I opened the note to see what was inside. It was a clear, step-by-step guide on how to keep the disc in the watch and how to use the watch itself. Toward the end, it had coordinates to input within the watch and explicit instructions to press and hold the crown.
I turned to Sahasra, and she nodded with great determination. Grasping the bezel, we turned it, not stopping until a decisive click was heard. The front moved away, revealing a hole in the center—just the right shape and size to receive the disc. I retrieved the disc I had kept aside and slid it into the slot. It fitted perfectly. I reattached the front piece of the watch and rotated the bezel in the opposite direction until again a clicking sound was heard.
A set of coordinates now appeared on the watch face. I checked them against the note, and they were identical. I pressed the crown, holding it in place. In response, the watch announced serenely and precisely: Fingerprint accepted. Teleporting to Dragon Base.
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, it was as if we had moved to another place entirely. I looked around and found Sahasra staring back at me, dumbfounded in silence.
"Where are we?" she asked, her voice soft but edged with disbelief.
"I don't know," I returned, my eyes scanning the unfamiliar space.
As we continued to survey our surroundings, our eyes landed on a table in the center of the room, above which hovered a hologram. It was a model of a space station whose design resembled a trophy—without its base—and instead of handles, it had two dragons positioned on opposite sides. Suddenly it hit me: we were inside of that space station.
The inside was a real marvel. Neon lights pulsed and glowed everywhere. Screens lined every wall, mostly dark, except for one large, central one that seemed to be some sort of core system to the entire structure.
I leaned forward to tie my shoelaces, placing my hands on the table. But the moment my palm touched the surface, the whole station flared into life. The hologram of the space station wavered and altered, showing for one fleeting moment the pictures of two people. I knew them straight away from the picture in my room. They were our older siblings: Vikram and Sahasra.