the artefacts

8/9/2019 The Artefacts

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gala"ies were currently being colonised, this would not be difficult to set up, and therecycling plants would supply the raw materials reprocessed from their scrap artefacts,

back to their donor planet, for the usual charges.Their first basic $ob would be to locate the numerous piles of forgotten artefacts on

each colonised planet, or ones that had been previously colonised and now abandoned,

then arrange collections of these many and varied metals, plastics, wood, and other typesof materials to a central pickup point on that planet, then arrange space transport for it allto one of the two processing depots for last analysis and finally categorised.

This huge amount of space $unk would be coming in from the many locations aroundthe known universe, some of them would be sent for preservation if the artefact seemedto be of some artistic value in its present form, or if not, to recycle the metals if possible,and if there was nothing to salvage, scrap completely. The government agents would travel out from one of the central hubs, go to a planet, or habituated moon, e"amine the huge collection of artefacts held there in bulk, and setabout authorising the collection of all of this unwanted detritus from all of thewarehouses where it had been stored for up to a couple of hundreds of years.

This government sponsored body, when it was finally up and running, e"plained in itsadvertising spiel that with many of the natural resources on the numerous planets alreadyinhabited by the *uman +ace were dwindling, with general raw materials becomingmore and more scarce, especially in and around the older occupied worlds, where theyhad been produced for the longest period of time, and therefore almost e"hausted. These non essential items within these huge warehouses would only have to be sortedfor their recycling value, particularly the metals, and then either recycled or if of no use,scrapped. This would then hopefully negate the need to pay the very, very e"pensive costof mining new raw materials, needed for use in most types of manufacturing.

+ecycled raw materials, not only all types of metals but also the same rules applying to plastics were then easier to store in large quantities, the plastics as small coloured pellets. The metals would later be moulded to their ingot form, and stamped for quality and

purity, then shipped back to the donor planet for the fees, where they could be broughtinto use when needed more or less at any time.

y working this way, the occupied planets could make their own new parts reallycheaply as and when they really needed them, using the numerous banks of stored ingotsof metals and alloys, or plastic beads sent back to them from the recycling plants. There was, however, another far less transparent reason for this '.'.&.(. to be doingthis recycling though this was never mentioned in the massive publicity drive used to

promote the venture when the whole thing was set up many, many years ago. #ome of these ancient items spread throughout the known universe and stored oversuch long periods of time may not be as safe as they were believed to be, and could

possibly have come from some kind of ancient weapon, or parts of a weapon used in the past, for either e"plosive, chemical or even biological warfare, all of these uses long since banned by universal decree. These needed to be removed from the public domain. These artefacts, as they were now always referred to by that name, may be onlytwenty years old but could still possess some sort of forgotten chemical or biologicaltechnology, which in the wrong hands could create total havoc to all life, as we know it.This was one of the reasons why these artefacts were in reality, total metal and plasticscrap that had to be collected and disposed of.

'hemical intermediate bulk containers, big white plastic tanks were used to transportliquids, and many thousands of stacks of individually packed and labelled compounds,and metal parts, together with countless packing cases of shielded radioactive materials,


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This artefact transfer pickup was to be one of the shorter cargo transfers for this shipand crew, as all of the inbound ancient artefact materials on board this station had beencollected and brought here for transfer from all over this sector. The cargo had already

been checked, catalogued, packed, and where needed, made ready for safe passage to themain hub for final processing on alilee /0, some four months travel away.

This was the only efficient way that shipping could to be done over these vastdistances, using different depots to hold the artefact cargo from the different sectors, andthen the depots sending it all in bulk to the regional depots, who would then forward aload to the space station, where the mighty giant si1e ships could collect for the long haul.In a way, a sort of conveyor system, gathering them up from all parts of the territory.

These massive cargo ships could not attain light speed, nothing was able to yet, butthey could get up to about 23 per cent of it in the lesser occupied areas of space, wherethere were few ob$ects to collide with before you were aware they were there. These nearlight speed corridors were used like motorways, cleared of any obstructions that couldharm a freighter at near light speed, and kept clear of space debris.

The $ourney times per run were kept to a minimum, and all kept within a reasonable

timescale. y using really massive ships with huge cargo capacity, this made all of thecollection and return $ourneys a lot more profitable for the haulier. This had been the fourth run inside two years for this ship and crew with their families,and on the completion of this run to unload at alilee /0, they were due to take a fullyears shore leave, with pay and bonuses.

These ships were more than $ust workplaces though they were whole communities. abies were born on board, children were educated on board, their parents all workedon board, and sometimes the elderly died on board. This was the life of the people whoserved among these very special space freighter crews. Everything they needed was hereon board, though to some, it never did quite feel like home. The company had done some e"tensive research into deep space travel, and had foundthat in the past, after about two years or more, the crews could not work properly, evenwith their entire families along, as beyond that time, they would start to complain abouttheir kids not getting the best chances of applying for any of the planet based $obs in the

$ob market, and were only being trained to work on the ships and not in any of theadministration parts of the operation, and promotion.

The government had also found in their research, that the education received on boardthese ships, age for age, was well in advance of the normal planetary based schools,

possibly due to that on board they had fewer distractions, and the children were morelikely to compare notes with each other and help each other along across the age gaps.

These very well taught teenagers became another precious resource for the good ofmankind and all of the occupied planets. The pupils coming from the ships were usuallyvery highly qualified in comparison to the planet based students, and were moredisciplined within themselves, making them prime candidates to become the futureleaders who would, in their own time, run these governments and their many facets in thefuture. %ife on board these huge craft was not seen as a chore4 in fact, there was a largeelement of lu"ury about the lifestyle, with sociability being quite high on the agenda.The living quarters were almost palatial, these ships being so massive there was noreason to restrict the room si1es to little cabins, and as they would rocket through spacewith no resistance to speak of, overall si1e really didnt matter.

&s long as everyone on board played by the rules, and did not upset, interfere with thelife of, or harm anyone other than himself or herself, it was not a bad life to live.


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There was however, one rule that was a total taboo, and was so serious that it couldcost you your life.

This rule was chanted over and over again in the crew training schools at the variousdepots throughout the known universe, and it must never ever be broken. 5o one in livingmemory had ever heard of an instance where this rule had been broken, as to do so could

endanger the ship, the whole crew and their families, and possibly the stations or planetswhere they docked. The rule was simple, and straightforward. !nder no circumstances whatsoever must any crew person, or a member of theirfamily, or anyone connected with the day to day running of the ship, enter any of thecargo holds from either inside the ship or from the outside, or in any way tamper with thedoor seals placed there by the loading marshals at the completion of the loading orunloading on both the inner and outer doors, at any time throughout the whole flight.

The fire alarms within the cargo holds used *alon gas, which could put out a fire inseconds, but would also kill a human if one was in there as it forces out the o"ygen. estto leave well alone was the phrase used.

5o one, for any reason whatsoever, from the 'aptain downwards was allowed to break the quarantine seals placed at various positions within the various sections inside thecargo holds. The nature of the types of cargo carried by these ships could easily infect acrew or family members, then they, having no antidote or natural resistance, could pass iton and on, until it became a ship wide epidemic, finally rendering the whole crew andtherefore the ship, totally useless. It would then have to be destroyed with all hands, deador otherwise, while in space. lown to bits, basically. This, on the face of it, looked very much like some very strict quarantine laws to

protect the human race from long forgotten and dormant illnesses, the immunity fromwhich being lost long ago. In reality, nothing having that kind of contagion risk was ever sent through this methodof transport in the collection system, it never had been, and never would be.

&nything that represented that level of bioha1ard was always sent, almost immediatelyand in a totally sealed container, to a total destruction plant in another specially designedincinerator on a planet elsewhere within the group. 6as the crew in any danger from this space $unk7 5ot as long as the seals were intact.

CHAPTER TWO

The loading had begun two days ago, and though the facilities on this massive spacestation were not e"tensive, it gave the crew from the ship and their families a change ofscenery, and en$oy a well deserved break. To look at something different. This was the time they took for buying all of their personal needs, things that were notusually found in the ships stores. 'lothing, $ewellery, perfumes, the wives of thecrewmen always appreciated this sort of goods. #ome of the crew would en$oy a beer or two, some would buy more reading books forthose long nights at the consoles where nothing ever happens, but you have to be there incase it ever did. This four day layover for loading was one of the shorter ones, this space station not

being capable of holding more than about three quarters of the ships total capacity, but


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with the amount of loading crew available on the station being lower than the largerstations, this put the time factor to load back up to four days or so. The ships crew werent worried by this, as all they really cared about now was in fourshort months from now, they had a whole year of paid leave, on their own planet ofalilee /0, with their e"tended family. This stopover was used as an ideal time to pick up

a few gifts for parents, or even grandparents, to gift them on returning home. The life of the crew of one of these freighters was not a bad one. They had thesestopovers, they had their family with them, those who had family, and the wholeoperation seemed to be a good one. The pay was good, very good in fact, and a lot of

people on the planets trained to do this kind of work, so there was never any shortage ofcrew due to natural wastage. It seemed a good life. The government always made sure that the crews were happy, and made sure they were

paid on time. They had to make sure that they wanted to remain in their $obs, happily, andobey the rules, that way they were less likely to steal any of the artefacts and sell them onthe black market, or dig around the cargos to supply information to another interested

party, for money. They had to make sure that any other organisation wanting these

artefacts or information on them could not afford to pay these crewmen enough for whatthey would lose if they were caught. It had happened before, but not for quite a long timenow. It was treated as *igh Treason. The crews were happy, the government was happy. Everybody was happy

CHAPTER THREE

alilee /0 was a fairly ordinary type of habitable planet, as we would more or less

understand the definition. & hot liquid metal core, similar to Earth, and a magnetic field being generated by the spinning of the core, meant it could retain an atmosphere, andoffer protection from the huge star of alilee, even though the planet itself was a littlesmaller than the Earth.

It had no special features4 its weather patterns were in no way e"treme, in either heator cold. It had seasons, similar to those on Earth but not as severe a difference, as it didnthave the tilt in the a"is that Earth has It did however have a stable orbit around its star,alilee. Its orbit was much further out from its star than the distance between the Earthto the #un, but it revolved faster, making the day 89 hours long ish. The seasons werelonger though, lasting almost a year each. The star of the alilee system was much greater in si1e than the Earths sun, and the

inner planets, up to alilee /9, were all e"tremely hot and hostile environments, even forthe robotics division of the artefact collectors.

/: and /; were, by comparison, cooler, but still uncomfortably hot, in particularduring their summer cycle.

Most of the general smelting plants used for the recycling of the metals from theartefacts were based on /;, though it was impossible for the workers to work therewithout wearing an environment suit for most of the day. It was because of these e"tremeconditions that the workers based there worked for no more than one week at a time.Most of these plants were automated, and worked a lot more efficiently at the higherambient temperatures, therefore requiring less energy input to melt the various alloys and

base metals. 5o need to worry about pollution here, as, other than these smelting plants

and the operators, the whole planet was deserted.


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/0 was the home of the ma$or artefact sorting warehouses, some very large sitessituated outside and around an equally large metropolis, the houses being built there tohouse the many scientists and metallurgists, together with their families, all attached tothe operation of sorting the artefacts into their various metallic categories, of which therewere thousands of tests that had to be performed, to identify each individual metal or

alloy before sending the sorted materials, pre packed, to their respected smelting plant. %ike all well run businesses, the management people here on /0, monitored the'.'.&.(., continuously. These were the faceless people known to work upstairs, but never seen anywherewithin the plant, and yet their decisions were certainly felt by the workforce.

5ew plant had been installed here a year ago, so that the plant could process moretypes of alloy based metals, and various less common types of base metals, whichincluded the precious ones, could now be processed here.

& new smelting plant had been built on /;, to take the increased workload, and thestaff brought in from the old plant to operate it, all transferred here when their obsolete

plant finally closed.

&s part of the rules of employment with this company, no one was allowed to remain atthe site of an old processing plant, as the plant would be totally and purposely destroyed.lown up, stripped, and recycled. This was taken to be the normal practice of this industry, where security was very tight,and these types of relocations were usually seen to be a means to improved efficiencythroughout the quadrant. The various carriers and ships would now operate out of /0,and the crews and families would also base here too. The planet had a good clean atmosphere, electricity was by solar power and windturbines, the latter being placed in the centre of the huge ocean that took up over half ofthe planet, the wind farm almost looking like a shimmering island of blades as they allturned together.

The total population of /0 at this time physically occupied only about a si"th of theavailable landmass, the rest of the available land being held over to be developed asresidential in the future. The polluting industries were all kept on /:, and /;, where itcould not affect anything indigenous to those planets, as they were both dead worlds,

baked dry by the relentless heat from alilee itself. In effect, it was a safe, controlled environment to live and bring up a family. Everyneed could be met, in life, love, health and peace of mind, and as long as the incomingartefacts remained in their quarantine state till they were fully tested and identified, therewas no obvious downside to living here. #ome of the freighter crews described it as aheaven to spend your years shore leave on. That was, until something came in from out there, that would change peoples livesforever. The freighter from the space station landed, and docked at the recycling plant as usual,the crew disembarking for their year off. The unloading crews broke the seals as usual onthe holds, reporting them as intact, then the stevedore crews moved in with their hugelifting machinery, ready to commence offloading this massive cargo of artefacts, as theynormally would. !p to now, all was well.

CHAPTER FOUR


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?#omeones cocked up big time again@, he muttered as he made his way through the plant. ?These readings are way off the scale. They are impossible. #omeones broken thesensors again@ *e mentally ran through the auto sorting procedures to get it perfectly clear in hishead, to make sure that there could be no errors.

The stuff came in, millions of electrical charges applied, and the resistances givenwould then identify the metal or alloy. 5ot rocket science.The automatic selector would then separate the various metals into either their pure

containers, or send the large bits into areas where they would be broken into smaller bits,and tested again, the pure metals being sent to the correct bins. This would happen overand over to all of the metals to be processed, the impure fragments would then be splitover and over, till finally, they could be the si1e of a tenth of a millimetre. Its so easy,and yet someone has made some sort of huge error. *e muttered away to himself that it was totally impossible for an electric charge to beapplied, and then receive a reading showing a resistance figure of less than one.

-nly in a liquid state would any known metal register anywhere near a figure near

1ero, and this was rare. The machines needed to be recalibrated. These printout results he had been told hewas about to see were showing large minus figures in the resistance. In all of the laws of physics currently known and understood, this would be impossible,

because to have a negative resistance would mean that the current being applied wouldaccelerate as it travelled through the ob$ect instead of being resisted by it. This cannothappen.

This was going to be another glitch to report to *ead -ffice, and no doubt a mountainof paperwork to follow.


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&s an artefact, it was beautiful to look at, possibly made to order by some unknowncraftsmen a long time ago, but as to its use, if it ever had one then or now, this was notknown. It did not match any of the templates of artefacts contained in the vast computerfiles, nor did it have any of the metal properties of any of the vast listings found in themetal archive databases either.

This ob$ect, as long as a musical flute, and of similar shape, with added mouldingsonly weighed about half a gram in total. It might have been a type of old candleholder,made by craftsmen many millennia ago. In effect, it could be anything.


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to identify it correctly from now on. asically, this meant giving it a new cataloguenumber. *e sat at his desk, the ob$ect in his hand, looking at it, turning it round and round,holding it to the light, and moving it in the light to see if there was anything he may havemissed on his first inspection. The workmanship on this item was really superb, and it

seemed a bit of a shame that it would eventually end up being smelted for its metal valueas opposed to its artistic beauty, once the metal identity had been established of course. The more he looked at it, the more he began to appreciate the talented craftsmanshipthat had been used to produce such a fine piece of work. There were parts of the raised areas that resembled a rope spun vine with whatresembled leaves wrapping around the general tube, the vine growing over another vine

beneath, and another beneath that and so on. y the si1e and superb quality of work, this had been made by a very good silversmith,though it was certainly not made of silver. It was so very light in weight too. 6hile he pondered his ne"t move, the office phone rang. &nother piece of the same metal had $ust been discovered in another load, over in

another part of the sorting warehouse. It had however come from the same salvageshipload though, so there could be a connection This time,


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CHAPTER SIX

The months passed, the normal artefacts were still being offloaded into the sortingwarehouses, the testing was still being done, and the metals were still being sent to /;for smelting. Everything had more or less returned to normal, and it should remain so,right up to the time of the arrival of the archaeologists and e"perts at the plant.

The rumours would then start all over again among the various crews that somethingmust have been found. This would mean tighter security around the plants, as the metalstealing pirates would try to swoop in and make off with anything they thought would beof value to a buyer, and whatever was taken would never be seen again. The boffins should all be here in less than a week. &s not all of them were coming into /0 from the same area of space, but they wouldarrive in small numbers over a period of about four days in total, and this made it a littleeasier for the #tation Crocessing #tation staff to organise the various accommodation forthese people. alilee /0 had some really fantastic hotels, but they came with a really fantastic pricetag, and as the 'ompany itself was footing the bill, then much more frugal rooms were to

be sourced.The resulting list drawn up of the local hotels was more than adequate for the needs of

these guests who could possibly be working here, technically speaking, for quite a longtime, without inflicting too much pain on the accounts team at *ead -ffice. -n thedownside though, they were spread out all over the town, a room here, and a room there,a suite here, a motel there. In fairness to the 'ompany, they had organised specialtransport, initially only while the investigations were ongoing, to all of these boffins from

wherever they were staying and bringing them to the plant itself. The first two meetings were to be more of a social affair than a summit conference, asthe (irector of this operation would not arrive until the planned date of the third meeting,so these e"perts more of less mingled around with themselves, patting each other on the

back for the many obscure articles they had written for publication about the manyhighbrow sub$ects they studied. They did all of this while eating and drinking from ahuge supplied buffet. These old published works of theirs would only have be read byeach other, and were generally agreed with as being correct. Their )bibles.


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*e boarded his transport to the (irectors hotel, e"pecting nothing outstanding wasgoing to happen while he was there.

The (irector would look at the pieces, hum and ha about them, and declare them assome e"cellent artisan artwork from long ago, and the investigation would end. & newcategory would be created in the recycling files, and that would be that.

Thats the way


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&s his vehicle pulled up at the part of the plant where the new piece had been found,the last thing


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skin left on their bodies, and not e"pected to make it through the night. I want this)ob$ect out of my facility.@


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It took him a moment to recognise the sound of his doorbell, being rang furiously, andcontinuously. *e looked at his clock. >3.93am. 6ho the hell made house calls at thistime of night7 &s he got up and pulled on a dressing gown, he called out loudly to whoever was

pressing the doorbell to stop, and that he was on his way. *opefully they didnt hear the

curses too. *e opened the door, ready to give someone a lashing with his tongue, and had startedto do so he realised it was a very disturbed looking (irector at his door. *is tempercooled very quickly. #he barged passed him and into his sitting room, planting herselffirmly on the large sofa that


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The (irector, looked at


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#he glanced at Tony, who was standing in the wings, and smiled. #he knew that hewould be the protector of these three pieces, and her from a mob if it got rowdy, a

possibility if the audience felt in any way threatened by these three items. The allotted time for the presentation arrived, the lights dimmed a little, though notenough for the assembled think tank to see the ob$ects on the table starting to glow, and

the (irector walked across to the podium. #he welcomed the honoured guests, and themany e"perts within this gathering, thanking them for their attendance, and hopefullytheir input into this unusual investigation. #he started to e"plain, ?&s my learned friends already know, to call a meeting of minds like this is very rare,and usually for a very important reason@, & murmur of agreement went around the room like a 'hinese whisper. #he continued. ?It is also very rare that we would assemble in a plant such as this@, a little giggle wentaround the room, ? ut this ladies and gentlemen, is ground 1ero. This is where it ishappening. 5ot thousands of years ago, but right here, right now.@ & bu11, much louder than before was heard throughout the room, as the questions were

being compiled already. Time to put them out of their misery.

? In this plant, over a period of a few months, artefacts of a different type have beenturning up. These metal items cannot be identified by any of the electronic processes hereat the plant, and have survived severe crushing and splitting processes, without harm. 6ecan only assume this as we have no knowledge of what they are supposed to look like@,she signalled to Tony to walk to the table, ?For those of you who do not know this gentleman here, he is the *ead of #ecurity forthe whole of the plant functions on /0, and it has been his responsibility to look afterthese pieces for us until we could take over their care, and analyse them properly.@ Tony nodded to the audience and received a small ripple of applause. The (irectorcarried on, ?There are three of these artefacts found so far, and they all have unusual properties@,Tony held the largest one up for the crowd to see, ? 6hen an electric current is passed through any metal or alloy, the metal should offersome sort of resistance, this measurement would then be used here in the plant to identifythat metal or alloy. *owever, these items, when a current of electricity is applied, offer anegative resistance, this creating the effect of accelerating the current through it.@ -nce again, the occupants of the room started to become more vocal in their murmursof disbelief and even more questions were being formulated. ? I know that this principle in the known laws of physics is impossible, and we musthave made a mistake. elieve me, we have not, and it has cost the lives of three men upto now proving that this is what is happening.@ The place went quiet. ? These items possess another, equally remarkable property. They seem to have theability to absorb electricity from anywhere they can, the air, static or otherwise, whichmakes them luminescence with a bright blue colour.@ The theatre lights were dimmed further down so the glow from the piece that Tony washolding could be seen clearly by the audience, ?&nd, if they are used together, it amplifies the glow many, many times@. Tony picked up a second piece and brought it close to the first. The glow intensified tothat of a light bulb. ?This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we are here. To seek the answers of not only whyand how these things do what they do, but, and this is more important, what do they do itfor7@


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*e rang the security office again, and spoke to the chief who informed him that theyhad their mole, and he had admitted it. *e was currently in custody awaiting the policecoming to collect him.

They had found out that he was working alone, so no loose ends there, and had beenoffered 3 thousand for these three pieces of artefact by a criminal operating inside the

town. They had a name, but no proof. 6ithout the proof, this mastermind would $ustrecruit another pawn in the plant, and the whole thing would start all over again. Tony thought to himself,@ 6hy is it vermin cannot be totally eradicated. There isalways one, then two, and so on.@ 6hen he updated the (irector, she agreed, adding that this applied to all walks of life,anywhere and at any time. & fact of life. Tony phoned out to the general office, and asked for two cups of coffee to be broughtin for them, while they chatted, small talk in the main, waiting out the time till themeeting. *e e"pressed his relief that these items would be finally leaving his care, andgoing to a new home where they can be poked, prodded, or whatever else the scientistswould be able to do to identify their structure, and hopefully, their use.

The (irector also thought that it would be a relief to pass them on to the first of thestudy groups who were ready to start the analysis as soon as tomorrow. y 3pm, Tony and the (irector sounded like old friends, chatting away, and passingthe time in good company. The outer office staff had all called in to say goodnight, andhad left to go home, the cleaners had been around, emptied the bins, swept and vacuumedthe carpets, dusted a bit here and there, and away to the ne"t office. y 3./3pm they werealone. They both started to detect a strange sort of bu11ing in their ears, and a feeling ofnausea, like the prologue to passing out. They looked at each other, confirming thefeelings, and Tony immediately suspecting that another break in was imminent, possiblythe coffee had been drugged. *e felt a fool4 hed let his guard down for only a moment. They could still speak, but only quietly, a croaking whisper really, and had both lost theuse of their limbs. These thieves are getting more and more hi tec as their timing was

perfect. They waited, and watched for the door to open.The (irector, who could see passed where Tony was sitting, said in a whisper,

?Those things are glowing again, the safe and the cabinets are bright, and getting brighter.@

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The two of them sat, unable to move, as if glued to their seats and not able to makemuch of a sound either. &ll they could do was watch and wait as the glow intensifiedfrom the safe. This time the glow reached a real brightness, then started to pulse, a fairlyquick pulsation, but not a deep one, the glow only slightly diminishing then back up tofull power. There was no sound from anywhere in the office comple", other than thelaboured breathing of the two of them.

?#o this is how it ends,@ thought Tony. ? es, this is the end, but not the end of you,@ a voice sounded from nowhere, ? ut of

this incident, it has to end now.@


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Tony looked at the (irector, and she was looking at him. ?(id you hear that7@ he asked the (irector. #he replied, ? es, but I do not think I heard it with my ears. It seems to be in my head.@ The two of them sat there, fearing the worst. These thieves were good. ?6e are not thieves,@ this detached voice in their heads said,@ 6e have merely come to

retrieve what is ours, and what we have misplaced.@The voice went on, ?I will e"plain.@ oth Tony and the (irector were by now giving this there />>L attention neither hadany idea what was to come ne"t. ?6e are what you would call, in simple terms, aliens. 6e do e"ist, but it was manymillions of your years ago when we occupied this area of space, and have progressivelymoved outwards beyond your known universe since then, something your race is $uststarting to do, $udging by your beginnings.@ ?6e did e"actly as you are doing, we cleaned up after ourselves totally, as some of ourtechnology, even back in that time period, would have been totally mind blowing to any

primitive race, such as yours. I do not say this as an insult, only as a fact.@

?6e assumed, erroneously, that we had gleaned it all from where we had colonised inthe past, but it appears we missed some of it, and these pieces are not compatible withyour own technology, in fact they are in conflict with it, and therefore dangerous to bothyou, as these can kill you and us, because you would discover we e"ist.@ ?The danger to us then would be, because you would now have your proof that otherlife forms either currently e"ist, or have e"isted in the past, you would come looking forus. This is something we have tried to cover up a long time ago, so as not to leave a trail,for our own safety. 6e have, to our detriment, been followed before by other races too, sowe decided to go as far as our technology would take us, till we were able to be too faraway to be detected, and therefore safe.@ ?The danger to you is with the cross technology between the two races. 6e do notgenerate electricity as you do for power, and light. 6e use devices made of an alloy thatdraw the raw energy from the !niverse, and convert it into a usable energy source for our equipment. The three items you posses are part of one such device, a communicationsdevice to be e"act.@ Tony now had the answer as to what these items were for, for what good thatinformation would do him at this moment. The voice continued, ?The electromagnetic fields surrounding your power generating or distributionnetworks triggers the devices to begin to absorb the, and I have no word in your languagefor this, the Cio waves, waves of a e"tremely short wavelength. 6aves that can passthrough all of your solid ob$ects. I believe you understand a sister particle form of thesewaves, though in a solid form you can relate to. ou call them 5eutrinos, and the powersource we use, you call dark matter.@ Tony looked at the (irector in a questioning look, as this was way over his head and inher field of e"pertise. #he nodded, and whispered,@ es.@ The voice once again took up the narrative, ?These items of ours that you posses are e"tremely dangerous in your environment. 6ehave already collected the fourth part of the whole communicator on our way here, andwe are here to reclaim the other three. 6e must take them to safety, with or without yourconsent. This is e"tremely important that we do so.@ The (irector replied, in a hushed voice, and with difficulty, ?If you take these items from us, then what do we tell the scientific communitygathered here to e"amine these pieces. It would either prove the two of us to be mentally


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deficient, or that you e"ist, and I assume you want neither of these outcomes. If you takethe items, then it will be one or the other.@

?6e have thought of that in our planning,@ continued the voice,@ and have a solutionwhich will save you from embarrassment, and us from e"posure.@ ?6e knew when we first received the signal from this communications device that it

had been e"posed to a manufactured electron radiation source, and it had to have beencreated by another unknown intelligent life form, unknown to us that is. 6e were asunaware of your e"istence as you were, up till now, of ours,@ ?6e knew that these energy generations would trigger the collectors in the pieces to actlike something you call an accumulator, where it can charge and discharge rapidly asneeded. *owever, over a period of time, the pieces would gather enough charge in each

piece to be fatal to any life form that was anywhere near to it.@ Tony e"plained the four lives lost so far, and the circumstances. The voice began again, ?It has never been our intention to harm another being, and for what has alreadyhappened, we are very sorry as part of our scrap could have caused this, but that is why

we must remove these items from this planet before more of your people lose their life because of our mistake. It would be remiss of us to do otherwise.@ -nce again the (irector spoke. ? ut how would I e"plain that these items, shown to everyone here yesterday, and dueon display again today, have vanished. I cannot say they were taken by their owners, who

$ust happen to be aliens, can I7@ &fter a short pause, a strange multicoloured vorte", about /8 inches tall, appeared $ustabove Tonys desk, spiralling like a mini tornado. &s they watched, three items of metalfell out of it and onto the desk in front of them. ?These are perfect replicas of the items you possess, and are made of an alloy metalthat will keep your scientist busy for months trying to identify the metal they are madefrom. They will eventually work it out, but it will take a long time. These however, arenot dangerous in any way.@ ?&s to the originals, they will go with us. It has been pleasantly different tocommunicate with another race that, until recently, we knew nothing about. This will beour last communication with your race, as if we tell our people, we will be ridiculed, andI assume the same will apply to you.@ ?Cerhaps it will be better if we bid you goodbye, and leave it that way.@ The vorte" moved over and took up a position $ust above the safe. The three items

passed through the metal walls of the safe as if they were not there, and slipped into thevorte", which promptly disappeared. &t the same time, whatever had been restraining Tony and the (irector stopped, andeverything, including the darker lighting of the room returned to normal. *e looked at the clock on the wall.

It read 3./:pm, this whole thing had happened in only seconds. -n his desk in front of him lay the three items identical to those that had been stored inhis safe, and on checking the safe4 it was empty e"cept for the compartmentalised bag.

It had not been a dream. *ad they really seen and heard what they seem to have seen and heard. For the ne"t two hours, the conversation between Tony and the (irector, held in hisoffice, was intense.


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the artefacts

Documents