New Gaia

by Samuel Isaacson

  Copyright © 2019 Samuel Isaacson

  Map on page 7 copyright © 2019 David Gillson

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781673823561

  DEDICATION

  To my four brave boys.

  CONTENTS

  Rules for play

  Background

  Story

  About the author

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  One person in particular has made a practical contribution to this book that I would love to highlight. Thank you to David Gillson for your artistic work on the map of New Gaia and its surroundings, and for your valuable comments on the draft that have improved it tremendously.

  There are many other people I could name here, and yet I will name no-one else as I expect I’d fill most of the book and would no doubt inadvertently leave someone out. I am grateful to every encouraging friend, social media connection and colleague who has contributed to the motivation I’ve needed to see this through. Every thumbs up and positive comment has given me an important little boost, so thank you so much.

  Finally, a special thank you to everyone who bought The Altimer – seeing the number of people who had an appetite for it and then shared your positive experiences of it gave me the impetus to kick this one off. You’ve brought me a lot of happiness.

  RULES FOR PLAY

  Welcome to New Gaia. The star of this story is…you! You are about to be thrust into a world not so distant from our own as you begin a journey in which you may become the saviour of the universe or a footnote in its destruction. This will be determined by the choices you make; the book will present you with options to continue reading at two or more different locations based on what actions you will perform. As you turn to that section number and read on, the text will make sense in context and you will be able to continue the story.

  BEWARE! The story is a branching narrative that at times will lead you to less-than optimal endings (typically involving your life ending in various ways), red herrings that send you away from the one true path and clues that may not be everything they first appear. Make notes and a map on your way and enjoy the experience of fictional death! Re-read the story to make better choices next time and I expect you will find a compelling universe in which you almost figure out the truth several times before ultimately overcoming it.

  You will also affect the story through determining the outcome of random chance at certain points, which will require you to use a pair of six-sided dice throughout. This will particularly be true during combat to simulate the unpredictability of swiping through the air and hoping to connect your fist with the chin of the assassin who is simultaneously trying to stab you in the ear.

  To make that possible, you will need to generate a series of numbers to represent you in this universe.

  Creating your character scores

  There is a template adventure sheet below, which you may like to write in if you like, and you’re probably better off creating your own copy version. Your scores are very likely to change, particularly the first few times you read it. You are very unlikely to finish this in one go, and you may even want to redo it in future – having a book that isn’t falling apart due to continual scribbles and rubbings out will help you to do that in the most pleasant way.

  The following instructions will take you through the character score generation process.

  Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your BODY score, indicating how quickly, strongly and skilfully you can move yourself. This score is used for combat, so can prove very handy when things go downhill.

  Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your MIND score, indicating your cognitive abilities, including your perception, intellect, memory and reasoning abilities.

  Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your HEART score, indicating your ability to connect with and influence other people, and deal with stressful situations.

  Roll one die and add 5 points. This is your SPIRIT score, indicating your ability to continue your adventure.

  What the numbers mean

  The numbers indicate your skill in that area. An average functioning adult would typically have 3-4 in each of the areas; you can see how you would rank based on the following:

  3-4: amateur

  4-5: talented

  6-7: professional

  8: superhuman (e.g. Mensa/Olympics standard)

  At certain points in the text you will be instructed to make a check against one or more of those skills, and it will provide you with a difficulty level. When that happens, roll two dice and add the relevant score. If you are told to check against two skills, add both scores. If your total is equal to or higher than the difficulty level, you have been successful; if not, you have failed.

  For example, if you are told to make a MIND check at difficulty 8, you will roll two dice and add your MIND score. Let’s say your MIND score is 4, that means you will need to roll a 4 or more to be successful.

  Important notes on your scores

  Only one of your BODY, MIND and HEART scores is allowed to be greater than 6 as you begin the book. If you have rolled more than one score to be higher than 6, you may choose which one you will keep at the higher level and which you will reduce to 6.

  As you progress in the story, your BODY, MIND and HEART scores will be reduced and increased. They can never be increased to more than 10 and can never be reduced to less than 2 points under any circumstances, regardless of what is stated in the text.

  If your SPIRIT score ever reaches zero, you have either died or have lost all motivation and mental capacity to continue. Unless the text directs you otherwise, your story has ended and you will need to start again.

  Combat

  Fighting also requires you to roll dice. Each enemy you are presented with will have a BODY score and a SPIRIT score, included in the text.

  Fighting takes place in combat rounds and follows these instructions:

  Roll two dice and add your BODY score, then reduce this number by the enemy’s BODY score to determine the damage you have dealt, and take this off its SPIRIT score.

  If the enemy is not dead, roll two dice and add its BODY score, reducing this number by your BODY score to determine the damage it has dealt, and take this from your SPIRIT score.

  For example, let’s say you have a BODY score of 5 and a SPIRIT score of 7, and your enemy has a BODY score of 4 and a SPIRIT score of 8. You begin by rolling two dice and you roll a 6. 6 plus your BODY of 5 is 11, which reduces by the enemy’s BODY of 4 to give you 7 damage, so its SPIRIT is reduced to 1.

  You can probably tell from this that combat can be deadly, as it can in real life.

  Equipment and codewords

  Over the course of your story you will pick up various items of equipment and be told to record codewords. Both may be important for success, set you up to fail or have no impact whatsoever.

  Final thoughts

  This should be fun to read and play, and I hope you enjoy getting to know the characters and the world we are about to create together.

  If you have already read The Altimer, you will find that you are already familiar with some of the people and places presented on the coming pages, and there is no need to have read it first.

  Now turn the page, and begin your story…

  Adventure sheet

  BODY

  MIND

  HEART

  SPIRIT

  CODEWORDS

  EQUIPMENT

  NOTES

  BACKGROUND

  You were a trainee astronaut, being sent out on an unimportant mission simply due to lack of capacity in the team. It should have been no more than an information-gathering exercise and a good chance to get some off-world experience.

  But then, no-one knew that one of your team had been infes
ted by a Skreel, a symbiotic alien that takes over the will of its host and gives them the ability to turn invisible.

  The course of the ship was changed in order to allow another creature from its homeworld of Entram to board. This was the Ildan, a purple, gelatinous lifeform made predominantly of teeth. The Altimer was then set to crash into Mars, enabling these alien creatures to spread across the solar system.

  Fortunately, the crash-landing failsafe on board The Altimer caused your cryogenic pods to open early. You overcame the creatures and averted the disaster, enabling the ship to land safely on Mars. You were taken to New Gaia, the only major city there, and when the truth was discovered you were put on trial alongside your surviving teammates: Catalina, your courageous, supportive friend; Pauline, a judgmental yet exceptional talent; and James, who was revealed as the alien host. As he revealed his true identity you defeated him in combat, the only option at the time, made possible by the technology given to you by Lady Yatch, a senior researcher.

  That was yesterday, and you’ve been in the hospital overnight. You’ve been told that there’s a very good chance you will be able to find communications from your family and may even be able to find your descendants alive today, but the more pressing matters over the coming weeks will be press interviews and a tour of earth.

  You didn’t sleep very well last night, not least because the nurse who looked after you seemed to have a shimmer behind her eyes – a tell-tale sign that she had been infested by a Skreel – although having experienced what you’ve been through the past few days you can’t be sure that you’re not seeing things. Catalina and Pauline are due to visit you in a couple of hours, so you think you’ll share your concerns with them then.

  Turn to 1.

  1

  Lying with your eyes open despite feeling the edges of tiredness, you find yourself staring out of the large window in your private room. You feel that you’re quite high up although the buildings around you continue further into the sky, and the tubes that carry the shuttles around the city interrupt the view in every direction. In-between the buildings you can just about make out the dusty, red Martian landscape in the distance and the protective virtual eco-dome gives a strange shimmer to those areas not suitable for human inhabitation.

  The nurse from the previous night enters the room, smiles at you and wanders to the side of your bed where a small screen presumably contains information about your current condition. She taps the screen and you think you catch a glimpse of something again moving behind her eyes. She must be infected, surely!

  She wanders over to the other side of the room and tuns on a tap while she opens a drawer, takes out a syringe and then turns the tap back off without having washed her hands or done anything else with the water. Something is seriously wrong, and you don’t know what your best course of action is.

  Her back is still turned, and she’s turned the tap on again. Will you attack her from behind (turn to 253), try to sneak out of the room while she’s looking the other way (turn to 272) or will you admit that you’re tired and so probably need to just get some sleep (turn to 34)?

  2

  “Hang on,” says Catalina. “That’s not enough, surely you can give us more than that?”

  The ambassador looks offended for a moment and then resets her expression.

  “Alright,” she says, glancing around as if someone might overhear. “If I were you, I’d dig around where Ada’s concerned. There’s just something…shifty about her. Don’t let her just brush you off, do what you can to persist with her, even if that means breaking into that secret observatory she has over there.”

  After leaving here you now have the choice to return to the scientist’s observatory, even if you have already visited there previously. Thanking her, you leave her offices.

  If you have not yet spoken to Paul Grakler and would like to, you may do so now by turning to 356. Otherwise, you leave (turn to 185).

  3

  He stares at you in disbelief for a moment, and then visibly softens.

  “Alright,” he says. “I suppose I can’t blame you after what you’ve been through. I’ll be honest though, you’re no use to me if you can’t even give me some ideas. Right! I should ask you to leave so I can get on with saving the world. All the best.”

  He walks you to the door of his office and then abandons you to find your way out of the headquarters yourself. Turn to 228.

  4

  Skilfully, you take a step and catch the ladder silently, taking care to place it back where it was before. Breathing a sigh of relief, you close the cupboard door and go upstairs (turn to 316).

  5

  You move carefully and as silently as possible over to the bush and observe it for some time but see no further movement.

  Edging slowly forwards, Catalina pulls at it, and the entire bush moves as one, revealing a hidden door set into the ground!

  At that moment, you hear footsteps approaching. Will you dive through the door (turn to 365) or look for somewhere else to hide (turn to 26)?

  6

  You make your way to the research facility, located a couple of blocks to the east of the safehouse, and walk into the reception area. You ask if Lady Yatch, the lead researcher, is available. If you have the codeword Diacria, turn immediately to 175. If not, turn to 372.

  7

  “Come here!” the clown says, beckoning you in his direction. You look around you to see who he’s talking to but yes, it’s definitely you. You approach him.

  “Drink this, it will make you grow big and tall!” he yells, passing you a balloon to hold in one hand and a small bottle in the other.

  You cautiously do so, and immediately regret it as your stomach begins to churn.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispers and then skips off, offering balloons to the children who chase after him and leaving you to slowly choke to death.

  8

  You explain that you think you’ve been infested by a Skreel. You tell them everything that happened in the hospital and that just now it took all of your willpower to even tell them.

  As expected, Pauline backs away violently with a disgusted cry and powers up her glove.

  Catalina, ever the pragmatic one, pouts her lips, thinking.

  “Well then,” she says. “we need a bit of help I suppose! Any suggestions, Pauline?”

  “Go to the doctor!” Pauline responds. “Or a vet, if there are any on this godforsaken planet. We need to put the thing down, same as happened to James!”

  “Well, that’s one option. I’d have thought the police would know what to do, or perhaps we could go to the research facility? They seem to have some quite advanced insights on alien life. Maybe they know something helpful.” She turns to you. “What do you think?”

  Where do you think you should go to find a solution? Will you go to the research facility (turn to 291), the doctor (turn to 48) or the police (turn to 231)?

  9

  On the other side of the door is a busy-looking room containing a table in its centre, racks of communication equipment on the left and right walls, a door in the opposite wall…and Ada, sitting on the table with her legs crossed.

  “I thought you’d get here before the party started,” she says. “This won’t be a bad place to watch it from, actually.”

  “How did you get here so fast?” asks David, more than a hint of aggression creeping into his voice.

  She drops down to the floor. “I know how to get around my own home, thank you. Now, I’m a little sorry to do this to you but needs must I’m afraid.”

  You hear a click, followed immediately by a hissing sound. Make a combined BODY and HEART check at difficulty 20. If you succeed, turn to 369. If you fail, turn to 307.

  10

  You say that you’d like to take them up on their offer, at which point Catalina turns to you.

  “What are you saying?” she says, angrily. You explain that you think it’s a good opportunity, at which she explodes in rage. “Now is not the time! Get o
ut of here right now.” She turns to the young man. “And don’t you dare talk to us on the way out, you mannequin. Keep your elitist clap-trap to yourself in future.”

  Feeling a bit embarrassed – you’re not sure if that’s about your lack of self-control or Catalina’s response – you leave with her to be reunited with Pauline. Lose 1 HEART point and turn to 152.

  11

  The room behind the door is large, stretching out to your right and filled with all sorts of machinery. A short flight of stairs built into the opposite wall to you leads to a door. You run across the room but don’t get more than halfway before you hear a huge explosion overhead and then experience its effects as the ceiling collapses, burying you all instantly.

  David is killed in that moment, but you and Catalina remain alive, trying to work out a way to escape despite both of you being trapped under the rubble. Catalina is the first to die of thirst, and within a few hours you will share her fate.

  12

  The doctor asks you to lie on the bed face down, and you comply. He pulls a large machine out from the wall on a hydraulic arm, which hovers over the base of your neck.

  After several minutes and some slightly uncomfortable poking around, he gives a grunt of approval.

  “Found something,” he says. “Now, hold still please.”

  You hear him tapping an irregular rhythm on the machine and it lowers to your neck until it comes to rest lightly on you.

  “You’ll feel a sharp prick and then some mild discomfort,” the doctor explains, and before you’re able to indicate your understanding a burst of pain courses through the back of your neck and you feel a ripple of goosebumps rush over your head. This is followed by a feeling as if your voice box is trying to leap out of your throat and the back of your neck simultaneously, which lasts for about three minutes. All the while, you hear the doctor mumbling to himself: “Hmm, there it is. Right a bit, there we go. Oops, no that’ll be ok.”