It was a lengthy, and extremely boring process, but they managed to wait out the molten iron. It finally dried, it was cool enough to the touch, so they could finally step into the tower, and yield its benefits.

The conversations up until this point have been somewhat fulfilling. Terrence talked about himself, and his species mostly, and although Jimmy hated to admit it, some parts about his species, otherwise known as the Fortunos, were interesting.

For example, although the species seemed like mammals, having a belly button and all, they actually hatched in eggs, in the hundreds! The Fortunos were practically useless throughout their first fifty years of life, as that was how long it took for them to grow from infants to children, but after that lengthy growth period, their potential was endless!

Being small creatures, the Fortunos did not consume a lot of resources. It was easy for parents to feed their many kids, and after they turn fifty years old, they have so much freedom, so much free time, that most children study, and fully grasp Quantum Physics in just five years! Terrence boasted about comprehending that branch of science at fifty three, two years earlier than his peers, or hundreds of siblings.

Terrence was a prodigy in his home world, a super genius amongst natural geniuses, so Jimmy felt a bit bad about how he has spent the past thirty years. Great minds shouldn't have such greatly infuriating bad luck.

The rest of the information Terrence shared about his species was too complicated to comprehend, so he tuned him out at some point, but the Fortunos were definitely an interesting species. He'd love to befriend more of them if they weren't smug, arrogant jackasses like Terrence was.

Anyway, now that the tower was accessible, the two of them went past the door, and finally made it into the tower. To their dismay, they quickly discovered that they have been waiting for nothing.

Most of the tower was ransacked, or cleared out, likely by the same species who used to own the entirety of the bunker. When they abandoned the bunker, it made sense that they also took their most valuable, and expensive technology with them.

Terrence turned his translator off, and started yelling out in his own language, practically throwing a tantrum on the floor. Jimmy didn't understand him, but he could just tell that he was cussing out in the most vulgar way possible.

"Rikiki! Tombosuaker! Taaaah!" He shouted, and continued with slurs of that equivalent. "Taaaaaah!"

Terrence may as well be mad. What started out as a one-month journey for him, time which he would mostly spend building a ship for himself, turned into a journey that might last for years! He was not happy, and he did not want to be here for another day, not to mention several more years.

Jimmy was distraught as well, but he didn't devolve into cussing. He was just quiet, and held his head, frustrated, unsure of what they were supposed to do next.

"Four excruciating hours of my day…" He mumbled, "All for nothing…"

The tower was more of a room. It was small, roughly 40m², or 430ft² and the tower, otherwise described as a tall, slim antenna, was above the room itself. The antenna was not easily accessible, for obvious reasons, but other than that, it was useless now.

Most of the technology where an antenna would come in handy, was gone. Terrence had talked about how he could scan for minerals from up here, or even species from great distances, hand-picked, all from the comfort of this very room, and such an advanced scanner would've been useful, but the room was cleared out.

Only a couple of machines remained, but they seemed as old as the first ever computers from back on Earth. They seemed useless, to Jimmy at least.

Terrence was short, so he hadn't initially seen these two machines, but when he calmed down, and asked Jimmy if he saw anything on the cleared out steel tables, a bright light shone in his black eyes when Jimmy spoke of the machines!

"Lift me up!" Terrence demanded, "Put me right there, on the table."

Sharing a growing enthusiasm, Jimmy fulfilled his request immediately. Terrence then observed the machines, and then started pressing buttons on them. He was too small to handle them properly, so he started jumping around on the small, square buttons until they started emitting various lights, yellow and red mostly, but there were a couple of buttons that emitted blue light instead.

"Are they any good?" Jimmy asked, "Can you use them to scan for the minerals you were looking for?"

"Not specifically," Terrence answered, "I'm sending out a signal to all bunkers across the world, or to any spot with an antenna, really."

"Why would you do that?" He blurted, concerned, "You're telling every damn alien where we are!"

"Most research outposts have long been abandoned," Terrence stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and then added, "If we're lucky, some of them didn't flipping ransack their towers, so I'll be able to get what I need using their antennas. Radio frequencies can be very useful if quantum scanners are attached to them."

"That sounds pretty smart, actually," He admitted.

Terrence didn't care for the compliment. He kept jumping around the three-foot wide control panel, until a long, receipt-like paper shot out of the other side. He then read through the paper, and a smile grew on his face.

Afterwards, he turned to Jimmy and demanded, "Okay, pick me up. My signal worked, I know where to find the minerals that I need."

"Aye aye, captain," He joked, "Can't say that I'm looking forward to walking down those stairs, though. You didn't teach me shit up here, so I did all that walking for nothing."

"If the tower hadn't been cleared out, we could've spent all day here, and I would've taught you everything you needed to know." Terrence said, "These machines are practically useless to you. You'd need years just to understand how to scan for apes or some nonsense like that. You don't need it."

Jimmy was irritated, but then again, there was no point in debating. This was not Terrence's fault, and he tried to take comfort in the fact that Terrence was going to teach him how to use the rest of the bunker.

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