“A nanite. An actual microscopic, self-contained machine.” Dr. Nakamura’s voice had the distracted tone of someone unwilling to spare more than minimal attention for the task of speaking.

Dr. Alwin Schulze, a physicist borrowed from Caltech, grinned unabashedly. “And self-powered. We have nothing that could do that, not at that size.” Schulze leaned forward, then settled his rotund form more comfortably into his chair. He looked around the table, still smiling, inviting argument or commentary.

“So, alien?”

Schulze turned to face Narang. “Unquestionably. The Japanese are the technology leaders on this front, and they’re not even close to delivering something self-contained at the micron level. Never mind the data processing requirements.”

Matt Siegel, the team’s Information Systems expert, shook his head. “Same comment applies from the I.T. angle, Alwin. I’ve no idea how you’d encode a complete computer system in that size, even without allowing room for power, I/O systems, and whatever else.”

The session appeared to be in danger of descending into a gush-fest. Narang interrupted the spiral. “So, Matt, are you willing to commit to the statement that this is extraterrestrial in origin?”

“Mathematically, it is still possible that it’s of human origin. We can’t logically rule that out, in the same way we can’t rule out leprechauns. But, realistically, no one is even close to this.” He shook his head. “If I had to, I’d bet my life on it being alien.”

Step one, done. Narang took a moment to refill her tea from the faux-ceramic pot. She glanced over at the pastry tray, but the locust swarm had already ravaged it. Mostly the head locust, Samuelson.

“Okay, next question, and maybe not as easy to answer. Does this seem symptomatic of some kind of attack?”

“Not a chance,” Siegel said before anyone else could speak. He received several arch looks, for his tone as much as for his statement.

Narang raised her eyebrows at Siegel, inviting him to continue.

“Why set it up on some random asteroid? If you want to attack Earth, just drop the package into the atmosphere.”

“So, why was it placed on some random asteroid?”

Siegel shrugged without comment.

Hmm, step 2, sort of done.

Narang looked at her tablet, at the third question. “Does the incident imply an impending visit—or invasion—from the Makers?” Moore would probably not be happy with today’s Q&A, she thought.

“Not directly, no,” Schulze replied. “However, to answer the last half of the previous question, you’d put the device on a random asteroid so that only a space-faring species could activate it. To answer this question, you’d then program the trap to phone home the first chance it got.” Schulze grinned. “Then, maybe, we’d get a visit.”

Oh, he definitely won’t be happy. Narang decided to deliver this revelation personally. The fireworks would be epic.

* * *