Conflicting Objectives V

Finally having the glyph wall documented, they could actually proceed with checking it more thoroughly.

Obviously, before engaging into something potentially dangerous, everyone involved set all defense systems in their F-suit to maximum.

- Please, do the honor - Keira made a hand gesture to John with a smile on her face.

- Seeing you like that, I wonder if it was wise for me to make that suggestion - major Marlow had second thoughts about touching mysterious glyphs, but it was not his way to back off easily after agreeing to something - Still, I will be doing that, so back me up.

- Back you up? Are you expecting to be attacked by something? - Johnson actually started looking around.

- You never know what may happen. I'm just counting on your help in case of anything.

Other two nodded, and rest of the team in the room froze in suspension, while John approached the wall.

- I guess, here we go - he said, touching the wall.

Surprisingly, there was no sudden shaking or anything moving in the area, just glyphs not blinking the way they were before.

- The rhythm has changed - miss Evergate commented - It seems that touching the wall affects the glyphs. Can you try again?

Marlow started touching, and attempted to put his hand directly on the glyph. It turned out he was able to move the glyphs around, setting various combinations. Obviously, he did not want to tinker with it blindly.

- I've never imagined I would be seeing something ancient being on such an advanced technology level - Keira looked excited - It's like an interactive screen, created much before humanity had such a technology.

- The thing is, we don't know what is it used for - John pointed out - Since I could move these glyphs around, is it some kind of code? Or maybe it's some kind of kid's toy so they can learn?

- It can be anything. A story, teaching board, control panel. These symbols align with what I found before, and the more I look into it, I do see this as an elaborate form of language which I'm yet to decipher. Sadly, I lack resources to do a proper work here. Too bad professor Kaller is not with us here. Even if Barszcz was here, it would have been something.

- I see you are quite desperate for help, mentioning that last guy.

Miss Evergate laughed after hearing that.

- Yeah, I got carried away. Still, it's a fact that I'm quite limited doing such research on my own. You see, such work requires a lot of digging through the data, and you actually need a proper understanding on the topic to it properly. Sure, I have some AI that can help me out, but even with that it's not a matter I can handle in a short amount of time. And, to be honest, taking into account all the work we put into similar investigation on Earth, we cannot be one hundred percent sure our interpretation was actually fully correct. There is always a chance of discrepancies happening.

- Okay, sure, you don't need to explain further, I get your point. However, this does not help in some urgent cases we need to address.

- I told you I can go with you all.

- And I said we cannot take that risk. Besides, we can always use PEC.

- Of course, as long as it works.

Martin stopped the two before it led to the argument.

Seeing no connection to the topic they were trying to figure out, Marlow and Johnson decided to leave and go back to entrance for final checks before they could go in.

- Remember, if you change your mind, I'm ready to go - these were the words they heard from miss Evergate upon leaving.

- I still think we could use her help - Martin brought up the topic once again, as they were walking back to the entrance to underground facility.

- I know, but you already know why I'm doing that. I'm not changing my mind at this point.

As they were closing to their station, nervous voice could be heard.

- What do you mean the path is not opening?

It was Rashid talking to one of the scientists, who were helping with data gathering.

- Did anything happen, Rashid? - major Marlow asked Moussa upon arrival.

Their botanist friend turned to them, while scratching his head.

- I don't get what's going on, but the path suddenly closed - he explained - It was all fine until minutes ago.

John and Martin looked at each other.

- When did it happen? - the first one asked.

- I would need to check for the precise time, but no longer than twenty minutes ago.

The two looked at each other yet again.

- Glyphs? - both of them said at the same time.

- What glyphs? - Rashid was confused - What are you talking about?

- Keira's team entered one of the buildings and we found out something on one of the walls - Marlow started explaining - We tinkered with it and moved some of the symbols. It was around the time you said the path closed.

- And you think this is connected? - Moussa asked - That would mean there is some separate control room or something like that?

- We don't know what's the logic behind it - Martin said - Still, the timing matches so we should check, especially since the path is now closed and we cannot get in either way.

Rashid could not argue with that.

- Just let me know when you get there so we can check as you use that wall - he told them - And please, don't do anything that gets me killed. There is still a lot I want to do in my life.

- Likewise.

With that, both Marlow and Johnson headed back to the building miss Evergate was responsible for.

- You back so soon? - she was surprised to see them already - Did you forget anything?

They quickly explained to her what has just happened. As expected, instead of being worried that one of the missions got stuck, she was showing excitement yet again.

- Ok, let's get moving and check what this thing can do.

Moments later, all three were standing in front of the wall they believed to be another interface created by the aliens.

- So, what's your plan? - it was Keira who asked the other two.

- Seeing how excited you were, I was sure you wanted to be in charge - John said to her with a smile - Are you worried something may go wrong?

- By no means. I just don't want to cause you any problems, that's why I'm letting you decide.

- Is that so? Okay then, I will use the recording on my PEC to backtrack and set the glyphs to original positions - Marlow launched the appropriate programs on his implant - And we should establish a connection with Rashid to have a live feedback from him as we check the settings - he also opened a channel to their colleague who was keeping an eye on the entrance to the underground facility - Rashid, can you hear me well?

- Good enough compared to what we usually have here - Moussa replied - Please let me know when you need any actions on our end.

- Of course, and you too, inform us should anything be happening there.

After agreeing on that, major took a position in front of the wall again.

- Ok, everyone, here we go - he said with the recording opened and started moving the glyphs to reach their original positions from before the team touched them - Now, should be pretty much what we had before. Rashid, can you guys try to open the entrance now?

- Sure, give us a moment - Moussa answered, and after around one minute later, he provided an update - Yes, it looks like the path is opening again, though there is no proper connection to the lower level. I'd rather not try going down there like that.

- I agree on that one - John told him - For now, don't close the entrance, and use one of the drones to monitor inside of the room as we adjust the glyphs.

- Please don't tell me you are going to do that randomly...

- I wouldn't say randomly, because we already tried some combinations before, but it will be a bit of improvizing.

- You know that it sounds like you are still going to do this randomly? Give us a moment to move a bit farther away before you start. We may be short on equipment until we establish assembly lines, but I prefer to lose a drone than any of our guys.

- Of course. Tell me when you are ready.

Rashid instructed the people around him, and notified John once everything was in place.

- Ok, let's synchronize the recording times for the drone and my PEC, and let us slowly check single glyph movements - Marlow set things up, and started recording - Keira, any suggestions to which ones should we try first?

Miss Evergate got a bit closer to have a better look at how the glyphs were lined up.

- Previously, we moved this one here, then you placed that one towards the end of the line - she started analyzing the adjustments from before - Actully, I wonder if I was reading these in proper order, now that I look at it.

- What do you mean? - Johnson asked.

Keira took additional steps and was now standing just in front of the wall, next to major.

- Look, here John was mainly moving glyphs left and right - she started pointing at the specific spots - but there is more than one row below too. This would have been correct as far as previous pieces of symbols we found were organized. However, reading some of the supposed meanings for specific glyphs, I feel this is like a code where both left and right, and up and down need to be considered.

- Ok, so you don't read left to right, but top to bottom? - Martin was still confused.

Miss Evergate shook her head.

- Not exactly. It's more like you may need to do both. I'm yet to decipher how this peculiar language functions, but the way it looks here it seems like columns act like, how to say it...

The moment she was trying to find a proper way to explain it, something clicked in Marlow's head.

- Isn't it like the columns are like variables and rows are parameters you assign to the variables?

Keira clapped her hands.

- Yes, something like that. The way this language is structured seems to be closer to the way programming works rather than our spoken languages on Earth.

Major nodded.

- If it is the case, it makes things much easier for us. First, we need to figure out what specific variables may mean, then setting specific parameters should be easier.

With that, they started arduous task of moving glyphs for the first column to understand its purpose. Unfortunately, going through the full range of glyphs did not show any results either John's or Rashid's group would notice.

After going through checking the first column, Marlow went to talk to Miss Evergate, Johnson and Moussa.

- I was honestly expecting something to happen already for going through all the settings for the first variable, and here there was absolutely nothing - he told others as they met in temporary meeting room Rashid assembled close to underground entrance.

- If you guys are right, and it is some kind of control panel, maybe there is a chance it affects more systems than only the entrance to this facility? - Martin suggested.

- That would make sense if it does change settings for something completely different - John nodded - Still, what else did we change then? Nothing really happened, there were no reports from any of our teams, so I guess it is not something relevant or system it affects is not online?

Keira shrugged.

- We don't really see any feedback that would explain what happens after the glyph is moved, aside from some colors blinking. Then again, this first one is something for which I didn't have any good translation, so I was kind of hoping trying it out would give me some data.

Rashid sighed.

- So, you are telling us we were going in blindly on this one, and you were expecting nothing may come out of it?

- I didn't say that nothing will come. I just didn't know what these would end up with. Or rather, I have some potential meanings for specific glyphs John move. For example, this one may symbolize fire element, but also purity. I was kind of expecting this to affect some conditioning system or something like that, though we all could see nothing really happened.

Marlow was listening to this exchange, shaking his head, and finally spoke after the last explanation from Miss Evergate:

- Listen, Keira, I get you are excited about your job, and it's obvious you want to learn as much as possible, but remember we have priorities here, so - instead of having us try again and again to provide data - how about you point out the variable about which you are the most convinced?

- Of course, I can do that, but I doubt any of these would be of use in relation to a path you are trying to open. Well, at least it is to me.

- Ok, so would you mind to enlighten us about these meanings you are aware of? - it was Rashid who asked that.

Keira nodded, and stood up to display a visual from her PEC.

- This is going to be the easiest way to explain - she started talking as first diagrams appeared for the others - Most of you likely know about how some languages use more than one group of signs to represent words in the written form, such as it is the case for Japanese, where there are hiragana, katakana and kanji. It is quite similar complexity for a number of ancient languages, as in case of Egyptian hieroglyphs, for which people mainly refer to as picture language, where specific signs are logograms representing certain common nouns. While it is indeed truth for how nouns are represented, the complexity of hieroglyphs was much more. First of all, you need to be aware that there is phonetic and semantic reading involved. Next, while you can read every sign phonetically, the meaning depends on how the specific signs are combined since alongside logograms you have determinatives that provide additional context if the "word" can have more than one meaning - she provided a couple of specific examples that explained how this works - As you can see, this adds variety to how we can interpret specific signs. Now, for why I'm mentioning this is because the language we have here is even more complext as so far I identified letters, numbers and glyphic symbols having shapes that look as if coming from a number of ancient human writings. So, to compare to Egyptian hieroglyphs, where we have phonetic glyphs, logographs which act as morphemes, and determinatives to narrow down the meaning, the biggest addition, a variable that's included are numbers, which are used within the actual writing not only to represent the values, but also to describe the words, though I'm still trying to understand the meaning in such cases.

- Ok, so long story short, what we have here is similar to what you know from Earth, right? And it is not some kind of coincidence? - Moussa seemed to be really interested in the topic - I must admit it's kinda disturbing to me, but at the same time, if there is connection, shouldn't it make it easier for you to decipher?

Miss Evergate did not reply until she changed what was appearing in display.

- Here, to show you the comparison, I picked one of the symbols that appears through a number of writings known on Earth - the shape looked as if some kind of an object for storing liquids - You should be able to say it looks similar to a bottle. Once I tell you something like this, now that you see it again, you are sure to make this association - others nodded - However, it is our understanding, coming straight from our world, based on the experience and actual objects we know, which would not necessarily be the case for an alien civilization. If we have this in common, it would be either they somehow came up with the same idea, or that they actually visited Earth and either saw the object or they were the ones to introduce it to our ancestors. Either way, it is a speculation, and we interpret the symbol based on our knowledge, so there is a chance we may be having a misunderstanding in a number of cases. After all, we don't have anything similar to Rosetta Stone.

John was not replying for a longer moment, listening to what Keira was explaining, and now decided to join the conversation:

- Ok, so I get that you cannot be sure about what you found out until now, and yet, not long ago you were boasting about being on a good way to decipher this language. I get that you are unable to give us any guarantee, and I can assure you no one is going to complain if nothing comes out from checking the glyphs using whatever you tell us about the meanings you know. So, please give us something now.

Keira smiled after hearing that.

- I was actually getting to that part. I have all the data I compiled so far loaded into my supporting AI, and there are total of eight symbols which show similarities to the ones from Earth, but only half of these I consider being above ninety percent correctness probability. The problem is, I see no connection for any of these to what we are trying to solve here.

- I think it won't hurt for you to share this with us - Rashid said, standing from his seat and now stretching a bit - Give it a chance, maybe someone else can notice something, either the answer or something that's going to give you some clue. Sometimes getting opinion from a person from outside can shed a new light onto topics you are working on. I know this from experience that being focused on the same thing for a long time can quite often narrow down our view, and we may fail to see obvious answers.

- Ok, I usually don't share this kind of information before I decipher things well enough, but we have already spent enough time together for me to build strong enough trust - she said after a moment of consideration, and transferred the data to others' PECs - Here you go. I feel a bit silly doing that after I boasted about being so close to cracking it.

- I don't mind giving a hand here - Marlow started looking through the contents miss Evergate shared - And apologies for the harsh words from before, Keira. I might have said that you were boasting, but truth be told, you are the person best suited for this job among all of the people I know within this crew, and most likely among all of the people I've met through my whole life. So, take anything you think is useful from whatever we say, and maybe there's going to be a hint you need.

Keira smiled a bit after John spoke that way in relation to their previous conversation, and replied with her usual witty style:

- I don't have high hopes for finding the magic key, but with you guys here we should be able to deal with this mechanism at least. After all, major John Marlow is among the best technology specialist I know, and others here are also top of the top, otherwise we wouldn't qualify for this job.

Others smiled after she said that, and Rashid clasped his hands with the words:

- Let us get our brains to it.