NightFloyd Transcript:
Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me by Jon Ingold and Mike Sousa
As played on ifMUD on September 21, 2011

Like ClubFloyd, the idea behind NightFloyd is that a group of people meet online to cooperatively play a game of interactive fiction.

Unlike ClubFloyd, NightFloyd often (but not always) takes on significantly larger works of interactive fiction, knowing going in that each one will take multiple sessions. NightFloyd is also a bit more informal than ClubFloyd in that it's only announced on the ifMUD #clubfloyd bulletin board, and the time shifts around to meet player's schedules far more than ClubFloyd does. NightFloyd is organized by genericgeekgirl, aka Adri.

Below is a transcript of Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me, written by Jon Ingold and Mike Sousa. Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me was released as part of the 2002 Interactive Fiction Competition, where it took second place. It was nominated for Xyzzies for Best Game, Best Individual Puzzle, Best Story, and Best Writing. You can learn more about the game, including how to download it, by visiting the ifWiki.

(And in case you're wondering, yes, there are two Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me transcripts on this site; ClubFloyd played it in 2009, but NightFloyd chose to revisit it in 2011.)

WARNING! Below you will find a transcript of people playing this game, and it goes without saying that the transcript is full of spoilers. So, if you've never played this game, and think you might like to at some point, I do not recommend reading any further. Instead, you might want to return to the interactive fiction page.

Floyd | > Welcome to the Cheap Glk Implementation, library version 0.9.0.
Floyd |
Floyd | tadsr - A text-only TADS 2.5.10 Interpreter.
Floyd | Copyright (c) 1993, 2006 by Michael J. Roberts.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "After you, Professor," Zak says, holding open the door.  "Think - if
Floyd | this works you'll be standing on the surface in no time!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yes, Zak, I know."
Floyd |
Floyd | TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME
Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 by Michael J. Sousa and Jon Ingold.
Floyd | (First-time players should type HELP)
Floyd | Release 1.1 / Serial number 021103 / TADS 2.56
Floyd |
Floyd | Machine Room
Floyd |    The floor is a tangle of cables running from the bank of heavy
Floyd | machinery to the man-sized glass cylinder in the corner; it's like a
Floyd | blender plugged into a car-battery in a giant's world.  The whole
Floyd | arrangement looks suspiciously haphazard.
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner is already here, looking like he only just got out of bed.
Floyd |
Floyd | The others enter behind you.  "All set, Professor?" asks Zak, clapping
Floyd | you on the back.  Taking your arm he helps you into the glass tube.
Floyd | You don't need help, but this is a Momentous Occasion.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | A brave explorer of new frontiers, you are somewhat disheveled, have
Floyd | hair that just will not go where you tell it to, and a nose you could
Floyd | open sardine-tins with.  Your skin is pale from too long under the sea,
Floyd | and your legs are far too long for a lab designed for pygmies.  All
Floyd | that, though, is soon to change.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have burning ambition, towering genius, and a longing for natural
Floyd | sunshine.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're used to it now.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glass door slides quickly shut.  Your view of the scientists is
Floyd | somewhat obscured by a note, taped to the inside.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're used to it now.
Floyd |
Floyd | "FIVE," booms the automated countdown voice.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "longing".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (first taking the note)
Floyd | "Well, Professor.  I suspect that from now on you will not prove a
Floyd | problem in my life any more.  Your machine is under my control.  Shall
Floyd | we say: if you are reading this, you are already dead."
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside all the scientists gather around the machinery, intent; tapping
Floyd | gauges and nodding seriously.  All except Dr. Kurner, that is, who
Floyd | stands off to one side, leaning heavily on a counter, staring at you.
Floyd |
Floyd | "FOUR."  There's a slight snigger sound just at the end; you remember
Floyd | laughing when you recorded that last week.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | A sour man, five years your senior, but lower than you in rank.  You
Floyd | vaguely remember him from college but don't think you ever spoke.
Floyd | Otherwise - he was down here when you arrived.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey - do you suppose it should be sparking like that?" Zak pipes up.
Floyd | The others tut and mutter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "THREE."  Power begins to build.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The glass cover is shut; but your eyes fall to the release switch on
Floyd | the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | "And then there's quite a bit of smoke too, isn't there?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "TWO."  The cables on the floor wriggle like a squid.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The Emergency Release Switch - provided in the terrible off-chance that
Floyd | the door release cover might fail, or be sabotaged, or any such.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Maybe we should open it up and take a look?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner's attention is taken briefly by a school of fish passing by
Floyd | the window.  No dedication, that man.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ONE."  The coils at the top of the cylinder make a searing noise.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a pull switch.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Anyone got a screwdriver?"  A few pat their pockets, and shrug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ZER-OH!"  The machine blasts a spurt of searing white light, as though
Floyd | your head has come off.  The scientists outside barely seem to notice
Floyd | as they hunt around for a coin to use in the screw-head.  Just as
Floyd | everything fades fuzzily to black, you see Kurner stumble himself; then
Floyd | the world slides away...
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Consciousness projection.  They'd not said it couldn't be done, but
Floyd | they had said it was pretty unlikely.  They'd not said you were mad,
Floyd | but they had said you were a little unusual, especially in your taste
Floyd | for sushi.  But you knew, if anyone down in AtlantisLab needs anything,
Floyd | it's a holiday on the surface.  Preferably a holiday as a
Floyd | twenty-two-year-old beach dweller.
Floyd |
Floyd | Which is where you should be right now.  It feels colder than Hawaii
Floyd | should this time of year.  You have a slight headache.  It's dark - so
Floyd | you open your eyes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I beg your pardon?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | In a drawer, sitting up
Floyd |    You are sitting up in a long metal drawer, halfway up a large wall
Floyd | of metal drawers.  Most of the others are closed; yours is open.  Below
Floyd | - about ten feet or so - is the floor of an unfamiliar room, with a
Floyd | door at the far end.  The main features seem to be metal:  metal
Floyd | ceiling, metal walls, metal piping along one side.  Coupled with the
Floyd | dim lighting, this is definitely not Waikiki Beach, by any stretch of
Floyd | the imagination.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your foot is itching.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You rub your foot, itching at the loop of string tied around your big
Floyd | toe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Tied tightly around your big toe is a tag.  It reads "John Doe."  Well,
Floyd | at least you know what name you should answer to.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The toe tag is firmly attached.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "gown".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Well, you seem to be naked.  This isn't your body either.  So
Floyd | everything's gone to plan; except this doesn't look a lot like Hawaii.
Floyd |
Floyd | Tied around your toe is a tag.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You stand up.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your drawer is already open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your drawer is empty bar you, without even a sheet, and is labelled
Floyd | "John Doe" at the front.  Looking around the others you see they're all
Floyd | labelled too - there's Jeremy Doe off to one side; Jack Doe a few
Floyd | levels up, and the lowest down you can read is Ms. Jenny Doe; who's
Floyd | about halfway to the ground.  The surrounding drawers are all closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any jenny doe here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any john doe here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | In a drawer, standing up
Floyd |    You are standing up in a long metal drawer, halfway up a large wall
Floyd | of metal drawers.  Most of the others are closed; yours is open.  Below
Floyd | - about ten feet or so - is the floor of an unfamiliar room, with a
Floyd | door at the far end.  The main features seem to be metal:  metal
Floyd | ceiling, metal walls, metal piping along one side.  Coupled with the
Floyd | dim lighting, this is definitely not Waikiki Beach, by any stretch of
Floyd | the imagination.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The ground is too far to jump!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The ground is too far to jump!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to climb down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Jack's drawer is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The ground is too far to jump!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You stand up, and can easily reach Jack's drawer to slide it open.
Floyd | Jack is inside, but he appears to be asleep.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can only really make out his feet from down here, but they're very
Floyd | still, so he must be fast asleep.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slide open Jeremy's drawer.  He's inside, asleep.  He seems to have
Floyd | a peg-leg.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The peg-leg is a tapering pole the length of one leg - more like a
Floyd | strut, really, or half a flamingo.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Don't wake him.  He looks like he's sleeping real deeply.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Don't wake him.  He looks like he's sleeping real deeply.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (with the peg-leg)
Floyd | Hooking the drawer with Jeremy's leg, you slide it open.  Poor old
Floyd | Jenny rolls into view.  She looks positively knackered.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The peg is far too cumbersome for this manoeuvre, so you first give it
Floyd | back to good old Jeremy next door.
Floyd |
Floyd | It's a fair way down - so first you get a solid grip on the edge of
Floyd | your pallet, and then very gradually you slide off it.  There's a
Floyd | moment of flailing before one toe meets her drawer.  Slight kick in the
Floyd | ribs - you freeze - but she hasn't noticed.  Lucky.  Next foot, you
Floyd | can't see where it's going - oops, that felt like her head; you feel
Floyd | certain her eyes must open any second, you'll hear a complaint... no,
Floyd | no, somehow you get away with it.  The next time you put it down it's
Floyd | more or less onto a clear space - bar some hair.
Floyd |
Floyd | You let go of your drawer, now firmly astride Jenny's, and rub your
Floyd | hands.  There's a deep shadowed groove in either palm from holding up
Floyd | your weight.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Jenny is a red-head, and a good-looking one too.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | She'd no doubt appreciate it, of course, given that she's probably
Floyd | quite lonely here.  But you refrain, on grounds of hygiene.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "wrists".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's a deep red groove on your palm.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's a deep red groove on your palm.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're not that type of scientist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your drawer is labelled "John Doe" at the front.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You make the final fall to the ground.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The names read: Kathleen, Victoria, Charlotte and Rosalind.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slide open the compartment.  Inside is a trolley on which lies what
Floyd | is clearly a corpse.  A transparent sheet covers face down to ankles,
Floyd | like it was wrapped in cling-film.  Only the feet protrude - no tag.  A
Floyd | little horrified, you slam the compartment closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You quickly slide it open and shut -- same story as the other
Floyd | compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You quickly slide it open and shut -- same story as the other
Floyd | compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Inside the compartment is an empty trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "trolly".
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | The trolley is inside the compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't reach it from here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There is no exit in that direction.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You enter Rosalind's compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment
Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.  In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any hatch here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's too heavy to lift.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't understand that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "trolly".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Six feet long, three feet wide, it is essentially a tray on wheels.
Floyd | The only additions are a rubber bumper at one end and a flat metal
Floyd | rectangle at the other.  This is like the registration plate of a car,
Floyd | only blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You lie on the trolley.  It's cold.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "roll".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're not going anywhere until you get off of the trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't move the trolley while lying on it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You get off the trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment
Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.  In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You push the trolley west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Six feet long, three feet wide, it is essentially a tray on wheels.
Floyd | The only additions are a rubber bumper at one end and a flat metal
Floyd | rectangle at the other.  This is like the registration plate of a car,
Floyd | only blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You are empty-handed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The toe tag is firmly attached.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | The hatch is about three foot square and flush with the floor.  Just by
Floyd | it is a circular recess in the wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's nothing under the trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatchway will not open, will not budge and will not slide either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know how to jump the hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's roughly ten centimeters wide and deep, and is barely a meter off
Floyd | the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The room is designed in smooth, sparse fashion.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There is no exit in that direction.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You enter Rosalind's compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment
Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | They are really further south.  The east wall by your side is smooth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's rectangular in shape and the words
Floyd |
Floyd | ** ERROR - Reset Required **
Floyd |
Floyd | are printed on the tiny display.  Near the display is a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a single black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Anything for a little credit.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Across the glass in arcing letters is emblazoned:  "YRAUTROM" (though
Floyd | the R's are a little strange).  Which is - you're quite sure - a place
Floyd | in Jordan; and not a place in Hawaii.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is bright in the corridor beyond, which smarts your eyes a little.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is locked, it seems.  By the side, at shoulder height, is a black
Floyd | glass palm-scanner.  Three feet below is a circular recess and to the
Floyd | left is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >

Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's roughly ten centimeters wide and deep, and is barely a meter off
Floyd | the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.
Floyd | Unfortunately, it's not clever enough to realise you now think you are
Floyd | someone that you actually aren't.  Or you think you are someone who
Floyd | you're not, but really are.  Or something like that.  Anyway, it's a
Floyd | pig-ignorant machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It bleeps red, displaying "PATTERN NOT IN DATABANK".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The display is cleared.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's rectangular in shape and the words
Floyd |
Floyd | SYSTEM - Active
Floyd |
Floyd | are printed on the tiny display.  Near the display is a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | At the bottom of the ramp, a robot appears through the hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The orange robot is shaped like a square coffee-table resting on one
Floyd | side.  The two legs - or rather, arms - at the top each boast a shining
Floyd | disc, like eyes; though only one is a camera lens and the other is a
Floyd | stubby protrusion like a hockey puck.  The two bottom prongs are run
Floyd | with caterpillar tracks.  Slung between them is brown hexagonal tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is a Hearse-o-Matic, a Hansome.  Printed along one side is the
Floyd | robot's name: Charlotte.
Floyd |
Floyd | Charlotte positions its hexagonal tube by the trolley base with a
Floyd | muffled clang.  It then powers toward you up the ramp, pushing the
Floyd | trolley ahead of it.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're a scientist, not an idiot.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're a scientist, not an idiot.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "plover".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.  Just left of the
Floyd | door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot extends its hockey puck to an absurd length, reaching over
Floyd | the trolley in front, to clip into the recess by the door.  The
Floyd | entrance slides open, and the robot and trolley both disappear through
Floyd | the door.  Then the door slams shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Undoing one command)
Floyd |
Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.  Just left of the
Floyd | door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clamber on.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot extends its hockey puck to an absurd length, reaching over
Floyd | the trolley in front, to clip into the recess by the door.  The
Floyd | entrance slides open, and it passes through, taking you with it.
Floyd |
Floyd | Once in the corridor outside, you leap from the trolley before it, and
Floyd | the robot, power away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor,
Floyd | lighting round the bends on either hand, but right now your eyes are
Floyd | elsewhere - drawn to the window of the room you have just left.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Here it is light, and there it is dark, and the glass acts as a mirror
Floyd | over which your haggard face looms.  Only it is not your face.  It is
Floyd | the face of Dr. Kurner.  A moment of staring is not enough, and you
Floyd | stare some more.  His nose is your nose, his eyes, wet and squinting,
Floyd | are your eyes, they move as you look over them.  You feel the tightness
Floyd | of his skin around your mouth and cheekbones.  And worse: his face is
Floyd | framed, like an advert for a circus clown, by an arcing title in large
Floyd | letters:
Floyd |
Floyd | MORTUARY
Floyd |
Floyd | Dead!  Ridiculous!  You're not dead!  You're standing upright.  Indeed,
Floyd | you're breathing!  Aren't you?  There - you blow a long breath onto the
Floyd | glass, and a pool of condensation smokes it over.  Alive.  You're
Floyd | alive.  And the sooner you can get back to your machine and get
Floyd | yourself back into your own skin, the better.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot pushes the trolley through the hatch in the southwest wall
Floyd | and disappears.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish, lit in the
Floyd | half-glow leaking from this dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | The condensation on the window evaporates away.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | They stare back at you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any dome here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The airlock is closed.  And it doesn't look in good repair, either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You punch the access mechanism, and it grunts horribly.  Probably
Floyd | something to do with the wires hanging out of the doorframe.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Kathleen.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The orange robot is shaped like a square coffee-table resting on one
Floyd | side.  The two legs - or rather, arms - at the top each boast a shining
Floyd | disc, like eyes; though only one is a camera lens and the other is a
Floyd | stubby protrusion like a hockey puck.  The two bottom prongs are run
Floyd | with caterpillar tracks.  Slung between them is brown hexagonal tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is a Hearse-o-Matic, a Hansome.  Printed along one side is the
Floyd | robot's name: Kathleen.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The neon striplight illuminates the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The airlock is closed.  And it doesn't look in good repair, either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The orange robot is shaped like a square coffee-table resting on one
Floyd | side.  The two legs - or rather, arms - at the top each boast a shining
Floyd | disc, like eyes; though only one is a camera lens and the other is a
Floyd | stubby protrusion like a hockey puck.  The two bottom prongs are run
Floyd | with caterpillar tracks.  Slung between them is brown hexagonal tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is a Hearse-o-Matic, a Hansome.  Printed along one side is the
Floyd | robot's name: Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any tube here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is about three foot square and flush with the floor.  Just by
Floyd | it is a circular recess in the wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Review mode - time does not pass)
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |
Floyd | Written over several months, hundreds of emails, a good few feet of
Floyd | bandwidth, and a distance of several thousand miles, this is Mike's
Floyd | second collaboration (the first was "No Time To Squeal", written with
Floyd | Robb Sherwin) and Jon's third IFcomp game.  Inspired by Roger Corman,
Floyd | Isaac Asimov and Evans' the Fishmongers; it was written "on location",
Floyd | in Cambridge, Istanbul, Galway, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with the
Floyd | programming mostly done on a laptop in Massachusetts.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bugs and feedback should be emailed to jonnyingold@netscape.net and
Floyd | mjsousa@attbi.com.  Testers are listed in the CREDITS.  Type HELP for
Floyd | in-game assistance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Welcome to TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME.  Below is a brief
Floyd | list of some of the special commands that this game recognizes.  If
Floyd | you're new to interactive fiction, please type INSTRUCTIONS for a
Floyd | detailed introduction to text adventures.
Floyd |
Floyd | The game was coded and primarily tested by the authors using HTML TADS
Floyd | -- though testing was performed on other platforms.
Floyd |
Floyd |    SAVE        - Save the current game position
Floyd |    RESTORE     - Restore a saved game position
Floyd |    UNDO        - Take back the previous turn
Floyd |    QUIT        - End the game
Floyd |
Floyd |    CREDITS     - Show the game's credits
Floyd |    COPYRIGHT   - Copyright information
Floyd |    ABOUT       - Show some background information about the game
Floyd |    VERSION     - Show the current version of the game
Floyd |    RELEASE     - Show release history of game
Floyd |    HINT        - Hint system
Floyd |    REVIEW      - Perform a "LOOK" without affecting time or turn count
Floyd |    WINNABLE    - Is the game still in a winnable state?
Floyd |
Floyd |    SCRIPT      - Start recording a transcript of your moves to a file
Floyd |    UNSCRIPT    - Stop recording the current transcript
Floyd |
Floyd |    AMUSING     - A list of amusing things to try
Floyd |    SPAG        - Reprint of the SPAG interview
Floyd |    NOTES       - Collaboration emails between Jon and I
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | This game is in a perpetual winnable state.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish, lit in the
Floyd | half-glow leaking from this dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The airlock is circular, and damaged, with loose wiring hanging from
Floyd | the frame. Set in the centre is the access mechanism, above is a small
Floyd | square spyhole.  The sight beyond it is not good - you can make out
Floyd | twisted metal, bent panels and wiring dripping from the ceiling like
Floyd | thick seaweed.  It appears not to have been breached, though, as there
Floyd | is no water.  Something moves about within: something large and orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Charlotte.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The sight beyond it is not good - you can make out twisted metal, bent
Floyd | panels and wiring dripping from the ceiling like thick seaweed.  It
Floyd | appears not to have been breached, though, as there is no water.
Floyd | Something moves about within: something large and orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The mechanism is a large button marked ACCESS MECHANISM.  Its functions
Floyd | are probably impaired by the sparking wiring hanging from the
Floyd | doorframe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Two wires, crudely torn.  They spark occasionally - and are quite
Floyd | possibly live!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're not skilled enough.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course!  If you electrocute yourself - if you die - then your
Floyd | consciousness will flip back to your original body!  It's bound to,
Floyd | after all!  And then your problem is solved! ... Though you'll still
Floyd | have to help Dr. Kurner, somehow, wherever he is.  Excellent idea.
Floyd |
Floyd | You steel your courage, raise your hand... and have a moment of doubt.
Floyd | Are you sure you want to do this?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You close your eyes, and close your hand around the two ends of the
Floyd | wires.  There is a terrible sparking as electricity leaps between them,
Floyd | flowing blue lightning between your fingers, along your skin, down your
Floyd | palm!
Floyd |
Floyd | However, due to Dr. Kurner's plastic prosthetic wrist replacement, it
Floyd | doesn't get much further than that.  Your hand comes away, a little
Floyd | blackened.
Floyd |
Floyd | The airlock door slides open.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "wrist".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your hand is the colour of your wife's baked potatoes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slip through the airlock, into a mangle of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  Where the corridor is most
Floyd | crumpled, one of the panels underfoot is loose, rippling out from the
Floyd | floor.  A large orange robot is whirring back and forth here.  It is
Floyd | Rosalind.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Smooth brown glass in a hexagon.  You've seen the like in your lab -
Floyd | it's a standard electromagnet housing.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot moves to the middle of the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "panels".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | She has not survived the impact, either.  Poor thing - you wonder how
Floyd | long she has been trapped here, whirring forward along the corridor
Floyd | until she can go no further, then back until caught in the pinched
Floyd | walls by the airlock.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot moves on down the corridor, until it hits the fallen roof.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "rescue".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Rosalind is on the panel -- it won't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | Rosalind whirrs slowly across the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The panel is heavy, and one end is stuck in a pinch of metal, but this
Floyd | acts neatly as a hinge.  You prop it with a clang against the wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | Beyond is a dark hole in the flooring.  Who knows how far a drop it
Floyd | might be, how long one might tumble before finally crunching to certain
Floyd | death on the floor?
Floyd |
Floyd | Rosalind's way north is blocked by the close walls.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot swivels round.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot moves to the middle of the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | Rosalind trundles forward and pitches into the hole with an
Floyd | ear-splitting crash.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slam the panel back into place.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >

Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You open the panel again, exposing the dark hole below.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You cross yourself once.  This is it - a long jump - air whipped from
Floyd | your mouth - certain death on a solid flooring, who knows how far down.
Floyd | You can see nothing in there, it is black.  Will they ever find this
Floyd | body?  Who can say?  You close your eyes and leap into the dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | And land, an instant later, in a waist-deep hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a Hole
Floyd |    You are waist-high in a hole in the floor, in the middle of a
Floyd | corridor of mangled metal walls.  It's filled with the mangled rubble
Floyd | of robot parts, all a lurid orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Rosalind is in at least twelve parts, most bright orange, a few black,
Floyd | with wires spilling from several fissures.  The debris is four inches
Floyd | deep.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | Rosalind is in at least twelve parts, most bright orange, a few black,
Floyd | with wires spilling from several fissures.  The debris is four inches
Floyd | deep.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Amongst the orange parts you find the robot's hockey-puck arm, which
Floyd | you take.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's nothing more there, but for her mangled remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You scramble out of the hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "roof".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The wiring is dark and dead, like the hair of a drowned mermaid.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It bleeps red, displaying "PATTERN NOT IN DATABANK".
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch slides open for a brief moment, then slams shut.  You put the
Floyd | arm in once more, and this time, slip through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "archway".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish, lit in the
Floyd | half-glow leaking from this dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatches are about three foot square and flush with the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | Charlotte slips through the northern hatch and moments later exits to
Floyd | the south.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That hatch is sealed to you, and likely to remain so.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is a smart black number of regular height.  It is unmarked,
Floyd | open, and waiting with a depressing certitude.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You made that mistake when you joined AtlantisLab.  You're not doing it
Floyd | again.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "computers".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any computer bank here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner.  However, your
Floyd | gaze is taken by one larger switch, marked with beautiful portent:
Floyd | PERSONAL DETONATION DISPENSEMENT.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That switch should dole out swifter death than cyanide.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >

Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You tug the switch.  It sticks halfway, and a message appears on the
Floyd | screen: DISPENSEMENT SET.  PROCEED VIA PERSONAL SETTING.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "proceed".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is a smart black number of regular height.  It is unmarked,
Floyd | open, and waiting with a depressing certitude.
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | If only mortality were so simple.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "chute".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't see how, and you can't pry it with your fingers either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "cyliner".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's glass, and stretches upwards.  During a funeral, the base seals,
Floyd | it fills with water and coffins are flushed out to be found and buried
Floyd | on land.  You'd seen it before on the designs for this place, but never
Floyd | realised they'd been so heartless as to actually build the thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Much like the others you've seen.  Around the circumference are marked
Floyd | small lines.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "lines".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is west, back to the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Ah, the eco-friendly waste system.  A hatch, with a short tunnel,
Floyd | another hatch, and then the sea.  Waste goes into through one door and
Floyd | is ejected into the water.  Simple, effective, and self-cleaning.  The
Floyd | waste disposal hatch is closed, and there is no immediately obvious
Floyd | control to change that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't understand that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but looking
Floyd | through its panel, you can see a long corridor, leading off into the
Floyd | distance.  This must be the umbilical to the rest of the lab.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is sealed shut.  You can make out the opening mechanism - on
Floyd | this door it's near the top, out of reach for stumpy Dr.  Kurner and
Floyd | probably your old self too.  Set into the centre of the door is a
Floyd | viewing panel.
Floyd |
Floyd | You spot a robot trudging along the curving corridor, disappearing
Floyd | through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can see a long corridor, leading off into the distance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria emerges from the northern hatch and heads south.  With a
Floyd | swish-snap, the southern hatch opens and she lumbers through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That hatch is sealed to you, and likely to remain so.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Paths lead east and west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You made that mistake when you joined AtlantisLab.  You're not doing it
Floyd | again.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't see how, and you can't pry it with your fingers either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner.  The switch for
Floyd | the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The screen is flashing something about
Floyd | setting a PERSONAL.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course, it probably won't be happy with your print.  But you put
Floyd | your palm on the glass anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | The computer heaves and splats.  You barely notice a squat oblong fire
Floyd | out from its base, because of a searing pain that shoots across your
Floyd | palm.  You pull back your hand, to find you have been branded!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your palm contains a brand.  Beneath it is inscribed "Press for
Floyd | detonation."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Pushing your hand doesn't do anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | This game is in a perpetual winnable state.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your finger hovers over the contact.  Eyes to palm, eyes to bomb.  You
Floyd | can't help feeling it's a slightly extreme way to go.  But you press
Floyd | the button anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Undoing one command)
Floyd |
Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your finger hovers over the contact.  Eyes to palm, eyes to bomb.  You
Floyd | can't help feeling it's a slightly extreme way to go.  But you press
Floyd | the button anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but you recall
Floyd | that a long corridor leads off into the distance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your hand is firmly attached to you.
Floyd |
Floyd | A robot enters the corridor to the east and with a twist of her arm,
Floyd | darts through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The brand is a small black button - a tattoo just left of your
Floyd | lifeline.  Beneath it is inscribed "Press for detonation."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That hatch is sealed to you, and likely to remain so.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner, slightly stained
Floyd | with your blood.  The switch for the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The
Floyd | screen is blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course, "black oblong" is a marketing euphemism.  It means
Floyd | "container capable of violent explosive self-destruction" or "Bomb".
Floyd |
Floyd | It's small, black, and judging by the way it slid across the floor,
Floyd | very heavy. There is a single red light on top which blinks
Floyd | intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't seem to do that.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The red light blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's small, but it's heavy, and flat on the flat floor so you can't get
Floyd | your fingers underneath.  (That's not helped, of course, by the fact
Floyd | you can barely bend your left palm thanks to the brand.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's small, but it's heavy, and flat on the flat floor so you can't get
Floyd | your fingers underneath.  (That's not helped, of course, by the fact
Floyd | you can barely bend your left palm thanks to the brand.)
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner, slightly stained
Floyd | with your blood.  The switch for the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The
Floyd | screen is blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You gather once is more than enough.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Pushing the red light doesn't do anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know how to hit the oblong.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is is too heavy.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Pushing the coffin doesn't do anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "drag".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but you recall
Floyd | that a long corridor leads off into the distance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is sealed shut.  You can make out the opening mechanism - on
Floyd | this door it's near the top, out of reach for stumpy Dr.  Kurner and
Floyd | probably your old self too.  Set into the centre of the door is a
Floyd | viewing panel.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Nothing fancy, just a large button that you'd need to jab.  You just
Floyd | can't reach it, that's all.
Floyd |
Floyd | A familiar robot lumbers along the corridor to the east, exiting
Floyd | through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | No, not even if you jump.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Which button do you mean, the brand, or the catch?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a robot arm.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That has no effect.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but you recall
Floyd | that a long corridor leads off into the distance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any recess here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Without something to poke that catch with - a broom handle, or
Floyd | something - there's no way through that airlock.  Hopefully you can
Floyd | find something, though; as that's the way back to the lab.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | The norhern hatch flips open and out pops Kathleen.  She slowly lumbers
Floyd | southward, disappearing through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Much like the others you've seen.  Around the circumference are marked
Floyd | small lines.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The oblong slides a little, but it's hard work, and pointless.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know how to hit the oblong.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't fit.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You gather once is more than enough.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Much like the others you've seen.  Around the circumference are marked
Floyd | small lines.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Please be more specific on how you want to use the recess.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to type?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Which recess do you mean, the dented recess, or the circular recess?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't put your hand in the circular recess.
Floyd |
Floyd | The norhern hatch flips open and out pops Charlotte.  She slowly
Floyd | lumbers southward, disappearing through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any robot hand here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a robot arm.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JACK
Floyd | DOE, JENNY
Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jack's name is currently blinking.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard from which protrudes a broken robot arm and a flat
Floyd | black palm scanner, slightly stained with your blood.  The switch for
Floyd | the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The screen is displaying a list of
Floyd | names.  One - "JACK" - is flashing.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't seem to do that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't seem to do that.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JENNY in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JEREMY in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JOSEPHINE in the list begins
Floyd | to blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JULIA in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JOHN in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | "John Doe."
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JACK
Floyd | DOE, JENNY
Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | John's name is currently blinking.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The arm goes no further in, but it is free to rotate.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  UNEXPECTED ERROR", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JACK in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.
Floyd | You turn and spot Victoria, connected to trolley, trudging along the
Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | As you head for the exit, you freeze as the robot turns and heads your
Floyd | way.
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it.  On the
Floyd | trolley lies Jack Doe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot pushes the trolley over to the coffin, performs an ingenious
Floyd | twist, and the body slides in.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is west, back to the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot flips the coffin shut.  The glass cylinder seals, and in a
Floyd | great spiral of water rather too much like a submarine toilet, the
Floyd | coffin is ejected outwards and upwards.  You can't help noticing its
Floyd | panel was never engraved.  An empty coffin slides into place, by some
Floyd | mechanism too fast for your watery eyes to follow.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria turns tail and leaves the room, pushing its empty trolley
Floyd | before it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Undoing one command)
Floyd |
Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Not now you've seen where it's been.
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria turns tail and leaves the room, pushing its empty trolley
Floyd | before it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The toe tag is firmly attached.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The toe tag is firmly attached.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Which recess do you mean, the dented recess, or the circular recess?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It seems to be a little skew, a little charred, and generally a little
Floyd | broken.  The robots seem to have no trouble opening it though.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There is a dull click.  It seems not to want to work.  There could be a
Floyd | hundred finicky mechanical reasons why.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Kathleen.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slip through the airlock, into a mangle of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The twisted metal isn't important.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The wiring is dark and dead, like the hair of a drowned mermaid.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The wires slip through your hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's dark down there, you can't make anything out.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Charlotte.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It bleeps red, displaying "PATTERN NOT IN DATABANK".
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but you recall
Floyd | that a long corridor leads off into the distance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any recess here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JENNY
Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jenny's name is currently blinking.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.
Floyd | You turn and spot Charlotte, connected to trolley, trudging along the
Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any charlotte here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any trolley here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Charlotte enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it.  On the
Floyd | trolley lies Jenny Doe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Now you look, it's pretty obvious she's dead.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot transfers the body to the coffin.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's too heavy to lift.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot flips the coffin shut, and it is ejected, presumably into the
Floyd | sea above.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Not now you've seen where it's been.
Floyd |
Floyd | Charlotte turns tail and leaves the room, pushing its empty trolley
Floyd | before it.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear a great rumbling under the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any trolley here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jeremy's name is currently blinking.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Ah, the eco-friendly waste system.  A hatch, with a short tunnel,
Floyd | another hatch, and then the sea.  Waste goes into through one door and
Floyd | is ejected into the water.  Simple, effective, and self-cleaning.  The
Floyd | waste disposal hatch is closed, and there is no immediately obvious
Floyd | control to change that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.
Floyd | You turn and spot Victoria, connected to trolley, trudging along the
Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any victoria here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it, on which
Floyd | lies Jeremy and Jeremy's peg-leg.  It is heading for the coffin, but
Floyd | there is a sudden loud grumbling from under the floor and the robot
Floyd | stops dead.  Before you spot the connection between the trolley's
Floyd | position and the waste-disposal hatch, the trolley has been tipped up
Floyd | by a neat shudder of Victoria's lower limbs and Jeremy has slid down in
Floyd | the compartment in the floor.  The coffin remains empty, and appears
Floyd | not to have noticed that's its snack has been thrown away by the
Floyd | waiter.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot motors quietly out of the room westward, leaving the trolley
Floyd | behind, lolling flat on the floor once more.  The waste-disposal hatch
Floyd | slides shut.  Or, well, almost shut.  Jeremy's peg-leg protrudes,
Floyd | obstructing the closing of the cover.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You pull at the hatch, but don't have quite enough strength to move it
Floyd | with your hands.  Jeremy's peg-leg slides a bit toward you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "lever".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You lever open the hatch with the peg-leg, which finally comes free in
Floyd | your hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside, your eyes are met by an appalling sight.  Jeremy is crumpled in
Floyd | the bottom of the compartment, whose lower door is not sealed, but
Floyd | rather filled by a thick green sludge, which oozes between his splayed
Floyd | limbs.
Floyd |
Floyd | And as you look down, the sludge looks up.  You leap back.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You lean back toward the hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a surge of movement from inside the hatch, and then an
Floyd | eruption of cobalt goop as a tentacle surges out.  It feels at the air,
Floyd | back and forth like the foil of a fencer, swiping toward your face.
Floyd | You recoil, stumble, fall back flat upon the trolley.  The suckers,
Floyd | blood-tipped already, follow the sound, soon hovering mere inches from
Floyd | your face.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't talk to that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You swipe at the tentacle feebly with the peg-leg, but that serves only
Floyd | to inch it closer to your skin.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corner of your eye you see water bubbling in through the
Floyd | hatch, the tunnel beneath which is now held open on both ends by the
Floyd | enormous arm of the squid.  This arm sweeps the room, an inch from your
Floyd | nose, unable to find you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You are flat out on the trolley and not moving an inch higher.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "roll".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You try to jerk the trolley to move, but to do so without moving nearer
Floyd | the squid.  The net effect - fear and no motion.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tentacle swoops back a little, like a hawk soaring to survey.  It
Floyd | seems to have lost you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "away".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a flash the tentacle has descended, enfolding and embracing the bomb
Floyd | and dragging it down through the hatch with it.  You breath a sigh of
Floyd | relief as it slides out of sight.
Floyd |
Floyd | But the waste hatch is still open, still broken, and as the tentacle
Floyd | leaves the only obstacle between the room and the sea has left too.  A
Floyd | fountain jets up into the room, catching the trolley as it splashes
Floyd | down.  You start to roll, out of the door westwards.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    You are flat out on the trolley, which is building speed as the
Floyd | crashing water from the computer room powers behind.  You clutch
Floyd | Jeremy's peg-leg for comfort, as though it'll steer you, though you're
Floyd | clearly in the lap of luck now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - EXPLOSIVE OUT OF RANGE!" screams a siren from just above your
Floyd | wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the computer room comes a roar, and you see the trunk of the
Floyd | tentacle erupt once more, heading toward the only moving object it can
Floyd | find - you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The trolley fires further.
Floyd |
Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    The trolley is cannoning westward.  The sealed airlock door
Floyd | approaches like the last view of a crash-test dummy.  You can just spot
Floyd | the opening catch, way out of reach, waiting to be pushed.
Floyd |
Floyd | The squid is hot on your tail, a huntsman with the waves his hounds.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's enormous, and apparently, very angry.  It thinks its next meal is
Floyd | escaping.
Floyd |
Floyd | The trolley smashes headfirst into the airlock door, and the punch of
Floyd | the torrent behind throws the back end upward into the air.  You grip
Floyd | the sides tightly as your pallet swings vertical like a funfair ride.
Floyd | The peg-leg jabs out an awkward angle, smacking heavily somewhere near
Floyd | the top of the door; you feel the reverb along its length.
Floyd |
Floyd | As the trolley splash-lands down once more, you see in confusion the
Floyd | airlock door sliding open.  You have little time to ponder this though,
Floyd | as the swirling water crashes against you in a buffet and you are
Floyd | thrust forward, the squid only inches behind.
Floyd |
Floyd | Long Tunnel
Floyd |    This is a tunnel joining the modules of the lab.  It is long,
Floyd | unmarked, a solid steel umbilical with dim lighting and no windows.
Floyd | And the floor slopes downward.
Floyd |
Floyd | You accelerate.  Sirens wind into life all about the corridor, and far
Floyd | ahead a flood door is beginning to lower.
Floyd |
Floyd | Hmm.  Someone's left a computer hotwired into a wall panel, just lying
Floyd | around in the corridor.  That's no way to access, at a guess, the
Floyd | robot's systems stored in the Mortuary block.
Floyd |
Floyd | You just notice these things, that's all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer feeds a couple of wires twisted round a couple more dug
Floyd | out of a wall panel.  The only thing worth hacking in this area is the
Floyd | robot's computer, so it must be that.  Looks like Taylor's machine,
Floyd | too, judging by the colour.
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind you the tentacle is still coming.  It's almost upon you.  The
Floyd | flood door is now half-way to the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a final surge, you crash toward the flood door, and sweep through
Floyd | just before it rams home.  There is a colossal thud from behind as the
Floyd | squid hammers into it.  But it holds.  The trolley rockets calmly into
Floyd | a wall, and you are thrown painfully, rolling further down the corridor
Floyd | where it bends to the north, head spinning with legs.  It is a while
Floyd | before you take in your surroundings once more.
Floyd |
Floyd | Intersection
Floyd |    You're in the main module, and that means you know your way around
Floyd | with your eyes shut.  With your eyes open you can also comment on the
Floyd | decor; and note that it improves substantially to the east where the
Floyd | General has his office, to the west it probably disimproves (Kurner's
Floyd | hole is over there) and north leads toward the centre of the dome which
Floyd | means one thing - toward the room with your machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | Back south is a long corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "decor".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "wallpaper".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Outside Kurner's Room
Floyd |    The corridor continues around the curve of the base to the
Floyd | northwest, to the rooms of the various scientists.  This one is of
Floyd | interest though, perhaps - it is the door to Kurner's room - chosen by
Floyd | lottery, it is the nearest to all the machinery and so the loudest to
Floyd | be in.
Floyd |
Floyd | The door itself is quite a sight if you like hybridised tech - Kurner
Floyd | being the paranoiac he is has fitted it with a Russian retinal scanner,
Floyd | a thumb-reader and a voice tag detector.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Russian make, banned in most countries due to the degenerative effect
Floyd | of the scanning ray on the eyeball.  It looks like a pair of binoculars
Floyd | built into the doorframe.  Apparently, you look inside and it reads
Floyd | your eyeprint.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door pings happily.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | A flat black postage stamp of plastic.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door chimes happily.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Just a microphone to read in a code-word.  Known to be temperamental
Floyd | most people don't trust these to anything you actually want to be able
Floyd | to get into.  Kurner himself always has problems because he insists on
Floyd | whispering his password.  Eventually he'll just yell "SCARECROW" and
Floyd | pretend it was a curse at the door's failures.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door fleeps happily.  It swings open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The corridor continues northwest and Kurner's room is directly north.
Floyd | The intersection lies east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Ironic, really, that if he'd just had a keyhole you'd never have broken
Floyd | in.
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner's Office
Floyd |    - is also his room, and it's a tip.  A bed in one corner looks
Floyd | utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books.  The desk, facing
Floyd | onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into
Floyd | it but is otherwise empty.  The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up
Floyd | paper and dirty clothing.  A door leads out south, and there's a
Floyd | bathroom annex to the west.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the floor one fragment of paper catches your eye.  It reads: "If
Floyd | you are reading this, then, by Jove, it's all up with you!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There are about a hundred scraps of paper littered around.  You pick
Floyd | one at random to read:
Floyd |
Floyd |    "Read this!  Ha!  Then you who knows my hatred for you, you don't
Floyd | stand a chance!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "fragment".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "If you are reading this, you are quite simply doomed!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "When this note enters your possession, your doom approaches!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "If you are reading this, you are quite simply doomed!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "Read this!  Ha!  Then you don't stand a chance!?!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "My wroth will be as nothing to your finding this note, for then you
Floyd | who knows my hatred for you, you're basically dead!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "If you are reading this, you who knows my hatred for you, you don't
Floyd | stand a chance!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "If you are reading this, little man, death is your only alibi!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "My wroth will be as nothing to your finding this note, for then
Floyd | your doom approaches!!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's covered in forty-odd books (and a spaceman pattern).
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Dr. Kurner's Office
Floyd |    - is also his room, and it's a tip.  A bed in one corner looks
Floyd | utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books.  The desk, facing
Floyd | onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into
Floyd | it but is otherwise empty.  The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up
Floyd | paper and dirty clothing.  A door leads out south, and there's a
Floyd | bathroom annex to the west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The morass of paper continues that way.  Perhaps in the darkness it is
Floyd | growing more slowly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "beds".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "When finally your eyes skim the letters I have wrote, your doom
Floyd | approaches!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | "Type password:"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | When typing or writing, you need to surround the target word in quotes;
Floyd | ie, type "scarecrow".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | 80% are "Physics for Beginners", 18% are "Biochemistry for Beginners"
Floyd | and 1 book is a biography of Judy Garland.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a biography of Judy Garland.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | No, don't.  You really don't want to know what Kurner's hidden behind
Floyd | that appalling dust-jacket.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The desk is cleared but for the computer, the screen and keyboard built
Floyd | into the surface.  There is also a drawer, with a small metal lock.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You'll have to tell me how to do that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any arm here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Standard.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | When typing or writing, you need to surround the target word in quotes;
Floyd | ie, type "oz".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You hunt around, hoping to find a drawer key.  But it's likely to be
Floyd | small, and, well, you don't find it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "carpet".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You hunt some more - no success.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Dr. Kurner's Office
Floyd |    - is also his room, and it's a tip.  A bed in one corner looks
Floyd | utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books.  The desk, facing
Floyd | onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into
Floyd | it but is otherwise empty.  The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up
Floyd | paper and dirty clothing.  A door leads out south, and there's a
Floyd | bathroom annex to the west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish.
Floyd |
Floyd | >