A Time Gate is a time-travel device. The device appears to be able to control the flow of Third Energy and create a vortex which a person or object can pass through and arrive in a past, present or future time period. After the 2009 incident, the US government takes over Third Energy research using the data disc acquired by S.O.R.T. from the Borginian Republic. Studies continue somewhere in the mid-west, and eventually give birth to some of the first time-travel devices; although not absolute. A valid Time Gate is not constructed until the 2050's, when Third Energy is more perfected.