At first, it was exploration. Teams of scientists and exo-biologists stepped through, returning with seeds that cured blight, crystals that stored a terawatt of power, and stories of breathtaking wonder. Then came the entrepreneurs. A mining corporation opened a gate to a planet whose “soil” was pure lithium. A pharmaceutical giant found a reef of organisms that excreted a perfect, non-addictive painkiller.

“You have to close it,” the other Elena gasped, collapsing. “You’re not taking from empty worlds. You’re taking from our worlds. Every gate… every gate is a wound. And we… the rest of us… are bleeding out.”

The first Incident was in the Buenos Aires hub. A woman stumbled through the gate, screaming. She looked exactly like Dr. Elena Vance, the lead physicist on duty—same face, same lab coat, same panicked eyes. But this Elena had a gash across her cheek and clutched a child’s hand. The child was crying in a language no one understood.

Today, Aris proved him right. But he also proved something far more terrifying.