It’s right in the middle of the site.”
“In the middle of where the ship used to be?”
“Yep.”
That was odd. I had not heard of any meteorite strike that would either have brought the ship down or would have hit it afterwards. “What were they saying about this rock?”
“That’s the thing: it’s not a rock. It’s got all sorts of . . . stuff inside.”
“Stuff?”
“Yeah, machinery. Electronics. I couldn’t see it very well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a couple of the academics had a deep scanning machine and the image was coming up on the screen. I was sort of standing to the side, pretending not to be there. I couldn’t come too close, because I didn’t want to show them that I was interested.”
No. That was true.
“But I got a copy of the scan.”
That was Reida: he would get to the important part in a roundabout way, but when he did get to it, the wait would have been more than worthwhile.
He pulled out his comm and an eyepiece projector—which I didn’t even know he had—and scrolled through the menus on the apparatus. Then he passed the eyepiece to me. “Just move with your eyes where you want it to go,” he said.
I had worked with eyepieces before, but admittedly that was a while back. The projection that seemed to hang in the air before me was blurry. The two little buggy antennae hung so close in front of my sleep-affected eyes that I blinked, which sent the projection flying through the menus.
Crap.
“Sorry. I’m not awake yet. That kid has been keeping us up.”
I relocated the image and redisplayed it. It was a white and blue monochrome . . . something. A blobby indistinct shape that resembled a cloud, or maybe a giant peanut, if the scale down the bottom was anything to go by.
“Is this it?” That was a disappointment. How could anyone tell what they were looking at, let alone draw conclusions from it?
“Blink.”
I did. The image changed. It was still blue-white and blobby but the blobs were in different places.
“What’s the idea of this?”
“Blink again. They’re cross-sections, like you were cutting the thing into thin slices, but without actually damaging it.”
I blinked, and now a square shape materialised out of the indistinct blobs. Another blink and it became thicker.
“It’s an encasing.”
He nodded.
I blinked again, and now some of the inner content of the “rock” became clear: a section of straight lines with interconnecting wires, a couple of slabs that looked like boards with plugs, some cross-sections of cylinders of some description.
I scrolled through the whole thing, and then reversed the order. The shape of the—clearly artificial—contents came out clearly. I didn’t have enough technical knowledge to even begin thinking about what all this was for.
“Can I make a copy of this?” I’d show it to Thayu in the morning.
“You can have it.”
I pulled the eyepiece off. “The whole thing?”
“It’s all yours.”
I wondered where he had gotten the eyepiece. Those things were not cheap. Surely someone would miss it?
Reida announced that he needed to wash and go back, so he went to the bathroom and I went back into my bedroom where Nicha had gone.
Thayu stirred when I came into the bed.
“Hmm, what’s going on?”
“Reida came back.”
“What did he have to say?”
I told her in a few sentences what Reida had told me. She sat up, a silhouette in the dark against the faint glow that came in from starlight and lamps outside. I gave her the eyepiece and she blinked through the images as I had. The glow from the tiny projector lit her face. I could only see light spots, no details of the image.
“I have no idea what this thing is. I’ll get some people to run functional analyses on it.” If she said “some people” she almost certainly meant high-level Asto intelligence officers.
“We could simply ask our captain.”
Thayu snorted. “What is the chance that he’d tell us the truth? Or that
“In the middle of where the ship used to be?”
“Yep.”
That was odd. I had not heard of any meteorite strike that would either have brought the ship down or would have hit it afterwards. “What were they saying about this rock?”
“That’s the thing: it’s not a rock. It’s got all sorts of . . . stuff inside.”
“Stuff?”
“Yeah, machinery. Electronics. I couldn’t see it very well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a couple of the academics had a deep scanning machine and the image was coming up on the screen. I was sort of standing to the side, pretending not to be there. I couldn’t come too close, because I didn’t want to show them that I was interested.”
No. That was true.
“But I got a copy of the scan.”
That was Reida: he would get to the important part in a roundabout way, but when he did get to it, the wait would have been more than worthwhile.
He pulled out his comm and an eyepiece projector—which I didn’t even know he had—and scrolled through the menus on the apparatus. Then he passed the eyepiece to me. “Just move with your eyes where you want it to go,” he said.
I had worked with eyepieces before, but admittedly that was a while back. The projection that seemed to hang in the air before me was blurry. The two little buggy antennae hung so close in front of my sleep-affected eyes that I blinked, which sent the projection flying through the menus.
Crap.
“Sorry. I’m not awake yet. That kid has been keeping us up.”
I relocated the image and redisplayed it. It was a white and blue monochrome . . . something. A blobby indistinct shape that resembled a cloud, or maybe a giant peanut, if the scale down the bottom was anything to go by.
“Is this it?” That was a disappointment. How could anyone tell what they were looking at, let alone draw conclusions from it?
“Blink.”
I did. The image changed. It was still blue-white and blobby but the blobs were in different places.
“What’s the idea of this?”
“Blink again. They’re cross-sections, like you were cutting the thing into thin slices, but without actually damaging it.”
I blinked, and now a square shape materialised out of the indistinct blobs. Another blink and it became thicker.
“It’s an encasing.”
He nodded.
I blinked again, and now some of the inner content of the “rock” became clear: a section of straight lines with interconnecting wires, a couple of slabs that looked like boards with plugs, some cross-sections of cylinders of some description.
I scrolled through the whole thing, and then reversed the order. The shape of the—clearly artificial—contents came out clearly. I didn’t have enough technical knowledge to even begin thinking about what all this was for.
“Can I make a copy of this?” I’d show it to Thayu in the morning.
“You can have it.”
I pulled the eyepiece off. “The whole thing?”
“It’s all yours.”
I wondered where he had gotten the eyepiece. Those things were not cheap. Surely someone would miss it?
Reida announced that he needed to wash and go back, so he went to the bathroom and I went back into my bedroom where Nicha had gone.
Thayu stirred when I came into the bed.
“Hmm, what’s going on?”
“Reida came back.”
“What did he have to say?”
I told her in a few sentences what Reida had told me. She sat up, a silhouette in the dark against the faint glow that came in from starlight and lamps outside. I gave her the eyepiece and she blinked through the images as I had. The glow from the tiny projector lit her face. I could only see light spots, no details of the image.
“I have no idea what this thing is. I’ll get some people to run functional analyses on it.” If she said “some people” she almost certainly meant high-level Asto intelligence officers.
“We could simply ask our captain.”
Thayu snorted. “What is the chance that he’d tell us the truth? Or that
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