The exit cycled — forming and being stripped, the passive field stripping almost as fast as the maximum output was forming.
Almost.
The cycle was slower than the zero-distance active-output contest had been — the passive field stripping at a lower rate than Bovac's maximum active output had stripped. Zarek's maximum formation was exceeding the passive stripping rate slightly — the cycle's formation phase lasting fractionally longer than the stripping phase.
The rift inside the full field — not stable, not fully functional, but cycling with a slight formation-phase advantage.
Not enough to pull.
Not enough to be a functional portal.
But enough to be present.
Bovac watched the rift flickering inside his full field.
He directed nullification toward it — active output aimed at the interior rift rather than passive maintenance, the grey distortion concentrating toward the flickering exit inside the field.
