The Device: Part III

(Story begins here.)

``What the hell is that!'' Sally shrieked, leaping back and crashing into the wall behind her hard. Her back immediately started throbbing with pain. ``Is it a damn cockroach? You know I hated those things---why didn't you give me a warning?''

``Huh?'' Tom replied, looking somewhat confused. ``Oh! It's not a cockroach. It only has the silhouette of one, see?'' He raised the object to his eye-level, against the fluorescent light, and held it steady.

Sally waited for a bit and stared at the object that was thus held. She observed no movement in the object, and with her confidence building, took a small step forward to have a closer look at it. No sooner had she gotten within twelve inches of the object when she saw a small beady something glinting for a split second. It was enough to make her spring back to her corner of the room.

``It... it moved! Tom you bastard! You lying bastard!''

``What moved?'' Tom said once more. ``The thing is completely inanimate as far as I can tell.''

``I saw its eyes move!''

``It doesn't have any damn eyes, Sally. Get a grip. I think you're just prejudiced against the shape, and playing straight on your own fears and biases, that's all. Don't forget that you're supposed to be the engineer that has to verify that my claims that what the device is capable of doing to be true. No one will believe you if you sound like a nut job.''

``Just get that thing away from me!'' Sally screeched, half-screaming and half-crying from the shock.

Tom sighed. So many years, and he had nearly forgotten about Sally's irrational fear for cockroaches. He couldn't really understand why she had such a strong phobia---it was not as though she had to live through a torture relating to being immersed in a tub full of the moving writhing cockroaches. And she lived in the city, where cockroaches were actually far and few and mostly harmless. Those cockroaches out in the rural areas, now those were the scary ones. About half an inch longer than the ones in the city, those cockroaches were rambunctious enough to even catch and eat small prey, a behaviour that was hitherto unseen. Tom shrugged his shoulders: thoughts for another time.

He held the cockroach-shaped object in his right hand and reached for the three-inch cube from the shelf with his left. He picked the cube up easy---despite looking like it was made of concrete, the cube itself was made of some kind of exotic material more like a plastic. As a result, it was actually quite light while still rigid to hold. Tom had requested for CT scans of the cube to learn more about its interior, but the national parks authority relayed the message that nothing intrusive was to be done to it, and that included irradiating the cube with any form of high intensity radiation. It sounded incongruent to Tom, considering the nature of the authority and the expressed prohibition of certain actions. He suspected that some other agency was involved and was using the national parks authority as a front, but wasn't in the position to argue anything. Grant money was hard to come by, and it was an interesting study so far, to say the least.

With the cube in his left hand, and the cockroach-shaped object in his right, Tom brought the two of them together in front of him. Sally was watching from the corner, fascinated. As the two objects got closer to each other, a glow started to emanate from both of them. It was subtle while they were still arm's length apart, but as they got closer, the glow started to overpower even the fluorescent lamp above. Strangely enough, Sally could see that the glow was increasing in intensity, but at not point was it ever so blinding that she couldn't continue observing.

Then she saw Tom do what she would later describe as ``a physically impossible action'' at the inquiry.

The cube and the cockroach-shaped object started intersecting each other in the middle of the brilliant and ever-increasing intensity glow. Sally glanced at Tom---he didn't seem like he was expending any form of effort whatsoever and looked quite relaxed. She shifted her gaze back to the two objects. The cockroach-shaped object was slowly embedded within the cube, and as it made its way through, the cube itself started to change its shape. The change was bizarre---some parts started to shrink and disappear while other parts started to appear out of nowhere, and they all took on shapes that one would hardly ever see in the real world. It was almost as though the cube was adjusting itself in a higher spatial dimension and all that she was seeing was a mere three-dimensional shadow of a higher dimension manipulation. The changing shapes continued on for a bit, accelerating in its rate until the glow suddenly went away and a new object seated itself comfortably in Tom's open hands.

``What the hell just happened?'' Sally asked, finally finding her voice.

``I just assembled the key to the device.''

``No you did not! I just saw you move the two objects together and... and... it did stuff and assembled itself on its own!''

``Yes, that's how the key is assembled. Once used, it will re-form the cube and the other object that you saw earlier.''

``And you know this because...''

``Because I've already used the key and the device once. That's why they were willing to suspend their disbelief and order me to get an engineer to come in and verify my claims. Because I've already used the device with the key. I've seen what the device can do. And they just want another person to verify it.''

Sally was speechless. She turned to look at the key that was sitting on Tom's open palms. It looked almost like an ordinary old-fashioned key, bronze in colour, complete with a large loop on one hand and long-ish stem and cut teeth. But that was all there was in resemblence to the familiar. There was a barely imperceptible modulation of the surface of the entire key, as though it were some form of liquid with very high frequency waves travelling along it. Sally could swear that she saw some spikes that appeared momentarily only to disappear again. All in all, it was mesmerising, even as none of the patterns that seemed to be appearing repeated itself.

``May I hold it?''

``Sure, why not?'' Tom replied, holding out the key with one hand towards Sally.

She reached forward to pick it up from him.

The Device: Part II

(Story begins here.)

``So this part of the entrance is straightforward,'' Tom said as he led the way on. ``There is nothing odd about this. Regular entrance to the observation tower.''

``Okay...''

``Now we walk along the spiral slope. If you recall, this thing runs around the exterior of the cylindrical structures, hugging it, and leading to the top of the observation tower,'' Tom said as he started to walk on to the slope, slowing himself down a little to wait for Sally. Sally's back wasn't really that good to begin with, and having to walk up the slope meant that she had to bend forwards at an odd angle to ensure that she doesn't tip over backwards. That had a tendency to slow her down a lot.

``No need to patronise me Tom,'' Sally said as she carefully took steps up the slope. ``You know full well that I've been here before on other occasions.''

``Yes, but please forgive me. Force of habit. I have to explain this to the people who got me to study this. They told me that I needed to get an engineer to come along to help verify that this device does... what I had suggested it could do.''

``But there is almost no field of engineering that can explain what you are suggesting. Unless you want to talk about the fringe stuff that no one really cares about,'' Sally said as she continued taking small steps up the slope.

``That's not the intention, I think,'' Tom replied, a couple of paces ahead of her. ``I think they just wanted to make sure that someone who was well-known to be a hard scientist was present to make sure that I didn't screw anything up by being the anthropologist I am.''

``That's just cruel,'' Sally said.

Tom remain silent. It was one of those moments that made him realise why he and Sally couldn't be together as lovers. She was too straightforward. Tom wanted someone straightforward, yes, but he also wanted someone who was empathetic enough to know when being straightforward and blunt was more harmful than not. Sally seemed to have sensed his inner thoughts and didn't press for any more conversation.

The minutes passed slowly as the two of them made their way up the circular slope. By the time they were at the top of the observation tower, they had already circumnavigated the structure for three whole revolutions.

``I can't believe it's this breath-taking,'' Sally finally said, breaking the silence. She was reminded of that magical date that she and Tom had a long time ago where they would make their way up the observation tower during the middle of the night just to look far and beyond and watch the twinkling of the stars which were almost eclipsed by the yellow street lamps of roads in the industrial park far ahead and below them. Head lights of cars zoomed past them along the roads, and the wind of the night blew gently at times and strongly at others, keeping a pseudo-random rhythm that was at once haunting and exciting. But memories were just that, memories, and Sally made a mental note to ignore what nostalgia threw up at her.

``Yeah, good location for an observation tower,'' Tom mumbled as he moved away from the peripheries and towards a cordoned off area. Beyond the tape was a door that seemed to open into the store room or control room of some sort. Tom pulled out a regular looking key from his pocket and pushed it into the key hole in the door.

``I'll take it that this is not the key that the national parks authority gave you?''

``Of course it isn't,'' Tom replied with a tone of mild annoyance. ``This is just the regular key to our work area where we catalogue the things that we observe of this structure.''

``And you keep the key in there?''

``Yes, in a matter of speaking,'' Tom replied after unlocking the door and opening it by the knob. Inside was a tinge of inky blackness. Tom walked on and flicked a switch near the side of the door, and the dark room was illuminated by the flickering fluorescent light before it held itself in a steady glow. Sally ducked the tape and followed Tom into the room.

The work room was quite bare except for a table, a chair and a shelf. Apart from the fluorescent lamp above, there were no other sources of illumination as the room itself seemed to be walled-in on all sides. On the table were papers strewn about, both architectural blue prints and hand-written loose leaf paper were present. In a corner was the waste bin, and there were many crumpled balls of paper there, witnesses of frustrating periods. But on the shelf, Sally saw something a little extraordinary. It was a small cube of concrete, or at least, that was what it looked like, roughly three inches long on each side. It stood out strongly because it was the only thing on the shelf that had that height, and for some reason, it seemed to be reflecting the light above specularly.

`Could this be the key that Tom was talking about?' Sally thought to herself as she stood quietly by to wait for Tom to make his move.

``If you are wondering if that is the key, you are partially right. This thing on the shelf is technically half of the key.''

``Half? So where's the other half and how it combines together?''

``I have the other half, and no, it doesn't quite combine in the way that you would normally associate with things being `combined','' Tom replied, fishing out a strange looking object from his pocket.

It had the shape of a cockroach.

(Story continues here.)

The Device: Part I

``No way!'' Sally said as Tom told her about his discovery yet again. ``I don't believe that there is such a device in the world!''

``It's true!'' Tom said for the umpteenth time. ``It does exist and is sitting right under our noses!''

``Show me then!''

``If that is all it takes to satisfy you, then okay, let me take you there.''

Sally was a little stunned---that was hardly the reply that she was expecting. Clearly if Tom was actually bluffing, he was really not about to just give up the ghost like that. Still, Tom was making some rather extraordinary claims, and extraordinary claims definitely required extraordinary proof. Besides, Sally was curious to whether Tom was pulling her leg or not.

Tom and Sally had known each other for years, since college days, in fact. Tom did his major in anthropology, while Sally was an engineering student. While both of them were in diverse fields, a one-time romance between them cemented the friendship that was to last long into their professional lives. Recently though, it seemed that Tom was studying various pseudo-mechanical artefacts, and had, on occasion, ask for Sally's professional advice to how and what the devices might be for. For the most part, the things that Tom discovered were easily understood by Sally, since they were often some ancient clockwork designed to simplify certain types of computations. But this time round, Tom was suggesting something altogether different, something that was a little out there even for Sally to accept as an engineer.

``So, how are we going there?'' Sally asked.

``Well,'' Tom began, ``I will drive us to the site. It is not exactly a dig site, but the various access panels and such of the device are well camouflaged that the whole structure sits in full view of the general public, who have no idea what the implications of such a device are.''

``Hold on a minute,'' Sally said, her keen mind latching on to something that sounded crucial. ``You are telling me this thing is sitting in full view of everyone and that people actually frequent it?''

``Uh huh...''

``That makes it even more impossible to believe!'' Sally said, her skepticism out in full force. ``I sure hope you have solid proof about what you have been claiming.''

``Rest assured, I do,'' Tom said with an air of confidence.

`Tom, Tom, Tom,' Sally thought to herself as she followed him to his car. `Why do you always look so sexy when you are assertive of yourself? Why did we break up at all...?'

------

``So,'' Sally said as she fastened her seat belt in Tom's car, ``are you going to tell me the location or are you just going to make it a surprise?''

``Well,'' Tome said as he adjusted his rear mirror, ``I'll tell you the location, no need to bring in the snark. It's on top of that hill-park near the bird park tourist attraction.''

``No way,'' Sally said as she recalled the location that Tom pinpointed. ``That place is a public park for crying out loud---I'm pretty sure the national park authorities would know of something like this. They have been administering the location for years now.''

Tom gave a grin as he eased the car out of its parking lot carefully.

``I don't know if they know, but the study of the historical relevance of the hill-park location was commissioned by the national parks authority. I found it kind of weird for such a study to be commissioned, considering the fact that it was done after the site had been developed into a public park, and not before. That would probably have destroyed many markers and artefacts that would have made the place historically significant,'' Tom replied as he drove his hatchback out of the basement car park.

Sally sat there quietly, taking in Tom's words and weighing them as she looked at the passing scenery.

``Sounds a little sketchy to me,'' she said finally as Tom made a turn out into a slip road.

``Yeah,'' Tom replied. ``I'm hoping that you might have a better explanation for what I found; that's why I looked you up on this one.''

Sally nodded and looked out of the window in silence.

Outside, passing cars and roadside trees flashed past in a blur as Tom accelerated towards their destination. The silence between them was simultaneously comforting and wounding, comforting because they each had space to think their own private thoughts, wounding because it would keep reminding them ever so subtly why they divorced in the first place.

A few more turns later, Tom finally broke the silence.

``We're nearly there.''

Ahead was the bird park, and to the left was a long inclined road that flanked the little hill. Tom downshifted his gear to the second and turned onto the inclined road. The engine purred softly as the tachometer edged past the two thousand mark.

The inclined road they were on wasn't too steep, but it was steep enough to have its presence felt. Sally could feel her back pressing into the back rest of the seat sa gravity did its job. Tom grinned to himself---Sally wasn't one who liked going up hills in cars, since her back wasn't really comfortable with all the compressive forces on it. In fact, when they were still living together a long time ago, she always slept prone, which became a little awkward when they tried to make love, since he liked being the top and... Tom shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think of this.

As the inclination of the road went up, Tom carefully slipped the hatchback down to the first gear. It was the final part of the entry anyway, and it was a little steep even for a slope. With a louder purr, the tiny engine revved and carried the car over the speed bump that sat at the top of the climb.

``Ow,'' Sally said. ``Stupid bumps.''

``Aand, we are here,'' Tom said as he upshifted his car to the second gear. ``Let me park this first and we can go up and have a look at the device.''

Sally nodded nonchalantly, her mind obviously elsewhere. She had reclined the seat and was sitting upright so as to ease the compression of the back rest on her back. That was something that she did very often, and Tom knew that, so he did not kick up any fuss.

------

Tom and Sally stepped out of the car and walked in front of it.

``So, where's the device?''

``You are staring at it.''

``Huh?'' Sally looked about confusedly. ``I don't get it.''

``What do you see?''

``Some rock garden, and the observation tower.''

``Uh huh.''

``You don't mean---''

``Yes, the observation tower. That's the device.''

There was something strange about what Tom just said, and suddenly it clicked in her head.

``Wait, the observation tower is the device? It is not the place where the device is stored?''

``Nope,'' Tom shook his head as he repeated his words carefully. ``The observation tower is the device itself.''

Sally looked skeptical once more.

``Okay, that's not funny. Show me the proof that makes you claim that the observation tower is the device and that it does what you had claimed it did.''

``In due time,'' Tom replied. ``But first, let me get the key.''

``Wait, key? What key?''

``The key that the national parks authority gave us when they commissioned the study.''

Sally fumed slightly.

``You are telling me the the national parks authority gave you a damn key to the observation tower for the study and that they have no idea that it was a device for...''

``That's right. It was a key that they found near the observation tower when they took over the location to develop into a public park. They didn't know what to do with it, since there didn't seem to be any lock that the key would fit in the general location.''

``The fact that there was an observation tower already existed before they developed the place into a park did not faze them at all?'' Sally was sounding more incredulous by the minute. ``I'm not buying this; too fishy.''

``Well,'' Tom explained as the both of them walked towards the observation tower's entrance. ``It wasn't exactly the observation tower in the form that we see today that was there---it was just some dilapidated looking cylindrical structure. The national parks authority didn't want to tear the existing structure down to rebuild, so they just did some renovations on it and integrated it into the park's design as an observation deck of sorts. It fit well into the whole theme of the park though, since it is on a hill and all.''

Sally shrugged. The story that Tom was telling seemed to be getting a little out of hand by now.

(Store continues here.)