It was moving.

It should not be moving. She was fairly sure that stones did not have heartbeats.

She squinted at the screen. "Carson, look at this."

No response. "Carson?" She turned to look at his workstation.

The engineer yawned and ran a hand through his hair. The effect was to contribute to the impression he always gave: that he had just rolled out of bed.

"Don't tell me. You found a strange reading. And you think it'll save our jobs from cancellation, our funding from getting demolished, and my wife from complete heartbreak." Carson's tone was lighthearted. "Morgan's developing a sense of humour! Who would've thought?"

Not for the first time, she wished that the lab contained any other form of intelligent life besides Carson whom she could talk to. Not for the first time, she was disappointed.

"Carson, I mean it. Look at these readings."

His eyes were still fixed on his computer, but there was a hint of a grin on his face. "Serious, aren't we? Okay, I admit it. The other day when your computer wasn't working? I may or may not have replaced your desktop background with a screenshot of itself and hidden all the desktop icons. I'm sorry. Actually I'm not, because it was hilarious, but I'll buy you a coffee. Now we're even. Can we get the joke over with now?"

Yeah, and she'd never guessed that before, because there were just so many people in this top-secret government research lab who could have touched her computer apart from him. It had taken her half an hour to figure out what was wrong - including almost calling tech support - before she realised that the time on her onscreen clock wasn't changing. Thirty minutes' worth of federal taxpayers' money.

She was looking at something that might save their jobs, and Carson still thought she was joking. It was time to roll out the big guns.

"Carson, if you don't look at these readings right now, I'll tell everyone you sleep with teddy."

Finally a reaction. "First of all, his name is Bruce, not Teddy. And second - blackmail, Morgan? Really?" He spun his chair to face her. "You're acting really weird today. What's up?"

She sighed. "As I explained to you approximately sixteen times already, I need you to look at this reading."

"Lucky number seventeen for you then." As he rolled his chair to her workstation she silently congratulated herself. She'd never been good with people, especially not people like Carson. But one upside of working with him for so long was that she knew precisely how to press his buttons.

Long seconds passed as Carson studied her screen.

"Huh. That does look pretty weird." It was exactly the kind of professional diagnosis she expected from one of the top researchers in his field. "Think it's an Energy Gem?"

"A - what?"

"Energy Gem. You said we had to come up with a name before the big meeting on Monday."

Had she really asked him to name them? She couldn't recall, but then again she'd had a lot on her plate recently. Preparing for the presentation of a lifetime did that to a person.

"'Energy Gem'? How old are you, five?"

"Hey, you suggested 'Paragon Prisms'."

Which was a perfectly serviceable name, far more so than 'Energy Gem'. "'Prism' is a scientifically accurate term to describe the quality of light refraction that these stones are likely to possess. And 'Paragon' - "

He waved her aside. "Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. You just don't get it." He shook his head pityingly. "You gotta think ahead. In the future, when we're rich and famous and people make TV shows about our lives, who's gonna be able to say 'Paragon Prisms'? You gotta think like a network executive. You make people say 'Kendall Morgan, famous for discovering the Paragon Prisms', they'll have switched to Nickelodeon before you finish."

So they got on each other's nerves. That much was clear. What was also clear was that as long as they had worked together, she had never seen readings like this. She hated admitting that she needed anyone's help, but if these readings were real, she would definitely need Carson's.

"Call them whatever you want. Will you just run the tests?"

Carson smirked, knowing he'd won. He gave her a ridiculous salute. "Aye aye, captain. The usual tests?"

"Commence scans for 780-622, 492-455, and 597-577 nm - "

"You mean Red, Blue and Yellow. Righto. Red, Blue and Yellow Energy Gems coming right up."

As he moved back to his workstation, she couldn't take her eyes off her preliminary scan results. The readings showed the right kind of energy, but they weren't steady like she'd expect from a stone. They were pulsing. Like whatever was giving off the signals was alive.

She had to know. She resisted the urge to start drumming her fingers as Carson began the scan.

After what seemed an eternity, there was a small ping. The results were back.

She approached his desk. "Well? Which one did we find?"

Carson turned to look at her, amazement on his face.

"All of them."