The desert stretched across the horizon empty and silent- except for a military facility that should have never been built.
Inside the dark facility was a metallic contraption consisting of five large concentric metallic rings.
The machine of sorts was bolted firmly to the concrete floors of the facility.
Wires ran off from the device with some leading to various locations, the most prominent of them connected to a panel that lay a few meters to the side.
The outermost ring began to rotate about the central axis, soon followed by the one slightly smaller than it until all the rings were rotating.
Amidst the rotation, small blue electric arcs flashed illuminating the dark facility and casting the shadows of the five onlookers.
"Is this what you spent half a billion dollars on? Spinning jewelry?" One of the onlookers spat out with clear disdain.
"I still don't see the point of this wasteful attempt. The money being put into this can be used to build already working weapons." He seethed with a calm rage.
"Yet the President is backing this circus? Unbelievable." He tutted.
The one he was talking to however remained calm.
"I thought you'd be more intelligent seeing as you are the Minister of Defense, guess even I can be wrong." He replied with an arrogant tone.
He adjusted his glasses, blonde hair and then his lab coat before focusing on the rotating rings.
"Mr. Richard, I will not stand for such insolence." The Minister replied to the arrogant scientist.
"I think you'd find that it's DOCTOR Richard." The latter spoke before taking a pause.
Turning his attention back to the rings, Richard delved into his thoughts.
'Dimensional Gate One. With this, the advancement of humanity is anything but guaranteed.' He smiled inwardly as he observed the arcs.
The blue arcs became more frequent and larger as time went by.
The rings on the other hand rotated so fast until they became a blurry mash of metal and electrical arcs.
From the center of the device, a small blue dot appeared.
The rings stopped rotating as the blue dot expanded until it reached a radius of a meter.
"This is what I spent my budget on and why I called you here. What you're seeing is the first gate of possibly many to another dimension. One that I have named Dimension Zero." Dr. Richard smiled cockily.
"And why should the state or better yet, why should I care about a glowing doorway?" The Minister asked, still skeptical about the matter.
In response, Richard clicked his fingers and the other three people present left the room.
While they were gone, he approached a control panel to the side and pressed a few buttons that caused the gate to vanish.
A few minutes later, they arrived with a thick lead briefcase.
After inputting the security code, Richard opened it to reveal its contents or rather, content.
Inside was a small and rough transparent hexahedral crystal with a small golden sphere of light within.
"We have opened the gate a total of three times since its completion. The first took us to a dessert, the second placed us in the middle of a forest and the last led us to a mountain range." Richard started to explain the origins of the crystal.
"There, we found numerous crystals of this nature. The energy in this small shard, by my estimation, is more than enough to power a city for three years." Richard completed.
"With these crystals, science can now dare to try things only before imagined. Perhaps even beyond that." He took a pause to catch his breath.
But before he could continue, a small red spark flashed in the air and just a few meters away from them.
It merely flickered for an instant like the first ember of a forest fire.
It was noticed.
Richard turned to look at where the spark had emerged from yet saw nothing.
At least until another spark appeared, this one significantly larger than the previous.
Reaching the control panel, Richard studied the data being recorded in real time and didn't like what he was seeing one bit.
Waving his hand, the three lab assistants with him ran over to the panel.
Their fingers traced various controls trying to manage the situation.
The inside of the facility turned red as a blaring alarm resounded.
"Richard?!! What is going on?" The Minister started to question Richard with his eyes still on the spark that was appearing more frequently with each one being significantly bigger than the last.
As though attracted, the Minister approached the arcs until there was barely any distance between them.
It seemed very similar to the one opened by the Dimensional Gate, only more violent.
Richard was tapping away at buttons trying to make sense for himself what was happening.
He had done innumerable calculations before engaging in such an endeavor, he had even considered all possible factors… except one.
His eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
Running to the Minister, he tried to warn him yet it was too late.
Another spark appeared and collapsed on itself forming a red dimensional gate.
The Minister reached for a gun and fired it into the gate repeatedly and by doing so finished the pistol's magazine.
The gate pulsed and released energy that sent the Minister flying into a wall.
Richard froze even as the portal stabilized and hummed.
He could only watch, paralyzed by fear, as a clawed hand came out of the portal.