANN. The "immortality" thing? Thousand-year lifetimes for the select — to "educate and guide"
their new race?

FARENHEIT. They solved human aging. Then clamped "Top Secret" on aging-reversal
research.

SHIRLEY. You really caused a stir!

FARENHEIT. In recent television appearances, the Director has had to utilize make-up artists to
make him appear his age. He has actually reverse-aged twenty years.

ANN. That wasn't in your press releases.

FARENHEIT. Only a few in the Inner Circle knew.

SHIRLEY. Were you taking it, Robert?

FARENHEIT. I would have. But there are only minute quantities available It's a long
expensive process. We were holding out until a bio-engineering breakthrough.

ANN. Would you have shared it with us?

FARENHEIT. Of course. And therein lies the fallacy of their reasoning. Such a profound secret
would have leaked.

SHIRLEY. Reverse aging. Reversing menopause?

FARENHEIT. Certainly. Everything.

ANN. People living ten times as long. Able to have children ten times as long. Guess what
happens to world population?

FARENHEIT. Main reason for secrecy.

SHIRLEY. Main reason they're furious with you.

ANN. And the portable superconductor motor?

FARENHEIT. Now that that's out, anyone can have a cheap electric car.

SHIRLEY. Or home electric generator.

FARENHEIT. Ends the World Government monopoly on fuel and power generation. It was my

16
own invention.

ANN. Anyway, the end of contrived energy crises.

SHIRLEY. (sighs a snort) Anyway, that's why the brain implant.

FARENHEIT. That's why I'm one of their zombies.

SHIRLEY. For how long?

FARENHEIT. Indeterminate sentence.

ANN. Will they ever let you off?

FARENHEIT. Maybe.

SHIRLEY. Maybe?

ANN. (stands, paces) Robert, are you being realistic? (a beat) I'm sorry. I'm tense.

SHIRLEY. The appeals are a foregone conclusion. Then what?

ANN. What were you thinking when you called the press conference?

FARENHEIT. What else could I do? Would you have just let them go ahead with it?

ANN. No.

SHIRLEY. It's over and done.

FARENHEIT. I knew there'd be repercussions. I thought they'd fire me, blacklist me. (sighs)
Not this. (beat) Caught me unprepared.

SHIRLEY. (with anxiety) Well, what can we do?

There is a DING SOUND, as from an elevator. All look that way anxiously, but when nothing
happens, return to each other.

FARENHEIT. Loosen up a little. (beat. They smile at it) I’m holding a few cards.

ANN. You’re. . .

SHIRLEY. Like what?

Vladimir Waters BURSTS IN!

17
Startled, Ann, Shirley, and Farenheit look.

Vladimir Waters is ever the bureaucratic stuffed shirt. He strides to Farenheit carrying his
briefcase.

WATERS. (self-congratulatingly) Official privileges. I just walked by all their security. No


one tried to stop me.

SHIRLEY. (touch of sarcasm) Uh huh!

WATERS. I was in a meeting in Cancun. Grabbed the first flight out, got a taxi, came straight
here. (to Farenheit with guilt, fear) This is all very upsetting, troubling. Horrifying! What is the
world coming to? Robert, is there anything I can do to help?

FARENHEIT. (hint of a taunt) Look at me, Vladimir. They could do this to you as easily. If
this is a sympathy visit, you could be putting yourself in danger. It's not "government" anymore.
It's absolute arbitrary power! World dictatorship!
WATERS. Cool it! Don't make things any worse for yourself. Room's probably bugged. Just
let's concentrate on getting you out of this.

Waters begins to fretfully pace back and forth.

SHIRLEY. (to Waters) Can you do anything?

WATERS. (gruff, tersely) I don't know.

FARENHEIT. (tauntingly) Come to see the microamps twist me in agony, Vladimir?

WATERS. Cut it, Robert. That's one of the reasons you're in this predicament.

FARENHEIT. Okay, what's your plan?

WATERS. Plan! (scoffs) They represent absolute power. They're not accountable to anyone.
Plan! (shakes head, scoffs)

ANN. Can you talk to them?

FARENHEIT. Not if he values his job, let alone health. He took a big chance just coming here.

WATERS. Just now I don't want to say anything that might rub them the wrong way.

SHIRLEY. (cynically) Of course.

18
FARENHEIT. Well, you managed to stay clear of it. So far. Probably it would be best if you
went back to your office now. They could find some excuse to come for you next.

WATERS. Look, I'm your friend. I'll do what I can. But I can't do much if I get fired. Or
worse.

FARENHEIT. Thank you, Vladimir. I understand. You better stay clear of this. You cross these
guys . . .

ANN. Remember Carl Strong? Anti-World-Government demonstrations?

SHIRLEY. Twenty-to-life in a lumber camp on Vancouver Island.

FARENHEIT. And Pasquale Siciliano?

FARENHEIT. Made H-bombs, nerve gas. Thought he could overthrow the World Government.

SHIRLEY. Now in one of their "mental hospitals." Brain implants.


FARENHEIT. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't at his base. Satellite laser. Big hole. Ten
square kilometers of cinders.

WATERS. Underground nuclear explosion. Imploded on their bunker. You have to admit, the
man was dangerous.

FARENHEIT. (berating) More dangerous than the Director?

SHIRLEY. They didn't get all of them.

FARENHEIT. No. Not all of his followers. And not one of the H-bombs.

ANN. So, what are they going to do? Blow up a city?

FARENHEIT. Who knows? But look what's happened. Did the World Government end war?
Make world peace? Turmoil's everywhere.

WATERS. They're leaderless. Pasquale's a vegetable.

SHIRLEY. But our Director failed to end human strife.

ANN. Instead made some.

FARENHEIT. No one likes the government now. It's a matter of time.

SHIRLEY. You don’t have that kind of time.

ANN. (to Waters) Isn't there something you can do?

19
WATERS. (sighs) Sometimes the right words at the right time to the right person. . .

FARENHEIT. Not now! In the heat of their hysteria?

WATERS. You're right. It's risky.

FARENHEIT. And maybe wasted effort. For all your good intentions.

WATERS. (disgusted) I'm sick of them, their insanity. All of us bumbling around seeming
foolish, trying to save our hides.

FARENHEIT. Maybe I could pretend to go batty?

WATERS. Try anything.

ANN. In other words, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

WATERS. Not a whole lot. (to Farenheit) What would you have me do?

FARENHEIT. Nothing. They could turn on you.

WATERS. Will they?

FARENHEIT. Not right now. This has created serious political flack. But beware.

WATERS. (hoists briefcase) I'll keep a low profile.

Waters eases toward the door, opens it.

SHIRLEY. Good bye, Doctor Waters.

WATERS. I'll see what I can do.

ANN. You do that.

Waters slips out. As the door closes, Shirley starts crying.

SHIRLEY. (angrily) Bastards! You call this a government?

Ann sits down sniffling and dabbing her eyes.

ANN. Robert, news has leaked. Even in the media. Everyone’s outraged. There are
demonstrations on campuses, in cities, all over the world. Full scale riots in a lot of places.
Even here, in the World Capital.

20
SHIRLEY. This may have been the last straw.

ANN. Their incompetence has been appalling.

SHIRLEY. The promised environmental cleanup of Japan never happened. Tokyo Bay still
reeks of chemicals and sewage.

ANN. Promised the end of poverty. Look at the slums of New York, Calcutta, Manilla.

SHIRLEY. Worse in Cleveland, Chicago, with Great Lakes pollution out of control.

ANN. And the Mediterranean. Irreversibly polluted!

SHIRLEY. So the poor huddled around the stinking sea — in Marseilles, Rome, Athens, Tel
Aviv, Alexandria — aren't happy with the Director.
ANN. Simple fact is: no one's happy with him.

SHIRLEY. (to Farenheit) You knew Siciliano.

FARENHEIT. Went to college with him.

SHIRLEY. That the reason they did the brain implants?

ANN. Think you're part of the underground? Know where the other H-bomb is?

SHIRLEY. (shivers visibly) God!

ANN. Madness.

SHIRLEY. The state of mind out there . . . There'll be a bloody civil war.

FARENHEIT. I know. It's been coming. When they established the World Government, I had a
gnawing feeling . . .

ANN. I was young and naive. It all looked wonderful.

FARENHEIT. Of course. Look back on how things were. It did to everyone.

SHIRLEY. Overpopulation. Seventy-five percent struggling below subsistence. Five billion


people. Undernourished. Uneducated. Written off.

ANN. Demoralized.

FARENHEIT. The first job they assigned me was Media Tzar. (shakes his head) People lived
work-a-day nonsense. I tried to refocus them. Their ways of life and jobs were adding to
pollution and economic crises.

21
SHIRLEY. Spend and waste.

FARENHEIT. TV gave no meaning to their lives. They viewed banalities, sales-pitches. High-
definition TV and the information superhighway fed on a creed of indulgence and squandering. I
fought it.

ANN. (proudly) I know. That's why I got myself transferred to your department.

SHIRLEY. It's been eroded, but you did a good job, Robert.

FARENHEIT. I know. They face life better now.

ANN. And you promoted environmental cities — using renewable energy, recycled materials.

SHIRLEY. And they built three new cities to those designs.

ANN. Beautiful. Clean. Lively to live in. Rooftop forests and parks.

SHIRLEY. And the World Standard Calendar.

ANN. Your first act as Minister of Research and Development.

FARENHEIT. Modified Mayan calendar. Part of the legislative package for a new World Time
Observatory at Greenwich. Lot of people still don't like it. But it's official.

SHIRLEY. Brought an end to fighting over Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, and Jewish calendars in
the World Legislature.

ANN. After that you fought for computerized, robotized work places. Against powerful lobbies.
Pushed shorter work weeks through the Legislature.

SHIRLEY. And the Director vetoed it.

FARENHEIT. Kids in the Third World could be in school instead of working in sweat shops

ANN. Well, anyway, you had them design a household robot to clean houses, clear tables, and
wash dishes. I have one.

SHIRLEY. And automated electric automobiles.

FARENHEIT. Cargo’s now carried in automated ships with robot crews. I worked to give
people their own time — to find meaning, use creative potentials.

ANN. You should have given yourself more free time.

FARENHEIT. That was my free time!

22
SHIRLEY. And getting paid for it.

FARENHEIT. Shouldn't everyone?

ANN. Here we are wandering. Better start thinking of a way out of this.

FARENHEIT. Maybe we'll hit on something. Want to keep dwelling on my plight?

ANN. No.

SHIRLEY. You did some pretty amazing things as Minister of Research and Development.

FARENHEIT. I'm proud of them.


SHIRLEY. You should be.

FARENHEIT. A detailed map of the immune system. I focused research. We had a


breakthrough.

ANN. I remember. You were the real hero, even though Chung and Humphries got the Nobel
Prize.

FARENHEIT. They did the work.

ANN. Yeah.

FARENHEIT. Key to curing virtually all diseases.

ANN. Don't need transplants when you can cure sick organs.

FARENHEIT. When it finally gets World Government approval.

SHIRLEY. If!

ANN. (cynically) Healthy bodies. Sick minds. Like the Director.

SHIRLEY. What about the Institutes for Mental Health things you argued for?

FARENHEIT. Rejected. Good computer programs though.

SHIRLEY. Virtual reality self-analysis.

FARENHEIT. Works.

ANN. Shrinks as video games? Come on!

FARENHEIT. Preliminary test results: remarkable.

23
ANN. What good are healthy bodies and healthy minds if the environment is deathly ill? The
planet’s dying!

FARENHEIT. Doesn't have to.

SHIRLEY. Healthy bodies and minds. Dead planet!

FARENHEIT. I know. I did as much as I dared.

ANN. You were working on something?

FARENHEIT. Refining computer programs of ecological relationships on a planetary scale.


Ecological disasters can be minimized, life-form extinctions avoided.

ANN. Computer models.

SHIRLEY. (glances cautioningly to Ann) It's a marvelous program, Robert. Some day it will
be utilized.

FARENHEIT. Well, okay. Something practical. They used to laugh at transmutation of metals.
That's because nuclear physics was wrapped up in contradictions.

SHIRLEY. Well, no shortage of rare metals now.

ANN. And you did get the Nobel Prize for that.

FARENHEIT. Put miners out of work, though.

SHIRLEY. (correctingly) Stopped ecologically disastrous mine water seepage.

ANN. And dangerous dirty work underground.

FARENHEIT. Created massive unemployment.

SHIRLEY. Which led to the World Revolution.

ANN. And put the Director in power.

FARENHEIT. (snorts half-jokingly) So it came back to haunt me.

SHIRLEY. Like your automatic dog-washing machine.

ANN. (with humor) Dog bit you demonstrating it on World TV!

FARENHEIT. Lots of bad ideas before you get a good one.

24
ANN. Yeah. (pause) We really ought to concentrate on getting you out of this.

SHIRLEY. You're one of the few in this World Government who has any respect out there.

ANN. Enormous support.

FARENHEIT. May help. But it will take time. Few have the guts to speak out against the
World Government.

SHIRLEY. Hell of a government.

ANN. You know the inside of it.


FARENHEIT. Yeah. And some good juicy dirt.

SHIRLEY. Like what?

FARENHEIT. (grinning) Bizarre!

SHIRLEY. What?

ANN. Something we can use?

FARENHEIT. I think so. The World Government's teetering.

SHIRLEY. Does the Director know?

FARENHEIT. He's "it."

ANN. Well, let's have "it."

FARENHEIT. Okay.

SHIRLEY. (pulls futuristic recorder from purse) Digital recorder.

FARENHEIT. I hope you realize the implications.

ANN. We took that risk in coming here.

SHIRLEY. We're in hot water anyway.

FARENHEIT. If they find out, you know ...

ANN. The only thing that's going to save us is to get him tossed out.

FARENHEIT. They aren't after you.

SHIRLEY. They will be.

25
ANN. We’re subversives.

SHIRLEY. (holds out CD recorder) So, what's the dirt?

FARENHEIT. You know what kind of a government "hospital" this is?

ANN. Political prisoners.

FARENHEIT. Right. Doped up.

SHIRLEY. What's that got to do with it?

FARENHEIT. Go down the hall to room 87 C. There should be a woman in there. If you can,
bring her back here.

Ann and Shirley exchange puzzled looks.

FARENHEIT. Should be no problem. She's so pain-conditioned that they took the monitor off
the door. Just bring her back here.

ANN. (to Shirley) I'll go. You stay here. (to Farenheit) Eighty-seven C.

Farenheit nods. Ann slips off stage.

SHIRLEY. (very softly, almost a whisper) What are we doing?

FARENHEIT. Remember Ching-su?

SHIRLEY. Should I?

FARENHEIT. At my wedding?

SHIRLEY. The Director's cute little starlet?

FARENHEIT. You got it.

SHIRLEY. There better be more than that. He's gone through half a dozen sex scandals. No
one cares.

FARENHEIT. A lot more.

Ann leads CHING-SU, Oriental young woman, 20s, in straight-jacket, hospital clothes, into
room.

26
She is confused, frightened, drugged. She slowly looks around.

CHING-SU. (drugged, spaced-out) Where am I? (to Farenheit) Who is this? (to Shirley, Ann)
Who are you?

ANN. (quietly, carefully) We're your friends.

CHING-SU. (points, wanders to Farenheit) Another one they put those torture wires in?

Drugged unsteady Ching-su blurry-eyed looks over Farenheit, attempts to scratch itch but can't
in straitjacket.

CHING-SU. What did he do? (tries to scratch again) Oh, that itch. Damn itch. The drugs
cause it. (spaced-out, stares) Or maybe it's the shock treatments. (tries to scratch)
Ohhh!

ANN. Where does it itch?

CHING-SU. My neck. Back of my neck.

Ann scratches Ching-su's back carefully.

CHING-SU. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

ANN. (to Farenheit, Shirley) Who is she?

SHIRLEY. Remember the Director's Vietnamese starlet of five years ago?

ANN. Oh dear.

SOUND OF DOOR OPENING, ROBOT WHHRRRING.

Shirley, Ann WHEEL AROUND, STARTLED, FRIGHTENED. Ching-su reacts more slowly.

A ROBOT, human-sized, pattern of 360o lights (as if eyes) circulating around upper head, enters
the room, stands obediently, observantly.

Ann and Shirley stand frozen, terrified.

CHING-SU. (shrugs, sing-song drugged)


Monitor robot. Follows me around, keeps me drugged. Implant tells it where I am.

27
SHIRLEY. Horrible looking thing.

FARENHEIT. Experimental. Only in this hospital.

CHING-SU. Not very good. One fell off the roof. This one fell down the stairs. But they
repaired it in the tech-shop.

ANN. (to Ching-su) Gives you drugs?


CHING-SU. Pills. If I don't take them, it injects me. (moves head spacey-like) It drugs me and
then takes me to the electro-shock, infra-sound room. (sways unsteadily) Then the coils hum.
They zap my brain. They turn on the infra-sound and dull me into a stupor. (tries to scratch)
Ohhhh! Can you scratch me again?

ANN. Sure. (scratches Ching-su)

SHIRLEY. (to Farenheit) Why is she here?

CHING-SU. (spacey) Why am I here? (sways, focuses on Farenheit)


I know you. You're in the Cabinet! You're in the government. You put me in this place, sicked
this robot on me. (firms up, glares) Get me out of here! Stop sending me to hospitals all over
the place! Stop torturing me!

FARENHEIT. You're right. I was in the government. But I had nothing to do with this.

ANN. (to Farenheit) You met?

FARENHEIT. At the Director's retreat.

SHIRLEY. (to Farenheit, points at Ching-su) You knew about this?

FARENHEIT. Not until last week.

ANN. Her family know?

FARENHEIT. Maybe. Her father's a poor rice farmer. Might be afraid. Probably doesn't know
everything.

SHIRLEY. You knew about the robot?

FARENHEIT. I knew they were experimenting with "patient care robots" here.

ANN. And you never suspected something like this?

FARENHEIT. Crossed my mind.

SHIRLEY. Now you're both in the same boat.

28
CHING-SU. (spacey, looks over Farenheit) You met me. You know about my father. You
didn't do this to me. (shakes head, tries to focus) Who are you? Why do you know so much
about me?

ANN. (to Ching-su) He's a prisoner here. Like you.

CHING-SU. (to Ann) They're deliberately driving me crazy. Electro-shock. Drugs that make
me itch. Moved to a new hospital all the time.

SHIRLEY. Why?

CHING-SU. I don't know. (thinks) It's not because I was a whore. This is hardly a way to
correct wayward girls. (thinks) It can hardly be because I was the Director's whore. He's had
lots of them. (thinks) So you tell me. And tell me how I can get out of this.

FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) We met when I was Minister of Research.

CHING-SU. You're . . . (can't recall, shakes head)

FARENHEIT. Robert Farenheit.

CHING-SU. Oh, yeah. (thinks, brightens) The good guy. The scientist. (puzzled)
You did all those good things. So why are you being punished?

FARENHEIT. What difference does it make?

SHIRLEY. They're accusing him of leaking government secrets.

ANN. Does it matter?

CHING-SU. No. Who cares? They’ll conjure up something. (studies Farenheit's scalp)
But tell me one thing.

FARENHEIT. What?

CHING-SU. Who did the brain implants?

FARENHEIT. Doctor Smith.

CHING-SU. (disappointed, sing-songish) Not the same one who did mine. (thinks)
What're you convicted of?

FARENHEIT. You really want to know?

CHING-SU. All I want to know is when they'll let me out. What do you know about that?

29
FARENHEIT. I'd rather not say.

CHING-SU. Please. It can't be that bad. (studies Farenheit) If it is . . .

FARENHEIT. You're in such pain and misery now . . .

CHING-SU. I have a right to know.


FARENHEIT. You've held up to everything they've thrown at you so far.

CHING-SU. You'd want to know.

FARENHEIT. (sighs, reluctantly) Okay.

SHIRLEY. Hold it a second. I want to know why she's being treated this way.

ANN. What on earth did she do?

SHIRLEY. Tell Ann what you told me, and then tell us what this is all about?

FARENHEIT. (to Ann) Name's Ching-su. The Director's cute little sex-object a few years
back.

ANN. Yeah, now I remember. So what did she do?

FARENHEIT. Let her tell you. I only read the files. I think her family's been paid to keep
quiet.

SHIRLEY. (to Ching-su) You want to tell us? (glances nervously at wristwatch)

CHING-SU. I don't know. Look at me. I'm a basket case.

ANN. Maybe we can help. Go ahead.

CHING-SU. Where to begin. Well, it all started with the dreams. Maybe daydreaming,
fantasizing.

SHIRLEY. What kind of dreams?

CHING-SU. Like nightmares. Kept haunting me.

FARENHEIT. Files mentioned Government psychological warfare gizmos, implanted thoughts.

SHIRLEY. Planting thoughts? Paranoid talk.

ANN. Not at all. Remember the David Koresh thing in Waco? Noriega at the Vatican Embassy
in Panama? Used primitive versions. Sharp stuff around now.

30
CHING-SU. Maybe. I don't know. They were vivid dreams.

ANN. Of what?

CHING-SU. Well, first there were voices. Like,"Gorgeous girl." Things like that. Then, "Why
do you sleep alone, beautiful?" Then it would be, "You could sleep with the Director."

SHIRLEY. One after another like that?

CHING-SU. No. Like over weeks. Getting more definite. Then, "The Director is burning with
lust for you." Or something like that.

ANN. Sounds a little like thought-implant.

CHING-SU. Common sense told me it was nonsense. Foolish for an Asian farm girl to dream of
sleeping with the Director. I wanted to run away.

SHIRLEY. Did you have wild sexual dreams?

CHING-SU. Yeah. You know about this?

ANN. Psychoactive gases used with thought-implant. Asian Mafia uses it to recruit girls for
bordellos.

CHING-SU. I didn't know that. Anyway, I told my mother. She didn't know what to do, so she
sent me to a country doctor. The doctor didn't know, so he sent me to a psychiatrist at a
Government clinic.

FARENHEIT. And that's where the chronology in your files begins.

CHING-SU. Yeah. They said it could be dangerous or something. Sent lots of notices.
Warnings.

ANN. So your parents had you committed?

CHING-SU. No. I went voluntarily.

FARENHEIT. And you signed some releases for experimental psychology.

CHING-SU. I thought I had to.

ANN. What did they do?

CHING-SU. Drugs. Hypnosis. Rooms with strange humming sounds.

FARENHEIT. I don't think she was the only one. From what I saw in the file, it appears that
higher-ups in the Government were using secret facilities, sophisticated techniques to create

31
super-whores. Ostensibly for intelligence gathering.

SHIRLEY. Taxpayer funded?

FARENHEIT. Naturally.

ANN. And the Director approved it, so he knew.

FARENHEIT. Seems to have been his idea.

SHIRLEY. Ching-su his idea, too?

FARENHEIT. Got hold of a picture of her in a high school play. Couldn't resist.

CHING-SU. I might have known. (sighs, shakes head) You want to hear the rest?

ANN. Definitely.

CHING-SU. When I got out of the hospital, I literally walked into a job as a high-priced call
girl.

ANN. Like post-hypnotic suggestion?

CHING-SU. Now that I look back on it. (to Farenheit) So, if you read my file, you probably
know my sexual specialties and everything.

FARENHEIT. Everything that was in it. They imposed those appetites on your psyche. After
about a week — after they were sure of their success.

CHING-SU. (nods, interrupts) The Director came to Hong Kong. And they flew me there.
He knew all about my sexual specialties. And he was hot for my young body.

ANN. How long did it last?

CHING-SU. Few months. Unlike his other sweet little playthings, his wife Vera felt threatened
by me.

FARENHEIT. It was more than that. Political. He was about to be voted out — for
incompetence. He suddenly had to get rid of liabilities, and he needed his wife's influence to
keep his job.

CHING-SU. I had no idea they were having me declared insane. Hauled me out of bed at three
in the morning. Locked me up. "Treatment" for delusions of grandeur.

ANN. Bastard!

SHIRLEY. We wondered. Suddenly you were gone from the tabloids.

32
ANN. But everyone forgot about it in a couple weeks.

CHING-SU. I escaped once. It was way out in the country, so it wasn't very well guarded. I
remember there was a river. Clear. Not polluted. I was thirsty. I drank the water.

FARENHEIT. Hilltop in former Bosnia.

CHING-SU. (nods to the Robot) They had the robots there, too. They sent one after me. Just
kept coming. Never stopped to sleep or anything. Day and night.

FARENHEIT. Equipped with infra-red sensors, ultra-sound movement detectors.

CHING-SU. Didn't see the old land-mine, though. (pleased) Blew off its legs. (sighs, dully)
But they found me anyway.

Robot whrrrs, moves, calling attention to it. Ann and Shirley jump away from it, keep wary eyes
on it.

CHING-SU. Sent me to another "hospital." They don't call them prisons anymore. And then
another after that, and another, and another . . .

ANN. (disgusted) Progress, civilization.

CHING-SU. (to Farenheit) Well, that's how it happened.

SHIRLEY. That's why you're here? Like this?

CHING-SU. That's it.

SHIRLEY. Criminals.

ANN. A few days ago I would never have imagined things like this went on in the Government.

SHIRLEY. Oh Ching-su, how horrible. I don't know what to say.

ANN. We're stunned.

FARENHEIT. Wait'll you hear what they have planned for her.

SHIRLEY. Planned?

FARENHEIT. In her file. Planned.

ANN. As bad?

33
FARENHEIT. Every bit.

SHIRLEY. Maybe just forget it. Don't depress her.

ANN. She has a right to know. Maybe she can defend herself.
CHING-SU. (to Farenheit) It's my file.

FARENHEIT. (resigned) They have great plans for you. Now that you're a ward of the
government. (studies Ching-su) Think you can remember any of this? You're on Puromycin,
other drugs. You'll forget everything tomorrow.

CHING-SU. Just tell me.

FARENHEIT. You've been assigned to researchers for quote experiments unquote.

CHING-SU. Did I sign something?

FARENHEIT. Probably forged.

ANN. What kind of experiments?

FARENHEIT. I just saw the request forms.

SHIRLEY. Requesting what?

FARENHEIT. First one, I think, was the Berlin Psychiatric Institute. They requested her for a
study on aggression.

ANN. Aggression?

FARENHEIT. That's what it said.

SHIRLEY. What are they going to do?

FARENHEIT. From what I saw, give her drugs to make her aggressive. Then give her electro-
shock to see if they can stop the aggression.

ANN. That's supposed to be science?

FARENHEIT. They got funding.

SHIRLEY. What can she do about it?

FARENHEIT. Not much. (to Ching-su) Don't resist them. Don't fight it. Just try to get out of
there as soon as you can.

ANN. (snorts contempt) Some advice.

34
FARENHEIT. You have a better idea?

ANN. (resigned) No.


FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) Then you'll be shipped to Helsinki. I don't remember the name of
the facility, but there was a note that patients have been abused there.

SHIRLEY. Abused how?

FARENHEIT. Didn't say. (thinks) Then to Volgograd. Then to "Women's Hospital" in Tokyo.
Someone scrawled a snide comment on the form, "bull dykes." Anyway, they want to study your
"sexual dreams," which I interpret as meaning they want to induce dreams and "study" the
results.

ANN. The Government actually lets this kind of thing go on?

FARENHEIT. And funds it. They're building another research facility in Hawaii, but it won't be
finished in time for her.

SHIRLEY. Gad.

FARENHEIT. After that? Oh, Ireland. I think it will not be so unpleasant. It's an old castle by
the Irish Sea. They're parapsychology enthusiasts. Want to see if you can read minds.
Something like that. (a beat) Thought it was cute to name a room after you: the Ching-su room.

ANN. Like one of their pets.

FARENHEIT. Yeah. That kind of thing.

SHIRLEY. The new era the World Government ushered in?

FARENHEIT. That the Director kindly presides over.

ANN. He had his good time with a poor farm girl. And then she's shipped all over the world as a
guinea pig for so-called "experiments."

CHING-SU. (begins crying) Oh, no.

FARENHEIT. See, that's why I didn't want to tell you this. (beat, while Ching-su cries) I'm
sorry.

SHIRLEY. I hope that's all.

FARENHEIT. No. There's more.

CHING-SU. (sobbing) Why go on living? I should find a window and jump out.

35
FARENHEIT. You can't. Same with me. If we even try to consider suicide, the circuits inside
our heads blank out the thoughts. (a beat) Our only hope is the overthrow of the Director and
the collapse of his rotten government.

CHING-SU. Is that possible?

FARENHEIT. Sure, possible.

CHING-SU. How?

FARENHEIT. By things like this. By their own arrogance of power.

CHING-SU. Is that all? You don't really know anything, do you?

ANN. Do you know something, Robert?

FARENHEIT. Not really.

CHING-SU. Not really what?

FARENHEIT. Look at the caliber of people around him. Yes people. First hint of something
going wrong . . . Rats on a sinking ship.

CHING-SU. You think it's starting to unravel?

SHIRLEY. Robert, is there anything we can use?

CHING-SU. It's his power-hungry wife. Isn't it.

FARENHEIT. She figures in it. But, no. It's not going to be her.

ANN. Don't be so vague. You do know something, don't you?

FARENHEIT. (sighs) Okay. I know some politically damaging dirt. I don't know how far it
will go, but the spin doctors may sweat this one.

SHIRLEY. Must be juicy.

CHING-SU. Old "Teflon"? He'll turn on the charisma. It'll roll off.

FARENHEIT. We'll see.

ANN. What is it? How do you know about it?

FARENHEIT. Research and Development. Irony is: if I were still Minister, I could go to the
media, put a scientific spin on it. Dull the impact. (beat) They could even now parade me in
front of the TV cameras to put a good face on it.

36
SHIRLEY. You daydream, Robert.

ANN. Come-on. Let's have it?

FARENHEIT. (nodding to Ching-su) Your offspring.

CHING-SU. My kid. I don't have any.

FARENHEIT. Did I say your kid? (shakes head) Offspring. Great grandchild removed by
thirteen generations.

ANN. Get serious.

SHIRLEY. (baffled) Explain.

CHING-SU. If only to satisfy my curiosity.

FARENHEIT. This could really upset you.

CHING-SU. After what I've been through? After what you told me?

FARENHEIT. The room's probably bugged. Some of this may be a bargaining chip.

CHING-SU. I understand. But let me know something at least.

FARENHEIT. (considers it) Okay. You want me to explain this? Or do you want to know the
other plans in your files?

ANN. Let's have those other plans, Robert. (holds up tape recorder) We'll get this on the air
somehow.

FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) This is sordid. I'm sorry you even have to hear it.

CHING-SU. Forget it.

FARENHEIT. Those other pseudo-scientists were at least pretending. Some of the other
"researchers" have other ideas.

SHIRLEY. Her sexual specialties?

CHING-SU. I might have guessed. Freebies!

FARENHEIT. (nods) They'll send you to California — at the edge of Death Valley.

ANN. For sex.

37
SHIRLEY. How do you know?

FARENHEIT. They're super confident about their secret files. They scribbled comments.

CHING-SU. Where else?

FARENHEIT. Georgia. Chattahoochie County Hospital. A "snake pit" relic of the past. They
blatantly intend to give you sexual stimulant drugs and "study" how you react. The scribbles in
the margins mentioned "orgies, pornography." It's guarded by helicopters, so they may also have
political prisoners there.

ANN. Using political prisoners for porn?

FARENHEIT. I don't know. Maybe the other way around. Convicting photogenic shapely
bodies.

SHIRLEY. (obviously into recorder) Any hard evidence? Video CDs?

FARENHEIT. No. But the notes were detailed. It was pretty apparent.

CHING-SU. Then what?

FARENHEIT. Some place just up the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Same kind of thing.
Then the Nairobi Tropical Disease Research Center. Synthetic rhinoceros horn aphrodisiacs "to
save endangered species."

ANN. Sweet of them.

CHING-SU. Is that all?

FARENHEIT. One more. Egypt. I think they intend to release you there. Plans for an
international refugee center to be built in the southern Sinai.

ANN. Refugees from what?

FARENHEIT. Overpopulation. Economic refugees.

SHIRLEY. Outrageous.

ANN. You sure that's all for her?

FARENHEIT. That's what I saw. There could be more.

SHIRLEY. That's enough.

ANN. Now what's this thing about a thirteenth generation descendent?

38
FARENHEIT. Let me backtrack. She's here indirectly as a result of it.
CHING-SU. Am I losing it again? I'm not following this.

SHIRLEY. No, you're okay.

ANN. Go on, Robert.

FARENHEIT. When her brief affair with the Director was terminated, she was brought to the
Hong Kong Treatment Center, adjacent to the Asian Environmental Research Center.

SHIRLEY. That pork barrel?

ANN. Six million world-credits on rooftop groves of whispering pines, exotic Chinese gardens?

FARENHEIT. The same. They have equipment to do some research.

SHIRLEY. So what happened?

FARENHEIT. They were in on the plot to get her out of the political picture. One of them
administered enough dope to knock her out for a couple days.

CHING-SU. I guessed as much.

FARENHEIT. Did you know you were pregnant?

CHING-SU. (taken aback) No.

FARENHEIT. They gave you an exceptionally thorough physical exam while you were knocked
out. They found you were three days pregnant.

ANN. By the Director.

FARENHEIT. Of course. Confirmed with DNA matches.

CHING-SU. How do we get thirteen generations?

FARENHEIT. Removed the micro-fetus. Hyper-rapid maturation of reproductive organs in


tissue culture. Test-tube fertilization. A highly experimental, but successful, bringing to term of
an embryo in tissue culture and artificial membrane placenta.

They study one another, stunned.

FARENHEIT. They had all that equipment. They couldn't resist.

SHIRLEY. So there's a kid? Somewhere?

39
FARENHEIT. A girl. About twenty-seven months old.

CHING-SU. Just one?

FARENHEIT. No. Being scientists, they duplicated the experiments. There are two more.
Fifth and tenth generation boys. Both close to two years old now.

CHING-SU. So you're saying I have three kids.

FARENHEIT. Great-great-great grandkids, generations removed.

ANN. Where will science take us next?

FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) You were shipped to Havana. Completely unaware of this.
Something went wrong in Havana . . .

CHING-SU. Prison riot.

FARENHEIT. Oh! So they sent you back to Hong Kong.

CHING-SU. I thought they were going to release me.

FARENHEIT. No intention. But they had the audacity to name the biological procedures after
you. The Ching-su procedures they call them. Unofficially, of course.

SHIRLEY. Talk about medical ethics.

FARENHEIT. Irony of it is: I had overheard a vague reference to a "Ching-su procedure" at a


symposium on medical ethics. That's how I started looking into this. It wasn't easy. They
covered their tracks pretty carefully.

ANN. All those financial records you ordered?

FARENHEIT. Part of it.

SHIRLEY. This is some pretty good stuff. How can we use it?

FARENHEIT. (considers it) Last I heard, the Director was scheduled for a photo-op in the
Hong Kong lab today. What time is it?

ANN. Eleven-forty. When's he due?

FARENHEIT. Noon. For the local news.

SHIRLEY. We can transmit the tape. Hit him with this in front of the cameras.

FARENHEIT. (shakes head) If all goes as planned, you won't have to. Documentation's

40
already in the hands of certain judges. Media should be getting the story right now.

ANN. If something goes wrong, we've got this. (pats recorder)

FARENHEIT. Careful. Could be more of a liability than an asset.

CHING-SU. Does this mean . . .

FARENHEIT. Papers for your release have already been prepared.

CHING-SU. (suddenly alive) Really!

FARENHEIT. Might be touch and go. Maybe some tense days or weeks.

CHING-SU. Piece of cake.

FARENHEIT. They have your tenth generation great grandson is in the lab now. Your — and
the Director's — thirteenth generation removed great granddaughter is in the Asian Television
Communications Center studio. The other baby’s in a secret location. Added insurance.

ANN. (cautioningly) This room is surely bugged . . .

FARENHEIT. Undoubtedly. Too late. Creature of compulsive punctuality. He's on his way
into the facility right now. With the media mob all around him.

SHIRLEY. So what's going to happen?

FARENHEIT. Mass resignations. Each member of the Central Committee has already signed
one. Effective at noon. They'll be announced with these other facts. Under the World
Constitution, he has no legitimacy.

ANN. Just like that?

FARENHEIT. The way it works! This was not done without an exhaustive computerized study
of scenarios. We picked the one most likely to succeed with the least potential for violence.

SHIRLEY. Who's "we"?

FARENHEIT. You'll see.

ROBOT. (mechanical voice, beckons) Ching-su. You will come with me.

CHING-SU. Oh damn. I've got to go. It turns on the pain, or it gets rough. (Robot opens door
as Ching-su goes) I sure hope you're right about the Director. (Ching-su goes out, followed by
Robot) I hope you told me the truth. (Sound of Robot shutting door)
SHIRLEY. (looking toward door) How horrible. The old ranting ratbag. Put her through this.

41
ANN. For a political coverup, no less.

SHIRLEY. Makes shivers run down my spine.

ANN. Me too. Sure made novel use of the World Bureau of Investigation data bank to find
himself a nice young sweetie.

FARENHEIT. You're in it, too. Amazing what they know about everyone.

SHIRLEY. Chilling thought.

ANN. Massive abuse of power by the all-powerful.

FARENHEIT. The Director's about to be toppled.

SHIRLEY. It's not just the Director. The whole rotten system.

FARENHEIT. Well, maybe we can straighten it up.

ANN. At least a little, I hope.

FARENHEIT. You see what happens when they insulate themselves from reality. Strong-arm
methods and PR propaganda can only go so far.

SHIRLEY. For all that, they were living in an empty-headed vacuum.

FARENHEIT. With others waiting to rush in.

ANN. Lessons of history.

SHIRLEY. Could be a civil war.

FARENHEIT. He has nukes, satellite-lasers, loyal troops.

ANN. You should see the anger out there.

SHIRLEY. I think there may be a bloody civil war.

FARENHEIT. I doubt it. Remember how fast the Shah of Iran went? Remember the quick,
quiet demise of the USSR. These guys are surrounded by illusions and delusions of power.

ANN. I hope you're right.

FARENHEIT. Next week his own rubber stamp World Legislature will impeach him.
SHIRLEY. That'll be fun to watch.

FARENHEIT. Sure will.

42
ANN. Don't be so sure. He's still Director.

FARENHEIT. He's out. One way or another.

SHIRLEY. What will they do with him?

ANN. Brain implants?

FARENHEIT. (points to his head bandages) I hope this kind of thing is abolished for good.

SHIRLEY. If the room is bugged, they've been listening to all this.

FARENHEIT. I hope they got an earful.

ANN. They could turn on the pain.

SHIRLEY. Without a court order?

FARENHEIT. That won't stop them.

ANN. Oh Robert. Always the detached objective scientist. It might kill you!

SHIRLEY. Robert, let's . . .

STAGE BACK WALL ERUPTS INTO A GIANT VIDEO SCREEN. ANTHEM ACCOMPANIES
OFFICIAL WORLD GOVERNMENT LOGO. "COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF, THE
DIRECTORATE" prominently superimposed.

On Screen, ICHIRO HAYAKAWA, arrogant, in suit and tie, glares out as if on a two-way video
hookup.

HAYAKAWA. (sinister voice) Robert Farenheit. I have been commissioned by The Directorate
to serve you with official notice that as a result of your conviction for unauthorized
dissemination of Government secrets, prisoner control devices have been implanted in your
brain.

FARENHEIT. I am quite aware of that, Mr. Hayakawa.

HAYAKAWA. Very well, Dr. Farenheit, we can dispense with the formalities.

FARENHEIT. As always.

HAYAKAWA. No smart stuff, Farenheit. The Directorate is furious with you for leaking that
material. You don't know the trouble you've caused.

43
FARENHEIT. Have a hard time making the human race extinct now, eh?

HAYAKAWA. The Director's on a world tour now. Trying to mend some of the fences.

FARENHEIT. Too late. The horses are out of the barn.

HAYAKAWA. May well be. Thanks to you.

FARENHEIT. This call isn't to inform me of my brain implant, is it?

HAYAKAWA. To be frank, no. I am ordering you to furnish all the details of the plot to
embarrass the Director in Hong Kong. Names. Times. Places. Quickly.

FARENHEIT. Has it occurred to you that you may be too late?

HAYAKAWA. Too late, Farenheit? This is the World Government. We're in charge.
Everywhere! It's never too late for an arrest. A conviction. Now. The details. Immediately!

FARENHEIT. Conceited jerk. Toady of the Director. What's wrong with him? He knows me.
Why ask one of his flunkies?

HAYAKAWA. Farenheit, you're a zombie-prisoner. He has a World Government to run.

FARENHEIT. World Government. You guys seem to think you own the world. History books
are full of toppled arrogant regimes. You're running out of time as we speak.

HAYAKAWA. You're deluding yourself.

FARENHEIT. The Director's done. Hang up. Go home and work on your resume. I'm not
going to tell you anything.

HAYAKAWA. Oh yes you will!

FARENHEIT. Jerks like you are so slow to comprehend.

HAYAKAWA. It seems you find your present situation a bit too comfortable.

FARENHEIT. You're threatening me.

HAYAKAWA. Not threatening. Promising.

FARENHEIT. What do you get out of it? A raise?

HAYAKAWA. It's my job.

FARENHEIT. Communications Chief of The Directorate? This is your job?

44
HAYAKAWA. I just follow orders.

FARENHEIT. You just talk. Don't you feel a little guilty for not having done anything decent
with your life?

HAYAKAWA. Like leaking government secrets?

FARENHEIT. Like anything.

HAYAKAWA. Save the lecture, professor. If you are so smart, how come you're in this fix?

FARENHEIT. Because of something the Directorate lacks. Conscience.

HAYAKAWA. Because you didn't agree with the government's plans. Thought you knew it all.
Frankly, I'm glad you're not with us anymore.

FARENHEIT. Frankly I am too.

HAYAKAWA. You're facing a pretty bleak future, Farenheit.

FARENHEIT. Aren't you happy.

HAYAKAWA. It's no laughing matter.

FARENHEIT. Then what's a clown like you bothering me for?

HAYAKAWA. I'm getting tired of this.

FARENHEIT. Hang up then.

HAYAKAWA. Are you going to help us, Farenheit? We could make things easier.

FARENHEIT. (loaded with sarcasm) Could you really now?

HAYAKAWA. I'm wasting my time.

FARENHEIT. The story of your life. And if you really believe I'm going to tell you anything,
you're a bigger fool than I thought.

HAYAKAWA. (ominously) Better reconsider.

FARENHEIT. I don't have to reconsider anything.


HAYAKAWA. They'll destroy you.

FARENHEIT. Scare tactics? I won't even talk to them until they remove the implant. Who the
hell do they think they are, anyway?

45
HAYAKAWA. This isn't getting us anywhere. You won't listen to reason.

FARENHEIT. (smirks) Reason?

HAYAKAWA. Reason enough. You understand this technology. They can turn you into a
vegetable.

FARENHEIT. I understand the Directorate well enough to know that you wouldn't be
threatening me unless they were very worried.

HAYAKAWA. They'll get it out of you. They'll run you 'till exhaustion. They'll use thought-
process modification. They'll make it clear that there's no way out. They'll turn on pain.

FARENHEIT. If they do, they could kill me. You know that.

HAYAKAWA. So what?

FARENHEIT. You'll find out nothing from a dead man.

HAYAKAWA. (sinister smirk) They'll turn on a little pain and a lot of discomfort. Tedious, like
a toothache. The computer has been programmed to keep you constantly moving all day. They'll
let you get an hour of sleep, then run you to exhaustion again.

FARENHEIT. You enjoying this?

HAYAKAWA. Just the facts. Any patterns resembling thought or consciousness, and the
computer turns on the pain. Pretty soon you're a carrot. Except that you'll probably tell them
everything they want to know long before then.

FARENHEIT. Pretty sure of that?

HAYAKAWA. You know how it works, Farenheit. You won't even be able to open your eyelids
unless they let you.

FARENHEIT. How does it happen that the Chief of Communications knows so much about
these things?

HAYAKAWA. None of your business. The point is: they're going to do it. This is what's going
to happen to you. (pause, points) So think it over carefully.

SHIRLEY. (whispers) Stall him.


HAYAKAWA. I heard that. We know your aides sneaked in. Illegally.

ANN. (steps in view of screen) This whole thing is illegal!

HAYAKAWA. We followed the letter of the law. Your boss has been convicted of the most
serious crimes . . .

46
SHIRLEY. Give us some time with him. We may be able to persuade him.

ANN. What have you got to lose?

HAYAKAWA. Time.

FARENHEIT. He has no authority. He called to get the facts about Hong Kong. If he can't
report back with anything, they'll turn on the pain or something.

HAYAKAWA. Right. So unless you're some kind of a masochist, you'd better start talking.

FARENHEIT. We've been talking.

HAYAKAWA. Okay, I give up. You two women: better get out of there. This isn't going to look
pleasant.

ANN. Isn't there anything we can do?

HAYAKAWA. Nothing.

SHIRLEY. You can't do anything until the appellate court has heard his case.

HAYAKAWA. Wrong. World security interest clause. Executive order. (points) Again, I
strongly advise you to leave.

ANN. We'll stay.

HAYAKAWA. Until the guards get up here from downstairs. Okay, have it your way.

SCREEN GOES TO WORLD GOVERNMENT LOGO AMID ANTHEM, EVAPORATES INTO


PLAIN WALL.

FARENHEIT. He's right. Maybe you'd better go.

SHIRLEY. We'll stay until they drag us out.

ANN. Maybe they . . .

FARENHEIT STIFFENS WITH PAIN, FIGHTS AGAINST RESTRAINTS.

FARENHEIT. (screaming loudly) Arrrrgggghhhh!

ANN. Put something in his mouth or he'll bite off his tongue.

47
FARENHEIT CONVULSES IN PAIN.
Shirley rushes forward with a pencil.

STAGE AND THEATER GO BLACK

Audience hears shouts, commotion, protests, fracas, perhaps "gunshots" as if from a major
conflict erupting backstage, the hallway, theater lobby.

LIGHTS COME ON

Perhaps "revolutionaries" run up aisles to stage.

Doctor Smith is hurried in by TWO ARMED REVOLUTIONARIES. We see Farenheit either


dead or unconscious on floor, Shirley and Ann looking on horrified.

REVOLUTIONARY ONE unlocks one arm restraint, and REVOLUTIONARY TWO unlocks the
other. They carry his limp body to a couch, stretch him out comfortably. Ann tucks a pillow
under his head. Shirley places hand on his forehead.

Doctor Smith crouches, examines Farenheit.

SMITH. He's alive. (examines further) That's all I can say.

SHIRLEY. You put that thing in his brain. You better hope he's okay.

ANN. World Government or no Government, I'm personally going to take care of you if he's not.

REVOLUTIONARY ONE. This World Government's history.

REVOLUTIONARY TWO. (to Smith) There are going to be Crimes Against Humanity trials,
Doctor.

SMITH. Hold it a minute. I sabotaged it. As soon as they turned on the pain the second time, it
blew a fuse.

REVOLUTIONARY ONE. (to Doctor Smith) You better be telling the truth. We'll examine the
chip later.
SMITH. It's true. Why should I lie?

SHIRLEY. So you think he'll be okay?

SMITH. I think so.

ANN. Think so?

48
SMITH. I'm pretty sure.

A beat. Farenheit moves slightly.

ANN. He's moving.

FARENHEIT. (moans several times) What . . . Where am I?

SMITH. You'll be okay, Robert.

SHIRLEY. Do you remember what happened?

Farenheit attempts to focus, to concentrate.

FARENHEIT. You're . . . (tries to focus) You're still here? (sees Smith, frowns puzzled)
Aren't you the one who did the implant?

SMITH. It's okay. I vandalized the damned gizmo.

FARENHEIT. (groggily) They'll convict you of obstructing justice.

SHIRLEY. I don't think so.

ANN. It's about over for them.

Revolutionary Two leads Ching-su into spotlight.

REVOLUTIONARY TWO. (pointing to Ching-su) Get a photographer. Evidence we need.


Just get her out of that.

Robot enters room area. Revolutionaries jump to oppose it.

It points to Ching-su.

ROBOT. (mechanical voice) You will come with me.

Revolutionary Two runs to Robot, flicks switch under its chin.

Robot’s arms flay, motors whir, but it runs out of steam, goes limp. Robot’s lights, other
apparatus, go off. It stands lifeless.

49
WALL ERUPTS INTO A VIDEO SCREEN.

World Government Logo appears with a "traffic STOP sign bar" crossing it out. World
Government anthem is cut short after half-a-bar, replaced by other music, perhaps John Lennon
"Imagine."

REVOLUTIONARY THREE, thirties, revolutionary-looking, in mod attire, appears on screen.

REVOLUTIONARY THREE. People! The World Government Council has been abolished.
Temporary administrative duties have been delegated to the Planetary Readjustment Society. Let
me stress: it is temporary. World elections are planned.

FARENHEIT. Back to square one!

CHING-SU. (now out of straightjacket, scratches herself)


When will they ever learn?

LIGHTS DIM TO OUT

END

Compositional History of "Forethought"


Two thousand five hundred years ago — five hundred years before the beginning of
Christianity — Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of Prometheus dramas, Prometheus the Fire-bringer,
Prometheus Bound, and Prometheus Unbound, drawn from far more ancient mythology offering
explanation of human acquisition of mysterious fire. Only Prometheus Bound has survived
intact. While all the characters in this ancient drama by Aeschylus are gods or half-gods (titans),
they are also very human and suffer as if they were human.
In the 1960s German composer Carl Orff wrote an opera utilizing the original Greek
drama, declaring that these are "Promethean times." And surely they are. Perfection of
technologies, not by gods but by humans and only vaguely implied in the ancient Greek drama,
has come to haunt us in these Promethean times and threaten us more profoundly than the
ancient gods. Hence in Forethought (the Greek meaning of Prometheus), I have updated the
technologies and made the ancient gods and half-gods human beings. These liberties could aid in
the understanding of the ancient drama.
I remember sketching a beginning for a modernized Prometheus story not long after
seeing Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" performed in the summer of 1964 at the theater of the San Jose
Civic Auditorium. A friend, Richard Blum, had the part of the Chorus, and thus began my
liberties with the Chorus, among other things, in "Prometheus Bound." A month or two later I
began working as a film scanner for a group of Promethean nuclear physics geniuses at the
Stanford Linear Accelerator. Years later my boss there, Dr. Martin Perl, my early model for Dr.
Robert Farenheit, would win a Nobel Prize in Physics. I began the actual writing of this
modernized version of the ancient story in Tokyo in 1968, but it would be years before I
completed it. In 1973, in the Temple Hotel in San Francisco, I pounded out a complete, if

50
horrible, first draft. While living in Tokyo, again, in 1975, I rewrote in into a second, very little
better, draft. While a student at Berkeley in 1976, I made an attempt at visualizing it in teleplay
form, and this draft was copyrighted (on the advice of Berkeley's Professor Marvin Rosenberg,
and who gave me the form), Du 98834 (5/4/76). In 1980, while working on my MA at Central
Washington University in Ellensburg, I rewrote it as a screenplay yet once more. In 1986, I made
an attempt to quickly turn the previous screenplay into a stage play, and this horrible draft was
copyrighted because I had begun widely showing it around for input: PAu 852-665 (10/27/86).
The stage version you see here was derived from a later play (completed April 15, 1995) and its
screenplay version (copyright PAu 1-984-458, 6/1/95) in January 1997. This draft was
completely rewritten in September 1998.

The latest draft of the screenplay is available, is in standard screenplay format, 102 pages
in length. Reply to:

Tom Slattery
tslat20@hotmail.com

Books by Tom Slattery


Books by Tom Slattery published by iUniverse.com in 2000 and 2001
1. End of the Road
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-15902-8 / Paperback
Kent State University students interview a 110-year-old man in a nursing home in 2050 about his drive around the
USA at the turn of the century in a $200 car.

2. The Goddess of Love and the Angel of Death


By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-10070-8 / Paperback
Begun as a modernization of the Adam and Eve story, this novel eludes to nudity and pornography, but is not in any
way a porn novel. It is a love story about two nude models who are thrust as artists into the world of art, attempt to
become successes, but succumb to tragedy. In the end their art becomes more of a success that they ever would have
dreamed of.

3. Immodest Proposals
Through the Pornographic Looking Glass
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-15974-5 / Paperback
This is a nonfiction work exploring pornography from its historical beginnings and questioning its impact on the
modern world.

4. Norikaeru
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-15248-1 / Paperback
This is a short science fiction novel playing with crossing dimensions and largely set in a dimension where the
American Revolution failed because Thomas Jefferson had a horse-and-buggy accident at a critical time in its
beginnings.

5. Open 25 Hours
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Ghost Stories
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-14022-X / Paperback
This is a collection of science fiction and ghost short stories by Tom Slattery. It contains “The Spore,” a science
fiction yarn not without some satire that is remarkably similar to the much later movie “Evolution” starring David

51
Duchovny.

6. Preshrunk Ponderings and Rumpled Rememberings


By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-16349-1 / Paperback .
This small book is a collection of largely autobiographical essays questioning technology and social change.

7. Sinking Into Summer’s Arms


By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-09673-5 / Paperback
This is a short science fiction novel that opens with the discovery of a body of a Neanderthal in a rapidly melting
Alpine glacier in the early 21st century. The body is secretly taken to a lab in the Netherlands, but the group of
scientist there become entangled in a plot to assassinate the new United Nations Secretary for Global Warming.
Simultaneously this United Nations Secretary learns that global warming is about to precipitate a new ice age. The
Neanderthal does play a part, but not what one might expect.

8. The Tragic End of the Bronze Age


A Virus Makes History
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-12146-2 / Paperback
This is a nonfiction book centering on the author’s apparent discovery of the initial smallpox pandemic that wiped
out bronze-age civilization in the mid-twelfth century BC. In addition, the politics and economics of comparatively
rare tin ore, the strategic mineral of the Bronze Age, similar to the strategic mineral petroleum today, are explored.

9. In the Year After Mom Died


By Tom Slattery
To be published in 2008 by iUniverse.com as a paperback book.
This nonfiction book is a mix of biography of a woman born in the early years of the twentieth century who lived
into the twenty-first century and additional autobiography of her son. A very famous American author and a
moderately famous American author in the family had minor influences on their lives. But mostly it is a piece about
dealing with grief after the death of a loved one.

10. The Last Human


by Tom Slattery
This novel that modernizes Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel The Last Man is being posted simultaneously on scrbd and
may be read there for free.

11. Kennedy Assassination: Oswald As Manchurian Candidate


by Tom Slattery
(nearing completion) This short book compares some of the CIA’s so-called mind-control experiments with events in
the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and suggests that Oswald may have been a subject in these experiments to create an
unknowing assassin or patsy for an assassination.

52

You might also like