As the seasons slowly changed, it hit home to the population what the meteorologists had been saying the whole time - Gateworld climate never changed once a Gate was created. The area near the Gate would ALWAYS have the general climate of the time and place on Earth it was linked to at creation. So nearly all northern hemisphere Gates led to eternal summer. This included overall expected rainfall. So, for example, a Gate created in NY on June 20 would always have the general weather patterns and temperatures of June in NY.
Now that it was mid-autumn, the differences were often striking, and sometimes extreme from Earth-side to Gateworld-side. Already, homeless shelters had converted most of their operations, and could now simply offer the needy warm lands to visit that were mostly covered in freshly-grown fruit and vegetable crops - eliminating the need for soup kitchens.
Sadly, this came with many of the expected problems, and some of these "shelters" were now strongly held gang turf, with drug use and human trafficking becoming common. The other big problem was that they often emerged from Gateworld as carriers of new strains of disease, and many were not inclined to obey quarantine rules.
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Behind the scenes at NASA, debate raged. Although not told the specifics, major representatives were told that interplanetary Gating WOULD work - we simply had to transport Gate-makers to the intended target. Of course, a one-way expedition to Mars was MUCH easier than one that had to return or to establish a long-term base. But that still left endless details to be worked out - who would build the ships, who would man them, how many crew, where should they land, what should we tell other nations, what about terraforming, what about colonies, what about competitors once they arrived, and so on.
At least 4 other space agencies were working on Moon landings, so they all either suspected the truth or wanted to do the research themselves. The other question was open - WOULD it work beyond the Moon? It DIDN'T work on spacecraft or space stations - at least not those currently in use. Would the expedition be stranded and lost? Was there a size limit to the target planet or moon? What about the Asteroid belt? Another endless set of questions.
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Back at Washington State University, the crop studies were going well, but were alarming. While the crops did SEEM fairly uniform at first, gene analysis showed a mutation rate over 100 times that of Earth - in everything. What was most odd, in their view, was that the mutations were far more viable than expected. The Gateworld "health effect" seemed to even apply to genetic conditions, and plants and animals that should have died in infancy thrived, and reproduced.
Even GMO "terminator seeds" showed over a 10% fertility rate under Gateworld conditions, and it was nearly up to 50% in the 2nd generation. This was a huge blow to Monsanto - one of their primary grant sponsors, and they were working furiously on solutions.
Data was also building up that showed human fertility was higher in Gateworld, but no formal research had yet been done.
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The Sahara was slowly turning green as thousands of small-time Gateworld projects bore fruit, and starvation was quickly dying out. The jihadists were being pushed back and killed off by the tribes that were expanding quickly into Gateworld and becoming able to feed and protect their people.
Meanwhile, on Earth, crops struggled with new parasites and hardier insect pests appearing - mostly from Gateworld, everyone suspected. It wasn't bad - about 5% down from expectations that fall, and with much of the population getting food from Gateworld, it wasn't a huge issue - yet.
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Cindy was having some long, heart-felt discussions with her stuffed frog - even though both sides of the talks came from her own mouth. Frix wasn't really keen on answering questions - he preferred to be told stories, and maybe contribute a story or two of his own, on occasion. But he had already been exposed to human dream-time for several months now, and had a pretty good handle on what he was or wasn't allowed to reveal.
Frix told Cindy that his "people" just wanted to watch, mostly, as humans starting growing and expanding. His people would NOT be visiting in person, not for thousands of years, maybe not ever, with the exception of himself. He let her know he was the only one of his kind currently in the Gateworld equivalent of the same galaxy, and that he had made an exclusive deal making himself the only such being allowed here.
He was allowed to give hints here and there about problems that humans might encounter, but no hard facts. His big hint to Cindy was "The universe is a far bigger and more magical place than you imagine - or even than you CAN imagine."
When Cindy asked how to do magic, Frix just responded: "It's MAGIC - never ask how. Others will tell you how. Don't trust them."
Beyond that, when pressed, he just channeled stories from human dreamtime towards her, filling her imagination with ideas, but not his own, alien, ones. Humanity had to remain based in human thinking for the survival of both themselves and his own long-term plans.
But he already knew, the news was starting to spread across the Dreamtime community - humans had strongly held ideas about many of the dominate Pan-Universal beings, from dragons to elves to spirits and demons. Eventually, they would draw the attention of those factions that most resembled the human concepts of them.
Humans also had far darker mythologies, and those too could attract the attention of beings attuned to those feelings and concepts. All that was going to save humanity was the sheer vastness of reality itself - humans here were simply too trivial for anyone to take action in response to them.
It was just as well, Frixprl pondered. Had the potential for conflict not been there, it would not be productive for him to stay. These humans WOULD grow and expand until they WERE worthy of notice. Fortunately for them, conflicts among their own kind would keep them from being totally unprepared.
Later that week, Cindy threw her first "real" kamehameha - blowing out a candle 10 feet away (even though she still couldn't SEE anything more than a faint shimmer in the air from it). Yes, she had magic! She could also do backflips and lift 100 pounds over her head with one hand.
Shane would have laughed. HE was quickly becoming an ultimate stealth ninja, and pitied any poor saps that did eventually try to come through his Gate. He was tempted to go back soon - he wanted to test how his abilities worked back on Earth. He was sure he was now fit enough to get back and forth through the endless whirlpool his Gate must have created without serious injury.
But there was no rush - he meditated on the shore of Salt Lake as the energy whipped into him, becoming more an integral part of him every day. Today, somehow, an otter visited along with the other masses of sea life that attended his nightly energy intakes. Gulls were now present as well.