“How’s the sandwich?” Asked Vikta, rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand.

Echo responded with a mouthful of food, “Uhm... Yeah, it’s great. This baked bread is incredible.”

Vikta gives a toothy smile as he points at Echo, “It should be. That bread is made from freshly harvested wheat. It is probably from one of the other farms on the planet, seeing as how I haven’t been here for a couple of days.”

The two of them were sitting together at a table in a large circular room. The room occupied the width of the tower, and the open interior of the room was surrounded by floor to ceiling windows on every side except for where there was an elevator. In the middle of the room was a kitchen with a full staff of chefs that would cook up just about any meal you could think of, within reason of course. The sounds of metallic electric grills and ovens could be heard hissing in the background. There was a large number of people going about their break time who were holding conversations all on their own. The sounds of laughter could be heard throughout the room. Even with the looming storm out to one side of the building, the atmosphere within the mess hall was one of positive cheer and love. Everyone here was seeming to be enjoying their breaks from work or time with family just like they were doing now.

Echo continued to chew his food in silence while Vikta was staring at the elevators behind his son. For quite some time, Vikta lets Echo eat in silence as the two of them waited for Felix. Echo was enjoying his meal and happily chewing away on another piece of his sandwich when he notices Vikta get an extremely sly look on his face. The large man starts to giggle and hold one hand up to his mouth as he squeezes his eyes shut. Vikta is trying his hardest not to laugh.

Bewildered, Echo mumbles through a mouthful of food, “What’s so funny? Do I have some on my face?”

As Echo finishes his sentence, a muscular hand reaches around his peripheral vision and grabs the back of Echo’s hand. Shoving hard, the muscular hand smushes the half-eaten sandwich into Echo’s face, smearing the contents all over him before it fell onto the table. Echo reels and flinches as the sandwich smashes into his face letting out a garbled, “NOT AGAIN!” Echo sits in silence with his eyes tightly shut, and his mouth was wrinkled in a frown. Echo reaches up with his hands to wipe away the oily sandwich contents from his eyes.

“You do now, kiddo!” A hearty laugh and choke from a big black-haired grizzly looking man reverberates from behind Echo. “Ohhh, I just couldn’t resist. You were too vulnerable.” Wiping tears from his own eyes and still laughing quite a bit, the big man gives Echo a hefty pat on the back that almost knocks him forward into the demolished sandwich on the table. As Felix sits down next to Echo, he reaches over to a spot in the center of the table to pluck out a couple of napkins from a small box.

Shoving the napkins into Echo’s hands, Felix then says, “Here, boy. Clean yourself up. You’re too damn easy to sneak up on.”

Echo growls, “I’m not a boy anymore, Uncle Felix. Daaaad! You said you were going to warn me next time!”

Felix scoffs at the young man while poking him in the shoulder, “Not a boy anymore? You think you’re a man now?”

Felix turns his head to Vikta as he exclaims, “Is he old enough to drink?” Vikta nods his head as Felix yells out and holds up three fingers in the air, “Chef! Three shots of whiskey, please!”

The chef on duty in the kitchen points with a knife and yells out, “I’m not a fucking butler! Go to the counter to order alcohol!”

Vikta howls with laughter as Felix gets up with a few grumbles to go collect his liquor. In between choked laughs and while wagging a finger at Echo, Vikta says, “As it turns out… I may have fibbed a bit. It’s much funnier when he gets the best of ya.”

Echo continued to clean himself with a grumpy frown and growls. The laughter starts to subside as Felix sat down again, placed a shot of whiskey in front of each of the three of them and they all relaxed back in their chairs. Vikta places his hands on the table, folding them together, and his expression rapidly turned serious.

With a long breath and a low tone, Vikta asks, “I assume that you found what we were looking for? You know what would happen if they found it, right?”

Echo asked through a mountain of napkins against his face, “What were you looking for?”

Vikta quickly snaps at the young man in a loud whisper, “It’s nothing, Echo. Just some old family relics.”

Felix’s expression also got serious as he glanced over at Echo, who was still busying himself with cleaning up the sandwich mess in front of him. Felix shook his head and just says, “No. No, I haven’t found any of them, yet.”

Vikta sighed and hung his head, “Dammit. What do we do now, Felix? We need those relics if we’re ever going to get off this planet.”

Felix reached over and patted Vikta’s folded hands, “You wait. It’s all you can do for now. Just wait. I’ll find them… Eventually.” Felix relaxes back in his seat and starts adjusting his clothing. While fixing his clothes, Felix continues talking about a different subject, “How’s my sister doing?”

Vikta lifts his head and smiles, “She’s doing better than ever. It’s peaceful out there, as always. Also, you look ridiculous in that tiny brown uniform. Doesn’t it hurt to wear that piece of shit?”

Felix begins to stand as he says, “I can never find clothes in my size and on top of that, this is the biggest size they manufacture for delivery uniforms. It’s terrible, but we have regulations for a reason. I’ll give you a call over the radio after the storm passes. I’m grounded until after the storm is completely gone and the other cruiser launches first. No more launches today. We are already way behind schedule, and this storm isn’t helping. They should be taking down the other cruiser soon for storage. No way it will stand up against the wind from that storm.”

Echo looks up at Felix and asks, “Why is that?”

Felix chuckles, “For one thing, the wind shear in the upper atmosphere is pushing the air so hard in different directions, that the ship would go too far off course if it launched. Down here near the surface, the winds will toss a big ship like that right over onto the ground. There’s also the problem of it being an electrical storm which can mess with our sensitive equipment on-board. Lightning usually isn’t a problem, but that storm is pushing out so much voltage, that there’s no way we could pass through the clouds unscathed. We also need to replace a fuel cell and several radiation plates. My ship took a beating going through the Osiris wormhole. I’ll need to get going now. I have to head back to the hanger to monitor the repairs and the fitting for the rocket boosters.”

Vikta gives out a sigh before he says, “I’m surprised you forgot your whiskey.”

Felix blinks and looks down at the three shots of whiskey on the table which were still full. Felix smiles and says, “It’s a good thing too. I don’t drink very much anymore. The boss doesn’t like the pilots drinking and flying. Like I said... I’m grounded until the storm passes, so it doesn’t matter anyways. This is some quality whiskey too. It would be a shame to waste it.”

Felix gives a delighted wink to the two of them and chuckles again. Echo, who had just finished cleaning himself looked over his shoulder at Felix before saying, “You’re going already? You just got here! Why not stay and have a meal with us?”

Felix smiled and placed a hand on Echo’s shoulder as he looms over the young man and picks up his glass of whiskey. Vikta and Echo also picked up their drinks before Felix responded, “I can’t, and that’s because we all have our responsibilities to take care of. Like I said, I’ll call you later over the radio when the storm clears.”

Felix raises his shot glass high into the air and lets out a hearty toast, “To extraordinary adventures! May our dreams continue to guide us!”

All three of them downed their shots of whiskey in a single gulp. Vikta and Felix grimaced and shook their heads at the sharp taste of caramel, toasted oak, and a high alcohol volume. Echo coughed and choked on his own whiskey, nearly spitting it out before gulping it down. Felix patted Echo on the back as the young man coughed before placing his emptied glass face down on the table.

Felix called out over his shoulder and waved a hand in the air as he walked away, “I’ll be in touch. See ya later!”

As Echo turned back around in his seat to face his dad, he said, “So when will we be leaving?”

Vikta eyed Echo for a few moments before placing down his own whiskey glass and saying, “I think now would probably be a good time. I’ve been watching that storm outside the window.”

Vikta points out the window before continuing, “And it’s threatening to rip us apart if we don’t hurry back home. The rain is already starting to pick up the pace. Come on... Let’s get moving.”

Echo and Vikta got up from their chairs and swiftly made their way over to an elevator, leaving behind a mess of napkins and a destroyed sandwich on the table. As the elevator dings and the doors slide open, Echo lets out a hefty burp in the faces of some workers which sends Vikta reeling in laughter once more.