Ves materialized his System comm from his Inventory and activated his Privacy Shield before he picked up the cube.
He studied it for a moment before realizing that it was actually an engineering puzzle. Ves retrieved his Vulcaneye multiscanner from his toolbelt and thoroughly scanned the cube.
"I was right! It's a lock!"
The cube was made out of extremely sensor-resistant materials. The fact that it managed to thwart the scans of the multiscanner he bought from the System spoke volumes about its quality.
"This is very expensive packaging!"
If Ves could melt it down and shape it into something else, then he could repurpose the alloy cube into a more useful object.
"However, it's not that easy to do so."
If his guess was correct, the cube was rigged to melt or blow up if Ves handled it improperly. If he wanted to open the cube, then he needed to go along with the arrangements of its maker and solve the puzzle.