David George Richards

Matthew Hall has a simple theory. Take a patient who is considered to be ‘brain dead,’ or in a ‘constant vegetative state,’ and stimulate the neural cells of their brain. Do it enough times and in accordance with the brain’s own established pathways and the patient could be reawakened from their coma. All he needs to try out his theory is funding, a lab, and a patient.

The Corporation also has a theory. Take any ordinary person, render them unconscious, and stimulate the neural cells of their brain. Do it enough times and in accordance with their own very particular requirements and the person could be reawakened as a totally different person, a person who looks and is the same, but now has just the right allegiances and motivations. All they need is a young and gullible scientist with the right know how.

It is a marriage made in heaven.

The Corporation’s own scientists believe they understand Matthew’s theories and that it will work. They fund his research, doing their own experiments in the background. Now all they need is a test subject.

Jayne Middleton has been ‘killed’ in a car accident. Matthew believes that she is still a beautiful young woman who should be treated with respect. For the Corporation she is an expendable asset. But the Corporation’s own scientists are over confident. They make a mistake, and when the experiment proves successful and Jayne awakes, she is not alone. The other occupant of her brain is knowledgeable, sassy, and violent.

The battles that follow are not just fought with guns and knives in the real world, but with computers in the virtual world of Jayne’s mind, as the Corporation seek to erase their mistake while Jayne and Matthew not only seek to survive, but to get even.

(Includes both the narrative and screenplay versions for comparison.)