text: [Themes: Science Fiction, Evil protagonist, technology, aliens, nonhuman protagonist]
  
  You pass the sentry watching the doorway to the Yi control room, hardly aware of his presence, and step inside, stopping before the owner of the familiar, frowning face just inside. Your escorts come to a halt behind you.
  
  "Tolan," the tall, wiry woman says to you.
  
  You steel yourself for the need to speak. "Cheryl," you reply. "Dig Leader Cheryl Thadafel. I knew you would have need of the greatest Mechanist in the galaxy. Again." The longest speech ever to cross these lips?
  
  "Tolan, this is going to be on my terms, or not at all."
  
  You turn your empty hands face-up. "Cheryl, this is important to me. It is the Yi-Lono-Mordel. Whatever the restrictions, I cannot miss this opportunity."
  
  "Especially if the restrictions required you be kept away from it. Enough. I don't have much else to work with here, do I?" As she dismisses the guards, you sweep your eyes about the room.
  
  Again.
  
  This time you will pull it off--regardless of Cheryl's desires.
  
  Copyright 2001, Sean Barrett
  
  Most humans would probably find it the height of fashion, but this low ellipsoidal room makes you uncomfortable with its perfect symmetry and sterility. The featureless white wall is broken up only by the large elliptical window in the ceiling and the circular doorway through which you entered. A cluster of forms sits in the center, atop the slightly concave floor.
  
  Cheryl Thadafel stands here, watching you closely.
  
  [Type "ABOUT" for special information about interacting with THE WEAPON.]
  
  > examine the room
  The room is about fifteen meters long, eight meters wide, and three meters tall, in the traditional Yi ratio 4:2:1, with the vertical compromised to only 2/3 its height before the somewhat flat floor intrudes.
  
  Cheryl says, "This is our chance to make a difference, Tolan. But only if we do it according to my rules. You're going to see what sort of information you can get displayed. As soon as you bring some Yi text up, you stop. You don't touch anything until I say it's ok to continue. Got it?"
  
  > Yes
  Just use TALK or REPLY to engage in idle chitchat; for non-conversational communication, see the information in ABOUT.
  
  > Reply
  You reply, "Of course. I will do it your way rather than not at all."
  
  Cheryl says, "I'd be more glad to hear that if I actually trusted you, Tolan."
  
  > About yourself
  You glance down at your body, taking care not to let the loathing show on your face, but there is really nothing worth noticing. Unless you count these idiotic handcuffs.
  
  Cheryl says, "As you asked, the guards will keep their distance so they won't disturb your concentration. It'll just be you and me. And, since I'm no mechanist, I've got this--just so I can keep tabs on you." She shows you a holographic reproduction of this room, hovering over a black base. "There are sensors for movement, electromagnetic radiation, and I don't know what else, all analyzing this room. This little display lets me monitor the activity everywhere in the room so I can see what you're up to. So don't think you'll get away with anything."
  
  > look at the handcuffs
  Military grade handcuffs--oblong, blocky, but perfectly functional. You have seen them often enough in your lifetime--almost always in similar circumstances, sadly. They are securely fastened around your wrists, although since they are locked in front of you they should not interfere too much with your work.
  
  > look under the handcuffs
  The pale flesh of human wrists.
  
  > eat the handcuffs
  They're plainly inedible.
  
  > unlock the handcuffs
  (with the handcuffs)
  Those don't seem to fit the lock.
  
  > look at the floor
  (the floor)
  The floor is such a gentle concave slope, with its lowest point at the center under the various forms, that you cannot tell whether it is elliptical, spherical, parabolic, hyperbolic, or something higher-order.
  
  > look at the wall
  (the room)
  The room is about fifteen meters long, eight meters wide, and three meters tall, in the traditional Yi ratio 4:2:1, with the vertical compromised to only 2/3 its height before the floor intrudes.
  
  Cheryl sighs. "Tolan, do you have any idea how important it is we figure this place out, once and for all?"
  
  > examine the window
  Looking out the window you can only get the faintest sense of the magnitude of Yi-Lono-Mordel. The sun you now orbit is on the opposite side from this window, although you can see one star, very close. The other asteroids are in the same orbit, so they'd never appear above you--and they would surely be too distant to be visible even if the window did face them.
  
  Cheryl says, "The problem is with the Lono, as you might guess."
  
  > Reply
  You say, "Are not the Lono long gone? Or is there a Terran Alliance secret?"
  
  > look at Cheryl
  Dig Leader Cheryl Thadafel is a tall, wiry woman in her forties, perhaps late thirties. You spent the last three months looking forward to seeing her again, but now that you do, you wonder why you found her pug nose and staring eyes attractive in your memories. Perhaps it was just that you had little else to think about. Cheryl is carrying a monitor hologram, a laser pistol, and a key.
  
  Cheryl replies, "Gone, but not forgotten. We didn't lie about anything, though. After the battle at Calder's Star, every last one of their ships retreated through the wormhole back to their galaxy."
  
  > look at the forms
  The forms consist of a raised slab (in the same proportions as the ellipsoidal room, but a rectangular parallelepiped instead) and two gleaming swept curves (one on each side of the slab).
  
  "But," Cheryl continues, "They swore an oath. Apparently the same one they swore against the Yi, millennia ago. They're going to be back, Tolan, back with a vengeance. Soon. So before they show up, I'm going to have found a way to put an end to it--and that's why you're here."
  
  > examine cheryl's key
  Given that one of the guards who brought you up here gave the key to Cheryl, this elliptical disk of grey metal is almost certainly the key for a certain particularly annoying pair of handcuffs.
  
  Cheryl says, "You probably never realized it, Tolan, but the Yi had a somewhat high opinion of themselves. The word Yi isn't just their name--it means 'the end' or 'the ultimate'. The 'Yi-Lono-Mordel' isn't 'the Yi's Lono weapon'; it's 'the final Lono weapon'. They were planning to win their war with it."
  
  > examine hologram
  A flickering three-dimensional image in the shape of the control room hovers over a plain black base, itself a rectangular parallelepiped.
  
  ("Rectangular parallelepiped"! How can any sane creature stand to use a language with no proper word for the simplest form with parallel sides? It's a wonder humanity made it off Terra.)
  
  Cheryl says, "So I guess I'll finally make it into the history books by doing it for them."
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a pair of handcuffs (being worn)
  
  > examine pistol
  Apparently standard issue to military officers, given the frequency with which you have been on the wrong end of them, the shiny chrome and spiky protrustions leave no question as to the purpose of this device. At least the Yi tend to be subtle about it.
  
  > jump
  You jump on the spot, fruitlessly.
  
  Cheryl says, "That's a bit of Mechanism I've never seen before."