Soren sighed in apprehension. All around the world people were celebrating this new technology, but not him. He tried to be a logical person when he could, and the statistics show that it’s impossible for us to be the only life in the universe. What- or who- could we unleash upon ourselves by going to other worlds uninvited? Without observing them first? What if we found a world full of communists?
   Soren shuddered in disgust before taking a drag on his cigarette. Better dead than red. He turned away from the TV and saw the Legacy Gate that had been erected near his mansion in New Washington, Cuba. New York was opening theirs, but he wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. He couldn’t shake the feeling of foreboding that accompanied the sight of that gate. He had a platoon of soldiers clustered around the gate to prevent civilians from touching it or messing with it, but they weren’t carrying enough ammo for a sustained firefight. They would have to rely on reinforcements or the police to arrive with more if something bad were to happen.
   “Sir, your presence is requested in the war room.”
   Soren turned to see his secretary, Ms. Adeline Jensen, a beautiful woman of twenty two years with high cheekbones and shoulder length platinum blonde hair. She was the closest thing Soren had to a lover, they would hook up for one night stands occasionally but they never made anything official.
   “Thank you Adeline, I’ll head down there right now.”
   Soren made his way through his mansion into the war room, a bunker deep within the Earth full of weapons and battle hardened soldiers tasked with protecting their beloved Commandant. When he arrived he glanced around the room, the War Table was in the center of the room, a very large oval table made from mahogany and steel with a holographic projector mounted in it. Currently a hologram of the New York gate hovered above the table with information around it.

   “Sir, the gate is giving off some strange readings, we’ve never seen these before. We don’t know what it will do when activated, but there’s too much power flowing through it to be just opening up to Alpha Centauri like Legacy said it would.”

   Soren frowned. The gate hasn’t even opened yet and there’s already problems with it.
   “How do we even know how much power that would take? Either way, that’s the US’s problem. They’re opening the gate, not us. Call me if we have a problem that I can deal with, otherwise I’ll be upstairs.”
   Those eggheads always had problems with everything, BUT they were very rarely wrong. Soren didn't know what to make of this.