Homesick
Chapter Fifty-Five - Puzzle Box

Vladimir’s console lit the room with a blue haze, which was barely offset by the comparatively smaller glow from his desk lamp. The main light in the gyro-rod casing was off, and as far as everybody else knew, Vlad was asleep. The charade would be less necessary were it not for the small window in his door. Covering it would invite suspicion and a skillful observer might see too much with the main light on. Fortunately, the console was more or less out of view from the door, though reflections from the huge window facing it were a consideration. With the work Vlad would begin today there could be no mistakes.

The turtle-shaped object was hidden within an access panel under his console. Taking a breath, he withdrew it, being careful not to scrape his fingers on the rough edges of the chassis. He set the unit down under the work light and pulled his magnifier close; squinting to see details he hadn’t had time to look for previously. There were no real markings on the unit, or at least not those that resembled language. There were scratches in the casing, but he couldn’t be sure if they were random or intentional. The rounded end was just as blank, as was its edge, except for the pair of wires that originally connected it to the shuttlepod systems. Now came the hard part. How does one open a piece of alien technology?

Vlad first looked for screws, but there were none. But, of course, why would an alien civilization develop the same simple tools he was used to? In fact, the wires themselves may have been the only aspect of the thing that would resemble Earth technology. The unit was quite literally a puzzle box, both inside and out. He grasped the edges of the structure, attempting to rotate the whole shape against itself, as if opening a jar. This proved futile. Next, he re-examined the edge more closely, prodding it carefully with a screwdriver in search of a seam. There was one, but he could see no obvious fasteners. But then, as he rotated the unit, he noticed something different. In three places on the underside, near the edge, were small indentations just wide enough to fit the tip of a flat screwdriver into. For a moment he thought these might be snaps, but when he began to prod one, he discovered they were not. Flush with the surface of the unit to the point of being invisible, were three wedges holding the casing shut. The metal surface of the inside edge appeared to contain tension springs that let go grudgingly as he pried the wedges loose. At last the lid was free.

The circuitry within was more familiar to Vlad than he’d expected. As in Earth electronics, he could see a circuit board on which were joined what might be their equivalent of semi-conductors. As he lowered the magnifier, he could see complex patterns of electronic channels in the dull gray material of the board. He could also see what he believed to be an antenna array looping around the shell. In the center was what looked like an LCD. Vlad drew his hand-held from the table and attached its two leads. Then, systematically, he began to prod at the tiny components and note their readings on the hand-held’s voltage scale.

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