"I haven't met any of my alts personally, but by hearsay they have other projects too."

"I have a bit of a troublesome situation. A sounding board-slash-consultant who's interdimensionally verified as probably pretty clever could be helpful. 'Rates negotiable'. What do you usually ask for?"

"Depends on what you want. Money's always good, Bar changes it easy as pie no matter what kind you have. Magic items are good too, and tech if I can maintain it at home or it's durable enough."

"No magic, we're a tech-world. I have an electric multitool - solar charging. But money is fine, depending on how much you want."

"Mm, what's the multitool do?"

"Hotknife, electric lighter, fairly strong flashlight, liquid metal screwdriver that does any kind of screw, surface disinfector - don't use it on cuts, though, more harm than good - a switchable magnet, adjustable laser, and an adhesive applicator, though you do have to do refills if you use it much."

"What's it do to cuts?"

"Stops it from closing as well and stings really bad."

"...safe on whole skin before a cut or puncture?"

"Yes, safe on closed skin. It's meant for surfaces, though? Mostly you use it on tables and door handles if you're a hypochondriac or in a medical lab."

"Gotcha. I live in an impoverished area and don't necessarily have skin-safe antiseptic around, is all. How much adhesive?"

"Not a lot. Just about enough to patch a half dozen leaks in a pressure suit. It's good stuff, though, when I had to use it for that. And I can give you the refill capsule it came with."

"All right, that'll do for a medium-small problem, how complicated is it?"

"Political unrest... And an extremist group that might be willing to do a lot of damage for their goals. Environmentalists who want everyone to change their habits or else to get off the planet. I don't care either way about their issue, I want to protect my infrastructure. The trouble is that there's a single point of failure. My stargate is the only way to go between this planet and the rest of the connected systems. A very obvious target."

"How's the stargate work - practically speaking, I don't need the schematics."

"It's a large space station. If we keep the power on, you can pass a ship through the central ring and end up in Jupiter orbit. As long as the other side is working too, that is. They're paired, if either end is destroyed the other is useless."

"How's it fueled? Do you control both ends?"

"My organization controls both ends, yes. Supplies and repairs from the Sol end won't be a problem. Hydrogen and helium three powers it - luckily enough, those things are mined on Cloudbank. Er, that's the planet."

"Which side do the environmentalists want to be on?"

"Cloudbank. There's native life."

"And they want people doing what to protect it -"

"Not hunting, not mining, not building things. No more shuttles going up and down outside of narrow lanes, they're loud enough to kill certain creatures outright. Not contaminating the place, generally."

"That sounds like it would make it impossible to be there at all, why would the environmentalists want to be on that side when the stargate closed?"

"Coexisting with a nature that's never known humanity, I suppose. That's the most hardline stance on it, though - and they don't want the gate to close, necessarily. The ones that do think we never should have come there at all. It's not a well unified movement. Messy."

"How much would they need to coordinate to blow something up?"