At Washington State University, the Gateway science project was in full swing by day 3, and already the results were stunning. WSU was well known for its agricultural programs and had been given large grants to study the means of bringing stable and useful biomes to Gateworld, which seemed to harbor no life of its own.
All they were yet willing to release to the press was that plants grew faster in Gateworld. It was not a matter of soil conditions, as growth in Gateworld ground material (it couldn't really be called soil) brought back to Earth had no special properties. But the increase in growth rate of any plants brought to Gateworld was dramatic.
Other published results from noted universities included the fact that no Gate could be opened FROM Gateworld, and it also quickly became known that Gates on Earth could not be opened in proximity to an already open Gate - the limit being somewhat over 100 yards minimum separation. Gates would also not open if there was not enough clear room for one to form - the smallest known success being 5'10" by 4'1". Maximum Gate size was unclear and did not seem to match up with any known creation variables - the largest published was 7'11" by 6'4".
Astronomers reported that the Gateworld Sun seems to be a perfect disk with no variations and that they could find no other celestial bodies. Also, they had no viable means of measuring the distance to the Sun. Most astrophysicists agreed that Gateworld had to be an artificial environment, and/or exist in a universe with different physical laws than our own.
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Back on Earth, China was in the midst of a brutal crackdown. Every Gate was to be declared and registered immediately, including records of each and every passage through. Enforcement teams were sent into every Gate to record conditions and to remove any illicit occupants - killing any who resisted. Security structures were built around each Gate to control access. Warnings were issued to Taiwan to follow suit or be invaded.
India was exactly the opposite and encouraged Gate openings and exploration, despite Muslim denunciation and some degree of terrorism towards the "demonic activity". India was the first nation to actually provide organized colonizing packages for those who intended to migrate to Gateworld, with bonus materials for those that maintained research hubs - livestreams of Indian Gateworld exploration quickly went viral.
In the USA and EU, riots and gang violence broke out in many apartment-dominated areas as people found out someone else in their building or on their block had already made a Gate, thus locking out anyone else in that building or block from making their own.
Japan was being very quiet on the subject, but absences from work were common and portal-related anime sold out from store shelves. Many Japanese corporations were sponsoring Gateworld communities, quietly allowing their industries to expand their power and influence into the new world.
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Marc Cassidy, now in charge of the new, covert, Department of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, was looking over some of the first mappings created from Gateworld recon. Gate destinations spanned a distance of about 100,000 miles between the furthest known and tested Gates, though the overall shape of the Gate destination region could not yet be determined.
Gateworld itself seemed endless in all directions, with a minimum extent of one million miles, according to high-altitude weather balloon instrumentation. His department had begun filling in relative Gate locations based on radio noise given off by most of the more active expeditions. The results currently best fit into a hexagonal grid with each cell just under 300 miles across, with a Gate at the center of each.
His worst fears were set to rest as there seemed to be no trace of non-human activity. There was also no trace of alien biology, even on a viral level, but Earth-based contamination levels were growing very quickly around the larger expeditions. Shockingly, NO ionizing radiation sources were detected. Only stable isotopes appeared to exist on Gateworld. This was very useful, as it provided a 100% certain way of determining if an object was of Earthly or Gateworld origin. Even the Gateworld sun had its UV spectrum cut off abruptly in the near ultraviolet - getting a sunburn from it would be difficult.
Marc's biggest concerns were the massive North Korean colonization efforts, though so far it was nearly 2000 miles from a mapped US Gate to the "Imperial Korea" project. One of their sponsored farm communities was only 1200 miles from a US-based Gate, though. At least there was still no evidence of actual ETs, Marc sighed, as he added the newest China and Russia data to the plot.
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Unimaginably far away, Vilink of the High Elves casually noted a new contact point opening into Gateworld. After checking that the growth pattern didn't match that of a swarm species, he placed it in the que for eventual contact efforts and set up default alarm parameters.
Slightly closer, Hive Buglet 3276 took note of a potential future food source near the Andromeda cluster.
Closer yet, System Drone DVT45 registered a new potentially System-compatible sentient species and began setting soul-lures in the Astral realms of the Milky Way galaxy to attempt to establish a quantum-mana link adding the species to the System database. Mortal-plane warp drones were also dispatched, but the search parameters were too large to expect results within the next century or two.
Back home in Earth-adjacent Gateworld, Earth-born life was spreading quickly. Unseen (yet) by humans, bodily bacteria and virus diversity were surging, mostly concealed by the corresponding enhancement of the human immune systems while in Gateworld - but that quickly changed when said humans returned to Earth after an extended stay.
What humans DID notice was that sick people tended to get well noticeably faster in Gateworld - nothing too dramatic, but very statistically significant. Also notable was that small bodies of water near many Gate entrances were starting to turn green with alga - life was established and growth was unstoppable. also unstoppably, certain insects casually flew in through open portals or rode in with the human visitors....