text: [Themes: Time Travel, science fiction, apocalypse, gadgets, moments out of time]
  
  > look around
  Though it isn't in any technical sense "your" office, this is the room where you spend the majority of your duty shifts. Here, you do background research, monitor incoming messages from Divers in the field, and hope that one of your mission proposals will be accepted. On the rare occasions, like now, that you are cleared for a dive, this room serves as a place to equip and make last-minute preparations. The exit is east.
  
  The display monitor stands against one wall, your mission description visible on its screen.
  
  You can also see an equipment locker (in which is a chip bank (empty)) here.
  A voice issues from the console. "StreamDiver Alpha Tango-678, please report for preDive examination."
  
  > go east
  Your mission parameters were quite specific. You can only take one piece of equipment other than your StreamDive console.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying five chips (a shield chip, a blank chip, a cryptography chip, an artificial intuition chip and a map chip), a probe, a stream visualizer, an autokey, a cloaking device and your StreamDive console, inside which are five chips (an interface chip, a scan chip, a library chip, a DataStore chip and a dive chip).
  
  > put the chips in the locker
  shield chip: Done.
  blank chip: Done.
  cryptography chip: Done.
  artificial intuition chip: Done.
  map chip: Done.
  
  > examine stream visualizer
  The stream visualizer is a de-focused temporal display. It scans backwards through the local timestream, correlating the results with the information in the DataStore. When the button is pushed, generates a hologram based on the results of its scan.
  
  > put all but the console and the autokey in the locker
  probe: Done.
  stream visualizer: Done.
  cloaking device: Done.
  
  > go east
  [Once you leave this area, you will be unable to return. Are you certain that you are ready?]
  
  > Y.
  You walk out of the Prep Room, down the long corridor, and into the Dive section. A number of sensors verify that you are carrying no contraband, and make a detailed record of your relevant bio-data, which is compared to your records to ensure that you are indeed the person scheduled for this dive. From your training, you know that this record will be compared again when you emerge, to ensure that nothing important about your physiology has altered during the dive. The only visible sign of it is a faint play of laser-light over your body.
  
  Satisfied, an unseen operator opens the door into the next chamber, where a flash of laser-light, radiation, and sickly-sweet aerosol renders you free of micro-organisms.
  
  You are allowed to move on only after placing your hand in an indentation by the next door, where ultrasonic "needles" inject you with the requisite immunity boosters, which always gives you the pleasant feeling of being, at least temporarily, totally impregnable to disease.
  
  One more room, and anticipation would increase your heart-rate enough that a sensor might declare you medically unfit for duty. Fortunately, this room is the last.
  
  You stand in the core of the StreamDive Temporal Relocation Unit. Far below you, an artificial singularity waits to propel you backward in history. The room itself is a huge dome, totally black, but lit from an unseeable source. There is always gooseflesh on your arms when you stand in this room. It is not a friendly room, not a relaxed room. This is a room that knows the seriousness of its function. It is far larger than anything it would ever hold, but its size is a necessity of the design. The constant, low hum of the massive generators that power the time machine is inaudible only here. The room feels like another world itself, neither part of the present nor the past.
  
  It's all in the hands of the folks upstairs now...
  
  > Dive
  In what?
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  A voice materializes from nowhere in particular. "StreamDiver Alpha Tango-678, StreamDive will commence in thirty seconds. Good luck, and Godspeed."
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  The floor fades to transparency. There is a brilliant point of light somewhere far below you. Scanning beams trace over your body. Below you, a perfect mirror image of yourself fades into existence, your avatar. You have a sinking feeling as your avatar falls toward the light. Just as you were trained, you roll back on the balls of your feet and close your eyes. In your head, you count to six. Deep down there, your avatar enters the event horizon of the artificial singularity. As always, you have the disconcerting sensation of falling...
  
  Cold.
  
  Hot.
  
  Bright.
  
  Dark.
  
  The pain is gone before you feel it. You want to open your eyes, but you know better. Even if you survived the experience, your sanity would not. You wait for the sensation of falling to end.
  
  It does.
  
  You wait for your perception of local timespace to return.
  
  It does.
  
  You open your eyes.
  
  In the days before all food could be prepared by an automated processing unit, the kitchen was often considered the center of family life. This kitchen is decorated in a country style that was archaic even when it was built. Woodgrain paneling and prominently displayed kitchenwares give the room a rustic look. The stove, refrigerator and other appliances have a more modern look, but clashing with the predominant style is kept to a minimum. Heavier items and food supplies are kept in the pantry to the west, while archways lead north and east.
  
  On the refrigerator door are a report card and a receipt.
  
  > examine the receipt
  day!
  Store #10191 Checker 7 6:27 PM
  
  BJ ICE CRM 1GAL            7.74
  FW TOWELL 6PK         SB   4.80
  FW 2PCT MLK 1GAL           4.88
  FW TRASH BAG               5.54
  PRODUCE               SB   9.34
  PRODUCE                   16.33
  AP XS CH COL               9.72
  POLISH SAUS               10.21
  1DOZ EGG                   8.35
  FLNK STK                  18.22
  PRD WHOLE CHKN            12.77
  FC BREAD                   1.94
  COKE 2LTR          6      18.06
  MTN SPR WTR 1GAL   4      12.44
  TT DONUT                   4.33
  MARLB MEN UL CRT          52.00
  AA BATT 12PK              16.32
  CP SOUP            5  SB  10.35
  APL JCE                    5.10
  MX TMPN 30                 6.77
  
  BAL                      235.21
  
  SB FW TOWELL 6PK           2.20-
  SB PRODUCE                 1.21-
  SB CP SOUP                 1.00-
  BAL                      230.80
  TAX  11.54     BAL       242.34
  Debit Card               242.34-
  
  FoodWorks 10191
  Debit Card     XXXXXXXXXXXXX1332
  $242.34
  BIOMETRIC SCAN CONFIRM:
  James Robert Wallace
  AUTH OK
  
  Authentication verified by DAVS
  YOUR TOTAL SUPER BONUS SAVINGS
  TODAY ARE: $4.41
  
  day!
  
  [The document "Grocery Receipt" has been added to your DataStore.]
  
  > look at the report card
  A grade report has been affixed to the refrigerator door:
  Donald Woods High School
  Interim Grade Report
  
  Term: Spring
  Name: Stephen James Wallace
  Grade: 10
  
  Class: Calculus        Instructor: Nelson    Grade: 99
  Class: Journalism Tech Instructor: Kryzac    Grade: 100
  Class: English II      Instructor: Celsius   Grade: 89
  Class: AP Physics      Instructor: Cornell   Grade: 98
  
  Please report any errors to guidance office immediately.
  This is an interim grade report. Official grades will be available at end of semester.
  [The document "Report Card" has been added to your DataStore.]
  
  > open the fridge
  You open the refrigerator.
  
  > look in it
  On the refrigerator door are a report card and a receipt.
  The refrigerator is empty.
  
  > close the fridge
  You close the refrigerator.
  
  > look at the stove
  The contemporary incarnation of the fundamental cooking device. It has evolved somewhat from classical cast-iron-box-with-fire-inside, and features a range top with heating elements, and an interior compartment for other cooking. Of course, it lacks any real food-preparation abilities, such as laser-guided rehydration and instantaneous thermal induction, but it sufficed for the people of this era.
  The stove is currently switched off.
  
  > Research foodworks
  No relevant entry found.
  
  > Research wallace
  Pioneer in human-computer neural interfaces and neural cybernetics. During the wars of the twentieth century, his familiarity with the internal workings of the human brain led to his being pressed into service as a neurosurgeon. After the wars, he applied his considerable computer skills to building brain implant devices which could restore brain function lost due to injury or illness. He received the Nobel Prize in 2086 for his work with stroke and brain cancer victims. Such modern inventions as the neural navigation interface and the artificial voice box owe much in their design to his work.
  
  Source: Great Minds in Science, the Twenty-First Century
  
  > browse
  Press the number of your selection, 1-2, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  1     Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  2     Stephen James Wallace
  
  > 1
  Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  Possibly the darkest period in recent history, this period contains the last and largest of the intercontinental wars. Several Middle Eastern nations formed a military alliance, and began imposing expansionist policies on neighboring countries. When the United States threatened to cut off trade relations with these countries, the formed a lucrative trade alliance with China. Because during this period, industrialized nations were still highly dependent on fossil fuel, an alliance of western nations declared war on China and the Arabic alliance. Tactical nuclear warheads were used by both sides, resulting in the near-total annihilation of many US-sympathetic countries in southeast Asia. Though US nuclear weapons were unable to breach Chinese countermeasures, several Chinese nuclear missiles did penetrate the US defensive system, obliterating a number of cities. The war was finally ended when the massive space station Kennedy crashed to Earth near the Chinese capital. The resulting explosion killed over two billion people, forcing the Chinese government to capitulate. However, widespread environmental and war damage left the entire world badly crippled. Reconstruction would take much of the next century, and the extensive costs of rebuilding the damaged world forced the beginning of governmental alliances that would eventually lead to a United Earth Government.
  
  Your mission occurs during the opening of the nuclear phase of the war. At 785278.83 UDC, a missile launched from China will exploit the breach in the US missile shield. Nine hours later, its course will be diverted away from Washington, DC to avoid US countermeasures. It will narrowly miss a secondary target, several miles from your Dive site, at 865741.8 UDC.
  
  Source: Zanxq's Brief Guide to Human Civilizations, vol. 72
  
  SEE ALSO: Space Station Kennedy
  
  > Research space station kennedy
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  1     Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  2     Space Station Kennedy
  3     Stephen James Wallace
  
  > 2
  The first orbital platform intended for permanent occupation, Space Station Kennedy was assembled in Earth orbit in the second quarter of the twenty-first century. Compared with earlier projects, Kennedy was ambitious; it contained living facilities for twenty-five families, and, unlike earlier space stations, its primary function was not scientific, but industrial. Methods of zero-gravity production which had previously been tested on earlier space missions were implemented on a grand scale. It was also the first space vehicle to be equipped with a synthetic gravity system. After two decades of service, the station was badly damaged during the intercontinental war of the mid twenty-first century. Its crew were not able to prevent a forced re-entry, and chose to direct the crashing space station to a heavily inhabited area of China. Everyone aboard the station was killed in the resulting explosion, which also resulted in severe environmental catastrophes in Asia, prompting the end of the war.
  
  Source: The Space Pioneers, vol. 9
  
  BROWSE
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  1     Historical Period: ca 865600-866300 UDC
  2     Space Station Kennedy
  3     Stephen James Wallace
  
  > examine the console
  Your StreamDive console is a small display device designed to provide you with relevant information about the current dive, and allow access to key StreamDive facilities [Footnote 1]. These facilities are made available by adding chips to its five-slot chiprack. The chiprack currently contains five chips.
  
  > look in the chiprack
  In the StreamDive console are five chips (an interface chip, a scan chip, a library chip, a DataStore chip and a dive chip).
  
  > Go west
  This is a small room, designed to hold food staples and cooking equipment not housed in the kitchen. You doubt you'll find anything worthwhile in here, but you've been a StreamDiver long enough to know better than to trust appearances. You can return east to the kitchen.
  
  Shelves line the walls, sparsely stocked.
  
  On the shelves are some pots and pans, a lazy susan (empty), a flour pot (closed) and a can of spiced ham (closed).
  
  > open it
  You open the flour pot, revealing some flour.
  
  > search the flour
  (the flour)
  You find nothing of interest.
  
  > close the flour pot
  You close the flour pot.
  
  > Examine can
  This is a can of compressed, meat-like substance, which, though only barely meeting the definition of "food", could have provided an easy meal in an emergency.
  
  > examine the susan
  Unbelievable. The workmanship which allows this device to swivel smoothly, allowing stored utensils to be easily accessed, all without the aid of laser construction or frictionless bearings. Still, from its gaudy appearance, it isn't hard to see why the owner relegated it to the pantry.
  
  > turn susan
  It is fixed in place.
  
  > examine the pots
  A number of pots and pans sit on the shelves.
  
  > SCAN
  The scanner has further details available on:
  the can of spiced ham
  
  > Scan ham
  A slight shiver runs up your spine as you read the results of the scan. Something similar to your temporal shield has been used on this can to force it into a hyperstable configuration. Despite the question of why anyone would do such a thing, what concerns you far more is the question of how it was done; such a transmutation is patently impossible without StreamDive technology. Has someone else been here?
  
  > take the ham
  Taken.
  
  > put the ham on the shelf
  You put the can of spiced ham on the shelves.
  
  > go to the east
  In the days before all food could be prepared by an automated processing unit, the kitchen was often considered the center of family life. This kitchen is decorated in a country style that was archaic even when it was built. Woodgrain paneling and prominently displayed kitchenwares give the room a rustic look. The stove, refrigerator and other appliances have a more modern look, but clashing with the predominant style is kept to a minimum. Heavier items and food supplies are kept in the pantry to the west, while archways lead north and east.
  
  On the refrigerator door are a report card and a receipt.
  
  > Go east
  You are in the main entryway of the house. Aside from its functional purpose as the central hub of the building, it also serves as a showcase of the owner's prowess as a decorator. This room is tasteful and ornate. A coatrack stands abandoned in a corner, beside a highly polished small wooden table. The front door is due south, and the hallway opens west onto the kitchen, and east to the living room. A large staircase to the north leads up to the second floor, and down, presumably to the basement.
  
  On the wooden table is a letter.
  
  > examine the letter
  Dear Julia,
  I hope to God you get this letter. We waited for you as long as we could, but they're saying that the bombs could fall any day. There's a shelter out in New Calvert, we're going there. Daddy says its the safest place in a hundred miles. Try to get there if you can, but don't take any risks. The most important thing is that you stay safe. I left some money and your grandmom's jewels in the hidden place for you. Your dad bought a gun and bullets, and put them there too, but be careful. We all love you and hope to see you again.
  
  Love,
  Mom.
  [The document "Letter to Julia" has been added to your DataStore.]
  
  > Research julia
  No relevant entry found.
  The house shakes hard as a something, probably an aircraft or small bomb, crashes to earth in the distance.
  
  > SCAN
  The scanner has further details available on:
  the wooden knob
  
  > turn knob
  You give the knob a twist, then another. After a few more turns, it comes free in your hand, revealing a very small compartment in the post underneath.
  
  > look in the compartment
  In the post is a large key.
  Somewhere, probably a few kilometers away, there is an explosion. The house rocks, and you have a hard time keeping your footing.
  
  You hear a great crash below.