《Gateway To Magic - The Gates Open》 E-mail From Nowhere The Email Inbox simply showed "Gateway opening directions". Sender was blank, routing and meta-data were blank. Time stamp was 11:57.49 AM, USA Mountain Time - or the same effective time across all time zones. The media just liked to call the EVENT "Noon Mountain Time" and the description stuck. The language was always that of the computer owner. The E-mail arrived on ALL E-mail devices, even those not connected to any network. The instructions were simple: Create a border from a distinctive, homogeneous material either mixed with or coated in the user''s blood. Then simply relax within that border with the intention of forming a Gateway. That''s ALL it said. Of course, initially, almost everyone dismissed it as a childish prank. The problem was that it had NOT set off any alarms of any kind - not even incoming mail notifications. At first, most people just assumed they had missed the notice, but soon many cyber-security people investigated and became seriously concerned. Meanwhile, on the internet social media platforms, it became the highlighted "scam of the day" as people started noticing that it had come in on every e-mail account on every device they owned. Still, of course, pretty much no one took it literally - it was either a security problem or a funny hack to almost everyone in those first few critical hours. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. But then the true conspiracy theory people got involved, soon pointing out that the E-mail was impossible - far beyond the scope of human technology to create and deliver. Most of these were quick to argue that it had to be aliens of some kind, unless the government control programs were decades ahead of where everyone assumed they were. Still, what could be the motive behind such a silly message? The answer to that started showing up about 4 hours after the Email had appeared - and that answer itself was at first deemed a scam. The answer was simple: It works!! The kind of people who actually acted on such a message, and tried it out with their own blood were a rare and weird breed, but they couldn''t help themselves from shocking the internet with their results (usually via layers of encryption and VPNs). They claimed REAL Gateways appeared, and they led to a world never seen before - one untouched and pristine, with no signs of life. Behind the scenes, the various world security agencies were gradually coming to that same conclusion. After a couple hours of total denial of reality, including many accusations of treason, it became clear that nothing known to them could possibly have created the Email. Each in their own time and manner, most such agencies decided the directions must be tested. And, usually, they worked. Hapless intelligence agents found themselves looking through a 5 foot wide, 7 foot tall oval Gateway to a barren, rocky World. Pinch themselves as they might - the Gateways remained. Anyone could easily step through - there was no resistance. To their great relief, they could just as easily step back through to Earth. Obviously, it was time to inform their commanders and call in the researchers! OMG - Its REAL! United Nations Public Announcement on the Gateway Phenomenon Delivered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning, I stand before you today to address a matter of global significance, one that has unfolded in the past 24 hours and has captured the attention and imagination of the entire world. Yesterday, an unprecedented event occurred with the circulation of a mysterious email, collectively referred to as the "Noon Mountain Time" delivery. This email has led to the creation of Gateways, offering access to a world unlike anything we have encountered before. In the spirit of unity, collaboration, and shared exploration, the United Nations acknowledges the global response to this phenomenon. Governments, scientists, and individuals worldwide have embarked on a journey to understand and interpret the implications of these Gateways. As of now, reports indicate that the Gateway World is a lifeless environment, resembling Earth in geology and atmosphere but devoid of any signs of biology or technology. This discovery marks a monumental step in our collective quest for knowledge, and it underscores the importance of international collaboration in the face of the unknown. The United Nations encourages all nations to approach this phenomenon with scientific rigor, cooperation, and transparency. We are at the forefront of a new chapter in human exploration, and the potential benefits and challenges that lie ahead require a united effort. In the coming days, the UN will establish a task force composed of experts from various fields to facilitate global collaboration on the study of these Gateways. This task force will serve as a platform for the exchange of information, ideas, and discoveries as we collectively strive to unravel the mysteries of this uncharted territory. We urge all nations to contribute their scientific expertise, resources, and insights to this collaborative effort. Together, we can unlock the secrets of the Gateways and foster a new era of understanding and cooperation among the nations of our world. We encourage the general public to be patient and allow the proper authorities to fully investigate the phenomenon before possibly exposing our world to whatever unknown dangers lurk in this new realm. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. In conclusion, let us approach this moment in history with a sense of wonder, humility, and the shared pursuit of knowledge. The United Nations stands ready to facilitate international cooperation and dialogue as we embark on this unprecedented journey together. Thank you. Please use the number on your screen to report any unauthorized Gateway creation or use. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Dan Vont read the U.N. announcement with a certain degree of relief. It looked like there wouldn''t be any draconian governmental action taken immediately. As an old geezer with no responsibilities and huge levels of curiosity, he had created his gate as soon as he fully realized that the Email hadn''t been a hoax. His shop now contained an oval Gateway to the other world, measuring 4''8" wide and 6''11" tall, bordered by (force field?) edges about 1/2" wide that could not be penetrated by anything Dan had on hand. On the far side of Dan''s Gate was a rocky alpine valley with a small nearby lake fed by a few small streams and having an outlet stream that quickly led to a series of waterfalls. Various other peaks and valleys were visible, as was a saddle-ridge that looked easily accessible. Dan loved his new "backyard", but had been seriously taken aback when night came and there was NO light in the sky whatsoever, despite a lack of cloud cover - which convinced him to back off on exploration and rest up for the next day. Back on the internet, Dan quickly found that ALL people with Gateways were reporting the same "sunset" time - approx. 6 pm Mountain time, after which total darkness fell rather quickly. Undeterred, Dan spend a couple hours before bed gathering supplies for a real "expedition" into his new playground. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Initial science report: The Gateway World had day/night cycles that match closely the US Mountain Time zone - no matter what Gateway you entered from. Each Gateway destination maintained it''s originating point''s barometric pressure. Each Gateway destination had the general climate of the Earth origin point Each Gateway destination appeared to be on the Gateway World''s "equator" When strong radio equipment was used, communication between Gateway destinations was possible, confirming they all went to the same "planet", but the distances were insane, with the shortest found being just under 500 kilometers, and most averaging 30,000 kilometers. There was no light in the night sky. No stars or Moon visible. There seemed to be no correlation between the position of a Gateway on Earth and it destination point on the Gateway World. No native life was found. No trace of past native life was found. No ruins or traces of past intelligence were (yet) found. Geology seemed similar to Earth, but with no rational reason that it could have evolved that way. However, volcanos did exist, with signs of activity in the recent past. No Gateways opened over bodies of water of any kind, despite the existence of large oceans. Only one example was found of a Gateway leading to a small island. Atmosphere composition matched Earth, but without any complex "industrial" compounds present. Many researchers insisted these results must be wrong, because they were not logically possible according to known physics. Other researchers simply responded by saying the same applied to the Gateways themselves. 3 - Censorship, Too Little, Too Late Marc Cassidy fumed! This was a flat failure of the National intelligence community, in his mind. As current NSA director, he was furious at having been informed of the Gateway situation too late to take any effective action. Worse, the other domestic security agencies had not taken their jobs seriously, and so the military had not been mobilized to suppress this threat. Still, so far as Marc was concerned, the NSA should be in charge of the national response. This was obviously an outside threat perpetrated by an unknown foreign power - even if that power was probably not human. As such, he should be in charge, and he was about to go make exactly that argument to the White House Security Council. In the meantime, he had directed that the NSA establish 3 beachhead bases in the Gateway world, with an emphasis on long range recon capabilities, both detection and surveillance. He was also arranging data sharing and IFF procedures across all US and ally security and military establishments. Somehow, they needed to get a handle on this before enemies could infiltrate forces into the USA via the endless network of civilian Gates soon to appear. So far, the only saving grace seemed to be the distances involved. Current estimates showed that it would take a minimum of weeks for any effective force to cross from one Gateway to another, and probably much longer if one were seeking a Gate leading to a specific targeted region. Sadly, the cyber-intelligence front reported no progress at all. The Email showed no tracks in any internet hubs or on any devices other than the destination Inboxes themselves. Even on those, the data had appeared without triggering Event signals that should have notified users of a new Email coming in. Scientists were having trouble even imagining how such a feat could be accomplished, even with "perfect" hacking access to all systems on Earth. Having done what little he could, Marc secured his office and headed for his limo to the White House meeting. ------------------------------------------------------------- In North Korea, after a brutal night of investigation, research, martial law, and assorted executions, the military and intelligence services made their reports to their glorious leader. The population was then informed of the Great Colonization Wave that Korea would now spearhead. It was promoted to "greatly eclipse the colonization era of the European demons of the last few centuries and restore the Korean people to their rightful position in the heavens". Various Gateways were created, and as many as possible of those created by treasonous peasants were reclaimed for the State, and all were examined for their growth potential. For those with low potential, prisoners were sent through and told to explore and find worthwhile resources if they wished to return to Earth. Most other Gateways, those showing easy access to water or coastlines, were seeded with villagers and farm laborers, who were told to bring all the possessions they could carry and try to establish "new centers of commerce for the glorious Korean empire" - what sort of people were sent and the degree of support they were given varied widely depending on their connections to wealth and authority. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. And finally, the very best-looking regions were to be military bases and the Gateworld Palace to which the Empire could withdraw if the evil Capitalists were to attack the Empire''s Earthly holdings. The Korean Empire''s Gateworld City was founded that very day, and impressive resources poured into it. ------------------------------------------------------- In North Africa, almost everything else came to a standstill with the sudden scramble for untouched lands and waters. Across the perimeter of the Sahara, people were finding that about 1 in 10 Gateways provided easy access to fresh water, and the occasional (1 in a thousand) Gateway could actually have a river or stream directed straight through the Gate with fairly minor engineering! But also in Islamic areas of Africa and the Middle East, as well as many Catholic regions, the Gateway creation was considered a mortal sin due to the required blood ritual used to open them, and many users were hunted down and killed - their Gates boarded up or buried. ------------------------------------------------------ Other factions to make early and heavy use of Gateways were organized crime and their more legal counterparts, major corporations. Covert colonies were the global fad of the day, and building materials everywhere on Earth quickly vanished from stores. On the street front, many gangs suddenly had new "turf", safe from police raids, to build up and lord over. But by far the largest # of Gateways opened were simply opened by ordinary curious, adventurous, freedom-loving peoples around the world wanting to experience what Gateworld had to offer. These people ranged from individuals to families, to clubs, to networked communities of any and all kinds. For Survivalists and Doomers, this was IT - and they chose to either Gate themselves into the new World, or take off for their prepared hideaways ASAP! For normal folks, the 85% with no intention of participating in this wild insanity, there was the stress of mass confusion as many workers didn''t show up, supply lines became stressed and tangled with the huge shift in the supply/demand ratios of so many goods and services, and inflation loomed everywhere. Still, MOST of the people who "just wanted to live a normal life" were able to manage it. Most stores and services still functioned, even though delivery times became far less predictable. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dan Vogt, as this was all happening, was having a huge moving day. As a 70 year old lifelong packrat, taking everything he wanted through the Gate was going to take a long time. He quickly discovered that hoses and extension cords worked just fine across the Gate, and his ATV just fit though. Even internet worked once he strung a Cat5 connection to a hub in Gateworld. Along with the assorted supplies, equipment, and a prefab tent shelter he had laying around, Dan also spread a few handfuls of grass seed along the water edges, and transplanted quite a few of his garden plants over to see how they would do. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Cartan family of southern Oregon were also very independent sorts, and when Hank Cartan found that his Gate had opened onto a seacoast harbor fed by a smallish river, he knew that this was the place to homestead. He invited all his extended family and trusted friends to join the project. ---------------------------------------------------------------- And so it was around the world. Governments had not acted in time, and only the most draconian of them were able to contain Gateway colonization of Gateworld. It was soon estimated that over 20,000 small colonies were established that first week, along with up to about 100,000 total Gateways opened. 4 - The Mystery Grows - Literally At Washington State University, the Gateway science project was in full swing by day 3, and already the results were stunning. WSU was well known for its agricultural programs and had been given large grants to study the means of bringing stable and useful biomes to Gateworld, which seemed to harbor no life of its own. All they were yet willing to release to the press was that plants grew faster in Gateworld. It was not a matter of soil conditions, as growth in Gateworld ground material (it couldn''t really be called soil) brought back to Earth had no special properties. But the increase in growth rate of any plants brought to Gateworld was dramatic. Other published results from noted universities included the fact that no Gate could be opened FROM Gateworld, and it also quickly became known that Gates on Earth could not be opened in proximity to an already open Gate - the limit being somewhat over 100 yards minimum separation. Gates would also not open if there was not enough clear room for one to form - the smallest known success being 5''10" by 4''1". Maximum Gate size was unclear and did not seem to match up with any known creation variables - the largest published was 7''11" by 6''4". Astronomers reported that the Gateworld Sun seems to be a perfect disk with no variations and that they could find no other celestial bodies. Also, they had no viable means of measuring the distance to the Sun. Most astrophysicists agreed that Gateworld had to be an artificial environment, and/or exist in a universe with different physical laws than our own. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Back on Earth, China was in the midst of a brutal crackdown. Every Gate was to be declared and registered immediately, including records of each and every passage through. Enforcement teams were sent into every Gate to record conditions and to remove any illicit occupants - killing any who resisted. Security structures were built around each Gate to control access. Warnings were issued to Taiwan to follow suit or be invaded. India was exactly the opposite and encouraged Gate openings and exploration, despite Muslim denunciation and some degree of terrorism towards the "demonic activity". India was the first nation to actually provide organized colonizing packages for those who intended to migrate to Gateworld, with bonus materials for those that maintained research hubs - livestreams of Indian Gateworld exploration quickly went viral. In the USA and EU, riots and gang violence broke out in many apartment-dominated areas as people found out someone else in their building or on their block had already made a Gate, thus locking out anyone else in that building or block from making their own. Japan was being very quiet on the subject, but absences from work were common and portal-related anime sold out from store shelves. Many Japanese corporations were sponsoring Gateworld communities, quietly allowing their industries to expand their power and influence into the new world. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Cassidy, now in charge of the new, covert, Department of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, was looking over some of the first mappings created from Gateworld recon. Gate destinations spanned a distance of about 100,000 miles between the furthest known and tested Gates, though the overall shape of the Gate destination region could not yet be determined. Gateworld itself seemed endless in all directions, with a minimum extent of one million miles, according to high-altitude weather balloon instrumentation. His department had begun filling in relative Gate locations based on radio noise given off by most of the more active expeditions. The results currently best fit into a hexagonal grid with each cell just under 300 miles across, with a Gate at the center of each. His worst fears were set to rest as there seemed to be no trace of non-human activity. There was also no trace of alien biology, even on a viral level, but Earth-based contamination levels were growing very quickly around the larger expeditions. Shockingly, NO ionizing radiation sources were detected. Only stable isotopes appeared to exist on Gateworld. This was very useful, as it provided a 100% certain way of determining if an object was of Earthly or Gateworld origin. Even the Gateworld sun had its UV spectrum cut off abruptly in the near ultraviolet - getting a sunburn from it would be difficult. Marc''s biggest concerns were the massive North Korean colonization efforts, though so far it was nearly 2000 miles from a mapped US Gate to the "Imperial Korea" project. One of their sponsored farm communities was only 1200 miles from a US-based Gate, though. At least there was still no evidence of actual ETs, Marc sighed, as he added the newest China and Russia data to the plot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unimaginably far away, Vilink of the High Elves casually noted a new contact point opening into Gateworld. After checking that the growth pattern didn''t match that of a swarm species, he placed it in the que for eventual contact efforts and set up default alarm parameters. Slightly closer, Hive Buglet 3276 took note of a potential future food source near the Andromeda cluster. Closer yet, System Drone DVT45 registered a new potentially System-compatible sentient species and began setting soul-lures in the Astral realms of the Milky Way galaxy to attempt to establish a quantum-mana link adding the species to the System database. Mortal-plane warp drones were also dispatched, but the search parameters were too large to expect results within the next century or two. Back home in Earth-adjacent Gateworld, Earth-born life was spreading quickly. Unseen (yet) by humans, bodily bacteria and virus diversity were surging, mostly concealed by the corresponding enhancement of the human immune systems while in Gateworld - but that quickly changed when said humans returned to Earth after an extended stay. What humans DID notice was that sick people tended to get well noticeably faster in Gateworld - nothing too dramatic, but very statistically significant. Also notable was that small bodies of water near many Gate entrances were starting to turn green with alga - life was established and growth was unstoppable. also unstoppably, certain insects casually flew in through open portals or rode in with the human visitors.... 5 - Outbreak! East Africa had somewhat of a reputation for disease origins, and so was somewhat more closely watched than most regions. The region also had a high rate of Gateway traffic, so it was no big surprise that the new Gate biohazards were first detected there. Of course, most biologists just assumed they were normal outbreaks, possibly transmitted more widely due to the sudden changes in travel brought about by all the new Gates. Indeed, the samples collected by WHO showed these new outbreaks to be close relatives of known diseases in the region - so no immediate alarm was raised. But then it became a much wider issue. EVERYWHERE with high return Gate traffic was experiencing above normal infections of all kinds, but strangely, few people actually IN Gateworld were ill. The answer was simple, once enough data came in - despite the absence of radiation, the mutation rate in Gateworld was high...very high. Bacteria cultures quickly proved the phenomenon. Fortunately, whatever force was causing the mutations seemed to also enhance living immune systems - so few people became ill - until they returned to Earth. So, in the midst of the Gateworld exploration frenzy, the CDC, WHO, and several other international medical organizations declared a quarantine of returnees from Gateworld. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan Vogt was happy in his new paradise. His plants were growing unbelievably quickly, and his lake now had a few frogs and tiny fish. Of course, somehow, several kinds of bugs had also found their way to cross over and Dan had already spotted mosquito larvae near the lake edge. His current main project was getting fruit trees established, as well as grape vines and assorted berries. Dan had made himself a makeshift outhouse by the cliff edge with a flush toilet gravity-fed from a stream via a long hose. He had also moved over nearly all his household appliances and was powering them via extension cords. He had all sorts of things on order via Amazon, but no idea when or if they might arrive. He had tried to stock up on fuel for his generator, but gas rationing was already a thing. As an alternative, he had MANY orders in for things like Coleman fuel and propane. He even placed orders for candle wax and rubbing alcohol, since it looked to him like any energy sources would soon be in very high demand. He wondered just how long he could count on the electrical grid. With this latest quarantine, though, Dan decided to stay almost entirely in Gateworld, leaving only briefly to gather up the deliveries of the day. On his last trip to town, Dan had gotten a few "pets" to add to his little world - hamsters and bunnies, as well as a litter of 6-week old kittens. The frogs and fish had been from an earlier trip. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Still, things were shaping up nicely and he slept better in Gateworld than ever before on Earth. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cartan family was doing quite well. They already had large fields of grass and corn growing in their Gateworld homestead, irrigated via a small canal system and waterwheel. They also had a windmill pump setup going. They imported started stock for both their freshwater (river mouth) and saltwater coasts. The biggest problem was going to be the lack of tides - Gateworld didn''t have them, and that was going to mess up many coastal ecosystems. The family also ended up opening 5 other Gates nearby, but only one of them offered much additional potential - the others were mostly just rocky hillsides or desert. The "good" gate was about a half mile from a very large freshwater lake. The group decided to build their main compound near the coast, as planned, but to also seed the lake and surrounding area with life and put in a barn and cottage there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Cassidy was starting to get a clear picture now, as he studied his map. The fit was with a 293-mile hexagonal grid, with the "oldest" Gates at the center and expanding outward in rings. Of course, over 95% of the supposed Gate positions were either unknown or in water, which was what had made finding the grid pattern so difficult - but at least now they knew where to send drones and probes to have a good chance of scouting a Gate position. He had also started the Beacon project, in which the US Government would provide settlement aid in exchange for the maintenance of a solar-power beacon that would map each settlement and register the owners, and could be triggered to send out an SOS if needed. Of course what he didn''t tell them was that each beacon also contained powerful spyware equipment that would monitor each settlement and alert the NSA if the beacon AI detected trouble brewing. North Korea still worried him the most. Estimates were that they had shoved nearly half their population through Gates and were building and expanding their outposts even faster than expected, due to the insane fertility of Gateworld. Even the "sacrificial" N. Korean outposts, given essentially no support at all, were likely to survive and expand. Marc had located 2 of these and sent drones to those locations with a cargo of fast-growing vegetable seeds and Korean instructions and anti-government propaganda - letting them know that the USA supported them. To the "Korean Empire" outposts he could locate, Marc sent an experimental variety of bio-weapons that he intended to blame on the Gateworld mutation effect, should he ever be accused. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Frixprl the Explorer appeared over Hex 0-0, the initial entry point of the new species. About 300 miles "over" it, in fact. He sent out a quick low-power chi-mana pulse to see if anyone had beaten him to the post. Getting no result, he went about getting settled in for observation, seeking the nearest high peak, phasing himself into the stone, and opening up his recording senses. His probability matrix quickly determined that no real threats were likely for the next 512 human years, so he went into adaptive trance and entered human Dreamspace, quickly finding himself defined as a "little green man" in human concept frameworks. He took no overt actions, but simply played out the Dreamspace roles humans gave him, which were defined by their conceptual space meeting his own. 6. Playground Rules Cindy Cartan was happy. School was cancelled. All the adults were too busy to bother her. She had the entire lakeshore to wander, and they gave her packets of seeds to go plant every day. Cindy was a responsible little girl, and had been told VERY firmly not to enter the water or she would lose all her beloved trust and freedom. Cindy also had her very own tent to stay in while the cabin was being built for her family, and it was filled with her bed and all her favorite toys - along with big bags of blankets and a chest of clothes. She missed a couple of her school friends, but her cousins often visited from the other Gateway where all the big stuff was happening. Most of the time, the shore of Crystal Lake was all hers. It had been kind of dull at first, with only a few yards of grass stretching along the lakeshore. And then it had been miserable for a day as a rainstorm came through and she''d been stuck in her tent the whole day. But after the rains, plants started springing up nearly everywhere. Her mom spent an hour with her pointing out which were weeds to pluck out before they could overrun everything. But today had been her favorite so far - she had gotten to release the rabbits! Dad had come home last night with a cage of 6 bunnies, 2 big ones and 4 little ones, and a little shelter hutch built like a small wheelbarrow. This morning, she got to come with her dad as he found a good spot about 20 feet from the lake. Dad cleared a patch of ground, then placed the hutch and told Cindy - "Send out the new owners of the Crystal Shores Grasslands!". Then he went back and let her bratty older brother do the same for the frogs - but at least they didn''t have any pretty shelter to come home to. The rabbit hutch became Cindy''s new base of operations, and she would come every day with her tea set and stuffed animals. No one noticed or cared that most of her tea-time sessions included Frikzel the stuffed green frog... ------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 year old Will Cartan and his cousin Jake (14) barely noticed little Cindy as they took their new kayak to the lake for the first time. Their mission - to explore the lakeshore for 2 hours in each direction. This was a welcome break from their last 2 weeks of hauling supplies and being construction gofors. At their parent''s insistence, they had a full 2 days of backpacked camping supplies and a simple radio direction-finder that could point them back to base camp if they got lost. The big perk, from the boy''s perspective, was that they would be allowed to name any streams of features they discovered during their exploration. They were also charged with seeding a new "lifespring" outpost at each of the far points of their exploration - releasing premade packets along the water''s edge with all sorts of "useful" goo and creepy crawlies they didn''t really understand the need for. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The boys eagerly set off, paddling the kayak across the serene lake surrounded by the alien landscape of the new world. As they reached the midpoint of their journey, the boys marveled at the untouched beauty of the lakeshore. Will pointed to a peculiar-looking upwelling of tinted water and suggested, "How about calling it ''Stellar Blossom''?" Jake nodded in agreement, and they marked their discovery on a digital map provided by the base camp. Continuing their expedition, they encountered a crystal-clear stream flowing gently into the lake. The water shimmered with an otherworldly glow. Excitement filled the air as Jake suggested, "Let''s name it ''Lumina Creek.''" They secured another waypoint and moved on, their youthful enthusiasm driving them deeper into uncharted territory. The cousins reached the farthest point of their journey, a breathtaking waterfall cascading down from a cliff covered in shimmering crystal. The sight was awe-inspiring. Will grinned and said, "This is the ''Cascade of Dreams.'' What do you think, Jake?" With a nod of approval, they recorded their find and prepared to seed the new "lifespring" outpost. Following the protocol, they released the premade packets along the water''s edge, each containing a mix of unknown substances designed to foster life in this alien ecosystem. The boys exchanged puzzled glances but followed through with the task, trusting the wisdom of their parents and the scientific minds behind the outpost project. As they returned to base camp, they couldn''t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. Little did they know to what degree the seeds they had planted and the names they had given would become integral parts of this new world''s future. But there was a strange twinkle in the corner of the eye of Cindy''s stuffed frog. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back on Earth, several outbreaks were causing havoc in various cities around the world. Despite containment efforts, at least 3 pandemic-level diseases were in regional circulation. The best treatment option, ironically, was return to Gateworld, where patients in the early stages of disease (nearly ANY disease) had about an 80% chance of rapid recovery. This effect fell off to only about 30% in later stages of infection. Several organizations were formed demanding that trips to Gateworld be one-way, and claiming Earth could not afford the consequences of these alien mutations. Many nations began to pass laws covering return procedures, but it would be some time before any such rules were widely enforceable. In the physics community, a whole new brand of hell was breaking loose. In Gateworld, it appeared that instead of "radioactive decay" there was simply "radiation decay". All samples sent to Gateworld lost 0.97% of total radioactivity per day WITHOUT producing any measurable radiation as a result. As one physicist put it - in Gateword, "half-lives have a half-life there". To activists, this was immediately heralded as the final solution to the problem of nuclear waste. To developers, it meant their plans to have nuclear generating plants in the new world were doomed. But the physicists themselves had another question: Where was all that energy going? 7 - The Great Scheme Shane Maxwell was a young incel, and a genius, and no longer wanted anything to do with the rest of humanity. The Gates were obviously the answer. Still, Gateworld was empty, and he didn''t want anyone following him to his private world. He also didn''t want to have to return for anything, ever. So he immediately started gathering information and making his PLAN when news of the Gates hit the internet. He carefully gathered supplies and studied maps. His PLAN required very specific (but fairly common) conditions on a relatively isolated seacoast. He needed a cove with solid walls near deep waters and the ability to dig down well below average sea level. Obviously, that would take generator and pumping ability. Also, he needed to get it all done before the end of July, at the latest, if his estimates of Gateworld climate conditions were correct. So Shane pinpointed about 20 possible sites along the southern tip of Alaska, filled a U-Haul with his equipment and supplies, and went hunting. Finally, after several false starts, he found his take-off spot - a large gap in the rocky coastal wall in which he could dredge out the required Gate-summoning area. He set up his inflatable barriers, fired up the leased mini-Cat, and set to work. As expected, water soon became a problem and constant pumping was required. Still, he had dug far enough to be sure of getting the results he wanted. Shane then moved all his supplies to within easy access range, and started the final round of digging, trying to finish as close to low tide as possible. When Shane thought he had done all he could, he brought out his prepared summoning platform, placing it as low as possible in the pit, and got to work making his Gate. The distractions of the pump, generator and Cat made relaxing hard, as the crashing waves constantly reminded him that something could give out or give way at any time, flooding out all his hard work. At last (only 25 minutes, but it had seemed like an eternity) the Gate appeared. Sadly, it was not at all what he had been hoping for, but it would have to do. The Gate opened to a fairly level spot on a rough, boulder-strewn hillside, with only rolling hills and a couple small mesas in sight. He wasn''t going to be able to move his supplies very far. Still, at least there was enough "uphill" close enough to keep him and his stuff dry when the flood came through. Shane got to work - first throwing across all his bags and packs of essential living materials, then using the Cat to make a ramp large enough to drive itself through. Once on the far side, he began clearing a path uphill. As he started to gather his stuff and move it to a safe height, he looked back through the Gate and saw his pump get buried in a mound of shifting sand. Time running out and the first bits of wet sand sloshing through the Gate, Shane got the supplies and Cat up high enough that he felt safe. By this time, there was a steady stream coming across the bottom of the Gate, quickly finding itself a channel down the hillside. Unfortunately, there was no way Shane was going to risk going back through - even though he hated to lose the generator. From the looks of things, fresh water was going to be the biggest problem, even though he had included a large solar desalination unit is his supplies. It was about a 10 minute walk to the top of his hill, and Shane THOUGHT he could make out a shimmer of a distant lake - but it was days away, at best. For now, he went back and moved everything further up the hillside. He wasn''t sure how stable this hill would be as the new river started digging a channel through it, so he wanted plenty of margin for error. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As Shane finally got his encampment cleared and turned off the Cat, he was impressed by the sight of the new watercourse he had created. He was unsure what to call it, as stream or river usually referred to fresh waters, and this was all ocean - eventually he just settled on "The Great Salt Rapids". Shane then opened up his notes and refreshed his mind on what he wanted to do in this general scenario - listed as option C in his plans. The list started with him securing his encampment under the main tent and reinforcing it against winds and/or rainstorms, then having a filling meal and good night''s rest. In the morning, he would set up solar charging stations, take up his expedition pack and seed pack B, and go stream-side beachcombing. For a walking stick, he had a 5'' aluminum pole with a fish-net loop on the end. Depending on practicality, he would try to establish a hiking trail along the watercourse, but the land here was far more rough than he had hoped for - he wasn''t sure he could do it with the Cat, even if he''d had enough fuel for it, which he certainly didn''t. He estimated about 6 working hours left before it became useless scrap metal. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Cassidy finally was getting some good news, though at the cost of some lost equipment. Several of the first Gates he had taken control of and put in isolation, had vanished! He immediately made 2 moves. He put monitors and timers near every isolated Gate he controlled, and he sent teams to isolate "problem" Gates where it looked practical. His covert bio-war vs North Korea seemed to be mostly a flop so far as Gateworld was concerned, but Earthside North Korea was now reported to be a biological nightmare, and other nations has closed off all access to it. At least one North Korean "punishment" enclave had declared independence and vowed revenge on the Empire. Reports from the Middle East were far more concerning. While most Muslins considered Gate creation demonic or at least taboo to some degree, the jihad factions around Israel had embraced them and many had dedicated themselves to making as many Gates as possible, providing near-endless hiding spots and breeding grounds for future terror. Israel itself mostly had little use for them, but a few sects had set themselves up in their own version of "The Promised Land". Marc''s analysts calculated that the entire nation of Israel and any lands within a couple hundred miles of it would be subject to sudden raids via Gateways for the foreseeable future, gradually getting worse as Gateworld colonies established themselves and became manufacturing hubs. The one bright side was that Gateworld couldn''t be used for either nuclear or biological weapon development, so there were few fears of WMD deployment via Gate. All major federal facilities now maintained an "escape" Gate in case of nuclear attack, and it was assumed the same was true in other nations, so nuclear was becoming ever less likely. In Africa and Latin America, a new threat was being announced by the WHO - mosquitoes returning from Gateworld. Super-zeka was already a problem in Brazil, and assorted tropical fevers were rapidly gaining ground in Africa. The populations were starting to learn that Gateworld was an escape from such problems, and a whole new wave of new Gate creation was ongoing. His mapping staff, strained well beyond their limits, now showed that Gateworld''s "colonized" region was well over 400,000 miles across - which, again, made no sense at all to physicists. ------------------------------------------------------ Cindy continued her "tea parties" with her stuffed frog, and now had young puppies and kittens to care for. The young bunnies had grown up and the older pair had it''s first liter of offspring. To Cindy''s dismay, small garden snakes had been added to the mix as well, but she enjoyed the ladybugs. The lake had turned somewhat greenish close in on her shoreline and teemed with life. School had unfortunately resumed, and she had to trek from her Gate, across Earth to the family main Gate, and to the compound''s schoolhouse every day. 8 - Security Concerns Marc Cassidy fumed yet again - but this time at himself. How could he have missed this for so long? Sure, most of it was simply operational security - he had tried to keep anyone from opening Gates beyond the one he had ordered them to open for exploration or experimentation. But this!!! It turned out that additional Gates opened by the same person did NOT lead to random new regions, but instead to the same general region as their first Gate! It was somewhat excusable that no one had noticed, because they didn''t open very close to one another. In fact, it appeared the distance was a fairly consistent 11.2 miles. No one was likely to recognize many landmarks or features over that distance. Sadly, Marc quickly recognized that he was behind the curve - there was no way that others hadn''t caught on to this obvious pattern. He was surprised it wasn''t common knowledge on the internet yet, or at least on the dark web. Still, there was nothing to do for it but to get his best agents working fast to create more Gates and send in ranging equipment ASAP to see what the limits and parameters were for each Gate-making individual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unlike the rest of the world, everything in Japan was calm and orderly. After the initial flurry, Gate locations were allocated to individuals and industry fairly freely by government agencies. Essentially, every extended family had at least one Gateway estate, as did every business. Large corporations were assigned development locations. Locater beacons were expected of all responsible Gate operators. Medical checks and isolation areas were easy to access and widely used. Also in Japan, industry took the forefront. Not having to worry about damaging local environments, large-scale robotic industrialization projects were begun and vast solar generation fields were deployed, along with wind and water where the potential was high. On the opposite end, India was simply a mess. Over half the population was gone, and there were Gates all over the place - many with warning signs. Everything not firmly secured was being stolen and taken through nearby Gates, including large sections of the power lines and transformers, taking down 80% of the nation''s power grid. In Russia, a huge project was underway in Siberia to create a massive interconnected series of road and rail links between a pre-planed network of Gates. Unknown to My Cassidy, they had already discovered the same-creator effect and were incorporating it into their network planning, providing the region with a much higher than normal average Gate destination quality, and many Gateworld-side routes for future commerce. Oil, gas, and electrical grid projects were already underway to connect up this future economic superpower. Their only serious bottleneck was manpower, and generous recruitment bonuses were being given to workers and settlers, including immigrants from surrounding nations. ---------------------------------------------------------------- At about this point, news hit the internet that Gates "expired" and vanished if not used for some period of time, and that trying to re-open such a Gate didn''t work - the normal "exclusion zone" seemed to still apply to closed Gates. The time period seemed to be just over a week, but some reported longer periods of disuse in which the Gate still hadn''t vanished. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In the University of Iowa Gate Experimental Station, the Philosophy Department had been conducting experiments with Gate Creation for quite some time, with almost no notable results - just lots of Gates. Then one very Emo grad student reported she was unable to create Gates any longer. Taking a close look at the Gates she HAD made showed that most of them were near large bodies of salt water - oceans, probably. Possibly the SAME ocean? With radio equipment, they were soon able to verify exactly that, and to show that there was a fairly low amount of dry land in that region for Gates to appear in. They quickly confirmed what others had found and published the results - so, about a week after Marc''s realization of the phenomenon, it was reported in academic journals worldwide that an Individual''s own Gates were always near one another in Gateworld. They also confirmed that large bodies of water appeared to inhibit Gate formation. What was NOT reported, several days later, was that Rachel, the Emo grad student, was missing. --------------------------------------------------------------- Shane was conflicted. The area he found himself in was simply rough beyond all his expectations. The watercourse itself wasn''t too bad, as it had naturally merged with existing drainage after a couple miles. But those first 2 miles were killer, and Shane didn''t see how he could possibly move his encampment to where he wanted it. On the other hand, it was only about 6 miles, according to his rough rangefinder estimates and a bit of trigonometry, to a mid-size lake that was now rapidly becoming salt water, and the lake shore had a few excellent places to set up camp - including a small fresh water stream coming in from another rocky valley. Sadly, it was rough enough that wheels would be of little help. On the bright side, his expectations proved correct about "beachcombing" for fish - though few were species he recognized. Still, quite a lot of random sea life was being swept into his humble domain, and a fair bit of driftwood as well, he was happy to see. Near the lake shore, he was actually able to make a small driftwood campfire and cook a meal of fresh fish. He further decided to camp near the lake that night and not try to make the difficult climb back to base until the next day. Having free time, he spent a couple hours doing the best he could to plant the seeds and seedlings in his "terraforming packet", and find a good placement for a few patches of salt-marsh mud that he had included. He also put out samples of various mosses and lichen - though he was depending on the seawater life to do most of the work. Shane studied and revised his Plan on his Fire tablet as darkness claimed the Salt Lake region. Why must living out life alone in a tropical paradise be so much work? ------------------------------------------------------- WSU field researchers kept adding more impossibilities to the list of Gateworld features. This time it was air pressure - it hardly changed at all with altitude. The REAL puzzle came when they found a similar effect with water pressure and depth. The first few feet seemed to act normally, and pump systems seemed to have normal pressures, but beyond that, deeper waters didn''t seem to generate great pressure. A diver had gone to 300'' depth with a normal scuba rig and the pressure registered had only been 14''. Engineering people were slowly going insane over the implications, and quickly proposing all kinds of projects to explore and take advantage of the crazy new rules. Meanwhile, growth rates and yields of their experimental crops were off the charts - averaging 5 times the growth rate and double the net yield across all plantings. A local balloonist, on hearing the news, prepared a big livestream event to test just how high he could get before parachuting back down. 9 - First Sparks of Magic Rachel Finster was very lost and very worried, but at the same time was entranced by the beauty around her. It was like a Yellowstone luxury resort resort experiment gone wild. She was surrounded by streams, pools, cauldrons and small lakes of nearly any possible color and description - a surreal fantasy. Thing was, if this was Gateworld, there was no Gate anywhere in sight. Aside from the spectacular geology, it looked like Gateworld - barren of life and that exact same smooth, featureless Sun - which was going to set soon and leave her in total darkness with no supplies of any kind. How it happened was no real mystery - she hadn''t been able to create a new Gate for several days, so she had been playing around with the instructions. Nothing had worked, and maybe she had drained out just a bit too much blood with her various attempts. In any case, she was pretty sure she had fallen asleep inside a double circle after a few hours of it doing nothing - and then had woken up here. --------------------------------------------------------- For Dan Vogt, his plans to be fully independent just weren''t working out. He had a decent ecology going, but he couldn''t get a few of the larger animals he intended to breed - he especially wanted goats. And he wasn''t sure if he wanted a predator larger than a cat. He considered dogs, but was worried about a future with feral wolf packs. His other big problem was power - there just wasn''t a long-term solution he could afford, and even those he COULDN''T afford were now mostly sold out, or had endless delivery times. He had found a small hydro-power rig, but for some reason it just wasn''t providing anywhere close to the advertised output. And lastly, he had to admit, he''d become addicted to internet - and that just wasn''t going to be coming to remote Gateworld outposts for a LONG, LONG time. For now, he just put up large "Biohazard" signs around his Earth-side property and lived almost entirely in Gateworld while constantly browsing the internet for the next step. He got a glimmer of direction for his next project when he learned that if he created more Gates, they wouldn''t be so far away. He set aside one day a week to make more Gates - in the most wild, life-dense patches of wilderness he could find - he had theories to try out. ---------------------------------------------------------- And "Biohazard" was exactly the word most remaining on Earth were using to describe anything coming back from Gateworld now. Not only were Gateworld mutations frequent, but they tended to be enhancements of one kind or another. At first it was only noticed in bacteria, but now it was being seen in all manner of fast-breeding life. In fact, large regions of the once-bare Gateworld rocks now had lichen colonies, and endless varieties of new weeds were springing up in the lush new farmlands. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Many states, and some nations were now calling for airlocks around all Gates, despite the near-impossible enforcement challenges. In fact, unauthorized Gates were popping up everywhere - parks, schools, highway rest stops, below overpasses, in airport terminals, even in prisons. Someone had even made a series of Gates along the Pacific Crest Hiking trail, and there were reports of a Gate at the 25,000 foot level of Mt Everest. Perhaps fortunately, no Gate would open on a floating structure, and if created on a large moving platform, the Gate would not move when the platform did. The Amish had taken a vote and decided to view Gateworld as a gift from God and put it to use - but were taking it very slowly and methodically. Those opposed to the plan were given title to most of the Earth-side lands and assets. ------------------------------------------------- Cindy''s tea parties had slowly moved to the lakeshore, and were now attended by several real frogs, in addition to her stuffed toy Frikzel, and a rabbit and kitten sometimes came. Cindy showed the frogs Naruto episodes and told them stories of the great heroes they could someday become. After a week of pestering, her brother Will finally took her to see the Cascade of Dreams (while complaining about her taking along her dumb stuffed frog) - she stared in amazement and started telling Frikzel of how frog explorers would one day venture to the top of the Cascades to found their new civilization. Will took note that grasses and mosses were already spreading up the falls, as well as down the creek, and he observed several other spots along the shore where grass, weeds, or lichen had made homes for themselves. -------------------------------------------------- In the Korean Empire, something never before known to the population was happening - there was starting to be enough food! With that, loyalty and dedication to their great Leader who had led them through the Gates skyrocketed. Due to the constant threat of disease, only a skeleton crew were left Earthside, along with most of the military, of course, to deter invasion. Free of fear of retaliation, their nuclear weapons were being smuggled into place for launch against their great demonic enemies back on Earth. Their scientists had proven the treachery of the West behind their recent plague and they were out for revenge. They would wait for the right moment - but the evil ones would pay! South Korea was aware of a gathering threat and was conflicted in many ways - mostly because several nasty bio-weapons had spilled over and were now wiping out large numbers in Seoul, and their scientists also found fingerprints of US design in the new diseases. S. Korea already knew that sending people through to Gateworld would probably allow most of the infected people to survive, but they didn''t have any real infrastructure set up there, and didn''t know how long it would be before they could safely return. --------------------------------------------------- Along his seawater stream, Shane was lugging yet another awkward pack down to Salt Lake. Strangely, it was starting to get easier. Shane was no athlete, but he knew it was harder than this to get in shape. He decided it must be connected to whatever boost Gateworld had been giving to people''s immune systems. The other mystery bothering Shane was that Salt Lake has taken on a faint glow at night. He would never have noticed if it hadn''t been for the total darkness of the Gateworld nights, and he hadn''t seen it the first two nights, but now it was obvious - the lake water gave off a misty pale glow that seemed to strengthen each night that passed. But last night, when he went to the shore, he could see the faint glowing mist slowly flowing - directly towards him! 10 - What a Ride! Jarvis Jacobson was hyped! He had a global livestream event ready to go and was about to embark on a first-of-its-kind expedition and adventure into the skies of Gateworld. A professional balloonist with decades of experience, he put safety first - there were simply too many unknowns to deal with. Along with the usual challenges of uncharted wind conditions or air temperatures, his research people had told him that the physical dynamics of air travel itself might be different here. An experimental weather balloon test had confirmed just that - he wouldn''t be able to count on his altimeter, usually the most useful guidance device he owned. Somehow, gaining altitude simply did not lower barometric pressure at anywhere near the expected rate. They had eventually lost contact with the high-altitude weather balloon when it drifted out of range, but the last measured altitude had been at over 80 miles, and atmospheric pressure at that height had been about equal to ground level in Denver - insanity! Of course, despite that, Jarvis had his oxygen tank and breather mask ready to go, along with an assortment of devices to measure air composition and the partial pressures of the main gasses involved, as well as humidity. "Hey JJ! Get your head back down here." His executive tech assistant Roberta called out. Jarvis realized he''d been staring off into the clouds for a while, trying to assess weather conditions. When Roberta had asked what she could do to help, he''d told her, quite literally, to "Go fly a kite!". "Not enough winds for the kite anymore" Roberta reported. "We''re sending up the kid''s balloons every 5 minutes now to see if things are calm enough." Meteorology, unfortunately, just didn''t yet have a handle on Gateworld weather. The best they could tell him was that there were no massive rainclouds within a couple day''s range - doppler radar worked fine, fortunately, and they could track cloud movement with it, but wind forecasts were still a mystery - they somehow didn''t follow high and low pressure zones the way they should. It was currently 9 AM Gateworld time, and Jarvis was eager to get streaming and get going. He was planning a much faster accent than he would ever try on Earth, and the balloon itself was expected to be lost. There was a 95% or better chance he was coming home by parachute, so he just needed to stay within range to guide himself back down to base after he jumped. If winds were calm enough, he''d be able to free-fall most of the way back. ---------------------------------------------------- Dan Vogt was glued to the livestream. This Jarvis guy had been going mostly straight up all day and was now at 12 miles, yet the reported air pressure and temperature were the same as if he''d been only 1 mile up on Earth. The panoramas he was filming were amazing, whole mountain ranges, oceans, huge lakes, winding rivers, vast deserts, rough hilly badlands - all clearly visible through impossibly clear air. The other oddity was the upper-level winds themselves. Not many may have noticed, but whenever Jarvis mentioned something about his speed or direction, a few minutes later his expressed wish would slowly come true. Eventually, Jarvis DID jump, but only because he''d overstayed his high-altitude time and wouldn''t be able to land before sunset. It was clocked as the longest free-fall ever recorded, at over 16 minutes. Even then, he was still over a mile up when his chute opened. At 1/2 mile, the wind turned against him and he landed nearly 2 miles from base - ending the stream. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ---------------------------------------------------- Marc Cassidy was one of those immediately informed about the upper altitude wind conditions and their implications, and immediately put a higher priority on getting fighter jets across to Gateworld and runways established. Several planes had been taken across and were now in the process of reassembly, with final flight checks and fueling planned for two days from now, when the initial runways would be ready. The big delay was that most heavy construction equipment simply wouldn''t fit through a Gate, hindering most infrastructure projects. Custom designs and Gateworld-side assembly areas would soon solve the worst of those issues, but the big projects would still take quite a while to complete. --------------------------------------------------- In Pakistan, a group know as the PLA put forth a plan to their leading clergy - they had a Gate path from their mountain base to a warehouse on the New York docks, needing only a 12 mile desert vehicle to traverse - a small dune buggy would work. To their disappointment, they were told that nuclear options would not work, but a warehouse full of high explosives and chemical weapons should certainly make an impression. To prevent any trace of the origin, they planned to set it up so that the explosions could only go off after the Gate expired. --------------------------------------------------- Shane was sure of it now - something was happening with Salt Lake that was helping him get stronger and healthier. It made sense, after all. Certainly plant life was greatly enhanced, and animals seemed to grow better and faster, so why not him? Or maybe it was more than that. Certainly he had seen no reports of effects like his on the Gateworld internet forums. Still, Shane calculated, there were a couple of unique aspects to his own circumstances. There was his continual distance from the Gate entrance, and there was the massive about of Earth material pouring through his Gate. Then there was the fact that he was the only human here - did that perhaps concentrate the effect? In any case, having fully established his lakeside manor, he decided it was time to explore further downstream and he prepared for a 3-day expedition. -------------------------------------------------- Rachel was having the best spa vacation of her life, with only one problem - no food. So, on the 2nd full day after her transportation, she decided she had to try going back. Finding materials she could use wasn''t too hard - several of the mineral pools had unique-looking deposits she was sure would qualify. Then it was just a matter of finding a sharp enough rock and a spot to mix in the blood. She made the double circle much like the one she had fallen asleep in, and started meditating, thinking of Earth, her home, her place of origin, her birthplace..... Suddenly Rachel came back to full awareness with a start! She was in a semi-darkened room she didn''t recognize. Looking around, she could quickly tell it was some kind of medical facility - it had the telltale smell and feel, and there was a bed right next to her. There were faint sounds coming from the doorway, light voices in the distance. Rachel got to her feet, and opened the window curtain, seeing out from about the 3rd floor of what was obviously a hospital onto an unfamiliar cityscape. Turning back, she opened the door, which led to a normal hospital corridor, ending at a nursing station. Stepping out into the hall, she saw the outside of the door she had just come through - marked "Delivery Room 4". Very obviously, this was the Maternity Ward. As the door closed and the situation became clear to her, a nurse came out of a nearby door and stared at her for a moment - "Mam, can I help you? The ER is down on the first floor." Rachel quickly realized her dirty and slightly bloodied state, so she responded "Sorry, I got confused. Which way is the elevator?" After heading down the elevator and through into the lobby, she saw this was Richmond State Hospital, Indiana - her birthplace. 11 - Schrodingers Cat is Released The MIT press conference on the physics of Gateworld was crowded. Marc had been assured the news would NOT be yet another disaster or lead to more Gate militarism before he allowed it to go ahead. Instead, he found out they were simply protecting their chances for the Nobel Prize for Physics by not giving out advance information. They had also informed him that it was something everyone was bound to discover in another few weeks. Stewart Hartland opened the conference: You all know that many basic laws of physics seem to operate differently in Gateworld, most especially those laws involving radiation and decay. There have been many concerns raised about the possibility of nuclear war via Gates. I''m happy to tell you all today - this will not be possible. No modern nuclear warhead can survive Gate to Gate travel and remain operational. At most, such an attempt would result in a "dirty bomb" explosion, which is simply a normal chemical warhead that spreads radioactive debris when detonated. It would NOT be capable of significant nuclear fission, let alone fusion. Of course, attacks from Earth INTO a Gate are still possible, and a warhead would probably remain viable long enough to detonate in the immediate vicinity of its entry Gate. All of this is due to the fact that Gateworld reduces radioactive isotopes of all kinds in much the same way that radioactive decay itself works, and the effect is such that about 1% of all radioactive material becomes NON-radioactive each day. This may not seem like enough to the layman, but let me assure you that in terms of active fission, the effect is quite dramatic and even a fraction of 1% is enough to render most nuclear weapons ineffective. In most materials, stable isotopes replace the unstable isotopes in about the same proportions as those isotopes appear in nature. However, in elements that have no stable isotopes, something much more mysterious and exciting is happening. While the exact details of our findings are still proprietary, we are calling the resulting new, STABLE, materials the "Schrodinger''s" isotopes. So far, we have been unable to separate these new materials from their radioactive cousins on anything but a molecular scale, so we don''t have full details on their properties. However, at the heart of todays announcement, we do know of ONE unique property of both Schrodinger''s Uranium and Schrodinger''s Plutonium: They are room temperature Superconductors! Furthermore, their superconductivity first becomes evident with any mixture containing at least 3% Schrodinger material. The room went wild....it never calmed down enough for follow-up questions, and Dr. Heartland quickly exited the room. ---------------------------------------------------- Marc instantly ordered the collection and stockpiling of all depleted Uranium supplies he could control, and instituted a buy-back program anywhere the the public might have collected such supplies. While he wished they''d told him ahead of time, it seemed few had realized that U-235 and U-238 were equally useful in creating Schrodinger Uranium, and within the day he had most of it sitting in a Gateworld warehouse refining itself into superconductors. Unlike the livestreamed balloon ride, unmanned balloons that went much over 2 miles up quickly were caught in winds and carried away beyond control and communication range. Manned balloon stations, on the other hand, seemed to have little trouble maintaining their position and became MORE stable with altitude - as long as no clouds were present. Marc''s next big concern was China - he simply didn''t know what they were up to in Gateworld. Whatever it was, they had excellent operational security. What he DID know was that they were being VERY firm in controlling Gate access to the population in general. they had ways of determining the age of Gates, and any unauthorized Gate created after Day 10 carried severe punishments for the creators and users of such Gates. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Marc knew the positions of many Chinese Gates in Gateworld, but he''d lost a few drones trying to get more data - further investigation would have to wait until he could afford to lose more of his very limited drone fleet. Most of the world, now, was simply expanding into the new lands. Some groups were quickly going independent, some even closing off their Gates, but most were just taking advantage of the room to expand and the high rates of food production possible in Gateworld. Return travel was another story, as worries about disease and contamination had many nations terrified, so most frequently used Gates had Earth-side guard posts around them - especially those near population centers. -------------------------------------------------------------- The PLA completed their stocking of the NY warehouse, setting timers and booby traps, then closing off their side of the Gate with concrete bunkers. The Gate-opening agent left for Washington DC to arrange a similar fate. -------------------------------------------------------------- Rachel tried to explain her absence to her fellow university grad students who had been worried when she had gone missing for 3 days. Two of them had tried to replicate her experience, but with no results, after which many were skeptical of her strange story. With nothing else to try, she agreed to try to repeat her experience - but this time with a full set of backpacking, survival, and seeding gear on her person. She had quick results, with her intent directed at the thermal paradise she had been to before, it took her less than 25 minutes to vanish from Earth and appear back in her Gateworld domain, this time with supplies. The other students recorded her vanishing and immediately started speculating as to how others could follow in her footsteps. If everything went to plan, she would come back to the hospital in 3 days. -------------------------------------------------------------- Shane was more certain than ever that something was boosting his health. His acne had cleared up, the small cuts and bruises from his treks had vanished in record time, and he could now hop across rocks like never before, even with a hefty pack. Walking onwards, a few other small native streams joined his salty one, and he could see many signs of green at the stream edge as life began to colonize the new environment - he even spotted a jellyfish in one calm streamside pool. At Salt Lake, he had seen numerous small fish and a few crabs along the shoreline, but it was still the main channel from the Gate to Salt Lake where he could beachcomb for fish worth cooking. His gardens were already producing enough to get him by if the fish ran out or he got tired of them. At night, along the brackish stream, it seemed like total darkness. If the eerie energy came down this far, it wasn''t dense enough to be visible. Th next day proved to just be more of the same - a few more tiny streams joined in, but nothing of note. Shane decided to give up for now and return when everything had had more of a chance to grow. ----------------------------------------------------- Dan Vogt was also feeling a bit more spry and his internet browsing showed that was fairly normal for anyone over 50 living in Gateworld, but research was just starting into the causes. The big factor to watch was that returning to Earth for more than a day or two seemed to allow Gateworld-borne infections to take hold - and they were often easily spread to non-Gateworld folk. Dan, of course, had opted NOT to get a beacon, so he couldn''t yet tell where he was on the slowly growing "Map of Gateworld" site - which so far looked like a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with only a couple dozen pieces in place. He assumed he was fairly near the central region, as he had formed his Gate fairly early on. His two new Gates so far weren''t anything special, but at least they would spread around some more life in the region. With each one, he had placed large piles of assorted smelly "bait" to lure critters through the gateways, and had piled up enough dirt to make pathways for tiny ground creatures as well. ----------------------------------------------------- For Cindy, things were mostly boring, but the cats, frogs, and rabbits did their best to keep her entertained as she did her homework in the lakeside meadow. She had no idea that the animals didn''t normally get along and play together so freely elsewhere. 12 - The Practical Garbage Strangely enough, for the world as a whole, Gates offered one universal service above all others - Waste disposal! Even better, it could be ANY waste, even high level radioactive waste. Around the world, most sewage treatment plants and landfills were switching over to Gate disposal. Even industrial smokestacks were being diverted into Gates. Flood control was also being adapted to open waterways into drainage Gates when needed. Yes, certainly there were protests by environmentalists bemoaning the horrific contamination of Gateworld by these many disposal projects, but that barely even slowed down the process. As humans had once thought of the great forests, people thought of Gateworld as an endless expanse, able to endlessly soak up human debris. Of course, they were quite correct for now. Even the most pessimistic projections showed it would take centuries to create serious environmental hazards in Gateworld, beyond the local dump Gates themselves. On the flip side, several ecological societies were doing the exact opposite and establishing nature preserves via Gate - forming colonies of endangered plants and animals in many hidden corners of the world. Biologists worldwide were tasked with the establishment of viable ecosystems of all types. On the amateur side, seeds of any kind were almost impossible to get now, and books on gardening, horticulture, and almost any related topic were sold out. People in general were potting and transplanting almost anything that would grow for import to Gateworld. Early Gate users were harvesting their first mature crops, and those harvested seeds were causing a sensation of their own - some of the mutations were already evident. There was a huge variety of color and shape far beyond what was usually seen across a wide variety of crops. Rules regarding Gateworld-grown crops were a legal maze, making large shipments almost impossible even for the few farms that HAD such quantities to sell. ------------------------------------------------------ Far from the frightening "evil" blood ritual people had thought of early on, the basic Gate-making compound now in regular use was simply something like Elmer''s glue with a few drops of blood mixed in - something anyone could mix up and carry with them. Some people had gotten their Gate-creation time down to under 5 minutes - though many of these now were reaching their limit and finding they could no longer make Gates. Mapping showed individual Gate networks showed up in Gateworld as hexagonal rings around the initial Gate made by that person, with the centers of each "hex" being 11.2 miles apart from their surrounding ones. Water and really extreme terrain locations were "skipped", so some people had more "hexes" to fill than others before reaching their limits. Each Gate maintained its own climate, seemingly with no regard to that of other nearby Gates, often resulting in very strange-looking weather patterns. There were (very few) places where one could simply walk from the tropics to frozen tundra in under 15 minutes. The other point meteorologists were finally recognizing is that Gateworld did NOT have seasons - either related to their point of origin or otherwise. Gates maintained the climate of the season and place they originated from - early June for the initial Gates, to mid-August for the most recent. And yet they all did so while maintaining an even, 12-hour each, day & night cycle. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ---------------------------------------------------------- On the biological front, it was established that plant growth was accelerated to about 5 times normal rates, and animal growth by slightly over 2 times. The data on humans wasn''t conclusive yet, but it seemed the same was holding true for Homo Sapiens. All single-cellular life seemed to follow the plant rate, as did yeast and fungi. No real cause for the increased growth had yet been determined - raw intake seemed only slightly elevated over the same species behavior on Earth. Much the same was true for the enhanced abilities of the human immune system in Gateworld and the rapid healing observed there - there just wasn''t any good explanation. ---------------------------------------------------------- Marc Cassidy was pouring over the first performance reports from manned jet fighters in Gateworld - more nonsense! According to the flight recorders and telemetry, the higher the jets went, the higher the tailwind they experienced - no matter which direction they flew! This had huge implications for flight speeds and range, IF it could be counted on. If not, a plane could easily be stranded far from any possible landing strip. The effect started to be noticeable at a little under 1 mile up, where it was about 50 mph, and then essentially tripled for each additional mile. No upper limit to the effect had yet been found, but tests hadn''t yet dared go above 6 miles for fear of losing aircraft. The other big factor was that unmanned drones did NOT get the same benefit. So far as Marc was concerned, the important takeaway was that ground-based anti-aircraft fire was going to be nearly impossible. Great for recon or attack missions, terrible for defense. Reading over reports and recommendations, he finally decided which project to prioritize. He was going to get a lock of pushback on this one, but it seemed the Age of the Zeppelins was about to return. They were the only thing in current designs that could stay high enough, long enough, to do the jobs he needed done. Unfortunately, the lead time looked like a minimum of 2 months. Cursing quietly to himself, he signed the needed orders and requisitions. Looking even further ahead, his reports on ocean conditions indicated things would be almost as bad - if the first drafts were right, it was going to be a world of sailing ships and submarines. Fortunately, that was a problem for next year. No one was going to have seafaring capability for a while yet. -------------------------------------------------- Back in Cartan Cove (their coastal Gate, not Cindy''s lakeside estate), things were buzzing along at an impressive clip. They had over 100 family and friends on the project now, which included a small homeschooling operation Cindy was required to attend. They had a small fleet of golf carts and garden tractors that could be driven through Gates. They had 2 large barns, a 50-bed bunkhouse, 3 tiny homes, and six regular homes under construction. They also had 3 acres of solar panels, 8 generators of various kinds, 6000-gallons of gas storage, 2000 of diesel, and assorted other materials. Still, about half of the community members still lived off-site in their Earth-side homes. Cindy''s family was the only group currently living in Lakeside, and all but Cindy tended to spend most of the work day in the Cove Gate. Their seacoast and river ecologies were just starting to produce results, but their riverside fields and orchards had already produced some mature crops. The biggest challenge to their farming was the lack of actual soil, but the river silt seemed to work for most purposes. Their other big soil project involved mixing beach sand with assorted debris (trash) from Earth. After much debate, the Cartans decided to get a beacon - they wanted to know where they were relative to other possible new communities on the ocean shoreline. 13 - Dreams and Nightmares Frixprl the Explorer had just about hit his stride in the dream realm, sharing about 14 million human dreams at a time. Human creativity and content production looked good for the long-term market. They were just starting level two Gate exploration, where much more customized content could be expected, and a few humans had learned of the transport winds. Mana concentration was still very low - well below awareness level in most areas, but that was rising quickly with the mass importation of Power metals and the ongoing spread of Earthly life forms busily building up total biomass awareness. His next phase centered on those few humans who were gathering internal mana at exceptional rates, due to either their living circumstances or their internal talents and predispositions. He even had a human child, all on her own, well on the pathway to producing an eventual avatar for him to curate humanity through. He hoped he could live up to her expectations and become a hidden master to aid the training for future human fantasy heroes - but it was up to such humans to choose him, he was not allowed to offer his services. Any human that put serious focus into interactions with his dream self was also evolving their mana connections at the same time, since mana was integral to his presence in the realm of human awareness. He was everything from a little green man, to a frog, to a goblin to (for some reason) a lizard-like creature that would grow inside a human body, to then burst out and try to eat everything - which he finally understood when one of his contacts fell asleep watching "Alien Revival". Frixprl the Explorer didn''t mind - he would take on any role given and do his best to further the storylines. Hero or villain was all the same for him. -------------------------------------------------- In the abandoned Gate of Torture, where North Korea had herded thousands of unwanted prisoners before sealing the Gate until it closed, Ky San was the only one left. He really had been the assassin they accused him of being, but there had been no real evidence, so he had been imprisoned instead of executed. Over the past 3 months, violence and starvation had claimed all the others - mostly violence, as the killings had provided enough to eat for those who could take their share. For Ky San, he at last knew peace, with the defeat of his final opponent. He knew his course now. It was written in the green pond scum and the insects that fed on it - the only life that shared this desolate pond with him. The 80 foot across, 10 foot deep pond, with tiny, intermittent, inflow and outflow streams was the only source of life support they had found in that first week of despair. It was possible that one of the downstream explorers had found more, but the several hundred foot drop-off a mile downstream had discouraged most ventures. The lake was badly contaminated, of course, as much of the group''s human wastes had ended up there during the confrontations. And then there was the fact that he simply had no idea how Gates were opened - he had already been in prison at the time of the E-mail. So Ky San, after salvaging and drying all the meat he could find, simply passed his time in quiet contemplation and meditation, usually outside, but in his shelter of salvaged clothing when the rains would pass through. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ------------------------------------------------- In the New York Harbor area, near Sunset Park, a small, unused warehouse blew up with great intensity, creating a large toxic cloud that drifted northwards on the winds. Buildings were badly damaged for 3 blocks around, and windows blown out for nearly 10 blocks. Emergency response was quick, at first, but then the survivors of that response were just as quickly called away - the gasses were deadly in the extreme. The city lost dozens of police, fire, and EMT personnel. Very few who were wounded in the explosion survived. Hundreds more died as the cloud spread, thousands more were hospitalized. It would have been much worse had not the majority of the people in the path of the cloud evacuated to Gateworld. Investigation teams in hazmat suits were soon on the scene, measuring contamination levels, taking samples of everything, and pinpointing the origin of the explosion. The warehouse ownership was quickly investigated, leading to a 3-monse lease by a fictional company. Further attempts at backtracking began, but it would be slow work - the trail was at least a month old. The physical investigation, over the next few days, was able to determine that the combination of explosives and toxins used could only have come from the middle east, most likely Iran or Pakistan, and regional investigations were launched. At the same time, in Washington DC, the house of a small-time opiate dealer had been bought for cash and was currently being filled with similar explosives and toxins. ----------------------------------------------------- Rachel was having a wonderful spa vacation, now that she had a few essential supplies, and hated to leave her Gateworld retreat, but her collogues would be waiting at the hospital, and they weren''t going to be able to explain why they were in a maternity room for long if she didn''t show up. It turned out to be no problem, her three fellow grad students and the floor nurse were waiting at the doorway when she appeared - seemingly in the exact same spot as before. She wondered if she was going to have to start paying the hospital some kind of transit fee. Outside the door, a hospital security guard had been waiting, but the nurse quickly informed him that the wild story had panned out, and there was no threat beyond the usual Gateworld biohazard potential. The nurse got Rachel''s contact info and both assured the other that they would do their best to notify the other of when that room might be in use. ----------------------------------------------------- On his way back to Salt Lake, Shane was settled into his nightly camp and went to sleep as usual. At some point (he didn''t bother checking the time), he got up to answer the call of nature. Not wanting to waste battery power, he groped his way across the rocks to find a good spot to pee. When done, he was slightly disoriented and not sure which way his campsite was. Before getting out his flashlight, he acted out of long habit from nights back on Earth, and tried to get his eyes to adjust. He almost fell over again - he could "see" a short distance, even though all he could see was blackness. Yet somehow he could make out shapes. He tested this, reaching out to the nearest rocks, and finding them to be exactly where his new "sight" was showing them to be. He immediately started playing with his new "dark-sense" until he could reliably find footing, and could toss in the air and then catch small rocks. His "visual" range seemed to be less than 5 feet, though, and he had to bend down a bit to "see" his footing. He also realized he had no clue which way his camp was, after all this distraction, so he had to bring out the flashlight after all. Back in camp, he got very little sleep that night, having to constantly go experiment and prove to himself that his new ability wasn''t a dream. 14 - Things Get Deeper Cindy''s lakeshore gatherings now usually had 3 large frogs, 2 rabbits, 2 adolescent cats, and a wayward duckling, plus her stuffed frog, of course. Cindy was now constantly bringing anime clips and "explaining" how anyone could grow up strong and eventually become a superhero. In her mind, Earth was just too "messed up" to "let the energy and harmony flow". To prove this to herself, she set up assorted obstacle courses for herself and her little friends. They, of course, mostly just watched silently, but her gradual addition of treats did produce some results from all but the frogs. Cindy herself was a bit depressed at her own very slow progress, and envied the agility of the young cats - their ability to get treats from her was almost ninja level. But they rarely actually did the obstacles as intended. Still, the group remained dedicated and friendly, always careful not to harm one another in play. In another manner, though, reality intruded - mice were the enemy. Cindy parents (and the mother cat) had made that quite clear, and they were not to be allowed to establish themselves in Lakeside. Unknowingly guided via Dreamworld, several tadpoles made their way past the life-sparse wild shoreline to the waterfall, where the boy''s seeding had created a lush, living foothold. --------------------------------------------------- After a long, confused silence, it was now the turn of Geologists to say that Gateworld was impossible, but their findings were to the delight of Architects everywhere. Just as with water depth, there were limits to compression pressures of all kinds in Gateworld, which made nearly all seismic readings total nonsense - they would have to be researched and recalibrated all the way back to their most basic assumptions. What delighted the Architects, though, was that buildings didn''t need anywhere near the level of support they did on Earth, AND there was a "maximum gravitational load per area". Which, in practice, meant there was no limit to the height of buildings other than being able to handle the max load and being stable enough to resist wind forces. On the flip side, cavers speculated the possibility of endlessly deep systems of caverns, since no trace of the usual crust/mantle dynamics of Earth had been found. Whatever passed for vulcanism on Gateworld, it was NOT based on plate tectonics, scientists assured everyone. ---------------------------------------------------------- Marc had gotten a few scout planes with pilots into the skies of Gateworld, and the rough results were that pilots with a firm destination in mind would experience highly predictable tailwinds on their way. But when engaging in maneuvers, or even just drifting off and letting the autopilots do the work, the tailwinds quickly dropped off to insignificance. Further, the airspeed of the tailwinds climbed quickly with altitude once the aircraft was over a mile up, starting at about 50 MPH at 1.2 miles and more than doubling for each additional mile (actually, 2.7 times per mile was the current measured rate). Because it worked effectively only for straight-line travel, they hadn''t tested it past 6 miles - not wanting to risk the loss of a plane and crew. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Even at that, scout planes at 4-5 miles were quickly filling in parts of Marc''s official Gateworld strategic map. ---------------------------------------------------------- Shane was back at Salt Lake, playing with his new sense every night. The range was gradually improving, as was his balance and coordination while using it, but the main thing was the only "light" it could see was the wispy stuff coming towards him from the lake, and, for that, there didn''t appear to be much range limit. Since he could always "see" the lake to orient himself, he didn''t have to worry about getting lost in the dark while near the lake. Now less afraid of the process, he was able to watch, and start to feel, the tendrils of wisps as they moved to and into him. Shane ended up calling the new aspects of sight "Darkvision" and "Manavision", but he wasn''t sure if they were both actually the same sense or not. Darkvision sensed anything nearby, while Manavision acted much more like normal sight. He had at first thought the "mana" was producing actual light, but it didn''t register on his cameras or night-vision goggles. The other thing that surprised Shane was that he spotted a sandpiper flying along the far edge of Salt Lake, and he wondered for a bit what circumstances had led to it getting sucked into the Gate. Seaweed was becoming a common sight now, as were jellyfish, crabs, and assorted minnows. He knew there were larger fish from his streamshore scavenging, but hadn''t actually seen any in the lake yet. There were also quite a few assorted insects - enough that he was starting to worry about bug bites. ------------------------------------------------------ Rachel''s group finally had 2 other investigators fill up their "Gate slots" and vanish, using double perimeters - but they hadn''t yet returned to tell what happened. Both had crossed over fully equipped, though, and had planned to stay a few days, so no one was really worried yet. ----------------------------------------------------- The Korean Empire had quickly discovered that Gateworld did not have the old limits on construction, and a few very impressive structures were ongoing. They were also working very hard on Gateworld hydropower, their scientists (after failing some initial attempts) finding that it was best to use a "stepping" system, with each set of generators being powered by a mere 20 foot drop - since extra drop height seemed to just lose out on all the expected extra power production. Power and fuels were the big stumbling blocks to industrial development - no one had yet found fossil fuels in Gateworld, and geothermal sites were rare. Solar and water were going to have to take over for most power production, and that wouldn''t be quick or cheap. It also had the effect of making Gateworld mining very challenging, especially since all imported equipment had to fit through the Gates. At least mineral resources were common in Gateworld, especially the lighter elements (everything up to iron). Sadly, there were almost zero nobel gasses to be had. No longer having to worry about radioactive waste, North Korea''s remaining Earthside workforce concentrated on increasing nuclear reactor power production and creating a high-capacity grid to their Gateworld capitol. Not wanting to waste jets or fuel, they were exploring Gateworld via high-altitude balloonists, going up over 10 miles and laughing at the "chicken" American jets that flew below them. An adept balloonist could fly rings around a supersonic jet 2 miles beneath them, they quickly discovered. The jet pilots were not happy, and quickly reported these circumstances, along with requests to be allowed higher ceilings. Unknown to them, North Korea was losing about 5% of their balloon pilots per day - due to "unknown circumstances". ----------------------------------------------- Ki Sung Lee was one such pilot. He had lost orientation and all visual contact with known landmarks after overshooting his intended target. His attempts to establish his location proved futile, and his radio equipment was totally silent - beyond all signal range, he imagined. Hours later nothing had changed - darkness fell and he could see nothing at all other than his lit instrument panel. 15 - The Age Gap Opens, or Closes.... This time it was the medical community weighing in on Gateworld effects. It seemed that, indeed, HUMAN growth rates were accelerated to nearly the same degree as all other animals. This was most noticeable in the very young AND included pregnancy gestations times. Women were happy to note that periods were half as long, but frequency didn''t change. The very old often had their health improve quickly in Gateworld, but researchers couldn''t yet tell if any actual age-reversal was happening, or if it was just an effect of the enhancement of the immune system Gateworld provided. Speculation was that there would still be aging to the point of eventual death, but it would be greatly prolonged by the improvements to the immune systems. The full research had only started to come in, but the evidence so far suggested that all learning and development was accelerated in Gateworld. Wild hopeful speculation was that many former human limits could now be transcended, both mental and physical. If all this were true, ethics and educations systems would have to be entirely redesigned to accommodate fast maturing Gateworld children, especially with regard to age of puberty, age of consent, and the age at which one could become an official "adult". As these and various other features of Gateworld were revealed, more of the Earth''s population either created Gates, or found a Gateworld community to move to. By mid-September, 5% of Earth''s population were living full-time in Gateworld, and another 10% were actively in the process of transitioning over. ------------------------------------------------- Rachel was having a very long day. The experiment had been for her to try and take another person along with her to her "private" Gateworld retreat. It wasn''t really working. She was certainly getting faster at Gate travel, though - she had her round trip time under a half hour, and it would be faster if she weren''t caught up in the experiments. When she tried to Gate with her friend Grace laying across her lap, it had taken over an hour of meditation, and then she appeared in Gateworld - without Grace. The same happened later when she tried it with a dog in her lap - they just got left behind. On the other hand, gerbils in her backpack came through without too much trouble, though the transition still took extra time. According to math, people were, under ideal circumstances, able to create 217 Gates before "topping out", which worked out to 9 "layers", or rings of hexes, each 11.2 miles center-to-center from the nearest previous hex in the pattern. But Rachel had only created 18 before topping out, because her region had a lot of ocean - where Gates wouldn''t form. There was still no word on where "private retreat" areas were relative to all the other Gates. Speculation ranged from just fairly long distances to being on entirely different dimensions. Certainly there were people by now working on the problem with long range radio equipment. Gateworld didn''t seem to have an "ionosphere" to bounce signals around, so even "normal" Gate to Gate radio communication was often difficult - especially if there were mountain ranges between Gates. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Rachel was simply falling in love with her private world, but wanted to be able to bring company over, rather than always being the only human there. ------------------------------------------------ Cindy was put to work planting lakeside orchards now. It was exciting because she had never before seen many of the plants they were giving her. The Cartans had determined how Gateworld climate worked, and were mostly using tropical plants that didn''t need seasons, since it seemed winter would never arrive. As she worked, Cindy found she had a "6th sense" now for when her animal friends were near, and could easily spot them in the patches of tall grass around the lake. The new generation of frogs and bunnies were maturing, and the girl kitty was going to have her litter any day now. The boys had discovered the lake outlet - almost 15 miles away, and they were fairly sure the lake itself was near 40 miles long and 12 wide. They had used all their remaining "seeding stock" for the expedition near the outlet, so that life would more quickly spread downriver. Cindy''s internet site on Kidsworld was starting to take off, known as The Real Wonderland, and she often posted the playful antics of her animal friends there. The site was highly protective, so no information was released about her true name and location, but her Animal Adventures reached thousands and she was even getting a trickle of sponsorship money.
Frixprl The Explorer was enjoying the shared dream Cindy and her followers were creating, and a logo based on his frog persona was on the front page of the site. Using the dream-intent of the group, Frizprl was accelerating evolution in the lakeside falls area - especially with regard to the size and intellect of the growing frogs. He was also expanding their mana affinity, as happened with any human that focused on any meaningful representation of him for a period of time.
----------------------------------------------------- Dan Vogt was just being a happy old geezer, and not working too hard at it. Once a week he would go back Earthside and make another Gate in the most secluded part of the deep wild he could find, trying to make his region a truly diverse wilderness sanctuary. He had already spotted a couple birds he was sure hadn''t come in via his initial Gate. As his health and stamina improved, he was taking longer and longer exploration treks, planting random stuff wherever it looked like there was enough water to sustain things. Surprisingly (to Dan), his power and internet proved fairly reliable, and he was constantly watching videos for new Gateworld tricks and tips. As a result, he was redesigning his hydropower setup to a more parallel, stepped system instead of trying for a higher head pressure. Also as a result of feeling more healthy and active, Dan started posting in Meetup, seeking a female companion, as nights in Gateworld were a bit dark and lonely for him these days. --------------------------------------------- Ki Sung Lee was getting desperate - 3 days and no life in sight. He decided to use the last of his hydrogen to go REALLY high and start zooming around looking for areas of green life. At first he went from landmark to landmark, as he looked down on vast regions of assorted terrain. After hours of no results, he simply held an image in his mind of vast green vegetation somewhere ahead and let the landscape become a blur beneath him. Twice, he ran into strange, inhospitable regions that terrified him into changing course. If those vast colored blurs were "life", he wanted nothing to do with them. After terrifying night with those nightmare images floating through his head, he woke the next morning knowing this was his last hope. He set his mind on "friendly life ahead" and let the landscape blur again. Eventually, there was a shift and the land halted. Below him was an olive green expanse of life. Knowing he was much too high for any sort of controlled decent before nightfall, he prepared his chute and few remaining supplies, and jumped. 16 - Big Industry Moves In By October, major corporations were fully aware of the new situation and were finding ways to take advantage. Large contract bonuses were offered to individuals with good starting Gateworld environments based on the # of Gates they were willing to open on the company''s behalf. Once it was established that major infrastructure like oil and gas pipelines, water mains, and electrical transmission lines could be put across Gateworld, thousands of miles of gridwork could be compressed to about 11.5 miles. In the case of aqueducts, it was even sometimes possible to have "downhill both ways" flows. After a few small disasters, in which Gates vanished from lack of use (it seemed that fluid pipelines didn''t reset Gate expiration), companies realized the need to leave enough space in the utility Gates for human transit. Airlines were quickly going bankrupt as cross-Gate travel took over nearly all long-distance travel. Railroads and trucking were ok, for now, but they could see the writing on the wall and were quickly designing their own Gate delivery grids. Anti-Gate fanatics were getting desperate, as global civilization was gravitating towards full Gateworld exploration and leaving them behind - fanatical and jihadist attacks were common. Overall, global industry was rebooting, and fortunes were being made and lost every day in thousands of industries. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- At NASA HQ, a VERY classified report was being given to the Defense department. YES, a Gate could be opened on the Moon. The problem was that it opened into vacuum, on a lunar-like surface, with lunar day/night cycles. And NO, the Gate attempts on craft and space stations failed entirely. What the report DIDN''T mention was a 2nd lunar Gate, created by a man who had already created a Gate from Earth..... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The first Gate harvests were in (the 2nd in many cases) and food shortages were quickly becoming a thing of the past. Life was infiltrating its way into many areas far from any Gate. People who stayed on Earth were slowly getting left behind - training and learning rates were double in Gateworld. Already, world and Olympic records were being broken on a daily basis. Fertility rates were also growing rapidly, as women were finding a 5 month pregnancy much easier to deal with than 9. Cavers reported that Gateworld had extensive caverns, but that access was very rare and difficult. Several reports were coming in of "faintly glowing mist" at night in Gateworld, that seemed drawn towards humans and appeared to enter them. Test instruments didn''t register anything. A totally blind man, after living months in Gateworld, reported being able to navigate an obstacle course by "pure instinct", and claimed he could "see with chi", even though he admitted it only worked within a foot or two. Shane was doing much better at it, but was in no position to report his findings. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ---------------------------------------------- Marc was very busy, as always, trying to keep a lid on a dozen boiling pots. Reports on China had finally come in - they were building a "slow drone" fleet on Gateworld, staying at low altitudes, and seemed more intent on watching their own populations than in causing trouble for others - for now, at least. North Korea had finished transiting its population base to Gateworld. The only remaining Earthside presence were military and industrial factions. The big worry was that it would no longer hesitate to use nuclear weapons, as it had little left to lose that was vulnerable to such attack. Russia was simply getting rich. They had huge reserves of what Gateworld could not provide - fossil fuels. They were quickly setting up direct Gate-pipelines from their oil and gas sectors to their best allies and customers. They were importing talent from around the world just by paying better wages and benefits than anyone else. The middle east was total turmoil, with anti-Gate fanatics constantly attacking Gate-makers and Gate-users, while also attacking their traditional enemies. Most of the general population had embraced Gates as a means to escape the conflict, and refugees were popping up all over the world. Latin America was just colonizing Gateworld - ignoring the condemnation of the practice by the Catholic Church, and their cartels now had global access for drug distribution. Marc was now getting fairly good daily flyover reports, as his pilots slowly learned to take full advantage of the winds. One daring pilot claimed he could even shut down his engine and maintain altitude via updraft. But right now, Marc was having to personally go to NASA to find out what the big deal was with Lunar Gate #2. This led him to a secure Gate shuttle that took him to an underground base. There he was led to an airlock-sealed room with a Gate. Passing through THAT Gate, he was then put in a dune buggy for the 11.2 miles to see the Lunar Gate. There it was: He could see directly through the Gate to the Lunar surface, the Moonscape, the unwinking stars. His guide casually blew up a toy balloon and batted it through the Gate - where it immediately exploded in the hard vacuum. Yet there was no wind. His guide then brought out a small extension pole and a small pot, filled the pot with water from his canteen, and extended it into the Gate - where it immediately started boiling away rapidly. After a minute or so, the boiling died down and he pulled the pot back across the Gate, revealing a small block of ice. This was huge, Marc knew. Interplanetary travel was on their doorstep - all they had to do was land one person on a planet long enough to establish a Gate. But even worse, it forecast what the results would be when the opener of Lunar Gate #1 returned home and opened a Gate from Earth... ----------------------------------------------------------- Gina Sinclair had bad luck creating her Gate - getting an area that consisted mostly of a cross between the Sahara and the Badlands, with no fresh water in sight. While reading up on possible solutions, she came across Mr Vogt''s posting - he might be the answer to her troubles, and a companion as well, if things worked out. If nothing else, maybe she could care for one of his secondary Gates for him. She sent Dan details about her troubles with her desert Gate, asking for advise, and included a slightly flirty picture of herself having a picnic on a dune near her Gate in Gateworld. Dan answered with assorted information about making "flood-Gates" in wetland areas and offered to show her one such Gate he had made next to a forest stream - designed to divert much of the stream to Gateworld in the rainy season. Gina didn''t mention she had inherited a fairly large estate a couple years back, and that she planned to put 90% of it into Gateworld ventures. She (at 57) had never had children due to medical issues, but her latest readings had suggested that living in Gateworld for a decade or so might give her a second chance at life. Dan''s other suggestion had been to open one (or more) of her own secondary Gates from the wettest possible places and seasons she could find on Earth - with the aim of greening her desert. She was already on her way to the first such location - she wanted to meet Dan with a "win" already under her belt. 17 - Cindy Starts Growing Up Cindy knew her "stuffed frog" was up to something. Of course, that made no sense at all to anyone she talked to. In fact, her family was a bit concerned that she still clung so tightly to it. She knew it was a lifeless thing of cloth and stuffing, of course, but she also felt something deeper about it. For her, it was a communications device to a friend and companion that couldn''t or wouldn''t manifest any other way. And she also knew that everything "it said" came from her own imagination, but somehow she could tell almost instantly if she deviated from the deeper meaning it was somehow providing her. It would withdraw if she persisted along "incorrect" lines, and she would feel it become more distant. As she kept bringing more episodes of her favorite anime to the silly creature gatherings, she could feel approval. Even further, she was getting stronger, faster, and more agile at a rate far beyond her classmates, even the other kids living in Gateworld - so something was reflecting into her, she decided, from her hobby and play times. Cindy decided to try talking to her family about taking some kind of martial arts lessons, on the one hand, and to try to "go by the feel" during her time at the lake, on the other hand, to see if she could replicate any "shinobe" abilities. The silly "cloning" ability from the anime was obviously silly to consider, but the swirling energy gathering in the protagonist''s hands just felt RIGHT to her, and seemed like the perfect thing to practice. And the side character''s strength and healing talents might be possible. She wasn''t sure about the lightning guy or some of the other featured powers, but she could experiment and see if any of them also "felt right". Frixprl was proud of the dream-time interactions with Cindy and the insights she provided into the human mind-set. He foresaw a great rise in his prestige among his people if his "humanity project" progressed as expected. They were already starting the 2nd expansion wave in Gateworld, and now had the keys to using Gateworld to expand their presence in their physical solar system. And, according to his macro-sense, one of the wind-borne had even made alien contact beyond the local galactic system - unfortunately, he was not yet at the level to be able to track that adventurous (or lucky) individual. Two other wind-borne had been eaten by slightly-more-local swarm concentrations - but they hadn''t triggered anything with the ability to back-track them, so his humans were safe for now. -------------------------------------------------------------- Following Marc''s advice to the President, the USA was slowly creating zoning laws covering Gate creation and use, thus allowing most of those who wanted to avoid the risks arising from Gateworld to have safe spaces and buffer zones. This was very helpful in preventing more pandemics from spreading. In the buffer zones, Gateworld "adaptation hotels" were springing up after it was discovered that a week or so in Gateworld would usually strengthen a person''s immune system enough to ward off the more dire effects of the rapidly mutating Gate-borne diseases. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. -------------------------------------------------------------- At Salt Lake, Shane was quickly improving his new senses. He could now "feel" several yards around in great detail, "feel" the direction back to camp, and "feel" the presence of large fish in nearby water. He was starting to be able to do it in daylight, despite the interference of normal vision. Shane had also noticed great results just from the workout of his daily explorations on his strength and agility - a 10-foot standing broad jump was no problem for him now, and he could easily hang from a rocky cliff with one hand, even being able (with difficultly) to pull himself (and his normal pack) up single-handedly. As he sat next to the lake, meditating, he was able to draw in "mana" faster than ever. In fact, he could even see ripples in the still water that seemed to converge on him, but if he did it for long, small fish would gather and take in part of the energy themselves. -------------------------------------------------------------- After countless experiments, Rachel had managed to take one of her BFFs across to her Gateworld sanctuary - by mixing their blood before making the circles. Even then, it had taken over an hour of meditation and synchronized breathing, but Karmen was there with her, and they spent the rest of the day lounging in the mineral pools and having a feast in celebration. Bringing stuff here with her was a royal pain, Rachel thought. Even "normal" things had to be in her "personal space" correctly in order to come with her - and she was only slowly getting a handle on just what that was. Essentially, it seemed to be whatever she could walk around with in a normal fashion, it seemed. Any extra burden or extra size risked being left behind. And, of course, it had to fit inside the circle she was using. Two other members of her project had been able to follow her example so far, and each had described their own "unique and wonderous" landscape features. One of them also had a delivery room "return target", but the other one had appeared inside his old childhood home, which was NOT his actual birthplace, causing quite a stir with the current owners of the home. They were still in negotiations with the Project for use rights, but the owners had a temporary restraining order on the man for now. It appeared that their 14 year old daughter had not been pleased to have a man suddenly appear beside her bed out of thin air. But still, one backpack at a time, Rachel''s little world was becoming a happy refuge from the insanity of Earth. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Enfolie took in the strange being that had fallen from their skies with a huge broken wing slowing his fall. It''s kind had never been seen before, but it hadn''t attacked or tried to steal food, as Swarmkin scouts would always do. It didn''t register with the Magi as a threat, either, so no exterminations teams had been sent. It did seem very attached to the strange coverings it wore, but had submitted to a fairly extensive examination with only minor resistance. Their zenomeds said it was not yet adapted to the Universe of Pathways, and had no mana accumulation systems, so they deemed it harmless. For now, they would simply provide it with water, and experiment with tidbits of foods to see how its biochemistry functioned. It might not adapt and eventually die, or it might adjust and thrive. The same was true of communications - it seemed to receive just a hint of strong emotional broadcasts, but showed only confusion at concept-transmissions and standard body-talk. 18 - Winter is Coming As the seasons slowly changed, it hit home to the population what the meteorologists had been saying the whole time - Gateworld climate never changed once a Gate was created. The area near the Gate would ALWAYS have the general climate of the time and place on Earth it was linked to at creation. So nearly all northern hemisphere Gates led to eternal summer. This included overall expected rainfall. So, for example, a Gate created in NY on June 20 would always have the general weather patterns and temperatures of June in NY. Now that it was mid-autumn, the differences were often striking, and sometimes extreme from Earth-side to Gateworld-side. Already, homeless shelters had converted most of their operations, and could now simply offer the needy warm lands to visit that were mostly covered in freshly-grown fruit and vegetable crops - eliminating the need for soup kitchens. Sadly, this came with many of the expected problems, and some of these "shelters" were now strongly held gang turf, with drug use and human trafficking becoming common. The other big problem was that they often emerged from Gateworld as carriers of new strains of disease, and many were not inclined to obey quarantine rules. ------------------------------------------------------------- Behind the scenes at NASA, debate raged. Although not told the specifics, major representatives were told that interplanetary Gating WOULD work - we simply had to transport Gate-makers to the intended target. Of course, a one-way expedition to Mars was MUCH easier than one that had to return or to establish a long-term base. But that still left endless details to be worked out - who would build the ships, who would man them, how many crew, where should they land, what should we tell other nations, what about terraforming, what about colonies, what about competitors once they arrived, and so on. At least 4 other space agencies were working on Moon landings, so they all either suspected the truth or wanted to do the research themselves. The other question was open - WOULD it work beyond the Moon? It DIDN''T work on spacecraft or space stations - at least not those currently in use. Would the expedition be stranded and lost? Was there a size limit to the target planet or moon? What about the Asteroid belt? Another endless set of questions. -------------------------------------------- Back at Washington State University, the crop studies were going well, but were alarming. While the crops did SEEM fairly uniform at first, gene analysis showed a mutation rate over 100 times that of Earth - in everything. What was most odd, in their view, was that the mutations were far more viable than expected. The Gateworld "health effect" seemed to even apply to genetic conditions, and plants and animals that should have died in infancy thrived, and reproduced. Even GMO "terminator seeds" showed over a 10% fertility rate under Gateworld conditions, and it was nearly up to 50% in the 2nd generation. This was a huge blow to Monsanto - one of their primary grant sponsors, and they were working furiously on solutions. Data was also building up that showed human fertility was higher in Gateworld, but no formal research had yet been done. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ----------------------------------------------- The Sahara was slowly turning green as thousands of small-time Gateworld projects bore fruit, and starvation was quickly dying out. The jihadists were being pushed back and killed off by the tribes that were expanding quickly into Gateworld and becoming able to feed and protect their people. Meanwhile, on Earth, crops struggled with new parasites and hardier insect pests appearing - mostly from Gateworld, everyone suspected. It wasn''t bad - about 5% down from expectations that fall, and with much of the population getting food from Gateworld, it wasn''t a huge issue - yet. --------------------------------------------------- Cindy was having some long, heart-felt discussions with her stuffed frog - even though both sides of the talks came from her own mouth. Frix wasn''t really keen on answering questions - he preferred to be told stories, and maybe contribute a story or two of his own, on occasion. But he had already been exposed to human dream-time for several months now, and had a pretty good handle on what he was or wasn''t allowed to reveal. Frix told Cindy that his "people" just wanted to watch, mostly, as humans starting growing and expanding. His people would NOT be visiting in person, not for thousands of years, maybe not ever, with the exception of himself. He let her know he was the only one of his kind currently in the Gateworld equivalent of the same galaxy, and that he had made an exclusive deal making himself the only such being allowed here. He was allowed to give hints here and there about problems that humans might encounter, but no hard facts. His big hint to Cindy was "The universe is a far bigger and more magical place than you imagine - or even than you CAN imagine." When Cindy asked how to do magic, Frix just responded: "It''s MAGIC - never ask how. Others will tell you how. Don''t trust them." Beyond that, when pressed, he just channeled stories from human dreamtime towards her, filling her imagination with ideas, but not his own, alien, ones. Humanity had to remain based in human thinking for the survival of both themselves and his own long-term plans. But he already knew, the news was starting to spread across the Dreamtime community - humans had strongly held ideas about many of the dominate Pan-Universal beings, from dragons to elves to spirits and demons. Eventually, they would draw the attention of those factions that most resembled the human concepts of them. Humans also had far darker mythologies, and those too could attract the attention of beings attuned to those feelings and concepts. All that was going to save humanity was the sheer vastness of reality itself - humans here were simply too trivial for anyone to take action in response to them. It was just as well, Frixprl pondered. Had the potential for conflict not been there, it would not be productive for him to stay. These humans WOULD grow and expand until they WERE worthy of notice. Fortunately for them, conflicts among their own kind would keep them from being totally unprepared. Later that week, Cindy threw her first "real" kamehameha - blowing out a candle 10 feet away (even though she still couldn''t SEE anything more than a faint shimmer in the air from it). Yes, she had magic! She could also do backflips and lift 100 pounds over her head with one hand. Shane would have laughed. HE was quickly becoming an ultimate stealth ninja, and pitied any poor saps that did eventually try to come through his Gate. He was tempted to go back soon - he wanted to test how his abilities worked back on Earth. He was sure he was now fit enough to get back and forth through the endless whirlpool his Gate must have created without serious injury. But there was no rush - he meditated on the shore of Salt Lake as the energy whipped into him, becoming more an integral part of him every day. Today, somehow, an otter visited along with the other masses of sea life that attended his nightly energy intakes. Gulls were now present as well. 19 - Faraway Concerns The Enfolie embraced their lost alien - obviously a youngling with no mana training, and very obviously lost. With experimentation and their own magic, they had managed to adapt his digestion enough to keep him alive, and his health was slowly improving. Strangely, he didn''t even seem to know the Homecall ritual that was an obvious part of the structure of the World - other than those few who survived after loss of homeworld. The magi were able to determine he had only a few months of Gateworld exposure, and no mana control structure at all, only using the Way of the Mindless, as happened to any living creature that entered Gateworld. They could safely send him back - he had no means of tracing them. Still, it would be best to slightly alter his memories of them to prevent a more competent being detecting their involvement with this new race. The elders could see this new race would likely be lured into a System cult soon. Even the Enfolie themselves still had some enclaves of system cultists left - after all, the System was the only hope a race had if a Swarm discovered them before they began to mature. So the Enfolie guided Ki Sung Lee through a series of dreams, in which he was taught the very basics any youngling should know, the Homecall ritual, the Swarm dangers, the lure of the System, and the basics of growing magic ability channels oneself. In return, he was milked of his dreams of Earth, his nation, his profession, his hopes and dreams, and his personal ident - they would always be able to find him. Then they sent him home, where he appeared in his birth cottage back in North Korea, which was now abandoned, but still standing. Ki Sung Lee looked out over the familiar childhood landscape and wondered - how was he going to report this? Frixprl noticed the return of the wayward survivor and briefly contemplated altering the man''s ident, but decided not to - these Enfolie were not the kind to disrupt his plans - even if they were able to. He did wonder if they still had enough of a System connection to lead it to humanity - but if it happened, it happened, and would just become part of the Story. The FUN part would be in what he reported to his superiors, and how they would react. --------------------------------------------- Moonbase was off to an explosive start - a bit too literally, as some of the supply canisters were sent across with too much air pressure left in them. But being able to build on the Moon and fill everything up with air pumped through a hose from a Grateworld-side air compressor made things fairly easy. The base was on the far side from Earth, of course, but they were already working on relay stations to the Earth horizon for direct radio communication - rather than having to depend only on their Gateworld com lines. The real debate was environmental - to terraform the Moon or not? It would take thousands of Gates, but the scientists claimed it could become habitable in between 3 and 9 decades, if the project were allowed in the first place. The big issue would be that it would no longer be easy to launch from the Moon back into space if the Moon had an atmosphere - the extra drag would be enormous. The same consideration would apply to Mars, of course, if Gate conditions there were the same. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. It was decided for now to wait. If a Gate could be established on a smaller body - like the Martian moons, for example, that would solve the launch issues - since those bodies couldn''t possibly hold an atmosphere anyway. China, India, and the EU had also sent Moon landings now, so it was going to be necessary to coordinate with them for any large-scale engineering projects. China was remaining dead silent regarding their Gateworld plans, but covert ops had shown they intended to reclaim Taiwan soon using the Gates. However, half the population of Taiwan was already living in their own Gateworld enclaves. In fact, Taiwan Semiconductor had already reserved a Lunar, hard-vacuum Gate for an experimental fabrication plant. --------------------------------------------------- The Starship program had been on pause while Gate-economics was sorting itself out, but now their first full-scale one-way Starship was ready for launch - they would almost certainly be the first to land humans on Mars, 62 of them, according to their latest estimates. The oddsmakers gave them an 82% chance to make the journey safely, and a 70% chance of creating the first permanent Mars colony. Russia wasn''t bothering - it was getting rich. After half their population had moved to Gateworld, those remaining had been able to fully realize Russia''s oil and gas potential. Every Russian citizen was now living with an income equal to an upper middle class American or better, with promises that amount would double next year. Loyalty and patriotism was sky-high among those who chose to stay. Many from the old Soviet bloc wanted to immigrate, and Russia was able to pick and choose who to allow in for all the new jobs it was creating. In the EU, Gate-based garbage disposal at all levels had turned around the environmental problems - at the cost of creating some very strange Gateworld ecosystems. Ecologists warned that such Gates should be closed down within a year or two, or that strict measures be taken to prevent any mutations from coming back to Earth from disposal sites. --------------------------------------------- Rachel had passed on what she knew, been well paid, and was now living in her sanctuary full time, with once-a-week return times scheduled by hospital staff. What life she brought in with her thrived and seemed to sculpt itself to her tastes - even the weather rarely disappointed her. She felt GOOD here - far from the evils of humankind. The biggest problem was the lack of communication - it was lonely out here, and bringing anyone else in was a huge pain. --------------------------------------------- Ky San was somehow still alive. Insects and algae were his only food. Thankfully, he had managed to eliminate nearly all the insects that still wanted to feed on HIM. They seemed to be forming an ecosystem of their own as time went on. After being on the edge of death for well over a month, he was starting to regain his health. New forms of lichen were starting to grow near the pond, and he might have another food source soon, but the insects did seem to be thriving and diversifying as time went on. Also, true moss had appeared from somewhere, raising his hopes. Was there other life within range for him to find? If he could rebuild some body fat, it would be worth starting some explorations. ----------------------------------------------- At the edge of central DC, the house had been packed with explosives and booby-trapped to the maximum, but they had found a better use for it than simply blowing it up. New and deadlier diseases were popping up everywhere, and some of them worked cross-species. No one would notice some extra stray dogs, cats, and birds. So, anything that looked promising, they just injected into assorted hosts and let loose into the outskirts of DC. Let Allah deal their fate. Their Gate-making agent had moved on - Vegas and Hollywood were next on the list. The New York project had been quite a media sensation, but not really what anyone could claim to be effective - they would have to do better if they expected heavenly reward. Long Pause Sorry, folks. I''m quickly coming to realize that I just don''t have the temperament to be a "real" writer - you know, actual plans and stories with meaning and conclusions. So I''m just going to take a break and re-organize my favorite story lines into a multi-universal anthology that will cross-threads and update randomly across characters and storylines, and realities. The overarching view will be from a godlike being orchestrating (more like tweeking) events across infinite universes and timelines. This won''t happen for a while, but here''s a prelude: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atum gradually regained true self-awareness as his ego-self reactivated from hibernation. He had sacrificed almost his entire being into self-evolution, and hadn''t been sure exactly what he would become. Now he knew - he was "Humanity", and he was now a full-fledged god. He had created the "WORD" and given himself the power of speech to communicate and pass on knowledge within the mortal sphere, among his myriad manifestations. He was no longer limited to the "demigod" communications and self-perceptions of lesser species divine manifestations. Empathy and telepathy were fine - amazing in their own ways, but had trouble with the precision needed to build the kind of civilizations Atum was now envisioning. He was far from the first to use this tactic, of course, but he was taking it to extremes rarely seen in this region of the multiverse. In fact, by going to such extremes, he had granted each of his manifestations, even the most trivial and obscure, the power of creation via description. Every story told would become a reality in itself, fully real and capable of interacting with all other realities, in a rapidly-expanding infinite progression. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Every being hearing or reading such a story would, again, expand and re-imagine it, exponentially expanding the greater divine reality of existence itself. He would now enter the full, dynamic flow of the self-creating universe, which defined basic godhood. He had also reached the next threshold of divinity, in that each iota of himself, every "human", now also had infinite potential, creating yet another dimentionality of infinity through which to expand. As for Atum himself - time now no longer mattered, he WAS the endless expansion of conceptual growth that was beyond all words and comprehension, despite, in some way, being enabled by them. Atum now reveled in the simplicity of BEING that aspect of the ALL that was defined as "HUMAN". The rest of existence - everything that did NOT define itself as human, recognized that things had changed. An insignificant fractal of the ALL was becoming significant, and was reaching out to embrace, explore, understand, combat, befriend, destroy, and otherwise interact with anything and everything it could conceive of, while expanding that same ability to conceive of and communicate with and about whatever it might encounter. The flow of reality shifted and the stories unfolded. ------------------------------------------------------------------- That''s the forlorn hope, anyway. I really don''t know at this point what I will or won''t end up writing. It''s been a good lesson about myself - thanks all. 20. Cindys Blog - Entry #1 Hi everyone! I''m Cindy Cartan and I live in Gateworld! Of course, a lot of you probably live here now as well, so you must know how wonderful it is. The weather is nearly perfect, stuff grows fast, and we all get healthier, and even smarter, the longer we live here. What they won''t tell you is how the place is literally magical. Yes, MAGIC! I know you won''t believe me, and I''m not ready to do demonstrations for a long time yet. Not even my family believes me, really, even though they go along. I talk with the animals and they understand, mostly. They come when I call and sit and listen to my stories. I even play them videos, though some of them wander off if they don''t like that show or movie. My stuffed frog is the most magical of all, though even he won''t really admit it. All the normal frogs know it, though, and they mostly worship him - he even sent a bunch out to colonize the local waterfalls. The new tadpoles are getting REALLY big - I saw one well over a foot long yesterday. I tried to get him to teach me magic, but he won''t do it - he just said "It''s Magic, never ask how". But I know he could teach it if he wanted to. I''m learning it anyway - just you watch!! I''m also getting stronger and faster every day - yesterday I won a foot race with my older brother for the very first time - he was crushed and accused me of cheating. I told him he just wasn''t using Gateworld magic enough - he spends half his time back on Earth or in our other Gateworld - it''s not nearly as good, even though it has a river and seacoast, so all the adults think it''s the place to be. I like my lake! Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. My parents told me I''ll be growing up extra-fast now that I live here, and that I need to study hard to keep up so that my mind and body match up. I don''t think that''s a really big deal - I have a good memory and read and watch videos all the time, so I''m constantly learning stuff. I started this blog because I need to practice writing, or "communication skills" as my teacher wants me to call it. She worries a lot about that because I spend a lot of time alone, watching over my lake domain, with no other people around. I have a HUGE garden here now to take care of, near the lakeshore where it''s easy to water everything when we don''t get enough showers. My plants are growing even faster than the family farm crops in the river Gate. Of course, I don''t tell them that I just tell all the bunnies and such what they can''t eat - I have a little side garden I grow things just for my animal friends. And, of course, the kitties guard the place against all the critters too dumb to understand how things work. Tomorrow, I get to add a bunch of piglets to my little farm - I think they''ll get along well with everyone else. And a puppy next week! Now I have to go do a bunch of stupid math story problems - they won''t let me start Algebra until I learn to fish out all the right numbers from their dumb stories correctly nearly every time. All that gunk about how fast a train goes or what a person can buy with six and a half dollars - yuck. P.S. I know what the adults are really doing - they''re using me as a test case for making the Lake Gate into a community boarding school for elementary school kids, teaching us to be as self-sufficient as possible because they think bad stuff is going to happen back on Earth. I don''t mind. I''m going to be more self-sufficient than they can even imagine!