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scream of the wreckage bounced between the tight walls of the lab, making Mason think that de Lis should have provided earplugs, too.
    De Lis, now outfitted with thermal gloves, assisted with the procedure, lifting the first bar away after Waters had removed it from the carcass. She then cut her way around the perimeter of the debris over the next few minutes, working to expose what appeared to be a compacted sheet lying flat against the interior of the wreckage. Once the sheet had been cut, de Lis peeled back the charred metal canvas, allowing it to rest open halfway.
    Inside, more twisted metal lay compressed together, perhaps due to the centuries it had spent locked in earth. De Lis picked at the various layers of material with pliers, eager to learn what lay beneath. He gestured Waters to gently cut down the center of the metal, enough to unlock more of the layers.
    Waters skillfully maneuvered her way into the wreckage like a surgeon. Adjusting the laser accordingly, she started to uncover the central layers, which proved to be difficult; the metal whined under her torch, resisting her efforts to pry it open.
    She looked at de Lis for a course of action; he gestured for her to up the power. Again, Waters adjusted the torch, strengthening the photon frequency. Refocusing on her task, she took the torch to the metal while de Lis worked at it with his pliers, attempting to wrench the compact material loose.
    A loud hiss and a pop from inside the wreckage startled the assembled group, leaving de Lis shouting, “Stop!” In his pliers were clamped the last metal layer, smoking fiercely.
    Waters extinguished the torch and removed her goggles. Setting the torch down, she inspected the specimen in the doctor’s pliers. Valagua, Gilmour and Mason followed her study with their own.
    De Lis placed the metal into a sample dish, saving it for future analysis.
    With a lamp, Waters spotlit the hole in the wreckage, examining the crumpled layers for any other hidden layers of composition. She threw her gloved hands inside and rummaged around, feeling the tough metallic material on all four sides. Her fingers detected nothing different until they brushed against a smooth, bulbous object lodged between several layers of twisted debris.
    “Richard, there’s another object in there...it’s not part of this metal.”
    “Can we get a better look?”
    “I think we can.” Waters crossed to the other side of the lab and opened a cabinet, removing a long, slender wand. At one end was a centimeter-wide sphere, which she grabbed with her right hand, extending the wand out to a full meter.
    Waters made her way back to the table. Above it was situated an holographic monitor, planted on a descending deck, which she pulled down to view. With the flip of a button, Waters activated the monitor, giving them access to the three-dimensional view produced by the spherical holo-cam at the end of the wand.
    She fed the wand into the mouth of the debris, producing alternating infrared, ultraviolet and optical views of the shaft on the monitor. The group watched as the holocam wound its way through the hole, finally coming to a halt at the end. Waters rotated the sphere until it caught a glimpse of her quarry: a black, globular object that separated itself from the other, similarly colored metal by its unusual UV spectrum.
    De Lis placed an index finger near the monitor. “There—Stacia, get a closer view.”
    She magnified the holocam’s image threefold.
    Intrigued, de Lis tapped a button on the monitor deck, which performed a cursory analysis of the object’s EM spectrum. Below the image, a series of peaks and troughs were displayed. “You’re right, Stacia. That’s not metal. Spectrum is organic, heavy in calcium and oxygenated minerals.” He exchanged a look with Waters. “Let’s get it out of there.”
    Twenty minutes later, Waters and de Lis had carved up the remaining wreckage, temporarily placing the disjointed pieces around the lab’s