The Double Cult Cha-Cha: An Al Squires of the Protectorate Story (Book 1)

Ch. 9.1: Norah Gets Her Answers (More or Less)

It wasn't a fluke, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Before I could blindfold and put on the noise canceling headphones on her, I had to lead Norah up and down a few city blocks for about ten minutes. I did this to disorient her so she wouldn't be able to find out where the Protectorate-owned Transmat booth nearest to Eternities Square was located.

There are secret and secure Protectorate owned Transmat booths hidden throughout all of Omniopolis. Only Protectorate agents know of their existence and their exact locations; and we take great strides to keep it that way. But, before we go into the story proper again, I just realized that many of you, dear Readers, might not know what 'Transmat' means. Sims, educate them, if you please.

*Ugh, okay, but don't expect a Ted Talk or anything; we need to work on how much we want to say in one sitting. And by 'we,' I mean you, Al. Okay, my little putrid pupils, here's a short lesson on Transmat technology. 'Transmat' is short for 'trans-materialization.' Meaning that it's just another word for teleportation. Like the method of teleportation that I mentioned in the last chapter, it is akin to teleportation in Star Trek. Unlike that other kind, however, Transmat technology is safe to use on 'living' sentient beings. They work the same way as portals, only they travel through interconnected localized circuits; allowing one to travel to within certain areas instead of anywhere in the Multiverse. That, and there has to be an existing Transmat booth in the location you're trying to get to in order for it to work; otherwise, you'd might as well be standing in an out-of-order phone booth like a drunken moron. Sure, the earliest versions of Transmat booths made those who used them look like a bunch of Cronenberg movie rejects; but they put in all sorts of fail-safes and redundancies before setting them up before the booths were ready for public use. There are three kinds of Transmat booths in Omniopolis: public, City-Realm employees only and Protectorate-owned. *

*The public Transmat booths take one anywhere in Omniopolis; provided that they punched in the coordinates for the wanted location and provided that said location has a connecting Transmat booth. The CR employees only are for... well City-Realm workers, obviously. That includes (but not limited to) maintenance workers, emergency services, and of course, the Unis. If you haven't gotten the memo, Unis are Omniopolis' law enforcers as well as the Protectorate's occasional little helpers. The Protectorate-owned ones take agents (and Unis, in case there was an emergency, of course) to any pre-plotted Protectorate Precinct. This is for both Precincts (mostly) located in Omniopolis, as well as Precincts out in the Multiverse; provided one has the Precinct number. I'd go on a bit more on the rules and regs pertaining to Protectorate-owned Transmat booths, but like I said earlier, I wasn't going to do a damn Ted Talk. That, I don't really give two turtle turds about them. Normally, I'd end with my catchphrase; but seeing as I didn't say anything SCIENTIFIC, I'm just going to let Al take center stage again. Al? *

Thanks, Sims. Right, where was I? After I thought I had done a good job disorienting Norah, I took said blindfold and headphones out of their respective coat pockets, told her to be quiet from this moment on, placed them on her, and spun her a few times for good measure.

Knowing that I would stick out like the proverbial sore thumb with her by my side, I decided to test out my wearable cloaking device. I always carry some of the more portable of my inventions with me in case there's a situation that requires me to 'field test' them; the WCD was one of them. Seeing as I made the WCD look like a bracelet, I slipped it on her wrist, interlinked my arm with hers, and activated the WCD; making her appear to vanish. This obviously got a few stares from any onlookers, but, luckily, most of them were Omniopolites; they've seen stranger things on a daily basis than the average New Yorker does in their lifetime.

I took her down to the location where the Transmat near Eternities Square was hidden. For security purposes, I can't tell you from which direction from Eternities Square it's located, what street it's on, or what it's disguised as. I know that you're technically not in my jurisdiction, dear Readers, but some things need to be a secret; even at the risk of it sounding like the author couldn't think of a location.