The year was 2160, the year the Fifth World War ended. Most of humanity was in shambles, many parts of the world were radioactive, and resources were scarce. Realizing the severity of the situation, all the remaining governments banded together into an organization they called The Alliance of Man. Together, they utilized everything they had available to relocate as many as they could to less radiated areas of the world.
A large amount of information was Declassified and shared with all the members of the Alliance, which sent their scientists to a facility in the South Pole.
Coal had ran out years before and oil was getting scarcer. Solar and wind power wasn't enough to power everything. Hydroelectric Plants were bombed during the wars before. Nuclear power couldn't solve everything. They needed an alternative. Hunger spread across the world as either crops couldn't grow due to the radiation or there wasn't enough space and manpower to work the remaining fields. During the Fifth World War, farms were prime targets for bombing runs, since the enemy couldn't fight with an empty stomach. Many Professional Farmers and Agricultural Experts were lost.
In 2176, the scientists had a breakthrough. Using their single, now-failing particle collider, they had managed to rip a small, stable hole through space that leaked a large amount of energy and unknown particles. Reinvigorated by the success, the Alliance reallocated most of their resources towards the project. The scientists made many significant breakthroughs within days, the most important of which was the unknown material that had emerged with the energy.
The Hole was leaking out large amounts of energy and 'space dust' every second. They managed to capture and exploit the energy but the Space Dust was piling up slowly as The Hole would release around a kilogram of Dust a week. If they couldn't find a way to use, or at least dispose of the Dust, they would have the entire collider filled with it. One scientist tried putting them in a bag and throwing them in the Hole, which swallowed the bag, but it spat it back out after a few hours.
The Dust was found to be relatively safe, being nonradioactive and noncorrosive. Looking like a slightly clearer version of sugar with the consistency of sand, it was joked as being 'sugarfree' by the scientists and that had given the scientists an idea.
They had fed a varying degree of animals the dust and found no difference except that the dust was seemed to be digested. The scientists didn't have any humans they could test the Dust on until one of them decided to have a spoonful of it everyday, despite the risk of death.
A few months later, and nothing had happened. The scientists were relieved and life went on as usual. That was until one day, the Test Scientist went in the Collider chamber to scoop out the Dust that had accumulated.
After a few months of the Hole's creation, the collider chamber was remodelled to improve energy gathering and observation of the hole. A thick glass porthole was placed facing the hole so that scientists could see if anything was wrong or if the Dust was cleaned.
The Test Scientist was about to open the Dust accumulator when the view through the porthole froze the scientist. Through the Hole, there was a view of a dark forest.
The Test Scientist ran and yelled all the way to where the other scientists were and told them all about it. Everyone went to the collider and peered inside.
Inky blackness. There was no Forest.
This, of course, made many of them angry, until another scientist opened the Dust accumulator, scooped up a handful of Dust, and swallowed it. The scientist then proceeded to peer into the porthole.