[Ford crosses the floor to the multicolored, glittery smear.]

All right. Let's see what he was up to.

[Ford scans the area. The scanner beeps. He examines the display, then draws his eyebrows together.]

Nothing. At least, nothing that shouldn't be here.

[Ford turns it around to show Jon the display: it's a little flashing admiral's hat, with a bar gauge to the side falling safely between two parallel lines indicating normal. Press a toggle button, and it will run through all the physical substances it detected: nothing but wood and the chemical components of ordinary nail polish.]

Just ambient Barge energy at normal levels.