A Forgotten Power

Chapter 04: Discovery

The examination room was filled with sensors and testing equipment of nearly every variety. Powerful microscopes, connected to holographic display screens hanging from the ceiling, were situated on nearly every one of the five work tables in the room. Smooth plastic of flawless white, the work tables were crowded with energy resonance scanners, three dimensional atomic structure analyzers, and molecular dispersion tubes capable of breaking down any substance into its component elements. Composed of synthetic neural tissue, glowing blue synaptic cabling stretched between the computers and equipment for high speed interface and control.

Alexis walked through the collection of scientific technology toward the one man in the room. Even hunched over a computer readout, Jaz was still nearly a foot taller than her. Most people who worked at the research facility didn't even measure as high as his shoulder. The tan hair on his scalp had been shaved down to the skin on the left side to clear the area around the disk shaped interface built into his skull near the temple. His white lab coat was sleeveless, showing off synthetic arms of glossy black from the shoulders down.

Jaz didn't seem to notice her entrance, working with rapt attention on his latest project. The fingers of his synthetic hands worked faster than humanly possible, becoming a blur of motion as he typed on the control pad in front of him. His work speed was too quick for his organic vision to keep up, so the computer interface plugged into his skull buffered the information and distributed it to his mind at a rate of speed he could comprehend.

Finishing the input on the computer, Jaz looked up and noticed Alexis standing nearby.

"Progress?" she asked.

"Nearly," he answered. "I'm certain there's a way to modulate the energy output to increase focusing capacity. The computer is running simulations based on my latest equations. It should be done soon."

"Good," Alexis praised. She removed her pack and extracted the bone covered book from it, handing it over to Jaz. "While we wait, have a look at this."

"Interesting," Jaz mused. He spent a few moments examining the etched bones on the cover before opening the book and flipping through a number of pages at random. "I'm surprised something so clearly ancient has survived to modern times."

"You're not the only one," Alexis agreed. "Any idea as to how?"

"We'll find out," he promised. He took the book over to one of the far worktables and placed it under the glowing green arch of a high resolution scanner. The machine hummed softly as it worked, passing a beam of intense emerald color over the book several times before it finished.

Jaz frowned while looking at the information manifesting on the scanner's built-in display screen.

"What's wrong?" Alexis questioned.

"See for yourself," Jaz answered. He pressed a button on the scanner, transferring the sensor report to one of the hologram projectors in the ceiling. The information appeared as hovering words of transparent light.

"Low level energy readings," Alexis read aloud. She looked toward Jaz. "Where's the energy coming from?"

"How should I know?" Jaz asked in return. "You hand me a book, and this is what I find."

"What about those bones on the cover?" Alexis suggested. "Are they concealing a hidden power cell?"

Jaz typed a few instructions into the scanner's control pad and waited while the sensors examined the book a second time in closer detail.

"There it is," Jaz announced. "The energy readings are coming from the bones."

"So, the bones are hiding a power cell," Alexis concluded. She wondered what kind of a person would waste perfectly usable energy cells by hiding them in a book buried underground.

"No," Jaz denied. "They're reading as entirely organic. They're just bone, all the way through."

"Where's the power coming from then?" Alexis insisted.

"You tell me," Jaz replied. He pressed a control on the scanner, and the light emitting from the primary sensors shifted from green to silver. The bones on the cover of the book also changed color, becoming illuminated in shifting waves of violet light. "There's your energy. As you can clearly see, it isn't coming from the book or anywhere else. The bones themselves are powered in some way. Don't ask me to explain it because it's the strangest thing I've ever seen."

"When I found the book, I opened it and read some of the information inside," Alexis told him. "The book explains about a natural power contained in bones."

"Seriously?" Jaz questioned.

"You can clearly see it for yourself," Alexis reminded, gesturing toward the glowing bones under the scanner. Taking a deep breath, she plunged ahead before she could think better of it. "I collected some bones from the ruins. Why don't we test them and find out if the book is accurate."

"We might as well," Jaz agreed to the relief of Alexis who hadn't been looking forward to arguing the point.

The bones she'd retrieved were quickly brought in to the examination room and put under the scanner first to be certain no energy fields were present beforehand; none were detected.

Alexis turned a few pages in the book and found a reference to controlled lightning. She had the computer scan the page before a robotic arm descended from the ceiling to laser etch the appropriate symbols on one of the smaller bones. She and Jaz took the completed bone into the next room.

Filled with absorbent padding and enhanced energy shielding to lessen noise, explosive blasts, and other hazards to the surrounding facility, the testing chamber was otherwise entirely empty. Jaz stood near the door while Alexis was a few paces further in. Remembering the instructions from the book, she held the bone in both hands and pushed with her thumbs in the middle to snap the bone away from her.

A flash green of light emanated from the carved symbols on the bone an instant before a bolt of lightning erupted from the broken ends of the bone, striking the far wall hard enough to shake the room.

Alexis was so startled, she dropped the bone fragments and stumbled backwards. Jaz was in an equally stunned state, his jaw hanging open. When the initial surprise wore off, Alexis only had one question on her mind.

"I wonder what else is in that book."