Chapter 37

The old man was eager to try and almost at once I saw him smile. When Loca stood the smile had not left. "There are four books, I think some maps, seven icons and a large device I never saw before. There are also three small portals and what I believe is the device that releases the power."

"Do you think we get put a portal to fix in there?"

"I would like to try."

More people came over and there was already a crowd. The guards held the chain and Loca went back to work to fix the end inside the chest. It took a long time and I heard Loca say, "Look now. I have to hold it in place."

The portal was indeed open. Without thinking, I reached in and took out one thing after another until I got to the power supply but I then stopped. I reluctantly stood without the last article.

Loca got up and said, "Why did you stop?"

"You were using the power to see inside the chest and to hold the portal open. If I removed the device, you may not be able the hold the end of the portal fixed long enough for me to get it out. It could be destroyed then."

Loca nodded and said, "That was a good decision I think."

We went back to the library and put down our plunder. The books I went for first but they were all written in the strange language. Loca had been right and there had been maps. We opened them with reverence and found them in beautiful rich colour. They were not done on paper but on a extremely fine cloth that had to be made of extremely fine silver wire.

Loca went over the map and said, "I have never found a map as beautiful or as meticulousness made as this. I can see some very small details."

In a moment Loca said, "I think these are Church lands or at least some are."

I said, "This looks old, very old. Could it predate the Church?"

Loca was shocked at this but then said, "I guess the Church had to grow. The Church may have been in existence but was not as wide spread as now. There are characters on the map, but again I cannot read them, only the coastline."

The maps were of different regions of Bejek we found. There were even notes on the map in extremely small script.

We had a chance to look at the strange icons. Two were a matched set of ants, another icon was a twisted ladder that got me instantly excited and the last was something that looked like a brain because it was convoluted but I could see that it was not in a Human form.

Supper came and we had lots of visitors to see what we found. Before we left to eat, I used Loca's keys on the chest but none of them opened it. I then used those that had been inside the chest but they were no more successful.

The girls now got into the act and looked through what we had found. The pages of the book were scanned and put into memory as was the maps. Photographs were taken of everything and we tried to read the inscriptions on the icons with our minds. Three looked like icons we had seen before. One of these was an exact copy of the Heart of Opfu. The other four icons were new to us.

Loca came to me later and whispered, "The broken portal looks odd now."

I left to see what had happened. I asked, "What's wrong, Loca?"

"My portal was not only twisted but also broken at a corner. It's now a little straighter."

"How did it happen?"

"I don't know."

"Well, if you did not fix it and I didn't do it then who or what did?"

Loca looked into the frame and saw one of the silver insects that looked much like an ant touching it. He layed the ant on top of the twisted portal. I heard a noise so I got down and looked at the two. "May I look at your frame?"

"Yes, my King."

I removed the insect and got close to the portal and placed the silver ant on the portal. I saw a small spark but did not hear any snap this time."

I said, "Energy jumped between them and made a blue spark." I turned to one of the guards to get a digital camera and I photographed the two on a hard flat surface with some short objects in the picture to compare the size and possible change."

I asked, "What's the ant?"

"I am not sure. There are lots of icons in your chest and I only know a little about each. The ants I thought were devices to heal."

I checked the damaged portal and it looked little different than it did before but I had not been carrying it around for years. Loca pointed out where the damage was before.

I asked, "How did you notice that it straightened?"

"It was laying on a flat surface and I knew how far from the surface the twisted portion was. I grant you that it was not much but it was enough for me to see."

I had to think on this for a while myself. An ant was industrious and built. Could the icons be for repair?

An hour of quiet thinking brought no more answers. My eyes caught the three small frames that looked like mini portals. The opening in them was only twenty centimetres I guessed. These were the smallest portals I had seen so far.

"Are any of the keys to one of these portals?"

The girls had come in to sit with us and help. They were the ones that went through all of the icons until Matra found a ring that worked. Selna gave a gasp though.

"What is it, Selna?"

"Both of the other portals activated."

They were on a wood table and I looked. It was hard to see the difference because the background was similar for all three. I picked up pencil on the table and said, "Hold the portals up for me."

The girls did as I asked and we had to separate to get room. I poked the pencil slowly through one of the portals but it started to come out both of the other ones. I reached over the portal that Caiti was holding and held the pencil that was supported by my other hand. I released the first and pulled the pencil through. I got the pencil back but we also had a warped pencil that had fallen from the other portal. We all just looked at it as if afraid to touch it.

Osston was close and said, "How could this happen? Always there is just one portal keyed to another. To do otherwise would cause chaos. One man goes in and two men come out."

Caiti had turned her portal around and I said, "Hold all the portals horizontally."

The girls did as I asked and I put the straight pencil through again and two fell out. I did the same to each of the portals and each one worked the same.

Caiti handed me her glock 19 and said, "Try this."

I had to think about this. The pencil warped when it was not supported and a bent gun barrel was not very useful. The gun had to go through in a straight line and I guess as long as it was supported it should be ok. Even movement to one side or another never caused problems in a portal.

I put the gun down and called for a string. I tied this to the pencil and lowered it through a portal and it looked fine though doubled. When I pulled the string up only my pencil came back. The other two had disappeared.

After checking the pencil I tied the string to the glock and lowered it through. The two replicas were pulled away and I pulled back on the string. The other guns wanted to come back. I wanted to try something but wanted to get more samples first. I released the string and put another copy through the portal. I continued this until I had eight guns when I had only one before.

The next time I did it the gun went through and only one of the copies had the string cut. When I picked my string up, it was severed and one of the copies disappeared.

There was little talk for the last fifteen minutes. I said, "Where did the material for the steel, plastic and bullets come from?"

Selna said, "I read that energy is matter and matter is energy. The portals have a lot of power in them. Could this come from the energy Osston calls Mossa?"

"It might because the serial numbers on the guns are all the same. Converting all that energy to matter is the same as converting all the matter we found and making it energy. I just can't see how the frames can contain that much energy."

Matra said, "Maybe these three portals have their own power source or are linked to the device in the chest."

"That could be true too but the energy requirements are too enormous to contemplate. There must be someplace that has another portal. Somehow it brings the atoms here and assembles them into the objects required. This still uses a lot of power but not nearly as much as complete conversion of matter."

Osston said, "How do you see this, Master?"

"I feel that the sending portal provides the material for the receiving portal to reconstitute a body, a tool or anything else. In this case there has to be a reserve someplace that gets accessed."

"I have never thought of it like that. You may very well be right, Master."

"Let's see how many glocks we can make."

I tied the eight glocks together and slid them through the portal and sixteen came out. The two copied strings were tied together and this was put through but part way through the portal started to get hot so I waited and then put the rest through slowly.

The heat was mentioned and discussed. A standard portal could transport many tonnes per second and it did not get hot at all.

We stayed at the setup until we had over a thousand glocks. They were only the 19 and nine millimetre so I did a few of the 45 calibre version for me. Ammunition if dropped through a few at a time seemed to work fine. We then poured them through faster and faster and there seemed to be no problem. Caiti ran for her sniper weapon and we put this through with a cord. I was not prepared to put my hand into this device yet without a lot of tests.

Before we went to bed I put one of the recently captured chains through and both units seemed to work just fine.

The equipment was put away though everyone wanted to do one more test. Selna was excited about the possibilities of the triple portal and so was I. It was when Matra took off my shirt and started to remove my shoes that I got back to other matters.

Matra was still a slave though she had lost almost all of her conditioning. She did think of me first though but all the women of Bejek thought of the men first. She reminded me of this even more when she took me into her mouth and swallowed me after only a few strokes.

I looked down at the young woman and saw lust in her eyes but there was even more love. After a minute I pulled her head gently away from me and I laid myself on the bed. Selna put her pussy over my face and settled down to ride me. I could feel what she felt through my link.

Matra went back to sucking and I said mentally, "I want to be in you, Matra."

Matra liked this position and climbed on. Caiti got on the bed and the two women worked on me and on Caiti to make her happy. This was the closest I was going to allow the girl to come to me. I knew for a fact that she wanted what the others got, but even with the looser customs on Bejek I was not going to cater to her wishes. What would happen in four years was not completely settled.

Selna pushed her clit harder at me. I felt her go up and down with Matra's motions. Caiti was somehow shifted out of the equation and ended up beside me. I could feel her hurt at not being included but this had to happen with a small group sometimes.

I worked my tongue harder into Selna as I held her thighs tightly to me as if chaining her to my face. I pictured me pushing up into her swollen womb now but I was short enough to stay away from our child.

When Selna recovered I gave her a kiss and said, "Caiti needs some attention, Honey."

Selna held Caiti and gave her a kiss that turned torrid while I turned Matra over so she was on her back and I drove into her forcefully. In just a few seconds she was calling my name and tossing her head from side to side. When it got close, she held me tightly and she drove her pelvis forcefully into my groin. Her scream was muffled only because I was able to put my mouth over hers.

We rested a moment then we went onto round two after we switched partners.

The next morning I found Caiti's hand around an important part of me but I just removed her fingers and climbed over Selna to get to the floor. All the beds now were close to the ground and were surrounded by sandbags. Silver foil was in the walls.

I felt a little sick for the first time in a while but I held it down. A half hour later the feeling got stronger when Selna awoke. She was the one that was sick and I just felt her discomfort.

When we ate I held Selna close because she still felt nauseated. After breakfast I used the heart on her but she was already very healthy. She just had a growth in her that was upsetting her body.

Selna said, "Why don't you make another one of those things so we could have one."

"Let's do it then."

The portals were already in use but I got to the front of the line and copied the Heart of Opfu. I tested both before I put both of them in a sack and lowered it slowly through the portal. These must be very complicated so I gave whatever process that was replicating these a chance to do it right.

With two I made four then eight and eventually I had a hundred and twenty eight. They were all similar to each other and only had to be charged on the chest. Each of my family would get one and I would have one with me all the time too.

There were so many things to investigate that were in the chest. The power unit topped the list but it was in the chest and would have to stay there at least for a while. Number two was the duplicating portals but they were in constant use now. The third were the ants that did the repair work.

Loca was working with Osston a lot more now that his history and abilities had been revealed. I could see that Loca's third frame looked as good as new and they could not test it very well because we did not have the key. Currently it was being tested with globes to find if its matching gate was on one of the worlds we had globes for.

For two hours I talked to various family members by radio. I heard some stories of close escapes and great accomplishments. I told them about the duplicating and the chest and hoped that the encryption on the American military radios would be up to the task of keeping this secret.

Jonna said, "Why don't you make more of the shells for the mortar. We never have enough and they are so effective."

When the rest of the girls agreed I knew that I had to make some. The trainees were making all sorts of things but for the most part they were weapons.

I sent for a mortar squad and it came thirty minutes later in six trucks. They had two light mortars and two extended range units. They were ok with loaning us a shell.

Two portals were put forty centimetres above the ground and a thick cushions was put under each. I simply dropped one through and two hit the cushions. The trainees handed me a copy while one was put to the side. This way we were getting one new one every three seconds.

When I got tired, the mortar squad were happy to take over for me. They worked even faster than we had. In an hour we had more than 1,200 new shells because we rotated constantly. We switched varieties of shells and made willie pete for another hour. We did not need too many armour piercing rounds but we made some anyway. We went back and duplicated the high explosive frags just because they were so effective and one type had a complicated fuze that did such wonderful things to the enemy.

The crew had grenades and these went through as fast as they could pour them through.

Mantoya came over. He had been in the field most of the time and he was amazed at what was happening. I gave up my turn and said, "What do you think of our duplicating machine?"

He did not answer right away but then said, "How is this possible?"

"We only have theories. One is that there is one or more portals someplace that feed raw materials to these portals and they copy what we put through."

"Could it make copper?"

"Yes, but it goes into our weapons. If the copper someplace runs out, we have no way of replacing it."

"But you could make copper!"

"Mantoya!"

When he looked at me, I said, "Would you rather have a kilo of copper or that same amount of copper in the form of shells? Think now!"

"I could use the shells and still have the copper."

"That's right. You get to reuse the shells a few times too. We should be using this device to make radios, icons and portals and delicate instruments to fight the war and not these crude weapons."

Mantoya seemed to pull himself together and said, "You're right, my King. The war effort comes first but what will you do if you run out of copper for the shells?"

"I thought to run the system in reverse. Perhaps I can put a few tonnes of copper in the other two portals and get one out."

"I don't like to see that much copper disappear."

"Copper is only a metal. The form the copper is in now makes it even more valuable to all of us."

"You're right, my King."

Another mortar crew came by and started to fill up their vehicles with the shells. A larger truck came and the shells were sorted and loaded to fill our own bunkers.

We took apart one of the M252 mortars and we were able to replicate all of it except the baseplate and that was simply because of its size. They were not copper and I did not mind making another hundred of these beauties. We would just have to use mild steel and make up the part we needed.

With the security squad so close I took a shotgun and passed this through to get twenty copies. Then I dropped the drum magazines through three times, then decided to make it an even hundred. One of the squad passed me another drum and said, "We could use the stone too, my King."

I took it from the woman and said, "Anything for you."

She smiled and I got busy putting them through and the squad picked them up and passed them back to me. I must have made a few hundred drums when I heard a boom in the distance and then another larger one that sounded different.

It was the sound of an incoming shell that told me that the Anguy had made it through our lines.

The shell landed outside Shreff and the walls were no protection.

The trucks scattered but not before some of the people grabbed some shotguns and the forty round drums.

There were two students nearby and one was Section M. I said, "Move this to the bunker now. The key was removed and the portals shut down. Within minutes the people in the second shift of my security detail arrived in the first of our homemade APCs.