Tec nibbled on a green biscuit, feet resting on Vera's helm console, while studying Ruby interfacing with the ship's computer.
"Don’t you think I need to refill a few of the elemental bins?" he asked inspecting his biscuit with a frown and rubbing his sore tummy.
"We have enough atoms for few more attempts," Ruby replied tersely while rotating her main appendage within the computer's interface port.
"I don’t know why you're upset," Tec said worried about her near-manic behavior. "I'm the one that continues horribly dying."
"Believe me; most of your deaths have all been quite painless. Get over it," she said. "We've got to solve this riddle."
"Most?"
"Uhuh."
"You figure out where all my atoms keep disappearing to?" Tec asked refusing to consider his past lives any further.
"No," she replied stoically. "Extra-universal, even though that seems unlikely, appears to be the best answer," she said, her mood softening then looking at Tec. "Maybe even null space?" she added thoughtfully.
Tec sighed at the mention of the membrane supposedly separating universes within fractime, the stuff of children's nightmares.
"I'm sorry," she said with a smile. "I've not been a very good shipmate the last few weeks," she added disconnecting the link to the ship's computer.
"It's okay," Tec said reaching over to caress her head.
"I've told you; don’t do that," she said pulling away from the indignity."Fuck off," she added matter-of-factly.
Tec didn’t remember a previous rebuke but felt sorry for his now obvious act of insensitivity. "So, nothing inside Vera's head on webs?" he asked hoping to change the subject.
She shook her head, remaining silent.
Tec sighed knowing Vera had little reference material.
"It's just that there's usually an access hint to holo rec apps," Ruby said dejectedly.
Tec pulled his feet off the console to lean closer to her. "What’re the implications my atoms are in another fractime or null space?"
"Translation tech is fairly limited to the Time Corps and a few private entities," she replied.
"Don’t think the company and the time cops could be in cahoots," Tec said with a chuckle. "And how can translation technology work in a holo deck?"
"Cahoots?"
"Sorry. Conspiring," Tec clarified his belter speak.
He was born on station between Jupiter and Mars to hard-working prospectors. All that remained of his distant Sol roots was his name and their slang.
"That leaves the private sector and as far as the tech goes. Then there is that large partition," Ruby said with a shrug of her right-side appendages.
"Which in all likelihood means the largely illegal sector," Tec said.
Ruby sighed. "There are rumors of galactic benefactors using translation tech—"
"That saved us all from the machines. Right," Tec injected, having heard those stories since childhood in Earth's belt. "My bet is still on fucking company involvement," he added.
Ruby folded together her minor appendages in front of her. "I agree. And the holo program is obviously dangerous," she said sternly, "and then there's the issue of the large, encrypted partition. That implies a degree of sophistication not seen in standard holo apps."
Tec sighed. They assumed as much when they analyzed everything outside the Brooklyn brownstone for clues. Two scraps of paper proved to be false leads that eventually led to three more vaporizations.
The tricoder revealed nothing else surrounding the building.
"Maybe the building is a clue. It's architecture or structure," Tec offered.
"Maybe," Ruby said hopefully.
"My head hurts," he said while rubbing his right temple.
"Maybe we need a distraction," Ruby offered.
"Well," Tec said, "there are those space opal samples. Assuming we get back, some credits would be handy."
"A full JTK-57 evaluation, Captain?" she asked excitedly.
Tec nodded with a smile.
Tec delicately picked through 57's samples on the workbench in deck 2's sample processing lab. He separated a large opal piece from the other fragments and iron flakes of the collection.
"What's the plan?" Ruby asked peering over the edge of the table to examine the selected sample.
"Well," Tec said, "seeing we have found some new toys—"
"Which mineral zapper then?" she asked holding up Cory's mineral analyzer as well as the sub-atomic scope with her minor appendages.
Tec laughed. "Opal is technically a mineraloid," he scoffed. "But that analyzer should date the opal's formation."
"Bets?" he asked.
"Over three billion," she guessed.
"Good guess," he said knowing the system's age from which they had been flung.
Tec placed the opal fragment in the device's sample bin and activated the detector. A semi-transparent, two-dimensional display appeared over the device and immediately showed various data-collection streams and charts.
"There are no growth bands," he said studying the data.
"So, we don’t need a MMS run?" Ruby asked referring to Vera's multiple-ion, mass spectrometer.
"Don’t think so," Tec said tweaking the data-streams displayed. "But, we've got stable U238 and U235daughter isotopes."
"Three billion may have been a slight under estimate," Ruby added excitedly.
Tec chuckled then gasped. "We can forget those isotopes. Look at these carbon ratios," he said.
"They can’t be correct," Ruby said trying to get a better view of the floating display.
"One hundred ninety years," Tec said sitting down on a nearby stool. "And the opal has excellent depth to the iridescence despite the lack of growth layers," he added.
"Maybe the iron will yield more clues," Ruby said hopefully, while delicately selecting a dull gray flake with her major appendage.
"First, let's try this subatomic scope on the opal," Tec said placing the small device next to the mineral analyzer and transferring the fragment onto the scope's sample plate.
"The quark geometry seems normal but the electron phasing is slightly over-excited," he said.
"Confirming the young precipitation of the opal's precursor siliceous gel," Ruby added confidently.
"Okay, let's try the iron," he said transferring the flake Ruby had selected to the mineral analyzer.
"Oh, Tec," she said staring at the display."It's a well know chromium-rich, company alloy less than 250 years since solidification."
"Fuckers," Tec whispered remembering his warped rock hammer. "I knew the company had to be behind all this," he added, transferring the flake to the scope.
"It's mainly derived from hematite, likely Mars origin," Ruby said, interpreting the analytical display.
"Its graphitization state suggests a rapid cooling," Tec said after adjusting one of the scopes probes while peering into its auxiliary eyepiece.
"So we have 190-year-old siliceous water that almost instantly precipitated opal at high temps for deep space," Tec summarized.
"And nearly the same age for the rapidly-cooled iron," Ruby said. "The thermal event that led to the iron's crystallization was surely responsible for the opal precipitation," she added.
"But, what's the origin of the water?" Tec asked redirecting Vera's viewer to overlook 57. The large fissure, from which Tec had collected the opal, cut deeply into the ovoid asteroid.
"More mysteries," Ruby said rubbing her minor appendages together.
"Let's get drones over and the rover on 57 for a full surface scan and density determination," Tec said.
"Rover and drones away," Ruby announced as they watched the tiny ships rush to 57 on the small view screen.
"Speaking of mysteries," Tec said wondering what an internal image of the rock would reveal, "any new ideas for getting into our Brooklyn brownstone?"
Ruby held up the sub-atomic scope. "Maybe there are microscopic programmer inscriptions on the holo?"
"Worth a shot," he said, "but first I'm getting backed up this time."
Standing by the corner of the brownstone, Ruby pushed the scope's sensor against the building's cornerstone.
"I've linked the scope's viewer to the tricoder," Tec said as Ruby looked up at him.
He nodded, and then she activated the scope.
"Hmmm," he muttered as he adjusted the scope's resolution then the tricoder so Ruby could see the display.
"Are those lineaments on the quartz grains?" she asked.
"Is it focused?" Tec asked tweaking the scope's inputs. "Worked fine before," he added with a hint of frustration.
"Magnify to only one euhedral grain," Ruby suggested.
Tec whistled. "There's your web," he said as a finely detailed spider web came into view on a smooth, quartz grain's face.
"It has the geometry of an orb web, family Araneidae. But I don’t see the spider," she said.
"Not surprising," Tec said with a shiver, as 'spider' was his first wrong guess on the nearby porch.
"But the web is far from perfect," Ruby observed, "and many of the silk threads overlap or appear broken. Run pattern recognition with the tricorder," she requested eagerly.
Tec laughed while looking at the display. "Well done," he said showing her the result.
"Robinson," she read.
"Maybe it's Robinson Crusoe," Tec said with a snigger.
"Who?" she replied.
"Never mind," he replied, "but believe me, that would be very ironic."
Springing up the nearby steps, Tec said, "I guess there's only one thing to do."
He waited for Ruby to join him in front of the brownstone's door.
"Want me to try again," she asked.
Ruby had also given the three of the four previous security code guesses, but to no effect. They both decided the door had a secondary, non-biologic lock.
"Can't hurt," Tec said while cautiously stepping back to the edge of the first concrete step.
Ruby purposefully pressed the doorbell.
"Warning: Security code required."
"Robinson," she said resolutely.
The following silence did not ease Tec's nerves. Shit, he swore to himself. He looked up into the dark swirling clouds, tightly shut his eyes, and then said, "Robinson.”