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pg.41 heavenly bodies intersect. Although the resulting collision is not physical in nature, due to the insubstantial properties of the alter-orb, it nonetheless precipitates utter chaos and destroys all life on Borg, except for the Lau themselves and certain portions of their habitat deep in the Borgian rifts (see Chapter 4). Survival is not guaranteed, however. In order for them to live through the catastrophic energy storm, the Lau themselves and that certain preparations must be made well in advance. These involve assembling a number of sacred objects - the so-called elements - which are employed in a ritual recre- ation of the universe in its proper image. The ritual is said to be performed in a sacred cavern deep in the rifts. I have never seen the cavern or its alleged contents. But I have observed apparent transmogrifications of Lau individ- uals from corporeal form into water, fire and other states. (Note: As I was the sole non-Lau witness, and given that my profound astonishment precluded a precise recording of my observations, this may be taken as a subjective field report of empirically observed phenomena, although, I humbly assert, something more that mere anecdote.) These transformations were apparently made possible by draw- ing energy from certain stones. Could these have been the elements alluded to previously? At the time of my visit with the Lau, they believed that the grand event, the collision of Borg and the alter-orb, Garbo, was imminent. As one of the more garrulous elders pg.42 informed me, "The Creator wears a mask" when the cataclysm is nigh. The old Lau was an habitual user of Magic, the psychotropic narcotic unique to Borg (see Appendix B), and may not have been entirely reliable in an objective sense. "The Creator wears a mask" apparently refers to the chief constellation in the Borgian firmament, called the Crreator (or, sometimes, Garbo). The image imposed on the stars of the Creator is that of an ancient sage, his white hair and beard blowing in the solar wind, with arms outstretched in offering. In his left hand is a golden star, in his right, a blue star, and his forehead is marked by a red dwarf, equidistant from the two, which pulses blood-red, especially in the low sky where the constellation resides for most of the year. It seems that during the latter part of 4999, the Creator's face had begun to be occluded by a sort of celestial shadow. Indeed, the constellation looked rather dim to me, and the forehead stone seemed to shine bloodier each morning, but I was unable to distinguish any kind of shadow. Of course, I wasn't given to the use of Magic, either. My garrulous friend also informed me that his people were worried because the various diruptions and pressureds brought on by the gold rush had made it difficult for them to maintain control over the elements. Some of them con- fessed to deep fear that the elements would not be assem- bled in time to avert the end of the Lau race and of the planet Borg. pg.43 When the Federation mandate of 4999 forced me to leave Borg, the Lau were in a state of deep trepidation, almost of shock. pg.44 Riggs said, "Thank you, Druella". Then the young Terran sat thoughtfully for a while listening to the broken hum of worn-out machinery in the colony's gut and pondering what he had read. Abruptly, he said, "Druella, would you open that panel for me?" "Certainly Delbert," the perky voice replied. Then Riggs stood and put on a heavy plastacot shirt, slipped his pass- card into the pocket, and left the little room in D Module. pg.47 Another meteor whacks the hull; a hollow boom shudders through the overgrown hydroponic beds, the domed administration module, the empty residential modules, and slowly fades. In its wake, structural stresses clang and groan in the pipes dripping rusted water and machine fluids. One maitenance bay attracts the roving intelligence with sighns of activity. The mind peers in at a lone, greasy Terran in overalls, working on a broken-down pump. He looks miserable. One of his fingers is bleeding, and there's blood on the rungs leading up to the hydroponic carrot beds on the agricultural level. The Terran stares at the gear assembly, trying to remember how he got it out of the pump. He keeps trying to tap it into place that's not quite its size. A pale insect scuttles along a puddle of dirty oil and disappears under a locker. Puzzled, the mind probes deeper into the colony. Where are the ones it seeks? Abruptly, it finds them - in the shuttle bay. A bug-eyed shuttle had just come in from Borg. Amid guffaws and wise cracks from lounging Gaks, six small golden beings clambered down the ladder. One of them carried a document. A Terran wearing a slouch hat and gray mask stood with his hands on his hips and regarded the group with amusement. pg.48 "I understand you carry some sort of ultimatum, eh? Destruction! Oh, my goodness. And you want to tell the Federation that you people are being abused by this Mulcahy and his Breakers? What - tortured, killed, kidnapped, sold into slavery?" He shook his head. "That's tough. I feel for you." Motioning to a pair of smirking Gaks, he said, "Tell you what. Follow these gents topside, and you can present your grievances to the head megalope, Mr. Nathan Grey." The Gaks led the Lau to a wide lift. They rode on level up to a transfer bay, then filed through a hatch into a corridor. The intelligence began to worry, they were headed straight for the Gak station. Without warning the Gaks in the station turned on the Lau, beating them and then tying them up and loading them on the Gakmobile. But one of the six escaped and fled down the corridor. Two steps ahead of the Gaks, the golden being ran into the Breaker bar. A single mutant followed and beat the little creature savagely, then strolled out contentedly, leaving the Lau unconscious on the blood-stained dance floor. All the time, the Breakers looked on respectfully. They knew better than to get in a Gak's way. Hurt and reeling, the all-seeing mind pulls back. The great eyes blink outside the colony hull as the luminous, bubble- like cloud begins to dissipate. Nearby, the golden planet, a solar system unto itself, majestically orbits its two suns in seeming tranaquility. But the shining eyes, knowing where to look, spot the sinister shadow dogging Borg. The golden planet's curse! It seems closer than before, and has almost totally accluded the benign constellation known as Garbo - the Creator. The malevolent shadow has come on again to engulf and ravage the golden planet. Only a holy Lau, one of the seven Garbo shaman, can perform the ritual ceremony that will save Borg. Within hours, it will be too late! HOW TO TALK TO BREAKERS pg.63 You enter a would of BREAKERS by typing on your computer keyboard. You can type whenever text appears on the screen and you are ready to respond. Your decisions and your dialogue with characters will determine how the novel unfolds. BREAKERS responds to a wide variety of commands. Some common ones are explained below, but you'll discover others as you begin play. In fact Electronic Novels recognize a vocabulary of over 1200 words. Many synonyms of com- mands are possible. For example, "get" works as well as "take", and "rub" is a synonym for "touch". For ease of typing, some commands can be abbreviated. You can also type commands in either upper or lower case. When you are finished typing a command, press the RETURN key. You can also take a greater part in the action by talking to characters and evaluating their responses. A note on how to use dialogue follows the discussion of commands. The universe of BREAKERS is constantly transforming itself. Even if you do nothing, characters will patrol Nimbus Colony, monsters will prowl the Borgian seas, the cosmic weather will continue to change. Occasionally, the text being displayed will be longer than your screen. Instead of "scrolling" information out of sight faster that you can read it, BREAKERS will pause and instruct you to Press any key to continue. When you press a key, the rest of the text will display on you screen. pg.64 COMMANDS AGAIN: Repeats you last command, just as though you had typed it again. After this command, you must still press RETURN. BOOKMARK: Retains your progress in the novel by making a copy of your current position on a formatted diskette. Later you can resume the novel from that point with the RESUME NOVEL command. See the Special Features section of the com- puter reference card packaged with you novel diskette for details. CLOSE (object): Tries to close the object you specify. DROP (object): Frees you of an object you are carrying. EXAMINE or EX (object): Checks the characteristics of an object - works like LOOK FOLLOW or FOL (person): Allows you to follow a character who is going his won way. But be careful; some characters don't like to be followd. GET (object) Tries to pick up the object you specify. Prduces the same effect as TAKE. GIVE (object) TO (person): Giving objects to characters can be risky, innocuous, or crucial. You can also use this form: GIVE (person) (object). HEALTH: Checks your physical condition. Are you injured? Just stunned? HIT (object or person) WITH (object): This and commands like it exercise your aggressive tendencies. INVENTORY or INV: Tells you which objects you've collected and are currently carrying. LOOK (direction): Describes what lies in a particular direction from your position. pg.65 LOOK AT (object): Describes the features of an object - works like EXAMINE. NORTH and others Allows you to move in the direction you specify. You can also abbreviate directions (N,S,E,W, etc.). GO TO (object) and WALK (direction) produce the same result. OPEN (object) Tries to open the object you specify. PAUSE NOVEL: Halts the changing world of the novel as long as you wish. You can resume the action by pressing any key. To stop the novel in a fster way, see the Using Special Keys section of the computer reference card packaged with your diskette. PLAY: Lets you indulge yourself with songs and musical instruments. PRINTER ON: Creates a printed record of your progress though BREAKERS. See the reference card packaged with you diskette for details. PROGRESS or PR: Reports on achievements of importance in your electronic mission. PUT (object) IN (object): Tries to merge objects. The results may be important or pointless. QUIT NOVEL: Ends your session of BREAKERS without saving your current position. READ (object): Obtains written information, such as priceless clues, from the object you specify. RESTART NOVEL: Begins BREAKERS again from the start. pg.66 RESUME NOVEL: Reopens the novel from the point at which you typed the BOOKMARK command. For specific instructions, see the reference card pack- aged with you diskette. SHOW (object) TO (person): Displays an object to a character. You may recieve an interesting reaction. SING: Ventilates your vocal chords. TAKE or T (object): Allows you to collect objects which seem interesting or useful. You can take on thing or several at a time. THROW (object) (direction): Lets you toss precious things accurately at a crucial moment in BREAKERS. TIME FASTER: Speeds up the changing world of the Electronic Novel. This command does not change the speed at which your commands are responded to by the novel. It increases the rate at which characters and elements of the novel's physical world enter the scene, pop up, or fly by. Typing this command repeatedly will speed up the universe a little each time. To slow donw the changing world type TIME SLOWER. TIME SLOWER: The opposite of TIME FASTER. Typing TIME SLOWER repeatedly will slow down the changing universe of the Electronic Novel by degrees. BREAKERS will respond to many other commands; feel free to experiment. Some interesting examples might be: get and examine the red bal get the wire knife and the lava and drink it look at everyone but the cirdonian offer the medallion to nate grey spary the bolt with the spray can look at myself give 15 pieces of gold casey When you use numbers in commands or dialogue, use the numeral form; don't spell the numbers out (25 not twenty-five) DIALOGUE Electronic Novels allow you to talk to characters and creatures, real and imagined. You can ask them questions, order them to do your bidding, or tell them to do things with objects or to other characters. They will respond in their own unique ways. The FORM you use for this kind of dialogue is important. Here are two examples: betty, "who's mulcahy?" druella, "thanks for the information" Notice that it is not necessary to capitalize or to use periods at the ends of sentences. When your are finished typing a line of dialogue, be sure to press RETURN. To relieve you of some typing, dialogue also has a shorter form. You may omit the comma following the name of the character you're addressing. The second quota- tion mark may be omitted also. Example: pg.68 Instead of bobo, "give me the vbx" you may type bobo "give me the vbx" Some other examples of BREAKERS dialogue might be: panface "where's delbert riggs? betty "please give me a drink beek "what does it all mean? cirdonian "you're a punk jones "what is west from here? corpse "you don't look so hot TIME AND SPACE Many of the characters in BREAKERS move around of their own volition. When you talk to a character in you area, he will answer you in his own special way. If he happens to move to the next room, he won't brush you off; he will still answer. However, if the character moves far away from your position, he'll no long berable to hear you. Examples: (betty in your area) betty "who are the gaks? "Not so loud - you're talking about the toughest cops in the galaxy", Betty cautions. (betty in the next room) betty "who are you? "Don't try to get personal with me", the bartender snaps. (betty far away) betty "let me take you away from all this Your words don't reach that far. Engaging characters in conversation allows you to enter teh world of BREAKERS completely. But remember, when you talk to an Electronic Novel, anything can happen. PERIOD By typing several periods (...) and pressing RETURN, you can watch the universe unfold over several time intervals. This is an advanced strategic tactic you may find useful. RETURN KEY Press RETURN whenever you are finished typing a command. If you press RETURN without typing any command, the world of the novel will still continue to change all around you. When ;you press only RETURN, time will pass and the universe will turn together with whatever else may be happening at the time: characters entering the vicinity, conversations beginning, etc. As in life, the universe of the Electronic Novel is constantly unfolding. check ya later dudes....