IC: Time to Visit other worlds (Alternity Dark Matter)

[CateranEnforcer]

Aleksandr breathes a sigh of relief. "That will be fine. Thank you for your help." He still was a bit suspicious of these prople, but he pushed it aside. This was not Moscow, after all.

[farothel]

An hour after lunch, all of you (including the rescued men) are piled into two pick-up trucks. Aina isn't going, but she has instructed the leader of the team. All the men are given gas masks. It's not because you're going away that they are going to take chances. It takes you about 45 minutes to reach the spot where they first found you. As soon as you are out, the women wave and move off, going further into the ruins.

"So," one of the rescued men said, his voice distorted by the gasmask, "any of you guys know a good spot around here where we won't be overseen, so we can call the machines and get out of here?"

[DataNinja]

"Best to move on from here," Cynthia says, keeping her voice low. "Off the road at least. We don't want them poking around here in case they're still watching us. The MALP's nearby, and we don't want that found if we can help it. We should go a little further on. Don't know anywhere specifically, though, this is where we came in."

She picks a direction that looks like there's some terrain that can at least obscure them from view if they get around it, before beginning to walk.

[farothel]

It's not difficult to find a secluded spot in the ruins that should be large enough for six of the machines.

[DataNinja]

"Alright, well," Cynthia says, calling the machines. "It's been fun. But I'll be glad to be back home." Hopefully they didn't interfere too much over here...

[rogue_alchemist]

Leo follows Cynthia off to find a secluded spot in the ruins, shocked that leaving has gone so smooth. He tries to mentally run through everything to make sure he can give an accurate report of what happened and to make sure they didn't affect the world too much. He knew they had introduced forgotten technologies that may not have been rediscovered for many years, but hopefully giving it a push toward something that would happen anyways wouldn't be too bad. Leo is ready to return to get back to the world he knows.

[farothel]

You call the machines and they appear without problem. Each of you get in their machine and soon you appear in what looks like a large cave. After a blinding flash, the cave looks smaller and you recognise the lead maze you started in. As soon as the LED on the machine turns green to indicate the transfer is complete, a group of people in HAZMAT suits show up and guide you to a set of rooms that look very newly build. Inside there are decontamination showers and some beds as well as food.

One of the people in HAZMAT suits, a doctor, confers with Leo on what he knows about the virus and they decide that you should stay there for another three days, with blood drawn every day for testing. In the meantime you can work on your after action reports. Any requests you have for things like exercise equipment or other things will be taken care of if possible. But you will have to stay underground for three days.

After those three days, everybody is still negative for any strange viruses, so you are allowed back to the surface. There you confer with the site director Nishawa and Sarah Jacobs.
"I've already read your reports," Nishawa said, "do you still have any remarks or things you wish to discuss?"

[DataNinja]

Cynthia does her best to enjoy the peace and quiet after the stress and hectic-ness of the last few days, figuring out how to deal with everything. So, she just asks for some books to pass the time, to get through a pile of fiction she really hasn't had time to get to. By the end of the three days she's getting a little antsy, but... that's the end, thankfully.

---

"Nothing much to comment on, besides that we got extremely lucky in some cases. But they were all unavoidable hazards, stemming from our lack of knowledge of the area or culture, and absence of the ability to create a believable cover story. I worry about something like that happening again, and more and more agents just blundering in. Can't see any way that'd much be mitigated, though."

[CateranEnforcer]

Aleksandr breathes a sigh of relief when the machines arrive to take him home. Honestly, he was surprised to have made it back so easily. Maybe he was too untrusting. He gladly takes the chance to exercise for his three days and think about what they'd found. Not much really, other than a dire possible future.

"The only thing I think worthy of comment is that the locals proved to me much more trustworthy than I had thought. Perhaps Aina hopes to benefit from future interactions, but they were under no obligation to accommodate us. I think the Institute has a potential ally in her."

[rogue_alchemist]

Leo is pensive as ever, sorting through all that happened. He is glad that the machines take them back without incident and glad to see the quarantine protocols he had helped laid out utilized so well. While he is in isolation, he has them send him electronic copies of all the bloodwork and tests they do, to keep another set of eyes on it. He doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, so he happily comes out of isolation at the end of it.

When meeting with Nishawa and Sarah Jacobs, his only comment is: "I wrote up everything I could. They have made many adaptations to their climate, though I wonder if it is possible that the threat is gone and we could free them to explore their world more. They seem strongly motivated by an offer of renewed technology that they lost, so it could be a bargaining chip to get more information out of them." He shrugs and looks lost in deep thought for a bit before shaking his head and returning to focus to the here and now with another shrug and shake of his head to indicate he is done.

[farothel]

"Cover stories are indeed tricky sometimes," Sarah agrees with you, "and there is little we can do about it as we don't know what we get into.
One of the tangents we send a MALP into was still stuck in stone age technology for instance. Difficult getting a cover story there, if you could communicate with the inhabitants in the first place. That will always be a bit of an improvisation on the spot."

"At the moment we're trying to figure things out," the director continues, "and that will mean that there might be changes in policy later on. So far the idea has been to investigate but we're not into long term partnerships with inhabitants of those tangents. Maybe we should revise that policy, but that's something for the board to decide. If we do, this can be a starting point. All in all, I think it was a very good first mission for you. You accomplished your objectives, you made good contact with the natives so we can go back there if we want. So here's my question: do you want to continue as part of this group, exploring more tangents?"

[DataNinja]

"Well, I suppose lack of initial communication ability is where I come in," Cynthia says. "The training makes more sense now," she adds, wryly. "Does put a bit more pressure on there, though."

"While there was a bit of shock at first, and trying to acclimatise to something we'd learned about not long before... I'd do this again, with this team, yes," she says, nodding. "It feels meaningful. We're setting eyes on things that nobody has ever before seen. Can't get much more exciting than that."

[farothel]

"Let's hope it doesn't get too exiting," the director said, "but from what I've seen in your reports, you did good. We have guidelines, but they're just that, guidelines. Each tangent will be different and while we do recon, we can't recon everything."

[DataNinja]

"Yes, I'll appreciate medium-exciting at best," Cynthia agrees. "I can hope for much more routine excursions the next time we venture out. From what people have experienced so far, was this a typical experience, or one out of the ordinary?"

[rogue_alchemist]

Leo considers for a moment at the director's question, "I think we should continue our work. This team works well together, and we should only get better as we continue. A little more medical data would be nice to prevent us walking into a potential death trap like with the virus in this timeline, but we can't test for everything. I'm in for more."

[farothel]

"Quite a lot are easier," the director allows, "that is because most of the tangents are empty, at least of people and big animals. You will see enough of those in the future. As to medical testing, we can see if we can add some antibody test kits to the MALP. It won't help for all viruses of course, but it can help some. Those pathogens that require full PCR tests will only be possible in the lab, so that's a no for now. And we'll be refining our quarantine procedures. Well, unless you have any other questions, take the rest of the day off and we'll see you again tomorrow morning?"

[CateranEnforcer]

"There's no such thing as a routine mission when you are on the frontier. I must admit, this was not what I had expected at all. It is frightening to think that world could become ours. Here I was imagining something like a space walk on some foreign planet like a school boy. I have no questions, but I am eager to continue to travel to the world's. How could I not?"