The Kat Chronicles

They trace Nataly to a tiny plane in flight. She is locked in a separate area of the cargo hold and unconscious. Tess helps Natalie while Kat lets out her anger by taking out the 3 guards. Then they steal Natalie away and allow the plane to land, without their prize captive. They take Natalie to Miguel’s basement, Kat ensuring nobody is home for the moment. The plan is to bring all the injured, including Alex, back to Miguel’s. They leave Natalie alone for a few minutes while they go back to the hospital to check on Alex, Tess taking lead on the dialog. Kat waits with Alex, but then someone comes to the door and she has to whisk Alex away, leave him beside Natalie on the bed in Miguel’s basement. Then she heads back to find where Tess is – she has been captured by GCN goons and Kat takes the captors down, then brings Tess back to where the others are. Kat leaves them all there, heads off to let Miguel know, then track down Liz and see what has happened to her. She has also been taken by GCN and confined to a cell. But Kat finds there are many other prisoners here in cells, and is worried about what might happen to them once GCN’s activities are exposed by Natalie’s announcement. So, she takes out the guard and unlocks all the cell doors, then goes to help Liz. Kat takes Liz to Miguel’s, leaves her there so that Tess can add her to the list of patients she’s monitoring. Then the INN news release happens, and GCN begins to crumble. She checks with Miguel to confirm, then she asks Miguel to go out to the GCN prison location and help theprisoners. Kat checks in with her sister-selves. All is going well with Katia, Katcha, and Katrina, GCN is being torn apart in all their lines and everyone is fine. So, Kat can return to her life, knowing she has done what she needed to do. She sleeps, and when she wakes everyone is already awake. Alex has askedTess to marry him, and Natalie wants to join INN as a new investigative reporter. Miguel invites them all to dinner, but Kat can’t stay because she needs to keep up the ‘image’ of her old life with her idiot boyfriend Jack. After all she’s been through and accomplished, he brings her back to that reality. How long will she put up with that? Find out, in the second series of The Kat Chronicles: Architects of Future Past. Available soon!

Kat connects with Katia, as she feels that somehow their timelines are getting too close to alignment, probably because they’ve spent too much time in the light which moves the clock ahead more quickly. Katia confirms she has felt it as well, and has taken Alexei, Tessa and Natalia into the light with her, just asKat now has Alex, Tess and Nataly, so that she can extend the gap between them, or at least maintain it. Kat then drops them into Miguel’s office at the precinct, has Alex use Miguel’s terminal to send the links for Nataly’s data information over to Vic. Then Kat takes them all back into the light, scans forwarduntil she finds Katia. Together, they move quickly forward until almost 9AM Katia’s time, so their lines have adequate separation, and she returns to her own line with her friends, hides them in the workroom down in the basement of the lakeside condo the police had raided earlier. They all sleep for 8 hours. Kat and Tess have another chat about the cablecars and the decisions they’re making, while Nataly and Alex are still sleeping. Nataly’s broadcast, as well as Vic’s from INN, should now be live, so Kat goes to see Miguel and find out what the impact has been. He tells her that yes, his wife is home, so Kat cannot return to his house. Also, that Liz has gone to GCN with her story, and has now disappeared. Miguel thinks Liz is being held by GCN so the rumors about Kat and her friends will get worse, now that both Nataly and Liz are ‘missing.’ Nataly’smost recent broadcast is very damning to GCN, as they’d hoped, and while they are talking Vic makes his own broadcast from INN which corroborates everything in Nataly’s statement. But Kat is worried GCN might retaliate, now that the truthis closing in on them. And when she returns to the condo she finds she is right. Tess has been attacked and injured, Alex is unconscious, and Nataly has been taken. She rushes Tess and Alex to the Emergency Room at the hospital Tess works at, where they leave Alex in care while Tess gets patched up. Then Kat and Tess go to save Nataly.

From the light, Kat and Katrina watch what happens to Nelina’s room when the kidnappers show up. Then Kat takes Katrina to Tessana’s, waits with Nelina until Katrina has introduced them. Then they come out of the light, and explain to Nelina that she needs to stay hidden until all her announcements have been made. They also explain the truth about Kat and who she really is, the parallel timelines, and why Kat is helping them. Then they leave Nelina with Tessana, and Kat warns Katrina that she will soon see her again in the light, but it will be a past version of herself, so Katrina must not tell her what they have just gone through, at the risk of changing the timeline. Once Kat leaves, she goes back to her own timeline and joins Tess, Alex and Nataly – who has now been disguised, to protect herself when she shows up in public. They go to meet Vic, and Kat introduces the situation before bringing Nataly into the room, asking Vic topromise he will protect her source. Vic gives his word, and then Kat introduces Nataly. Vic doesn’t believe who she is initially, and then he gets very excited at the opportunity to help. So, Vic says he and the others at INN will assist Nataly in getting the truth broadcast to the world. When they leave, Kat and Natalyreturn to where Tess and Alex are – and see a broadcast where Liz is being interviewed, and she is telling the reporter that Kat, Tess and Alex are all criminals who were responsible for kidnapping Nataly. Then the police arrive at the door, and they have no choice but to all leave, and find a new place to hide.

Kat stops off at a restaurant and calls Vic, who is just as testy as usual. But Kat talks him into coming to meet her at the Green Box sports club, where Kat has met Vic before. She drops in to Tess’s place so she can pick up Nataly. They discuss the need for some of Nataly’s evidence to be offered up as a way to convince Vic to help them. Then Katrina calls, tells Kat that Nelina’s reports on GCN have already started to be released, Nelina has disappeared, and that she is being followed. Katrina steps into the light, as Kat suggests, and seems momentarily very shocked, but says she’ll wait in the light until Kat arrives.Kat concludes that early intervention in Katrina’s line has led to changes in her timeline. She travels to Katrina’s line, and bumps into Katrina within the light. They have a discussion, decide Katrina must check her place for monitoring devices, in case the GCN goons who raided it didn’t plant any. Katrina then leavesthe light, begins sweeping for devices. Kat heads into the past, finds Nelina and watches as she discovers the truth about GCN and starts making her personal broadcasts (even before she actually has the scoop on GCN’s real activities). Then Kat sees her on a live GCN broadcast, when she receives the truth, and isamazed at how smoothly she takes it, while on-air. Once the broadcast is over, Nelina does her own digging and decides to include a tiny hint of the new information she’s found in that broadcast. She sets it to be released the next day, but is scared and goes to stay at a hotel. Soon after the release happens,she is kidnapped from her hotel room and taken to a holding cell in a remote location. So, Kat decides to go back and recruit Katrina into helping hide Nelina – and arrives, in the light, just before her earlier remote conversation with Katrina. Now she understands why Katrina had seemed shocked when shestepped into the light and had that remote conversation – a version of Kat was already there, beside her! Kat convinces Katrina not to tell the future Kat that she has ever seen this Kat. Then they jump back to arrive at Nelina’s hotel room, before her kidnapping. Katrina warns Nelina she is about to be captured,and that she needs to take her to a safe location. Nelina is uncertain, but Katrina explains how she knows what is about to happen, and introduces her to Kat. Then they all disappear into the light.

Kat picks up Nataly and whisks her back into the light, finds that Miguel’s wife has unexpectedly come home and so compromised Miguel’s as a possible safe house. Kat checks with Katia, who has made good progress setting up a safe house for Natalia in her timeline. She asks on progress of getting Natalia’s broadcasts out, but Katia knows nothing of it – Kat plants the suggestion, though, as a way to get the public on board against GCN, possibly through Viktor at NNI. While Katia is still hiding in the light from GCN goons, Kat agrees to call Viktor, disguising her voice as Katia, to set up a meeting between Katia, Natalia, and Viktor. After the call, she goes to meet Tess and Alex at the target condo, where Alex is already disabling the alarms and calming the neighbors (who recognize his appearance). They are surprised to see both Kat and Nataly, and to help make Tess feel better Kat holds a sparring contest with her best friend(something they often do to let off steam). Then Kat heads off into the city again to talk Vic into meeting with her, and with Nataly, so they can get help making Nataly’s story very public.

Kat discovers her sisters (Katcha, specifically) are aware in the light, unlike everyone else. They watch as GCN ransacks Katcha’s office, then Kat zooms them forward until the office is empty again and Katcha can leave the light, take Natasha tosafety. Kat also explains how her saving Natasha represents a new timeline, and the old line where Natasha was taken by GCN still exists – but that Katcha, this Katcha, can now proceed with Natasha to keep her safe. Kat drops Katcha and Natasha at Katcha’s friend Tiss’s apartment, heads back to her own line,realizing that jumping back in time has also changed her OWN timeline yet again – everyone else she left behind will be different. She is confused by all the time travel implications, but thinks she is starting to understand. She heads over to speak to Miguel and Nataly, at Miguel’s house where she’d left them. Miguel is now convinced that Nataly is who she says she is, and that GCN are hunting her. He confirms he will do what he can to help Nataly, because he trusts Kat. He also says he knows GCN has been bribing and manipulating the police in the city for years – and Nataly tells him the problem is much wider, involving national governments across the globe. Miguel offers to let Nataly stay in the separate apartment in his own basement while she is in hiding (and Kat will likely hide there with her, for the most part). Kat jumps over to Tess and Alex, because she knows the ‘new’ versions of them will not know about the GCN lockdown – she scares them when she arrives in the back seat of their hover, again, unexpectedly. She suggests a new route for them, to help them avoid GCN. She also warns Alex of the problems they had with the house he was headed to, and that Liz is now free and Nataly in a safe place. But when she returns to talk again to Nataly – someone unexpected has just arrived upstairs, at the front door of Miguel’shouse.

Kat explains to Nataly that they can’t simply go back in time to before the alarms were triggered, as it will create yet another line of existence, possibly more, and they will be abandoning the old one. The dilemma of a time traveling ability! Kat decides they have no choice, though, and takes Nataly and Liz to a washroom stall earlier that day, before the GCN broadcast, in the police precinct offices where her police friend Miguel works. And while Nataly guards the sleeping Liz, Kat tries to convince Miguel he needs to help, for Nataly’s sake. Liz recovers and starts ranting to the staff, but Miguel has already agreed to help Kat. He also volunteers to deal with Liz, while Kat takes Nataly to the basement of Miguel’s home to keep her hidden. They arrive, and begin a frank conversation with Miguel, Liz being handled by some of the staff officers at Miguel’s precinct. And then Katcha connects, tells Kat that Natasha had been at her office, but was scared off by Lizbet (their version of Liz) andfled – Katcha now believes she has been taken by GCN, and she also says GCN are moving in on her office now. So, Kat temporarily leaves Miguel’s to help Katcha. She discovers that Katcha was correct, Natasha has been captured – so she returns to see Katcha in her office earlier, before GCN arrives and while Natasha and Lizbet are there. She confronts Lizbet, and warns her not to do anything stupid – but Lizbet has already called GCN. So together, Kat and Katcha knock Lizbet out, and Kat takes Katcha and Natasha into the light, leaving Lizbet to handle the mess she’s created once she wakes.

Nataly’s broadcast suggests that the truth about GCN will be revealed in upcoming messages, and that people should be prepared. But now that her message is out, Nataly will also be a target and very difficult to keep safe. Alex has a possible place in the country they can hide, and they decide Liz needs to be brought along. Tess continues to support Kat in the decisions she is making, and Kat is very grateful. Alex and Tess will use Alex’s aircar to get to the hiding place, while Kat takes Liz and Nataly with her into the light. Kat finds a way to follow a faint trail left by Alex in the past to the hidden condo in the country that he has suggested they use. She leaves Nataly and the still unconscious Liz there, making sure Liz stays out by feeding her some sleeping drugs. But as Kat is about to leave, Nataly says something that makes Kat realize something: when she’d gone back to the past, with Nataly, she’d started them all on a new,different timeline – the second cablecar she’d discussed with Tess. Reluctantly, she leaves Nataly and scans for Alex and Tess who are en route, but finds that the city is on high alert, police everywhere. A public broadcast is being made, announcing a national manhunt for Natalie Chalmers by police forces, and suggesting that she has been maliciously abducted. The broadcast also suggests Natalie’s earlier message to the public had been entirely fabricated. This news means Tess and Alex must follow a different route than they had likely intended out of the city if they are to escape. Kat drops in and chats with her friends, warns them, and gets the security code to the condo from Alex. Kat then returns to check on Nataly, and they are forced to jump into the light while a neighbor clearly tied into the condo security sensors scans the house. Once he leaves, they drop back in only to find that Nataly’s sixth sense warning is correct: the neighbor had activated a silent alarm, and security forces are now on their way.

Kat’s future self explains what it means to make a decision, a choice – every moment of choice leads to a new set of timelines beginning from that moment. She also strongly advises Kat not to try and work out where all the other timelines lead, but stick to her own decision, her own path, and try to choose it wisely.Kat asks Tess for advice, and Tess tells her that if Kat is making the decision, she trusts her to do the right thing. Alex, and even Nataly are on Kat’s side, that they will support her in whatever she decides. Kat asks Nataly to explain how she got the GCN scandal information – she found it while she was on-air, and did more research afterwards, but she thinks someone saw what she’d been researching after she’d left. Nataly assures Kat all the data she found is backed up in secure, secret locations. So Kat takes Nataly with her to find an earlier version of herself, a few days in the past, so she can try and fix that other timeline before Nataly gets into trouble, possibly affect her own line indirectly as well. She meets another of her sister-selves, Katrina, and finds that in this line Nataly is known as Nelina Chelkowski. Nataly is very confused and freaked out. Kat warns Katrina that Nelina will be in trouble very soon, and perhaps she can subtly suggest that she be careful and prepare some daily broadcasts in advance, just in case she is unable to be on the air. Natalyrealizes that Kat’s suggestion has triggered a memory, something she forgot she’d done (or perhaps she hadn’t done originally, but has now happened in her future). Kat brings Nataly back to Tess’s apartment, to when they had left. And theydiscover that as a result of their meddling in the past, Nataly had in fact made those advance messages, outlining GCN’s criminal activities. And one of those messages is being broadcast!

Kat tells Liz she can’t leave yet, then goes back to Katia’s timeline and intercepts Lisa out in the hallway just as she’s leaving Alexei’s apartment. But it is too late, Lisa has already called GCN and notified them of Natalia’s location. So instead, she goes back in time a little further, intercepts Lisa before sheeven leaves the apartment, and they constrain her. Then they disable Lisa’s tracker and Katia takes all the others (except Kat) into the light, so that the GCN squads will not be able to find Natalia. Kat goes back to Tess’s apartment, finds that Tess has had to knock Liz out, since she was attempting to leave. Alex arrives, and makes it clear that as a fellow GCN employee he knows exactly what kind of trouble Nataly is in. Then he does some digging and discovers that their pursuers are extremely dangerous, more dangerous than they realized. They decide that to de-escalate things, they should make some of Nataly’s secret information public, which should mean GCN has less motivation to pursue her. But Nataly shares what she has learned with Kat, that she has evidence proving the involvement of many international governments in keeping GCN’s illegal actions quiet, so Kat knows the level of public outrage any release would cause. Also, Nataly’s biggest fear is that because she is such a recognized personality, the face of GCN, if any of the secret information is released, not only will the news create total chaos across the globe, but she will never be able to show her face again. She confesses that her life as a celebrity has made her lonely, and she is hoping that if they are able to resolve the GCN scandal situation, she can begin a new life which does not involve being in the spotlight. Kat assuresher that all will be well in the end. Then Kat begins the next step. She heads into the bathroom, closes the door, and meets – herself. From her own future.

Kat works out that the light is actually a pathway, a conduit that can take her to other realities. It has many branches but the strongest, most readily identified are those leading to different versions of herself. She also sees that Liz and Nataly, although traveling with her, seem to be in a trance state while in the light. She follows the brightest of these light paths forward and finds Katia, along with another version of her friend Alex, plus Liz and Nataly. She is able to converse with Katia, while still in the light, and finds that the others have slightly different names: Alexei, Lisa, Natalia. Katia is concerned that being so close to each other may violate some physical rule, but Kat needs to know they can see each other face to face. So, Katia moves to the bathroom of Alexei’s apartment, the light link following her, and Kat steps out of the light, with Liz and Nataly (who are very confused). Kat introduces Katia as her sister, although she knows that’s not really who she is. And Katia assures them that the ‘light’ has allowed them to evade their pursuit, and they can now return home without fear. Liz does not believe her. Kat gets Liz and Nataly back into the light, but decides not to go home to her timeline yet – instead, opting for checking on another sister, following the light in a different direction, this time to a line where Nataly has not yet arrived at her office for help. Kat converses with a new version of herself, Katcha, and warns her to be ready for the arrival of Natasha (her version of Nataly). Then she goes back to her line, and surprises Tess. A lot of time has passed since they left, and Tess confirms her apartment has been completely quiet. Tess calls in Alex, to enhance the security at the apartment. Liz and Kat have a squabble, and Liz is about to leave. Then Katia connects, and warns Kat that she cannot let Liz leave, or she will draw GCN back to the apartment.

Katie Andersson (Kat) is a private investigator who has begun to experience strange things in her life, which she can’t explain. She gets a visit from anunexpected new client, Nataly Chalmers, a well-known broadcaster for a huge multinational corporation named GCN (Global Consumer Networks). Nataly believes her life is in danger, because she’s discovered some secrets about her employer, secrets that demonstrate their involvement in criminal and nefarious activities. Kat tries to hide Nataly away, at her friend Tess’s apartment. But while there she receives a warning, a virtual mental connection, from someone named Katia – get out of the apartment, with Nataly, before it’s too late. She is scared and confused, but feels that somehow, the warning should not be ignored. To complicate matters a competitor of hers, Liz, has trailed her to Tess’s apartment, and tells her that GCN trackers are almost on them. So, Kat tries to connect with Katia again, and finds that Katia is another version of herself, in a different reality – and that she has discovered they are linked, across time and space. Plus, there is a way for Kat, Nataly and Liz to escape the pursuit: by stepping ‘into the light,’ a virtual space between realities, where nobody can find them…

GCN broadcaster Natalie Chalmers believes her life is in danger, and goes to see Katie Andersson, a private investigator with a difference, seeking protection. Then the roller-coaster begins…

This prologue explains the audio cues, sound effects that help clarify the action in this audio play.