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.

Memorise the route to Coupling 7B and head for the entrance to the crawl space.

You squint in the dark and try to trace the lines routing to Coupling 7B. On the map it looks like "Forward, Right, Forward, Left, Forward."

But you can't find any ventilation path here in this room. Perhaps it's through that other closed door.... that doesn't seem to have a way to open it from inside, unless it's that frozen hand crank...

Use the warm pad to try and unstick the hand crank, constantly applying pressure.

Initially, the hand crank doesn't budge, but the warm heat from the data pad softens the frost, and the constant pressure finally breaks it free!

You turn the crank, which appears to close an emergency power circuit somewhere. The terminal beeps and hums to life. Overhead light strips flicker, lighting the room!

But the terminal's not the only thing that got power. That broken panel you saw apparently also got energized, and are creating sparks as the powered wires occasionally come in contact with each other. You can clearly see the wire colors and symbols now: Blue (marked Ω), Yellow (marked Φ), Red (marked ⚡). There are three ports in which to plug the wires, numbered 1, 2, and 3.

Plug the yellow wire into 1. If nothing happens then blue into 2 and red into 3.

You try to plug the yellow wire into port 1.

It doesn't seem to fit, as it's a larger wire than the others.

Maybe you shouldn't trust Ensign Vilks. Or maybe he meant something different.

You wonder if the charred technical manual has any information, and in fact a dog-eared page seems very relevant. It says:

Emergency Power Restoration: Auxiliary Nodes

A diagram shows:
WARNING: Sequence must be Plasma (Ω)
FIRST, then Data (Φ). Ignition (⚡) is
ALWAYS final. Ω -> Φ -> ⚡.

Maybe Ensign Vilks meant yellow into 2 first, then blue into 1 and finally red into 3

Good thought!

You may never know what Ensign Vilks meant, but putting yellow into port 2 first, then following up with blue in port 1, and saving red 3 for last appears to match the technical manual, despite the Ensign's misgivings.

As the red wire clicks home, the sparking stops. A solid, healthy power thrum vibrates the deck.

The door in the room opposite where you entered whirs open.

Lights fully activate outside.

VIKTOR announces: "Partial power restored. Security clearance Level 3 required for Primary Docking Bay. Proceed to Security Office."

Find out where the Security office is. Head there taking all useful items with me.

You ponder the usefulness of the locked-out data pad, deciding it's served its purpose as warmth to thaw the stuck alternate power crank.

You flip through the charred technical manual containing the correct sequence, despite Ensign Vilks' mistaken suggestion, and find a few other useful pages, including a section on the ventilation system that you think may be useful later, given your earlier desire to manually inspect coupling 7B.

Your pen-shaped UV flashlight no longer seems mandatory to carry with full power restored, but you hold onto it just in case. As for the other items from the maintenance cart, you aren't sure whether you'll need a heavy wrench or compact driver, but find enough space on your tool belt to keep them as well. The cracked plastic cylinder appears to be a spent glow-tube, and you decide it is unlikely to ever be useful again.

A map on the wall just outside the door which just opened shows the path to the Security Office. Unfortunately, a collapsed ceiling girder has sealed the main corridor, making it entirely impassable except for perhaps a tribble. The only way forward is a narrow maintenance ventilation shaft, but its intake fan is visibly jammed with shredded insulation and debris. A small control panel with four colored buttons (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow) is set into the wall next to it. A maintenance log on a nearby screen reads: "July 12: Serviced Ventilation System 4C. Standard clearing cycle applied."