Chapter 9

Despite all his doubts, Simon was glad to see Doc and the others that night. It felt so normal. If somehow they managed to find Lord Regal and break in just before the others ganged up on him, would that really help shift Simon onto a timeline where Adam didn’t kill him and the Earth didn’t blow up in civil war? Simon was sick of thinking in circles, and determined not to think about it at least for awhile.

While Doc was setting up Charlie came over to talk to him. After a few minutes he sheepishly admitted he was terrible at small talk. Then Charlie said that his character Buzz wanted to talk to Erd while they were getting ready to go through the Portal.

Simon thought about saying that his character wasn’t good at small talk either. In fact, he hadn’t spent many points on social skills, but on the other hand he had given himself a reasonable charisma, since his character was a sorcerer as well as a seer.

Instead Erd said, “I’m a little nervous. I mean, we’re spying on these people, right? They’ll be angry if they catch us.”

Buzz replied, “Yeah, but we’ve done this before. We’re ready for a fight but we don’t expect one. All we really need is to bring back proof that this portal isn’t linked to any known and registered Eightfold world.”

“How do we do that?”

“Well, only the biggest portals can link to more than one world. Usually it isn’t a secret, they’re a known part of an established trade route. If they’re sending parts to build a portal on a world that doesn’t have one, and they have no connection with a newly opened world …”

Erd nodded.

Doc was ready. They sat around the table, got out dice and character sheets. As Simon had suggested last week, they divided into two groups. They weren’t evenly divided, Erd was in a group of three with Buzz and Hexa, Daisy’s six armed humanoid character.

Erd’s group was the first through the portal. Adonis told them, “You emerge into a large indoor area, subdivided into smaller areas. It’s a fairly quiet space, with a few Eightfold walking back and forth and doing things. There are several other Eightfold lined up in front of a big desk.”

That couldn’t be right. The city where they had been building the portal had had millions of people, including many who operated, maintained, and created parts for the portal. Others fed, housed, and entertained the technicians and manufacturers.

On the other hand, Sargon had said the city might be smaller than it had been when they knew it. Had they somehow travelled back in time? It didn’t seem likely. Was Adonis’ campaign set in an earlier time than Adam’s? It could be, although that would mean that by letting Erd use his link to Lord Regal and Simon’s memories of Lord Regal Adonis was letting him see forward in time. Could he do that? Apparently so.

Daisy said, “We exit the Portal area and get on the line.”

She was right – they didn’t want to attract attention by blocking the portal area.

Adonis told them, “You can hear the voice of being at the head of the line questioning the new arrivals, but you can’t quite make out what he’s saying. He looked something like a large Ape.”

For an instant Simon wondered if the size of skull limited his intelligence, and if the shape of his face made it hard for him to talk. Then he dismissed the irrelevant question. Most of the species in Eightfold Invasion were familiar rubber suit aliens from schlock science fiction. Could an alternate world have a biology so different that evolution might actually produce them?

The gamemaster continued, “About ten minutes later you’re getting close to the front of the line. You hear the Ape asking people about where they plan to stay, and what they plan to do to pay for it.”

Erd started to worry, perhaps they should have anticipated these questions and planned answers to them in advance. On the other hand, nobody else in his party seemed worried.

Erd said to Hex, “I wonder if I really have any skills that will be useful here.”

She replied brightly, “Starting a new life is always hard, but don’t worry. I’m not saying your medical skills will qualify you as a fully trained doctor, but you’ll have no trouble finding work in a doctor’s office or hospital somewhere. The pay might not be much by core standards, but you’ll live comfortably here.”

She’d done that rather neatly, answering his question while not breaking cover in the unlikely event that someone was bothering to listen. What if the Ape was still suspicious? Erd was the party healer, both on worlds where magic worked and worlds where it wouldn’t, so he did have relevant skills if anyone wanted to test him.

When he got to the front of the line, the Ape asked him where he wanted to stay. He named the motel where the two halves of their party had agreed to meet.

“The Newchance Motel. I have some medical training, but –”

The Ape pulled a small tablet from a large pile and started doing things to it. Somehow it was easier to lie when it wasn’t looking straight at him. Erd said, “I guess you’re wondering why I want to move here. I have some medical training but wouldn’t really have much opportunity to use it at home to get a job –”

The Ape creature interrupted, sounding bored and a little annoyed. “Well, good luck with that. Please step aside, Eightfold are behind you.”

The Ape handed him the tablet and he obediently stepped aside. It was simple and menu driven, and already set up to give directions to his motel or one of several medical plazas, or the hospital.

Hex and Buzz had no difficulty finding a car to drive them to their hotel, and it didn’t cost much. Sometimes it really didn’t pay to overthink things.

They met the other members of their party at the hotel and had a conference. When he heard the plan though, he couldn’t help wondering if they were underthinking things.

Erd asked Buzz, “These uniforms your machine synthesized for us based on pictures your hidden cameras took, we don’t really know if they’re cleaning or maintenance or what, do we?”

Buzz nodded. “They’re not meant to pass close inspection though. As a technomancer, I have ways to fool electronics. As a sorcerer, you have ways to fool and manipulate Eightfold and other beings.”

So he did, though there were limits to all of them. On this world their was little mana, so he would probably end up using vulgar sorcery.

Erd continued, “So between the hidden cameras in your clothing and those drone things that look and move like insects, you got enough information to do some sort of technomancer structural analysis?

Buzz nodded again. “I did, and we already had some idea where the things we needed were. The main computers need to be near the portal for high bandwidth low lag communication, but if there’s any kind of security the ones in plain sight next to the portal have to be a blind. Sure enough, there are tunnels underneath the portal building, including a room right underneath the portal.”

Gadgets were what technomancers did. Still, Erd was impressed. How had he found the underground spaces? Some kind of sonar?

Buzz was still talking. “In the middle of the night there shouldn’t be many people in there. A few security guards are a possibility, but we already talked about that. One team will be me, you, and Hammer. We’re going to take an underground tunnel to the computer directly underneath the portal. I’ll hack into it. If the portal is being used to send elders to a location without a receiving portal, there are very big and distinctive data files that will need to be there.”

Hammer was a warrior, who excelled with both the sword and various slug throwers, lasers, and blasters.

As if reading his mind Buzz said, “He’ll be with us to keep watch, but it’s very unlikely we’ll need him for anything more.”

Erd nodded.

Buzz said, “Meanwhile Hex, Slammer, and the tinkerer will form a second team of three. Since Sargon’s island portal has a beacon attached and is programmed for this, they can focus on it without the main computer.”

Technomancers were very well equipped. It was what they did. And if they specialized in stealth and defeating security measures, they were formidable burglars. Would the portal have it’s own technomancers guarding it? Perhaps, but this was a game. You didn’t have to be a professional criminal to succeed – did you?