Tabula Rasa (audio story)

Tabula Rasa was the first story in Vienna: Series Two, published by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss and featured Chase Masterson as Vienna Salvatori and introduced Samantha Béart as Jexie Reagan.

Publisher's summary
Ever woken up and can't remember where you are? What if you couldn’t remember who you are? Or why there’s a dead body outside your door?

Vienna Salvatori is hunting for a killer – but can she be sure it’s not herself?

Plot
A wake-up alarm goes off and Vienna Salvatori wakes up in bed next to a man. They both admit they must have been drunk last night. Upon being asked for her name, Vienna realises that she can remember neither of their names. The man then admits he doesn't know his name either. Considering the option that one of them is lying, Vienna's thoughts are cut off when the man points out that he doesn't know where they are. She admits that neither does she.

Pulling back the curtains, they find just a wall and no windows. The room is just blank, no personal objects. They ponder as to whether they have been kidnapped. From somewhere distant, they hear the cry of another man. Opening the door to the room, they hear the cries of other people from other rooms. They wonder whether it's a prison or an asylum. The man finds and tries a comms panel but is unable to get it to provide him with useful information.

Entering the first room, they are pleaded by a younger man inside for help with another woman who has been violently assaulted. The woman is dead. They speculate that he did this to her and may not remember. They all admit that no-one in that room knows who they are or where they are. Vienna and the man continue their search and Vienna asks the younger man to stay with the body.

They continue their investigations by knocking on other doors but to no answer. The man suggests that maybe their door being unlocked could make them jailors. They then speculate that with the comms units offline and the other doors locked, that this could be part of the murderer's plans. As their thoughts reach a conclusion, they turn to see the younger man running away.

Vienna and the man enter a very loud argument, which at that moment causes the other doors to open and numerous people to exit asking what the shouting is about. The two of them fail to get answers from the other people about why they're here. Vienna checks the nearest person's room on a hunch that no-one in this building has long term memory, but is able to make new memories.

The room is indentical to all the others, right down to the lack of windows. She notices an object on the roof that she speculates is used to project a view onto the window space. A female guest asks whether they have been kidnapped and placed on a spaceship, and although Vienna likes the theory, she states that there is no artificial gravity to suggest so. This makes Vienna realise that, at some point, she must have been into space to have acquired that knowledge. Leaving the others arguing, Vienna and her roommate go off to explore.

Gathering their clues together, they speculate whether they are in a prison, an asylum, part of an experiment... Vienna goes over to another comms panel to find it offline, just like the others. While her roommate wishes to get help from outside, she states she'd rather find the killer on the loose. She takes him to the elevator and points out that it's not functional. He then opens a door and finds a stairwell, much to her annoyance.

The stairs go up and down a great way. They debate what to do next and settle on looking at the corpse once more. This time, they realise that the dead body is of a different person. She points out that murder makes no sense as without memories, there's no motive for murder. She suggests that the killer make no know they're a killer and are acting on instinct. She then states that they should return to their first room and do a 'Search One'. This makes numerous terminology and jargon flood back into her memory.

Back at their room, they note that they're the only people that shared a room, suggesting a marriage or an affair, much to Vienna's disgust. Vienna finds a hollow wall which she manipulates into a sliding door, revealing a wardrobe. The clothes inside are brand new and some are swanky, suggesting this isn't a prison. They hear a voice saying "If you can hear this message, please respond. Can you hear me?"

They find a hidden communicator and use it to talk to the woman on the other end. She explains that the the woman is Vienna Salvatori, and the man is her Chief, Police Chief Doran Curtis. The woman on the other end is Lieutenant Jexie Reagan. Vienna sounds astonished to be a cop under Curtis' leadership. Jexie states that Curtis wouldn't allow her to reveal informationt to them over the intercoms.

In a flashback, Doran Curtis is introducing Vienna to Personality Hotels, where people go to be someone else. Curtis is annoyed that the only thing he can find out about Vienna is her astonishing fee, with all other information locked down by their CEO, Carlos Van Meyer. Doran Curtis understands Vienna's opinion on Personality Hotels, but states that the Pyscho Morph that they're chasing could easily be lured into one. This impresses Vienna.

Back in the present day, neither of them can remember what they had meant by "Psycho Morph". Jexie explains that hunting down the Psycho Morph was why Vienna was hired in the first place. In a flashback, the two of them are looking down at what little remains of a body after a Psycho Morph attack. Vienna explains to Jexie that a Psycho Morph is "a shape-changer with psychotic tendencies". The Pyshco Morph will attack anyone whose identity it wishes to steal, mangle the body beyond recognition and then leave, hence why getting an ID on the victim is so difficult.

At the flashback crimescene, Jexie moves people back. Vienna tells Curtis that the lure worked and that they've trapped the Psycho Morph into the Personality Hotel. Back in the present, they understand that they followed the Psycho Morph into the hotel, which was also full of normal people pretending to be celebrities. Jexie explains that them wiping their own memories was their ideas.

In the flashback scene, a warning voice tells all hotel guests to return to their rooms. Against Curtis' wishes, Vienna initiates the hotel reset, which wipes all the personalities of all the guests in the hotel, themselves included. In the present, Jexie explains that back-ups of the personalities are still available but will take time to access. Luring the Psycho Morph into the hotel was plan conceived by both of them, which stated that if the Psycho Morph didn't have an indentity in the first place, it couldn't continue its murder spree.

The two of them begin their interrogation of every member of the hotel until one of them remembers their true, murderous identity. On their way, they bump into the young man from before, who states that his personality back-up came through. He claims to be Anders the bell-boy of the hotel. Anders explains that he returned the body to her room to make her comfortable and put on his uniform. They allow Anders to return to his post.

Vienna uses her roomkey to activate the AI Concierge in their room. Curtis requests that the Concierge lift the lockdown of the hotel and allow them to leave, but much to his dismay, the Concierge explains that the lockdown can only be lifted upon the apprehension of the killer. Curtis gave the order that the instruction could not even be countermanded by himself, lest the killer assume his identity. Vienna then realises that she's made a terrible mistake. The AI not only contains a back-up of all the guests' personalities, but also that of the killer. She realises that the killer's personality has infected the computer and now the computer has turned deadly.

The Concierge attemps (and fails) to deafen them with loud jazz music. The AI then sends steam out of the air conditioning. Vienna uses a teaspoon to undo the door-hinges and together, they get the door out of its frame. Outside, they are running towards the lobby. The AI takes this opportunity to release the guests and "upgrade their personalities" into trained soldiers, with the mission to irridicate Vienna and Curtis.

They head for the stairs, the others running after them. Inside the stairwell, they use the fire extinguisher to jam the latch. They both agree to run to the top of the building as the penthouse suite must have the best security. They also realise that eventually the killer will make its way up to the penthouse to assume the identity of the highest status guest of the lot.

They shut themselves and Anders inside the penthouse. Anders asks them to leave for fear they'll disturb the other guest. At that point, Vienna understands everything. Curtis mistakenly assumes Anders is the Psycho Morph, on its way to murder the penthouse suite guest. However, Vienna understands that Anders is the guest from the suite who is in disguise in order to protect himself. Anders electrifies the door and electrocutes the guests on the other side of the door.

Anders explains that he uses the personality hotel in quite the reverse way as the other guests. As the CEO of Conglom Com, he finds it relaxing to get a "downgrade" into a bell-boy and have fewer responsibilities. Vienna turns her attention to Curtis. She explains that due to the penthouse being shielded from the AI interface, they can all be themselves.

Anders is tricked by the Concierge into opening the door through a promise to "deal with the intruders". Anders smugly waves off any concern that the murderer can enter the room. Vienna states quite simply that murderer is already here. She points out Curtis' desperation to get to the penthouse suite, and also explains that the Concierge didn't need to assign him with a new personality, as it was already happy with the one Curtis had taken.

The pretense drops and Curtis reveals that Vienna's idea to enter the hotel was a perfect way for him to inveigle his way here and find some high profile victims. Vienna asks the Concierge to call Crime Corps and explain that Curtis is the Psycho Morph. Curtis explains that the Concierge has been programmed to work for him, and thus won't do as she wishes.

Vienna tells the Concierge to active Emergency Protocol Salvatori, which the AI happily does. The AI asks all guests to return to their room and begins a hotel-wide reset. She reveals that the previous reset was her best attempt to stop Curtis the Psycho Morph. Anders uses this moment to tell the Psycho Morph that Vienna is surely more important than him and that it should choose to kill Vienna instead.

The Psycho Morph cannot decide which form to take, and who to target. Vienna realises that the Psycho Morph is losing the plot. The Psycho Morph tries on numerous bodies and analyses numerous bodies before targeting Anders. During this struggle, Vienna takes the time to ask the computer to reinstall all personalities to the Psycho Morph. Struggling with the sheer amount of personalities, the Psycho Morph enters severe mental pain and dies in agony.

The computer tells all guests that their personalities are back in place before asking Vienna to leave immediately. Anders the bell-boy shows her out. In the elevator, Vienna finds it amusing that the computer hasn't restored Anders' complete personality. Anders thinks he is the bell-boy. The computer states that it is running his company for him while Anders cleans up all the mess at the hotel.

Without her murderous background, Vienna accepts that her new life ahead of her is "Vienna Salvatori: Law Enforcement Officer". Vienna steps outside and begins the rest of her life.

Cast

 * Vienna Salvatori - Chase Masterson
 * Jexie Reagan - Samantha Béart
 * Doran Curtis - Harry Ditson
 * Anders - John Schwab
 * Concierge - Tim Beckmann

Continuity

 * Vienna no longer kills people for a living. (AUDIO: Deathworld)