S.T.I.: Search for Terrestrial Intelligence

Aroc (the world's first super-computer) has created, if indirectly, a situation in which there is the potential for the first inter-planetary war in human history. This was no ordinary situation. Following the unprovoked attack by an alien entity calling itself 'The Wizard of Aussie', Aroc has become near-cataleptic and, in accordance with its programming, has erected a complex series of defences about itself.

These defences take the form of a series of puzzles which - the computer reasons - only the repairperson will be able to circumnavigate. Unfortunately, Aroc reckoned without a vast improbability field which just happened to be drifting through space nearby as the defences were set up. This caused the very nature of the problems to alter spontaneously and the solutions to these new problems also appeared at the very same instant.

On the plane en route to Aroc is where I find myself at the moment. A briefcase beside me contains tools essential to the task ahead of me. It clicks. It's locked! The responsible improbability field drifts nonchalantly out of the plane. l'm in trouble!