damn... I never wanted to cry over a book before. but my God my heart goes out to Saly. even If she is fictional, I know all too well that there are children in the real world starved and beaten till there minds break and the hope dies.... good job author. (but in a side note. it takes months and years to overcome that kinda trauma in the real world. and that's only if the person is not too broken already)

well keep in mind. the portals are reverse engineered from alien tech. the humans do not fully understand how to utilize them and know very little on the actuality of them. all they know is how to replicate them. look at it like this. you take a test. tou decide not to study for it. it is asking questions you do not understand. so you copy the answers from a cheat sheet. does that mean you know how to come up with the answer on your own? no, you just replicate what you saw. just like with the portals.