Abandoned Hamlet fifty miles from Stalliongrad
0310 Hours
Calgradni arose for a blunt trauma induced nap to find not the glorious sight of a Maledict, but what looked like two mostly featherless griffins lying comatose near where the portal used to be. He was currently surrounded by his acolytes who they themselves were surrounded by three very angry night guardponies and an ebony princess who radiated cold fury. "Its time we left." He grabbed a single brightly glowing teal orb from a small satchel. "Displaced." He and his group vanished in a blaze of green fire.
Luna's magical senses told her the teleport's destination was far to the northeast. However, as much as she wanted to investigate further she was mostly unfamiliar with the newer style of spellwork and the remnants of it were dwindling rapidly. I know that language that pegasus was using, but I have never seen it used for actual spellwork. No doubt someone like my sister or Twilight Sparkle could trace this better than I, but all evidence would likely be gone before they arrived.
The sergeant hazarded an interruption. "Your highness-” He said as she opened her eyes from her concentration. "Begging you pardon, but the area is secure. I'm sorry to report that none of our assailants survived. They were determined to not be taken alive."
She sighed at the news, but did not express sadness from it. "I feared as much. Do not trouble yourself sergeant, not only did they attempt to assassinate me, their leader also attempted to summon a demon of Tartaurus." All three guards balked at the revelation. "They earned their fate." She added sternly.
She turned to see the still forms of the two mysterious creatures. "Which brings us to the matter, of what they did manage to summon. She and her three guardponies trotted over to find one sort of half ape half griffin lying on some kind of very low table or platform, and the other hybrid was curled in a ball with its paws over its head in a look of frozen agony. The altar behind them had completely disintegrated because of a failsafe in the portal's spellwork. "Stand back and be ready, I don't know how they'll react to my magic."
Before beginning her magical probe, her study of their attire gave the princess some insight. The one in white garb is fur and featherless, while this other one has both. Its possible she's a patient, any sores or lesions could be concealed by the odd clothing. She turned her attention to the ape-griffin who was curled in frozen pain. Luna immediately identified it as a uniform. "What is that strange armor on its…looks more like a female actually. On her back?"
The princess decided to probe the armor first. She barely managed to begin study it when three small spheres broke away from the armor and started buzz around the hybrid in a highly defensive manner. "Caday! Yen gyut kakar!"
Luna backed away as the guards rushed to her side. "Wait, I want to see what they do." They backed down, and took formation behind the princess, ready to jump at a moment's notice.
The prismatic spheres changed colors to green, pink, and electric yellow for each one, and swooped down low to their comatose master. Luna watched as several scanning beams and various other sensors passed over the hybrid. The yellow orb moved next to its master's ear. "Beyah." No response. "Beyah!" It repeated louder. "BEYAH!" Still nothing. Finally it rose a foot in the air and then dropped down hard on the hybrid's head with a comical "clunk". Luna could not help but snicker at the odd little orbs, while the guards were too perplexed by the strange behavior to see the humor.
For the longest time, Daria only saw darkness and silence. It was a nice place, plenty of time to sleep, and contemplate how she was going to spend her year away from the service in a sort of paid vacation. Then a voice intruded in on the nice black landscape. "Wakeup." She ignored it, as she did the next two times it repeated itself. The voice was not alone in its efforts and she felt a heavy weight bonk her over the head, shattering the darkness and the waking world rushed back to her along with a huge amount of pain. The demon would have traversed the portal that compressed the traveler into a single point before transporting it to the other side with no ill effects. A mortal however was another story and hot pain lanced throughout her body.
The ponies could not understand the language, but it was quite clear in the tone and inflection, that the uniformed hybrid was spouting profanity at such a prestigious rate it would have put even the saltiest of sailors to shame. Two minutes later, the profanity finally stopped. The vulgar creature shook off the last of the pain and took stock of its surroundings. In an effort to not sound like she was sneaking up on the hybrid Luna cleared her throat loudly to grab her attention. The creature spun to face her, and the three spheres moved with her and assumed a triangular formation behind her.
Daria didn’t know what to make of the odd horse like creatures in front of her. She had never seen one in person, but a lieutenant she had been dating a few years back had been huge on old twentieth century westerns of Earth. But she could tell from the expressive eyes of the four mini-horses that they were highly intelligent. A casual probing with TNP told her the armor they were wearing were silent, and thus were technologically inferior, or simply basic attire. Just my luck, they don’t have any software I can sniff out a language from. Assuming the reason she was not tied up in some sort of cell, or even near a dissecting lab, was that her presence was an accident. I should have paid more attention to the first contact rules. “Greetings. Is there any chance you speak English?”
The largest of the horse things responded in a regal tone. “Darnee. Greth ryton vut?”
Daria sighed. The universal translator won’t work if I don’t have the vocabulary. Thankfully, there’s never a solution technology won’t solve. She thought with a grin. Under her command, the three router spheres orbited her head while scanning and recording the method in which the spoken and written word was stored in her brain. She made sure to show the curious mini horses that it was a painless procedure. A minute later the three flew over to stop in front of the tallest one, but stopped short a foot from her head.
Luna took an unconscious step back from the approaching spheres causing the guards to tense, but she held them back with a wing. “Hold. I think she wants me to repeat the gesture, it could be some ritual of greeting.”
The sergeant was not ready to let the possibly dangerous machines from harming his princess. “Princess, I must insist that it is possible these creatures could be even more dangerous then the traitors. Allow me to return the gesture. If it’s genuine, then no harm should come of it.”
Luna studied the curious yet patient hybrid and then back the guard. “If it is harmless, than the half griffin shouldn't mind who exactly returns it.” She stepped away from the spheres and the sergeant took her place. Daria got the message and lowered them to be head level with the guardpony. She slowly ordered the spheres to encircle the sergeant’s head then scanned his brain for the necessary information. The process took a few weary minutes as the spheres tried to decipher how the pony’s mind worked and then copied the linguistic information. With that done, it compared how Daria’s brain functioned with that of the sergeant, and rewrote all of the data into a format that her brain could work with. When it was done reformatting the sergeant’s language, the spheres flew back over and deposited it all in Daria’s memory. The ponies watched on with curiosity, as they could only see the pale aura of light coming off the routers. Luna was especially interested as she could sense absolutely no magic coming from either the ape-cat-bird thing, or the strange machines.
After what seemed like half an hour the spheres were finished and Daria turned to address the small horses. “Finally. I hate language barriers don’t you?”
The ponies were shocked to say the least. Not only had the hybrid spoken perfect equestrian, but with the same manehattenite accent the sergeant had. All three of them immediately identified it as memory theft magic of some sort; a very illegal act. Luna leveraged her years of experience and recovered fastest. She decided to ignore the legal complications for now in the interest of keeping the dialogue cordial. “They do tend to complicate matters yes.”
Daria’s expression brightened. “Ah good it worked.” She looked over to the unnamed sphinx still asleep on the stretcher and had her routers scan her. That’s a relief, she’s still weak from the pod, but otherwise is unharmed. I think being asleep during, whatever that was, saved her from the pain. She turned back to address the ponies. “I’m Commander Daria Barrane. And depending on your involvement on how we got here, you can either call me Barrane, or commander.” Then she spoke with a veiled threat. “You don’t want to have to call me commander.”
The guards bristled but a gesture from Luna held them at bay. “My name is Princess Luna. I’m afraid I am actually partially responsible for your presence here.” Luna went into an abridged version of the past hour of events; including the forced teleport, the brief fight with the minotaurs, the wordmancer, and finally her altering the portal.
Daria sat on her haunches to digest the information. To the surprise of the ponies, an arm materialized to Daria’s left and she scratched her chin in contemplation. “So you’re saying you have no way of sending me back?”
Luna shook her head sadly. “This method of portal creation is tightly controlled knowledge that our government does not possess, and even if I could reproduce it; I have no way of knowing where exactly you originated from. But I’m sure a look on the world map might give us an idea of your homeland.”
Daria gave her a sly look as the holographic arm disappeared. “I doubt they have my homeworld on that map. Regardless, I can create a way to contact my people, but that will take time to get working.” She looked back at the snoozing subject. If their armor is anything to go by, these natives probably has a very low technology level, this would be a good a place as any to let her learn some control over her TNP without needing a limiter. Assuming of course that the natives can be trusted.
Luna was intrigued by the statement. Did she say homeworld? The prospect of talking to a being who lived among her stars was highly appealing. Not to mention questioning the alien on a civilization built without magic, as if such a thing was possible. “If you give your word to never harm my subjects, I can grant you quarters at Canterlot Castle.”
Daria gave Luna a cold look. “Never? Never is a very long time, princess. I won’t go out of my way to harm anyone, but I will not make such a promise that forces me to avoid acting in self-defense.” The smell of blood tinged the air, and Daria glanced over to see the bodies of the four mercenaries. “And by the looks of it, such a promise would be rather hypocritical.”
To her credit, Luna made no outward showing of her embarrassment of being called on such a logical fallacy on her part. “I concede the point. Instead, if you promise to learn the basics of our laws and customs, and agree to abide by them, then I can grant you honorary citizenship along with residence at the castle.” Mostly so I can prod you with questions. The alicorn had to fight to keep her giddiness in check.
Daria did not have to think for long. Marooned on a new world with no money was not a good situation to be in. However, being granted a place inside the ruler’s castle of all places would allow her to focus on helping the subject literally get on her feet. “I can agree to that. And so will my friend there when she wakes up.”
Luna put on her best smile. "I'm glad we have an accord. I'll let my sister know where we are, so she can send over transportation."
Daria inclined her head. "Thank you, while we wait, I'd like to get my friend here up to speed."
Luna wanted to inquire what the other being's illness was, but she wanted to let her sister know she was alright and about the attackers. She leaned in to whisper to her sergeant. "Keep one eye on the perimeter, and one on our guests. I know not if her word can be trusted, but I want to give her the benefit of the doubt so keep it subtle."
"Yes your highness." He replied before relying the orders his two underlings.
Daria walked over to the subject who was on her side and groggily trying to remove the limiter on her head, but was still trying to get it off as if she still had thumbs. The commander had a pair of holographic arms manifest and helped the subject to lie on her belly. "Hold on now. You'll be just fine. Let me help you that." She pulled the limiter off the subject's head, while keeping her own TNP locked on her equipment so the other sphinx would not pick up on them. "There is that better?"
The subject looked at her with vacant eyes for a moment before focusing on her, with the limiter gone, the vice on her mind lifted. "Yes, th-thank you." She replied timidly.
"Don't mention it, I hate the things myself." She put the limiter on the other end of the stretcher. "I'd offer you some food and water-" Looking around she noted the town was in serious disrepair, and was already sparse to begin with. The princess over there didn’t exactly get a chance to pack for an extended trip either. "But it looks like we're on our own for now. Are you strong enough to stand?"
"I-I think so." She started to get up on two legs.
Daria saw it coming and caught the subject as she lost her balance. "Whoa now, remember you have four legs now, not two."
The subject looked down at her forelegs. "Oh. Of course I do." She said with mild confusion.
Daria had her holographic hand snap its fingers to bring the subject's attention back to her. "Focus now. I know it may be hard, but can you remember what your name is? You didn't have one on your file."
The confused sphinx wracked her muddled brain for a minute before answering. "I had an old name, but I erased it. I wanted a new one for when my…my transformation was finished."
Not exactly a rare case, but the reason fits. "Did you pick a new name then?"
The subject tried sitting down to wrap her paws over her head to help think, but only managed to fall on her side. Daria pulled her back up and helped her keep her balance. The subject's wings were only stable in their resting position because she had yet to think about moving them. "It… it was Ashni."
"Ashley?" The commander asked quizzically to make sure she heard correctly.
The subject thought about it for a moment then shook her head. "No, it was definitely Ashni. I can't remember a surname though. Why can't I remember my old life?"
Daria was saddened by the pitiful look on Ashni's face. "Mostly because of the way the transformation rewires your brain to our racial standard, so to speak. You obviously don't remember being told that before you underwent the process. Personal memories are chief among that which is lost. But at least you didn't forget your education so that’s a plus. But do you at least remember why you wanted to volunteer?" That bit of info will be crucial if she's going to not start regretting her choice to become a sphinx.
A pained look of contemplation passed over Ashni's features before speaking. "All I remember is being excited that I was selected. Nothing more than that."
Daria gave a slight sigh of relief. "Well if you remember that much about it, I'm sure the rest will come to you later. For now, I want you to learn how to stand and walk again. You're strong enough to do it, but you just don’t know how to move your body anymore."
Luna finished reading the letter her sister had sent back. As expected, Celesta was grateful that Luna came out of the whole affair unscathed. Tia said she's launch a quiet investigation in the matter, but I don't think it will be enough. For someone to pull off an attempt like this is either a single rouge organization, or more likely a nation state level operation. Sending out single operatives isn't going to work against this. I'll have to do something about improving our intelligence agencies.
Luna scanned the area, seeing nothing but her night guards keeping a perimeter while the commander was trying to get her companion to stand on shaky feet. Deciding to investigate she trotted over. "Commander Barrane, does your companion have an illness. I would be remiss to allow an alien plague to reach my people."
Ashni lost her balance at hearing the alien language, and tried to crawl behind Daria for protection. "Don't worry Ashni, she’s a friend." Ashni nodded but cowered in closer while Daria addressed the princess. "No, Ashni here is perfectly healthy; she's just a little new at this."
Luna gave an inquisitive look at the frightened alien. Reminds me of the element of kindness. "New? At what?"
"The details are unimportant." She replied avoiding the question. "But again I assure you it is no affliction, all she needs is time to recover. She is of no risk to anyone."
"I see." Luna replied flatly. "While we wait for transportation to arrive, do you mind if I ask you some questions."
"Only if you don't mind me helping Ashni get walking again at the same time."
Luna was intrigued by the opportunity to study the pair's interaction with each other while asking her questions. It was a chance to glimpse into their culture and mindset. "Of course. I would not want to hinder her progress."
Barrane nodded. "Thanks." She helped Ashni back on her feet. "Now remember, just forget about your wings for the time being, they keep you center of gravity normalized while in a resting position. It's your tail that will help you stay balanced while standing and walking."
Ashni's stance was more stable this time, as she tried to flick her unfamiliar tail to counter her own wobbliness. Luna took the pause to speak. "So what may I call your kind?"
Daria answered without looked away from her student. "We're sphinxes. One of the founding members of Sol Force. The military arm of the Solar Empire."
Luna felt slightly troubled by that. "Sphinxes…” I swear that sounds familiar for some reason. Daria was too preoccupied to notice the pause. “Our kind are called ponies.”
Daria looked at her with an appraising expression. “Fits.”
“What does thou means by that?” Luna flustered slightly while slipping partially into old speaking habits.
“Nothing really. Just a side effect of the language transfer.” She replied matter-of-factly. “I made sure to grab only the syntax and vocab, but I haven’t actually gone through your dictionary to hunt every meaning down yet.”
Luna recovered her composure. “Interesting.” A pause lingered. "You said your civilization is an empire. Are you a militarist people?"
Daria was glad Ashni was showing rapid improvement in her stance, but walking would be a much bigger hurdle. "Watch me and try to emulate my walking gait. Don’t try to recreate it perfectly, just the best way that works for you." While walking slowly in straight lines with Ashni watching closely she replied to Luna's question. "Very." She said flatly. "Its rather par for the course when you run across other hostile space faring civilizations who think the stars only belong to them. But the whole Empire thing is a misnomer, the founders had a flare for the dramatic, and we never actually conquered anything when they decided to call it an empire." She stopped pacing. "What sort of government do you have princess?"
"We have a diarchy. I share leadership with my sister Princess Celesta."
Daria paused her instruction. The rulers go by the title princess? Meh, different culture, different rules.
The questioning when back and forth for the next few hours until it was time for Luna to lower the moon. Both sphinxes were too busy with each other to notice the event however. By the time the chariots arrived, Ashni was able to take a few steps at a time without losing her balance. One might think going from two legs to four would be accomplished easily, but that is not the case when your limbs' muscles work very different than how they used to. Not to mention the use of a tail for balance and keeping the two large, albeit currently featherless wings, from pulling her off her feet. The neural stimulation she received before leaving the pod trained some basic muscle memory, but it was more of a struggle for her to start trusting it rather than trying to consciously move about.
The trip over the mountains was, unfortunately for Luna, largely uneventful. In the interest of speed, Celesta had sent over only small chariots, so the sphinxes were alone in their chariot, while Luna and the sergeant sat in another. He eyed the aliens who seemed to be rather enjoying themselves the way only an aerial being could. What bothered him was how, carefree the commander seemed to be. Ashni aside, the behavior was not something he expected from someone who supposedly was a military officer. He would have expected lesser amount of it from an officer who was off duty, but not someone who was lost on a different planet and acting as a diplomat. “Princess.” He started just loud enough to be heard clearly, but that it would not carry in the wind. “Do you think they can be trusted? The blue maned one doesn’t seem to have proper military bearing.”
Luna peered down at her loyal guardpony with a critical eye. “I understand your concerns. And I must say I share some of them. However, Commander Barrane is from a different civilization entirely separated from our own. So long as neither of them gives reason to question the worth of their word, then we should trust them to do as they promise.” He voice softened. “But if it puts your mind at ease, know that know that they are on an unfamiliar world, and we are their current best bet at surviving.”
Luna could tell he was still not totally satisfied. “As you say princess. However, that magic they used is…frightening. She ripped our language from my head with ease. I’ll grant she was ignorant at the time, but mind reading magic is highly illegal. What’s to say she didn’t take more?”
Luna’s face grew morose. "The letter of the law is that the victim must be unwilling to be subjected to the mind magic for it to be illegal. In this case it was an issue of ignorance on both parties. Even so I understand how violated you must feel, but there was no way to know that was her intent. I asked her about it, and informed her of the legality issue. The commander claims quite adamantly that what she did was not magic, straight and simple technology.” She paused at the sergeant’s incredulous expression. “Well, straight and extremely advanced technology. But I know what she said is true. I detected no magic at work from her equipment, but she possesses a very odd aura. Ashni does as well, but to a lesser extent and extremely chaotic compared to Barrane’s." She hesitated, wanting to gauge his demeanor. "Regardless, do you wish to pursue charges?"
Any other time the sergeant would not hesitate to answer yes. Yet he recognized it was a special case and the removal of the language barrier was critical to communication. "She was ignorant of the law, and did it without malicious intent. So I will not, this time."
Luna assumed he would answer as much and replied warmly. "Glad to hear it."
With the issue of the mind magic resolved, the comment his princess made about the aliens' auras worried him. As a pegasus guard, the sergeant knew little of abstract magical theory and even less about auras. But chaotic often times meant trouble. “Is the ill one going to be dangerous?”
“I don’t know.” Luna replied glancing backwards briefly at the sphinxes who were talking to themselves. “The commander implied to the negative, but seemed determined to not give me a straight answer.”
Canterlot Airspace
0945 Hours
It was well past dawn when the mountain capital came into view. The majestic city was a welcome sight to the tired ponies. It had been a trying night and all of them wished to sleep as soon as possible, but all of them knew that would have to wait a while yet. The sphinxes were not so much impressed by the comparatively low tech city, but by the artistry and that it was hanging off the side of a mountain. It was a feat their own civilization could easily accomplish, but the fact that the ponies did it without such technology is what grabbed their attention.
Right before the sphinxes' chariot landed, Daria commanded the stretcher to deactivate its adhesion field and it dropped out from under the chariot and fell into a hover a few inches off the ground behind the vehicle. Ashni gave it a dejected look before facing Daria. “I want to walk from here.”
Barrane shook her head. “Sorry, but the princess here wants us to meet with her sister, and it’s likely to be bad manners in any culture to make the leader wait on you. You’ll have plenty of time to get used to your paws after that.” Ashni couldn’t help but watch herself flex a forepaw already missing her lost thumbs.
“Yes ma’am.” She said defeatedly, she was not looking forward to being paraded around a castle on a stretcher.
Luna finished talking with the castle guards into relieving her night guard so they could get some very much needed sleep. She walked up to the sphinxes. “My sister is in the throne room, she wishes to see you now.”
Daria inclined her head. “Lead the way.” While the ponies did just that, she mentally commanded the stretcher to follow her.
The night princess led the group in a somewhat scenic route under the pretense of avoiding the rooms and corridors where petitioners and nobleponies would be milling about, mostly arguing and complaining about the very unusual secession of court; even if it was only temporary. The group entered the throne room from a secret trap door behind the throne and found Celesta waiting for them at the entrance. Not wanting to be on the stretcher for any longer than absolutely necessary, Ashni climbed off as soon as it came to a stop feeling much more confident on her feet.
A glance at her sister told Celesta what she needed to know in how to talk with the aliens. "I welcome you to my city Commander Barrane, Miss Ashni."
Daria had the forethought to ask Luna what protocol would be required of her, so she bowed her head respectfully with Ashni quickly following suit. "Thank you your highness. I appreciate your hospitability."
The alabaster alicorn was pleased to see an adherence to manners, it bode well for avoiding any complications later. She gave a warm smile in return. "Think nothing of it. Because of the unfortunate nature of your arrival, the least we can offer is a place to stay. As I'm sure my sister has already informed you, that comes with adhering to our laws and customs."
Daria resumed a normal standing posture. "It would behoove me to be respectful to the ruler of the land. However I do not expect to stay long. After I contact my people they will undoubtedly send a retrieval vessel. I will make sure my government rewards you properly."
Celesta shook her head slightly. "Reward is not necessary. It is just the right thing to do."
Daria was unsure if the statement was honest, or if the alicorn was playing the politician's game. Either way, she decided it was best to take her at face value until either princess gave reason to think otherwise. She nodded in thanks. "Then I shall endeavor to make sure such generosity is deserved."
"Glad to hear it." She looked back towards a unicorn several steps behind her and gestured him to approach. "My guard captain Shining Armor will show you to your quarters, I must ask you to return to the throne room tomorrow at the beginning of court to introduce you to my ponies. I would not want to cause a panic among them by seeing unannounced visitors."
Daria studied the proud stallion briefly before returning her attention to the princess. "I understand. We'll be there."
"Wonderful, not if you'll excuse me, I must resume court. Captain."
Armor stepped towards the trap door. "This way please."
The passage branched off in various directions, but the path Shining lead them down opened into the second floor of the guest tower. He had been concerned about the slow progress of the group thanks to Ashni being stubborn about walking on her own. Yet Daria insisted that she be allowed to do it. Once back into the normal grand hallways Shining broached a question. "Until your people arrive to retrieve you, what will you be doing until then?"
"A fair question." Daria replied lightly. "I'll be repurposing the circuitry in that stretcher into a subspace transceiver. I'll need to manufacture some parts the stretcher won't have, so I'll have to ask for some materials if your people can spare them. Other than that, I'll be helping Ashni get steady on her feet." She looked back at her still clumsy pupil while speaking in English. "Sure you don't want some help? The stairs haven't been kind to you thus far."
Ashni fell on her face after slipping on the smooth marble. She spoke while climbing back to her paws. "Thank you, but no. I won't get better riding on that stretcher."
Switching back to equestrian she asked Shining a question. "How far up did you say our quarters were?"
Armor had not been privy to the exchange between the two sphinxes, but was able to decipher the purpose behind the inquiry. "The princesses have offered the foreign dignitary quarters at the top of the tower. Princess Luna felt it was more fitting."
Daria remembered seeing how many towers the castle had from the outside. She faced her stubborn companion. "Sorry Ashni, but I'm going to have to insist on this one. We're going straight to the top."
An errant wing decided to pull her to the ground again. Ashni realized that she would end up with bruises all over her if she kept it up. She slumped on the ground. "Fine." She side out of irritation over her uncooperative limbs.
When the group was almost at the door Shining Armor voiced a concern that had been bothering him. Due to the sphinx's similarities with griffins he assumed the aliens were not herbivores. "Lunch will be serving soon, I can have the staff bring you something. What sort of things do you tend to eat?"
Daria thought nothing of the question and answered evenly. "Meat mostly, grains are fine too, but we can't live off it for very long."
Armor suspected it and was not overly bothered. "So I take it fruits or vegetables are inedible."
Daria gave him a questioning look before realization dawned on her. "We derive very little useable nutrients from them, but we can eat them."
"Would fish be acceptable?" He asked hopefully. Pegasi partook in seafood as part of their standard diet and he hoped the visitors could do the same as Canterlot would have nothing else for them to eat.
Her face brightened considerably at the mention of seafood. "If its anything like the ones back home that would be perfect."
He let go of a small breath he had been holding. "Good to hear. I'll have the chefs make multiple dishes to see which ones will be most agreeable to you." He pushed open the single door in the small receiving area which opened up into the large suite that was almost a perfect replica of Twilight's old tower, minus the scattered book, scrolls, and empty inkwells. After a brief tour, Armor bid his farewell at the door. "If you need anything, just inform the guards one floor below."
Barrane expressed her gratitude. "I will thanks." She shut the door and turned to see a tripod telescope sitting on the balcony on the far side of the room. It might actually be a good idea to use that and compare the star charts to see where I am before building a transceiver. But that will have to wait for nightfall.