It’s the third morning in a row I’ve woken up at 7.35 am, and I’m not happy! Most people think that’s a reasonable time to wake up, but for me and my beagle-bot Oscar, it’s really quite early. That’s because we’re always up so late, going through boxes in the Bluggsville City Museum storeroom, searching for ancient treasure.
I’m sitting up, trying to shake some sense into my brain when I realise Oscar isn’t lying on the floor beside me. I poke my head out of the old packing case we sleep in, and look around the storeroom for any sign of him.
‘Oscar, are you out there somewhere?’
I don’t get a reply. This is very unusual for Oscar, or at least it was until a few nights ago. The last two nights, he’s suddenly started sleepwalking. I can only guess that’s what’s happened this morning.
I crawl out of the case and hop to my feet, looking around with sleepy eyes. All I can see is the huge storeroom we live in, full of junk piles and stacks of boxes. So far, there’s no sign of Oscar. I start walking around to the back of the case, and suddenly I hear a loud thump. As I move around a little further, I see Oscar, with his eyes closed and his nose pressed against the back of the case. All four of his paws are trying to walk, but he isn’t going anywhere! I tap him on his back, just above his main control pad.
‘Oscar,’ I groan, ‘sleepwalking again? One day you’ll walk yourself into some big trouble. I might have to start switching you off at night.’
Oscar suddenly rocks back onto his bottom and shakes his head, dazed. I hear a voice behind us. ‘What on earth is going on here?’
I turn around and see my best friend, Jessie, watching us with a quizzical look on her face. Jessie is the supervisor of the storeroom. We’re very lucky that she lets Oscar and me live in here. Otherwise, we’d be out on the streets, or worse - back at the Skyburb 7 Home for Unclaimed Urchins.
‘Oh, hi Jessie!’ I say. ‘I’m just trying to wake this sleepwalking robo-dog. He’s done another midnight prowl of the storeroom.’
Jessie laughs. ‘If this is your idea of midnight, I think you’d better start going to bed earlier!’
‘Well, sometimes it’s worth it,’ I reply. ‘We were up until 2 o’clock this morning and look what we discovered.’
I crawl back inside the packing case and grab a strange metal object I’d never seen before 2 o’clock this morning! I’m expecting an excited reaction from Jessie, but as soon as she sees it, she ruffles my hair and sighs.
‘Sorry, Max,’ she says. ‘I can see why you’d be excited about it, but those things have been in the museum’s collection for years.’
‘Oh,’ I reply. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s called a bicycle pump. Back in the 21st century, people had to use those things to pump up the tyres of their bicycles.’
‘Why did they do that?’
‘Well, the tyres helped bicycles ride smoothly along the ground.’
‘Along the ground? Wow, that’s quite primitive ... and dirty too!’
It’s all a bit disappointing, especially because I thought I was going to earn a few dollars from it. Jessie and I have a special arrangement - when I identify a new object for her, she pays me a few dollars for it. It’s very helpful pocket money. It helps me keep my tummy full, and Oscar’s joints well oiled.
‘Never mind,’ replies Jessie. ‘There’s something in the workshop that might be of interest to you.’
‘Don’t tell me - you’ve baked another batch of cyber scones?’
‘Even better than that - a new item from Professor Wong!’
Whenever I hear that name, I know something exciting is about to happen. Professor Wong is the big boss of the Bluggsville City Museum. When the museum comes across an item she isn’t familiar with, she hands it to Jessie. If Jessie can’t figure out what it is, she passes it on to me and Oscar! Sometimes we know straightaway what it is - and other times, we do everything we can to find out. Today looks like it might be one of those days.
Jessie disappears into her workshop and comes back a moment later with a small, black plastic cylinder in her hand. ‘Have a look inside,’ she says.
Jessie hands the cylinder to me, and I pop the lid off. There’s a strange shiny object inside. I tip it into my hand and hold it up in front of my eyes. It’s all metal, except for a round plastic part sticking out at the end. The metal is black and yellow and has tiny words printed on it. None of them make any sense to me.
‘You really have done it again, Jessie,’ I say. ‘This thing’s so weird I can’t even guess what it might be.’
Oscar nudges my knee and stands up on his hind legs. I hold the strange metal thing down near his eyes, and he sniffs at it. He frowns and shakes his head at me.
Jessie laughs. ‘Hey, Oscar,’ she says, ‘why don’t you do a Splinternet search to see how old this thing is? I’ll come back in a few minutes and see what you’ve found out.’
As Jessie returns to her workshop, Oscar raises his eyebrows and slowly shakes his head. He doesn’t even bother switching on his scanning devices. That’s his way of telling me this is an extreeemely old object, and that he already knows it was made before 2037 - the year the old Internet melted down. If it’s older than that, there’ll be no information about it on the Splinternet.
‘Okay then,’ I say, ‘if you’re so sure it’s too old for the Splinternet, what can we do to figure out what it is?’
Oscar sniffs the shiny metal thing and suddenly his eyes light up. The next thing I know, he’s biting it with the edges of his metal mouth!
‘Oscar!’ I yelp. ‘What are you doing?’
I try to pull the metal thing away from him, but it sticks to the top of his mouth. And then I realise he’s done some damage to it. There’s now a brown piece of plastic hanging loose at the bottom.
‘Oscar, let go of that!’
He’s a good robo-dog - he lets go straight away. By then, there’s at least 5 centimetres of brown plastic hanging out from one side of the metal thing. It’s a very strange strip of plastic. It seems to have a row of square holes cut into both edges of it.
‘Hey, Jessie,’ I yell towards the workshop. ‘I think you’d better have another look at this thing!’
Jessie hurries back and joins us by the packing case. Her eyes suddenly light up like lanterns. ‘Careful!’ she cries. ‘Don’t touch that brown plastic.’
‘Does this mean you’ve figured out what it is?’ I reply.
‘Yep, now that I can see what’s inside, it’s suddenly quite obvious. It’s called a roll film. Before digital cameras and holo-photos, people had to put these in their cameras to take photos.’
‘Really? How did it work?’
‘The brown plastic film is extremely sensitive to light. The old cameras were designed to let in just enough light to make an image on the film.’
‘So ... this film could have some ancient photos on it?’
‘Well, yes, maybe. Except for the bit you’ve pulled out. The light would have ruined whatever image was on that bit of film. But hopefully the other pictures inside are still okay.’
‘But, I don’t get it. How did the light ruin the photos on this bit?’
‘The film had to be treated with special chemicals, in a very dark room, to make sure the image stayed on the film. If any light hit the film before then, the image disappeared.’
‘Oops,’ I say.
Oscar wriggles between my legs and puts his front paws over his eyes.
Jessie laughs. ‘Don’t worry, boys. You’ve only spoilt a few photos at most. There could be another 20 or 30 still in there! And if you hadn’t pulled that bit out, I never would have recognised what this thing is.’
‘But, how did you know?’
‘See those little square holes on the sides of the film?’
‘Yeah!’
‘I’ve seen them before on films in the museum. As soon as I saw those, everything started to make sense.’
‘Well,’ I say. ‘That’s exciting already! Imagine if we could find out what photos are inside this thing.’
Jessie grins. ‘I was thinking that too,’ she says, ‘but I don’t like our chances. First, we’d have to find a way to stabilise the pictures inside. The chemicals we’d need for that haven’t been used for about 400 years. Even if we found the chemicals, we’d still have to find a way to print the photos. They used special chemicals and paper to do that too!’
I look down at Oscar. ‘It all sounds quite complicated, but if anyone can find a way to get those pictures out of that roll, it’s us, isn’t it?’
Oscar wags his tail and nods his head.
‘I like your attitude,’ says Jessie. ‘Get out there and show me what you can do!’
