Serenity stared at the numbers. They whipped by almost too fast to see. Serenity kept his eyes on the numbers anyway, hoping he’d notice a pattern. After a moment, the only thing he’d noticed was that there were spaces between some of the numbers.

It was a start. He’d need to get a good long sample to work from; Aide seemed like the best way to record the sample.

Aide, can you record this? And translate it to English while you’re at it?

Recording

Serenity’s mind drifted from the boredom of watching numbers he didn’t have time to translate fly by. Numbers in Bridge were a pain to work with; they reminded Serenity of roman numerals. Instead of the position-based system he was used to, it was a system based on the relative values of different sizes of monster cores at each Tier, with modifiers for certain common types of special monsters with abnormally large or small cores. It worked fairly well when paying for things in different denominations, but it was a pain to use for anything else.

There was a symbol for zero, at least. Serenity had even seen it used.

Serenity still preferred to work in Etherium when the prices were small enough; the math was easier.

The numbers repeat. There is a variation in one set of numbers, but otherwise they are identical. The set of numbers that varies is longer than the set that does not vary.

The numbers that do not vary are all the same length. The length is consistent in the base format but not in a decimal format. One of the numbers matches the number you have identified as the ‘Earth location of the rockfin portal’.

There are 489 unvarying numbers that match the length of that number.

489? That seemed like an odd number, but if one of them was a location coordinate, then maybe the others were as well?

Serenity pulled up his quest log.

[Global Quest: Permanently deal with all Invasion Portals and remove the threat of the invaders]

[Quest Status: 23/512]

It wasn’t difficult math to determine that there were 489 open invasion portals on Earth.

No wonder the loop was on this side of the portal.

Serenity wondered why it was even there. This was clearly how Tzintkra had found the portal it sent him through, but that didn’t explain why it was in every invasion portal. Maybe it was to make them easier to track for the Voice? That would make sense, but then why could they be read from the other side of a random portal?

Just as importantly, had anyone else ever figured it out? Serenity wasn’t certain what value it would have to know where other invaders were, but he was confident someone would have found a value for it if they had the information.

What he knew was that he’d never heard about it. Of course, it was the kind of information that might well have been independently discovered any number of times and lost just as many; it wasn’t incredibly important, but it was important enough to be held close.

It was especially important for the people being invaded.

How many repeats have we had without any variation in the portal locations?

34. 35. 36.

Aide counted slowly, several seconds between each count.

That sounded like enough data. Serenity wanted to figure out how to interpret the numbers, but the easiest way to do that was probably to have several samples from different portals and see if there was a consistent system behind how the numbers were assigned.

It was time to head back to Earth. Serenity carefully disconnected the spell from the portal; a mistake now wouldn’t help anything.

There were people sleeping in the portal room when Serenity stepped back onto Earth. He didn’t say anything, but that really didn’t seem like a good idea. The portal was simply too close; yes, he was on the other side, but that didn’t mean something couldn’t sneak past him. He’d been busy.

“As punctual as ever, Serenity?” Morwen’s voice sounded more amused than annoyed, fortunately. “I told them you’d probably just gotten distracted with figuring something out. Was it something interesting?”

Serenity decided to play along. He ostentatiously shrugged. “I dunno. How interesting would you call the coordinates to all of the invasion portals on Earth?”

Morwen clearly tried to make a snappy response, but dropped the ball as he finished his question. “Better than keeping your - wait did you just say all? All of the portal locations? How accurately?”

Serenity took a quick look at the numbers and counted, then changed the format a little and skimmed through the data. “I don’t know how to read it yet, but there are about 33 digits for each location. Seems to range from 30 to 36. Ought to be pretty precise.”

As he finished talking, he sent the list of numbers to Morwen and Dr. Mattingly. After a moment’s thought, he also sent it to his father. Lex wouldn’t be the one to work out what they meant, but he would be the one to prioritize it. Finding the portals was the first step in dealing with them, after all.

“Speaking of portal locations, how did that portal-detector work out? It was supposed to get here today, wasn’t it?” Serenity remembered talking to Dr. Mattingly about it, but the day was all a long blur at this point. He didn’t think she’d mentioned how the test went.

Morwen shook her head. “The test isn’t until tomorrow. I think all the parts are here, but it’s not assembled yet. Aren’t you supposed to be providing a remote test?”

Serenity nodded. “Yeah. I thought that was today for some reason.”

Morwen chuckled. “I guess you’re right, it is today. Just not until after my shift’s over. I’ll have slept before it starts, which makes it tomorrow.”

Sleep did sound good, now that Morwen mentioned it. Serenity checked the time. 6:11 AM. Ugh. “I think I’m coming up on a full day awake. I’d better get to bed.”

Serenity was woken up far too early that afternoon. It was a little before 1 PM when he groggily opened his eyes at the sound of a phone call inside his head. “Got to turn that bloody ringer off…”

The phone call was from Dr. Mattingly. Serenity momentarily considered not answering, but she’d probably call again, and he didn’t really want to turn the ringer off. Not when he might be needed.

“Mh?” It wasn’t the most coherent way to answer the phone, but Serenity didn’t feel particularly awake.

As he swung his legs off the cot, he wondered why he hadn’t just gone to the Tutorial, where he could easily get enough sleep. The only reason he could think of was that he probably wasn’t awake enough to think of it before he went to sleep.

“Serenity? This is Dr. Mattingly. We’re going to start the first test for the portal detection system shortly; would you care to observe?”

Was she always that formal or was he just not awake enough for it this time?

Serenity shook his head, trying to clear it. “I’ll be out soon. Can you give me a few minutes?”

“Sure. They’re still doing final assembly; it’ll be at least ten minutes before they’re ready.” Dr. Mattingly sounded entirely too eager for … some time after noon. No, she wasn’t too eager; Serenity was just grumpy.

“I’ll be out in a few.” Serenity hung up and initiated a Tutorial run. He’d probably had something approaching enough sleep, really, if he could just have something caffeinated. Still, his schedule was off, and he’d have a better chance of resetting it if he went into the Tutorial.

It was just as well he hadn’t gone in the night before; if he was too tired to think of it, he was too tired to spend a few hours directing newbies.

A month or only five minutes later - depending on how you counted - Serenity stood in the same spot in the tent feeling much more rested, though not as much as he’d expected. He was looking forward to the portal detector test enough that he’d had trouble getting to sleep the last afternoon of the Tutorial, and had woken up instantly to the alarm he’d set for a few minutes before it ended.

Serenity hurried outside and looked around. The detector probably wouldn’t be in the cave with the portal; that wouldn’t be a good test. Instead, he needed to look for - over there!

There was an entire group of people gathered around a tent near the parking area. Serenity hurried over.

He was in plenty of time. They were still removing pieces of equipment from the shipping boxes when he walked up. Everything was spread out on top of a table; the equipment was connected to a power cord running from the camp’s generator. “This doesn’t look very portable.”

“It’s not.” Morwen looked surprisingly awake; he knew she must have gotten less sleep than he had, but then again, she’d been the one that could stay up all night and then ace a test the next morning. He’d always envied that. “It’s a prototype. Very first prototype; this is all off-the-shelf stuff we’re hooking together. Give us five years and we’d be able to make it handheld and ruggedized, but on this time schedule? We’re going to be lucky if it’ll fit in a pickup and run reliably.”

Serenity looked at everything that was being connected and shook his head. “Better hope that pickup doesn’t go over too many bumps.”

Morwen smiled a little. “If this works, we’ll build a second version; that’s what will actually get sent out. Hopefully we’ll manage man-portable with the third version, which will let us take it in buildings.”

“It’s man-portable now if you stick it in a case,” Serenity disagreed. “You’ll just have to get someone with a high Phys and Might and a way to strap it to them.”

“Not with a generator.” Morwen disagreed. “Too large and heavy. We’ll have enough trouble with that in the pickup.”

Serenity shook his head. “Use batteries. Yeah, they’ll add weight, but it just means you’ll have to have them carry less other stuff. If you have to, have a second person carry the batteries. We need it now; the invasions won’t wait for lots of revisions."

Morwen shook her head. “They’ll fail. They’re too delicate.”

“Yup,” Serenity agreed. “And they’ll still be worth it. Everyone will hate the first version, and they’ll still use it because it’s better than nothing.”