Text will now be saved to the script file. Type UNSCRIPT to discontinue scripting. >[OK, so after a hint from Jota that I needed high technology...] Noted. >i You are carrying a teething corknut, a box of chocolates, a corkscrew, a tube of corknut butter, a metal bowl, your blaster, a museum cardkey, a single brochure, a small pot, a fine paintbrush, your force generator, an engraved aluminum sheet, an acorn, a useful rock, a bent stick, a stiff plastic sheet, the ultra-bomb (disguised as a pocketwatch) (and covered in lacquer), and four granola nuts. >set dial to disk You set the dial on the forcefield generator to 'disk'. >drop generator Dropped. >put bomb on generator There's no good surface on your force generator. >put bomb on disk You see no disk here. >turn on generator [Runtime error: invalid comparison] >[oops] Noted. >get generator Taken. >set dial to disk You set the dial on the forcefield generator to 'disk'. >turn on generator You turn on the forcefield device. A shimmering disk of force appears. >drop it Dropped. >put bomb on disk Done. >set dial to sphere [Runtime error: invalid comparison] >[and again] Noted. >get generator Taken. >set dial to sphere You set the dial on the forcefield generator to 'sphere'. The disk vanishes for an instant, and is replaced by a shimmering sphere of force. The ultra- bomb (covered in lacquer) is now englobed within the sphere. >s Storage Room This part of the back area of the museum looks to be where the larger items are stored, as well as being a back entrance to the museum. Archways lead east and west (though the east exit is completely blocked by a metal barrier), one of the interior doors stands in the north wall, and in the ceiling there's another exit labelled “Exit/Main Branch”. A large pile of strange items fills the center of the room. >w Museum Back Room A wall of cabinets and a pair of desks take up most of the space here, in what is presumably the area where the curators prepare the artifacts and hang out to make jokes about the visitors. A doorway leads out to the museum to the west, and the back area continues east. >w Mars Room Mars, as you know, once held a flourishing Earth-like civilization but it passed on ages ago as its great oceans vanished. Now the world is barren except for roving tribes of barbarians, last descendents of Mars' former inhabitants. This exhibit is set up as a lifesize scene of Mars as it is today: dry, dusty, and covered in large rocks. Cases around the room hold artifacts gathered from Mars and artists' recreations of Mars as it once was. An archway opens back to the main hall to the north, and another leads on to the west, while an inconspicious door is built in the east wall. >n Inside the Museum The interior of the museum is dark, the lights apparently having shifted to emergency power. Passageways lead in all four cardinal directions, but to the north and east, sturdy metal doors have come down from the ceiling to block the way. Signs over the various doorways out encourage you to “Explore Venus's Vibrant Culture and Lush Surrounds” to the north, “Gasp In Awe At Xavian Technological Progress” to the east, or “Sneer at the So-Called Civilizations of Subject Peoples (new!)” to the south. The northern barrier is raised a foot or two off the floor, enough to squeeze under. You see a lever here. >n (You crawl under the barrier, then stand.) Past Xavian History Xavians have probably heard the Earth-saying “Those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them,” but it's not clear that this is the motivation here. This prehistorical room seems designed more around the theme “Those who remember the past are doomed to make tacky dioramas about it”: timelines from the beginning of Xavian history fight for space with models of defiantly-roaring Xenosaurs and fake primitive nest-huts. The march of history seems to continue on east through a door marked “The Xavian Jungle”, or the room can be left to the south. >e The door slides open as you approach and closes after you go through. Jungle Room (light vegetation) At first glance this room appears to continue endlessly in all directions. On second glance it's still very big, but you can make out walls in three directions, with painted murals on them to make them appear to be more jungle. To the east, however, the jungle gets even deeper, and you can hear the sounds of water dripping. Which is not to say the jungle isn't fairly thick here, but since there's a path it's not as bad as the stuff you were slogging through after you crash-landed, and hopefully not as infested with strange wildlife. A vine lies across the path. A weather-beaten sign is planted in the ground here and labelled “Flora and Fauna of the Jungle” >e You boldly step over the vine and continue on through the vegetation, the raindrop noises getting louder as you head for the deeper part of the jungle. Jungle Room (deep vegetation) It's hard to get a good view across the room in here, because so much of the available space is taken up with floor-to-ceiling plant growth. And (the ankle-deep muck on the floor hints) it's not the fake kind, either. You can make out a door some distance east, and the jungle seems to lighten up to the west, but it's an unpleasant slog either way, especially with the drenching mist coming down from overhead. Also drawing a certain amount of attention is the large sign posted at about nose level. The rain pours down from overhead, soaking you and your possessions. The lacquer in the pot sizzles and smokes as the water touches it. The water beads up and runs off the sphere of force. >e The door slides open as you approach and closes after you go through. Future Xavia Exhibit Truly a wonderland. On every side, robotic Xavian models demonstrate the joys of life with the new technology that awaits in the very near future. To one side, for instance, is a life-sized grey-feathered robotic Xavian about to step into a portal of some kind, while across the room a sharp-beaked robotic Xavian is standing next to a shiny green machine with a bib tied around its throat. The remaining part of the room (save for the exit west) is taken up by a gleaming silver spaceship on the south wall, behind which is an inconspicious door. >s Other Back Room Somewhat less airy and more sinister than the public rooms of the museum, and even more sinister (although just as less airy) than the other back rooms, this one features a dull scratched linoleum floor and formica counters covered in equipment against every wall. The back area continues west, although the path is blocked by a metal barrier, and a door back into the main part of the museum leads north. A strange white box is the most prominent piece of equipment on the counter. >set dial to disk You set the dial on the forcefield generator to 'disk'. The sphere vanishes for an instant, and is replaced by a shimmering disk of force. The ultra-bomb (covered in lacquer) is now resting upon the disk. >get bomb Taken. >put it in box (the box of chocolates) (first opening the box of chocolates) Opening the box of chocolates reveals six chocolates. The ultra-bomb (covered in lacquer) is too large for the box of chocolates. >put it in box white You see no box white here. >put it in white box (first opening the strange white box) You put the watch in the machine and hope for the best. This could all go south in a big hurry if the delacquerator somehow triggers the bomb itself. But you've faced worse situations before, and now's not the time for a case of nerves. >[bah] Noted. >turn on white (first closing the strange white box) There's a flash of light, visible just around the edges of the door. A pungent chemical odor pervades the room — you barely notice, distracted as you are by the possibility of the bomb getting triggered accidentally. But eventually the smell has evaporated and you haven't, so it must be safe. >get bomb You see no bomb here. >open box Opening the strange white box reveals the ultra-bomb. >get bomb Taken. >n Future Xavia Exhibit Truly a wonderland. On every side, robotic Xavian models demonstrate the joys of life with the new technology that awaits in the very near future. To one side, for instance, is a life-sized grey-feathered robotic Xavian about to step into a portal of some kind, while across the room a sharp-beaked robotic Xavian is standing next to a shiny green machine with a bib tied around its throat. The remaining part of the room (save for the exit west) is taken up by a gleaming silver spaceship on the south wall, behind which is an inconspicious door. >w The door slides open as you approach and closes after you go through. Jungle Room (deep vegetation) It's hard to get a good view across the room in here, because so much of the available space is taken up with floor-to-ceiling plant growth. And (the ankle-deep muck on the floor hints) it's not the fake kind, either. You can make out a door some distance east, and the jungle seems to lighten up to the west, but it's an unpleasant slog either way, especially with the drenching mist coming down from overhead. Also drawing a certain amount of attention is the large sign posted at about nose level. The rain pours down from overhead, soaking you and your possessions. The lacquer in the pot sizzles and smokes as the water touches it. The water beads up and runs off the disk of force. >w The jungle, the rain, and your mood lighten up as you go west. Jungle Room (light vegetation) At first glance this room appears to continue endlessly in all directions. On second glance it's still very big, but you can make out walls in three directions, with painted murals on them to make them appear to be more jungle. To the east, however, the jungle gets even deeper, and you can hear the sounds of water dripping. Which is not to say the jungle isn't fairly thick here, but since there's a path it's not as bad as the stuff you were slogging through after you crash-landed, and hopefully not as infested with strange wildlife. A vine lies across the path. A weather-beaten sign is planted in the ground here and labelled “Flora and Fauna of the Jungle” >w The door slides open as you approach and closes after you go through. Past Xavian History Xavians have probably heard the Earth-saying “Those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them,” but it's not clear that this is the motivation here. This prehistorical room seems designed more around the theme “Those who remember the past are doomed to make tacky dioramas about it”: timelines from the beginning of Xavian history fight for space with models of defiantly-roaring Xenosaurs and fake primitive nest-huts. The march of history seems to continue on east through a door marked “The Xavian Jungle”, or the room can be left to the south. >s Inside the Museum The interior of the museum is dark, the lights apparently having shifted to emergency power. Passageways lead in all four cardinal directions, but to the north and east, sturdy metal doors have come down from the ceiling to block the way. Signs over the various doorways out encourage you to “Explore Venus's Vibrant Culture and Lush Surrounds” to the north, “Gasp In Awe At Xavian Technological Progress” to the east, or “Sneer at the So-Called Civilizations of Subject Peoples (new!)” to the south. The northern barrier is raised a foot or two off the floor, enough to squeeze under. You see a lever here. >w Outside the Arts and Cultural Museum A small booth is set up outside the door to the museum, presumably to hold the museum ticket-taker or docent. But there's nobody manning the booth at the moment, the museum door to the east is closed, and the perchway is empty. >w Hoping against hope that you haven't taken too long in the museum, you head back the way you came. *** You run quickly along the branches and scramble up patches of trunk, until you're high enough in the tree to be within the area patrolled by guards. Then it's back to silent climbing, grabbing onto the rough spots on the tree and hoisting yourself up, pausing only when you need to take a breath or to duck down to avoid another watchful sentry. Finally, you spot the outer screen: twice a hundred feet across and perfectly spherical. Its crackling brilliance fills the air around it with a hum and the scent of ozone. And there, hidden away under a curve in the branch, is Doris. You make your way over cautiously. By the Outer Screen A split in the branches provides a convenient place to wait below the outer screen, giving cover from the guards beyond and a view both up ahead and of the trunk below. Doris is here. “Max! You're okay!” Doris pauses. “That is, ah, good, you're here.” (Max has raised the score by ten points.) >[And this bit Liza told me about] Noted. >x sphere Which sphere do you mean, the outer screen, or a granola nut? >screen The screen's edge is perhaps ten feet above you: its projection casually slices through the branches and leaves in its way as if they did not exist. It doesn't look like anything you've seen before: unlike your forcefield, the screen is colored a translucent blue, and lends a slightly fuzzy tone to things beyond it, as if it's vibrating almost too fast to be seen. Beyond the screen, you see the underside of the cage-dome, hanging at the center of the screen's interior, and can see guards flying around inside the screen. >z You stop a moment to watch the swooping paths of the guards inside the screen. Doris studies Ch'awwwk's dome. >talk to doris (This game uses a topic/menu-based conversation system. See “ABOUT” for details.) (You can't think of anything to say at the moment.) >z You stop a moment to watch the swooping paths of the guards inside the screen. Doris points into the screen. “I think we should head over there once we get in,” Doris says, indicating a cluster of branches. “Then we can decide what to do next.” >z You stop a moment to watch the swooping paths of the guards inside the screen. Doris aims the screen disruptor at the outer screen and pulls the trigger. The beam is silent and invisible, but the effect is not: as it touches the screen, the screen simply dissolves away. A person-sized hole appears in the surface of the sphere. >enter sphere You don't waste any time: as soon as the guards' rounds take them far enough away, the two of you scramble up the trunk and through the hole before, it closes. You hurry across the branches, moving as fast as you dare and hoping no guards look round. Finally you reach the safe spot and pause to catch your breath. Inside the Screen At long last you have made it inside the screen, to a hiding-place only sixty or seventy feet away from Ch'awwwk's dome, and the secret weapon atop it. Unfortunately, at least fifty of those feet are straight up, as the cage-dome dangles from the branches above. Still, given that guards are flying all around, this is probably as close as you can get. Doris is here. Three harsh tones sound from the cage-dome, followed by a robotic pseudo-Xavian voice: “Energizing complete. Preparing to activate weapon in 10 units.” A light winks on along the secret weapon's main column. >x cage The cage dangles from the branches near the top of the screen. It seems relatively small — it must just contain Ch'awwk's offices and the mechanism for the secret weapon. From here you can just see the claw-topped column which protrudes from the top of the cage-dome, and the cylindrical forcefield which surrounds it, though not the main part of the dome. The rest of the dome is featureless, except for a window halfway up, between two of the ribs of the cage. “Activation of secret weapon in 9 units.” Another light winks on. >shoot window (with your blaster) You aim carefully and pull the trigger. An energy blast whips through the air and blows open the window. “Be careful!” Doris snaps. “Try anything like that again and I'm sure the guards will be all over us!” >throw bomb in window “There's only going to be one chance for this,” you say. You adjust your position slightly, wind up, and prepare to throw. “Don't forget to arm it,” Doris points out. “Oh yeah,” you say, doing so, and then let the bomb fly. It rises upwards, targetted straight at the open window. But its flight is oh so slow, and the secret weapon prepares to activate.Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venusby Ah, life is good. A space-army at your command, a secret weapon about to fire, those two spies are locked up tight, and that top-of-the-line gyro-stabilized humor containment suit finally arrived. What better day to start your conquest of the galaxy? The only thing lacking is someone to gloat to. Your Office (standing on your perch) This is a pretty normal office for a Xavian leader: desks scattered around piled with memos, a few bits of military memorabilia on the walls, a large perch hanging from the ceiling (on which you are sitting, and in front of which is a viewscreen and control panel), and newspaper on the floor. The gyro-stabilized humor containment suit sits tantalizingly on a desk. On your desk is Doris de Lightning's jacket. (Doris and Max have raised the score by twenty points.) get suit Taken. wear it You change into the humor-containment suit, tingling with anticipation[15]. gloat To gloat would be delightful indeed. But who to gloat to? Your claw moves over to the control panel. You push the button. The viewscreen crackles into life, and, after a brief argument with some secretaries, you are smirking through the viewscreen at the Director of the soon-to-be-former Galatic Patrol. “You?” snarls the Director. “What exactly is it that you want this time, Ch'awww-k'pot?”1 “Oh, nothing, nothing, just thought I'd see how you were doing,” you say airily. “Really?” the Director says. “I was sure you'd be calling about your ransom demands.”1 You chuckle. “Oh, don't be silly. I've forgotten all about that.” He raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Forgotten? What do you mean?”1 “I mean you can forget about paying the ransom,” you snap. “My fleets will be on Earth in a matter of hours.”“Enough of this shilly-shallying,” the Director half-shouts. “What exactly do you mean? Out with it!” 1 You take a moment to straighten your feathers. “What I mean, my good Director, is that the secret weapon will be activating in mere moments.”The Director reels back, and has to grip the edge of his desk to keep from falling. “The secret weapon? But I thought ... I mean —”1 “Oh,” you say, “You must be thinking of those spies of yours. That we caught trying to sneak in and destroy the secret weapon. And locked them up. Yes, yes, quite a pity about them. Normally we would of course have some kind of diplomatic exchange, but since the government of Earth won't exist for more than another day or two, it doesn't really seem worth the effort.”The Director's face has gone an ashy pale, and he has to take several deep breaths before speaking. “Nevertheless, we will resist you, Xavian. Resist in the hopes that, somehow ...”1 “Somehow what?” you say. “As if there could be anything that could stop me now. Why, it is to laugh.” Fitting action to words, you take a deep breath and let the laughs come confidently, first mere chuckles and then full-blown guffaws, drowning out the noise of the slight disturbance outside. “Ah-ha-ha- ha-ha-ha!” you shout, the mechanisms in your suit adapting to keep yourself perfectly balanced no matter how much you laugh. Perfectly balanced, that is, until the massive explosion sends the dome, the secret weapon, and everything else within the outer screen crashing to the ground. Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venusby Moments before the explosion strikes you, you leap off the branches. You fight desperately to grab a hold and slow your fall, and all the while fire and force are roaring at your heels. But you are not fated to perish here: moments before you crash into the outer screen, something else crashes through it. You and Doris drop into the cockpit of the Hummingbird, and blast away as the tree, the dome, and the secret weapon collapse behind you. >2 “Where on Ear— er, Venus did this ship come from?” you say. Doris flips a small box in the air and catches it again. “A little something I picked up in the lab,” Doris says. >1 “Not bad,” you say. “Guess this must be Ch'awww-k'pot's own personal ship, eh?” “That was quite a mission,” Doris says. >[odd transition there] Noted. >1 You wipe your brow. “You can say that again.” “Are Patrol assignments, er, usually like this?” Doris asks. >1 “This was pretty heavy-duty,” you say. “Normally it's just get in there, smash some heads, have a photo op.” “So, uh, what do you usually do when a mission's over?” Doris says. >1 “Well, lately when I'm back on Earth I've just been going to the movies,” you say. “It gets kind of tiring getting asked for an autograph all the time — heading off-planet feels more like a vacation every time.” “So, what are you planning on doing now?” Doris asks. >1 “Well, I —” The ship's ansible suddenly crackles into life with the familiar Patrol code- signal. Doris walks over and enters the appropriate response, and then the Director's face appears on the ship's small vidscreen. “Congratulations, you two, you've done the impossible!” “All in a day's work, sir,” you say. “Ah, speaking of which ...” the Director says. “It seems there's a little incident on Saturn I was hoping you could check out. But I'm afraid it's another two-person job.” Doris and you look at each other, then turn to face the screen. “That'll be just fine, sir.” *** You have won *** Your score is 100 of a possible 100, in 488 moves. This gives you the rank of Hero of the Patrol. Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last move, or QUIT? >quit Thanks for playing!