As he stepped out of the pavilion tent, Serenity blinked in disbelief. The area had transformed in the small amount of time he’d spent talking. The original six tents were still there, but there were at least three times as many now; on top of that, there were a dozen vehicles parked to one side and they’d somehow managed to put up a fence around the area. He’d only been in there for a couple of hours; it was an impressive change.

Serenity had to look around for the pickup Doyle was using; it was technically Missy’s, but she’d chosen to stay in the Settlement and send Doyle outside. After what she’d been through, Serenity didn’t think he’d have made the same choice, but then again he’d never been one to stay home when there were things to do elsewhere.

Once he found the pickup, Serenity could understand Doyle’s complaint. It was all in standard brown shipping boxes, but two of them were fairly large. Nothing that wouldn’t have fit in a car’s trunk, but all together it was more than he wanted to carry in a single load without a dolly.

The weight was unlikely to be a problem; it was simply so large as to be unwieldy. It was going to take several trips to get it all into the cave unless he unpacked it first. Given what he assumed would happen to it, Serenity would prefer if no one ever knew exactly what was in the boxes.

“Need some help getting it down there?” Doyle lowered the tailgate and started pulling the boxes onto it.

“To the top of the entrance could help. I’ll have to carry them down.” Serenity picked up a box. It was lighter than he’d expected; he wondered what was in it. Some sort of antenna, maybe? That would make sense for trying to detect things.

“How will you get them down? I know there isn’t a big opening yet.” Doyle followed behind Serenity with a box of his own.

Serenity shook his head. “Dr. Mattingly says she wants to avoid opening a hole, so they’re going to start searching for a cave route soon. If they don’t find one, she’s looking for options. I think she’s even planning to cover the hole that’s already there if she can. Something about a pristine work environment.”

He still couldn’t believe that she was insisting on that. It wasn’t like any of the other portals would be pristine.

“As for how I’ll get down there, well, you’ll see. I’m not planning to hide it.” At least, not from Doyle. There probably wasn’t a good way to hide it from anyone else, though his story was going to be “traveling through the shadows” if he had the choice.

---

Serenity was finishing his fourth (and last) trip into the cave with his new belongings when shifting back to human form to set them down also revealed that his phone was ringing.

It was a number that was in his caller ID, but he had no idea why she would be calling. “Janice?”

“Thomas! It’s good to hear your voice.” Janice’s voice was full of cheer, almost bubbly. She was usually happy, but this seemed almost forced. “I heard you’re looking for an assistant?”

“Yeah, someone to do basically what you do for your father. Probably a bit more dealing with the media and a bit less troubleshooting, but everyone keeps telling me I need someone. Do you have someone in mind?” Why hadn’t he thought to reach out to Janice? “How’d you hear about it, anyway?”

“Your Rissa reached out to Karen, and she asked me if I knew how to find someone. I think I have the perfect candidate.” Janice paused.

Serenity knew she did that sometimes to build tension or something; it was one of her few annoying habits. He’d have to ask. “Who?”

“Me.”

If he’d had a phone to stare at in shock, Serenity would have. “But - your father -”

“Is perfectly capable of managing with his current team. I’ve been training them for years; they know what to do. John can even manage Dad’s schedule without me around; he’s been doing it for two months now. I was already starting to look for a new challenge. I think this is it.” Janice sounded positively eager.

“Not only is this starting on the ground floor of something completely different, you’re going to be vital to the defense of not just the country but the world! And this way I can bug you if I have any odd questions about the way things work, too.” Janice took a deep breath. “I’ve been reading An Earthling’s Guide to the Larger Universe as the new editions are scanned and put online, and I can tell you wrote most of it. I’m pretty sure the Healing Magic section wasn’t, though. It didn’t read like you.”

“Blaze wrote that bit, I can’t heal worth beans. Wait. It’s available online? Good, I was trying to figure out how to get more people to see it.”

Janice’s initial response was laughter.

Laughter that lasted for over a minute.

“Oh. My. You have no idea. Here I was going to compliment you on your information release strategy and - hahahaha - you have no idea!” Janice sounded like she was gasping for breath as she tried to talk instead of laugh.

Serenity hated missing things, and it sounded like he’d missed something big. There was an edge to his voice when he replied, “No, clearly I don’t. What are you talking about?”

There was still laughter in Janice’s voice, but at least it was clearer. “All of the major news outlets are publishing either the full text or a summary of changes every time they get their hands on a new version. There are also articles comparing what’s in them to what’s going on, and trying to predict what we’ll see next. Every time one comes out with updates, it dominates the narrative.”

“That’s good, then.” At least it meant that people could find out about the text. A list of changes also sounded like a good idea, though if people were getting it from the news, he probably didn’t need to compile one himself.

Janice seemed to have gotten her laughter under control, but she chuckled anyway. “It’s just shy of amazing, especially without a plan. Sounds like you need someone for that, too.” She took a deep breath, then her voice changed from laughing to formal. “If you’re agreeable, I can start next week. I do have a little transitional training to do at Bright Futures.”

“I am, but - we haven’t discussed pay.” Janice tended to run over the top of people if they didn’t stand up to her. That was one of the reasons she was so good at doing what she did, but it also meant you had to keep an eye out for surprises. Serenity didn’t want to sign up for something he couldn’t afford when he still didn’t know what his income was going to be.

“I’ll take my pay in dollars, Etherium, or training. Possibly protection for my family if that’s needed. Might go for some commission work, too; you can get some nice commissions for agreeing to speak, and you’re enough of a draw they’ll do it for ratings.” Janice’s voice was more serious than Serenity had heard it since the last time they’d worked through an emergency together. “I’ll work up a contract and send it to you. If you can afford the market rate, that’s great, but the money means less to me than the chance for safety for my family.”

Serenity wasn’t certain he wanted to profit from a mother’s fear, and yet she wasn’t wrong. If that was what she wanted as pay for her time, he’d be happy to protect her family. Whichever members were willing to be protected, at least; he doubted her father would be willing to leave New York City easily. Not as long as Bright Futures still had a chance. He was an idealist and strongly believed in his company.

---

Now that all of the boxes were in the cave, Serenity made certain they were out of range of the light and phone camera, then shifted to his chimera form. It was nice to not have to carry a knife to open boxes; claws worked well.

The contents of the boxes ranged from individual microchips or circuit cards in antistatic packaging to an entire large antenna. There was even the type of dish he usually saw for satellite TV. Serenity wasn’t certain what to do with any of it; his options seemed to be either to touch it and see what happened or check back in with Aide.

Well, there was also the option to try out his Technology affinity, but the point wasn’t to interface with the technology; it was to do something to find a portal. He wasn’t sure where to begin, so that really wasn’t an option worth pursuing.

With the two remaining choices, it was easy to see which one he should try first. It was Aide’s plan, after all.

Required upgrades: Limited functionality available for abstract computing mode. Options will be determined after signal booster options.

Recommended upgrade: Signal booster for low-signal areas. Options located; locking down plans based on circumstances available. Immediate solution not confirmed.

Optional upgrades: Initial items obtained; item absorption required. Remaining items currently being shipped; estimate 2-3 days.

Request: ___________

Aide Status/Request: Index Compare Complete.

Results: Excess ‘void’ material gathered remains in a condensed form. No apparent concerns. All errors resolved.

‘Item absorption’ had to be what happened to his phone. It was as he’d expected, then; Aide was trying to expand his (its?) capabilities.

There was always that concern about mad AIs from science fiction, but Serenity didn’t see any reason to consider them any more dangerous or likely to be mad than any other nonhuman. For that matter, Serenity himself wasn’t human, and it wasn’t like dragons had the best of reputations in literature either. So far, Aide had seemed helpful; he’d simply need to trust that helping Aide would let Aide help him.

The concerning thing was the note at the bottom. Condensed Void? He’d forgotten about that until he saw the note again.

Request: What do you mean by ‘excess void material’? Where is it?

Serenity remembered he’d done a quick pulse to check for forgotten injuries without finding any, but he hadn’t done a deeper examination of himself. Maybe he should have?

Was it related to the ‘overstuffed’ feeling he’d had in Void Sovereign form? Some time after the fight with the rockfin, it’d gone away; he didn’t remember exactly when. The last time he remembered noticing it was when he found the portal and immediately shifted form. It was possible he’d simply missed it during the fight, but he probably would have noticed after that if it were still there.

Aide Status/Request: Material structure beyond ‘compressed void’ unknown; material composition of ‘void’ cannot be analyzed with available equipment. Determined to be low priority due to apparent match to material forming ‘Void Sovereign’.

Current location: Abdomen, adjacent to central crystal

Raise priority level? Additional equipment will be required.

No, Aide didn’t need to look into it. Serenity would when he had a chance; tonight after dinner would be a good time. He hoped Aide would remind him if he forgot.

Reminder set; alarm will trigger at 8 PM.

Serenity laughed.

His invisible AI assistant was setting phone alarms in his head. This was either hilarious or he was going crazy. Serenity picked ‘hilarious’.

He supposed he’d better get started on the electronics if he wanted to get anything done before dinner time. There wasn’t that much time left before then, and he wasn’t certain how long it would take. Perhaps he’d have a better idea after he finished this.