CHAPTER 51

"Tink see, too!" She had shoved her face against the door, turning her face sideways to see behind the mechanism of the door. "Tumblers move rods, unlock door."

"So, what, do we just have to get the combination right?" Mike grabbed the lever and gave it a pull. The door emitted a series of clicks, but failed to open when he pulled the handle.

"It would seem that way." Dana knocked on the door a few times and put her ear against it. "Can you turn one of the gears for me?"

"Yeah, sure." Mike grabbed the one closest to him and gave it a slow turn. The thick teeth of the gear clicked as a series of symbols moved through circular openings in the middle of the door. There were seven windows, and the symbols were changing in only two of them. He watched the symbols cycle through, and he looked at Dana, waiting for further instructions. They had yet to repeat, and he noticed that one of the symbols changed three times faster than the other.

"Oh, wow." Dana said, then pulled her head off the door and gave one of the other gears a turn, causing Mike's gear to lock up. Two other windows rotated their symbols, but one of them went through five symbols by the time the other went through two. "This is so cool!"

"Glad you like it." Mike grinned and gave the third gear a twist, then frowned. The third gear controlled a new window and one of the previous ones. "Oh, that's a nasty trick. How is that even possible?"

"Do it again." Dana put her ear to the door, and Mike alternated turning the two gears. "There's a slight delay, but I can hear something shift in there."

"How does that help us?" he asked.

"It doesn't, really. Sounds like there's a mechanism in there for changing from one window to the next. Would love to take this apart and see how it works." She turned the remaining gears. Each gear controlled two windows, meaning that three of the windows were controlled by two different gears. The ratios were different for each gear as well, and he was having trouble figuring out which ones did what.

"Is this something we could brute force?" he wondered aloud, looking at the column of symbols.

"Probably, but it would be a giant pain in the ass. That top window has twenty symbols alone."

"Have you figured out what they mean?"

"Nope. I did astronomy as an elective in college, but..." She scrunched up her face. "I can't remember most of it. It's kind of like a dream I forgot the details of. I do recognize most of these symbols as astronomical, but some of the others I aren't familiar." She pointed at one that looked similar to the number three. "Here's an example. It could mean third planet, maybe?"

Mike had always liked puzzles growing up. They had been a fun escape for him, and he found the intricacies of the door fascinating. What he didn't like was having a door in his house that had been locked down with God knew what behind it. The outer edges of the door had similar symbols to what he had seen so far, but he couldn't make any sense of them. He knocked on the door. "Hey, stargate! Anyone there willing to slip a hint under the door?"

All of them waited quietly for several seconds.

"Well, figured it was worth a try. Maybe we could just try and get in through the window?"

"I guess." Dana looked disappointed. "Might be a pain in the ass to get in and out with a ladder."

"Yeah, probably. Still, wouldn't hurt to at least take a shot at opening it, right?" He looked at the symbols again and took out his phone. "The door and the symbols look old, so let's do some educated guesses. Seven windows, right? Let's see." He dug through the internet until he found a reference chart for astronomy. "Let's do the sun for window one, then go through until we reach Saturn. Can't hurt to try."

"Ooh, Tink help!" The goblin snatched his phone from him, her eyes going back and forth to the door. "Goggles tell Tink how to put this in!"

"Well, that should save us some time." He and Dana watched as Tink alternated spinning the large gears, the symbols slowly lining up. It took her a couple of minutes to do, and she stepped back when finished.

"Let's see..." He pointed at the top window. "So there's the Sun. Mercury, Venus, Earth..."

"Mars, Jupiter, Saturn!" Tink jumped to tap the last symbol with a claw. "Tink know order, now know symbols."

"Great job," he told her, ruffling her hair and tweaking one of her horns.

"Tell Tink great job later," she said, pinching his ass before standing back.

He chuckled, then grabbed the lever on the door and pulled. This time, the clunking behind the door continued for several seconds, and a sound like a piston being compressed was followed by the sound of inner gears.

"Guess that puzzle wasn't too—" An icy chill spread through his body as a series of interlocking blades that had been hidden in the door's design opened like a flower, revealing a glowing, yellow gemstone that hummed like a dynamo that was spinning up.

Tink was just close enough that he could grab her by the hair, and he pulled her to the ground just before the gemstone discharged. A wave of force bounced the two of them down the hall, and Dana, standing in front of the door, was blown through the wall. Plaster and dust fell like snow all along the hallway, causing Mike and Tink to cough.

The aperture on the door slammed shut, the thin lines of the metal vanishing into the surface. Mike stood, then helped Tink to her feet.

"You okay?" he asked, brushing dust out of her hair. The goggles had gone askew on her forehead, and she removed them entirely before using the hem of her skirt to wipe the dirt out of her eyes.

"Tink okay." She grinned up at him, then licked her lips. "Husband pull Tink hair anytime."

"I'll add it to your kink list. Dana?" He turned his attention to the hole in the wall. On the other side was Yuki's bedroom, and on her way through, Dana had broken through one of the studs, eventually crashing into a set of easels set up along the opposite wall. "Hey, are you okay?"

All he got was a muffled response, so he opened up Yuki's door and stepped inside.

"Sorry, Yuki," he muttered out loud, on the off chance she would turn the corner and see him. He had promised her on the day that she had moved in that he would never trespass on her private space, but he felt like she would understand.