Storytime part 11

Dave returned to the restricted area before he would be missed, waving the new chip at the two who looked for his return; satisfied he had found someone to give him a new chip quickly. He certainly wasted no time rebooting the equipment. He wanted an in depth look at the stone inscription. Something was missing there, too, he was certain.
He was right! Rubbing eyes almost too tired to stay open, he spotted the elusive mark on the edge of the worn thing. What were obviously numbers made no sense. Adding the elusive ‘1’ to the front made a DATE stand out. He was immediately alert again, he was near it, he was certain. What had happened in that year, so long in the past?
He laughed out loud. No wonder no one had deciphered it! A 19th century ‘language’ appearing on a prehistoric stone? Maybe the inventor from the 19th century had seen the thing and copied the symbols as part of his truly unique idea. And a full review of the language proved more than enlightening. He could READ the stone. The tiny symbols formed into words as he scribbled it down. It was fascinating … and frightening … The two must NOT know of this.
Dave was suddenly certain he was NOT one of them. This language no longer used was part of his longer heritage, of THIS world. Their language was NOT his. The language used in this place WAS. And they obviously had ear translators as did he, but they did not see this in their myopia. He would try to keep his discovery to himself for as long as possible, but it was difficult to judge just how much they knew or guessed even from his body language.
Further, he realised he understood the machine fairly well now, just not the alien parts. He MUST be part of the machine project in THIS world, only how many hundreds of years ahead of where they were now?
How had he come here? The machine, that was blindingly obvious, at least now it was. But they could not control it. What was missing? Had he come here randomly?
Grinning, he turned to the language translation tool. He would add his own lines to the end of the original ones. If anyone else could translate they would have a real mystery to solve!
And the stone had given him a chilling insight into what might fit into the not quite complete complex mechanism …..
Time passed. He worked on his ideas alone, whilst seeming to do otherwise as the two watched fascinated at his different approach to the thing. Even they were learning more.
And the military men came again, with sacks of jewels and gold and platinum ingots. The two seemed neither to trust banks nor cash. These things could still be exchanged freely for money or goods if you knew where to do the exchanging. And they were placed in a vault that would have made even the best robber despair and give up quickly. The place was more than half full with a planet sized ransom fund.
Dave knew what was missing. He knew where to find it. The others must not know. Return home? He doubted this very much. Their ultimate goal was still hidden and sinister, he had NO doubt there. He ached to just go and retrieve the thing and try the machine for himself. He found it hard to keep himself under control as time went on. If only the two were not here he thought, he would have all the time in the world at his fingertips!

Hope you are all still well intruiged ..... there are many more twists and turns to come lol