Interversal

3

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, was ground central. There, particle collision tests were slated to uncover details about the subatomic structure of the universe, information the physics community hoped would answer questions first raised by physicists as far back as Galileo in the 1500's. Taking a longer view of human history, one that considered humanity's earliest attempts to understand the starry skies above, this test was the latest culmination of the best thinking the planet had ever seen.

If physics had a Mecca, CERN was it, thanks in full part to the Large Hadron Collider. The massive underground circular tube was buried nearly six-hundred feet beneath the earth's surface. Its seventeen mile circumference earned its status as the largest human made structure on earth. Or off.

It drew more energy than any other machine, and took over three decades to complete. Inside the ring, particles were accelerated to near-light speed then smashed into one another, breaking them into infinitesimally small constituent particles.

Using extremely powerful magnets to attract the tiny pieces, researchers would observe and record the new, smaller particles as they flew away from the collisions. In doing so, they hoped to study the creation of matter so absolutely small it wasn't matter at all, rather the signals that underlie matter, the subatomic strings representing the most basic unit of understanding humanity had theorized.

Scientists hoped today they'd verify the strings' existence.

These facts and countless more surged through Alex's mind. Much of her work over the last six years explained the theories and practices that the scientific community tested in their search for the elusive unified string theory.

Studying the Big Bang was looking back in time 14 billion years, or 13.7 billion if you wanted to be specific about it, to the moment the universe came into existence. To her that fact bore all the significance in the world. That humanity had uncovered as much about the physical space we exist in was amazing enough, but this was something much bigger. It was as close as science had come to glimpsing the most basic components of reality, the fabric of existence, and whatever that meant.

"Amy, we're live in two minutes," said the cameraman, officially named Jake Milanski, looked a lot like Newman from Seinfeld. Jake had a shock of greying hair and thick glasses, and a personality that was, frankly, bizarre. Alex loved him already.

Jake was never without a small brown monkey, a kid's doll about the size of a pear that he bungeed to the top of his camera when he worked. According to Bryan, Jake was the 'figurative best in the business', and she'd understand the value of the monkey before the end of the trip.

Jake and Amy had been working together for years, too, and their collective experience gave her some sense of calm. Not nearly enough to cover her jittery nerves, or to prevent the sweat that she felt forming on her forehead. Luckily, Lori was presently dabbing it with a tissue.

"If all else fails, imagine you're talking to you mom, without the annoyed sarcastic tone," Amy said with a warm smirk. "Kurt will prompt you from New York, all you have to do is fill in the blanks."

"OK, we're just about there," Amy said, pressing her finger to a transmitter on her headset, to Bryan Lewis in New York. Alex wore her own small earpiece in her right ear.

In a minute the show would start and the voice in her head would be that of none other than Kurt Abramson, the venerated anchor who'd led GNT's news team for the last fifteen years.

A bead of sweat dripped down her face, and again Lori dabbed it with a quick hand.

"One minute to live," Bryan said over the headset. "Let's give Alex some breathing room."