text: [Themes: Science Fiction, verbose]
  
  > Look around
  You find yourself in an empty room, except for a large parallelepipedon standing in its center. The walls are dusty and black, the floor is mere concrete, coarse and unattended. A large mirror dresses the west wall, almost completely.
  
  A round object protrudes from the parallelepipedon's top, a sort of circular maze. It is the last part of something bigger, evidently stuck inside the cage.
  
  The thing that you thought was an alien, enormous talon, now pops in from the north wall, showing itself for what it is: a wheel. It was part of a big machine, now it is torn in two and useless.
  
  The Elektron blinks faintly, connected to the parallelepipedon.
  
  > look at the maze
  A sort of metal cylinder, half stuck in the caging parallelepipedon, levigated beyond perfection by unknown forces. The exposed edge of the circular object is a tangle of tiny cuts, each twisted into the other in an unique pattern.
  
  > take the cylinder
  It is stuck into the parallelepipedon.
  
  > put the soap on the cylinder
  You press the wax soap onto the circular maze. One of the sides is now a perfect (reversed) replica of the circular maze itself.
  
  The light from the ceiling vibrates randomly, then it calms down.
  
  > take the soap
  You already have that.
  
  > examine the soap
  A remarkably old wax soap, one of the kind momma used to wash clothes when you were but a child. It now bears the impression of a circular maze.
  
  > go to Pentagon
  Before leaving, you remove the Elektron from the parallelepipedon.
  
  You go into the gap.
  
  You walk past the vibertron door, which silently opens around you.
  
  You go east to the nail, east again to the dark lab, south to the dark recess, south again to the featureless corridor, west to the featureless corridor, west again to the featureless corridor, west again to the blinking room, north to the cold pyramid, north again to the quartz tunnel, northwest to Quarantine and south to the pentagon.
  
  A five-sided room, which the earthquake has just barely scratched. Five exits run from here, each marked with a letter, except for the one which stands blank on the north wall. To the northeast, a capital "A" hangs over a grate, which seems stuck to the walls, unopenable. Southeast, "B" rests over what remains of a tunnel that has caved in, some of the rocks fallen inside the room. Northwest and southwest, respectively, "C" and "D" sign two metal doors.
  
  > Go southwest
  This is yet another lab. The walls are made of the same old white plastic as the rest of the corridors that crowd the place. As opposite to the rest of the environment, this large room seems unscarred. The yellow floor is dotted by tracks in black-striped adhesives, drawing lines around the structure that rests in the center of the chamber. There is not much by the way of furniture, except for a single, foreign machine.
  
  A cube, three meters wide, sleeps in the very center of the room. A strong, tight bundle of wires moves from its bottom towards the eastern wall, where it disappears in a plug. Two bays are open on the machine's top. Something that looks like a laser cannon points at the right bay.
  
  > put the soap in the left bay
  You put the wax soap (replicating a circular maze) into the left bay.
  
  > examine the right bay
  In the right bay is a metal weight (cut to resemble a wax soap (replicating a circular maze)).
  
  The light from the ceiling vibrates randomly, then it calms down.
  
  > examine the weight
  A kilogram. Almost perfect. A replica of the circular maze has been laser-cut onto it.
  
  > go to the windowed habitat
  You go into the gap.
  
  You find a way into another section of the settlements.
  
  You go northeast to the pentagon, north to Quarantine, southeast to the quartz tunnel, south to the cold pyramid, south again to the blinking room, east to the featureless corridor, east again to the featureless corridor, east again to the featureless corridor, north to the dark recess, north again to the dark lab, west to the nail and west again to the windowed habitat.
  
  You find yourself in an empty room, except for a large parallelepipedon standing in its center. The walls are dusty and black, the floor is mere concrete, coarse and unattended. A large mirror dresses the west wall, almost completely.
  
  A round object protrudes from the parallelepipedon's top, a sort of circular maze. It is the last part of something bigger, evidently stuck inside the cage.
  
  The thing that you thought was an alien, enormous talon, now pops in from the north wall, showing itself for what it is: a wheel. It was part of a big machine, now it is torn in two and useless.
  
  > put the weight on cylinder
  You try your mockup of an eventual disc on the circular maze. It fits perfectly, the lines protruding from it matching the cuts on the base. Lights from inside the parallelepipedon flash then start strobing and dancing to the rhythm of some unheard music.
  
  All of a sudden, the very room starts trembling, as if another fierce quake was shaking it around. The mirror vibrates but resists the shock, while the parallelepipedon and the strange object trapped inside it both sink in the ground, forever lost. The concrete shatters and closes over the hole like a worm's mouth.
  
  The jolt sends you flying again. The walls begin crumbling down, in a rehearsal of Doomsday. Something very big must have happened somewhere.
  
  > look at dots
  The dots look like tiny holes in the center of the "door", one above the other in a linear sequence. All the dots are currently off.
  
  > touch the door
  You push the frame. Now it vibrates with a greater charge. It trembles a bit and then, smoothly and silently, slides and opens a real door on the side of the dome. As you release your hands, it closes back with no sound. You are confident it will let you in, now.
  
  > enter the dome
  The door of the Hyerotrope opens and lets you in, finally.
  
  Upon entering, the Elektron bursts in flames, a power shock running through it like a technological virus. You have to drop it and witness how it is ultimately consumed. At the same time, the E-Pad in your hand sends its final beep.
  
  A perfect sphere, cut in two by a substance that looks like glass and stands as a floor for an eventual passenger: This is what the Hyerotrope is. At the center of the stage, a cube rests like a sort of solitary chair. There is no visible way out and, although you are quite certain of where the door once was, it now has disappeared.
  
  The tides. They have come.
  
  You were not fast enough, and you realize it as splinters of the world surrounding you start floating in the air and all of a sudden cracks start opening everywhere. Without the Fatimah Initiative rolling, the whole of Monarch will be flooded by the rising oceans.
  
  > examine cube
  A faint light glows inside the cube. Something makes you believe it's a sort of... uhm, pedestal.
  
  > check your inventory
  You're carrying a dead E-Pad, a black box, a steel bar, a new railway ticket and some Report files.
  
  > sit on the cube
  When the world around finally falls, you take your time just to climb the glowing cube, and see what happens. Seconds later, the last fierce earthquake devours the world in a single gulp. A light so dense it can barely be endured fills the Hyerotrope and the dome starts breathing as if it was alive.
  
  Then, you are caught by the sensation of being pulled downwards, like a drunk man in an elevator...
  Report to the Council about the discoveries around the Alpha
  Radiation
  
  What we have here may be, thus far, the most important discovery
  in human recent history, if not on a bigger scale. Upon scanning the recently exposed areas underneath the University basement (after the last minor quakes that interested the area) our team found a new kind of radiation -- from now on called "Alpha Radiation" (AR) -- springing from a single spot under the second and third layers of crust. That means beyond the icy layer, too.
  This radiation, the kind of which has never been measured before,
  has been fast growing in the last few weeks, reaching a point where it cannot be further ignored by the scientific committee. The latest of our discoveries stated without any shadow of a doubt that something enormous is at stake.
  It was Dr. Re's that first linked the strange spectrum to the
  residual fingerprint of the Event energy burst, that "background noise" that still plagues the Andromeda dark matter gravitational pull, with the one relative to the AR. As noted by the scientific crew, the Event residue is what is forcing the galaxy to shrink, due to its connection with potentials yet unknown which raise the mass of the galaxy itself to the point where the universe's eternal expansion is stopped and reversed. Now it looks like a similar energy is growing under our city, less than three kilometers below the surface.
  What we suggest is a deep scan -- and maybe a human driven probe
  -- in the interested area in order to find out what's happening down there. The volcanic crust separating what was once the glacial layer from the lower halls cannot possibly be thick enough to hold those energies at bay. Nor can it be trusted to keep a region larger than one third of Monarch's surface hidden from whatever it is that rests down there. In my humble opinion, the chances that former colonizations could have gotten in there before the glacial age (trapped? self-defending?) are quite high, especially now that we have discovered the Alpha-radiation.
  
  In the end, we know nothing about Monarch before the first
  settlements from the outer galaxies came into Andromeda more than one thousand years ago. Technology back then was not sufficient to dig as far as we have recently, and the glacial layer was only partially melted and covered by the constructs. I suggest further investigation before we start -- as we should -- to probe the source of the radiation. The evidence of structures unknown to the humans is too much to ignore.
  An example could be the existence of the Hyerotropes. These were
  more than once hinted at as some sort of alien machinery used for unknown purposes.
  A Hyerotrope -- or Gravitational Sphere -- is, indeed, an unknown artifact. We can only suppose they landed on Monarch before the glacial layer was made, as the seventeen specimens found all were under the icy layer or half protruding from it. The magnetic spectrum they emit is actually almost purely geo-gravitational, with small sparks of radio waves, and this suggests they were a sort of "anchor" for something bigger which needed to stop by the surface.
  Ultimate considerations about the Hyerotropes cannot be made, as no-one has yet succeeded in truly activating them. Whatever the power source which keeps the Spheres "alive", it must still be there, and this is confirmed by the scattered energy ghosts that flow around their perfect structures.
  
  And then there is the Alpha Radiation.
  
  weeks. We can only suppose it was -NOT- there before Dr. Re's
  and his scientific crew discovered it. And we can hope it is
  nothing to worry about.
  Still, hoping is not all we have to do.
  
  contact with the AR, what we think about its relation to the Hyerotropes, and a full analysis of its spectrum and wavelength.
  
  -- The Monarch University Scientific Staff, Dr. Mastiff, Dr.
  Re's
  The Hyerotrope stops. A door opens and you get out, breathing hard.
  
  The place is damp. You lift your eyes and what you see is -- again -- breathtaking.
  
  You stand in the middle of a winding canyon, high several hundreds of meters and long as much. Luminescent cracks open on the walls, lighting up the place with a spectral voice. The ground seems to be polished as if human-made. The ravine goes on forever to the south and north of here.
  
  As you exit the Hyerotrope, the door closes behind you. Seconds later, the sphere starts glowing and begins flying upwards, until it disappears from where it came.
  
  You watch it speechlessly.
  
  > examine the cracks
  They are very similar to the thin cuts you saw crawling around the Hyerotrope. This time, though, the seem more coincidental.
  
  > Go north
  You travel the canyon for half an hour, until you come to...
  
  The ravine ends here. A giant gate, bulky in its iron hinges, towers in front of you. Cranks and gears seem to operate it, from above the twelve meters tall columns at its sides. The canyon lurks away to the south.
  
  A metal ladder on the left of the gate climbs towards a cabin clinging steadily to the canyon's walls.
  
  > go up
  You try and climb the ladder, not afraid of the missing rung. The second and third creak sinisterly as you try and reach for them. You need too much leverage to reach for the fourth peg.
  
  > look at the ladder
  Not the comfortable ladder you found in that waste basket. Here, rungs are divided by a gap of fifty centimeters. The very first rung is lost, a hole carving the left leg.
  
  > put the bar in the ladder
  You try the bar, but it is too thick to fit. You need something smaller but equally strong.
  
  > go south
  You stand in the middle of a winding canyon, high several hundreds of meters and long as much. Luminescent cracks open on the walls, lighting up the place with a spectral voice. The ground seems to be polished as if human-made. The ravine goes on forever to the south and north of here.
  
  > Go south
  The canyon abruptly comes to an end. Although the unending ravine crawls deeper to the south, something is blocking your steps.
  
  When you recognize it, you fall to your knees.
  
  The train on which you begun your journey is here, fallen like an evil adumbration. Among it, several other wagons and a whole section of the upper city. They must have traveled a long way: part of the disaster is still clinging to the canyon's walls, ornaments of despair burning in flames and fumes. Wreckages mix with concrete, concrete mixes with the rests of the human race.
  
  A waterfall comes splashing down from a ledge a hundred meters above you. It must be the first result of the tides devouring what's above.
  
  > examine the train
  You are certain: This is the train you took in your futile trip to the now sunk University Campus. The laths are so distorted it would look like a crumpled ball of paper... if it was not for the black, charred human parts littering its intestines.
  
  > enter the train
  That is no longer viable as a vehicle. It's just a mess of contorted laminas.
  
  > Search train
  You know what you are looking for: something sturdy enough to sustain your weight and thin enough to fit the hole in that ladder.
  
  You rummage through the debris and the human rests until you find what you seek: a piece of a train's bench.
  
  > take the bench
  You already have that.
  
  > look at the bench
  A sturdy, metallic pole, once part of a bench from the train.
  
  > examine the waterfall
  The oceans are devouring Monarch. Soon, a lot of water will come down, flooding this place.
  
  > Go north
  You travel the canyon for half an hour, until you come to...
  
  The ravine ends here. A giant gate, bulky in its iron hinges, towers in front of you. Cranks and gears operate it, from above the twelve meters tall columns at its sides. The canyon lurks away to the south.
  
  A metal ladder on the left of the gate climbs towards a cabin clinging steadily to the canyon's walls.
  
  > put bench in the ladder
  The new 'rung' perfectly fits. You stick it in a side of the ladder and force it into the other, and now it serves as a perfect anchorage.
  
  > go up
  With the new rung in place, you find anchorage to climb inside the cabin.
  
  Dust is the main inhabitant, here, as one would have foreseen. It covers the wooden desk and the big windows on the north wall, the broken chair that now rests like a sleeping cat on the far corner of the cabin, and the ancient computing devices dropped dead on the table.
  
  The metal ladder descends to the south side of the gate.
  
  An old, battered diary rests on a corner of the wooden desk, its cover bloated by time and water. It looks miraculously intact.
  
  > read the diary
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  It is not the best job in the universe, but still... I have seen worse. Marko has seen worse. They sent him to the digging facility. You know what they say about those goddam machines. They
  radiate. They give you the Big C. I know better than going
  into there, that place. They call it the center of the earth.
  No wonder it's the dampest place of all. Feels like sleepin in a b***hole.
  
  > Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > Go north
  Third month, day eleven
  > Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  More of the military, today. I think I've opened the dam at least seventy times. I've seen the tanks and the cannons they bring in there. Can't tell for sure, but bet they are trying to open one of those balls of metal. It's been a rumble all day. A bit tired. The computers are off and I don't really like it here. It's getting boring by the day.
  
  Third month, day eleven
  > Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > go north
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  > Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  Another day opening and closing and opening and closing. One of them was the general. That Hickk'errs, guy. I've seen his eyes. Those are blank eyes. He looks at you, but he's not really looking, you know? It's like his mind is always somewhere else. I've heard them talk, this morning. He and the professor. They said something about
  the beacon. They knew I was listenin but didn't care. They
  think I'm outta their league, that I dunno nothing. But I
  know what they talkin about. The beacon is the thing that
  drove us here, from our galaxy. We built it, sent it in space and followed. I know what they talking about.
  
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  > Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > Go north
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  > Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  General said this morning a new set of experiments were going to be launched. They said no civilians would stay here, no matter what. I'm a civilian, too, in some way. I mean, I have the tags and all of that, but I'm not in charge of the weapons. So they think about me as some kind of white collar. They are going to do something dangerous down there. In the b***hole. They are gonna fire things at the metal balls. I'd like I was a civilian, for real. They are not lettin me go. They want me here to operate the dam. In case something goes wrong. If something goes wrong I wanna be in the other side of the universe, that's for sure. Did I mention this is NOT the best job out there?
  
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  > Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > Go north
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  > Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  The world didn't end. I'm still here, opening and closing. Yesterday, tho, something occurred. There was a flash an then all the walls begun rumblin. It was not only the walls, but everything. The ceiling cracked and -- I swear -- a chunk of ice large like a tank
  came crushing down. It killed seven people. None I knew, fortunately. They were all so much in panic I thought the world was really gonna end. But then it all got normal and everything got back to quiet. No sign of the general, today. Guess he has to smell those things. He's never here when something occurs.
  
  I forgot to say something. During the tremors (it was not a quake, more of the ground adjusting, I've heard some say), something odd happened. The computers went suddenly on, just for ten seconds or so. The were all broken, you know. No signal for two months. But then they wake up and there's this white light. And all things begun moving towards that hole in the big chamber, the one just before the center of the earth. It looked like they were PULLED there by some sort of ghost.
  
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  > Fifth month, day seven
  Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > Go north
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  > Sixth month, day eighteen
  It is over. I'm not sure I'm unhappy about it. They will send me back to that satellite but, what the hell, better than here, even my aunt's. The last days were horrible. More died on walls crumbling and the earth cracked once, spilling lava and rocks everywhere. I heard Marko is dead, too. They don't let anyone beyond the dam and I can't tell for sure, but I heard some say he got devoured by one of those spheres. "It has eaten him alive", they said. Poor Marko. I can't wait for the gathering. I wanna go home. Even if it takes me another three years like in the first trip.
  
  Third month, day eleven
  Third month, day twenty-three
  Third month, day twenty-four
  Fifth month, day two
  Fifth month, day seven
  > Sixth month, day eighteen
  
  > look at desk
  A slab of wood, fastened to the wall, with no legs. It is surmounted by a console, rust biting at it with no pity. On the table are some computers and several light bulbs, now broken and useless.
  
  > examine the chair
  It lays by your feet, a wasted amount of metal and a stiff cushion.
  
  > examine computer
  Dust is more than a soft layer on these. It just has become
  part of the old computers, like the shell for a nut. The
  screens have been broken -- one from the inside, the other punched in -- and there is no sign of a keyboard or a touch screen. The wires have been removed by force, and now just a knotted bunch of cords hangs loose and useless.
  
  > examine the console
  A set of rusted buttons and some light bulbs, blown or fused. The main object on the console is a plastic lever. You can only suppose it was used to open the big gate, downstairs.
  
  > pull the lever
  You maneuver the lever, but it doesn't budge. So, you decide to try harder. As a result, the lever breaks and the longer part ends in your hand, now useless.
  
  Won by discouragement, you yell a heartily yaaugh! and throw
  the lever at the windows in front of you. The windows themselves, battered by the cold winds of time, give with less effort and crash, opening a new outlet on the north side of the cabin.
  
  > go north
  You pass through the newly opened window, careful not to cut your hands with the smashed glass, then descend to the floor with a leap.
  
  A river cuts this massive chamber in two. On the other side, its filled with stocks of any kind and size. On this one, it looks like a showcase of ancient war machinery, all lined up and packed for the show. A human-sized cave mouth exits to the north. Around it, all sorts of maze-like channels cut the earth and dive deep into the soil and walls.
  
  The broken lever you threw at the window is here, on the ground.
  
  > examine the river
  It is a bubbling river. It comes from a crack in the north
  wall and dives into the earth a few meters below the gate walls. The bed must fish deep enough to be scalded by the molten layer.
  
  > examine the machinery
  This is military equipment. Tanks, cannons and so forth, all packed up and lined like a showcase in a very odd underground mall.
  
  On one of the packings you notice a resume of sorts. A single typed page, torn on one side, which title reads: "Essay on the Beacon, closing notes". You pick it up.
  
  > read the resume
  The results of the tests on the Hyerotropes are still fuzzy.
  
  In the end, at least, we understood how could our 'beacon' reach
  so far in such a relatively short time. Almost two millions parsecs in less than 400 years. That would mean traveling at least 6,250 times faster than light and, although certain velocities have been hypothesized, nothing we ever witnessed reached them.
  
  The Hyeromatrix works as an attractor. The energy spectrum of the whole matrix (as opposite to the single sphere's) is capable of bending the structure of the Higgs Bosom's pattern, articulating a fierce vacuum-like tunnel which can pull, evidently, from a very long distance. The Hyeromatrix must have sensed the 'beacon' and decided to make it its own.
  
  The single Hyerotropes have proven themselves 'thinking machines',
  if that is what we want to call them, or even living beings.
  Their scattered pattern in the underground of this cold planet is not coincidental and, contrarily, the matrix has the purpose to actually enhance the spheres' abilities and reach. They breathe, as a living being, and as a living being the pollute the atmosphere when doing so: The ethereal substance they grow is toxic to the surroundings as noted by research Omega-33.
  Ultimately, their presence indicates a superior meaning to the
  whole universe, one which we never thought of -- at least scientifically -- up to now. We can suppose the Hyerotropes being a species on their own, breaking the walls of human research on the matter quite abruptly. Or we can hypothesize an even more powerful entity at work, somewhere, to operate those things. In both cases, there is much about the evolution of the stars we can gather from the discovery.
  
  --Prof. G.D., Monarch Research Facility.
  
  Addendum// The Hyerotropes emit a very subtle but very strong
  energy. It is something we almost overlooked, as it is so far out of the usual spectrum that it is invisible if not searched for purposefully. The energy has become radiating with more intensity in the last few days. It seems a single beam has been directed towards the very center of our galaxy. We decided to keep studying the Hyerotropes, in the hope of finding answers about the recent Multiple Supernovae Effect registered in [...] --- the page is torn here,
  the rest of the text missing.
  
  > examine the stocks
  Too far to distinguish. They look like scientific machines. No more to be known.
  
  > Cross river
  There must be a better way to die, right? One less painful.
  
  > Go north
  You are in the cave. This is the ancient alcove and you are the first one to enter its vaults in a millennia. The cave opens in every direction. To the north, a higher ceiling welcomes two apparently abandoned objects.
  
  > look at the objects
  A metallic form, barely discernible from this distance, and another Hyerotrope. Although you are quite far, you judge it to be at least two times bigger than the one you traveled into.
  
  > Go north
  The Hyerotrope is giving off light, a dense orange glow, and -- yes-- it is bigger than the one you used as an elevator. At least five times bigger. Four big dots flare on it, all lined together like soldiers in formation. The whole cave, although gigantic, is lit by its energy.
  
  A strange object sits alongside the Hyerotrope, its rusty casing decaying and rotten.
  
  > look at the object
  Whatever it is, it must be alien in nature. You can't understand its form -- an octagonal prism surmounted by broken steel poles -- but surely recognize the solar panels that once must have powered it. A set of metallic legs holds it standing.
  
  A metal sign was planted by someone near its base.
  
  > look at the things
  The belly of the beast is open. A rectangular thing, the likes of which you are very familiar with, sits almost unscarred by the remnants of a tight bird's nest of wires and circuitry. A golden plate, inscribed with drawings that finally have a meaning, marks another metallic slab.
  
  The Hyerotrope starts moving.
  
  You are flooded again by the sensation of being pushed around, this time upwards. As you levitate, the surrounding stars slowly fade, until they are substituted by the reality of it all.
  
  And you see the end of History for what it is. The lands devoured by the quakes and the tides. Whole cities swallowed by the fierce strength of Fatimah's gravitational pull. The rest of the human race devoured. All while you are suspended mid air above the mayhem in the Hyerotrope's womb.
  After a while, another, smaller sphere starts climbing the sky, stopping at your height. And then a second, and a third. And in minutes they are dozens, levitating and rotating around the biggest one, which you inhabit.
  They begin wandering the cosmos, and your sphere does the same, slowly but relentlessly. As you leave the planet, a strong, white light begins pouring from the Hyerotropes and, finally, you understand.
  
  That's it, you mourn. History repeats herself.
  
  We came from another galaxy, this you know. We came here a millennia ago following one of our probes, looking for what the ASA First Council called "a New Heaven". We came here and barely survived a cosmic event that annihilated an entire galaxy and decimated life in those neighboring it.
  
  What was that Event and why did it occur no one will ever know. No one but you. You still lack the motivation but indeed have found out what it's like to be at the cyclone's eye. What can clear a galaxy off the screen.
  
  The Hyerotropes. The plagues God sent upon the sinful mortals to
  begin the end. And we thought we could be able to control them.
  
  As if one could control the Apocalypse.
  
  You get close to the rectangular player which fell off the ancient stellar beacon that now rests below you and straighten it, finding a perfect balance in the imploding universe. While everything that is is swallowed by the final, white fire, you admire that drawing -- a man and a woman, one alongside the other like twins in a child's sketch -- and the hope it was infused with.
  Then, you activate the recording.
  
  Andromeda finally awakens, in its swan-song, while the first notes from the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major start playing
  for the last time.
  
  > BEACON
  The 'beacon' is a probe an old race sent into the void to gather information about the universe. This is the only part in the game which is not fictional. If you are comfortable with space-related trivia, you may have recognized it: The golden laser disc, the male and female sketched drawings, the mathematically-perfect song from Bach. It is Voyager II. Our beacon in the sky.
  
  Yes, if you didn't get it, that's the sordid truth: Humanity in Andromeda came from our galaxy. It was our beloved Milky Way which was wiped off the radar by the Event. We are the Ancestors. Or, well... we WERE.
  
  Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command, know about the true nature of the BEACON, find what's WRONG with the technical stuff or read some AFTERWORDS from the author?
  
  > Wrong
  This game was not intended as a maniacally perfect scientific resource for space travel. That said, the author put so much effort in trying to make everything realistic. Apart from the obvious things that couldn't be (i.e. a train falling for a kilometer doesn't only crumple: it disintegrates) there is one which stood hidden until much too late.
  
  The 'beacon' has been pulled through space by the Hyerotropes. They made it fly at 6k times light-speed. If that's so... what about the humans? How could the First Colonists reach Andromeda WITHOUT such power and knowledge?
  
  Well, they couldn't.
  
  Given there is no Earth date in the game, one could argue that the voyage took a really huge amount of time and that the Colony indeed reached through space around -- what do you think? 10.000 a.D.? 100.000? Well, nope: Andromeda is 2.5 MILLIONS lightyears from Earth. At the speeds we can reach nowadays, the trip would have lasted around 90 BILLIONS years.
  
  The one solution can be the use of a wormhole, a rip in the fabrics of reality that creates a passage to distant places... but we all know that would have been a deus ex machina. That's why it is not mentioned ingame.
  
  Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command, know about the true nature of the BEACON, find what's WRONG with the technical stuff or read some AFTERWORDS from the author?
  
  > Afterwords
  I was in my car, early summer of 2011, driving my wife to our mountain resort, when I started teasing her with some scientific trivia about the galaxy of Andromeda. Kid was in the backseat, already dozed off, the sun did shine and the birds were singing. I begun flapping my never-stopping mouth about distances, dimensions, the sheer number of stars involved, when she begun yawning. I got the message and shut up.
  
  But didn't shut up on the inside.
  
  That is how my first IF story had birth. I run to the house, turned on my Macbook Air (freshly acquired, and just a week before the release of the new one, ouch) and begun coding again, never fully realizing I was going to complete the task, for the first time ever.
  
  I've first played and then tried to write IF in the mid-Eighties. I was nearly a teen, the world was splendid and everything quite worked for the best. The amount of time I could devote to my hobbies was impressive. The Hobbit was always running and I was
  struggling a lot trying to understand english and what to do with that singing bastard Thorin the dwarf. More that a quarter of century has passed, and I'm still here, messing with trolls and an english parser. Meanwhile, almost ten -- or twenty, who can tell? -- adventure games have danced on my screen waiting to be designed and coded. I never got much beyond the few introductory rooms.
  The occasion came when I stumbled upon the IFComp. Edition
  2011 was about to open and I had a game halfway to being finished that could maybe, and just maybe, fit in. All I had to do was deciding how the world of Monarch was going to be saved and how I could code that damn soap-over-metal puzzle.
  
  Summer passed by in a whoosh, and by the end of September the game was ready.
  
  Or so I thought.
  
  Coding a kind of game which is by far the most similar thing to a novel that could exist in a language that is not one's own is a rather terrific experience. Although I'm quite fluent in English and have classes listening to me from all around the globe -- I'm a graphic designer and expert on editorial design, which I teach in what you'd call a Master School for Gifted Youngsters -- I soon discovered that the river which spans between the speech and the writing is a very wide and turbulent one. Fortunately, my first proofreaders did an awesome job in putting straight my bulky texts (yeah: if you'd seen Andromeda before their intervention, you'd think this one
  was, like, Hemingway).
  So, I entered the Comp. For one and a half months, I've been in awe. I don't think I was exactly aware of what I've stepped into.
  I'm willing to believe that, if I'd known, I'd rather go around naked downtown than publish a game in so a renowned competition.
  
  And that was nice, 'cause I had the opportunity, otherwise precluded, to step into a new, fascinating world. I had an audience. I had critics. I had a chance.
  
  I wanted to be a writer all my life. Since when ten years old, I filled notebooks with short tales and novels-wannabe. I actually did write a novel, one that is trying to find a place in the horrible italian fiction maelstrom, but I never had someone other than my wife or friends read anything that's mine. Now it seems, looking at the number in the online transcript of the first release of this game, more than 600 people have tried my game. On IFDB (at the time this is being written), Andromeda averages on 3 stars, with the
  German scene gifting me with 4.
  I don't really know how this second release will fare, out there. What I know is that one of my strongest desires, the one I keep asking the sky to make real whenever I see a falling star, has become solid truth. And that's more than what one would sell his soul to hell for, believe me.
  
  Now, only time will tell if I can be a writer or have to stick with graphics. But if I die tomorrow, at least I won't go away saying "nobody has ever read my work". Thank you all who participated. This was a blast.
  
  --Marco Innocenti, Firenze (Italy), January 8, 2012.
  
  Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command, know about the true nature of the BEACON, find what's WRONG with the technical stuff or read some AFTERWORDS from the author?