The Star Portal

The Star Portal
Adventure Game Toolkit adventure
Author	Michael Detlefsen
Released	March 1989
Native format	PC DOS

The Star Portal is a science fiction Eamon adventure planned by Michael Detlefsen for use with his Atari ST Eamon port. Announcing it in his newsletter in April 1987, Detlefsen said that the adventure was still in the early stages of development ("barely blocked out" with "only 60 rooms so far") and that he expected it would take at least several more months to complete; however, Detlefsen abandoned his Atari ST platform in 1987 in favor of the PC-based Adventure Game Toolkit system, and the adventure was never finished for the Atari.

In 1988 Detlefsen completed Star Portal as an AGT adventure. The story is based on "Ticket to Anywhere", a science fiction novelette written by Damon Knight and published in the April 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Premise

You're an experienced adventurer who travels the solar system looking for excitement and treasure, but after a recent trip ended in failure you decide to take a break to rebuild your reserves. However, one night while drinking in a pub you learn from a drunken patron about a secret installation on Mars that supposedly contains an ancient alien artifact discovered by an earlier expedition, and intrigued you decide to try to find it. After much searching you track down a member of the expedition, now retired, who confirms the story and reveals that the Artifact is a transportation device that can instantly teleport a person or object over vast, interstellar distances, seemingly at random. The government, wary of the Artifact's power, kept its existence secret and erected a building around it with armed guards to protect it.

You smuggle yourself onto a supply ship and make your way to Mars, eventually landing some distance from the site. While hiking toward the building you lose much of your equipment in a sandstorm, and are left with little more than an envirosuit, oxygen, and your determination to learn the Artifact's secrets.

Full introduction

You are trudging through the Martian desert, heading toward a destination that may be only rumor, as some have suggested. Up until the sandstorm three days ago, you had a rough map showing an approximate location of the mysterious artifact you seek. Now you are guided by your memory only. You stop to rest and consider the change of events that brought you to this place. *************** The Earth of present time is recovering from a time of unrest. Exploration of the solar system was halted, and resources were put into more pressing social needs. You were always of the adventuring type, going off to exotic places, searching for treasures. You ran a little short of cash after the last failed trip, and had to take a job to build up your reserves again. You worked as a sphinx valve inspector while doing the first draft on a book about your last journey. While having a drink in one of the local pubs, you got into a conversation with a fellow who had obviously been doing his share of drinking. During the course of your rambling conversation with him, he made several references to a secret installation on Mars, and the ancient alien artifact within. During the next six months you spent most of your money and all of your time tracking down the truth to this rumor. Finally, you located a crewperson of the Third Expedition, the one that found the Artifact. Former Lieutenant Mariko Kosei was eighty-one years old and taught flower arranging in Old New Kyoto. After being convinced that you were just a loonier than usual adventurer, she took a liking to you and, after pledging you to secrecy, told you the story of the Third Expedition to Mars. The third expedition started off like the First and Second, rock-chipping and sand collecting. Then they found the Artifact. It was sitting in the middle of the desert, looking like new. It looked like a large vid-phone booth, but it had a single lever protruding from one wall instead of the 'phone. After a great deal of arguing, someone stepped inside the booth and moved the lever to find out what would happen. There was a subdued snap and he disappeared. Nobody said anything for a little while, then Sparks went back to the ship and fired off a message to Earth. The Third Expedition was still there when the Fourth Expedition arrived. The Fourth was mostly research (as opposed to exploration) people. After several weeks of general messing around with no results, they started putting all-wave transmitters into the thing and pressing the lever with a long pole. The first signal was picked up five years later, from the direction of Regulus. Two more were picked up after seven years, and four during the thirteenth year. They were all from different directions. There were eight that had not been heard from, at least when Lt. Kosei was in a position to hear about it. Ex-Lt. Kosei had looked at him sideways at this part of the story, and had said "You understand? It has no selectivity. It's completely random. You could step through to another star, but it might take a thousand years to get back, if you could. It is a doorway to the stars, but who would use it?" She had smiled gently at you, as if she knew the answer. Over the next three weeks, she helped you find two other people who had been with the project after she had left, and you pieced together the story. The WorldGov had gotten a good scare thrown into them by the Artifact, and had suppressed the story. A building had been constructed around the Artifact, a guard posted, and all space exploration had been stopped. The solitary guard was supplied by automated supply ships with no provision for carrying living beings. There was no question but that you would go, of course. Your final plan involved bribes, a highly illegal suspended animation drug with a computerized injector for revival under the appropriate circumstances, and smuggling yourself onto the next supply ship. It went like clockwork. The only problem was the transmitter that the ship homed in on was not located at the Artifact, and a sandstorm caused the loss of most of your equipment. Having no other course of action, you set off on foot to find the Artifact, using the few landmarks that had been mentioned by the people back on Earth, and what little you can remember of the map. **************** You consider your situation, decide you may as well continue, and trudge off across the desert again. A lot of this desert seems to be in your boots, despite the fact that you are wearing an Envirosuit, a lightweight garment meant mostly for planetary work, although it can be used in a vacuum. There is an oxygen extraction pack on the back that will get oxygen and the other gases you need by molecular sieve action. It's not real efficient in a vacuum, what with one thing and another.

External links

• The Star Portal at archive.org
• "Ticket to Anywhere" at archive.org