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Hibbet's reply was succinct He only said, "Ah"

Zavala picked up the story thread, and told the group about boarding the resurrected ship Hibbet was keenly interested in his description of the power plant and the daed electrical framework on deck

"I wish I could have been there to see it," he said

"I can do the next best thing," Zavala said Moital photos he had taken of the mystery ship were displayed on the computer screen

Austin asked Hibbet what he es The NUMA scientist stared at the screen with a furrowed brow, and asked for a second run-through of the photos

"It's fairly obvious that a great deal of electrical power is being fed into a central point" He pointed to the cone-shaped framework "It's hard to knohat this apparatus is for in its present state"

"Joe described it as a giant spark plug," Austin said

Hibbet scratched his head "Probably not More like a giant Tesla coil Many of the circuits thattick are not visible Where is the ship now?"

"It sank to the bottoain," Zavala said

Hibbet's reaction wasn't what Austin expected There was exciteether "This beats fiddling around with antennae any day" He clicked through the colanced around the table "Anyone here familiar with the work of Nikola Tesla?"

"I'ular basis," Zavala said "Tesla invented alternating current"

Tibbet nodded "He was a Serbian Aineer He discovered that you could rotate a les and juiced them with AC current out of phase"

"I wonder if you lish," Adler said politely

Hibbet laughed "I'll put it in a historic context Tesla moved to the United States and worked for Thomas Edison They became rivals Edison advocated direct current, and there was a fierce battle Tesla got the edge when he was coara Falls He sold the patents to his induction house, whose power system was the basis for e use today Edison had to be content with the electric lightbulb and the phonograph"

"Tesla filed a bunch of wild patents, as I recall," Zavala said