When you have chosen what you would like to take, turn to 119.
200
As you continue walking a hand lands on your right shoulder, and another grabs your left wrist. A police officer walks round to face you.
“Please don’t struggle, sir,” he says, “something has been revealed about the Altimer and it’s very important you came with us.”
You can see that it would be foolish to resist, so allow them to escort you into a vehicle (turn to 43).
201
Getting yourself changed into your suit and boarding the ship was the easy part. Now you’re on board and the countdown has effectively started, you need to start performing.
Your role is to perform maintenance checks on all of the critical modules. They have all been checked multiple times beforehand, but you know you’re always better safe than sorry. Make a MIND check at difficulty 16. If you are successful, turn to 292. If you fail, turn to 22.
202
You pick up the keycard and feel it in your hand. It is absolutely delightful to touch, and you feel immensely grateful for having picked it up. Increase your MIND by 1 point.
Someone has scratched a number onto the reverse: 7257, which you think about for a moment and can’t figure out. Putting the card in your pocket, you float up the stairs, leave the room and continue down the corridor (turn to 263).
203
As you sit down, you are asked to choose a wager, which may be any item you are carrying or all your credits (you cannot wager any less than the full number). You play the game for several minutes and determine that it is fixed, although not quickly enough to stop you from losing your entire wager. Lose 1 SPIRIT point and leave the bar by turning to 107.
204
A clean, white square appears on the screen. Which number do you press next? If you press 1-5, turn to 63. If you press 6-9, turn to 120.
205
The square spins round and changes to the colour orange. Which number do you press now? If you press 1-5, turn to 102. If you press 6-9, turn to 280.
206
You make sure you have the attention of the team, waiting for a time for the conversation to reach a lull, then take a step of faith.
“It’s clear that one of us is to blame,” you say. “The long timeframe means that it doesn’t make sense for it to have been anyone back on earth, and both Mel and Bartu ended up dying so I can’t believe they’d put their own lives in jeopardy. I know it wasn’t me, and so I look at the three of you, and when I do that there’s only one person – you Catalina,” you add, looking directly at her, “who has been taking every opportunity to desperately prove their commitment through words without then backing it up with more action, so I can only conclude that you must have been the one to have double-crossed us.”
Catalina looks crestfallen, and you wonder for a split second whether you have completely misread the situation. The others immediately make it clear that they think you most certainly have.
“Are you kidding?” explodes Pauline. “Out of the four of us, the one you choose to accuse is freaking Catalina? He’s the only one of us with any sense, and clearly no ability to double-cross anyone! Well,” she says, turning to the other two, “it’s clear to me who’s to blame here.” She turns back to you. “You,” she says, pointing a finger directly at you. Neither James nor Catalina make any effort to correct her. Lose 1 HEART point.
That moment is the one Travis chooses to re-enter the room. Feeling a little concerned, he takes you aside for final preparation before the trial. Turn to 177.
207
The third witness is a rather overweight man with a bald head and a look about his mouth that suggests he spends a lot of his time smiling. He introduces himself as Professor Page, delicately placing a pair of reading glasses on his nose, and explains that he will fill in the room on what he knows about life on Entram.
“Well, you see, Entram is a tricky planet. Its atmosphere is very similar to earth’s, but life there is a tad more vicious. Too much teeth and claws and not enough tongue and paws, if you catch my drift. At least not enough for me.” He peers over his glasses at the judge with a smirk, who remains unmoving. He continues. “Life forms on Entram are ostensibly the same, broadly speaking, as the insects we encounter on earth, although the size can be much greater. They have animals that look like worms, flies, wasps, spiders and so on, all of which can grow to be larger than a human and are highly resilient. The creatures worth thinking about with regard to the Altimer are the Skreel, the Ildan and the Greater Honup, all of which are simultaneously fascinating and disturbing.
“Let’s begin with the Skreel then. This is an animal that spends most of its life as a microscopic dot, often travelling through the air until it is able to enter a larger creature. They can communicate with one another telepathically, in a sense – they make use of molecular structures in air or any other medium, which is quite miraculous. Based on the narrative that has been built around the Altimer, I believe it is a Skreel that took over…well, one of you, I suppose. Sorry. They don’t control specific actions but rather have a quite amazing way of sending signals to the brain that fundamentally change another animal’s entire worldview, and give their hosts the ability to become invisible. It’s quite something. Anyway, it – or, more likely, they – would have entered earth via the rock sample or somehow on the equipment, and then would have floated through the atmosphere until it found a human it could use, whether before or after the GIG training programme started we couldn’t say, and neither could the host actually. You may not even be aware you have it in you actually. Fascinating!
“The Ildan are a quite different creature, made almost entirely of muscle and fat tissues and with a reproductive cycle that results in eggs being laid within one’s own body, which grows to the point of becoming an incubation chamber itself. It’s absolutely disgusting and beautiful. Generally a shade of purple, although there are green, yellow and blue varieties, never for camouflage purposes but for a sort of reverse-photosynthesis. They like to bite things and are ruthless in killing other animals for food as well as for sport. I would suggest these are to be avoided.
“And then we come to the Greater Honup, a spider-like creature for which four of its limbs are used for walking and the other four are for attack and dissecting its prey. And the most interesting thing about these three creatures is their ability to work together. The Ildan and the Honup simply keep themselves to themselves; neither is particularly well-suited to killing the other, but they can hurt each other very badly and so they often co-exist within habitats despite desiring similar prey. The Skreel are slightly different in that they act as a silent governor over the ecosystem, using selected animals that enter as hosts to do all manner of things, from population control to self-sacrifice when food is running scarce.
“The chances are that in the event of the Altimer crash landing the creatures would have been dispersed over a wide area. The Honup would most likely have died, but the Ildan probably wouldn’t have, particularly as they had eggs on board – their eggs are very resilient indeed. And, of course, the Skreel would have used some human volunteers to ensure their survival. As it is the threat was contained and, as far as we can tell, there is no Entramic presence on Mars as of right now. Well, that is, other than in this room of course.”
At this point, he stands and walks back towards the door he came in by, speaking the whole time.
“One of the four of you was infected, and we did not know which one, but that was mainly because I’d not met you yet. A Skreel host does have one giveaway, which is a subtle shimmer to its eyes when it fears detection. And I saw that in one of you as I was speaking. So, with regret, I have to inform you all that the saboteur in your midst was this one.”
He reaches out a finger and points directly at James. Turn to 152.
208
“Here’s the queue,” says the short lady, indicating a waiting room filled with people. Would you like to wait to see him? If so, turn
to 104.
If not, you can go to see the military minister if you haven’t already (turn to 23) or the culture minister if you haven’t already (turn to 228) or you can leave and return to the city centre (turn to 165).
209
You approach Pauline and ask her if she has a minute to talk.
“Leave me alone, creep,” she says. “I’m about to step into what I’ve literally spent my whole life preparing for, and am going to have to suffer you through it. What makes you think I want to talk to you now?”
Do you tell her that she’s going to have to sort her attitude out if she’s going to expect anything from you once you’ve launched, (turn to 155), or do you express how sad you are that she feels that way, and offer your help to make it a more pleasant experience for her (turn to 61)?
210
You breathe a sigh of relief, which is caught in your throat as your peripheral vision spots that the mound is changing shape. Parts of it have now turned into appendages, and you must defend yourself against this enormous thing. You can fight this as a team, meaning you can add 5 to every attack roll you make.
Purple creature queen
BODY 12
SPIRIT 13
You collectively yell out triumphantly as it shudders under your final blows, and none of you can help but embrace one another in relief that you have made it through these battles.
It is only now they’re all dead that you realise how much work your senses are putting in – the dim lights, the unending noise of the alarm and now the horrible stench of this room – you are sure that you must be near the bridge now. Would you like to rest in this room before continuing (turn to 230), search the room (turn to 221), or leave through the door opposite the one you came in by (turn to 129)?
211
The square spins around, turning a lime green colour, and then disappears and the onboard computer speaks out of the speakers built into the chair’s headrest.
“Warning. Crash landing imminent. Manual override remains in force. Would you like to enable the autopilot?”
Two buttons appear on the screen, inviting you to press one or other to indicate your preference. If you press the button that says ENABLE AUTOPILOT, turn to 124. If you press the button that says SHOW MANUAL CONTROLS, turn to 40.
212
You flick through the book and it takes very little time for you to realise that this was a bad idea. You are overwhelmed with dry, technical information describing the history of how artificial intelligence machines were created and have developed over time.
There is nothing of value here, so you have wasted time and frustrated James in the process. Lose 1 HEART point. You turn to leave (turn to 229).
213
The reception staff at the research facility can’t stop themselves leaping to their feet as they see you come in.
“Welcome!” one of them almost yells at you, a nervous young man who looks constantly on the verge of sneezing. “Please make yourself at home. Can I get you a cup of tea? What are you here to research? How did you hear about us?”
Do you reply that you would like to read a book (turn to 282) or that you would like to talk to the lead researcher (turn to 179)?
214
You are shackled by the police officers and escorted through the secure wall, into the building and down a series of corridors until you are placed into a room with a table and four chairs in it.
You sit in one of the chairs, and a few minutes later are joined by someone who introduces themselves as Angel Travis, a lawyer.
“Good evening,” he says, in the clipped Martian accent, which you find sounds aggressive regardless of who is speaking or what they’re saying. “You don’t need me to tell you this is a serious situation, do you? As of right now, the prime suspects in the sabotage of the Altimer are your team, so the expectation is that at least one of you, perhaps all of you, will be found guilty.
“Now, at any other time you would not be allowed to talk to the others in your team for fear of you colluding on a story. But you’re special, as you know. Due to the unique circumstances of your arrival on Mars, the Navy has said they think it would be a good idea for you all to at least speak while off the Altimer before the trial. Would you like to see the team?”
Do you say that you would like to sit down with your team (turn to 293) or do you say you’d rather not (turn to 53)?
215
The day continues with a social activity and dinner before evening lectures and the adventure of finding where your room is. You are grateful that you don’t have to share with anyone – if the rest of your days here are as full as this one has been, you’ll need at least some solitude each day to simply get your thoughts straight.
The next day, you join Mel, James and Catalina at breakfast, concluding that Sand must have slept in a bit or is skipping this meal for some reason. But you all notice that he doesn’t join you for today’s opening lecture, along with a significant proportion of the trainee population. Rumours swirl around for the rest of the morning, and the general conclusion is that there was a cull by the lecturers yesterday evening. You are sad not to see Sand and can’t help feeling grateful that you managed to remain in the process, particularly as you saw so much to admire in him.
As the group of you joins the queue for lunch, still feeling the loss of your friend, the pouty lady from the day before – you remember her name was Pauline – suddenly materialises as if from nowhere, and steps right in front of you to grab a tray right from beneath your nose.
“Steady on, resting-bitch-face,” snaps Mel, sharply. Will you challenge her as well (turn to 278) or just step back and let her in (turn to 233)?
216
There are two doors leading out from the shuttle bay that don’t lead you back the way you came. The small door in front of you has a sign above indicating that it leads to the bridge, while the large door to your left suggests that it leads to the kitchen and to the garden; you’re not sure what that could mean, although you seem to find that you have a memory of it somewhere.
Do you float through the door that will take you in the direction of the bridge (turn to 91) or head in the direction of the kitchen and the garden (turn to 245)?
217
You almost trip up the stairs and hug the wall as it turns to the left at a point where the path reaches a balcony looking far down over the city.
The path ends abruptly at a door, which you try to force but have no luck. You spin around just at the moment that the hooded figure arrives. Reaching up and pulling down the hood, your pursuer reveals the face of a young woman with a scar down one cheek and dark hair pulled back tightly in a bun.
“Prepare to die!” she says, stepping towards you and powering up an energy baton.
Do you power up your glove and meet her in combat (turn to 260) or do you try to talk her out of killing you (turn to 70)?
218
The crowd around the juggler is engrossed in his act and so you are able to pass through unnoticed by them, although it is so full of families and young couples on dates that as you step close to people they naturally step back to make space for you and to maintain their own limited privacy.
It is little wonder therefore that your pursuer easily spots you. You in turn spot them watching you from a distance and are helpless to do anything in this open space. It is with inevitability that you watch them withdraw a slender pipe and raise it to their lips, and then feel a sting as a poison dart enters your pulmonary vein.
The time it takes you to die from what feels like your lungs setting on fire within your chest is just about enough time to appreciate the end of the juggler’s act.
219
The corridor you find yourself in stretches to the right and left, the blood now having essentially dispersed in both directions, and its source entirely unclear. The emergency lighting seems to have been activated, so you can see but barely any distance at all, and the sound of the blaring alarm is starting to have an effect on your ability to conc
entrate.
The corridor itself is difficult to analyse. If you were pushed, you’d say that you think there are more blood stains to your left than to your right, but the splatter you created when the door was opened is too great to tell, and by now both directions have significant red patches lining the walls. In any case, you have no idea which direction Bartu or Mel went in, whether they went together or separately, why their pods were open or why the alarm is sounding.
Immediately in front of you is a sign telling you that the armoury is to your left, that the shuttle bay is to your right, and that the kitchen is accessible in both directions. You look both ways and suddenly realise that you’ve been here before – of course, you walked down this corridor to enter the cryogenic chamber!
“Is anyone else having memory problems?” asks James, hesitantly. The whole team nods to one another, as you collectively realise that the thawing process has probably had an impact. You hope that you will regain those lost memories soon, perhaps to remember what the alarm means. You remember eating in the kitchen, and walking through a garden, but that could equally have been on earth.
“We should get to the bridge,” says Pauline. “Unless anyone has any better ideas.” No-one says anything, and so the team looks up to leave the vicinity of the chamber.
Would you like to head left towards the armoury (turn to 4) or right towards the shuttle bay (turn to 169)?
220
He raises his eyebrow at you, and then a smile creeps into the left corner of his mouth.
“I have just the thing,” he says, and then shuffles away and through a door behind him. Thirty seconds later, he returns and hands you a black device about the size and shape of a credit card.
The Altimer Page 10