Homeworld - Gravity's End

By Reiko

Interrupted, just when it was getting good!

Last time we attended a mysterious rendezvous and met Macropterous, a member of a secret religious sect among the Heechee. He believes we can help each other, so he gave me the course code to the sect's headquarters. However, I have to follow some ancient Heechee prophecies in order to gain access, because our meeting was interrupted before he could tell me how to do it.

History of an obsolete religion.

I have put the course code into the ship and now activate it to travel to a new location. A rocky hill is crowned by the ruins of an ancient temple. Oddly enough, this seems to be a tourist destination, as a guidething (bot) wakes up when I arrive and begins telling me about the "ancient site of the Temple of Sterigma." The ancients who built the site worshiped the elements and focused on religion as much as science and technology. Yet their scientific studies were the undoing of their religion: as they learned to understand the world around them, they ceased to worship it. That's reasonable.

Apparently this is where those ironweed seeds originated, the ones that wouldn't grow in the garden in the main Heechee city. Nearby, around some boulders, the ironweed vine grows profusely. I can drop a few of the seeds on the ground and they immediately sprout. That's some magical gardening right there. The existing vines are too strong to cut or take, but I might need to grow some vines later for something.

The guidething also has a lot to say about the temple. The northern part of the temple is for Air, the eastern for Fire, the southern for Water, and the western for Stone (which classically would be Earth but there's not a lot of earth on this world, just a lot of stone, it seems). The center holds four stone disks engraved with mysterious icons.

The disks look gold but are described as stone.

After listening to the whole message, I proceed up the hill and into the temple itself. I find the disks just as the guidething said. The little device has floated after me and is repeating its guiding messages. The disks are circles that can turn, and each one has a symbol, most likely matching its element. The symbols are a plant, a dagger, a hammer, and a pair of wings. I'm going to guess that wings are for air, plant is for water, dagger is for stone, and hammer is for fire.

I'm a little frustrated initially because many of the objects mentioned in the description aren't understood by the parser. I can't examine the icons more closely, or even the depression mentioned as being in the middle of the room between the disks. I can't turn a specific disk identified by its symbol either. Then I try to "turn circle" more generally, and suddenly the interface shifts to a graphical one and I have to try to make sense of which icon is which object, and which wall is which. This is a bit of a failing of the transition from parser to graphical adventure here.

Graphical interface for turning the disks.

I think north is to the top of the screen, which makes the elements easy to identify. The hammer and dagger icons are pretty clear, but the "wings" are only a very stylized bird-in-the-distance sort of shape, so I wouldn't have known they were wings if the text description hadn't told me. In fact, the plant looks a lot like a folded paper crane, so that would also have been unclear. But let's go with plant for now and see if my element matching works.

So instead of manipulating the circles with text commands, all I have to do is click on them to rotate them. As it turns out, I had stone and fire reversed. I was thinking of a hammer as a tool for forging and a dagger for chiseling stone, but a dagger is an item that is forged, and I guess a hammer is for...smashing stone? I'm not really sure, but air and water were certain, so it was trivial to try the others until I had everything correct. [15]

Secret sect headquarters under the temple.

At that point, the depression opens up to reveal stairs going down into a huge cavern with cloaked figures working quietly. I end up in the "inner sanctum" of the temple, with walls covered in ancient carvings and then modern trappings added like screens and a desk behind which is a particular cloaked figure. It looks like another cut-scene, but this is a more interactive conversation like the ones I had earlier with Diana. He introduces himself first:

"Welcome, human. My name is Exegesis, and I am the leader of the White Hand. What would you have of me?"

    

I can ask him about his name, to which he says it means "Bringer of Knowledge." That's not actually what the word means, though. Normally I've seen it used to refer to a careful explanation of a text, most often the Bible. I suppose a person who performs exegesis is sort of a bringer of knowledge, but it's a bit tangential.

When I ask him about the group, he only says, "The Hand is a select group of Heechee that follow certain beliefs. Although most in the Core believe that Lifting prolongs life indefinitely, the Hand feels differently."

He explains more about why the Ancestors are just copies later.

I get different responses to that, mostly expressing bemusement or confusion. I don't know what he's talking about either. "Lifting"? Fortunately, it doesn't seem to matter much what I respond, and then he explains:

"When a Heechee dies, he is Lifted into the Ancient Ancestors. His personality is electronically copied into dataspace. There, he functionally exists forever. The Hand, however, believes that this copy is not truly the Heechee that died. It is only a computer program, made to act and react exactly as he did in life."

    

"A copy can be made of a living Heechee. If this is done, the copy will function the same as the original. This doesn't drain the life from the Heechee. They coexist easily. Therefore, since we know that the Heechee's consciousness is not transferred to the copy before death, why should it be any different after? No. When a Heechee dies, his consciousness goes elsewhere, not into a computer. The Heechee want to believe that the program IS the original to escape grief."

    

I can react in a variety of ways, to which he says:

"I suppose it might seem strange to someone who hasn't been raised in Heechee society. In any case, we're not sure where the identity goes. Most of us believe in a higher power, a celestial collective consciousness. When we die, we contribute our identity and experiences to it. The Ancient Ancestors are parodies of this extension of life."

I can ask about the Ancestors, to which he says they are treated as second-class citizens, made to do things that the living Heechee don't want to do, often things that are perilous or tedious. Oddly enough, while they usually have no voting rights on the Council, Fogram is an exception. I ask him more about Fogram (the PC calls him a "slimeball"), and he gives me these juicy details:

    

"Yes. Through his influence with the First Seat, Fogram controls the council. He has done so since his Lifting, thousands of years ago. Before then, he WAS the First Seat. He was the one who led the Heechee into hiding. Many felt that fleeing was a mistake, but the tragic death of his chief political enemy cemented his power. While he remains, our hands are tied."

    

If that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is. Even if it's suspected that Fogram was involved, the statute of limitations on the death of that political enemy has surely long since run out. But there has to be a way to get rid of Fogram at least temporarily.

After quite a bit of chatter, we get down to the real problem: I'm stranded here in the Core while the Assassins will soon destroy Earth, which has been betrayed from within. Exegesis goes on to say:

"I sympathize with your situation, as does the Hand. Now that you have proven that there is other sentient life in the galaxy, the Heechee have no more excuses to remain hiding in this Black Hole. We are far too insular. At best, we should emerge and aid your race against the Foe. This will never happen with the current council."

    

"At worst, I believe that, if you wish, you deserve the right to die with your race. We will do what we can to make this possible. Technicians of the Hand have looked at your ship and have discovered three major components missing. These components work together to pierce the Black Hole's event horizon. Without them, you are stuck inside the Core."

This is massively illogical technomagic. Possibly worse than instant seed growth.

Aha, I sense a fetch quest! I ask him if he has the components, and he says no, because those components are controlled by the council. The three components are the Cohesion Field Generator, the Gravity Lens, and the Nav Data Chip. I can ask more about each of these and he gives me some technobabble. The generator and lens protect against the gravity of the black hole by strengthening matter (this would actually cause all sorts of physical issues, but we'll just ignore that). The lens negates or reverses gravity on its source. And the nav chip helps the ship navigate the event horizon using special programs and calculations.

While the White Hand cannot directly help me get the components, they can give me some hints on how I can get them. The generator might be found in conjunction with an archaeological team, which uses them to support walls in underground dig sites. Conveniently, he says:

"It just so happens that I know of such a site nearby. The find, an ancient carved column, is the main support for the surrounding cave. Their attempts to remove the accumulation of thousands of years caused it to crack. They quickly put the Field Generator on the column and left to obtain assistance in shoring up the site. They are still waiting for further funding. Here is the course code." He hands you a metallic card. "If you can find a way to remove the Generator without bringing the site down on your head, it is yours."

    

That sounds tricky, but it's a solid lead. On the other hand, he knows far less about gravity lenses somehow, but that's fine, because I already know where there's a lens: in the elevator shaft in the Place of Seeing observatory. Actually taking it will not be as easy as that, but I know where it is at least.

He's even more pessimistic about the nav chip, saying, "There are no other uses for this chip. Its only purpose is to guide spacecraft through the event horizon. I have no idea where you could find one without stealing another ship, which is impossible." The only objects that the Heechee deliberately send through the black hole to normal space are their probes, so there should be a way to find a nav chip in the probe area on the administration planet.

The only other thing to ask is what to do when I actually have all the things, and the answer is simple: return to the temple and his engineers here will install them on my ship so that I can go home. The last option to say to him is: "All right. I'll do it. Stand back and watch my dust." Ha, that's the spirit! The PC is rather confident at this point, impressively so. Since this is an adventure game, I know there's a way to do all this, but if I were actually stranded inside a black hole in an alien culture, I imagine I would be a lot less sanguine about being able to succeed.

Our conversation finished, he wishes me luck, and off I go. I think I'll tackle the generator first since it's another new location and I also have some ideas about how to go about it. I notice as I leave that Exegesis and his gestures and such "somehow seem familiar." I think he might be Convergence, the member of the Council that seemed to favor me, but I don't remember for sure.

When I go back to the ship, I automatically put the new course card into the controls [10]. The dig site is only a few kilometers away from the temple on the same barren world. I follow the path around a short way and into the dig site itself, supported by a cracked column. The generator is a small black box with a red flashing light on the front.

The pillar looks very precarious...

...even with vines around it.

Naturally, grabbing the box right away is a terrible idea. I have a better idea, though. I plant all the rest of the seeds at the base of the column so that the ironweed vines grow up and stabilize the column and even the ceiling [15]. They're described as being as hard as iron, so they're quite strong. Now I can grab the generator box without danger [5]. As I do, something shiny falls out of the rubble, which I also grab [5]. It seems to be some kind of badge, labeled "Field Science," probably dropped by a member of the archaeological team. This might be useful for getting one of the other items.

I return to the Place of Seeing and start thinking about how to get the lens. The elevator shaft isn't accessible from within the observatory room, but near the building is the alleyway leading to the sewers. What if the sewer area has access to the elevator shaft somehow? I go around the corner and down the stairs and then stare dubiously at the channel of sewage running between me and the far side of the room.

Sewage probably still smells awful when stabilized, though.

I don't have any obvious way to cross the sewage, but after thinking for a little bit, I realize I have a non-obvious way: the generator. It was stabilizing a crumbling column, so perhaps it can solidify sewage. Gingerly I place the generator on the sewage, where it promptly begins to sink in. I press the button, and it works [15]! I can now walk across the solidified sewage and enter the maintenance tube on the other side. Beyond that is a tube junction leading to a huge shaft that extends vertically in both directions.

The eyes are always watching.

The gravity lens is designed to catch the elevator if it should happen to get damaged and fall down the shaft. The shaft is described as having sensors in rings around the inside to detect falling objects. So first I try throwing the pouch into the shaft, but I'm not allowed to do this. It probably wouldn't be effective anyway. Well, there's only one thing left to do, and it might not be the last stupid thing I end up doing before this is all over, but what have I got to lose at this point?

Trapped inside a black hole with an insular alien race that mostly doesn't care if my entire race is annihilated by an ancient and deadly foe as long as they stay out of it, I throw myself into the elevator shaft.

The disk opens just in time...

...allowing me to grab the prize before it closes.

I hurtle downwards, causing the sensors to light up. The floor of the shaft quickly approaches, and I wait for near-certain death. Yet it doesn't come. Something buzzes and the disk in the floor opens, revealing a sparkling lens. Gravity reverses just enough to bring me to a gentle stop just above the floor [20]. The disk starts closing, so I reach out and take the lens just in time [10]. I drop the last meter to the floor and examine my prize triumphantly. It actually looks like a normal clear lens a few inches in diameter.

That's two of the three items right there. I tuck the lens inside the pod and climb up and out of the shaft, retrieving the pouch at the top. I don't think the empty pouch is useful for much of anything, but the game hasn't taken it away from me, so I might as well keep it for now. I had also swiped the guard's thermos back when I drugged him, so that's available as well, although I doubt it has much use either. I proceed back across the hardened sewage, disabling the field generator on the other side and collecting it before it disappears into the sludge. (I did test this and found that items allowed to sink into the sewage are gone permanently. It's certainly possible to make the game unwinnable this way.)

Accessing the command center with the borrowed badge.

Now I can return to the ship and fly back to the Administration Planet dock to pursue the third item quest, the nav chip. In the dock area with the probes, the technician had told me that only the scientists were allowed to enter the command center and deal with programming the probes. Well, now I've got myself a science badge from the archaeology dig. So I boldly approach the sensor at the northern door. Indeed, the sensor is satisfied by the badge and opens the door to allow me to enter [10].

Unfortunately, I am not sure if I have what I need yet. I can't really interact with anything in the command center except for the probe targeting control, which allows me to set a four-character code just like all the other navigation controls in the game. I looked back in my notes to find the code for Earth and entered it. Nothing happened when I pressed the big yellow launch button, though. I tried closing out of the console and reopening it, and this time the code was green and I could trigger the launch. Still, that didn't seem to do anything for me; it just launched a probe. I suppose Earth is going to end up getting a couple extra random probes as a result of my flailing around here. Nobody here seems to notice or care that I've actually managed to launch a probe, either.

I just had an idea, though. I run back to the ship and note the coordinates for the temple planet. I'm going to see if I can commandeer a probe and swipe the nav chip from it. The temple site is a valid code, so I send off the probe [10]. I'm validated by the fact that I get points for this, too!

The technicians are really efficient when the probe disappears in literally a minute.

I hurry off to the temple site. Apparently, my ship travels faster than a probe, because there's nothing there when I arrive. Amid the nattering of the guidething, I wait for a few minutes and am pleased to notice a flare on the horizon shortly. The probe approaches overhead and lands hard, burying its nose in the dirt. I quickly look at it, but even as I do, the Heechee at the temple emerge and disassemble the probe. I hope that means they got the nav chip we need.

I enter the temple and speak with Exegesis again. When I ask about the probe, he assures me that they did take the nav chip from it and have immediately begun installing it on my ship. I can also tell him I have the other two things, to which I get this reply:

"My congratulations, human. I didn't believe that it was possible." Convergence takes the two components from you and disappears with them. In a moment, he reenters the room. "Even as we speak, technicians are installing the components on your ship. Soon, you will be free from the hold of the Council. It is a shame, however, that you have no way to overtake your enemies. If only we had the TransWarp Drive theories. Ah, a pity. Farewell, my friend."

    

Did you see that? The game has already outright confirmed my suspicion that Exegesis is Convergence. But what's the TransWarp Drive? Come on, you're not going to mention a thing like that without giving me the opportunity to acquire it, right? I ask him about the drive, and he explains:

"Well, faster-than-light drives all tend to travel at approximately equivalent speeds. A long time ago, an inventor known as Solifluction developed theories for a TransWarp drive - a drive that would increase the speed of a ship exponentially. The theories were lost along with the inventor in a tragic accident."

    

Backstory! Complete with "coincidences".

I ask him for more information. This was apparently thousands of years ago, when the Heechee didn't have the technology to actually create a drive that would apply these theories. Solifluction was also the engineer who led the Shield Generator project, which was developed and built, but then abandoned, inactive, because Fogram took over the Council after Solifluction died and led the Heechee to hide in the Core instead of facing the Assassins. Solifluction perished in an accident with one of the shield generators overloading and completely destroying him with no way to add him to the digital Ancestors. Some suspect Fogram might have caused the accident, but Heechee almost never act out of that kind of malice, so it was never proven.

Nobody else knew much of anything about the theories. Solifluction's father Astatine might have, but while he was part of the Ancestor minds, Solifluction carried him around in his pod, so he was destroyed when Solifluction was. The only other one was Solifluction's closest friend Raphide, who was also Lifted to the Ancestors after he died, which was soon after Solifluction died. However, he has been completely out of touch, not responding to any messages.

That's curious, because I recognize that name. I check back in my notes and find that I had received a message signed "Raphide" after my first lecture. The message said he was interested in hearing about the shield generators. Well, that's not surprising  now, given the connections to Solifluction. It's one of the few things that could have drawn Raphide out of his isolation, apparently.

When I mention the message from Raphide, I get this amusing and very detailed response:

"YOU'VE RECEIVED A MESSAGE FROM RAPHIDE? This is unprecedented! But then, you engaged the Shield Generators. Naturally he'd be interested in how they worked. This is incredible! We must use this opportunity to draw him out. It so happens that I have some information that Raphide will find interesting. We can use it to bring him to you. Settle yourself, for I have to tell you a story."

    

"Ages ago, before the great exodus into the Core, the High Council was led by Fogram. Solifluction and Fogram were dire political enemies and their faction divided the council. Fogram wanted to hide from the Foe while Solifluction wished to divert the Assassin's attention as the Heechee remained in the galaxy and made ready to confront them. Solifluction had enough clout to begin the Shield Generator project, indeed, almost enough to see it to its conclusion."

    

"Solifluction was aided by his dead father, Astatine. But one day, while they were testing the power core in one of the Generators, a bizarre energy field erupted. The radiation scrambled the datastore that contained his father's personality. Astatine did not die, but he went insane, and he was in pain every moment of his existence. With Raphide's support, Solifluction petitioned the council to erase Astatine's personality. Fogram denied it."

    

"Solifluction believed that Fogram's decision was a personal attack. He began a political campaign to depose Fogram which gained followers at an alarming rate. He might have made a real difference in Heechee history if a tragic explosion had not claimed his life. His body was destroyed before he could be Lifted. All assumed that Astatine was destroyed as well, so the point of the rebellion became moot."

    

"It was unthinkable by the peace-loving Heechee race that Fogram could have engineered the accident. Sane Heechee simply cannot commit crimes of that magnitude. The death of Solifluction cemented Fogram's power, though. The Heechee fled into the Black Hole and left the Shield Generators for someone else to activate. Soon after, Raphide died and was Lifted into the Massed Minds. This is all common knowledge. What follows is not."

    

"Somehow, Fogram managed to save Astatine from the accident. Despite his insanity, Solifluction's father was still a technical genius. Fogram had many uses for his knowledge. Even today, Fogram uses Astatine for his personal projects."

    

At this point, I get the opportunity to ask a few more questions, although Convergence doesn't know a lot more than that. Nobody seems to know how Fogram managed to preserve Astatine's mind from the accident, naturally, since it's not common knowledge that it happened at all. But Fogram is currently busy with the "Aesthemis Project" which derives from one of the constellation names. The project is in the Place of Learning, so of course it's going to be in the mysterious yet accessible building with a code lock on the door. There's a solid lead.

Also, Raphide will be drawn out by the need to finish the job of deleting Astatine and releasing him from his digital prison imposed by Fogram. Raphide has been hiding by using digital wards, but he's already been drawn to contact me once. If I can say something in my next lecture about Astatine, but subtly as to not alert Fogram, Raphide will surely contact me again.

My suspicions have been officially confirmed!

Now I can ask Convergence how Raphide will believe me. Well, I noticed the earlier slip that confirmed his identity, but now he pulls back his cowl and officially reveals himself. So, I can tell Raphide I learned about Astatine from Convergence, which will be enough for Raphide to believe me. Convergence also admits that he hides his identity because it would be political suicide to do otherwise, so I'd better not reveal him to anyone else. Once I've spoken with Raphide, I should return to the temple and we'll decide what to do next. Convergence hopes that Raphide will tell me what we need to know about the TransWarp drive, but he might not.

Once I'm finished talking to Convergence, I hurry back over to the city and travel over to the Place of Learning. An attendant informs me that a lecture will be arranged for an hour from now, which is interesting because the time seems to be nearly 2 AM. At one point, I tried to go back to my room and sleep, but the game tells me I have too much to do to sleep!

The constellation Aesthemis unlocks...

...Fogram's not-so-secret lab.

Possibly another guard/assistant might show up at some point, so I immediately turn my attention to the locked door. The grid of buttons is 5x5. I look back in my notes and find the Aesthemis constellation, which looks a bit like an asymmetric arrowhead. It's not immediately obvious how the shape is proportioned, but I pay attention to the relative locations of the stars and place them in the grid, and it works. The door opens, and I step into Fogram's lab [15]. Next time we'll find out what Fogram's been working on and see if we can contact Raphide and Astatine.

Deaths:

Jumping into the elevator shaft after having removed the gravity lens. (#22)

Returning to Earth right after acquiring the ability to do so, before completing the TransWarp arc. (#23)

This is a rare death that actually gives a short cutscene rather than just a text response. Once we've collected the three items to fix the ship and handed them over to Exegesis/Convergence at the temple, we can go ahead and try traveling back to Earth, which without TransWarp takes weeks. As a result, we're too late to stop the Assassins, who have destroyed everything. Our ship is also destroyed by an Assassin Watcher.

The game doesn't really track macro time elapsed while solving puzzles even though there are some puzzles that have time limits measured in turns or minutes, so it still may be possible to wait around for weeks' worth of turns and still be able to follow the plot and stop the Assassins by solving the puzzles the proper way. I'm not going to bother testing this.

Score: 1175

Deaths: 23

Inventory: pouch (wearing: blue coverall, Heechee pod, science badge)

(The field generator, gravity lens, and navigation chip were acquired during this session but delivered to the temple.)

Session Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 17.5 hours

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!