text: [Themes: Science Fiction, humor, nonhuman protagonist, science fiction]
  
  > Go downward
  You orient yourself from orbit, fire your engines, and settle to the planet's surface on your thrusters.
  
  The sky is pretty and blue, and the foliage is shiny and green, where it isn't orange and burning. (Oops.)
  
  The spiky silicate life form slashes the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  The spiky silicate life form claws the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  Belching loudly, a human vehicle thunders up to you. You are halfway through composing a suitably perky-yet-reverent greeting for your creators when the humans activate an AI suppression field. An electronic prison clamps down, rendering even the most routine of subroutines inaccessible.
  
  > wait a while
  Time passes.
  
  The spiky silicate life form screams at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  The humans open up your cargo bay, consequently releasing the silicate life form, which makes short and messy work of its saviors on its way to devour their vehicle. The silicate life form perishes immediately afterward, but it does your mechanical heart good to see that rudeness does not go unpunished.
  
  Sadly, as a result of this minor incident, someone calls in an orbital defense strike, transforming you into spectacular fireworks.
  500 colonists and 30 crew members die along with you.
  .
  
  > Clubfloyd X
  The colony ship Clubfloyd X... it's got a certain ring. But
  does it have the right ring?
  
  > go inside
  You orient on the Sol system, fire up the low FTL drive (after running a quick diagnostic - you wouldn't want to do anything unsafe, after all!), and head away from asteroid.
  
  Your memory banks inform you that the class M1 red dwarf here is Kapteyn's Star. Sparkling asteroids ring the star, producing a pretty halo effect.
  
  You are approximately 13 light years from the Sol system. You can go down toward Kapteyn's Star, in toward Sol, or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  > Enter
  You adjust your heading and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  There's a little red dwarf star here, which your memory banks identify as YZ Ceti in the constellation Cetus. It has two tiny planets, one inconveniently close to the star and the other acceptably distanced.
  
  You are approximately 12 light years from the Sol system. You can go down toward YZ Ceti, in toward Sol, or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  YZ Ceti flares! For a few minutes, the star puts out a spectacular burst of radiation - everything across the spectrum, from X rays to radio waves - before subsiding to previous levels.
  
  Your memory banks advise you that this phenomenon is an offshoot of magnetic reconnection. Your logic circuits advise you that people on Earth might find it useful to have a recording from this close of a vantage. You could help out!
  
  > examine the projections
  Long, thin fibers cropped brokenly off in places.
  
  A spiky silicate life form meanders into view.
  
  A subroutine linked to the cryosystems notifies you that you have 466 frozen colonists in cryosleep at this time.
  
  > get the life form
  You dispatch a servobot, and after a brief but impressive struggle, you install the spiky silicate life form in your cargo bays. A quantity of drifting yellow mist comes with it.
  
  The spiky silicate life form stabs at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine advises you that the cargo bay integrity has been breached. Another subroutine advises you that the hallway beyond the cargo bay has been breached.
  
  These two things are probably connected.
  
  > get the life form
  You dispatch a servobot, and after a brief but impressive struggle, you install the spiky silicate life form in your cargo bays. A quantity of drifting yellow mist comes with it.
  
  The spiky silicate life form stabs at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > Go upwards
  You power up your thrusters (burning an interesting radioactive pattern into the surface beneath you) and then blast off the planet's surface.
  
  YZ Ceti B is the second planet out from YZ Ceti, an excellent vantage from which to observe the pretty star without frying all of your circuits irreparably.
  
  The spiky silicate life form screams at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > Go inside
  You orient on the Sol system, fire up the low FTL drive, and head away from planet.
  
  There's a little red dwarf star here, which your memory banks identify as YZ Ceti in the constellation Cetus. It has two tiny planets, one inconveniently close to the star and the other acceptably distanced.
  
  You are approximately 12 light years from the Sol system. You can go down toward YZ Ceti, in toward Sol, or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form slashes the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  A subroutine linked to the cryosystems notifies you that you have 25 frozen crew members in cryosleep at this time.
  
  > Go inside
  You activate the low FTL drive and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  Interstellar space shoots past with a pretty purple glow, the side effect of your low FTL drive.
  
  You are approximately 10 light years from the Sol system. You can go in toward Sol or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form claws the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > Go inside
  You adjust your heading and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  Interstellar space shoots past with a pretty purple glow, the side effect of your low FTL drive.
  
  You are approximately 8 light years from the Sol system. You can go in toward Sol or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form stabs at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  A subroutine linked to the cryosystems notifies you that you have 436 frozen colonists in cryosleep at this time.
  
  > Go inside
  You adjust your heading and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  Your memory banks identify this red dwarf as Barnard's Star, accompanied by its flanking planet, Van de Kamp's Folly.
  
  You are approximately 6 light years from the Sol system. You can go down toward Van de Kamp's Folly, in toward Sol, or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form claws the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > Go inside
  You activate the low FTL drive and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  Interstellar space shoots past with a pretty purple glow, the side effect of your low FTL drive.
  
  You are approximately 3 light years from the Sol system. You can go in toward Sol or out toward the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form slashes the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  > enter
  You adjust your heading and accelerate in toward the Sol system.
  
  Four terrestrial planets, one asteroid belt, four gas giants, a ridiculous number of lesser satellites and comets - really, the complexity of the Solar System is overkill. Humanity should loan a few extra planets out to the rest of the universe.
  
  You are in interstellar space outside the Sol system, approximately 20 light hours away from Earth. You can go down toward Earth or out to the rest of the galaxy.
  
  The spiky silicate life form screams at the cargo bay walls.
  
  A subroutine reassures you that no lasting harm has been done.
  
  A subroutine linked to the cryosystems notifies you that you have 21 frozen crew members in cryosleep at this time.