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	There was a bright blue flash. Jeremiah’s pupils dilated briefly at the sudden blast of light as he stepped into his room. The door whooshed closed behind him, and the sound of mechanical pins locking into place whirred. The sound of his overly advanced door locking was challenged only by the spinning vibrations of the trembling engine block in the far back of the engine room. Occasionally a splash of blue would illuminate the otherwise dark room, a recoil reaction from one of the engine’s alternator coils. Of course, being the engineer he could’ve wired the parts in such a way that it didn’t discharge, but he thought it looked cooler this way, giving the engine room, his room, a sort of futuristic lava lamp of sorts. 

	He stepped into the center of the room. The floor was spotless, immaculate and virgin to any mess, in great contrast to the rest of the room. Projects both large and small, unfinished and complete lined the walls and expertly lined shelves held countless tools and gizmos, some blinking with lights others dark and still. Panels with exposed wires jutted out of the wall, additions Jeremiah made to the ship, and to his room. On one of the panel faces a computer screen flashed, a tiny red dot blinking at the top right corner. Jeremiah’s eyes narrowed at the indicator and his fist formed around the plastic bag in his pocket. If the walk over hadn’t sobered him, this tiny little speck did.

	His thoughts were jerked away from the indicator for a moment as Xaara’s voice came over the intercom. [i]Two hours[/i] Jeremiah thought, he looked down at his wrist and a metal contraption hugging it beeped the time up at him. He let out a breath, but he could feel it in his stomach, he had only twenty minutes before his body wanted -- needed -- [i]more[/i]. His fingers curled around the little blue pills, the sheen of the plastic keeping them from each other.

	The little red indicator blinked again, and Jeremiah’s eyes snapped back to the panel. He stepped over to the computer screen and tapped a rhythm on the otherwise blank flashing screen, unlocking a bright blue screen in its place. The engineer tapped invisible keys, each flashing orange as he found it on the blue screen. As his finger hit the final key there was a soft whirr and [i]tink[/i]. A small communications device (much like a flip phone of yore) and port shot out of the top of the panel. The metal communicator attached to the port was old, blacked from use, and recycled spliced wires unnaturally connected it to the panel below. The port wasn’t in much better shape but held more polish than the old communicator. 

	Jeremiah looked down at his wrist again, the metal device on his wrist lighting up as his eyes met its four by three inch screen. He began tapping away at the screen, the device a combination of a wrist bracer and an overclocked, modified and upgraded version of an “Interstellar Space Engineer’s Omni-Tool”, a fancy tablet capable of a great many things used by the Interstellar Engineer’s Union and many militaries. There was a pop as Jeremiah entered the last tap and a tiny electronic key the size of a usb jutted out of the Omni-tool. Jeremiah slid the key out of the bracer and into the waiting port. The port beeped and sunk into the old Communicator, and then the screen came to life.

	There was no image visible but a tiny replica of Thor’s hammer on the end of a necklace string laid out on a wooden nightstand, but it wasn’t the image that was important. A familiar voice could be heard off-screen.

	[i]Earth, United States, Appalachians, Coordinates…[/i] The voice began to list off numbers before finishing: [i] See you there, buddy.[/i]

	The screen went blank, and the red blinking indicator faded to black. The port snapped back out of the communicator and Jeremiah retrieved the key, sliding it back into the bracer. His mind was buzzing as the panel reset itself, the communicator disappearing back into the contraption. He played with the pills in his pockets as his mind spun.

	He felt his fingertips fish a pill out of the bag. He brought it up to his mouth, yet his mind remained on the message, [i]Could it be?[/i] He popped the pill into his mouth, [i] See you there, buddy.[/i] He smirked, swallowing the pill, “See you there.”

	There was a bright blue flash. Jeremiah fell to the floor.

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