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I’m Rich Walker as you know; here for portal training and operation. Ok,” he added grinning. “We didn’t over do the staff. We have what we need and we all live here. There are ten of us in this room now. Add a chef, my six engineers, two cleaners and Beth our office assistant; and we have twenty residents in twenty rooms. You all now live in the converted stables at the front. They are entered via a corridor and not the doors onto the driveway, which are sealed. On this floor there is a dining room, a bar, this lounge, and the classroom that you’ve seen. Offices are up the stairs, which are back out by the front door, and we will give you the codes for the doors shortly. You may have seen a number of barns outside; they house a bit more, which you’ll see in time. We have a fitness suite, an equestrian unit, a dojo and a mock fifteenth century village. Ok?”
    John smiled along with the others at the whirlwind briefing provided by the technician. They each nodded their agreement and Rich exhaled with relief.
    “Let’s go and see the portal then,” he announced all of a sudden.
                  John looked around at Charlotte smiling and grinned back in acknowledgement of the short man’s manner. They were led to a steel door that John hadn’t seen at the back of the room and were taken through by Rich into another, far busier area.
                  John couldn’t believe his eyes. It was as though he had stepped into a space-lab from a futuristic sci-fi movie and a slow whistle came from one of the others behind him as they too filed into the large room. In the centre of the room stood what appeared to be the portal. Like a huge, spherical machine, it had a small door and a number of dials and screens upon it. It was clearly extremely sophisticated, but to him it could not look more like a space-pod or submarine from an old eighties sci-fi movie. Around the portal and across the room stood five or six men and women; none of whom seemed to notice the rabble of people standing behind them as they worked at their desks, control panels and computer screens.
                  “Ladies and Gentlemen,” said Rich, shaking them all from their thoughts. “May I introduce my engineers and of course, your portal.”
                  John glanced at Derek who raised his eyebrows and blew through his cheeks in a ‘don’t blame me’ kind of way; then looked back to Rich who began to point out different parts of the machine and how it would work. As far as John could see, only Chris seemed to be following with any understanding; the rest of the team and instructors slowly stopped listening and made their own awestruck inspections of the craft that would decide their fate within weeks. A small, polite voice made John jump as he looked around the room to see if the others were as confused as he was.
                  “Funny looking box, eh Boss?” Charlotte said, looking up from beside him. “What do you reckon? Will it be the last thing we ever see?”
                  “I reckon we’ll soon find out whether this is the most advanced machinery known to man, or if it’s going to quickly turn us into a pool of mush,” he replied.
                  “That’s what I was thinking,” she added, queasily.
                  “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
                  “Of course we will,” boomed the confident voice of Jake approaching behind them. “Stay positive and we will smash up those Tudors and get back before we know it.”
                  John smiled at the words.
    “ You know where we’re going is a few years before the Tudors, right, Jake?”
                  “They’re all the same, Guvnor. We have the advantage of being from the future! We’ll smash ‘em for sure! We know what happens there after all! Got to be a bit of an advantage, eh?”