David Golemon - Ancients

"Well, I think we'll send the same people that were just there, Sandra Leekie and her team."

"That's fine, but cut it to bare bones, Doctor. I don't want any kids on this trip."

"Do you expect the Coalition to find you, Jack?"

Collins had started to turn and leave for the security offices but stopped short.

"Ask the FBI if these unconscionable bastards do the unexpected. Yes, Virginia, they will be there waiting for us. They failed once getting access to that diamond; I don't think they will stop now."

The fifteen-thousand-year-old bronze plate, centered on the lab table in the middle of the room, was a mystery to the brilliant minds studying it. Several technicians from the Archaeological Studies, Forensics, and Mathematical Engineering departments surrounded the amazing find, mystified by its workings.

The plate itself was unremarkable in its design. It was comprised of two sheets of thinly plated bronze sandwiching a thinly shaved quartz crystal. A 3-D image supplied by Europa was projected onto a wall screen, and all the other departments, including Mechanical Engineering and Nuclear Sciences, were studying the strange plate from their own labs.

Linguistics experts were poring over the symbols etched into the bronze facing of the plate, while engineers examined a small clamshell-like protuberance in the exact center of the object. The clamshell bulge was on both sides of the plate and was three inches in diameter.

Pete Golding and Sarah McIntire had stopped by the lab to see the amazing find brought back by Jack and Carl. They were taking a break from leading the scroll search with one hundred others. They stayed back and out of the way as the other qualified scientists assigned to the plate map studied it and spoke quietly among themselves.

Pete stepped back farther to get a look at the strange design. What little hair he had was askew and he was chewing on a pencil. He was just getting ready to turn away and retrieve Sarah when a thought struck him out of nowhere. He turned slowly and looked closer at the clamshell centerpiece. He cleared his throat.

Martha and Carmichael were there, too. They were studying a linguistics report of the strange symbols when they heard Pete trying to get everyone's attention.

"The centerpiece of the object--have you, ladies and gentlemen, formed an opinion on this?"

Virginia Pollock, who was sitting next to the two Ancients, turned toward the director of the computer center.

"As with the other symbols on the facing of the object, the conclusion is it's a three-D symbol for the sun. If you look closely at the etched portions of the plate, the exact match is the sun, which is clearly next to that of the quarter moon. The lines at the center of the sun may just be artwork placed there by the whoever etched the symbols."

"Clamshell," Pete mumbled, still chewing on his pencil.

"Excuse me?" one of the design engineers asked from his spot next to the map.

Not all those in attendance inside the lab understood what Pete had said.

Sarah tapped Pete on the shoulder and pointed to the pencil in his mouth.

Pete slowly understood and removed the pencil. "The sun, as you've deemed it, in the center of the plate--it resembles a clamshell aperture."

Martha glanced at the strange-looking director of the computer center and then tapped Carmichael on the arm to get his attention.

"Professor Golding, your science is an exact one, but sometimes ancient technologies are not. If you would step closer to the plate, you will see that the etched lines on the depiction of the sun are perfectly matched. No one in antiquity could get separate sections of metal to match so perfectly that there is no discernible separation between the two. Believe me, Professor: the lines are etched into the bronze."

Pete looked at the scientist from the Mechanical Engineering Department and then stepped closer to the plate. Sarah bit her lip, knowing that the Golding was overstepping his territory. She looked at Virginia and gave her an uneasy smile.

Pete looked very closely at the bulge and then at the symbol for the sun at the bottom of the large plate. He stepped to the opposite side of the lab table and looked at the bulge from that side and then at the bottom of the plate. There were no symbols there. There were, however, two small points of bronze protruding from each of the plate's lower corners.

"Lens cap," he mumbled.

"Pete, don't you and Sarah have a team on level fifteen you are supervising?" Virginia asked.

"Wait, please." Carmichael Rothman was looking at Pete intently. "Young man, did you say 'lens cap'?"

Pete looked up from the plate and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Yes," he said, trying to focus on the older man.

"Pete, I appreciate you help here, but this is not a clamshell aperture," said an exasperated engineer. "The edges fit too perfectly. Look." He produced a small jeweler's screwdriver, placed the tip on one of the eight line etchings, and probed around it. He tried to push in and lift, but the small screwdriver could find no place to wedge against for advantage in prying the section apart. "You see, it would have to have been engineered on a modern CNC machinist tool."

Pete looked from the engineer to Sarah, who was just getting ready to pull the tired computer man from the lab. She did not try, though, as Pete shook his head.

"The symbols on the front are not duplicated on the back. The only things on the reverse side are the clamshell--or sun, if you prefer--and the two small points sticking out of the lower corners of the plate."

"We noticed the points of bronze. They are possibly casting marks from when the plate was forged," the same engineer said as he looked at the others for support. He received nods of agreement from everyone.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe those two points are casting marks from a mold. They do resemble something I work with quite often, though."

"What is that, young man?" Martha asked.

Pete looked around the lab until he found what he was looking for. He smiled uneasily as he unplugged a handheld buffer and then looked at the electrical cord. Then he cut the three-pronged plug off with an exacto knife. Then he split the black cord in two, one positive and one negative. Then he attached one end to the lower-left piece of bronze and then repeated the process on the right. He wrapped the wire around them several times.

"I cut the plug off because I don't want to fry what's inside ... if anything. So ..." Pete looked around and saw what he wanted. "Young lady, can you pass me the battery from that digital recorder, please?"

The technician removed the back of the recorder and handed Pete a double-A battery.

"Most kind, thank you. This may be enough, but I'm not sure." Pete placed one end of the wire on the positive side of the battery. Then he looked up at the men and women around him. "Okay, here we go," he said, as he placed the other end of the split wire onto the negative post.

As all eyes focused on the plate, nothing happened. Pete adjusted the wires on the battery for a better connection and ... still nothing.

The man from mechanical engineering who was closest to the plate smiled. "It's all right, Pete; at least you eliminated the idea from future consideration. The lines are just lines and not separate sections." He tapped the bulge in the plate. "They are too precise to--"

A small swish came from the plate and several people actually gasped in surprise. The small clamshell spun in a circle from right to left and opened, revealing a crystal protuberance front and back.

"Well, in a way you were right--the engineering did not allow for the sections to separate, but it did allow for them to expand and open. Huh!" Pete said as he stepped closer to the plate and looked.