Beyond the Aquila Rift story
The Blue Goose spaceship's crew members, Thom, Suzy, and Ray, are returning home from a successful mission, but an error in the hyperspace routing causes unexpected events to happen. Thom awakes from suspended animation and is greeted by Greta, an old flame. She tells him that he and his crew are hundreds of thousands of light-years from Earth, nearly beyond the Aquila Rift, and centuries have passed: there is no way for them to get home. They have sex and rekindle their relationship, but Thom is still in disbelief of the situation, especially after Suzy wakes up and hysterically claims that Greta is not real. He demands the truth from a tearful Greta, who tells him that his experiences are a simulation and that he is not ready to see reality, as she truly does care for him and all those who find their way there. He insists, so she reluctantly relents and awakens him. Thom is revealed to be an emaciated old man; their ship caught in an enormous web with countless others; his crew either dead or trapped in their own trances; and "Greta" an alien arachnid creature. As horrified Thom loses his mind from the encounter, "Greta" returns him to the dream world, minus his recent memories, just as she had with his crew and the others. She reawakens him and greets him all over again. Cast: Henry Douthwaite, Madeleine Knight, Rebecca Banatvala, Delroy Brown, Grahame Fox Directed by: Léon Bérelle, Dominique Boidin, Rémi Kozyra, Maxime Luère. Story by: Alastair Reynolds.
10 total · 2 choice · 5 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| to tell the truth vs. to offer a comforting lie | choice | The alien spider-like creature kept Thom trapped in a virtual world ostensibly because it felt that he couldn't handle the grim reality of his situation. |
| what if I could never go home | choice | A botched hyperspace jump left Thom and his crew hundreds to 150,000 light years off course with no prospect of getting back to their point of origin. |
| extraterrestrial being | major | The story culminates with the revelation that Thom and his crew members were trapped in a simulated reality controlled by a being that was vaguely spider-like in appearance. |
| old flames | major | The former lovers Thom and Greta were reunited under the strangest of circumstances. |
| romantic love | major | Thom did the nasty with a "woman" whom he assumed to be his old flame. It was later revealed that she was actually a freaky looking spider-like creature. |
| speculative spaceship | major | The Blue Goose spaceship jumped through hyperspace with regrettably flaky precision. |
| speculative virtual reality | major | The story culminates with the revelation that Thom and his crew members were trapped in a simulated reality controlled by a spider-like alien being. |
| insectoid being | minor | The story culminates with the revelation that Thom and his crew members were trapped in a simulated reality controlled by a being that was vaguely spider-like in appearance. |
| suspended animation | minor | The Blue Goose crew members entered into stasis pods before taking the jump through hyperspace. |
| what if I found myself in a low gravity environment | minor | Thom and Greta fondly recalled the time they broke a hotel bed while doing the nasty in zero-gravity. |