### Act 1, Scene 1: Null and Void

- Backdrop: Left: X-Cable. Middle: Entrance door. Right: Wall with 3 Laptops at backdrop (+power)
- Stage Setup: Frontprop: Stretcher [7] (Pan), Null's desk [2]
- Props: red power button, sparking cable (o'wolf), memory stick ( o'wolf ), plug and socket (Reesa), cables attached to Void, pizza cartons, stretcher, heartrate-monitor
- Puppets: Null (Eisfuchs, Tigerseye), Void (Lynard, Tani)
- PreRec:
- SFX: Smoke when Null drops the cable (Zefiro), Notebooks ausschalten (Zefiro)
- Setting: Null's den, old, abandoned utility room below the city, lots of cables running through the room, screens on the walls, tapped wires, beeping computers, flashing lamps, pizza cartons, Null's computer desk, a screen turned 45 degrees away from the audience. Stretcher on [7]. Beeping heart monitor next to it.

##### INTRO

0101 - Narrator: “In 1997, Hong Kong was officially handed back to the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong was the main source of foreign investment in China at that time, so the Chinese Government promised to keep its laws and freedoms untouched for at least 50 years. They called it: “One Country - Two Systems”.”

0101 (cont.) - Narrator: “It worked; the economy continued to flourish and in 2003, the border between Hong Kong and the mainland was reopened. Workers started to commute between the regions, companies flowed across the bridges in both directions - Hong Kong's economic roots began to spread into the Chinese mainland and things seemed to work out.”

0101 (cont.) - Narrator: “But then came the 4th of June 2019, the 30th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre. Some 300,000 people assembled for a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. The Government soon realised that more than half of the protesters were from the mainland, and there was nothing they could do now to prevent the truth from spreading. Three-hundred-thousand phone cameras all recording at the same time: The future that China had embraced through Hong Kong's autonomy was coming back to bite it.”

0101 (cont.) - Narrator: “The Chinese Government's absolute power was fading. But how could it be restored, and without destroying its economy? A secret committee was established to come up with a solution. Dates were set and soon the People's Republic's most ambitious project was well under way. And once again, everything seemed to work out just fine.”

0101 (cont.) - Narrator: “Until 2032. It was the year of the rat. The year that changed everything.”

0101 (cont.) - Subway train driving by

##### MAIN DIALOGUE

0102 - Subway Ambience

0103 - Suspense Music 1

Curtain - open

Lights on

0104 - Medical Devices

Void is lying on the stretcher, unconscious. Cables running from his body to various devices.

Null is lying on his keyboard on the desk, sleeping.

Void starts moaning, then suddenly jerks wide awake. He is totally disoriented and scared.

Void (panicking): “WAH … WHAT THE FUCK? Where am I? What is this?”

Void jumps out of bed, finding that there's still electrodes sticking to him. He pulls and rips them off in panic.

0105 - Rattling

The monitor flatlines

0104f - Medical Devices (fade)
0106 - Medical Device Alarm

Void: “Aaaah!”

Null wakes up with a jolt, pushing over a pile of pizza boxes he's been sleeping on.

Null: “Aaaaah! Holy crap! What are doing, are you nuts?”

Void: “Who are you? Leave me alone!”

Void knocks things over in panic and runs to the door.

0107 - Knocking Things Over

Void: “Let me out of here! Heeeeeeeeeelp! Heeeelp!”

Void bangs against the door ⇒ FOUR TIMES.

0108 - Banging the door ⇒ FOUR TIMES

Null grabs a cable (from below), which sparks at the end, moving towards Void.

0109 - Sparks 1 (1 Loud Spark, and little continous arcing)

Null (shouting): “Stop that! HEY! I said STOP THAT or I'll show you who's the boss here!”

Null wields the cable in the air, which emits a loud series of arcs and sparks.

0110 - Sparks 2

Void shrieks, and ducks, and slowly retreats behind the bed, shivering quietly.

Null (calm): “Okay, now that I have your attention, please be a good boy, and go back to bed, will you?”

Void trembles, and slowly crawls back on the bed, sitting down, staring at Null.

Null follows him to the bed, cable still in his hand.

Null (calm): “Goooood! Very gooood!”

0103f - Fade Music 1
0111 - Music 2

Void: “Where am I? What is all this?”

Null eyes him warily.

Null: “I'll tell you … if you promise to stay put, allright? I really don't want to hurt you, but I will, if I have to.”

Void coughs, retches and (almost) vomits on the floor.

Null: “*SIGH* See this is what happens when you jump around like that. I had to drug you up quite badly or you wouldn't have made it. So, now that you're awake … who are you, and why did you come here?”

Void coughs and generally sounds very miserable.

Void: “I … I …”

Null: “Yeeeeees?”

Void: “I … I don't remember. What the hell happened to me? I feel like I was hit by a truck.”

Null: “Yeah, that comes pretty close, althoug it wasn't a truck. It was a subway train. I don't know how it happened, but it seems like you tried to avoid an oncoming train and touched the third rail. 1500 Volts, baby! Can't believe you came out alive.”

Void: “Where are we now?”

Null: “Welcome to my home! This used to be a transformer station, but they shut down the line and abandoned the tunnel.”

Void (confused): “What? You live in this hole? This place is disgusting!”

Null: “No, it's perfect! It has everything I need! Water, power and lots of network cables running through it! My presence is almost undetectable down here, and yet, I'm connected to the world!”

Void: “Who the hell are you?”

Null: “I'm a cyber-terrorist, a dissident, an enemy of the state, an underground freedom fighter, a digital vigilante, a black hat hacker extraordinare! I'm a martial artist of the digital world! Ones and zeroes, that's my kung-fu!”

Void (yawns, not impressed): “Aha.”

0112 - Chinese Music

Null: “Yes! I call it … Tai-DOKU! It's like a combination of Tai-Chi and Sudoku! *ha* *ha* *ha*”

Null makes some fake, slow tai chi fighting moves.

Null: “Five … three … one … Strike! Everything is possible if you make the numbers match!”

Void: “Allright. You're a complete nutcase. Well, thanks for saving me, but I gotta go now. Byebye!”

Void prepares to run for his life.

Null: “STOP!!!!!”

0113 - Sparks 3

Null waves the cable around, generating a new wave of sparks.

Void (appeasing): “Alrightalrightalright!”

Null: “Don't get me wrong, man, but how are you going to find your way through the tunnels? I'm not gonna pick you off the tracks a second time! Come on, sit down, and trust me. I'm your friend!”

Void: “You know … That would sound a lot more convincing if you didn't point that thing at me!”

Null: “Okay, alright. Then let's drop this thing.”

Null drops the cable.

0114 - MEGA-SPARKS
0109f - Fade Sparks
0111f - Fade Music 2

Strobe Light from below

Smoke!

Null and Void start jumping around.

Null: “Aaaahahhahahhahahhahaha! Ouch ouch ouch!”

Void: “Aaaaaaaaah! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”

Null pulls a plug out of a socket, and the noise stops.

0115 - Sparking Ends (Zisch)
0114f - Fade Sparks

Null and Void gasp.

Null: “*gasp* Sorry. I forgot how wet the floor was.”

Void: “YOU ALMOST KILLED ME, YOU IDIOT! If you ever find me dying out there again … please just let me die, alright?”

0116 - Music3

Null: “Hey, calm down, I'm sorry! At least you're awake now! So, any memories coming back yet? Any idea who you are or what you're doing down here?”

Void: “No. Nothing. You say you're my friend, so why don't you tell me?”

Null: “You told me you've got some really sensitive information that you need to get out there. We arranged a meeting but you never showed up. So I went looking for you. I found you lying in one of the tunnels, half dead. I tried to scan your ID, but you don't have a chip!”

Void: “Wait, what? Of course I have one. Everyone has one!”

Null: “Nope. You don't. See the scar on your neck? No of course you don't. Seems you got yourself de-chipped before you came here.”

Void: “W…w..w.what? But I'm screwed without my ID! No shopping, no public transport, no payments, heck, I can't even start my car without it!”

Null: “It's not as bad as it seems. Look at me. I don't have a chip either. And I'm still alive and kicking! I've even deleted my identity from the government databases. And you know what? I may not have a name any more, but I've never been happier!”

Void: “If you don't have a name, what are people supposed to call you?”

Null: “You can call me Null.”

Void: “Uh, hello there, Null.”

Null: “And now we need a new name for you too. How about … Void?”

Void: “Null and Void? That's the worst pun I've ever …”

Null (cuts him off): “But it hits the nail on the head, doesn't it?”

Void: “Oh, whatever. Did I say anything about what kind of information I was trying to get to you?”

Null: “No, I'm afraid not. But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with this. You had it in your pocket.”

Null holds up a little glowing cube

Void: “A memory stick!”

Null: “No shit! But what's on it?”

Void (annoyed): “Why don't you just plug it in and have a look?”

Null: “Oh, believe me, that's the first thing I did!”

Void: “And?”

Null: “Well, either you've been carrying around 16 Terabytes of random numbers, or this memory stick is heavily encrypted. I tried the usual government backdoors … but no dice. There's no way I can crack this without the right password.”

Void: “And now?”

Null: “Aren't you curious about the contents? Not even the slightest bit?”

Void (desperate): “Are you kidding? I just lost my life, my identity, everything that was ever dear to me! Gone, wiped from my mind! Null, can't you imagine how I feel right now? I'm lost! I want my life back! I want to go home! If only I knew where that is!”

Null: “Void, if removing your chip were all that's needed to make you untraceable, I wouldn't be living down here. We'll find out who you are. Trust me! Null to the rescue! Ladies and gentlemen, start your servers! Internet, here I come!”

Null hits a big red button.

0117 - Lights out
0116f - Fade Music3
0101f - Fade Ambience

The lights go out.

Lots of electronics shutting down.

Void: “That was the power button.”

Null: “Oh. Sorry.”

0118 - The End

Curtain - close