--Bertha Oneshots--

The Hidden Pasts

Credits to The Expert 07 on Discord for the idea!

This morning at Spottiswood and Co, Bertha is making metal detectors. Stringy pieces of metal and wire were carefully placed inside Bertha to make these strange but useful machines. The big machine had never made them before, but once she heard that they help people locate treasure easier, she was completely on board with the order. You never know what you might find when you have one of these things. A bag of old coins, rings, pieces of meteors, chalices, necklaces, even old soup cans that were not recycled properly (they are not worth any money, but who cares; ones man's trash is another man's treasure). And with the talk of treasure, Bertha was looking forward to seeing what people would find with them. Maybe their discovery will make them a millionaire? Or maybe they'll end up on the front page of the Daily Echo? Who knows. The 'finding' is the fun part after all.

Mr Sprott, the designer, came down to see how Bertha was handling the order. She had already made 10 boxes of them. The designer held one of the detectors and inspected it carefully. "Yes, Bertha seems to be managing the order just fine." he said to Ted. "All we need to do now is test them." He took a few boxes of the metal detectors and brought them outside onto the grass. The weather was calm enough to test them at the front since it's not too bright; yet the ground was still a bit moist from last night's rainfall. The sun's rays hit down onto the ground from where the rain had landed onto the earth. The ground protected itself with its water storage, and the rays bounce back. It's a good idea to use a metal detector after heavy rainfall, they say, and Mr Sprott was keen to test the theory out himself.

He wasn't the only one that's going to try these gadgets out. Oh no; there's far too many to test at once. Panjit, Roy and TOM offered to help, drawing a line in front of the designer as he showcased the metal detectors. Each of them had one, so they can have a closer look at the detailing. "How do these find metal underground?" Roy asked Mr Sprott, curiously looking at the one of the detector's ends. "Simple. Metal detectors have a search coil which transmits an electromagnetic field into the ground." Mr Sprott explained, placing a pound coin onto the ground and hovering the detector's coil over it. "Metal objects like this coin will become energised within the electromagnetic field and will soon retransmit an electromagnetic field of their own. I hope that answers your question, Roy."

Roy tilted his head a bit toward the designer. Panjit just stared at his detector then at the designer. TOM just kept smashing his detector on the ground multiple times, trying to get it to turn on. "TOM, no, no! STOP! Don't do that!! You'll break it before we have a chance to test it!" Mr Sprott fretted before he took the metal detector off the small robot. He pressed a small button on the handle to turn it on then passed it back to TOM. After he cleaned his glasses a bit and had a short breath of air, Mr Sprott explained the game to the three. "Now, I have hidden some pound coins in the ground. If the metal detectors make a sound when you hover the coil over it, then that means it is functioning correctly. I made it a game so you can have fun while testing them."

Everyone soon went to work moving the metal detectors side to side across the grassy area. Panjit went at the far end as Roy and TOM took the other half of area.

Screech, screech, screech went the coil. Nothing. The designer must've hidden the coins well.

Screech, screech it went again. Still nothing.

Panjit looked over to the others and saw how the two had managed to find four coins already. He picked up the detector and had a closer look at the its coil. This detector might not be functioning properly, he thought, doubtfully. Yet it's making the exact same noise as Roy and TOM's detectors so it can't possibly be broken. Panjit sighed as he put the coil on the ground to try again. He still has a bit of ground to discover.