h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*The second floor has been sealed off for many years. The elevators no longer reach that floor and the exterior stairway up to the balcony is rotted and falling apart. The balcony itself, however, is in surprisingly good shape. Through the windows, one can mostly see...dust.*

*moves across the balcony to the front wall and peers through the windows, but is unable to make out anything but indistinct forms which are probably furniture*

*she moves along the wall to a frame door and finds that it is unlocked*

*steps through the door, leaving it slightly ajar, and looks around*

*Affy steps onto the balcony, and steps up behind Lil*

Whattaya see?

*looks further along the balcony, but sees nothing unduly alarming*

*the light from the luminescent squid on Lil's stetson gets brighter as Lil steps further away from the windows*

Desks. Flat screen monitors still on a lot of them, 15". *approaches a desk at random, and pulls out the keyboard drawer. the motion causes the mouse to twist on its pad, and this activates the computer, which has apparently been in sleep mode*

*as the screen brightens, it reveals a goo screen with the CLI logo in the middle, and several icons down the left side. The task bar shows that a game of Zork II has been minimized*

*one of the icons says MINE$*

Hey Affi, come look at this. *Lil straightens up and looks further into the gloom*

*Steps out onto the balcony.*

*Follows Lil throught the door and shines her mini-maglite around.*

Ewwww, spider webs everywhere.

Uh-oh... there are security cameras in the corners near the ceilings.

*looks up* But there's no red light to indicate that they're on.

*Looks up at the security cameras and frowns*

Well, that'd blow our cover. We can either hope that they've not noticed us, or we can hope that shutting off the cameras won't trigger an alarm that'll cause them to check whatever the last screen was showing.

*Looks over at the computer*

Hey, cool! Zork II!

*Maximizes the image*

Hmmm....only a few moves into the game. Looks like they just found the Gazebo.

Sorry, symlposted with Lil.

*steps into the room*

I wonder if one of these PCs might have a plan of the mine on it?

*steps further down the room. It stretches backward some fifty feet, with desks on either side. At the back of the room is a glassed-off room, some filing cabinets, and a door*

This looks like a supervisor's office back here.

*Affy leads the dragon to the ice room*

Yee-Ha! Take that, Smaug!

*enters quietly and moves through the room toward the back without seeming to look anywhere but straight ahead*

*follows the others inside*

*slides off carpet onto balcony, enters and stops to allow her eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness*

*Enters the building, following the others*


Lil - where are we? Was the door you entered one that leads to the study and conference area next to the library (area 'D' on the Atelier floor plan)? http://www.asterlil.com/h2g2/aplanbig.htm Or was the Salon converted to an office at some time?

The atelier didn't have any known part actually going right up to the crater; it has always been expanding into spare space above CLI. The grounds and greenhouses actually shielded our view of the industrial areas. So this has to be a tacked-on place, an administrative office. My idea is that if we go through the door ahead we'll find ourselves in the gallery/workshop area, with the studios and gallery space to our right, the conservatory and planet workshop to our left, and the atrium straight ahead.


*Lil wanders up to the glassed-in office and lets out a scream* Waugh! There's a dessicated body in here!

*Runs up to Lil, looks inside the room*

Oh My! That's just..... hideous!

Ah, we had different geometries in our heads. I had imagined that the path we came down was the main driveway facing CLI (the description said that it ended in a circle in front of the building). We went to the right, around the building and up onto the balcony - the same balcony that is on the right side of the Atelier floor plan. Thus, I imagined that we would enter directly into the Atelier.

I see now that you were imagining the balcony at the top of the floor plan. We just went further around the building than I suspected.


~barely muffled herd-of-pigs sounds~