Conflicting Objectives XX

Once John reached the pedestal, and put his right hand on top of it, the object reacted with a wide, rectangular surface stretching in front of him, displaying symbols in a way similar to hologram keyboards integrated in PECs, though this one was obviously physical.

There was no display to show where the entered symbols appear, leading Marlow into thinking that he needs to select specific symbols for there to be a reaction from the system. The problem was, he only had the odd glyphs he got from the wall panels in the room, and had no idea whether these should be used, and if so, in what order to enter the symbols.

- How does it look to you, John? - Martin asked him, looking at this peculiar display, and scratching his head - Since I can see a series of symbols similar to what is displayed on the wall panels, how big is a chance this is a control interface rather than a monitor?

- Well, it can be both, but it does seem to be an interface given it looks quite similar to objects with same functionality I saw before - John replied - Obviously, we will learn once I interact with it, though I'd rather first try to understand its purpose. We already managed to make this pedestal appear by setting correct symbols on the wall panels, so now it's all about figuring out how may this thing be connected to the panels we want to open.

- Ok, do you have any ideas then, John? - this time it was Alina who spoke - For me, even with the translation app, it doesn't make any sense.

Marlow sighed.

- The more I look at it, this language seems to be more of a coding system than the actual language one could speak - he said - There are symbols, letters, numbers, but the order, how it is placed, I cannot see this as phrases, it is more like lines of codes used for entering commands.

- Shouldn't it make things easier for us, though? - Johnson pointed out - I alaways thought that when it comes to math and physics, the rules should be universal.

Major nodded.

- You are right, but only if our understanding of these fields is correct. We may be using some principles for hundreds, and thousands of years, and yet find out errors in our line of thinking.

- So, you are saying it's not worth trying?

John shook his head.

- No, it's actually one of the approaches I'm applying when looking for answers from the moment we arrived to this planet. I only mention this so we won't have false hopes, and there is no disappointment in case the attempt fails. Now, if you could give me a moment to think.

Marlow already had a chance to encounter a number of alien appliances, each time managing to use them to an extent that allowed him or entire group to get out of a predicament, yet this time the object seemed much more sophisticated and complex, therefore finding a solution felt way more problematic than anytime before.

He was analyzing every single symbol on the display - not only its meaning, but also placement and overall layout of elements visible. It was both him looking for clues, and his PEC running analysis of every new idea John came up with. Ultimately, he ended up with three options to use after there was clear negative result from PEC's output, and sorted them from the most to the least likely scenario based on his expectations and PEC's recommendation.

Due to translations done by the app not making any sense through all of the simulations he made, the first possibility was, that what they were seeing right now, was nothing else than a puzzle to solve to unlock the proper interface. With that, major touched the first symbol with a neutral meaning, hoping its activation won't cause any adverse behavior. When he did, it turned out that he can move the symbol across the surface, yet moving only this one did not cause anything to happen - there was no sound nor any activity they could observe with their eyes.

Such lack of response felt to him as confirmation this may indeed be a puzzle that requires the symbols to be adjusted in correct order. However, this became questionable once moving the second symbol resulted in a short, loud noise coming from within the wall behind them.

Activity observed after the second symbol's postion was changed, completely ruled out the option number two - specific symbols being responsible for opening various sub-screens or launching corresponding commands, and pointed Marlow towards the layout setup combined with parameters. In this last scenario, it would have been representation of specific wall panels in terms of a symbol and numerical parameters setting the status of a panel.

To be honest, he did not like where it was going as this kind of setup meant lots of trial and error to figure out which symbol represents specific panel and what setting specific parameter is responsible for.

Being pretty much convinced this is the correct method, he asked the rest of the group to look for any clues that would allow them to assign specific symbols to certain panels so they would know which wall panel will be adjusted at the moment, making it possible to understand meaning of certain parameters.

Unfortunately, despite trying, and using both their own sight and their PECs, they were unable to figure out the way panels were marked, not until John found out symbol for one of the side panels by a pure coincidence - when he did, an analysis of the sequence of marks appearing on each of the wall panels allowed them to find out which symbol in the sequence is a reference to the panel.

Having this information, Marlow could finally try out the theory. Of course, ideally, they could go directly with an attempt to open the wall panel that caused the blockage, yet he preferred a safer approach in case any of the settings parameters could apply would permanently lock the panel, rendering them unable to open the way anymore.

Due to that, John started with one of the side panels he was expecting to open the route back to their starting point. What he started doing was adding each parameter after another and seeing how the object reacts - without a surprise, after checking the fourth one, test panel no longer reacted to any further change. This allowed him to understand that the way each panel can be moved depended on its current position within the layout, which meant that for some paths to be opened, they needed to move different panel before the one blocking the way could be shifted.

- Oh man, this is a real headache - Martin said after hearing the explanation from John - We don't know about how most of the panels are set here after all.

- We saw how the passage closed in front of our eyes - it was Andy who pointed that out - Can't we simply start by moving the wall panels that are further away so there is more space for the last one to move around?

The solution sarge suggested meant more time spent on shifting the wall panels on one hand, but on the other - he was absolutely right about this giving the team lots of free room to work with in case they fail with anything on the way.

- That's actually a brilliant idea - John praised him - This will improve our error margin for sure.

Applying this approach, the group started with setting up the farther wall panels first and gradually proceeding towards the blockage.

As expected, with how they were learning about setting the panels with the use of the recently found interface, and having either limited or no information about the placement of specific panels' mechanisms, they kept encountering regular failures.

Still, despite the problems on the way, suggestion sarge Krawczak brought up, seemed to work really well so far, and the group managed to reach the closest vicinity of the blockage panel within one hour.

- Few more steps and we are good - Martin said that as he stood next to John - Finally, a light in the tunnel.

- Don't jinx it though - Alina poked his ribs, making the man gasp for a moment - Please, be so kind and check the other side for any clues that could tell us the direction from which these panels extend.

- You didn't have to do it like that - Johnson was rubbing the spot where she poked him - Have you forgotten F-suits don't defend against people wearing the same set of equipment? You did that with augmented strength, you know?

Boskovitch shrugged, and smiled.

- Who said I didn't know?

Martin was about to react to Alina's blustering, but was stopped by John, who knew it was her way of fighting stress, and his friend here seemed to be to flustered about silly situation, which was actually unlikely of him - Marlow remembered Johnson joking around quite often since they got to know each other, yet here he was unusually overreacting.

In normal circumstances, major would have taken different measures, and immediately had a talk with Martin, but in situation they were in right now, John did not want to disrupt their current work, so he just made sure everyone does their job.

Unfortunately, despite all the efforts, none of them managed to find clues which would clearly suggest how these mechanism were set, so - yet again - it came down to guessing which parameters should be the correct ones for opening the way.

Overall, they had fifty-fifty chance of success for each panel right now, which was quite high, though any potential failure could ultimately lead to some of routes being either completely cut off for or them, or requiring way more time and backtracking to open the way.

Knowing that, based on the footage he had, Marlow did a simulation using his PEC to foresee the most likely scenarios and decide which parameters to apply. Following receival of the results, he entered the values with the interface, and crossed fingers to see what was going to happen.

Within a matter of seconds, creaking sounds started echoing around them, making one of the side panels moving the way they wanted, releasing the blockage panel, but the other pushed it towards the direction of the released panel.

- Ok, that's a partial success - John commented on what has just happened - Let us try another parameter for one that still holds the door.

Another sound echoed, this time time much louder, and the panel major wanted to move, shifted slightly backwards - it was not exactly what the man wanted, yet it looked to be enough for the blockage panel to be movable now.

- Please, tell me it's finally the last step - Martin was holding his hands in a praying gesture - Let us get it over with and get out of here.

Marlow looked at him, visibly surprised.

- Since when are you a religious person? - he asked.

- I simply feel we could use any help we can.

Others laughed after hearing his words, but they should quickly calm down as there was no more time to lose.

John took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts, and entered the parameter for the last wall panel to open the blockage, leading to their target.

Creaking sound could be heard yet again, and the path in front of them opened, leading to the peculiar wall Marlow believed is the entrance to the spot where he saw Jackie's body last time, and also a spot he speculated could be a control room.

While the path opened for them, and they could not see any obvious obstacles, major told others to gather for discussing the further plan rather than to push forward. After all, it seemed to be the last stretch they needed to pass, so there was no space for any stupid mistakes.