Stars in their Eyes [Group Four]

Posted on 25 Feb 2021 @ 3:37pm by Captain Mallory Thorne & The Narrator & Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Lieutenant Quinle Rahl & Ensign Cydwenn Sov

1,000 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Quagmire

The lights faded, granting them all back their sight...

...which allowed them to see that they weren't in the same room now.

They had been transported, but none of them had felt a thing.

This room was still stone, but now they were on some sort of balcony overhanging a large but empty arena below. There was a circular flat space in the very center, and then seats rising up to all sides, but there wasn't anyone in the seats for the group to look at. Just empty stone and dim light. They had enough time to look around and try to understand before something flashed in the air just above their heads. An image, floating in the air like a hologram. It was situated above the empty circle but at eye level with where they stood.

It pulsed gently as if waiting.

Quinle had her eyes closed when the flash came, she was focused in her thoughts and in the puzzle’s space in her mind, but the light had been bright enough to show through her lids and make her tip her chin into her should to try and avoid the remnants of such a flash in altering her sight when she would open them again. When they were settled she opened them again, instantly searching for the others. “Are all of you alright?”

Madalene blinked several times trying to blink the flash away, Y yeah I am fine, just temporarily blinded. As things slowly cleared up she saw, what she didn't want to see yet another puzzle. No, not wasn't necessarily true there were certain kinds of puzzles, and numbers were one of those.

Cydwenn was on her knees, not sure why or how really. "Y yeah I am fine, f feeling a little nauseous," she closed her eyes and took a couple of breaths to get her nausea under control.

Mallory pressed the heels of each hand against her temple, groaning with the wash of pain between each hand. She carefully opened one eye and saw the glowing image before them. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she groaned, shutting that eye again.

Madalene looked at the puzzle her head still a bit fuzzy, "is anyone else seeing stars between the numbers?"

Being in puzzle mode from before had not left her and once the others said they were fine she stepped forward and looked at the clues, making a joke to try and keep them all settled, "One might say when we came out of being blinded we were all seeing stars." Her hand came up again, making connections in the air. "This one seems easier, maybe."

The captain looked at the counselor. It was almost as if she could see the other woman's mind at work. "What are your thoughts?" Mal asked.

Both Madalene and Cydwenn watched as they also saw what the captain was seeing but they also continued to piece somethings together. But for Madalene the flashing lights and the brightness was proving difficult to stay concentrated on one thing or anything really.

“Seeing stars is exactly what we do,” Quinle said and she looked to the other, the answer being almost instantaneous in comparison to the previous one. “Star Fleet is where we belong after all, which I believe answers the puzzle.”

The number shimmer, changing into precisely the letters the Trill woman has spoken aloud. STARFLEET shines brightly for several moments, like a beacon over their heads, until it fades. As it does, it reveals there are now doors in the wall. Simple arches carved out of the stone. One on the left, and one on the right.

A choice to be made.

Quinle was not one know for her sense of humor or being light-hearted in nature, but when she solved the second puzzle she brought her hands up next to her chest and did a very undignified shimmy that she began with a hand movement until it hit her hips. After that moment she lifted her chin like a model and looked to the captain. “After you.” She gestured with an open hand to the doors.

Mal managed a small smile for Rahl's 'happy dance' but then turned her attention to the doors. The smile faded. "How much of a difference do we think left versus right will make here?"

"Well there is four of us....," Madalene started looking at the doors, "we could separate but, I am not a big fan of that idea, seeing as we have no idea where we are and or how many more riddles there might be," Madalene said looking at the doors again.

“Maybe separating us is exactly what ‘they’ want.” She added the air quotes to the word they as she said it. “I suggest we all go together and if one corridor is a bad choice at least we have four minds working as the one.” The counselor was one for exercise only if she was made to, but she had been made too often enough that she hoped she would not be a liability.

"Agreed," Madalene said looking at Cydwenn, "...what I am worried about is if we decide a door we won't be able to get back to this room to choose a different door," Madalene said looking around at the group.

"We're not separating," the captain agreed. "And I feel certain we only get one choice. I'm going to choose right unless any of you have a strong objection."

Quinle looked at the doors once more. “Right or left, I don’t feel as though anything is guiding either way, so right is fine by me.”

Something tugged in both Cydwenn's and Madalene's that left was the way to go, "I, er we feeling left," Cydwenn said with a small smirk not sure why she sensed that her department head also felt that tug to go left.

The captain shrugged. "Left it is," she said, leading them down the left-hand tunnel and into the darkness.

 

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