John kneeled next to the niche and changed the settings of his cyber arm again, this time in a slightly different manner, one allowing the arm to transfer energy it has stored.
What he was aiming to do would have been problematic with a standard cyber due to capacity of cells installed in normal limb replacements being quite low and requiring regular charging, so even short time spent on transferring the energy meant rendering such a device inoperational, but the one he had was military grade, using high-end hydrogen cell, strong enough to power up a whole household for several weeks.
Of course, having high amount of energy stored did not mean the whole process was going to be easy and without a risk, therefore - before connecting to what they believed to be a coil - Marlow set a protocol for the emergency detachment of his cyber arm in case of an imminent danger this action could have brought up. After all, he did not know how much energy requires the device he was connecting to.
- I know we voted for it, but are you really sure you want to do that? - Martin asked him before John managed to fully connect his cyber - It's just it seems you are the one who keeps taking risks here.
Hearing that, major smiled sneeringly.
- I would love to have any other idea - he told his friend - The problem is, we don't really have any energy source strong enough to power up something of such a size. I have no plan to retreat right now, without trying, just back me up and help out if anything goes wrong.
With that, Marlow finished placing his cyber inside and finalized the connection to all main paths of the circuit. Once he confirmed the setting being in place with his PEC's readings, the only thing that was left was pressing a single button.
- Here we go then - major said down as he did the final step and the energy started flowing from his cyber.
Initially, it seemed as if there was nothing happening aside from the circuit absorbing energy flowing from John's arm, but - after a longer while - they started noticing blinking points on a number of wall panels, including the one in front of which the group gathered.
- Ok, so something is happening, but doesn't seem it's of use for us - Johnson was looking at the wall, squinting his eyes - Only some lighted spots here and there alternately.
- Can you measure the intervals? - Marlow asked him - Are these regular in any way? I'd rather not focus on something other than powering this up for now.
- Yes, give me a moment.
Martin used his PEC to capture the footage for analysis his friend requested. He was continuing with it for about a minute or so, before saying:
- It looks like intervals are changing, and light intensity is getting higher than before. I feel as if the lights are starting to take shape.
- Is there anything specific about these shapes? Any patterns you could capture?
Johnson was about to say something, but Boskovitch jumped in:
- I just noticed something that looked like one of the glyphs we've seen before, over there - she pointed at one of the wall panels closer to the blockage - And it seems more is appearing, the visual is getting clearer.
John turned his head where Alina was pointing, and he could indeed see some symbols appearing alternately, though not all of them were fully lighted and thus visible enough to be read easily.
- I guess we need to wait for longer and hope it's just more energy required for the symbols to appear properly - he concluded - For now, please focus on capturing as much footage as you can. That way, we will have additional material to review later on, and possibly backup data in case something breaks in the process.
Marlow continued providing energy from his cyber, while others walked to remaining sections of the enclosed area they were locked in, paying attention to the symbols blinking on selected wall panels. As the time passed by, display of the symbols gradually stabilized to the point where they were finally able to identify what symbols these are. Moreover, it turned out that usual glyphs were accompanied by the values, contrary to what the group was seeing before.
- John, shouldn't you stop for now so we can investigate the panels as they are now? - Martin asked him the moment display of symbols became clear and sharp.
Major shook his head.
- Let's continue, and you guys focus on gathering date - he ordered others - I'm worried that cutting off the power may cause everything to revert, and that would mean we need to pour more energy into it, losing time and supply.
Johnson nodded.
- Roger that. I hope you know what you are doing.
Marlow turned his head and smiled to his friend.
- I hope so too.
More time passed, over quarter or so, yet nothing really changed during that time, maybe the sharpness of the display became a bit sharper, but the point was - no new symbols were appearing and they continued disappearing and appearing again.
Observing aforementioned to be the case, John finally made a decision to disconnect his cyber from the circuit, and focus on reviewing the data he and others managed to gather so far.
Surprisingly, even after no longer providing the energy, wall panels were further displaying the glyphs, so Marlow could not only look into the footage others got for him, but also see how the things are looking with his own eyes.
Within a short while, he noticed that every single wall panel was regularly displaying the same symbols in a loop, one after the another, keeping exactly same order, though the order would differ between the panels.
Once John realized that, he told others so they could brainstorm, hoping this would allow the group to figure things out much sooner.
- What does it give us though? - Martin was looking around, scratching his head - We have symbols that can be read as full words, letters and numbers. The fact these are mixed up, and in different order on various panels doesn't seem to make any sense.
- Maybe that's the point here? - Alina suggested to others - It may be a rebus, some kind of a puzzle, or just a hidden information requiring specific symbols to be taken out from each panel and put together to read a message. Let us look at the starting point for every panel maybe, then we will see which symbol appeared first on each of the panels.
Marlow agreed this was an idea worth checking, thus he did the review of the material, confirming that there were three groups of panels based on the symbol that appeared first within the loop - a noun, a letter and a number.
Having such a split between the panels, they started listing symbols appearing on each respective panel, and combining them into clusters - sorted by the order of appearance and class. Afterwards, they started comparing the results. While doing that, John noticed something interesting - for majority of the symbols was repeating on all the panels, but there were odd ones specifically appearing per one panel only.
Marlow noted down these individual symbols as a possible clue since no translation his PEC did with various combinations of said glyphs made sense. Because of that, he continued looking into other patterns and proceeding with subsequent translations, using Keira's app, yet nothing was making sense too.
Ultimately, he shared the odd symbols with the rest of the group, and - after another round of brainstorming - they came to a solution of attempting to freeze these symbols on specific wall panels, hoping this could cause somethig to happen.
- The question is: how are we going to select specific symbols? - John was saying his thoughts aloud - Display of the glyphs was initiated after enough energy was provided for the system, but I had absolutely no control over what is being displayed. Everything is working on its own.
- What about doing the same thing you did to open the paths before? - Alina suggested - I know that only certain panels worked that way, but maybe now, when these are powered on, activation is possible?
This sounded a lot like some kind of a wishful thinking, yet Marlow could not exclude what she said being a possibility, therefore - though reluctantly - he went in front of one of the panels that started displaying symbols after his arm was connected to the system, and inhaled.
- Ok, let's see how it goes.
He waited for the odd symbol to appear on the wall panel, and touched it, but glyphs continued to blink and appear in the same order.
- Well, at least we tried this option - the moment Martin said that, the symbols started to switch match faster on the very panel John touched - Woah, guys, look at what's happening!
After quickly switching for a while, only a single symbol remained on the panel, shining with a stable light - exactly the one Marlow labeled as odd one.
- Wait, it really worked then? - Boskovitch seemed completely surprised, even though it was her idea to begin with.
- So, you doubted it, but still suggested this may be a good idea?
Alina shrugged.
- It felt like something we should do, even if only to begin with.
No matter what led them to this idea, it likely moved them closer to figuring out this puzzle.
- I guess, it's about time we tried the same on the other active panels - John told the rest of the group - Let's proceed with caution. Andy, you stand guard. We need to be ready for anything.
Everyone nodded, each person proceeding with assigned task. Within another quarter, they had all wall panels displaying only a single symbol each, though it caused nothing to happen.
- Doesn't seem it worked in any way - Martin commented when they gathered next to the panel with a niche leading to a circuit - We didn't see any paths opening, and there was no sound suggesting anything happened outside of the area we have visuals on.
- So, the whole idea was wrong in the end? - Alina asked with a huge disappointment in her voice - And we lost so much time on checking this...
John was using his PEC, reviewing actions they performed, and scratching his head. When doing it, he tried different ways of displaying the data, including positions of the wall panels with set symbols. At some point, he decided to overlap the positions of the panels with the layout of the circuit, and gasped after seeing the result.
- You alright? - Johnson asked him immediately, worried that something happened.
Marlow shook his head in a reply.
- No, I just noticed something that may be a solution which could allow us to get out of here. You see, these panels are placed as if they were safeties, something like a fuse, and may be possibly locking the energy flow. I mean, this is what I suspect.
- And how is it going to help us? - Alina asked - You want to remove these somehow to open the flow of energy?
- Not really remove - John started explaining - I feel like activating them correctly may allow us to direct the energy to where we want it to be, and our aim should be over there - he pointed at the blockage panel.
- Ok, so what are we supposed to do now?
Major gave new instructions to others, this time focusing on observing the energy flow in sections between the panels. By doing so, he quickly noticed that activated panels, ones with odd symbol selected, actually redirect the electricity, but activating all of the panels causes the energy to reach only blank panels, thus the energy was not getting to the entrances they wanted to unlock.
With the new data, John selected the setup for the panels that should open the path to their target, or - at least - power up the wall panel blocking the way. Once the plan was devised, the group proceeded with activation, and creaking sounds could be heard after the last panel was set. However, it was not a path that opened for them - instead, a pedestal emerged in front of the blockage, made of the programable metal all of them were already able to recognize by a single look.
- It seems there is yet another step we need to take before it lets us through - Marlow said as he approached the pedestal.