"He's a gargoyle, Kim," Billy explained. "I know they only appeared as stone in our world, but he lived free a thousand years ago. He was then cursed to remain stone during the daytime, only free at night, but time cycles so strangely here that we can hardly keep track of when daylight hours are."

He ducked his head modestly, casting a side glance at the familiar building. "I had assistance, of course, but I wanted to test my water purification and heating systems on something that would be of use to us. There are private side rooms if the public areas are too big a leap."

Yeah...Billy wasn't quite as shy and awkward as he used to be, but that would be explained later. By some miracle, they'd reached the lower entrance of the Command Center.

"It's fairly dark in here. I gave the central power core a small charge with my coin, so we'll be able to see some things, but I have a flashlight for the rest."

And as they entered, out came Billy's heavy-duty flashlight---absurdly small for the amount of light it produced, the size nothing more than a pen's.