About the Book

A discovery that breaks reality. A moment that changes everything.

Year 2546. On the moon USco GJ 1859b — known to its settlers as El Dorado — the mining town called The Sturdy Pickaxe thrives thanks to a discovery that changed humanity’s understanding of matter itself. When a cargo of ordinary elements is flown dangerously close to a neutron star, each material returns transformed — enriched into exotic, unprecedented forms that defy known chemistry.

This breakthrough ignited the imagination of Korin, a brilliant young researcher whose curiosity is matched only by his kindness. Using these enriched materials, he has built a device unlike anything the colony has ever seen — a machine meant to explore the strange properties revealed by the neutron-star experiments. Kael, one of the brightest students in the town’s small school, is the first to witness the device in action. Driven by intuition and a hunger for discovery, he steps forward to help Korin test its capabilities. What begins as scientific fascination soon becomes something far more extraordinary. Light bends. Space shifts. And Kael finds himself crossing a threshold into an alternate dimension — an experience that challenges everything he knows about reality.

about the author

Francesco Fortunati

I was born in Rome in 1974. My academic background spans biology and computer science, and I’ve always had a passion for the sciences. A childhood crush on Stephen Hawking’s books ignited my interest in astronomy and space exploration, which continues to influence my fiction.

I started writing in 2020 almost by chance. My first published work is the sci‑fi novella The Dimensional Gate. I grew up playing tabletop role‑playing games like D&D, where creating your own world was part of the game — I believe that’s where much of my creativity comes from. I enjoy building lively, immersive settings that surround the stories I tell.

Writing has surprised me: it’s deeply satisfying and often immersive. I had to pause another project (still untitled and well into production) for personal reasons, and, in the meantime, I wrote this novella to see how readers would respond. If you read my work, please leave a review — I welcome honest feedback. I hope you have as much fun reading my stories as I had writing them.

— Francesco