A portal in the middle of nowhere wasn't something you found every day. But federal funding was quick to get scientists in on the matter; as soon as the anomaly was reported, a fence was put up, and construction on a basic encompassing building for operations was surprisingly efficient. It only took about a month before the bare necessities were installed, and while further development was being done researchers were eager to begin... Well, researching.

First was of course drafting up the math for how on earth this was possible. Was it a higher concentration of dark matter? A tiny wormhole within the atmosphere of the planet? A tear in the fabric of reality itself? It wasn't until they tried sticking things in and out of the swirling energy before they confirmed it was a 2-way, functional portal.

However it existed, they were extremely cautious and at first only used machinery to interact with the energy. Sticking an object in and out was used by a long pole and a secure mechanical arm, both of which came out unharmed after the end of the experiments. Sometimes the object they tested with, however, would come back a bit scratched up, or covered in tiny leaves and bracken. The organic material was brought back to the lab, where they confirmed that whatever this portal led to, could potentially house lifeforms— but not quite the same kind as those within earth's atmosphere.

It was around this more experimental phase of the research that Mark was brought onto the site. He was mostly engineering, but he had some background on astrophysics thanks to his nerdy fascinations; and to say he was awed was an understatement. He was completely enraptured by the potential discoveries this anomaly could provide; new plants, new creatures, and maybe even intelligent life. Unfortunately, access to it was strictly off-limits unless a scientist was scheduled to go past the heavy security and observe the portal in front of the cameras and many eyes watching. But, even though Mark's mentor soon permitted him this incredible chance to study the portal, take notes, and report his own findings like a full-on research study, no one was allowed to go through the portal itself, as nothing living had been tested for it to be deemed possible.

Until now.

After getting through the multiple layers of security, from sharing his name and card to ensure his legitimacy, Mark finally stepped through the heavy door and into the portal room. It wasn't so much a room as it was a courtyard, as the environment surrounding it had been left untouched to keep workers safe. The only exception to this was the carefully nailed down Caution signs, marking how close he was allowed to dare.

As he heard the door beep and lock behind him, the young engineer took a shaky but deep breath. For protocol's sake he was wearing a suit complete with gloves and a transparent helmet, but he could almost smell the pollen from the trees that had been left here. They were smaller than the rest of the forest outside, but just big enough that the higher-ups didn't want to challenge the integrity of the ground beneath the portal.

With a deep exhale, Mark walked up to the marked limit and took a seat. This part was likely more boring for the average individual, but it didn't take much for Mark to get swept up in his mentor's notes and studies as he tried to fill in the lines left for him, and provide his own hypotheticals. Between his notetaking, he'd look up at the portal: It was decent sized, just a bit smaller than a human child. But no matter had been pulled toward it or consumed, and the scientists had fortunately already ruled out the likelihood of it transforming into a black hole— unless too much matter went into it at once, then there was statistically a small chance. But it all depended on where the portal led to. It wasn't on earth, the samples taken of the leaves and air on the other side were proof of that. There was much more oxygen and a little less nitrogen, as far as Mark knew, and the leaves were tinted a hue not quite befitting of the green trees around him.

Mark looked back down at his notes and gave a thoughtful hum. Could there be a way to harness the energy of the portal itself? Could they theoretically alter its destination point, or perhaps replicate this safely and create the best mode of transportation yet?

As he scribbled down a few more thoughts to ponder more on this later, something suddenly changed in the steady faint buzz of the swirling energy. It was so faint at first, like a technical glitch for the people watching on cameras, but Mark paused and looked back up. The portal was still humming quietly, but now its energy suddenly gave a small pulse, humming louder.

"Fischbach, can I get confirmation that you have eyes on the portal?" His mentors voice suddenly fizzed in through the comms. Mark swallowed and moved his arm to respond.

"I do, sir. It's... It's doing something, I think—" The swathing cloud-like energy suddenly pulsed again, but with a louder warble.

"Get out of there Fischbach," his mentor quickly urged. Mark clutched his notes and staggered to his feet, but before he could turn away the portal suddenly flashed, altering from it's normal colour to give a white flare of pure energy. Mark winced and shielded his eyes, but the light fortunately only lasted for a second, leaving the apprentice unharmed. Mark groaned and blinked as his eyes adjusted, but when he looked back at the portal his eyes widened.

There was a small figure on the ground before the portal. It looked like it had collapsed, fallen through the swirling energy, but now it was trying to pick itself back up and crawl just a bit further. A breath of awe escaped Mark. It... Looked human, but just tinier. So much tinier.

Mark drew closer, but when the tiny person groaned and collapsed again, he dropped his notes and rushed past the caution line to drop to his hands and knees. A quick glance at his suit to make sure he wasn't compromised, and with a large trembling hand he carefully reached down and rolled the tiny creature over onto its back.

It was warmer than he'd expected, and more dense, yet fragile. It had a very similar anatomical structure to a human, so much so that the outer appearance gave Mark the impression it was a male lifeform. But it— his— skin was pale enough to give the impression of malnourishment, and the kind of clothes it wore looked a bit stranger than the modern trends of earth. But that meant he was intelligent, surely! Mark's heart skipped a beat with excitement, but then he realized how heavy the little guy's panting breaths were— or rather, his attempts to.

Alarmed, Mark quickly turned to where he knew the main observatory camera was. "I need the environmental chamber in here, stat!" Once he'd shouted for assistance, he turned back to the emergency at hand and let both hands lower and close in on the small lifeform, well aware of how many protocols he was probably breaking; but concern guided his hands regardless. As he gently cupped the humanoid atop his gloved fingers, his heart aching when he heard the tiny thing's next rasp for breath come out creaky, like it was pleading for help.

Fortunately, just as he'd done so he heard the rapid footfalls of steps outside the door, and Mark turned as the door swung open.

"Is the chamber calibrated to the portal's atmosphere still?" He urged as the others came in.

"Y-yes, but- but we haven't tested its effects on a live specimen before," the younger scientist stammered. Her eyes were wide and trained on the form in Mark's hand.

"Well, neither was the portal." Mark moved closer to the chamber as soon as it was set down; behind him, the other scientists hurried to determine the portal's stability, while he carefully took the small creature and slipped him into the transparent enclosure. The girl quickly tapped away at the configurations to ensure it was stable, as soon as the chamber was sealed shut.

Mark stayed close, peering at the glass as he watched the little guy finally take in a huge, deep breath. The tiny head rolled from one side to the other, jaws slacked open to relish being able to breathe in the right combination of elements. Mark let out an exhale, feeling like he had also been out of breath as he watched the creature slowly relax.

"Looks like we came just in time," the girl commented, giving Mark a relieved smile. "It seems to be responding positively to the artificial climate. I don't think any damage was done, but we'll have to figure out a way to get it checked out."

"That's good," he murmured.

"Well, the portal is stable." Mark turned to see his mentor collecting the notes he'd dropped. "But I'm glad we caught that on camera. That's the first time anything living has gone through it." He then looked over at Mark, making the apprentice worry for a brief moment if he was going to get reprimanded. But his mentor sighed and added, "Make sure to fill a report on what you saw, and what happened. The exobiologists are gonna get a real kick out of this."

"Yes sir," Mark answered meekly. The mentor said no more, but Mark caught a hint of a smile on his lips as he left the portal room. Beside the apprentice, the assistant who had brought in the environmental chamber sighed and shook her head.

"I can't believe it... After all this time, there really is life out there."

"I can." Mark pivoted his crouch to face her again. "Out there is so much space for so many incredible things to exist. We just didn't have the technology to search far out enough— until now, somehow."

"Yeah, I guess so." She shook her head, still awed. Mark faltered a little before speaking up again.

"I'm Mark." The girl looked over at him, then downward, and she giggled.

"Yeah, that's what it says on your nametag." Mark scowled and let his head sling back, making her giggle harder.

"Sorry, I'm still in shock," he chuckled.

"Oh don't be. Honestly, I think you handled it amazingly— everyone else was panicking and trying to figure out what happened."

"Can't blame them. But he was having a hard time breathing, so... I guess I didn't really focus on the 'how' or 'why'."

"He?"

"Yeah, I think so at least." Mark peered inside the chamber again, and his geeky heart jolted. The humanoid had recovered enough to realize that his environment wasn't quite right, and he was currently staring up at Mark with tired yet fearful blue eyes; they were almost like platinum in the light. He was still laying down where he'd been placed, but slightly more rolled over to one side so that his tiny yet ghostly gaze could remain trained on Mark.

Mark felt his own eyes soften, and his hand strayed to touch the reinforced glass from the other side. The poor thing still looked dazed, confused, frightened, but Mark couldn't blame him at all— especially because he didn't know the side-effects of going through a portal.

"Hey, can you two get the specimen to the lab?" One of the older scientists asked. "We need to get this place closed off, make sure nothing else too exciting happens."

"Oh, yeah, could you help me carry this back Mark?"

"Yes I can, uhh..." Mark tilted his head to read her nametag. "Amy." She smiled and moved away to let him pick up the little enclosure.

"I'm honestly glad I made it here with this one. I don't think I could have carried the big one." Mark carefully picked up the piece of equipment that was keeping their new little friend alive, but he did his best to ignore the reacting wince inside the atmospheric container.

"There's a bigger one?" He puffed, doing his best to keep steady as he followed Amy back out of the portal room.

"Oh yeah. That one's for smaller samples and tests, the main one is way bigger."

"Huh. I'm glad you brought this one too then."

"Yeah. I was right next to it though, so I was told to grab it and hightail it to your location." Once they made it past the main locks, they had to stop to decontaminize and make sure nothing was being brought back into the facility— well, except for the little alien that was in the transparent box Mark was now carrying. But it wasn't very long before Amy led him back into the lab, flicking a few switches to change what lights were on or off.

"You can set it down here." Mark moved over to the table with the gestured empty space, and he did his best to gently place the chamber beside what he realized was a much bigger edition.

Setting the fancy box down made him release a much bigger sigh than he'd expected, but Mark finally felt like he could breathe again as he crouched down to make sure the diminutive alien was still doing the same.

He had finally sat up, after Mark put the chamber down, but he was currently more huddled up and hunched than what would be the average human posture. Mark frowned, brow creased puzzledly until he noticed the incredibly small shivers that made the creature vibrate.

"Hey, can you try turning it up a few degrees? He looks cold."

"Yeah sure." Amy came over and punched a few more buttons, and there was a soft hiss as the air warmed up. Mark watched at the tiny shoulder's slowly slackened, and the alien let out a soft sigh as he closed his eyes. The apprentice felt a faint smile tug on the corners of his lips, and his hand strayed again for the fingertips to gently rest against the glass.

"Sorry I'm late." Mark turned to see Amy's preceptor, as well as the head doctor of the research laboratory. "Thanks for bringing it in, Mark, but we're going to need the room to run a few tests."

"Tests?" Mark tensed. "Wh-what kind of tests?"

"Nothing lethal, of course. This is our first and only specimen, so we want to figure out everything we can without compromising it," the doctor assured.

"I'll let you know how it goes," Amy murmured beside Mark; he gave her a grateful glance and nodded.

"My mentor probably needs me too, yeah." He hesitantly moved away from the glass, heading toward the door. He looked back over his shoulder as the other professionals stepped in to get set up, but a glimpse of the alien's alarmed and wide-eyed stare trained on him left a permanent image in his mind, even after the door swung shut.