Read Online Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins by Michael McCloskey - Free Book Online Page A

walked past more fake walls
made from boxes of the syrup packets. Tucked into the middle of the building
was a large white machine built in a smooth O-shape. It was the size of a
multi-passenger land vehicle. Its outer surface gleamed like new plastic or
ceramic.
    Siobhan
immediately saw a large upward-facing intake.
    “Okay,
here’s our processor,” she said.
    “Which
direction is it flowing?” Caden asked.
    “This
way,” Siobhan said, pointing.
    “It’s
just a circle.”
    “Then
it’s filtered. Maybe chemically altered, maybe not. But it comes in from here
and leaves from there.”
    “Well,
that door right above the feed is where the tower is.”
    “Cilreth,
could you check the base of the tower please?” Siobhan said. “Is there a door
on the surface of the building inside the support skeleton?”
    It
only took a couple of seconds for Cilreth to answer.
    “Ah
yes, I see a very fine line across the surface here. There’s a rail too. Lemme
guess. Stuff is transported out that door up to the platform to be carried
away? Or did I get it backwards?”
    “Maybe
both ways,” Telisa said.
    “Did
the Blackvines eat this syrup?” Siobhan said. “I thought Maxsym said they had
some kind of photosynthesis.”
    “He
did say that,” Telisa said. “But maybe it’s a kind of luxury to be able to eat
something you did not produce in your own body?”
    “Or
maybe they need it when they travel to dark places. Underground, underwater, or
in space?” Caden asked.
    Telisa
did not comment further. Siobhan examined the beautiful white machine while
Telisa and Caden searched every nook and cranny. They found only more boxes,
more flexible ropes on the walls, and more of the machines Telisa suspected
were gliding robots.
    Siobhan
got a scan of the inside of the machine from an attendant and started trying to
make sense of it. Caden lost interest and moved on. She noted from chatter on
the shared channel that Imanol and Jason had returned from their climb. Cilreth
passed on the request to capture some animals, so they went into the forest.
She felt a little nervous for them, but all she could do was flip through the
video feeds of every attendant and scout they had deployed. She did not see any
reason for alarm.
    “What
do you think?” Telisa asked her a few minutes later. Siobhan focused her eyes
on her real sight and moved her PV aside.
    “It’s
basically an extruder,” Siobhan said. “If you’re right, a food extruder. The
contents are modestly heated, pressurized, pushed out, then cut into these
hexagons, and wrapped.”
    “Makes
sense,” Telisa said. “Can you tell if it’s still working? Or when it last
worked?”
    “Not
until we figure out their electronics. Those are... well, alien. As alien as
Shiny’s machine control components are to us. I can tell you one thing, though,
it’s out of the materials used to make these boxes, and there’s none of the
food mixture left in there, either. Judging from the age of some suspected
lubricants in this system, I’d say it’s been down for less than a hundred
years.”
    “Wow.
A very recent alien presence here,” Cilreth said from outside. “It fits though.
I think the third installation has an active automated security system.”
    “Let’s
head back up,” Telisa said. “We can join the others on their little hunt.”
    Siobhan
touched the smooth surface before her. She had scans of everything, so the real
deal was not very useful to her. She could easily build one herself if she
needed to, but it would have to use her own electronics.
    Telisa
saw the move. “Is it well made?”
    “Funny
you should ask,” Siobhan said. “I don’t think it’s perfect for this job.”
    Telisa
smiled. “Then either the aliens aren’t very smart, or...”
    She’s
testing me.
    “They’ve
re-tasked it to do something it wasn’t designed for.”
    “Or?”
    What?
    “I’ve
made a bad assumption about what axes they optimized it upon,” Siobhan said.
    “I
suspect