The Story

It's late, after a long night of trauma work at the Manton Bay trauma center. Most of the incidents were minor accidents that are a common occurence due to the rigors of life in space. But a recent accident at Dock-7 brought in more than enough excitment for the medical staff.

Dr. Jay Millins had already seen a lot on his two medical tours, and the shattered remains of a dockhand's arm crushed between two massive storage units was more of an interesting problem to the doctor than a true emergency. But as always, the senior medical staff took over the interesting cases and left the young Dr. Millins with the routine patients. Two of the higher ranking surgeons seemed to have it out for Jay, he just never knew why.

But it all just didn't matter, because in three more months, Jay would be the ranking medical officer aboard a military frigate, the Nutellen. Finally in charge for the first time in his career. He couldn't wait.

Jay watched the news flicker by on his wall as he sipped at a steaming mug, lost in thoughts of his future when a buzz came from the door. He checked the time to make sure it was as late as he thought it was, set down his mug, and walked to the door. The screen showed Dr. Lewis, medical director for the center, looking just as tired as Millins yet buzzing at his door nonetheless.

With a soft hiss, the door slipped open and the two men looked at each other, neither having really seen the other off duty before.

"Dr. Millins."

"Dr. Lewis. What can I do for you?"

"Mind if I come in? It's kind of important."

Jay looked back at the mess his quarters were in but was in no position to tell his boss to go away. Motioning Lewis in, they both sat down and after the standard pleasantries, Lewis got to the point.

"It seems as if there is a problem that we just got word of. Ever hear of the outpost in the Handle system?"

"No."

"They're a botanical research facility making some great progress in tests dealing with that system's sun and photosythnesis."

Jay gave a puzzled look and slouched back in his chair, "So, what is the emergency?"

Dr. Lewis shifted a bit uneasily in his chair, "We got a message from them yesterday after they made contact with a shuttle with a seriously wounded man onboard."

"Ok. They run decontamination protocols, stabalize the patient, a medical transport brings him back here and everything is fine. I still don't see the emergency."

Dr. Lewis frowned a bit, "We were able to confirm with our shipping logs here, that they did not receive their required medical supplies last month. And more importantly, we cannot get in contact with them again. At all. They are not picking up our signal."

Jay sat up with a look of concern. This just wasn't sounding good for him at all. "Dr. Lewis, what exactly does this have to do with me?"

"With the closest medical transport taking three weeks just to get to us and with no medical treatment, that man wont live long. Can I, uh, take you up on that coffee now?"

Jay raised his voice "Dr. Lewis, what does this have to do with me?"

"We're sending you out tonight on a frieghter heading near the Handle system. They'll drop you off at the facility. We'll need you to stabalize the situation and contact us with the details, in the mean time, we'll have the medical transport coming right behind you."

Jay stood up, trying to conceal his anger "Dr. Lewis you said we have no contact with them now. You need a combat medic with a hazard team not me."

"You have your orders."

"This is crazy. What's going on here?"

Dr. Lewis stood up, left a transport ticket on his chair and walked to the door.

Jay quickly followed after him. "Why all this for just one man? There has got to be someone I can talk to about this. I am NOT going."

"There is someone you can talk to. The medical director...and that's me. You leave in two hours."

The door closed softly leaving Dr. Jay Millins staring blankly at the ticket on the chair....

Information to Read Before You Play

I hope you enjoy my first level for System Shock2. It has been quite an experience completing this level, and I hope you like the results.

The reason I created this map was to give you Shockers out there a new place to explore. Instead of the same old hallways and suprises that aren't really surprises anymore, I have put this place together to give you something new. It really started out as a case of me wanting to play some of the really good fan missions for SS2 only to find that we had very few missions at all. So I figured I would help remedy the problem and create a mission myself.

An important thing to keep in mind is that this is NOT a continuation of the System Shock story. It is NOT SS3. Let me state again that this place is NOT part of the SS2 universe, it is a place of my own design using the tools available.

The mission is roughly the size of the one of the maps in the original game (i.e. "MedSci1"). Due to the scope of the level, lots of interesting game elements had to be left out as they either didn't fit the setting or would have been just been crowded in. There are no skill choices or upgrades. No Xerxes or Shodan..etc.

Do these things make up the SS2 concept? You bet.
Is the level better for not having them in it? Most certainly. Those things just do not make sense in this place. Making a single level instead of a complete game, one has to make choices as to what goes in and what doesn't.

One more point, if the very first sound you hear upon entering the level is very loud, then your volume is set just right.

That's it. I hope you enjoy Arboretum.

- Tom