He stood in the shadow of the Compendium Gate. It would be considered a marvel for generations to come and a testament to the ingenuity of his people. Josarl merely felt the weight of his worries. Will the air be breathable? Will the environment be safe for me? How many different ways could I be stranded? What if we open under an ocean?
“Gate activation in fifteen minutes,” announced an operator from the observation deck.
As Josarl continued to ponder whether the next fifteen minutes would be his st and if there would be any way to tell from gut feeling, a vacuous panting punctuated by shuffling disturbed his thoughts. A man a few years younger than Josarl arrived while struggling with a meter long pole device. The man was a short, dark haired individual with frothy brown eyes.
“I brought the beacon, Compendinaut Starx!” Hoarseness covered up the natural softness of the d’s voice.
“Josarl is just fine, Coseph.” Josarl grabbed the beacon with one hand. Its weight was greater than its thinness implied and with some difficulty he hefted it onto its end. “Using titles is an imposition, not a necessity.”
“I understand,” Coseph said deferentially.
Josarl inspected the pyramid shaped top quizzically, though his helmet concealed his expression from Coseph. “We should be able to get six tests an hour with this thing.”
“The duke said twelve.”
“I’m sure. Did he assign you as my assistant for this test, or do the 732 boys just have you running errands?”
“I’m here to assist. What are we testing for, exactly?” asked Coseph hesitantly.
“If the beacon works, for a start. After that, we’ll focus on how well.”
Coseph made a confused face.
“If the portal opens on the same reality over and over, but is nowhere near the beacon, that would be a problem that needs to be reported. Issues of that nature.”
“I understand.”
“Portal construction will commence in five minutes!” called the operator, “All personnel assume positions!”
“Have you seen our new barracks?” asked Coseph.
“No, st I heard they were still being refurbished.
“They finished just yesterday.”
“Really? Interesting.”
“I’m already moved in. Will you need help?”
“Depends on if they want to move me out of my current room.”
“You have your own room?” Coseph asked with awe struck envy.
“You should probably step outside. They’ll be sealing this room right before they activate the gate.” It wasn’t untrue, but Josarl said it to escape the conversation.
“Yes, sir.”
“Begin charging sequence!” called the observation deck coordinator.
Josarl heard the crank and click of the newly installed heavy door shutting. He wondered if the door was sealed in the same sense as his armor or if it was the military sense of stopping all personnel from moving between two points. The red crystals were manned by their robed men. While they inserted their runes, Josarl clicked his seal shut before the white crystals could make their pungent smell. He closed his eyes and waited for the deck coordinator to say it. Fear slopped into his gut. Josarl responded by overanalyzing the change in procedure. Since when did the gate operator say anything? Last time the deck coordinator would give the orders and call out the sequence progression. Maybe he should learn their names. Once Josarl started tallying the personnel, he only really knew Coseph personally and a handful of commanding nobility by name. A low humming sound rapidly rose in pitch before the familiar crackle of lime green energy overrode it. Josarl had not noticed the humming sound st time.
“We are ready to proceed! May Lukoro protect you, Master Starx!”
Josarl opened his eyes. A pointless endeavor. Once he’d cnked up to the bridge, he again couldn’t see where he was stepping. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, each sliding foot sending echoes through the chamber as he ground his way towards the portal.
“Are you going to do this every time!” called Duke Loftner from the observation deck.
“I can’t see my feet in this armor! I have no way of knowing where I’m stepping on such a narrow bridge!” Josarl had tried to keep his tone civil and appropriately submissive, but between the chasm below him and the dark cave ahead of him, a slight edge managed to creep into his voice.
“You have plenty of room!” cried the Duke.
“None of which I can see!”
“Don’t worry, Josarl!” called one of the senior scribes. “We’ll have rails installed for next time!”
Josarl could faintly hear a “We will?” as a discussion broke out among them. His world grew fainter to his mind until he stepped through the gate, beacon clutched tightly to his chest. The portal closed and for a moment, Josarl thought he was in total darkness. Turning slowly, he found that faint outlines could be made out. While a specific, concrete geography of the cave was beyond anything he would commit to, Josarl could vaguely make out which end of the cave was lighter and that he appeared to be alone.
His hand came to y on his seal. It did not move. He needed it to move so that Coseph could come through. He didn’t want it to. In that moment, he wanted a way to test the air that didn’t involve exposing himself to a potentially agonizing death from the toxicity of just pin incompatible air. Josarl breathed in, then out, in deeply and popped his seal. He removed his helmet slowly, holding his breath all of the way. Cool air whisked the warmth from his face, but he estimated that it was well above freezing. A minor needling sensation pricked through his cheeks, like they’d fallen asleep. Ounce by ounce he released his breath and tried the new air. Saltiness watered his eyes for a moment, but he adjusted well enough. He returned the helmet with the seal off.
For a moment, Josarl looked around. Dim, murky and rather impenetrable, the cave sloped up at one end into a wide passage with a low ceiling from which came the meager light he could see. It connected to a further chamber, smaller than the one he first entered, but with a direct connection to the surface. He briefly went outside. The cave was carved out of a cliff face, with a grassy pin gently sloping up and away from said cliff. The only major differences he noted was that the local sunlight appeared to be a green tinged yellow while the sky was a shade of faded blue. He imagined colored cloth left out in the sun for too long when he looked at that sky.
Satisfied that the location was both isoted and habitable, Josarl returned to the deeper of the two chambers and pnted the beacon in a centrally located crack. The recall device was drawn from his front pouch and the portal summoned. One of the robed men was waiting on the bridge.
“The area is secure. You can send Coseph through. Please have him bring some mps.”
The robed man nodded. He waved at the observation deck and the portal closed. Josarl found a nice, ft, sturdy shelf and sat down to wait. A sense of time proved impossible to maintain in such an environment. Josarl could only sit or think. When he started to feel adventurous, he did both. Finally the timeless purgatory was ended by the portal’s reopening. Coseph and a pair of other Untempted brought mps, paper forms, a field desk, measuring sticks, a compass and a small portion of food and water. The pair left while Coseph remained to help. They began their work by setting their supplies up.
“Stand over here,” said Josarl, drawing Coseph towards the chamber’s exit, where his desk was pced. Coseph complied without question. After a minute or two, the portal opened.
“Beacon test zero-zero-one,” said Josarl as he wrote.
Coseph walked up to the portal and measured its position retive to the beacon. “Point eight meters off center of the beacon-” He gnced at the compass. “To the northwest, by point three meters to the west.”
Josarl made a mark on a circur diagram near the center and then jotted down the results. Coseph stood in front of the portal, made a sharp slicing motion by his throat and the portal closed. While Josarl finished up his notes, Coseph returned to his side.
“Why are you wearing the armor still?” he asked. “We don’t seem to need it apart from the powerfully salty air.”
“I’m getting used to it. After my st expedition some adjustments were made at my request and I want to get used to them. Still feels a bit tight in some pces.”
“I see.”
A minute passed while they waited for the next opening.
“So do you think we will really get sixty tests done today?” asked Coseph.
“Do you?”
“Not by any of Lukoro’s eyes.”
This assessment was correct. Over the next three and a half days they managed an average of fifty tests a day. In that time a concerning pattern emerged. The portal’s opening point roamed between tests. Some times it opened near the beacon. Others it opened by the cave wall. A few times it opened in the cave wall.
“How many is that?” asked Josarl after taking a measurement.
“That would be the fourth time it opened inside the wall,” said Coseph.
“We’ll need to fix that. By we, I mean the boys in 732.” Josarl exhaled forcefully. “I really wish they’d let us in the seven hundreds.”
“You seemed excited about this? Has that changed?”
Josarl cnked as he shrugged. “I was excited because we are participating in research. However, we’re still on a suicide mission. If even one of these realities has instant death air, I’m as well off as any other Untempted.”
“If we open on a reality with instant death air, wouldn’t it come through the gate and kill all of those runestruct architects that manage the gate’s crystals? Just like that magma did during the initial testing.”
Josarl was slow to say “yes.”
“Is this the first you’ve considered it?” asked Coseph.
“No,” said Josarl forlornly as he removed his helmet to scratch the back of his head. “I’ve just learned that trying to point out obvious problems to the nobility is fruitless.”
Coseph gave Josarl an awestruck look. “You’ve questioned the nobility?”
Josarl repced his helmet quickly. “A few times. Now see here, the portal’s opening.”
It was indeed opening. Josarl measured the portal’s positioning. “Five point six meters south by three point two meters south east by, uh-” Here Josarl struggled to measure the portal due to its inconvenient opening position. “Three point oh one meters, uh, down I suppose?”
“The form doesn’t have anything for the Z axis.”
“Well just ink something in.”
A boot heel scraping rock echoed down to them. The men gnced at each other. Unarmed, exposed, and with the portal both in the floor and about to close in a matter of seconds, neither bothered to move. Step. Step. Step. Steps. Multiple. Coseph looked at Josarl pleadingly. Josarl held a finger to his helmet where his lips would be, then held out his hand in a sign to stay at the table. He waited until the first woman entered the chamber. Two more followed her momentarily.
“Hold it!” The lead woman spoke with a peculiar drawl. They all did, but Josarl wouldn’t realize that for another few hours. She also held an interesting gun. What Josarl found so interesting was that it could be used with one hand.
Her gaze fell on him. “You. Did you come from the Liminal Void?”
“I didn’t come from any void,” replied Josarl with outward calm. “We come from the kingdom of Runnd.”
“Then you’ve been to the void?”
“I’ve never heard of anything called the Liminal Void.” Josarl was beginning to suspect his captor’s meaning, however focusing proved difficult with a gun pointed at him.
“I sense the energies off it! You have something from there!”
“Perhaps if you told me what the Liminal Void was, I could answer your question.”
The woman looked to her associates. They dressed in clothes that Josarl was unfamiliar with. Large, bck, pointy hats with a peculiar brim that curved up as they went back sat on their heads at an awkward backward lean. Bck robes covered simple blouses. Lower down, gray pants peaked out from under leather leggings with leather tassels running up the sides and no crotch covering in the front or rear. Shin high riding boots nearly completed the attire, only falling short in one area. Josarl noticed some kind of gun sheath on two of their right hips. The woman to his right wore hers on the left.
“Fine. I’ll humor y’all. The Liminal Void is the space between realities.”
“Then yes, we have,” said Josarl slowly.
“In that case, I must insist that you come with us.”
“I must apologize, however we cannot leave.”
“Do you have the gun, or-”
The woman was cut off by the portal opening. Josarl heard the crackle and dived away just before it opened. Fortunately for him it did not open where he had been standing. Despite the best efforts of his automatic responses, the receiving end of the portal opens far faster than the gate end, leaving him a quarter of the way through his dive when it opened. He would not have survived.
“What in tarnation!” excimed the woman while Josarl scrambled up.
“Coseph! Get this down.” He grabbed his measuring stick and started working. “Point seven three meters west by point two meters south. Ground level.”
“Hold it! Hold it!” roared the woman. She’d watched the two men work and seemed to have reached conclusions. “What ex-actly are you experimenting with in our cave?”
Josarl looked at her. With the helmet on she couldn’t see his expression that clearly said “Is it not obvious?” This made what he actually said, “We are testing the portal we took from our world to yours,” go down far more smoothly.
“Then insisting proves to be too weak a word for what we’re doing. We have been sent to bring the source of Liminal Void energies to the Matriarch.”
“Sure, you could do that,” said Josarl. The portal had given him an idea. “Then, when we don’t report back my superiors will send more people to find out why we are not communicating with them. They are temperamental, feckless and more than willing to escate this beyond reason. Are you willing to risk war over this?”
The woman shifted. “Fine. But don’t try nothing. We ain’t keen to kill y’all, but we’ll do what’s necessary to keep ours safe.”
“Then I trust your better judgment will keep you personable while I talk with my superiors.”
Josarl stood in front of the portal and waved to the observation deck. He sensed movement in the periphery of his vision. The woman had stepped up next to him. The pair stood together while they waited for someone to come down. Duke Loftner himself came down to the portal.
“What is it? Who is this?”
“My lord, it appears we are trespassing.”
“I see. And I suppose they want you to return home?”
“No, my lord. They want to take us to their Matriarch. They are able to detect constructs made from primordial energy.”
The duke looked to the woman with a gleam in his eye. “Are they?”
“Yes, my lord. While they are quite displeased with our presence, there is a possibility of learning something about detecting more tears.”
“Fine. Fine. Learn what you can and come back. We’ll send a few people in to take the research gear back.” The duke pointed an accusatory finger at Josarl. “Don’t give up Acornial secrets.”
“I’m not sure we’ll learn much without sharing something.”
Duke Loftner made a bratty, spoiled face. “Fine, no hows, just what.”
“What about the why?”
The duke reached through and grabbed Josarl by the air tube, pulling him close. “No one can know the truth. Many consider telling you to be a mistake. Do not; spread; that mistake.”
“I understand.”
The duke released him. “Don’t stay long. Just assess their potential to help in the mission and come home.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The duke whirled around, made a sshing movement over his own throat and the portal closed.
