Myst - Book 1
Myst
Chapter 4 - Observations

Jogging across the land, the man returned to the harbour to unlock Atrus' message. Running across the stone ledge and down the finely cut stairs, he walked the length of the wooden platform and opened the stone door. Again, at the bottom of the fore-chamber, the Imager lay in the holographic pool of light, splashing along the rim. 'Seven', he said, and as he started to descend, he chanted quickly, 'Oh seven oh seven oh seven...' all the way down, '...seven oh seven oh seven oh...', he continued to the note and opened the control panel, reminding himself to set the number to 07, clicking the numbers, 'oh seven......OKAY! Great!' He went over to the Imager, resting quietly and knelt down to switch it on, 'Okay Atrus, what did you want me to know?' The Imager buzzed, as it always did, but it stopped. It didn't work. After a brief pause the man uttered, 'What?' He switched it on again, it buzzed, but nothing. 'What is this?', he asked, getting more frustrated, constantly turning the Imager on.

After a half minute's volley, he gave up, 'I don't get this, what's wrong with you?', kicking the machine, 'WORK!' One last time, he turned it on, again the monotonous buzz, nothing. 'Bugger this taing!', he huffed out, not realising his mistake. As the stone door shut he idlely stood there, thinking aloud. 'What the hell went wrong? What did I leave out?', thinking carefully, 'Of course! The tower!', his eyes lit up. He went out to a gap between the 'Observatory' and the Library, looking at the tower, the top was the only thing in view, the whole tower was built inside a mountain. 'Bugger!', he let out, 'I can't climb that. Way too huge.' he turned to the Observatory and remembered, 'Oh yea, I want to see this taing, it's not an observatory, not at all.'

Returning to the doorstep, his noticed a metal plate on the door, bronze in appearance, he couldn't tell what it was about, but there appeared to be two people and a message, but it was not English, are any written he knows, but he confuses it for Arabic from it's cursive. 'Cool picture.', he opened the door, it squeaked back at him, and inside was just too weird. The walls were white, almost synthetic with wood trim and lights on each wall, the floor was polished wood and the center was a brown and blue marble pattern with a black design, like a compass, and finally, on top of the design, a chair, red leather and gray metal, and a machine by its side, with a panel reaching the top of the head rest. 'A dentist's chair?', the man sighed, 'And a taing next to it.' He went to the chair, touching it and looking at the details, but his stare returned to the door and he noticed a small blue button beside the door frame. 'Must be a light switch.' He pressed it, and the spectacle behind him was just amazing. He turned around to see it, and as he did, he let go, '...Jesus.' Dots of white filled the black room, in varying shades, this really was an observatory, the awe of the heavens replicated into what was a hemispherical blue dome. 'Wow.', he murmured, breath taken, 'That's pretty!' He went to the chair and checked the panel.

There was a window to the stars on the left, a little button in the middle, four controllers on the right, and a date at the bottom, "1 JAN 0 0:00", at the bottom of the panel. 'The first of January...zero? Year zero?', the man pondered, 'Probably, at midnight. Let's see now.' He Moved the first controller, and the date changed, " 2 JAN 0 0:00" and a blinking noise started, the button was flashing. 'Okay, changes the day', he said, pressing the button. The view changed, stars passed through as if in light speed, with a buzzing noise appearing again, then they stopped to a different view. 'Drabby!', he moved the second controller, "2 FEB 0 0:00", and the button beeped again, 'Right, changes the month.', passing the button he moved the third controller, "2 FEB 1 0:00", 'Okay, changes the year, and I bet the last one does the time.' Testing the theory he moved the last controller, "2 FEB 1 0:01", 'Got it!', annoyed at the button, 'Oh fine!', he pressed it and the view changed to the date. 'I wonder how old this place is.' He pulled the third controller down as far as he could, and was shocked at the date, "2 FEB 9999 0:01" 'TEN THOUSAND YEARS?!", he shuddered, 'Jesus Christ! That's like China, heaps old.' He jumped out, but pressing the button so the beeping would stop, and was about to leave, but took one last stare at the room, 'Okay, it's an observatory.', and leaves with images of the beauty cast onto the marble dome.