"The Keeper's Riddle" by Joe Schembrie

An interesting tale, set in the asteroid belt that contains several separate colonies. An unknown object that seems to come from another colony known to be segregationist appears and is investigated by a team. The team discovers that the object may contain secrets that the originating colony may not want revealed. To protect the object, they need to break the password to its system but it is locked inside a riddle that, as it turns out, only a child (or someone who can think like one) can solve.

• Read from Analog SF, July-August 2005 issue