text: [Themes: Science Fiction]
  
  > look around
  Dr. Kurner's Office
  - is also his room, and it's a tip. A bed in one corner looks
  utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books. The desk, facing onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into it but is otherwise empty. The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up paper and dirty clothing. A door leads out south, and there's a bathroom annex to the west.
  
  > look at the desk
  The desk is cleared but for the computer, the screen and keyboard built into the surface. There is also a drawer, with a small metal lock.
  
  > examine computer
  It's locked.
  
  "Type password:"
  
  > look at the keyboard
  Standard.
  
  > examine the clothing
  It's all about your (current) size.
  
  > Search clothing
  You hunt around, hoping to find a drawer key. But it's likely to be small, and, well, you don't find it.
  
  > go west
  (Opening the bathroom door)
  Bathroom
  Standard cubby-hole bathroom really. A sink, toilet, and a greasy mirror reflecting the steam-stained beige walls in all their smudged glory. The door - should you tire of such an atmospheric locale - is back east.
  
  > Flush toilet
  You flush the toilet.
  
  > examine the mirror
  Kurner's harassed and ugly mush looks back at you. You can't help noticing he looks a little pale - but then everyone here does, it's lack of sunlight. Once again you curse your machine for not having put you sea-side.
  
  > examine the walls
  The beige walls compliment the room nicely. No, really...
  
  > Break mirror
  You'll have to tell me how to do that.
  
  The condensation on the mirror evaporates away.
  
  > breathe on the mirror
  You breathe on the mirror and a pool of condensation forms. Your previous message "xyzzy" is now visible on the mirror.
  
  > examine the mirror
  Kurner's harassed and ugly mush looks back at you. You can't help noticing he looks a little pale - but then everyone here does, it's lack of sunlight. Once again you curse your machine for not having put you sea-side. You can make out "xyzzy" scribbled in big chunky fat-child finger-writing in the condensation.
  
  The condensation on the mirror evaporates away.
  
  > Go east
  Dr. Kurner's Office
  - is also his room, and it's a tip. A bed in one corner looks
  utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books. The desk, facing onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into it but is otherwise empty. The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up paper and dirty clothing. A door leads out south, and there's a bathroom annex to the west.
  
  > Go south
  The corridor continues around the curve of the base to the
  northwest, to the rooms of the various scientists. This one is of interest though, perhaps - it is the door to Kurner's room - chosen by lottery, it is the nearest to all the machinery and so the loudest to be in.
  
  The door itself is quite a sight if you like hybridised tech - Kurner being the paranoiac he is has fitted it with a Russian retinal scanner, a thumb-reader and a voice tag detector.
  
  > go east
  You're in the main module, and that means you know your way around
  with your eyes shut. With your eyes open you can also comment on the decor; and note that it improves substantially to the east where the General has his office, to the west it probably disimproves (Kurner's hole is over there) and north leads toward the centre of the dome which means one thing - toward the room with your machine.
  
  Back south is a long corridor.
  
  > Go east
  A familiar waiting room - when you first joined AtlantisLab you'd be here every month as you worked your way up the security clearances. Ironic, in a way, that you were only two chevrons from finding out what all that electro-plasma and virus engineering was for when you'd mooted your Project and been booted into a whole new department. Just goes to show, it seems, that even the most dedicated people need a holiday, and the General himself was no doubt very much looking forward to stepping inside your machine and spending a fortnight on a beach in someone else's head.
  
  Of course he, like all the others, and yourself, was expecting it to work.
  
  > Go east
  The General's door is closed.
  
  > open the door
  It's locked, very heavily, with many a large key.
  
  > go north
  You walk along a fairly long stretch of corridor, until it opens out.
  
  gods of pressure - this room, unlike the cramped corridors and tight bunkrooms, is a wide cathedral-like dome, held up by one fat pillar in the centre of the floor. A smooth ramp snakes around it on a gentle incline up to the higher levels - no stairs here, the robots not being that adept - and on a normal day the floor around would be crowded with scientists, like worshippers at a standing stone. However today - for some reason, it seems - is not a normal day. Where is everyone?
  
  Corridors leave the space in all directions - Kurner's room is down the passage further south.
  
  > Go east
  There's nothing of great interest there. Besides, you don't really want to bump into anyone, you look terrible.
  
  > Up
  You climb the great spiral of the ramp, round and round until you're sure the ground is screwing in and you're not going anywhere...
  
  You know you're in favour when your personal lab is put on the first level of the building. It's behind that door to the south, the one only you have the key to. Except, of course, you haven't got it, because you're inside the room. Or you might be. Anyway, the door seems to still be open, which is handy.
  
  A loose panel hangs from the doorframe - it seems it's incurred some damage since you were last here.
  
  The ramp which leads back down to the main room is north.
  
  There's a screwdriver lying on the floor.
  
  A lab coat is crumpled in the corner. You're shivering, and quickly put it on.
  
  > examine the handle
  The yellow plastic handle is charred, and a little deformed.
  
  > examine the panel
  The panel is about two inches by four, and hangs from one screw revealing the wiring inside. Which, now you look, is certainly not how is should be.
  
  > look at the wiring
  There are two wires running under the panel, down to the keyhole. They have been ripped up from their sockets, the ends bared; presumably they were then twisted together to make the door unlock.
  
  Whoever did this has since tried to repair the damage - the first wire is jammed back into their socket. But with one wire connected the other would have been sparking with a lot of electricity. It's strangely dead, now. Perhaps the fuse was blown by a surge.
  
  More importantly though, someone has hotwired your door whilst you've been away.
  
  > Review
  (Review mode - time does not pass)
  
  You know you're in favour when your personal lab is put on the first level of the building. It's behind that door to the south, the one only you have the key to. Except, of course, you haven't got it, because you're inside the room. Or you might be. Anyway, the door seems to still be open, which is handy.
  
  A loose panel hangs from the doorframe - it seems it's incurred some damage since you were last here.
  
  The ramp which leads back down to the main room is north.
  
  > Go south
  You enter your lab.
  
  The room is much as you left it; a porthole above a bank of heavy machinery. The glass cylinder stands in one corner, aloof and empty.
  
  You can't help noticing with something verging on a nervous tick above one eye that a terminal case has had its lock smashed open.
  
  > examine terminal
  The terminal lock has been broken, shattered off, with a few dents in the metal left behind. These dents are about a half-centimeter long, and thin, like the blade of a screwdriver.
  
  > look in it
  (opening the case first)
  Inside the case is all the familiar circuitry and wiring - and then one addition to the family. A black plastic box sits on the base of the terminal, with a multi-strand wire coming out of the side, its connections soldered onto the circuit boards. You recognise the manufacture. It's exactly like the modules Dr. Kurner was building for you, it's his characteristic habit of hiding all his work inside moulded boxes so no-one can see it and criticise.
  
  But what's it doing here? You last checked over the machine last night, it wasn't here then. In the morning - well, Kurner was already here, wasn't he? So whatever happened to your machine - whatever you're doing in this non-sunshine state - it's his doing. And you're not going to be able to get back to your own body with this machine unless you find out what he's done.
  
  > get the box
  The box is firmly soldered into the machine. You'd need proper tools if you were going to remove it. Probably easier, then, to get it open and rewire it inside.
  
  > examine the cylinder
  The cylinder is all rigged up and ready from the experiment, the door open.
  
  > Examine box
  The box gives no clues, it's a smooth firm black. They'll be a catch on it, somewhere, that's how Kurner designs these things, but quite where - well. You could hunt for several hours or you could go and find a design plan and work it out. That'd tell you what it was for, too.
  
  > enter the cylinder
  You step inside the cylinder.
  
  Cables feed away from the base of the cylinder. Inside, there's the grille for your feet, and the Emergency Door Release Switch.
  
  > examine Switch
  The Emergency Release Switch - provided in the terrible off-chance that the door release cover might fail, or be sabotaged, or any such.
  
  > Leave
  You step out of the cylinder.
  
  The room is much as you left it; a porthole above a bank of heavy machinery. The glass cylinder stands in one corner, aloof and empty.
  
  One terminal case is violently unlocked.
  
  > go north
  You know you're in favour when your personal lab is put on the first level of the building. It's behind that door to the south, the one only you have the key to. Except, of course, you haven't got it, because you're inside the room. Or you might be. Anyway, the door seems to still be open, which is handy.
  
  A loose panel hangs from the doorframe - it seems it's incurred some damage since you were last here.
  
  The ramp which leads back down to the main room is north.