…and she had those big green eyes
The Doclopedia #286
Things Found Underground: Jump Gates
Nobody knows who or what built the 7 Jump Gates that exist on Earth 16, no why they built them underground on the exact spots where great cities would someday sit. Still, there they are, very well hidden 500 feet down, but still functioning after an estimated 7,500 years.
Each Jump Gate connects to some spot on Earth, usually in a remote area. The location in space never varies, but the location in time can vary by up to 10 days either forward or backwards. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict this effect. Even more unfortunately, it is impossible to go back to your proper time unless you go into the past and just hang out until time catches up. (Note: Do not EVER go try to communicate with your past self. This will always result in the time traveling you popping out of existence.)
If you should go into the future, then you just lose that many days. This can cause all sorts of problems from the minor (missed the season finale of you favorite tv program) to the serious (you went missing for ten days just before your 20th anniversary) to the catastrophic (you weren’t there to enter the shutdown code when your tacyonic power generator went critical and turned New York city into a smoldering crater).
When using a Jump Gate, remember to dress in an appropriate manner for your destination. Don’t wear winter clothing if the gate takes you to the Australian Outback.
All Jump Gates look the same and function the same. They are 20′ wide12 ‘ tall ovals of stone and metal set into a cavern wall. You simply touch it with your hand, wait until it shows an image of your destination and then step through. Several people and/or animals and/or machines can pas through, since the gate remains open for a full minute. Of course, getting a bunch of people, animals or machines 500 feet underground might be a tricky thing.
It is rumored that there is an 8th Jump Gate that can be programmed to take one anywhere on Earth with no temporal drift. So far, it has not been found.
The Doclopedia #287
Things Found Underground: God Skulls
Ork Smart Ones say this about God Skulls…
“God Skulls am big! Really big! Big like a human stone hut where many humans and animals live. Large Ork standing in eye hole of God Skull cannot touch top of eye hole. God Skulls very scary to Orks! Four big horns on skull…big sharp teeth…sometimes three or four eyes! SCARY! God Skulls also have much bad magic! Orks stay away from God Skulls! If Ork find God Skulls when inside caves, Orks run away fast!”
The following entry uses another definition of “underground”.
The Doclopedia #288
Things Found Underground: Lost Belmoria
In the year 2035, there are many lost cyberworlds out there in the Net. Some are old game worlds that were transformed by rogue AIs before the Seattle Limits were put into effect and some are fully formed places that came out of illegal reality seed programs. The Tempest Institute estimates that there could be as many as 150 of these well hidden and isolated cyberworlds out there.
By far, the most sought after cyberworld is Belmoria, the reality created by Dr. David Lupinski. Based upon a fantasy roleplaying world that he and his friends created over a 30 year period, it is said to be both the largest and the most “real” cyberworld. The former would come from the fact that, in 2027, Lupinski purchased enough servers to house a world 1,500 times the size of the MMORPG QuestWorld, which itself, if real, would be the size of North America. The “reality” of Belmoria comes from the fact that the initial programing places no prohibition on the sense of smell and does not restrict any other senses. Because of this, anyone plugging into Belmoria would soon begin accepting it as truly real, meaning that once they were unplugged from it, they would go insane.
On February 11th, 2030, Dr. Lupinski and 45 other people were found dead of barbiturate overdose in his home in Omaha, Nebraska. They had all been hooked up to an illegal NetPort at the time of death. The NetPort was destroyed by a thermite bomb just after FBI agents burst into the home. The agents were unable to retrieve anything of importance, since the thermite bomb ignited others in the house and the whole place was turned to ash in a matter of minutes.
The hunt for the Belmoria server farm continues, but even if it is found, Belmoria will go on because several of Dr. Lupinksi’s friends also bought servers between 2027 and 2029.
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