Unexpected Turns: Forgotten Words

"I'll be back!" said the pilot, waving.

"You'd better be" smiled the man.

And all the while, the probe recorded. Every word was processed, until its memory banks were almost full. It would not be long now.

---

A team of experts gathered round and helped lower the probe on to a trailer. They walked beside it as the trailer was pulled slowly in through the wide, open doors of the Research Institute. Already the men were beginning to speculate.

"Can we give it a scan first?""

"What do you make of those letters?"

"Hieroglyphics?"

"Have you checked it for radiation?"

"Not yet."

"Get the ultrasound over here!"

There was no obvious way of opening the probe. It lay, silver and white, all along the trailer. It looked mechanically dead. (But it was listening) It had no rivets, or screws. No lines where hinges might lie, no mechanisms, no turning points.

"What's inside it?"

"We're getting a reading now."

"Some kind of computer array."

"Base metals?"

"Some polymers, some rare metals. Could be gold; I'll see what the spectrum shows."

"Check its weight."

"Approximately 1000 kilograms. No wonder the helicopter was having a hard time!"

"It's a wonder he made it at all!"

"He's a good pilot."

"This ring on the end is some kind of receiver."

"It's a unit then? An antenna then? Who'd put a thing