“Hey, does anyone have any idea how long we've been in this universe relative to our universe during this visit?” Andy suddenly asked.
“Roughly a decade. It took me some time to calculate how long we were lost, but I am reasonably sure of that time frame now,” Libby answered.
“Well, shit. We’ve gotta go. But we will be back shortly with likely a lot more people. Are the reading rooms safe for meetings now? Since most of everyone is stuck here for the loop, except maybe the dogs. I need to ask them about that, we will need to do our usual conference here. Actually, is there a room bigger than a reading room? We need something with a lot of room.” Andy wasn’t sure whether anything like this existed, but he hoped so.
“There is a conference room near the reference desk. You haven’t seen it before, as it had been sealed due to a particular nasty incursion, but I believe we can prioritize cleaning it up. It shouldn’t be much of an issue now that the wing is sealed. Bart, can you handle that, please?” the chief engineer asked.
“Yes. Since Twonger is stuck, he can give me a hand. The dogs are likely able to return with you now if you’d like, though. Their personal time flow is something different now, and I doubt the internal library systems can even see them properly in this wing. Probably me, too. It’s going to be one whopper of a story when they are ready.” Bart was shaking his head as he recounted just the barest bit of the story.
“Bill, grab the dogs. Bug will want to see Cal as soon as she can. Priority one, when we return, is overriding our ability to exit this wing. We need everyone to be able to at least leave to our universe. Is that something that should be possible?” Andy asked the chief engineer.
“Likely, yes, but you will need to shut down the Librarian Units' access to this wing. I recommend overwhelming force if we are going that route,” he answered.
“Doable. Time to bring in some ringers. Please don’t tell Frank I said that.” Andy laughed softly.
“Just leaving us behind again?” Serilina called after Andy and Andrew as they followed Bill from the room.
“I mean, we’re also leaving Twonger. Do you want to keep him?” Andy called back, now suppressing a much larger laugh.
While Bill went in search of the dogs, Andy looked for Ralth instead. He wanted to leave the large man in charge while they were gone. After a few minutes of searching, he found him mingling with a group of refugees.
“Hey Ralth, got a second?” Andy asked.
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Ralth excused himself from the group and walked over to where Andy was waiting. “Sure, what can I do for you?”
“Andrew, Bill, maybe the dogs, and I are about to head back to the Void House for the meetup. I’ve talked to the chief engineer…”
Ralth Interrupted. “Ah, that was where you disappeared to. Good news then?”
“Yeah, sorry for not getting everyone, but I wanted to get it over work quickly. Yes, good news. They even think we can solve the issue of you all not being able to leave. This will likely need a giant fight, though, you know, as it always seems. I was hoping you’d watch Twonger while we were gone.” Andy didn’t like forcing the responsibility onto Ralth, but there weren’t a lot of choices here. While he didn’t have any real issues with Serilina anymore, he still didn’t fully trust her. He knew that it wasn’t fair to her, but after Zoz, it was even harder to trust a random Gryalth.
“I can handle Twonger. Honestly he’s not as awful as a person as I expected. I hope Cal is having good luck with his brother as well. They really could be assets to our future.” Ralth smiled as he said this.
“Thanks,” Andy said as he saw Bill approaching with the dogs. Hey guys, are all three of you joining us then?”
“YES! It’s been so long since I’ve seen Cal, and Alfred and Gretel really want to show Ethel their new powers. Oh, and Trashcat, she needs to see just what I can do. Plus, I want to talk to Melissa about Grannus. I think I can help now, too, if she couldn’t.” Bug answered.
“Well, that sounds great. Let’s get going.” To Andy’s astonishment, their return trip, the tear that would return them to their universe, went without a problem. As Bart predicted, the new librarian unit at the reference desk didn’t even notice the dogs, and despite earlier issues, they greeted them as stewards and allowed them all to pass.
“Do you think we will have time for a quick game of D&D while we are back, Andy? Bart didn’t make for a great player, and I miss Cal’s DMing. We need another vacation.” Bug asked Andy once the portal was in sight.
“Probably not right now. I don’t know just how delayed we are yet in getting back, but I’ll push for a small break in the What Is wing once we are back. You dogs certainly deserve it, and I’m willing to bet whatever Cal has gotten himself into planet-hopping will warrant a nice break as well.” Andy scratched Bug behind her ear as he reassured her that downtime would be coming.
“Good.” Bug said before hopping through back home. Andy watched everyone else follow her. He waited a few extra seconds to take a good look around and wondered just how they were going to get the other doors open. Then, he stepped through.
“CAL, CAL, CAL, we’re back!” Bug’s yelling was the first sound that greeted Andy as he entered the situation room. It was empty.
“Huh, are we early?” Bug asked.
“No, there’s a note on the table.” Andy had spotted it almost immediately.
“Yes, and it says they went to fight the frog again without us and would be back shortly,” Bill added.
Andy sat down in his chair and leaned back, planning to spend the time they had before Cal’s return relaxing.