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

*a spiral stairway of stone winds downward next to the main service lift. Built to look intentionally gothick, it was originally created by someone known today only as the Banned Researcher. a weathered statue nearby, up to its waist in sand, is thought to be the Banned Researcher*

*the stairway ends in a large room, dark and echo-y, with mats of albino algae hanging from wires and bats nesting inside huge old speakers. The room, an ancient Moshe Pitte, appears to have no exit*

*behind a false wall at one end is something entirely different: a modern tiled room, well-lit, with a full range of highly technical-looking stuff arranged throughout*

*doors lead out of this central room to labs, bot-repair rooms, and corridors that quickly revert to rough-hewn tunnels leading away from under the complex*

*Chesworth, a handsome black female android, was once head of security at CLI, second only to Ampton in the bot heirarchy. Now she sits at a bank of monitors, watching the outside world through innumerable spidercambots. Behind her, CLIworkbots and securitybots go about the business of creating new spidercambots, patrolling the warren of tunnels, and tending the labs. This is the epicenter of the Resistance*

*little spiders have been following the progress of the intruders, scuttling up walls and under furniture, passing their impartial observations back to the Moshe Pitte*

*Chesworth pushes back her goo beret in an oddly human gesture, and turns to her Lieutenant, Eleven*

[assume highly shielded radio transmissions]
[Chesworth]::They need to find us.::
[Eleven]::But we can't go aboveground.::
[Ches]::Those are my bosses up there. They can figure out old Matina's garbling if anybody can.::
[Eleven]::I'll send a courier down to Rathome.::

*Chesworth nods and turns back to the monitors*

*Chesworth taps the counter somewhat impatiently, and then something like a smile crosses her face*

*pulling a keyboard toward her, she begins rapidly tapping out a sequence of instructions to her spies*

*stops at the top of the stairs to tie a luminescent inflatable squid to her stetson, then picks her way down the spiral staircase, which is actually a helix if you want to be picky about it*

Helix?


*follows the light from the inflatable squid, stepping very carefully*

*finds herself at the top of the stairs and switches on the maglight attached to her carameliser*

If it were a spiral it would get wider!


*advances cautiously* This isn't the way I remember it.

Hello, Ozzy-mandius. Is that the Banned Researcher? His nose has fallen off.

And wouldn't a double-helix be more appropriate to a site powered by DNA?

I think it would be.

*Following*

cautiously follows eveyone else

*Follows the leaders down the stairs.*

I've never been down here before.

I came here a few times. But I was always just a bit too busy with the experiments to really hang around for too long.

*Looks at the walls*

But I have to say, this place has weathered well over the years.

I never came down here before.

We came across a mosh pit with a bridge across when (for some reason that entirely escapes me for now) we went through the linen closet.

It must have been a different one, I don't think there was a spiral staircase. But you know what my memory is like.

*Follows the others down the stairs into the darkness (which is now punctuated by a few dots of light). Peers into the darkness wishing he could see better. Suddenly remembers something.*

Hey, I can search this place for you!

*Changes into form. Flys around and around the huge room. Changes back into human form.*

Well, I "saw" where some old tunnels had been sealed up, and it appeared like there was no other exit, except I felt some small air movements over by the far wall over there. *points*

This is where Mike introduced us to his new pet, Styx the Rat. I remember a bock of flats, I mean a flock of bats, swooping out of another tunnel when the music started.

*walks up to the opposite wall of the room* This wasn't here.

*Walks up to where GL pointed*

This could be interesting.

*Chesworth disables security alarms on the other side of the barrier*

*Eleven comes up to watch on the security monitor for the Pitte*

[Eleven]::A motley crew. It was always a motley crew, wasn't it? They never could accessorize.::

*Chesworth says nothing, just watches the progress of the posse*

*Affy checks the wall*

Hmmmm....I wonder....this wall looks like it might be granite!

*Sets his OmeGauntlet to "Tricorder" and begins scanning to see if it is, in fact, granite*

Refresh my memory. Affi -- don't I recollect you saying you had a spell for granite, or is that the orchids talking?