Mike had now been given a basic idea of how the gun worked. It was quite simple… there was a map of different dimensions and their own dimension was highlighted on the screen. You selected one.. sometimes notes on that dimension would pop up, likely written if someone had visited it before. Though annoyingly, Mike couldn’t find a way to bring up the notes on all of them and sometimes they would be in a weird language.
The return button always brought them to their home dimension according to Robin… and the system felt secure, for what it did.
The two stood outside Robin’s house in his garden… it was now the weekend, and project ‘Dimension-Dive’ was a go. They had packed for a few things but given they could return whenever they wanted, they were not too worried.
“The computer says this I dimension E-192” Mike said reading the strange numbers. There were some notes, but they were not in English. He tapped the machine a few times, but it didn’t appear to be broken… “Weird…”
“Looks nice…” Robin thought folding his arms. They had arrived in a rather ‘tropical’ area with a lot of green shoots. It was undisturbed nature with plants, flowers... the sound of bees. “Though I rather we were back in a town. In all the other jumps I did without you, it was in a nice comfortable place… just you know- different. Didn’t you want to select a safe place?” He walked around a bit in a random direction.
“How was it different? And- yeah I thought I specified a town...” They explored the greenery. ‘Just like a video game… we can leave leave whenever we wanted to.’ He held the gun carefully knowing to use it at the first sign of trouble. He wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but they had to visit a dimension to see what was there first. Maybe in this world the town wasn’t built… or were humans even around here?
“Well I went to Dimension B… something- um- They had different heads.”
“Different heads?” Mike got anxious at that thought. “What- like three eyes?” He continued to look through the trees. The sound of bees worried him. Should that be a concern? It wasn’t like they didn’t have bees at home…
“Well, they had male faces on woman’s bodies and women had male faces.” Robin explained with a faint grin. “When they saw me they were.. quite confused.” He laughed wondering how it would have looked on Earth if one of them came to their world. “It was a nice place though! Everyone was treating me so nice. You included.”
Mike groaned inwardly. “I rather not know anything about the versions of me you talked to.”
“Hey you were constantly hitting on me-“
“Dude no!”
“I’m kidding!” Robin laughed again.
“You go to some weird dimensions…” Mike decided annoyed. “Actually maybe that’s part of it. Is the gun reading my mind? I was imagining a place like this..”
“Probably… I mean I did think about girls too when I was in the boys locker room…”
Something to note for the future perhaps. The machine could override a destination perhaps and assign it some number… it was a worrying thought. Maybe this was how the dimensions were mapped in the system? Still they were here now… Mike didn’t want to waste the opportunity. “We could get some plants and bring it home.” He scratched his head. Rocks are just rocks here, right? The plants were interesting though.
“Not a bad idea!” Robin smiled not wanting to waste the trip either. “Let’s find something with fruit. It’ll be something we can sell.”
Mike grimaced again. Did his friend not understand the basic implications of bringing something unknown? “There might be laws against that- I was thinking a small sample. Something not about to reproduce and wipe out humanity.”
“Urgh, Fine. Maybe we can find a weird looking leaf or something… the plants sure are big though.” He half wondered how and why the trees were so huge. It was like something out of the Jurassic era… still, there wasn’t anything too dangerous and they could always leave. Robin looked around for something to take back… but his attention was drawn to the huge trees. “Whoa- Look at that!” On the base of the tree, surrounded by leaves was a single gigantic white egg. Robin looked excitedly and quickly moved the leaves away. “Dude- It’s a freakin’ egg!” He rubbed his hands. “I wish I could see whatever laid it!”
Mike stared at the egg and then around them. “Maybe it fell out from a nest?” He glanced up the tree. The last thing he wanted was to provoke the mother that laid it. “We shouldn’t touch it- Robin!” Mike protested. “Are you crazy?”
Robin was poking it, curious. He rested his palm on it as it gave a little… tingle. “It feels… warm.” He felt a little strange. There was something so… ‘nice’ about the egg. It felt important to him… very important. This place- it was too dangerous for an egg to be. “Let’s return it to the nest,” decided Robin. “We can climb up… and put it on that branch. It’ll be fine.” He gazed up thinking how they would carry it… but it would be better then being at the base.
“Urgh, fine.” Mike agreed. “Do you think you can climb it?” Mike tapped the tree inspecting it.
Robin nodded. “Let’s be carefu-“
Then from the tree a snake- an absolutely ‘huge’ snake moved showing itself. Mike gasped as his hand was suddenly bitten where he had accidently touched it. “AHH!” He screamed. The green snake slinked away. “Shi-“ Mike cried out holding his hand. There was very little blood, just a puncture would… but it could be infected. “It- it bit me- Oh damn- I got to get to the hospital-“ He activated the portal gun. “Hurry up Robin!” He had enough. Something just bit him; he was not going to deal with this anymore!
Robin nodded. Maybe this world was a bit ‘too close’ to nature. “Right with you-“ The egg… the important egg… their world would be safe. Without really thinking about it, he took it with him…
