One Giant Leap

It was only a few years after the Gene Splicer Uprising of 2187 that Scylla and Charybdis were discovered.  A long-range scouting expedition into the Oort Cloud seeking rare tholins triggered the formation of the paired spatial anomalies.  While not a true wormhole, it was discovered that anything that survived entering one anomaly would eventually exit the other one.  Early attempts to interact with them resulted in the destruction of many probes and ships, resulting in them being named after the paired monsters of Greek mythology.  Only chunks of ice or rock ever successfully passed through, and rarely in one piece.

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​After decades of research, technologies were developed to shield ships and allow them safe passage into the anomalies.  It was then discovered that time moved differently while traveling within the wormhole itself, moving faster or slower for everything onboard depending on which opening you entered.  The scientific value of this discovery was understood immediately and the Wormhole Wars commenced almost instantly.  Only after the dust settled and the newly formed Complete Terran Coalition, or CTC, constructed the Odysseus space station at the halfway point between the two wormhole entrances.

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The opening of the wormholes acted like beacons, drawing alien civilizations like flies to honey.  No one wanted to risk the destruction of the anomalies, so for once, fighting was limited to economic and political posturing.  The Odysseus station was declared neutral ground and was restructured to accommodate over two dozen alien species, growing by a factor of ten.  The CTC found itself the center of attention for a thousand LY in any direction.  Now humanity is spreading across the galaxy, engaging in exploration, trade, and unfortunately, interstellar conflict.