The Laptop - Ch.39 - Thoughts of Home (Patreon)

** content warning: brief lewdness **

"That just means more for us!" the little catgirl announced with a wide grin. Then she gave the tall hot elf girl a naughty look, "Actually, I think maybe I'm still kind of thirsty. What do you think Gwen?"

Gwyneth looked like she was trying not to smile as she pointed out, "It's not like I'm going to run out."

That was all the encouragement Chelsea needed. Her hands started moving over Gwen's bare boobs, while the elf girl began to help Chels out of her clothes. As soon as the little catgirl was naked Gwyneth finished removing the last of her outfit as well, then the two paused there. They both turned and gave me an inviting look, but I decided to leave them to it. I was happy for them to have some fun together, and to get to know each other better.

While they were doing that I turned my attention back to the laptop once again. I hadn't finished reading all the documentation yet, and even if nothing felt especially pressing I knew it couldn't hurt to keep learning more.

I had another shot at reading the SysAdmin Handbook, but gave up after half an hour or so. It was hard enough focusing on that thing under normal circumstances. Having to listen to the sounds of my girlfriends enjoying each other a couple meters away made it almost impossible.

Instead I opened up 'Expedite Your Expeditions' in the doc reader. Even though I'd already learned the basics when we had to flee here to Daearen, I figured there'd probably be more stuff in there that might come in handy later.

Sure enough it didn't take long before I came across an answer to a fairly important question. I'd been wondering how we were going to get back home again once it was safe, since I didn't know the 'location ID' for Earth-742. Obviously Annie would have it, but so far she hadn't exactly impressed me as being very reliable. Especially when it came to answering questions or sharing information.

So I was happy to read that the expeditions app kept a log of each portal it created, and the log entries would track both the origin and destination for each passage. Which meant I'd be able to get us home without Annie's help, if necessary.

Another interesting detail I came across on that topic was how the IDs themselves actually worked. The one Annie provided that got us here was basically a set of five sixteen-bit numbers in hexadecimal notation. According to the docs, those location codes were always presented that way, but they weren't all the same length. They could be three, four, or five sets long, but the sets themselves were always sixteen bit numbers written in hex.

The guide also mentioned in passing that the IDs weren't randomly assigned. They contained encoded information that was either coordinates or other data that directly described a specific geographic location on a given realm. Curiously, the length of the ID number didn't really have any bearing on how accurate or precise it was. The manual claimed that in most cases the IDs were generally accurate to within about ten meters.

The rest of the document wasn't as interesting, but I did learn one other useful little trick. I found out how to zoom in on that low-rez map we'd been been using, which would probably come in handy when we got closer to our destination.

After I got to the end of the file I switched to the expeditions app so I could check out that usage log. Mostly I wanted to verify that it saved the ID for home, but I was also curious to see if there were any other realms saved in there.

Unfortunately it looked like any history from when Annie had the laptop had been purged, which was a little disappointing. I'd been hoping I might find a list of other locations we could potentially investigate, or at least places I could research on the laptop later. On the other hand the log did capture the trip my girlfriends and I made a couple days earlier. And that log entry included the location ID of Earth-742.

In fact it wasn't just the ID of our realm. It was the direct address to my bedroom, in the basement of our house. According to what I'd found, the code that would get my girlfriends and I back home was D2E6 0311 6778 1F10 7978.

"Oh wow," I mumbled to myself as I stared at those numbers. "There's our ticket home."

"What did you say about home?" Gwen asked.

I turned to find she and Chels were cuddling together on the bedroll. They both looked happy and content, although my best friend also seemed curious about what I was up to.

So I explained, "I was digging through some stuff on the laptop and I found the code that'll get us home again."

"Not that it's safe to go right now," I added before either of them could ask. "I still don't know how to figure that part out yet? That'll probably have to wait until Annie answers some more of my questions. But when the time comes and it is safe, we won't have to rely on her to get us there."

Chelsea smiled, "That's good to hear. I know you're still waiting for answers Lisa, but I also know you're smart enough and capable enough, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up figuring everything out long before Annie ever gets back to you with that stuff."

I blushed slightly then shrugged, "I don't know about that Chels."

"I'm sure of it," the little catgirl stated as she sat up and stretched. Then she got up and moved over to the fire pit as she suggested, "How about I start working on dinner? I know it's not quite time yet, but we should probably turn in early tonight? We'll all want a good night's sleep before we set out on our hike tomorrow."

Gwyneth got up too as she agreed, "Food sounds good. I uh, maybe worked up a bit of an appetite."

"And Chelsea's right," she added as she moved closer and gave me a hug. "You've already done so much with that laptop, I'm sure you'll have it all figured out before long."

• • • • •

It was bright and sunny and warm again when I drifted awake the following morning. I was still cuddled up in the middle, between Chelsea on my right and Gwyneth on my left, and neither of them were up yet.

Rather than wake them both immediately I stayed where I was and let my thoughts drift a bit. It was the dawn of our third day on Daearen, but back home it would be Friday. A full week had passed since I got my hands on that little pink laptop, and my whole entire life changed.

A moment later I frowned as something else occurred to me. Today was Friday the thirteenth, and that seemed like an inauspicious day to start a sixty kilometre hike through an unknown forest on a strange new world.

Then again, I knew it probably wasn't Friday here. Or the thirteenth. I had no idea how the calendars worked on Daearen, but I vaguely recalled seeing something in the realm editor about their year being a bit longer than what we were used to back home. Three hundred and eighty-five days, if I remembered right. I wasn't sure if that meant they had longer months, or if they had thirteen instead of the usual twelve.

It occurred to me that I could have found that information in the realm editor, if I'd done enough digging. That was something else I could have looked up yesterday, but there was plenty of time to catch up on that stuff before we reached Hoag's Hole. Seven or eight days, according to both Chels and Annie.

The long hike still felt a bit overwhelming, so I focused on the other thing again. Home. I found myself wondering about our teachers and classmates. The profs probably wouldn't care that much. Maybe there'd be some emails, reminding us about exams or missed deadlines for assignments, but they generally didn't worry too much about attendance.

Some of our classmates might wonder though. Or maybe even worry. I figured Aleyna would notice I was missing, she'd wonder what happened to me. And for sure Kinsley would be wondering too. Same with Terri. I didn't know Zach or Pearl but I assumed they'd be curious as well. They'd have all been eager to see us on Wednesday, to show off the results of their miracle transitions.

I figured all four of them would be getting more and more uneasy with each passing day, curious to know what happened to us. And maybe worrying it might happen to them as well, since as far as they knew we'd all been helped by the same mysterious benefactor. I just hoped Annie was right about them being ok.

Finally I found myself thinking about Frank. I knew he'd be wondering where I went or what happened to me. I actually felt kind of bad about that, like I didn't even think to email the guy before we fled. He was another friend after all, as well as my part-time boss. And I couldn't help thinking he might feel a little abandoned or lonely, after having his girlfriend basically vanish off the face of the planet followed a few days later by his employee slash friend.

My thoughts of home came to an end there, as the little catgirl next to me suddenly stretched then yawned in the most adorable way. Her ears folded back while her tail stuck out straight behind her, and she made little grabby motions with her hands and feet that exposed her claws.

"Mornin' Lisa," she mumbled as her eyes finally opened. "Ready for our big hiking adventure?"

I grimaced and shook my head, "Nope, not really. And good morning to you too, Chels."

She grinned and gave me a kiss before getting to her feet. She was still naked, but that didn't seem to bother her in the least as she stretched again. Then her tail twitched and she said, "I'll make us some breakfast. Then we should start packing."

"Right," I nodded slowly. While she moved to see if there was any life left in the campfire I turned over to check on my other girlfriend. I gave the gorgeous elf girl a gentle nudge and said, "Gwen? It's time to get up."

"Mmph," she mumbled. "Five more minutes."

That made me smile, "Ok sleeping beauty. Five more, then we need to get moving."

We ended up cuddling together, but only for a few minutes. Then she actually got up, rather than try and do the snooze thing again. Neither of us bothered to dress yet either, as we joined Chelsea sitting next to the fire.

Breakfast was pretty simple, we had toast with some peanut butter on top. The most elaborate thing was the instant coffee. And both Chels and Gwen were excited about that, because this would be the first time having camp coffee with fresh cream in it. They both enjoyed that part of the process, and the coffee was pretty good too.

We finally got dressed after we'd had enough to eat, then Chelsea sort of took charge of packing. She checked that all three packs were loaded and balanced correctly, and that we hadn't missed anything when we broke camp.

The laptop was probably our single most valuable possession, and I made sure it was safely bundled up inside my bedroll and well-protected in my backpack. It meant I couldn't get to it quickly, but I didn't think there'd be any reason I'd want to pull it out in a hurry anyways. It was more important to keep it safe.

I still felt a little overwhelmed at what we were doing though, or what we were about to do. Covering that kind of distance on foot felt like something normal people just didn't do. Like at home there were cars and public transit and ride shares. And this wasn't just walking along a clear level sidewalk through a relatively safe familiar city. We didn't have a GPS, or even a decent map. We just had a vague direction, and a whole lot of thick forest ahead of us.

"I'm sure I don't have to say this but let's all be careful, ok?" Chelsea commented once we'd finished packing up. "I know this is supposed to be a safe realm, but we'll be hiking through an unfamiliar forest and we have no idea what to expect out there. Watch the terrain, watch where we step, and keep an eye out for any other potential hazards."

Gwen nodded as she raised her staff, "I'm all set. My magic staff doubles as a hiking staff, so I'm ready for whatever comes up."

"I guess I'm ready as I'll ever be," I grimaced.

My backpack was in place, I held my bow in my left hand, and the quiver hung by my right hip. I'd already checked and I knew it held thirty arrows. Half of them had broad-head tips for hunting game, the rest were fitted with long narrow bodkin points for taking on armoured opponents. They had different fletching too, so I could tell them apart without having to stop and look. Instead I could just go by feel, if I needed to grab an arrow I'd be able to pick the right one almost instantly.

Chels swung her pack up and into place, then double-checked that all her knives and daggers were safely tucked away in their various sheaths. Finally she gestured, "All right girls, let's go. Dawnward, to adventure!"

"Don't you mean 'onward'?" Gwyneth asked with a raised eyebrow.

The little catgirl shrugged as we all started walking, "That works too, but since we're walking dawnward I figured that was more appropriate."

"We're walking sixty kilometres through the woods to a village called Hoag's Hole," I grumbled. "I don't really want adventure, just answers. Lots of answers."