The power's out in my lab, and in the dim light I can see that everything is in piles, though little is clearly broken. Quake? Ransacked? I don't know, and what's more I'm not concerned with the cause - it's just the way it is. I rummage around in the piles, what I'm looking for isn't clear. I find a brushed aluminium handheld device, wide and thin with a few glowing buttons on the surface, something between a remote and a mobile phone. Encouraging, but useless with the rest of the lab equipment unpowered and disconnected. I contemplate the effort it will take to rebuild and rearrange. A female relative I don't recognize arrives or makes her presence known, but has no help to offer. I slip the five passports under my pillow and realize that getting them 'replaced' by the government is an opportunity...