Mana Waves
In this Universe, mana of magic is returning to the local galaxy filament. The prologue is set during the initial dscovery of mana by a brillliant young woman Anna O'Donnel. She worked out the math predicting it and then developed a method to use it to enable ships to drop into sub-space or ether. This dimension allowed travel at multiples of the speed of light.
On the nature of mana – It is not fully understood but it seems to be like energy that acts like a ‘sea’? It flows and ebbs over eons. The local galaxy filiaments has been at a low ebb for just over 15000 years. We reached the lowest point of mana about 7000 years ago. Since then it has been slowly rising. It reached the critical level where it is detectable and usable circa 1977. In 2050, it began to activate gene sequences dormant in humans and animals for this long period of time. Some creatures from long ago that saw the coming low levels put themselves in hibernation. Some of them have woken, others will soon. Those that have are the most powerful and are working to take advantage of their early awakening.
More to come.