A couple of dozen, Dakota sent back. Why?

<I saw the playbacks of what those other things you found did to those corvettes. Don’t you think its kind of weird the Meridians would leave weapons that powerful lying around here? Doesn’t it make more sense if they left them here for a reason?>

Why are you so suddenly keen on giving me your opinion?

Nancy stopped working and stared over at Dakota. <I’m just saying there was obviously some kind of a fight here, right? >

A long time ago, Nancy.

<Yes but, even so, why were they just left here? Are they guarding something? Just waiting for something? What?>

Dakota directed an angry glance towards her. They were at war. Shit happens.

<I’m just not crazy about the idea of just walking in here without carrying out a thorough reconnoitre,> the other woman replied, <and, besides, we’re obviously dealing with seriously fucking advanced technology. I’d just like to be sure we’re not going to get caught out by something nasty while we’re digging through some dead alien’s discarded trash.>

Dakota picked up one of the field-generators and studied it for several moments, thinking.

Trader, when I met you on that other world, were the drones you gave me . . . guarding anything?

<I have no idea, Dakota. Perhaps they were once but, if so, whatever that might have been is long gone.>

You said you didn’t hear back from some of the probes you sent down into the cache. Any idea why?

As Trader floated in his bubble, his manipulators remained immobile for at least half a minute. <Perhaps I should investigate further, > he replied.

The discs were a lot heavier than they looked, and Dakota’s implants had picked up faint queries coming from them, which were interpretable thanks to the Meridian command structures Trader had given her. Once she had built up an idea of their internal structure, she transmitted this data back to Lamoureaux on the Mjollnir.

Ted, take a look at this. What do you make of it?

His reply came barely a moment later. <Like I’m an expert in shaped-field tech? The real question is how hard or easy it’s going to be to integrate something like this into our existing defences. Is it even possible? >

According to Trader, it is. And the interface seems to be straightforward enough, so it shouldn’t be a huge problem setting up an interface with the Mjollnir’s defence stacks.

<Okay, I’ll talk to Ray about them. Leo would have been your man, but now he’s gone the next-best expert is probably Nancy, I’m afraid. Have you asked her yet?>

Hang on, I’m going to try activating one myself first.