Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

I was very excited to be selected as the 19th setter in this beautiful chain letter of a project headed up by the inimitable ViKingPrime. My entry is intended to invoke the fear and claustrophobia of space travel, so I hope that comes through despite the fun pictures.

RULES:

Welcome to space! You have been boarded.

Each box of the Sudoku, in which normal Sudoku rules apply, represents a module of your spaceship. Draw an orthogonal evacuation path (no diagonal movement) from the astronaut (r6c2) to the escape rocket (r1c8) that does not cross itself.

Before leaving, you must calibrate the escape pod by visiting each of the nine control panels (circles) in sequential order, from 1-9, indicated by each panel's contained digit (to be determined by the solver). Red lines are part of the path.

Box borders divide the path into Region Nabner segments, where no two digits on the same path segment may be consecutive.

To maintain ship pressurization, travel between modules is restricted to Chinese Whisper doors, where the difference between adjacent path digits across a box border cannot differ by more than two.

Ship lighting has been compromised, casting everything in a Dynamic Fog. Filling in certain digits correctly will reveal cells within that module.

In modules with an alien invader, your path must exit the module before the alien can catch you, and you may not re-enter the module. You and the alien take turns moving one space orthogonally (the alien moves first when you are at the first point of the path in the module). You must ensure that your path never allows the alien to land on the same cell as you before you escape the room (aliens must remain in the room they're in.) Example: if an alien is revealed in R1C5 and the path enters Box 2 at R3C4, the path cannot travel to R3C5 because the alien could move first to r2c5 and then to r3c5 while you are still there.

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I have nominated Michael Lefkowitz (also known as juggler) to construct the next puzzle in the series, with a disjoint set intended to mimic my zodiac sign. I have no doubt that he will crush it as he has done with uncountably many puzzles in his history.