New Gaia

by Samuel Isaacson

  She leaves you at the fifth floor. If you have the codeword Casius, turn immediately to 115. If not, read on.

  As you are approaching the second floor a security officer emerges and also recognises you.

  “You’re meant to be on the eighteenth, aren’t you?” he demands aggressively. “Shall we take you back to bed?”

  Do you run away from the security officer (turn to 288) or allow him to lead you back to your bed (turn to 34)?

  196

  The moment you try to bring up the subject, she simply stops everything she’s doing, staring into the distance. Her eyes dart around as if she is trying to work out what you’re asking about, and then she turns to you.

  “I’m sorry you’re not interested,” she says, beginning to walk back to the front door. “My work is not for everyone. I’ve not seen anything I think will help you. Speak to Anna Michaels if you haven’t already. She’s a bit more connected than I am. Thank you for visiting.”

  At this, she ushers you out of the front door and closes it behind you. You, Catalina and David look at one another with exasperated expressions; under any other circumstances her eccentric manner would be amusing but you’re aware that time is rapidly running out. Record the codeword Cebrenia.

  If you have not visited them already, you may go to the Chief of the Martian Navy (turn to 73), either of the ambassadors (turn to 384) or Anna Michaels (turn to 165). If you have already visited all of them, David is asking you to conclude based on your conversations (turn to 188).

  197

  The door opens into a corridor that continues for a short distance before making a U-turn to your left. Just on the bend there must be a motion detector, because a dart suddenly flies out at you. You must lose 3 SPIRIT points unless you successfully make a BODY check at difficulty 13.

  You follow the corridor until it ends at a door, and you walk through (turn to 71).

  198

  “Right!” he barks, a huge smile on his face. “Well then, we only have one option then. There are three prominent earthborn currently on Mars who could be responsible, and so we need to show that we care about the situation enough to deal with them.

  “Firstly, there’s Benjamin Joel the cult leader. He has many followers here and has been sending random messages into deep space for as long as I can remember. Then there’s Sandra Pablita the UDE interplanetary secretary. She’s always up to something. Or we’ve recently spotted this guy Leo Liren, a small-time criminal who’s been happily floating under the radar but I can tell has got a hidden agenda. Which do you think is the culprit?”

  Do you say Benjamin Joel (turn to 60), Sandra Pablita (turn to 208) or Leo Liren (turn to 154)?

  199

  While fiddling with the door you manage to get absolutely nowhere and also trap your finger in the lock somehow, twisting it painfully in an unnatural direction (lose 1 BODY point).

  Frustrated, the three of you go back through the door and go through the other one (turn to 290).

  200

  You pick up the weapon and strap on its accompanying harness, getting comfortable with your new attachment.

  If at any point you are offered the chance to aim specifically at something (e.g. to take a headshot), you can use the Rutter-342 by taking 50 away from the section number. Turn to 354.

  201

  You search around the room and end up more confused than anything else. Half of the objects in here are facsimiles with no purpose other than to look like their counterparts in Ada’s working space above ground, although it’s clear she does the work she cares most deeply about down here. That said, you still have no idea exactly what that is.

  After spending several minutes searching, the three of you admit defeat and you prepare to leave with nothing. Lose 1 SPIRIT point. You leave through the stained-glass door (turn to 64).

  202

  You wait until it is dark and try to climb over the wall of the farm as quietly as possible out of sight of the guards. Make a BODY and MIND check at difficulty 20. If you succeed, turn to 302. If you fail, turn to 169.

  203

  You sprint forwards as fast as you can, physically feeling your pursuers closing in you, then spot a large group of tourists gathering around a building on your left. You dive into the middle of the crowd, worming your way through and out of the other side. Without stopping moving you quickly glance behind you and breathe relievedly for an instant as you don’t see them emerge.

  Continuing straight ahead, you spot Catalina and Pauline arriving at a crossroads and you call to them. A little surprised and not hiding the relief from their faces, they hurriedly bustle you away from the street and into a side-street.

  “Thank goodness you found us!” Catalina says as you’re catching your breath. “From the sounds of things, we’re all in a bit of trouble and we were a bit worried that the hospital wasn’t actually the safest place for you.”

  “Unbelievable!” adds Pauline scornfully. “Who would want to kill us just because we’ve been to sleep for a while?”

  “Well,” interrupts Catalina, “we don’t know they want to actually kill us-”

  “No, but let’s take it as a prudent assumption, shall we?”

  Catalina nods mutely and looks up at you sheepishly. “We’ve secured a safehouse, that’s why we didn’t come to you sooner,” she explains. It’s not far from here.”

  Cautiously, the three of you emerge into the main road and they lead you through a series of backstreets to the north, up a fire escape and through a nondescript, grey door. Turn to 170.

  204

  The corridor continues for some time before turning to the left. Hanging on the wall at the corner is a painting that looks at first glance very much like The Altimer, and you pause for a moment to wonder how it got there so soon after you landed.

  There aren’t any obvious clues and so you follow the corridor round to the left. After several paces it turns left again and ends in a door.

  Will you go through the door (turn to 194), or will you search in this short stretch of corridor for anything that seems out of the ordinary (turn to 333)?

  205

  Make a BODY check at difficulty 13. If you succeed, turn to 106. If you fail, turn to 341.

  206

  You head towards the lift and notice that there’s a long queue, so decide to take the stairs.

  Walking up the multiple flights takes a very long time, and when you emerge you realise how quickly things move in a hospital. You don’t recognise any of the patients here or any of the staff. In fact, there’s something that feels a little off about the whole corridor…and that’s when you notice that you’re on the seventeenth floor instead!

  You head up one more flight of stairs and find yourself back outside the room you were in. It looks like it’s now empty and so you have a quick scout around but don’t find anything of interest. You ask a couple of staff members if they’ve seen anything, but their shift patterns seem to mean that the ones you’re speaking to haven’t been in the hospital for more than two hours and so they’ve not seen anything.

  Frustrated at your wasted trip, you return to the ground floor. Lose 2 SPIRIT points. Do you now try at the reception desk (turn to 122), or do you leave and go to the hotel bar (turn to 116), The Worker’s Rest (turn to 130) or the farms (turn to 39)?

  207

  You know about the hidden door and so push it open again and into a research laboratory. You run across it and through the left-hand door. Add 5 seconds to your TIME score and turn to 226.

  208

  “Yes,” the COMN says, thoughtfully. He spins around and brings up a large screen on the wall showing what you presume is a live feed of a lady in a meeting room.

  “There she is,” he says, pointing at her, then he touches his ear to open a communication channel. “Code Sierra November, Sierra Papa.”

  The two of you stand watching the screen for a moment and then the figure of Sandra Pablita suddenly slumps to the floor.

  “Ther
e we go,” says the COMN, “job done. Thank you for your help. We’ve done all we can here, and I wish you all the best with your future endeavours.”

  Unsure of what to think about what you’ve just witnessed you make your way out of the headquarters. Record the codeword Palus and turn to 228.

  209

  You have entered a large kitchen area. Two members of catering staff are preparing a meal as you approach, and the moment they see you they drop what they were doing and hold their hands up.

  “Please don’t hurt us!” one of them says as they both step back from the work surfaces to indicate how little they want you to conclude they might grab one of the knives lying on the side.

  While you are quickly looking around, Pauline asks them what food they have available and they show you a cupboard full of energy bars. You may take up to three of these and consume one per section that does not contain combat or a skill check to restore up to 4 lost SPIRIT points.

  “Right, what can you tell us?” demands Pauline. They explain that Saltori is in charge and that they think he’s upstairs. They warn you not to go into the other room on this floor, a living room, because that’s where the tough guys spend their time.

  Warning them to be quiet, you choose where to go next. This room is L-shaped, with a dining area set into the north-east section. You can leave this area into the living area they warned you against if you’ve not been there before (turn to 99) or onto the landing area (turn to 316).

  210

  If you have the codeword Casius, turn immediately to 163. If not, turn to 230.

  211

  As quickly as you can, you pull your weapon up to your eye and take aim.

  Do you know how to aim your weapon specifically at her head? If so, follow the instructions you were given when you found out how to do this. If you do not know how to aim at her head, you instinctively target her chest, intending to do as much damage as possible.

  Make a combined MIND, BODY and SPIRIT check at difficulty 28. If you succeed, turn to 283. If you fail, turn to 168.

  212

  You are barely opening the trapdoor at the top of the steps when you hear the explosion behind you and are thrown forwards across the room, the heat from an enraged fireball singeing the hairs on the back of your neck and leaving you helpless and bruised on the floor. Lose 5 SPIRIT points.

  You look up and see David and Catalina both carefully getting to their feet and the three of you limp towards each other.

  “Come on,” says David. “We should get out of here.”

  You follow the path out of the observatory quickly and carefully as the room begins to catch fire behind you. Within a couple of minutes, you are outside and making your way to a safe distance from the observatory.

  If you have the codeword Palus, turn to 262. If not, turn to 350.

  213

  The door opens onto another corridor, which leads off to the right. You follow it for quite some time, wondering who would design and build such a strange complex into a mountain and come to the conclusion that its structure must have been dictated by the nature of the rocks it is built within.

  The corridor eventually turns a corner to the left, and after some distance presents you with a door on your left-hand side. The corridor ahead immediately bends round to the left. Will you go through the door (turn to 147) or continue along the corridor (turn to 373)?

  214

  You start down the road and see a shuttle station on your right-hand side. Perhaps that would be a good place to hide? You sidestep into the crowd queuing in its vicinity and hear an unfamiliar whoomph sound that you think must be the shuttle.

  Suddenly and without warning, you find yourself pushing people out of the way, ducking inside the entrance and jumping over the low fence that holds people away from the tube containing the shuttle.

  Cries of “Hey!”, “What are you doing?” and “Look out!” ring out around the station and you find yourself paying no heed to them as you involuntarily throw your body into the middle of the open tube in front of you.

  You stare back at the crowd, an expression of fear plastered across your face, and don’t even see the shuttle as it hurtles down the line and into you, killing you instantly.

  215

  The body of the woman lying at your feet, you step into her room to search for anything of value and immediately conclude that nothing is here. She has clearly been kept here as an abused prisoner. The room’s only contents are scraps of unpleasant looking meals and a filthy mattress.

  With a sense of sadness for her along with curiosity as to how she ended up in that position you leave and continue along the corridor. Turn to 167.

  216

  She collapses to the floor, and as her friends swarm around her your arms are suddenly grabbed by a set of unseen hands from behind.

  “We don’t want your trouble here, thank you,” says a voice in your ear, firmly but politely. You are marched up the stairs and pushed outside. Catalina and Pauline follow you out, so you will have to go somewhere else. Will you go to the hospital (turn to 90), the bar on the top floor of the hotel (turn to 116) or the farms (turn to 39)?

  217

  When the transport arrives at Ada’s location, you step out and start walking in her direction. Three police officers are holding her down, while two more are working to push back the crowd that has gathered. The moment Ada sees the three of you approaching, she begins to laugh.

  “So, you found me?” she says. “Not the toughest challenge I could set I’ll grant you, and yet I feel my hand is forced. I’d say I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but I’m really not.”

  What happens next is beyond description. A subtle flick of her wrist and an energy pulse explodes out of Ada’s body in every direction, sending the police officers surrounding her flying head over heels into the surrounding buildings. She turns to run down a gap in the buildings left clear by the police officers’ tactics.

  Will you shout after her to convince her to stop (turn to 191) or will you chase after her and grapple her to the floor (turn to 263)?

  218

  The door reveals a corridor, well-lit and painted the same bland colour you saw in the first corridor. You follow it for several paces before spotting a strange symbol on the left-hand wall in the shape of four concentric circles and a line drawn across it in a diagonal.

  It doesn’t make any sense and so you continue for some distance until it makes a U-turn to the right and then presents you with a door in the left-hand wall, which you walk through (turn to 336).

  219

  Make a MIND check at difficulty 14. If you succeed, turn to 146. If you fail, turn to 362.

  220

  You run after her, feeling the heat of the observatory slowly catching fire behind you. As you dive at her feet to tackle her to the floor, the ground behind you erupts 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.

  221

  The corridor continues for some distance and then turns to the right, immediately ending in a door. More confident this time that you are hot on Ada’s tail, David reaches it first and barges it open (turn to 11).

  222

  At your mention of the UDE, she visibly stiffens before controlling h
er response.

  “It’s fair to say that we have our ideological differences,” she says, “but their biggest problem is their lack of ability to understand – no, not even understand, they don’t even try to listen most of the time. Can you believe that they’re actually trying to reward Anna Michaels for dodging paying any tax at all on the technology she’s selling? As if she needs any more money when so many of her hardest workers have so little!”

  Do you express your strong agreement with her (turn to 239) or do you offer a tactful observation that those people might be worse off if Michaels wasn’t giving them employment (turn to 301)?

  223

  You sprint away from the room and follow the corridor round to the right. It continues for quite some distance, passing a door on the right-hand side before turning to the right, then the left, then the right, then the left again before taking you down an even longer stretch. Add 30 seconds to your TIME score.

  At the end of the corridor there is a door on the right-hand side, which you burst through. Will you turn to the left here (turn to 284) or the right (turn to 57)?

  224

  You leave the colourful crossroads behind you and navigate your way as quickly as you can through the crowds as they shuffle across your path. A shuttle tube hangs lower than some others ahead of you at second-storey level, and you catch sight of your pursuers still behind you in its perfectly polished windows. You don’t stop running.

  Ahead is another crossroads, this one markedly less flamboyant. As you reach it, you pick up a sharp movement to your right and see an aggressive-looking man start to make his way towards you. Do you run forward, across the crossroads and into an area signposted as “Earthborn Corner” (turn to 49), or do you head to your left, in the direction of an area that looks a bit less touristy (turn to 203)?

  225

  The instant you start to laugh, the group quietens down and turns to stare at you. Before you are able to say anything witty, a large lady steps forward. Towering over you, she says, “Who are you then?”