Finally had my long-awaited meeting with the self-proclaimed "portal expert", a wizened old Gek. Two-thirds of what he told me was wild speculation and rumor, but the other third was invaluable. He explained that each portal has an "address", a unique sequence of glyphs that identifies it among all others. More than that, he expounded at length on various patterns that emerge when one examines large sets of these address sequences—patterns that might allow me to deduce the address of the New Leyto portal. I thanked him, paid him his fee (it wasn't cheap), and rushed back to the Guythimar portal to apply what I'd learned.
After charging the portal with the necessary resources, I crossed my fingers and dialed in the most likely sequence.
The portal activated.
I took a deep breath and stepped through.
The experience of using a portal is very different from the fade-out-fade-in sensation of standard teleportation, or the stretched, hazy quality of a hyperspace jump. For an instant, I felt like an insect with compound eyes, seeing a million million landscapes all at once...and then there was just one, and I was standing in it.
I checked my coordinates. I was on New Leyto! It worked! I immediately transmitted news of my success to Captain Stevensen and his crew. Their path to Guythimar is open.
...well, except for the fact that they'll explode if they eat any of our food…
My next step will be to establish a laboratory on New Leyto, to do a proper analysis of the planet's fauna and flora. With any luck, we'll soon find a cure for this "dietary lock-in" problem.