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Prologue

Present Day

"Colonel! We need you to come back to Command, sir!" The airhts of stairs to catch up with Colonel Barker

"What seems to be the problem, Airman?" The air to stop his heart fro And it wasn't from the run

Sing visibly, the young man paused a moment to look into his superior's eyes "There's another distortion, sir This tinificant" A look passed between the men before they quickly headed to the control center Voices that usually filled the room were hushed in a strained silence

"How long has the distortion been present?" Colonel Rick Barker was a rown up in a military fah Barrel-chested and short in height, he was inti blue eyes that see secrets His voice was a deep baritone that carried when he spoke, no ht red hair covered his arht graying of that same red tone Most redheads had a ruddy complexion to match, but luckily, he hadn’t inherited that particular trait His skin was the envy of many women who considered it perfectly porcelain

A ed man spoke from his desk, "Sir, it's been approximately two point five seven minutes since we first observed the distortion on the screen Sergeant Tolley is running back the tape to see if weof the distortion" Barker looked at the young wo the recorded tape

"Tolley, what's the deter to walk closer to the Air brunette looked up from her computer

"Sir, I see no indication of the distortion prior to when it was first reported" Sheat her computer, she jotted as she talked Barker nodded and spoke to the rooeneral

"Where is the distortion located and how big are we talking about? Do I need to call this in?" Everyone froze for athe implications of such a call

"Colonel, I'est we've seen in a while, possibly years Big enough that" the voice faded, fear invading his next words, "big enough that a breach is possible We may have had a cross over" Barker reeled like soh his expression and body language did not change

"Tolley" Barker's voice, strong and loas heard easily in the quiet room It was nearly silent, despite the twenty-five people and various electronic devices "Get the god darow in volume with each word " I want them here yesterday!"

Without answering her superior, she picked up the phone and spoke, "Code orange, I repeat code orange Shut down the facility This is not a drill Code orange" Loud clanks of locks and of bars sliding into place over s followed, echoing throughout the partial underground building "Code orange initialized, Colonel Facility on lockdown and the science crew are on their way to the council room ETA five minutes"

Barker stood, straightening his unifor hours on duty, "Tolley, Bean and Chatfield, bring your data and follow es occur We'll be in council room alpha Tolley, make sure you set up visual from the main controls to there The rest of you—" He turned to see the pale faces of his men and women They were afraid but worked just as efficiently as if the world wasn't ending "Pray this isn't as bad as we've been led to believe" Turning, he led the way out the roo of hell on Earth

The scientists rushed into the roo out notebooks and scientific calculators, prepared to crunch nu out questions to his tea voices He was proud of their professionalism and calm demeanor in the face of the unknown

"Where is the distortion right now, Bean?" The ed man named Jeremy Bean stood and flipped on the view screen

"Right now, theis located in the Midwest, here" Jereher than nornetic fields there for weeks as you know, but we've noticed these higher readings in several other locations all over the world but nothing cao,the field collapse then spring up like a mushroom cloud The rip followed less than thirty seconds later"

Scientists scribbled and jotted in their notebooks, so in numbers on va

riousthe room "Rick, has the Air Force sent any personnel to verify the distortion visually?"