The Khrn leaders assembled a team to include all the sciences they suspected they might need to analyze this effect, along with a force of marines large enough to repel any reasonable danger.

“I just don’t get it, father. What is the Aether? What is it really!” Joh’Zebb exclaimed, becoming more passionate as he spoke. “I have seen so many mathematical models, but as I watch it fold in around a transiting ship, there is something about it. Like someone is outside whispering at me.”

If they could not regain control and return their ships to near space, the ships would implode to a microscopic dot or rip apart as they expanded out into infinity.

“When we travel through near-space, we can set ourselves into a march of time that allows us to virtually live forever.”