Alice cleaned herself up after Gary had left her office. She washed her face and straightened her hair as best she could. Her eyes were still puffy but she couldn't do much about that.
When her console buzzed, she opened the call and saw Rachel staring back at her.
'Rachel,' she said. 'How is your cheek? It looks painful.'
Rachel raised one hand, tracing her fingers along the thin white scar beneath her left eye. 'It doesn't hurt anymore,' she said. 'I'm on the mend, I guess. How are you? You look tired.'
Alice sighed. 'My head hurts.'
'You should get some rest.'
'I will. I'm stuffed full of chemicals from the medical droids. I can hardly remember my own name.'
'I know how that feels,' Rachel said with a smile.
'Gary came to see me. He wanted to know if I was all right.'
Rachel grinned. 'Really?'
'Yes. It seems like I have to get my head broken to deserve a visit.'
Rachel laughed. 'Men can be like that. Stick with it. Maybe in a decade or two he'll start appreciating you.'
Alice smiled but she didn't want to laugh in case she split the glue on her head. She felt as though her whole head was held together by nothing more than a single squirt of glue.
'I need to go now,' Rachel said. 'I have to do something. I just wanted to check you're all right.'
'Thanks, Rachel. I'm okay.'
'Will you try to get some sleep?'
'I will.'
'Okay, speak to you later then.'
Alice nodded and closed the comms link. It felt good to hear Rachel's voice. She hoped that they would have time to get to know each other better before they both got killed. She didn't want to think that way, but sometimes it was hard to remain upbeat. She missed Jake so much. She didn't want to lose any more friends.
Alice made herself some more herbal tea before returning to her console to check on the progress of the reconnaissance drone. It had detected two small pieces of metal, over five hundred metres away from the site of the shield anomaly. At that distance, there was no way she could be certain that what it had found was connected with the alert. She decided to take a look anyway. She sent her new instructions to the drone, and it acknowledged her request, spiralling down towards the ground. It landed on four small padded feet and extended a long thin probe towards the nearest metal fragment. The probe examined it, feeding visuals and metadata back to her console in real-time.
The metal was silver in colour, and it had white marks all along one edge. It was torn down one side and bent out of shape. The drone probed it with a block sensor, analysing its chemical structure. After a few seconds, the result flashed up on her console.
Unknown Alloy, Possible Armour
Alice tapped at her console, requesting the exact chemical formula. A list of formulae appeared on her display. It wasn't any type of armour she had ever seen before. She wondered what kind of force it would have taken to tear it into such small jagged pieces.
Alice sipped her tea as the drone withdrew its probe and retracted its small, flexible wings to continue its search on foot. It walked across the uneven ground on short, stumpy legs until it came across a second piece of debris nearby. It was also twisted out of shape, and it was completely black on the side that Alice could see. The drone lifted it up with an extendable claw. It was purple underneath. Alice requested a full analysis. The drone extended its block sensor, analysing the chemical structure as before. The results flashed up on her display at once.
Titanium alloy
Alice rubbed her tired eyes. Titanium would be a strong material, but the other elements that had been combined with it suggested that it wasn't designed for strength alone. It looked as though the titanium might have been added to strengthen an existing compound that had been formulated for another purpose entirely. She requested a separate analysis of the purple residue, and the results scrolled up in front of her. It was an odd compound. She hadn't seen anything like it.
She leant closer to her console, examining the image in front of her. There was a symbol etched onto the metal. She hadn't seen it at first because it was obscured by charring and dirt. She instructed the drone to spray a fine acid mist onto its surface, and she watched her console clouding over. A mixture of toxic gases rose from the metal's black surface, rising as a swirling white vapour before dispersing into the air. She was pleased that she was watching remotely so she didn't have to breath in the fumes.
When the cloud cleared, she instructed the drone to rotate the metal until she had a clearer view. The symbol was clear now. It was a simple drawing - a half circle overlaid by two wavy lines.
Alice had no idea what it meant. She captured the image on her console and appended it to the original report along with her other findings. Before she could remember what she was going to do next, she slumped forwards onto her arms and fell asleep.