text: > look around
  This is career-making stuff. A period survival shelter, fully intact and operational. The ceiling and walls form a single-piece dome, which, you recall, increased the structural stability with the building materials they had available. The eastern end, nearest the exit, seems to be some kind of living area, with a table and several chairs. Past it, you can see four bunked beds. At the far end of the shelter is a curtained area, holding the minimal sanitation facilities.
  The smashed and broken pieces of some electronic device are scattered around the room.
  
  A small metal box is mounted on one wall.
  
  On the table are an electronic device and a portable computer.
  Two corpses lay on opposite cots.
  
  > examine electronic device
  You can't quite determine the function of this device; you've never seen anything like it before. Its major component is a short barrel, which contains a low-powered laser.
  
  > browse
  Press the number of your selection, 1-1, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  1     Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  
  > 1
  Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  Possibly the darkest period in recent history, this period contains the last and largest of the intercontinental wars. Several Middle Eastern nations formed a military alliance, and began imposing expansionist policies on neighboring countries. When the United States threatened to cut off trade relations with these countries, the formed a lucrative trade alliance with China. Because during this period, industrialized nations were still highly dependent on fossil fuel, an alliance of western nations declared war on China and the Arabic alliance. Tactical nuclear warheads were used by both sides, resulting in the near-total annihilation of many US-sympathetic countries in southeast Asia. Though US nuclear weapons were unable to breach Chinese countermeasures, several Chinese nuclear missiles did penetrate the US defensive system, obliterating a number of cities. The war was finally ended when the massive space station Kennedy crashed to Earth near the Chinese capital. The resulting explosion killed over two billion people, forcing the Chinese government to capitulate. However, widespread environmental and war damage left the entire world badly crippled. Reconstruction would take much of the next century, and the extensive costs of rebuilding the damaged world forced the beginning of governmental alliances that would eventually lead to a United Earth Government.
  
  Your mission occurs during the opening of the nuclear phase of the war. At 785278.83 UDC, a missile launched from China will exploit the breach in the US missile shield. Nine hours later, its course will be diverted away from Washington, DC to avoid US countermeasures. It will narrowly miss a secondary target, several miles from your Dive site, at 865741.8 UDC.
  
  Source: Zanxq's Brief Guide to Human Civilizations, vol. 72
  
  SEE ALSO: Space Station Kennedy
  
  BROWSE
  Press the number of your selection, 1-2, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  1     Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  2     Space Station Kennedy
  
  > examine Computer
  This is a very small single-piece computer system, apparently a stock model.
  
  > Interface with it
  Attempting to interface...
  Interface failed.
  
  > examine the Console
  Your StreamDive console is a small display device designed to provide you with relevant information about the current dive, and allow access to key StreamDive facilities [Footnote 1]. These facilities are made available by adding chips to its five-slot chiprack. The chiprack currently contains five chips.
  
  > search the chiprack
  In the StreamDive console are five chips (a library chip, a cryptography chip, a blank chip, an interface chip and a shield chip).
  
  > open it
  You open the metal box, revealing a red pill and a red pill.
  
  > eat the pill
  (first taking the red pill)
  That seems like an exceptionally bad idea. Are you sure you want to?
  
  > Yes
  You feel nothing unexpected.
  
  For that matter, you feel nothing at all.
  
  Ever.
  
  > turn on the Computer
  You switch the computer on. After performing its internal diagnostics, it presents you with a prompt:
  
  Password?
  
  > Interface computer
  Attempting to interface...
  Interface established.
  Examining device...
  Selecting protocol...
  Compatible protocol found.
  Device: Personal Computer. Manufacturer: JTX.
  
  Searching for relevant data...
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  2     Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  3     Data Snapshot
  
  > 1
  Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  4:45 pm
  
  We were supposed to do it together. That was the plan.
  
  We thought it through, talked about it over and over.
  
  Nothing else made any sense. The safety broke down. The door isn't going to open for thirty years. We can't just stay down here for thirty years. And what about her? We can't take care of that on our own.
  
  Still, we might have tried. We might have been able to work something out. But we haven't heard anything upstairs for days. Not that you can hear much, but sometimes there's a little banging in the pipes.
  
  That damned radio. My hand's all cut up from smashing it to bits. There's going to be an air strike. They don't know where yet, but there isn't any way to stop it. We're less than a hundred miles from the biggest military base in three states. Even if we survive, no one's going to find us. No one's going to save us.
  
  So we decided. I unlocked the box. I took out two pills...
  
  This is all my fault. If I hadn't been so damned paranoid, we wouldn't even be down here. It's my fault that Donna's dead. It's my fault that I'm going to be dead.
  
  We were going to do it together. We laid down on the bed, next to each other, and she hugged me, and she told me she didn't blame me, and then we were going to bite down at the same time and it would all be over.
  
  I'm such a fucking coward.
  
  I don't think she felt anything. I hope she didn't know what a coward I am. She closed her eyes, and I closed mine, and then she just sort of shook once, and it was over. And I got up, and I laid her out flat and crossed her arms over her chest.
  
  What the fuck is wrong with me? I don't want to live. I never cared if I lived or died since the accident six years ago, and I sure as hell don't want to live down here for the next thirty years, especially now that Donna's gone. I tried to kill myself once before. All I have to do is bite down.
  
  So why won't my hands stop shaking? I'm going to do it now. For real this time.
  
  I'm not getting back into the same bed with Donna. I don't deserve that.
  
  I hope my parents will forgive me. I hope Jim will forgive me. Most of all, though, I hope Donna will forgive me.
  
  Goodbye.
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  2     Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  3     Data Snapshot
  
  > 2
  Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  Julia Wallace
  Current Events
  April 25
  
  This morning, at 7:42 AM, Congress ratified a declaration of war against an alliance of countries in the Middle East. The official reasons for this declaration were the unlawful occupation of Israel by allied Arabic forces. Nonetheless, several articles in the Global Register suppose that recent military action was motivated by trade restrictions imposed by the Arabic Alliance against Europe and the United States. These restrictions have severely limited the availability of gasoline in the US. According to the April 20 issue of the National Chronicle, the Arabic states have formed an exclusive trade pact with China. The Brandenberg News Network has run several stories saying that Chinese weapons were used in the invasion of Israel, and editorials in several newspapers claim that if the war escalates, China will enter the war on the side of the Arabic Alliance. An article in the Times says that the Chinese newspapers have already printed articles calling for war unless the US backs out of affairs in the Middle East.
  
  Sources attached.
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  2     Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  3     Data Snapshot
  
  > Yes
  Analyzing...
  Format not recognized.
  Attempting to download...
  Download failed: Insufficient space.
  Blank StreamDive chip detected in console. Do you wish to download to it?
  Download successful.
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  2     Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  3     Data Snapshot
  
  > examine blank
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Recent Document 1: untitled text document
  2     Recent Document 2: Current events HW 4/25
  3     Data Snapshot
  
  > examine blank
  The once-blank chip is filled to capacity by a data image downloaded from the portable computer.
  
  > analyze blank
  Analyzing...
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Results: Coded text using unknown cipher (This text cannot be decoded at this time)
  Note: Unbreakable ciphers (eg. Ciphers using One Time Pad or RUR nanocode encoding) cannot be decoded until matching key has been analyzed. Unknown ciphers may be decoded after more encrypted text has been analyzed.
  Somewhere, probably a few kilometers away, there is an explosion. The house rocks, and you have a hard time keeping your footing.
  
  You hear a great crash below.
  
  > Analyze diary
  Analyzing...
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Results: Coded text using One Time Pad. 36 character alphabet. (This text cannot be decoded at this time)
  Note: Unbreakable ciphers (eg. Ciphers using One Time Pad or RUR nanocode encoding) cannot be decoded until matching key has been analyzed. Unknown ciphers may be decoded after more encrypted text has been analyzed.
  
  > decode blank
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Decode failed: No decodable text found (This may not be a cipher)
  
  > Go east
  The doorway is blocked by toppled boxes.