New Gaia

by Samuel Isaacson

  Pleased with your find, you leave the room and go through the door by the poker table (turn to 160).

  362

  While tapping at keys in an attempt to access the system you inadvertently press the wrong key, causing a loud alarm to sound.

  “Uh oh,” says Catalina and with good reason as 20 seconds later the stained-glass door opens and two security guards run in, followed quickly by a third. You each defend yourself against one of them.

  Security guard

  BODY 6

  SPIRIT 8

  If you win, you leave this room through the stained-glass door (turn to 64).

  363

  The corridor leads forwards, then round a U-turn to the left and down for some distance before turning to the right and heading up two steps. Spyholes fill the right-hand wall for some distance before you stumble down two more steps and spin round to your right to find a door on your right-hand side. Add 15 seconds to your TIME score.

  If your TIME is now 140 seconds or more, turn immediately to 142. If not, you fall into the door and throw it open (turn to 150).

  364

  Make a BODY check at difficulty 12. If you succeed, turn to 321. If you fail, turn to 392.

  365

  The door opens easily, and you breathe a sigh of relief as the three of you enter and click it shut carefully behind you.

  You find yourself in a small, bleak entrance hallway with a door directly opposite the one you came in by. You try this but it is locked, and you are hesitant to go outside again now.

  Just then, you hear the footsteps approaching from outside. Will you duck into the left corner (turn to 18) or the right corner (turn to 395)?

  366

  You dive to the right and keep on running, dodging the crowds of tourists armed with shopping bags and the jets of smells and sounds designed to attract you with sensory stimulation. At some point you think you may like to return here to relax, but right now it’s intense as you leap from one gap between two groups of people to another, constantly trying to speed up.

  After several minutes of running north, you glance behind you and see that your pursuers are still there as you arrive at a crossroads (turn to 311).

  367

  The door opens into yet another corridor, which bends round to your left. You follow it for a long time until it turns to the right, and then to the left, and then to the right, and then to the left again.

  “Whoever designed this needed to go on a different creativity course,” says Catalina.

  A little further along the corridor you find a door in the left-hand wall. Will you go through this door (turn to 249) or continue straight on (turn to 167)?

  368

  You enter a room containing a desk behind which sit two smiling people, surrounded by screens boasting themselves to be “Your personal virtual tour guide in New Gaia”. The queues for the desk are very long and so you walk up to one of the screens and tap a couple of options until it shows you information about the city centre.

  The screen explains that the centre is laid out in a grid, with the hospital in the south-east corner of the small centre. The university is immediately to the east, and a shuttle stop just behind the university building is the fastest way to get around New Gaia. Looking at the map, it’s not difficult to see that if you leave the hospital by the main entrance on the ground floor and go north for one block and then turn east, you’ll find the shuttle stop in question.

  Taking on board this information, you leave the room. Turn to 322.

  369

  Instinctively you duck to the floor, holding your hand to your face and breathing as little as possible. You crawl across the room to the table and spot a switch, which you flick and the hissing dies down.

  If you have the codeword Memnonia, turn to 61. If not, turn to 143.

  370

  You carefully look around until you’re certain no-one’s watching you and reach out furtively to grab one of the bars. As your hand closes around it, a much larger one closes around yours and you look up to see a large security officer looming over you. How did you not see him?

  “What are you doing?” he asks, before firmly but gently marching you out of the café and into a doctor’s office. He explains what he found you doing.

  The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is quick to come and almost impossible to overcome. By that evening you have been transferred to a prison cell, and your future is all but sealed.

  371

  Through the door you find yourself back in the small common room with the bookshelf in it. Frustrated with your lack of progress when you really do need to be getting a move on, you go through the door you first entered this room by. You follow the corridor back round to the door you didn’t go through and open it (turn to 147).

  372

  The receptionist recognises you and shows you through to Lady Yatch’s office.

  “Back so soon?” she says with a smile, before immediately pushing you back through the door, saying, “Let’s get over to the lab to see what more fun we can have together!”

  As you’re walking, you and Catalina explain the situation and that you were wondering what insights she might have had based on her recent research activities. She suddenly stops walking, throwing her eyes to the ceiling and silently moving her lips as if recounting the last six months to herself and actively analysing it for anything you might find of interest.

  Eventually, she speaks again. “Well,” she says, “there are always interesting and unexplained phenomena. That’s the fun of research, you see! You find something that shouldn’t be there, then find a way to explain why it is there – and then, all of a sudden, it explains everything and helps you to create new theories! Research is wonderful, isn’t it?”

  You think you are going to have to focus her attention to get anything useful from her. Will you ask her about her recent observations on Mars (turn to 266) or in space (turn to 352)?

  373

  You follow the corridor round to the left, which continues for some time and then winds round to the right before making a U-turn to the left and ending at a door. You can hear raucous conversation from the other side so hesitate.

  “Maybe we should go back to that door,” suggests Catalina in a half-whisper. David shrugs his shoulders. Will you return and go through the door instead (turn to 147) or boldly walk through the door ahead of you (turn to 58)?

  374

  Make a HEART check at difficulty 12. If you succeed, turn to 117. If you fail, turn to 192.

  375

  You sit quietly and close your eyes, as if trying to relax, although the thoughts running through your mind are filled with guilt, shame and fear at the fact that you may prove to be a danger to the only people alive who have any idea what you are going through. Record the codeword Lacus and turn to 298.

  376

  You emerge into the street and are immediately reminded of your new reality, stranded in a futuristic Martian ex-colony. The street is entirely pedestrianised thanks to the shuttle tubes that criss-cross in complex patterns above your head, between the bridges that join the indescribably tall buildings. The gaps between the skyscrapers seem too thin, only barely wide enough to accommodate the odd emergency services vehicle that zips through the crowd every so often.

  You’re aware that Catalina and Pauline were due to visit you so it would seem sensible to try and find them, but where might they be in this still-foreign city? You think that, broadly speaking, their temporary lodgings were right in the centre of the city, north-west of the hospital, so should be able to intercept them while they travel if you head in that direction.

  You are standing on the south side of the street with the hospital door right behind you. Directly opposite you is an imposing office building, and you think that you spot a smartly dressed man staring intently at you, mouthing something. As you look, he starts moving towards you and two people on either side of him make the same movement.

  The incoming threat needs a fl
ash decision; you’re going to have to make a run for it.

  The hospital building behind you extends out to your left for some distance and you can see roads splitting off to the north, and to your right it ends at a T-junction with a large university building facing you.

  Will you run to your left (turn to 274) or to your right (turn to 103)?

  377

  The door opens, revealing a room that looks identical to the one you woke up in, although this one has no external window. A bed juts out from the left-hand wall, flanked by two armchairs and a panel of screens and dials. The opposite wall plays host to a basin and several drawers.

  It doesn’t look like there’s anything out of the ordinary here, but you take a moment to search around. The drawers are all locked and the room has been freshly cleaned, although you do find a cheap earring in the shape of a fish on the bedside table, which you may take with you if you like.

  When you are ready to leave, turn to 210.

  378

  You run down the alley after her, closing the distance with every stride despite your exhaustion. As you dive at her feet to tackle her to the floor, you feel the ground behind you erupt and you are both thrown forward.

  Ada begins to laugh again. “It’s happening!” she screams in jubilation. “You’re too late! Here they come!” She bends her head back and stares up at the sky, and you follow her gaze.

  The first thing you see is countless black shapes that end up looking like an entire city descending on New Gaia, sending beams of something towards the ground and causing explosions all around you. The size of each one of the approaching ships is enormous, and as they touch the edge of the dome you see the drones starting to shift around until the net is entirely broken and the air around you begins to disperse.

  You think for a moment that you are going to die of asphyxiation but your lapse in concentration takes its toll as Ada, apparently unaffected by it, knocks you unconscious with a powerful blow. You die before you wake up.

  379

  You feel like you would never have enough time to truly search this space. There are so many piles of potentially important documents and odd trinkets around that you have difficulty knowing where to focus your attention.

  Lying on a bookshelf you spot a battery and a multi-tool, both of which you can take if you wish.

  You also notice that the microscope on her desk seems slightly out of place, as if it does not play a useful function in Ada’s day-to-day activities. Just then, Ada returns to the room.

  Now, if you have the codeword Cebrenia, turn to 120. If not, turn to 279.

  380

  The door opens out into a corridor that immediately bends round to your left in a U-turn and up two steps. Periodically along the left-hand wall are spyholes, enabling people here to look into the room containing the dome without being seen by those inside. Catalina and David both approach the spyholes and look through while you follow the corridor along its length until it turns a corner to the left.

  As you turn the corner, someone standing there sees you and says, “Hello, is that Jack? It’s me, Kwame. Wait, hang on, you’re not Jack! Who are you, and what are you doing here?”.

  Will you walk towards him and launch an attack (turn to 109), try to convince him you’re here on official business (turn to 374) or quickly step back and put your eye to one of the spyholes (turn to 59)?

  381

  You walk steadily up to the gate and then leap at the guards, who are well prepared. One of them takes on Pauline and Catalina, and you will have to fight the other one.

  Farm guard

  BODY 7

  SPIRIT 9

  If you win, you enter through the gate (turn to 302).

  382

  As soon as you make the ask, a handsome man around Catalina’s age steps into the room.

  “I thought you’d never ask!” he says, taking a seat at the table without waiting to be invited.

  “Deppo!” says Tomas, who then turns back to you. “This is our grandson. He is brave and accomplished and always keen to help.”

  Deppo looks to the ground as if embarrassed by the attention, and says he’ll accompany you wherever you want to go and help out however he can.

  You’re struck for a moment by the risk this young man is taking, and you’re not sure you can lay this undeserved burden on him. Do you politely decline his offer (turn to 309) or do you accept his offer (turn to 181)?

  383

  At the mention of the ASR, he visibly tenses. “Those communists have been doing everything they can to cripple humanity at a systemic level. They’re now providing every citizen in every ASR state basic income, I mean literally going out of their way to discourage people from contributing to the economy. Tourism is down, exports are down, interplanetary travel is down – just speak to Anna Michaels about the personal impact it’s had on her. The takeover of her infrastructure businesses across ASR states has reduced her personal wealth drastically, resulting in unavoidable redundancies in UDE states and employment levels dropping to near zero in ASR states.”

  Out of the corner of your eye, you see Catalina about to open her mouth in defence of the ASR.

  “Thank you, Mr Grakler,” says David quickly, “time is running short.”

  “My pleasure,” he replies. “I only hope I have helped.”

  Will you reply that he has been very helpful and wish him every success in the challenges that lie ahead (turn to 227) or will you express your frustration that his personal biases have stopped him from being helpful (turn to 360)?

  384

  Both of the ambassadors operate out of the same building, so you make your way across the centre of New Gaia. On the way, David explains that the UDE has its roots in historic prosperity; most American, European and South Asian countries united following a generation of economic difficulties to improve trade and access a larger workforce. The ASR is far more powerful and operates as a single bloc spanning from Africa, across the middle east and into northern Asia. New Gaia became part of the ASR for a time and then withdrew out of a desire to act as more neutral, so there are odd relationships with the whole of earth.

  You are fast-tracked through reception when you arrive, and you are given priority by the ambassadors’ chiefs of staff. Will you meet with Paul Grakler from the UDE (turn to 356) or Lauren Tucs from the ASR (turn to 114)?

  385

  With the security guard lying on the floor your attention is drawn to the door he was guarding. It looks as bland as every other door down here, but this is the first one you’ve seen to be guarded so are sure there must be something of interest behind it, a view shared by Catalina and David.

  The three of you go through the door (turn to 9).

  386

  You enter the lift and as you go to punch the button that says “ground”, notice that the lowest it goes is to the third floor. You hit 3 and the doors close.

  Within a couple of seconds, the lift has reached the third floor and you emerge into a corridor looking not unlike the one you just left. Turn to 17.

  387

  You are not interested in going back down to the ground floor, so you could climb the staircase that leads up to the next level if you like (turn to 28). Otherwise, there is a doorframe in the east wall leading to a small empty dining area which doesn’t interest you, so you can choose to go through the door in the north wall if you haven’t been there before (turn to 99) or through the door in the south wall (turn to 209).

  388

  The disappointment on David’s face is clearly visible. Lose 1 HEART point.

  “I urge you to reconsider,” he says, earnestly. As the only one who has overcome this enemy, you would do a great deal to build morale among the troops.”

  If you say that you are absolutely sure and would like to return to earth, turn to 295. If you say that you will change your mind and stay on Mars to help out after all, turn to 145.

  389

  You start to talk about the threat that the aliens pose to
New Gaia and that the place could be overrun by purple blobs with teeth if she doesn’t do something now.

  “Give me a moment,” she says, and taps her comms unit on her shoulder. “Security to staff room,” she says calmly. For a moment, you think that she’s about to send them to pull the nurse out kicking and screaming and then your shoulders slump and they arrive and she asks them to escort you back to your bed.

  “I’ll just sit here,” says the security officer, sitting between you and the door. You know when you’re beaten and allow your head to fall violently onto the pillow. Before you know it, you’re falling to sleep (turn to 34).

  390

  You climb into the private car that has pulled up to the door and get in with Pauline. As you leave, you wave goodbye fondly to Catalina and her family, and you find yourself glued to the window at the impressive sight of New Gaia receding into the distance.

  The wait at the port is less enjoyable, and you are grateful to eventually board and leave the planet. After having travelled for about three hours, Pauline points out of the window at some movement against the backdrop of the darkness, and it doesn’t take you long to realise that you are helplessly witnessing the invasion of Mars.

  Several hours later you find yourself incapable of removing yourself from the window, and it is only because you are staring so intently that you see the hundreds of shapes that just surrounded Mars growing in size and then suddenly hurtling past you towards earth.

  You collapse back in the chair, unsure of your future other than that by the time you reach earth there will be nothing of humanity left.

  391

  You climb the stairs cautiously. The flight ends at the first floor and opens out onto a balcony, which stretches out across the full width of the building. Looking from the top of the stairs to the other side of the house, you see two sets of double transparent doors to your left.

  You sneak forward carefully and peek through the first set of doors and see a small dining area with a table large enough for six people. You creep across the doorway and see no-one that way. You can’t see clearly through the second doors but through their translucence you can hear a conversation going on and think you can see at least two human-sized shapes.