Free The Gift by Dave Donovan

waiting for them rather than the other way around, “Come on, let’s go inside. Maybe there’s more to see on the replay.”
    There was more to see on the replay. The high-speed visual camera had captured what the human eye could not. As Rui and Dan walked in, Jack was asking a technician how fast the sphere had been moving upon approach.
    “It was steady at 1056.42 miles per hour all the way to the ground, Sir.”
    “There was no variation?” Jack asked.
    “Not out to two decimals, Sir," the technician responded.
    “What did we get on thermal?” Web asked the technician monitoring that system.
    “Not what I expected, Sir. The object was a uniform 162 degrees Fahrenheit. It should have been much higher than that and it should not have been uniform." the technician was about to continue, but remembering where she was and who she was answering stopped her.
    “Please continue,” Web encouraged her.
    “Well, Sir, I’m not an expert, but I’ve participated in a number of aircraft tests using this equipment and the planes always show significant temperature variations from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the flight surfaces, and the temperature is always higher than this, even at Mach one. This was traveling closer to Mach two. I would have expected temperatures closer to 300 degrees," she responded.
    “Is it still at 162 degrees?” Dan asked.
    The technician moved her view from the monitor showing the replay to the real-time monitor, “No, Sir. It is not showing up on thermal anymore.” She stopped again.
    Web nodded slightly before thanking her and returning his attention to the team, “We’re running full spectrum analysis now. We should have results shortly. Does anyone have any thoughts they’d like to share while we wait?”
    “I have some questions I’d like to ask whoever built that thing," Rui said, to no one in particular. It was a thought shared by them all.
    Angela, as focused as ever said, “I’d like to try to re-establish communications now.” The anomaly had stopped broadcasting as soon as Dan executed the program it had sent. Everyone was anxious to restart the conversation, such as it was.
    “Go ahead," Web replied. Angela grabbed Dan’s arm and pulled him away from the group toward the system connected to the communications array. She’d developed a few new ideas on the flight and was eager to test them. Dan offered no resistance. He was as eager to do something as she was.
    A couple of interminable minutes passed as the team reviewed the various recordings of the object’s arrival, waiting for the results of the analysis. When it arrived it was as consistent as it was confounding. The sphere was not emitting anything measurable from the observation site: no microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, no light on any spectrum, no radiation of any kind. It appeared to be an inert mass sitting at ambient temperature, waiting for them to make the next move.
    “It’s as safe as we know how to measure, for now at least," Web noted before directing Jack to get the cover and concealment team over to hide the sphere from overhead observation. It was standard procedure for anything interesting in the open: cover it and camouflage it as quickly as possible. The fact that there were 16 similar spheres elsewhere in the world, including one in each of the countries with the means to spy on the U.S., changed nothing. Nor would the fact that the U.S. was now in possession of one stop them from doing everything in their power to observe every other landing site in the world as closely as possible. Enigmatic visitors unfathomably more advanced than human kind were no match for standard procedure.
    “I’m on it," Jack replied as he departed the CP.
    Web turned to Chang, “Would you like to work with the active scanning team until we can re-establish communication with it?” It was unlikely Chang would be able to materially contribute to the work of the technicians who used the tools regularly. Web