The first test run for T.E.M. was in its starting phases as final safety protocols had to be followed. After all, nuclear bombs were great examples of what happened when great deals of energy went havoc in an area and no one really wanted to die in a fiery inferno. Even If they didn’t die, the resulting radiation would completely destroy their futures as the medical profession still wasn’t advanced enough to regenerate large limbs and completely cure mutations that stemmed from radiation.
Many scientitsts, researchers, and engineers could be seen moving through the areas of the machine. The giant piece of metal was located in an open field rather than a restricting room and many of the personnel would of rather had it indoors as they didn't want to be out in the blazing sun, but who knew what ran through the mind of President Eastwood? They could only grovel, and continue following the orders of the person who paid their checks.
Finally, after 20 minutes of final checks, it was time for the test run to begin. To commence the test run, an alarm was rung. Everyone, following the already in place protocols, kept a safe distance from the machine once they heard the alarm. Amongst all these events Alex and Amir were having a conversation.
“Wowww, it looks like our baby is all grown up Amir! It’s been such a pleasure having you accompany me in this long journey. You’ve been a great father and husband” said Alex as he wiped away fake tears.
“I don’t remember ever marrying or having a child with you. Even if I was to have a child, it would be with a woman that is my equal in beauty and smarts” replied Amir with an air of arrogance.
“So, you never loved me!” spat out Alex hysterically. “Even after that night of fiery passion, you still don’t want to acknowledge me and our child…how could I have fallen in love with a cold man like you…” Alex put on a face as if he was wronged.
As if growing bored with their conversation, a woman with round glasses and Chinese features, interrupted their antics.
“Can you guys stop with your shitty acting, even the low rung dramas in China aren’t this bad. If you’re going to put on the face of a wronged wife, you need to put more emotion into it” she then faced Amir, “And you’re not putting up an abusive front enough. If you’re going to play the cold handsome lover who has plucked a flower, you need to at least crush the flower underneath your words. Heh, what could a bunch of amateurs like yourselves ever understand about the complexity of acting.”
“Are you going to keep watching while this woman defames me hubby??? Have you really abandoned me…” said Alex while his acting went to the next level as ‘real’ tears started falling.
“I think Ms. Chang is correct though, our acting will never get us any awards. Also, why do I have to assume the evil husband role! I’m not the type of guy to break a woman’s heart by leaving her. Plus, can you really say that as a man that you’ve birthed a child.” (Amir)
“Who says a man can’t have a child? What if I’m a rare case that with genetic mutation, can be impregnated. Secondly am I even entirely ‘human’ and not an alien that came to Earth to save my species by having a child with the best specimen I found?” (Alex)
“Not to interrupt your horrible drama plot, but T.E.M is about to start” piped in Ms. Chang.
All kinds of machinery started, their sounds ringing out through the air. Pumps started their oscillating rhythm in a slow matter as they gradually built up speed, all kinds of exhaust fans started to drive out the gradual heat that was building up, steam was also building up from the various pipes that pumped in cooling liquids to the electrical systems, and lastly was the zapping that rang out between two coils as they exchanged electricity between them.
“Tesla would be proud with those coils, look at the various types of colors that are coming out. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Texas and stayed for a category 5 hurricane. Kind of stupid now that I think of it, but it resembles the lightning I think I saw.” (Alex)
“Are you sure you weren’t smoking something? I’m pretty sure that normal hurricane conditions don’t warrant lightning of various colors. It does exist, but certain conditions have to be met, like the green lightning that arose above black ash that spewed out from a Volcano.” (Amir)
“I think I remember studying this in college…if I remember right, various conditions like temperature, dust, gas composition, and humidity in the air affect the ‘look’ of lightning. In this case the color of the electricity.” (Ms. Chang)
“Sooooo what are we supposed to be watching for?” (Alex)
“It still isn’t time, give it a couple of minutes and the second systems will condense the activity between the coils to open up a small dimensional hole. At that point, the energy that comes out will also be condensed into theoretically a crystal.” (Ms. Chang)
A bell rang out through the air for the second time.
“Ms. Chang, did you calculate with your fingers? You seem to predict everything before it happens.” (Amir)
“I’m not a fortune teller, I’m just paying attention to the timers on the digital screens that are literally everywhere” she said as her finger pointed at the various screens around the complex.
“….” (Alex)
“I think of myself as perceptive, but how did I miss those?” (Amir)
“Mostly, because you guys kept flirting around with your shitty drama.” (Ms. Chang)
“Hey look, a hole finally opened up!” Alex pointed out.
At that point in time, a dimensional hole began to unveil in front of everyone. It was a very strange occurrence as everyone could see into the hole, but there was simply nothing beyond it. Just an emptiness. Yet, everyone could feel that something was leaking out of the hole or should they call it a portal as they were transporting energy from it? The leaking energy began to coalesce into a dark red crystal that was suspended in the air. It wasn't that fascinating as the dark red crystal resembled the size of a pill used by many veteran warriors. However, it grew with each passing second, becoming bigger and bigger.
“Hey look, it’s the size of the world’s biggest diamond now.” (Alex)
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“How much energy are we exactly getting out of this thing?” Amir asked with worry as the crystal kept growing.
“Somewhere around a medium dog’s size.” (Ms. Chang)
“Then can you explain why it’s the size of a cow now?!?!” Alex asked with uncertainty in his voice.
“What are those idiots doing!?! We were only conducting a test for a small sample!” Ms. Chang said with horror as the crystal was now the size of a whale.
Various scientists began to run around the complex to see if any systems had gone awry or malfunctioned. However, all scans of equipment came up as positive; nothing was wrong with the test. Even the physical components of the machine were fully functional with no degrees of damage or overheating. In contrast, as more energy was pumped out, the machine ran more efficiently. It was as if it was improving itself the longer it went. Eventually, the crystal reached the size of a whale, quite majestic actually. What was insane was that once it reached this size, it condensed until it went back to its original size of a pill. Only this time it had a change in color; it was orange now.
“Is it finally over?” Alex said as he hid behind some boxes.
“I think you spoke too soon!” Amir exclaimed as the process started repeating itself.
T.E.M went through several rounds of growing the pill size object to the size of a whale before condensing. Expansion and contraction. The colors kept changing. From the initial dark red of its creation, it went through the following colors: orange, yellow, green, blue, dark blue, and violet. It continued after violet, but no one could see the changing colors as the human eye couldn’t comprehend any more due to its restrictions on the spectrum it could see.
Its influence on T.E.M was finally noticeable to everyone on the visual level as it had physically changed from handling this new energy. The metal components had gone from a steel gray color to a blacker color. From there it simply looked as if it was shedding like an insect as the black color eventually fell away to reveal a violet type of metal. Its efficiency had greatly surpassed of what the materials it was made of were capable of. It ran at cooler temperatures than any equipment thought possible, and its digital processing was at the level of a super computer from a year ago.
It all suddenly stopped.
The crystal had gone through its final contraction.
T.E.M turned all its systems off.
At a closer inspection, the crystal resembled a seed. Only that it was violet in color. What happened next astounded everyone. The seed sucked T.E.M into it. Yes, it just absorbed T.E.M into it in a second. A machine of that size simply went woosh and vanished. Once done with absorbing T.E.M the seed drilled into the ground and disappeared like nothing happened.
Silence filled the complex.
The voice of President Eastwood then filled the complex from the various speakers.
“Can anyone tell me what the hell just happened?” (Eastwood)
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Currently, the seed had only one mission; reach the center of the planet. It didn’t possess intelligence nor consciousness. Yet, it moved with conviction. A conviction that would have it reach the core. It dug deeper and deeper into the Earth, going past underground rivers, fossils, and the ever-present rising temperature. The boiling temperatures didn’t affect it at all even as it went past the mantle of the planet that could melt the most durable metals. After a little bit of swimming, it reached the outer core, and punctured into its semi-solid state. Its journey continued, but it wasn’t long before it reached the solid metal core of the planet. Its mission was almost over, it drilled into the solid core with no difficulty. A short journey after, it was at the center of the planet. The absolute in the definition of center.
It was then that a command prompt, the first on this planet, appeared in front of the seed.
Germinate
The seed had only one desire, and that was for it to fill the planet with the very same energy that it was made of. It began to break down and infuse the area around it with the energy it carried. This energy began to leak in all directions. It would take time before the abundant concentration at the core would disperse and completely fill the planet. The place of its birth, and future life.
???? Seed has successfully Germinated! Calculating time before complete ???? Dispersion... !Calculations Completed! 23:59:50
The screens disappeared for a bit, before a set of new ones popped up.
Gathering World Data... Compiling World History... Locating ???? Structures ErRoR: None Found Resolving.... Locating Subtitutes... Suitable Structures Found: 672,359 !New Calculation! 11:20:31
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Meanwhile, everyone in the research base was inside the large auditorium in the complex. This auditorium was used very rarely but was still needed as debriefs for certain projects couldn’t be done in a small office. As for why everyone was here… it was due to one reason only and that was the disappearance of the project they had poured their time, sweat, and the investment of the tycoons…had simply just done that, disappeared into thin air.
“I’ll reiterate my previous question. What the hell just happened?” (Eastwood)
“The crystal after showing some anomalies took over our equipment and used it to power itself to unimaginable levels” responded one of the many scientists.
“Any particular reason as to why it happened?” (Eastwood)
“Well…we don’t really know…” said an embarrassed female scientist with her team behind her supporting her.
“So, you guys are as clueless as me” said Eastwood with noticeable tension in his voice. “Can an engineer tell me why the machine seemed to change?”
It was at this moment when the mechanical engineers delegated Amir to respond to Eastwood’s question.
“Well…after some analysis we have concluded that the large amount of unknown energy had mutated the metal by shedding out the impurities that would make it a poor conductor in a sense. As for why its capabilities improved…we are unsure and think that it had to do with the strange energy influencing it to…improve.” (Amir)
“What about its processing capabilities? Why did it have such a large spike in its performance?” (Eastwood)
“That’s mostly attributed to the improvement of the metal. The metal was improved to unimaginable levels that raised its conductivity, while also improving its cooling capabilities. It was able to run at lower temperatures, which is always good, in contrast to traditional computers that generate large amounts of heat which slow them down and was also able to transfer responses between the various machinery faster in results to its conductivity.” (Alex)
“Hmm…we will build a second machine but this time we will be more careful and restricted in the immensity it can generate. Just the benefits alone of how it mutated metal can make it a desirable world good. For now, everyone can take a week off while our systems try to find where our crystal energy went…” (Eastwood)
With those words, Eastwood dismissed everyone from the auditorium. Of course, many of the scientists instead of rushing to their break, rushed into their labs to try to find out where the energy crystal went. They were greatly concerned with that level of energy…accidentally going off somewhere…
As for our dynamic duo, they were going to greatly enjoy their work-free week…