Uncharted Territory

Joburg is the largest city on Earth that doesn't have a port. That's no accident. Joburg breeds people who treat the impossible as a temporary setback. People who find a way to get the job done without stopping to ask if it's possible. Dr. Semenya was no different. She was determined to build the world she wanted. As a child, she'd lived in Diepsloot with her mother, Sithembele. It was just the two of them living in a small shack until a violent man took her mother from her. She was sent to live with her father and grandmother in Mtubatuba. She returned years later to reclaim her past. She built her head office on the site of her old home and named the company after her mother. It took patience, effort and a more grit than most people had in them to turn that neighbourhood into a safe place to work. But she did it. Her determination was unmatched. What had started as a modest brick building had been converted into an architectural marvel. Five stories tall now, with walls lined with vertical gardens in various shades of green that contrast beautifully against the warm brown stone of the building. A tall man with a serious expression approaches you. His eyes are warm but concerned. "My name is Tefo. I'm the Doc's assistant." Where would you like to go first? [[Her Office]] [[The staff tea room]] [[Her lab]]

You've arrived at the offices of uMhlathuze Water utility on the banks of Qhubu Lake. You stare at the pristine water and imagine you can see the Shembe temple on the far bank. The area is rich in life and spirituality. You feel buoyed. As though hope itself was carried in the air and was filling you. You head towards the Research centre. The discovery of Shewanella Cubhu turned eSikawini into a hub of scientific activity with researchers from across the world trying to replicate Dr. Semenya's success. There were no new buildings near the lake itself though: the area was too valuable to risk compromising the ecosystem. The uMhlathuze Water management had arranged for one of their buildings to be repurposed for use by researchers. Competition for space at the lab was fierce and A woman standing at the entrance beckons to you. She wears her hair in braids that end in shades of blue and green at the bottom. "Howzit," she says. "My name is Thembi and I run the Research centre." "Lesedi spent most of her time in her lab, but she did spend a fair amount of time at her office on the Unizulu campus." "She also had a house on the Bay." [[Cubhu Lab]] [[Unizulu campus]] [[Bay house]]

Years ago, people imagined Martian colonies would be high-tech, glossy white habitats housing people and indoor forests. The reality was a far cry from that. Terraforming projects had been costly with limited success and the first colonists had abandoned the surface habitats in favour of underground bunkers. The bunkers had evolved into an underground city complete with farms that provided food. A lucrative mining industry spawned from the initial bunker excavation project and began providing raw materials for manufacturing. This in turn spawned a manufacturing industry. The Mars colony had turned themselves into a critical repair and restock station. They were the modern equivalent of the Dwarves in fantasy tales: ingenious miners living in underground caves. Immensely brave people with gruff exteriors and a deep ingrained sense of honour. --- Select your destination: [[Roberts Research Centre]] [[SSC Terraforming Project Headquarters]] [[Old Mining Town]]

[[Proxima Centauri B]]

Her office was not what you had expected. The usual executive desk was missing. Instead, there was a modest desk in the corner with a simple workstation and old school whiteboards in front of it and to the right. She liked to write on the board - it still bore traces of previous notes, drawings and scribbles. In the centre of the room, a large interactive holo-table with several chairs around it. There was a beverage station against one wall and a conferencing screen against the other. This wasn't a room for impressing investors or exerting power. This was a room for invention - for changing the world. Somewhere in this room there must be a clue to her disappearance. The most likely place to start would be her workstation. You log into the workstation and start browsing. There are hundreds of folders and it feels like you're trying to untie a Gordian knot. You pause for a moment and think carefully and then start searching for hidden folders. You find three: Project Genesis

Thembi guides you to the lab. For all her flair, she has a very no-nonsense pragmatic way about her. At first glance, there's nothing strange about the lab. Benches and equipment trolleys against the walls. Cleaning agents, saftey equipment, microsopes... all pretty standard. Except for one thing: against one wall is what appears to be a medium sized fish tank being fed water from a pipe out of the wall. You ask Thembi about it. She looks at you and asks sincerely, "Do you know why researchers struggle with S.Cubhu?" You shake your head. "Ok. Well... it disappears." "Disappears?" you ask. "Yes. You collect a sample today and by this evening, there's no Cubhu left in the sample container." she states with a small hint of frustration in her voice. "It's not dying. It's not being eaten by greedy buddies. It's literally disappearing." "One second it's there and the next... Poof!" "It's gone." "At first we thought it might be breaking down because of the way that we collect and isolate samples." "But it doesn't matter what technique we use - Cubhu does a disappearing act every time." "That's what the pipe does... it supplies water direct from the lake so we don't lose time collecting." "That's also why Lesedi is so damn rich - there are only two places in existence where you can find Cubhu." "This lake... and in her containment tech." While she speaks, realise that you don't enough information to work with. "Do you know where I can find more detailed information on her tech?" "Perhaps her plans?" you ask Thembi, hopeful that she can point you in the right direction. "Well, you can check her field notes or you can have a look around her house on the Bay." "Honestly though, I'm not sure what you'll find." --- Decide on your next step: [[ Field notes]] [[Bay house]]

The 'beach house' was in reality just an apartment on the Tuzigazi waterfront. It was decorated simply and showed litte of the doctor's personality. The master bedroom had a simple desk next to a sliding door that opened onto the waterfront. A serene place to contemplate life. You open the top drawer and find the usual bric-a-brac that inevitably populates the easiest drawer to access. You open the second drawer and find the usual over the counter medication that someone past middle age would keep handy: painkillers, antacids, creams for insect bites and antihistamines. Nothing unusal about the contents but the drawer appears deeper than the first. You remove the drawer and empty the contents on the desktop. A close inspection reveals a cleverly hidden false bottom. You remove it and find a tablet and charger hidden there. You start it up and use the admin override pin that her personal assistant provided you with. The tablet unlocks and you navigate through the folders and various documents. Most are typical but with some careful searching you find a hidden directory. There are three folders in that directory. Select a folder to examine * [[Pillay |Secret affair]] * [[Trafficking |Proxima Centauri B File]]

Lesedi Semenya - PhD in Microbiology. CEO of Sithembile Space Corp. Currently 70 years old. ? Maybe younger

The Roberts Research centre was built in honour of the late Kuli Roberts. She had been somewhat of a celebrity many years ago, but it was not because of her celebrity that the centre was built. She had been fierce about her support of children with albinisim. She was a role model and mentor to many children struggling to navigate a world that was hostile towards them. A young Kgaugelo Mohapi had been one of them. A lifelong student of material sciences, he had been competing with Dr. Semenya for many years. His corporation was second only to hers. The Roberts Centre had started as a research initiative but as many other initiatives had changed direction, so had the Roberts Centre. It was now a small refinery converting the raw ore from the old mining town into usable materials for production. It was an essential part of the industrial system that kept Martians alive. That being said, Mohapi Inc, the parent company, was still in direct competition with the SSC. That makes them a reliable lead to follow in the disappearance of Dr. Semenya. The airlock door opens automatically and the receptionist greets you as you step through.

The last shuttle stop is right across from the imposing airlock doors of the SSC project headquarters. A stark reminder that Mars was still a hostile environment. The air is clammy with the whiff of amonia. Likely some residue from blasting that was carried along the ventilation channels. The walls were high and curved. A combination of concrete and bare rock with piping and conduits running the length of the tunnels. At regular intervals there were bright yellow emergency boxes that contained breathing equipment - a safety precaution in the event of a failure of the primary environmental system. Martian law had been written in blood. The airlock opens and a tall woman in dusty overalls steps through. She greets you with a nod and gestures for you to follow her. "Hi! My name is Astrid." "You hungry?" she asks. "I'm about to have breakfast." [[Have breakfast]] [[Don't have breakfast]]

[[Wormhole]] [[Battle]] [[Return to Earth]]

What Mars lacked in terms of atmosphere, Venus had too much of. The technical challenge that scientists had been working on for decades had in part been resolved by the corporate machine. The extensive use of Shewanella in the various areas of space travel created a demand for sulphur. Rather than transport this from Earth, they built floating platforms above Venus to mine the sulphuric acid clouds. The water that resulted as a byproduct of the process was either sold to passenger transports or to the terraforming project.

The folder contains a collection of emails, instant chat messages and photographs. It doesn't take you long to piece together the story: Dr. Pillay - the Chief Financial Officer at the SSC has been involved in an illicit affair with a colleague. This alone was not enough to bring the situation to the attention of the corporation: the two had been collaborating with a third party to defraud the company. Funds had been diverted to an Offplanet account on Mars. The location of the funds and the identity of the third party are still unknown. Choose your next step carefully: [[Check the other folders |Folders]] [[Travel to Mars |The Mboya Martian colony]]

* [[Pillay |Secret affair]] * [[Trafficking |Proxima Centauri B File]]

The year 2022 was a dark year. The world was slowly coming out of a global pandemic, climate change had unleashed world-wide disaster, war waged in Europe and fascism was on the rise in America. That all changed when a young researcher in rural Kwazulu-Natal discovered a micro-organism that could metabolize toxic chemicals and in the process, generate electricity. Her name was Doctor Lesedi Semenya. She developed a bio-battery using the newly discovered Shewanella Cubhu that was clean, efficient and inexpensive. It was the first of many inventions that would form the foundation of her business: the Sithembele Space Corporation. A month ago, she disappeared. Governments, corporations and various other organisations have mobilised to search for her. The Semenya family have hired you to find her and ensure her safety. They have suggested a number of possible locations where you may find her or clues to her whereabouts. --- Select a destination to start your search: [[Earth - Cubhu Lake]] [[Earth - Sithembele Space Corporation]] [[Venus Terraforming Project]] [[The Surtie-Richards Lunar Base]] [[The Mboya Martian colony]]

Breakfast is just the thing you need after the exhausting journey from Earth to Mars. You follow Astrid down a passage with offices on either side toward another airlock. At the airlock she takes off her shoes and motions for you to do the same. As you step through you understand why: beneath your feet you feel the softness of grass. Ahead of you is a small garden table and beyond that row after row green shrubs with white flowers and small pink fruit, pillars covered in creeping vines and yellow berries and the familiar broad leaves of banana trees. If it weren't for the glow of the grow lights and the concrete ceiling above you, you might have believed yourself in a tropical paradise. Astrid breaks your reverie by offering you a scone and some tea. The scone looks oddly green and you wonder if it's because of the lights. She points to the creeping vines. "We add the powdered leaves of the Barbados gooseberry to the flour to make it more nutritious." "The berries aren't bad either - they add a lovely tartness to the num-num jam." "Is that what you do here? Grow food?" You scan the indoor garden and realise that it's not as uniform as it first appeared. There appear to be quadrants with different plants growing in them. Each with a small garden table and chairs. "Oh goodness no... " she replies. "This is just Lesedi's pet project - she's a firm believer that people need green spaces to thrive." "The fact that the garden produces food is just a little extra benefit." "What we really do here is run the surface soil through a series of bacterial baths to break the perchlorates down into harmless compounds." You're feeling a little out of your depth at the moment, unsure of which questions to ask to lead in the right direction.