Salem woke in the middle of a dream. He could tell he was dreaming, but he decided to lay on the cot just a little while longer, allowing the dream to continue. Too soon, however, he'd drifted too far from sleep, the dream becoming nothing more than a daydream. Stretching, he opened his eyes. For a second, he was confused. Why was it dark? Then he realized he'd pulled his cowboy hat over his face while he slept. He sat up and set the hat beside him on the cot.
There, sitting at what amounted to being a work bench in the center of his ship, was Al. He was closely examining something on the bench, prodding occasionally with precision tools. Al spent most of his free time these days working on these projects.
"Whatcha workin' on?" Salem asked, only half-interested.
"Your PPS. I think I may be onto something," Al muttered without stopping his work.
"Oh, yeah?" Suddenly awake, Salem stood up, walked over to the bench, and looked over his shoulder. There, sitting open, was a piece of microelectronics, tanks and power cells, about the size and shape of a loaf of bread. The individual components were tiny. Hundreds of components, ranging in size from about a centimeter square down to the size of a pinhead, were scattered across the bench.
Al laughed and swiveled in his chair to face him, stopping his work for the moment. "It's not ready yet, Tobias. Even if this works I still have to put it back together first. How do you feel after your nap?"
Salem sighed. The PPS seemed destined to be a perpetual work in progress. "I feel great, actually," he said after a second of thought. "Bit surprised. I don't think I was out for that long." He walked to his cot, grabbed his hat, and stroked the ship's wall, causing the ramp to open. "You comin'?" he asked Al.
"Sure," Al said. He scooped the components remaining on the bench into one of the drawers and walked down the ramp with Salem. With a flicker, Al caused his holographic outfit to change to a cowboy getup resembling Salem's. When Salem raised an eyebrow at him, he said "Just for kicks" with a shrug.