6.1
THE WARNING
Unknown to the crews or any other humans, Jupiter is about
to undergo a star- tling change. In just 2½ days, Jupiter will explode
and change into an active, burning star! If the Discovery and the Leonov
don't escape before then, Jupiter's fiery blast will destroy them.
While the crews wait for their planned return window,
they are warned to leave the Jupiter system within 2½ days - well
before their planned departure. The warning may come from Bowman, the giant
monolith, or another monolith.
Determine randomly which warning occurs, or choose a
warning to fit your game. The warning comes during the night watch (the
"graveyard shift") when most or all of the PCs are on board the
Discovery. Make sure none of the Russians witness the warning.
BOWMAN'S WARNING
HAL signals the PCs and prints: THERE
IS A MESSAGE FOR YOU. If the PCs ask at this time
who the message is from, HAL prints: NO IDENTIFICATION.
If the PCs request the message, HAL prints: MESSAGE
AS FOLLOWS: IT IS DANGEROUS TO REMAIN HERE. YOU MUST LEAVE WITHIN 2½
REPEAT 2½ DAYS.
If the PCs forget, remind tham that
their launch window does not open for another 21 days. If the PCs ask HAL
for any infor- mation regarding the message, HAL prints: THIS
IS NOT A RECORDING; IT IS A REAL-TIME MESSAGE. If
the PCs now ask who is sending the message, HAL prints: I
WAS DAVID BOWMAN. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU BELIEVE ME. LOOK BEHIND YOU.
| An image of Commander David Bowman, wearing his spacesuit,
silently appears. His face is clearly recognizable in his helmet. A faint
murmur of noise rises from the control panel; then Bowman's voice (not
HAL's) speaks: "Now do you believe me?" Bowman's lips,
however, do not move. |
|
A few seconds later, the image changes,
and Bowman appears as a very, very old man. He turns and walks stiffly
out of the rom. Although his legs move slowly, the image floats rapidly
down through the hatch toward the tool room. As it moves, the image swirls
into the shape of an infant boy, only a few weeks old.
Bowman's voice speaks again, still coming through HAL's
speakers: "This is very difficult for me, and I have little time.
I have been .. allowed to give you this warning. You have only 2½
days."
The image blinks back into the space- suited form of
Commander Bowman, then starts to disappear. Bowman's voice begins to fade: "Good-bye.
Remember - 2½ days. We can have no further contact. But there may
be one more message, if all goes well." The image vanishes. Bowman
is gone. |
THE RADIO WARNING
HAL detects a radio signal and brings it to the PCs' attention.
The signal is coming through on a never-used frequency, and originates
inside the monolith. At first, the signal is just random tones. Give the
players a moment to react to HAL's message, then read the following boxed
text to them.
| Suddenly, the radio speakers emit a loud screech. Warning
lights flash on the instrument panel. As the screech fades away, a tone
begins to pulse in some code, several times per second. HAL speaks, "I
recognize this code; it's the code NASA used in the late 1970s to communicate
with its Voyager space- craft." The pulsing tones continue to
stream in on the radio. |
If the PCs don't ask HAL to translate the code, HAL suggests
it. HAL translates the code as, "Danger. Leave within 2½ days."
The message repeats three times, then the signal stops.
|
THE APPARITION'S WARNING
A low vibration gently rocks the ship. Then, quite suddenly,
the vibration stops and the ship falls silent. A shining black monolith
appears, and floats motionlessly a few feet off the floor. Tiny points
of light glitter on its flat surfaces and become small stars. Then an image
of Jupiter forms. Half-way up the monolith, a bright yellow light forms
into a tiny sun that moves across the face of the mono- lith, circles behind
the image of Jupiter, and sets on the other side. Then the sun rises and
sets a second time.
A few seconds later, images of the Dis- covery and Leonov
appear, floating silently through space. The ships become larger and larger.
The images of the ships look different, however - they are twisted, gouged,
and covered with debris. The lifeless ships pass out of view, trailing
millions of tiny air crystals. All the colors and lights of the monolith
fade back into blackness, and without a sound, the monolith disappears. |
The monolith is only an image. The PCs cannot feel, touch,
or disrupt it in any way.
6.2
AFTER THE WARNING
HAL continuously monitors all of the ship's sensors and
records their findings. Even so, no part of the warning was recorded. If
the PCs play back the recordings of the warn- ings, all they hear is static;
the other parts of the recordings are fine. HAL remembers everything that
he and the PCs said and did during the warning, but he can't remember any
of the instrument readings.
If the PCs ask HAL why the recordings are faulty, he
concludes that whatever gave the warning caused the recording hardware
to fail. The Leonov's instruments did not record anything.
Even though the warning indicates that staying longer
than 2½ days is dangerous, neither ship has enough fuel to return
to Earth if it leaves before the planned launch window opens. The only
way the crews can
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