Strange lights and other occurrences; a guide to alien housemates

Chapter 8: "We need to... what?"

It was now 4 am, and Dan had so far watched Anya dismantle one of the small pieces of salvage, revealing intricate and advanced technology, which wound around the inside of the device. He waited for each component to be removed, then gently laid them on a piece of kitchen towel, where they could dry out. How could so much wiring come from such a small piece? It was the shape of a smooth, round, black stone, covered in gold painted designs which resembled lettering. Apparently, devices being so small meant they were very fiddly to disassemble, which caused Anya to swear A LOT, both in English and a language Dan did not understand, but sounded good to swear in. 

"Tarhsja hverteta!" Anya muttered, stifling a shout. That sounded a satisfying phrase. 

"What does that one mean?" whispered Dan when he could see she had calmed down. She paused for a moment, tweezers and device in hand, looked up as though thinking, then said,

"Something along the lines of "REMOVE YOUR EYEBALL" or close to that." Dan was learning some new words, and enjoyed doing so.

"Aha!" Anya turned to Dan, a piece of what looked like clear plastic, intricately shaped, pinched between the tweezers. She pointed at it. "This one piece can hold more data than the cloud. Its made of a type of natural material, mixed with setting agent and very, very tiny wires. Its almost genetic in its engineering. Its flexible, heat and water resistant, and has a sticky back so you can attach it to the inside of a device like this. Connected to a scanning device, this could detect almost any signal from any ship in the known universe. Not just that, a signal that it doesn't recognise will be cross-examined with similar signals, so it can estimate the region from which the ship comes. If this doesn't recognise a ship, chances are you just discovered a whole new species!" She seemed very excited by it. Dan was awestruck.

"A whole database? How the hell...?" He stared at it, squinting to try and see the tiny wires. 

"You won't see them, the wires are microscopic." Anya assured him "But its pretty cool, right?" 

Dan just nodded, mouth wide open, eyes fixed on the piece. He placed it, carefully, on the table.

"If I can just... " Anya pulled at what looked like a tiny wire. It came out reasonably easily, and Anya held it to the desk light, looking closely at it. She passed it to Dan.

"Careful with that, it has the power of an atomic bomb stored inside." She said, a sly grin on her face.

"Really?!" Dan placed it on the table, fear stricken "Why would you have that with you? How does that even fit?" Anya laughed.

"Not really, that's just a wire" At that, Dan looked cheated "It does about the same as... well... a wire" Dan glared at her.

"How come you have something so advanced, then next to it just... a wire?" He laughed.

"Wires are universal, what can I say?" She shrugged.

She put the device on the desk, and looked at the clock. 4:20 am. She yawned and stretched her arms out.

"Time to sleep?" Asked Dan, standing up. Anya nodded. Dan walked out of the room, stumbling back to bed, landing face first onto it. Within moments, he was asleep. Anya peered round the door of his room, and upon seeing him fast asleep, crept back to her room. Shutting the door, she opened a bedside drawer, and took out a small grey box with a screen on it. She switched it on, and began calling her brother.

"Yan?" she asked. His face appeared. "I have the components I need. Any more signs of... suspicious activity in this region?" 

His face was grim. The answer she got was worrying.

"Ah, I see. Thanks Yan." She said goodbye, replaced the device and crawled into her bed. Soon she was fast asleep, but nightmares crept into her mind. She tried to push the ideas away, but eventually relented, allowing a flow of visions to enter.

She awoke at midday, eyes crusted in dust, arms and legs stiff. She sat up, and had barely opened her eyes when Phil came in, carrying a cup of tea and cereal. He passed her the bowl and laid the tea on the table beside her. Sitting on the nearby chair, he pondered the collection of metal parts which lay on the desk.

"Dan said you were working on something last night, but I didn't expect such small pieces!"

Anya laughed and took a small sip of tea, blinking in the daylight.

"He also said you managed to get in contact with your brother."

"Yes, he finally saw the video. He put a comment on it, saying, "Penam? Its me, Y. Call."

"Wow, really? But that's so obvious?!"

"It is. He had created a temporary account, which I followed and found the Skype link to." She sighed, smiling.

"What did he call the account?"

"UssanPhan2320" She tutted. It was the most obvious name ever.

Breakfast eaten, she took her bowl and cup to the kitchen, and shuffled, still yawning, to the living room. Dan was already up.

"Morning!" he chimed. "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty well" her mind flashed back to the nightmares "Sound as possible, in fact. You?" 

"I slept so well, I might have to watch you pull apart a tiny device for the even smaller components more often, made me so tired!" Anya couldn't agree more, really. It was very tiring.

"And we all know how well PHIL slept, right?" She teased.

"Oh." Said Phil "Was I snoring again?" 

They both nodded in response. "At one point, we wondered whether it was an Earthquake." It was Dan's turn to tease. "I nearly got under a table." Phil punched Dan in the arm. They squinted at each other.

Oh no, thought Anya, Not another staring contest. "I'm going to get started on assembling my scanner" she said, leaving the room. "Have fun."

Back at her desk, Anya wrote on a piece of paper, her handwriting, a swift, spindly movement of lines soon filling the page from corner to corner. There were diagrams, small depictions of the components that lay sprawled out on the desk, arrows pointing from one to another. In the centre of the page, a large circle with a question mark in the middle and a note which said "Casing?". Almost half an hour later, the plan was complete. She stood up, taking a glance at her plan, and leaned out of the door to the room, and shouted "Boys? Have either of you got a controller or remote or something you wouldn't mind sacrificing?"

"What?" Someone called from the next room. Anya sighed. 

"Come here a second would you?" She waited, then heard approaching footsteps. It was Phil.

"Have you got an old controller or remote or something that I can use? Something that doesn't work anymore?" She asked. Phil thought, then walked away. Anya waited. A minute later, he returned, carrying an old Xbox controller. "Stopped working ages ago, if you can use it, it'll be of more use than it is now. Why do you need it?"

"Ah, well, that" she said, tapping the side of her nose "Is for you to find out! Come and find me in about an hour." Phil laughed, and walked away, shaking his head.

An hour passed and Phil stood up from his desk, having finished a rather large scale edit. He found Dan, who was doodling in a notebook. "I'm gonna go see how Anya's doing with the thingy she's building." He said. Dan followed. 

Anya had indeed finished her scanner. Just as they pushed open the door, she stopped screwing the case back together. She put down the screwdriver and looked up, a grin of pride across her face. 

"Ta Da!" she said, holding it up. It was... or looked like... an Xbox controller. 

"WOW" said Phil. "How the hell does it work?"

Anya gave a look that seemed like she had been waiting for this question.

"Well, all you have to do is plug it into a computer and you can scan."

"Oh. Wow, that's so cool. And... simple to... do." Dan was amazed. 

"Yes, exactly, now all we need to do is break into Jodrell Bank and plug it into the computers so we can use the dish to scan the surrounding area!" Yes, so very simple.

"We need to... what?" Dan retracted his comment to the plan's simplicity. "At Jodrell Bank?"