DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fun & Games ETD: Escape the Dream Episode II: Last Stand of the USS Rubicon

Your mind goes back to primary or secondary school, thinking about when you learned about the golden ratio. While it was used in man-made objects like the Parthenon and Great Pyramid, it appears a lot in nature, like the spiral galaxy on the poster, seeds and petals on sunflowers, branches on trees, leaves on pine cones, pineapples, succulents... You try to remember why, and it boils down to packing efficiency, which relies not only on the layer you're packing on, but the one below it.

You recall playing around with squares and finally it hits you! The Fibonacci Sequence! Starting with 0 and 1 it goes on adding the previous two numbers to get 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on. And indeed, the poster has two corresponding sets of fibonacci squares, assuming starting squares of "0" and "1" adds a 1-length square next to that... and putting a square of length 2 next to those two 1-sided squares.... a square of length 3 next to the 1- and 2-square... a square of length 5 next to the 3- and 2-, and so on. And as the numbers get bigger, the ratio of side lengths get closer to the Golden Ratio!

Sure enough, when you type 1-1-2-3-5-8 onto the keypad, it gives a pleasant sounding chime. You hear the sound of pressure equalizing nearby and the door slides open, revealing a frost-rimmed control room reeking of ozone.

The room is freezing. A terminal displays 'STANDBY'. A large hand-crank is sheathed in ice. On a counter next to the terminal is a data pad.

After recovering from the shock that the sequence actually worked, look closely at the data pad.

There's a message on the data pad:


When you attempt to navigate away from the page to find out more, the pad seems to lock you out.

Look around. Is there anything of interest.. like a manual? Can I recall any reset or work arounds for the Pad?

The room is still somewhat dark, with the dim red glow from the terminal's STANDBY message providing a little more illumination to the naked eye, with your UV flashlight able to look more closely at a few more items in detail when needed.

You do find a charred technical manual next to the terminal, but it's too dark to read very efficiently. As if to remind you of the time pressure, VIKTOR announces fifty-four minutes remaining.

You can see an open panel on the wall with wires within it, but it's too dark to make out their colors. You can make out a little bit of writing on the insulation that look like the greek letters from the datapad, but it's too dim to distinguish a Ω from a Φ.

There's a second terminal in the room that appears operative, a small display terminal mounted in the wall. It alternates between a screen showing "Running Diagnostics" and when complete, an error message: "Plasma Conduit 7B: Overload. Recommend Manual Inspection." Near this display terminal on the same wall is a schematic of the ship, and brief inspection shows a glowing UV-reflective "you are here" dot, and a brief scan of maintenance crawl spaces accessible nearby, including a series of straight lines and right angles at junctions leading to "Coupling 7B" not too far away.

No matter what you try with the data pad, it seems to require an access code to unlock it. You do notice as you hold it in your hand that the battery is warming its back panel case, one of the only warm things in this otherwise frozen room.