The gate was finally active. Zephyr, for the first time since the attack on the hideout, allowed herself a real, genuine grin. “Runners! Let’s get at it!”
The pair of twin thruster units on the Updraft flared to their maximum intensity and she went streaking off, followed by the flock of fleeing ships, all speeding towards the swirling light and darkness of the gate in a shower of sparks and disrupting smoke amid Artemis’s cavernous hangar.
Within the newly reactivated Canopus Coast, Doctor Cal furrowed his eyes in concentration at the gate ahead. “Now, Mister Jeffords,” he spoke quietly to Turbine, “We re-enter the field of Experimental Physics.”
Upsilon 1 gritted his teeth as the runners disappeared into the swirling portal, out of their grasp. This was not the end! “Follow them!”
“But sir! There’s no way even they know where it leads! The likelihood of destruction-”
“Three, that was an order. The pride of the hunters is on the line!”
“...Yes sir. Forming up.”
Despite his confident statement, Upsilon 1 was nervous. This relic could send them straight into a star or worse. But it didn’t matter. He would catch his quarry, even if he had to cross through hell’s heart!
—------ - - - - - -
The gaggle of ships blasted out of the other end of the gateway. But things felt strange.
“-ny one -lse’s sens-rs going absolu--ly nuts?” Ordinal’s distorted question came through on the comms. Only problem was that Ordinal themselves hadn’t yet said anything.
But the question was apt. The Updraft didn’t have the most extensive sensor suite but what it did have would be no help. Her gravity-aligned altitude readouts were constantly shifting upside down and back around and her speed readouts were jumping ahead and back orders of magnitude.
And to top it off she was looking out at something impossible itself. Below them was a sea, rocks jutting out amongst the crashing waves, but above them as well was another identical sight. “Doc?”
“Ms. Sorris! This is a breakthrough! A revelation! We have somehow crossed over! The gateways- I always suspected the potential! I suspect it was the untethered nature of Artemis’s gateway that allowed it! Zehil’s Hypothesis - It’s proven! We are looking at the ‘Zehil Divide!’”
“Doc?”
“To put it simply, Ms. Sorris, We’ve entered a space between dimensions!”
