Alive In New Light

Disposition

The military hangar was vast. At least twice the size of the average airplane hanger. Set against the side of a mountain outside San Fransokyo, the base the hanger belonged to was infamous for both its failed experiments and for snatching up SFIT students just after graduation.

It was supposed to be top-secret, but stories got out anyway. From the overeager scientists chatting with their friends back in the city, to gruntwork soldiers and guards out for a drink, rumors spread about the goings-on at Compound V-1123.

Some said they held aliens, like the fabled Area-51 of the older generation. Some claimed the government was bioengineering super soldiers. It seemed that almost everyone had a theory or two about the Compound.

But outlandish as the rumors were, the truth was much more dangerous.

★★★

"Ready when you are, sir," called one of General Carrey's scientists from the front of the control room.

The General, a short but proud man with greying hair and squinty eyes, strode up to the head of the chamber, staring through several inches of bulletproof glass at the enormous interior of the hanger. It looked so vacant. Before now it was usually filled with an array of projects of varying sizes, all lighting up and making strange sounds. But they'd cleared everything out over a month ago for this.

Currently, the only things occupying the space were a set of tracks that led to a large circular device situated in the center of the room. It was maybe 15 meters by 15 meters and looked like a dissectional segment of a particle collider. Back when Alister Krei, that idiot billionaire, had been developing this tech over a year previously, it had looked neat and symmetrical. But this one was still in the beginning stages. There was no plating over most of the device. Wires hung in their cages for all to see. Well, all who had clearance. Pretty much just the eight scientists in the room, 2 guards, and the general himself.

Of course, the beta aesthetic wasn't all that separated this from Krei's Silent Sparrow vanity project. When Alistair was in control there had been two roughly identical machines. Here and now there was only one. Better to start slow, get everything right before pressing their luck.

"Turn it on," General Carrey said without any flare. "Give it power nice and easy, now. We want to make it to the probe stage this time. Our backer was very explicit about when he expects results!"

A couple of the scientists seated behind him at their control panels looked a little miffed, as if the general were stating the obvious. But they said nothing and began to flip switches and ease levers forward.

The result was instantaneous. First, the lights all flickered and dimmed. Not just in the control room, but in the hanger as well. They would have seen the same thing happen to the entire base had they any windows with which to view outside.

Then the negative space inside the machine's circular arch began to glow. At first it was just a transparent shimmer in the air, a luminescent heatwave. But the glow quickly intensified and solidified, becoming the unmistakable purple swirling void of a portal.

All over the room, the scientists were calling out readings to one another. Stability reports, detected energy and low radiation levels, et cetera. They waited a minute, monitoring the portal. They weren't idiots. They knew they would have to close it soon, or else it might become unstable. But there was one thing they needed to do first.

"Send in the probe!" Carrey ordered. He heard a disjointed chorus of "yes sir" behind him, followed by the typing of commands on keyboards. Below them in the hanger a large, dark shape began to zoom down the set of tracks, heading right for the portal.