Intergalactic Dating Agency Main Offices
"Have you seen my coffee, Comet?" Jorak asked as he looked around his messy office. Papers were everywhere, and he knew that he'd brought in the coffee. An incredible brew he'd discovered on the pre-space dimension of the Terran system, the world they called Earth.
He had traveled there a few times, stocking up on the delicious brew. It was just the right level of bitterness to balance the sweets he usually required. Part of Jorak's chemistry needed a lot of sweet sustenance. But like many with a pallet that swung one way, one craved the things that did not fit his diet. Like sour, bitter, and savory things.
His pet, a starline called Comet, leaped onto his desk. The feline with large, floppy ears and purple dotted fur purred as he flicked his double-tail around the desk.
And the flick of one of the tails found the coffee, spilling it everywhere.
"Comet!" Jorak said and reached to grab the animal and put him on the floor, away from the controls.
Though it didn't matter.
Comet dove away, bouncing on the control panels before taking off and running out of the office, faster than Jorak could catch him.
He scrambled to clean up the spilled coffee. "Foolish pet," he muttered. "I really should let him wander through one of the portals some time. See how good he has it here." The pet was still his, obnoxious or not, and he didn't want him to wind up on a different planet in a neighboring dimension. Who knows what would happen to him there.
Comet wasn't raised to be on his own.
Sometimes, though, Jorak wondered why he brought him to work. After all, the Intergalactic Dating Agency's authority would not be too keen on him bringing his pet.
Not that anyone checked down on this level. Here, the portals were built and distributed. That's all that Jorak did. Hard enough work--getting the portals launched and placed on the appropriate planets, in the correct dimensions.
That was new.
The Intergalactic Dating Agency didn't always do multi-dimensional searches to find someone's perfect mate. Only when occasionally mating a client was more challenging than expected. Though the last few years, it was becoming more and more of a necessity.
That's where Jorak came in.
He set up and controlled the portals for bringing people back and forth between dimensions.
Unlike when all are on the same dimensional plane, that was easy. It required arranging travel between systems. The inter-dimensional matches, though? Those were a little trickier. More formulas, more equipment, and more data.
He maintained the portals and kept them programmed.
Today, he worked on a new portal that needed to be placed on his favorite coffee spot. The higher-ups believed they needed a new location readied with one of the circular rings.
The coffee cleaned up, Jorak turned back to the controls. He started reading the displays and shook his head.
"Comet," he muttered as he flipped all the controls back to their original settings.
"Programming and instigating," he said as he flipped a few controls. The display showed a portal ring--they were eight-foot rings that stood up vertically. Markings on the inner and outer circles handled the controls and the information about what they were. Written in Standard, most planets were able to understand the text without any difficulty. There were several designs, and as per IDA protocols, they were designed to match their surroundings as much as possible.
A location had been selected on Earth, in a cave, which allowed for good natural concealment. The elements in the cave walls would help funnel the energy as needed.
It was easier to have something that candidates could walk into and not be seen moving through. It kept the local population otherwise occupied. The portals are only activated if a potential match walks through anyway. So, if, say, a young one wandered through, playing as a child would, they would not activate it.
Jorak ran over the controls again.
"It looks like everything is set for portal Terra-129-B."
He ran over the controls again, double-checking the numbers.
He nodded his head. "Yes. That will work."
He launched the portal.
Outside his window, he saw the stone portal blink twice and disappear.
