"Don't know how. I mean, I even went to a boring lecture by some guy from the space center with the watch on full display, and neither he nor his buddies seemed to know even when one of them looked right at it," Ben said with a groan. "You'd think that they'd be the experts on anything that came from outer space. Maybe even have seen...the...symbol..."

His voice trailed off as pieces clicked into place. He wasn't a genius--not by a long shot--but just because he didn't get straight A's at school didn't mean he was dumb.

"You didn't know what the watch was, but you saw the symbol and asked me if I was a plumber," he said, walking through his reasoning aloud, frowning. He held up the watch, pointing at the symbol. "You know what this means, don't you?"