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E-mail From Nowhere

The Email Inbox simply showed "Gateway opening directions".  Sender was blank, routing and meta-data were blank.  Time stamp was 11:57.49 AM, USA Mountain Time - or the same effective time across all time zones.  The media just liked to call the EVENT "Noon Mountain Time" and the description stuck.  The language was always that of the computer owner.  The E-mail arrived on ALL E-mail devices, even those not connected to any network.

The instructions were simple:

Create a border from a distinctive, homogeneous material either mixed with or coated in the user's blood.  Then simply relax within that border with the intention of forming a Gateway.

That's ALL it said.  Of course, initially, almost everyone dismissed it as a childish prank.  The problem was that it had NOT set off any alarms of any kind - not even incoming mail notifications. At first, most people just assumed they had missed the notice, but soon many cyber-security people investigated and became seriously concerned.

Meanwhile, on the internet social media platforms, it became the highlighted "scam of the day" as people started noticing that it had come in on every e-mail account on every device they owned.  Still, of course, pretty much no one took it literally - it was either a security problem or a funny hack to almost everyone in those first few critical hours.

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But then the true conspiracy theory people got involved, soon pointing out that the E-mail was impossible - far beyond the scope of human technology to create and deliver.  Most of these were quick to argue that it had to be aliens of some kind, unless the government control programs were decades ahead of where everyone assumed they were.  Still, what could be the motive behind such a silly message?

The answer to that started showing up about 4 hours after the Email had appeared - and that answer itself was at first deemed a scam.  The answer was simple:  It works!!

The kind of people who actually acted on such a message, and tried it out with their own blood were a rare and weird breed, but they couldn't help themselves from shocking the internet with their results (usually via layers of encryption and VPNs).  

They claimed REAL Gateways appeared, and they led to a world never seen before - one untouched and pristine, with no signs of life.

Behind the scenes, the various world security agencies were gradually coming to that same conclusion.  After a couple hours of total denial of reality, including many accusations of treason, it became clear that nothing known to them could possibly have created the Email.  Each in their own time and manner, most such agencies decided the directions must be tested.

And, usually, they worked.  Hapless intelligence agents found themselves looking through a 5 foot wide, 7 foot tall oval Gateway to a barren, rocky World.  Pinch themselves as they might - the Gateways remained.  Anyone could easily step through - there was no resistance.  To their great relief, they could just as easily step back through to Earth.  

Obviously, it was time to inform their commanders and call in the researchers!

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