8 The Advantages of Breaking & Entering

It took a day for Asher to find the correct software to translate ancient egyptian, and that day it was stormy. Rain clouds loomed ominously overhead, concealing the sun. Humidity stalled the air. The only benefit of this was that the heat had subsided.

This weather was especially welcomed because dragging down the group was the bag that Asher used to carry his laptop. It was his pride and joy - an Alienware with a glowing keyboard and a full terabyte of data storage. And now the translator was on there.

And if I drop it, I'll have hell to pay, Cain thought. He was on his own motorbike today. It was a tiny bit more upgraded then the versions his companions had - his cousin, Jasmine, had given it to him as a gift.

That motorbike was also a tiny bit faster, so he had to be twice as careful. But Cain's motto wasn't about care, it was fast-fast-fast-get-it-done. PJ knew that, so she was actually riding in front of him to force him to be slower.

They rode past the alien grave-tree and into the clearing. The spaceship was still there, and Cain realized they were yet to give it a name.

We named a corpse before we named a spaceship, he thought, and then as they slowed he thought about good names to recommend. Maiden of the Stars? Song of the Stars? He thought. He was a tiny bit of a traditionalist with boat names.

"I think we should name it Maiden of the Stars," Cain commented as the engines died down.

"Boooring," Adah declared, blowing a raspberry.

"I think we should name it after what the egyptian says," Asher stated.

"Let's name it 'hawk sign' and call it egyptian," Cain chuckled.

"Hmmm… You know, that gives me an idea. What about Horus' Eye?" The kid with glasses asked.

"You're thinking of the Eye of Ra," PJ corrected.

One by one, they went up the side. Asher briefly thought about the need for a ladder there, but it was unlikely they'd find another abandoned one anytime soon.

After they went down the hole in the top, he put a tarp down over it and duct taped it on three sides. It'd make it a tiny bit more difficult to get in, but now rain would not be an issue if it would rain, and today it certainly looked like it.

The ship was incredibly cool, and not in the 'awesome' way. Though it had slightly warmed up from yesterday, it still felt as cool as any air conditioned building.

Asher reclines in the back left chair, and his friends started to sit down around him, as if he was a kindergarten teacher and they were his class.

"Cain, can I have my laptop please?" Asher asked.

"Uh, sure," Cain said. He almost slung the backpack to the ground, but caught himself the second before he did so. Damn muscle memory!

Asher unzipped the bag and slid his laptop out. He tossed the bag behind him and then scanned his friend's faces before pecking the passcode in.

His keyboard then adapted to its custom colors - blue, cyan, and green - which were set to a glow pattern that looked almost like breathing.

He double clicked an app he had pinned to his taskbar, and after a minute of loading, cracked his knuckles. "I'm in," he declared, his glasses catching the light from the keyboard.

"Tell us what we've got," Adah chirped.

"It might take a while. PJ, can you take some photos on your phone? Cain, can I borrow your charger cable? That's how I'll receive and upload images," Asher ordered.

"Got it," PJ said.

Cain dug through the pockets of his vest, and after consulting a map he had drawn of it (the map was stored in his lower outer left pocket) he unzipped the vest and grabbed a charging cable. By the time he'd finished with that, PJ was halfway done with taking photos of the whole keyboard.

"PJ, wait," Asher warned.

"What is it?" The blonde girl asked, her gaze snapping to the eyes of her crush.

"Take more up close pictures of them. It'll make it easier to identify. Oh, and crop out the alien runes too," he said.

"Will do," PJ replied and began to start again. Within minutes, all of it had been documented and sent to the computer.

The chair was starting to bug Asher so he dropped to the ground as he imputes the images. The fans of the laptop started to sound like a jet engine, and he sighed.

Suddenly, his eyes caught on some runes and hieroglyphs on the base of the chair. Right above it were stripes of pink and white, which reminded him of common caution symbols.

"PJ, can you take a photo of this?" He asked, jabbing a pen at the base.

"Of what?" PJ asked. She crawled over to him and only when she was pressed up close she could see the symbols.

"Wow. That looks important," she remarked as she snapped a photo of it. The reflective stripes sent the flash of the phone back into their faces, and both of them had to blink a couple of times to get blue spots out of their eyes.

Asher cancelled all other translations to input that one. Within a minute, it popped up.

"To gain the sign of the gods equip the jewelry within," Asher recited.

"What the frick?" Adah chuckled nervously.

"Agreed," PJ said. "What could it mean."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Asher said. "Cain, can you break into this?"

Cain chuckled. "I sure can," he declared, pulling a lock picking kit from a pocket in his vest.

Perhaps I should get a vest too, PJ thought, and then realized that would look very unflattering on her. She could make do with cargo shorts which could hold her phone and sunglasses.

After a minute, a click was heard and it swung open. "Wow, the same tricks work on alien technology," Cain remarked. "Maybe they're not so advanced after all."

Within that was another box. Asher pulled it out, and Cain was relieved that there wasn't a lock on it. His hands were incredibly sweaty right now, and it was a miracle the first one had opened. This one had relatively few hieroglyphs and also a clear image - a man, a falcon, and Ra, the god of the sun.

PJ snapped a photo of it as Adah cracked the box open, revealing the prize within.