text: [Themes: Science Fiction, post-apocalyptic]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  Some things never change over the ages. This looks like a room for rest and sleeping - there's a polymer mattress on the floor, moulded as a single unit and still intact. The walls are covered with colourful images, presumably icons from Ancient culture; there's years of work here for a psycholinguistic team alone. Doorways lead northeast and northwest.
  
  Sprawled out on the mattress is a lone Ancient skeleton.
  
  > look at the skeleton
  The skeleton is moderately sized, but smaller than recent digs and salvaged files indicate was normal for an Ancient adult; this was almost certainly a young female. She lies on the bed crouched in a fetal position, her arms twisted as if shielding her face from intense pain. There is no obvious evidence of external injury, but the odd displacement of joints in the upper and lower limbs, along with deep cracking of the bone structure, suggests violent muscular spasms as she died. In her right hand, the woman clutches a small object; possibly some kind of electronic device, with leads running from the box in her hand to a headset draped across her skull.
  
  > Go northeast
  You're in what seems to be the central space of the dwelling, a wide living area that still retains the awe and innocence of the Ancient age. The room is now mainly bare, apart from shreds of mouldered textile on the decayed timber floor, and a sculptured chair poised opposite a two-metre black cube. There is a door to the east (open), and hallways leading west and southwest.
  
  > Go east
  This domed construction is fairly small compared to the building proper, and open to the air at the southwest. Given today's scholarly confusion about many Ancient living habits, it could serve any number of functions. But the giveaway is the vehicle stationed in the middle of the floor. An interior door, currently open, leads west to to the living area.
  
  The vehicle, a primitive skycar, rests under the centre of the dome.
  
  > Go southeast
  You can only go east or southwest.
  
  > go to the south-west
  This is a soothing, white-walled chamber with soft rounded surfaces, much like being inside an egg. From your knowledge of Ancient social mores, it's likely to be a personal cleansing area. There is a blue lens embedded in the western wall, with a placard above it. Round curtained apartures lead northeast and southeast.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You have a set of holograms, a clump of glowgrass, a magprobe, a printout, a white vat, and a green disk.
  
  > go inside
  You step into the vehicle.
  
  Skycar, in vehicle dome
  The interior of the skycar is fairly cramped compared to a modern altiwing or dropship. There's a control console directly in front of you, and a viewshield through which you can see the vehicle dome. The exit hatch to your side is open; in the rear of the car is an access panel (currently open).
  
  > examine the panel
  The access panel is open. In the access panel you see a power cell, a corroded metal coil, and a triangular hole.
  
  > look at the coil
  It's a thin coil of some heavily corroded metal, about ten centimetres long and three across.
  
  > put tap in the hole
  You hold the vat over the access panel and rest the tap inside the triangular hole. It fits neatly.
  
  > look at the power cell
  The solid state power cell, easily the most distinctive Ancient artifact of all, is a rectangular solid block around thirty centimetres tall and half as wide and deep. It's silver in colour, completely featureless apart from the logo "Energiser (tm)" and a hexagonal socket.
  
  > open tap
  You open the tap, sending liquid trickling into the triangular hole. After a few minutes, the vat is empty.
  
  > look at socket
  The socket is hexagonal, about two centimetres across. It's probably designed to take some kind of cable.
  
  > Inventory
  You have a set of holograms, a clump of glowgrass, a magprobe, a printout, a white vat, a green disk, and a power cell.
  
  > Go west
  Unless you can fly this thing, you can only go out through the exit hatch.
  
  > exit
  (first taking the white vat's tap out of the triangular hole)
  You step out into the vehicle dome.
  
  This domed construction is fairly small compared to the building proper, and open to the air at the southwest. Given today's scholarly confusion about many Ancient living habits, it could serve any number of functions. But the giveaway is the vehicle stationed in the middle of the floor. An interior door, currently open, leads west to to the living area.
  
  The vehicle, a primitive skycar, rests under the centre of the dome.
  
  > put the cell in the socket
  Which socket do you mean, the power cell's socket, or the cube's socket?
  
  > attach the cell to cube
  [TADS-1026: wrong number of arguments to user function "<NO SYMBOL TABLE>.<NO SYMBOL TABLE>"]
  
  > look at surfaces
  The metal surfaces could have been used for storage, or perhaps manipulation, of food products. Most of them are open and empty, their contents gone. But one small vertical panel seems worth more investigation.
  
  > look in
  (the storage cupboard)
  In the storage cupboard you see a black cable and a white box.
  
  > examine the cable
  The cable is about two metres long, with hexagonal connectors at each ends. From your knowledge of Ancient technology, it seems likely to be some kind of data or energy transfer device.
  
  > Examine box
  It's a small box made from some decay-resistant pressed fibre, possibly spun carbon or silicon. A label reads "Surefire palladium ignitor coils, contents 6". The white box is closed.
  
  > check your inventory
  You have a set of holograms, a clump of glowgrass, a magprobe, a printout, a white vat, a green disk, a power cell, a white box, and a black cable.
  
  > connect the cable to the cell
  The black cable plugs neatly into the power cell's socket. The other end of the cable remains free.
  
  > connect the cable to the cube
  (first dropping the cable)
  (also dropping the power cell)
  The black cable plugs neatly into the cube's socket, linking the black cube to the power cell.
  
  > sit on the sculpture
  Okay, you're now sitting on the sculptured chair. The polymer loops sway beneath you, distributing your mass until you feel nearly weightless. The black cube is now directly centred in your field of vision.
  
  The flicker of light and sound suddenly takes form, merging into an experience that swells through your mind.
  
  Rainforest, in the sculptured chair
  Towering forest giants climb towards the green canopy that shades most of the sky. A soft trickle of mist falls on your face, as birds whistle and laughing monkeys scramble through the branches.
  
  > look at the forest
  The rainforest scene makes you feel calm and tranquil.
  
  > examine the monkeys
  The rainforest scene makes you feel calm and tranquil.
  
  The scene suddenly changes.