Nova paced in front of the large screen in Ops as he listened to the INN anchorwoman. Justin walked in with two computer tablets in his hands. He listened in.
“We have footage coming in from across the globe. BADGE encampments around Ren Tech spheres are breaking down and moving out. Local authorities and international pressures forced BADGE to stop attacking the spheres. BADGE has declined to explain why they were so interested. However, spokespeople from Ren Tech claim that several competitor internet and cell phone companies are influencing BADGE. To celebrate this, Ren Tech announced that a whole new batch of Ren Wear has arrived in stores and is on sale. Market projections show that Ren Wear will soon become the best-selling technological tool in history.”
Justin asked, “Why won’t you talk to the media? Set them straight?”
Nova said, “I know how this works. Ren Tech people will twist whatever I say.”
Setting one of the computer tablets down, Justin said, “This reminds me of the problem with the World Corps. They used misinformation and twisting of our words to constantly get the public on their side. I can see why you want to choose how you respond carefully. But, I would advise you to respond with something. Right now, Ren Tech has all the screen time while we sit here and look bad.”
Nova asked, “Did you find anything to help me? Or are you just going to attack my decisions?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Nova turned and said, “No, I’m sorry. You are just considering what you think is the best course of action. Right now, I want to snap at someone and you got in the way. Did you have something for me?”
“Yes, I have something. It isn’t much, but it can get us started in a new direction.”
“What is it?”
Justin tapped on his computer tablet and a new window opened with data on it. “We scanned the sphere with Dr. Henderson’s new multiphasic morphon scanner. It gave us a clear picture of just how the morphons are acting around the sphere. My idea is, if we program our scanning system to use MMS, then we will see which spheres are still clouded by morphons and which are clear.”
“And that could give us some kind of pattern to follow.” Nova said.
“Precisely.”
“12154, Get the MMS information programmed into the primary sensor array. I want a global scan.”
Robot 12154 said, “Reprogramming will take approximately four hours.”
“Get to it and scan as soon as it is ready.”
***
Alex walked through the park in Christchurch with a breakfast burrito in his hand. His gait was casual, but his eyes kept a keen watch for the surrounding people. Several chatted with each other about the missing sphere. A few approached where the sphere had been and then walked away.
In front of him was an open space in the field. Children played soccer in the distance, a jogger blazed by, and several birds made their way toward crumbs a grandmother was scattering on the ground.
With a glance around to be certain no one saw him, he stepped through a magical barrier and instantly the sphere appeared, with Krystal and Torrik at work around it. He could still see the surrounding park, but no one saw them.
“This is freaky. I feel... I don’t know... like I’m taking a bath in public.” Alex said.
Torrik frowned, “I don’t understand. Where do you bathe?”
“In a private bathroom in my house.” Alex said.
Torrik shrugged, “Earthers are weird. We Satyrs like communal baths.”
Krystal, who was the only one working right now, said, “Yes, and Satyrs are naked.”
“I have fur in all the right places.”
Alex said, “Moving on... how is it that no one has accidentally walked through this invisible barrier?”
Torrik said, “Perception guise. People and animals that get near it suddenly feel a need to move away from it. They don’t realize it, but they just do it.”
Alex asked, “So, what’s the verdict on the morphon levels?”
Krystal answered, “Strong. This sphere is a cloud of morphons. The magic ones around this are far greater than any other I have encountered so far.”
“Anything else?”
She brushed her hand against it.
Alex quickly said, “Watch it! Don’t touch it!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been touching it all morning. So far, it has done nothing to me. I can say that I feel something odd about this.”
“Magically odd?”
Torrik said, “Not exactly. I felt it too.” He tapped the surface with a knuckle, listening to the thick ding it made. “This metal is incredibly dense.”
“What do you mean?” Alex walked over and brushed his hand over the sphere’s surface.
Torrik said, “I spent some time smithing weapons with the Felionsians, best metal smiths in Yohan. I know a bit about metals. This isn’t just an especially dense alloy. This metal is thick, like something is unusual about it.”
“Are you certain?”
Krystal said, “No. We can’t be certain about anything. But, it just feels... thick, like the metal itself is excessively compact.”
“How, exactly, does that help us?” Alex asked.
Torrik said, “Any new information is useful in an investigation.”
Alex felt across the surface of the large sphere, brushing his hand along it. “I don’t know. Some information is worthless. Also, we can’t be certain we are accurate about this. I... “
The sphere made a beeping sound, two little lights appeared on the surface and a line across the middle split.
“What did you just do?” Krystal asked.
Alex took his hand off and looked at the sphere. “I don’t know. Did I find a button or something?” He looked around where he touched.
Torrik pressed his fingers against it at the thin separation around the middle. “This is a split, an opening. I... will try...” He tugged and pushed on it, his hands sliding against the slick metallic surface. “I won’t budge.”
Krystal held up her hands. “Step back. Let me try something.” When both Alex and Torrik had moved away, she cast a spell that came from her hands with a connected energy. She grabbed the sphere like a plastic Easter egg with giant purple energy hands and tried to pull it apart. After a few minutes of grunting and casting, the spell failed to do anything. “Gah! This thing is impossible! How can anything be this tough?”
“I wish we could bring this to the Feliosians,” Torrik muttered.
Alex said, “We need to report this to Nova now.”
“Yes.” Krystal grabbed her comm.
***
Justin and Nova waited while a giant map of the earth spread out across the massive screen in Ops. Lines showed the scanner sweeping across the surface. This looked similar to their scans for Adrianne.
“Scan complete. Attaching data markers.” 12154 announced.
On the map, thousands of dots appeared across the planet. Some were bright yellow, others were a dull blue.
“Yellow indicates active morphonic signatures. Blue indicates inert morphonic signatures. Sensors could not find any more data on spheres. Do you wish me to scan again for more data on spheres?”
Nova answered the robot, “No, this is enough.”
12154 said, “There is further data.”
“What?”
“Sensors also scanned atmospheric conditions with MMS network. The MMS network increased the precision of sensor data regarding morphon levels, and this information is now available.”
“Put the numbers on the screen,” Nova said.
Justin asked, “What was it saying about this new reading?”
“We’re always scanning the atmosphere for morphon levels. That is how we knew about the increase when we started seeing far more new morphonic people. This MMS scanner has a better resolution, so we have clearer numbers.”
“What about the yellow and blue dots?” Justin asked.
Nova said, “We have a small portion of these spheres that are now inert. I just don’t know why.”
Justin said, “We had a theory. It has no evidence to support it at this time, though.”
“Well, what is it?”
“These spheres are morphon powered, even Dr. Chorad admitted that to you.”
“He did.” Nova agreed.
Justin said, “Then, how can some be without morphons? We know morphons surrounded the one in Onnotangu, yet look at it now. It’s inert. If it were inactive, they wouldn’t have service and we would hear about the outage.”
“What’s the theory?”
“What if these things are taking in morphonic people and using them like batteries?”
Nova looked back up at the screen. “That would be most disturbing.”
“But we don’t have evidence to support this,” Justin said.
“Then we find evidence, either to support it or disprove it. 12154, I want you to scan all missing persons’ reports at every location of a blue sphere. I want to know about each person, no matter how insignificant.”
“There are so many missing persons cases around the world daily, I don’t know if this will be enough.” Justin stated.
Nova said, “It is a start. Right now, we are missing at least one person and I promised Arx I would try everything to find her.” Nova’s personal comm beeped.
“Who is calling you?” Justin asked.
Nova looked at his comm. “Krystal Fae, but she is not supposed to call me. This must be important.”
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