//------------------------------// // Part 1, Chapter 1: Average // Story: The Portgate // by Archival //------------------------------// "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Chinese Proverb -Leah- "Ding-Ding-Ding Ding. Ding-Ding-Ding Ding." The woman sprang from her bed at precisely 5:45 A.M. - the same time she had woken up at for the past eight months. She was a timely person when it came to waking up - after all, research was an important thing to be prepared for, and waking up late would be terribly inconvenient. Her black hair didn't need much besides a quick run-through with a plastic comb that sat next to a framed picture of her Chinese parents, and it took half a minute for her to brush her teeth with the minty-fresh toothpaste that the facility provided every month. Her quarters would have been almost spartan had it not been for the enormous mess that was covering the floor and furniture. The bedroom, closet, and bathroom that she called her "place" measured about a hundred and fifty feet square, and every inch of it was pure chaos. Dirty clothes and underwear were randomly strewn across the floor of all three rooms, and the walls were completely covered with posters whose contents ranged from the Periodic Table to several maps of Earth in various projections. Her bed was a tangle of blankets and dirty clothes, and the desk was overflowing with electronics, stationary, and books of various shapes, sizes, and subjects. The closet was filled with all manner of junk and refuse, and the only place that could be truly considered "clean" was the bathroom counter. Most women had an assortment of beauty products on their counters, but being "all girly and dolly" was the least of her concerns. After a quick trip to the restroom and a change into something more "professional", she walked through the door to her quarters. She wore a pair of faded-blue work jeans, a not-completely-sour-smelling green polo, white sneakers, and a small backpack with her laptop, tablet, and notebook inside. Her earbuds went in her ears as soon as she stepped into the hallway, listening to the report that her phone had compiled for the day. Today is March 22, 2022. The weather report forecasts a clear sky all day, with highs in the mid-80s and lows in the low-70s. She groaned a little as she walked down the mostly empty hallway and took a left turn. Beautiful T-shirt weather, and here she was, stuck in some bunker in the middle of nowhere, Texas. It was more formally called "U.S. Department of Defense Research Site 22-A", though everyone just called it "the Bunker". Eight stories tall - well, more like one story tall, seven stories deep. It was a bit easier to hide your secret government projects when they lived underground, and more so when they signed 2-year contracts that essentially locked them there and prevent them from leaking classified information. She couldn't complain, though - she got a six-digit salary despite being in her twenties, and the work was satisfying for a girl like her. In the news, President Henderson has further laid out plans for reforming America's education systems yesterday evening. Among his statements, he promised more opportunities for students of all backgrounds to participate in higher-level, more rigorous courses... That managed to cheer the woman up a little bit. She always kept an ear out for any news related to education, since it was what made her stand out. State-level violinist, Physics-fair National Finalist, National Merit scholar, and Robotics club president that she was, she always kept her academics as her priority for the 14 years she spent in school and college. By all measures, she was a very bright young lady. The trophies that proudly stood in her parents's house could attest to that. By the time the news report had finished playing, her phone had switched to her morning playlist as she entered the West hallway. Various pipes and cables ran along the walls and ceiling, but the clean white that the walls were painted helped maintain a sense of cleanliness and organization. Speakers, like the fire extinguishers, lined the wall at regular intervals. They occasionally chimed, then broadcast announcements like "Secretary Pollard, your presence is requested at your department head's office" or "Project head Anderson would like to remind all staff that the public restroom stalls are NOT for formulating equations on." Not many people were willingly awake at this ghastly hour, so Leah decided to jog the short distance to the cafeteria. People had long stopped giving her strange looks whenever she did something out of the ordinary, and she hummed along to the music as she passed the server farm, then the commons, then the offices, then the glass wall that separated her from the Portgate. The Portgate. An immense ring of steel that, in her words, "did some science stuff and makes cool swirly circles". It was actually a bit more than that; the Portgate was the project that she had worked on for three and a half years. Millions of man-hours had went into that thing, and she had contributed to a rather sizeable portion of that time. The sight of the three-story ring would faze most people, but the woman was rather used to the sight of it. She continued past it, barely giving it a glance as technicians and engineers scurried around it like ants. What was more important to her was the greasy bacon and undercooked pancakes that the cafeteria served. Another minute of jogging and she found herself waiting in the short line for breakfast, piling hashed potatoes onto her plastic plate. The sickening smell of almost-artificial fat and cheap chocolate milk floated through the cafeteria's cold atmosphere, and the yellow walls always seemed to get more and more brown every day. Nevertheless, the food was pretty decent, at least in her rather liberal opinions. She found a seat in the corner of the dining hall and began to dig into her breakfast. The aluminum table and chairs were scratched with use, and the woman's appetite caused quite a few stains to appear on the table. It didn't take long for her to complete her gigantic meal (how she managed to keep a thin frame was a mystery to everybody) and head over to the South wing. When she entered the South Research Area, she grabbed two paper cups of coffee on her way to her work station and dumped three packets of sugar into each one. She usually worked there from seven in the morning to seven at night, so the brown, bitter liquid was an essential part of her life. When she sunk down into her swivel chair after dropping her bag on the ground, a rather unkempt man in his mid-forties wearing a dress shirt and slacks stopped outside her cubicle. "Hey Leah, you gonna go to the portal opening later?" "Well, yeah. I'm supposed to be analyzing the portal's stability for the whole thing." "Oh yeah, that's right. I honestly can't believe they're finally sending someone through." "I mean, it's kinda a given. It's hospitable on the other side, and it's uncannily similar to the Earth. There's not even any killer germs, for some reason. Apparently viruses and bacteria from either side immediately die on the other." "What do you think's on the other side?" "Umm...trees and stuff. I thought you saw the pictures?" "You know that there's only been exploration up to two yards inside there, right? Radio signals are somehow inhibited, and drones can't make it very far without tipping over. So what do you think is beyond there?" "I dunno. I guess we'll see." The man smiled, then turned around and walked away. The two researchers went on with their day, just as they had for the past few years. Routine was nice. -Noah- "So, why am I supposed to go with the scientists?" Noah's blue eyes stared inquisitively at the administrator as he asked for more details regarding his assignment. His blond hair and tanned skin made for a rather striking contrast, but less so when he was wearing the standard issue ballistic helmet that most soldiers wore in the field. His time as a soldier had baked his previously pale skin into a burnt tan, though it was generally covered in the various colors of U.S. military camouflage. "Well, we still haven't seen what the other side holds in terms of... animals. It's quite hard to get data from there, you know? It's only possible to get the portal to work on some days, since it is still a work in progress, so we can only obtain low-resolution pictures of the other side because of some sort of... interference. Which is why we're sending people, because they don't need to be remote-controlled. So, Noah Breston, if you were to go to an alien world without knowing what lives there, why wouldn't you bring a guard or two?" Noah shifted a bit in the ridiculously awkward chair as he continued to ask questions. His olive-green T-shirt and camo cargo pants crinkled and flapped as he made himself more comfortable, and his desert-tan boots thunked on the floor as he rearranged his legs. "But why me?" "Long story short, you drew the short stick. You might not be the most qualified, but you're good enough.." "Right... so what am I supposed to do again?" "Well, once you pass through and confirm that the area's safe, you'll help the researchers set up a base camp and watch your surroundings for threats. We'll be sending in supplies while you do so. Research equipment, food for a month, solar chargers, everything you'll need to stay there. You'll probably only be over there for an hour, though. The researchers will be doing science stuff, so try not to get in the way if you can help it. I won't bore you with the details. Don't worry, you'll have some help." "Alright then... I guess." "Great. Remember, the trip is a week away. Don't stress yourself, alright?" Noah walked out of the administrator's office, his curiosity slightly sated. He had been in the Army for about five years before he was called here for some special project. It was better than sitting around in the Middle East and paid better, so he couldn't complain. Although, now that he knew all the facts, he was a bit less eager. Nobody knew what creatures lay beyond those trees that the cameras had shakily photographed. In all honesty, he would have liked to bring a 20mm autocannon with him, but apparently the most firepower he was getting was a .50 caliber rifle. They said that he wouldn't be taking on a tank, but Noah didn't want to encounter the things he would have to go up against on the other side. If he had to fight something there, it would preferably be behind a rocket launcher. At least the pay was good. -Leah- "T-minus 2 hours, 30 minutes." Energy drink in one hand and graphing calculator in the other, Leah stepped over towards the third Leinhardt focus engine and flipped open the cobalt-titanium back hatch, revealing a series of buttons and switches. After doing some quick calculus in her head, she clicked the "Variance Control" setting to 0.2. Calibrating the engines took some time, and it was a rather math-heavy process. Ten minutes passed before she closed the hatch and moved onto the next one. When she finished setting all 6 engines, she hopped down from the platform that she had stood on and walked away from the Portgate. The ground around the Portgate was in a state of ordered madness. People in white lab coats and high-visibility jackets rushed to and fro, focusing on their tasks. Engineers walked back and forth, performing the thousands of checks and confirmations that were necessary for the first human exploration of a brand new planet. Leah could see the technicians perform the final checks on the power supply lines and the loading crew bring pallet after pallet of supplies to the Portgate. It was a shame that she couldn't go, but she wasn't too bummed out about it. After all, quantum physics doesn't help much when you're on an unexplored planet. Still, she frowned a little as she observed a dozen men in body armor and combat gear line up around the Portgate. It wasn't really that necessary for there to be that much security, right? She shrugged as she continued to watch the others go on with their work. "T-minus 1 hour, 45 minutes... -Luna- Concatenation gems were terribly complex things. Conductive arcane dust had to be refined into magic ink, which was then used to draw amplification runes on inscribed topaz gems. The designs that were necessary for a successful "power stone," as they were informally called, took tens of hours to carve properly and imbue with magic, and their fractal-like complicity could cause headaches after just ten minutes of work. It was very difficult to get hold of a good influx-concentration gem, even if you were the ruler of the most powerful country on the Equestrian Continent. But it was worth the cost, in Luna's opinion, for the costly gemstones. The skill of the senior magicians was really something, and she made sure they were well compensated for their work. Their gemwork was perfect in every way, and the stones would be more than sufficient for what she had in plan. The Princess of the Night was walking along a darker, less known hallway of the Canterlot Castle to the spellcasting chamber, where she would perform an incredibly complex divining spell that would be the culmination of several weeks worth of planning. The chamber was designed to reflect and concentrate a unicorn's magic, making their magic much more powerful than normal. Luna could have simply performed the spell in her bedroom, but she had decided it was important to dive deeper into the issue she was facing. The mild unsettling of the Royal Sisters' stomachs that had begun a few months ago was at first shrugged off as a random feeling. As the feeling repeatedly returned after a couple of weeks, however, it was clear that something was wrong. Luna had been chosen to perform the spell, since her dreamwalking abilities made her more than suited for the task. The spell Luna had in mind was a very complex one. It required immense amounts of potential magic, which meant that it was near impossible for anyone other than Celestia or Luna to perform it. Not that many people would want to perform it, though. In fact, the only written record of the spell was in a centuries-old book, tucked deep within the Royal Library. It's not everyday that you need to perform a cross-dimensional vision spell. Luna stopped at the front of the tall, thick oak doors that were at the end of the hallway. The doors were visibly worn, not with use but with age. She used her magic to pull open the heavy doors, and they ominously creaked open at a painfully slow pace. Luna then took care to close the doors behind her as she entered the chamber, slamming them shut as she walked into the chamber. The fluorescent runes in the wall lighted Luna's way as she walked into the room, guided by their dim glow. Her hooves clopped as she walked on the marble floor, and her eyes followed the various lines and glyphs carved on the floor and along the walls that served as magical channels for those that wished to use the room. All of the lines eventually converged at the center of the room, where a unicorn (or in this case, alicorn) would sit and perform their spell. The chamber measured twenty feet by twenty feet, so Luna took a while to spread the magic gems and crystals around the room with her telekinesis. When she finished placing the last orange jewel she sat down, and as she focused her mind on the spell matrix her horn began to emit a dark purple aura. As with all spells of high delicacy and precision, extreme caution could still fail to provide acceptable results. As Luna focused harder and harder, little changed in her perception of the magical field. It seemed as if her efforts had bore no reward at all, but she persisted. Suddenly, out of the ambient static that she was searching, she felt a knot. Curious, she pushed more magic towards it, hoping to gain more information. As the knot grew more and more pronounced, Luna attempted to get a better grasp of the anomaly - and failed. Frustrated, she pushed, harder and harder... *CRACK* Luna realized her mistake as soon as she heard the first crystal crack. That realization was reinforced by the next crack, then the next. In a split second, all the crystals had split - and released their energy into Luna. The pulse of energy bolted through Luna's horn and towards the knot, knocking her to the ground. The magical surge hit the knot - and it grew, twisting and contorting into a tangled mess. Then, in an instant, it exploded into a bright flash of light before immediately flattening itself out. As Luna pulled herself to her hooves, she assessed the damage dealt to the room. It still looked rather serviceable, and the only visible evidence of the incident was the scattering of gem shards on the floor. She let out a sigh of relief, thankful that there weren't any consequences. Or so she thought. -Andrew- T-minus 60 minutes. Andrew crossed off the last item on his checklist and backed away from the frame. All the parts of the Portgate seemed to be in working order, and they even seemed to shine a brighter grey than usual. Satisfied, he pressed the sleep button on his tablet before turning around and walking towards the pallets. He was rather interested in what the scientists were bringing with them. Scientific instruments, food, building materials...weapons... Andrew took a closer look at the MREs that were stacked up on a pallet, curious about their contents. "Wow, they have ravioli?" Andrew turned to face a girl in a green shirt and jeans looking at him. It was clear from her inquisitive nature and questioning stare that she was a scientist. "Yeah, and it looks like they have beef and mac, chili... seems kinda gross, to be honest." "What are you talking about? That sounds tasty as heck! It can't be that hard to mess up chili, right?" Andrew was about to answer, but one of the soldiers walked up to them. "Guys, you really shouldn't be near this stuff. We're about to move it, and it would be best if you-" A series of red lights and klaxons suddenly began to blare and scream, but they weren't quick enough for what happened a split second later. There was a flash of light and a loud, warping sound like sheet metal bending and flexing, and Andrew's heart skipped a beat as he began falling - towards the Portgate. Somehow, the Portgate had activated, but the blue vortex was definitely not supposed to be pulling things into it. The pallets of supplies were sucked into the portal that had formed inside the Portgate, and he could see the girl and the guard fall into it just before he followed suit. Passing through the Portal was instantaneous, and the hard, concrete grey of the Bunker was suddenly replaced with the dark, starry sky of another world. It took a while for this fact to register, and he was still in shock as he landed on the soft grass that carpeted the ground. As he began to process the events that had just passed a few seconds, a heavy cardboard box smacked against the side of his head, knocking him out cold. Interestingly, the box contained exactly three hundred U.S. military MREs. All of them were the spaghetti type.