"I am not technically cleared for top-secret alien technology stuff. I don't even work for the government. And I am not wildly popular because reds stuff is not a wildly popular career area. I wish the reds had thought to email me but they probably figured that I don't actually have enough pull to keep a red with terrifying magic powers alive. Speaking of which, I should email all the other reds to let them know they probably won't be murdered."

"Please do. Man, this situation was doomed from the start. I suppose you can just ask for all the red children to be taken care of without being suspicious, right?"

"Oh, lots of reds will want to adopt them."

"Yay." Sigh.

"Do you mind if I step out, reassure the reds, and get this plan approved by the people with the power to approve it?"

He pulls up a lighter and opens the gate.

"I don't mind at all. I am going to start the pocket dimension master list. Including some of our speculation for why the dimensions manifest in such ways. I'll be downstairs. You can just come in if you want."

"Thanks so much."

And she goes out into the hotel room and takes a deep breath and checks her email.

What's happening?

we were playing Age of Winter with some people and all the ones from this one neighborhood dropped at once but not exactly like the internet went out are they okay

My internet friend heard shooting from the Lina red neighborhood???

Why are there so many cops here now did somebody riot was somebody trying robots?

Hey. 

I have bad news but there's no further danger. 

The details are classified, but yesterday someone stored a piece of dangerous secret military technology in the Lina red neighborhood. The government found out and ordered the neighborhood searched. While they were searching, the person who'd originally stored the technology there (who wasn't red) attacked the police. There was a shootout. There are a hundred sixteen reds dead. Some people were arrested for fleeing the district, and they're going to be released without charges; everyone on the scene was handcuffed and they haven't been allowed to go home yet, but they will soon. None of you are in trouble, but the government is worried there'll be riots and so they've increased security everywhere else. The cops have been ordered not to hassle you but I'm sure they will anyway; I'm trying to get them sent away but I'm going to get all the survivors in Lina released first. 

I'm so sorry. 

what kind of fucking asshole stores their dangerous shit in a red neighborhood???

is there a list of the dead yet

Thank you for telling us

They're not being too bad here yet

I'll send the list once I have it. 

 

And then she has the pleasure of informing the Anitami government that she got along splendidly with the alien and is going to get a dozen dreamshapers enabled, presumably blue so they can retain ownership of the real estate, following a vetting process. Interested parties can apply to Aitim. And that the red dreamshaper is a child, not yet one, who has no idea how to do anything dangerous but will be continually observed by security cameras so he can't do it accidentally and removed to the middle of the ocean so it doesn't matter if he does. And that the alien wants the Lina reds all released without charges and left alone to bury their dead, that should be achieved promptly to establish some good faith for everything else.

"Well. That went well."

"Could have gone worse."

"You're welcome."

"Does the alien want to offer everyone else the same deal?"

"I think he wants to figure out how to competently operate here but once he has that figured out probably. One of the things we're screening for is willingness to use it militarily -"

"- it's a military advantage even if we're categorically committed to never using it that way."

"Especially since we can be secretly so committed. Are you going to recommend other countries, Aitim?"

"It'd be nice to have it established and working here before it goes up for grabs. I was more thinking if they do want to go talk to our neighbors some neighbors are better candidates than others."

"I'm doing a red dimension. They all move in there and then they get portals to everywhere they might need to work. And then when we're ready to phase them out they've already got somewhere to go and I think they trust me not to murder them all for the real estate, at least not once there are lots of other pocket dimensions available."

"And everyone else can copy that."

"Yep, exactly. And if I understand everything right I can do it with a ground level that's lower than ours so if they wander off the edge they don't land on us."

"I am not at all clear on how all this works."

"If you become a dreamshaper then you have a pocket dimension, originating where you are, which grows whenever you're asleep. The first time you'll have no way to get out of it; after that you can leave at will. Pocket dimensions can produce magical effects. You can make portals hooking them up with eachother or with the standard world. You make a portal by thinking about where it should be and what should cause it to open or close. The magical effects can be really powerful and really ugly. If you die your dimension remains, as-is. I think that's the essential bits."

"I'm going for unapologetic nepotism in the first round of who gets them, because whoever has one will be very politically powerful and I'd better be entirely sure of them. You two, your parents, Taefa Lina and possibly Elad, Asha and Nasam Lakla, Milan Ine if she wants to convince me I like her - Aleva Neli -"