“There’s a hole in the ceiling of the cave; I can see light. I’m sure there’s also a route through the caves, but I can’t tell where it is. I’ll send you the GPS coordinates when I get up above, but I’ll have to get off the phone to get up there.” Serenity stared at the opening to the sky. It was still light out, but Serenity was debating if he should run back to the Settlement. It wasn’t like they’d had a guard on the portal before, but then again they also hadn’t sent a rockfin running away through it before. Things might be different now.

“That’ll work. I don’t have anyone in mind who’s done cave exploration before, but I do know who to send for the equipment setup. The first troops should be getting to you in a couple of hours, but they’ll only be there to get the ball rolling - basically, to watch the area and make sure no one else gets close. They won’t have anything else, not that quickly.” Serenity’s father sighed. “I can’t handle this myself, I have too many balls in the air, so I’ll have a liason call you soon. Who’s handling the - ah yes. Mattingly is chasing the scientists. I’ll have her call you and coordinate everything. She’ll be happy to have something concrete to do.”

Serenity could wait a couple of hours to let Echo and Doyle know he’d be out all night; he didn’t have a problem with doing the run in the dark. He’d miss dinner, but there wasn’t anything to be done about that. Still, he’d want to sleep at some point, and that meant he needed someone else to keep watch on the portal. “Sounds good. Hmm. Can the initial group bring some monitoring equipment? Doesn’t have to be much, maybe even just a phone. We can set up a zoom and use it to monitor the portal from above. Would need a light source, though. I can get the equipment down here, just not people. Not easily at least.”

“Can be done. Stay well, son.” Serenity’s father always said something like that.

Thomas had usually pushed it off, but to Serenity it made sense. “Thanks, Dad. Not sure when I’ll be home, but you and Mom need to stay well, too. And let me know when you find any Sterath!”

Lex Rothmer was laughing as he hung up the phone. It was a good way to end the call.

Serenity made sure he was holding the armor plate and naginata pieces as he shifted to his Void Sovereign form. He needed to send the GPS coordinates of the spot where the opening to the outside was, but once he did that he had a couple of hours. That was enough time to get some actual analysis of the portal done.

Naturally, he was deep in a finicky bit of analysis when his phone rang. Serenity started to reject the call, then remembered he was waiting on “Mattingly” to call. When he actually looked at the number, though, it was Doyle.

Well, that took care of whether or not he’d need to run back to the Settlement.

He answered. “Hey, Doyle. Thought you were in the Settlement.”

“I was, but it’s about time to start dinner. You said you found where the fish’s trail left the dead zone yesterday, so I figured you might get a call. You going to be back for dinner, or should I bring something to you?” Doyle sounded calm and relaxed.

“Dinner’d be good. I found the portal; now I need to babysit it. A rockfin came out of it right after I got here. I scared it back in, but someone has to keep eyes on it.”

That reminded Serenity that he was standing very close to the portal. It was necessary for proper analysis, but it would be better to be farther away while he was on the phone.

Doyle’s voice shifted to concern. “You hurt or need anything else? Need me to come and split the watch?”

Serenity looked at the cave. It was empty other than fallen bits of rock, quite a bit of dirt, and some stuff that’d probably fallen in through the hole that was letting in light. Plus the portal. “Dad’s sending some soldiers, so I’ll have help watching. Some of those pillows might be useful, though. The settlement generates them, right?”

Doyle laughed for a solid minute before he caught his breath enough to answer. Serenity wasn’t sure what was so funny. “Yeah. Echo got to pick one furnishing, and she picked pillows. We can get all sorts of pillows, but only pillows. She said they were the cheapest option. I’ll bring a bunch. Probably stay a while, at least until the soldiers arrive.” Doyle started chuckling again, as if he couldn't help it.

“What’s so funny?” Serenity hated missing jokes; it happened less than it used to, but it was still all too common.

Doyle’s voice still reflected his laughter. “It’s just the way you said that. Dad’s sending soldiers. Do you know how few people can say that, yet you said it like it was an everyday thing?”

Doyle’s sense of humor didn’t make sense. This was just another piece of evidence. “Okay. I guess?”

Doyle chuckled again. “See you after dinner. It’ll take me a bit to load up the pillows, but even with that it shouldn’t be too long. Oh, where are you?”

Serenity laughed at that and sent him the coordinates.

Serenity wasn’t even surprised that the next three calls he answered - the first fifteen minutes after Doyle’s and the others within about ten minutes of the previous one - were all spam calls. He still had to answer them in case they were Mattingly. After the third one, he gave up on trying to research the portal and decided it was a good time to browse the news. He really hadn’t done much of that since he’d gotten back from the Tutorial, after all.

The news was a mix of things, as always. There were battles against invaders happening in a handful of countries, but the competition for which city would host the 2044 Olympics was also in the headlines. Stories about “superpower registration” bills being considered competed with speculation about football games. There was even a controversy about whether or not football players who’d been through the Tutorial should be allowed to play.

That last was an interesting question. Depending on what they’d picked, it might well not be fair if a team had a key player who’d been, but it also wasn’t fair to punish a team or player just because they’d gotten lucky and had someone go early. On the other hand, football wasn’t designed to be played by people with enhanced attributes; they might be better off if they use attribute-suppression bracelets, even if they allowed people to use their Paths.

Serenity hadn’t thought about that particular piece of equipment, but it would probably be very helpful to a lot of people other than the sports leagues. He texted his parents about them; he didn’t know how to make them, but he knew it was possible.

He texted Russ to ask if Katya knew how. He didn’t expect that she would, but there was a chance. While he was thinking of Katya, he shifted back to human, then realized he couldn’t take pictures. He didn’t have a camera.

His eyes were cameras in his chimera form. Maybe that would work?

It did. Not only that, it was focused exactly where his eye was focused, and the light level was exactly what he expected; he didn’t have to hope the picture came out well. He almost wished he’d had this for years.

He could probably record video with his eyes, too … yes, he could. That was something to remember, though he wasn’t certain what he’d do with it.

Serenity sent the pictures of his broken naginata to Russ as well, with a description of what happened and a request to see if Katya could do something about it. He couldn’t expect much from pictures, but it was worth a try. At least it’d give her a chance to think about it.

The next phone call came when Serenity was starting to wonder just how long it could take to make dinner and load up a pickup bed with pillows.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t from Doyle.

“Hello?” Serenity answered it the same way he’d answered the other unknown numbers.

“Mr. Serenity Rothmer?” The woman’s voice on the other end of the line sounded formal. No, professional was a better word than formal.

So Serenity answered the same way. “Speaking.”

“Good. I’m Dr. Sandra Mattingly; I’m running the portal investigation project for DARPA. I believe you are at an open portal that is safe to approach?”

Serenity looked up at the light from above. It was quickly fading; he’d have preferred to be up there, but he couldn’t properly watch the portal from outside the cave. “Relatively safe; the rockfins seem to come through one at a time. They’re likely to be hard on equipment if they do come through, though. It’s underground, and they have more control of rock than I’d like. The real problem is access. There’s a small opening, not big enough for a person …”

Doyle arrived while Serenity was still on the phone with Dr. Mattingly; the soldiers were right behind him. Serenity told her he’d call her back after dinner and flowed up through the opening.

He decided on his human form; it would probably be more comfortable for people who didn’t know what to expect.

“Sir? We’re going to need to ask you to leave the area. It’s not safe here.” One of the soldiers was standing at the door to Doyle’s pickup. They hadn’t noticed Serenity, but he could clearly hear them.

Doyle chuckled. “I’m here to deliver food and pillows. Took a bit longer than expected; I was supposed to be here well ahead of you.”

The soldier paused; it seemed that wasn’t the answer he was expecting. “Sir-”

Serenity decided to step in. “It’s fine. He’s with me.” He stepped forward into the light from Doyle’s headlights.

The soldier jumped. Doyle didn’t.

“Aren’t you supposed to be setting up a camp here? Also, did you bring the light and phone? I’d like to get that set up before I spend time away from the cave, and I’d really prefer not to eat dinner in the cave.” Serenity decided it was time to get things rolling. It was too bad he hadn’t had the chance to meet people separately, but you couldn’t change the past.

On second thought, Serenity knew that wasn’t true. Huh. He couldn’t go back in time on his own, but the Voice certainly could. Serenity wondered if anyone else ever had. He didn’t know of any verified tales, but it seemed like the kind of thing that wouldn’t be believed.