A Hodgepodge [Group Four]
Posted on 02 Feb 2021 @ 7:02pm by Captain Mallory Thorne & The Narrator & Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Lieutenant Quinle Rahl & Ensign Cydwenn Sov
1,094 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
The Quagmire
Location: Unknown
Timeline: Unknown
A small handful remained in the first cavern, a sort of 'home base' for the teams that had gone out exploring. This group settled in as best they could, still discussing theories as to what had happened. Nothing much new was discovered until someone noticed that all the doors they had discovered--the ones the other teams had left through--were now gone. It was a solid line of the rockface, sealing them in. Above them, one of those large white panels lit up. It flashed a cryptic message, one that inspired just enough knowledge to know it needed solving...
"Over here, look at this!" Cydwenn called out as she pointed out the cryptic message on the large white panels.
Madalene was busy examining the rockface where there were the doors, thinking, {this was not good.}
Quinle frowned when the doors disappeared, the furrows in her brow growing deeper at the reality of them becoming trapped once more. At Cydwenn’s alert, the counselor moved to read the cryptic message, the puzzle not alleviating her disapproving look in the least.
Mallory was also frowning as she walked up to the other officers staring at the strange letters. "Some kind of...code?"
Madalene finally also walked over, and saw the code, "looks like it, hmm, anyone has any ideas?" Madalene asked simply, kinda at a loss, this wasn't where she skilled in.
The counselor had gone quiet her dark eyes focused upon the message. “Ciphers are easier to solve when you can write things down.” Holding to the frown, she looked around for something to write on and with.
"Agreed," Cydwenn said as she started looking around, the problem was everything was stone which made writing anything difficult unless they had a tool that could chip at the stone.
"I am not seeing anything to write with, but what about this could we talk it out, I know it is not the same but having us be sounding boards might help us solve the problem," Madalene suggested.
Quinle’s finger moved in the air like she was writing, the second voice in her head not delaying her actions at all, she could hear it clearly as she and it worked on the problem together. “Two-letter words might be the easiest to begin with, if they are using a language that is common for us, and not whatever their, whoever they are’s language. As it is written as it is...” she trailed off realizing she was thinking out loud and complicating her thought line. “Am, an, at, as, be, by,” she paused in her reciting, “as B is used so often, I would guess it is not one of those,” she continued, “do, go, he, if, in, is, it... I might not be right either but we leave them in for now... me, my, no, of, on, or, so, to, up, us...” The Trill rattled on, her mind not seeming to have an off button once she got going.
"That makes sense, and I am gonna go out on a limb and say that these here," she said pointing the first two words of the first and second phrase, "...these are gonna be the same?" Madalene said while trying to process everything the Trill had said as well while looking at the letters.
“And by that logic, the middle words are the same as well which means once we figure the first two words of one, we have them of the other. Ten letters of the phrase are the same. Plus...” Quinle paused for a moment, “the last letter is the same, so twelve of nineteen.”
"Process of elimination may help with the second word," Mal pointed out. "Thinking about phrasing. Word blank word. If it is meant to work with something like Federation Standard, not many phrases would go something up something necessarily. Or something no something. Can rule out some two-letter words, perhaps."
The way they worked together, their minds all creating synergy showed why some ship’s crews worked and some did not, or why one person might not fit a singular group. Quinle had given a broader spectrum, finding the possibilities but the other two narrowed down the options she began with, or they really as her symbiot added the knowledge of lifetimes to their experience. “Right, plus as the first letters are the same in the three and two-letter words fairly easy to rule out the numerical matches and see what fits.”
More drawing in the air as she pictured the words crossing through them, her dark eyes glittered and she moved with purpose like an animal on the hunt. Quinle’s passion for helping others and the quickness of her mind showed as she worked at the string of the puzzle forming lines in the air that only she held in her mind. “And the second letters do not match so it also eliminates phrases like now no or son so, let me eliminate and you all object if something should be left. Out goes be, by, go, he... likely the I words, m words might stay, o words can stay as can s... t is debatable no u and I missed we which can be added back because of a possibility of woe we together.”
“O seems the best option. If we assume that is the case, then the cipher would be half the alphabet or thirteen letters which means... I wish I had paper.” Quinle bit the inside of her cheek and her fingers moved more with her eyes closing as she took slow, deep breaths. “Assuming I am right that means the statement is out of time, out of space.”
Madalene wished she could be more help, or at least get her some paper. So that’s what she did she started looking around the room looking for anything that could be used to help the counselor. Madalene also felt a little ashamed of not being helpful in this situation.
“If only if these were constellations, then I’ll be a great help,” Cydwenn said with a small smirk.
There was a long tense moment, pregnant with uncertainty, before the strange letters shimmered in and out of sight. They swirled until they were replaced with precisely what the counselor had suggested:
The words lasted just long enough to be read before they vanished in a brilliant flash of white that rendered all of them momentarily sightless...
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