Myst - Book 1
Myst
Chapter 3 - A Note to Catherine

A touch aggravated, the man began to leave the harbour, his realization was a very bitter pill. He arrived at the foot of a small flight of stairs, overlooking the mentioned sunken gear, when he noticed a familiar structure. A triangular stump of metal, with a square plate of wood, and a switch at the top. 'I know you!' he said, 'You're one of those marker switch taings.' He stood there, observing the details of the metal and the rivets. 'Are you on?', he asked the switch, looking for some sort of clue, 'I'll just pretend you're off and turn you on.', flicking the handle up. Expecting something to happen, he looked around for a second, 'No? Okay, now you're on.', pushing the handle down. Again, he looked around, nothing. 'Bugger this!', he finished, flicking the switch up again, and moving off. He moved up to the sunken gear, which was in fact two gears, one just drove into the earth, and beside the sunken gear, another switch. 'You again!', he said half surprised. The switch was, like the first, set at the down position, but rather than switching it first, the man took time to observe the gears instead. Massive, over-sized, anchor gray pieces of metal they were to him, a meaningless land occupier. 'Interesting.', he lied, 'Quite an artist.', he flicked the switch, convinced now that he is turning them on, and that they should be on, and proceeded exploring the island.

Past the side of the 'observatory', the strange ancient temple looking building, and up the stairs, the man continued out to it, but before he went to the door, a piece of paper caught the near corner of his vision. He picked it up and read;
"Catherine,
I've left you a message of utmost importance in our fore-chamber beside the dock. Enter the number of Marker Switches on this island into the imager to retrieve the message.
Yours,
Atrus"
'I knew something was up with the switch taings!' he buzzed with intrigue, 'I can count, and remember!' He tallied the harbour and sunken gear, 'Two.' and set off the find the rest, folding up the note, 'I think I'll take you with me.', placing it in his breast pocket. He returned the the 'observatory', such a strange site, a shrine almost, in design, and the marble was polished and gray and black. But rather than entering as the original plan was, he switched the switch, counted, 'Three.', and moved on. He walked over to the library, again ancient in architecture, but was missing a switch. 'No switch here?', he said, 'Oh well.' and he turned into the forest road.

A strange arrangement of pillars and a circular viewer in the middle was next in line, the first thing he saw was the viewer, 'What's this taing?', looking in. There was a wooden miniature of a ship, mostly submerged underwater. 'Weird.', he let go and he looked up, 'Switch!', he continued to tag it, switching it on, 'Four.' He moved into the forest, the ocean and the sound of waves crashing was replaced with the trees and the melody of birds, and an entrance, 'Whoa, the power generator of the ship.', and beside it, the switch, 'Five.', switched and ready to keep going. He came across the other end of the island, to a clock tower, not on the land, on its own, separated by a small stretch of water. The man saw a marker switch beside the tower, 'Hang on!', he said, unfolding the paper and reread it, '"Catherine, ya ya ya..........blah blah blah blah blah, AH! Marker Switches on this island," on the island. Ha! Thought you could make me look like an idiot, Atrus, not today. Five at last count.' and proceeded back up the road. He went to a small log cabin in the forest, where there too was a switch, 'Six.', again switching and moving on. He returned out of the forest and saw the last place unchecked, 'Wow, an actual spaceship.' For a moment he lost track of what he was doing, awestruck at the shining gold vessel, but blinked and returned to the hunt. Through the road and onto a brick path over the great valleys of the island's cliff face, he made it to the spaceship and to his delight, the last marker switch. He moved to it and switched it, 'Seven.', breathing a sigh of relief. He then recalculated, 'One at the harbour, one at the sunken gear, one at the observatory, one at those pillar taings, one at the power generator, one beside the clock tower, but not on the island so it doesn't count, one at that cabin, and one here...........yea, seven.'

He moved off to the imager to test his flawed deduction.