Claws of the Macra (novel)

These interactive stories continue online. With links to exclusive animated scenes and an exciting online game, there's a new adventure waiting for you with every read.

Plot

Page 1

The gas refinery is huge - two square miles of giant steel storage tanks, filters and chimneys. Industrial pipes surround the refinery like a gigantic nest of metallic snakes - some are no thicker than your arm, others are wide enough to stand upright inside. It all looks overwhelmingly complex.

Rising up from the centre of the refinery site is the Control Tower - a huge concrete cylinder topped by a ring of windows overlooking the entire development.

A long underground corridor leads from the car park to the reception area at the base of the Control Tower. It's busy here - full of people going about their business. Engineers, scientists, company executives, all on their way somewhere important.

Your school party is standing in front of the main reception desk, waiting for visitor passes to be issued. There are two teachers and about fifteen kids in your group. Everyone seems a little nervous - and no one is looking forward to the tour. A school trip to a gas refinery? No thanks!

But your attention has been caught by something on the far side of the reception area - a door marked NO UNAUTHORISED ACCESS. It's been left open.

No one seems to have noticed it except you.

But now your school party has been given their passes and are being led away for the tour of the factory. They're waving at you to come and join them. Someone's shouting out, full of excitement. They've found something already. Perhaps the tour won't be so bad after all...

You glance back at the open door and read the sign again, wondering...

If you decide to stick with the tour party, go to 89.

If you decide to go through the open door, go to 50.

Page 89

After only a moment's hesitation ,you follow the tour party. The refinery is huge and you don't want to get lost.

At least not yet.

In the next room, there's a presentation by the owner of the gas refinery, Sebastian Quipe. The GasTech refinery, he claims, is the very latest in liquid gas conversion. The energy it produces is clean and economically perfect.

OK, so you're already bored. Most of the kids are as well. But you've noticed something they haven't.

On the other side of the room it a tall blue box with little white-framed windows and a lamp on the roof. A notice above the doors says POLICE BOX. It looks completely out of place.

You're about to wander over for a closer look when someone brushes past you. At first you think it's a teacher - he's young, with a shock of unruly dark hair, and he's wearing a tweed jacket with elbow patched and narrow trousers.

Page 50

You slip quietly through the door. No one has noticed.

You don't intend to be long - this is just a quick look around, nothing more.

You're in a short corridor. It's brightly lit, but featureless. There's a strange antiseptic smell in the air, like a hospital, and the floor is made from rubberized tiles. It looks strangely futuristic and a little bit scary. But then this is a brand new gas refinery, that's why your school have come on a trip here - to find out how modern science is coping with the energy shortage, and what can be done to process gas and oil safely and efficiently. It's not a bad project really.

In fact, you can hear the distant sound of the refinery in operation - the low hum of machinery and computers, and you can even feel it through your trainers: a faint vibration.

There's no one about, so you venture a little further.

At the far end of the corridor is a junction with two doors. One is marked with a red triangle, and the other is marked with a green triangle. There is no writing on either and although they are closed, they don't appear to be locked.

Surely a quick look behind one of the doors couldn't do any harm?

But which?

to be added

Characters

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

to be added