Rachel Su, an edgy half-Chinese tech prodigy and extreme sports enthusiast in Silicon Valley, has invented a disruptive energy technology that could eliminate much of the world’s need for oil and solve global warming, putting her on the razor’s edge between those who want to exploit it, and the companies and counties who will do anything to stop it.

SYNOPSIS:

THE STORY

The key arcs within LEADING EDGE are focused on Rachel. Will she be able to drive her company to technological success? Will Rachel learn to let go of her pure focus on engineering and technology to balance those needs with the business needs necessary to achieve commercial success? And with commercial success, will she achieve her goal of putting “big oil” out of business, and provide a key solution to global warming? Will she solve the mystery of her mother’s death, and then be able to open up the emotional walls she has created around herself? Will Rachel get beyond the anger and hurt caused be her father and her first lover Ravi, and allow herself to accept real love – and give it in return?

PILOT

Rachel’s company Photonic Power is running on fumes. Venture Capitalists give her a choice: accept a merger with rival Solar Storage Technologies and put her former lover Ravi Singh in as CEO, or shut down. Rachel reluctantly accepts. A key piece of technology is stolen from Photonic Power’s servers. Suspecting their VP of Engineering in Taiwan, Rachel and Ravi arrange for him to come to the U.S. on a ruse, in order to make him take a polygraph test. After a night at a Dungeon Party with her hunky “friend with benefits” – with whom she has never exchanged names – Rachel wakes up alone, groggy. She goes kitesurfing and when she comes ashore, is met by Detectives. The VP has been found dead in his motel, and Rachel is arrested on suspicion of murder.

LEADING EDGE