West of Nothing

10. Scan Results

"Scan results just in!" Skunkworks announced.

"About damn time," Doogie said. "Now we'll finally get to see what this thing is made of."

Skunkworks' desktop appeared on the jumbo with a folder labeled Radiology. He went straight to the sub-folder called X-Rays and launched the first image. He lingered on it for only a moment before launching half a dozen more in rapid succession. "Goddammit! They're all shit," he said in disgust.

"Maybe the scanner wasn't calibrated properly," Doogie said.

Skunkworks bristled at the suggestion. "You think I fucked up the calibration sequence?"

"I wasn't implying that. The setup wasn't exactly ideal, that's all."

"What's wrong with the scans?" Corny asked, saving Mason the embarrassment. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be seeing here."

"Ever gotten an X-ray at the dentist?" Skunkworks said. "This is pretty much the same thing. The X-rays pass through the soft stuff—the dark areas—but get absorbed by the denser materials like bones, teeth and, of course, metals. If you've ever seen an X-ray of a smartphone, it looks like a photo negative of a city grid. The battery is usually the biggest piece, like Central Park."

"I only see different shades of gray and black," Mason observed.

"Exactly. So where's all the white stuff—as in the electronic parts?"

"There are some hairline features near the bottom," Doogie pointed out. "And what about those salt and pepper-like specks?"

Skunkworks squinted at the image. "Could be noise. Then again, maybe there's something there. The analyst notes say the dark specks may be micro-pores in the outer shell. They're consistent in size and distributed evenly throughout. The white spots show more of a random distribution with some clumping. They could be tiny concentrations of heavy metals in the interior or maybe some mineral grit attached to the shell. It's anybody's guess really. They're at the edge of the scan resolution. Apart from that, the damn thing makes an X-ray Polaroid just like a real spider. Hard outer shell. Creamy caramel filling."

"Maybe it has a cloaking device!" Shouter offered.

"Don't be ridiculous," Skunkworks said, annoyed.

"Is it really that ridiculous?" Corny asked. "If whoever made this thing was serious about secrecy, they would have gone to great lengths to conceal its parts from routine scans, which they obviously would have anticipated."

"Are you not hearing me?" Skunkworks raised his voice. "I don't know what you've read in Popular Science, but you can't make solid materials impervious to energetic light rays. The best you could do is scatter them and that would create its own telltale signature. I'm telling you, there's nothing there!"

"We're all just as frustrated at the lack of results as you are," Doogie placated. "Let's take a step back. What if the scans are accurate? What would be the ramifications of that?"

"It would indicate a complete absence of traditional electronic components," Skunkworks said in a more subdued tone. "The lack of a battery would be the easiest to explain. You can make a battery out of any fluid or semi-solid where you can create oppositely charged poles. But what about all the other stuff you need for a robot? Circuits, storage, memory—a CPU for Christ's sake!"

"Maybe the components aren't missing but just extremely small and efficient," Doogie said.

Compu-dots! exclaimed Gabby. They are these self-contained computers that fit within a freckle. They're mainly used as smart tags to replace RFID chips. Individually, they're pretty limited, but if you were to network a bunch of them together, their collective processing power could be substantial.