“Time to wake up.” Gem pulled up the blinds and tuned into the news station on the radio. The morning sun burned bright which made it challenging to go back to sleep again. 

  By the look of it, Gem, dressed in a leather jacket and boots, had already been out of the apartment. She waited restlessly for her guests to start moving. Slowly but surely, they got out of bed one by one.

  Yawn. Victor walked up to Gem as he rubbed off the sleepiness from his eyes. 

  “Can I have some water?” The boy asked. 

  “Please,” Andrea added from where she was, still in bed, to correct her son’s manners.

  Gem grabbed a glass from the dish rack, filled it with tap water and handed it to Victor.

  “Take some crackers if you’d like to,” Gem offered and opened an almost empty cupboard except for two half eaten packets of crackers. 

  Timothy and Andrea joined Victor at the dinner table as he munched down a, not so ideal, breakfast. 

  “As soon as you finish up here we gotta get going,” Gem informed. “And by the way, I got something for you.” A small package was thrown in Andrea’s direction and fell down her lap before she had time to catch it. Andrea picked up the package on which she read: Nicotine Patches. 

  “Yea, thanks,” Andrea said as she appreciated the thought, although she couldn’t help but to feel somewhat taunted.

  “You’re welcome,” Gem said with sincerity. 

There hadn’t been any official updates on the situation yet other than recommendations to stay inside. However, people were allowed to leave their homes and go on with their business as usual which facilitated the mission to, let’s call it, acquire a spaceship. The group of four were standing by the accordion door to the elevator all packed and about to leave. 

  “Here, take two of these.” Gem held out a hand with six small translucent circle shaped buds that looked to be made out of a silicon like material. 

  “What are those?” Victor asked.

  “They work similarly to your walkie talkies, we’ll use them to communicate. You just put them behind your ears. Press the one on your left side to mute and unmute the others and the right one to mute or unmute yourselves. You can also double tap the right side to make a signal to the others before you want to say something,” Gem explained. 

  “What is this tech? I’ve never seen anything like this,” Timothy said as he examined the bud closer.

  “These are pretty common. They’re primarily used to interpret and translate spoken language. There’s probably some neuro tech behind it. I’ve only been on Earth for about a year and I wouldn’t get anywhere without these ones. Although I had to learn some words that weren’t properly translated and since I lost my lenses I had to learn to read your letters. But on close ranges these can be connected like walkie talkies, but they’re rarely used for that.”

  “Very interesting, but this neuro, and I assume also nano, tech is way beyond my understanding,” 

  “Wait, so you don’t know any English?” Andrea asked.

  “Nope, that’s pretty much the case.”