"I'll fix it," I said. "What are you going to do with them?"
"You know how it works," he smiled, "we throw you into Algerinai's onispace, and maybe we help you if we can hack in and download anything from outside, or, if we can't, you survive long enough to fix it."
"You're going throw us in? Physically? You won't jack us in through virtual reality hookups?"
"We can't keep the connection open long enough. We have to throw you in."
"So we'll be at the mercy of a world created by a malfunctioning computer?"
"That's the idea. You get in, you find Algerinai, and you fix the problem."
So the OnTech people moved us to one side of the wall. A giant granite ring was in the middle of the room, with wires all hooked up to it.
"We're charging up the portal." Jimini sat down at a computer console. Several others were already furiously typing. Soon, a small singular sphere of neon green energy appeared in the middle of of the ring, and it slowly got bigger and bigger and bigger, until it was big enough to walk through.
"We have to hack into Algerinai's system first, don't go yet." The depths of the sphere of energy began to swirl in colors. Blue, red, yellow, orange, violet, all started sparkling through the green. Finally, it calmed again, at blue.
"We're in. Now go." Jimini, despite his usual despicable behavior, could be all about work when he wanted to. This was one of those times. The only times he and I could ever work together was when we were both in that mood.
"Come on," I told the others. The doubtful looks on their faces told me they didn't want to, but the realized they had no other choice. I took the hands of the girls, and the man took Lea's hand. Together, all of us stepped into the glowing blue orb. That was the last we'd see of our world for a while.
