A few paces ahead a flight of stairs leads off to your left, while the alleyway ahead squirms between two buildings; you can’t see where it goes but equally can’t see its end.
Do you run down the stairs (turn to 275) or continue straight ahead (turn to 294)?
50
Catalina and Mel are sitting at a little table on the canteen balcony, looking out over the GIG grounds. They raise their drinks to you as you approach.
“How’s it going?” Mel asks. Do you say you’re getting excited about the launch and ask them how they are (turn to 147) or do you ask what advice they might have for you (turn to 17)?
51
“Well,” she continues, “let me tell you about this purple fruit. The experiments were inconclusive, but I was told that the fruit itself was unbelievably delicious. The greatest shame though, we ate it all before it even got a proper name. It’s still known as fruit AC-182, and no-one’s found any since. What does that tell you?”
At this, the door to her office opens and the nervous young man explains that the university principal has arrived.
“Oh dear!” she cries. “I’m ever so sorry. Come back again tomorrow, will you?”
You are ushered out, and soon find yourself back in the city centre. If you have the codeword Cetus, turn to 99. If not, turn to 140.
52
“I’m here!” you call, and two men step into your field of vision, wearing uniforms you’d recognise in any country as police.
“We’ve got one ma’am,” one of them says to someone behind you. They approach you from either side and gently lift you out and onto a stretcher. The relief at being back on earth is so great that you collapse gratefully onto the stretcher and can’t stop yourself from passing out again as you are lifted out of the Altimer. Turn to 223.
53
If you have the codeword Virgo, turn immediately to 261.If not, turn to 177.
54
You continue to float down the corridor, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Turn to 81.
55
It is not difficult to reach the ground, although you are a very long way up so it takes quite a while. It doesn’t take long once you’re outside to make some startling discoveries. You have landed in New Gaia, which is not the medium-sized town you believed it to be but in fact is a bustling city of almost 10 million people, serving as it does the entire human ecosystem on Mars. And as much as it feels like this was a secret held back from you when you left the earth two days ago, in actual fact the year is 2342 and Mars is now a small yet self-sustaining world, benefitting from its own controlled climate within a 1,500 mile radius of New Gaia.
The city itself is unbearably compact, with clear zones set aside for different elements of infrastructure and the preferred style of buildings being unimaginably huge towers connected together by an advanced public transport system and walkway after walkway. You are able to walk the entire perimeter of the city centre in about 45 minutes, and the transport system enables you to visit a whole range of locations.
Now turn to 13 to choose where to visit.
56
The queue to enter the immigration centre is very long, but you figure that after waiting several decades in a ship, you don’t mind waiting an extra few minutes in a queue. Are you wearing a badge with a shield on it? If not, turn to 273.
If you are wearing the badge, write out the acronym emblazoned on it based on those letters’ positions in the alphabet (i.e. A=1, B=2 etc). For example, if the acronym were HB, the number would be 82. Turn to that number now.
57
The door is thick, and it is wedged right into the frame. Make a combined check of your SPIRIT and BODY with a difficulty of 21. If you are successful, turn to 72. If you fail, turn to 193.
58
You are in the canteen having breakfast with the others, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness, when you are all approached by an impeccably-dressed man with a neat moustache.
“Good morning,” he announces. “I’m General Turner. Would you come with me please?” He turns and begins to lead the way down the hall and deeper into the North Wing. After several minutes of following him, he leads you into a side room. In it, a young man is sitting behind a desk and about ten comfortable chairs are placed around the room. General Turner asks you to take a seat for a moment, then walks across the room and through a door in one wall.
A couple of minutes later, the man behind the desk stands up and tells you to join General Turner in his office. You stand and enter.
General Turner shakes you firmly by the hand as you walk in and explains to you that despite your team’s performance being very strong, some concerns have been raised about your abilities to perform under pressure. He has assigned the role of captain to Pauline and feels that the obvious tension between the two of you will put the team as a whole at risk.
He is not coming across as unreasonable, so you attempt to convince him that you are comfortable submitting to her authority. Make a HEART check at difficulty 14. If you are successful, turn to 138. If you fail, turn to 36.
59
Roll one die to see what you find. If you roll an odd number, turn to 298. If it is even, turn to 145.
60
You stay still, waiting to find out what happens, analysing the shapes that you can vaguely see. They’re certainly humanoid, but are they your team?
One begins to get larger, and you protectively hold up your hands, right as Catalina’s face emerges. She pulls the door open and looks at you, quizzically.
“What are you still doing in here? Come on, can’t you hear the alarm? You should get out.” She pushed back off the pod and floats away, and you follow her out. Pauline and James are talking to each other and turn to look at you as you emerge.
“You ok?” asks James, and you nod. You feel fine, although you’d love the alarm to quieten down.
You look around. “Where are Mel and Bartu?” you ask, seeing their pods are also open and the door is closed. The team all shrug.
“We all only woke up a minute or two ago,” Catalina explains.
Turn to 113.
61
She grabs you by the arm and leans forward until her face is desperately close to your own.
“Now you listen to me,” she hisses, aggressively. “Don’t get in my space, do you hear? I’m serious. Whatever you might think, I’ve earned this more than you.” She pushes you away. “Watch yourself. Don’t talk to me again unless it’s a life or death situation.”
You know when it’s time to back away, and you leave her to her brooding. Now, do you go to the storage unit if you haven’t already (turn to 33) or board the Altimer (turn to 201)?
62
You drift forward towards the corner and stop yourself just before you reach it by placing a hand on the wall. The sound of the alarm, the dim lights and your own intuition are now starting to play tricks on you. You are certain you saw a flicker in the shadows, but there seems to be nothing there now. You decide you need to be careful.
Hesitantly, you peer around the corner, and see that there’s nothing there. Filled with dread and with no way to explain it, you continue around the corner. Turn to 188.
63
The square spins round and changes to the colour orange. Which number do you press now? If you press 1-5, turn to 280. If you press 6-9, turn to 102.
64
You sit down at the table, and the locals graciously welcome you. They explain that the game they are playing uses a coin, and offer to use one of yours if you have one that’s interesting enough.
Do you have a coin showing the Altimer on it? If so, the group is fascinated, and offers to use it to play the game with. If you are happy to use it for this purpose, turn to 274. If you don’t, or if you choose to play with their coin instead, turn to 203.
65
You look at the weaponry options in front of you. This certainly isn’t the source of the alarm, and you see no way the torpedoes, harpoons or ray guns would make a
difference. You stand up, frustrated with having wasted your time.
Without warning, you are struck on the head from behind. You spin around, ready to take on your attacker, but there is no-one there. You are struck again, this time on your left arm, and can’t stop yourself collapsing to the floor.
Make a BODY check at difficulty 15. If you are successful, turn to 123. If you fail, turn to 268.
66
Bartu, still in a jovial mood, suggests that his Dad’s advice was always to stand up for the underdog, and that he took full advantage of that growing up.
James then turns to you and says there’s only one piece of advice he thinks you’re going to need for this mission: prepare for a fight.
“This isn’t news to you I know, but Pauline really has got it in for you, you know? All I’m saying is, go in ready and then you might get out.”
With that warning hanging over you, do you go to the storage unit if you haven’t already (turn to 33) or board the Altimer (turn to 201)?
67
You open the door, revealing a small changing room. Hooks on the wall in front of you and hanging from a central beam accompany a set of lockers to your left. There is also a bench to your right, next to a door, which you imagine is positioned against the same wall as the double doors you just saw in the corridor.
Do you pass straight through this room and go through the door (turn to 97) or search through this room first (turn to 191)?
68
The door slams open, adding its staccato sound to the ongoing alarm, and the pool of what is definitely blood explodes into a rich, scarlet bloom that expands to cover the walls, ceiling and floors of what is otherwise an empty corridor. Turn to 219.
69
“Very well,” says Travis, “I’m just warning you that this will lead to an official reprimand.” Record the codeword Hercules and turn to 177.
70
“What are you being paid to kill me?” you ask. “I can pay you more.”
She pauses for a moment. “I do like money,” she says thoughtfully, “but I also like not doing time. How do I know you won’t get me arrested?”
You’re going to have to ask her to trust you, but will she believe you? Make a HEART check at difficulty 15. If you are successful, turn to 277. If you fail, turn to 231.
71
The only thing you know of the explosion is the fact that your expected vision of the blackness of space is instead replaced by an indescribably bright light engulfing your vision. The escape pod’s spontaneous combustion entirely encapsulates you and James so quickly that you feel no pain, and are only barely conscious that you are about to die when your skin evaporates away from your body.
72
You work unreasonably hard but it is difficult to force a door in zero gravity and you don’t manage to open it more than a bit. You can’t fit through, but think you might be able to extract something from it. You try to look into the space but it is too dark to see, so you reach in and grab what you can.
Pulling out your hand, you find that you have grabbed hold of what looks like a remote controller for something, perhaps a drone of some sort. You think it may come in handy at some point so can take it with you if you like.
You continue along the corridor and round the corner (turn to 84).
73
The corridor continues for several yards more, and you are dismayed at what you find. The corridor turns a corner to the right, and hovering in the corner is Mel’s body, clearly dead based on the way her head is hanging and the gentle way her body is turning in mid-air. A cloud of blood has gathered around her and stained the walls, and she’s clearly been dead for some time.
There is clearly nothing you can do for Mel now, but you can investigate her body if you like (turn to 86) or continue round the corner (turn to 175).
74
“Oh, thank you so much!” she says, blushing. “I’ve been wanting to show this to people for so long. Here, let me give something to you.”
She turns to a drawer in her desk, pulls out an eyepiece and hands it to you. “Stick this right over your eye, and it might come in handy on your future travels. There are some extra-terrestrials that can manipulate light waves to make themselves invisible. Very clever, and this can be used to help you see them. Well, I’m afraid I must go, which means, so must you! Lovely to meet you.”
She ushers you out, and you fix the eyepiece in place; it is very comfortable and you feel a burst of energy having found it. Increase your SPIRIT points by 3 and record the codeword Pegasus.
Now you return to the city centre. If you have the codeword Cetus, turn to 99. If not, turn to 140.
75
“Stop!” you cry, standing up with the pamphlet held above your head. The major pauses in his walking out and you see the guards all stiffen around the room.
“What is the problem?” asks the judge calmly.
You hand over the pamphlet and ask them to look at the page describing the head-patting procedure, then you turn to James and point a bold finger in his direction.
“It was you!” you declare. “What did you do?”
Increase your SPIRIT by 3 points and turn to 152.
76
As you float towards the door to leave you begin to think that you shouldn’t have spent any more time than necessary in this room. The air particles you have been breathing are full of a poisonous substance that affects the chemistry inside the human body. Lose 1 MIND and 1 BODY point and turn to 129 to go through the door.
77
A clean, white square appears on the screen. Which number do you press next? If you press 1-5, turn to 15. If you press 6-9, turn to 267.
78
With your back to the secret door, you see a corridor stretching out ahead of you. There is a door to your right, and to your left the corridor continues a short way, leading to a grand set of doors marked as the bridge.
Certain that the source of the alarm must be in there, you are about to enter, when the door to your right suddenly opens. You are about to attack, when Pauline and Catalina emerge. Neither is smiling, although you can detect a sense of relief as they see you.
“Did you find Bartu or Mel?” Catalina asks.
You nod. “We found Mel,” James says. “Dead,” he adds, indicating with his thumb which direction her body is in.
Both Catalina’s and Pauline’s heads drop. “At least we’ve found the bridge,” Catalina says. “Maybe Bartu’s in here.”
You push off from the wall and float towards the door, opening and entering (turn to 16).
79
You approach the Navy headquarters and are greeted by a pair of guards.
“Howdy,” one of them says, “and how can we help you today?”
You explain that you’ve just arrived in the city on a GIG ship from earth, and they both seem interested. They are fascinated by the timeline and your stories of aliens and sabotage, but they say they can’t do anything to let you in.
“Look, you seem like a great officer and everything and we’re really enjoying getting to know you, but unless you’re the captain of the ship it’s more than our jobs’ worth to let you in I’m afraid,” one of them says.
Disappointed, you return to the city centre. If you have the codeword Cetus, turn to 99. If not, turn to 140.
80
The military minister is too busy to see you today. What will you do instead?
You can see the prime minister if you haven’t already (tur not 208) or the culture minister if you haven’t already (turn to 125), or you may leave and return to the city centre (turn to 165).
81
You drift up to a T-junction and notice a sign above your head indicating that the bridge is down the right-hand corridor rather than straight on. You go in that direction; turn to 254.
82
You step over the groaning body of the man who attacked you and move towards the bar to apologise for having caused a scene, but you don’t get there before a cosh has swung d
own on your head from behind and a large hand with a strange scent covers your face.
You do not come to before your assassin’s accomplices deliver you up, and they complete the job efficiently with a clean knife to your throat. The assassins of New Gaia do appreciate a more gratifying death, but payment is payment and your death has just put food on the table for another few months.
83
Through the door you find yourself looking directly down a short corridor, at the end of which is a grand-looking door with a sign above it declaring it to be the entrance to the bridge. The corridor also extends to your right into darkness, but you feel that the bridge is where the answer to this incessant alarm will lie, so you push yourself forwards and through the door.
Turn to 16.
84
Turning the corner, you immediately see a ragged pile floating halfway up the left-hand wall, which quickly reveals itself to be Bartu. He is breathing heavily with a distinct wheeze, and the whole team pushes themselves forward to him.
Catalina is the first to speak: “Bartu, what happened?”
In between rasping breaths, you only manage to catch a few words. The alarm is too loud, and Bartu is clearly in a lot of pain.
“She’s not what she appears,” you think he murmurs.
If you have the codeword Virgo, turn immediately to 149. Otherwise, turn to 10.
85
The rest of the day and the remainder of the first two weeks see a repeated pattern: a series of lectures during the day, with a social activity in the afternoon and a mysterious disappearance of several trainees overnight. You would prefer some transparency over the process, but are so grateful to still be there, and you always knew that there was no guarantee you’d make it through, so you decide to be pragmatic and accept that this is probably the best way for people to be removed from the process.
The Altimer Page 4