March 28,
1374
Tully says, "Yes."
He heads down to the parking lot and expands the Jupiter.
"All aboard!" he says. "Robot, let's get you charged up."
"AFFIRMATIVE," replies the robot, as he goes over to his docking station and plugs himself in.
Once everyone is aboard, he raises the ramp and says, "Let's go."
But when he activates the antigrav drive, nothing happens.
"Robot, do you know what is wrong with the antigrav drive?" Tully asks.
The robot is downstairs getting a recharge.
You fetch him up.
The great clanking machine looks at the readouts.
"DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE."
"Maybe there isn't any real
gravity here." Tully runs through a series of diagnostics to see if he
can determine the issue. "Zanax and Darian, can you keep a watch
outside in case we are drawing attention?"
The Jupiter 2 is parked in the parking lot of the Motel Styx, right next to your Pinto.
It is as Tully suspects. The readouts indicate a gravity wave reading of zero.
"DOES NOT COMPUTE," repeats the robot. "IF THERE IS NO GRAVITY THEN WHY AREN'T WE FLOATING AROUND?"
Tully shrugs. "That is a question
for whoever designed the planes and probably this plane in particular.
Let's get out of here asap."
Once everyone is out, he shrinks the Jupiter down loads up in the Pinto and drives on out.
"Let's get to the library."
While waiting to pull out into
the traffic, he says to the demon girl, "Do you know another way to fly
up there? Does this plane have any vessels we can buy or take to get up
there?"
The demonette is sitting on Lo's lap.
"There are flying devices, yes," she says.
"Mfft!" says Wang, having been awakened.
"Where can we find them?" Tully asks.
"At Logan Airport."
Tully thinks for a bit. "Cars.
That means that we are talking about planes, right? Does your plane
have jet or propelled planes or both?"
She shrugs.
"I think with some reading, I can
probably fly a plane based on the skills I have picked up. Let's hit
the library. Oh, would anyone know of other portals out of this plane?"
She shrugs.
"They're out there," she replies.
"One last question...do you have a name?"
"Linda Lovelace," she answers with a smile.
Zanax climbs out of the Pinto and tries to use his psionic ability to levitate.
He rises up.
"Zanax, let's try using a spell. I don't want to advertise your psionics around here."
"If we can find someplace for me
to relearn my spells, I could cast 3 fly spells. And I have a
scroll with five levitate spells on it. Between those two spells, I
believe we can have enough people flying that can tow those who are
levitated. It's just a question of how quickly both of those
spells expire versus how long it will take to travel to the gate."
Tully says, "Will the magic last long enough to go miles upward? How many miles, Linda Lovelace?"
"I don't know," she replies. "It's that big head up in the sky."
Zanax looks upwards for the big head in the sky.
Up there is the glowering, disembodied visage of a red-haired clown.
"THAT'S THE PORTAL?" Lo almost screams to the demonic woman.
She nods.
"Scary, isn't it?"
"Hells, yeah!" Lo and Wang shiver.
The rest of you climb back out of the Pinto.
Tully expands the Jupiter 2 again.
Tully says, "How do you get through it?"
"I don't know," she replies. "I've never tried."
You go back aboard and Tully uses the instruments on the Jupiter to get an idea of the distance.
The sensors indicate that it is 86 miles up.
"Tully, does the ship have a tractor beam?" Lo asks.
"NEGATIVE," replies the robot.
"I could teleport us up there," suggests Vardui. "It would be a little risky, but then that adds to the fun."
Next
day...