SOME  BITS  of  TREASURE
                                by  Brian Strayer


    Wiping his sleeve across his face, Tom Armstrong hurried into the shade
 of the stone opening and leaned against it, taking quick, deep breaths. 
 Peering down the dusty, stone steps into the shadows, he thought over the 
 past few days and how fast the events had happened.
    He had just been helping out in the Archaeology Department for a month,
 when John had come in needing assistance on this trip. With evertone else
 out, he had had no choice.
    The plane to Cairo, the hot overland ride to Minya, and the offroad 
 trek to the dig had come in such quick succession that he hardly had time
 to think about what was next.
    Tom moved slowly down the steps and along the almost dark tunnel until 
 he reached his goal.
    The chamber was lit by a sole lantern which cast contorted, moving 
 shadows on the rock face from Jonathan Delacroix who was hunched over a 
 keyboard and a small stone tablet.
    The tablet had been found only yesterday, just before the laborers were
 released back to their village.  A smaller version of the tablet, which  
 John had acquired in the states, led them to this site and then to the  
 location inside of the larger one.
    Closer examination showed the tablet to be just like the smaller one, 
 and not a stone tablet at all.  It had the feel of stone, but was harder  
 than steel.  And this could not be filed, scratched, or dented.
    The encryptions on both tablets were multi-lingual, and enabled John 
 to translate these new, unknowm symbols.
    "I thought your laptop was out?" Tom said puffily as he came in and
 perched on a ledge.
    "Oh, " John replied, "I got this today at the marketplace. Gzeem the
 tanner got some off a camel caravan.  It's just a clone."
    "Ummm," mused Tom. "What have you got from the large tablet?"
 John sat up and ran his hand across his face and through his rumpled hair.
 "Well, these guys, whoever they were, had made many devices that were to 
 be distributed around the earth.  This was for some event in the far 
 future that was to happen or that they were to make happen.  All I know 
 of the devices is that they were a little larger than the tablets.
    I do have the location of a third tablet that has more.  Just give me a
 minute to run spatial coordinates for the chamber."
   "If you're running 3D visuals on that we'll be here all day," Tom 
 replied frowning.
   "No, I'm just doing the math.  We'll step it off," John said.
   They paced the numbers and came to a rock two feet high.
   "Hand me the doublejack, would you Tom?" John asked.
   A few quick blows showed a hollow inside half filled with sand and
 pebbles.  John stuck in his hand and removed another tablet.  It looked  
 just like the last, except for a large 'C' with two pointed bars near the

 bottom of the tablet.
  John brushed the sand from the letter with a puzzled frown.
  Tom straightened up with a growing recognition and his eyes wide.
  "I know where I've seen that before," he exclaimed all at once.
  "That's the Commodore Logo!"

 ...to be continued!

                         *******************************
                         *Brian Strayer, who wrote this*
                         *excellent work of fiction,   *
                         *can be reached at:           *
                         *bstrayer@efn.org .           *
                         *If you like his writing, tell*
                         *him so, and tell him that    *
                         *you'd like him to write more *
                         *Amiga Link.                  *
                         *******************************