Barely any time has passed before the fact that you were heard is revealed to you; two guards, possibly the ones from the gate although in this light it’s difficult to tell, approach and lunge at the three of you. One of the guards attacks Pauline and Catalina, and you will have to defend yourself against the other one.
Farm guard
BODY 7
SPIRIT 9
If you win, turn to 302.
170
The safehouse is small, to say the least. On the second floor of a residential building, it has a small kitchen and bathroom off a main living area, with a bedroom to one side. A small window in the kitchen provides the only semi-natural light, and the height of the buildings around means that this is essentially the artificial glow cast from underneath the shuttle tube, filling the view from every window under ten storeys high across the entire city centre.
You collapse into a sofa in the corner of the living area and Catalina passes you a glass of water, which you down gratefully. Add 2 SPIRIT points.
If you have the codeword Casius, turn immediately to 19. If not, turn to 298.
171
The door opens into what looks like a research laboratory, with only one other door on the same wall as the one you just entered by. Add 5 seconds to your TIME score.
You run through the other door (turn to 226).
172
“Good morning,” you hear from outside the door. The voice sounds somehow familiar, although you can’t place it. “May I enter?”
Tomas steps back and opens the door to reveal a broad man in a casual shirt with a bushy beard, a scowl and a sense of gravitas. As the door reveals the three of you to him, he raises an eyebrow and you suddenly recognise him.
“Major?” says Pauline, just as you were thinking it. This man was one of the expert witnesses at your trial.
“Indeed,” he says, then extends a hand to Tomas. “Major David Abofanwe, but please call me David. Let’s talk somewhere more comfortable, shall we?”
The five of you go through to the family room and within ten minutes you are all equipped with drinks and David is explaining the reason for his visit.
“You will no doubt have discovered by now that the alien threat was not eliminated as we first thought. In fact, the threat is so hidden that I don’t know if we’ll ever have certainty over its absolute destruction, although we have a more urgent problem. I’m going to have to speak quickly so forgive the missing details in this. This is partly speculation but, as you’ll soon hear, it justifies the effort to address it, and there will be plenty of time for questions later.
“There is a large fleet of ships heading directly for the inner planets, and we anticipate a full-scale invasion of both earth and Mars. Earth has lost its abilities to send or receive any sort of communications signal, including messaging to and from Mars and any satellite scanning of the solar system. In other words, they’re unlikely to even know of the impending threat and are powerless to stop it in any case. So, it falls to us to protect the future of the human race on earth, and we have identified communications leaving the surface of Mars. We believe these are the Skreel, giving instructions.
“We have every spare resource devoted to this at the moment, and given your previous experience dealing with the Skreel you are well-positioned to help us stop the attack, whether through destroying the fleet – although it looks too large for that to be realistic – or stopping the signal being sent in the first place.”
Pauline and Catalina look at each other, then at you.
“Well,” says Pauline, “I really just want to go back to earth to find my surviving family. I don’t think there’s anything we’ll be able to add to the entirety of the Martian military, do you?”
“I won’t force you,” replies Abofanwe.
“You can count on me, Major,” says Catalina.
The room turns to you in expectation of your response. You’re intrigued by the chance to return to earth and wonder if you couldn’t actually do more good for the cause form there, but feel pulled to follow the call to action David has given you. Will you say you’d like to return to earth (turn to 388) or will you go with him (turn to 145)?
173
A dart lands right in your shoulder, causing you to cry out in pain. Lose 2 SPIRIT points.
The rest of the room appears empty apart from the mound, so you prepare to leave. Will you go through the door opposite the one you came in by (turn to 218) or through the door on the right-hand wall (turn to 148)?
174
“Oh, Anna,” she says, wistfully. “What an intelligent, innovative, frustrating, arrogant genius. She’s easy enough to get on with, providing you spend the whole time telling her how great she is, but there’s a lack of empathy there and so I wonder what happened to her in childhood that makes her so fearful of – well, of just helping people from the goodness of her heart. Do you know that her personal wealth is several thousand times the rest of New Gaia put together? She has the intelligence and resources to solve so many problems, and instead uses them to launch more businesses to generate more resources for herself…when will the cycle end?”
She cuts herself short and gives a nervous laugh. “Apologies, you’ve hit a nerve as you can see. I think it’s best we end this conversation here. Thank you for coming to see me, I hope it’s been helpful and I’ve enjoyed meeting you.”
David politely stands, you all thank Tucs for her time. Before you can leave, however, Catalina opens her mouth to speak. Turn to 2.
175
The receptionist explains that Lady Yatch is busy and that no-one else is available for the moment, but that you could return tomorrow.
That’s no use, so you and Catalina discuss what you should do instead. Will you go back to the safehouse to be reunited with Pauline (turn to 152), visit the CDT headquarters instead (turn to 393) or visit Catalina’s descendants (turn to 271)?
176
As she falls to the floor you see a device roll out of her hand and immediately notice the switch that she has been clutching onto. Before you can dive across the room to grab it, the bomb it is connected to detonates.
The first explosions happen in the corridor that surrounds the room you are in, almost instantly followed by the roof above you collapsing dramatically and mercilessly. You are all buried instantly.
177
It takes some time to travel this far out of the city, and the observatory appears in your vision quite a distance before you arrive there. It has been built on a rocky outcrop of the mountains north of New Gaia and has a strange sense of abandonment in contrast to the high energy and pristine maintenance you’ve been experiencing in the city.
As your transport pulls up and you emerge, you take in the impressive, stark landscape from your new vantage point. The orange hue that sits over the land is much more prominent from out here, and the busy human-centric nature of the city strikes you as an extreme contrast to the deathly and calm stillness that holds the rest of the planet in its grip.
You turn and press the buzzer on the door and within a minute it has been opened and a lady in her late 20s dressed in a fitted lab coat greets you.
“Ah, you’re here,” she says. “In you come then. Let’s get right to it. I’ve been observing the Alpha Centauri planets recently. They’re behaving erratically. But that’s to be expected I suppose. They almost lined up but then didn’t, and I think they’re going to do it properly soon. Oh, what am I saying? Of course, you’re going to want to see. I’ll show you, come on.”
She starts to shuffle away from the door, clearly expecting you to follow her, which you start to do. While you’re walking, do you explain the reason for your visit and ask her about the impending invasion (turn to 196) or do you feign an interest in what she’s talking about and hope that something useful will come up (turn to 30)?
178
You find yourself stuck to the spot, your vision of the room framing the downed form of the Surgeon, Catalina and Pauline crouched over her body on either si
de.
The controlling presence inside you suddenly kicks in, and you are unable to stop yourself from raising the weapon again, aiming at Pauline’s head and pulling the trigger.
Catalina spins round immediately upon seeing the wall painted with blood for a second time, and the two of you stare at each other in mutual shock for an instant before you raise it again and passively watch as the bullet blasts through her outstretched hand and penetrates her skull.
You can’t help yourself turning without a care and calmly, coldly leaving the house. Your next destination is to find the others who have been infected in order to carry out the next stage of the aliens’ plan to destroy humanity.
179
You take your number: 531. This might take some time. You take a seat, and after a while the person next to you starts a conversation with you. You don’t see any harm in listening to find out what you can about New Gaia, although his story seems slightly odd.
“You see,” he is saying, “when the job first came up, I thought it was for one of those candid camera comedy shows, you know? ‘Mad scientist needs security team to help with paranoia,’ pretty much. But I needed the money, so hey ho. And it was a strange one. Half the job was digging out new rooms in this dungeon, and half was hanging around in the common room waiting to be called to kill someone, which never happened.
“Well, long story short, nobody ever found the place and I thought I ought to get a real job, you know? Maybe I dreamed the whole thing. Anyway, there’s a safe in there with some cool stuff in it – or at least there was, it was always getting upgraded, you know? There was the lounge for clients – not that there ever were any, but in principle – well, more of a games room really, and the private office just off that had this lovely safe in it. It’s hard to find, but if you can get into it, you’ll probably be set for life, then you can become all rich and eccentric yourself!
“Oh, and one more thing, there’s a comms unit in there and there’s only one way to access it-”
“373!” comes the call from behind the desk.
“Oh, that’s my number,” he says, standing. “Nice to meet you, good luck with whatever you’re doing!” and he walks up to the desk.
You don’t think you can take any more of this, certainly not for the amount of time you’re going to have to wait, and so you go back out to the main corridor. Turn to 322.
180
“Oh, how interesting!” she exclaims, clasping her hands together. “How often do you think a meteorite just appears out of nowhere?” she says, staring at you expectantly. You open you mouth to hazard a guess and before you can say anything, she interrupts you. “Never! Our instruments are very precise, particularly around the solar system, and yet here we have a meteorite appearing out of nowhere.
“So, where did it come from? How did it form? How is it slowing down? There are so many questions! A colleague of mine from the university thinks that there’s a dwarf planet hidden by Pluto that exploded somehow. Ridiculous. My theory? Aliens! With cloaking technology. Heading right for us. Well, sort of, anyway. At that speed, a slight shift in trajectory and they could be heading right for us. Watch the skies is all I can say. I have a friend with an observatory out of town – Ada – and I’ve already arranged to be there when it passes to get the best view possible.”
You catch Catalina’s eye and realise that time is pressing. You thank Lady Yatch and express your hope to see her again soon, then you and Catalina leave to be reunited with Pauline at the safehouse (turn to 152).
181
You thank Deppo for his offer and shake his hand in greeting.
Deppo will accompany you from now on, giving you an additional two points to every skill check. He is not trained in combat so will hide to avoid it. He will accompany you until you return to Catalina’s family’s house.
“Come on,” says Catalina. “We should really be getting going.” You thank Tomas and his wife and promise to return, then leave with Catalina and Deppo to be reunited with Pauline (turn to 152).
182
The room you have just entered looks like a research laboratory, full of benches and paraphernalia of different kinds. Posters on the walls are of a range of planetary systems.
There are two doors leading out of this room, both on the wall directly opposite the way you came in, the left of which appears to be barred shut. Will you search through this room (turn to 23) or go through the other door (turn to 342).
183
You call out: “Yiringa!” and the terrifying lady instantly stops mid-action. You see the look on her face immediately soften and she breaks down in tears before wrapping her arms around you in a bear hug.
“Thank you so much!” she says, and then sprints off down the corridor the way you approached.
Yiringa will now be reunited with her family after having been separated from them for several months. From now on, any time you are asked to make a HEART check you may gain instant success rather than having to roll for it.
You step into her room in case there is anything of value and are filled with compassion as you conclude that nothing is here. The room’s only contents are scraps of unpleasant looking meals and a filthy mattress.
You leave and continue along the corridor. Turn to 167.
184
You try to pick the lock for a couple of minutes but it’s not working.
“Come on,” says David, “we can come back to explore once we’ve saved the human race.”
You drop your head in acknowledgement that of course he’s right and continue down the corridor (turn to 167).
185
You re-enter the reception to leave and see the two ambassadors having an animated conversation. You wonder whether it might be possible to speak to them both at the same time, but both storm off in different directions and so you decide to search for answers elsewhere.
Will you visit Fujo Eze, the Chief Officer of the Martian Navy (turn to 73), Ada Uovu, the independent scientist (turn to 50), or Anna Michaels, the technology leader (turn to 165)?
186
You search through the room, which feels like a thankless task as it is essentially empty, until you find a crowbar taped underneath the desk. You have no idea what it’s there for but you can take it with you if you like. While using this in combat you may add 1 to all of your rolls, and there may be other times when it will come in handy as well.
“Let’s go then,” says Catalina and you are about to join her when you get the sense that you could do with searching the room in a bit more detail. Will you search again (turn to 113) or will you leave and go through the door by the poker table (turn to 160)?
187
You sprint in the direction of the lift, noticing too late that a large security officer with a bristly moustache has emerged from a room and is also heading towards the lift. Too late now, you think; your only option is to try to shoulder-barge him out of the way and dive in.
Make a BODY check at difficulty 13. If you are successful, turn to 275. If you fail, turn to 151.
188
“Well,” Major Abofanwe says. “We’ve talked to everyone now. What do you think we should do to defend ourselves against this threat?”
Will you suggest that you lead a team into orbit to see off the aliens before they reach the inner planets (turn to 101), that you should do nothing and trust that the aliens are actually coming in peace rather than to invade (turn to 353), or would you like to accuse a specific person of helping the aliens (turn to 67)?
189
Flinging the door open, you run across a room filled with beds and sofas, then throw yourself through the door in the left-hand wall. Add 5 seconds to your TIME score and turn to 338.
190
The door opens to reveal another corridor, which immediately turns to the left, continues for some distance and then turns to the left. You can’t see Ada ahead and the sound of your breathing and footsteps fills your senses, stopping from being able to take in anything other than your focu
s on catching up with her.
The corridor rounds another left-hand turn, then after some distance takes you to the left again and presents you with a T-junction. There is no sign of Ada in either direction. Will you run to the left (turn to 84) or the right (turn to 21)?
191
Make a HEART check at difficulty 17. If you succeed, turn to 314. If you fail, turn to 51.
192
You tell him that you are here working on behalf of Ada, but he is not convinced. He tries to insist on escorting you back to the surface to get approval from her to allow you to be here and refuses to change his mind. Eventually you admit to yourself that he is not going to let you through and so you are forced to fight him. Record the codeword Memnonia and defend yourself.
Kwame
BODY 6
SPIRIT 7
If you win, turn to 357.
193
The guards look at each other and then back at you with suspicion.
“Give us a moment,” one of them says, and they walk right up to the gate, their eyes fixed on you and their hands over their mouths to muffle their conversation.
After a minute or so, the one who spoke steps forward to you while the other opens the gate. “In you go,” he says as they let you in. Turn to 302.
194
The door opens to reveal a stark, empty room. At first glance there is nothing here at all. Will you take some time to search the room in case there is something here of interest after all (turn to 104) or will you retrace your steps and go through the door you walked past instead (turn to 367)?
195
You walk through the door and start the walk down eighteen long flights of steps. As you descend, your path crosses those of several doctors and you manage to avoid their gaze by ducking into doorways and hurrying past while they’re reviewing notes.
While walking between the tenth and ninth floors you end up walking alongside a patient, who recognises your face from the newscasts. She is intently interested in the technology that earth was using at the time that The Altimer was launched, and is fascinated with the idea that you have been on board a ship without dozens of crew members, her only experience of space flight having been as a passenger on board an interplanetary ferry.
New Gaia Page 8