Making the Best, continued
Nov. 5th, 2005 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerI can't make sense of this.
The control panel is round, about two feet across, and around the edge are seventy-two (I counted them) round holes about an inch across and about half an inch deep. In the middle are three pairs of levers, surrounding a little display screen that shows three concentric circles each with a gap in it. Etched lines run up from each pair of levers to a sort of tree diagram with coloured blobs at the junctions. And along the bottom are five pins, stuck into holes, each one bearing a different colour and symbol: clock hands, crystal, flowing water, wind, and heat from a crack in the earth.
I can see kind of what I'm supposed to do, I think. I have to work out how to power each pair of levers, align the circles to the right bearing to open up one of the holes, and shove in the pins one at a time. There's a big red button and a catch-tray below, presumably to reset the thing if I get it wrong. It would be doable. If I only knew which pin was supposed to go in which hole.
I seem to remember that when the Stranger was on Selenitic he had to associate a compass bearing with each of these symbols. That could be it. Except that I don't have the bearings. I could find them, if I could get to Selenitic, but I can't get to Selenitic because I can't power up the frodding ship.
I must be missing something.
Can't be the Selenitic bearings anyway: they were accurate down to tenths of a degree, and these would only work in five-degree increments. Frod it all, I can't be beaten now. I can't have come all this way, worked so hard, just to be stopped by a stupid puzzle.
Later.--I found the switches that power the levers. They're two-position valves, water-powered, and there's a tap above them which still runs when I turn it on. I've left it off because I don't know where the water comes from or how much there is left.
Spent rather too much time sitting feeling sorry for myself. I should link back to Stoneship and get myself cleaned up: I might feel better then. But it seems like too much effort, and once again I'm faced with the realisation that all this is just avoidance behaviour, running round in circles and burying myself in pointless busywork, trying to ignore the fact that my real problem, getting home, is as far away from a solution as ever. What does it matter if I power up the island? What does it matter if I get to Selenitic and Channelwood? The only way out of this set of Ages, if it's even still there, is behind a newly-Written brick wall in the Library fireplace, and to get through that I'm going to need either a fifteen-pound sledge hammer, or a pen. And the Myst Age Book, of course. Wherever that may be. Probably locked in a cupboard in the remains of Tomahna.
Channelwood runs on water power.
Channelwood (the valves)
Selenitic (the symbols)
Mechanical (the levers)
Stoneship.
What does Stoneship have to do with this panel?
That gives me a reason to go back there. Thank frod for that. Maybe my brain will work better after a bath and a sleep. It's a puzzle, froddit. It's soluble. It must be.
Still later.--Stomach cramps. I've been trying to ignore them, but they're getting worse and lasting longer. I'm also noticing that Achenar's piratical shirts and breeches don't fit me so well any more. I've had to make two new holes in his piratical belt, and I'm contemplating a third.
This could be a problem. If I don't find some other source of food I shall be too feeble to swing that fifteen-pound sledge I haven't got. The larders on Myst are bare, and there's no food on Mechanical or Stoneship. Not that it would be any good by now anyway. I said that before, didn't I?
Anyway, I can't sleep, so I've been thinking. Thoughts like: where was Everdunes' place of protection? Where was Tide's? There are only the four hidey-holes on this island, unless the tunnels go down even deeper. And they're clearly designed for the Ages that got put in them. As if only those four Ages were important. Or as if there were only those four Ages here. Atrus only says "most of my books have been destroyed." Doesn't say they were Age Books. The surviving ones on the shelves are journals. Maybe they all were. Maybe Sirrus and Achenar didn't destroy any Age Books at all...just plundered the Ages themselves.
I don't know. I should be thinking about trying to get that geothermal power generator started again. It's probably something wildly simple that I'm overlooking. The missing link is to do with Stoneship, I'm sure of it, but I've been through both sets of rooms, the ship itself, all round the outside of the rocks, and I can't see it. I
Oh gods, that was a bad one. Feel sick. Going to end up dying here. No help to Y or anyone.
I'm so sorry.
The control panel is round, about two feet across, and around the edge are seventy-two (I counted them) round holes about an inch across and about half an inch deep. In the middle are three pairs of levers, surrounding a little display screen that shows three concentric circles each with a gap in it. Etched lines run up from each pair of levers to a sort of tree diagram with coloured blobs at the junctions. And along the bottom are five pins, stuck into holes, each one bearing a different colour and symbol: clock hands, crystal, flowing water, wind, and heat from a crack in the earth.
I can see kind of what I'm supposed to do, I think. I have to work out how to power each pair of levers, align the circles to the right bearing to open up one of the holes, and shove in the pins one at a time. There's a big red button and a catch-tray below, presumably to reset the thing if I get it wrong. It would be doable. If I only knew which pin was supposed to go in which hole.
I seem to remember that when the Stranger was on Selenitic he had to associate a compass bearing with each of these symbols. That could be it. Except that I don't have the bearings. I could find them, if I could get to Selenitic, but I can't get to Selenitic because I can't power up the frodding ship.
I must be missing something.
Can't be the Selenitic bearings anyway: they were accurate down to tenths of a degree, and these would only work in five-degree increments. Frod it all, I can't be beaten now. I can't have come all this way, worked so hard, just to be stopped by a stupid puzzle.
Later.--I found the switches that power the levers. They're two-position valves, water-powered, and there's a tap above them which still runs when I turn it on. I've left it off because I don't know where the water comes from or how much there is left.
Spent rather too much time sitting feeling sorry for myself. I should link back to Stoneship and get myself cleaned up: I might feel better then. But it seems like too much effort, and once again I'm faced with the realisation that all this is just avoidance behaviour, running round in circles and burying myself in pointless busywork, trying to ignore the fact that my real problem, getting home, is as far away from a solution as ever. What does it matter if I power up the island? What does it matter if I get to Selenitic and Channelwood? The only way out of this set of Ages, if it's even still there, is behind a newly-Written brick wall in the Library fireplace, and to get through that I'm going to need either a fifteen-pound sledge hammer, or a pen. And the Myst Age Book, of course. Wherever that may be. Probably locked in a cupboard in the remains of Tomahna.
Channelwood runs on water power.
Channelwood (the valves)
Selenitic (the symbols)
Mechanical (the levers)
Stoneship.
What does Stoneship have to do with this panel?
That gives me a reason to go back there. Thank frod for that. Maybe my brain will work better after a bath and a sleep. It's a puzzle, froddit. It's soluble. It must be.
Still later.--Stomach cramps. I've been trying to ignore them, but they're getting worse and lasting longer. I'm also noticing that Achenar's piratical shirts and breeches don't fit me so well any more. I've had to make two new holes in his piratical belt, and I'm contemplating a third.
This could be a problem. If I don't find some other source of food I shall be too feeble to swing that fifteen-pound sledge I haven't got. The larders on Myst are bare, and there's no food on Mechanical or Stoneship. Not that it would be any good by now anyway. I said that before, didn't I?
Anyway, I can't sleep, so I've been thinking. Thoughts like: where was Everdunes' place of protection? Where was Tide's? There are only the four hidey-holes on this island, unless the tunnels go down even deeper. And they're clearly designed for the Ages that got put in them. As if only those four Ages were important. Or as if there were only those four Ages here. Atrus only says "most of my books have been destroyed." Doesn't say they were Age Books. The surviving ones on the shelves are journals. Maybe they all were. Maybe Sirrus and Achenar didn't destroy any Age Books at all...just plundered the Ages themselves.
I don't know. I should be thinking about trying to get that geothermal power generator started again. It's probably something wildly simple that I'm overlooking. The missing link is to do with Stoneship, I'm sure of it, but I've been through both sets of rooms, the ship itself, all round the outside of the rocks, and I can't see it. I
Oh gods, that was a bad one. Feel sick. Going to end up dying here. No help to Y or anyone.
I'm so sorry.