“SYSTEMREADY.”
MyE-band sounded a signal. I lifted my arm to check. The surge of power to themainframe computer had accelerated the wireless charging of my E-band. At thisrate my E-band would be full already within a few passes.
Thatwas my original plan: to fully charge my E-band so that it had enough power to generatea hyperspace resonance field and potentially tap into the porting channel. However,now that Stevanion was gone, and I was where I wanted to be, I didn’t need itanymore. I didn’t want it anymore.
“Whoa,look at that,” I heard Patrick saying.
Ilooked up.
Thethree transparent screens dissolved into large images. Everyone turned to stareat them, their faces showing awe at the sight. The screens were so large that we were surrounded by them.
“Thisis so cool,” said Rick.
Eachscreen showed a beautiful image of Old Earth: large mountains with white on theirpeaks and blue lakes at the bottom mirroring the rocks. A forestof tall pine trees, thick with layers of fresh snow. The blue depths ofthe ocean, with sun rays fanning through and ahumpback whale emerging in the distance.
Igazed at all of them, more amazed than any of my companions, because I wasseeing these kinds of images for the very first time.
Noone talked for a long while.
Onthe bottom and the sides of each screens were littlecover-flow icons, each showing a different program, file, or folder.
Ichecked my E-band to confirm and said, “These are touchscreens.”
Iwalked forward to the middle screen and touched one of the icons to move it tothe center.
Nothinghappened. I looked back at my E-band to check. It was definitely touch-sensitive.
Why isn’t it working?
“J,can you try? Perhaps I have the wrong temperature.”
Jcame close and mimicked the movement.
Stillnothing.
“Perhapsit would react to gesture commands?” asked Rick.
“Ifthis were the case, it would still have reacted to the movement I did. It hasto be something else.”
Iscrolled through more information and halted on an image. I moved my hand to J sohe could have a look at my E-band screen and asked, “J, what does this looklike to you?”
Jlooked at it and pressed his lips together. “It looks like… like some kind of a…a glove.”
“Ah,of course! It makes sense!”
“Idon’t understand,” said Simon.
“Thesignal for the computer—it cannot come from just anyone in the room whotouches the screens. It has to be from one particular person who is currentlyin control of the system. And that person needs to wear a tracking glove.”
Ilifted up my wrist to show them the image on my E-band. “We need to find thatglove.”
Thegroup spread around, searching. Most of the room was empty except the back wall,which had several metal cupboards. All of them were locked.
“Keys,anyone?” asked Rick.
“No,but let’s try brute strength,” said Frank, and he kicked the first cupboardwith his foot. The door shook and there was a cracking sound, but it stayedclosed.
“It’snot going to work.”
“Ican tell you’ve never tried breaking through a door, Rick.” Frank grinned andkicked the door again.
Anotherbreaking sound, and the door swung open.
“Wow!”Rick jumped backward as Frank kicked the other two cupboards open.
Weall gathered around the first cupboard. On the top shelf there was a singleplastic box. Neatly arranged chip-disk racks lined the rest of the cupboard.
Thesecond cupboard held ten large metal boxes, one on each shelf, each with a seriesof blinking green and red lights.
“Thesemust be the servers,” said Patrick.
Thethird cupboard contained one metal box, cube-shaped, one quarter IP in length.It was fastened to the back wall.
“Whatis that?” asked Simon.
Icrouched down. I was fairly certain what it was, but I checked my E-bandnevertheless.
Of course! The extra power surge for the computer, which alsoaccelerated the charging of my E-band, had to be generated by something otherthan just solar cells. The power source had to be something stronger. “I know what this is.”
Theygathered around me. “Yes?”
“It’swhat you’re looking for.” I smiled at them.
“Whatare we looking for?” asked Peter.
“Power.This is a fission battery. A nuclear microgenerator.”
“Holyshit!” shouted Simon.
“Oh,no!” several others said and moved backward.
“Dora,is it radioactive? Can you tell?” asked J.
Iturned away from the container and looked at them, seeing alarm on their faces.“You do not need to worry. These types of batteries are completely safe. Theywere safe even in the pre-Ev time.”
“Butwhat about the uranium?”
“Thereis radioactive material there, yes, but first of all, there is only a minimalamount: this battery was not made to power a whole city, only one building,perhaps. And also, the casing is radiation-proof,” I said, turned back to thecontainer and put my hand on the top surface.
“No,Dora,” J said and pulled me back.
“J,there is no danger. Look!” I said, showing him my E-band.
Jlooked at the band and then at me. “This doesn’t tell me anything. Why don’tyou move away from that thing?”
Ihad to laugh at that.
“Isit working?” asked Rick pointing to the generator.
Inodded. “Yes. I think it activated when we first opened up the door. These typesof batteries shut down when they are not used. Once the power is needed again,they turn on automatically. And because they contain uranium, they last for avery long time.
“Now,what we need is a specific interactive system which works with these screens.”I walked back to the cupboard and pulled out the plastic box. Inside was aglove made out of rubber finger cups connected to a textile wristband.
Ipulled it over my right hand and turned around to face the computer walls. Withmy gloved hand, I tapped on the folder. The folder then rolled out from athumbnail to the size of the whole screen.
Itwas a map. Of course. The map I saw in my Vision in Mike’scottage.
Everyonecame close to the screen walls, forgetting their fears of the microgenerator behindthem.
“Okay,what are we seeing here?” Peter crossed his arms over his chest.
“Thislooks like a map of some sort. Do you recognize it?” I asked.
“Isn’tthis… this is here! Look!” Frank toucheda spot on the map where the green and blue areas met. Everybody leaned forward,but for a few moments no one said anything.
“You’reright, Frank. This is a map of this area, and we must
