Chapter 3: Friends

John awoke a few hours later with Jennifer shaking his shoulder. After he opened his eyes she said, "Jason is looking for you, he is in the living room."

"Thanks," John said. Then he got up and went to the house. He found Jason sitting in the living room waiting for him.

"What's up?" John asked.

"I thought you should know according to my contacts the investigation into the events in Nevada is at a dead end. Apparently like you thought they know nothing about what was actually going on in the lab."

"Interesting, if that is the case we could start over from where they left off. I bet you that was my parents plan from the beginning; they wanted me to take over with their projects after they were gone."

"I believe most parents would want that. So what are your plans for the future then?"

"We will continue their research, but we need to find a cover for you guys. Eventually someone is going to see one or all of you and we need to formulate a response."

Jason said to John as he was looking at the dog sitting in the doorway, "What is your dogs name anyway?"

"His name is Jake."

"Do you ever get the feeling he understands what we are saying?"

"Just lately he seems to be more attentive and appears to pay more attention. I think he somehow knows my parents are gone."

After the twins settled down, they started on learning the ins and outs of portal creation. With the help of the computer they were able to learn at an advanced rate, and it was only two months later they had the basics of portal theory down.

"You know John, this portal generator can be used as the ultimate weapon," Jennifer said while we were working one day.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Think about it, you could use this device once it's refined to do so many things. You could easily kill someone with it just by placing the portal in them, you can steal anything anywhere, and you could monitor communications anywhere someone was talking. Now do you remember the laser project the computer mentioned, but said it lacked range due to it overheating?"

"Yes I remember that, it's good for fifty feet or so but that's it. They were going to introduce it as a cutting tool not a weapon."

"Yes that would be a good use, but I had an idea. What would happen if we shot the laser through a portal? What if we used the small portal generator set it to one-way, and then mounted them both on a weapon. You get where I'm going with this?"

"You could have a laser riffle with a range of miles; even the small portal generator would easily go twenty miles with the U42 reactor. You would just need a small camera and a viewfinder to target something through the portal, then fire. We could even add a small portal generator to one of Jason's XM-19s and test it."

Jennifer smiled as John went up to talk to Jason. He found him in the media room using the observatory interface. He was watching the local town for problems.

"Jason how would you like a few modifications to your XM-19?"

"What kind of modifications?"

"What if I could increase your range and accuracy by over 500%, maybe even more, interested?"

"I guess I shouldn't ask how that would be possible, should I?"

"Not yet"

So Jason broke down his rifle and gave it to John and he took off back to the cave.

They worked on modifying the rifle for the rest of the day; they replaced the scope with a small video display connected to a camera just above the portal generator. The idea was that once the portal was created and the gun was aimed through the portal via the camera, that it could then be fired. It took them a week of tinkering to get everything on to the rifle in the proper place and then aligned right.

Jason was impressed with the testing of the rifle. He had modifications he would like and John made plans for the next design. He still didn't understand how it worked but he liked it. He especially liked the fact that he could now shoot through something and hit targets behind it. The testing went on until everyone was happy, then they set about constructing the first full model. Before they could build it they needed more U42 reactors, and for that, they needed more of the material gained through the portal. The one in the lab didn't have enough power to open a portal to the correct location to get the material, so they had to improvise.

They managed to chain four of the reactors together to get the power they needed. This would be enough to open the portal to the correct location but only a very small portal for a very short time, but that's all they needed. They set everything up in the lab and prepared the containment unit for the material, and then they opened the portal.

Meanwhile on mining asteroid 0045178 Alondra and her friends waited patiently in their containment unit.

"Look, a portal!" shouted Alondra.

"Let's move! Hurry!" Jeni yelled as they all moved towards freedom.

Back at the lab, the containment unit was full and John had just about to shut the portal down when he heard something.

"Did you hear that?" John said looking around the room.

"Yes it sounded like someone yelling, I thought someone was saying hurry. But I can't see how that was possible, unless it came over the radio. There is no way we could have heard anything through our ear protection," Trish said.

Just then, as they were talking they heard it again, this time it was, "We're free." They had what they needed so John shut the portal down and they removed their protective gear.

"I take it you all heard the last part to?" John asked.

"John I have a bad feeling about this," Trish said.

Just then they all heard in their heads, <Do not be alarmed we will not harm you; we have gained our freedom once again because of you. We owe you our lives.>

They all stood there looking at each other, remembering what happened in Nevada and getting a bit worried.

"Who are you and why are you here, do you have anything to do with what happened when the portal was opened last time?" John asked looking around the room.

<My name in Alondra, my three friends, and I were being held prisoner. A group of evil beings stole our bodies and locked our essence in a containment cell. They then sold our bodies as hosts to others. The portal you created was siphoning the matter in the cell that keeps us alive. We saw this before but didn't understand that it was a doorway; however, the keepers of the prison figured it out. When the doorway was big enough they sent something through to try and destroy you or that is what we believe. They may have also been trying to find where the portal went.>