They continue down to the port. 

Once they arrive at the edge of the promenade, where the shops are, Dr E jumps up and down in excitement.  "Okay, let's shoot some lasers at the sky!" 

"Okay! Also, I'm going to text him, if that's okay"

Clarabelle starts blasting the sky with red bolts of light. 

The crowd at the pier form a semicircle. They're pretty sure Dr. E isn't more crazy than usual today.

"I guess."

She flutters her fingers at the crowd in a friendly way. 

"ARMSMASTER!" she screams. "BUDDY! NEED YOU FOR A THING!"

She can't sense magic anywhere in the city. All is as it should be.

The long walk to the seaside makes her wish Dr. E (seriously, how do you spell that?) would take a cab, or a bus... but the badger robots wouldn't fit in. Is it really necessary to take them along or is it another blatant delaying tactic? Maybe Tanya should just ask for directions and fly ahead on her own?

Patience (and politeness) win out, since Dr E is ostensibly going all this way in order to introduce Tanya to her acquaintance, but by the time they reach the quay it is hanging by a rather thin thread. So when Dr E starts making a spectacle of herself and firing 'lasers', Tanya wishes nothing more than to distance herself from it. She is a completely unrelated bystander! An entirely ordinary young girl wearing Germanian military uniform with a senior officer's epaulettes and carrying a rifle!

...does it look like an 'Armsmaster' is about to appear and, if so, is he going to be as much of a clown? Should she leave here and try to find some other lead? Will she even be allowed back through the portal if she doesn't play along? What can she really do if the locals want to sideline her until they have gotten their act together?

Far out on the water, an oil rig stands, barely visible through the mist, surrounded by a force field.

Deep inside its bowel, there is a man-- who is not being paid enough for this. But he knows his duty.

A few minutes later Dr. E has gotten distracted signing autographs for tourists, and chatting to their children about badger facts. 

A man in blue armor hovers ten feet above the water, outside the quay. "Dr. E. What is it this time?"

Tanya is very good at noticing fliers. Especially if they have no detectable magical signature, are flying nape-of-the-earth (or -ocean, as the case may be), carrying obvious weaponry, and are heading in her exact direction. In fact, it might be more accurate to say she would have a harder time not noticing them.

She still doesn't want to use a magnifying-lens optical spell and reveal that capability, but like all aerial mages she carries old-fashioned binoculars for stealth, so she has a few minutes to observe the incoming flier. (Every few seconds she twitches with abortive movement to scan the rest of the sky. She can't see inland, she's too close to the buildings - there might as well be a flare painted over her location - this is not a combat situation, it's a PEACEFUL FLYING AMERICANS situation -)

What was the military state-of-the-art for personal flying equipment in 2013? She has no idea. Some kind of jetpack, presumably? But there's no visible or audible exhaust. And he's not landing to conserve fuel. How? Something related to the forcefield technology? Letting non-mages fly opens so many possibilities - but it must be very expensive, and short range -

The heavy armor looks - odd. Then again, she doesn't know what military-grade armor actually looked like in 2013, let alone what it might look like in 2026. And he has a glaive? Ah, it must be ceremonial. Many cities have old local traditions that appear odd in the modern era. That explains why he's wearing heavy armor outside of combat but isn't carrying a gun. The armor provides a good cover for the (possibly still semi-classified) flying apparatus, so it gets pulled out for daily duty, along with the glaive. This suggests Armsmaster holds some symbolic or ceremonial role. Dr E said he is the leader of a local organization; it must be one with a long civic history, like a guild.

By the time he pulls up she has entirely mastered her totally-not-pre-battle-at-all non-shakes and politely and attentively lets Dr E reply.

Dr E is talking about her special interest with a child, and notices none of what's happening. "—and they change their sheets! On sunny days they drag all their bedding out and air it. And they have toilets! Proper latrines, dug at the edges of their territory, so the house stays nice. Very civilized. More civilized than some mayors. They eat worms, mostly. Hundreds of worms..."

"Dr E?" Clarabelle goes over and bumps Dr E's shin, hard. 

"Ow! Why'd you— Oh. Hi Armsmaster!" She waves happily. "Look, child, it's my buddy Armsmaster!" 

"Dr E?"

"Oh yes! This is my new friend Lieutenant Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff, A military representative from another universe! One of my traps failed- not sure why- but it blew a hole in the universe. And now there's a portal! I'm going to make Space Badger, with claws that can tear through spacetime, and widen the hole!"

"Armsmaster? A pleasure to meet you. I am, as Dr E said, an officer of the Germanian Army, on a different Earth. The - portal - opened suddenly, dragged me through, and then half-closed so I could not go back. I then met Dr. E, who led me here. And that is approximately everything I know about the situation." (If Armsmaster is checking, by a generous definition of 'the situation' this is a lie.)

Armsmaster's reaction will, hopefully, tell Tanya how surprising or even believable a contact with another Earth is to someone here. Although, realistically, the people working with Dr E have likely briefed Armsmaster already and this is all merely a show of proper appearences.

This is the thing about being in the PRT- you can't take things by outwards appearances. There is an imprisoned woman, about the same apparent age, who claims to be from the kingdom of the fairie. She is probably wrong. The problem is that if you contradict her on that, you die, instantly.  So if Dr E says that this- by appearances- young woman is from another universe- she might be right. This might be a first contact situation. This might be the end of the world in a flat cap.  He looks very serious. 

"Welcome to Earth Bet, Colonel Degurechaff. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" 

"Lieutenant colonel. And certainly. As you might imagine, I also have many questions." Hopefully they will now transition into a more private setting? Possibly the first few questions are the ones they need Dr. E for, after which they will transition into a more serious setting. Tanya lives in hope eternal.

Armsmaster adjusts his armor, and clears his throat.

"Note that I did not compose these questions. I apologize in advance if they seem offensive to you or to any of your protected characteristics. They were written for me, as a part of our standard operating procedures in case of interdimensional contacts. These will not be all of our questions, but they are the most urgent."

"Now:

1. Your name, and any other names, titles or aliases you go by?
2. What is your age, species, and intended duration of stay?
3. How did you get here? Was it voluntary?
4. Did anyone or anything else come through with you, or after you?
5. Did the portal seem stable to you? Is anything on your side of it likely to come through?
6. Do you have any abilities beyond what's normal for your species? Please describe them.
7. Since arriving, have you seen or heard a large, rather attractive six-winged woman, possibly singing?
8. Are you carrying any known illnesses, parasites, or contaminants?
9. Do you have hostile intentions toward this world, its people, or its government?
10. Does your world have a government? Do you represent it in any capacity?
11. Are you here with Dr E of your own free will?
"

Interworld contact is so common that they have a list of questions ready made? Just how many Earths are they in contact with?! Did the uptime Earth establish an interstellar trade empire over the past thirteen years? Come to think of it, that would explain all the other advances in technology; if they have contacted one or more Earths even more advanced than the twenty-first-century one... well, Tanya just hopes none of them are interested in colonizing less advanced planets.

Anyway, all these questions seem fine for answering in public.

1. Her name is Tanya von Degurechaff. Although a military rank is not a title as she understands the term, for the avoidance of doubt, she holds a rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Germanian Imperial Army. She also has a military alias, 'Argent Silver', although she very rarely uses it and doesn't expect it to come up.

2. She is thirteen years old. ...do they have nonhuman species here?! Just what is on those other Earths?! ...anyway, she is human. She has no intended or indeed expected duration of stay, as her visit was not planned; she wants to go back and will do so as soon the portal is expanded to readmit her. There is no definite timeline for accomplishing this and indeed she would appreciate to have one. A larger portal would also benefit both worlds (and the respective countries the portal is located in) by enabling trade, visits by officials and professional experts, et cetera, and so she hopes the local government finds it worthwhile to invest in speeding up the process (hint, hint).

3. A portal opened near her, sucked her through involuntarily, and then half-closed so that she no longer fits through. She then found herself in an underground tunnel, in which she met Dr. E, who agreed to introduce her to a representative of the local government.

4. Nobody else came through to her knowledge.

5. She does not consider herself qualified to judge if a portal is stable. It was, at least, visually unchanging after it finished shrinking. The men she was with are guarding her side of the portal and awaiting reinforcements, but none of them can pass through it unless it grows again.

6. Again with the species! ...she is a mage. This is a rare but not abnormal ability; about one in ten thousand people worldwide have it. A full description of mage abilities would take a long time and require technical vocabulary to be established, and besides she is not an expert in the field; literature on the subject can be acquired from her world.

7. She has not, should she have?

8. Not as far as she knows but of course humans often carry latent or vestigial infections to which they are by now immune!!! Tanya is kicking herself for not thinking of this earlier! The two worlds must have completely different circulating virus strains and available vaccinations! Their 'ordinary cold' has evolved among modern antibiotics and is likely to laugh at her immune system! She should go into precautionary quarantine right away never mind the other questions they should move away from the crowd and from each other!!! 

When they are at a (hopefully??) safe distance, and speaking through an improvised face-mask, she will further volunteer that:

9. No, definitely not! ...wait, they have a world government? She thought this was a nation called the United States...?

10. Tanya's world has no world government; each country has its own. She is from Germania, formally the Germanian Empire, and she represents it inasfar as she is a military officer. She did tell her men on the other side of the portal to call for diplomats once the possibility of interworld contact became salient.

11. Dr E. has admitted building the portal that trapped her but claims that was unintentional and has not coerced her in any other way, nor has she prevented her from revisiting the portal and talking to her people.