Chapter 11: Humanity's World

Now was the time everyone hoped for, and also the time that everyone dreaded. It was the time when two worlds would connect once more, a time when one world was about to see the might of the other. No one was really prepared, even when they said otherwise, as their destination had seemingly become alien. In the early hours, before the sun rose up, everyone was inside the shuttle waiting for a storm to arrive. Fortunately for them the predicted storm arrived, and lightning struck the shuttle multiple times. The engines roared into action while they were tilting the shuttle upwards - upon being vertical the eye of the storm gazed down from above. Peter geared the fusion engines to their maximum, forcing the shuttle to lift off, with an acceleration high enough to feel uneasy.

Everyone looked outside the windows, seeing the world for one last time before the clouds blocked it. All they could see now was a tunnel of clouds, still accelerating, through the tunnel at unimaginable speeds. The force of this acceleration soon cleared off as the shuttle came to a constant speed, about 9 miles per second. The clouds soon changed, to almost like a mirror tunnel with warping sides. Around them they could see their own shuttle, and in front they could see an exit. The shuttle slowed down as they made their way through the exit, revealing an enormous plain of grass. Landing, Alma regained a signal with all the technological world; a sign that they had landed in the right place.

Stepping outside, Peter instantly became familiar of the smell and the quality of the air. However that wasn't the same for the family, being all new to it. It wasn't harmful for them, but it was certainly annoying. Using an integrated GPS Alma quickly found their location: Henry's Fork, Wyoming. Around them were a few number of trees and solitary bushes, a mere 300 feet from them was a steep creek going into a meandering river. Off in the distance was a range of mountains, with three peeks pointing above all of them, albeit not like the ones in the other world.

"Here we are. The world I came from." Peter announced to the rest. "We're in a pretty quiet part of the world right now so not many can find us here."

"Where's your home then?" Buck asked. Peter huffed before responding. "About five hundred miles that way." Pointing to the west. "Any-who, there's so many places we could go as of now. We could go... hmm... Not sure actually. Alma, you got any locations we could go?" He asked, nothing came from Alma for more than a couple of seconds.

"Any place that's at night time I suppose. As of now that's around Australia, so perhaps Sydney. Pretty busy but hopefully we can roam around at night." Alma responded. Sydney was a very risky place to start off with, for starters the security of the mega-city was at it's highest due to some terrorist attacks a few years back, and anything suspicious would be called upon immediately. It might as well be fortunate for them that Alma had some control over the grid to stop that, in certain locations of course. The Opera House was the first place to land near, as it had been closed for some time.

Quickly, they went inside - only to go back out again after nearly drawing attention from a crowd. "What was that?" Libby asked, all of them were curious as to why Peter let them almost get caught.

"Hang on a second, it seems that we're about half a month out of sync in terms of relative time. In other words we should of been here a month after I left but instead it's been a month and a half. In that time they've managed to re-open this landmark." Peter said, thinking of a way to get inside. Alma patted him twice on his left shoulder, turning around to see a large poster:

'LATEST ATTRACTION, SEE THE DINOSAURS COME TO LIFE! - SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE AT 1 AM'

It was the perfect plan, just what they'd wanted. Moving stealthy (how you define stealthy is up to you) around to the back of the famous site, they went into the backstage to see the animatronics that would be on the show in about 10 or so minutes. They were the same height as Peters friends, but their look wasn't as accurate as their size. It would seem like a good idea to give the audience something to be really amazed at. Peter had a look at the script that was left out on the side and soon realised that it wasn't what he initially thought it was going to be about. Instead it was a talk about the future of advanced robotics, and it was originally going to be hosted by someone who's name was familiar to him. When the time came, the person did not come to the backstage, nor was anyone heard through the curtains. So without further notice Peter told Arlo and the others to wait until he says so.

The audience watched as the curtains withdrew slightly. Peter was the only one to emerge for now as thousands waited to see what he had in store, not realizing what was actually happening.

"Hello everyone, it's a real pleasure to see you all here. Now, we all know one thing about technology - that it's getting ever more and more advanced. Just over the past few months a team of experts had made a near General Artificial Intelligent machine known as ALMAT, or Alma for those who wan't a more comfortable name. In fact I've been given access to this design to show you all what had been made just almost half a year ago." Alma knew that it was its queue to walk out, and so it did. First it was on all fours, before standing up and changing its front legs to arms.

"I'm Alma, a revolutionary design in terms of mobility and cognitive value. I hope you all have an excellent day." It said fluently. "With a complex AI neural network it can mimic a human's voice almost perfectly, it is also connected to the cloud and had been used to predict weather by as much as a month with 80% accuracy - which hasn't been achieved by any program before." Peter said, before continuing.

"However, we wanted to push further. Now I'm sure you're here because you've seen Jurassic Park or any other dinosaur film/documentary. We were inspired by the design of the long-neck dinosaurs, specifically the Apatosaurus, to create a machine that looks like the real thing. There's one thing that's different, they can only speak in English." The crowd were given time to laugh. "No seriously, the things were so realistic that we had to have them speak English to get people to realise that they were not real. May I present to you the first of the four Apat-class machines: Arlo."

Arlo came from behind the curtains, and was met with an awe Peter had never heard of before. Peter called out the other names and they too came out, the crowd all around were so shocked to see something like this that flashes from phones spontaneously erupted from all sides. Peter knew this was going to be a new sensation quickly, and even more so when they spoke. In fact the security of the Opera House offered to get Peter and the others out of there - oblivious to Peters plan. Eventually they had made it back to the shuttle and left.

"So how was that for first impressions guys? The entire world now knows you exist." Peter called out from the cabin.

"Wait, the entire world? How?" Peter could hear Ida ask. "Social media. There's a thing called the internet that allows everyone on Earth to talk to each other no matter where they are in seconds, post messages about what's happened lately and more. By the time we arrive at a new location we'll have to be more careful." Peter explained. The next place to go was none other than the Great Wall of China, or at least fly over it. "This wall was made over two thousand years ago and covers six thousand miles. In other words, it's a very long and old wall. People love it because of how long it was and how people back then managed to make such a thing. Right then Alma where to go next?"

"Night time should be starting to cover parts of Europe now. But since we just blew everyone's minds, maybe skip Europe? I don't know about you guys but we can't pull something like that off again. It's going to be a long journey, but I think New York should finally get to see something good happen. How about you guys, New York sound good to you?"

"We don't even know what a New York is." Arlo said, pointing the obvious.

"I take that as a yes, Peter we're good to land in New York."

A/N: So why did this chapter take over two weeks to make? Honestly it's the exams, they've just come around and progress on chapters have slowed down as a result, however that does not stop me from trying. Sorry that the chapter contains a bit of science, I couldn't really help it in the end. I hope you enjoyed this chapter - and more importantly the story so far, there's much more to come, though how many chapters specifically I'm not sure. Let me know what you think so far, and as always... see you, in the next chapter. Bye for now!

Next Chapter: Catch-Up Time

Notable Facts: N/A