the uncertainty as to who exactly would be dropping by on Thursday was palpable within the company and quite derailed productivity for the rest of the day, so far as I can tell it also wiped out any skepticism as to the authenticity of my story as well. I was practically bombarded with questions about pretty much anything that the news suggested when I was around and able to answer them.
Some were relatively straightforward. “How great are the differences between this dimension and yours?” A software engineer asked me while I was attempting to continue the chapter I had been on as I lounged on a couch near the break room TV, I would have been more annoyed at being interrupted had I not been needing multiple attempts to read any given paragraph I was so distracted already. “A lot and not very in the grand scheme of things, like the tech base is pretty different but at the same time the major stuff has all been in the last eighty years or so…”
Others just kind of went over my understanding. “How would you actually tell it is a portal from your dimension versus one with only minor differences in events occurring?” A woman I vaguely recognized but had no idea what she did, asked a few minutes later. To which my main answer was a shrug and a ‘dunno’. I had no real way of knowing, it’s not like I had a Divergence Meter to check it with nor was anything we had seen so far a definitive indicator of my dimension if such a thing even existed. I knew of all sorts of things that indicated something came from this or that clash, but there was that theory of things having been replaced without people realizing in clashes with negligible changes. There could have been a multitude of comparable dimensions that were identical to mine, although I have no idea if that applied to clashes maybe my dimension could be uniquely identified by what other ones it bumped up against? Ultimately it might not matter if it was my friends in the CRD dropping in, it’s someone with portal technology and supposedly peaceful intentions that might be able to get me home in some way.
While I managed to pass the remainder of the first day just waiting for any further updates, I wasn’t able to sit through the next. The need to do something when I was completely unable to focus on reading or research the raids, despite another occurring, drove me to wander around the city to pass the time instead of remaining cooped up inside. I took the opportunity to see as much of the place as I could and visit every random store that struck my fancy. It was some mix of wanting to distract myself and seeing what I could in case this might be my last chance to do so, mom had said she was going to try and see what she could do to at least get us front-line seats for whatever was going to happen. I was unsure what that meant but given how big a company General Synthetics was I assumed that they might have enough money, ah, influence to swing something.
The engineers did manage to find a way to turn my wandering into something that could still give them data of course, and while it was a bit weird it wasn’t too bad. Turns out that they had a mobile external logging system that was used in a practical test of my sister and previous prototypes, essentially just a pile of external computers that would allow for recording denser logs than my brain kept normally.
It was kinda like a ridiculously oversized backpack crossed with a beehive, a clattering and whirring trio of rectangular prisms with flexible joints between each of them that extended from just over my butt to protrude over my shoulders and was about as deep as a well-stuffed backpack. It was almost entirely the same beige tone, other than the middle section being emblazoned with the General Synthetics logo - a stylized GS forming a circle overlaying a horizontal diamond with a laurel wreath cupping the lower half, but otherwise. The whole arrangement was attached to my back via a series of mounts concealed under small access panels on my back, there were a few smaller data connections spread amongst the mounts but the main link was made by leaving the manufactures information plate off the back of my head so a cable could go through to one of the ports on my brain. Which, not gonna lie, felt really fucking weird. Having the thing linked in wasn’t intrusive like the computer system in the lab, but there was something sitting at the edge of my conscious graciously accepting information I passed it unconsciously.
Veeeery odd that.
I had expected it to weigh on me mentally or physically, but once I was out and about, I pretty much forgot it was there. People didn’t even seem to be bothered to take note of me walking by them with the thing on, I guess people were fairly used to the idea of seeing prototypes for General Synthetics around so a synthetic that should have been distinctive just didn’t even register. Even staff in stores weren’t bothered, exploring or buying stuff was arguably easier than being back home as people basically just ignored me and made space proactively, it wasn’t like it’s that unusual to see robots off getting things on assigned tasks.
In some ways, I regretted not doing this sort of thing earlier, before I was picked up by mom I was so afraid of being caught that it didn’t really occur to me how little people would care. Then after that, I mostly made myself busy or lazed around, so I didn’t really go out much beyond exercise or meetings the few people I knew here. Initially, a few engineers had joined me on my exploration, but most people weren’t built to keep walking for hours let alone when going at my pace. I did notice the odd General Synthetics vehicle pass surreptitiously by a few too many times to be a coincidence, so presumably, mom was back to being extra paranoid about someone trying to run off with me.
By Wednesday afternoon I wasn’t able to keep up my wandering, so I found myself leaning against the wooden railing of the sturdy bridge looking out over the stream in the park near this dimension’s version of Anna’s house, anxiety over tomorrow having driven me to a ‘safe’ fallback spot. It had taken me long enough to reach here from the other side of the town that it was well after five, Ali would have had to go back a while ago had she been out today at all. Thinking of her made me feel somewhat guilty that I hadn’t thought to talk to her or Natalie at all since the news broadcast. Sure, I had been seeing them off and on in the last few weeks, and Ali at least probably would have recognized the importance of the portal.
The chain of thoughts about my friends here brought me back to wondering if it was my friends from home coming looking for me tomorrow. Even if it were from my world, it’s not like it was certain that the CRD would be the ones behind it. Hell, even if it was them, how could they know I’m here? I had been wondering a lot about that, it wasn’t exactly a simple task from my perspective, they would have had to figure out the weapon didn’t kill me and then guess that I was sent to another dimension. Even then, how would they know to look in this dimension? I have no idea what the explicit behavior of the weapon is after all, just that it tossed me here. Figuring all that out seems like a huge ask to be honest.
I did somewhat wonder why they used a weapon like that instead of just a normal explosive, the only reason I could think of was availability. They did seem to have a ridiculous number of portals so maybe it was easy to gain access to those weapons if it’s based on the same technology, or perhaps it was really directed in its effect without much risk of collateral normally…
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I started on my way back to mom’s place as the sun started to set, having spent way too long stewing fruitlessly. I was the first back, despite how late it was prompting a slight sigh. After triggering the release of the logging equipment, a weirdly intuitive feeling of stretching out into the space that existed at the edge of my mind where it stayed, I ended up having a simple dinner and then flopping over on the couch. I wasted another hour or two just watching whatever random show happened to be on for a while. Mom eventually got back around 10 PM, apologizing profusely for the delay while saying she had been caught up in board meetings and then some work dinner do with a bunch of investors.
I woke up the next morning to what sounded like clattering clothes hangers and the sound of drawers opening. Once I eventually was able to move, I pushed myself up to look and found mom stuffing a suitcase while wearing a pantsuit. “What’s up?” I asked as she dashed about.
“Toby pulled through!” She answered excitedly while roughly folding a T-shirt. “He figured out some way to get the two of us into that meeting today.” She tossed the shirt to join the assortment of garments already in the suitcase, the disorder I could see made me want to jump in and get it at least vaguely in order, but I resisted the temptation. “I have no fucking idea what strings he yanked, but if there’s even the slightest chance you’ll go back today I’m coming with you.” She finished while latching the suitcase.
“What about your work?”
“I’ve got six months of vacation and Lane can handle it back here.” She declared putting the suitcase with a few of her favorite plants that had been moved to be by the door. “Now come on and get your breakfast, we need to pick up anything we might need from the lab.”
Once we were ready to go, she tossed the suitcase in the back of the trike but didn’t immediately get in. I followed her curiously; she ended up walking around the apartment building into the backyard which turned out to have a little covered area that was somewhat overgrown. Passing a couple of worn-out cars that seemed to be someone’s projects we arrived at a tarped cube that seemed to have a couple of wheels visible just below the edges. Mom pulled the tarp off revealing a tiny trailer that matched the color scheme of her trike, that looked almost pristine. She started to unhook it from a stand, but I managed to dissuade her from getting her clothes messed up. The fact I could easily pull the thing one-handed was also a point in my favor.
We met a bleary-eyed Lane at the office after mom backed the trike with the trailer up against a sliding door next to the labs. Lane had apparently anticipated that we would be going as he had spent most of yesterday packing everything he could think we might need, tools, spare parts, diagnostic equipment, and an assortment of odds and ends. It was all packed into a few shipping boxes, each labeled with a detailed manifest, he had even stacked the boxes in almost exactly the space that existed in the tiny trailer. Turns out he had helped mom select both it and the trike when she bought it a few years ago, and he had been able to look up the volume available.
I was amid helping haul stuff when Autumn, a short cheerful woman from marketing I had encountered a few times, nabbed me with the declaration that since I was, kind of, representing the company she was going to prep me for the meeting. I got given the whole deal, hair cleaned and neatened up a bit without changing the length or style from what I was used to then all the bare metal on my body got polished to a bright sheen with a set of little rotary tools. The experience was more than a little embarrassing for that, given she had me strip almost naked and it took a better part of two hours of work in total. Whenever the whizzing of the little polisher wasn’t obscuring it, I could hear the office filling up around us making me intimately aware that the only thing separating me from nudity amongst a few hundred people were the few centimeters material that made up the walls of cubical cum office and a pair of panties.
Once Autumn was satisfied, she went off to bring out the marketing dress again, it had been returned to them after I had gotten my own clothes picked up. It looked like they had cleaned and crisped it up since I last saw it, but otherwise was identical to before. The sandals were replaced with dark grey boots and stockings along with grey and purple gloves that matched the dress. Learning I had alternative eyelashes was really weird but long fancy ones it is I guess, there were a couple of tiny magnetic latches that a specialized tool she had undone letting her swap them out easily. Autumn applied a bit of restrained makeup, a faint purple eyeshadow and a matching lipstick, that she had apparently previously done for the photoshoot this ensemble had originally been prepared for. She checked that I could figure out how to touch up the lipstick with a tiny stick that fitted into a hidden pocket on the dress, apparently, she was satisfied with my coordination which is amusing given my lack of experience with such. I guess my positional awareness is useful beyond just fighting.
Seeing myself in the mirror was weird, I looked fancy in a way I am not sure I have ever been. I think the closest was a wedding I was brought to when I was eleven or something, and this was about ten levels above being an awkward little kid in a suit. The style was extreme, and I think it might have looked off on a normal person, but with how stark my color scheme was already it worked on me. I chuckled to myself wondering what Anna would think of it, I wouldn’t have looked out of place at the convention we had been to. It took myself a little bit to calm down after that chain of thought, while I might get a way back today, it was far from a guarantee!
Autumn started discussing moving suitably, but the memory of the con reminded me that I could pull the maid persona out. She blinked in surprise at how rapidly my behaviour and stance change, but gave me a grin and a thumbs up when I asked if she thought it would be suitable. I asked Autumn if I was talking unusually, and she admitted I was a bit but I didn’t seem to be doing the cringey lord/lady thing so that was probably me hamming it up unconsciously at the con. I was glad Mast- er, Anna wasn’t around or that chat might have been awkward. Mom had mentioned the persona was probably one of the several ‘personality’ options that had been developed and tested on the mark seven, it looks like that one had been what was in memory at the time I got changed. She was quite apologetic about it, but I can mostly step in and out of it, so I brushed it off when we talked about it.
After doing a final quick pass of checking me over, Autumn had to rush off to the airport to catch up with a team that was departing for some major conference, pausing at the door long enough to wish me luck with a wide smile. Once I confirmed I had the bag with my previous clothes, other eyelashes, and some cleaning supplies Autumn had given me, I went out in search of the labs. Fortunately, I had been around the office well enough to find my way back to the lab area, its simple layout didn’t mess with me the same way that the chaotic network of hallways that made up the CRD facility did.
“This one is ready, are there any further preparations required?” I asked once I found mom in the lobby adjacent to the loading area. “This one hopes that if there is, they might be limited to that which does not threaten Autumn’s superb labors.”
“Making use of that persona?” Mom asked with a raised eyebrow, pausing from where she had been reading through a folder papers in a stray chair while an exhausted-looking Lane was laid out on a bench nearby.
“It has its advantages,” I admitted with a slightly tilted head in acknowledgement. “A form of confidence, if you will.”
“Hmm, well it goes with the look that’s for sure,” She answered while giving me an appraising glance over. “You look like you just stepped out of an advertisement.”
“This one believes that was the intention.” I agreed with a smile.
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Security was intense around the assumed location of the portal; more tanks and combat synthetics had appeared although they were facing out from the expected arrival site rather than towards it. I guess the intent was to appear protective rather than threatening, I’m not sure it would go over that well, but I also wasn’t exactly in a position of authority. As we arrived, we were guided by signs and a couple of police officers that had been expecting our vehicle to the one route past the cordon around the city hall. A few moments of driving on the path through the park that was on this side of the hall was brought to an end when our path was blocked by a hulking pair of combat robots at the entrance checkpoint that was set up just behind some temporary fencing that was laid through the rose bushes that normally lined this road.
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This was the first time I had been so close to the army robots, and while they technically weren’t tanks, they weren’t far off. These ones had treaded platforms with what looked like an autocannon of some sort as the primary armament mounted on the end of an arm like you would picture in a car factory, the central body being a rectangular prism of armor with a couple of exhausts venting out near the base of the arm. They were also pretty chatty things; I could hear a stream of bidirectional traffic from them headed out to some distant control center. It was mostly incomprehensible coordinates and description codes that seemed to be describing us if I were to take a guess, along with weird data bursts that almost gave me the impression of visuals when I focused on them. I could almost see myself sitting behind mom in the trike while they flitted by, those must have been images for remote human handlers or something.
The soldier at the temporary gate examined Mom and her id carefully before passing it through a terminal that had been crudely set up on a small table to his right, thick bundles of wires running off to a large van nearby that presumably hosted the computer itself. She started into providing some verifying documents when my attention was drawn away as I had my own security check, although it was almost insultingly short.
\Identify\ The computer in the van prompted in that same not speech I was increasingly used to hearing. I was a bit surprised I could hear it from here, maybe it was something about being addressed directly instead of eavesdropping.
\Primary Lattice ID - NN36QU5R9X6XM5BUIY8K\ I responded without even needing to think about what it was asking for, just another instinct buried amongst the stuff I inherited with this body I suppose.
\Confirmed\ It responded after a few long moments, I sat waiting for it to do something beyond that. Some method of confirming that was a legitimate id or asking for some other piece of data to correlate who I was. When there was nothing else for maybe a minute or two, I gave up and mentally sighed in confusion, then returned to watching the rest of the interchange with the soldiers.
They were surprisingly unconcerned about the trailer of stuff behind the trike, so I assume they had been warned of it, they did let a cat-sized synthetic poke around within it for a while though. Once it finished its examination, it sent a message off to the computer that was overseeing the security operations that there were no explosives or weapons present in our gear. The soldier at the terminal then gave mom directions to a designated parking spot, and the two hulking combat synthetics in front of the trike moved out of the way. I noted that even as the guns pointed away from us the target seeker optics in their small turret atop the gun never left the trike.
As we parked, I got a view of a shallow platform that had been set up under a massive tent where the portal had formed previously, from that landing site there was a path of the same material as the platform leading to an area dominated by a huge table with numerous seats on both sides. It was placed as a long strip with one side being a row of empty seats presumably for anyone who would be representing the other dimension, the side that was closest to the city hall was partially occupied along with small groups of people clustered talking close to it. I honestly knew of very few current politicians back home let alone here, so I didn’t recognize anyone. There was a notable void in the middle of the grand table left empty and I assumed that would be for someone important who would be arriving later.
After a moment or two of standing around outside the trike with no one immediately telling us what to do, mom set out towards the tent. I followed her a step or two behind on her right, given my lack of experience with anything this political I was more then happy to let her take the lead. Admittedly I doubted it would really matter what I did within reason, it’s not like anyone here would think I was a person.
We were intercepted by a human aid as we approached the tent who led us to one of the smaller secondary tables that were at the edges of the covered space. As we drew close it was obvious that we were late as almost every seat at the table was occupied by a variety of individuals, that was admittedly white male dominated. If I were to give a general description of the impression I got, they felt more like business rather than technical-minded folk. The guide brought us to one end of the table that placed her amongst probably the nerdiest-looking people of the bunch. As Mom sat, she was introduced to her immediate neighbors as ‘the top synthetics expert in Canada’, by the assistant who had guided us. I saw a flash of embarrassment cross her face, but she played the part as her neighbors introduced themselves. One was a heavyset man from ExxonMobil who had some long title that I interpreted as being some sort of upper management, and the other a tiny woman was a department lead from Ford something do with motive systems, I think.
I got some curious glances from the other liaisons but was mostly ignored, I would guess I might be recognizable as something distinct to those more tuned into makes and models but otherwise, I was just another assistant. There were a handful of other synthetic assistants of various kinds both at this table and spread throughout the crowd of officials before us, so my presence wasn’t that far out of place. I was admittedly way, way shorter than most of them, turns out that when you aren’t trying to design a robot that can fight and take a few bullets if needed, you can get a lot more robot out of the same weight. The fact I had a full digestive system didn’t help either, most would be completely dependent on either recharging off the power grid or running off refined fuels opening up yet more mass and space for other purposes. Regardless of any distinctions either myself or they had, none of them were sitting in chairs nor was one offered to me, so I just stood next to mom at her spot. I was merely a part of the backdrop amongst the chaos of the preparations for what they thought was first contact, were I not hiding behind the maid persona I imagine I would have been chuckling to myself at the inaccuracy of their assumptions.
I pinged one of the ‘other’ nearby synthetics for the time, looks like an hour or so to go. I wasn’t quite sure how best to spend the time, so I placed my hands together over my belly in a neutral pose and started paying a bit more attention to our table a bit more. Upon further consideration some of the assistant bots were positively ridiculous to me, at one end of the spectrum was the one associated with a skinny guy at the other end of the table that was standing beside him holding a briefcase open and waiting for… something. There were documents and stuff in it, but the man was ignoring that to chat with his immediate neighbor instead. Another ah extremely feminine robot was in one of those sheer slips of fabric that could only charitably be called a dress behind a sharp-faced dark-skinned woman a couple of chairs down, arms stiffly at its sides. The handful of others present were all over the place, mostly just serving to remind me that these people represented the rich and powerful between the expense they represented and that they were here at all. Putting them out of my mind, I turned my attention to the conversation that was taking place closer to me. From what the other liaisons were telling mom this whole thing is being run by seat of the pants. The messenger didn’t have a schedule or really any other information beyond the expected time, so they just sort of set up a meet and greet thing here.
At one point someone I half recognized as the local prime minister turned up and took up the unoccupied middle seat at the main table, she looked a bit haggard if I would give a general description. I expect this whole thing would have completely derailed whatever had originally been planned for the week, first contact with another dimension in a city that isn’t even the capital of the province wasn’t a regular occurrence after all. I had a random thought as I studied the woman’s face that she could have been Reiko’s mother, now that could be a hilarious thing if she really was this dimension’s counterpart. I didn’t know Reiko’s last name or what her mom looked like back there, so it was really just idle speculation on my part. Looking away from the main proceedings, I could see a crowd of reporters against the temporary fencing, many a long-lensed camera and video crew awaiting the action. There were a handful of CBC reporters allowed in amongst the politicians and liaisons, but I had the impression that they were probably pretty heavily vetted.
The seats at all the tables had long been filled, everyone here had been waiting in their designated positions for the last ten or fifteen minutes when the black circle I associated with a portal eventually appeared. Immediately the murmur in the assembled people halted, replaced with gasps of alarm or wonder. I noted with some amusement that most people had to turn away or otherwise block out what I assumed would have been the ‘light’ people saw from the portals, whatever caused it didn’t register to the cameras that served as my eyes so I wasn’t the least bit bothered.
As the portal resolved itself into existence, we got a view of the same blast door as we had seen before on the broadcast. This time though I had the angle to see into the room beyond as it was revealed, it appeared to be a tunnel of semi-opaque white plastic puffed up against the inside of some sort of structure with bright lights shining through it from above. I couldn’t really see through the bodies that were crammed into the tunnel of plastic, but I think there might have been another heavy door at the other end. As its counterpart facing into this dimension halted its motion, the front rank of individuals in suits started walking confidently through the portal. Their firm and certain steps onto the platform gave the impression that they had done this a million times before and that they were expecting everything they saw here. I studied the faces of everyone who arrived that I could, but there wasn’t anyone I recognized even in passing, the output of my burners faltered at this initial disappointment. I tried to tell myself that just because I didn’t know the vanguard of diplomats, it didn’t mean that these people weren’t from my dimension.
A few soldiers in CADPAT followed a moment later, rifles down and at least attempting to appear relaxed. Although my brain pointed out that they were far more primed for something to happen than they appeared. I didn’t recognize any of them either, but I wasn’t too surprised at that given the only one I really knew was Mary or like one of my uncles if I remember correctly.
My burners flared as I recognized the next group of people in suits as they stepped or floated out of the portal immediately after the soldiers. It was a calm-looking Summers in a crisp brown suit flanked by Molly and Mary with Ivy just at his shoulder, even with the external stoicism the maid persona offered I felt tears threatening to form. I could barely resist the urge to run to them to confirm it really was the people I knew and not just their doppelgangers from another dimension, but I sure as fuck wasn’t going to cause an interdimensional incident that could permanently prevent me from going home. after taking a deep breath to steady myself I tried to learn what I could by looking at them from here.
Molly looked a bit more drawn than I was used to, but she was moving easily, and I didn’t see any obvious injuries. I almost chuckled at the same worn beanie pulled over her hair. While I couldn’t know what might be hidden by her slacks and dress shirt, it looks like she got out of that ambush fine. I would guess that since Mary is in a suit instead of an army uniform that they hadn’t found another agent or at least hadn’t trained them enough yet. Mary’s stable professional look contrasted a bit with how much looking around Molly was doing, she was glancing around trying to take everything around in. Maybe she was looking for me?
My observation was interrupted when Mom touched my hand, I glanced to where she had been looking back over her shoulder. She mouthed a question of ‘is it them?’, I returned a single smooth nod getting a flash of a smile in return before she turned back. I looked up again to see the portal just starting to close behind the group, I was a little shocked but none of the diplomatic party made any reaction to it so I assumed that it was planned. The front group of suits were settling themselves across from the PM at the wide table, while the soldiers just vaguely stood behind them with a gap in the middle for my friends to do the same.
Ivy floated ahead to hover over the shoulder of the person who had seated himself in front of the local PM, after a moment’s delay there was a startled wave that went through the surrounding crowd presumably as Ivy was addressing them. With only the slightest hesitation PM responded, no one was mic-ed up, so I had to strain to hear her say that English was fine. This prompted Ivy to bob and float back to the others. I sort of half paid attention to the greetings that the suits offered but I was paying more attention to whatever the whispered conversation that Molly and Mary were having was. I couldn’t really tell what was being said but Molly looked upset after it ended, Mary didn’t look so happy either. I might have caught a glance or two in my direction, but I wasn’t sure if they just hadn’t noticed me yet or what.
My attention was drawn back to main negotiations as they hashed out some form of a schedule, it sounded like the portal would open again in thirty minutes to confirm things were going well. I couldn’t quite follow what was being planned for the next several hours, something about establishing lines of communication or something but I did catch that the diplomats had agreed to stay for dinner after which it would resume in the morning.
Once whatever boilerplate planning happened finished, it seemed to get into yet another introduction phase as both parties at the main table started to introduce each other, it was kind of amusing how well both parties referred to themselves as Canadians went over. I didn’t really pay as much attention at this point, content to let the politicians do their jobs I sure as fuck didn’t want to be figuring out whatever first contact meant for two versions of the same country. It sounded like it was going well though, and the initial check-in portal came and went without incident. The CRD personnel were offered chairs which they accepted, attempting to look happy but were if anything more drawn and seemed to be forcing themselves to focus on the negotiations.
My patience was wearing thin as we approached dinner, it was getting hard to resist the urge to go over and talk to the others. The only relief I had was that it sounded like the dinner was going to be a bit more open of a social thing, so I hoped an opportunity would present itself. When I saw them start setting up dishes at the side and I learned that it was going to be a more buffet-style affair I knew there would be one. From what I overheard the basic idea was to show everyone was eating from the same source as a way of appearing safe, even if all parties knew there were ways around that. Politics, I guess. The main thing was that if it was like any of those I have ever been to or been complained about by Kat, there would be a long stretch of time where you could get away with sidling up to someone.
I saw a chance as the crowd of liaisons started towards the food after the political officials had a go at having their plates filled by staff behind the buffet tables. There had been a few people going to chat briefly with the CRD folk, but they mostly drifted off after a few moments presumably having decided they weren’t the main show. Alternatively, the four of them appearing so reserved was putting anyone who considered approaching them off as it put them in the same class as the soldiers who refused food, instead remaining patiently vigilant.
“Mother, if you will.” I prompted as the group of technical liaisons drifted towards the crowd around the food, I startled the petrochemical guy who had been speculating about what plastics were used in the gear of the soldiers who had come through the portal.
“Ah, of course, thank you, Sam.” Mom responded letting the other liaisons pull ahead, I could hear the relief at an excuse to break off the one-sided conversation in her voice. “I have an inquiry to make, so if you don’t mind Don…”, the guy blinked a bit at me but mumbled a vague response then hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. As we veered off, I noticed that both Mary and Molly got extremely leery expressions even as Summers maintained a carefully neutral expression. I was initially confused what was up, I was sure they recognized me at this point but then the thought crossed my mind that between being done up and moving completely differently to normal they must have thought I was this dimensions counterpart rather than, well, me.
Summers stood as mom stopped in front of him before offering a hand. “Doctor Martin Summers, Director of the Clash Resolution Department.” He said without elaborating as to what that meant, mom reciprocated the handshake without questioning his brief greeting. Summers was clearly trying to remain polite and keep his attention on mom, but he glanced at me a couple of times anyway.
“Doctor Jessica Woodward-“ Summer’s eye twitched a little at her name. “Lead of R and D at General Synthetics.” She then gave him a warm smile, prompting a wary expression from Summers. “This might be the first time we’ve met but my daughter has told me of you.” He stared at her confusion etched on his face.
“Hello Summers, it has been some time.” I piped up prompting his head to whip towards me, I let the persona slip away to ask him a question with a grin. “Do you have the stuff I left behind in my backpack this time too? I hope it’s all there, as I can’t imagine Molly stole my pens like that grandma did.”
“Sam? It is you?” He asked surprised and uncertain.
“Yep!” I confirmed my grin only growing wider.