A Deepness in the Sky

Diem didn't reply. This was really a question for those higher up. Vinh heard several voices conferring. "Pan around a little. Aren't there markings on the side of that box?" Trixia! He knew she would be one of the watchers, but it was a very pleasant surprise to hear her voice. "Yes, ma'am," he said, and swept the baton back and forth across the box. There was something along the sides; he couldn't tell whether it was writing or an artifact of overly tricky multiscan algorithms. If it was writing, this would be a minor coup.

"Okay, you can fasten the baton to the box now"—another voice, the acoustics fellow. Ezr did as he was told.

Some seconds passed. The Spider stairs were so steep he had to lean back against the risers. Airsnow haze streamed out from the steps, and downward; he could feel his jacket heaters compensating for the chill of the steps' edges.

Then, "That's interesting. This thing is a sensor right out of the dark ages."

"Electrical? Is it reporting to a remote site?" Vinh started. The last words were spoken by a woman with an Emergent accent.

"Ah, Director Reynolt, hello. No, that's the extraordinary thing about this device. It is self-contained. The ‘power source' appears to be an array of metal springs. A mechanical clock mechanism—are you familiar with the idea?—provides both timing and motive power. Actually, I suppose this is about the only unsophisticated method that would work over long periods of cold."

"So what all is it observing?" That was Diem, and a good question. Vinh's imagination took off again. Maybe the Spiders were a lot more clever than anyone thought. Maybe his own hooded figure would show up intheir recon reports. For that matter, what if this box was hooked up to some kind of weapon?

"We don't see any camera equipment, Crewleader. We have a pretty good image of the box's interior now. A gear mechanism drags a stripchart under four recording styluses." The terms were straight out of a Fallen Civ text. "My guess is, every day or so it advances the strip a little and notes the temperature, pressure...and two other scalars I'm not sure of yet." Every day for more than two hundred years. Human primitives would have had a hard time making a moving-parts mechanism that could work so long, much less do it at low temperatures. "It was our good luck to be walking by when it went off."

There followed a technical dispute about just how sophisticated such recorders might be. Diem had Benny and the others ping the area with picosecond light flashes. Nothing glinted back; no lensed optics were in a line of sight.

Meanwhile, Vinh remained leaning against the stair ramp. The cold was beginning to seep past his jacket and through his full-pressure coveralls. The gear was not designed for extended contact with such a heat sink. He shifted about awkwardly on the narrow steps. In a one-gee field, this sort of acrobatics got old fast....But his new position gave him a view around the corner of the building. And on this side, some of the covering panels had fallen from the windows. Vinh leaned precariously out from the stairs, trying to make sense of what he saw within the room. Everything was covered with a patina of airsnow. Waist-high racks or cabinets were set in long rows. Above them were a metal framework and still more cabinets. Spider stairs connected one level to the other. Of course, to a Spider those cabinets would not be "waist-high." Hmm. There were loose objects piled on top, each a collection of flat plates hinged at one end. Some were folded all together, others were carelessly spread out, like vanity fans.

His sudden understanding was like an electric shock, and he spoke on the public sequency without thinking. "Excuse me, Crewleader Diem?"

The conversation with those above came to a surprised halt.

"What is it, Vinh?" said Diem.

"Take a look through my pov. I think we've found a library."

Somebody up above yelped with pleasure. It really sounded like Trixia.

Thumper analysis would have brought them to the library eventually, but Ezr's find was a significant shortcut.

There was a large door in back; getting the walker in was easy. The walker contained a high-speed scanning manipulator. It took a while for it to adapt to the strange shape of these "books," but now the robot was moving at breakneck speed down the shelves—one or two centimeters per second—two of Diem's crew feeding a steady stream of books into its maw. There was a polite argument audible from on high. This landing was part of the joint plan, all on a negotiated schedule that was to end in just under 100Ksec. In that time they might not be done with this library, much less with the other buildings and the cave entrance. The Emergents didn't want to make an exception for this one landing. Instead, they suggested bringing one of their larger vehicles right to the valley floor and scooping up artifacts en masse.