The Old Mine

24: Another Mystery Solved

                   Cal sat on the bed wishing she wasn't alone. She had her cube on her lap, her plate of food beside her and a notebook from before the relocation with some pencils. She glanced at her laptop longingly and got an idea. "The concept of laptops went by the wayside when cubes were invented, so why not bring them back? With the current technology of a cube being equal to the most powerful laptop of my time... if I make a laptop as powerful as it can be, could it be a portable comm system." She smiled "Or a portable portal generator."

                     Cal used the cube to scan the laptop then started to map out the upgrades, alterations and where miniaturized portal generators could go. "A lot of the things used to make it would have to be replaced, they're just not available here. But to fill the space I have available in this frame...." Cal started with detailed diagrams of the laptop then diagramed out all the replacement parts. She then moved onto where the parts would all go and how powerful each needs to be. "This is so easy, now I know why Bret is rebuilding things." She put an order in for the parts needed, including the payment for all that was involved, then put in the diagram for the new laptop in the database and labeled it under her name alone. The final product could be modified to fit most eras, so that a jumper going back to an era with them could still bring the laptop. This was the first thing exclusively labeled to Cal. She sat back to read through the information she had acquired from her cleanup activity. She wondered as she looked at the cube and the information she had obtained, if it was possible to mask a laptop as a leather-bound book. "If I can nail this, then people going back to eras that have no computers can still bring their laptops and cubes."

                     Cal started with moving the needed components around to hide within a book, she got that done quickly and added a small area to add cube that could boost the computing power or memory capacity. The only downside was that the portal generators were not able to be added into the book format. "Being able to carry a computer in times that have no knowledge of them is a huge bonus for jumpers. Now if I can find a way to mask the bands," Cal thought about how in some eras wearing a band on your wrist limits you "But pendants...." Cal took the components from the band and moved them into a pendant format. She made options for them to choose from, circle, oval, heart, square and rectangle. The key was the look of the stone on the surface... how to get it to look seamless and natural. She added the diagrams for the pendant band into the database and attached her name with the warning on being cautious about how the stone looks in different eras.

                    Cal knew she needed to turn her attention to the thing she was avoiding but she couldn't help but fight against it out of worry; the thought of fighting the bishops today was a strain to her. Cal set all the details aside and wrote down in her notebook how she was feeling about the bishops and the base. As she closed the notebook, she worried about someone getting their hands on it. She called for the parts she needed and quickly put together something that could lock a drawer. She slid the notebook into her side table drawer and locked it. She opened the locked files and reluctantly started to examine them.

                      Most of the files were accounts of previous missions, Cal was confused as to why they were locked away there. A quick scan showed two commonalities, Irene and the mines. Only one or two files were jumper team files, complete with the full file on all the team members. Most were not jumpers that Cal knew but a few names stood out: Irene, Zen, Easton and Recke. She entered the unknown names in the database and waited for the cube to pull it up. "Every one of the unknown Jumpers have either retired or left of were lost. They have all been on missions near the mines. The missions..." She pulled up the mission files again and noted the locations on a map. "These missions were within fifty miles of the mines, closer to Gambler Mine then Doorway Mine. Why, what did they learn there? What did they pick up from the area as they scanned things." She compared the files in the database to the hidden files. "There are a few additions in the hidden files that aren't in the database. They reported an unusual scan alerting something unusual in the area, the reports were all dismissed by the bishops."