In the shuttle bay, after the booming voice spoke to them, Sorek first heard, then felt, a transporter beam taking him.  After a few seconds, he appeared in an empty corridor, presumably on Charon Base.  The lighting was subdued, the air was chilly, and there was an eerie silence.  Concerned for the rest of the team, he looked behind him, seeing only Sesias about fifteen meters away.

“Are you all right, Lieutenant?”

Sesias blinked the transporter after glow from his eyes. He realized that he was no longer in the shuttle bay but in a corridor a rather long corridor with subdued lights and an eerie silence. He looked around as he heard the commanders voice. “Yes sir, seems like I’m all here. Who? What? Where are the rest of the team?” He tapped his comm badge “Lieutenant Dougal? O’Shea? Ensign Crawford? Anyone?” He made his way over to Commander Sorek. “Well this is interesting. Any ideas sir?”

Sorek noticed most of the equipment in Sesias’ harness was gone.  His  phaser, tricorder, and PADD were gone as well.

“The logical conclusion is, we are expected or needed to do something and to do it without our gear,” said Sorek.  “Whoever or whatever initiated the transport, could have killed us.”

“It could have, but didn’t. Which means it wants something? The question is what? “ Sesias feels around his harness “looks like it took everything but one Tricorder.” he pulled it out and started an area scan. “ getting some of that interference that Lietenant Walker noticed on the way in, not as bad but still there. According to this looks like that way” he points behind them “is a door, can’t read what’s on the other side, and that way“ points in  front of them “continues on straight for about 100 meters, I’m reading a couple doors off to the sides, again can’t read what’s on the other side of them. With the interference I’m not reading anything beyond that.”

“It seems we must choose a door,” said Sorek.  “Do you have a preference?”

“Not really, gotta make you think though doesn’t it. Easy path” points behind them “ or the longer path with the unknown.” points in front of them. “At this point guess it wouldn’t hurt to try the easy path and see what happens.”  

Sesias starts to walk towards the door that is behind them, holding the recorder in front him. “Sir, notice how quiet and cold it is in here. Still not reading anything beyond the door, actually I’m not reading anything concerning the door, definitely no power running to it. Odd though as I get closer the interference we noticed before seems to become slightly stronger nothing that would make anyone really take notice but just enough that it reads on the scans.”

It was clear to Sorek that whatever was running the base, wanted them to go to a specific place.  Backtracking up the corridor, he stopped when one of the side doors opened.  A light came on and he could smell a slight musty odor.  Looking at Sesias, he stepped inside.

Sesias watched the commander head the opposite direction along the hallway. “Well,  I guess that confirms that. Strong interference means no, not this way.” he quickly followed the commander, scanning the room as he entered.

The room appeared to be a small lounge, with casual furniture placed where crew could socialize.  There was a food dispenser on a wall.  There were no windows.  “Do you detect anything?”

“Well, nothing harmful in the air or on the surfaces. Looks like the room as been closed up for quite some time. Hmmmm the food dispenser seems to have power running to it and very low signs of the interference in the room. A lounge? Seems like a strange room to herd folks towards.”

Before Sorek replied, the door slid closed.  Not bothering to check it or try to open it, he waited for what was next.  After a few seconds, the same voice they heard in the shuttle bay spoke again.

“There are five geometric shapes: a green circle, a yellow circle, a blue square, a blue triangle, and a green triangle.  One of them frees you from this room.  There are two people.  One knows the color and the other knows the shape.  They were asked twice if they knew the correct shape, but were silent both times.  On the third time they were asked, they both said yes.  What is the correct color and shape?”

“Huh, guess we know who transported us, now the question is why.” Sesias started to look or feel in his uniform pockets, holsters and on the tricorder. “I don’t think it would be crazy enough to” pointed at himself and at the commander “say we are the two people. As they say sometimes the easiest answer is the one in front of you the whole time. Nothing. “

“I believe the two are fictional and part of the clue to solve the puzzle,” said Sorek.  “The why does not matter.  At least not yet.”

“Five shapes, five colors, two people each one knows half the answer.” walks around the lounge scanning. “Well besides the food dispenser no other sources of power and the interference seems to stay constant.”

“It is logical to say solving this will not be easy,” said Sorek.  “It most likely must be done in phases.”  He studied the shapes, running the riddle through his mind.   He was certain he would find the answer, but being in a room with an active food dispenser made him wonder how long that would be.

“Any ideas commander? I really don’t want to find out how good 200 year old food is.” walked over to study the shapes also. “So we got two doubled up shapes and two doubled up colors. Due to the fact that the fictional people both know a color and a shape. I would say we could probably eliminate the yellow circle as the answer as it just to obvious as it’s the odd one out of the group.”

“I agree that we can eliminate the yellow circle,” said Sorek. “The person that was told the color would know that was the correct shape, but the person that knows the shape was silent.  Therefore, it cannot be the yellow circle.  We can use the same reasoning to eliminate the blue square.”

“So that leaves us with the green circle and the two triangles. Two are the same color. Sir, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I do not know,” said Sorek.  “What are you thinking?”

“Well I think we could eliminate the green circle for using the same logic as we did for the first question. If one was told circle as the shape than they would have said they knew the answer but they kept silent which would mean that circle is not the correct shape. This leaves us with the two triangles.”

“And since we already eliminated the blue square, logic dictates the blue triangle must be as well,” said Sorek “The correct answer is the green triangle.”

The door to the lounge slid open.

“Hmmmm, well sir. We know which way not to go. Wonder what’s next? You sure you don’t want to try the food dispenser before we leave?”

“We don’t have time for that, as we need to find the others,” said Sorek.  “You should have eaten before we left.”