"Education, initially, preferably texts I can have more widely distributed, so I can get more people up to speed on this project."

    "Yes sir. Is there a textbook-writer available for her to work with?"

He nods. "We have a small team. I'll give you their contact information; you can pull any of them you want to work with over onto this project."

    "Thank you, sir."

She'll get to work on that, then.

And Fharlanghn sends the first batch of clerics a few days later, to the capitol cities Hashirama proposed: lone travelers or small groups, a senior cleric and one or two novices. They're well-dressed, and in some cases riding exotic mounts, species never seen before in this world, or in other cases carrying obviously foreign magic - a few have glowing walking staffs, and one has a trio of gemstones circling her head under their own power. Each asks to speak to their assigned nation's daimyo about collaboration with the other nations and their own world.

Getting said appointments is variably easy. It's easiest in Fire, where they can bring Hashirama's seal, and in the smallest nations. It's hardest in Earth (whose daimyo is paranoid, and is willing to talk but only through an intermediary).

Still, the clerics are mostly received in style.

The cleric assigned to Earth is very patient; all of them are polite, curious, freehanded with non-combat examples of their magic and trips to see the floatcar, and very interested in getting everyone on board with their project. 

Deskyl, meanwhile, is getting frustrated. She simply doesn't know enough precursors for a lot of the tech they want to build.

Do they have enough to reconstruct what she's missing?

...may...be? They'd have to get pretty lucky with the research they're doing to fill in the gaps.

He runs some numbers.

He thinks getting that lucky in the near future is unlikely, though their chances go up as they get more people on the research. Still, that'll take time, and delay the whole project...

I wish we could just kidnap Valyr, she signs to herself. This is her area, not mine.

"If there's someone who'd know more, we might be able to bring them over."

    "There's Lord Valyr, sir, one of Lord Pritruth's other apprentices - a materials engineering researcher."

    "And her apprentice Rin should be brought too, to show intention to work cooperatively with her, he won't be safe if you leave him behind."

He nods. "I'll look into our options - I've been working on my own interdimensional transit solution, and can turn my full focus onto that, for one."

   "Yes sir. You'll want to be prepared for a fight; if you can teleport into the compound you'll bypass most of Lord Pritruth's automated defenses, but there will still be several Sith to consider. Lord Grauzatis in particular is very dangerous, his Force specialty is realistic hallucinations."

"And I don't know whether my training against genjutsu will hold there..." he says, musingly. "So best to avoid that confrontation."

    "He's usually in his part of the compound, which is a bit set off from the rest; as long as you leave within a few minutes of anyone noticing you you should be able to avoid him."

"I'll aim for speed, then."

    "The others are Lord Pritruth himself and his youngest apprentice Tenin. Pritruth is good at detecting emotions but doesn't generally have the ability active; his specialty lies more in projecting them. Lord Valyr's is telekinesis, especially fine control at a distance. Rin and Tenin don't have specialties yet, and Tenin in particular doesn't have very good control of himself; if you encounter him you shouldn't have trouble distracting him from raising an alarm. Lord Pritruth may also have called in outside help after Deskyl's disappearance, and you'll need to avoid letting droids see you so that they don't alert anyone. If you need to disable a droid like me the best places to attack are here and here, it's easy to repair damage in those areas."

He nods. "How prone are people to looking up? Usually I get around people who aren't familiar with shinobi by sticking to the ceiling."

    "Sith do it more often than normal humans, especially if they're on alert. And droids notice everything in our field of view."

"So not a tactic I should rely on... I suspect I'll need to get within touch range of my targets and nothing else, though, which both simplifies and complicates things..."

    "Is there anything else we can help with, sir?"

"I'd benefit from a more thorough idea of typical Sith powers, but I likely won't need that until when I'm closer to done on transit, and I suspect I can manage without."