"Alright my Robot Friend. Let's see if I can get away with waking up another builder."

  Between my thirty years of surviving the mobile dead and my time in the b, I was a little lonely. Perhaps, a little off my rocker.

  It beeped at me. I think it was a positive beep.

  The next Probe woke up. I willed it to me. This time I felt a bit of strain. Was two really all I could control right now? Was it reted to my Psi Resonance stat? Could be.

  Best to quit while I was ahead.

  I wondered if the Probes had a set build order or were more flexible. Oh so many questions.

  "Can you clear the debris up without disturbing the others."

  They both beeped acknowledgement. They could zip around quickly, and they started breaking down debris. I expected this process to destroy the materials, that wasn't what happened. Faster than I would have thought, they had built of stacks of glowing blue and green cubes. Minerals and Vespene. That was so cool.

  We worked our way back out of the ship, the Probes clearing the path. It took a while, but it was worth it. Plus there was something meditative about watching them work.

  Once we were free of the vessel, we found the Wisps dancing around. There still seemed to be plenty of daylight left. More than enough time to see what these guys could do.

  Hmm, where to start? I could try to have the Probes build a Nexus. I wasn't sure how useful that would be, and it would probably take a while. On the other hand, a Pylon should allow them to build a few things more rapidly. It might also let me expand my control limit. More Probes sounded like a wonderful idea.

  "Could you whip up a Pylon?" I asked the closest Probe. I pointed to roughly where I thought I wanted the Pylon. Its beep signaled acknowledgement and then zipped back into the wreck, to return a moment ter with a Mineral cube. The Probe repeated this process a few times. I told the other Probe to help with ferrying out all the minerals and vespene.

  Once they'd pulled out all the needed materials, the first Probe used its beam to break down the mineral cubes and then projected a visible tempte of a Pylon, that stared to slowly fill in. So instead of warping in structures, the Probe was building them up.

  Could it warp in things, if there was somewhere to warp them in from?

  Whew, that Pylon was big. Like the size of a house big. Maybe bigger. It was hovering about ten yards off the ground. The roughly shaped Crystal core suspended in the bronze control ring was aesthetically pleasing to look at.

  The Pylon finished with a snap, and suddenly things were different. I felt a connection to the giant crystal. Part of me instinctively reached out to it, and something in it reached back. Where its blue light touched me I felt nourished and invigorated. Even the Wisps seemed to enjoy the touch of its luminance.

  I knew without a doubt, I could now awaken more Probes.

  But first, because I'm something of a paranoid bastard. I had the Probe start building a Photon Cannon. I had it pced more towards the mountainous side of the isnd I hadn't explored yet. Which felt like a judicious decision a moment ter when the Portal started to power up. If anything came out of it, the cannon would be their greeting. Or at least a warning.

  Blue script began to light up on the face of the structure. I couldn't recall what Protoss writing actually looked like, but this didn't seem to be their work. Nor did the glowing sigils remind me of anything I remembered from Azeroth. I wonder if the Protoss vessel had crashed here because of this portal, or something reted to it.

  The Photon Cannon snapped into completion long before the Portal finished powering up. Again this defensive structure was far rger than I would have thought. The base ptform that the focusing lens hovered over was a work of art. The center glowed with blue crystal and the out ring was the bronze like alloy of the Protoss.

  Because I didn't believe that there was any like too much firepower, I queued up another cannon.

  I could sense a connection to the first cannon, I could order it to target and fire, I could set parameters for it. All very intuitive.

  I'd never been very good at being still. Even if require to sit or stand in pce I tended to sway or shuffle, anything to keep in motion. I paced a lot while waiting or thinking. At this point, it was such an ingrained behavior that I barely noticed it. Jumping universes and being altered into a new being had changed nothing about this fundamental trait.

  Even while being utterly entranced by watching the Probe building, I rocked on my heels back and forth, side to side. Every so often I'd take small unconscious steps. Like part of me wanted to dance, though I was always a terrible dancer.

  I thought about going and waking more Probes. I might need their help if anything came through the stone gateway. On the other hand, would more Probes make any real difference if the Photon Cannons didn't. I couldn't say, until I'd seen them fight.

  What could I do to to improve my chances or what could I get the second Probe to build that might be helpful? Could they build a short wall? the Protoss themselves would never consider using defensive walls, that's what their shield technology was for. But I didn't have armor with a shield module built into it. All I could was try.

  I called the second Probe over and asked it to build me a five foot tall wall, at double the thickness of the vessel's walls. It would be in an arch shape so I'd be protected from three sides. The Probe had no problem complying with my request, and built out the wall quickly. Exactly as I'd envisioned it. The best part was that it was cheap. Only one mineral cube was used. That was a game changer, and something to explore ter.

  The Portal had opened.

  It wasn't the baleful green of the Dark Portal, nor the blue of the Protoss. It was mostly pure white light, with just a hint of different colors streaking through it.

  I crouched behind the wall, my rifle ready. Watching for any sign of movement. One minute, nothing. At the five minute mark my Pylon flickered and seemed dimmer. At the ten minute mark the Pylon went dark. My connection to it now felt like a void in my mind. this meant the cannons had also gone down. On the bright side the Portal closed.

  The Probes were fine, so it wasn't like an EMP effect. I think the Portal literally drained the Pylon dry to power itself. Yet the Pylon was still floating so I had to believe that it would recharge in time. It had taken almost an hour to open the Portal. My brain worked out a few calcutions.

  Nothing had come out of the Portal, so either it was safe on the other side, or whatever was over there was as cautious as me. Since I was stuck on this isnd, resources would eventually become limited. I didn't need too much for survival, but I had an itch to see this version of Azeroth. To explore, to not stay still.

  I wanted to see what was on the other side of that portal as well. Just to see. To know.

  Alright, I formed a pn. But first I had a Probe build another Pylon this one back where the switchback came up the central pteau. This new Pylon's field should overp the first, but not the Portal. My thinking was that it would help to recharge the first Pylon while not helping to charge the Portal, plus its field would just barely include both cannons bringing them back online.

  Once the new Pylon was up, I once again felt a connection in my mind. I decided to go wake up a few more Probes. This time I manage to handle three more Probes. That didn't seem consistent with the logic of the game, but maybe it was because I was a hybrid, or that this wasn't a game. Hard to say.

  I left the first two Probe to keep scrapping the Protoss vessel's debris. The new robots followed me all the way back to the Pod. My hoarding instincts wouldn't allow me to abandon potential useful things. Even if it was the smart py.

  The Sun looked to be about an hour from setting. I briefly considered having the Probes build a ramp to get back up to the top of the cliff, but dismissed it when I realized that would lead to unknown territory. Hauling the Pod through the unknown was a bad idea.

  Interesting note, the Wisps followed us to through the forest but stopped at the tree line. I didn't think much of it at first but my subconscious took note and was chewing at what their behavior could mean. Wisp were natural curious and generally had little concern for safety. They'd go up on the Pteau, so it wasn't about staying in the forest. They'd learned to avoid the beach.

  Shit. I really didn't want to be on this beach anymore.

  I gathered my buried supplies. One of the Probes would carry them for me. The other two Probes managed to bring the Pod to shore with an impressive dispy of what their control of field effects could handle.

  As we moved back toward the forest I tried to remove any signs we'd been here. Hard to do on sand so I kind of rode the Probe carrying my supplies. I'm sure it looked absolutely ridiculous, but I didn't leave a trail. the passage of the Probe did move the sand, but it looked more like natural movement caused by wind. As a bonus, this wiped out previous signs of my presence.

  If something nasty was coming, I wanted to see it before it saw me. If that wasn't possible, I wanted cannons to be ready for greeting duties.

  Once back at the top of the Pteau. I had the Probes set the Pod and supplies to one side of the first Pylon, then I had one of them build a Photon Cannon by the switchback, so anything unauthorized coming up the trail would get a big ball of energy to the face.

  Night fell, and I could now feel the first Pylon charging. I had a Probe build a third Pylon over by the crashed vessel, again making sure that its field would overp the first Pylon and cannon without overpping the Portal. Another cannon pced by the new addition to defend it.

  Another Probe was building me a bunker. A half submerged structure with thick armor pting and firing ports. A double thick hatch to get in or out. I had envisioned the bunker to be big enough for me to sleep in with monitors to see what was going on outside. The Probes once again surprised me, and everything came out just as I'd envisioned. The only addendum they had added, were a few crystals on the outside that seemed to act as the cameras.

  All in all a great pce to ride out the night. And I was well on the way to the half sleeping state I'd become accustomed to, when I realized the Pylons put out a lot of light. On an isnd that wasn't supposed to have light.

  I facepalmed.

  Great, I'd lit the beacons, now we'd see who or what would respond.