Jeremiah’s eyes were glued to the tv, his pupils dilated as it reflected the scenes from “M.A.S.H.”. A smile was on his face, either from his high or the antics of Hawkeye. Jeremiah laughed, “ha, swilling.”

	He had been up for hours, and before that he had barely slept, and definitely not a deep sleep. It could have been the drug, it could have been jet lag, or he could have been nervous about the mines, either way he now felt a joyful butterfly in his stomach tickling his senses. He sat on the edge of his bed in full Engineer uniform, with the baggie of joy hidden in a suit pocket. He had his helmet retracted for the best viewing pleasure, besides he really didn’t need it on the inside. 

	There was only one worry buried in his mind, the worry that this mine trip would take too long, he needed to find a new supplier before he ran out, or his own sanity might just be pulled out from underneath him. This worry gave him anxiety, anxiety only the little blue pill could numb. 

	A sudden knock on the door broke him from his thoughts and he jumped to his feet, diving for the door. He swung it open, nearly sending himself flying with it. His wide green eyes quickly studied the two figures in front of him.  

Silvia perked a brow as she looked over at him and then at Marx. “This is the new wizz kid?” she asked slightly confused. Marx shrugged slightly as he looked at his surrogate sister before looking back over at the odd engineer in front of them.

“I think it is, you were the one that assigned him to this, not me,” Marx chuckled somewhat as he covered his mouth.

“Oh right, didn’t really see his face yesterday,” she said clearing her throat before looking back over towards Jerimiah. “Sorry about that,” she said before looking past him to the screen with the ancient T.V. show playing. “As long as you don’t swill your martinis, I guess you’ll have to do,” she said before turning on her heels and motioning for him to follow her. Marx laughing as he walked in tow with her.

“Would you look at that,” Jeremiah muttered, “I open a door and I’m already being accused of swilling, I never swill. Gulp maybe, but never swill.” 

He stepped lightly behind them, a little annoyed at the remarks he had recieved by simply answering the door, but overall still pretty giddy from the show, the references, and especially the Joy. He spoke up, “how long do these trips normally take?”

	Silvia glanced over her shoulders as she pushed the door to the stairs opened, opting for the walk instead of the elevators. “In a well equipped mine that is up to date it would only take a couple of hours but this one has fallen into disrepair like everything else around here. If we are back before dusk I will be surprised,” she said as she took the stairs two at time. Marx nodding slightly as he kept close to Silvia, following her down the winding stair case.

	“Yeah, the last guy to run this place let everything go to pot. Hell in a hand basket as it were. It is going to take a lot to get the place back up and running properly. This is just the first stage, we are not so much repairing today but need to review the machines and the structure of the mine shafts itself and make a list of everything that needs to be taken care of,” Marx said as he kept pace.

	“Yeah, from what I am gathering the place probably looks like the 4077 after the nurses were shipped out. I don’t think it is going to be a pretty sight,” she quipped.

	Jeremiah shuddered at the thought, “sound lovely.” 

	Silvia nodded as they reached the bottom of the stairwell and pushed the door open, making her way over to the transport vessel they were going to take out to the mines. It was a simple land traveler with opening seating for six, half of the space already taken up with supplies for the ride out there. Stopping and making sure Jeremiah and Marx had kept up she smiled slightly. “Yeah, well as long as it isn’t as bad as Klinger dressed as Cleopatra, I think I will make due,” she said as she slid into the driver's seat and motioned for the guys to join her. “Hop on in,” she added as Marx called shotgun and left the seat behind him as the only option left for Jeremiah.

	“I think the statue of liberty was worse,” Jeremiah laughed warmly as he clumsily plopped himself into one of the seats.

	Silvia laughed as she powered up the land traveler and slowly back it out of the docking bay. “Yeah, but that one had pyrotechnics! So points on Klinger for that one, hopefully we won’t run into him prancing around as Lady Godiva,” she said in a light hearted voice as they made it to the open ground around the base of the tower and sped off towards the mines. 

	Marx just sitting there laughing so hard, tears rolling down his cheeks at their banter. He was not so much a M.A.S.H. fan, something Silvia never let him live down, saying he was uncultured but their joking was making his sides hurt.

	“So, knowing your maritinis are never swilled, I must ask. If you had to have a roommate in that swamp of yours, who would you prefer? Trapper, Bj or Winchester?”

	“That’s tough, Trapper got his nickname in what I think is the funniest manner, so props to him. Although Winchester is too fitting for that swamp of mine, but I’d say Trapper,” Jeremiah shrugged, “what about you?”

	“I think I will take the route of Hotlips and keep my quarters to myself,” she said with a laugh. “As long as I don’t find any stuffed helicopter pilots stuffed in my closet,” she said as they continued on their way. The mine was a good ways away but she didn’t mind. She was enjoying the open air and the conversation. It made the time go by faster.


“Other than M.A.S.H., which you obviously has a liking of, what else do you enjoy?” she asked as she kept the land traveling going at a good rate in hopes of getting there without incident but still making good time. 

Jeremiah leaned back, folding his hands behind his head as he racked his brain, she was asking him to get off topic from MASH, never an easy task. He pursed his lips and shook his head, “you might find this silly but I also enjoy the antique’s musics. My likes are thousands of years outdated.”

“I don’t mind it silly,” she said as they continued on their way. “If we don’t keep track of what was lost before the war broke out it is lost forever. We wouldn’t have things like M.A.S.H. if someone didn’t dig them out. Or music like Nightwish.”

The engineer raised both brows, “Nightwish is amazing! What’s your favorite song by them?”

“Oh god, that’s a tough one, like asking my favorite episode of M.A.S.H.,” she said before going silent for a few as she pondered the question. “If I could only pick one I guess I would have to say I Wish I Had An Angel,” she said and Marx busted out laughing.

“Fitting considering your nick name,” he pipped in.

“Oh shut it Marx,” she quipped before going back to her conversation with Jeremiah. “What about you? If you had to pick one?”

“To be honest with you,” Jeremiah paused, “I asked hoping I wouldn’t have to answer, because damn me that’s a tough one.”

He scratched his chin, “Amaranth or Nemo, I can’t decide.”

“Good choices,” she said in agreement. It really wasn’t an easy question for anyone that enjoyed Nightwish to answer. They continued their banter through out the rest of the journey to the mines. Marx trying to pipe in from time to time but Silvia shutting him up most of the time. She was enjoying the talk and really didn’t want his smart ass remarks to taint it. 

After a while they made their way to the entrance of the mine and pulled the land traveler to a stop before powering it down and stepping out. “Wow, this place looks like shit,” Marx said as he climbed out of his seat and looked around. It was in far worse shape than they had expected. Silvia wiped some of the dust from her face and grimaced. “I guess we found Lady Godiva after all,” she muttered before looking over towards Jeremiah. “Looks like you are going to have your work cut out for you,” she said as she pointed over to the lighting first, it was flickering and showing even that was not working properly.

The place was oddly silent as well. “I don’t hear any fans to pull fresh air into the mines going, that worries me,” she said as she began to walk towards the entrance of the mines.

Jeremiah chuckled as he thought of Klinger, ending the laugh in a whistle as he strolled over to an outcropping metal box with pipes jutting from it and into the rock faces. He swung the box open and glanced around, frowning. He reached in and pulled out a large clump of rust, supposedly something important at one point in time. The situation was so bad, it was almost funny. 

He dropped a tool box onto the ground and began rummaging through it, “support systems are pretty bad, and only a chance loose wire is keeping the lights flickering.”

Silvia watched him work with marx at her side and nodded slightly. “Wonderful, okay we have supplies in the back of the Land Traveler, please unload them and do what you can out here. I will go inside with Marx and see if I can find anyone,” she said before they left and made their way into the mines.

Jeremiah shrugged and blinked his dilated eyes before ramming a loose bolt into the circuit, forcing a few lights on completely by the sudden introduction of a new conductor. He smiled, [i]that’ll keep it while I unload.[/i]