text: [Themes: Science Fiction, music, strong NPCs]
  
  > Look around
  The large octagonal-shaped chamber is filled by a massive machine. The enormous totem has an eight-pointed star-shaped base, with a central column rising to the ceiling at least thirty meters above you. The
  rest of the floor is littered with metal cylinders, some of which
  still protrude from the machine itself.
  
  To the northeast, you can exit to the high corridor.
  
  On the power control device is a scratched and punctured hole.
  
  You can also see a broken cylinder here.
  
  > look at hole
  (the scratched hole)
  This particular hole has sustained major damage.
  
  In the scratched hole is a silver cylinder.
  
  > go to the northeast
  Another portion of the same tunnel. Your eyes start to get used to the dim light and round shapes. The steel wormhole continues north into a wide chamber, and runs south into its next section. Lights flicker dimly, seemingly powered by vanishing batteries. To the east, a bulky shutter stands closed. To the southwest is a dimly lit room, with strange machinery on the inside.
  
  > Go south
  (first opening the steel valve)
  The massive valve must be operated by the lever on its side, you suppose.
  
  > pull the lever
  The valve opens with effort. In a few seconds the next room is visible beyond its mouth.
  
  > Go south
  You step into the big chamber.
  
  Light fills the room, and it's light from the stars. You check the giant dome and your eyes widen in awe.
  
  The sound of your own heart is like hammering thunder, the drums of
  the gods.
  
  The air got dizzier. Korhos is almost set, only days away from its
  full trip into the ocean. The balcony is cozy and it could serve as a nice retreat for the incoming storm.
  
  You always loved staring at the rain from Uncle Oren's porch.
  
  You can see Uncle Oren here.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You're carrying nothing. You are wearing some clothes.
  
  > examine the porch
  It is a wooden porch, which white varnish has suffered from the ordeal of time and salinity.
  
  Thunder rumbles from the horizon.
  
  > examine Oren
  He used to be your mentor at the University Radiation Technology Division, during your first year of assignment as a teacher and researcher. A man well in his seventies, he always looked sturdy and healthy.
  
  Lately, his retirement seems to have struck him quite a blow. His hair has gone completely white, his posture slouched and his voice has got that sad croaking. He is staring at the horizon like a bird in search of a migratory route, holding a glass of water from which he drinks from time to time.
  
  > talk to Oren
  "So," Oren asks, "do you believe in afterlife?"
  
  You stare at him. "I... I don't know."
  
  Oren takes a look at Grey Cape, to the west. Some gulls are circling its southernmost rock. "I don't, either. But... all of this, all this universe. Wouldn't it feel a bit wasted if it was there just
  for us?"
  
  > Continue
  "Well," you argue, "every minute is a treasure, they say. A show can
  be pretty interesting even if it lasts only a second. You know, some elementary particles' lives are so short..."
  
  "Don't lecture me, reg," Oren interrupts you. A smile cuts his face in two. "I was a scientist and a teacher ages before you. What I
  mean is: Is this show just for us? Apart from how long it lasts -- or how long we last -- don't you think it would deserve a better audience?"
  
  You cough. "Are you talking about... other, more... durable, intelligent life forms?"
  
  "I am," he says.
  
  The thunderstorm is getting closer.
  
  > Intelligent robots
  You prefer following the flow of the conversation.
  
  "So that the show wouldn't require an afterlife..."
  
  "Indeed."
  
  You laugh. "So you'd rather believe in aliens than in Heavens."
  
  "We don't need Heavens. And thinking that Big Mama Kohr is
  there just for our own, miserable eyes is showing incredible arrogance."
  
  "You'd feel at home with Andy and Marion. They are believers. I stay well in my arrogant shoes."
  
  "We are the only ones. That's what is written on the first Mechanostation ever built. Arrogant. And foolish."
  
  > talk to Oren
  "Oren, I don't want to lecture you, but... There isn't and
  there never has been any proof of another single life form in the
  known part of the galaxy. And that's a very large amount of
  space."
  
  Oren laughs. He raises his glass in front of your eyes and looks through. "Let's imagine," he says, "that we filled this glass with water from the sea. Now, you can easily see we caught no fish in it, right?"
  
  You nod, silently.
  
  "So: would you dare say, given the glass is empty, that there
  are no fish in the ocean?"
  
  > Continue
  "The universe is so big, a galaxy is like a sand grain in a beach compared to it. We live -- what? -- eighty years? We've been around
  for -- how much? -- three thousand years? Four? Ten? Korh has been
  cold for at least ten billion years. The stars can judge,
  Ektor, not us. We can only hope their legacy, the legacy of the stars, will be soft on us. 'Cause we just don't compare."
  
  He takes a fair gulp from the glass, then puts it back on the table. His eyes wander again towards the impending thunderstorm.
  
  "By Fat," he laughs, in the end. "Using your measuring method, if we caught something in here, we'd say that was the biggest fish in the sea. But the sea is endless, Ektor," he smiles. "The sea can host such awesome creatures that won't even fit this glass. Squids, sharks..."
  
  > press the space
  ...Whales. There are whales floating in space.
  
  At least fifty meters wide, this semi-circular room must have been the observatory lounge for the inhabitants' spare time. A set of tables
  and seats form a theater of sorts, for tonight's show of the universe. A glass dome, covering all the south side of the room and part of the ceiling, is open to the stars. The high corridor is to the northwest, while a second, tighter tunnel departs from the northeast. In the northern wall, a metal ladder heads up into an opening.
  
  Beyond the glass, the most amazing show of all your life is playing. A dozen... whales are floating in space, dancing and joking at your own sanity. In the distance, as a sort of dynamic backdrop, the expanding supernova that was the Monarch solar system is flaring and growing.
  
  You watch the scene, speechless, kidnapped by its unbelievable beauty and struck by horror.
  
  This is it, you murmur. The legacy of the stars.
  
  Uncle Oren would laugh at you, now.
  
  [You have earned the The Fisher achievement]
  
  > examine the whales
  The whales are enormous, heavy thus impossibly lightweight in the absence of gravity. They are... swimming in the void, unaware of the physics and dynamics laws on which you based all your beliefs. One of the smaller creatures is staring at you, as if it felt your presence. You stare back in silence, open mouthed.
  
  > Wave
  The whales look at you. You are quite sure they are waving their tail flippers back at you.
  
  > Up
  A small room, no window, just a thin slot for what you suppose is air conditioning.
  
  The north wall harbors a bulky keyboard, lit up by several buttons.
  
  > look at the keyboard
  The mixer is powered. On it, among the many cryptic buttons, three
  have symbols that you can comprehend. On the first is a star, on the second a couple of parallel lines, on the last a circle.