text: > Look around
  The observatory is astonishing. It's not the desk, or the computer, or the other laboratory accoutrements that make it so, but rather the staggeringly complex mass of ornate machinery that smothers every wall. Tubes, readouts, and gleaming metal plates swarm together in a lunatic collage, every lever and dial shouting your parents' design influence as surely as if they had autographed their work. You've known these sights all your life, but their presence here is a shock -- clearly, Mom and Dad were collaborating far more closely with Dr. Andrews than they ever revealed. The newly opened entranceway leads back north, and a doorway leads east to the telescope dome.
  
  Emily leans against the wall here.
  
  The patterns of light flicker hypnotically in front of the dome doorway.
  
  > ask Emily about the password
  "A good question. A very good question. Okay, I actually have no idea what you mean."
  
  > ask Emily about the headset
  "Looks like one of Mom and Dad's gadgets to me. Not that I have a clue what purpose it might serve. Still, might be good to have along."
  
  > examine the lever
  Sometimes, growing up, you suspected that Mom and Dad's designs were deliberately ornate, exposing their complexity in order to impress or intimidate. As you've gotten older, though, and learned more from them, you've realized that the reason the complexity isn't covered is because neither one of them wants to waste time on making things pretty.
  
  > look through the curtain
  There is only the doorway beyond.
  
  > look at doorway
  The doorway seems to twist and flash behind the translucent light patterns.
  
  > touch the doorway
  Not after last time.
  
  > Fog curtain
  "You got it," says Emily, and stares intently at the curtain of light. Nothing happens at all, and her face scrunches in frustration. "It's not working," she says.
  
  > Blast curtain
  Emily nods, and extends her hand towards the curtain of light. Nothing happens. "Well, that's a gyp," she says.
  
  > say open the sesame
  (to Emily)
  There is no reply.
  
  > Go east
  You take a decisive step towards the curtain of light, and Emily catches your arm. "Austin, wait!" You turn to face her.
  
  "We don't know what will happen when you try to cross that curtain," she says. "I think we should stop and think a moment before we do it. Do you think we should really take the risk?"
  
  Please select a reply:
  
  1) "I think we have to, Em. I think this curtain has everything to do with Mom and Dad's disappearance."
  2) "You're right. Let's back off for now and I'll consider what else we can do here."
  
  > 2
  Select an option or 0 to say nothing >> 2
  
  "Fair enough."
  
  > throw Emily
  Emily is already here.
  
  > go to the east
  You take a decisive step towards the curtain of light, and Emily catches your arm. "Here we go again," she says. "Look, let's talk about this instead of you just charging off. Do you really think it's worth the risk to cross this curtain?"
  
  Please select a reply:
  
  1) "I think we have to, Em. I think this curtain has everything to do with Mom and Dad's disappearance."
  2) "You're right. Let's back off for now and I'll consider what else we can do here."
  
  > 1
  Select an option or 0 to say nothing >> 1
  
  "I guess you're right," she says, "but shouldn't we make a team decision about it? We have no idea what it does, or if it even does anything. Austin, what if it's broken, or a trap, or something? It could kill us to go through there!"
  
  Please select a reply:
  
  1) "And what are the alternatives? Call the police, or the Army or something, and have them charge through there? If Mom and Dad have been kidnapped, we could be putting them in greater danger by doing that. And they did say not to involve the authorities unless absolutely necessary. No, I'm going to try it."
  2) "My god, that's true. You're right. I need to take a little more time to think this over."
  
  > 1
  Select an option or 0 to say nothing >> 1
  
  "Okay, I accept all that," says Emily. "Still, if it is dangerous, should I go through with you, or stay here in case you don't come back?"
  
  Please select a reply:
  
  1) "I can't make that decision for you, Em. But if you're asking my opinion, I think we should go through together. It might take all the power both of us can muster to face whatever's across that barrier." 2) "I can't make that decision for you, Em. If it were my call, I'd say you should stay here. No sense both of us taking such a huge risk, and maybe if I don't come back, you can go ahead and get the Army or whatever, and send the cavalry my way."
  3) "I can't make that decision for you, Em. I see pros and cons either way. But I'm walking through that curtain, and whether or not you follow me is up to you."
  
  > 3
  Select an option or 0 to say nothing >> 3
  
  Emily sets her jaw. "Then I'm coming with you. We may need all the power that both of us possess to face whatever's on the other side of that curtain."
  
  "Watch," you say. "We'll walk right through and nothing will happen at all."
  
  "That would be great," she replies grimly, "but somehow I doubt it." She grabs your hand, and the two of you step into the light together.
  
  Episode 2:
  ANOTHER EARTH, ANOTHER SKY
  
  "How soft this Prison is
  How sweet these sullen bars
  No Despot but the King of Down
  Invented this repose"
  
  . . .
  
  . . .
  
  Sleepily, you open your eyes. What's that pinkish glow? Sunrise? Did you leave the bedroom window open? Wait, this isn't your bedroom. Where...?
  
  Wait -- the curtain! You stepped through with Emily, and that's the last thing you remember before awakening on this... floor. And Emily -- she's gone!
  
  You find yourself in a small, square room, perhaps eight feet on a side. The ceiling is high, maybe fifteen feet above your head, but what's even stranger is that it and all the walls are glowing with a bright pink energy field.
  
  You can see a cabin key here.
  
  > get the key
  Taken.
  
  > examine the field
  A bright pink field of energy glows from the walls and ceiling, radiating about six inches from them. It hurts your eyes to look at the field too long, but it's also sort of hard not to.
  
  > touch the field
  The energy yields momentarily to your touch, then repels your fingers as gently as you applied them.
  
  > hit the field
  Picking a wall at random, you aim a punch at the energy field. The field slows your fist, stops it, and then propels it back outward with kinetic force equal to that of your blow. You never penetrated the field more than an inch or two.
  
  > hit the floor
  THOOM! You bring your mighty foot down on the polymer floor, causing a minor tremor. The floor seems completely unaffected.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a cabin key
  a headset (being worn)
  a legal pad
  a notepad
  some loose papers
  an earthsuit (being worn)
  
  > Shout
  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
  
  > jump
  You crouch, then launch yourself at the ceiling. As you expected, the energy field absorbs your momentum, then propels you back downward with equal force. You hurtle towards the floor, hitting it with a tremendous CRRUNCH! Beneath your feet, a spiderwebbed network of hairline cracks radiates from the point of impact.
  
  > Continue
  Once again, you leap upwards, bouncing off the ceiling's energy field to smack into the floor with a resounding CRRUNCH! The cracks have grown larger, and light filters through some of them.
  
  > continue
  Bracing yourself for a final assault on the weakening floor, you vault upward, then plummet down again. This time, when your feet slam into the polymer, there is a deafening KA-THUNKK! as the floor splits, and you find yourself falling.
  
  And falling. Air buffets your face and whistles past your ears, as you try to take in the situation. You appear to be falling to Earth, from a great height, as if you had just jumped out of a plane, sans parachute. The ground below you, though... there's something strange about it. You can see its curvature, as if you were much farther away from the planet than you seem to be. Or as if the planet itself had shrunk.
  
  As the ground comes closer, you can see that the planet itself seems demarcated into clearly defined zones -- a bluish-white Arctic, a sandy desert, a blue-green ocean, and others -- all tidily encased in separate regions of the globe. Even stranger, you're catching glimpses of a huge metal cylinder that rises up from the ground and far into the sky above you. This isn't Earth you're falling towards. Either that, or Earth has changed a lot since the last time you were above it. Gravity feels about the same, though -- the ground is still rushing towards you at alarming speed. Actually, you're rushing towards it. Funny, how many thoughts can pass through your brain in a situation like this. The suit is supposed to make you invulnerable to impact, but will it really protect you from this kind of fall? Guess you're about to find--
  
  W  H  A  M  M  O  !
  
  Episode 2:
  ANOTHER EARTH, ANOTHER SKY
  
  "I saw no Way -- The Heavens were stitched --
  I felt the Columns close --
  The Earth reversed her Hemispheres --
  I touched the Universe --"
  
  Arctic (in the ice hole)
  You remember the ground, blinding white, reaching up to clobber you. Then blackness. Then cold. Serious cold. As you gather your senses back to you, several things become clear. One, you're not dead -- in fact, not even hurt, though a little dazed. Two, you've landed in a cold place. And three, your landing has created a deep pit with icy walls, and you're at the bottom of it.
  
  > Up
  You spring upwards and fly out of the hole more quickly than you expected. Landing softly in the snow, you estimate that gravity must be around 0.8G on this planetoid.
  
  Icy monoliths, ridged with frozen rivulets, rise up around you. Your suit's insulation feels distressingly meager in the freezing, stinging wind, and the light glistens white as the snow reflects the distant sun. For all you know, you're at the pole of this little world, so compass directions don't mean much, but you invent some just to keep your bearings. The faraway blue-green smudge is north, the faraway tan smudge south. Your views east and west are blocked by huge, rugged breccia hills.
  
  A deep crater is here, which is what happens when an immovable object like this glacier meets an irresistible force like a plummeting superhero.
  
  Beside the crater, a long metal tube reaches into the sky. The bottom of the tube has been entirely dislodged from its base, no doubt wrecked by your recent impact.
  
  That impact also appears to have exposed some sort of access panel.
  
  > examine tube
  A metal cylinder, wide enough that you could comfortably fit inside it -- if you could figure out how to enter it, that is. As your eyes follow it upward, you can see that it terminates alongside a glowing, pink hole in the sky. Its other end, at your feet, has been wrenched free from the ground, exposing a base rife with wrecked machinery.
  
  > look at the access panel
  The panel is set directly into the ground. It's acquired a light dusting of snow, leading you to conclude that your cataclysmic entrance probably removed the panel's cover. Its only control is a square touchplate, colored indigo and emblazoned with an upwards-pointing triangle.
  
  > examine the base
  The base of the tube contains a great deal of intricate machinery, some of it obviously crushed or torn by its forced separation from the tube proper.
  
  In the distance, you can see a rookery of penguins waddling blissfully around the ice. Or, wait. Are they penguins? They appear to be throwing snowballs at each other. Penguins can't throw, can they? Taking a closer look, you fancy that their heads are larger than those of normal penguins, and that you can make out gripping fingers at the edge of their wings.