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The Mysterious Object (5)

He was out on the streets before dawn, well before the landlady could obligate him to breakfast.  The air was damp as it often was at this time, being a harbor even moreso.

There were lights again behind shutters; several were  accompanied by the sound of movement: The shuffle of things, the clatter of plates…

There was no barking, no howling of stray cats.  If there was one thing lacking here, it was the sound of domestic animals to mingle with the stirring.

A hint of illumination could be detected in the sky.  The gulls certainly noticed, and went into their territorial song.

Henly took out his scanner.  He also extracted a brass device with tiny appendages, which grabbed the contour of his ear on contact. 

A touch of pink glowed on the horizon.  Silhouettes appeared beyond the harbor both on the water and in the air.  A different world from a different time; it was the stuff of wonder and magic.

His smile faded as he turned his attention back to the water’s surface.  He fiddled with the device on his arm and his longcoat dematerialized.  Decorum aside, the least restriction of movement the better.

There were no lifeforms in the area.  Good. The horizon glowed pink as he stepped off the pier.  A muffled rushing  sound displaced the oxygen pockets of his ear canals.  His mind was filled with rising figures for water pressure and temperature in several popular units of measure.  He tapped the attachment on his ear and a wide beam illumuminated the immediate area ahead of him.  A large brass dome sat on the harbor floor, devoid of windows or any visible means of entry – or oxygen source.  Henly positioned himself upside-down above the dome, kicking in place while he extracted the scanner. No subterranean routes could be detected beneath.  He frowned, unable to acquire a visual representation of the dome’s interior.  Either the emissions were causing interference or whomever had enough technological knowledge to maintain a dampening field. 

And of course a transporter…

…like him.  He calculated slightly left of center within the sphere and activated the beam.

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