When the light finally cleared, we found ourselves standing inside a smaller chamber. Not as vast as the cavernous space where we found the altar shaped portal, but a large room that wouldn't look out of place in a laboratory.
It took me a second to realize that it wasn't just a single room, but one partitioned at the middle by a wide transparent screen. At first, I thought it was a glass wall, but the shimmering material appeared to thin but durable, yet it wasn't soft and flexible like plastic.
More importantly, though, on the other side of the glass (let's just go with that for now) wall was the archeological team.
"What's happening to them?" I wondered out loud as I observed the ten adults in khaki shorts and shirts being suspended in midair, their bodies bathed in blue light. There were five men and five women, most of them wearing glasses like me. Three of the men were bearded, though two were cleanshaven. The ladies had either braided their long hair or tied it back into a ponytail, slightly hidden under tanned hats, though one of them had cut her hair short into a boyish bob cut. None of them were moving, their eyes shut. If I had a childhood friend, she would be panicking at the sight of her father in such a state, but reality wasn't so generous to conveniently give me a girlfriend who I had developed a close relationship with since young.
Nope. If I wanted a girlfriend, I would have to work hard to earn one. Not expect a ready-made girl always in love with me since childhood or a backup ready to step into place as my lover if I couldn't find one when I was adult.
"Are they in stasis?" I asked, tilting my head as I studied them.
"Affirmative," Aegis replied. She was back in my hand now, having been ejected from the keyhole after we were transported through the portal and to…wherever this was.
"Stasis?" Lin Xue asked, not having heard Aegis's telepathic voice. She ran forward, hammering her hands against the glass wall. It held firm, not even vibrating under the force. "We've to get them out of there!"
"Please do not worry," Aegis said. "They're not in any danger."
"It doesn't seem they are in any danger," I said out loud, trying to assure a frustrated Lin Xue. "They're just in suspended animation. Calm down and let's have a look around."
"Yes, you're right." Lin Xue sighed and lowered her hands, looking ashamed of herself. "Sorry, my junior. I've made a fool of myself."
"Not at all," I assured her and returned my attention to Aegis. "Is there any way we can free them? You've interfaced directly with…whatever this machine is, right? You said this is a portal? So where did it take us? Where is this place?"
"…" Aegis was silent for a few seconds as she analyzed the situation. I could feel the tiny component that was her representative humming in my hand, a light blinking in the device. "There has been a malfunction in the spatial-temporal portal, and as such the archeological team was sent into a temporarily constructed spatial-temporal medium because the system is unable to recognize them and rejected their entry into the other world on the opposite side of this portal. We would have gone straight to that world, but Commander, your orders were to locate and rescue the archeological team, and hence I took the liberty to transport you and your partner here."
"Thanks, I appreciate it. So how do we free them and bring them back to Earth?"
I decided to put the "other world on the opposite side of this portal" aside for now. The priority was to rescue the archeologists and bring them to safety. Once that objective was accomplished, Pandora…I mean Aegis and I could return to this portal and travel to this other world and explore it.
First things first.
"I've been trying to release them from stasis and transport them for the past twenty-five point eight seconds, but I have encountered several…problems during the process," Aegis admitted. "I apologize, Commander, but I will need your authorization."
"Authorization to do what?"
"The portal has deteriorated after having been installed here over forty thousand years ago. I believe it was left here by a colonizing party and then abandoned shortly after. Without being properly placed in stasis and unable to receive regular maintenance, it went into disrepair and its systems have malfunctioned. I have been trying to transport all of you back to Earth, but the integrated AI has gone rogue and is rejecting my commands. My overrides have failed."
"Okay." I waited patiently for Aegis to get to the point.
"However, we do not have much time left. As a defense mechanism, the portal AI has finally recognized the archeologists as unauthorized intruders and is preparing to eliminate them in the next one hundred and eighty-four seconds. I will not be able to override the portal systems and enact full repairs in time."
"By repairs, you are referring to that nanotechnology you mentioned before? The same one used in my ship?"
"That is correct, Commander. However, nanotechnology is not a miraculous cure-all solution. Even though I can disassemble and assemble the entire portal from scratch, if necessary, it will still consume a significant amount of time."
"More than the three minutes that the portal will take to kill the archeological team." I clenched my fists. "So what are you suggesting?"
"I propose that you authorize a forced reboot and emergency ejection protocols. However, that means dividing you into two different groups because you and the archeological team are located in two separate spatial dimensions right now. The malfunctions mean that I will not have control over the destination for one of the groups."
"That's totally fine." I nodded. "Permission granted. Prioritize the safety of the archeological team and send them back to Earth. Lin Xue and I can take care of ourselves."
I didn't bother to ask my senior for her opinion. Even though I had only known her for a few months, I had gotten familiar to the point where I knew she would have made the same decision. She was a selfless and serious girl who would put others before herself. That was why she joined Sprue in the first place. She was the typical heroine who truly believed in justice and saving the world.
Maybe that was why I was so drawn to her. We had similar ideals.
While Aegis went to work, I turned to Lin Xue and bowed my head apologetically.
"Sorry, senior. I probably should have discussed this with you first, but it's an emergency, so please forgive me for taking the initiative and making the decision on my own."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"We have less than three minutes left before this system kills the archeological team, so I've authorized Aegis…uh, my device to force an emergency reboot and forcibly eject them before the system can terminate them. Unfortunately, this means we'll be facing some problems. I'm very sorry for making the decision and placing you in danger without consulting you first, but we are pressed for time."
"That's fine. You made the right decision. I would have done the same in your place." Lin Xue snorted and slapped my back so hard I was almost sent sprawling on the floor. She then drew her gun and looked around. "So…what do we have to guard against? Laser grids? Rolling boulders? Crushing walls? Trapdoors with spikes underneath?"
…did she watch too many tomb raiding movies or something? Except the laser grids, which was probably from an old zombie movie in a mansion that was based off a super popular video game franchise.
Not only that, I was actually surprised that she believed me unquestioningly.
"I might sound stupid for saying this, but I didn't think you would believe me so easily. I thought I would have to persuade you more."
"Oh, I know you're not the type to lie about something like this. You keep plenty of secrets. And I'm pretty sure you got all that information from that mysterious device in your hand." Lin Xue nodded toward the piece of Aegis. "I recognize that device. It's a component from that huge floating shield thing you used to kill that alien creature when we met for the first time."
Wow…her observational skills were sharp and amazing.
"Most of us Sprue agents have secrets that we hold close to our chests. You're not the only one who's hiding things from others. We've learned not to pry, as long as you don't do anything to harm other people or threaten the country. So if you say you have no choice but to do something before they're killed in three minutes, then I'll believe you."
"Thank you."
"But you mentioned that now we'll be the ones bearing the brunt of whatever weaponry the portal system planned to throw at the archeological team? Do you know what defensive mechanisms they have in place?" She charged her gun with lightning.
"Huh? No, that's not what we have to worry about. We won't be attacked. But when I said I placed you in danger, I meant…"
"Forced reboot completed. Emergency ejection protocols enacted." Aegis's voice interrupted me before I could finish my sentence. The blue light that kept the archeological team in stasis erupted in a blinding flash, the ten archeologists' forms disappearing into blurs as they were launched out of the room, somehow passing through the sterile ceiling and vanishing.
"Seems like it worked," Lin Xue said, intuitively understanding what had just happened. I nodded.
"Be prepared. We're about to be teleported into another world."
"HUH?!" Lin Xue almost dropped her gun as she whirled around to bellow at me. I didn't blame her. She had been expecting tomb raider style traps, and it never occurred to her that she would be taken along on an intergalactic trip to another planet through technological means so advanced it appeared to be magic. Personally, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't acquired Aegis and been teleported aboard the bridge of a void-capable cruiser either. "What do you mean, another world?!"
"Once again, I apologize, Commander. Due to the malfunction, I am unable to override the destination that this next teleportation sequence is locked into, nor am I able to halt its process."
"That's fine. We'll manage."
"What's fine!? What do you mean, we'll manage?! And answer my question! What's this about another world?!"
There was no time to explain. Aegis's override had completed, and the two of us were enveloped in another white flash of illumination before we were physically transported out of the interdimensional medium and toward an unknown territory.