Part 42 (1/2)

”You're a b.u.mper,” Henry said to Grace. He bounced his hip off hers and said, ”Boing!”

”Funny.”

One of John's purchases was a set of vises. They took the device and placed it in a vise that gripped the base of the device. The vise had rubber grips that squeezed the thing evenly. John then lowered a similar vise from above. This vise was attached to a lever and pressure gauge so that they could measure the exact force they were applying to the device.

”We'll start with twenty newtons of force,” John said.

”This is is just like physics lab,” Grace giggled. just like physics lab,” Grace giggled.

”Applying twenty newtons of force.”

Henry watched the seam on the device. They had precision calipers on both sides to measure its width.

”Nothing.”

”Applying forty newtons.”

”Nothing.”

John worked slowly to 200 newtons, with no change in the width of the seam.

”Maybe we need to relieve the pressure inside before it comes open,” Grace said.

”But how?”

”Cracking it open is probably not an option,” Henry said.

”Not yet,” John said.

”Lubricant?” Henry suggested.

They sprayed a liquid lubricant along the edge. ”Not too much.”

Then John tried 200 newtons of force again. Then 240. ”I can't do any more than that evenly,” he said.

”Then let's use pulleys,” Henry said. ”You have a four-pulley a.s.sembly.” With four pulleys they could quadruple John's force.

They hung the pulley a.s.sembly from the crane.

”Three hundred newtons. Three fifty. Four hundred.”

”Stop!” Henry cried. He slid the caliper against the line. ”I've got half a millimeter movement here.”

”Me too,” Grace said from the other side.

”Now that it's started, you may not need as much force,” Grace said.

John tried 80 newtons, then 120. With a soft pop the front of the device came off.

”Hold it.” The two halves hung separated by a small crack.

”Flashlight, please,” John said.

He s.h.i.+ned the light at the crack but could see nothing.

Henry said, ”There's hinges on this side.”

There were, small hinges where the two halves came together.

They disconnected the upper vise and moved the pulleys out of the way. Gingerly John lifted the upper half away, and it opened like a compact mirror, revealing the inside of the device.

Inside were what looked like two marshmallows covered in mold.

”It was meant to open like that,” Henry said. ”If it has a hinge.”

John looked into the inside of the device and examined the marshmallow things closely. ”Take a picture from every angle, of everything. Use two rolls. I want redundancy.” If he screwed it up, he wanted to know how.

The fungus attached to the two shapes was actually tiny threads. As he looked closer, he saw that the marshmallows themselves were made of tightly bound layers of the stuff.

”That doesn't look like anything made by a human,” Grace said. ”It looks alien.”

John had seen the diversity of the human universes and he was willing to bet that humans, however bizarre they might be, had built this. It just didn't look like anything Grace knew of in her universe.

Henry loaded a new roll of film and repeated all the same shots.

Dozens of threads ran between the two marshmallows, connecting them. Threads also ran from the marshmallows to the hinges and then to the back sides of the controls on the device's lid. Threads ran to all of the b.u.t.tons, dials, and switches. In fact, below each of the b.u.t.tons were smaller fuzzy marshmallows.

”The threads comprise the control system,” Grace said. ”They must be the electronics of the thing.”

Of the two fuzzy marshmallows, one was near the center of the device and the other was to the upper right. That one was the source of the gamma radiation. John noted that there was a white spine, perhaps a half centimeter in diameter, jutting into it. The center mallow had no such spine.

”That's the power source, I a.s.sume,” John said. ”Maybe that spine houses the antimatter.”

”How can you house antimatter?” Henry asked.

”Magnetic field, I a.s.sume.”

Grace pointed the flashlight at the edge of the bottom half. ”Look there.” John peered closely and saw a small strand of the fiber lying unconnected. ”Do you think it fell off? Do you think that's why the device is broken? Or perhaps you've come around to my hypothesis of sabotage!”

”I don't know. Do you have... something?” He made gripping signs with his hands.

Grace handed him long, thin tweezers. Carefully, John slid the thing through the web of threads and caught the stray thread. He pulled it out and put it in a plastic bag.

”Let's see what this is made of,” he said.

He placed it under the light microscope, and they took turns looking at it.