c29 wormhole

A drumbeat, deep and slow, growing imperceptibly ever‐slower, on a level of reality seemingly removed from all the rest, on the same level that she felt something tearing whenever she teleported. Now that she noticed it, she was astounded that she had ever missed it. The gravitational waves that had emerged from the collapse of the wormhole still ran to and fro over the area, sending shudders through the bubbles of warped reality, ringing like bells around her, and through the patch of space‐time far above them, where the wormhole had been, and which was still weakened from its injury.

Acting on a slowly growing understanding, she prodded at the wound, operating her powers with a level of subtlety she had never before attempted, coaxing the waves around her to come back together and return to order, tugging at and pushing against the bubbles that dotted the world around her like marbles on a stretched sheet, bearing a striking resemblance to the tired general relativity analogy dragged out in every primary school.

At the center above, the chaos grew and grew, so that the already‐damaged fabric of space screamed at the abuse. She felt almost sad, but it had to be done.

For just a moment, she opened her eyes, seeing the world around her cast in green silhouette. Without looking, she knew that the girls behind her were frozen in awe, like photographic stills, some clasping hands in prayer, looking above her at her soul gem, which had floated again above her of its own accord, almost as bright as the sun. Even farther above them, the bright specks of the alien fleet were visible, stealth impossible in the gravitational storm enveloping them. The bubbles that had dotted the world around them had soared upward, were still soaring upward toward their original source.

Then she clenched one hand into a fist, sending it downward at an imaginary barrier, stabbing it with all her strength, and then the sky above her shattered.

(To The Stars, Chapter 29)