Crossing the Gap

It had taken way longer than it should have, but eventually one of the Theran nations managed to make working portals. It took a huge series of water wheels to concentrate enough power for someone to go through two portals only a few hundred feet apart, but it worked. More importantly, it didn't explode on failure. The rest of the message locked in the metal sheets pertained to linking preexisting portals, specifically, how to link to the portals on Scrao. Thera couldn't produce enough energy to make a full portal connection with Scrao, but they could connect a tiny portal, just large enough to speak through. It would work, but only during solstices when the planets were aligned.

Meanwhile, Scrao had been refining the portal technology and worked on powering both sides of a portal from only one side. The portals basically worked by tearing and reattaching space itself to different ends, so it didn't matter what was being sent through. This meant that even a live portal-powering electrical wire could go through a portal and power the other side, or even other portals. When Thera finally pieced together a working portal and connected it to one of Scrao's, Scrao was ready.

When the solstice came and the planets aligned, a Theran group activated their mini-portal and was immediately greeted with an even smaller portal shoved through. The micro-portal wasn't even attached to any cables, as if it were powered by magic, though it really had a hidden and well-integrated cable to power it from the other side. Eventually, through the micro-portal, Scrao and Thera negotiated on a deal where Scrao shared their technology and Thera shared their natural resources. The new portals were constructed and powered by Scrao and finally allowed each planet's residents to walk on the other. Thus what eventually became the Interplanetary Alliance was born.

Next: The Next Few Years