Some  Bits  of  Treasure  Part III

                             by Brian Strayer 


     Soon after Armand left for the oasis, John and Tom retired to the
 Rover to eat and rest.  The long hours and this strange turn of events had
 left them exhausted.  They awoke late into the evening.
 
     Tom stretched and yawned, "Do you think he will get the tablets back?"
 "I don't know," John slowly replied, "But I've just had a thought." Tom
 waited, not saying anything.  He would almost rather sleep than get at the
 bottom of this mystery that was swirled around them.
 
  John continued, "I remember that some of the symbols on the last lines were
about duplication. I think there might be a copy of one of the tablets or,
maybe, even a new one."

     "But what about its location?" asked Tom, voicing the next hurdle.
 "Without the last tablet, how will we know where to look?"
 
  "Well, I may be wrong on this," John acknowledged, "but I think the symbols on
duplication also referred to it's location.  Let's go check."

     They grabbed the lantern and tools and headed to the chamber.  They
 had just set the light when the sound of a scuffle from the tunnel made
 Tom jump visibly. The boy entered with his head down.
 
  "How did it go?" John asked.
  
     Armand looked up, his disappointment apparent. "I did get your
 tablets.  But they were hid in a food bag, and I lost them to a big bird.
 I do not even know where they are now. I am sorry."
 
     John laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, "You did your best.  We
 appreciate that.  And we are certainly no worse off than before.  In fact,
 we were just going to check out something else."
 
     John briefly told him their thoughts of another tablet.  Several
 minutes work yielded a large pile of small rocks and sand, but no tablet.
 A second effort doubled the size of the debris pile, but still no
 artifact.
 
     "Maybe it is just a little deeper," volunteered Armand. A third time
 hands and tools went to work.  This time a small, flat tablet was their
 reward. 
 
     Tom quickly voiced the next problem, "How are you going to translate
 that without the laptop? All your data was in it."
 
     John arose, "It was.  But, remember, I did that printout just before
 we found the third tablet.  It's in the Rover.  I'll get it."

     Tom then brought Armand up to date on the tablets. John returned and
 started the lengthy task of translation.

     It was almost dawn when he finished and roused Tom and the boy. "Ok,"
 John began, "here it is.  This is a new tablet, not just a copy of the
 last one.  This one tells us when and how things will happen, though the
 'when' doesn't do us much good.  It seems they tracked time by a small
 particle, maybe a subquark, field decay rate differential.  Even if we
 knew the particle, the type of field they meant and how to measure it's
 decay rate seems way beyond me."
 
     "So what about 'how'?" asked Tom. "Well," John went on, "they knew, or
 planned, that the Commodore logo would be on a computer.  Entering this
 code would somehow let the Commodore symbol act as a lens for a remote
 apparatus that would begin the access operation.  The computer would also
 be a needed source of electrical energy."
 
     "Access to what?" Tom asked promptly. "I don't know, that was on the
 third tablet," John said shrugging.
 
     Tom voiced his doubts, "If this was some cheap dime novel, it would be
 a portal for large one eyed creatures to come here and wipe us out."
 
     "I don't think that's going to happen," replied John disapprovingly.
 "But how do you know that for sure?" Tom pursued with more vague
 possibilities nibbling at the edge of his mind.
 
     John said nothing, and continued through his notes. "Now," he finally
remarked, "all we need is one of those computers."

     Armand spoke up, "My friend in the village has an A500. He lets me use
 it whenever I want." "But is your friend there today?" John asked.
 
     "No," the boy stated, "He is gone for some days, but he lets me come
 in when I want. It is ok."
 
  "All right." was John's decided reply. " Let's pack up and go!"



                         to be continued...