Into the Thick of it

Location- Earth 0

Date and time - 15 March 2318 10:00 AM

Diana spent all day reading the book and making preparation to leave for the adventure of her life.

She was excited to go and nothing was gonna stop her.

It was for the first time in so many years that she felt like going exploring again and she was going to go.

What she didn't know was there was a trap waiting for her in the other world. They were waiting for her to come over.

All these years she was safe because she was not on their planet but on hers. Igon had done a wonderful job of making sure to keep her away from harm as long as she was not on that planet. What Igon didn't know was that their paths are gonna cross soon.

Diana has made all the preparations to leave and was in the basement at the moment setting up the portal device.

There were many planets in the multi-dimension where the people inhibiting it called it Earth so for the ease of understanding Diana's father had made a chart of all Earth's with their Earth as Origin point 0 and from there the other Earths go on to be Earth 1, Earth 2 and so on...

The language spoken on different planets is different just like it is on Earth itself. So to be able to communicate with ease on these other planets Her Father had made a device that was installed in the remote of the portal device.

The remote of the portal device was made in a watch for ease of carrying with them and not to lose it easily. It was a very simple designed watch so as to not catch the eye of the unwanted gaze. But only the one who knows how to use it and has a password can access the remote and universal translator.

The portal worked by creating a wormhole that joins any two points in the whole multi-verse for a period of time and you can travel through it.

All the issues of its instability and not being able to maintain its state for long enough to travel through were solved by her father when he made it.

The device uses two sets of coordinates, one for the location of the planet in the universe and another set is for the location on that planet on where you want to go. Her father while exploring had recorded all the co-ordinate sets in the book that he left for her.

"Pixel checks the status of the remote for portal added into your system," Diana told Pixel. As a back for if she ever lost the watch, Diana has installed the remote and translator into Pixel herself and made a special earpiece that Diana can use for translation purposes as well as to operate the remote.

Diana had also made a new set of instructions in Pixels code for in case of emergency while adventuring on a foreign planet and made sure to add all the coordinates recorded by her father as well.

It took her all week to prepare all of this. Of course, she took leave from work and her research for the next 3 months.

"Here, give this letter to Omer for me aunt," Diana said handing the letter to her aunt to give to Omer. She had not forgotten that she was supposed to go with him to his cousin's wedding but now, she won't be able to make it, because she had to go meet her father. She hoped he would understand.

She had tried to explain herself in the letter as much as she can without giving in all the details and the truth.

"I will give it to him. You make sure to take care of yourself and if anything happens where you can be in danger do follow the delta protocols" Aunt May reminded Diana.

"I will Aunt May, You take care of yourself while I am away," Diana said as she hugged her aunt once.

The letter just told Omer that she had found about her missing father's whereabouts and she is going to meet him and most probably to bring him back and that's why she won't be able to join him for the wedding as his plus one.

Diana felt sad that she is missing an opportunity to be with a guy she had a crush on but priorities matter and the one for her right now is her father.

"System new protocol check completed,

System new Device install status check done,

"Reporting, everything is normal and working fine, no bug detected." Pixel said after she was done checking for everything.

"That's good," Diana said as she entered the coordinates which would lead her to meet her father.

Then she entered the password and before activating the device she hugged her aunt one last time.

Aunt May knew there is no stopping Diana from going to see her father and so as her aunt, she hoped that Diana would come back safe and that's all that mattered to her.

Diana activated the device and it buzzed to life, you could hear the hum of the machine as it created a swirling portal to another planet.

If only Diana had chosen some other day to travel, maybe she could have avoided the trap set up for her. But she was so determined to meet her father that even this trap will not be able to hold her back.

Diana along with Pixel entered the portal to travel through.

As they entered it was all black for a moment as if they were in a sensory deprivation tank and then they saw some light at the end of the tunnel and when they followed it they entered a room.

The room was lit up with fluorescent light and had a gloomy feel to it.

Diana turned on her universal translator as she took a step forward, looking around.

Her father had told her in the book that she will be meeting a man here, who will provide her with the necessary papers and fake identity to show as if she belonged to this world. All she had to do when she reached the specified coordinates was, to walk up to the door of the room and ...

"Cobalt Pompeii 79 Uluburun 14" and knock on door 3 times.

And so Diana did.

"Coming..." came the sound of an old guy from the other room as he seemed to have a little bit of a tough time making his way through the other room to reach the door of her room.

Diana could hear jingling keys and grunts and metal clanking. Next, the door groaned at the hinges as it was pushed open from the other room.

"Hello there lassie, I have been waiting for your arrival for years now..." Said a man well in his fifties as he looked at Diana with a gleeful smile on his face, He had a leather made aviator hat with matching goggles as if he was into steampunk. He had a bulky build and had a very tall height. His face was covered in a very bushy and unkept beard that came till his chest.