nine ✤ text

[lingeringhope]

You may have noticed some abnormal behavior regarding the Door. Normally it doesn't bring in anything so large, and we did not expect it to do so this time. Delight and I have been attempting to alter the Door to send you home, as you have so often requested, but as I have said again and again, we have very little knowledge in this area. We will try again.

My appreciation for those who slew the dragons. We did not intend on their arrival, and I would be willing to grant you a favor in return for your efforts - if it's within my power, and not too foolish.

Comments

[lingeringhope]

He does not believe you should be sent home, so he is not helping.

[verinumeri]

[ . . .

Far be it for him to dissuade efforts to get them home, but this seems now like a rather poor idea.

However, if they're working on very little knowledge, it leaves them near square, so it's worth-- ]

I don't suppose you'd let us try to help.

[lingeringhope]

I don't think that would be a good idea.

[verinumeri]

With all due respect, the same could be charged of your current appreciated but possibly misguided efforts.

[ Right, so he lasted literally one comment before saying it. Oh well. He sort of tried. ]

Some of us could be useful.

[lingeringhope]

Perhaps, but none of you can be trusted.

[verinumeri]

Trust may never develop, but that has not prevented and need not prevent productive working relationships. Beings of your power ought to be able to monitor at relatively little cost to resources.

Mr. Hope, for 11 years -- approximately 4,015 cycles of full light and dark as currently maintained by the cavern -- I studied the Breach, a fissure or portal or wormhole, if you like, that connected my world to another. I was ultimately integral to closing it and preventing further invasions.

I will not pretend that this would necessarily make me useful. I relied on data from various devices and the Door and the Breach are likely highly dissimilar. Regardless, it is a waste of resources to not try.

[lingeringhope]

What tools did you use to study it?

[verinumeri]

Sensors, computers, machinery. For one, it was located in a place inaccessible to humans without extensive technological assistance.

[ Thousands of meters below the sea, deep in the Mariana Trench, between tectonic plates... not exactly a stroll to the corner store.

Anyway. He knows precisely how this is going to go. But he had to try. ]

[lingeringhope]

We don't have those things, even if we were inclined to accept your help. However, I will keep your offer in mind.

[verinumeri]

I know you don't. It may be possible to put together something equivalent, and better suited to the nature of the Door.

[ But -- ]

Thank you.

[lingeringhope]

Perhaps eventually that will be an option. I appreciate the input.

[verinumeri]

[ Better than he expected. ]

Well, thank you again.

If I may, one more query: are you able to guarantee that if you come to understand how to send things through the Door, rather than bring things here, people will be sent to habitable places, never mind their proper homes? That is, are you yet able to discern or control where it is, for lack of a better word, pointed?

[ So far, on its own or with the dragons, it's only taken from inhabited worlds, so he'd like to assume the Door, pinpointing the chaos of the living, only interacts with it and those locations, but... if there's a chance they could get spit out into deep space or a supernova, that would be a concern. ]

[lingeringhope]

I cannot guarantee that. That, along with many other things, is what Delight and I are experimenting with.

[verinumeri]

Do you, or would you, have any means of knowing if you did accidentally send someone into a black hole?

[lingeringhope]

No.

1/2

[verinumeri]

[ b y j o v e ]

[verinumeri]

Then, while I do not wish to sound ungrateful, I would like to register a formal complaint regarding this enterprise. It is irresponsibly dangerous, sir.

[lingeringhope]

Your complaint has been registered.

[verinumeri]

Thank you.