The Eternal Guardian

- Alfrun Station Research Section, Heaven's Gate Lab, Sol Calendar 2687-07-07, 0945 Hours -

"Sir, today's test for material relocation will commence in 15 minutes. Preliminary checks are done, currently doing a stress test on the Heaven's Gate component. The calculations for today's test have been inputted in the system, debugged and verified. Is there anything else you'd like to add sir?"

Researcher Von Karman asked with a hint of excitement. As his name suggests, he was selected due to his specialty in aerodynamics and physics. What does aerodynamics have anything to do with a wormhole project? Simple, the design of the items being relocated are made by him. The aerodynamics purpose is to reduce any friction that the item may encounter during the journey to as minimum as possible. As currently all the cameras strapped on the items have been destroyed mid relocation, there are no reliable records of what we may encounter during relocation. Currently, every improvement made towards the items relocated and the calculations are just speculation and inference from the item remains that have arrived at the target location.

"Thank you Kar for that report. No, I have nothing to add. You may commence when ready."

Zuman calmly replied while standing 100m in front of the prototype Heaven's Gate.

"Noted, sir. I hereby put this attempt on record. Beginning now. Sound off your confirmation please, team."

"Programming team here. Calculations properly inputted and verified. Standing by."

"Engineering team here. Stress test finished and all components are within tolerable limits for the maximum projected stress. Standing by."

"Archive team here. Recordings are currently stable and on-going. Standing by."

"Salvage team here. Ready to recover any breakage. Standing by."

"Boo!"

"Oi, your team should be last. Don't jinx it!"

The salvage team is obviously unpopular, since their only purpose is to recover any damaged items, which means the experiment has failed. But the jeers happens every experiment, so now this particular team are on rotation, meaning everyone have been a part of it once. After all, Zuman doesn't want any particular person to be associated with the stigma of a jinx that causes the experiment to fail. If everyone was a part of the team, it's kinda hard to blame a specific person for the failure.

"Archive team; later please edit out the last 5 seconds. And you guys, control yourself!"

Zuman glared at the rest of them, especially that loudmouth Josh. That 'boo' was initiated by him.

"Yes sir/Prof/Boss/Chief!"

A multitude of voices replied his scolding.

"Resuming sound off."

"Observation team here. Monitoring equipment is being fed data and running smooth. We're ready to detect any anomalous readings. Standing by."

"Medical team here. Ready to wait and yawn in boredom as usual *yawns*. Standing by."

That was Dalbir. As the resident lead doctor and researcher, he is here with the medical team to observe. And his seniority makes him flippant towards the protocol.

"Sound off complete. All teams standing by. Begin the test please."

The Heaven's Gate. It is like a floating disc that is suspended sideways 1 metre above ground, with a ramp leading up to the entrance. The disc itself currently is built with a 20m radius. It is very much skeletal looking with wires everywhere. It was initially built with an aesthetical design, but a century of taking it apart and rebuilding it and taking it apart and rebuilding it again and again have resulted in the team to ignore the aesthetical design. As the design team have verified that the bare bones design is valid for experiment purposes, they have stuck to it since then. After all, they can put all the fluff or ribbons on it as much as they want once the project succeeds.

The item being tested is a simple automated vehicle with a camera attached to it. Think of a baby stroller redesigned into a mini airplane and with automated engines. The camera is hidden behind triple layers of plexglass for safety purposes (not that it ever stopped the silly thing from being crushed to bits in every experiment).

"Programming team, beginning activation. Stand by."

The Heaven's Gate inner circle starts to rotate slowly, ionizing the inner circumference. With the ionization, the air around it starts to turn visibly turquoise, much like a clear sky with no clouds.

"Detecting ionization. It is still below the projected level."

"Test vehicle no. 3156 currently stable, no problems detected in the circuitry. EMP shielding are holding. Structural integrity currently still 100%. No cracks or ruptures detected."

"Target location calculated as 10km away from the situation. Station optical and subspace sensors are trained at the location."

"Initialize portal!"

Zuman commanded.

"Roger. Portal initializing."

"Inner circle rotation speeding up. Still within projected levels."

"Sir, isolated horizon forming. Gravity readings still stable."

One of the researchers warned Zuman.

"Good. That's what we want, as usual. Station bridge, please verify that the isolated horizon has also formed at the target location."

He asked the station scan team.

"Yes professor. Isolated horizon detected and verified."

"Thank you. Alright then. Launch test vehicle 3156."

"Order received. Launching vehicle 3156."

The test vehicle activates and moves automatically towards the portal. While the movement is just 3m/s, or slightly faster than a brisk walk, due to the anticipation of everyone present, it seems slow, oh so excruciatingly slow.

"Test vehicle approaching horizon…. Entering…. Fully entered. Test vehicle 3156 returning readings of twice normal gravity but other than that, no anomalous readings."

"Sir, station scans detect an object exiting the isolated horizon at the target location."

"Alright. This has never been the problem. Station, please verify the object exiting the isolated horizon at maximum optical zoom please."

"Reading an aerodynamic design. Seems to be a mini airplane. Object exiting.. exiting.. Fully exited!"

The excitement is palpable in the voice of the station bridge team.

"Bridge, please confirm. The object has an identifiable shape?"

Zuman himself is excited on hearing the report, but forcibly calms himself down as he needs to keep a clear head as he is the head here. (Well, well. Made a pun)

"Bridge here. Confirmed, sir. Object is identifiable as an airplane shaped object. It is in one piece."

"!!!!"

"Whooo!!!!!"

"Alright!!!!"

"Yeaaahhh!!!!"

All the researchers have gone crazy with happiness and excitement.

"Oi! Stow it you guys. We're still in the middle of the experiment here!"

Though the words are harsh, everyone can see how Zuman is wearing such a big grin on his face.

"Pfft. Prof, with that face, you're not convincing or scary at all. HAHAHA!"

"Yeah boss."

"Can it. Programming team, begin shutdown of Heaven's Gate please."

"Aye sir. Shutdown sequence initiated. Command inputted…. Systems mark as received sir."

"Engineering team here. Verifying shutdown command has been received. Rings rotations are slowing down. Ionization is decreasing."

"Salvage team here. Auto shuttle sent to retrieve vehicle 3156. ETA of retrieval, 15 minutes."

"Alright. Experiment successful…. AT LAST!!!! Mark that down for the records. Today's date, 2687-07-07, 1400 hours, as the date and time of the first successful relocation attempt!"

Zuman ordered, losing his poise for a moment, but regaining it again soon.

-

"Sir, vehicle 3156 retrieved. It's on the way here from the docking airlock. ETA 5 mins."

"Noted. Engineering team! Do a thorough checkup on it. Do all the stress test you can, check for everything, hairline cracks, molecular instability, what have you."

"Sir!"

"Archive team! Retrieve the camera, download the file and begin post-mortem of today's experiment. And observation team! I want a summary of all readings for today! Where did we go right, and do a comparison with all past datas."

"Sir!"

"Alright gentlemen. 2 days off for you guys. I expect a party day after tomorrow. We'll resume post-mortem day after that. Clear?"

"Thanks boss!"

"Chief is the best!"

"Tsk. All you bootlickers. Only at times like this I am the best is it?"

Zuman sneers at them, seeing through the bootlicking immediately.

"I'll be in my quarters. Inform me once the party is ready. Also, I want grilled beef for me. That's all."

Saying that, he strode out of the lab with a big smile and a light chest, feeling relieved of the tension and stress. At last, a good sign.

Entering his room, he immediately falls face down on the bed and closes his eyes.

(At last. Almost there. Just a bit more. And then I can end this godforsaken chase. 3 century of endless pursuit of a crazy dream. Hmmm. I wonder what am I supposed to do next.)

With that, he slowly drifts into a deep sleep. A good sleep that has long eluded him.