Puzzle Rooms - Part II

Posted on Wed Jun 25th, 2025 @ 5:51am by Lieutenant Katya Davi & Lieutenant Amy Gordon
Edited on on Wed Jun 25th, 2025 @ 5:52am

1,494 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Foragers
Location: The Adelaide

[Previously]

As Kat expected, there was nothing along the side and back walls--she checked. So, she went back to the revolving panel Amy found and began to look at the wall while she waited for Amy to join her. "I won't activate this until you get here. Once we get to the other side, we'll look for a way out there."

[Continued]

Amy pressed almost every inch of the wall where she and Katya were imprisoned. There wasn't any give to the areas where she pressed. She made her way back to Katya. "Okay sadly there wasn't anything I could find either." Moving next to Katya. "Let’s see what's behind door number two."

Once Amy had also checked the room, Kat pushed the button to open the revolving door, carefully spiking it to stay open. "Let's see what we have here." She carefully checked the other small compartment, but found nothing.

"What if something shows up once both of us are inside? " Amy moving into the smaller compartment." And the door closes. Sort of when one door closes, another one opens? Perhaps something will reveal itself?"

"Well, since I can't find anything in here, I'm hoping that when I let the door close, we'll find a way out. Comms and sensors are blocked in here, so we can't call out, and we can't be found." She wasn't sure about telepathy, but hoped not to need it. "If nothing else, I have my toolkit and can try to break out." She paused as she took one more look around. "Ready to pull the pin, so to speak?"

"Ready to do so." Amy's hand reaching out and plucked the spike out that Katya had placed, the wall revolving and closing them in. "I am wondering, Katya, are you claustrophobic? I'm not but just occurred to me that this would be a nightmare for someone."

Kat laughed. "No. It would be pretty awful for anyone who worked in the Jefferies tubes." She shone her light around the small room, noting it was slightly smaller than the one they'd just left. "Let's start poking. I'm hoping there's another opening now." She slowly began to run her fingers along the top of the little room that was about a meter high. In the back, she felt a small indentation. "I found something."

"Okay and now the question remains, which way will it swing, or will it drop us to another deck? Let’s give it a whirl." Amy giving a laugh. "Just as long as we don't drop into a shark filled tank, we're good." okay so she's being a bit silly but this searching was fun.

"No sharks. They wouldn't survive the cramped quarters and lack of food." But that didn't mean the floor wouldn't drop out below them. She pressed the button...and a section of the ceiling above them opened. "Now, if the space above us has a door to the first room we entered, we can walk out the door and mark this as a puzzle room. Do you want to go first?"

Amy gave a nod to Katya, "Sure, I'll go first." Reaching up and pulling herself out of the small room, and looked around with a laugh. "Your theory is correct." reaching down to assist Katya out. "Puzzle box, I love that."

Taking advantage of the hand up, Kat climbed out of the compartment, not surprised when the panel slid closed. She checked for anything that would open it, but found nothing. "Now to find a way out of this room." She grinned at Amy. "If we can't find a door, any sort of panel or access behind the bulkhead will do.as I do have my tools." She began where she was and carefully checked the wall and floor.

Amy went to check on the other side, and checked as well, crawling upon the floor then rose to run her fingers along the wall once more. She found a spot pressing it but nothing happened. "Okay, I think I found something but nothing is happening!"

On the other side of the room, Kat found a small container that seemed to be both storage and seat. With the help of her tricorder light, she found a latch on the far side that opened, revealing four old, stiff waterskins. She took one and shook it once, then took off the top and sniffed. "No odor, but it's empty." As she continued to check the box, she found something sticky on one side. She gently touched it and sniffed. Peppermint. Had it once been candy? She closed it. On a whim, she stepped onto the box and felt around for an indentation or pressure plate. "I found one." She pressed it and sighed. "Same result. Nothing."

Looking once more in another place on the wall, she found another place she had missed. a small place opened up with some sort of container in it. Pulling it out she shook her head "Uh I found something, it looks like an old lunch pail bright yellow and looking like a yellow school bus" Amy carefully pulled it out and opened it up. "Okay it looks like it is filled with nothing but...Twinkies?"

Kat paused in her search of the corner. "What's a Twinkie?"

"It is a cylindrical sponge cake, with a cream filling inside." Amy pulling her PADD out to show Kat the image." They say it can last for centuries and is edible and I don't want to chance it at all."

"I wouldn't, either. I can't imagine wanting to eat something that can be kept for decades. It has to be toxic." Kat began to look for another button that might open a way out. "Any luck with another pressure point?"

Amy looked around, then thought of something looking at her palm light, there was a black light function. "Kat let me try something. Turn your light off. " she switched to the black light mode, shining the light around. "One thing about blacklights things that don't normally show up to normal vision, it will show under the black light. Fingerprints are in that category. "

Amy's focus stopped on a spot near the ceiling. "I think I found one."

Kat looked at Amy, then up at the ceiling. "Interesting spot. Now we need something to push it." She began to feel through her tool pouch and pulled out an extending grabber tool and handed it to Amy. "This should work.

Amy accepted the grabber from Katya "Handy device maybe I need to get myself a utility belt." her mind flashing to having something like what Batman had in old earth comic books. Would be handy. "Especially with the work we've been doing on the Adelaide, I should get one at least."

"I can see you wearing one with data crystals, PADDs and chocolate granola bars," Kat replied. "Maybe a pinpoint light, too."

"Oh, can't forget some smoke bombs and other fun stuff, which are small and compact." Amy said with a grin. "Okay let’s get ourselves out of here, hopefully."

"Go ahead and push it. Let's see what happens," Kat said, turning to get a look at the room.

Amy pushed it with the grabber, hearing it click; but nothing happened. "Okay that didn't work, even though I heard it click." glancing over towards Kat.

"We've checked the rest of the room." Kat turned a full circle while she thought. "I remember reading about puzzle boxes...maybe we should push them at the same time?" She climbed back onto the box to be ready.

"Okay, on the count of three? One, two , three!" Amy called out and pressed the button at the same time Katya pressed her button. The door opened and Amy gave out a shout of glee.

"Yes it worked! I'll grab the twinkies and the school bus. And let’s get out of here." Amy doing just what she said she'd do, then headed out of the room.

Kat held the door open for Amy, then followed her through. They were back in the first room. One of Kat's tools was still on the floor. Even better, the door leading out was clearly visible. Only then did she relax.

As she stepped forward, the door behind her began to close. Kat turned to see if she could detect the door itself, but there was nothing visible. Except for a small red button. Curious, she pushed it and waited, but nothing happened. So. she pushed it again. This time, the button disappeared. "Weird."

She wasn't going to wait to see if anything happened next. Grabbing her tool, Kat followed Amy out the door and into the corridor. She'd mark the room on her computer, and let Rhu know what they found, but beyond that, she had no plans to return.

A Post By

Lieutenant Amy Gordon
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Valiant

Lieutenant Katya Davi
Chief Operations Officer
USS Valiant

 

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