where to go

Dear Contributor

So you have found the way to the interactive science fiction page. 
Here I make the best story ever, but only if, you make it the best story.
Read the story as it has been written so far and think of the best way it
could continue. Then go to my myguestbook where you can write the idea down
and I promise to put your idea in one way or another in the story!
So if you will come back a few days later you will probably find the story
expanded with something you have thought of.
      I want to make something clear at the moment. This is going to be
a sciencefiction story, not a porn story or a manga-movie like thing.
People only get killed when absolutely necessary. You can probably think 
of some cases..:)  Since the device you will read about in the beginning 
of the story is very important and propbably the main item of the story
I will call the story : SHADOWCAGE. Anybody who has a better idea, please
write it in my guestbook.


Here is a summary of the story so far, so you won't have to read all of
it in detail

There is this guy, Guedoc, while daydreaming at his office he gets a 
call to come to Brasil, the person on the phone does not tell why, he
goes anyway and while flying 12 kilometers above the ocean the plane
falls apart. He finds himself in a kind of testroom. It seems to be 
a secret project of the US government. As he is let out of the cage
he finds a professor from college working on the project
The whole idea is that there is room in which people or anything alse 
could be abducted and see and 
experience anything that the controller of the room wants. There are 
enormous possibilities of this device, both good and evil. The project
is not yet finished though. The makers want more. To also control the
toughts of the abducted. Guedoc has his doubts whether the development
has to continue. But the good possibilities outweigh the evil, assuming 
the device will stay in good hands. 
He hears that, since it still is a top secret project he cannot leave the 
area. The scientists and the workers of a powerplant, which is specially
built to meet with the enormous demand of the project live at the scene
in a hotel-like building. His room is marvelous. He has anyhting he needs
as long as he works on the cage. He strats to like it.









Thanks for their terrific contributions to: Matthijs Willems



SHADOWCAGE





It was a Januaryafternoon. Guedoc was sitting at his office looking at the 
data passing by at the three enormous screens in front of him. He could
not keep his attention to what he was doing. Constantely he had to think
whether he had to choose between his girlfriend or his job. Since both had
good and bad moments he found it hard to choose. Moreover the good moments
of the time he spent with Azna, did not occur simultaniously with the
exciting moments of his job, so his opinion changed from week to week.
   While he was thinking this over he was disturbed by the sounds from the
streets that managed to climb up between his office and the officeblock
at the opposite side of the street. He looked outside and saw the people
working. Only when he saw the lights in their offices he noticed he forgot
to light the lights in his own office. He sometimes was dazzled about the 
fact that other people also could have interesting lifes. Only about
himself he could clearly guess what kind of life he had. About the others
the only option he had was to combine conclusions that he had made from 
observations to pictures that seem to be pretty much like what he observed.
A Pale moon was shining through a thin layer of high clouds. He was trying 
to imagine how life could be for somebody who was born in completely different
circumstances than he was born in. He could not get any idea.
   It returned back to normal thinking when his phone rang. On the other side
of the line he heard a females voice whether he wanted to except a collect call
from Brasil. Since he could let the office pay for his phonecalls he accepted.
A deformed voice said that he should come to the Brasil Radio Astronomy Centre.
Using the excuse that many ears could be listening he refused to tell a reason.
"It could be very important", the voice said. "When you have arrived you will
not blame me for all the trouble I have caused you.
    Eight hours later the jumbo-jet was rapidly accelareting down the runway. 
He fell asleep almost immediately after he felt the serenity of the plane that
lost contact with the runway. He could feel that the plane was rapidly gaining
altitude, by the changing pressure on his ears. Only minutes after he lost 
contact with the ground he saw the layer of clouds trough the windows. It was 
slightly grey and white, like a sugarpie which had been standing on top of a 
cupboard for quite a while. Throuhg the holes in the clouds he could see the ocean,
it was deep blue greenish kind of color. He was trying to imagine how it must have
if he would have been the first person on earth airborn. That idea felt so unreal 
that he quit it only seconds after it came into his mind. In stead he tried to
wondered what somebody could call him so urgently for. It must be something really
special. He was a specialist on fast graphics computation, but he had no idea what
somebody could need someone like him for. He felt sorry for leaving only a short 
message to Azna. She would probably be home wondering why he had to go, and we did go.
He could not give her a clue, since he hadn't got a clue himself. He found it a good 
idea to get in touch with her, to tell her how much he loved her and other standard
information, which he had written down in a booklet for occasions like this one.
When an airhostess walked by he asked her to open a telephone link. That was so 
great about the new planes, anybody could get radiocommunication with anybody on the 
ground. The airhostess hesitated before she gave an answer, we are going to a cloud 
of cosmic radio-intereference, she replied, probably hoping that he didn't know what 
that was. But he knew there couldn't be any radio inteference at the time, the only 
possible source was the sun and the next possible time would only be after 6 more 
days. As soon as he started to think how he would be formulating this, without hurting 
hostess, felt this strange senstion.
        He had no idea what was happening, With a soundless shimmering he saw everything
around him disappear. Thinking logically this was impossible, planes do not just fall
apart and disappear. His sense though noticed that the aircraft was indeed disappearing,
and was everyting else. From those two facts he concluded that or his senses or his 
intuition were wrong. Since at the places where he first saw the plane could possibly
not be nothing, he tried to look at was came instead of everyting that was there a few
seconds ago. With a sudden flash the whole aircraft suddenly was gone and he found 
himself sitting on a black rubber like floor. It was al so unreal. He had never had an
experienced such a sensation. 
        The room was very small, about 2 X 2 X 2 meters, he could hardly stand up. The walls
were covered with little dots, very tine little glooming buttons. As he looked up he saw a
small window. Behind the window he saw two human faces looking at him, their faces were partly
sad, partly angry. They were talking to each other, while looking at the subject, it was clear now

new since 23-2-98, not yet in the Dutch version

he had been used as a guinee pig, and he didn't even know. He had no idea how he could have
gotten into it. He had never known ever stepping into the room or even experiencing anything
remarkable, until the aircraft to Brasil began to fall apart. He inspected the walls of little
prison to see whether there was an exit, The wall behind him seemed to have somewhat of a door,
though it was obvious it could not be opened from the inside. He realised that is would have 
absolutely no use to make ascene, since it would get him out faster, so he laid down on the soft
rubber floor in a position that he could take a good look at the window, trough which he had seen
the faces earlier. It was a very small window, trhough he could see a faint light in what seemed a
laboratory kind of environment. Everything was tinted from bright white to blue, all verys steril.
There was no sign of the people who he saw earlier. There was no sound, beside the clicking of 
his watch. 
       There was weird, almost puffing noise, like that of the steam engine, behind the wall, as 
it started to glide back slowly. A flash of light of light fell into the cage, probably to blind 
him. He got on his feet and saw a researcher behind two strong, obviously less intelligent men, 
whose only purpose whas to stop him incase he would go berserk, to protect the scientist as well
as the equipment. When the labcoat noticed that he would remain calm he stepped into the light.
He remebered the face of the long time ago. His thoughts were going wiled, he knew that face but 
could not get any idea where from. " Business life has not done you any good." said professor 
Jal'ra. Suddenly the memories of the combination of the vivid face and the monotome, almost dull
voice remeberd him of his university time. He remembered the fasinating spaceprojection lectures
he attended. " I am sure you had no idea we were this far, you should no how much luck we had
the past few years. It is almost finished, we can transport people, make them experience whatever
we want them but we are not yet done, the final stage wil be to also make them think what we want
them to think, by simulating al kind of different environments we can stimulate the mind, but not
yet control it. " That...is...." Guedoc did no know whether he would have to find this fantastic
or horrible. " Every scientific invention that could have any use for the army has indeed been 
used for military purposes....how about this..thing."  Who else do you think we are making it for
in the first place ? The entertainment business ? You should know better then that Guedoc."
It was too much for him, he indeed had no idea that science was that far. It was ahead of its time
It could be the best weapon ever built, the best scientific instrument ever built, and why not, 
best entertainment device ever built. He would have to take a long night sleep to form a good
opinion about the device. In his mind he was thinking of the fascinating applications of the 
projectionchamber, but his heart he knew it was the most horrible weapon ever built. Though being 
a mean weapon would not be a reason not to build it if it would have so many good applications 
besides it, and being such a good device was no excuse for building a new weapon. It could get 
anybody anywhere into it and control it completely when finished. Anybody could think he was 
leading his own normail life while those would be in the chamber, thinking what the minister of 
defense would want him to, do what the minister would want him to do and to experience what the 
minister what want him to experience. The consequences were no longer easy to understand.

New since 3-3-98

"When did I enter the chamber", Guedoc asked. "Remember getting the telephonecall from Brasil? 
Do you know that you walked out of your office to go home to pack your stuff? The door was 
projected at your officedoor". " So you can project this door-thing anywhere on the world?"
" Almost wright, we can project it anywhere we want, anywhere  in the galaxy, but don't 
imagine too much. As I already told the project is far from finished. We cannot control the mind
of somebody who is in there. And we cannot move the door while it is being projected. And by the
way, do you see the nucleair powerplant outside ? We use that. We just have solved the biggest 
problem so far. When somebody is in the chamber the door had to stay open, in other words, 
the projection had to remain on. Since we cannot control time it has to be opened as long 
as the subject does not cross the door again. We caught a burglar once. He went to a window, 
crawled out to another an in to the same again. We do not know what his motivations were. So
crossed the gate twice in the same direction. That was not very good for his health. We still 
haven't the faintest idea what happened to him, but we never saw him again..."
" So you have already killed the first person with it... But wait, the plain I was in, to 
Brasil, did that plane really exist ? "
" It sure did not. Ofcourse there are planes which do look exactly the same, it was a copy of a 
boeing 747. But that particular aircraft does not exist. "
"So the burglar was moving around in an artificial environment and he stepped into the window?
How the hell could that window be in the artificial space? "
"That was an experiment too, you see, the burglar was not the first person to die in here. But
he did not exactly die. He is some sort of alive."
"Some sort of......Since what time can somebody be something between life and death huh,
tell me that ?"
"You realy don't believe me, huh. Well we reduced so far 17 people to mere computerprograms.
In the hope to discover the technique once to get them back we keep them there. That is the 
least we can do for them.
"You did what? You reduced somebody to a mere computerprogram? To bits of lose data ? 
Don't you have iny idea about what you have been doing here ?
"To me honest, yes. And though it has, what you call `killed` a few people, it also saved
a live. 6 days ago we have abducted a person with a severe braintumor. The doctors gave 
him up, so we tried what we could do for him. We got him here and we got our best 
programmer on her. He fixed her up pretty well. She is perfectly healthy now. Once we 
the way to bring them back, we will. Though we have no idea what braintumors, how we can 
treat severe cases, for us it is just editing data.
"But is thing still.."
"Experimental" Jal'ra interupted him," no, it is a stage beyond experimental, though we 
are still working on it. 
        "So what do yuo need me for?" Guedoc asked still weary about the machine.
"Well, this doorway that we can project is not completely invisible. Didn't you notice it ?
Since the chamber will have to be used for military purposes, it has to be completely
invisible, that is your job"
"And what if I refuse"
"I don't give a damn whether you refuse or not. But probably the CIA will pick you up then
and you wil be never heard of again, so for your interest I advivce you to cooperate.
"But why did you pick me"
"intuition Guedoc, I think you can do it"

New since 23-3-1998

"Imagine the progress for science, this room is a testingversion. There are plans for a 
bigger shadowcage with about the size of a football stadium. We could get rocksamples of
comets, or of strange planets that we don't even know. You just get working on making the 
projection of the window invisible and, oh yes, this is a long term project. If you run 
away from it you might get killed, we are still working for the government, you know. 
There is a building close nearby that is our new home. We all live there, so do the 
employees of the nuclear powerplant. Also we eat there, we sleep there, it is your
home for now on. "
" he, wait" ,Guedoc interrupted him:" How do I know whether this is real, whether I am
still not in the cage ? "
" Even we could not have imagined a thing like that in our wildest dreams, only very few
people are aware of this. Now you are one of them. How does it feel ?".
"It feels like...like.....like nothing. It feels as if I am becoming a part of a machine.
I am not allowed to leave this place, I must work on this, I feel like the ferrytalegenius
who has been kidnapped to work on a diabolic weapon. But on the other hand I am
working on the greatest invention ever. It can change the world, it will change the 
world." If the shadowcage is fully operational, what then. Then the owners are the rulers
of the world. They can do anything to anybody, is it that what you want? When nobel 
invented dynamite he had no idea how it wuold be used by mankind. So how will we
know the shadowcage wil be used proparly when the temptations are so great ?"
"We don't", Jal'ra answered:" We cannot know. That is the ironic part. We know
exactly how everything work, at least all of our combined knowledge. This machine
is too complex for one person to understand. But even though we know how it
works we have no idea of the consequences."
"But how.."
"enought talk now", Jal'ra interupted him:"I will bring you to your room."
         As they were walking out of the lab the place made a warm, even cosy
impression on Guedoc. The walls were decorated with orange wallpaper and every few
meters there was a painting in bright colors. On the sealing there were smooth
lights. The had the shape of TL's but they radiated a yellow kind of light.
At the floor there was nice soft carpet. Guedoc mentioned Jal'ra that it didn't
really look like a scientific place. He got the answer that it wasn't a 
scientific place. It was a hotel. As simple as that. Scientists are human 
beings too, they need warmth. The government gladly paid a little extra in 
exchange for what we are building. Guedoc felt himself quite at home there,
there were all the facilities of a five-star hotel there. At the end of the 
path there was a beautiful hall. Rich of light and plants and again the
warm colors. He knew he would enjoy it. In the hall there were  couches
all over the place on which people sat talking. It seemed to be a meeting
place. A place were the high tech was discussed, a really great social 
community. At the sides of the hal there were doors like it was a prison
in domeconfiguration. As he lookes around it kept amazing him more and more.
In the middle there was a large pond with large goldfishes in it. In the 
middle there was island which had also a few couches on it. They were not like
the couches in the park at home but they were soft large couches like people
have in theur livingrooms. They were colored in all kind of varieties, mostly
somewhere between red and yellow and brownish, There were also some freshcolored
items, not to make it look like autumn too much. It was a lot of everything and
not too much of anyhting. He still didn't believe what he saw. It really was big,
enormous. It was not just like any ordinary hotellobby. The temperature was
kept at a pleasant level and everything seemed to be in harmony. Only when
he looked closely at the enormous glass roof he saw it was not made out glass
at all. It slightly dazzled him. There were lights simulating he daylight. It
was a perfect imitation. Jal'ra, who saw that Guedoc was confused about the roof
looked at him and he smiled at him. 
"Pretty neat huh ? It can simulate any kind of weather. We can let clouds come over,
or let it rain or snow, we can let the sun shine or create a thunderstorm.
It all seems very real, which is the hal idea. Above the roof there is a few
meters of earth and above that the rainforest. The are large LCD screens. From this 
distance you can't see the separate pixels, so it is just like the real whether.
Therefor we can "control" the weather above us and make this situation here great.
In the beginning we even tried to let it rain in the hall. Since there is a slight
angle in the hall towards the pond, specifically designed for that it was possible,
but the couches got wet and the people got unhappy so we never did that again. 
The system is still there though. But like this it is much better. We like to keep our
heads dry. So see on the seventh floor up there is your room. You will like it.
It has all facilities of a luxury home except the garage, haha. Your food will be 
served whenever you wish and whatever you like. We have no moeny here. Everyhting here
is for free, the only thing that you must do for all those privileges is devote
yourself to the shadowcageproject."
" Do I have a choice?"
" Yes, you try to escape, survive the secret service, survive the jungle, and go home.
The chances for that to succeed are minimal so.....you don't have a choice"
" Okay, it is always nice to know that.", Guedoc said with a lot of irony in his voice.

new since 21-3-98

Guedoc walked with Jal'ra towards his room. He had no idea what it would look like.
But taken the beauty of the hall into account he could not imagine it to dissapoint
him, and he was right.
"People who devote their lives to a project are worth it to get some luxury" Jal'ra 
said as he saw Guedoc's astonished face. There was an ordinary size living room a
bright-greay carpet on the floor. In one corner there was a medium-size desk with a 
desktop computer on it. Just besides it there was a deepblue couch and a chair of the
same color. In the opposite wall a screen was build within the wall, as if it were a
painting. On the white ceiling there was a lamp from which the color could be slightly 
modified. From lightblue via bright white to orange. Next to the screen there was 
a sounddevice also build into the wall. In the fourth wall there was a door that
stood open. Guedoc could already see it was a bedroom. There was a wooden bed with
colors similar to the ones in the hall. On an edge there were some plants. They seemed 
to be able to achieve fotosynthesis by artificial light. BUt they actually were real
plants. In his bedroom Guedoc saw a whole wall of doors behind which he could put almost
anything. The walls were painted yellow and the bed itself had a combination of red,
yellow and orange. Above the foot-end there was a large ventilationhole through which 
he could here the soft humming of what appeared to be the ventilationsystem. In the 
livingroom he saw a similar looking device, but according to a little controlpanel
he thought it was an airconditioning. 
" If you need anything", Jal'ra continued :" you can call me "
As he pointed to a device on the desk Guedoc concluded that it was an intercom. 
"In the hall there is a shop that can provide you with anything you need. You can
just take what you need and bring it over to your room. If you need a chat. There are
also people in the hall to have a talk with or to play a game of chess. In the cupboard 
there is a book with the names and the pictures and some personal information about the 
people who work here. You can ofcourse also invite people to your place, and probably soon
from now people will start inviting you. I have a feeling you will feel at home here.  But
ofcourse there is work to be done. This whole project is about finishing the shadowcage, 
not about letting scientists lead a luxurious life for nothing. There is in the cupboard a
ste of books that looks like an encyclopedia. You have to read that. It is about the 
history of this project and about the progress so far. Every 4 months you will get a 
supplement. It is very imporatant to keep up the project of the project as a whole. That 
is because you will be knowing what you are actually working on. If you would not read it 
you what know about the devices an inch next to yours. And we want our people to know what 
they are actually working on."
          As Jal'ra walked out of the room Guedoc went towards the cupboard in his bed room
and took the first part of the encyclopedia. He sat down ans started to read how it all started.
It started back in 1983. In 1983 they started to build the shadowcage. An German scientist found
out that holograms could be projected and that it seemed very real. As he started to perfect it
the CIA found out about the discovery a sealteam was send out to the kidnap the inventor. He got
a whole team of scientists to work for him and all the moeny and equipment he could possibly wish
for. He refused to keep on working, because he realised the cage as the Americans wanted it could
do much harm to all mankind. His ideas though were kept intact and other people took his place.
From that time on it kept improving and improving. After a week or so he ahd finished the whole 
encyclopedia as it was time to get to work. Only now he started to comprehend how the impact of
the cage could really be. But now he was here he saw it as a great homour to be allowed to work
together with topscientists in the world. The first day at work was a matter of getting used 
to all the equipment he had available. There were some gadgets he had never seen before, some 
others tghough looked very familiar to things he had at home. By the end of the day he knew
all of them. 

New since 14-5-1998

After his workday he walked trough the great hall. He thought it would be a good moment to 
explore the building. It was probably much larger then he expected. And so it was. The rooms
of many of Guedoc's coworkers was close to the large main hall, but ofcourse there would be 
other facilities to support the miniature community. As he was walking thruogh a walkway from
the great hall he noticed it slowly got darker as he went on. Ofcourse the walkway had to go 
somewhere, otherwise it wouldn't be there. Believing it would not be dangerous for anybody he
walked on. When it got quite dark there was a seemingly heavy door, which had a sign on it 
that looked like the normal sign of "danger to fall", but then vice versa. Schematicly a 
falling figure was drawn with an arrow upwards. He never saw this symbol before. It was not 
upside down, because he saw the same pentangulair signs everywhere with other warnings, which 
al had a point up, which was just the case with this sign. He had a faint idea what could be 
behind the door. Falling upwards could only be achieved by antigravity. So mankind was already
further understanding the nature of the 4th force then he always thought it was. As he
started to read a lable on the door, he heard a sound behind it, that resonated in the heavy 
door and in the walkway, making it sound much scarier than it prpbabaly was. There was a 
hissing sound that continued for several seconds. After it stopped the door went slowly open.
Guedoc was rather scared of what he would see, since it was not forbidden to go where he was, 
but sure he wasn't expected to be there. At the other end of the door a little man peeked 
around the door. 
" What can I do for you ?". 
" uhhh, I was just walking around the place, and uhh..".
"Could you please not waste our valuable time then ". 
"Well", Guedoc said: " Could you please show me around, I am very interested in your work."
"We cannot waste research time on tours, who the hell do you think we are."
"Well, do you have anytime free later, this evening or so ?"
" okay then, if you insist, come tonight to room 003"
"what time?"
"Just tonight, I am not budy"
"Thank you very much"
         
That evening he went to room 003, it was in the basement of the great hall. Somehow the 
bright colors of the main hall did not all got there effect as far as the basement. The door
which said 003 was almost as dark and mystic and the door of the mysterious lab he was in 
that afternoon. Before he knocked on the door the little man who answerd the door also opened
this door now.
"Hi, there you are, come in please"
" Thank you", said Guedoc, as he walked in:" I am Guedoc"
" nice to meet you, I don't now how I really am, I, as a matter of fact.....forgot"
" forgot ?"
" yes, they always called me omega, and so it more or less became my name"
" well, nice to meet you to, omega", Guedoc replied "
" So, I gues you are new here, young Guedoc"
" Yes indeed, this is my first day here"
"And, do you like it ?"
" Well, it is still okay, how about you, do you like to work here ?"
" What do you think, ofcourse I don't, in a few month you will also start to miss
your daily life that you had out the centre, didn't you have a family ?"

Guedoc remebered his wife, his office and other things he didn't have anymore. He realised 
that he hadn't been thingking about them all. It startled him a bit"

" Perhaps I will in the future, but not yet"
"You sure will, it happens to everybody"
" So what are you working again", Guedoc said to change the topic"
" An important part of the most dangerous thing ever built"
" I am working on making the entry window invisible, how about you"
" To simulate exact situations there must be anomalies in gravity, humans are very
sensitive to that, so it has to very precise"
" But why is the lab so far away ?"
" What would you think if suddenly everybody in the main hall would start to fly around"
" well, I would probably.."
" That's what I mean, think before you ask, young Guedoc," omega interupted him.
" But do you actually fly in the lab ? That would be extremely inconvenient"
" well, think... what would it be, would we work in an extremely inconvenient situation?"
" No, ofcourse you wouldn't, I am sorry for the stupid question, but...can 



Will be enhanced later