And so thousands of years passed, where he both studied and experimented and occasionally helped some of the races descended from humans with whatever crisis they had, without ever failing to ask for an adequate payment. Which eventually became material for his dimensional research in one way or another.
"And where are we going?"
[Locking coordinates based on the stellar position of the earth... Searching for possible coordinates... Target located, proceed with the activation of the wormhole]
"Proceed Ami"
[Understood, initiation time 40 seconds]
Ami was the 1st supervisor and main technical person in charge of Helion's project, it made sense since she was an ia specialized in studies and speculative analyses.
Helion was basically about to make a jump into an unknown and potentially dangerous place, as far as they knew the portal could open in the middle of a void, in the middle of the land, the sea, in a black hole, etc. Ami was responsible for calculating all these possibilities and making corrections without actually seeing where they were going.
A seemingly impossible task, right?
Even for Ami, this would be complicated, but not impossible. Which is why she was using a quantum computer the size of the Earth itself on Europa to obtain more realistic estimates and ensure the safety of her last master.
In moments, an immense amount of energy, coming from the collision of thousands of atoms, happened. All this energy was created from several mini colliders installed throughout the island.
This energy was directed to the portal that began to shudder and it seemed that the energy input would be too much for the equipment, but Helion continued forward in the blinding light without any fear, confident that Ami could stop any type of failure and even if he couldn't, he was sure that he would be able to survive, just not in the same body.
Helion had no illusions that his body could withstand the energy discharge if something went wrong, which is why the exercise was being done on an island in the middle of Mars. If something went wrong, it wouldn't be surprising if the entire planet was obliterated.
So at least it wouldn't be Earth where several of his clones were safe in the incubation pods.
All identical to Helion himself, with a body strong enough to withstand up to 1 million degrees without any protection, withstand the same pressure exerted by an average star, etc., the basics for a species to be considered the strongest in the universe.
[Energy redirected, protective field activated... protective field failed, energy reached unexpected levels, evacuation suggested.]
"So the experiment was a failure," Helion asked, raising an eyebrow, not angry or sad about the possible failure.
[Negative, the energy was enough to open a portal. However, the additional energy generated by the portal itself was greater than expected.]
"How great will the damage from the feedback be?"
[The installation will be lost]
"Something else?"
[Negative]
"Then you can continue, you don't need to worry about me, Ami."
[Positive]
As Ami had said, the protective field could not withstand the excess energy and broke, as did most of the installation, but in the center of all the brightness and heat that melted iron and steel, a small point remained dark, as if it were sucking all the light.
A few hours later, the light and the sound of the alarms finally stopped, and in the middle of the old laboratory, all that was left was melted metal slag, a black and silver arch pressed against a giant wall made of a dark brown rock extracted from the center of stars. Along it, several smaller arches still glowed faintly with energy still being sent to the larger arch, and in front of the arch, Helion remained impassive, staring in wonder at the pinnacle of his research.
[Energy levels decreased, aquatic poral stable, no variables detected.]
"Well, I told you not to worry, Ami."
[It's my protocol to be concerned for my lord Helion's safety.]
"Sorry about that."
Helion said with a reignited expression, conversations with Ami and other AIs were Helion's only anchors for sanity in the world, besides his research.
"Where will this take us?"
[Specific destination unknown. Based on preliminary analysis I've gotten from the energy release, the location itself appears to be above ground. Specific conditions unknown.]
This was one of the miracles of great AIs, they could get information about something using a source that was completely impossible to get any information from.
"Some information about the terrain or atmosphere."
[Negative]
'Great~ (￣ヘ￣)'
Not that he was complaining about Ami or anyone who had helped him during this research. After all, it was considered as impractical as finding out what came after death, literally.
[Recommended releasing some drones to ensure safety, check the terrain and check the possibility of maintaining connection.]
"Very well, you can send a squadron"
As much as Helion wanted to jump straight through the portal and see this other world, he knew he had to let the drones go first.
Soon several observation drones flew into the portal, in the meantime Helion reviewed his storage space to ensure he had everything he needed. A miniature factory that could produce anything he wanted if the right materials were used, weapons to defend himself, a disguise device, a protective suit, etc.
[Stable connection, receiving data, air quality... breathable. Presence of liquid water confirmed. Checking for presence of living beings....]
This one took a while to get an answer.
[Organic heat source detected.]
'Excellent'
Even the chip that partially suppressed the brain's chemical reactions, was not able to prevent the large dose of serotonin that his brain was releasing at that moment.
'Oh right, I almost forgot'
He soon turned off the suppression chip that he had left on for the last few years to avoid being disturbed by the constant failures.
"Well Ami, I think it's our turn now."
[Positive... Nervous?]
At that Helion stopped for a moment and looked at his own hands and realized that they were slightlyshaking, from anxiety or nervousness he didn't know.
The drones had confirmed that there were living beings in that dimension and if there were humans or similar. He couldn't remember the last time he had talked to anyone, perhaps 1 thousand years ago when he helped one of the "descendant races" to avoid eradication.
"No. I think I'm more excited actually."
He took another deep breath and looked at the portal, at all the possibilities it implied and at what many of his fellow countrymen would never experience.
"Sigh, very well, let's go Ami."
[Positive]
And so he passed through the portal.