The Mentalist Lord and the girl looked around and then back to Andrew.

“Well, the Alliance split after the attack on the Three Hundred. The Japanese all withdrew from the Alliance and then sometime later turned around and attacked Home. They were defeated, and all the Tier 2s had their gate complexes destroyed, along with many of the Tier 3s as well. With no zivvy being made anymore, there is some doubt as to their ability to recover. The Alliance is currently reorganizing into large trading blocs under President Vinogradov rather than hierarchical Tiers. As far as I am aware, no Japanese worlds have joined or even been asked. President Vinogradov is trying to do away with the constant invasions, chipping, and slavery in general throughout the remaining parts of the Alliance where he can.”

Andrew cocked his head slightly. The man had been speaking English, but he had an accent.

“English is not your native tongue, so what’s your accent?”

“Russian or German. That’s the other two main branches of the Alliance. We’re far more intermixed than the Japanese are. I expect that trend will continue until it’s just all one Alliance rather than Russian and German sections.”

“And this, Embassy? Is that in the Russian or the German part of the Alliance?”

The girl quite clearly bridled at that assertion.

“Certainly not! Embassy is an empty world where all the various worlds can come and build an Embassy and discuss matters peacefully rather than resorting to violence as well as trade with other worlds.” She nodded at Lord Roland. “The Alliance only just opened its Embassy very recently. Before the attack on the Three Hundred, the Alliance was regarded as a serious enemy by all the other polities that have embassies on Embassy. Disco has given aid to several groups fighting the Alliance, although the Empire of the One was mostly responsible for spreading the Plague and the attack on the Three Hundred.”

Disco! Andrew thought with amusement. He looked at the foggy gate again.

“The Japanese gate I could see through, and they had machinery on the far side for creating the actual dimensional gate.”

The girl nodded with a smile. “Yes. There are several worlds that use powered gates, these days mostly just for exploration. Once they find somewhere interesting, they come to Disco and get them to open a permanent gate back to their home world. Our gates are created using magic and natural phenomena that are found in the in-between.”

This was getting stranger and stranger, although possibly not.

“The in-between?”

Lord Roland nodded towards the gate.

“You see a rotating circle with a fog in the middle, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So do I.” Simpson put in from the back of the ATV.

“I don’t.” Henderson put in. “I can see their lawn.”

Andrew looked at Simpson briefly and then smiled at her when she looked at him before returning to his two strange dimensional travelers.

“If you close your eyes, do you sometimes see a blue that looks like soda with lots of bubbles and things in it?” Lord Roland asked.

Andrew nodded.