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Walter snorted. ‘Exactly what the name says. Small objects that have no function we can understand, but which still give off some kind a signal, so we assume they do something. But what’s the point in that. Obviously better to give you something we know something about so you can learn from it.’
‘How about a mix of both?’ I suggested. ‘Then I don’t know what I should or shouldn’t be able to talk to and I might make a breakthrough for both of us.’
‘I like it,’ said Walter, and he made a motion for me to stay put while he wandered around his section and a couple of others putting together a box of all kinds of stuff before dumping it down in front of me. ‘Knock yourself out on these,’ he said. ‘Put the stuff you can talk to on one side and the blind stuff on the other, then I’ll check through them. A couple of hours enough?
‘I guess so,’ I replied, not really sure. Walter seemed happy and waved at me before wandering off a little way and apparently concentrating hard on something else. I started to rummage through the box, picking up items at random. Some gave me a mental buzz as soon as I touched them, and some I spoke to through the drone. Each one of those I asked the drone if I should have been able to speak to them without his help. But I checked every last thing in the box to see if I could figure out what it was.
When Walter came back to the table he started to sort through the pile of things I had spoken to. Most he flicked quickly back into the box, presumably knowing their purpose. When he had finished, there were three objects on the table, and Walter was frowning at them.
‘So what are they?’ he asked.
‘You mean you don’t know?’
‘If I knew - ’
‘You wouldn’t ask,’ I finished. ‘Fair point. But shouldn’t you get the commander over here first.’
Walter shook his head. ‘Not until I’m sure you aren’t lying, and that we can make these do something before I report back. Now what are they?’
I pointed at the first, a disc just small enough to fit into the palm of my hand and about 1cm thick. ‘That says it is a medical scanner, for use with a ‘Mediscan 4000 Prenatal’, whatever that is. It doesn’t seem to do anything without one. It says it would activate if there was one nearby, but that it needs a medical officer present.’
‘Damn. That’s no good.’
I felt a bit miffed at that. I thought it was a good find. I reached for the next item, which was irregularly shaped and a little larger than my outstretched hand.
‘I’m not quite sure what this is, but it says it’s a controller for the compressor assembly of a Higgs Plater Mk2.’
‘Interesting, but not as a demonstration. And the last bit?’
I had been saving the best until last. This was a ball, about five centimetres in diameter, made of a milky substance that hinted at things beneath it.
‘This says it’s a light source. You might want to call the commander over. I have no idea if it can work more than once.’
Walter gave me a look that clearly told me I had better be right, then walked off to get Naal. The commander took a while to come over, and his body language screamed that he was very definitely not impressed at being dragged over to see me again.
‘What is all this nonsense?’ he barked as he finally walked towards the table. ‘Young man, if you are playing silly games I shall report fully on your impudence to the Exxoh and have him bar you from this charade as he should have done as soon as it was suggested.’
I waited until he had finished, then held the ball up in my hand.
‘Yes, yes. I’ve seen it before. What is it supposed to do?’
‘Sir, it tells me it is an ‘emergency light stroke flare’ and says it should be used as caution. I think which mode it works in can be chosen when it’s activated.’
‘Pah. Fantasy. Continue. I can’t wait to see it working.’
He had a really nasty, sarcastic tone, and I hoped one day I would be able to make him eat dirt. I sought out Walter with my eyes and, once I was sure I had his attention, I squeezed my eyes tight shut for a second. When I opened them I saw him nod, then he started to quickly pass the word around to everyone near him. I waited a minute or so, which was a long as I dared with Naal’s increasingly irritated fussing, then I pushed my mind into the ball and thought Light Activate as hard as I could, then shut my eyes. I felt the ball leave my hand and as it did so an intense brightness shone bright pink through my eyelids and I heard Naal cry out. There were other gasps, but of wonder, and I cautiously opened my eyes. The room was flooded with bright blue-white light that cast crisp night-black shadows everywhere. The ball, too bright to look at for more than a fraction of a second, was apparently stuck on the ceiling. Naal was on his knees, hands over his eyes and screaming for security to arrest me. Four burly men appeared in seconds, and with Naal screaming for me to be locked up, I was taken away and thrown into a small room.
I had been stuffed into a closet used by cleaners. There were bucket, mops and brooms, as well as a few small machines. I felt around until I found a bucket, turned it over, and used it as a seat against the wall. I don’t know how long I was in there. Certainly long enough for my backside to go numb twice and for the smell of cleaning fluids to get overpowering an irritated my throat. By the time they opened the door, I had a nasty cough that was making my chest ache.
Standing outside the door was a squad of six security men, arranged in a semi-circle. The Exxoh stood roughly in the middle, hands on his hips, glaring at me.
‘Explain.’
I told him what had happened. All of it, including Walter cleaning the machine and me getting a higher analyser score, and the warning about how bright the lamp might be. As I worked through the story, the tension went out of his face and he seemed to relax a little. When I finished, he turned to Naal, who was standing outside the ring of security guards.
‘Curiously at odds with what I was told originally.’
I could make out Naal turning bright red and starting to bob up and down in an obsequious bow. The Exxoh waved a curtly dismissive hand at him, then turned to Walter.
‘You are the man working with this boy?’
Walter nodded, looking nervous.
‘Then find him some water and some fresh air before this stench rots his lungs.’
Walter led me back to his work area, and as we left I saw the Exxoh turn to start a conversation with the guard who had locked me in the cleaning cupboard. I was fine after a glass of cool water, and I looked up at the ball, still shining but now less intensely, and felt quite proud of myself. A few minutes later the Exxoh joined us, and Walter tried to sink invisibly into the background.
‘Quite an achievement, dear boy,’ he said, slapping me on the shoulder. ‘Had a feeling about you. Thought there was something fishy about those results yesterday.’ He looked up at the shining ball of light. ‘Do you think you could make it do it again?’
‘I think it only works once,’ I said.
‘Shame. The Captain would have been most impressed.’
‘Maybe they can find another, or maybe I can find something even more interesting.’
‘Good idea. You stay here as long as you want, and come as often as you want. I’ll leave instructions. For now, enough. Let me take you to lunch, then I’ll show you the hold.’
The hold – actually holds, as there were at least three we visited – were impressive and were the biggest chambers I had ever seen, packed with all kinds of stuff, strange and ordinary. There were other levels they were trying to get into, but the doors were locked. I could have got though a couple of them, but I didn’t know what was inside and so I thought it was safer if I kept the Exxoh and the Go-yen out until I knew more about what was going on.
We passed one place where there were people attacking the wall with hammers and picks. It didn’t look like they were making much progress. I looked down one hole that wasn’t being worked on and saw that about three metres in the rock tunnel finished in a wall of metal. The Exxoh got bored with the lack of progress after only a couple of hours, and he took me back to the apartment. As we parted in the courtyard, he told me that he had left instructions that I could to be taken to the laboratory any time I wanted. I turned to walk away, but then turned back, as though I had forgotten something.
‘I have another idea, if you have a second.’
‘Quickly, then, dear boy.’
‘Can Walter take me to the other equipment shed, where all the big machines are? I might get lucky there, too.’
The Exxoh looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. ‘I’ll make the arrangements.’
And with that he turned and walked up the steps to his building, and I started across the courtyard to mine.