but are you going to tell us what?â yelled the tall thin guy as he jumped to his feet. "Now I really am losing my patience."
In the basement bulging with equipment, monitors and computers of all kinds, lit by a dim led light which was reflected off the worn walls, the boyâs emaciated face looked even paler than it really was.
"Listen here, if you donât tell us what this thingâs really for, I swear Iâll make you swallow it whole" exclaimed the fat guy grabbing the nerd by the scruff of the neck.
"But I told you" answered the ever more frightened boy. "Itâs a system to activate a procedure remotely."
"But what procedure? What is it?" continued the big guy, as he shook the boy as if he were mixing Margaritas.
"I'm not sureâ the young man tried to answer. "But I think weâve activated something very particular and dangerous, given the protection systems I had to bypass."
"Explain yourself," said the fat guy still continuing to shake him.
"If you let me go, I'll show you.â
"Okay. But I hope itâs convincing, or else the biggest bit of you thatâll be found will only be visible under a microscope."
The boy straightened his shirt, readjusted his long hair that hadnât seen any shampoo for quite a while and headed towards a workstation with two keyboards and a series of half-dismantled computers. He quickly typed several incomprehensible commands and, after a few seconds, a three-dimensional image of the strange object that slowly revolved upon itself, appeared on a giant screen that hung from the ceiling.
"This is our mysterious remote control.â
"Ah, now it's become a remote control?â
âWell, considering its function I think we can safely call it that."
âGo ahead,â said the thin guy as he settled himself on a shabby chair in order to better observe the large monitor.
âWell, the main problem was how to reactivate it. I struggled quite a lot because, most likely, not only had it been turned off but the owner did not want anybody to ever turn it back on again.â
"See it wasnât the batteries that had gone flat, you silly old fool," exclaimed the fat guy, turning towards his crony.
"No, thereâs no batteries inside,â continued the nerd. "I think it works with an external power source, a sort of electromagnetic flow that it manages to capture and transform into pure power.â
"Interesting" commented the skinny guy. "But whatâs its scope?"
"In theory, perhaps even several hundred thousand kilometres."
"Blimey" exclaimed the fat guy as he held the strange object in his hand. "Are you telling me that this little thing might be capable of transmitting a signal from here to the moon?"
"I think so and it probably already has done."
"And whatâs it supposed to have transmitted?"
"Well thatâs the interesting bit" continued the boy as he brought up a new picture on the big screen. "These are the symbols that appeared on the front of it after it had been reactivated."
"It looks like some sort of ancient language" commented the thin guy. âI'm sure I've seen it somewhere before.â
"In fact, itâs cuneiform. The Sumerians used it several thousand years before Christ."
"And whatâs it doing on such a technologically advanced instrument?"
"Itâs the language of our alien visitors."
"Are you telling me that those brutes who captured us speak cuneiform?" asked the big guy somewhat surprised.
"Well," the boy tried to explain, "itâs not exactly that you speak cuneiform. Itâs a form of writing. But I think this is their language."
"And have you managed to translate it?"
"Actually, for the command to be sent, I had to insert a kind of password. In practice, by touching the symbols in the right order, I entered operational mode."
"Basically, like the system you use to unlock your phone?"
"More or less, yes" said the nerd smiling, happy that the two guys had finally understood what he was talking about.
"Youâve done a really good job," said the fat guy looking pleased.
"Yes, but we still havenât understood its true function yet," replied the thin guy rather disappointed.
"I could hazard a guess which I think might be quite realistic," said the boy, softly.
âWell, what are you waiting for? Talk," replied the fat guy, moving within just a few centimetres of his nose.
"I think itâs a system to activate the self-destruct procedure of a spacecraft, as well as who knows how many other functions."
The two buddies looked at one another in amazement for an instant then, as if someone had just given him the most wonderful gift in the world, the larger of the two exclaimed "Please, tell me weâve blown them up."
"Very probably the aliens will have had ample time to get to safety, but their vehicle might have come to a really bad end."
"Son, youâre a genius," exclaimed the big guy. Then he pulled a USB memory stick out of his pocket and added, "Put all the data youâve got on this thing and then cancel everything. If we discover youâve kept even a single byte..."
âI know, I know. Youâll make mincemeat out of me."
âWell done. I knew you were a smart guy."
The copy process only lasted a few seconds. Then, after removing the USB stick from his computer, the nerd held it out to the big guy who quickly snatched it out of his hands. Then, after also grabbing the strange object and putting them both in his right trouser pocket, he said to his partner in crime, "Letâs go old chap, perhaps our dreams are about to come true."
They had almost reached the threshold when the young man exclaimed, "Hey, arenât you forgetting something?"
"What are you on about?â asked the tall skinny guy.
"Err⦠the rest of my money."
âMoney?â replied the fat guy. "Thank the Lord we havenât broken your neck" and he banged the door behind him.
Taurus constellation - Planet Kerion
At almost sixty-five light years from earth, the red giant named Aldebaran dimly illuminates a barren planet known by the name of Kerion. Its surface, which nowadays features only arid deserts, parched rocky landscapes, deep dry gorges and smooth plateaus, was not always like this. The planet
