Mm, delicious fish stew. Ira has thought a lot about the ways that it might taste, though naturally that doesn't apply as much since this is Timber Hearth fish and not fish from her mother or grandmother's world, but still, there's a great sense of satisfaction, above and beyond the excellent flavor and ground-level dining experience, of being able to able to know, in a way she couldn't before, what this is like. "Well, if there's one thing that we have plenty of in the Pines it's time. Do you think we could use chicken bones instead of fish bones? Do you have chickens, or other birds, on Timber Hearth? Or I guess any other planet. Do any of the other planets have animals?"

"There's the anglerfish we think are from Dark Bramble, we have one in the museum and the giant jellyfish that probably came from the planet where Dark Bramble used to be. Those are too big to put one in the museum. Otherwise, we don't really see any animals around."

"Huh! I wonder how the anglerfish got to Timber Hearth? Or whatever planet it was found at. What other sorts of things do you have at the museum? It sounds like it's got a lot of interesting stuff."

"Oh it was clinging to the landing gear of one of our ships. And we have a bunch of small things, there's a Nomai skeleton, a part of a Nomai building with some text and a star shaped symbol they put a lot of places, a small collection of Nomai pottery, a gravity crystal from Brittle Hollow, an exhibit about the life cycle of stars, a small exhibit about our new deep space satellite, an exhibit about how we use salvaged Nomai tech to enhance our ships and scouts and of course a bunch of photos other astronauts took while exploring."

"It survived on the landing gear of your ship, all the way between planets? Wow, that's a remarkably persistent fish. Why do you think it comes from Dark Bramble, though? If no one's been there, I mean. And, I wonder what the significance of the star symbol is. Do any of the Nomai texts you have talk about it?"

"We don't know for sure it's just Chert's best guess as to where it came from after they noticed it was attached to their ship. As for the symbol, our best guess is that it matches to something they called The Eye of the Universe."

"Fair enough, and ooh, that sounds important! Do you know anything about this Eye?"

"Not very much, we know they were searching for it, they built something to try to find it on the Attlerock, and there's suggestions that the big dome on Brittle Hollow's south pole was built to continue that search but we haven't found a way inside. The symbol is also on the spaceship or probe inside the space station around Giant's Deep we haven't found a way inside that either though. One of the areas of the hanging city on Brittle Hollow is also supposed to have more information but the path is pretty treacherous and so Riebeck doesn't feel up to risking it. I'm better with a jetpack though so when I go out I'll be sure to take a look."

"Interesting! I hope you do find out more about it, and maybe if I'm still here when you do I can ask you more about it then." She pauses to eat some more of her fish stew, then take another couple sips of eggnog. "Are there any other places you want to go, once you have your own ship?"

"I want to explore everywhere, I'll probably wait to explore Dark Bramble everyone is worried about it for good reasons but... I want to find Feldspar and they were known for seeking out challenges and trying to be the first at things. If they're alive somewhere I think they might be there."

Ira nods. "I hope that you find them, and, find them alive and well, or as well as they could be. Honestly, I wish I could join you. There's so much in your world, so much mystery to explore. And jetpacks!"

"Maybe you can? I just walked through a door. I don't know how this works though.... Bar do you happen to know?"

Napkin!

They are able to go with you, yes. The door will open to your world only if you open it, at which point you may admit whoever you wish to. Should you let go of it, it will close, at which point if you are on this side of the door time will be at a stand-still in the world you came from, as it is now. Should you be outside, the door will disconnect from Milliways and return to leading where it usually would.

"I see, thank you for explaining that Bar. Well it certainly sounds like you could come if you wanted. I don't know how you would get home though. I've never heard of anyone going to Milliways before."

Ira frowns, just a little, as she thinks on this. "I haven't either. Bar, if I open the door and head back to the Pines, could Syl hold the door open for me to come back in? And, if I went with Syl back to their world, would time start to pass in the Pines again?"

I'm afraid if you let go of your door it will close. You could, however, hold the door yourself, while Syl gathers any items you might like to have on the other side.

As for the passage of time, so long as you intend to return to Pines, time should remain frozen until such a time as you return or until your death, whichever happens first, barring unusual circumstances.

Ira nods, and thinks on this for a long few moments. if Syl doesn't speak up, she'll offer this thought. "It's nearly Wishing Night in the Pines, just a few nights away. If we leave them a note and piece of me, they should be able to wish for me back. Would you be willing to help me with that, Syl?"

"Of course. Everyone at the village will be so excited to meet you. A real living alien."

Ira beams. "There are some writing tools in the cabinets on the left side of the glass room door, which will be straight ahead when you enter. It's not exactly the same as with Bar, but there's a wish that translates meaning in my home as well, so you can just write things down however you normally do. Please let them know that I'm alright, and that I've gone on an adventure to another world, but that I'll need for them to wish me back on Wishing Night, and that I'll tell them all about it as soon as they do. And," she plucks one of the thin black fibers from her head, wincing slightly as she does, and hands it Syl, "put this with the note."

Then Ira gets up and heads to the door, opening it for Syl.

"I can do that. Sounds simple enough." Syl walks through the door and writes a short note to that effect, sets down the hair in a neat coil and walks back through the door.

Ira closes the door, and then sits back down at the bar to finish her stew and eggnog. "So, what should I know before I meet your people? And maybe we should work out a dictionary between our languages in case neither of the translation effects follow me to your world."

"There aren't a lot of us, there's 126 of us in the village? Everyone's expected to pitch in and help with taking care of things. Building ships is a lot of work so depending you might end up sharing mine though if you're willing to wait long enough Slate is always trying to build new ships. If you're going to be exploring with me you'll need a jetpack and you'll need to learn to use it. I'm not sure if our medical supplies will work for you. Not sure how to confirm that one way or another though. Hornfels is close to being in charge of the space program these days though Gossan is still in charge of training and Slate's in charge of making the ships. Rutile is mayor and makes sure everyone is doing their fair share of the work on village things. Otherwise I don't really know, everyone has their own quirks. I'm sure you'll find a way to fit in. A dictionary is probably a good idea. Maybe we should borrow more writing materials either from your house or mine?"

Ira nods. "Maybe yours, since we're going back to your world. It probably wouldn't be a big deal but in case my family needs all the spare pages we have it'd be better to not take off into another world."

Presumably they do a similar sort of operation as moment ago but with Syl on the door and Ira grabbing the writing stuff, and work on the dictionary as they eat?

Yep, there isn't a lot of spare paper but there's a bunch of photos they can write on the back of.

Excellent! Probably makes sense to try and associate the words with what's on the photos, just to minimize confusion at a later point, but they may not have the room spare for that.

Once the food's all eaten and the dictionary has at least a basic vocabulary fleshed out, Ira feels she's ready to go!