When my sight recovered, I saw that we were in a forest. Instead of the ancient interior of the ruins in the Gobi Desert or the gray sterile laboratory like environment in the interspatial medium, the new surroundings were filled with tall trees that stretched toward the sky like skyscrapers. The dense canopy only allowed slivers of moonlight within, but I could make out a beautiful, clear sky through the crisscrossing branches.
Wherever we were, it was already night.
The trees looked like coniferous trees usually found on mountain slopes, and huge leaves fluttered downward, littering the soil. Tall grass grew to my knees when I stood up, filled with a rich variety of botanical species ranging from flowers to mushrooms.
"Where exactly are we?" I muttered, shaking my head groggily as I struggled to assess the situation. "Are we in the Altai montane forest? Or He Lan Shan? Heng Duan Mountains? Qi Lian Mountains? Qiong Lai Min Shan? Tian Shan?"
I couldn't see any mountains in the distance, though that could be because my sight was severely limited by the trees.
"Scanning environment…analyzing atmospheric content, local gravity levels, organic lifeforms and soil composition…" Aegis suddenly activated in my hand and spoke up, the device humming with a blue light. "Commander, we are currently on a planet named Carmarthen. The malfunction of the spatial-temporal portal has sent us to another world."
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow and glanced at my surroundings once more. the trees didn't look drastically different from those grown on Earth. They didn't look alien or strange. If Aegis was telling the truth and this was really another planet, then it looked as if someone had transplanted a large chunk of Earth's biome into this world.
Right, the Holy Terran Empire was a hi-tech civilization. Terraforming entire planets wouldn't be out of the question…
"Senior, are you all right?"
Deciding not to think about the similarities between the plant life here and Earth's too much, I focused on checking on the rest. Lin Xue was leaning against a tree, her eyes closed. She groaned and stirred when I knelt beside her and shook her shoulder, but otherwise remained unconscious. I sighed and left her to rest, returning my attention to Aegis.
"Is there a way back home? To Earth, I mean. It doesn't seem like the portal is around here."
"Yes," Aegis replied telepathically. "Fortunately, this planet isn't too far away from Earth. I have already successfully linked up with the Crusader, and it is readying for warp travel. I have also reprogramed and activated the nanobots responsible for repairing the spatial-temporal portal. Either way, it will take seventy-two hours before the Crusader arrives in orbit or for the repairs to the portal to be complete."
"In other words, we have to survive on an alien planet for three days." I glanced around. "The good news is that it seems that the plant life here is similar to that found on Earth, so we theoretically should be able to find something to eat. I'm guessing there's also a source of water nearby. You can locate it with your sensors, right, Aegis?"
"Correct. There is a stream several hundred meters north-north-east, twenty-eight degrees relative to your current bearing. And the botanic species here are 99.987% identical to those produced on Earth, so they are edible."
"Excellent. But that also means there will also be similar dangerous predators and such." I was thinking wolves, bears and tigers or similar creatures. I wasn't exactly afraid because I had Aegis and Lin Xue had her lightning gun, but that was no reason to get complacent. "We should also find shelter and set up camp."
"Agreed, Commander."
"Ugh…"
Lin Xue finally woke up with a groan, sitting up and rubbing her head. I continued to kneel next to her, and she looked a little assured before glancing around with a frown.
"Where are we? How did we get transported to a forest?" Then it dawned on her. "Right, you mentioned something about being teleported earlier?"
"Yeah." I nodded. Lin Xue snook her head to clear her mind before she stiffened. I noticed light currents of electricity running through her body, generating a static charge that made my fingers numb.
"The…energy in the environment feels different. The elements in the surroundings are strange. I can't put a finger on why exactly. But it doesn't feel like we are…home. Are we in another country? But I've been overseas before and even then I have never felt such a sense of disorientation. What's going on? This isn't an ordinary forest, is it?"
I sighed and stood up before stretching my hand out to Lin Xue and helping her to her feet. "Welcome to another world."
"Another world?" she repeated incredulously. "You're joking, right?" Then she scowled. "I remember now! You said earlier before we were teleported that we would be transported to another world. But that's just not possible! Also, look around us! These are normal trees! It's not like we're in some alien forest!"
"But you felt some elemental difference, didn't you? You said something about the energies being disorientating. You said that you've never felt anything like this even when you went overseas. So what else can it be?"
Lin Xue glared at me in disbelief before she shook her head.
"Well, I know you're not the type to joke about this. So what do we do now? How do we return to Earth? I assume your little device will be able to unlock another portal to bring us back home?"
She was really sharp. I had expected her to panic, but like the cool beauty she was, she had calmly come to the same conclusion as I did. Wow. She was truly scary in her own way. I was glad she was my senior and not an enemy.
"My device has activated nanotech repairs on the portal and it will take around three days for them to finish. We just need to survive on this alien world until then."
"That's…convenient." Lin Xue crossed her arms and sighed. "But I don't think we have a choice. Let's find a place to set up camp."
Damn, it was almost as if she read my mind. Then again, we were agents of Sprue who had received the same training. Of course we would have developed similar attitudes and solutions toward crises.
"Yeah. By the way, according to my device, this planet is called Carmarthen. There's a stream in that direction, which we can use as a water source. And biological scans indicate that the plant life here is 99% identical to that on Earth, so I'm sure we'll be able to find something edible."
"Carmarthen, huh?" Lin Xue raised an eyebrow. "And who gave this planet that name? The creator of your device?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess."
"Just who exactly created your device?" Lin Xue asked, drilling a stare into Aegis. She turned to me. "I don't want to pry, but now that I've been dragged into this situation with you, I hope you can at least be more forthcoming with the relevant information. Alien invaders, magical devices, and now another world? You don't have to tell me everything, but at least provide the important points so that I can better adapt to the situation."
"Um…" I glanced at Aegis, but she didn't seem to mind.
"I will leave everything to your discretion, Commander. How much you wish to tell your partner, whether you believe her to be trustworthy…you should make your own judgement. I, Aegis, am just a tool. I cannot help you to decide."
I nodded and turned back to Lin Xue. "Apparently, this device – her name is Aegis – is created by an ancient galactic civilization over forty millennia ago. They call themselves the Holy Terran Empire, and a lot of their technological relics have been lost and scattered across the galaxy. Aegis just happens to be on Earth. I'm now in possession of her, but it seems that there are other alien species also trying to acquire these relics. I think the portal was also one such device left behind by either the Empire or another alien species, and as you can see, it opens up an instantaneous pathway to another world."
Lin Xue stared at me as if I was insane. I regretted telling her the truth.
"Well, if you don't believe me, then I can't help it. But that's the truth."
"No, I know you're not lying. But still…sorry, I'm trying to digest all that information. It's a bit overwhelming to be told all of that suddenly, and it's admittedly difficult to believe…I'm trying to decide whether you're insane or if the universe is a much stranger place than I previously believe."
That's true. I could sympathize with her.
"You can process all of it later and ask me more questions when you're comfortable, but for now we should find some shelter to set up camp. Maybe a cave or something. Oh, before that, we should go to the stream and collect some water, or we'll not going to last the next three days."
Contrary to many people's expectations, dehydration was one of the biggest dangers in forests.
"You are right. Lead the way."
Lin Xue nodded, and we were about to move out when Aegis issued a telepathic warning suddenly.
"Commander, please take caution. A massive organism is approaching your location at a high velocity…"
Lin Xue charged her gun, the faint crackling of electricity running through her weapon. She raised it up and aimed into the clearing, having also detected the presence of an enemy.
Hey, at least she wasn't behaving like some damsel in distress who immediately hid behind me and started whining anxiously. She was already ready to fight. In some ways, she was braver than me.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I took a deep breath and activated Aegis. The rest of her body materialized around the portable component, allowing her to manifest fully as the hovering shield that I first found her. A thought occurred to me when I saw that.
"Hey, if you can instantly teleport yourself to wherever I am, no matter how many light years away, then why can't the Crusader just warp into orbit above Carmarthen immediately?"
"The sheer mass of a Templar class cruiser – or any ships, vehicles or equipment massing over a thousand kilograms – makes it impossible for them to be transported using quantum spatial-dimensional translation."
I wasn't going to pretend I understood any of that jargon.
"Okay. So basically, the weight limit for instant teleportation across light years is a ton."
"Correct. It also requires a quantum pair to be on the site of teleportation, such as the core component you had on you."
"Glad I brought you along."
There were more questions I had in mind, but I didn't have time to ask them because the alien creature that burst out pounced on us immediately. I caught a glimpse of thick, shaggy fur and deadly claws the size of axes before I swung Aegis around to parry its slash and throw it off.
Damn, but the thing was heavy!
Oh, right. It really was an alien creature. When I staggered back and studied it from behind Aegis, I saw that it was nothing like any animal that existed on Earth.
No, I was mistaken. There were resemblances to several terrestrial creatures from my home planet, except that they were all hideously meshed together in sickening parody of mythic monsters. A lion's head with a majestic mane, gray scaly skin that appeared to writhe on the surface, bat-like wings that stretched from its back, a serpent-like tail with a scorpion stinger at the end, and raptor claws curving from its paws like sickles.
"A Chimera?" I muttered with a frown. "It looks like some horrific laboratory specimen, a genetic engineering experiment gone horribly wrong."
"You're right. It might not look natural, but it isn't entirely alien either." Lin Xue clearly found the monster revolting, but she swallowed and kept her aim on the Chimera firmly. When it pounced once more, she pulled the trigger and unleashed a blast of electricity that slammed into it. The monster snarled and rolled away, its hide smoking. Lin Xue's eyes widened. "No way! It wasn't even stunned by my lightning gun?! Just what kind of monster is that?!"
"Well, at least it isn't a dragon," I said dryly, and almost regretted my moment of levity when the Chimera turned toward me and lunged forward with deadly grace, its claws engulfing the entirety of my vision as it closed in.