Larry Niven - The Moon Maze Game

The room was covered bottom to top with flat-screen monitors. The gamers gawked at them: The screens showed images from around the solar system, as well as some from a canal-riddled Mars. Locations within the nest itself, displaying a thriving insectile community.

Scotty dropped to the ground. “What is this place?”

“Some kind of communications nerve center,” Angelique said. “Note that the images are stuck on a loop.”

“So… we can’t use them to try to keep tabs on Moresnot?” Scotty asked.

“No,” Darla said. “But they may not find the maintenance hatch we took. Good Lord willing, we just got ourselves another couple minutes.”

They took a moment to examine the screens.

Angelique spoke first. “So far… every major set-piece has come with clues, advantages, resources.”

Wayne stood shoulder to shoulder with her, trying to see what she was seeing. “Could be the same here.”

“Listen,” Angelique said. “I think that Xavier is watching us, and believe it or not, he’s helping us when he can. These puzzles are fail-safed, in terms of power. So we solve one, and get something in return. A door opens, a map appears… something.”

“Don’t all games work that way?” Scotty asked.

“Dream Park games do. So…,” the Lore Master said. “What’s the point of this room?”

Scotty stared at the screens. What were they seeing?

“Martian walkers,” Sharmela said.

Maud pointed. “What is that? Saturn? And… Europa?”

“This is the important one,” Mickey said. On the screen, a titanic battle between Martian war machines and giant Moon creatures.

“Look,” Angelique said, pointing. “Look. Notice that the Martians use machines, and the Moon people are fighting back with animal forms.”

“What do you think?” Wayne asked. “A biologically based technology? As opposed to machines?”

“Maybe,” Angelique said. “But it might just be that the Martians had to travel a long, long way to get here. Needed machines.”

Sharmela nodded. “But it is possible that Martian technology, even war technology, is primarily mechanical. The Lunies, biological.”

Finally, Scotty spoke. “Well… that would make some sense. The thrust of Wells’ original story was that the Martians were weak, right? They needed technology to supplement their bodies?”

“While the Moon people supplemented theirs with creative breeding. So… they are stronger than the Martians. But not stronger than us.”

“No,” Scotty said. “Not stronger than us. But how does that help us?”

Angelique stamped her foot. “We’ve lost the thread of the game. Let’s stop for a second. What is this game about? I mean, what was it originally about?”

“Rescuing Professor Cavor?” Scotty offered.

“Yes. Rescuing Professor Cavor. Professor Cavor is in this equation.”

“Wait, wait wait,” Wayne said. “Maybe we’re looking at it backward. The lesson isn’t that the Lunies are stronger. It’s that their mechanical technology is weaker.”

“ Was weaker,” Angelique said. “But then Professor Cavor arrived.”

“Weaker?” Mickey said. “Remember the airlock door on the surface? Does that look like an inferior technology?”

“Maybe,” Scotty said. “Or maybe it’s a remnant.”

Angelique seemed interested in that notion. “Regressed civilization?”

“Very popular theme in early science fiction,” Wayne said. “Go ahead, Scotty.”

He sighed. “Sorry. That’s as far as I go.”

“I might have an idea,” Ali said.

“Go on.”

“Consider. These two civilizations, Martian and lunar, have a certain parity. Mars had a mechanical technology, while the Moon has a biological technology.”

“And?” Angelique said.

“This is only apparently a stalemate. The Martians attack, the Selenites fight them back. Can you all see the flaw in this?”

Sharmela snapped her fingers. “The Selenites can’t attack the Martians.”

“Right,” Angelique said. “How do you go interplanetary with living weapons?”

“It would be reasonable,” Ali said, “to think that a difficulty.”

“What if that changed?” Maud asked.

“What would change it?” Wayne asked. Then suddenly, his face changed. “Oh, crap. Of course. Professor Cavor.”

Mickey kissed Maud’s cheek and she bubbled like a debutante. “Good one, Maud. Professor Cavor. He arrived here as one of Earth’s greatest inventors in the Victorian age. Perfectly reasonable that the technology he shared with them might have had an effect on the war with the Martians.”

“And how does this affect us?” Scotty asked.

“It might not.”

“Sure it does,” Wayne said. “No one is going to mount a room like this without a purpose.”

“What I meant is that it might affect a coming clue rather than a previous one. If the Moon people got something that allowed them to attack Mars as Mars has been attacking Luna…”

“For instance,” Maud said, “Cavorite.”

“Yes,” Angelique agreed. “Cavorite. Who knows what Xavier might have had in store for us.”

Wayne shook his head. “That probably won’t work now.”

“I see it,” Sharmela said. “I think I see it.”

“What?” Wayne asked.

“A war. We landed in the middle of a war. A war that has been going on for centuries. Maybe millennia.”

“Cavor’s technology…?”

“Look at these screens,” the Indian girl said. “The design of the ships is kinda familiar, isn’t it?”

“Moon ships,” Wayne said. “Powered by Cavorite, attacking Mars. Crushing Martian cities.”

“As Mars crushed human cities? We saw no evidence of that when we left Earth.”

Angelique was getting excited. “So nobody spoke of it… directly. But the comments about ‘the war’ and ‘the unpleasantness’-it was the War of the Worlds.”

“Holy shit,” Mickey said. “And Mars is pissed at the Moon. And their armada is on its way.”

“I’d say that it’s almost here. There’s our time clock, people. If we were playing a game, we’d have to get out of here before the Martians blow us to hell.”

Wayne cocked his head a bit sideways. “Wait a minute… that means that Xavier had to be prepared to simulate an all-out Martian assault. Darla?”

“Maybe,” she said. “He’d have to shake the dome without damaging it. Sound, smell… big effects.”

“Stage explosives,” Scotty said. “If we can get to them, they might be very useful indeed. Good work. Damned good work. Let’s get going.”

1457 hours

Ten men and women had gathered beneath the harsh lights and sharp shadows of Heinlein’s northern motor pool. The newcomers might have been confused by Piering’s frantic calls, but all were committed to the task at hand. He recognized Gypsy from his own security team. Then there were Hazel and Lee, both tough women, a Communications tech and a Fabrication specialist. Then an ex-cop named Chambers, a guy from Food Services and an He3 miner.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why we called you here,” the big man said. “You are all either Security, or have police or military experience. All checked the little box on your contracts agreeing to serve in a Security capacity if needed. Well, you’re needed.”

“The dome?” the lanky miner asked. This was Jankins, probably the oldest man in the room. Tall, pale and looked like he was made of catgut wrapped around barbed wire.

“The dome,” Piering agreed. “The Beehive, currently called the gaming dome, is now controlled by an aggressive threat calling themselves ‘Neutral Moresnot,’ professional kidnappers with allegiance to no nation or cause. We’ll call them ‘the pirates’ for simplicity’s sake.”