CERN Physics Facility, Switzerland
21 December 2012, 12:12pm local time
"Mon Dieu."
Vera Johanssen heard the raw astonishment in her lead physicist's voice, and put down the clipboard of test results she had been reviewing. She looked to the wall of monitors at the front of the room, where Philippe was supervising his team.
Something was forming inside the tokamak reactor.
The staff of nearly two dozen physicists were in the main observation and control room of CERN, the state-of-the-art European particle accelerator and super collider center for physics research situated on the border between Switzerland and France. It was just days before Christmas, but they had all been working virtually non-stop the past several months, as this very facility had been instrumental in discovering the Higgs Boson, or so-called “God Particle.” They were working feverishly to wrap up their project before the winter break, and scheduled maintenance of the facility that would put their work on ice for at least several months.
And in fact, today was a particularly noteworthy winter solstice that apparently hadn't occurred in some 20,000 years, if all the media hysteria were to be believed regarding some ancient Mayan calendar - though Vera herself cared little about what she considered silly superstitions.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
In truth, she and her entire team were running a bit ragged from all the extra time working and spending too much time away from family and friends. And now, suddenly there was an anomalous reading that she and the other scientists could see in real time developing in front of them.
By now, all the other scientists had stopped what they were doing and the dull mill of conversation and activity had ground down to a stop.
Despite her even-tempered demeanor and scientific skepticism from nearly two decades of study and research, Vera felt her anticipation and excitement rising.
"All right, everyone, slow and steady. Let's see what our reactor is conjuring up for us today.”
In moments like these, when she felt on the verge of a new discovery, she liked to imagine she was captain aboard the bridge of a vast starship - a sort of Captain Janeway of the physics science vessel EUSS CERN, as it were.
Something was happening - and far beyond their expectations on what had started as a mere collision sampling - one of many that the super collider had conducted since their big news.
Phillipe, the Swiss physicist still monitoring the collision data, invoked the name of his Catholic deity again, and turned back to catch Vera's and everyone's attention - though there was little need for concern about that, with everyone standing stockstill and in complete reverent silence.
"Does everyone see this anomaly? The data, it is confirming unprecedented levels. We have never seen such before, it is - "
Before he could finish the sentence, the alarms regulating the safeguard controls began to wail.
Everyone jumped into action, scrambling to their stations and appointed tasks and immediate protocols in event of an emergency. Vera hurried down to the console to join Phillipe.
"What's happening? Can you bring up the remote cameras inside the test chamber?"
There was little risk of some containment break or antimatter annihilation - this was not like some fanciful starship or black hole generator as the media like to portray it as such - but the multi-billion dollar equipment was very possibly in real danger of what could be ruin of its exquisitely complicated and expensive machinery.
Philippe managed to bring up the feed inside the tokamak.
There was a blindingly bright vortex of energy swirling and expanding in the center of the chamber.
And then all sorts of chaos broke loose.