Down in a cold and dusty crater basin on X3, Zethar set up camp near the portal and began measuring its energy field levels all hours of the day. He had yet to reveal his discovery to his superiors. Although it was certain to secure him a great deal of recognition and a welcome relief from his duties on the desolate planet, he wasn’t ready to share the secret of Isolde. If news of a confirmed portal on X3 were to get out, there was no telling how many intergalactic agencies would become involved. Or what might happen to Isolde if they did. Until he could determine how the dimensional overlap worked exactly, Zethar thought it best to keep quiet.


    Days passed. Like clockwork, Isolde arrived at her beach on Veth every midnight. Zethar often wished she would come earlier and stay longer, but he could sense a growing unease in her as the nights deepened. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but notice that she always seemed to be looking over her shoulder, as if watching for something—or someone—just beyond the reach of the portal’s lens, where her world blurred into vague shapes, too mercurial for him to make sense of.


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    One evening, when he could no longer contain his curiosity, he asked Isolde, “What is it behind you, out there in the distance, that troubles you so?”


    Isolde paused for a very long time before answering.


    “Oh, I know I should have told you sooner,” she said, quietly. Going visible and then invisible in weak waves as she spoke.


    “What is it?”


    “There’s someone,” Isolde said, “I’m promised to someone. He wouldn’t approve of me being out here. Or with you.”


    Zethar’s chest tightened, an emptiness stretching within him like the void between distant stars. He was a solitary speck in the vastness, unable to bridge the cosmic divide that separated them.