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[Leeravitz]

Just calling up the peculiar mystery of the Klebold Plates and the Reynolds Ioniser again...

The weird thing about this stuff is that it was cleverly hidden away in the Five of Cups, and there is some indication that, perhaps, the person who killed Holyoke wanted to remove this evidence, as the place looked like it had been ransacked after the murder.

My first thought was immediately that this tech must have had something to do with the theft...but if so, it's hard to see how exactly...

What we can determine is as follows:

1. Whatever the Plates and the Ioniser do, they have no security application, according to Pietro Salk.

2. They appear to have been stolen from the Academy (as does much of the tech that Holyoke was jury - rigging).

3. But, unless something has been altered deliberately, it would appear that the police were able to either date the manufacture of said items, or contact the Academy and discover when they went missing, or something whatever the case may be, we were told by Salk that these items were stolen sometime in January 2005 (I forget the precise date). This was certainly a fair few months before Salk got involved with TA.

4. So, it might be logical to think of something along the lines of: the theft Team steal the Cube on Ball Night; they spirit it away via the Catacombs to a safe house location; they then later utilise tech to transport it to Earth directly and/or utilise tech on it in an attempt to unlock certain of its secrets, and it transports as an unwanted side - effect. Maybe the Plates and the Ioniser were part of that tech. stash.

5. But, here's the rub - the Cube got stolen in Jan. 2004 and, according to The Sentinel, by February 2004, Sente and the Academy Team had already traced the EM pulse (or whatever it is they're tracking) to Earth. Yes, they then proceeded to sit down around and do nothing for the best part of the rest of the year, but it was really that long ago (and that soon after the original theft) that the notion that the Cube had 'gone to Earth' was first suggested.

6. So, the problem is easy to see: the Cube was already on Earth a year before these items of equipment were supposedly stolen. I still suspect that these bits of tech are of significance (they wouldn't have been so well hidden otherwise), but it's hard to make out how they might have been involved with the theft. Unless someone has tampered with something, and they can make these items appear to have been stolen long after the period in which they were actually appropriated. Or maybe, in the Edgar Allen Poe, style, this tech *was* involved in the theft, but it was allowed to sit around in plain sight for the better part of a year, before it was finally smuggled out to be fenced off, or otherwise disposed of, because discovery was now about to be risked.

Yet again, it all adds up to something highly convoluted...

[Elsheran]

Perhaps the Tech was stolen to be used in a retrival of the cube, or to recreate something the cube was capable of?

Perhaps there was going to be an attempt to build a new cube? Re-engineer it as a way to learn what it does?

[DogsHead]

You touched on something I have thought since the last round of spec Lee, about where and how the Cube got here (that was back in march I think), when someone suggested the cube may have taken itself off as protection. At the time I wondered if the theives had even intended to kill Fran - maybe she was done for by the backdraft of whatever the Cube did to escape. In any case what Lee's point made me wonder was; did the theives, apon failing to escape with the cube, go back to half inch the other valuable looking stuff when all the fuss had died down? I mean how can all that gear be sitting in the 5 o' cups for almost a year without anybody from the Academy noticing it was gone?

[Mosestrotsky]

One thing I was considerering is that as the thieves were hired by our mysterious 'third power' when they recieved the cube (still up in the air - did they actually get the cube or did the thieves decide to keep it for more money and hence have been systematically removed) they sent it to Earth.

Basically either the Cube came here on its own
OR the Cube was sent here by the thieves or those that hired the thieves (maybe they feel it is safer here)
OR It came here by accident

Now as the 'third power' have been around a while I think it can be safe to assume (though please feel free to not) that have knowledge or access to greater tech. Also they know the catacoombs like the back of their hand (they did build it - well that's what i think)

Take the virus attack on the Academy - it has been surmised that the virus was a much more sophisticated beast.

There was a lot of other stuff stolen from the academy - perhaps Kurt may mention what has been stolen. maybe he had something stolen. Kurt's our key at the mo for tech related questions so don't give up on him yet.

Back to the Cube briefly. I see that a the word react is taken like the Cube is acting like Sodium in water. This may be true and may explain when the cube was found the extensive testing the scientist did on this. Though if the cube is in the Uk I do feel it is buggered.

"Hurray we have found the cube - oh darn it is staring to rain <boom>"

Perhaps by react they mean it changes colour or Hums a Roll for Damage song. It enables us to recognise the cube from any other (can you imagine when we find it there are three and we have to choose - arm ourselves with Water and Thermometers)

Also - do you suppose the initial tests made on the cube discovered these traits. Was acetone and liquid mercury available to them at their equivalent time (what would that be earth history time)

Just as a final thought - can we restablish contact with Sente? I would guess that people here try on a regular basis.

I guess we all have to be patient

[Leeravitz]

The implication from the Academy website would seem to be that the Cube (famously found in 7 AC) then sat around without anyone investigating it for 30 years. I assume, therefore, that any investigations that have been performed on it have been initiated from c. 37 AC onwards! In 'our' terms, that would mean from the late 1770's onwards. We are vaguely aware that the ancient history of the Academy seems to be rooted in the coming together of a dilettante group of researchers with alchemical interests, back in what is (in 'our' terms) the High Middle Ages [even though, IMHO, the references of the time read in a more Elizabethan manner than anything else].

Given that alchemy utilised primary chemicals such as mercury, acidic tinctures, potash, sulphur etc., I imagine that basic applications to the Cube were far from impossible even at the earliest point of discovery. Although in our terms, alchemy was deeply unfashionable by the 1770's, it was still part of the chemist's armoury. Lavoisier, for instance, derived much of his chemical thinking by way of alchemical adaptations.

Having said that, it's evident that, once they'd begun on the road to analysing the Cube's physical properties, the academicians didn't stop - so more and more experiments, of increasing sophistication, appear to have been applied to the Cube over the last two centuries. According to the Academy web page, they've recently reached the stage where they've been able to subject it to magnetic resonance testing, and electron microscopy anlaysis. They still don't understand what it does, though!