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Adaptive Hypertext  Book:  Extreme Conditions
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1
Tenth Decade
The discovery of an anomaly derived from the human race was not the only incident to shake the history of the second half of the century. Another event occurred; of this one, however, few knew...
2
Tenth Decade
Miranda parked her car near a service station. She had enough fuel for hundreds of kilometers, but she wanted to spend some time before arriving at the Center for Special Research...
3
Tenth Decade
She still had an hour to spare before arriving at the Center for Special Research, so she decided to journey into the cirty. Near the domes that protected humans from a poisonous atmosphere, stood the walkways designated for avatars...
4
Tenth Decade
She realized that entering the Center for Special Research was ineludible. She slowly made her way through the complex, not to save time, but rather because of the extreme condition of security that reigned that day...
5
Tenth Decade
-We have orders. You have three seconds to descend inside. Miranda adjusted the controls so she could drive the car herself. A pair of floor gates opened...
6
Tenth Decade
Indigo Cavalera roamed the heart of the Center from his chair. He would stop at every technician’s workstation as if to verify that they were working properly...
7
Tenth Decade
Scientists began to gather one by one. They situated themselves across an armored large window that would protect them against the radiation caused by the chrononaut leaping into time. The chief engineer began countdown: "9, 8, 7..."
8
End of Ninth Decade
Central Lab. Miranda at 22 enters the most admired temple within the Research Center. Some say that Indigo is inventing a way to reverse the planet’s shitification. Nevertheless, in that place...
9
Eighth Decade
The avatar children pummeled out of school in troops. Life was simple for them. Free. Every afternoon promised an adventure in the domes the adult Avatars were building...
10
Eighth Decade
-Are you alone? Rasid set his construction tools aside. He worked the entire morning. By lunch, he was so tired that he did not even want to sit down to chew in the company of his father...
11
Eighth Decade
The old man remained seated next to Rasid, so that the two might look in the same direction if the boy would raise his head. -My name is Urban, and yours?...
12
Eighth Decade
In 1855, chief Seathl answered an offer made by the North American government to buy his land. Urban tried to imagine the original document, before its message was distorted. First by translators. Then by copyists...
13
Eight Decade
Miranda had only once on her life seen an avatar face to face, at one of the parks near her house when she was a little girl. The pedestrian domes were newly built...
14
Eight Decade
Indigo Cavalera’s driver diminished the car’s speed almost to the point of immobility as it billowed towards the alley where Miranda's house was located. The trip from the main avenue that lead to...
15
Tenth Decade
-Our dream Indigo –Miranda said in the middle of rejoicing for the successful experiment-, at last we’ve reached that which you prepared me for my whole life...
16
Tenth Decade
The door made the loud noise as it opened. Miranda woke up startled. She took several seconds to remember what had happened. She believed that they were coming to murder her...
17
Tenth Decade
-Doesn't it strike you as a little bit odd -the old woman said- that Indigo had so much success at such a young age? In Santa Fe, a hundred years ago, it would've been impossible for anyone without money such as him, to one day establish what’s today
18
Tenth Decade
The two returned to the place where hours earlier the experiment had been performed. Miranda made her way toward the large window. She remained silently staring at the time machine...
19
Tenth Decade
Rasid walked hurriedly. He wore a wool cap, gloves, and a high neck jacket. He stared at the floor. He headed towards one of the human walkways...
20
Tenth Decade
The majority of employees were observing him. Even though his appearance could have been mistaken for human, his look didn’t match an elegant place. Besides, his height was impressive...
21
Tenth Decade
He walked towards the east moving away from the Station. Occasionally he would stop next a shop window, trying to find an indication that they were following him...
22
Tenth Decade
He waited next to the door for several minutes. Nobody went out after him. He laughed about his paranoia and began walking again. As soon as he took his first steps, he heard something beyond the rustling wind. He turned back and looked up...
23
Tenth Decade
Not far from there, the meeting was beginning. Those who had come were settled in. The group was approximately made up of forty avatars. All except Urban were between eighteen and thirty-years-old...
24
Tenth Decade
Rasid knew the explosion would cause greater problem. If they were following him, they would surely know that he was headed towards the meeting. He decided to return for the insignia. He would walk along the avatars' streets, far removed from the exp
25
Tenth Decade
When he woke up he found himself on the floor of a cell. The room was small. Two by one meters. A weak light illuminated its walls of concrete...
26
First Decade
Santa Fe Square, viewed from a window at St. Bartholomew school, had the exact vista Rasid Bagda remembered during his...
27
First Decade
Indigo Cavalera answered immediately: -They call it the gas of the marshes. Because of that people believe that it has a very disagreeable smell, but really it's not that bad...
28
First Decade
-Indigo -Rasid began walking. He placed his hand affectionately on Indigos's shoulder and continued talking to him while they walked down the stairs-: Look around you...
29
First Decade
They left school and walked along Seventh Avenue. -Yes –Indigo answered-, but... Rasid, there are many ways of helping...
30
First Decade
Indigo had kept his voice high the whole time. Rasid watched him out of the corner of his eye. The passers-by were looking at them with curiosity, and that bothered Rasid, since they should have gone unnoticed...
31
Tenth Decade
Indigo and Miranda were walking along one of the boulevards by the Center for Special Research. This was their home. Indigo had paid enormous sums of money to architects whom designed the place...
32
Tenth Decade
Indigo entered Rasid’s room without knocking. Rasid was used to this type of intrusion. -How’s the training going? –Indigo asked...
33
First Decade
Indigo continued walking along Seventh Avenue making his way north. He passed six streets and entered a mall...
34
First Decade
Indigo waited until Miranda's aerobic students left. He was not sure if it bothered her for them to see her and Indigo together. She was 18 years his senior. An entire generation...
35
First Decade
They made their way towards Seventh Avenue up San Francisco Palace. Miranda fitted her hands into an imaginary square, as if she was preparing to film the building. Indigo laughed...
36
First Decade
Through the cellars, if you knew your way, it was possible to go out the opposite door that you had entered. The place was completely dark...
37
First Decade
Rasid groped his way along. He knew she had to tell him the truth, or invent a crazy story...
38
First Decade
Rasid's words slowly seeped across the sensual barrier built by Miranda. Indigo rubbed his face with his hands in an attempt to alleviate the itching in his cheeks, which prevented him from opening his eyes...
39
First Decade
Indigo and Miranda stopped to rest. Although the two were athletes, they had run several hundreds of meters at full speed...
40
First Decade
Friends. Always. These words shook Indigo. He did not know if she had moved her head, or if the light had reflected her in a peculiar way because for the first time, he saw that Miranda had wrinkles on her forehead...
41
Tenth Decade
The Center for Special Research was quiet. In one second, it was an enormous mass of concrete brimming with light...
42
Tenth Decade
-This is it, Indigo, the Center for Special Research. This is the time machine. Outside, you’ll find the cirty of Santa Fe in the tenth decade -Miranda adopted tourist guide pose-...
43
Tenth Decade
Miranda continued guiding him until they came to a door with an electronic lock. It had its own battery. She placed her hand on the digital sensors that authorized entry...
44
Tenth Decade
The lights switched on. The second reactor began operating. Miranda made herself comfortable by sitting on an air conditioning unit that was located in the room, and connected the ventilation beams...
45
Tenth Decade
Miranda helped Indigo to finish knotting the hose. When she judged that they had sufficient length, she began wrapping herself from the shoulders to the waist. Indigo did the same thing...
46
Tenth Decade
When they touched ground, Miranda guided Indigo towards the only car parked in the garage. It was a small car used by the guards entrusted with the external security of the Center...
47
Tenth Decade
-These days, human beings live in domes. They can’t go outside because of the high concentrations of sulphydric acid that lingers in the environment...
48
Tenth Decade
«Avatars have a serious problem; they reproduce quite rapidly. A child avatar is able to work by the age of ten...
49
Tenth Decade
«Your old self hopes for the extinction of the human race. You want to create favorable conditions so that the avatar race will dominate the planet, but in order for that to be possible, human must become extinct...
50
Fifth Decade
The streets of the industrial zone in Aranda Bridge, during the fifth decade, were desolate most of the time. There were no residential constructions, only factories, most of which were automated...
51
Fifth Decade
-The only option we have is to try to avoid the accident. We can enter the plant and block some of the compounds...
52
Fifth Decade
«That day, they began with the chemical industry building. Their presence coincided with a flaw in the security systems. The surveillance cameras weren’t working...
53
Fifth Decade
«Cavalera Industries acted quickly. Dozens of helicopters loaded with inhibitor materials came...
54
Fifth Decade
«A scandal occurred which was very costly to the corporation. In the production of certain compounds, they used viruses. It was precisely a virus that originated the mutation. The first discharge into the environment infected the recyclers...
55
Fifth Decade
Miranda stopped speaking. She sighed weakened by the air. Indigo walked about the ship. He approached Miranda and shrugged his shoulders in an unconcerned gesture...
56
Fifth Decade
Upon having come to where Miranda had mentioned, Indigo’s incredulous face changed to an expression of assent. A hole on the floor allowed them to see the first level...
57
Fifth Decade
Miranda pulled Indigo up to the room entrance. She did not let him climb down the stairs. She pushed him. She too jumped to the bottom...
58
Fifth Decade
A door that connected with all other sections of the factory opened. Guards entered forming a line. Then, a seventy-year old Indigo Cavalera stood before them...
59
Fifth Decade
-I never said anything that would give you false hopes. You created your own histories, you were the one speaking of shared homes, but you never asked about my opinion. I never said yes to any of it...
60
Fifth Decade
Indigo closed his eyes as soon as the stellar light enveloped him. As an experienced time traveler, he knew that if left open, his eyes would see for hours was a luminous lake...
61
First Decade
Rasid found himself alone by the Quevedo Fountain. There were people around him. Students. Street vendors. Children playing. But he was alone...
62
First Decade
-"...men aren’t exempt from the common destiny." Rasid repeated what he had learned with Urban. It gave him tranquility and hope...
63
First Decade
Rasid was the first avatar. He was the last avatar. His days turned into sadness. He dirtied his body with strong inhalations. Little by little the city was diminishing for him, he lived in a four street radius:...
64
First Decade
His self-destructive rhythm of life aged him. Rasid Bagda, first mentor to Indigo Cavalera, had become wretched being. He was not interested in controlling his appetites and basic instincts...
65
Tenth Decade
Eighty-year-old Miranda Macedonia, was in the time machine console. She had just sent young Miranda Macedonia to the first decade...
66
Tenth Decade
Miranda stood staring at Indigo for a while. Her weathered eyes filled with tears and she sloped against the wall...

 

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