I must admit, there isn't anything better I can think of than flying. Not in an airplane, hover car, starship, or anything where you're closed in, but with the wind in your face, feet off the ground, arms out, flying. I rigged up an attachment for the boys that was essentially a jetpack with wings for each of them, but each one was designed for them in particular. No one else could use it, and they couldn't even trade between each other. Alpha's was white, Omega's was red, and Beta's... well it was matte black of course. He loved the stealth thing. His also had a whisper mode that gave him all the speed and maneuverability, but it didn't put out much more noise than he normally did. I had my own as well, but it was a generic one for humans, with some special modifications made by me, for me.
We flew across the canyon in a wide, looping arc so we could get a little flying time in. Even staid, stoic Alpha and calm, mysterious Beta enjoyed being in the air as much as Omega and I did. Well, almost.
Alpha landed first at the "entrance" to the cave, which was just the hole Omega tore open with the digger. He retracted his jetpack wings so they aligned with his body, stood on his hind legs, and walked inside the cave. I landed next, Beta right beside me. Omega did loops in the air above the canyon. Beta and I glanced back once, shared a shrug, and followed Alpha.
Once in the cave proper, we could see the enormity of the room. With the top of the cliff sitting about two hundred feet above our heads, the roof of this cave was about a third of that at it's domed peak. It spread out in a circle from beneath the highest point, making it a perfectly round room, with the exception of the hole Omega made, and a small doorway to our left. We had no problems seeing in the cavern, not because of the small amount of light coming in from outside, but the glowing green orb resting on a pedestal in the center of the room. The bright green glow reflected off Alpha's face as he circled the pedestal, eyes scanning up and down its entirety.
"Anything?" I asked.
"The pedestal is plain granite," Alpha said. "The orb... I'm having trouble with."
"Really?" I said. I stepped closer to look at it myself.
"No radiation, radio frequencies, any kind of emanations I can read."
"And you can see them all," I said. It looked like a glass sphere with a reflective phosphorescent coating. Or was it clear and the phosphorescence came from within? I couldn't tell. "You think it's safe to touch?"
Omega flew into the cavern, landed, folded his wings and ran up to us. He was always the quickest to adapt to new attachments or updates to his programming. He spotted the orb and said, "Wow! Pretty!" and before Alpha or I could say anything, he picked it up.
Nothing happened. I looked at Alpha. "Guess it's safe to touch," I said.
"At least by robots," Alpha said.
"How does it feel, Omega?" I asked him. All the boys had sensors in their paws and fingers. Their other senses could be cranked up to be able to see farther, hear distant noises, etc. I hoped Omega's finger sensors could pick up something that Alpha's visual scans didn't.
"It's not glass," he said. "I'm not sure what it is. Weighs about two pounds, and..." He cocked his head to one side like he could hear a distant sound. He looked at Alpha. "You hear that?"
Alpha started at the globe in Omega's hands. He nodded. Beta was suddenly next to him. "As do I," he said.
"Well I can't hear anything," I said.
"It's well below your auditory sensing capabilities," Alpha said. "It's a pulsating sound, much like a beacon."
"Huh," I said. "Well see if you can figure out a way to shut it off." I turned to Beta. "What did you find?"
"Alcove there has pictographic history. Took pictures."
"Good, let me know what the translations are when done." He nodded.
Omega set the orb back on the pedestal. He took his hands away, looked at it a second and said, "Well that didn't work."
"What?"
"I thought maybe putting it back would turn it off. It's growing stronger."
Then I could hear it. Or feel it rather. It felt similar to being immersed in water and the pressure increases and decreases, pulsating squeezes. While the feeling wasn't unpleasant, it was disconcerting. "You say this is putting out a signal like a beacon?" Alpha nodded. "Why do you say that?"
"It is similar to our homing beacon at Arcadia Station," Alpha said. "It... feels the same." Omega nodded.
I stared at it a moment. "Can one of you carry it back to base? In your cargo hatch?" Each of the boys had a small opening in their stomach area that could be used for storage of supplies and what not. Usually it was food and water for me whenever we travelled light. "Beta, how about you? Your coating should help dampen that signal, too."
He nodded, stepped forward to grab the orb when the glow increased, as did the sound and feeling of the beacon. I grabbed my head in pain. The boys stopped dead in their tracks, unmoving as if suddenly switched off. I lashed out at the orb and knocked it from the pedestal. As soon as my fingers touched it, the sound and light stopped. The boys moved again.
"What the hell?" I said.
"Fascinating," Alpha said. "I could think, but not move."
"Same," Omega said. Beta nodded.
"Open up, Beta," I said. He opened his cargo hatch, I picked up the orb and placed it inside. He closed up and I said, "Let's get outta here."
We flew across the canyon to the base camp. Beta kept the orb inside his cargo hatch, and he went to the HQ tent when we landed. He plugged in to the base computer to access the processor in the hopes to speed up the translations.
"Omega, can you take this field generator to that cave entrance?" I asked. I handed him a portable force field generator. We used them all the time on various archeological digs to help preserve the area.
"Why?" He took the small device.
"I know we're out in the middle of nowhere, but we still want to keep people out of there. That is quite a find and we need to preserve it until it can be studied. We are here for mining, remember?"
"Oh yeah," he said with a grin. "I forgot."
"You remember how to work this? Set it down in the entrance, press this button three times, then this one once. Take the thing that pops out and step back. That's it."
"Press three times, once, take the thingie. Got it." He spread his wings and took off so fast I blinked twice before I realized he was gone.
"I should've made him a bird," I said.
"I'm going to pack up," Alpha said. "It seems we are finished with the survey."
"Sure," I said. "We can present it to the Council and then request a trip to work on that cavern."
"Hey!" Omega yelled from across the way. "There's people in here!"
Alpha and I turned to look and saw four tall women dressed in leather, pounding their fists against the force field.
"What do I do?"
"How did they get in there?" I asked.
"Beta said nothing of another entrance."
"Maybe he didn't find one," I said. Alpha gave me a side-eyed look. "Yeah, I don't buy it either." I yelled to Omega, "Get back over here!"
Omega leapt into the air, and within seconds he stood next to us. "How did people get in there?"
"Same way we did?" I said. "But why are they in there?"
"The orb called them," Alpha said. "It was transmitting a beacon signal."
"Let's go talk to them," I said. Omega's wings popped out. "Not you, just Alpha and I."
"Aww," Omega said.
"You can help Beta start packing. We are leaving once we talk to them."
Alpha and I leapt into the air and flew across the canyon.