Chapter 29: Finale

Agata walked Horti and Craig to the portal. “Your group left half an hour ago with Jason and the empresses. I asked them to go ahead as I wanted to say farewell before you left.

“Horti, keep in touch. My people established direct communications with your universe. Time is different between our sides and will change even more in the next few months, but the communications AIs will sort out our voices and the time differential. I suggest you ask Colza to screen everyone we send to work with you. Build your intelligence team and make security tight. You have the best of the new Colza equipment and substantial security and intelligence presence, but you must manage and enlarge it. We’ll keep our big AIs and smaller ones away until we decontaminate them.”

Horti nodded. “Should we use some of your intelligence, people?”

“Your young woman, Lisirra, is impressive and has a fine intellect. My people say she is more experienced than many of them. I will send you a team to work under her if you wish but concentrate on using the Empire’s and the Colza’s resources. You can’t be too careful. Assume Zyla infiltrated our people.”

“You must use our scientists; you have no choice. Get them to recheck everything. Screen them again, and don’t give them direct access to construction. Observe them, and when you no longer need them, please send them to the universities in the Empire. If they are not contributing, you don’t need to monitor them. Please send them to consult on other projects. I spoke to the project leaders and warned them as I warned you.”

“Horti, you have a great team; use them, or you will collapse under the strain. You have all the experience you need. You will remember more of what you know as you work. You are capable and know how to get a job done.”

Agata hugged Horti tightly, then hugged Craig.

“Craig, you are a fine young man and will be an excellent partner. Your father tells me you were his original grandson and a competent and outstanding manager. We were unfamiliar with the concept of descent. It is an exciting concept that could have been of considerable to help to us.

“Craig, you also know more than you realize. Your great-grandmother tells me she can help you get your old memories back, but there is a risk they might distract you from your task. That is a decision you must make. I doubt your old memories will help you,” Agata concluded and stepped back.

“What are you going to do about Zyla?” Horti asked.

“I will hunt her down and lock her in suspension! The oracles tell me the future is shifting because more happened than expected when you were here. They can’t yet advise me but assure me they will soon be able to tell me or you what course to follow.”

“What happened between you and Zyla?” Horti asked.

Agata laughed. “At one time, she and I were close. Then she changed, and this nightmare evolved. I will one day tell you the story once this is over and we are safely on the other side. Horti, I am pleased you are here. Sometimes I am so tired I want to step back like Jason’s parents have done. I will have so many spiderlings as grandchildren I will hardly have time to speak with them all!”

“You forget; you will be on the network and able to talk to them,” said Horti.

Agata hugged Horti again. “I missed you so much. I could not feel you until the last few years. I hoped I would see you again, but time went by, and nothing happened. The waiting was agony. The oracles reassured me, but I doubted them. Go well, my sweetheart, and do your best. You can do no more.”

Mother Superior showed Horti and Jason around the administration and conference center when they returned to universe Nasta 9 and the Colza planet Verdoon.

“Reverend Mother, this is an amazing facility. You have done an impressive job. Who will be leading the project on your side?” Jason remarked, then noted telepathically. “Three hundred floors will accommodate a big team.

“Maslav and Horti lead the project. I am in charge of the people here, your resources.”

“Thank you for the tour; I will say goodbye to you and your group,” said Jason. “A secure portal will take you directly to our palace Horti. Please visit often. I will come here every few days to see what assistance we can offer. Our time is currently in sync with Verdoon. Come for dinner this evening. Get settled today but don’t overdo it. Find out what you want us to do to help you. We have considerable resources and a will to help.”

“Thank you for all you have done, Jason. Your suggestions were great. You gave me a superb team of wonderful people. I have a contingency plan I am working on. I want to get magical gates to work across multiverses. The magic is subtly different, so I couldn’t get it to work when I was there. Can you add to our magic team and ask the mini-universe team to select some of their best to work with us?”

“Yes, I will get that done as soon as I get back and schedule them to see you.”

“Thanks, Jason; they know how to do gates across universes and have unique skills we need. I will meet them on Dinnio Prime. I want them to work independently of this team and keep the projects apart.”

Jason nodded. “Your small gate is much more efficient than ours. Our scientists say we should change our portals to work like your gates.”

“My mother is happy to license anything you might want to make. Our scientists will be underutilized in my project. I can get them to help you to manufacture and set up the gates. I have a legal department licensing lots of our stuff to you guys. I will liaise with Philippa and sort it out,” said Horti. “By the time you build some bigger gates, you should have many with the necessary expertise to manufacture the small ones. We use level 3 energy for the gates you build to the other side. We’ll also give you level 2 power designs until you change over.”

“Thank you,” said Jason.

“How have the Vostes adapted to being here?” Jason asked.

“Your Vostes gave them everything they needed to know in a picosecond. We charged them up on arrival, and off they went. Most of the Vostes are exploring the universe. The rest are working with us, telling us they are having a great time. They say while the gates are easy to build, the aiming calculations are a nightmare. Synchronization is another complex problem. They are also checking the mathematics and the calculations used in construction because I am paranoid about sabotage. I can’t believe there are sentient rocks that are also supercomputers. I got a bit of surprise when I told them I was surprised they were rocks and sentient. They told me not to forget that I was a sentient moving rock,” said Horti.