Text will now be saved to the script file.  Type UNSCRIPT to discontinue
scripting.

>l
Xenoscience Dome Break Room
The most attractive feature of this room, at least to someone recently on the
outside trying to get in, are the large windows on the east wall.  Other
people, using the break room for its more normal function of putting off work,
probably prefer to focus on the items on the counter, the large glass cylinder
up on the wall, or the exit north.

Max is here.

>n
Vertical Junction
This corridor is about the same length as a normal office corridor on Earth,
but unlike Earth office corridors[15], it heads straight up instead of straight
on.  Xavians and other people able to fly could head out through a number of
passages: up at the top corridors lead south, north, and west, while midway up
a corridor leads east and a perch sticks out from the wall in front of a door
to the north.  People at ground level are restricted to exits leading north and
south.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max enters from the south.

>footnote 15
Except those at the Institute for Zero-Gravity Research, of course.  And, since
the accident, those at the Center for Study of Dimensional Folding.

>[snrk]
Noted.

>x sign
The sign bulges out slightly from the wall, no doubt as the result of trying to
project a three-d area onto the two-d wall, but if you stare at it long enough
you can eventually work out that on the top level, the north exit leads to
“Labs”, the west exit leads to “Main Branch / Barracks”, and the south exit
leads to “Exit” (appropriately enough).  On the middle level, the north door
leads to “Earth Artifacts (restricted personnel only)”, while the east exit
leads to “Shuttle Bays”.  Finally, on the bottom level, the north exit leads to
“Earth Artifacts (general)”, and the south exit leads to “Break Room”.

>n
Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center
This room seems designed to serve a dual purpose: a sign hanging from the
ceiling is lettered in both Xavian and crude Terran[16], reading (respectively)
“Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center” and “Off-worlder Gyfte Shoppe”.  The
multiplicity of goals probably explains why the walls are packed with shelves
of clear cases, which in turn are crammed with bumper stickers, t-shirts,
cuckoo clocks, and stranger artifacts, some labelled with an informative note,
some with a price tag, and some with both.

The counter shoved away in the corner has plaques reading “Tour Guide” and
“Salesbird”, but no examples of either appear to be present.

Max enters from the south.

>footnote 16
Pigeon English, you might say.

>[arrgh!]
Noted.

>x counter
The counter is shoved into the corner, with just enough space for someone to
stand behind and access the single shelf.  It contains a Xavian viewmaster and
an account book.

>get viewmaster
Taken.

>x it
This viewmaster is an exciting and educational device for avians of all ages.
It has a small window which you can look into to observe a scene, that scene
being controlled by the dial on top.  Also on top is the reason this viewfinder
probably isn't on display: a narrow crack runs across the casing.

>get account book
Taken.

>x it
The book appears to be a combination account book/diary for this place, but is
mostly blank, aside from a few notes: “Earth culture museum and alien-based
revenue stream enhancement opened today!  This should be the model showroom of
a chain of Xavian merchandising emporiums throughout the galaxy!”  ...  “Gift
shop revenue not as high as expected — must talk to administrators about
forcing prisoners and foreign diplomats to come in to shop” ..  “In response to
complaints from Fire Marshal, have moved some less-used merchandise into upper
room and installed override here for the door lock until official approval of
storage location made.”

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>x window
This viewmaster is an exciting and educational device for avians of all ages.
It has a small window which you can look into to observe a scene, that scene
being controlled by the dial on top.  Also on top is the reason this viewfinder
probably isn't on display: a narrow crack runs across the casing.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of the lush Xavian jungle, complete with friendly wildlife.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of the famous southern beaches, covered in dead fish.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of a single black-and-white Xavian inspecting the icy Xavian north pole.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of Earth, with a row of chained humans being inspected by a stern grey
Xavian.  A small note in the corner reads “artist's rendition”.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of the multi-colored capitol building in Xavia City.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of the lush Xavian jungle, complete with friendly wildlife.

>turn dial
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>look in window
You peer into the viewmaster.  Inside, you see a delightful three-dimensional
scene of the famous southern beaches, covered in dead fish.

>search counter
You see nothing in the counter.  Also, a small button is built into the
underside of the counter with the word “Override” scribbled next to it.

>push button
You reach inside the counter and push the button.

>['on' the counter, probably.]
Noted.

>x bumper
The bumper stickers are sized to fit either hover-car or personal rocket, and
have a variety of political messages, most notably “FREE RANGE CHICKEN” and
“Terrans out of Earth!”

>get bumper
(first opening the shelves of clear cases)
The cases, except for the one on the end, turn out to be not only closed but
locked.
You can't do that because the shelves of clear cases are closed.

>[hmm.]
Noted.

>l
Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center
This room seems designed to serve a dual purpose: a sign hanging from the
ceiling is lettered in both Xavian and crude Terran, reading (respectively)
“Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center” and “Off-worlder Gyfte Shoppe”.  The
multiplicity of goals probably explains why the walls are packed with shelves
of clear cases, which in turn are crammed with bumper stickers, t-shirts,
cuckoo clocks, and stranger artifacts, some labelled with an informative note,
some with a price tag, and some with both.

The counter shoved away in the corner has plaques reading “Tour Guide” and
“Salesbird”, but no examples of either appear to be present.

Max is here.

>x t-shirts
The t-shirts are folded neatly so as to reveal the slogans on their front,
including “I (heart) My Parrot”, “Top Ten Reasons Why Roadrunners Are Better
Than Coyotes” and “My planet was brought under the dominion of the Xavian
empire and all I got was this lousy t-shirt which is not nearly as good as
having feathers anyway”.

>x cuckoo
“Scientists speculate these artifacts may serve some sort of religious or
cultural function for the Earthlings,” the placard reads.  “Some say this is
definite evidence of early Xavian guidance, while others ...”

>x stranger
The cases are filled with a large variety of items: piles of t-shirts, snow
globes, bumper stickers, cuckoo clocks, action figures, and posters.
Unfortunately for the casual shoplifter, they also all appear to be closed,
except for one case on the end.

>x action figures
Cybirdius, Duck Dodgers, and Max Blaster.  Figures.  You casually glance at the
other figures, but there's no sign of red hair.

>[yay duck dodgers!]
Noted.

>x posters
The most prominent appears to be some sort of educational poster, titled
“Duckbilled Platypus — Bird or Myth???”

>x snow globes
The snow globes depict penguins in various poses: standing on an iceberg,
swimming underwater, aiming a plasma rifle at a group of cowering humans.

>open end case
The end case is already open.

>look in end case
The end case's lid is open, probably because it's more or less empty except for
the rumpled cloth at the bottom of the case.

>get cloth
You can't have that; it's part of the end case.

>x cloth
The case, like most museum cases, is lined with folded velvet cloth.

A tiny pair of legs stick out of a fold in the cloth.

>get legs
You pull the figure out of the display case — although it's only two inches
high, the blonde hair and blaster make the identity of the subject
unmistakable.

>x it
The figure is about two inches high and looks (more or less) like Max, albeit
with a fiendish grin rarely found on his face to go along with the blaster and
waved hair.  Stamped on the side is “Made In Xavia”.

>put it in image
You see no image here.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, and a Max
Blaster action figure.

>[Oh, right, don't have that back yet.]
Noted.

>move cloth
The rumpled velvet cloth cannot be moved.

>search it
The end case's lid is open, probably because it's more or less empty except for
the rumpled cloth at the bottom of the case.

>l
Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center
This room seems designed to serve a dual purpose: a sign hanging from the
ceiling is lettered in both Xavian and crude Terran, reading (respectively)
“Earth Artifact Cultural Research Center” and “Off-worlder Gyfte Shoppe”.  The
multiplicity of goals probably explains why the walls are packed with shelves
of clear cases, which in turn are crammed with bumper stickers, t-shirts,
cuckoo clocks, and stranger artifacts, some labelled with an informative note,
some with a price tag, and some with both.

The counter shoved away in the corner has plaques reading “Tour Guide” and
“Salesbird”, but no examples of either appear to be present.

Max is here.

>x plaque
The counter is shoved into the corner, with just enough space for someone to
stand behind and access the single shelf.

>x price
The word “price” is not necessary in this story.

>s
Vertical Junction
This corridor is about the same length as a normal office corridor on Earth,
but unlike Earth office corridors, it heads straight up instead of straight on.
Xavians and other people able to fly could head out through a number of
passages: up at the top corridors lead south, north, and west, while midway up
a corridor leads east and a perch sticks out from the wall in front of a door
to the north.  People at ground level are restricted to exits leading north and
south.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max enters from the north.

>u
You look upwards, at the perch and the corridor beyond, but there seems to be
no obvious way to reach them.

>x perch
The perch is a simple bar that juts out from the wall and probably provides a
spot for Xavians to sit as they fumble for their passcard to open the door to
their north.

>jump
You leap into the air but can't reach the perch.

>stand on max
Max looks up at the perch and gauges the distance.  “I suppose if you stand on
my shoulders ...”  he says.

You glare.  “You don't have to wince so obviously when you say that, Max.”

“Ok, let's try this.”  Max bends down slightly and cups his hands.  You step in
and then vault athletically up onto his shoulders.

Vertical Junction (balancing on Max's shoulders)
This corridor is about the same length as a normal office corridor on Earth,
but unlike Earth office corridors, it heads straight up instead of straight on.
Xavians and other people able to fly could head out through a number of
passages: up at the top corridors lead south, north, and west, while midway up
a corridor leads east and a perch sticks out from the wall in front of a door
to the north.  People at ground level are restricted to exits leading north and
south.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>get perch
“Now quit squirming,” you say as you adjust your position on Max's shoulders.
“Honestly, I thought you were better at this sort of thing.”

“What, grabbing ankles?”

“No, standing there and gaping like you're posing for the Mister Galactic
calendar,” you say.  Then you leap, springing into the air, grabbing the perch,
and swinging yourself up onto it.

Vertical Junction (middle) (standing on the perch)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>n
The security door is closed and, given that it has a fancy card-reader
attached, probably locked.

>s
You can't go that way.  Obvious exits lead north, east, and up.

>e
There's not enough time to go haring off on side-trips, although you make a
mental note to come back here and check out all the sights once you've saved
the world again.

>u
It's not clear how to get up there, although a pair of rocket pants would
probably do the trick.

>x card-reader
The word “card-reader” is not necessary in this story.

>x reader
The passcard reader, as is usual with these things, consists of a slot through
which to swipe your card, and a light which is supposed to light up to tell you
you've done so.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, and a Max
Blaster action figure.

>knock on door
You thumps ineffectually on the door and the passcard reader.

>['you thumps']
Noted.

>put all in card
issue of Newsbeak: The issue of Newsbeak doesn't fit in the passcard reader's
slot.
large nut: The large nut doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
food pill: The food pill doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
granola nut: The granola nut doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
granola nut: The granola nut doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
granola nut: The granola nut doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
granola nut: The granola nut doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
metal bowl: The metal bowl doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
Xavian viewmaster: The Xavian viewmaster doesn't fit in the passcard reader's
slot.
account book: The account book doesn't fit in the passcard reader's slot.
Max Blaster action figure: The Max Blaster action figure doesn't fit in the
passcard reader's slot.

>[Oops ;-]
Noted.

>[That was a significant pause, too.]
Noted.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, and a Max
Blaster action figure.

>x perch
The perch is a simple bar that juts out from the wall and probably provides a
spot for Xavians to sit as they fumble for their passcard to open the door to
their north.

You are here, standing on the perch.

>x bar
The perch is a simple bar that juts out from the wall and probably provides a
spot for Xavians to sit as they fumble for their passcard to open the door to
their north.

You are here, standing on the perch.

>pull bar
The perch cannot be moved.

>jump
You dangle from the perch for a moment, then drop to the ground.

Vertical Junction
This corridor is about the same length as a normal office corridor on Earth,
but unlike Earth office corridors, it heads straight up instead of straight on.
Xavians and other people able to fly could head out through a number of
passages: up at the top corridors lead south, north, and west, while midway up
a corridor leads east and a perch sticks out from the wall in front of a door
to the north.  People at ground level are restricted to exits leading north and
south.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>undo
Taking back one turn: “jump”.

Vertical Junction (middle) (standing on the perch)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>pull reader
The card reader cannot be moved.

>kick it
You strike the passcard reader, but it's sturdy enough to keep on working.

>g
You strike the passcard reader, but it's sturdy enough to keep on working.

>[It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.]
Noted.

>lick reader
The card reader does not appear to be edible.

>climb
What do you want to climb?

>up
It's not clear how to get up there, although a pair of rocket pants would
probably do the trick.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, and a Max
Blaster action figure.

>l
Vertical Junction (middle) (standing on the perch)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>[You know what I want?  I want those clever status reports again.  The score is so pedestrian.]
Noted.

>x sign
The sign bulges out slightly from the wall, no doubt as the result of trying to
project a three-d area onto the two-d wall, but if you stare at it long enough
you can eventually work out that on the top level, the north exit leads to
“Labs”, the west exit leads to “Main Branch / Barracks”, and the south exit
leads to “Exit” (appropriately enough).  On the middle level, the north door
leads to “Earth Artifacts (restricted personnel only)”, while the east exit
leads to “Shuttle Bays”.  Finally, on the bottom level, the north exit leads to
“Earth Artifacts (general)”, and the south exit leads to “Break Room”.  The
sign is up and to the left of the doorway, just within reaching distance if you
lean out from the perch.

>max, n, push button
Max leaves to the north.

>z
Time passes...

The security door above the perch slides open.

>n
Artifact Storage
This small room is made even smaller by the large table stuck in the middle,
and the boxes piled against the far wall.  It is lit only by a small light in
the ceiling (and the light coming through the open door, of course).

On the table are a note, Max's blaster, Max's force generator, your rocket
pants, your tk device, and your image projector.  But no bomb.

Just that note, which has some dismaying news.  “Max,” you call out.  “Our
equipment's all here, except for the bomb.  This says it's been taken to the
Xavian Art and Cultural Museum for their Earth exhibit!”

“Curse them!”  Max shouts back.  “Those Xavians will pay for this — assuming HQ
remembered to insure it, I mean.”

>read note
The note is brief but distressing.  “As per orders I have removed the
interesting shiny thing and transported it to the main Art and Cultural Museum
for inclusion in our exhibit on soon-to-be-subjugated peoples.”

>get all from table
note: Taken.
blaster: Taken.
force generator: Taken.
rocket pants: Taken.
tk device: Taken.
image projector: Taken.

>wear pants
Okay, you're now wearing your rocket pants.

>x boxes
The piles of boxes are carefully sealed and just as carefully labelled
“Souvenir beak-polishers (gold-plated)”.  They're closed.

The door slides closed.

>open boxes
Opening the piles of boxes reveals stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>get polisher
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>g
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>g
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>g
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>g
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>g
You take a souvenir beak-polisher from the stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>[Good lord.]
Noted.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, a Max Blaster
action figure, a note, Max's blaster, Max's force generator, your tk device
(disguised as a tube of lipstick), your image projector (disguised as a powder
compact), and six souvenir beak-polishers.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>put figure in image
(first opening your image projector)
You snap open the image projector.
You place the Max Blaster action figure onto the projection surface.

>turn on image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  A lifesize hologram of Max
appears in mid-air.

>[Cool.]
Noted.

>turn off image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  The lifesize hologram of Max
winks out.

>polish beak
Which beak do you mean, a souvenir beak-polisher, the issue of Newsbeak, or the
stacks of souvenir beak-polishers?

>a polisher
Which beak do you mean, a souvenir beak-polisher, or the stacks of souvenir
beak-polishers?

>a polisher
Which beak do you mean, a souvenir beak-polisher, or the stacks of souvenir
beak-polishers?

>any
(the souvenir beak-polisher)
The souvenir beak-polisher is already (relatively) clean.

>polish newsbeak with polisher
What sort of beak do you take it for?

>l
Artifact Storage
This small room is made even smaller by the large table stuck in the middle,
and the boxes piled against the far wall.  It is lit only by a small light in
the ceiling (since the door to the south is closed).

The piles of boxes contain stacks of souvenir beak-polishers.

>x light
The ceiling light shines down on the table in the center of the room.

>get it
You can't take that.

>climb boxes
Those are not something you can climb.

>x table
It's a large table, stuck in the middle of the room, probably to leave stuff on
for later examination.

>search it
You see nothing on the table.

>s
The door slides open.

Vertical Junction (middle) (standing on the perch)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

The security door above the perch stands open.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

There is a sudden chiming sound from hidden speakers, and then a voice speaks.

“This is a priority message for all personnel: the secret weapon has entered
its final aiming phase.  Estimated activation time is one hour and thirty-seven
minutes from now.  In preparation for the attack on Earth to directly follow
activation, the base will be entering lockdown mode, effective immediately.
All non-essential staff will close their stations and return to barracks; the
additional guards for the secret weapon will also report to barracks to receive
the additional patrol assignments.  The secondary screen around the dome has
also been energized, and technicians are monitoring.  I will be in the dome
with the secret weapon to personally direct the launch, and then later call my
command ship and join the invasion fleet.  To repeat: the base is entering
lockdown mode.  The Xavian conquest of the solar system begins in one hour,
thirty-six minutes.”

The announcement snaps off.

>u
Your rocket pants blast you upwards.

Vertical Junction (top)
The corridor makes a sharp bend here, changing from going straight up to going
straight north for a bit, then turning east.  In addition passageways head out
south and west, and below (in the middle of the corridor) a passageway heads
east and a door leads north.  Finally, at the bottom of the corridor,
passageways lead north and south.

The security door above the perch stands open.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

>n
You and Max had better work out who's doing what before going anywhere.

>talk to max
(You can't think of anything to say at the moment.)

>d
You tap the controls on your rocket pants and drift downwards.

Vertical Junction (middle)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

The security door above the perch stands open.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

>d
You tune down your rocket pants and drop back to floor level.

Vertical Junction
This corridor is about the same length as a normal office corridor on Earth,
but unlike Earth office corridors, it heads straight up instead of straight on.
Xavians and other people able to fly could head out through a number of
passages: up at the top corridors lead south, north, and west, while midway up
a corridor leads east and a perch sticks out from the wall in front of a door
to the north.  People at ground level are restricted to exits leading north and
south.

The security door above the perch stands open.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max enters from the north.

>1
“One hour thirty-six minutes?!?,” you yelp.

Max's jaw is set, harder than you've ever seen it.  “Well, we've got our
equipment back.  Let's make plans.”

The security door above the perch slides closed.

>1
“Okay, what do we know,” you say, tapping her foot thoughtfully.  “It seems
like there are two things we need to get done, and no way is there enough time
for us to do them together, so we'll have to split up.  Thing one is getting
the bomb back to break through the inner screen; thing two is finding some way
to get by the outer screen.  I bet thing one is going to be more
straightforward, even if the trip out to the museum is longer.  Which of them
do you want to do?”

Max shrugs his shoulders.  “It sounds like you know what you're talking about —
why don't you pick first?”

>save
Saved.

>1
You nod.  “Fine, I guess I'll look around the science lab here,” you say.  “The
message on the computer said the outer screen was experimental, so maybe I can
find something to bypass it.”

“Okay, then, we've got to get that bomb back,” Max says.  “If I go out the
south exit up there, maybe I can spot the museum they took it to — the map said
it's nearby.”

>give generator to max
You hand Max's force generator to Max.

>x sign
The sign bulges out slightly from the wall, no doubt as the result of trying to
project a three-d area onto the two-d wall, but if you stare at it long enough
you can eventually work out that on the top level, the north exit leads to
“Labs”, the west exit leads to “Main Branch / Barracks”, and the south exit
leads to “Exit” (appropriately enough).  On the middle level, the north door
leads to “Earth Artifacts (restricted personnel only)”, while the east exit
leads to “Shuttle Bays”.  Finally, on the bottom level, the north exit leads to
“Earth Artifacts (general)”, and the south exit leads to “Break Room”.

>u
You make a minute adjustment to the controls on your rocket pants, and the jets
flash, lifting your up into the air.

Vertical Junction (middle)
The view from midway up the corridor is more or less the same as it is down
below, although of course the perch, the north door, the sign and so on are
closer to hand, while the floor is farther from foot.  Speaking of the floor,
exits on (or near) that level lead north and south, while on this level there
is a door to the north and a passage east, and up above corridors lead out
south, north, and west.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>u
Your rocket pants blast you upwards.

Vertical Junction (top)
The corridor makes a sharp bend here, changing from going straight up to going
straight north for a bit, then turning east.  In addition passageways head out
south and west, and below (in the middle of the corridor) a passageway heads
east and a door leads north.  Finally, at the bottom of the corridor,
passageways lead north and south.

A sign next to the upper door attempts to explain all the corridors with a
single diagram.

Max is here.

>take off pants
That would be a bad idea, what with the lack of solid ground and all.

>x sign
The sign bulges out slightly from the wall, no doubt as the result of trying to
project a three-d area onto the two-d wall, but if you stare at it long enough
you can eventually work out that on the top level, the north exit leads to
“Labs”, the west exit leads to “Main Branch / Barracks”, and the south exit
leads to “Exit” (appropriately enough).  On the middle level, the north door
leads to “Earth Artifacts (restricted personnel only)”, while the east exit
leads to “Shuttle Bays”.  Finally, on the bottom level, the north exit leads to
“Earth Artifacts (general)”, and the south exit leads to “Break Room”.

>n
You had better hand over Max's equipment before heading off.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, a note, Max's
blaster, your tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), your image projector
(disguised as a powder compact) (which contains a Max Blaster action figure),
and six souvenir beak-polishers.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>give blaster to max
Max is on the floor, out of reach.

>drop blaster
Dropped.

Max takes his blaster.

>dn
The word “dn” is not necessary in this story.

>n
You enter the north passage, heading to the science labs.

The hallway bends east as it goes along, becoming barer and wider in that
important-science-is-being-conducted-here way[17].  You are just about at the
junction when something blasts down from the ceiling and strikes the area just
in front of your feet.  “Warning,” a robotic voice crackles out, “The science
labs are off-limits during lockdown.”

Laboratory Entrance
The hallway here is very spare and tidy, except for a scorch-mark on the floor.
It runs east and west here, although to the west it bends south quickly, and to
the east it splits up with passages running north and south and, ahead, the
corridor becomes doorway-lined before it ends.

(Doris has raised the score by ten points.)

>x scorch
The scorch mark is, to your trained eye, a sure sign of a camera-triggered
security laser beam.

>turn on image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  A lifesize hologram of Max
appears in mid-air.

A blast of energy shoots down from the ceiling, aimed at the holographic image
of Max.  But it passes right through and strikes the ground — this might just
buy the time you need.

>n
You can't go that way.  Obvious exits lead east, and west to the exit from the
lab area.

A blast of energy shoots down from the ceiling, aimed at the holographic image
of Max.  But it passes right through and strikes the ground — this might just
buy the time you need.

>e
Carefully maneuvering the projector so the hologram of Max dances around and
keeps the laser bolts coming, you head east during the distraction.

Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>turn off image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  The lifesize hologram of Max
winks out.

>e
Your rocket pants send you blasting upwards along the wall.  You hover briefly,
then fly through the doorway and drop down to ground level on the other side.

Office Area
This is a large room with walls going up perhaps fifty feet.  Each wall has a
half-dozen cotes with perches on it, and it takes mere moments to realize that
this is an example of the latest in Xavian office-space technology: a coopicle
farm.  But no doubt because of the base lockdown, most of the cotes are closed
off with metal shutters.  The only exits from the room are a doorway high up on
the west well, and an opening to the south leading outside.

A scrap of paper lies forgotten in the corner.

>x scrap
A few hasty lines are scrawled on the paper: “Gr'chawf — Been called up to
supervise construction of the main screens — you'd better continue work on the
sample screen here.  See if you can ground those instabilities we were seeing
(I'll leave the cube on my desk).”  A small P is pecked into the sheet at the
bottom of the page.

>get it
Taken.

>s
You can't leave now — you've got to get some way of getting through that outer
screen.

>w
Your rocket pants send you blasting upwards along the wall.  You hover briefly,
then fly through the doorway and drop down to ground level on the other side.

Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>n
You can't go that way.  Obvious exits lead west, to the entrance to the labs;
northeast; northwest; southeast; southwest; and up, back to the office area.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

On the shelving is a model spaceship.

>x model
This is a model spaceship, a foot or two long, not painted or decorated but
nevertheless with precise machine-cut edges.  The ship it's modelled on looks
built for speed and maneuvering: an engraving underneath reads “Hummingbird”.
It's unusual in that it's made entirely out of grey-brown metal, a single piece
by the look of it.  The material seems slightly pliable, although not enough to
actually bend.

>get it
Taken.

>bend model
The word “bend” is not necessary in this story.

>put it in image
There's not room for more than one thing at a time in the projector.

>get max
Taken.

>put model in image
The model spaceship is too large to fit in the projector.

>x cabinets
Most of the equipment in his room has probably been hastily transferred to the
cabinets, and then the metal shields lowered to ensure nobody else gets access
to their contents.

>open cabinets
The metal shield which covers the cabinets is quite firmly shut.

>hit it
Your bare hands can't break through the metal shield.

>se
As you start to leave the room, something on the workbench catches your eye.
You pick up the small box to get a better look.

>x workbench
The workbench is attached to the west wall and has cabinets below it to match
those against the north wall.  Its surface is covered with wires, half-soldered
circuit boards, and similar random bits of electronics.  Nothing appears of
particular interest, however.

>x box
It's a small box with a button on the front.  Text above the button reads “Call
Hummingbird.”  Taped to the back is another note reading “The control for the
Warlord's ship should be operational again — don't forget to give it back to
him before the invasion begins!”

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: “No profile data ready to
download.”

>[er huh?]
Noted.

>push box button
You see no box button here.

>push button on box
You see no button in the remote control.

>call hummingbird
The story doesn't understand that command.

>push hummingbird button
It's nice to have an escape route, but you'd probably better wait to use it
until you've destroyed the secret weapon, or at least gotten closer to it.

>search bench
You sort through the bits of electronics.  A handful of diodes, a spring, a
non-working sonic screwdriver: nothing particularly useful.

>[Yay sonic screwdriver!]
Noted.

>get screwdriver
You sort through the bits of electronics.  A handful of diodes, a spring, a
non-working sonic screwdriver: nothing particularly useful.

>get diodes
You sort through the bits of electronics.  A handful of diodes, a spring, a
non-working sonic screwdriver: nothing particularly useful.

>x box
It's a small box with a button on the front.  Text above the button reads “Call
Hummingbird.”  Taped to the back is another note reading “The control for the
Warlord's ship should be operational again — don't forget to give it back to
him before the invasion begins!”

>read scrap
A few hasty lines are scrawled on the paper: “Gr'chawf — Been called up to
supervise construction of the main screens — you'd better continue work on the
sample screen here.  See if you can ground those instabilities we were seeing
(I'll leave the cube on my desk).”  A small P is pecked into the sheet at the
bottom of the page.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

>x machine
The prototyping machine looks something like a large photocopier: it has a
compartment labelled “INPUT MATERIALS” and another labelled “PROTOTYPE OUTPUT”
and in between are all the mechanisms necessary for turning the one into the
other.  An instruction sheet is helpfully attached to the side of the machine,
next to a slot, a square niche (in which is a gold cube), a keypad, and a small
screen.

>x gold cube
A finely-crafted golden cube with lines of microcircuitry traced over its
sides, and a few small holes for the insertion of dataprongs.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: “No profile data ready to
download.”

>x download data button
The button is labelled “Download Data.”

>[what is this mystical button on?]
Noted.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>x download
You see no download here.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>x cylinder
The tunnel is nearly two feet wide and ten long, so it takes up rather a lot of
the room.  It is labelled “COSMIC RAY TUNNEL” in large letters on the side, and
then below the label there are a screen, a button, and a small slot, in which
is a recordable datachip.  On top of the tunnel is a hatch, which is closed.
It's closed.

>[which is closed.  it's closed.]
Noted.

>x screen
The screen is blank.

>x button
Which button do you mean, the download data button, or the remote control?

>x datachip
It's a standard-issue recordable datachip, suitable for recording standard-
issue data.

>[standard-issue data?  Heh.]
Noted.

>open hatch
Opened.

>look in it
You see nothing in the cosmic ray tunnel.

>put model in it
The model spaceship is too large for the tunnel's platform.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, an account book, a note, your
tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), your image projector (disguised as
a powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a Max Blaster
action figure, a remote control, and a model spaceship.  You are wearing your
rocket pants.

>put tk in hatch
Done.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: “No profile data ready to
download.”

>get tk
Taken.

>put control in hatch
The remote seems like something you want to hang onto.

>put book in hatch
The account book is too large for the tunnel's platform.

>put max on hatch
There's no good surface on the tube's hatch.

>put max on hatch
There's no good surface on the tube's hatch.

>put max in hatch
Done.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: “No profile data ready to
download.”

>get max
Taken.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, a large nut, 175 food pills, four
granola nuts, a metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector
(disguised as a powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper,
a remote control, a model spaceship, your tk device (disguised as a tube of
lipstick), an account book, and a Max Blaster action figure.  You are wearing
your rocket pants.

>put nut in hatch
Which nut do you mean, a granola nut, or the large nut?

>large
Done.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: “No profile data ready to
download.”

>get nut
Taken.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

>put model in machine
Done.

>push button
It's nice to have an escape route, but you'd probably better wait to use it
until you've destroyed the secret weapon, or at least gotten closer to it.

>x machine
The prototyping machine looks something like a large photocopier: it has a
compartment labelled “INPUT MATERIALS” and another labelled “PROTOTYPE OUTPUT”
and in between are all the mechanisms necessary for turning the one into the
other.  An instruction sheet is helpfully attached to the side of the machine,
next to a slot, a square niche (in which is a gold cube), a keypad, and a small
screen.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>read sheet
To generate a prototype, place the blueprint cube in the niche and push the
number for the desired prototype.  Then put the datachip in the slot if
necessary, add the mutable material in the input compartment, and close the
compartment.  The prototype will be placed in the output compartment.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 2.

On the small end table is a rounded brown sack.

>x screen
The screen, projected in the middle of square 2, is shaped like a dome and is a
bit more than a yard across and half that in height.  The screen itself doesn't
appear similar to anything you've seen before — unlike Max's forcefield, the
screen is slightly fuzzy, as if it's vibrating almost too fast to be seen.
And, as mentioned, it has a faint bluish tinge, though not enough to render it
opaque.

>get sack
Taken.

>open it
That is not something you can open.

>look in it
The rounded brown sack contains a Hungrybird Box-o-worms.

>open box
You pull up a corner of the box and peer inside: the faux earth is covered with
frost, like the jungle on a wintry morning[18].

>footnote 18
If it was, you know, a snow jungle.  Or something.

>close box
Which box do you mean, the remote control, or the Hungrybird Box-o-worms?

>worms
That is not something you can close.

>[eh?]
Noted.

>l
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 2.

>x machine
The screen projector (not to be confused with a forcefield generator) looks
something like a cross between a two-headed giraffe and a robot[19]: it has a
squat main body complete with control panel and then two long necks rise up,
tipped with rotatable satellite dishes.  The dishes are tilted such that they
focus on the middle of square 2, where a bluish dome has appeared.

>footnote 19
And hey, who hasn't always wanted to see that?

>x control panel
The control panel for the screen projector seems pretty simple: there's an
on/off switch (currently on), a lever with settings 1-6 (set to 2), a green
button (for you to push), and a display (blank).

>set lever to 1
You shift the lever to 1.  With a whirr like a flywheel slowing, the dome fades
away and disappears.  Moments later, the screen hums into existence back on the
grid.

>x screen
The screen, projected in the middle of square 1, is shaped like a dome and is a
bit more than a yard across and half that in height.  The screen itself doesn't
appear similar to anything you've seen before — unlike Max's forcefield, the
screen is slightly fuzzy, as if it's vibrating almost too fast to be seen.
And, as mentioned, it has a faint bluish tinge, though not enough to render it
opaque.

>set lever to 5
You shift the lever to 5.  With a whirr like a flywheel slowing, the dome fades
away and disappears.  Moments later, the screen hums into existence back on the
grid.

>push green button
With a ker-thunk, an auxiliary control panel covered in buttons and switches
shoots out from the main one.

A note left on the panel flutters to the floor as it pops out.

>read note
Which note do you mean, the scrap of paper, the projector note, or the note?

>the note
Which note do you mean, the scrap of paper, the projector note, or the note?

>[arr]
Noted.

>read projector note
“Intermittent screen instabilities also persisting in 4-6,” reads the note.
“Need to track down cause (freq interfer?)  or close off additional squares.
Leave upper/non-LOS settings disabled until perm received for extended
testing.”

>set lever to 4
You shift the lever to 4.  With a whirr like a flywheel slowing, the dome fades
away and disappears.  Moments later, the screen hums into existence back on the
grid.

>[I have no idea what the heck is going on, BTW.]
Noted.

>l
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>x end-table
The end table sits next to the screen projector.

>search it
You see nothing on the small end table.

>get it
Probably due to a rash of table theft, this one has been fastened securely to
the floor.

>[hee!]
Noted.

>push green
(the screen projector's button)
With a thunk-ker the auxiliary control panel retracts back into the main one.

>g
(the screen projector's button)
With a ker-thunk, an auxiliary control panel covered in buttons and switches
shoots out from the main one.

>x panel
Which panel do you mean, the auxiliary control panel, or the main control
panel?

>auxiliary
There is a large variety of buttons and switches on the auxiliary control
panel, none of which are labelled with anything other than cryptic
abbreviations.

>push buttons
You're a bit reluctant to fiddle with the controls, given that you don't know
what anything does, or where the “create ear-shattering wail and then explode”
button is.

>[heh.]
Noted.

>l
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

(Max has raised the score by ten points.)

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>sw
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

A potato is lying casually in the middle of the floor.

>x potato
It looks like an ordinary potato.  But is it?

>yes
The word “yes” is not necessary in this story.

>read whiteboard
The whiteboards are covered in cryptic notes and drawings.  You can piece
together a few phrases: “monitor grwth dbl” “stray wavefrms lcated?”  “xtra
pollen — poss defense vs pain enfrcrs?”  “mem self: buy frtilizer” but nothing
that's really suggestive of, say, where they keep the experimental screen
disruptors, unless “side-effects from accelerated lifecycle of seeds??”  is
some sort of code.

>get potato
You hestitate for a moment as you reach out — that's a Venusian potato, you
know.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>g
You see no potato here.

>get no potato
The word “no” is not necessary in this story.

>l
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>l
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>x heat lamp
The heat lamp casts a bright glow onto the various specimens of tropical
plantlife on the table below.

>get heat lamp
The lamp is attached to the wall.

>turn it off
For greater reliability, the lamp has been designed without a switch, and its
power supply must be internal.

>unplug lamp
You see no way to unplug the heat lamp.

>get seeds
There's no way you're sticking your hands into that liquid — just look at that
warning label.

>read warning
You see no warning here.

>[?]
Noted.

>x label
The label has a somewhat confusing silhouette of a Xavian surrounded by small
black ovals, with text below reading “DANGER: contact with formula may lead to
nausea, throbbing, beak rot, and instantaneous molting.

>x hybrid
It's small for a tree, or large for a bush (the table its pot is sitting on is
extra-reinforced).  Even so, there's still some open soil left in its pot — how
big do they expect it to grow in the near future?  The main thing of note,
however, are the wires and pumps running from boxes on the table and burrowing
into the trunk of the tree.  Whatever is going on there is tracked by a set of
computer monitors built into the pot, but most of the readouts seem fairly
meaningless.

>read those few readouts that seem to have some meaning
The word ‘those’ is not necessary in this story.

>read readouts
The tree's pot is designed as a combination resting-place and diagnostic: it is
filled with rich dark soil on the inside, and covered with readouts on the
outside, tracking moisture levels, growth rates, nutrient patterns, gas
emissions, magnetic fields, and virtually everything else about a plant (or
machine) one could imagine.  A button labelled ‘Download Data’ is just above a
small slot.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>[Wait, when did it fade into existence?]
Noted.

>get soil
Even a small tree is really too heavy to move.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on one of the pot's readouts: ‘No datachip detected in
slot.’

>ne
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>get datachip
Taken.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>sw
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>put chip in slot
You slide the datachip into the slot.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on one of the pot's readouts: ‘No unusual data to
download.’

>get chip
Taken.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>g
You are already carrying the recordable datachip.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>get potato
You see no potato here.

>l
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>move whiteboards
The whiteboards are fastened firmly to the wall.

>ne
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>w
(Luckily, the cannon appears to only fire when people attempt to pass in the
other direction)

Laboratory Entrance
The hallway here is very spare and tidy, if you ignore the scorch-marks all
over the floor.  It runs east and west here, although to the west it bends
south quickly, and to the east it splits up with passages running north and
south and, ahead, the corridor becomes doorway-lined before it ends.

There is a quiet whirring noise from overhead.

>put max in emitter
The word ‘emitter’ is not necessary in this story.

>put max in image
You place the Max Blaster action figure onto the projection surface.

>turn on image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  A lifesize hologram of Max
appears in mid-air.

A blast of energy shoots down from the ceiling, aimed at the holographic image
of Max.  But it passes right through and strikes the ground — this might just
buy the time you need.

>w
You can't leave now — you've got to get some way of getting through that outer
screen.

A blast of energy shoots down from the ceiling, aimed at the holographic image
of Max.  But it passes right through and strikes the ground — this might just
buy the time you need.

>w
You can't leave now — you've got to get some way of getting through that outer
screen.

A blast of energy shoots down from the ceiling, aimed at the holographic image
of Max.  But it passes right through and strikes the ground — this might just
buy the time you need.

>e
Carefully maneuvering the projector so the hologram of Max dances around and
keeps the laser bolts coming, you head east during the distraction.

Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

You see a Venusian potato here.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note and a Venusian potato here.

>get potato
You gingerly pick up the Venusian potato.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

Your possessions shift slightly.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact) (which contains a Max Blaster action figure), six souvenir
beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote control, your tk device (disguised
as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a large nut, a rounded brown sack, and
a recordable datachip.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>[heh.]
Noted.

>z
Time passes...

>put chip in slot
You slide the datachip into the slot.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: ‘No profile data ready to
download.’

>open hatch
The cosmic ray tunnel is already open.

>x tunnel
The tunnel is nearly two feet wide and ten long, so it takes up rather a lot of
the room.  It is labelled ‘COSMIC RAY TUNNEL’ in large letters on the side, and
then below the label there are a screen, a button, and a small slot, in which
is a recordable datachip.  On top of the tunnel is a hatch, which is open.
Inside you can see a track runs the length of the tube, with a small platform
mounted on the track.  It's open.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

A lifesize hologram of Max hangs in mid-air.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>turn off image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  The lifesize hologram of Max
winks out.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>sw
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>ne
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The tunnel's slot contains a recordable
datachip.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>undo
Taking back one turn: ‘nw’.

Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>undo
Taking back one turn: ‘nw’.

Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>undo
No more undo information is available.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The tunnel's slot contains a recordable
datachip.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>z
Time passes...

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The tunnel's slot contains a recordable
datachip.

>get potato
You gingerly pick up the Venusian potato.

>put it in hatch
The Venusian potato is too large for the tunnel's platform.

>[hey!]
Noted.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>put potato in 4
You can't put anything in square 4.

>put potato on f
You see no f here.

>put potato on 4
Done.

>l
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.  On square 4 is a Venusian potato.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>[Also, 'in' should qualify as a synonym.]
Noted.

>[Possibly in the library.]
Noted.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact) (which contains a Max Blaster action figure), six souvenir
beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote control, your tk device (disguised
as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a large nut, and a rounded brown sack.
You are wearing your rocket pants.

>read note
Which note do you mean, the scrap of paper, the projector note, or the note?

>all
scrap of paper: A few hasty lines are scrawled on the paper: ‘Gr'chawf — Been
called up to supervise construction of the main screens — you'd better continue
work on the sample screen here.  See if you can ground those instabilities we
were seeing (I'll leave the cube on my desk).’  A small P is pecked into the
sheet at the bottom of the page.
projector note: ‘Intermittent screen instabilities also persisting in 4-6,’
reads the note.  ‘Need to track down cause (freq interfer?)  or close off
additional squares.  Leave upper/non-LOS settings disabled until perm received
for extended testing.’
note: The note is brief but distressing.  ‘As per orders I have removed the
interesting shiny thing and transported it to the main Art and Cultural Museum
for inclusion in our exhibit on soon-to-be-subjugated peoples.’

>[What the heck is a non-LOS setting?]
Noted.

>l
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>e
Your rocket pants send you blasting upwards along the wall.  You hover briefly,
then fly through the doorway and drop down to ground level on the other side.

Office Area
This is a large room with walls going up perhaps fifty feet.  Each wall has a
half-dozen cotes with perches on it, and it takes mere moments to realize that
this is an example of the latest in Xavian office-space technology: a coopicle
farm.  But no doubt because of the base lockdown, most of the cotes are closed
off with metal shutters.  The only exits from the room are a doorway high up on
the west well, and an opening to the south leading outside.

>x desks
You see no desks here.

>x cotes
There must be several dozen of the coopicles all told, each a concentrated
capsule of worker productivity.  At the moment most of them are sealed off with
metal shutters but one, a short distance above the floor, is still accessible.
A bare patch of wall at ground level between two of the cotes seems to
correspond with the passageway on the other side.

>enter open cote
You zip upwards and coast into the open coopicle.

Inside the Coopicle
It's a little cramped in here, since Xavians are shorter than humans, but not
as cramped as it could be: the coopicle has been cleared out and the only
things left are a desk and some scraps of paper on the walls.

On the desk is a silver cube.

>get cube
As you lift the silver cube off the desk, you notice a small black spot on the
desk.  Your patrol training cues you in: that's no ordinary small black spot,
it's a microdot.

>get microdot
Taken.

>x it
Microdots, by their nature, are too small to make out much about.  This one
looks like a black spot, and, though it is doubtlessly covered with miniature
writing, you can't make any of it out.

>put it in image
There's not room for more than one thing at a time in the projector.

>get max
Taken.

>put microdot on image
You place the microdot onto the projection surface.

>turn on image
You touch the controls on the image projector.  A giant projection of the
microdot appears in mid-air.

>x projection
The writing on the microdot is easily visible in its enlarged state: it looks
like it's specifications for the screen projector which surrounds the dome of
the secret weapon.  Unfortunately, this consists mainly of the notes for
building such a thing, and not so much on how to break it.

However, the further-research section does have a few useful comments: ‘the
waveform may be vulnerable to certain ranges of sonic interference,’ ‘...the
original model's experiments proving non-line-of-sight focuses are viable, the
safety override switch on the auxiliary panel [a diagram of the panel is given
showing the switch] can be safely elided in future designs,’ and of course ‘To
A.G., H.F., K.B.  and T.W.: hugz!  And never forget: BEAKBANDS!!!  Ha ha ha’

>[heh]
Noted.

>x silver
A finely-crafted silver cube with lines of microcircuitry traced over its
sides, and a few small holes for the insertion of dataprongs.

>l
Inside the Coopicle
It's a little cramped in here, since Xavians are shorter than humans, but not
as cramped as it could be: the coopicle has been cleared out and the only
things left are a desk and some scraps of paper on the walls.

A giant projection of the microdot hangs in mid-air.

>x paper
Which paper do you mean, the scraps of paper, or the scrap of paper?

>scraps
Like you might expect, the papers have comics chronicling the wacky hijinks
gotten up to by a group of slacker office workers.  But since these comics are
provided by the Xavian administration, the comics end with the workers out
unemployed on the street and resolving in the future to always work for the
glory of Xavia.

>[heh]
Noted.

>get scraps
It seems a pity to lower the Xavian workers' morale this way.

>[YM 'raise']
Noted.

>x desk
It's a simple desk, with a flat section on top, no drawer, and a bar below to
perch on while working.  A plaque mounted on the desk reads ‘Prok-Chi'reep,
Research Scientist, First Egg.’

>[yay first egg!  Though I forget if that references anything.]
Noted.

>search it
You see nothing on the desk.

>l
Inside the Coopicle
It's a little cramped in here, since Xavians are shorter than humans, but not
as cramped as it could be: the coopicle has been cleared out and the only
things left are a desk and some scraps of paper on the walls.

A giant projection of the microdot hangs in mid-air.

You see a Venusian potato here.

>read projection
The hologram is uncannily accurate but completely immaterial.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>[Good lord that potato is following me everywhere.]
Noted.

>out
You drop back to ground level.

Office Area
This is a large room with walls going up perhaps fifty feet.  Each wall has a
half-dozen cotes with perches on it, and it takes mere moments to realize that
this is an example of the latest in Xavian office-space technology: a coopicle
farm.  But no doubt because of the base lockdown, most of the cotes are closed
off with metal shutters.  The only exits from the room are a doorway high up on
the west well, and an opening to the south leading outside.

>s
You can't leave now — you've got to get some way of getting through that outer
screen.

>u
Your rocket pants send you blasting upwards along the wall.  You hover briefly,
then fly through the doorway and drop down to ground level on the other side.

Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>x shelves
The shelves are attached to the walls.

>get them
You can't take those.

>enter shelves
Those are not something you can enter.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The input compartment contains a model
spaceship.

>x machine
The prototyping machine looks something like a large photocopier: it has a
compartment labelled ‘INPUT MATERIALS’ and another labelled ‘PROTOTYPE OUTPUT’
and in between are all the mechanisms necessary for turning the one into the
other.  An instruction sheet is helpfully attached to the side of the machine,
next to a slot, a square niche (in which is a gold cube), a keypad, and a small
screen.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>x niche
It's a square hole designed to receive a blueprint cube.  It's currently
receiving one now, in fact: a gold cube is in the niche.

>get gold
The prototyper's screen goes blank as you remove the cube.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>undo
Taking back one turn: ‘get gold’.

Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

A giant projection of the microdot hangs in mid-air.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The input compartment contains a model
spaceship.

>x screen
The screen is displaying a brief menu of the currently available blueprints:

1: flight-modelling ship
2: artificial limb
3: ultradraft feather
4: drill-beak cover

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>get cube
The prototyper's screen goes blank as you remove the cube.

>put silver cube in machine
You snap the silver cube into the niche.  The screen displays a brief menu of
the cube's contents:

1: wave generator
2: ingot
3: gaussrifle barrel
4: reflective sheet

>close hatch
You see no hatch here.

>close receptacle
The word ‘receptacle’ is not necessary in this story.

>l
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

A giant projection of the microdot hangs in mid-air.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>close input
An error appears on the display: ‘*** No targets specified and no prototype
blueprint loaded.  Stop.’  The input compartment swings back open.

>read screen
The screen is displaying a brief menu of the currently available blueprints:

1: wave generator
2: ingot
3: gaussrifle barrel
4: reflective sheet

>set dial to 1
You adjust the dial on the viewmaster.

>close input
An error appears on the display: ‘*** No targets specified and no prototype
blueprint loaded.  Stop.’  The input compartment swings back open.

>read instructions
You see no instructions here.

>read machine
The prototyping machine looks something like a large photocopier: it has a
compartment labelled ‘INPUT MATERIALS’ and another labelled ‘PROTOTYPE OUTPUT’
and in between are all the mechanisms necessary for turning the one into the
other.  An instruction sheet is helpfully attached to the side of the machine,
next to a slot, a square niche (in which is a silver cube), a keypad, and a
small screen.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>read instruction
To generate a prototype, place the blueprint cube in the niche and push the
number for the desired prototype.  Then put the datachip in the slot if
necessary, add the mutable material in the input compartment, and close the
compartment.  The prototype will be placed in the output compartment.

>push 1
The display blanks for a moment, then text appears.  ‘Loading blueprint for
'wave generator' .  .  .  .  done.  Additional required: waveform data’

>[A-ha!]
Noted.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.  Balanced
on top is a Venusian potato.

You see a projector note here.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>get tunnel
You can't take that.

>x cylinder
The tunnel is nearly two feet wide and ten long, so it takes up rather a lot of
the room.  It is labelled ‘COSMIC RAY TUNNEL’ in large letters on the side, and
then below the label there are a screen, a button, and a small slot, in which
is a recordable datachip.  On top of the tunnel is a hatch, which is open.
Inside you can see a track runs the length of the tube, with a small platform
mounted on the track.  It's open.

>x platform
A mobile platform sits on a track inside the tunnel.

>move it
The platform slides forward a few inches on the track, then snaps back into
place.

>move it s
The tunnel's platform cannot be moved.

>x screen
The screen is blank.

The potato quietly fades out of existence.

>undo
Taking back one turn: ‘x screen’.

Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

A giant projection of the microdot hangs in mid-air.

You see a Venusian potato here.  The tunnel's slot contains a recordable
datachip.

>get potato
You gingerly pick up the Venusian potato.

Your possessions shift slightly.

>get dot
The giant projection of the microdot winks out.

>put dot in hatch
Done.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: ‘No profile data ready to
download.’

>get button
You are already carrying the remote control.

>get dot
Taken.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote
control, your tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a
large nut, a rounded brown sack, a Max Blaster action figure, a gold cube, and
a microdot.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>ne
You can't go that way.  The only obvious exit leads southeast, back to the
corridor by the laboratories.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

The input compartment contains a model spaceship.

>x screen
The screen is displaying a brief menu of the currently available blueprints:

1: wave generator
2: ingot
3: gaussrifle barrel
4: reflective sheet

>push 4
The display blanks for a moment, then text appears.  ‘Loading blueprint for
'reflective sheet' .  .  .  .  done.  Additional required: (none)’

>close compartment
Which compartment do you mean, the output compartment, or the input
compartment?

>input
The output compartment swings shut.  The prototyping machine hums, first
quietly and then louder.  The faint scent of hot metal wafts out from behind
the compartment doors, along with stray beams of red and blue light.  Then the
humming stops, the lights wink out, and the compartments pop open again.

In the output compartment you see a reflective sheet.

>get sheet
Taken.

>x it
A large, smooth sheet of metal, machine-polished to high degree.

>x me in it
You see no me in it here.

>save
Saved.

> sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote
control, your tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a
large nut, a rounded brown sack, a Max Blaster action figure, a gold cube, a
microdot, and a reflective sheet.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>put max in hatch
Done.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: ‘No profile data ready to
download.’

>close hatch
‘Sensors activated’ flashes up on screen.  There is a faint whirr from the
tunnel.  ‘Raystorm activated; beginning readings.’  The whirr is joined by a
faint scraping, as of metal sliding along metal, and numbers begin to scroll
across the display.  They come in waves, sliding back and forth and suddenly
dropping down to the bottom of the screen.  Finally the whirr dies away, and
the screen blanks momentarily.  ‘Readings complete,’ it shows, and then
‘Downloading data .  .  .  .  done.’  The chip ejects into your hand with a
click.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on the tunnel's screen: ‘No datachip detected in
slot.’

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>sw
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>put datachip in hybrid
You can't put anything in the hybrid tree.

>x hybrid
It's small for a tree, or large for a bush (the table its pot is sitting on is
extra-reinforced).  Even so, there's still some open soil left in its pot — how
big do they expect it to grow in the near future?  The main thing of note,
however, are the wires and pumps running from boxes on the table and burrowing
into the trunk of the tree.  Whatever is going on there is tracked by a set of
computer monitors built into the pot, but most of the readouts seem fairly
meaningless.

>x monitors
The tree's pot is designed as a combination resting-place and diagnostic: it is
filled with rich dark soil on the inside, and covered with readouts on the
outside, tracking moisture levels, growth rates, nutrient patterns, gas
emissions, magnetic fields, and virtually everything else about a plant (or
machine) one could imagine.  A button labelled ‘Download Data’ is just above a
small slot.

>put chip in slot
You slide the datachip into the slot.

>push button
(the download data button)
An error flashes briefly on one of the pot's readouts: ‘No unusual data to
download.’

>get chip
Taken.

>ne
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

>put chip in slot
You slide the datachip into the slot.

>open hatch
On the tunnel's platform is a Max Blaster action figure.

>get max
Taken.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote
control, your tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a
large nut, a rounded brown sack, a gold cube, a microdot, a reflective sheet,
and a Max Blaster action figure.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>se
Screen Theory Lab
This room is almost entirely open, except for a row of metal cabinets along one
wall, a large machine in the corner, and a small end-table next to the machine.
The majority of the room is devoted to bare floor on which a six-square grid
has been painted.

A bluish dome-shaped screen is projected in the middle of square 4.

You see a projector note here.

>ne
You can't go that way.  The only obvious exit leads northwest, back to the
corridor by the laboratories.

>nw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>z
Time passes...

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>l
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>sw
Botany Lab
The temperature in the room feels a few degrees warmer than the hallway to the
northeast, mostly due to the heat lamp in the corner keeping some tropical
specimens alive.  The rest of the tables around the room are covered with other
plant-related experiments, ranging from jars of seeds in solution by the west
wall, to some kind of large mechanical-botanical hybrid by the east wall.
Meanwhile, the whiteboards on the walls are covered with various scribbles and
notations.

>ne
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>ne
Prototyping Room
The room is practically empty except for the large prototyping machine in the
center, but since that's the size of a large spacescooter, the room doesn't
feel deserted.  A few shelves occupy the walls but either they were bare to
start with or they've been hastily cleared.

>sw
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>nw
Flight Lab
The flight lab is nominally for studying flying things, but since to a Xavian
this covers everything from electronics to projectile weapons to spaceships,
the room appears somewhat organizationally confused to human eyes.  The
situation isn't helped by the fact that the room seems to have been mostly-
cleared as part of the base lockdown, probably into the cabinets against the
back wall.  Nevertheless, it's still a mess: there are bits of wire and half-
assembled mechanisms on the workbench, a long cylinder takes up much of the
center of the room, and most of the free wallspace is taken up by shelving.

The tunnel's slot contains a recordable datachip.

>i
You are carrying an issue of Newsbeak, 175 food pills, four granola nuts, a
metal bowl, a Xavian viewmaster, a note, your image projector (disguised as a
powder compact), six souvenir beak-polishers, a scrap of paper, a remote
control, your tk device (disguised as a tube of lipstick), an account book, a
large nut, a rounded brown sack, a gold cube, a microdot, a reflective sheet,
and a Max Blaster action figure.  You are wearing your rocket pants.

>x potato
You see no potato here.

>se
Outside the Labs
Two doorways open in each of the north and south walls of the corridor,
providing, by the looks of them, exits to the actual labs.  The corridor itself
runs west from here back to the junction, and east to a sheer wall — and then
upwards along the wall, up forty feet or more to a doorway.

>e
Your rocket pants send you blasting upwards along the wall.  You hover briefly,
then fly through the doorway and drop down to ground level on the other side.

Office Area
This is a large room with walls going up perhaps fifty feet.  Each wall has a
half-dozen cotes with perches on it, and it takes mere moments to realize that
this is an example of the latest in Xavian office-space technology: a coopicle
farm.  But no doubt because of the base lockdown, most of the cotes are clo