They stepped inside the cooler, darker opening, which turned out to be a foyer. Directly in front of them was a large wooden door almost closed, but George turned and walked down a narrow hall to another, smaller door set in the thick stone wall. Without knocking, he turned the handle and entered.
Fortis stepped into the well-lit office. Through the large glass window on the opposite wall, one could see odd pieces of equipment. He decided the rounded ceramic object was a hydrogen tank, as it had a single ceramic pipe running to a large interior chamber with a wide flat opening along the side. The opening was dark. He caught just a glimpse of an old style hydrogen separation unit commonly used on some planets George had visited. He thought to himself it was probably one of those expensive imports they managed to keep running, since it was obviously mostly metal.
He had to force himself to turn and pay attention at the mention of his name. It was another perfunctory introduction, and Fortis was quickly fascinated by the collection of items displayed on one shelf, running wall to floor and wider than his reach. Various pieces of raw silica mixed in among some of the previous products. Something utterly unexpected caught his eye.
Glancing back from time to time at it, he tried to listen to the conversation. The man behind the table was embarrassed. George was saying, “Richard, I understand keeping reasonable business confidences. Nothing I say or do will serve to force you. But if the man has failed to deliver on a bargain, wouldn’t you like to know if something unpleasant has befallen him? Will you destroy all we’ve built just because someone is a little nervous about someone finding his secret mine?”
Richard struggled for a few moments. Finally, he opened up his pocket device and showed George a picture with some information displayed below it. George touched his own device to this one, apparently copying the data. Then he reassured Richard, “My only interest is the village and our reputation. Indeed, you know I pointedly never got involved in your business as long as it was only your business.”
Richard glanced at Fortis meaningfully. George replied, “He’s from off-planet. He has no interest at all.”
“Except for one thing,” Fortis interrupted.
Both men turned to him. He stepped over to the shelf, reaching up high to a flat gray rectangle about the size of his hand, and thick as the tip of his finger. Pulling it down, he turned it over in his hands. “This is at least the shell of a standard Imperial era military individual communications unit.”
Richard seemed to welcome the distraction. “This has been handed down in my family for several generations. We never really knew what it was, but we believe it’s all here.” He reached for the device, pressed on one corner and the thing opened like a book. Both internal faces were smooth, but dark and faintly translucent. He handed it back to Fortis.
“I wonder if it still works?” Fortis began looking at it, tracing his fingers along the edges, faces, until suddenly it glowed and came to life.
Richard looked stunned. George asked, “Do you know how to operate that?”
“Of course,” Fortis smiled. “It’s like the one we have at the university computer museum.” He stroked and tapped on the one face, as images flashed on the other. The other two men watched as Fortis inventoried what was stored on the device. “Did you tell me there was once a military ship visited here?” he asked.
“About three hundred years ago, just before the last rash of wars started,” George said.
“This is a planetary survey log.” He turned it where they could see it.
Turning it back, he tapped and stroked some more. Then he froze for just a second, until a smile slowly crept across his lips. “Who else has had access to this device?” He looked up.
Richard thought for a moment. “My grandfather told me it had been stolen once by a distant cousin. The thief had it for a while when he was caught in possession. He was sent him to the North Islands. They never saw the man again.”
Fortis turned it around to George. “Books. Books on warfare, of course, but also books on government and political theory. Many of them related to one of the ancient empires on Terra, which collapsed just before your people came here, George. I have a digested copy of them on my spooler. It’s all about rational political theory, republics, pluralistic societies, nuclear family households, capitalism, credit systems…”
“Democracy,” George muttered, gazing at the screen.
