Note: Since there are likely some younger readers wondering what "E.T." is, there are no doubt older readers wondering how anybody would know about E.T. (let alone Skittles or "taste the rainbow") in the 31st century. By way of reminder, the two Gavcorps scientists in the above strip, Kevyn Dietz and Kent Rice, are transmogrified Gavs, and while they have full sets of fabricated memories and skills, they also retain their pre-freeze recollection of 20th and 21st century pop-culture: Skittles, E.T., Max Headroom, The Matrix, and a host of other long-forgottens.
On an unrelated note, the selection of positions for laser firing is based on the Fibonacci sequence.
Tangentially, the respective length of the paragraphs describing pop-cultural and mathematical aspects of today's installment is symptomatic of everything that went wrong with the author's education.
NARRATOR: Oisri Dig Base, Station Imo...
KENT: Single pulse, position eight.
KENT: Position thirteen.
Still dark. Twenty-one.
Nothing. Thirty-four.
This is like laying a trail of Reeses Pieces without knowing whether E.T. is even alive.
DIETZ: Proceed. We're on fifty-five.
KENT: Right. FifWHOA!
Signal! Big signal!
If we're dropping Reeses Pieces, we just got a whole case of Skittles in return!
DIETZ: Good job staying with the metaphor.
KENT: And our translation S.I. is tasting the rainbow right now.
DIETZ: Okay, stop that. We don't get paid for product placement.