---

  // John 0600 - 15 minutes till entry. //

  ---

  The bench below me felt hard, unyielding even through the soft interior padding of the suit. I felt one of the technicians securing the exo-skeleton to the suits frame.

  The sound of whirring as they quite literally bolted me into the suit echoed in the small room, I shifted inside it. Feeling a spike of nervousness rising up from my gut.

  Sixty years, that was how long it had taken, the project itself had started as nothing more then a pipe dream, the ramblings of a person who though he could escaped reality.

  Well, after sixty years of breaking the limits of technology, of inventing new materials only to use them to make even more impossible and convoluted materials to built it the project was finished.

  The gateway they called it, the door to end all doors. It was a magnificent structure, seated in the bowls of the earth it was larger then most buildings as it hung in the cavernous space of the salt mine.

  I winced as one of the technicians had to use a hammer to get a bolt in. This was the final stage. We'd tested the gate with both inorganic and organic matter, testing to see if sending something outside of reality had an bad effects.

  Unsurprising it did. At least for the organic matter, it seems to fall apart, peeling at the seems, they'd proposed that it was due to the presence of a unique form of radiation in that space outside of space.

  That was what the suit was for, a hulking thing it added almost a full inch of plating, metal frames and servos to my already tall form. Left me looking like something out of a science fiction story, a massive and tall imposing figure that felt like something from the product of a space war.

  I lifted a hand, hearing the gears and servos whining as they assisted in moving the limb. My hand look comically small compared to the rest of me I chuckled, but laughing felt strangely odd.

  In just a few minutes I'd step forward and out of reality. The first human to have truly been beyond and into the dark.

  I felt the nerves rising up again, I pushed it down, wouldn't help if I panicked now would it. I turned my gaze towards the man on my right, Nickol, the professor and the madman behind all this. The person who'd thought this whole thing up then somehow managed to get it to be realised.

  "How are you feeling John? Nervous?" Asked Nickol, his short and pudgy form dwarfed by the sheer size of the suit. I give a small wave, using the intercom built into the suit to speak, the short range radio unit rendering my voice slightly garbled but it was also the only thing strong enough to pass through the sheer density of the suits exterior planting.

  "Doing well, just chippy. Nothing like being about to enter the giant ring that rips holes in space that boost someone's confidence." I said, a slight bit of mirth in my tone.

  Nickol chuckled, I could tell he was nervous, but unlike me it was for a different reason. The sheer cost to build the gate was staggering, almost reaching a trillion dollars it stood as both the most secretive thing ever built and the most expensive.

  So of course the people who had funded the whole thing were expecting results. I'd attended one of the meetings with them before, they were a bunch of suits, didn't know a thing about what was happening but knew if it went well they'd be sitting on a technology that would allow for cheap and efficient travel between even the largest of distances.

  I smiled, who would have thought that boy from all those years ago who started up at the night sky and wondered what the worlds that hung there were like would be walking through a gateway that lead beyond even that.

  I tilted my head, the smooth gear assisted neck of my suit shifted with me to look at the lights above. They were green, go time. I waved Nickol as he departed, off to the main control room to oversee this whole thing.

  I got up as well, the bench I'd been sitting on let out a long creak as it no longer had a several ton suit using it as seating. I slowly walked towards the gateway. With the official start of the test the gateway was beginning to start up.

  It appeared like a massive metal ring made up sections, from every visible hole spilled hundreds of wires and pipes, all to pump in the massive amount of coolant and energy the device required. Within the centre of the ring that stood in the dead centre of the room a small ball of nothing hung.

  They called it null, somehow in their pursuit of making new elements they'd figured out how to make nothing something. It was also the core of the gate, without it nothing would work, mainly because without null you could not poke a hole in reality.

  At least not one stable enough for their means. Null acted as a anchor, existing in the space of our reality it allow us to dump all instabilities and fluctuations from outside of reality into it instead of the hole itself.

  Basically it was the sink in which we shoved the instabilities from outside of reality in. I started at the null as the familiar ripple in space started up.

  The gate itself was simple, in concept alone at least, it worked through three stages.

  The first, the connection. Involving a thread and some very complex equations you made your way through null and out of reality, then, you wound your way through non-space until you found the other end of the gateway, at the moment that was the second gate on the moon.

  The second stage was the bridge. Because the outside of reality space didn't really follow the space concepts that keep you in one piece.

  The bridge acted as its namesake, it was a patch of stable space that followed the thread. While you couldn't exactly walk on it like an actual bridge it allow someone to pass through the gateway without being ripped into multiple dimensions.

  The final stage was the simplest. You opened the door.

  ---

  // Nickol 0610 - 5 minutes till entry. //

  ---

  I panted, the run back to the control both had me exhausted, I frowned, I really needed to get in better shape. I straighten up, smoothing out my lab coat as I pushed open the door of the control room.

  Inside a mix of faces greeted me. Government officials, CEOs and even a few military groups all stared expectantly back at me. I exhaled slowly. 'remember, show don't tell' I thought to myself as I strode forward.

  "Welcome everyone, today is a momentous day for the whole world. A very brave man will soon step through the gate and finally... humanities journey to the stars will begin!" I said, my voice rising at the end.

  The stars, I can still remember the first time I ever saw those burning balls of plasma. The idea of reaching them was something I'd never expected to see within my lifetime, I knew I had been born just before a time were I might journey out into that vast cosmos and see the sight it held close to its chest.

  Nevertheless, it was time. I gave a short nod to those manning the control panels. I hear the thrum as the engines slowly started up.

  The diagram of the gates, crude but effective light up. It displayed the scene that was happening outside of reality. On the display our side, Gate 01 light up, signally it was starting up, Gate02 also lit up, alright, communicates with the other gate were going well.

  I gestured at them again. "Start up stage 1." They did as I ordered, turning dials, nobs and carefully calculating in real time the vectors to path through.

  Slowly on the display a line extended from both Gates, the thread, it was around 70% complete when a slight error occurred, for a split second the line coming off Gate 01, our gate seemed to branch off, another line splitting away, off in some unknown direction, but it quickly vanished.

  I felt my brow furrowing, an error? Or perhaps something else, no matter. None of the warning signs had gone off, likely it was merely a display issue, we'd had to cobble the thing up only recently, after all we had not expected anyone to join us for this test, and personally I was rather annoyed I had to deal with fools who had no care for the work we did here.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  But they were paying and they wanted to see the first true trial run. I gestured again once stage one was complete. "Start stage 2"

  A shuddering echoed throughout the room, a small side effect from the act of bridging. I eye the levels of coolant, we had an issue once were the coolant ran out, almost lost the null point. A mistake we could not afford to make again, no in front of them.

  The second stage was going well, I noticed the same error, around the 70% mark the readings seem to diverge, I walk over to the operators. Leaning over them as I inspected the reading myself. There was no sign of the error I was seeing on the display from the raw readings, clearly it was merely a visual bug.

  Nothing to worry about them. I watched as the dotted like that indicated the bridges formation along the thread slowly inched towards Gate 02 on the display.

  Finally after almost a full minute I felt and saw the bridge finish forming, the gate gave a loud thump, locking mechanisms engaging to prevent unwanted starting of the third stage. I paused, looking at the readings to confirm every last detail was correct.

  Yes, it was all optimal, aside from some interference, the amount of that odd radiation present in the space beyond reality had spiked sharply, oddly if I mentally pictured the area that the radiation spike was it would fit perfectly along the odd branching error I saw on the display.

  I felt a chill run through me and I paused, wondering if I should halt the trial. The increase in radiation wouldn't be anything to be concerned about, it was well within the limits the suit could handle, but I felt like something wasn't right.

  I opened my mouth to cancel to tell the operators to shut it down, something just didn't feel right. But someone spoke before I could. "Is there a problem doctor?" A gruff voice asked behind me. I almost jumped but held myself, a scowl forming on my face. I wasn't a doctor damn it, but of course, these generals don't understand that.

  "Nothing sir, merely some odd readings. I was considering whether or not to halt it-" I start to say but the general, a gruff aging man who had a few too many medals then what should be possible, probably some corruption going on I thought as I listen to the man.

  "No stopping, this is a direct order, you will go through with this and prove to us that funding we have poured into your little experiment." He said, his words final, I could see the rest of those assembled giving me some dark looks, I gritted my teeth, of course, I had no choice but to be beholden to this fools.

  "Of course." I said simply, turning to the operators. They gave me an odd look and I gestured at them to start stage 3. They complied, removing the locking mechanisms while sending the final order.

  "Open the door."

  ---

  // John 0613 - 2 minutes till entry. //

  ---

  I exhaled, I'd walked up to the small area before the gate. It had little else but a platform to stand on and some stairs to get up to it.

  Before me the gate groaned, signalling the activation of the third stage. I watched as the space within the gate seemed to rippled, then with a slow whine, the null shuddered before moving back into that rippling space and tearing open the hole.

  I felt the air around me get sucked in. The room had been pressure sealed and the air sucked out, but some always remains. I took a few deep breaths, feeling the oxygen cycling through my suit. The journey through the gate shouldn't take long, a few minutes at most.

  I watched as that impossible darkness extended out in front of me. Like finding out your house was a 1/4 of an inch bigger on the inside just looking out into nothingness felt deeply wrong.

  I shook myself. I activated the comms systems. "Command this is John, Receiving visual of open gate, assuming current orders are to enter?" I said, the crackle of the radio all I hear for a few moments before Nickol's voice flittered into my ear.

  "John this is command, Gate is open, proceed through" He said, his voice with an odd nervousness I couldn't quite place, after a moment he said again, but it was clear he was whispering this time. I felt my brows furrow, confusion lingering in my mind.

  "Stay safe John, there is something odd happening. I want to cancel the trial, but they wouldn't allow it. Just... good luck." He said softly, before the line went dead.

  I felt a beat of sweat roll down my forehead, well that was not good fucking news. Something odd happening? I'll admit, I felt a bit scared at that point, here I was. Standing before the unknown, about to walk through what basically was a wormhole but with more scientific jargon attached.

  And now the person who'd built the damn thing was telling me something weird was going on inside. For a moment I considered backing out, refusing to do this. But if I did that I'd be fucked, this job was basically all I had, I couldn't get any work or hell. I couldn't leave the damn country, I was officially dead.

  I sighed, steeling myself I straightened up and stared into the abyss.

  Then I stepped through.

  It felt odd, they'd said your body would instantly know the moment it left the confines of reality but they really understated that. It felt like bugs were crawling all over me, my mind was screaming to turn back and return to the safety of reality.

  But I had a job. I could see up ahead the other gate, it appeared like an odd haze, the distortion present outside of reality making the light emitting from the other gate blur and smear across everything.

  Kind of like the opposite of a black hole, were instead of being an absence defined by the lack of light, the other gate appeared like a white hole, defined by a seemingly constant spewing of light in all directions.

  I took a step, feeling a surface both hard and soft beneath my foot. The bridge I guess. I kept moving, thankfully in this place you only could move one direction so it was pretty damn hard to fuck it up.

  I kept walking, I didn't seem to see any glaring oddities. At least nothing more odd then the complete madness going on all around me.

  With the way light was behaving in this place it felt like I was walking on sunshine, I could see arcs of light just moving in slow motion below and around me, seemingly moving as if time was bent out of shape.

  Which I guess was true, this was outside of reality, it wasn't unlikely that beyond this small pocket of normal space made by the bridge time simply didn't exist, letting things normally constrained by time behave in impossible ways.

  But I wasn't here to sight see. I put one armoured boot in front of the other. I'd made it around seventy percent of the way there. I could see the other end of the gate clearly now, I could see that the gate on the moon it seemed wasn't deep underground but quite literally on the surface, a thin metal shell to protect it from debris and that was about it.

  I let out a huff, I wasn't too surprised, with the second gate being on the moon they likely were rather limited on resource, if they had dug a complex into the ground on the moon as well that would have added a good extra twenty years onto the project.

  I took another step close and halted. The gate was gone. I could have sworn it was there a second ago. The blinding light of it was a bit hard to miss.

  I looked around, but the light that had been flowing around me was gone as well. I pressed a button on my chest, the built in light there turning on. But it didn't illuminate the bridge and the strange ethereal nature of the outside of reality.

  No it illuminate a plain grey wall. I stared, it was then I realised I didn't feel that odd on edge sensation from being outside reality anymore.

  I turned around, tapping my comms and speaking. "Command this is John, do you read me?"

  Nothing, not even the static that normally followed. I felt slightly unwell. I looked around, shining my chest light at my surroundings.

  I was in a odd hallway, it appeared to be made of some concrete like material, but testing it I found it to be perfectly smooth yet rock hard, none of the small imperfections you'd find in concrete.

  One of the hallway was blocked off by more of the grey material. I decided to go in the opposite direction, slowly trudging down the hallway, which I noted was a surprisingly large enough to comfortably fit me and the suit.

  But after almost an hour I didn't seem to be going anywhere. I gritted my teeth in frustration. I'd tried over the last hour everything. I'd called base several times, the same utter silence met every attempt.

  I'd even tested out a redundant feature of the suit. A gps, that should have provided me some sort of idea of where I was. But nothing, it simply repeated again and again it was receiving no signal.

  So I trudged on. It was all I could really do after all.

  ---

  // Nickol 0620 - 5 minutes since entry. //

  ---

  John entered the gate smoothly, we'd been tracking his progress through the small disruptions we could sense in the structure of the bridge as he took steps. It gave us a pretty good idea of how far along he had come.

  Everything was going perfect until just before the seventy percent mark. At that point, the disruptions we'd been tracking just stopped. That was odd because even if John had stopped moving the disruptions while minor would still continue to occur.

  But the readings just stopped, as if John was no longer on the bridge. I felt sweat on the back of my neck. Surely he'd not jumped off? That wasn't possible anyway, the bridge itself was shaped like a funnel, he'd have to have ripped open the bridge to jump off, and we'd have noticed such a large spike in disruptions.

  I waited with baited breath, please. For god's sake John, please be fine. Please have merely just done something we'd not expected. I stared at the readings.

  Nothing changed. I walked over to the intercom, bring it up to my mouth as I took a deep breath. "This is command, John please respond." The silence was deafening. I stared with growing horror as John didn't respond, surely the interference couldn't be that great?

  I switched to the moon base. "Moon base Beta, Is John through gate 02? Do you have any sign of John on your end?" I said, the slight jitter in my voice betraying the nerves I felt.

  The reply came quick. "This is Moon base Beta, no. We do not have any sign of John command. In fact we lost readings of him around a minute ago." I felt my lungs freeze. I stumbled over to the operators.

  "Bring data points 60 and 70 up." I said with a pleading tone. The young man at the control desk did so. Bringing up the data points and displaying them. Point sixty showed just before the error I noticed, completely fine aside from the odd spike in radiation.

  Point seventy showed the error, the branching in both the thread and bridge. I stared at that error for a moment. I'd completely forgotten about the other people in the room as I commanded the operator to bring up the data point just before we lost the readings on John.

  It was a perfect mirror, just before John's reading vanished the odd shift appeared again. I felt my mind working overtime, a thousand different thoughts ran through my mind until I suddenly froze

  No that was impossible I thought to myself as I stared at the data points.

  But if it wasn't. I felt my mouth go dry. Because if what I was seeing was correct, then somehow, the odd branching wasn't an error, rather it was a more efficient path, somehow a more efficient pathway had formed at seventy percent of the way.

  If that was true, then that meant John had walked up until the seventy percent mark, then the bridge had flickered just enough to let the more efficient path take over, whisking John away to somewhere.

  The problem was just where exactly?