“We do have a portable plasma cutter that could be a light saber if you squint. But attempting swordplay with them would have unfortunate consequences for both parties.” Sheldon paused. “Based on your requirements that devices be portable and relatively easy to comprehend, I can think of cloaking belts, disruptors, portable power supplies, personal-protection shields, storage bags, scanner-detectors, intelligent cloth, and artificial gills. There are many other potential items that unfortunately are too large, require infrastructure, could be faked, or would be difficult to test.”

“A power supply couldn’t be faked?” Patrick asked.

“One the size of a cell phone that can put out a megawatt-hour? Go ahead, give it a shot.”

“Okay, I’ll concede that one. What about intelligent cloth?”

“Fabric with benefits. It generates electricity from the wearer’s movements, contains embedded sensors that can be used to monitor health, uses sunlight to clean itself, thermoregulates the wearer, and acts as protective armor by stiffening to absorb high-velocity impacts.”

“I thought the Gen didn’t do clothing?” Nat said. “And anyway, the belts have a shield field.”

“The fabric is made commercially by the Ka’Hai. They wear clothing, similar to humans. And intelligent cloth doesn’t require recharging.”

“Ah, thanks.” Nat paused. “Okay, what’s a ‘storage bag’? I’m assuming it’s more than just a, uh … ”

“Dimensional manipulation,” Sheldon explained. “A storage bag, depending on model, has an internal capacity up to twenty times its outer dimensions.”

“Whoa. That’s … ”

Nat finished the sentence for me. “Visually impressive. And impossible to fake. The power supply is convincing if you are techy enough to understand energy density, but most people would just shrug and mutter something about new battery tech. But if you can pull ten basketballs out of something the size of a purse … ”

I nodded. “Yeah. That sounds pretty unfakeable. Do you have one, Sheldon?”

“I do have some in stock from an earlier expedition that had never been returned to raw stores. I will guide you to the storage room.”

Several minutes later, I dropped an item on the conference table. It looked like a slightly fat briefcase, but with the typically Gennan love of vivid colors, it was decorated in the bright orange and green typical of rainbow sherbet.

“Let’s see what we can do,” I said, snapping open the latch. The briefcase opened flat, two clamshell halves facing upward. I pulled out a set of stepped, covered shelves from one side, and a zippered compartment from the other. The compartment, when fully extracted, was about two feet long.

I looked down into the briefcase shell, reached in up to my elbow, and pulled out a set of zippered pockets, which folded out of the unit at right angles to the first compartment. I then shifted my attention back to the other half of the briefcase. Reaching down in the same way, I pulled out a set of drawers, again about two feet long.