Nobody could have predicted what we unleashed when the portal ripped open. We were mere physicists. Nine to fivers in corporate lab coats. Four mortals driven by the human need to explore. Understand. Know.
The trouble with knowing? It's impossible to un-know.
Consequences didn't factor into the equations scrawled across the whiteboards hanging behind us at the far end of the tiled tube chamber. We never considered what would happen if we succeeded, consumed only by the goal of doing so. Maths may be beautifully precise—a quest for universal truth buried beneath symbols and logic—but the realm we unlocked didn't respect such rules.
I shielded my eyes. We all did, as the glow from the oval of transducers intensified, focused inward. Spacetime shimmered, warping, then tearing, an eternal blackness like an unreflective mirror obscuring the ice blue wall tiles behind the rig. The accelerator to our right hummed and throbbed, rivets mercifully holding. My hand found Zeke's, our fingers lacing, and squeezed. His other hand hovered above the STOP button that would cut power.
Orange flecks formed from the nothingness. Embers flitting and colliding in a swirling, chaotic display of Brownian motion. They grew, brightened, reflecting the strip lights above us but also beginning to generate their own light. Marmalade and saffron cinders darted back and forth at firefly speeds, gradually forming a solid shape. Humanoid. Naked. Its hollowed eyes began colouring to a dazzling emerald, head slowly levelling to stare at me. Through me.
My jaw dropped. He was beautiful. Sculpted perfection. Sinewy arms, muscles rippling as the embers continued to build solid pectorals, chiselled abdomen and a mouth-watering cock, hanging between toned thighs.
Guilt surfaced at being so easily drawn. Gnawed until I glanced at Zeke, similarly entranced: "Woah. She's beautiful."
Flicking my attention back to the naked man, I took a second look. "Uhh, she?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "Definitely she."
I had no chance to reflect. Those eyes bore into me as the being paced forward and kissed me. God, he kissed me. My hand fell from Zeke's grasp and I was consumed, senses lighting up in rapid succession.
He somehow tasted of light, tongue probing with the intensity of a tungsten filament. I practically forgot my name as his hands roamed my body, pulling me into the embrace. Apricot scent drifted, mingling with my Ô de Lancôme.
Our exhalations entwined and I tentatively explored the rippling muscles beneath his shoulder blades, becoming bolder by the second, melting into him as his hands unsnapped each popper alongside my nametag. His lips claimed my neck, hands tugging at my clothes, freeing cushiony breasts and squeezing hard.
I snaked a hand down his torso, marvelling the soft hair leading to the vee above his groin and rising manliness, hot in my grasp. Curling fingers around him, I stroked his shaft until he fully hardened.
My head lolled as he pinched my nipples and bit my neck. Through half-lidded desire, I caught Zeke crouching at the workbench, arms hooked over shifting embers that resembled thighs, tongue lashing their convergence. Beyond him, Deanna knelt, sucking a shaft of pure orange light.