Two of the black robots lumbered into the stone-window chamber to observe the archaeologists’ progress. In an adjacent chamber, where Margaret stared at the alien words, she started the tiny music box Anton had given her, its tinkling tones helping her subconscious. The metallic melody encouraged her eyes to wander up and down over the symbols. In fact, the way the Klikiss chroniclers laid down their notation actually seemed to have a rhythm, a linguistic “cadence” that human language did not have.

Moving on their clusters of fingerlike legs, Sirix and Dekyk entered her chamber and scanned the walls with their optical sensors. The plinking melody seemed to unsettle them somehow. The black robots remained motionless until the music box wound down and the melody slowed to a stop in midmeasure.

DD turned to the two Klikiss robots. “We have good news for you today; much progress made. Margaret, would you share your translation so far?”

She traced her finger along compact groupings of hieroglyphics. “I’m still putting pieces together, but it’s going much faster now. Each bit I understand helps me unravel something else. Here, it talks about a great war, an enormous conflagration that swept across the galaxy. That’s probably what wiped them out. We suspected as much, especially after seeing Corribus, but this is the first outright Klikiss documentation of the event.”

She pointed to a broad section of the wall. “This part is incomprehensible, so far, though the few words I can identify make me suspect this talks about an enemy of the Klikiss. And look, here and here.” She walked forward, indicating several pictographs in the dense clusters of markings. “I believe these are notations about the Klikiss robots.”

Sirix and Dekyk flashed their optical sensors and buzzed to each other. Margaret put her hands on her hips and smiled. “It’s going so well, I wouldn’t be surprised if I finished this wall today. We’ll know the answers soon.”

Sirix said, “Knowing the answers will change many things.”

They were interrupted by an excited whoop from Louis in the other room. Margaret and DD hurried to him with the two black robots following more sedately. Louis stood by the ancient machinery, which now throbbed and hummed. The stone window seemed different somehow, as if it had transformed from solid rock to a pliable clay.

“I’ve got the power source working!” he crowed, and Margaret came forward to kiss him on the cheek. “It’s still fluctuating, but I can make a definite guess about the purpose of this and all the similar stone windows.”

“Well, old man? Is it a transportation system?” Margaret asked.