Marcus was admiring the old techniques and instructions coming together and actually emerging into a product.

  All his life, little by little, he had tried to copy technology to his strange other world. And now one st time he was doing the same. But this time it might actually change his pnet's fate.

  The half-door-sized portal frame stood in Hasan's courtyard. The resonance regutor hummed beside it. Both were almost done, built following Jean-Pierre's instructions. There were only finishing touches left until they could try to power up the machines.

  The cargo from Clevend had arrived. One hundred mind-freeing machines packed in foam. The computer Tyler had named the Technology Seed sat in its wooden crate. Tomorrow they were going to attempt to open the portal and hopefully leave.

  Hasan was trying to arrange for security to look the other way and close the cameras at G?beklitepe. He said he had offered each guard a mb. A bribe that locals might accept.

  "Numan isn't around today?" Tom asked while trying to clean the machines. Since he had no expertise he was trying his hardest to help with what he could.

  "Yeah I haven't seen him all day." Marcus answered while fine-tuning a copper coil.

  "What did you do?" Tom asked.

  "What do you mean what did I do?"

  "I saw the other day he was saying something to you. And after your conversation he was upset."

  Marcus remembered the conversation. He scratched his head. "Yeah. It could be me."

  "What did you do? Other than him hitting you a month ago he was super helpful to us."

  "Tom." Marcus stood up. His hands were covered in grease. "He... he asked to come with us."

  "So?"

  "What do you mean so? He can't come with us."

  "Why?"

  "Tom it is not as easy as...." Marcus stopped.

  "As what? Why can't he come? He doesn't know anyone here."

  Marcus sighed and returned to his machine. "I don't know. This is a cosmic level thing. I can't decide that."

  "But it seems you decided for him."

  "Tom. I can't even locate Ephus among the stars. It is how many millions of light-years away? He will be stuck there. Also he might have germs Ephus has no defense against... and... and..."

  "Marcus you are talking nonsense." Tom's voice was firm. "I support you no matter what but in this you are wrong. Ephus isn't ours. And if he wants to come he can come."

  "Let's close this subject."

  Marcus and Tom continued in silence until Beau arrived.

  "How is it going boys?" Beau asked, carrying a box under his arm.

  "It is nearly finished. We can leave tomorrow."

  "What is going on? You seem upset."

  "No, no, nothing. I just..." Marcus sighed. "I think I broke Numan's heart."

  "I didn't see him all day either." Beau opened the box he brought. "Anyway this is from Baran. He said to pick it up from his shop. He said you asked for it to take with you."

  "Thank you Beau. You have been a massive help. If you need anything after we leave, my counterpart will do anything you want."

  "What is it?" Beau asked, nodding at the big wooden box.

  "I'd rather not say."

  "Why?"

  "Beau I know you are a bit of a pacifist. And this is a necessary evil to defeat Machar."

  "Ohhhh." Beau realized. "I get it now." He closed the subject quickly. "Marcus I was thinking. How did the first portal know to bring you here? And how will this one know to take you back?"

  "I was thinking about that too." Marcus let out a sigh. He got up, went to his bag, and pulled out the Earth seed. The metal hummed faintly in his hands.

  "The teleportation is not bound by physics, obviously. Whoever created the seeds made them talk to each other in order to create a self-repair system. They must have implemented some sort of information leakage..."

  "Leakage?" Beau asked.

  "I mean I don't know what it really is. Because both teleporting and two-worlder memories defy physics ws. They move faster than light." He picked up Beau's notebook and pen and started drawing two circles representing seeds. Drew lines connecting them.

  "Portals are created with the seed's resonance fields. The fields Victor Aguillon named magic fields are talking to each other like a server-client internet."

  "An intergactic internet you say."

  "I guess." Marcus waved his hand. "Since both of my lives are constantly known by the seeds, when the portal opened at Ephus with their Earth seed, the moment I touched it, it might have been triggered to open at Terran Marcus."

  "That might expin the guidance. But what about the power to open at Terran Marcus?" Beau asked.

  "I can only guess Machar developed something over the years to force open a portal at their destination. Since he had ambitions to conquer less developed worlds."

  "How will you force it open at Ephus?" Beau asked.

  Marcus sighed. "About that I was hoping the copy of the seed might send an intergactic signal somehow and wake the portal at Ephus."

  "But..." Beau turned his head.

  "Yes." Marcus nodded grimly. "We will emerge at Machar's ir. Same pce we were pushed from."

  "Did you talk with Tom about this?"

  "I did." Marcus's face hardened. "And whether we are ready or not we need to go. We have to."

  There was no other choice now.

  Tomorrow they would step through a door between worlds.

  And hope they emerged somewhere they could survive.