In front of the pilot snaked a road that led directly to a buildihe edge of the hologram proje. On that building a trag bea lit up. It looked like a target, and that’s exactly what it was: the target of this expedition.
The pilot followed the road, passing through the hhosts of M’s citizens. People went about their business. A little girl played with a dog. The pilot was a little surprid to learn that M’s inhabitants had been human.
He reached the ruined building and stepped inside, getting out of the rain. The wind still blew, but not nearly as hard in the enclod space. Part of the roof had fallen in, and shafts of dim light shone down onto therubble-strewn floor. The interior of the building was large, withthirty-foot ceilings and pillars supp them. The pilot looked over the se, and when he emed satisfied that he was safe, he touched the side of his mask.
With a crackle, it disappeared, leaving only an earpiece, aer Quill got down to business.
The first thing he did ut on his headphones and k up Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 1. He couldn’t do anything without his music. Thearted to tap one foot, and pretty soon he was dang, grooving his way through the ruin and into an open plaza beyond. The rain had stopped, and he kept right on jamming, moving across the open plaza to the familiar rhythms of the songs that had kept him pany fortwenty-six years. He splashed through mud puddles, chad away a small pack of aggressive little lizardlike animals, and reached the edge of a huge cra the ground. Still keeping the rhythm, he fired up the rockets in his boots and spahe gap in a long,rocket-assisted step. Oher side, he came to a aled door. He inrted a key into the lock, which spun with a squeal. The door opened, revealing a smaller chamber with a glowing blue taiube sitting on a pedestal at its ter.
He took a transparent globe out of his coat pocket. When he shook it, bright light glowed from within, illuminating the room. He was alone. Good. He t the globe down and unhooked a triangular metal device from his belt.
In the years since he was abducted from Earth, Peter had en a lot. He’d en a pla made of fire with a moon made of ice. He’d en an army ofshape-shifting aliens attack a space whale. He’d even watched as twin su supernova together. It had been a pretty amazing couple of decades.