The Central Control Room witnessed the instant the six EVAs pierced the white curtain of light.
Earth resembled a ball of yarn slowly being wound tighter.
The light cast around Earth by the Spear of Longinus did not vanish in a flash. Instead, overlapping Absolute Fields covered it completely.
The sky people now saw was actually a spatial phase difference created by the Spear of Longinus.
Viewed head-on, it was almost transparent, but anyone observing the interface up close would see faint rainbow-colored halos.
Its thickness approached zero. Even so, the universe viewed from Earth still appeared distorted.
Most human spacecraft could not penetrate this interface unless weapons with extraordinary penetrating power cleared a path.
For EVAs equipped with AT Fields, the method of breaking through was gentler: they neutralized the field to open a passage.
The six EVAs cleared a path together, and the process went unexpectedly smoothly.
Observation towers on the ground could see ripples spreading across the interface.
But the instant the six EVAs reached the space beyond Earth-
The view overhead changed strangely. The moon disappeared!
The other side of the Absolute Field interface enveloping Earth reflected light, making the moon vanish from people's sight.
Within mere seconds, the side of the interface facing the moon seemed to become an enormous mirror.
Where that enormous concave mirror had formed, people no longer saw a white moon, but the reflection of a gigantic Earth.
From the moment the six EVAs broke through the AT Field and reached the outside, all communications and telemetry transmissions from them ceased.
"We've lost contact," Misato Katsuragi said.
The Central Control Room's calls received no response. That was normal.
Blocking communications was a standard function of an AT Field. The question was whether you wanted to do it.
The black giant on