Quantum Enigma--SOT2023--writer

I got an eerie feeling when I drove onto the parking lot at CERN. Even during the two annual maintenance it was not supposed to be this empty. After my studies I did a 3-year internship here at the Atlas project but I hadn’t been back ever since.
I parked my car and made my way up to the first floor where I was expected by Dr Cathleen Woods, the new General Director. Cathleen and I went to University together and although our friendship faded over the years I was still very fond of her. Her phone call the week before came unexpected but sounded urgent, so I got on a plane and got over here as fast as I could

When I walked into the conference room she was already waiting for me accompanied by two other familiar faces. Nadine, now Dr Nadine Turner, sweet autistic Nadine who is nothing less than a mathematical prodigy, specialized in theoretical physics. And Benjamin, Benji, who has multiple phd’s in science but managed to ruin his career by publishing a series of controversial books.
Then there was me: Glenn Becket, the particle physicist with a passion for speculative science.
Back in the days the four of us started a Think Tank we named ‘Quantum Enigma’, but because our ideas often bordered onto fringe science, people weren’t to keen on joining. After our studies we promised each other to stay in touch, but eventually we all went our own way within the scientific community.

We greeted and hugged each other as old friends, except for Nadine who didn’t liked to be touched and just said “hello”. After a few minutes Cathleen interrupted us: “I wish we had more time to catch up, but I called you all here for an urgent matter and it really can’t wait another day.”
I looked at her and noticed the exhaustion on her face: “what is going on Cathy?”
Cathleen just looked at us and after a moment of silence she said: “there has been an accident in one of the tunnels. But come, follow me, I rather just show you…”

We followed her outside where a car was waiting to take us to the building that had access to the tunnel. The further we drove the more we started to notice the military presence at the site. None of us said or asked anything. When we arrived at the building, there were guards at the door but they let Cathleen in without any questions. Once inside we took the elevator down the 100 meter deep shaft and eventually found ourselves in front of the big green gate that separated us from the LHC, the Large Hadron Collider. Cathleen nodded at the guard and he opened the door for us.

I’d never been in this part of the tunnel before, but what I saw when I stepped through that door was nothing like the chamber I’ve seen in pictures. Parts of the wall were blown away as if an explosion happened. The narrow collider tunnel that ran through it was partially gone and partially melted. But that was not the worst. In the middle of the chamber was a huge anomaly, floating, like a giant bubble. We all stared at it with open mouths. Benji took off his glasses and took a few steps closer, but Cathleen stopped him: “not to close, it’s not safe!”
“Cathy, what is this? What happened here?” We looked at Cathleen with confusion on our faces.

She sighted. “Like I said earlier, there has been an accident. About 10 months ago we were doing experiments, particle collisions like we’ve done hundreds of times before. The energy that was released in the last collision must have been thousand of times bigger than it should have been! We have no idea what exactly happened because all the data was lost in the explosion. Did we discover a new particle that released all this energy? Honestly, we have no answers… All we know is that once the smoke cleared ‘this’ was here”

I scratched my head and took a closer look at the anomaly. It was about 4 meters in diameter and the edge was shiny and reflective like a soap bubble. There seemed to be shapes near the middle but they were hazy. Nadine stood next to me, she pointed at the other side and said “mouse!”. I turned to Cathy, “is that a mouse in there?”
“it is”, she said, “The first team that worked on the anomaly sent in a probe but it didn’t return any data. Then they sent in a live mouse. As you can see, it just sits there, it hasn’t moved, eaten or drink anything in 3 months, but we think it’s still alive. Or, it would be more accurate to say that it is both and neither alive or death.
Anyway, the first team didn’t get anywhere. Some of them just left and never returned, so did the previous general director, in case you were wondering. That is why I called the three of you, to strengthen my new team. I need people who are not afraid to think differently, and who can come up with more answers before this leaks out to the public. Come, let’s go to the new lab and data center, so I can introduce you to the team and show you what we know so far.”

Dr Tim Murray was the head of the team. I’ve never met him in person before, but his reputation proceeded him: a brilliant nutcase! He brought us up to date on everything they discovered about the anomaly so far. He sounded thrilled and excited while he explained everything.
“The bubble” he said, “is a glimpse into another dimension. We think the last particle collision they did somehow created a tear in the dimensional borders, and that other dimension is now seeping into ours and we perceive it as a bubble. We can enter it from this side, but it seems like everything we sent in is immediately frozen still. I assume you’ve met the mouse? We named it Schrödinger” he chuckled as if he’d just made the best joke ever. Then he went on: “Whatever goes in, it will never come out! In fact, we have strong indications to assume that inside the bubble time does not exist. Inside, all is motionless, timeless, even data!”

For a short while this all sounded incredible! Clearly the discovery of centuries! I could tell that the others felt the same way. Nadine was already brainstorming inside her head while her eyes were focused on the ceiling, and Benji was taking notes and making a list of every single question that popped into his thoughts. However, when Tim continued, his voice sounded much more serious and he chose his words carefully:

“it is growing”
he paused for a long 15 seconds without looking us in the eye and then continued:
When the anomaly was created it was not half the size of what it is now. We estimated that it will continue to double in size roughly every 130 days, which means that the bubble will be visible above ground in about 2 and a half years. That is if the tear remains the same size, if the tear grows, then the bubble will expand even faster.

Catherine interrupted him: “until that happens, IF that happens, the anomaly must remain a secret! Which means, not a word to anyone and no data will leave this lab! We are working closely with the military. While we must do anything we can to stop it, they are preparing evacuation plans for the population, should it come to that.


(continued below)

We sat there speechless, trying to let it sink in. Another dimension that is slowly devouring ours and that will stop time everywhere it goes… that is the stuff out of nightmares.
Nadine stood up, still staring at the ceiling and tapping the palm of her hand with her fingers, one by one, she started rambling:

“2 years and 5 months to reach the surface,
6 years to swallow the earth
15 years to cover the whole solar system”

Tim nodded. “That’s not all, in roughly 4 years time, the anomaly will reach the Earths core, the magma flow inside the Earth will be slowed down or stop completely. Because of this, the magnetic field will weaken or disappear, we're not exactly sure . What we are sure of is that it will be hell on Earth. Tectonic plates will become unstable, there will be large earthquakes on all continents, tsunami's, volcanic eruptions…. a lot of people will die.


3 YEARS LATER

I sat in the sand on Punta Kriz beach in North Croatia, where I had just watched the bubble coming on to land after crossing the Adriatic sea. It was now about 600 km away from where it started and it had swallowed a large part of South-West Europe. Authorities still tried to maintain a parameter around the bubble, they were still evacuating people from the areas that were about to be affected next. But all around the bubble people crossed the parameters to catch a glimpse of what was inside. I’ve walked large distances around it in the last months, saw entire cities become motionless. Animals who didn’t flee in time, birds hanging still mid-air, neither death or alive. And more often now I’d see people inside.
The word got out that the Earths core would be affected, so many people concluded that it was better to become still in a timeless bubble, but alive, then to die in one of the many natural disasters we are about to face.
They have hope that one day, weather it will be next year, or thousands of years from now, someone would be able to add time and motion back to the dimension.

That is what Nadine, Tim and Benji are working on right now from their new lab in the UK: add motion inside the bubble, because setting something in motion will possibly start up time in the strange dimension that threatens us all.
But will we have enough time? Will anyone within this universe ever have the solution in time? I have to trust that the answer is yes…

As I looked at my own reflection in the bubble wall, I pondered on how cool it would be to become a time traveler myself.


THE END

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

That was really nice to read. I'd like to have written something like that for this contest but it's not flowing. Glad to read it now.

The expanding thing, made me think of the movie annihilation, and the freezing in time wasn't a problem until you started to talk about the earth core... The earth keeps spinning, for your anomaly not to rip trough earth it would have to spin with it, which brings a whole other set of problems.

Good suspension curve, made me think, plays in my backyard, yes, I liked that one alot.

That would make a great short film or beginning of a TV series.

You have a very marketable skill. Are you currently a pro writer? My bet is yes....

www.celtx.com...

a reply to: Terpene

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

I knew that I wanted this theme for the story, but it took me over two weeks to write it. Never had to do so much research to make the whole thing fit together!
But I did learn an awful lot about the structure of the Cern site, locations, even learned some math along the way to calculate the timing! lol
it was fun though

originally posted by: olaru12
That would make a great short film or beginning of a TV series.

You have a very marketable skill. Are you currently a pro writer? My bet is yes....

www.celtx.com...

thanks, that's a nice compliment

I'm not a pro writer though, always wanted to be but never managed to finish an entire book.
I did publish 6 adult coloring books, but that has nothing to do with writing skills.

thanks for the link, never heard of that before

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Great story, KindraLabelle2! You mentioned the research you had to do for it, and it is evident and appreciated. Adding facts to fiction makes a far-out tale more plausible.

I almost got a Star Trek doomsday feel from it... if only Spock were around to help.

originally posted by: KindraLabelle2

originally posted by: olaru12
That would make a great short film or beginning of a TV series.

You have a very marketable skill. Are you currently a pro writer? My bet is yes....

www.celtx.com...

thanks, that's a nice compliment

You're welcome...

as a producer/filmmaker...the entertainment industry is constantly looking for screenplays/scripts that are creative and out of the ordinary. You certainly have the skills to monetize your efforts should you so chose.

Always protect your intellectual property.

www.legalzoom.com...

a reply to: Encia22

Thanks Encia, your input is much appreciated

originally posted by: olaru12

as a producer/filmmaker...the entertainment industry is constantly looking for screenplays/scripts that are creative and out of the ordinary. You certainly have the skills to monetize your efforts should you so chose.

I've never considered writing a script or screenplay, and honestly I wouldn't even know how to write it and where to submit it. You've planted an idea in my head so now, obviously, I have to look into it.
thanks