The Truth Beyond the Sky

Chapter 12: Welcome to Nowhere

Once again, Navika and everyone within hurtled through a corridor of pure light. Zahn tried to make out more details of the thread-like strands of light in the distance. Yet time itself seemed to flow differently in the corridor, and they were back in the darkness of space before he could even begin to count them.

At first, they only saw darkness. After a few seconds, their eyes adjusted, and the darkness gradually revealed itself to be a field of stars around them once again.

Zahn looked around. The constellations around him were breathtaking, but they were also completely foreign to him.

"According to my star maps, we are now over 2,000 light-years from Avani," Navika said.

"Are there any planets nearby?"

"None detected, and all of the nearest stars are well over ten light-years distant."

"Indeed, we are deep within the Ocean of Space now, Zahn," Oonak said. "It appears we are in an area between star clusters."

Zahn looked above him and noticed that they were drifting from the center of a ring-shaped gate just as they had with the first gate, now over 2,000 light-years away. Had they really travelled that far? Zahn tried to digest this fact, but had trouble wrapping his mind around it, even though he had experienced it for himself.

"Oon, how is it possible we've gone so far so quickly? This violates all established rules of physics."

"There is much your world has to learn, Zahn. These gates seem to work by tearing a hole into spacetime and allowing us to slip, if only temporarily, into timespace."

"Timespace. Is that where those corridors of light are? The ones that we saw," Zahn said.

"Yes. You can think of timespace as a realm parallel to spacetime, an inversion. Here in spacetime, we have three dimensions of space and one of time, correct?"

"Yes..."

"In timespace, the reverse is true, and the rules of physics that affect us here in spacetime do not apply. Different rules apply, though an explanation of those is beyond your understanding. Beyond the understanding of many." For a moment Oonak seemed lost in thought.

After a few seconds, Navika broke the silence.

"What address would you like to broadcast next, Oonak?"

"First of all, please orient us about one klick in front of the gate as you did last time. From what we have seen, I'm nearly certain that these gates are arranged in a hierarchy, and I suspect a higher-level node serves this node. I suggest we request node 3.3.0. What do you think, Zahn?"

"I think that's a good idea. Let's do it."

"Transmitting..." Navika said. "Interesting. It's sending back a positive signal even though I didn't transmit any genetic code."

"Why would it need my DNA now? We're so far from my world, I wouldn't be surprised if this gate worked for anyone who knew how to use it."

"Or anything," Oonak added, and he winked at Zahn.

As before, they waited until the vortex stabilized, flew into the swirling mass, and were amazed at the shimmering corridors beyond. Yet soon after, Zahn questioned their choice when, upon reentering space, they flew right into a literal swarm of trouble.

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