A Rosy Outlook [Group One]
Posted on 16 Feb 2021 @ 10:12am by The Narrator & Commander Kristiana Petrova & Commander Marcus Wilcox & Lieutenant Callisi Veera
1,360 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission: The Quagmire
After the flashing lights stopped and everyone's sight was restored, there was a door in the stone wall again. Just one, directly ahead of them under where the words of the riddle had just been. The open door was as much of a question, a riddle, in and of itself.
Did they go through?
Did they really have any choice?
From inside the chamber, the door only showed darkness beyond. Once they walked through, however, there were dim blue lights showing them a long corridor. Again. There were so many of those in this place. Perhaps the architects were obsessed with Sigmund Freud. There was no telling. This time, however, the corridor did not dead-end like the last. It led to another chamber. This one was smaller than the first one but not so small that they felt claustrophobic in it, and it was well lit...at least.
Suddenly, the lights dimmed. Not to black, but definitely darkened. White words flashed on the rockwall.
What is in a name?
A moment later, four images appeared in the air before them in slow succession. After the four, they repeated again. Each image was visible for long enough to get a good look before showing the next, and then going around again.
Callisi looked at the words, then the images, then the words, and then the images. "I'm guessing stars." a pause, "Constellations, I think they're called in Federation Standard." another pause, "Though I don't recognize any of them. Images from your night sky, I'm guessing?"
Constellations from Earth's sky would do little to help the rabbitess.
"Hm. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know," Kris shook her head a bit. "That one reminds me a bit of Big Dipper, as does that one, just at a different angle. Not sure what that has to do with names though," she sighed, shoulders slumping a bit. "Sorry, this is outside my wheelhouse, not much help here."
"In the myths of old, names were what defined you. A rock was a rock, because it was a rock. Same for a tree, or the sky, or the stars." a pause from the Rabbitess. "In Ts'usu myth, the gods came down and named everything, defining order from chaos. When it came to name the first Ts'usugi, all the gods gave them the same name at the same time, which is where we get our thirteen original tribes." she waved the rest away. "Storybook fantasy, I doubt it applies here." she shook her head, "But, an interesting parallel."
"Are there any Terran expressions or lessons that deal with names?"
"Not that I'm aware of at the moment," Marcus replied, watching each of the images pass by. He gave each the attention as if it was the first time it came around. "I believe those are Big and Little Dipper. Scorpius maybe as well?" He looked around at the assembled, giving his eyes something else to look at. The dark contrasted funny to his eyes, that were staring at the low glow for so long. "These all had myths, legends, stories behind them. Symbolic, almost like the last riddle."
Kris gave Marcus a look that betrayed a low opinion of herself at this moment. "Right. Makes sense there's a little dipper too. Goes along with a big one, which is only big in relation to something smaller," she sighed, shoulders slumping. "I'm sorry, I'm not much help here."
"More than I." Callisi countered. "These are star patterns from your world. It's why we switched to stellar cartography when we began exploring the cosmos. A star pattern doesn't help once you leave your world." she mused, "Alright so this one is... Big Dipper, if I heard correctly, which makes that one the Littler Dipper. Sorry, Little Dipper." the low light of the glowing star patterns didn't seem to bother Callisi didn't strain her remaining eye. Low light was just fine by her.
"And that one is Scorpius. Do we know the name of the last one? And when I say We..." she looked at Marcus with a smirk, "... I mean you. I wish I could help more than just organizer and morale officer. For all we know, the objective here is simply to name the star patterns. The first riddle proved that we understood what a Map was. Perhaps this one wants to know if we're navigating by stars, or still counting our paces and turning left at the big rock."
Marcus stood quietly, missing the looks given to him. He mouthed things quietly to himself as they the images shifted. He lifted his hand, drawing the stars in front of him as each image came by, but only for the last image he couldn't remember. After several passes through, it clicked. "Belt. Orion's Belt. Big Dipper. Little Dipper. Orion. Scorpius. What is in their names though? One Zodiac symbol, One Myth, and two shapes formed by stars," He looked at the other two, not knowing where the riddle was pointing.
"Orion, Scorpius, weren't the big and little dipper related to Polaris? I don't know, just rings a bell. Must've read something to that effect like decades ago," Kris opined, scratching the back of her neck. "Those are names, right?"
"Little Dipper, Big Dipper, Orion and Scorpiooooooooooous. Scorpius." Callisi recovered nicely. Impressive scores from the judges. "What's in their names... okay, aside from the letter I. Eye. Ha ha, funny." she scoffed at her own burn. "Or their own names. Or the answer is Map again." the rabbitess got a little annoyed, but took a breath and calmed herself.
"Okay, okay. So Polaris, with the Dipper twins. It's got an I too, from the sound of it. Each word has just one I in it too." and at that, Callisi rolled her only eye. Her prosthetic followed suit, as it was bound to the movement of the actual eye. "Sounds like the universe is just having a laugh at my expense." she grumbled. Another breath, and another cycle of self-calming. "Maybe we're overthinking it. Maybe it just wants to know if we know what Stars are."
“Constellations? Stars? Meaning?” What is in a name?” Marcus continued, leaning gently against a wall.
"Wait a minute," Kris furrowed her brows. "Previous riddle was pretty straight forward. Maybe were overthinking this one a bit?" she looked at the images again, rubbing her chin. "Don't some of these have alternate names? Maybe you'd know, Marcus, being th flyboy and all."
Callisi turned to address Marcus, "I mean, cup cup bug person doesn't sound very appealing." she offered, arms crossed over her chest. "Sorry, not a lot of help here." she offered, with a bit of a huff.
“Ursa Major, Ursa Minor. Great or Big Bear and Little Bear,” Marcus said after a moment of silence, the information slowly working its way to the forefront of his mind. “Scorpio is just a Scorpion. Orion is a hunter.”
Before Marcus had finished saying the name "Orion," the lights began to flash again.
Ursa Minor
Scorpio
Orion the Hunter
Once the last name faded, two doors opened before them. One to the left and one to the right. Just holes in the rockface, but perfectly smooth arches that had appeared in an instant and gave them a choice.
Kris quirked a brow, looking at the two doorways. "Huh," she mused. "Another choice. I don't like the idea of splitting up, I think we should stay together. So, which one do we take?"
"Seems no difference in the paths. Is there subtle meaning behind choosing left or right?" Marcus replied.
"Nothing cultural on my end." Callisi pointed out. "I say right." she motioned to the right passage.
"Right it is," Kris agreed. There were many thoughts racing through her mind; why were they here, who brought them here, for what purpose - things like that. But she figured that if whoever was responsible for bringing them here wanted to hurt the crew, they would've done so already. So with that she stepped through the right side doorway.
Marcus followed suite after taking one last look at the room they were occupying.
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