"They're not robots," he says, watching as the construct scatters into big, 3-D 'pixels', which then fade away. "They'd be leaving hardware behind if they were.

"Unbelievable as it seems, I think they're some kind of-- holographic construct? Which means they have to have some kind of hardware somewhere to operate them with."

He looks around as he says that, as if he expects to see a terminal helpfully appear in view. No such luck, of course. He looks back down at Romeo. "Have you seen anything that looks-- er, electronic at all?"