It might already be on its way. Paul remained beneath the night sky for a while after the thought crossed his mind. Veronica stood beside him. Neither of them spoke.
The city below continued to move. Cars passed through the streets. Lights remained on inside buildings. Somewhere, people were eating dinner. Somewhere else, someone was probably complaining about work. A child was probably refusing to go to sleep.
Normal life. Paul looked at it for a long time. It was strange. A few hours ago, Earth had only been a planet.
Now it was a place that had been noticed. A place that had a history nobody understood. A place that might already have enemies it had never known existed. He looked toward Veronica.
-Something changed tonight.
She didn't ask what he meant. Paul looked back at the city.
-Do you think people can feel it?
Veronica watched the lights below.
-Who knows? Probably they can..
Paul nodded. Neither of them knew when will be the moment. That was the worst part.
There was no date, no warning, no deadline. Nothing they could prepare for properly.
Only a possibility.
A possibility that had been placed inside their minds and refused to leave. Paul finally turned away from the window.
-We should get some sleep.
Veronica looked at him.
-You should.
-And you?
-I didn't say I was going to sleep.
Paul gave her a tired look.
-You never listen.
-Someone has to balance you out.
For the first time that night, Paul smiled. It was small. Almost nothing. But Veronica noticed. She smiled too.
For now, they simply walked away from the window together.
The next morning, nothing happened. No portal activation, no attack, no message from the Megaverse.
Nothing.
The world woke up exactly as it had the day before. But OPESTM did not. The facility had changed overnight. Security protocols were revised before sunrise. Portal monitoring was increased. Every available record concerning the MJC and Earth's first contact was being reviewed again.
Personnel who normally worked standard shifts were ordered to remain available. Some were told nothing. Others were given vague explanations. Possible external threat. Unknown future activity. Enhanced readiness.
Nobody used the word invasion. Nobody knew whether one was coming. But everyone understood what the preparations meant. At the center of the facility, several screens displayed the portal. It remained exactly as it had always been.
Open, still, and waiting. A technician stared at the readings.
-Any change?
The operator shook his head.
-Nothing.
-You're sure?
-I've checked three times.
The technician looked at the portal through the reinforced glass.
Nothing moved on the other side. Just the impossible doorway connecting Earth to somewhere beyond anything humanity had once believed possible. He turned back toward the screen.
-Check again in ten minutes.
The operator nodded. Ten minutes later, they checked again.
Nothing. Then again.
Nothing.
By the end of the day, the same question had been asked dozens of times.
Anything?
No.
Anything?
No.
Anything?
Still nothing. The portal had become the most watched object on Earth. And it was doing absolutely nothing.
The first week passed. Then another. Nothing came through. The tension did not disappear.
It changed.
At first, everyone had expected something to happen immediately. When it didn't, people began to breathe again. Some officials argued that Khael might have exaggerated. Some believed the Rebellion had simply moved away from Earth. Others believed MJC had not yet decided what to do.
Nobody had evidence.
So everyone filled the silence with their own explanations. But OPESTM did not reduce its readiness. If anything, the opposite happened. Training intensified. Weapons were inspected. Equipment was replaced. Medical facilities prepared additional emergency capacity. Super Soldiers were placed on rotating readiness.
For the first time, even soldiers who had spent their entire careers dealing with threats on Earth were being trained around a simple possibility:
The next enemy might not be human.
Some of the younger soldiers found that difficult to accept. They had grown up hearing stories about Grand Super Soldiers.
Paul, De Nemo, Veronica. The Grand Super Soldiers before them.
The legends who had become symbols of humanity's strength. Now they were being told that even those people might not be enough. One afternoon, a group of normal Super Soldiers finished a training exercise. They were exhausted. One of them dropped onto the floor.
-Again tomorrow?
His teammate looked at him.
-Probably.
-You sound happy.
-I'm thrilled.
A third soldier laughed.
-At least nobody knows when we're actually going to fight.
The laughter lasted only a few seconds. Then it stopped. Because nobody had anything funny to say after that. They all knew what the silence meant.
Three weeks passed. Then a month.
Earth continued.
That was perhaps the strangest part. The world did not stop simply because humanity had discovered that something might be coming. Factories remained open. Schools remained open. Airports continued operating.
People went to work. People went home. People fell in love. People argued People complained. People celebrated birthdays. Life continued because life had always continued.
But underneath it was something different. A quiet fear. News reports began mentioning unusual military activity. Governments refused to explain it. Rumors spread. Some claimed another alien attack was imminent. Others said the portal was going to close.
Some claimed the MJC was coming. Others claimed Earth had already made peace with them. Most of the rumors were wrong. That didn't stop people from believing them.
Inside OPESTM, nobody had an answer either. They only knew one thing. Something had changed. And nobody knew what came next.
Paul continued working. If anything, he worked more. He spent hours training. Then meetings. Then missions. Then training again.
The difference was that now, every time he looked at the portal, he wondered what might be standing on the other side. Sometimes he caught himself thinking about Khael.
Not about Khael particularly, his words.
You don't know what you're standing inside. Paul still didn't. And he hated that. One evening, he found Veronica inside one of the training facilities. She was finishing her session. Paul stood near the entrance and watched her for a moment. She noticed him.
-How long have you been standing there?
-Not long.
-you're not good at lying.
Paul shrugged. She picked up her towel.
-What do you want?
-Nothing.
-Then why are you here?
Paul thought about it.
-I don't know.
Veronica smiled.
-You're getting worse.
-What? What did I do?
-Coming up with excuses.
Paul walked inside. They trained together for a while. Nothing extraordinary. No argument. No deep conversation. Just two people doing something they had done countless times before.
When they finished, Veronica sat down. Paul remained standing. She looked at him.
-You know, you don't have to keep checking on me.
-I wasn't checking on you.
-Sure.
Paul sat beside her. For a while, they said nothing. Then Veronica spoke.
-Do you still think about what Khael said?
Paul didn't answer immediately.
-Sometimes.
-And?
-I don't know what to say about that.
She nodded.
-That makes sense.
Paul looked at her.
-You?
-I think about it too.
He looked away.
-Does it scare you?
Veronica considered the question.
-Yes.
It was such a simple answer that Paul looked back at her. She continued.
-But not knowing scares me more.
Paul nodded. That was exactly how he felt. They sat there a little longer. Then Veronica leaned against his shoulder. Paul didn't move. He simply let her. Neither of them mentioned how long it had been since something so simple had felt natural.
They didn't need to. Something between them had changed. The distance that had existed for years was disappearing.
Slowly.
Almost without either of them noticing. And perhaps that was how healing actually worked. Not with one conversation. Not with one apology. Just small moments that stopped hurting.
Two months passed. Then three. The portal remained open. Still nothing came through. The world became accustomed to waiting.
That was dangerous in its own way. Fear became routine. People stopped staring at the sky every morning. Soldiers stopped asking whether today was the day. The portal operators stopped expecting every fluctuation to become an attack.
But the readiness remained. Because somewhere inside OPESTM, the people responsible for Earth's survival knew the truth. Nothing had been resolved. Nothing had been forgotten. The silence was not proof that the danger had passed. It was only proof that the danger had not arrived yet.
De Nemo understood that better than most. His condition had not improved. If anything, his body had become more difficult to control. There were days when he could barely stand for long. Days when medical personnel insisted he remain under observation. Days when even walking across a room left him exhausted.
But one morning, he walked into the equipment room. A medical officer looked up. Then froze. De Nemo stood in front of the storage racks. His old uniform was hanging there. He reached for it.
-Sir.
De Nemo didn't respond.
-Sir, you shouldn't be doing that.
He took the uniform down. The officer approached.
-Your condition is still critical.
-I know.
-You were specifically told not to…
-I said… I know.
The medical officer immediately restricted himself from saying another further. Cause those eyes of Nemo had shown nothing but determination about his decision and he understood no one can change it.
De Nemo looked at the uniform in his hands. There was no dramatic expression on his face. No anger. No desperation. Just certainty. A man who knows exactly what he is doing.
-How long?
The officer hesitated. He remained quiet. De Nemo nodded. That was enough. He put the uniform on. It took longer than it once would have.
His body resisted every movement. But eventually, the uniform was back where it belonged. He looked at himself in the mirror.
The man staring back at him was not the same soldier who had once stood at the height of his strength. He was older, broken, dying.
But still standing.
De Nemo looked away from the mirror.
-If something comes through that portal, where do you need me?
The officer stared at him.
-You shouldn't be thinking about that.
De Nemo gave him a tired look.
-That's not what I asked.
The officer eventually answered.
- Wherever they come through.
De Nemo nodded.
-Then that's where I'll be.
He walked out. The officer remained standing there. He didn't try to stop him again. Because there were some things even medicine couldn't change. And there were some soldiers who had never learned how to walk away from a fight.
By the fourth month, preparations had become part of everyday life. The portal was still there. The MJC was still somewhere beyond it. The Rebellion was still fighting somewhere beyond it. And Earth remained caught between them.
David spent most of his days moving between meetings. Reports, briefings, security updates, military assessments. He rarely showed fear. But those who worked with him long enough noticed something.
He had stopped asking whether the attack would come. He had started asking what would happen when it did. Fiana noticed it once.
-You think it's coming?
David looked at the report in his hand.
-I think Khael believed it was.
-That a different answer.
David looked at her.
-No.
He closed the file.
-Then I don't know.
Fiana nodded. That answer was enough. Nearby, Jeff was arguing with another officer about deployment schedules.
Andrzej was overseeing a training group. Jafor was working through a stack of reports he clearly hated. Mpho was helping Nesar with equipment. Sally was somewhere inside the facility, moving between assignments as usual.
The world was still moving. The people were still living. Nobody knew how much longer they would have the luxury of doing that.
Five months passed.
Then the sixth began. The portal remained open. Nothing had happened.
No attack, no message, no warning. Just silence. And somehow, the silence had become more frightening than the first alarm. Because Earth had now spent months preparing for something it couldn't see.
Months wondering whether it would come tomorrow. Or next week. Or next year.
Nobody knew.
But somewhere inside OPESTM, the soldiers had stopped asking the question aloud. They had learned something simple. When the time came, they would know. Until then, they could only wait.
And continue living.
Paul stood beside Veronica again one evening. The city was below them. The same city. The same lights. The same world. But neither of them looked at it the way they once had. Veronica glanced at him.
-You ever think about what you'll do if this actually ends?
Paul smiled faintly.
-Ends?
-You know what I mean.
He thought about it. For a moment, neither said anything. Then Paul looked at her.
-Maybe something different.
-Veronica nodded.
-Maybe.
Paul looked toward the horizon.
-We'll see.
She smiled.
-Yeah.
Neither of them said anything more. They didn't need to. There were things they had started understanding without saying. For the first time in years, the future did not feel like something either of them had to face alone. They simply didn't know how much of that future they would be given.
That night, the portal remained still. OPESTM personnel monitored it. Soldiers rested. Somewhere, David was still working. De Nemo was still wearing his uniform. Mpho was still arguing with someone over something insignificant. Sally was still working. Jafor was still complaining. Nesar was still preparing. Andrzej was still training. Fiana was still doing her work. Jeff was still doing his. Paul and Veronica were still together. Earth was still alive.
For one more night, that was enough. The portal remained open. Silent and waiting. And beyond it, somewhere in the endless Megaverse, something was moving.
Earth simply didn't know it yet.
-To be continued...