Ovaltine [Cypher: Part VI]

Posted on 13 Apr 2016 @ 3:27am by Ensign James Langley

1,137 words; about a 6 minute read

“THE FIFTH WORD YOU SEEK IS 'YOUR.' THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO SEE. THE LAST WORD YOU SEEK LIES WITHIN THE THREES.”

It had been an amazing experience up to that point. But then there I was standing in front of the ruins of a once beautiful work of art. I had never felt so low. I suppose looking back that was part of the intent. After all you are supposed to feel when you examine art and this one piece had made me feel so many things. It was a shame to see it go. Almost everything was gone at that point. Even the grooves had corroded. But the braille remained.

Nothing left to see (that was certainly true). Within the threes. I laid my fingers upon the art once more and began my search. But then something horrible started to happen. The corrosion was so bad that as I swiped over the braille it began to crumble away! But onward I pressed through the random numbers. Then, finally, a row of threes. Then another. Then finally two more. With the square rubbed away the pattern before me was ready to be read.

I started to read it but almost immediately I knew something was wrong. It was gibberish! Another code. Nothing simple I could just memorize on the spot. But now here I was with a large streak rubbed right through it never to return. I had to write it down. Fortunately with my quick thinking I swiped my hand over an unneeded section of braille and dropped down to the floor, hands caked in rust.

A bit of spit and I had my ink. I started scribbling the letters and numbers on the floor with my dirtied fingers. I suppose had I been smart enough to carry a PADD or pad of paper it would have been a lot easier, but I was there to solve a puzzle, not take notes! Consequently this is why I always have a PADD and pad of paper on hand now. So with the missing section written down I rushed to the curator's office and grabbed his PADD. It didn't take long to guess his passcode after looking through most of his personal effects. At that point I ran out and quickly marked down the smudged writing on the floor. After that it was just a matter of reading exactly what I felt (including the couple spots where I had drilled through X's) and then cataloging it on the PADD. I then transmitted the information to my own personal device and quickly logged out and cleaned up the curator's pad and returned it to its spot.

I was done. And so was the art. There was nothing left. I waited there all night mourning the loss of my love and the next morning I was booted out and told I was never to be allowed in any art gallery for the rest of my life. He understood that I had gotten to the last part of the puzzle but was appalled that I would go so far as to ruin it for any other people to come. I was now the sole owner of the full memories of that work of art. I had felt it from start to finish but now there was nothing left. He said I was selfish and greedy and would hear nothing of my excuses.

I was just doing what was right. The codes are there to be cracked, right? Knowledge is there to be learned. Data to be analyzed. I still have feelings of remorse for ruining the art, but it was intended to be felt from start to finish. So what if that was only meant for one person?

Anyway, I spent the next few months working on that code. Went right through graduation and skipped a lot of extracurricular activities. The curriculum being the curriculum, of course. It was my life. Hell, now I owed the art and its artist. At this point I had to crack it or it would have all been for naught. I would have betrayed the work and the artist who made it. So I pressed on.

I needed a new route with the code. I had absolutely nothing to go by so I decided to try a workaround. A classic in the intelligence gathering community. I needed to talk to the creator. A bit of good old fashioned interrogation and questioning. I'm not normally much of a talker, but I learned to feign a more outgoing personality when I needed it. And that was one of those times.

He was a really nice guy. Very outgoing, too. Of course he wasn't going to just hand me the code, but it was like he expected me. Like he wanted me to talk to him. Maybe he was just lonely? We got to talking and met up a few times. He talked a lot about his love of cryptography; Hobbies; Interests. But the best part was that he forgave me for destroying the art! He said I was a part of it. A man's journey through the highs and lows of knowledge. Brilliant.

I almost forgot about the code. Almost. But I pressed on. Getting clues here and there. Or at least I thought they were clues. I think what finally tipped me off was the frequency in which he told me to increase my vocabulary. He said that when interrogating as well as in many daily social activities that having a large vocabulary had many uses, from charm to intellect or even just impressing or confusing people. And that's when I started to get it. The sly guy even gave me his code book about a few weeks before I cracked the code and I didn't even realize it. I was walking around with the answer right there in my bag.

It was a thesaurus! That was his code book for the final piece. A very clever book cipher if I may say. Once I realized this it didn't take me long to crack the code. The last phrase was:

“THE LAST WORD YOU SEEK IS 'OVALTINE.' GREAT JOB. YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE ADVENTURE. NOW DRINK UP. I AM SURE YOU NEED IT!”

So there it was. “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.” Absolutely classic. When I read up on the particulars of the phrase origin I couldn't help but laugh. Mr. Wander even gave me an original decoder ring! But I think the real prize was all the knowledge and skills I gained. I couldn't thank him enough for the puzzle. So as payment I decided to apply my gained knowledges to the best of my ability for the rest of my life. And that is why I decided to join Starfleet!

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