The Engineer Returns

When Michael walked into the mixers event in the dome-shaped hall that night, he did not expect all the friendly and congratulatory nods. Few staff members even raised their drinks at him, which he reciprocated.

"You have become quite a bit of a celebratory in the lower level circle, I see," Sasha remarked. She was already grooving to the music that the strange electronic music that the robot DJ was playing.

"It is a surprise that they recognize me even in a dim light."

The hall's inside looked more like a trendy bar, the engineers lining up to get their drinks as they stood on tall chairs and chatted. Some tried to show their best moves on the dance floor.

"Why don't the ladies wait here," Gary pointed at two chairs, "and we go and grab us some drink?"

The four of them agreed to the suggestion. The two men walked up to the server and ordered four beers. Michael felt like it had been a lifetime since he last had a beer.

"Congratulations, by the way, man." Gary patted Michael on the shoulder. "I heard you did some combat work and saved a man's life on field."

Michael shrugged and gave him a humble smile. "It was all a blur. If you ask me what or why I did it, I won't have an answer."

"At this rate, you will be promoted to level III soon." Gary adjusted his glasses as if he was studying Michael for a moment. "I heard you used to work for USV before."

Michael did not know if it was a statement or a question. "I heard that too." He gave Gary a thin smile. "How is your food system project going?"

Gary and Michael collected the four glasses of beer and began to walk back to the two girls. "Not too good, man. It is on planet Aratos, and there, one species of the food chain is acting out of character. Eating something that it is not supposed to eat. Still have to locate where the glitch is."

"Don't worry too much, Gary," Angela softly rubbed Gary's arm. "It is probably a solitary bug somewhere in the intraspecies system. We will figure it out."

Michael sat between Gary and Sasha. "Are you three all from Cricolithis?"

"No, just Angela. Me and Gary, both are from Planet Iris, Universe 78. It is," Sasha looked at Gary with a questioning glance as she narrowed an eye, "how many, 3million light years? away from here."

"I see."

"Are you from Cricolithis?" Angela asked as she took a sip of the beer.

Michael recalled what he had read on the screen of his tablet, the first time he looked at his personal information.

"I am from Aurora, Universe 643," he said uncertainly, hoping he remembered it right.

"Ah, the great red planet. We don't have a lot of engineers here from Aurora." Sasha considered Michael with a renewed interest.

"Wasn't it because they closed down the engineering universities there or something?" Gary furrowed his brow as he tried to recall.

Michael caught Angela staring at him, but she immediately looked away.

"If you all live so far from your families, how do you communicate with them?"

Sasha slurped on her beer like it was soup. "Our system devices." Sasha fumbled through the pocket of her blue jeans and retrieved a smaller and slicker version of a tablet that looked more like a cellular phone but was square instead of rectangle. "Save enough of teleportations, and you can even visit them from time to time."

Gary nodded.

"My family lives in the administrative district." Angela offered. "You must be having a hard time navigating the area. The USV building is in, what we call, the commercial part of Cricolithis. But even so, we live a bit secluded from the rest of the city."

"We live in our own world." Sasha gave a thin smile, her eyes bleary.

"Don't go all drunk on me, Sasha." Angela gently kicked Sasha on the elbow. "That is not even one fourth of the glass."

Gary shook his head with mild dissent. "Dude, if you ever want to explore the place, let me know. I will give you a tour of the city. But, Sasha said pretty much all there is to say."

Michael nodded. "So, you are telling me there are REAL bars and restaurants here in Cricolithis?" He had an amused smile on his face.

"Sure. If you can call all the artificial food and alcohol real."

"Ah, here we go again," Sasha muttered and then drunkenly announced to whoever that would listen. "Food systems engineer says artificial food bad."

Gary went somewhat red faced. "I did not say bad. I say it is artificial."

"What about you? Have you spoken to your folks back home, since you arrived?" Angela asked Michael a little too quickly.

Michael sighed. "I still am not sure how to set up or even access communication on my tablet."

All three looked at Michael at the same time. "You are still using a tablet?" Sasha was first to ask.

Michael found his tablet and placed it on the table. The rest gazed at it like it was a dinosaur's egg.

"That must be from hundreds of years ago!" Sasha exclaimed and picked it up to tinker with it.

"That is all I have. I think it has some clues to my current mission, which is why I have to work with it." Michael avoided everyone's stare and took a sip of his beer.

"And what is your current assignment again?" Angela asked, as she smartly pried away the tablet from Sasha's hand and slid it over to Michael.

"Oh, it is a physics systems assignment. It is on earth where I have spent a bit of time." Michael sighed, glancing at the screen of his tablet, and suddenly, he remembered the matter of social skill. "By the way, Gary, I have some time tomorrow. What do you think? Want to play host?"

Gary winced as if in pain. "Oh, dude. I need to leave for Aratos tonight for the assignment. Don't know when I will be back." He then turned his eyes to Sasha, who lay her head sideways on the table, muttering gibberish.

Michael raised and lowered his blonde eyebrows in realization when his gaze caught Angela's. "I am off tomorrow. I can show you around." She gave him a cursory smile, to which Michael's tablet dinged with notification.

Michael immediately muted his table.