Disclaimer: I do not own the Jak and Daxter series or any associated franchise. I'm just making this story for my own personal enjoyment. I do however, own the character Nora.

Summary: Although the ancient Precursors may have gone into hiding to escape the destruction wrought by the Dark Makers, not all of their Gates had been found. An involuntary Rift traveler stumbles across one such gate, and learns what it means to be 'Human.'

Down the Rabbit Hole

Nora wasn't quite sure why her work mates felt compelled to glance back at the blazing orb in the sky as often as they did. Regardless of how many times they checked, it was still going to be there, and yes, it was still an unmerciful, burning gas ball filled with unending hate that exists solely to remind you of your worthlessness. Naturally.

She wiped away some sweat that was blurring her vision, unknowingly smearing dirt and sand across her forehead and the bridge of her nose from her dusty gloves. She scowled in concentration while she referenced the articles in the sand against the photos and material of her check list for what felt like the seventieth time. Many weeks of dusting, digging, and bleeding finger tips did not incite enthusiasm for the broken pieces of pottery that lay scattered before her.

Eleanor Marie Higgs (Nora to her friends), as the name tag so cheerily displayed on her lanyard, had expected her internship that was to be a 'new, exciting, and daring adventure' in the kingdom of Meroë to be a bit more...exciting and daring. It had taken months of begging from her mentor to convince the Board to fund the operation to begin with, and even longer just waiting to make the list as Egypt was always booked. Customs had been a nightmare to get through, the pat down a little too touchy-feely to be entirely innocent, and the terminal way too crowded. More than once she and the professor had to rush across the airport upon discovering that their plane had been moved to make way for another flight. To make matters worse, turbulence caused their midway flight to be late and they had to reschedule the final leg of the trip. It was well into the morning of the next day before either tired traveler made it to their lodgings.

An anthropologist-in-training, the young woman had actually been looking forward to getting a chance to work at a dig site of one of the Meroë pyramids. Unfortunately, as the team worked both in and outside the sepulcher chamber it became increasingly obvious that there would not be much to find. Broken walls, tool marks, and shattered terra-cotta all pointed to a raid from thieves and grave robbers, and every day Nora could see the usually ever present optimism deflating from her mentor. The layers of disappointment were becoming a bit too much to handle for the older gentleman.

With a huff she pulled the protective plastic sheet back over her marked area, standing with a stretch and awkwardly stepping over the roped boundary lines. She blew away a curly lock of chestnut hair that had escaped her African-inspired head wrap, hazel eyes scanning the hunched figures of the team and hired help. Upon catching sight of the portly professor fussing over equipment near the main tent she tucked her clipboard and check list under her arm, rocks and dirt crunching under her boots as she strode over to him.

"Professor Binns." Nora greeted him, causing the man to start for a moment, before a tired and fatherly smile peeked from under his thick white mustache. Dabbing at his ruddy face with a soaked rag he briefly glanced to the clip board she passed to him.

"Ah, Nora! Finished with your site, dear? That was rather quick! Let's see what secrets we can unfold from the mysterious sands today eh?" His cultured British accent flowed in lilts while he winked cheerfully at his pupil, the words teasing a small smile from her lips. Unfortunately it became increasingly obvious that it was difficult for the seasoned anthropologist to keep his own waning grin while he read through her report, though he tried valiantly to keep his spirit up for his student.

"Well, we'll find something next time. There's always tomorrow," the professor said the phrase he had repeated almost like a prayer throughout their entire time in Meroë. Nora gritted her teeth at the helplessness she felt on behalf of her mentor. It just wasn't fair! There should have been tombs filled with ancient treasure! There should have been gold traded from Nubia; libraries filled with papyrus scrolls and tapestries; countless terra-cotta containers traded from Rome, decorated with invaluable pieces of history and art! Her poor professor deserved it all and more, and yet all that was left behind were empty sarcophagi, their old inhabitants stolen away and sold to black markets, and the discarded remains of broken unwanted pottery. As it was they were trying to draw water from stone. Without some sort of success the future looked fairly bleak and both knew without saying a word that the already reluctant Board would be even more impossible to pull grants from.

Shaking himself from his own personal dark pool of thoughts, Professor Binns turned watery blue eyes to the young woman and gave a kindly smile.

"Now Nora, why don't you go have a rest? It's dreadfully hot and Heavens knows we don't need anyone getting heat stroke. I'll see you again at supper, now off you go!" He made a playful shooing motion with his hands, drawing chuckles from his pupil while she turned to make her way back to her own tent.

Perhaps a rest would do her some good. Her mouth felt a bit like old leather so she was definitely past dehydrated. Currently the sun tipped closer down into early evening in a medley of citrus splashed across the blue canvas of the sky, the glare from the horizon causing her eyes to ache a little. Arabic flowed amidst the workers while they cleared debris, ignoring her as she slipped between them. Here and there a member from the professor's team gave instruction or checked computer screens, a few glancing up or nodding towards her in acknowledgement. One in particular even gave an appreciative smirk, his once over only causing Nora to roll her eyes. It never failed to irritate her how men assumed that just because she was a college student that she was easy game. She was young and unfledged, not loose and stupid.

Eventually she made it to her tent where she kicked her boots off and slid out of sand-filled khakis, collapsing on her cot once the heat exhaustion began to kick in and she had managed to down some water. The cotton felt cool against her overheated skin and she breathed a sigh of simple pleasure at the comfortable feeling, digging her toes into the material. Before long her eyelids began to feel heavy and she could resist the lure of sleep no longer.

oOo

Nora woke to stiff limbs and what felt like a fine layer of crust coating every possible and uncomfortable nook or cranny of her body. Prying her eyes open, she scowled moodily until she managed to find her packet of mini towl-ettes to clean her face. The light in her tent was much dimmer, so she assumed it was late evening and probably time for dinner. A quick twist of her back started a symphony of pops and cracks and she let out a satisfied breath when the pinching pressure on her spine dissipated.

The young woman paused on her way to picking up her discarded khakis, mouth twisting in mild revulsion at the sand still caking the folds of the fabric. Putting on a tough face she pulled them on regardless, cringing as it chaffed.

"Ugh! I'd almost rather go without pants," she growled under her breath, though a passing and silly mental image of the team's reaction, and the professor's likely worried horror, to such brought up a mischievous grin. Another image of the entire team going about their jobs casually at the dig site dressed similarly came up, the thought amusing in a juvenile fashion. A quick rummage for some hygiene products later and she was out to join the rest of the world.

Dinners amongst the team were a pleasant counterweight to the heavy disappointment of the day. It consisted of sitting on unevenly cut stone around a fire pit, the buzz of talk and laughter drowning out the noises of the night. One of the men had brought a guitar with him and the mellow hum of a country ballad complimented the cacophonous jumble of sound.

Nighttime had absorbed the light of the day, and with it took the uncompromising heat. Stifling a chill, Nora became an iron filing to the magnetic warmth of the fire, shuffling to an open space once the professor caught sight of her and energetically waved her over.

"Nora! I was just telling these fine gentlemen about your thesis paper that got published last year. You're far too modest so I felt I had to brag a bit for you." A slightly embarrassed flush warmed the young woman's face. Nora's actual field of specialty was in the realm of cultural anthropology, and in her studies she had noticed a link between the calendar designs of early civilizations that may have pointed to potential trade routes as the cultures influenced one another. Her thesis had gotten the attention of a publisher and had earned her some recognition as her studies opened up a new field of perspective. Unfortunately it had meant that she was forced to give speeches and attend public events, and Nora is a very private person. She would rather study and watch from the background than dig right in the middle of the action...

"I'm sure with a great deal of exaggeration..." she spoke barely over a mumble, but the professor heard her regardless.

"Nonsense! It cannot be exaggeration if it holds truth! You had done a marvelous job, dear, and there is nothing wrong with letting other people know how well my student is doing. Which reminds me, there was a time once-" by then Professor Binns had turned back to his nearby colleagues, eyes sparkling in remembrance while he began yet another long anecdote from his past. Nora smiled fondly while she reached forward for a plate of food, the smell of slightly charred meat and vegetables (the cans that held the bounty spread out haphazardly) whetting her appetite.

Glancing around while she ate, Nora was somewhat startled to notice that a few of the team payed a bit more attention to her, some looking more interested in her presence and giving friendly smiles. She supposed it made sense- as she kept to herself she could be considered an 'unknown', and with the professor volunteering information it would make her seem more interesting as the gossiping nature of human beings inclined them to want to stick their noses in someone else's business.

When it came down to it, Eleanor Higgs was an exceedingly shy individual. An only child raised by a single mother and a pair of grandparents, she grew up primarily around adults and for many years of her life felt estranged from her peers. Beyond that fact, however, she felt she had a fairly normal childhood. Public school had given her a best friend that she had followed around faithfully for her years of pre-pubescent life, dragged along on crazy escapades as the quiet compliment to their boisterous personality. It was a warm yet fuzzy memory and she barely remembered the child's face, let alone their name (Martha perhaps?), though sometimes she reminisced and wondered what they had gotten up to in life. She could only expect something grand- her friend had dreamed very big. Nora, she was not ashamed to admit, had always been a follower at heart and was quite content with the little niche she had found.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The young woman jolted slightly at the sudden voice by her ear, an uncomfortable frown pulling the corners of her mouth while she subtly attempted to reclaim some of her lost personal space. The leering man from earlier grinned at her discomfort, his five o'clock shadow and heavy brow accumulating an unsavory look about him.

"Not thinking of anything, really..." she mumbled back.

"Now that can't be right Darlin! Pretty, smart thing like you gotta have all sorts of genius thoughts rolling around in your noggin just waitin to lead us old men out of our stupors." His words were friendly enough, but the undercurrent of mocking sarcasm confused Nora. "So where you hailin from Darlin?"

"Arizona..."

"Ah! Old Death Valley. Bet this sand trap must be nothing new to you, huh?" She gave a non-committal shrug. "Just got back from a small campaign myself in Chile when Binns snatched me back out here into Africa's right armpit. Barely got my luggage unpacked." He grinned when the brunette perked up with a bit more interest. "Name's Richard by the way."

"Eleanor. What were you doing in Chile?"

"Well, you know how Chile doesn't have an anthropology department over there? I get called on occasion to translate whatever new development they get, having to do with the Araucanian or Fuegia." Nora nodded, her attention better captured. Chile was sort of a new hotspot among anthropologists and a jolt of longing shot through her; traveling around wasn't quite her cup of tea, but being able to study newly found cultures would be a dream realized.

"Too bad about this dig site, eh?" Jolted from her musings, Nora turned her focus back to the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, old Binns has been wanting an adventure in Egypt since he came into the business. I can only imagine how crushed he must feel."

"It may be too early to give up hope. Thieves are opportunists. They are rarely thorough enough to get everything." Nora tried for more determination than she could really feel. Richard must have seen it somewhere in her features because he didn't look at all convinced.

"While there may be truth in that, in my experience it's better to move on before the money runs out." His tone rang with the sting of reality. Unfortunately, any interest in future conversation with Richard began to wane once she realized that he had descended into talking exclusively about himself. The young woman could tell he was a bit of a braggart, and the more he talked the more she suspected an ulterior motive. Sure enough it didn't take very long.

"So, you got any family back home, Darlin?" he asked with what he undoubtedly thought a charming grin.

"Yeah..." When she didn't immediately elaborate there was a brief, awkward silence before the man made an impatient noise at the back of his throat.

"Any uh, siblings, cousins...? Any lucky guy perhaps?" Inwardly Nora sighed at Richard's lack of subtly. It would probably be for the best if she nipped this development in the bud before he became insufferable.

"I've had a long, and rather disappointing, day Richard. I apologize for cutting this short but I think I should be heading for bed." Caught off guard by her abrupt declaration for a secession of the conversation, the man nevertheless sought to turn things in his favor. Catching hold of her sleeve to stop her, he gave a greasy grin.

"Now, hold on a minute, Darlin. The night gets pretty cold and lonely around here, if you know what I mean. Mayhaps I could join you and we could get to know each other a little bit better over some coffee or sumthin. What do you say?"

I can't believe that out of 10,000 sperm that you were the fastest. But rather than answer as she wanted, Nora pressed her lips together firmly in a forced smile. The man's leering was getting to be a bit much for the apprenticed anthropologist, and his words were the cue to beat tracks. Delicately shrugging his hold off of her sleeve, Nora nudged away while standing, an unconscious gesture to feel less vulnerable than if she continued to sit down.

"No thank you, Richard. I appreciate the offer but I really should just turn in for the night. Gotta be rested for tomorrow's dig, after all." For a few seconds she thought she was in the clear, but just as she felt it okay to retreat the friendly expression dropped off of Richard's face and a mocking sneer replaced it.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing. I'm not a complete idiot." His suddenly hostile tone put Nora on the defensive, a frown pulling her own lips. "Too good for me, Precious?"

"I'm just not interested in starting a relationship right now..." Richard barked out a harsh laugh in response.

"Relationship? Darlin, I just wanted sex. You think I want a relationship with a green horn like you? You might have impressed a few old codgers with that little paper, but don't even think you have enough clout to compete with me."

Recoiling slightly from his acidic tone, Nora scowled and drew herself up a little straighter. The man's arrogance was nauseating and she quite suddenly found any potential appetite left diminished. Turning on her heel, the interning anthropologist left with what dignity she could retain. Behind her at the the bonfire Professor Binns' startled voice rose over the din of noise,

"Nora? Dear, what is the matter? Nora?" Though she felt guilty for doing so, Nora pretended she did not hear the professor and determinedly strode back to her tent.

"Just slinking off with my tail between my legs, don't mind me..." she muttered to herself when she finally made it back, relaxing slightly in the comfortable familiarity. A heaving sigh shook her frame and she dropped heavily onto her cot. It was just her luck. She wasn't even a full-fledged and licensed anthropologist and she already had an enemy.

This particular scenario actually occurred more often than Nora really would like. For Nora life was 'sacrifice your free time now for a comfortable life tomorrow' and men didn't quite fit her plan until later in its development. As a result Nora considered the male presences around her only in the friendly sense- the problems arose when they either mistook her intentions or pushed for something more themselves. Richard's offer, unfortunately, was not the crudest she had received.

It seemed like the only difference between this profession and the cacti just outside of her tent, was that the cacti had pricks on the outside.

oOo

Nora woke to the puzzling sound of the campsite a buzz with activity. Groggily rubbing the grit from her eyes, she peeked out one of the looser slats, wincing through the harsh glare. What she saw brought her to sober-wakefulness immediately.

The men were packing up camp.

In record time Nora was presentable and out amidst the rush. The quick motions of men folding up tents and gathering equipment kicked up a cloud of dust and the air was choked with sand and harsh bickering. Weaving in and about, the young woman squeezed her way to the professor's main tent. Inside her mentor was alive with movement- he bustled about, excitement literally vibrating in waves off of him. Nora hesitantly entered; obviously she had missed something.

"Professor?" Abruptly he turned with a beaming grin, his response full of bubbly giddiness.

"Oh Nora! You should have stayed longer with us last night! I've kept a correspondence with a nearby team run by my colleague, James Morelli, just about 240 kilometers northeast. Their dig was successful and they're willing to share their findings! Apparently some of their equipment malfunctioned and they are in need of assistance."

The professor's cheer was contagious for Nora felt herself uplifted and excited as well. She let out squeak of laughter when the professor suddenly pulled her into a clumsy two step, their elation made all the more powerful after so many weeks of failure.

"Alright then! Don't worry about packing up your tent, dear- we'll have the workers take care of it (they're much faster anyway). You just worry about getting your equipment together and pack up that last dig site you were marking off."

"Yes sir." Nora nodded and smiled, turning to quickly do just that, when she was stopped for a final time.

"Oh, and Nora? I almost hate to ask you, but since you are heading in that direction could you pick up my bag of extra brushes and trowels? I believe I left them in the crypt chamber near the back wall."

Another nod to clarify and Nora took off, her legs pumping in a fast walk to their sad excuse of a dig site. The brisk pace took her past the gutted remains of the camp, where the men milled about to catalogue and recheck what may be missing.

"I can't believe it took that buffoon THIS long to contact Morelli's team. Talk about a waste of my time."

The voice of a familiar sleaze-ball drifted from the side of a tent that had not yet been taken down, and so Nora quickly hugged to the side to avoid being seen.

"Calm down Richard. We knew it would be a goose-chase when we signed on. That was part of the deal." The second voice sounded like one from the professor's team, though she didn't know the man personally. His words were strange and the whole conversation had a weird vibe to it, so Nora decided to continue eavesdropping.

"That middle-guy you and Morelli are using better come through. Morelli's men left a fantastic mess over here after they cleaned it out and it's been a pain to keep the professor's nose out of the trail." The sounds of shuffling cloth marked the man's aggravation, though the tent obscured Nora's view of him.

"He'll come through. I don't know why you're being so impatient. You'll be more than compensated. The professor's old. Outdated. The Board has wanted to permanently put him out to pasture for a while now. Morelli will share a small section of his findings to make the old fool happy enough with his little expedition. When he leaves we can finish up on those documents. With new blood like Morelli and yourself, it will be easy to convince the Board members that the professor is losing his touch and just...wasn't thorough enough."

"Seems like an awful lot of effort and scheming for a few crusty Egyptian relics. Why's Morelli putting so much into this when he could easily just tap the Black Market?"

"Politics. Binns has seniority over Morelli when it comes to acquiring Board grants and influence. He's just getting rid of competition."

"Why not just get his money from his usual sources?" Richard asked in a puzzled tone.

"He wants to eventually occupy a seat in the Board. If he does too many things under the table it will eventually leave a paper trail. Can't make everything too obvious. Did you take care of Binns' pet project?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah I checked her out. The little tart is as oblivious as he is. She won't be a problem." His companion let out a non-committal grunt, signaling an end to the conversation. Slowly, Nora edged through an open flap of the tent and scrunched into the shadows, hiding silently as the sound of the two men's boots crunching onto loose sand kernels marked their exit.

While she sat and counted her breaths to make sure the two had gotten far enough away to be safe to move, Nora felt an ugly, unfamiliar coil of rage squirming in her belly. How dare they. How could those lousy, slimy, horrible men scheme against the Professor? He had been in the business while they were still in diapers! This Morelli character sounded more like a criminal than an anthropologist.

"Calm down, calm down. I have to think. I have to take this easy." This would be a delicate game now. She had to make sure that the men responsible didn't know she was onto them and somehow still let the Professor know. She had a pretty good idea what 'documents' they were talking about- likely they were going to sabotage the documentation of the damages to the dig site by 'tomb raiders'. She would also have to get copies of the originals made somehow, and without them knowing... Just the thought of how precarious the situation was made her a little sick with anxiety.

Finally feeling comfortable with moving, Nora gingerly stood and listened, shuffling behind the tent and keeping to the narrow corridors created by the still-standing tents. She would still go to the dig site to retrieve the supplies- it would be suspicious to return without her equipment. When she arrived she only half paid attention to the clean up process, hands going through the motions, while her mind ran a marathon of scenarios and possible plans of action. Everything strapped up and ready to move out, the young woman almost turned to head back to camp, when a sudden niggling thought brought her up short.

"Oh, that's right. Professor Binns asked me to get his extra brushes from inside the tomb." She chewed on her lip in indecision, staring into the distant mouth of the cavernous opening. "Well... I might as well. No reason to have to come back for it later." That logic in mind, she re-adjusted her equipment duffle more comfortably on her shoulder and marched to the tomb.

The damp coolness of the sepulcher was a welcome reprieve from the dusty heat outside, emphasizing the dull burn of what she just knew would be sunburn on her cheeks and neck. With her new found knowledge, Nora cast a critical eye over the tomb. There was a pattern that she could detect now; the clean out had been methodical, with the oldest damage marks starting in the quadrant closest to the entrance and working counter-clockwise. Raiders would have immediately gone to the crypts for the precious metals within, but an anthropologist would place greater value in the preserved scrolls and artwork.

Clicking her tongue, the intern scowled in dissatisfaction- where had the Professor put the darn thing? Normally he'd place it along the wall to keep it from interfering with his dig. Edging along step by step, the intern searched the shadowy alcoves, cracking a glow stick when squinting didn't seem to be enough. Oddly though she couldn't find the blasted thing! A puff of air slipped past the lip she had started chewing in frustration. She didn't have time for this-

The echoing sound of a stone falling from a height immediately brought her up short.

Slowly she looked down near her feet, eyes straining through the minor illumination the stick provided. Her shuffling around had kicked a few stones, and just there near the corner of a worn altar like structure she could see a crack giving way to a sink hole. She purposely kicked another stone over, sighing heavily when the same echo answered once the rock fell and clattered to an apparent lower level.

You have got to be kidding...

Gingerly she edged her way over, feeling the dirt with her boots to test for further weakening ground. Reaching into her bag she cracked another stick and tossed it into the hole, bracing herself on the altar and slowly looking over the edge. Nora could see the Professor's bag down there, but that wasn't all. From what she could make out in the glow there was an entire chamber underneath her feet.

In that moment a slow idea formed in the intern's head. Judging by the diameter, the sink hole had only been newly made (likely an air pocket had formed and given out), so it was unlikely that the rest of the team knew about it. A hidden chamber had the possibility of countless artifacts, perhaps some far greater than the chambers above. If she could just take a look and actually find something, then Professor Binns could stay and his career would never be challenged! They could snatch away a victory right under those repugnant men's' noses!

In swift, precise motions (before her common sense kicked in and she talked herself out of it), Nora took out her rope and hooks and secured a harness around her midsection. With her line anchored to the stone altar she tossed her own equipment bag into the opening and slowly backed up to the edge. She counted her breathes and tested her footing. Three. Two. One... And then she hopped backwards and repelled to the lower chamber.

Collapsing her legs to distribute the shock of the landing, Nora nevertheless found herself sputtering in the dust cloud kicked up in her wake. Removing the harness, she gaped around at the massive surrounding space- she had strongly underestimated the size of the lower chamber! Raising her light she was able to barely spot great over stretching arches and columns. Going through her light supply the intern cracked several more, dropping a stick for every fifteen or twenty steps as she slowly picked her way from the starting point at the rope. When she encountered an urn nearly as tall as she was, she giddily grinned and dropped a stick inside, the light reflecting strongly off of the glazed pottery and magnifying the glow inside. She repeated this for a few more urns, saving the previous sticks she had dropped as the urns lit the room up more efficiently.

The first thing Nora noted about the chamber was a recurring pattern of circles. Over the arches, carved into the walls, even the general shape of the hallways leading into other chambers- all had a circular theme. A glint caught her eye, and looking further up she was startled to note several identical, almost bird-like masks with strangely elongated beaks made of some sort of gleaming bronze metal, all far taller than she and braced high up on the looming columns. She couldn't figure how the masks weren't tarnished or rusted- perhaps a vacuum had formed in the chamber over time?

The more Nora looked within the chamber the more excitement built in her belly. From the architecture, to the style of pottery, to the metals that seemed out of date to the timeframe she judged for the chamber a truly fantastic idea was forming in her head - but it was the carvings on the walls that truly sealed the deal. Typically Egyptians before the Roman takeover painted their stories and records on the walls, but that was not all- she couldn't recognize a single symbol. Normally a copy of the Rosetta Stone would be needed, but she could tell right off the bat from the carvings' orientation and lack of actual pictures that no known Egyptian tribe had done this.

She may have just discovered a new culture.

At this point the quiet intern would have immediately gone into a flurry of note-and-picture documentation, but in her leaning forward to better examine the carvings something caught her attention in her peripheral. Some kind of construction in a conjoined chamber was catching the light from the urns, and judging by the size of the reflection it was fairly big.

Curiosity getting the better of her, the brunette shouldered her equipment and made her way over, fine sand kicked into a spray as she disturbed the long abandoned walkway. The tall shadows thrown by the light behind made it difficult to make out what had originally caught her eye, so she paused to find another urn. What the light revealed caused an involuntary gasp to leave her throat.

What could only be a massive gate stood on a raised platform, the center focus of the chamber. The behemoth structure shared the same circular theme as the rest of the architecture, making up several concentric circles and a gaping empty center.

"Holy cow, I'm on Stargate," she breathed out, gingerly stepping closer. More of the strange language decorated the stone surface, but as she moved closer she could make out fitted grooves in the gate where a smooth, palm sized bronze sphere rested, it too covered in archaic text. Dozens of spheres lined the stone, like the markers of a giant clock face.

Climbing onto the platform the anthropologist in training slowly circled the gate. She had to crane her neck back to actually see to the top and the edge of the lower rung nearly came up to her stomach. Looking back from the gate to the hallway she had entered from, Nora boggled at the engineering mystery; how on earth had they managed to get the thing in here?

To amuse herself she began to count the ring of spheres set into the stone gate- after all the number could be relevant to some kind of ritual. Definitely more than fifty...in the eighties...ninety seven, eight... Wait.

There was a sphere missing; right at the bottom right corner in between ninety eight and one hundred. A good thing she had bothered to count them or she would have missed it.

Glancing around the chamber quickly to check if the sphere had merely fallen out, Nora was relieved to find it set into a pedestal not but a few steps away. Putting on a pair of gloves, she gently lifted the sphere, taking mental notes on the strange lines that seemed to section the orb into four parts. Normally protocol would demand she leave the sphere where it had been found but some undeniable curiosity ruled her hand as she approached the gate once again. It may have been her imagination, but the air in the chamber seemed heavier all of the sudden- charged with energy that induced goose bumps to ripple along her arms. It caused her to hesitate for just a moment... And then she surged forward and lodged the orb into the open slot.

A reverberating CLICK echoed in the chamber before what sounded like the sharp crackle of static followed and then with the crunching of stone one of the rings of the gate moved. It made a full counter-clockwise turn before clicking into place, then it and the next concentric ring turned clock-wise a full pass- the pattern continuing for each ring, switching back and forth in direction. Growing more and more alarmed the young woman could only gape as the spheres began to emit a dull glow, and with an ear bursting displacement of air, a Rift split like a wound in the open space of the center ring.

Staggering backwards, Nora clutched the pedestal she had gleaned the sphere from lest her legs give way beneath her. For several minutes she had no words, blinking owlishly and mind drawing blank; then sluggishly like a rusty train finally getting its wheels turning her mind began to assess what she was seeing.

Although a wind had picked up in the chamber (probably a result of the sudden low pressure created by the Rift) she didn't feel like she was being sucked into the gate. So it was likely safe to release the pedestal. The swirling vortex that made up the Rift was curiously a blue color, though she couldn't make out any identifiable shapes or patterns in the churning light. Shuffling cautiously around to the side, she found that the Rift was actually a flat disk shape and didn't flex or extend beyond the cradle of the gate. Picking up a rock, the intern chucked it into the swirling mass- and then frowned when the unmistakable sound of a rock-like clatter responded behind the portal.

"Huh. Is it broken?" Hands on her hips, she considered the possibility. The technology was obviously pretty old and it's not like a customer service line for portals to other times or places existed for her to call... Deciding that a proper experiment should have multiple trials in order to define a conclusion, she tossed a few more rocks through. All shared the same result as the first.

Nora chewed on her lip in thought. Common sense and years of learning drilled into her brain dictated that she should take whatever pictures she could and high tail it back up to the surface to let the professionals handle this situation. But... she didn't know who she could trust anymore. Was it just the creep Richard and the unknown team member plotting against Professor Binns or were there others? If she took this amazing find up without knowing who would be safe with the information then it could just hasten the demise of her mentor's career.

She would need to investigate the gate herself.

Clutching her equipment bag to her side, Nora took several halting steps up to gate with the intent of setting up a boundary line and beginning a site as she had done countless times before. Breathing became more difficult and she could hear the thundering of blood in her ears as nervousness skyrocketed her blood pressure. Yet along with the blood, the strange static sound from before returned. The pressure built an ache in her ears and head, but over it all the static seemed to hide a murmur. Like a soft voice in a busy room that grew the closer she moved to the Rift. Standing now right in front of the gate, hair and jacket swaying forward in the gusts displacing into the vortex, she strained to listen. The murmur had risen in volume to match a person speaking a few feet across from her, but she could not make out individual words or even if it were a language at all. If only she could move closer then surely...

Ba-bmp. Ba-bmp...

Tentatively Nora removed her gloves and reached out to graze her fingertips along the surface of the Rift. The most notable thing about the texture was that there wasn't one. A cold sensation, like passing one's hand through a stream of air conditioning, let her know that she touched it at all- but overall she might as well have been touching nothing. Emboldened by this she gave a relieved smile and relaxed, shifting her weight to improve her balance a bit- And pushed her hand accidentally through to the wrist.

Alarm splashed like cold water pricking her nerves, increasing to panic when she found that she couldn't pull her hand out. No amount of bracing, tugging, or yanking could even budge the flesh of her hand- and worse still, she couldn't feel any sensation beyond the Rift- not the air of space behind the gate, not the sensation of movement from fingers responding to stimuli from her frantic brain, not even pain. The brunette was in fact so focused on trying to get free that she didn't immediately notice the gradually building pulse of light radiating from the gate. By the time she did it pulsed one last time.

And the bottom dropped out of the world.

The Rift stretched before her eyes, and as her vision tunneled, the young woman felt herself stretched along with it. There was a sensation of high speed, but no land marks to provide a point of reference- just endless light and a vacuum of silence that throbbed in her head. A few times Nora felt that she may have passed out, flickering in and out of consciousness in tune to the crippling nausea she felt in her stomach. It seemed endless- and then the light flared brilliantly before her.

Falling out of the other side of the Rift Nora had only a brief exposure to her surroundings before darkness claimed her mind. The smell of sulfur and smoke burned her throat while her vision grayed, unbearable heat suffocating almost to the point of pain. And though her confused thoughts tried to process why she could see the sky above when she had been inside before, she just couldn't fight the pull any longer.

On her stomach before the giant gate that slowly dimmed and settled into stillness, Eleanor Higgs lost the battle to remain conscious.

oOo

Within the volcano fields, normally a place avoided by the denizens of the Wastelands, the fires and smoke stirred passionately in a violent frenzy. Flame red energy gave sparking life to the robust element that tirelessly danced about the volcanic craters.

And yet- the dance yielded to the anomaly that abruptly entered its domain. A being, foreign to this land and strangely absent of the barest hint of life energy that filled even the lowest crawling form, had suddenly appeared and created a dense low point to the flow of energies around them. The rich red energies of the volcano field became a flash point of activity as it rushed into the sieve, heralded as the appearance of fiercely glowing orbs of crimson that rose from the very rocks and fires like a cloud of fireflies. More and more absorbed into this being, Nature's attempt at equalizing until the nothingness slowly filled and the fields were again at balance.

The Rift traveler remained dead to the world even as her breathing passages cleared and adjusted to the smoke, her inner core rising rapidly in temperature like a newborn volcano. Still Nora slept on, dreaming of red lights and an endless sea of sand.

tbc

The premise that goes with this story, is that the world of Jak and Daxter is not known as a video game (so I guess that would make Nora's 'Earth' kind of an alternate universe). There will be a lot of action in the next chapter, but it will be a while before any of the main cast makes an appearance.