The Setup

Yesterday, our heroes arrived at the Perepelkin Crater on the far side of the Moon and located a transmission beacon placed there by Colonel Slayton and the members of the Darwin Project. This is a giant MacGuffin. It is simply to establish the principle that very old, inanimate objects disintegrate when they are transported aboard MINIMCOM.

In the very beginning of the book, I had demonstrated that MINIMCOM's livetar can swoop in and grab a dangerous object and transport it out. That was one part of the puzzle. The other was set up here:

     Within the craterlet sat a small metallic object, perched on four tiny spindly legs, listing to one side.
     “That’s it!” Rei said, pointing. “MINIMCOM, is it still active?”
     “Scanning…” MINIMCOM said. After a moment, he replied, “there is no signal.”
     “Are you sure?”
     “I have scanned every frequency from one Hertz up to the Terahertz band,” MINIMCOM said. “It is dead.”
     “Try again,” Rome insisted. “It’s important.”
     “Scanning…again…” MINIMCOM said with a hint of impatience. After a moment, the starship answered, “Still nothing. I detect no electrical activity whatsoever.”
     Rome turned to Rei. “What if we recovered it? Do you think we could power it up again?”
     “It’s worth a try,” Rei said. “MINIMCOM, can you transport it into your cargo hold?’
     “I do not think it a wise idea if you want try to reactivate it.”
     “Why?”
     “It is over one thousand years old. And it is inorganic. My transport mechanism seems to work best with organic molecules. They have a certain cohesion, a stickiness, that allows the object to remain intact longer. With something as fragile as the probe, I believe transporting it might destabilize it.”
     “How come you never told us this before?” Rei asked.
     “It did not seem relevant.”
     “So what are we supposed to?” Rei asked. “Go out and get it?”
     “I apologize but I believe that to be your best course of action.”

The entire premise is preposterous of course. Metal is metal. Molecules are molecules. So the "age" of the object is completely irrelevant. How does the universe know the age of an object when it is formed from molecules that have been around since the beginning of time?

The answer is: it does not, but things are happening so fast that it is my hope that you, the reader, ignore this giant plot hole. I needed to set up the circumstances wherein I could "kill" MINIMCOM later in the book. I have nothing against MINIMCOM. In fact, I like him. But a dramatic death is still dramatic, even if it isn't permanent so forgive me for this little sleight of hand.