Seriously? It decided now to open up. What happened when I summoned the portal twenty four hours ago? Was there some weird lag in the portal system that meant that it didn’t open when I asked it to, but instead when I was on a night out? Come on!

I stepped through, extremely annoyed and slightly confused, but I stepped through all the same.

Damn portal systems. Messing with my strict calendar. Why doesn’t this sort of thing happen when I have no plans?

The sudden sucking and dipping sensation steals me away. My right foot hits the ground on the other side first, and then my left follows. Yay go me. I managed to land upright this time. Only happens once every 37 portal trips.

“Hey Sammy,” I hear a voice call out from the back of the space.

“Heyyy,” I called back, dragging out the end sound, because I know who that voice belongs to, and I love her.

Blinking back the spots in my vision, I finally manage to make out the room I’ve portalled into. Desk positioned in a semi circle facing towards where I’m standing, and a large circular desk in the centre. The lights were out in most of the ceiling, but the desks had their own lights illuminating the sheets and items atop them.

“Let me guess, portal system needs a reboot.” It was a statement, not a question at this point.

A grunt of agreement sounds to my right.

“Yep. And you wouldn’t believe the parts we need to replace this time. The reclaimer needs replacing. Why is it never the easy pieces? Why does it have to go and be the hardest part to find? If it wasn’t such a vital system for our network, I would kick the crap out of the booster and call it a day, never to work again,” Gilly goes off on her tangent. Tinkering away on some form of machinery next to her.

“I’ll go hunt one down. Especially bc it’s messing with our missions so much. What would’ve happened if I seriously needed to be portalled yesterday? Like what, I would’ve just been left to fend for myself out there, in the big bad world?”

“Yeah, pretty much Sammy.”